Day 5 September 13 - Olympia (Katakolon) Greece

Today we are taking an excursion to the quiet town of Katakolon the site of the original Olympic Games. Should be fun to visit.

Here's what we see from our veranda this morning.

Our excursion took us on a 30 minute bus ride to the site of the ancient ruins of Olympia. It was a gorgeous day - 30+ C and no wind. We did explore the ruins and visited the museum associated with it. We took a load of photos but I will share just a few here. We have to shower up as we had a 6:00pm dinner reservation followed by tonight's entertainment show at 9:00pm which is a theatre production called Broken Strings.

The show ended up being great and afterwards we went silent disco dancing. Everyone has a set of of headphones which are connected to 1 of 3 different types of music. You can switch the genre - so everybody is singing and dancing to different music. Doesn't sound great but is fun to take part in. It has been the most successful thing we have seen. The dance floor and bar areas were full. See Gladys with her headset below. Also a couple of photos of a Mediterranean sunset.

Oh yes, tonight we dined on coq au vin which in English is chicken cooked in red wine. It was good and so were the desserts too!!! 

Tomorrow we are in Athens and have an afternoon excursion to Mount Lycabettus which offers some great views. We'll see!

Katakolon from our veranda. You can also see the marina there.

View inland from the veranda.

Best view of our boat we've had. Taken from the dock in Katakolon.

Main Street through Katakolon - notice the horse driven carriage taking people on a tour. It's only a small town that has the Main Street full of vendors serving tourists.

This is where the Olympic torch is lit to signify the beginning of the Olympic Games period.

There are 16 columns along the side here. Each used to contain a statue paid for by an Olympian who had been caught cheating. The athlete's name would also be on the column.

Here's Gladys standing on the original track which was used for the Olympics. It was too hot for her to go for a jog!!

This is the temple of Zeus. Just an amazing amount of concrete all around.

The bottom area just inside the big stone was used to house the officials for the Games.

An example of some of the many columns still left standing. 

Good one for Tish - as they are still digging here. Today there were several people digging and carrying the dirt away in wheelbarrows in 30+ C heat. 

Just at sunset.

A little dark but beautiful evening.

A Mediterranean Sunset

Silent disco dancing just starting. We went downstairs to join in.

Gladys going green. 

A typical country side house except most were one storey. All I could get as the bus sped along.

A local gas station where gas was around 2 Euros per litre.

An olive grove - olives are popular around here and harvested from September to December.

Day 4 September 12 - At Sea

Today dawned a little cloudy but warm as I took my 7:30am walk around the top deck of the boat. There were lots of walkers and joggers out. The track was about a 2 minute walk while you could walk all around the top deck which took almost 6 minutes so I did that as there was less traffic.

Today we are at sea so it's a day to get to know the boat a little better. Lots to see and do for sure so we will keep busy. 

We toured different areas of the ship this morning and Gladys took a few photos. She is gone to bingo this afternoon. I didn't go in but there seemed like quite a few people there.

At dinner last night we sat next to an American couple from Phoenix, Arizona whole we chatted with. At lunch today we decided to go to the restaurant rather than the buffet and were seated next to the same couple. We did have a nice chat again today. He did play a lot of softball too so that was interesting.

A photo on early morning sky and sea on the Mediterranean. The water was pretty smooth for sure. We are seeing lots of coast from the ship including sailing round the southern tip of Italy earlier. Lots of people were out taking photos.

We finished off the day with a show and dinner where we both had shank of lamb -which was awesome - followed by some 60's dancing. Gladys also had a pomegranate martini. There was no phone service for us today so she couldn't get any texts out. Hopefully tomorrow will change. We are off on an excursion tomorrow in Katakolon (Olympia) where we get so explore some ruins. Hopefully we will get some nice photos.

Someone playing bocce - not me!

The Porch Cafe

Hot Tub

iCafe

Southern Tip of Italy

Day 3 September 11 - Civitavecchia & Celebrity Reflection

Today we had to get from Rome to Civitavecchia by shuttle bus which is similar to taxis at home. There were 11 of us on a little bus which was about 45 minutes late because of traffic. A couple were from Australia and another from the US. Not sure about the rest. It took a while to get out of the city but once we did our driver reached speeds of up to 145 km on a road similar to the Trans Canada's divided highway.

