Aphrodite – Day 2

We didn’t get to bed until 2:00 am, and breakfast time came very early.  I don’t remember if they gave a wake up call or how we knew we had to get up if we wanted to eat.  We had to pay for breakfast – but it was ‘all you could eat’ for just $1.00 – so we couldn’t complain about that.

Everyone is so friendly.    We met a German couple at breakfast and we ran into them several times during the day and exchanged greetings each time.  We met a Greek (John) during lifeboat drill and he introduced us to his sister and cousin and again, we met them all several times during the day.  This is not a huge ship, so the chances of seeing people we have talked to is very good.

We also met some of the staff – engineers, Greg and Minos – a cook, Spiros – a singing waiter, Manuel – and an electrician, Socraties.  Greg promised to give us a tour of the engine room at midnight.  He got into trouble with the captain for talking to us so we all went down to his little room for drinks before the tour.

It was really hot and really noisy and really dirty in the engine room – but it was interesting and I enjoyed it.  I don’t think Karen and Alvena enjoyed it as much as I did though.  I wrote that they were upset.

I have a couple of pictures taken of us while on the Aphrodite.  The one with the 3 of us may be the only picture with all of us in it.  I might find another as I go through the pics – but I think this is the only one.

Karen - Mavis - Alvena

Greg, Mavis, Manuel, Karen

This picture isn’t really very good.  The sky is too light in the background, so we all ended up too dark.  I darkened the background a bit and that helps, but still isn’t a good picture.  But Greg and Manuel are in it with Karen and I – so I’m putting it up anyway. 

I sure don’t miss the days of film cameras.  You could only get so many pictures on a roll of film (usually 36) and then you had to change the film to take more.  You didn’t want to waste pics, so would usually only take 1 shot of anything and hoped it would turn out.  Of course, you wouldn’t know if it turned out or not until you got your film back from processing.

Today is Sunday June 29th and tomorrow we will be in Athens.

European Vacation – Venice to Aphrodite

We woke up wet this morning in the middle of a thunderstorm.  We had to pack up a wet tent again.  Once we were on the road, it didn’t take long to clear up and get hot again and we are on our way to Greece.

The contract on the car rental did not allow us to drive to Greece, since we were not allowed to drive through Turkey, so we were catching a ship to take us from Ancona to Athens.

The drive from Venice to Ancona was along one long beach and the water and sand looked beautiful.  I didn’t take any pictures though.  We stopped at a restaurant right on the beach where I had a mixed seafood plate.  It had shrimp, crawfish, 2 different kinds of little fish and strange long, skinny things.  I said it was delicious even though I didn’t know what I was eating. 

Once we reached Ancona, we found out that the ferry would leave tonight, so we got our tickets and re-arranged our luggage, so we would just have to take our dufflebags with us and leave the bigger suitcases in Libby’s truck in a parking garage.

We had some Italian pizza for supper and then headed back to the ticket agent to send Libby off to the garage.  I went to the garage with an Italian who could not speak English, so I would know where to find Libby once we returned.

We boarded the Aphrodite without any problems and after a 3 hour delay we were off.  We had a lovely sendoff from 4 Italian saliors who we waved at for something to do.

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the Greek Goddess of Love, but she was our home for a little while.  I didn’t take any pictures of her – so this is a postcard.

Today is June 28, 1975 and we traveled 200 km in Libby.

European Vacation – Venice – Day 2

We headed into Venice in the morning where we had to get into a long lineup to park the car.  We finally found a spot and the very helpful attended practically pushed us into it.

As we were leaving the garage, we were approached for someone asking if we wanted to go on a gondola ride to go downtown.  We were doubtful at first, but finally agreed.  A gondola ride was on our list of things to do there, but we expected that we would book something once we got downtown.

We really enjoyed the ride.  Our gondolier took us down some very skinny canals, but he was singing and it was just a fun ride.  He let us out at a glass factory near the main square.  We got a little nervous again then, since it was a staircase leading up from the canal, but it was all ok and it was a very nice place to wander through.  We didn’t buy anything though.

