Today we were in Athens, wow, Athens, the birthplace of democracy, it was fantastic.  We took a tour to the Parthenon on the Acropolis.  It was almost surreal being there.  There were the statues of the Greek Gods, Zeus and Athena,

the huge Ionic Columns that made up the temple walls and the marble steps that led up the hill.  

As you passed through a magnificent monstrous marble gate the vista of the iconic Parthenon was right there in front of you.  

The marble is mined 12 miles away and was transported by wagon and sometimes rolled all the way to the site and then up a 600 foot hill.  The temples that they built at the top of the hill have been under reconstruction for 15 years and they expect it to take another 10 years before they will be done. It was interesting to see where they have put the new marble in to repair old sections, the new stuff was really wide and the older marble was discoloured to a kind of yellowy colour.

You could see the city of 4 million people laid out in front of you.  There were tall pointy hills right in the middle of the city with buildings going as high as was practical.  

Afterwards we were taken the stadium where the first modern Olympic Games took place in 1896.  Apparently the track is too narrow for any events nowadays but the stadium is still used for political events.  

We saw some of the venues for the Games that took place in 2004, the volleyball and soccer stadiums and I think they held the archery competition in 1896 athletics stadium.  Unfortunately we were did not visit the main stadium from the 2004 games.  Fortunately the guides have lots to talk about so there are frequent stops when we are climbing up lots of stairs.  Mom made it to the top with few extra stops today 

We are on our way to Turkey at the moment and we have a tour of Ephesus tomorrow.   

Greece

We are on our second day in Greece.  Yesterday we went to visit the rules where the original Olympic Games started. It was quite a thrill to run down the track, it was just a long straight stretch about 190 meters long.  When they wanted to have a longer race they just ran back and forth.  

We had an excellent guide and she had all sorts of interesting anecdotes about the area, the ancient games and the construction in the area.   The columns were Doric and they were smooth on the inside where athletes and trainers would lean against them but they had vertical ridges on the outside, neat!

The Olympic site is situated in a lovely spot and the purple flowering Judas trees were in full bloom, just beautiful.  

We went through a museum and saw statues of the winged goddess Nike and the also the likeness of the perfect human body, Hermes, notice the detail of his right calf, wonderful. 

I really thought the bronze of the griffon suckling her baby was particularly well done.

Today we saw one of the most perfect and best preserved examples of a Greek theatres in Epidaurus.   It would seat over 13,000 people and the acoustics were astounding.  A priest stood in the middle and sang a prayer and I could hear him up at the top of the theatre.

Then we were off to Mycenae to see the ruins of a Royal Palace that was built on top of a hill.  It was some kind of an apolis, rather like Minneapolis, Indianapolis or even Annapolis !  There were huge crowds of people there but at one time there were 250,000 people that lived n the area.  The spring flowers were in bloom and were a wonderful contrast to the dour rocks. 

There were outstanding views from the top though, it was well worth the climb. Those are olive orchards in the background. We also saw winter oranges and lemons on the trees and the apricot trees are setting their fruit. it was a very enjoyable +20 day, great stuff, on to Athens tomorrow. 

Underway

We are off to Greece.  Mom and I spent the morning visiting Venice. We headed to San Marco square and visited the Doge's Palace. It was unbelievably ornate and beautiful.  I marvelled at the painted ceilings picturing the artist lying on their backs painting the masterpieces.  

The detail in the wood was outstanding. 

The amount of time that went into building and decorating the place is mind boggling.  

Looking out from the Bridge of Sighs. 

We took the public water transportation to and from our hotel to the square. On our way back to the hotel we took a wonderful gondola ride through the tiny side canals. 

 We saw two homes of famous Venitians, Marco Polo's and Valentino's! The ride was very relaxing and the gondoliers were so talented in their handling of their long ungainly crafts.  When we got to a blind corner he would sing out to make sure he wasn't going to run into anyone as he manoeuvred around the corner.  There are no vehicles in the inner city of Vencie so we booked a private water taxi to take us to the port, where we will board the ship.  It was expensive, but beat the idea of walking further pulling our luggage over the rough stone streets , then having to take a public water transport and transfer to a train and then walk goodness knows how far.  

The water taxi dropped us the correct spot and we boarded the ship without problems within 15 minutes of my planned time.  Now we can relax and enjoy!! We went right past the main part of Venice on our way out and it was quite the view.  Those pictures are on the camera and I will have to see about getting them on the IPad, we have misplaced the device we were using to do that. I went out to the observation deck and sipped on a margarita while snapping photos.  Life is good!!

I am having trouble uploading this on the ship so I have taken out most of the photos.

Off we go into the wild blue yonder....

Mom and I set off for our Mediterranean cruise today.  Our first stop was Frankfurt where we went through passport control and entered the European Union.  

My Mom has difficulty walking any distance without resting so luckily we had remembered to ask for wheelchair assistance in the airports. We were whizzed around the Frankfurt airport for about 10 minutes going through passport control and changing motorized carts three times before we reached the Luftansa airline which we had to change to after flying Air Canada across the Atlantic.

