Our European Vacation
By Richie and Alice Altman
Saturday March 15, 2000
It's 04:30 and the alarm goes off to soft music. Sleepy eyed and already packed we are thank goodness ready to go. We take our showers, feed and hug our boys Ruff and Ready and prepare to leave. We called Mary next store @05:45. She is already awake and comes on over to take us to the airport. Once we arrive at the American Airlines Terminal we share hugs, say Bon Voyage and walk to our planes departure gate. While waiting for our takeoff, Alice takes a break and sees Ray Charles. She says “Good Morning Mr. Charles” and he responds “Good Morning Dear.” It is quite the start for the adventures to come. Flight 114, our plane leaves right on time @8:00. We have seats 15A and 15B with a decent view of our countryside that slowly glides along. We stay awake for the entire flight and even watch the movie “Stuart Little” which was quite cute. After our expected 4 1/2 hour flight we land in Newark Airport around 16:30 with a three-hour layover before our next flight. We share a Tuna Wrap from the concession stand in the airport after searching high and low for a London newspaper that we could not find. We found an internet machine there in the airport and sent email to our family and friends. Finally it was time to board our British Airways plane flight 92 seats 25D and 25E @18:55 and prepared for the London Leg. We nestled into our very comfortable seats (at least next to the seats on the American Flight) and enjoyed another meal while we flew another 5 hours to London, and needless to say we stayed awake for the entire flight.
Sunday March 16, 2000
08:00 Heathrow Airport, London England. Weather is comfortably cool, around 45 degrees. Got off the plane and worked our way over to exchange some money at the airport currency exchange. We were feeling a bit daffy from the flight yet we were extremely exhilarated at being in a new country. We walked down a number of ramps dragging our luggage to get to the tube and following the hotel directions that we had packed, we caught the Piccadilly Line to the Nightsbridge station. The countryside from the windows and the accents of the people gave us the first real indication of being in England. At our exit - we looked down the street and really saw it to be a different country all right. This was London. We passed by Harrods and asked the Hotel on the corner where the Knightsbridge Hotel was. ½ block later we entered the Knightsbridge Hotel - registered and met with brother Norman. We were not tired so we put our baggage in the room and had our first English country breakfast of 2 very yellow eggs - thick bacon - a Bangor - mushrooms and baked beans w/ toast and jelly, coffee and orange juice. Now for the tour - the 3 of us decided on the “Norman's walking tour of London” - first was a quick walk to Buckingham palace where we were to see the changing of the Guards. Because it was Sunday and the day of the London Marathon, all we got to do was wave our hankies at the queen. Strolled around the grounds and the big statue and the Queen Regina. The queen was in because the flags flying full mast told us so. We walked thru the greens and got to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. The abbey was closed so we walked to Leicester Square - had tea and coffee’s at the corner eatery then took a cab back to the hotel. For dinner we took a cab and the rain and Alice's blister to “Thai on the Thames” restaurant that had wicker chairs with the stuffed pillows on the Thames River. We shared drinks and many fishy appetizers w/chicken sweet and sour and rice - Grade “B” OK. With it still raining - we took a cab back to the hotel - said goodnight and prepared for the Adventure on Monday.
Monday March 17, 2000
Woke up late. Norman went ahead to get tickets for a show. Missed out on the English breakfast, but had cereal, toast and fruit and coffee @ the hotel. We hopped on the underground from Harrods and went to Leicester Square to find Norman. Once we found him we were informed that tonight's play was to be Mama-Mia - an Abba Musical. Walked to and thru Soho and Carnabie Street. Also stopped at the Covent Square at the antiques fair, which was extremely touristy. Stopped in at a small eatery in Soho and had a Pap Sandwich and canned soup for lunch - not to exciting there either. Our feet were getting tired and we had a show to catch so back on the tube to Harrods for some caviar, then to the hotel to rest up and watch the tele. Got dressed warmly for the rain and took a cab for our first London Musical. Stopped at an Italian fast food restaurant where we inhaled our food and walked to the playhouse. We had great seats - Great play - will never listen to Abba the same way again. *The Play* A young girl living on an island with her Mom who has built an inn was going to get married at 20 years old. The plot was that 20 years ago the Mother who was in an all girl band made love to 3 different men in the same period of time and became pregnant with the daughter. The story was that the daughter invites all 3 men to her wedding to find out who her father really was so her real father could give her away at the wedding. *Simply just wonderful*. After dinner, stopped in Leicester Square for a spot of Cappuccinos and desserts - people watched, then headed back to the hotel for a spot of fun and the tele.
