Worldwide Wanderers

Kusadasi and Ephesus, Turkey 🇹🇷 - June 6, 2022 Our time at Kusadasi was published as 6:30 am to 12:30 pm, so we knew that would be 12:00 pm all board, so not much time. This was the only port that we booked a tour, so with all the covid issues, I paranoidly asked the tour guide if we would make it back on board on time. They reassured me. We booked Ephesus Shuttle for the tour. We debated whether to book Terrace Houses too; extra $10 each. I was not sure if we had enough time (we would have) and if others on the tour would want to go or not. $10 for 4 people does add up, and we were not sure how interesting to the kids it would be. This is a section of Ephesus that is covered and being excavated now. It looked cool from the pictures and videos.  Upon approach to Kusadasi with the sun rising.  We met our tour guide at the arranged time of 7:30 am. It was just our group; crazy, we had not booked a private tour. The vehicle was a very tricked out SUV, and the closest that I hav...

Embarkation Day - June 5, 2022 Yay, embarkation day!  We bought new Metro tickets and took the Metro from Omonia (Ομόνοια) on the M1 to Piraeus. Then we walked to bus stop to catch bus 831, where we could use the same Metro ticket. Travis researched the bus options extensively the night before. There were a couple other buses that came to the same stop and went to the port; however, this was the first that came by and stopped. Our youngest found a 5 Euro bill and was excited. We were asking if it was others around us, but with no owner, he was excited to get to buy a souvenir later in the trip.  Our cruise check in time was 11:30 am and from Athens took about an hour or a little less. I saw the 11 am check in time available, but it was to 11:30 am by the time we got through the registration, which opens 21 days before your cruise. The online check in was more difficult than usual. Click the Eurofin covid test link, and it opens in a new window. Don't right click and open in a ...

Acropolis and walking around Athens - June 4, 2022: The Acropolis is expensive for four (20 Euros each), but it is Athens, have to visit the Acropolis. Our entry time was between 8-10am. We read to go early for the cooler temperatures and less crowds. We walked and passed some interesting sites along the way.  Library of Hadrian  View of the City walking up the hill to the Acropolis View of Acropolis upon approach We did not have to go to the ticket line and just scanned our QR codes that Travis had screenshot for each of our tickets. The entry system shut down twice while our group of four was trying to enter, so it looked like our tickets would not work -- eek. Then they told us it was rebooting, twice. If you have the Rick Steves audio tour downloaded to your phone, bring earbuds or paired bluetooth for two people to listen at once. Theater - Odeon of Herodes Atticus Entrance gate - Propylaea Temple of Athena Nike on the top Porch of the Caryatids with Joel and th...