Hello from Rhodes, Greece. After two full days of sightseeing with a great private guide, I came down with a bad cold when we boarded the ship on Sunday...I never get colds but this time it is a duzzy!

We saw the St. Spohia and Topkapi Palace. Had lunch in a little restaurant deep in the side streets around the Grand Bazaar and then rug shopping. I wanted a small rug for our entry hall and of course, I found one. Friday night our guide had arranged for a dinner on the Asian side at a wonderful seafood restaurant. The restaurant sends a boat across for you so we had a short sail across the Bosphorus and back. The food was wonderful and we enjoyed talking with our guide in a more informal setting. She is a young, 30 year old, mother whose mother was a guide and now she is as well. She is not a practicing muslim so joined us in our meals.

Saturday we went to the "new" mosque, the Blue Mosque, the Cora Museum which has beautiful mosaics from the Christian period. Another nice local lunch, then to the Cistern. By that time, we were ready to go to the ship. Our guide and driver had put our luggage in the car so we went direct to the ship where we checked in without lines. By 3:00pm we were in our suite, with our bags that we had shipped ahead. We were lucky...our friend who also shipped her bags (with IPS) still has not received her shipped luggage and is now hoping to receive them tomorrow in Santorini! We used LuggageFree and had no problems at all.

Fred enjoyed Mykonos by himself as I slept most of the morning and finally got up in the late afternoon, took a shower and made it to dinner.

We had reservations at Signatures, but unfortunately I couldn't taste anything!

Tuesday morning I felt better and we met our guide again who had flown from Istanbul to Kusadasi to meet us. We really enjoyed the private tour of Ephesus where we could go at our own pace, which was slow. The weather was very nice, about 79F and sunny. Another local lunch..is there a pattern here? food?.

We enjoyed the sunset from our balcony and had dinner at La Veranda.

This morning we are going to wander around Rhodes on our own as we will be back here next week!

Some of the Ships officers are:
Captain - Knut Hanssen
Hotel Director - Engelbert Lainer-Wartenberg
Cruise Director - Lorraine Weimerskirch

Hope I can find Mary Ellen this evening at the Seven Seas Party.

Jan