The ride was probably quite expensive – I didn’t make a note of the price – but it likely would have cost more if we had gone with one of the ones booked downtown.

We headed over to St. Marks Cathedral, but we were not allowed in unless our shoulders were covered.  We were all wearing halter tops and hadn’t brought anything with us to cover up, so we couldn’t go in.  I wrote that we were thrown out, but I think they just asked us to leave.

We looked around a little more, then had some lunch and took a vaporetta back to where we had left the car.  That was when I finally realized the reason we had to park the car was that cars were not allowed into the city.  All transportation is done by boat, walking or bicycles.   I hadn’t known that before and wasn’t sure why we had to park in the parking garage.

Our parking lot friend was still nearby when we got the car, so we waved good-bye to him and headed back to the tent.  We spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun.

Today we have gondola pictures and pictures from the gondola.

Rialto Bridge in Venice

In order to get from one narrow canal to the next narrow canal, we did have to get onto the Grand Canal and that is when we saw the Rialto Bridge.  The water was very rough on this canal.

Grand Canal

Gondalier

Karen and I are supposed to be in this picture too – but at least you can see parts of our heads.  I’ve had a couple of comments about not being in any of the pictures.

Gondalier

Karen and Alvena with the Gondalier.

Today is June 27, 1975.

European Vacation – Niederdorf to Venice

We had a good night’s sleep and after having breakfast we headed for Italy.  We heard so much about pickpockets and thieves in Italy that we were concerned, but continued on anyway – just a bit more cautious (which never hurts).  We made sure we would have all our travelers cheques in our pockets and were planning on holding onto our purses for dear life.

For some reason, we had to show our passports twice at the border.  I don’t know if it was the same person who wanted to see them twice or if 2 different people each wanted to see them.

I don’t know what I was talking about when I said “We got our gas coupons at the border with quite a bit of trouble since the guy did not speak English.”  I don’t remember anything about gas coupons and hadn’t mentioned getting them anywhere else – so this will be a mystery – unless I explained more about this further on. 

We had to pay a toll to get on the freeway to Venice, but either that way was the only way to get there or most likely the fastest way.  We found a great campground just outside Venice and I said that it was the best we had camped at yet.  It was beautiful and had lots of shade.  Since the tent had been wet when we packed it up a few days earlier, it was obviously still wet when we set it up.  It didn’t take long to dry in the hot Italian day though.

The guy in the campground insisted on taking my passport when we checked in.  I have no idea why, but he wouldn’t let us set up our tent without taking it.

It doesn’t look like I took any pictures today, but I took a few tomorrow, so decided to share a couple of them today.

I have a picture of St. Mark’s Cathedral and one of the narrow canals that we went through on our gondola ride.

St Marks Cathedral or Basilica

Gondola Ride

Today was June 26, 1975 and we traveled 300 km.

Chester

Chester made it 5 1/2 weeks since his last seizure, before he had one today.  This is the longest he has gone since this whole thing started in the middle of July last year.  I was not home, so don’t know how long it lasted, but it seems that the recovery time was fairly quick.  He did not seem agitated when he broke into the basement and woke Angela up.  She said that he just seemed a little slow.  There was no garbage to get into and he didn’t eat the cat food.

He went upstairs with her when she went to have her shower and was just lying on the floor when she finished.  He didn’t go back downstairs with her and was still upstairs when I got home a little later.  He didn’t come down until I called him and he was very slow and cautious coming down, but otherwise seemed fine.

I found a wet spot in the living room and some slobber on my computer desk.

He had a blood test scheduled for today, so we went and did that and will get the results probably next week.

It would be nice if we could get him completely seizure free, but if he can always go this long between seizures, we can live with it.

It is a sunny day today, so we went in the back yard for a couple of pictures.

