Costa NeoClassica Cruise

November 9-16, 2015

The Costa neoClassica was originally built in 1991.  Then in 2001 and 2005 the ship had major refurbishments.  Most recently, it was refitted in 2014 to become a part of the neoCollection. The normal capacity is 1,308 passengers with 620 crew.  This ship is smaller and much less fancy than the MSC Orchestra we were on a few months earlier.  It is similar to the difference between Southwest Airlines and Delta Airlines.  We really enjoyed this cruise.  Owen adopted a new set of grandparents who we met on our first day trip.  By the last few days, I think that Owen preferred Sue and Denis over Damon and me.  We also sat next to them at dinner.  The only irritation of the cruise is that travel restrictions were placed on traveling to Turkey, so our origination port was changed from Istanbul to Athens.  I loved seeing Athens. We have another cruise picked out with Costa going up to the fjords in Norway.

Venice, Italy

November 15, 2015

Venice is a city in a lagoon of the Adriatic Sea. Venice existed as an independent republic for much of its history. Trade between the east and the west made the city wealthy. Presently it is a tourist city and looks pretty rough. Many buildings are in need of at least a coat of paint. The land had been subsiding much faster than naturally due to pulling from artesian wells. Once these wells were stopped in the 1960s, the land has stopped dropping as fast. However, there still are buildings that regularly flood. It is a beautiful city and the density of beautiful churches is striking. However, it feels like much of it is falling apart. It is also crazy expensive.

Murano is a small island about 20 minutes from Venice via boat. It is most known for it being the location for glass making. Those techniques are only taught through apprenticeship down family lines. An industry of nepotism. We were able to watch the guys working in one of the shops. I loved watching them work. After walking through many glass showrooms and stores we had a lovely lunch. The pigeons are incredibly aggressive and we had to push one off our table many times.

Burano is another island outside Venice. Its claim to fame is hand-made lace. Luck was against us as the restaurant we selected for dinner was owned by a Chinese guy. We couldn't figure out why we heard the Italian waiters speaking Chinese. Chinese with an Italian accent is very interesting to hear. Venice was never conquered by the Turks. It wasn't destroyed by Napoleon or WWII. As such, it has a very unique feel. Between 2 million tourists per year, land subsidence, sea rise, and passing time; the city is showing its age.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

November 14, 2015

Dubrovnik is a city of 40,000 on the Adriatic coast. It has an impressive rock fortress wall which surrounds the old town. The wall is 1.2 miles long and 6 meters wide at the base. Dubrovnik was an independent city state founded by Romans in the 7th century. It reached its economic peak from 1300 to 1808 when Napoleon conquered the area. After this time, Dubrovnik was part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. And then later part of Yugoslavia. The city was largely destroyed in the 1600s by an earthquake. It was then reconstructed with a Venetian Baroque architectural style. In 1994, it was bombed by Serbia when Croatia declared independence. 400 people were killed in the city and much of the city was damaged. This is visible when looking at the city from above in seeing the new brighter red roof tiles. Up on the peak above Dubrovnik is a fortress built in the 1800s. This was used in 1994 during the Serbian bombings with shell damage still visible on the exterior. The old city goes up very steep streets with hundreds, if not thousands, of steps. Owen was in heaven with all those stairs to climb. There are no longer many year round residents in the old city because it is so difficult to navigate around all those stairs. However, the city is plenty full with tourists keeping the economy alive.

Cephalonia, Greece

November 13, 2015

Cephalonia is the largest island in the Ionian chain of islands. It is the greenest island that we saw. We visited an old orthodox monastery that has St. Andrews foot. There were also very beautiful wooden carvings.  Many of the buildings of the island were destroyed in an earthquake in 1953. As a result of this earthquake, the entire island raised 24 inches from sea level. Much of the land is used for vineyards or olive groves.  We also were able to visit the Drogarati Cave which is a huge limestone cave. The great hall of the cave will hold concerts because of the stunning acoustics. A stalactite grows about one centimeter every hundred years.