Almost done!!!

RHODES:



The excursions that the cruise ship sells for the different islands are super expensive...like 50-58 euro each person (about $80-$90). Basically, you pay this just for a bus ride to the different sites and a tour guide to tell you a little about what you are seeing. In Rhodes, we decided to explore the island on our own and save a little money. When we disembarked, we met this cute little taxi driver named Nicholas. He offered to take us all over Rodos and also drive us out to Lindos(about an hour drive) to see the monestary there. He would do this for only 80 euros for all four of us!! We scored big time with him!! He showed us all around and even would stop and let us take pictures. We saw the bus with all the poor suckers that payed a fortune to do the SAME thing we were doing. Actually, we were able to do more because we could take the smaller streets that the bus couldn't. Behind us you can see where the Collossus USED to stand before it fell down. What a cool thing that would have been to see!! We saw pictures of it..it was HUGE!!On the top of this mountain you can see the monestary that we climbed up to. It made me nervous...NO handrails! But the view was incredible!! You can see the cute town of Lindos below the monestary.
Pictures don't really do justice to the color of the water in the Aegean Sea. It's the brightest blue color you can imagine. And so clear! You can see right to the bottom. I would LOVE to snorkel here!

At the monestary in Lindos...After we got back from Lindos, we explored old town Rodos. What a COOL place! By far my favorite island I think! It was just so quaint and full of history. We walked up to the palace but couldn't get in.

Behind us is the Street of Knights... pictures just don't capture how amazing this place is!!

Joey and Justin did some shopping in Rhodes. They got some matching GREEK outfits...including shoes. They wore them to dinner that night...and got some strange looks! Oh well- they looked comfortable! I wish I would have bought some!!
Kings of the World!!! They look just a little too happy for my comfort!CRETE AND SANTORINI:



We arrived in CRETE and decided to try to do the same thing we did in Rhodes. Instead of buying the excursion we caught a taxi and saved about $70 each. We were in the capital of Crete which is Heraklion. If I could describe Heraklion City in one word it would be SMELLY!! Oh geez! The smell! They were having a garbage worker strike, same as Athens. The garbage was piled up everywhere and rotting...man oh man! It was dirty and run down looking. We did see this cool Greek Orthodox church though. Inside was gorgeous!


Our taxi driver took us out to the Palace of Knossos where we met up with our group that paid for the excursion. Below is a pix of Lucia, our tour guide. I think they were surprised to see us there and were even more surprised to hear how much we paid to get there!

There were peacocks EVERYWHERE! Who knew that peacocks could fly!??! Joey and Justin aren't in any of the pix because they decided to stay on board the cruise ship and play basketball. I'm glad we saw Crete but honestly, not my favorite! I'm sure there are other parts of the island that are wonderful but what we saw reminded me of the slums of a big city.
After Crete we sailed on over to the island of Santorini. This is a volcanic island and absolutely GORGEOUS!! It doesn't show up in the pix but the cliffs have all these different colors of layers of rock from different eruptions.

The city is on the very top of the mountain. You can get there three ways- you can walk up, you can take a cable car up, or you can ride a donkey up. Well, hello! How fun would it be to ride a donkey up??? Of course thats what we would do! Um....bad decision!! I have never had a more terrifying experience in my LIFE!!! Below is a pix of my donkey...bless his heart! I think I almost killed the poor thing! He kept having to stop and rest. He was breathing SO hard! He kept stumbling and almost falling down! I felt so bad! I mean, lets face it, I'm no anorexic! I've got some meat on my bones-no doubt! Poor donkey!The path up the mountain was SO steep and winding and there was just a little wall between you and a STEEP drop off the cliff. This wall had giant donkey size peices missing from it and my donkey insisted on walking RIGHT next to the edge!!!! Every time he stumbled, my heart literally STOPPED and I thought I was going to be thrown off the side of the cliff! To make matters worse, some of the girls in our group would SCREAM because they were scared and the donkeys would FREAK OUT! A little Greek man was yelling "CALMA! CALMA!" trying to get the girls to stop screaming! It took forever to get to the top of the mountain. I thought it would never end! Especially since my poor mule had to take so many rests! I have never been so happy to be alive as I was when I finally made it to the top of that mountain!

Joey was the smart one among us and decided to WALK up the cliff. I thought he was going to have a heart attack when he finally made it. He was panting and grabbing his heart like he was going to die!! It scared me! He is in really good shape from all his working out the last few months but he was dying! I don't have a really good picture that shows just how high and STEEP this path was!!

After Joey recovered we were able to enjoy the incredible view from the top!! Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice SAFE ride down the mountain in the cable cars. Tia and Justin walked down. It was quite humerous to see how their legs were SHAKING when they finally got down.

BACK IN ATHENS:

Our cruise was over and it was time to go back to Athens. On our last day in Greece it was cold and rainy. We traveled by bus about an hour to go and visit Cape Sounio. There are some awesome ancient ruins of the Temple of Posiedon that we were able to visit. It's at the top of a mountain with another incredible view!






This was our last day in Greece. We had seen so much and done so many things this trip. I was missing my kiddos by this point and just totally ready to go home. About half the group was sick coughing and with fevers and earaches. Thank goodness Joey and I and Tia and Justin were all still healthy. I think everyone was done and ready to go. But it was an adventure for sure!!! You can see more pictures of our trip on Tia and Justins blog.... All I can say is that it is SO good to be back home where I can get a 44oz Diet Coke WITH ICE and where most people use deoderant as part of their daily hygenic routine and smoking in public places is NOT ALLOWED and I can use towels that have been washed with FABRIC SOFTENER!!! As much fun as it is to travel...I LOVE MY HOME!!!