For our anniversary Kevin and I thought that we'd like to take a nice trip somewhere to celebrate and get- away-from-it-all. You may be thinking, "Get-away-from-it-all?! They live in Germany!! Why would they want to get away from that!?" Like I said last time, even when you live in a cool place, life is life - it gets stressful and you still have your everyday cares and duties. It becomes home - its a great place to be but sometimes you need a break. So... we ended up deciding on taking a terrific deal we found for a 7-night Eastern Mediterranean cruise that was just a tad on the early side of the prime cruising season.
Itenerary:
Day 1 - Civitavecchia, Italy (Port of Rome)
Day 2 - Messina, Sicily
Day 3 - Cruising
Day 4 - Piraeus (Athens), Greece
Day 5 - Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey
Day 6 - Cruising
Day 7 - Chania (Souda), Crete
Day 8 - Civitavecchia, Italy (Port of Rome)
Pros to going on a Mediterranean cruise in May instead of June-August:
- the weather isn't as broiling hot yet
- school is still in session so there aren't lots of kids
- ticket prices are lower because they're trying to lure people in
- possibility for less tourists at some of the places you visit.
Cons for May instead of June-August:
- the weather can be a little cool sometimes
- we ran into some rain - not sure that would be the case so much in mid-summer
- the sea could be a bit rough - again, not sure if maybe it would be calmer mid-summer
---- basically, the only downer to going early is you're taking more chances with the weather.
With all that said, on to the traveling! On 22 May we left our house at an absurdly early hour to catch our 6:20am Ryan Air flight from Frankfurt to Rome. If you've never heard of Ryan Air, its a wonderful airline based in Ireland that offers terrific ticket prices to many places in Europe - like, they do deals for under 10 euros. Regularly. I had a friend that even found a ticket for 1 euro to Pisa. That's right... 1 euro - that's $1.43, folks. (Um, you might want to pick your jaw up, cause you just dropped it.) We didn't get that kind of deal but... it was cheaper than other airlines.
The catch to flying so cheaply with Ryan Air - it is no frills air travel. No complimentary beverage service - no pre-assigned, reclining seat - strict carry-on size limit - very limited ticket options. Don't want to sit behind the engines? Well then, you'll just have to make sure you're near the front of the line and can walk fast enough to stay there as you make your way across the tarmac. Like catching a nap on the plane? You'll have to manage it in the full upright position because, well... that's the only angle your seat goes. Want a beverage? Bring your own or be willing to pay on board. Don't like flying at 6:20am? Tough cookies! Cause that is the only option for the day for your destination. Too much luggage? Check it for a lot of money - 15kg will cost you 30 euro - that works out to be about 30lbs. for $40. And if you want to go up to 20kg/45lb then be ready to shell out 50 euro or $70. Yikes. But with such low prices for tickets, it can still be cheaper to check a bag with Ryan Air than buy a ticket with an airline that allows a free checked bag or makes you pay as well.
Wow - I did not intend to talk about that forever when I started this post. Oops. But hopefully it was good-to-know info.
Back to traveling... left Frankfurt at 6:20am and arrived in Rome at 8:40am. Woohoo!! From the airport we took a shuttle to the main train station in Rome - Roma Termini. The ride to the train station was neat and disappointing at the same time. Driving past random ancient ruins that have been left untouched and/or just built around was cool. Seeing all the graffiti everywhere in the town was a let down. Graffiti is on practically every building on the streets. Its kind of disgusting. Not that you shouldn't ever go to Rome but be prepared for that aspect.
Buon giorno, Italia!
Lookin pretty good for getting up before 3am.
Random ruins along roadside.
Cool building on the way to the train.
Intersection along the way.
Ruins ahead!
Excuse the bus window glare.
Notice the street name on the building - that's a common marking system.
Lots of scooters!! If you'd seen the traffic, you might want one too though!
Finally there!
Street in front of the terminal.
Once to the Roma Termini we purchased our ticket to Civitavecchia (the port of call) from one of the self -service machines. Apparently there is a homeless man or jobless man or maybe both who makes a living on "helping" every tourist who uses that particular machine, whether you really want/need it or not, and then when your change comes out insists on getting some or all of it. In our case all of it since it was only a euro. Its nice to help people out but not when they're like that. Grrrr.
Well, with some difficulty, we located the train we needed and were off! Kevin napped some while I took pictures. It was kind of exciting to get to see some Italian country side and speed along the Mediterranean coastline. Here's a sampling.
Train Ticket for 2
Countryside
Farmland
Train Interior
Lots of red poppies!! Wish I could have gotten a better picture.
One of the homes with a vineyard that we passed.
The Mediterranean!!
A marina nearing Civitavecchia.
Upon on arrival in Civitavecchia we made our way to the port area on foot and then found the shuttle to the ship once inside the port. Checking into the cruise went pretty smoothly - especially since we did online check-in ahead of time. Basically all we had left was signing the form that we didn't have some terrible flu that we were bringing on board, dropping off our luggage, checking our passports and receiving boarding passes. Where was an easy button when you needed one?
Being on board was so cool. We got to spend the rest of the day exploring the ship, getting settled in, and relaxing. The ship was very nice!! It was a like city on the sea. I'll do a more in depth description in another post, but here are some pictures to give you an idea.
Main Pool Area - Deck 11
Dining Room - Decks 3-5
Staircase near Dining Room - Deck 3
Shopping Area - Deck 4
Primary Theater - Deck 3
Off to a great start. :)
Bon Voyage!