Chester Jan 27

Chester Jan 27

Since we’re taking a quick holiday from my holiday in Europe, we’d better check out Africam too.  Of course, I still check that out and watch the cams daily anyway, but so far today, we have seen Elephants, Impala, Zebra, Nyala, Wildebeest, Bald Eagles (with 2 eggs), Egyptian Geese with goslings, Waterbuck, woolly-necked Stork and Hadeda Ibis.  Click here to see all of today’s pictures.

One day soon, I will be there in person. 

Chester and I had our usual walk along the Red River this morning.  We saw the usual snow and ice with an occasional crow flying by.  It looks like they have made a rink or a trail along the river – not sure if that is just for the Festival du Voyageur that is coming up in February, or if it is in substitution for the normal skating rink (loop) that usually is built on the Assiniboine River.  I notice there is nothing on the Assiniboine this year from the Forks.  With the mild winter we have had, I’m not sure I would want to venture onto the ice at all.  The Festival usually has snow sculptures, but there simply isn’t enough snow to build even one.  I really don’t mind that I haven’t had to shovel any snow this winter. 

European Vacation – Vienna to Niederdorf

This morning, we were among the hundreds of people packing up tents to leave Vienna.  It was still raining, so our tent was wet as we put it away.  I mention that I bid a fond farewell to the owner of the site, but I suspect that I was just waving towards the office as we drove away.

We were headed downtown to try to find the Lipizzaner Stallions in order to watch a training session.  We actually found the place without too much trouble.  There were probably signs. 

We got there 1 & 1/2 hours before it opened, but there were already some people in line ahead of us, so we waited there with them and chatted.  There were a couple of girls from Ontario and a family from Ohio, so the time went by fairly quickly while we waited.

We had our choice of seats and were entertained for a full 2 hours watching the show.  It was amazing!

Then we got some lunch and headed south – out of town.  The rain had stopped while we were having lunch, but it was still cloudy.   We loved the countryside – it was so beautiful – no mountains, but big rolling hills.   To 3 girls from a prairie province who were used to the flat prairies in Canada, this was so nice and relaxing to view this scenery.

I’m not sure why, but we were driving on a skinny, winding road.  I don’t know if the main road didn’t go the direction we wanted to go or if we found this road by mistake – but I always love getting off the beaten track and I’m sure that is why we saw more of the beautiful countryside.

The sun never did come out and we didn’t feel like putting up a wet tent on the wet ground, so we checked into a pension in Niederdorf, a small town in Austria.  We had our dinner in a very fancy restaurant – seemed very fancy for such a small town – but we enjoyed the food.  I had cordon bleu.

Today’s pictures are from the Lipizzaner Stallions show.  We could not use flash, so they are pretty dark, but I’ve fixed them up a bit after scanning.

Lipizzaner Stallions

Lipizzaner Stallions

European Vacation – Vienna – Day 2

This morning we were awakened early by the sound of hundreds of tents being taken down and packed up.  By the looks of things when we poked our heads out of our tent, we may be the only ones staying here another night.

We booked a tour of the city of Vienna and the bus came right to the campground to pick us up.   We had a great tour with a very knowledgeable tour guide, who knew everything about Vienna.  One of our stops was for a tour of Schonbrunn Castle, where we stayed for about an hour.  The grounds were gorgeous and the rooms were absolutely amazing.  It seems we also stopped at Belvedere Palace, but I have written nothing other than we walked around there.  I did take a picture that is labeled Belvedere Palace – not sure why I have nothing from Schonbrunn Castle though.

The tour bus took us back to the campground again and we watched for awhile as the campers began piling in for the night.   Then I walked over the the office to get information on seeing the Lipizzaner Stallions.  Instead of answering me, the guy started chasing me around his office.    He was acting pretty strange and scared me a bit, so I got out the door as soon as I could.  His parting words were that he would be over to our tent later on.

It started raining soon after that and luckily, he didn’t come over.   The campground had filled up even more while I was gone and I’m sure the tents were even closer together tonight than they were last night.  We talked a bit to some of the people in the nearby tents, and I’m sure they would have come over to help if this guy had come out to bother us.