Tuesday March 18, 2000
 
 
Woke up late again and again missed out on that Country English Breakfast. We took the underground to the Tower of London and had a meal of vegetable soup with bread and Brie and coffee. It was mmmm mmmm good. It was raining pretty well, but we got our tickets and jumped in on a tour and discovered the tower and we must look up Guildford Dudley (1554) We had a lovely tour guide who helped us spend a good part of the day looking over much of the artifacts and took pictures for Dons enjoyment of the armories stored there. The chopping block was quite the thrill and much more details will be written when we get back. Once back to the hotel, it was time for a little English Tele, shower, shave and an umbrella to go see “The Graduate”. We had reservations for the restaurant L'escargot, a French restaurant in the theatre district. The food was A+ and they had 4 people at a time putting plates in front of you or carrying the plates away. We finished dinner by 19:20 and ran to the theatre and discovered that it was just about empty. The play, we found out did not start till 20:00. The play was S L O O O W and the Ben and Jerry's Ice cream during intermission was the best part of the whole play. At the end of the play, there was a TV reporter looking for commentaries of the play - people seemed to say that it was good, but we knew better. We took a taxi back to the hotel, watched some English tele and had a jolly good time.
Wednesday March 19, 2000
This morning we woke up fairly early and had our last English breakfast of Bangor's, beans, bacon, butter, those very yellow eggs and coffee from the hotel. We all took a ride on the underground to Westminster Abbey to take a tour. Norm decided to just walk around while we opted for the recorded tour. As we walked through the Abbey, we were awed at all of the history and graves that we found there. Norman came up to us to share with us something very special. We took the opportunity to walk over to a door that said that it was reserved for prayer and we asked one of the priests if we could have our own small prayer inside. He gave us permission and we opened the door and entered into a part of the church from 1000 A.D. A page from an Anglican Bible was opened to "Wednesday before Easter" and it told the story that Passover was the last supper for Jesus and his disciples. We continued through the Abbey looking at all the wonders and names that were there. Once we finished with the tour we took the underground back to the Hotel, watched the tele - then walked to the Italian Restaurant Isola on Knightsbridge Road where we had many drinks and another “A+” meal. Alice's Pig Knuckle dinner was the best. Went back to the Hotel to collect our luggage. Got into the cab with the Driver who made Alice fall out of her seat. Got to the Airport and exchanged some English Pounds for some Greek Drachma's - Got on the plane and stayed awake till we landed in Athens at 04:30.
Thursday March 20th, 2000
The Dinner on the airplane was quite good (Chicken Kiev, vegetables and Cranberries). When we landed in Athens it was raining and warm. We were met by Thaddeus (Turd Bird) who started out to be a good contact, but soon the Athens nightmare began. Our taxi driver drove between both lanes of the road as we argued about which hotel we would be staying at. To make a long story short, we decided to never speak to Turd Bird again (if we could help it). We ended up getting a room at the Athens Plaza (after waiting about 90 minutes in getting our room) with 3 beds in it and no knowledge how to turn on the air conditioner so we could close the sliding door to the street which was getting increasingly louder and louder as it became later in the morning. By noontime we had our rooms, so we walked around the corner of the hotel and had our first Greek meal at the local restaurant. We had a Club Sandwich with Fries and filtered coffee. We were happy. We then caught up with Norman - walked the Plaka for a little while to get our initial feel for Athens. We were quite tired from the whole travel experience so we had some coffee at the outdoor café by EM-ES, then came back to our hotel - showered up and watched some Greek Pay TV (Oh My!).
