Cruising the Mediterranean

August 15 - 24, 2003

To see more of our cruise, click here. To go to our homepage, click here.

For our family vacation this summer, we decided to head for the Mediterranean and go on our first cruise. We did a little research and found a good deal with Festival Cruises that went to ports that we were excited about visiting. Because we embarked on the cruise from Venice, we decided to spend a pre-cruise day there. After all our tickets were purchased, Kevin learned that he had to be in Denver for business meetings right up to our departure. So, immediately after flying into Brussels, he joined us at the Charleroi airport for our flight to Venice. Thankfully, his flights were all on time and everything went smoothly. We arrived in Treviso, which is just north of Venice, late Friday evening.

On Saturday morning we headed for Venice. Our train from Treviso was delayed quite a bit, so we took a walk and found this McDonalds on a canal. Here Laura and Ellen are in front of the most picturesque McDonalds we have ever seen. Yes, those are golden arches in the windows! Ellen took me to see it after finding it the night before with Kevin.

After a half-hour train ride and then taking a waterbus through much of Venice, we made our way to St. Mark's Basilica. This church is not enormous, but is intricately decorated. Rather than standing in the long, hot line to go inside the church, we spent our time feeding the pigeons at Piazza San Marco and going up the bell tower (Campanile) shown to the right of the church.

Venice is a wonderful city to wander and discover your own special places. We walked awhile, shopping along the way, cooled off with some ice cream and cold drinks, and then took the mandatory gondola ride.

Our Gondolier shared lots of information about Venice. He is a 7th generation Gondolier. He was one of the older Gondoliers, so the others gave way to him, which was interesting to see. Ellen loved the romance of the ride.

After our gondola ride we checked out a local internet cafe and had a fantastic dinner on a patio by a canal. Then it was time to take the train back to Treviso.

Sunday was our day dedicated to getting on the ship. Because this was a cruise, we had a little more baggage than usual. We took the train from Treviso to the Venice Mestre station, and then caught a taxicab to the port where our ship was waiting for us. As you can see, Ellen worked hard carrying all that baggage!

We arrived early to board the ship and everything went very smoothly. We were able to sign up for the excursions we wanted, and learn about all the other services and deals available.

To see more of our cruise, click here. To go to our homepage, click here.