Belvedere Palace

I don’t know who the man is and what he is doing in my picture 

Today was June 24, 1975.

European Vacation Gostling to Vienna

We were awakened nice and early this morning by some cattle just outside our window – so we had breakfast and headed for Vienna.  I’m surprised I don’t have any pictures of the cattle.

We left the mountains behind, but the countryside was beautiful.  We didn’t have far to go, but it doesn’t look like we stopped to take any pictures.

Just outside Vienna, we stopped at a tourist information stand and met some people from Shilo (which isn’t far from Winnipeg).  A camping spot was nearby, so we checked in, put the tent up and then headed for town.

I have no idea what we did in town or how long we were there, but when we returned to the camp (in the pouring rain), the place was completely full – and cars kept driving in and around looking for a spot.  It was very crowded with tents put almost on top of each other. We were surprised they kept letting more come in when it was so crowded already, but they kept coming.

Way back to when we first started planning this trip, I had thought about buying a VW camper bus instead of renting the car and tent.  I remember thinking that if I had done that, we would have lost our spot when we went to town that day.  It was the price of shipping the camper back home again that made me look at rental instead of buying.  Travel by train was convenient and inexpensive – but we liked the option of doing our own thing without schedules and none of us wanted to do our traveling while wearing backpacks.  Of course, we probably wouldn’t have been lost quite as much as we were if we hadn’t been driving. 

Since I have no pictures from today, here is a postcard from Vienna

Vienna

Today is June 23, 1975 and we traveled 94 km

European Vacation – Innsbrook to Gostling

This morning, it was nice and warm when we woke up, but it was a little foggy as we started out for Vienna.

Due to a miscalculation (I think that means we made a wrong turn) we ended up on the wrong road.  We decided to follow this road anyway until we came to a different road that was marked as being scenic.  It turns out that this road went through the highest mountain range and we had to pay a toll to go through a dark tunnel.

On the way back (since we had gone the wrong direction) we had to pay another toll to go back over the mountain!  Reading this, I suspect that the pictures from yesterday were on the top of this mountain.    The snow was as thick as 20 feet at the top.  W were almost going straight up in places and just crawling along – but at least Libby kept going.  It took a lot longer than going through the tunnel – but the scenery was spectacular.

We finally got back on the road to Vienna and kept driving until it was dark and there were no camping spots around.  We checked into a little pension for the night.

Austria

Austria

Today is June 22, 1975 and we traveled 350 km.

European Vacation – Frauenfeld to Innesbrook

The morning started off being foggy, but it wasn’t long before the fog disappeared and the sun was shining.     We entered and exited Liechtenstein before we knew it and were suddenly in Austria.  We must have stopped in Liechtenstein for at least a few minutes because we met some people from Winnipeg.  I don’t know anything about these people – just that we met them.  We finally saw some mountains today.

I’m sure we saw mountains in  Switzerland, but I don’t mention where we did finally see them.   We drove over a mountain.  I remember wondering Libby would be able to make it all the way up because it was very steep and took us quite awhile to climb to the top.  I always thought this mountain was in Switzerland, but my diary makes it sound like Austria.  My pictures are also marked Austria.

The cattle roamed free up on the mountains, so we were listening for bells each time we rounded a turn, so we would know if any were on the road.

I took a couple of pictures at the top of the mountain, just before we went into the tunnel and started back down again.

Austria - top of the mountain

Austria - top of the mountain

There is just a little bit of snow way up there, but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.

We found a campsite at Innesbrook that had a beautiful view.  I showed a picture of part of the view in yesterday’s blog with houses right up to the top and looking the other way was a huge snow covered peak.  There is a hotel right outside the campground and we walked over there for supper tonight.  There was apparently a dance there tonight and some guy asked me to to there with him.  If there had been three of him, we probably would have gone, but this seems to be the only time we didn’t meet enough guys.  We hoped it wouldn’t be too noisy for us to sleep.

Today was June 21, 1975 and we traveled 240 km.