We went back out to the Plaka for some shopping fun, had dinner at Hermion at 15 Pandrossou Str. Where the food was delicious, then came back to the hotel to sleep, but the Irish had just won the football game and it sounded like a riot outside and this went on until ---
Friday March 21, 2000
 
Around 03:00, so needless to say we didn't sleep much this evening either. 07:20 wake up call - we are dying - can't believe it's time to get up already. Waiting for the 08:30 Bus tour of Athens we rushed to the hotel breakfast where we put 4 croissants and some goodies in some tin foil (the staff thought we were nuts), got on the tour bus and circled the parliament square 3 times to pick up some Italian speaking tourists. We stopped at the modern coliseum - the embassies, around the parliament square again - then on the Acropolis and the Parthenon. We took pictures and relived history - walked back through to the Plaka where Norman bought the tablecloth from the Gypsy Woman, then on back to the hotel and our baggage to await going to the Boat in Perous for our 7 day cruise. We got to the docks (driven by the first taxi driver we had when arriving in Athens) and checked in. Our luggage was lost for a while, but did finally make it to our room at 18:00 (which was ship off time even though we ended up leaving around 19:30). When we finally took off there seemed to be so much smoke and diesel fumes we thought we were gonna die. We went thru the “What to do in case of an emergency” drill which went OK. Norman ordered a bottle of Dom Perignon and we shared a Champagne Cocktail on our take off.
We went to the 21:00 dinner (not so good) then we played I'm snoring to much, gotta get out, stop the ship from rolling, where are you now, shut those damn people up, can't sleep now it's …
Saturday March 22, 2000
Oh what a night!!! We are on the boat heading to Istanbul, Turkey. Got up late and had the boat lunch buffet which was OK. We sat outside for our lunch, and then the sun came out from behind the clouds. We played some Ping Pong and everything was beginning to look pretty darn good. We arrived in Istanbul around 19:30. We had a mediocre dinner on the boat then we took a short walk into the city. Getting our off boat passes, when descended into the port town in Istanbul. It was drizzling. Our first view was of the duty free shops that were all closed. We had to walk through the immigration station / Police Station to get out into the city proper. We really didn't know where to go, so we walked towards the busy highway and turned left. We walked across a bridge and headed towards a mosque. There were many men fishing from the bridge and the only women seen were of tourists. Once we crossed the bridge, we headed down some stairs and could see a bunch of men in a tunnel opening looking to be getting high. We were a bit spooked at being in Istanbul, at night, not knowing where we were going and still walking. We crossed through another tunnel to get to the mosque and it smelled way funky as we made our way across. Once on the other side, we were in front of the mosque, but still not quite sure what to do. We asked a passerby about where and if Topkopi and the Blue Mosque were within walking distance and he told us no, but if we wanted to visit him at his Rug store the next day here was his card and please make sure to visit with him. Well, at this point we decided that the daytime would be the right time to see Istanbul, so we walked back to the ship and get some rest. We had to call security twice to shut up the loud talking kids next store to us. We ended up getting about three hours of sleep before it became daylight of…
Sunday March 23, 2000
Get up, it's 08:00 and “Oy” are we tired. All three of us went up to eat at the ships breakfast. We got our offshore passes and hired a man named Ahee to drive us around Istanbul all day for $60.00. Our first stop was to the Topkopi Palace where he left us off and we walked thru marveling at the jewels, architecture and all for about 1 hour. Next we drove to the Hippodrome, then to the Blue Mosque for about 2 hours. Went to the Fish market where Norman kissed the shark then to the wholesale carpet district where we had the whole apple tea and looked at many Turkish carpets. Afterwards we had lamb souflakies at the small sandwich stand. Next we drove to the Jewish synagogue (closed) then on to Taksim, market where we bought booties and Apple tea and Norman got his caviar. We drove back to the wholesale carpet land for norm, and we went into the Mosaic museum. We were pretty tired so returned to the boat about 16:30 and the ship took off for Kusadasi at 18:00. We had caviar and olives and bread and champagne as the boat left the shore. Alice and I played cards, had drinks, got to bed early and had our first good nights sleep.
Monday March 24, 2000
A good night. Slept in till 10:30. Had lunch and laid out in the sun for a couple hours, then we reached Kusadasi.
We decided to just hang around the port to write some email and go shopping. We bought the masks and food and coffee and everything was fun and people were very friendly and Norman went for his Turkish bath. We had a fine dinner of grilled meats at *** restaurant then it was back to the ship for our midnight departure to Patmos. We stood outside the ship and watched the departure. Showered up and went to bed.
