Vienna!

Greetings from Vienna! We arrived here yesterday and this German keyboard is so weird to type on. The letters are rearranged which makes it difficult to type on, so we'll see how well this goes. Please forgive any typos!

The rest of the cruise was incredible. We had such a great time! For all the amazing stops that we made, we also learned to look forward to our days at sea. Talk about ultimate relaxation and spoilation. Free food, coffee, ice cream, and hot cocoa whenever we wanted, five hut tubs to choose from, a pool and two outdoor decks, one of which spanned the entire top of the ship, a mini golf course, a basketball court, an arcade, an impressive gym (which was well utilized due to the excessive amounts of food we were fed- I swear I gained ten pounds). The possibilities were endless for days at sea and we learned to appreciate them. Two of those days included me creaming Richard at ping pong- yeeaahhh, that's right.

I think I left off my last post at Jerusalem, so I will pick up there by simply saying that it is an amazing city and I can't wait to return! Everything we saw is a subject worthy of hours of description, but unfortunately I do not have the time to write for that long. We saw the Upper Room, the Wailing Wall, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the church that supposedly houses Golgatha and Jesus' tomb.

Our next port of call was Rhodes, Greece. We absolutely loved this little island! People would wave to you and smile hello. There were parrots perched outside restaurants where dozens of delicious smells wafted into the square. Old stone and stucco buildings with wrought iron balconies lined the streets. We walked through part of the old city and found ourselves under a tree in the moat outside the old city wall. Life seemed to be so peaceful and quiet there, despite the bustle of the market.

The next port was Kusadasi and from there we took a bus to Ephesus. We walked through the ancient city on the original streets and tried to imagine what life would have been like there 1900 years ago. Later we saw the ampitheater where Paul once preached, which was very cool. I should also add that Turkish food is delicious!

Next we docked in the town of Chania on the island of Crete. This was our last stop of the cruise. Richard and I spent the morning walking around the market and drinking in the site of clean, clear, beautifully blue water. It was truly amazing how clean that water was, even in the port. We could see straight to the bottom as if it were only a few inches deep! Chania was quaint and pretty and colorful. We really enjoyed it!

Our last day on the cruise was spent at sea before we returned to Rome. During the two days we were there we walked around the entire city twice (I am not kidding), took a tour of the Vatican, ate the best pizza, and devoured the most amazing gelato.

Next we took the train to Venice and it was definitely one of the more interesting places we've been on this trip. Canals are everywhere- we took the boat metro (very cool) to our hotel, and received a pretty comprehensive view of the city in the process! To our immense delight we discovered that there is only foot traffic and boat traffic which means...no scooters!! It really was nice to walk the streets without fear of being mercilessly run down, as in Rome. On our second day we took a tour of three of the Venetian islands, which included a glass blowing demonstration and a lace-making demonstration. We loved the island of Burano because every house was painted a different bright color. It was so pretty!

Yesterday morning we reluctantly set off for Vienna. I say reluctantly because we a) loved Venice and b) loved our hotel. In spite of what our itinerary said, we were told it would take us nearly 20 hours to get to Vienna via bus and train. Fortunately this proved not to be the case and we made it in 9 hours. Unfortunately, it was late when we arrived so we didn't see much.

Today we visited St. Stephen's square and the Hofburg Palace. Tonight we are attending a classical concert at Schobrunn, and I actually need to close this so I can go get ready! Farewell, my friends!