Cruise

It's our last night on our 12-day Mediterranean cruise. Europe has been incredible!

Our first two days in Rome before embarking on the cruise were so much fun! The first day we spent touring with a couple groups. We saw the Fontana di Trevi, Gipetto's workshop (from Pinocchio), the Italian Parliament building, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and St. Peter's Basilica all during the course of the morning. My personal favorite was Piazza Navona. The entire square was lined with shops and cafes, and artists displayed their masterpieces in the center. Quaint Italian homes added so much color to the square with beautiful wrought iron balconies and flowers spilling from the windows. Standing there felt like stepping back in time. It was absolutely lovely!

St. Peter's Basilica is beyond my ability to describe. The masterpieces housed in that incredible bui.ding are too awe-inspiring for me to do adequate justice, so I will leave that that job to the pictures we took. By the way, uploading pictures to this blog has proven impossible with the extremely limited Internet we've actually been able to access, so we probably won't post any at all while we're travelling. But you can rest assured that I will post them as soon as we get home.

That afternoon we went on a different tour to the ancient ruins of the Colosseum, the Palantine, and the Roman forum. It was kind of surreal to be there, actually standing in the place where thousands of people once cheered for their favorite gladiator. The view of Rome from the Palantine was amazing. The tour ended just before sunset, so we were able to get some great shots of the city. We learned a lot of history and a lot about archaeology that day, which was completely fascintating!

The cruise was amazing. We have loved every minute! Our first stop was Naples. We took a tour of Pompeii in the pouring rain. This was actually preferable to nice weather because it wasn't crowded at all. The highlights of Pompeii were the ancient Roman baths and a wealthy home. We were able to see original mosaics and paintings that had been perfectly preserved by the ashes from Mount Vesuvius.

The city of Naples wasn't that impressive. Maybe it was because it was raining like crazy and so I didn't explore very far, but I didn't really see anything that interesting. I'm sure the Italian countryside is much prettier.
　
Our next stop was Athens, and it was gorgeous! We had beautiful weather which made everything so much more enjoyable. We took a tour of the city, including the ancient schools where Socrates and Aristotle taught, and the Acropolis of course, which was incredible. Unfortunately there was a lot of restoration and preservation going on while we were there, so most of our pictures of the Parthenon have construction equipment in them, but oh well. Standing on Mars Hill was amazing knowing that we were standing on the same soil as Paul when he preached there. Very cool.

Next we were in Israel for two days. The first day we took a tour of Nazareth and Galilee and it was totally awesome. The countryside is beautiful. Our favorite spot was the Church of the Beatitudes where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. Richard and I read Matthew 5 together as we looked out over the exact hill where that event took place. One thing that was interesting that our tour guide pointed out was that Jesus would have stood at the bottom on the hill while the crowd sat above him, like at an ampitheater. I had always pictured Jesus standing on the top of the hill and preaching to the people sitting around and below him, but given the time that Jesus lived, the ampitheater style seems much more realistic, especially when preaching to that many people. We also saw the Jordan River, which is more like a wide creek. It's probably only ten or fifteen feet across and houses the largest catfish I have ever seen in my life, along with muskrats.
Our second day in Israel was spent entirely in Jerusalem. We had the best tour guide ever! He was a short, highly animated Jewish man with a beard and a great sense of humor. We had so much fun with him. He showed us the Church of the Annunciation, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Wailing Wall, and Golgatha. I didn't realize that the place where Jesus was crucified and the place He was buried and resurrected were so close. One church encompasses the entire site. It was so, so humbling to stand there. I was sad that we didn't have more time for reflection, because I could have stood there all day simply giving thanks to God for the sacrifice He made for us, and the love and relationship with Himself that He has given us through Jesus.

Unfortunately I have to sign off now. It's getting late we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow between disembarking and making our way to our hotel in Rome. We are in Rome for two nights and then we take the train to Venice. Wish us safe travels!