Went went over the Alps and ended up in Venice. This is our first view out of the window just before landing. 

We took a metro water taxi to the city centre and then walked over two bridges and down a few lanes before we found our hotel.  

This is us resting as we crossed the second bridge, the suitcases did not go up the stairs very well !!    We just got back to the hotel and it is about 5:00 a.m. In Canada but 1300 hours here so we just had a small lunch in a plaza in the open air and we window shopped at a few "glass" stores before heading back to the hotel for a much needed nap.  We will have the morning to do some sight seeing before we board the Holland America cruise ship for an 11 day cruise of the Greek Islands ending in Rome. 

Winter fun!!

                   

We went out for a walk yesterday and it was beautiful.  I have my fall jacket on with just a fleece under it.  The snow was just right for making a snowman and I couldn't resist. He stood on guard by the railway tracks about 800 meters down the railway tracks from our apartment. I had so much fun doing it I decided to call Jen and see if the boys were up for it.  

We had great fun making a three generational snowman family, there is Dad on the  far right, William is who is standing just next to Leeland, Mom is next to Leeland and Grannie is on the far left.  We all had a great time, the boys rolled the balls and Mom picked them up and carried them back to put on their respective bodies.  After the eyes and smile had been arranged and the carrot noses added Leeland decided his nose was too long and went right up to the snowman and bit the end off his nose, too funny.  He also figured the snowmen should have hats and scarves!!  A snowball fight broke out and the sticky snow flew about the yard with abandon, amazingly enough it occasional hit it's mark. Leeland remarked as I was about to leave that Grandpa didn't have a snowman!!  He should have joined in the fun. 

A friend asked the other day if we were going to head south for the winter!  We have spent most of the last eight years in tropics, we are thoroughly enjoying this Canadian winter.  The East Coast had some more wild weather for us the last few days.  On Thursday night the wind blew up to 100 km an hour and the sky was white with snow.  Thus the snowmen!!  It was beautiful on Friday and Sat. and then Sat. night it started to rain, all the new snow has been melted away.  It was a little windy but warm today and then as night fell it froze, ice everywhere.  Now, on Sunday night it is blowing a houlie again out there and it is snowing once more, never a dull moment!

We went out to the local ski hill last week.  It is only 20 minutes away.  The snow was great and the lines were short.  We bought a 5 hour pass for the day and it was enough for the senior citizen and I.  The hill has nice blue runs for the most part, it is fairly short compared to skiing in Alberta, but it is only 20 min. away and quite affordable.  The open Bras D'Or Lakes are in the background. We are looking forward to more pleasant days at the hill.  

Weather - East Coast Style

Sydney Harbour, in the process of freezing over, just behind our apartment block

We have lived and experienced weather in numerous areas in Canada.  The prairies with their towering summer thunder storms and sunny cold winter days, the northern mountains where summer squalls would move up and down the valley and the west coast where we went through a winter with only one snowfall.  The east coast is completely different, it is dominated by the Gulf Stream which brings weather up the east coast of the U.S. from Caribbean basin.  The temperature fluctuates from -10 to + 10 depending on what the Gulf Stream is serving up that day. The other day it was - 5 and it snowed about 5 cm. The plows were out cleaning the roads  and the salt trucks were tossing slat to and fro. Then the wind came up and the temperature rose 10 degrees and it started raining.  All the snow on the streets melted and as evening fell and the temp. dropped  the rain actually turned to slush, it wasn't freezing rain it was big wet flakes of snow that melted on impact.  I went out to curl and was scared that when I came out it would be a skating rink.  Somehow it wasn't, the temp. may not have been quite low enough to freeze hard, it was just more snow, which was still slushy.  Now it is sunny and cold with a new dusting of snow, the footing is tricky with the snow covering ice, although the road maintenance workers seem to have a good handle on how to keep the roads clear of ice.  The massive swing in temperatures which are often accompanied by big winds makes this an area that is affected by unique weather systems.

              

We have been enjoying the snow, the first day it snowed we had a big snowball fight with our grandchildren and I made a very small snowman with what little snow was available.  

We enjoyed a hot tub and the kids proved their mettle by rolling in the snow. Grannie was not to be outdone and went and made a snow angel. It was excruciating putting my wet body in the snow but once back in the hot tub my skin was alive and tingled for about 10 minutes.  The kids did it more than once, but I figured I had experienced it and that was good enough! 

It was sunny and cold today, a light wind blowing and we walked about 2 kilometres to the store.  I commented to Barry that the sunlight was very similar to a late February sun in Yellowknife, it is amazing what difference almost 15 degrees in latitude makes in the quality of the winter sun.  Rather than walk down the road we went and strolled along the railway line that runs along the bay. 

