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Week 19 Barcelona, Sitges and Cartagena, Spain and Porto, Portugal

Our first day at the port in Barcelona, we visited the coastal city of Sitges on the Mediterranean Coast. The old town is now a bustling tourist town visited for the 2 1/2 miles of sandy beaches. The 17th Century Church of San Bartomeu sits overlooking the city and forms one of the fortified walls. The view along the rocky coast as the city is on a peninsula. We then went to a chiringuito, a beach bar/restaurant, called Picnic to feast on tapas and sangria. Again, the weather was perfect.  Inspirational Barcelona was the highlight of this set of ports. This was the third time we visited this beautiful city and still haven't seen it all. We took the architectural walk which highlighted the works of Gaudi. We were not able to go into La Sagrada Familia but we noted how much more has been completed since we last saw it in 1993. I know there are many who say it is ugly and even sacrilegious but I think it is awesome. It is still not finished and they are having a goal of 30 years for i
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Week 18 Sorento, Ostia, and Tuscany Italy with Monte Carlo, Monaco

 Wow, these were 4 busy days! Yes, we had long trips in Italy but with confusion on booking I did not get my trip to Nice and Matisse when we were in Monaco.  I was really upset by that but "it is what it is".  I did tell them that their system for booking has a major flaw in it and said it would be an easy fix in their database. The young man that is head of the Explorer's Desk agreed with me and told me who to talk to as they aren't listening to him. Poor guy has to listen to the irate passengers.   Not only was I stressed about that and being tired, we are having major problems with the computer. Jeff has overloaded it with pictures and, when I made the external drive I bought as the backup, he can edit pictures but not send them out to me for this or any posting.  First thing on Tuesday the 10th will be ordering a new computer. Looking at what we need so I only have to decide where to purchase it. That means I will only do the writing and when we get things settle
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Week 17 1/2 Rhodes and Athens, Greece with Ephesus and Istanbul, Turkey

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 We were back to Greece for three days in this set of photographs as well as three days in Turkey. In actuality Greece was split up with Rhodes, then the three days in Turkey, followed by two days in Athens. If you are now confused think how I feel after this bouncing back and forth! The cruise continues to amaze me with all the wonders of the ancient world to the middle ages and to modern times. The people in all these places were friendly and so glad to share their country with us. We also get to sample the various foods and customs in each of the ports. We found that we liked the foods of Greece better than that of Turkey with the exception of my Turkish Salad (tomato variety) that I wrote about under Israel.  Rhodes, Greece is a beautiful island with a long history. The Palace of the Grand Masters is a sprawling fortification and the historic quarter is Europe's largest active medieval town. The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem conquered the island in the 14th Century A.D. brin
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