September 2012 - 11 Night Mediterranean Cruise

After 2 weeks in Italy, it was finally time to board the Celebrity Equinox for our visit through Turkey and Greece.  Getting on board was painless and we started off by eating lunch and then relaxing for our 5 p.m. departure.  Our stateroom is a "bump out", which means we have a little larger balcony, which we love.  Since we were on the concierge level, we were given a welcome bottle of champagne as well as canapes upon our arrival in our room.  Here are pictures aboard the ship, including the 2 formal nights.

First of many meals

Celebrating first day with a bottle of champagne

Gorgeous sunset the first night

First formal night

 

Rooftop of ship - amazing

Second formal night - still the happy couple!

This is only our second cruise, but it is the exact same ship as we did in the Caribbean.  The ship is amazing and even with 3,000 people onboard, you never feel crowded, and oddly enough seldom run into people when walking through the hallways.  The only busy place is the breakfast/lunch area and the swimming pools.  It is an awesome ship and I would highly recommend it to everybody.

Our first stop after a full day of sailing was Santorini, Greece.  Santorini is a volcanic island and offers spectacular views.  There were white homes built all into the hillside, which from a distance looked like salt or snow.  The ship couldn't dock, so we had to take a tender boat to get on the bus trip.  We visited a winery, which is their main source of income.  Interesting, because there is no fresh water on the island and they grow grapes in a very weird way.  The wine is extremely strong and not to our liking.  We then went to a town called Fira, which had lots of shops and restaurants.  Everywhere on the island were white adobe houses with blue roofs, many domed.  There are many donkeys on the island and they supposedly outnumber the men.  We had to take a huge cable car down the side of the cliff to get back to our tender boat.

White houses everywhere

View of the Sea from the Winery, with our ship in the background

Like my $10 hat?

Beautiful white buildings and neat windmills

Thursday was Greg's birthday so we celebrated with breakfast on our balcony and since it was a day at sea, relaxed by the pool all day.  Went to a specialty french restaurant for an awesome lobster dinner, birthday cake and 6 other desserts.  Fun, fun night.  What could we possibly do for his 60th which would top this birthday?

We arrived in Instanbul, Turkey and headed out to our 1 1/2 day tour, as the ship would remain docked overnight.  Everywhere you look, there are beautiful mosques and buildings.  We visited the Topkapi Palace which was the palace for the Sultans, the Hagia Sophia Museum which was originally a mosque, the aqueducts under the city, the Grand Bazaar, had an authentic turkish lunch and then a 2 hour boat tour.  I had woken up with a sore throat and as the day went on, it got worse and worse.  Ugh!

I so wish I had taken a picture of the turkish food.  The appetizer portion was bizarre and fun to try.  Of course lamb was the entree.   Every building was beautiful and there is so much history here it is amazing.  The weather since we arrived 3 weeks ago has been fantastic.

My favorite line of the day was in one of the 4,000 stores in the Grand Bazaar when a merchant said, "Please come into my store and buy something you don't need".  Hilarious!  The Bazaar was incredible and you could easily get lost among the many rows and rows of stores which basically sold all the same things.

One of many mosques

View from the palace

Inside the Mosque

Dome of Mosque

Grand Bazaar entrance

Fort seen on boat ride

The Famous Blue Mosque

I woke up the next day with a raw throat, aching ears and totally congested.  I could barely move my head.  Encouraged Greg to go finish the tour as today would be the Blue Mosque and the Hippodrome, but he wouldn't go without me. Bummer!   Slept most of the day which was horrible since our last chance to see Istanbul. 

After an overnight sail, we arrived in Kusadasi, Turkey for a visit to Ephesus.  Feeling a little better, and determined to get out in the sunshine and dry up this congestion.  Ephesus is one of the best examples of ancient Roman architecture.  We chose a self guided tour where they gave you an Iphone and you hit numbers when you arrived at a certain spot and listened to an explanation.  Not bad, but would have preferred an actual guide.  There were many ruins left and it was really interesting.

Stadium

Library wall in the background



Cool remaining arch

More stadium

Our next stop was Mykenos, Greece.   Greg finally caught what I had, so since we hadn't any excursions planned, and the island looked much like Santorini, we decided to stay on board and relax.

Our next stop would be Naples, Italy, and since we had already done all the tours offered when we were in Sorrento, we just got off the ship and walked a bit around the city.  Nothing too exciting in the city so more relaxing.

All in all, we loved the cruise.  We love having martinis before dinner, listening to the different types of music they offer throughout the ship, dining at the wonderful restaurants and meeting interesting people.  We met a wonderful woman from England who became Greg's groupie.  She was as sweet as could be and said Greg reminded her of her deceased husband.  We were invited to the Officer's Greeting party and she was there as well, thinking there was no way we would be there because you had to have cruised numerous times to be invited.  Greg has amazing ways of getting invited to events.  Packing up and heading to our final leg of the trip...Norway.