Day 6 - Venice, Italy

I'm not sure what time we left Kotor.  Probably as soon as everyone was back aboard, because we had to cross the Adriatic Sea as our next destination was Venice, Italy. There was quite a storm overnight but I never heard it.  But did look out the window a couple of times to see how high the waves were. Venice was going to be a 2 day stay.

We didn't arrive in Venice until after 1 pm.  So the morning was spent getting a little sun and lunch.  Everyone was on deck taking lots of photos as we entered the Canale Della Giudecca headed for the terminal.

Piazza San Marco

At 4:15 pm we finally docked and got off the boat for my first excursion.  I took the Venice panorama, a tour on a private motor boat that took us to see all the islands in the lagoon.
This was a nice way to get an overview.  Tour took a little over 2 hours.

Venice at sunset

I got back about 6:58 pm, had dinner and retired for the night as I knew I has a four hour walking tour scheduled for tomorrow.

I'm not sure which tour Debra took today.  I know on one of the two days she took the tour to Murano glass and Burano lace. She even bought a chandler which really intrigued many of the quilters.

Day 5 - Kotor, Montenegro

This morning was our first morning in a port, Kotor, Montenegro.  When we went to sleep we were cruising around the heel of Italy.  When we awoke we had mountains on both sides of the ship.  I called it a fjord which I am not sure would be the proper Montenegro term.

To get into the port we had to take a tender in.  A covered life board ship that is lowered down from Deck 5 and we disembarked from I think Deck 2.  I had to be ready and in the theater ready to leave to get on the tender.  So it was an early rise to get breakfast before having to be at the meeting point.
I had not signed up for any specific tour today.  Thought I would play the first day ashore by ear.

There were a number of quilters who also went ashore with this intention.  I hooked up with 2 ladies from Brooklyn. When we got to the dock there were all kinds of people hawking private limo tours, etc.  We opted for a double-decker bus that went all the way up the fjord and back with the hop on/hop off possibilities.            

There were lots of interesting flora to see. I was surprised to see so many cacti.

The ride out the fjord was very beautiful and the water so blue.  Temps were about 86 degrees.

Also included was a stop at some Roman ruins that had been excavated with wonderful mosaic floors. Lots of ideas for quilts.

About half way out, maybe 10 miles, there was a point where we could get off and explore another city, but it looked to be uphill all the way so we passed.

In some areas of the fjord there are farming salmon.

When we returned to the city from the bus trip we decided to explore the walled part of the city.  Some buildings dated to as early as 1166.  We looked through what passes for a mall in Kotor.  Maybe 12 shops including a news stand, a pharmacy and a sandwich shop.

As we reached the entrance to the walled city we met one of the other quilters who had just finished a guided walking tour of the city.  She offered to show us some of the highlights.  So we followed along.

This was St. Triphon's Cathedral, 1166

Got a kick out of this sign.  Well they didn't say you couldn't take a picture.!!

Church of St. Nicholas, 1909

High above the city was the Church of our Lady of Remedy, 1518.  I noticed that some of the people on the trip always spotted the highest point and headed there.  It was bad enough that the city was all uphill, we choose now to take the mile or more uphill walk.

I considered taking the bus out again, but it didn't come.  So after a lengthy wait I decided to head back down to the tender.  The last one would be at 4 pm and I didn't want to risk missing it my first time ashore.

After dinner we went to the theater and saw the movie Mother's day.

Day 4, At Sea, Saturday, Aug. 20th

To go back and touch on Barcelona, I was amazed at the many types of architecture we saw there.  I found myself thinking it would be fun to go back sometime and hire a guide who specializes in architectural tours.

The day we arrived we got there at 5:30 am and our rooms weren't available until about 3 pm. So the tour company arranged a bus tour of Barcelona.  One of the places that we got out and walked around was this cathedral, The Sacred Family, designed by Gaudi.  It was begun in 1882 and is really different from any other type of building in Barcelona.  It takes up a fairly large area of the city, maybe a six block area.  So we walked around the entire structure.  Barcelona was in the 90 degree temperature range so it was pretty warm.

But now back to shipboard.  Classes were held in a conference room and since they couldn't get machines so the first day was a hand piecing hexies day.  Day 2 covered back stitch applique.