When the bus driver came to the hotel to pick us up a lady saw the Canada flag on my suitcase and she flipped out saying "Atomic bomb to Canada!" She asked what part of Canada I was from and I said Newfoundland. Then she said "Newifes, eh!' Threw up her hands and left. Go figure. We just laughed.

We are almost settled in. We have gone around a little, had lunch and a beer. We are waiting for our luggage to come now. It's really hot out on the balcony now.

Here are a couple of photos - the best I could get from outside the boat plus a couple of others.

We are now at sea. There are a couple of photos below as well as a photo of the port city of Civitavecchia in the background. We are now off to a show and dinner. There are some issues with wifi and the internet so hopefully it will hold up. It works on the phone sometimes, on the computer sometimes but never on both at the same time. Other than that all good!!

We had a lovely evening beginning with a musical show by violinist Jakub Trasek which was very good seeing that we aren't into that kind of music but he had something for everyone and was well received.

We followed that up with dinner where we both had the prime rib dinner. It was quite delicious but I'm sure my sisters wouldn't enjoy it - I had mine medium rare while Gladys had medium. She has New York cheesecake for dessert while I had creme brule. Of course the dinner was complimented by some pinot Grigio for me and Proseco for Gladys. Cheers

Day 2 September 10 - Rome

Our flight arrived on time and it didn't take too long to get through Customs - a little easier than home for sure. We then took a bus to our hotel - Hotel Prati - which was about 30 minutes. Despite the fact we were tired and it was a hot day we did some exploring this afternoon. We checked out St. Peter's Basilica but the lineup was too long for a tour so we went and toured the Castel St. Angelo. It was a castle at one time and was turned into some place for a pope. It was quite an amazing spot with lots of stairs, etc. We did get a few pictures.

Overall things are off to a great start. All our flights have been on schedule and we have met all of our deadlines. Hopefully our shuttle turns up in the morning and we'll make the cruise boat on time.

Below are a few photos from today. The first one is taken while on the tarmac in Montreal last night. As you can see Gladys is eager to get this journey started.

It's just after 6:00pm here now so we are going to find a bite to eat. We'll our hotel recommended us a little restaurant called Balestrari which was a few minutes from out hotel. They serve every Italian and aren't expensive. Being the adventurers we are Gladys chose buffalo capers with prosciutto to go along with a margaritha pizza complemented with a glass of Italian red wine while I chose bruschetta as well as a proscuitto pizza complemented with a Peroni on draught. The food was great and we more or less waddled back to the hotel.  Cheers.

Day 1 - September 9 - St. John's to Rome

We got out trip off to a fine start last night with dinner with Mary & Lem. We had a cruise worthy 3 course dinner consisting of a caesar salad, lovely pasta with a tomato, peach & sausage sauce followed by a homebake apple cake with ice cream complimented with a glass of Prosecco. 

Gladys's first cousin Eddie Brennan dropped us off at the St. John's airport at 10:00am where we whipped through security in record time in St. John's. Our flight which was full to capacity was on time and we landed in Toronto around 2:15 for our 4:00pm flight to Montreal where we meet our connecting flight to Rome. 

Just checking out the internet now to make sure I can post here. No photos yet! 

Mediterranean Cruise to the Greek Islands & Malta

Gladys and I will be taking a vacation beginning next week. It will be a 10 day Mediterranean Cruise to the Greek Islands and Malta. Our cruise is sandwiched between a day in Rome and 2 days in Barcelona. We fly out of St. John's on Saturday September 9. Our first hop is to Toronto with a short stopover before flying to Montreal. We leave Montreal for an overnight flight to Rome where we land early on the morning of September 10. We will spend that day & night in Rome while the following morning we travel to Civitavecchia to board the Celebrity Reflection. Our cruise itinerary is below.

I will attempt to update our trip occasionally with a photo or two.

Hole-in-One Grande Meadows Golf Course

I have been waiting since our course opened in the spring of 1995 to get my first hole-in-one at Grande Meadows Golf Course. I accomplished this feat as I carded the first Hole-in-one for the 2023 season while acing the Par 3 third hole on Sunday July 2 while playing in a group with Calvin Brenton, Joe Drake and Todd Robbins. I  used my 8 iron to achieve my second career ace - his first at Grande Meadows - at 131 yards. I had my first hole-in-one in August of 2005 on the 8th hole of the Black Duck Course at Clovelly now called Bally Haly North while playing with Cheryl and 2 other ladies from St. John's.

L to R: Joe Drake, Me, Calvin Brenton, Todd Robbins