Well, our trip is almost over – just the awful part remains – the long flight home.

We loved the cruise experience. The highlight of the trip for me was watching us pull into a new port each morning and then watching the sunset at sail away each night. Insomniac that I am, I was up at 4 am the morning we sailed into Venice so I could see the city in its sleepy splendor.

We also enjoyed hanging with the friends we made on the trip. As one of them said, the time we spent together really enhanced the cruise experience. Ostensibly, this was our 25th anniversary present to ourselves. (If it weren’t our anniversary, we would have found another excuse.) But we spent our last night in an intimate dinner for six – me, Jim and four other women. But I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. We also learned a lot from one of our new friends, a veteran cruiser who got everything started by inviting us to join her and her traveling companion for dinner the first night.

I did learn that I need to do more pre-trip planning. It is possible to have a great day just strolling each port city, but some of the stops, especially in Greece, would have been enriched with more exploration of the island.

How was the food, you’re wondering? Since we ate breakfast and dinner on the boat we didn’t experience as much of the local cuisine that we normally would. But with two meals in Athens and some afternoon snacks on the Greek islands, we got enough of a taste of Greek cuisine. The only specialty we missed was seafood in Croatia, though we did have a good fish dinner in Venice. (And we got to know the local beers very well everywhere.) The food on the ship was generally very good, though the fish dishes, unfortunately, were weak.

Pat wrote the above, and here are some of Jim’s thoughts.

It was fun just wandering around Venice, but I particularly enjoyed the Scuola Grande Santa Rocco, with it’s walls and ceilings covered in Rennaisance art. (Just wish I were allowed to take pictures.) It’s called Tintoretto’s Sistine Chapel, and it was great to experience it free from the crowds in Michelangelos’s version. The art collection of Peggy Guggenheim, displayed in what was her home on the Grand Canal was also fascinating. Great collection of modern art. The vaporetto ride to and from dinner was also fun. The only downside, as any visitor to Venice knows, is that it is a very expensive city. Seeing Euro-based countries by boat is a cost-effective way to travel.