[rewind] 7.19.13 - The Final Days

On our last night at sea, Norwegian Jade hosted a huge chocoholic buffet.  We were very pleased. :)

    After some difficulty finding our final B&B on Venice island, we dropped off our luggage and toured San Marco one last time, anxious to get more pigeon pictures. We also enjoyed a very expensive gnocchi dinner at a canal-side restaurant (Dave truly is obsessed with gnocchi now). 

 

 

David loves gnocchi

     Our final B&B turned out to be quite the dump. Had we thoroughly read the reviews before booking it, we probably would have reconsidered. At the time; however, we were simply looking for the cheapest option on the island of Venice for our final night. The advertised "free" breakfast consisted of packaged crackers, jam, and instant coffee that were set out the day prior. If you wanted milk you had to pay extra. Further, the only time we even saw the owners was during our check-in. They gave us keys and, after collecting our payment in cash, instructed us to leave them hanging on the door when we left. There was no one available to answer questions or to provide the toiletries/toilet paper that were lacking in the bathroom. Needless to say, we gave them a very poor review....

    Ironically, our subsequent night in the Rome airport (we had a 13 hour layover) was more inviting and comfortable than the B&B in Venice. Cheaper too considering we didn't have to pay to sleep there, there were good bathrooms, and we had our pick of many breakfast options when we woke up. 

    Finally, we made it back to Casablanca. Our favorite red luggage bag just barely made the trip back, though. The tear that we thought was minimal when we left ripped through entirely and things were hanging out of it when we received it in Casablanca. Luckily, nothing was missing. Additionally, one of the wheels busted when we were pulling it along the cobblestone streets of Venice (Note: This is why we said earlier that Venice is only fun if you don't have any luggage to carry).
     This suitcase was purchased in 2005 for Nicole's very first trip abroad to Spain, and has traveled to many other countries since. RIP awesome red bag...

And now back to Ramadan ftir feasts every night. :)

-David & Nicole

[rewind] 7.16.13 - Greece

     Our original cruise itinerary promised an Athens excursion, and we booked a private tour a month in advance in preparation. Unfortunately, there was a large 24-hour strike in Athens on the 16th which meant that all forms of public transportation would be shut down. Therefore, our cruise was re-routed to Crete instead and our private tour was fully reimbursed. We have no hard feelings, although we would love to see Athens someday...

Heraklion, Crete
    Confession: We thought Crete was its own country so we were secretly thrilled at the new route plan. Turns out Crete is owned by Greece, but we feel as though it's big enough to count as a place of its own. It is quite a large island some distance away from the Greek mainland, after all. :) We cruised into the port of Heraklion and, having done no research whatsoever on this unplanned stop, we decided to explore it on our own.
     We took a city bus to Knossos and explored the ancient palace ruins where King Minos was said to have ruled and where a minotaur was said to have been born by his wife. Slightly unbelievable...but worth the trip nevertheless.

     After touring Knossos, we explored the streets of Heraklion in search of Greek gyros. We found the perfect place.

Katakolon (near Olympia)
    After walking non-stop in three consecutive cities (Venice, Dubrovnik, and Heraklion), we dedicated our stop in Katakolon to be strictly a beach day. Dave swam in the Mediterranean sea for the first time. It was gorgeous.

 

     We had just one more full day left on Norwegian Jade before returning to our initial departure point: Venice. Nicole was very excited to take more pigeon pictures... But since that was still several hours away we took pictures on the boat instead.

 

-David & Nicole

[rewind] 7.14.13 - Croatia

     Dubrovnik is a beautiful city along the Adriatic coast of Croatia. For a fee of 90 kuna, you can walk the one hour distance on top of the city wall. breathtaking. One of our very few regrets from the entire trip was that we didn't bring our bathing suits when we left the ship. We had no idea that Dubrovnik offers incredible cliff jumping opportunities. We watched enviously for a while...and promised ourselves to return someday with swimsuits. Inshallah.

It was evening when we said "Zbogom" to Croatia from the ship

     After leaving Croatia, we spent a full day on the ship. On the boat we gorged ourselves with plenty of incredible meals (including lobster and more gnocchi), spent hours sunbathing next to the pool, perfected the sport of shuffle board, and enjoyed entertaining theatrical productions every night.

Next stop: Greece!

-David & Nicole

[rewind] 7.12.13 - Venice

     We thoroughly enjoyed two nights and one full day in Venice before departing on Norwegian Jade en route to Croatia.
     Because we had to book two nights in Venice so spontaneously, we opted to save money by booking two different hotels (one night in each). This was the cheapest option, ensuring that we were close to the airport to accommodate our late arrival. Both hotels were reasonably priced and offered free, phenomenal breakfasts. We had carefully calculated the best walking route between the two hotels while we were in Morocco and were fully prepared to walk the 30 minute distance to avoid further bus transport costs. This plan would have been perfect... if google maps had actually pinpointed our two hotels correctly. Instead, we walked 30 minutes with our luggage only to discover that the two hotels were actually within sight of each other. We laughed aloud when we realized what we had done and, unwilling to walk the 30 minutes back to where we started, jumped on a bus back to our original starting point.
    After checking into our second hotel (which was actually a 2 minute walk from our first hotel), we ate at a restaurant solely because its name was associated with one of Dave's favorite soccer players: Del Piero. A second selling point was that they had gnocchi, which Dave has become obsessed with ever since he first had it in Milan (and rightly so).

     Then...we left for Venice! Venice is beautiful...as long as you don't have to carry any luggage with you. The city demands a lot of walking over a lot of bridges; however, the views are totally worth it. We were quite content to simply walk around the city all day taking pictures and eating gelato. Nicole particularly enjoyed taking pigeon pictures in San Marco Square.

Venice from Rialto Bridge

@ Rialto Bridge

San Marco Square

We left Venice mid-day on the 13th for our very first cruise.

Last morning in Venice pre-cruise

      With 2 pools, 4 hot tubs, daily theatrical productions, more than enough all-inclusive restaurant options, a new animal towel every day, shuffle board, etc; we were ready to say "ciao" to Venice. :)

The view of San Marco Square/Venice from aboard Norwegian Jade:

Tomorrow: Croatia!

-David & Nicole