Tuesday March 25, 2000
Another good nights sleep. We woke up to the sound of the anchor dropping in at Patmos. All three of us had breakfast on the boat then Alice and I took the shuttle boat to the Island. We had filtered coffee and chocolate croissants at a cafe. Shopped around, saw a donkey then took the shuttle back for our ride to Mykonos. The water was cool and breezy but still ok. 10:30 Laid out in the sun for awhile. The weather got overcast and the waves began to get high. Looked like ½ of the ship was getting seasick. We had a light lunch buffet then played cards till around 15:40. We landed at Mykonos around 16:00. The sun came out and we had a real long island Ice tea at a bar in little Venice. WOW! Went to the restaurant Katorina's and had a sample of everything for only $100.00 What a bargain. Needless to say we were looped. We caught the last boat to the ship. Shared a Cohiba cigar with the first mate of the ship and wanted to move in with everyone. We are feeling great and looking forward to a major hangover for Wednesday. Hope the waves are not to big. Till then, Ciao
Wednesday March 26, 2000
Big loud waves for a good part of the night was close to the night from hell. We fell asleep late and woke up around 11:00. We had completely missed out on Heriklion, Crete. Normans description was that the only we had missed out on were way to many German tourists. Well what can you do. That is what a vacation can all be about. We started our day with a Bloody Mary for me and a Champagne Cocktail for Alice. We ate lunch on the boats buffet and laid out in the sun while cruising towards Rhodes. It was raining cars and dogs outside, we bought a couple of umbrellas and headed out into old town to have cappuccino’s and crepes. We did a bit of shopping around (found the sponges) then to a taxi over to New Town and found an internet café. We sent and received some emails, then found a taxi driver who was the fastest driver (Russian) we have ever seen, to take us over to Lindos for the view. About 20 minute outside if Rhodes the rain stopped and the sun came out. Lindos was absolutely beautiful though we only had about 20 minutes to tour. Could have stayed longer and swam at that beautiful beach. Next time should spend a couple days at the Lindos palace hotel. We bought a couple souviners then headed back to Rhodes and the Rain. Once aboard we shared some apple tea and a Metaxa brandy while we shoved off on our way to Santorini. Norman was tired so Alice and I went to the last of the formal boat dinners and had the Baked Alaska which was wonderful. We stayed up and played cards. We had to call security again for those darn kids on room 2, then fell asleep.
Thursday March 27, 2000
One more island to go. We spent a good part of the day being in the sun and relaxing. We came to Santorini and we took the go ashore boat and purchased our tickets for the tram to the top. All the stairs are famous for the donkey doo which covers all 588 steps. Norman kept his eyes closed for the tram ride. Once we got on top, we stopped and knocked on the door of the Dominican Nuns were we bought some icons from the sisterhood. Next was a fairly unspectacular meal at the top of the tram. Then the ride down and the shuttle back to the boat. 1 more buffet meal and our last cocktail and disco music - then to bed
Friday March 28, 2000
Good Morning Perous, Greece. We collected our luggage and saw Thad the Turd Bird. We got into a Ferrari taxi and came back to the Athens Plaza Hotel. Of course it was still raining. We went our shopping and had coffee and sweets. Took a rest back at the hotel, then took a walk in the National Gardens (very Nice). Went back to the Plaka supermarket for some goodies to bring back home then back to the hotel for Greek movies, love and a shower. The 3 of us hopped in a cab and went to Perous to have some drinks then dinner. At the first bar I wore the Turkish cap and was stared down, plus the waiters were very unsociable so I took off the cap and went to the Bar Iguana where Alice showed them how to make a long island ice tea. It was delicious. Then we walked restaurant Jimmy and the Fish where Norman had black ink pasta and we had Lobster and Spaghetti for two. It was good and filling. Back to the hotel we watched the Greek Orthodox Pope give the Easter sermon ceremony - which was beautiful, complete with music, military and Frank Incense. Time for Sleep.
