Our Mediterranean Cruise: May 9-16, 2009

Well it is finally here. I have sorted through all our pictures and got my act together so here are the blogs of our Mediterranean Cruise (our 1st cruise). We started out in Venice, Italy. We ported in Dubrovnik, Croatia; Kusadasi, Turkey; Santorini, Greece and Corfu, Greece. It was a 7 night cruise with beautiful weather the whole week. We saw so much and have discovered that if you really want to see places a cruise is the way to go.
We went with 8 of our really good friends, 6 who are here in England with us and the Hewes from Germany (friends from college and ROTC). We had a blast spending quality time with each other. It sure made for a wonderful trip. On the cruise we enjoyed shows, games, , the pools, the sun, the spa, wonderful 3 course meals every night, and 2 formal dinners. Almost everything you could imagine. It was well worth it.
So to guide you on your journey through our trip I have posted each day individually. Sit back and enjoy the pictures and the short summary of each day. We hope you enjoy and would like to hear from you all soon. Oh and by the way we are coming home the last 2 weeks of July and hope to see as many of you as possible (and hopefully little baby Walker :)). Owen has a big hiking trip planned for part of the time with a couple of high school friends so he will be around here and there. As for me I am planning on just spending time at home with everyone and taking in as much sunshine as I can.
Enjoy the blogs there are 7 total counting this one.
Love and miss everyone,
Sara and Owen

Map of our Cruise Picture of the front of our ship Royal Caribbean "Splendor of the Seas" Deck plans (our room was on the 8th deck) view of the elevators another view inside the ship The King and I dining area- we had dinner here every night table setting

Day 1: Venice Italy

We started and ended our journey in Venice, Italy. We flew into Venice and had the day of our cruise departure to do some sightseeing of Venice. We didn't really go in and tour anything in particular but did a lot of walking around viewing the area. The day we arrived back in Venice we went and walked through St. Mark's Basilica and went and watch glass blowing. Venice is a very beautiful city but requires a lot of walking. The only real transportation in the city is by boat taxi or gondolas. We didn't take a gondola ride, it was ridiculously expensive but looked like it could have been great at night.

Venice from the ship

Venice (notice the leaning building)

Venice - one of many canals

The cruise group
Sarina and Jake Houston, Christina and Paul Lamers,
Owen and I, Courtney and Jake Parker

more canals in Venice

St. Mark's Basilica in St. Mark's Square

St. Mark's Square

Day 2: Dubrovnik, Croatia

On day 2 we ported in Dubrovnik, Croatia. There we took a taxi to Dubrovnik's old town and walked the city wall's (dated back to the 13th century). The views were beautiful and I was just amazed at how compact the area was.

view of old Dubrovnik

on top of the wall- city in the background

view of old Dubrovnik and the wall

view from the wall

view from the ship