FINALLY I am writing a post. We boarded the ship at 5.25 pm and they were due to pull up the gangplank at 5.30 pm We were so lucky in Athens our bags were the FIRST off and as we had cleared passport control for the EU in Madrid did not have to go through that in Athens. Had we flown in from Heathrow we would probably not have made it. Stellios the taxi driver extraordinaire was waiting for us. He called other taxis to get the current status and found an accident on one freeway so he took an alternate route. Getting to the port he went past and back on the other side of the road from the heavy traffic. SMART cookie is Stellios I bless the day we accidentally found him he has been so fantastic for us and for many people we have referred to him. Without him we would have missed the ship I am convinced of that.

I think we were a little delayed in sailing but so busy getting organized I am not sure what time we sailed or when they pulled up the gangplank. Made it up to the informal welcome get together in Observation lounge and it was great to see everyone. We then had a wonderful dinner with friend of Ralph’s, Joe and Rose in Prime 7. YUM I did overeat.

First day we did a tour of Crete and found it to be a beautiful island with lots of hills, flowers and olive trees and lovely scenery with charming little Greek villages with the locals drinking their morning coffee. We also went to an area that had 10,000 windmills of course not all working now but that was interesting. After a quick lunch we walked around the port that is truly adorable and there is a lake in the middle of the town. I had taken off my athletic shoes and just had on some flats. Of course we ended up climbing up a ton of steps to circle around the lake “good camera shots of course” where are those “sensible” shoes when you need them!

We ran into my daughter Cindy and her friend Cheryl in town and they were all smiles they felt that they had hit the “shopping” jackpot. Fake designer bags, glasses etc were reasonably priced and they supported the local economy.

Last night we had a great dinner with Brad, Leslie, Al and Kathy. The food was fantastic. They actually had six entrees offers PLUS one dish from Signature and one dish from Prime 7. What a great idea this is and I have never seen that before. So you have eight choices for a main entrée.

So I was looking at herb crusted rack of lamb, lobster tail, prime rib and sea bass. What is a person to do with so much on one evening. I will not admit what I really DID eat but suffice it to say I did order a double rack of lamb and a few other things as well. Today in La Verandah I ran into Bernard from the FLL office the executive chef over all the ships and also the current chef onboard, Anthony. They asked me what I ate last night – I was not sure if they “had word” of my excesses so did admit to my gluttony. They seemed delighted as I guess for a chef the fact that one likes the food so much is “music to their ears”. I plan on making them very happy, maybe a whole symphony will be coming their way.

Today was a sea day so we played cards today our only chance to do that on this trip. It was a fun day and we shared space with the kids program in the card room as there was so much happening in all the public areas. Those poor kids, we were so noisy and the little darlings just hardly made a peep. It worked out fine.

I am also proud to report wins for LCT teams for trivia on both days. Frank, Joann, Brad, Leslie, Ngaire, Kathy won with a perfect 15 the first day. Today Mark, Peter, Linda, Terry and Mike won with 12 correct. The other two LCT teams with a respectable 11 and 10 were runners up.
There may not be much more trivia to come as we now are arriving in Israel with four days of 10+ hours touring. Going to be VERY tired when we leave Israel that is for sure.

Tonight we have our Brown and Keene cocktail party and Felice is going to do the drawing for the preliminary winners for the free cruise and then our dinners together in Compass Rose will immediately follow. Lovely group of people we are all very compatible.

Ken is working on some pictures that he will post but do forgive us if we do not get much posting done there is going to be very little time in the next four days.