Saturday March 29, 2000
Slept in. Had a big buffet breakfast in the hotel, got on the bus and away we go on our 4 day Classic Greek Bus Tour. George is our Bus Driver and Marianna Tzavella is our tour guide. First Stop is at the Corinth Canal. Next we drove into the mountains to the stadium at Epidaures, the ancient theatre. The acoustics were fantastic. You could sit on the top row and hear some speaking from the center of the theater. Also we learned the meaning of tragedy. Trago = goat, edy = odeam or song. So tragedy was the goat song or the song sung during the goat sacrifice that was performed before each event at the stadium. Also the word citizen meant “from the left side”, the messengers or people who were not friends or people from the countryside came in through the left arches of the stadium while the rich and important people or the renown artists and musicians entered through the right arches of the Stadium. Next we took a ride through the hills past myceanean castles and bridges through to Naflion. Looking at the citadel of Tyrnes up through Argos to Mycinea. We stopped for a little lunch at Archilles Café and had roast artichokes and potatoes, grilled chicken with potatoes, tomatoes with onions, yummy. Next stop was the original Mycinean palace with the magnificent view of the Aegean Sea and the tomb of Agamemnon. Back to Naflion where we stayed at the Xenia Palace Hotel overlooking the bay 2 single beds, no TV and a radio that plays mellow music. Quite rustic. We took a stroll into town where there is a beautiful marble plaza. We took a wild taxi ride to a pharmacy for Norm, then back to the plaza for a drink. Now up the steps to the hotel for another cocktail, then the buffet with the Black and White Mouse that put us all over the edge. A beautiful lovemaking session, then around midnight, all the ships horns, all the churches bells and many, many firecrackers went off for the Easter Celebration. Not much sleep for the rest of this evening.
Sunday March 30, 2000
Deprived of sleep we got our 07:45 wake up call, went to the breakfast and readied ourselves for our next adventure. We picked up all the people on the bus, then headed over to Myceana to be dragged into the tourist ceramic shop where we did buy the flower vases for Mary and us. Now back on the bus 11:30 heading forward to Kalamata, then to Olympia. This is a beautiful winding mountain road heading towards Tripoli. Stopped in Mega polis for a coffee break and food and gifts, then headed through Kalamata where we stopped at the Tourist Club for our official Greek Easter Meal. First we were served lamb innards cooked with greens where we did pile up on Normans plate. Next came the whole lamb with french fries salad with really sharp tasting feta cheese, bread and unsweetened cookies with red colored boiled eggs for desert all for only 4000 drachma's each. Our lambs were on spits out front and Norman made Baa Baa sounds which became quite popular for the rest of our bus friends. The lamb was a bit greasy, then back on up the hill to the Hotel Europa where we laid out in the sun for a couple hours and made love. Showered and awaited dinner. Our first course was a cheese pie followed by an egg salad, green salad, pork and macaroni with a warm orange almond cake for dessert. Came back to the room and snuggled up.
Monday May 1, 2000
It's another 07:45 wake up call, packed up our stuff and headed over for breakfast. A quick spot of eggs and croissants for me and cereal for Alice then on to the bus. 1st stop - ancient Olympia - look up on the internet - walked the stadium - temple of Zeus and Heracion - photo in the ancient bath - then to the new museum where many of the original statues and fresco's are kept. Look up Greek words - many greeks went to the Cyrillic language then to English. We stopped back at the Tourist Café where today they had no forced upon lamb meals, but they did have veal and rabbit. We opted for spaghetti and eggplant. 13:30 and heading to Patros. Stopped at the Cathedral of Ayios Andrios (St. Andrew) and had a chocolate gelato and peach tea. A short ride to Rion - hopped on the ferry for a 20 minute jump over the gulf of Patros to Anti Rion and Delphi. Stopped at the church of St. Elias - a beautiful Greek Orthodox church on the mountains real close to Delphi. We bought a vase and candles. 18:30 now on to Delphi. Our Hotel tonight is the Xenia Hotel where Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton stayed. We traded rooms with Norman so we could have the Queen bed (maybe Hillary's). Had a meal of Wine and Salad - baked eggplant - chicken and fries with vanilla ice cream.
Tuesday May 2, 2000
Woke up and had one bad breakfast. Mud coffee - tang orange juice and stale cereal. Drove to Delphi - see post cards and internet. Stopped for lunch 13:00 had some grilled pork souvlakies & fries and salad and eggplant. Took pictures of Marianne and George and the bus. Back in Athens we had some rain, but it stopped by 19:00. We stayed in room 326 at the Athens Plaza to enjoy a couple days rest before coming home.
