Pam told Steve that she’d never been to Europe. Apparently, she wanted to visit there. Something about a bucket list. They decided to to go on a Mediterranean cruise.

8/25/16 “The Binge” – Grand Rapids
The plane left Grand Rapids in the middle of the afternoon so they got to take a leisurely pace to the airport without needing any alarm clocks.

They also won the TSA lottery which allowed them to keep their shoes on when going thru security. Small victories.

As the airplane approached O’Hare, Steve noticed another airplane outside the left side of the plane at the same speed and altitude. It was about one or two hundred yards away. Steve and Pam watched the other plane until it landed. They landed almost on the same second.

The flight to Rome was delayed a couple of hours but was otherwise without incident.

8/26/16 “This space intentionally left blank” – Rome
Even though their plane was 2 hours late, the hotel still wasn’t ready for them. The hotel let them drop off their luggage while Pam and Steve killed a couple of hours.

They walked over to the Spanish Steps. The Spanish Steps were a gift from Spain as a “thank you” to Italy for lending Christopher Colombus to discover the new world. The steps are big and pretty and fenced off and guarded by security personnel.

Steve and Pam then went to have lunch at an English tea shop – they couldn’t find an Irish bar.

One of the discoveries when they finally got their room was an extra plumbing device in the bathroom. While they guessed that it was a bidet, Google confirmed it.

Later, they wandered over to the Trevi fountain. It was pretty enough but it was in a tiny square and an awful lot of people were trying to get near it for pictures. It was difficult to see it or take pictures of it.

8/27/16 “Wanted: Dead and Alive” – Rome
In the morning, they went to the Colosseum and the Forum. Steve and Pam were interested in the Colosseum because they’d heard an awful lot about it and could understand what they were looking at.

That wasn’t the case with the Forum. Instead of anything recognizable, there was the occasional rock that had been a piece of a monument. They weren’t interested in monuments.

In the afternoon, they went to the Vatican. Pam enjoyed the art and the historical information that the guide provided. Steve also enjoyed the historical information that the guide provided but didn’t give a rodent’s donkey about the art.

Dinner was at a pizza place. Pam had a Margherita pizza (named for an Italian queen, not the drink). Steve had an anchovy pizza (called Napoli pizza for no reason that Steve could figure out).

8/28/16 “Planet Express” – Rome
They had the morning free before getting to the ship’s port so they scampered over to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a circular building with a Classical Greek entrance stuck in front of it. It’s been used as a church for most of its existence. Any trace of roman gods has been replaced with madonnas and saints.

A bus took Pam and Steve to the port where their cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas, was waiting for them. And 2500 others. There were only 2 cruise ships in the port so boarding was a lot less of a cattle call than what Steve and Pam were used to.

At dinner, Steve and Pam met their table-mates for the next few days. Ivan and Veronica were a couple from Orlando, Florida. Nancy and her son Colby were from Guelph, Ontario.

After dinner, Pam and Steve kept busy by moving from venue to venue to dance to different bands.

8/29/16 “T shirt graphic not found” – Mediterranean Sea
This was a sea day on the cruise. During breakfast, they passed thru the Strait of Messina and watched Italy’s toe and Sicily go by.

Pam and Steve explored the ship and took part in some of the activities:

• There was a cha-cha lesson and Steve and Pam learned a move called the New Yorker.
• There was a sudoku contest in the afternoon, but Steve got there 8 minutes late for a 15 minute contest. He was close to finishing but no cigar.

In the evening, there was dinner and dancing.

8/30/16 “Rabbit Hole Comics and Game Emporium” – Santorini
They visited Santorini. First, they went to an archeological dig at Akrotiri on the south end of the island. The site was on top of a good sized hill but was very close to the shore at the time that the volcano blew up.

After that, they wandered around Oia (pronounced Ee-a). It was gorgeous! Most of the buildings were painted bright white and deep blue.

Then they wandered around Fira, the capital of Santorini. Steve and Pam were pretty pooped by this time so Pam only bought 4 or 5 things before leaving.

To get from Fira to the ship, they took a cable car down a very steep hill/cliff. Pam said that she got a bit nervous when looking out of the car’s windows. Steve distracted himself from his acrophobia by thinking up synonyms for “plummet”.

Since the ship arrived very late in the day, dinner was done with open seating instead of fixed seating. Steve and Pam met Christina and Nathan from San Diego.

8/31/16 “42” – Mykonos / Delos
This day’s excursion wasn’t until 12:15, so Pam and Steve traipsed over to a beach that they saw from the ship. After that, they still had time check out the hot tub and swimming pool.

The excursion was on the island of Delos. This was supposed to be the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. They learned about the history of the place and walked amongst the ruins.

9/1/16 “Oh no, not again” – Athens
It was an early start for our duo. They had to meet at 8:00am for their excursion to the Parthenon. After some careful calculations, they figured that they needed to get up a 6:00am. Setting an alarm clock for 6:00am seemed to be a cruel thing to do on a cruise ship.

They had fun exploring the Parthenon and its related building/ruins. The Parthenon itself looked like a construction site since the restoration folks had torn it down before rebuilding it.

9/2/16 “missing” – Katakolon
Katakolon is where the original Olympics were held. Our heroes took an excursion thru the ruins and then thru the museum. Steve and Pam were reminded of the tour thru Delos in that there were an awful lot of ruins but it was difficult to tell what you were looking at.

9/3/16 “the dark knight” – Mediterranean Sea
It was another sea day. In the morning, they passed thru the Strait of Messina again.

Like the other sea day, Pam and Steve explored some of the ship’s activities:

• There was another sudoku contest and Steve was on time for this one. He kicked everyone’s ass.
• There was a follow up to the cha-cha lesson. Pam and Steve practiced the New Yorker and got some additional instruction on how to lead the step.
• In the afternoon, Pam went to a wine tasting and Steve kept her company until the wine tasting started. They chatted with other wine tasters and found that some of them were from the east side of Michigan. When Pam said that she and Steve were from Grand Rapids, one of the east siders said “Whatever you do,don’t tell us how great Grand Rapids is. I’m sick of folks from Grand Rapids telling me how great Grand Rapids is.”
  Steve got his back up about this. Neither he nor Pam had mentioned how great Grand Rapids is. (spoiler alert: Grand Rapids is really, really great) Steve asked “Can we just tell you how much Detroit sucks instead?”

9/4/16 There’s no place like /~ – Rome
They set the alarm for 4:30am and got up just before 5:00am. They had one last meal at the buffet and were escorted around 6:45 to the bus and back to their lives.