Blog du Wren

Instagramming Cruise Stops

Here are some photos from our last 3 ports of call. Della is a wizard with the instagram, so most of the shots are hers. (If you want to read what she has to say about the trip, check out here blog here.) We enjoy taking the photos. Hopefully you'll enjoy looking at them. (Captions giving context to each photo should appear when a photo is enlarged.)

Messina, Sicily

Heraklion, Crete

Marmaris, Turkey

Sunday December 13 2015

File under: travel, Italy

Toggle Comments (3)

comment?

Punning Around Europe

A Nice Day in Nice
Transatlantic travel can plum tucker a person out, esp. when flying on the world's most budget transatlantic carrier*. So I was expecting our brief overnight layover in Nice, France to be spent recuperating at the hotel and little more. But as happens when adventure is afoot, we found the energy to get out and explore and I'm glad we did.

Nice has a lovely promenade along the Mediterranean on which we stretched our legs. I can tell why the French Riviera is such a thing. Being beckoned by the giant , we found our way a square being done up wonderfully for Christmas. The public fountain was turned into a giant snow globe, there were nativities and Christmas trees everywhere, and lots of joyous people about. Seeing folks out and about after the tragedy so reently befell the country was warming.

In the morning, got to experience French coffee and a croissant as a nice "welcome to Europe". Then we packed our to catch a train to Italy where our cruise ship awaited, ending our short nice stay in Nice. Hopefully someday I will be back with more than an evening to spend and significantly less jet leg.

Roaming Around Rome

About 12 years ago, I spent 2 or 3 nights in Rome. I remember it fondly, both the great monuments and museums, but also meandering around narrow streets and bumbling into public squares with random fountains. Having the opportunity to roam Rome again, albeit more abbreviated, proved to be awesome.

We saw the and the Forum. We fought our way through the crowds at to toss our coin*. The was again the highlight of my visit where we scored these . St. Peter's Basilica had a line much to long to get into, but we sat in the and basked in the Vatican vibe. And between it all, we stumbled on , roamed back alley squares, and poked our head into little , and even found a !

Six hours is hardly enough time to see all there is to see in Rome. We didn't even get to all the things I was hoping to see. And in our roaming, we stumbled on another handful of things I'll be excited to check out next time I'm in town*. But there is something about the place which makes anytime spend in Rome good time. And Della and I sure had a good time. We came. We saw. We roamed.

Name:
URL: (optional)
Comment:
speak yer peace

Name:
URL: (optional)
Comment:
speak yer peace