Holy Land Cruise 2013 Header

Gene & Lee's Italy, Greece,
Turkey & Holy Land Cruise

November 9th to December 3rd, 2013

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

Nov 9 � Edmonton, CA to Toronto, CA

Nov 10 � Toronto, CA to Rome, IT

Nov 11 � Rome, IT

Nov 12 � Rome, IT

Nov 13 � Vatican, IT

Nov 14 � Pompeii, IT to Florence, IT

Nov 15 � Siena, IT to Pisa, IT

Nov 16 � Florence, IT to Venice, IT

Nov 17 � Venice, IT

Nov 18 � Venice IT to Rome, IT

Nov 19 � Rome, IT to Piraeus, GR

Nov 20 � Piraeus, GR - embark

Nov 21 � Kusadasi, TR

Nov 22 � At Sea

Nov 23 � Antalya, TR

Nov 24 � At Sea

Nov 25 � Ashdod, IL

Nov 26 � Haifa, IL

Nov 27 � Limassol, CY

Nov 28 � At Sea

Nov 29 � Iraklion, GR (Crete)

Nov 30 � Piraeus, GR

Dec 1 � Athens, GR

Dec 2 � Athens, GR to Rome, IT

Dec 3 � Rome, IT to Edmonton, CA

Breakfast at 9:00. Met a couple from Nova Scotia who had just arrived in Venice from a Mediterranean cruise. Interesting chat about their various experiences. Checked out of the hotel, then crossed the canal to catch a water taxi to San Marco. We purchased a 24 hour water taxi pass yesterday for 20 euro (otherwise 7 euro per trip) and were certainly getting our money's worth.

    
    
    
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From San Marco we walked through the narrow streets and across canals to the Piazza at Santa Stefano at the statue of Nicolo Tommaseo, an Italian author, linguist, journalist and essayist. From there we made our way to Accadamia where we stopped briefly at the Peggy Gugenhiem museum. From the museum, Lee and I decided we were going to walk cross-country back to the hotel. We got ourselves a bit turned around and ended up south of where we wanted to go. We finally came out of the maze of streets at the Zoltare water bus stop on the channel between the island of Venice and the southern island of Giudecca which lies immediately south of the central islands of Venice.

      
      
      
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Realizing where we were, it was easy to get back on track walking north and west. After 20 minutes or so we ended up at the Piazza Roma where the people mover, an automated elevated shuttle train, from the mainland terminates on the island. From there it was a three minute walk back along the Grand Canal to our hotel.

      
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We arrived a ½ hour early but lo and behold, there sat LeVerne and Carole waiting for us at a table outside the entrance. Our train to Rome was leaving at 3:25 so we had lots of time to collect our luggage from the hotel, haul it back up over the canal bridge and down to the train station on the other side. An hour’s wait in the train station then onto the train into the first-class coach. During the 3 hour 35 minute ride we played some cards and ate the sandwiches we had purchased in Venice earlier in the day. After a very pleasant trip we arrived back at Roma Termini at 7:05 pm.

  
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From the Roma Termini all we had to do was catch the Leonardo Express train to the airport, which we did, arriving at 8:20. After a bit of confusion as to where our hotel shuttle was to pick us up, we finally found the right spot and boarded at 9 pm. After a ten minute drive we arrived at our hotel for the night, the Comfort Hotel Roma, Check in was a breeze and nice modern rooms with all the amenities. Walked two blocks north to the canal and found an open restaurant where we had a Biere El Grande and potato fries. First place we’ve been at where English was not spoken. Back to the hotel and into bed by 11:30.

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