Wednesday May 3, 2000
Went to the Plaka for another day of power shopping. We stopped in to a few button stores where Alice made some delightful button purchases for Davie.
Thursday May 4, 2000
Went to downtown Athens for power shopping. This time instead of going to the Plaka, we hung a right turn and proceeded to the downtown area of Athens. We found the fish market where the stalls were filled with fresh fish still on ice. It reminded us of how the fish market in Turkey was. Every kind of fish that could be caught was on display and man oh man did it ever smell fishy (in a good way). The meat market was basically right next store to the fish market. Again there was stall after stall of all the different types of carnivore delights hanging from hooks. I am sure that we saw a few more happy lambs just waiting to get on to a spit and charcoal. The vegetable and fruit markets were all basically on an open street and there was again everything a vegetarian would want. There were also the many olive markets with huge drums of all sorts of olives in them. Got back to the hotel und 15:00 where we saw Turd Bird one final time. He, of course, asked all the forced but usual questions and we really saw that he had not brushed his hair since we had met him almost two weeks prior. By 16:30 our taxi arrived to take us to the British Airways plane for London. Once at the Athens airport, we walked through the duty free area and bought some Greek Coffee and planted ourselves in the waiting area for our plane. Norm had decided to say "Hello" to anyone and everyone who walked by him. We knew that he was just a step from not getting that upgrade on the plane, but he was funny. Finally, the door to the departure gate was opened and we put all of our luggage through the X-ray machine. As we waited in the departure area, we were all getting a bit light headed and continued with many different sound effects for all of the people waiting to board. Finally it was time to walk out of the departure gate, board the tram bus to the plane and boarded. Norm didn't get to upgrade his seat, but we did have to sit behind some passenger who must of had the worlds smelliest feet. We were fed a decent chicken dinner and watched a movie (?). Could not see much through the window so we just relaxed for the 4 hour ride to Heathrow. Once we landed 21:00, we grabbed our luggage and a taxi to the Radisson Edwardian Hotel just outside the airport. We all met in the lounge for one last drink in Europe. Norm went for the chamomile tea, Alice had white wine and I went for the snifter of brandy. We retired to our business suite where there were at least 5 telephones and a fax machine. We filled out the form for a room delivery breakfast, showered up and went to sleep.
Friday May 5, 2000
07:45, wake up call from the automated phone that actually rang all five telephones in our suite. 08:15, a knock on the door and it's room service with our breakfast. This is the last of really yellow, runny scrambled eggs. Alice had cereal and we shared the fruit (which was not as good as in the Athens Plaza. Put our luggage together and walked it out to the lobby where Norman was already waiting. We waited for the airport bus, then decided to take a cab to the airport. We arrived at Heathrow around 09:30 and lugged our stuff over to the American Airlines counter. Alice and I had a quick security check with airline security (because we had put our bags through from Athens) and we went back in line to get our check-in squared away. Norman was having quite the time with his upgrade procedure and we had to say Au Revoir to him so he could go and visit with the American Airlines Doctor. We finally got to the point of getting on to our plane (a 777 monster) and took our seats in the very back row on the left side of the plane. It was 11:00 and it was to be an eleven hour trip back home. The plane taxied out to the runway and slowly gathered speed. We lifted up off the ground and viewed the last of London for a while. We were able to look out over the English countryside, then Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man. Move the open ocean to glimpse Iceland, then the awesome spectacle of Greenland and it's thundering mountains and huge glacier rivers of ice. As we flew, we watched many movies. American Beauty, Anna and the King, 1900, House on Haunted Hill and we played many games of crazy eights and gin. The Canadian Northeast appeared and we saw some magnificent landscape even tho this was about half way through our flight. After almost 6 1/2 hours, we crossed over into North Dakota, Mt Rushmore, Wyoming, Utah, Las Vegas Nevada then finally wound our way back to the Los Angeles Airport. It was now 14:30. We had to stand in line for about an hour to get through immigration and customs, got out to the baggage claim and saw Mom's happy face. We were dead tired and declined a ride, instead we hopped on a cab and 20 minutes later we were home.
The End of One Very memorable Vacation
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