I certainly hope you have been enjoying David’s accounts on this blog.  (The family that blogs together, stays together).  The fact of it is that the day in Cinque Terra did me in completely.  My hips, knee and back were just not up to it, so Day Four when I should have been in Pompeii and Amalfi two of the stops I was most looking forward to, I was felled by destiny to sleep 48 hours in my cabin. (Fortunately Day 5 was at Sea)  In spite of all that rest, I woke yesterday with a sore throat which developed into a foghorn cough.  The ships doctor has me confined to my cabin, on anti-biotics, cough medicine, the whole nine yards.

However I did go to Santorini yesterday (before David insisted that I go to the doctor) and it was magnificent!  For all you Homer fans the Aegean sea is NOT wine dark, but turquoise blue.  It is magnificent as a background for the white-washed houses with their sea-blue domed churches.  David’s pictures will do it far more justice than I can.  We had a sort of hummus for lunch with pork and tomato pancakes.  I could have eaten a zillion of the tomato pancakes!  The beaches are made of black sand as the whole island is volcanic.  It sits on the rim of a huge “caldera” which is the name for the “cauldron” of the volcano.  It last blew in the fifties and everything has been rebuilt since.  They have also discovered the remains of the oldest known civilization, the Minoans. They were charmingly sophisticated judging from their artifacts.  Excavation proceeds slowly and who knows what else they’ll find in this settlement 3,000 years before Christ?

I am ashamed to say it, but my favorite thing were the jewelry shops.  They had real Swarovski (sp?) crystal.  I bought a cute little bracelet made of old dracmas and a lovely Greek doll, as well as some other things for gifts.  They had beautiful gauze clothes (some for baby girls, sniff) which David dragged me past.

The most thrilling part of the day was our descent from the top of the island straight down the perpendicular cliffs by cable car!!  The lady with us screamed and shut her eyes!

(Note from David – This isn’t Photoshop gone wild.  The Aegean Sea is really that blue.)

David is at Ephesus today, photographing the best preserved of the Roman ruins..  I am very sad to have missed it.  He had to wait in the harbor for a long time for them to get clearance to go ashore, because this is Turkey we’re talking about.  I hope he is not victim to a terrorist attack!

Please pray that I get well so that I can write a decent tale about the Crazy Ladies and their cruise!