By bus, train and then tram, we enjoyed a day trip to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. We chose to arrive in the old city via the Damascus Gate, to walk the Muslim quarter Sukh, or market area. The crowds were light so we visited the church of the Holy Sepulechre and places a couple prayers for friends at the Western Wall. We will visit again with our group, but this have us time to explore more. We had a wonderful lunch of Shwarma and kebab. https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Jerusalem-day-trip
Today we Visited Old Jaffa Town and harbor plus had a great hummus lunch at the best hummus place in Israel! Abu Hassan for Hummus. https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Old-Jaffa
We are here, settling in, exploring the area and enjoying breakfast overlooking the beaches. This is our respite for the 2 of us after 7+ weeks of travel! We will post our few excursions, but for the next week, the beach is our view.
Our last official excision in Italy, we saw Pompeii, the city covered in the ash of the volcanic eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD. Uncovered in parts over the last 300 years, it gives us a view of daily life in a small Italian town of 20,000 inhabitants in the first century.
https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Pompeii
Our visit to Sicily at the port of Messina allowed us to drive up the coast to the village of Castelmola and Taormina, with views of Mt Etna in the distance. https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Sicily-Messina–Castelmola-and-Taormina-
We don’t often take ship tours but yesterday we did on Corfu and it was very good! Our guide was excellent. We visited a seaside village Palaiokastritsa, a monetary whet 3 Greek orthodox nuns live and run a small gift shop. We had lunch at a great little restaurant with Meses, Greek small bites, like tapas. We ended our day with a short visit to the smaller of the old forts and the old town of Corfu Town, situated between the 2 old fortifications. Enjoy. https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Corfu
Katakolon Greece, Port for raisins and Olympia, where the ancient games took place for 1200 years, 700BC to 500 AD ROUGHLY. The Olympic flame is lite here and delivered to Athens before its trek around the world, for each Olympic games. https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Olympia
We awoke to the sail into the beautiful bay of Kotor, a very large bay with Kotor at the farthest point. Our private tour went to Perast, with the island church, our Lady of the Rock, and the walked old city Budva, finishing in the old walked city of Kotor. Our guide Mike, or Milo’s, was excellent. He taught us a lot about both the country’s history and each location.
https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Montenegro
Our first port of call is Dubrovnik, but since we spent a week here in July, we contracted a tour driver and guide to Bosnia Herzegovina to visit Mostar. It was a really long but great day. We had a great lunch of lamb on the spit at a traditional restaurant. We also visited Kravica Falls in Bosnia, traveled across the new bridge connecting both parts of Croatia and drive thru Ston to see the long protective walls. Back in Croatia, we walked thru the old city so Kathy could see it and took the bus back to the ship.https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Bosnia-Herzegovina-
Another first for us, a visit to Borghese gallery and museum. After visiting the gallery’s treasures, we opted for the golf cart ride around the property, now a public park.
https://susandemaggio.smugmug.com/Borghese-Gallery
The Joys of Retirement Production Company 