There is scrub on both sides of the railway and it feels like you are in a rural area.  The bay is in the process of freezing over and Barry and I are keeping a close eye on the progress of the ice ( check out the top picture). At one point it was calm and cold for two days straight and the whole bay had a skiff of ice on it.  The next day the wind came up and the middle of the bay was open once again.  

We hear the local ski hill is open and once Barry's knees are not so sore we are planning on heading out there.  Wherever our Canadian friends are I hope you are enjoying our winter wonderland. 

Merry Christmas

 

Jen and I and the boys added to our Christmas tradition by making our biggest gingerbread house yet.  Here it is just after we assembled it, the main house with two dormer windows, and two wings with a chimney each. That was three recipes of gingerbread and about nine pans to cook, for all the sides, roofs, walls and some gingerbread men and trees as well.  What an undertaking, we figured we had better take a picture before we moved it in case it did not survive the move.   

Here it is in all of it's candified glory.  Is it not a thing of beauty, one to be admired. The main house is for Mark, Jen and the boys, Barry and I get the left wing and Mark's Mom and sister get the right wing.  Are not the candy trees wonderful?  Jennifer had a box of them ready made to add to the yard, WOW! The front walkway, made of cherry twizzlers are an attempt at a replica of Jen front walk made of flat stones picked from a beach.  Leeland decorated the right wing, he is obviously the free thinker of the lot. William demonstrated he was his Mother's son with his adherence to straight lines and patterns as he adorned the left wing.  

We have been enjoying the holiday season, last week we were at the boys school Christmas Concert.

Leeland is the boy in the blue in the front row. if you haven't guessed, they are singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

William is in the red in the middle of the back row and they are singing Little Drummer Boy.  We have been going to see the Cape Breton Junior Hockey team play.  Mark gave us passes as a thank you for looking after the boys for the weekend.  The last game we were at Leeland's team played during the intermission, thanks to the sponsorship of Tim Horton's.  They were so cute, the Junior team's mascot, Screech, the Screaming Eagle was out on the ice with them and Leeland spent a fair bit of time gazing up at him.  I watched part of the game with Jen and family and marvelled that we were able to do the time honoured Canadian thing this winter, watch a live hockey game with members of my family. 

Mark leant us an artificial tree this month and I was able to figure out how to assemble it and borrowed some of Jen and Mark's decorations to add to the ones that have gone around the world with us on the boat.  I thought the tree looked hilarious only partially assemble so made Barry take a picture.

The end product was a pleasant but definitely not overcrowded tree.  I don't think we had one that was ours since we lived in our house in Yellowknife, that would be 10 years ago.  Last week curling wound up for the holidays and we had a turkey spiel.  You entered your name and teams were thrown together and we curled two four end games.  There was a tie and the tie breaker was a draw to the button with a frozen turkey cling wrapped to a styrofoam plate,  I took on they challenge and although I finished second out of four our team got to choose between peanut and chocolates for a prize. 

Barry and I are ready to hit the ski slopes, the googles the competed our ensemble, the only new equipment we got. Barry got skis and poles at the local Value Village (our favourite store) and he got boots and I was able to get skis and boots from Kijji. His sweater is new to us a great addition to his winter wardrobe.  

Happy Holidays to all our friends around the world and to our family both near and far.  Technology is wonderful, we saw and spoke to all of our immediate family within the last 24 hours.  Lots of love and many bigs hugs are coming at you. From the crew of Cat's-Paw IV.  Ann and Barry. 

 

Australian Vacation Two

A stupendous feat of balance on the snouts of two dolphins.

 At the dolphin show I was impressed with the dolphins leaping about and the handlers would be pushed forward in the water by the dolphins so they were being propelled really fast. I was astounded when they did the trick shown above.  Imagine the co-ordination of the two dolphins and the trainer as well as the balance involved, WOW!

There was a big outdoor aquarium where they had all sorts of marine life that you could view from above and below the water.  There were barracudas, sharks, turtles, and all sorts of tropical reef fish. This is a shovel nosed shark, one of the weirdest looking creatures in the lagoon.  The kids were fascinated with the fish, there was also a spot where they could touch starfish and rays.  The skin of the rays was very soft and spongy feeling.  

There were a couple of polar bears that I felt a bit sorry for. It was so hot, I don't know how they coped with the heat, hopefully the water was cool.  This particular bear had a piece of plastic that he was playing with, it had fallen in the water and the bear was hanging off log trying to get it.  We spent quite awhile watching him have fun.  

The family getting on a ride. 

There were only eight seats of this ride and it was filled with our family, Jennifer and William, Heather and June, Graeme and Quinn and Trish and Leeland.  You had to pull yourself up to the top hand over hand and then you fell back to the bottom. This was one ride that you had to work at.  It was fun watching the kids and the adults hauling themselves up.  

The next day we went to Movie World.  There were great rides and there were Looney Tunes Characters everywhere.  Here June is on a carousel riding around on the Road Runner. As soon as the park opened we headed over to the Superman ride and managed to get on the first run of the day.  It was probably one of the most exciting rides I have ever been on whipping around the rails at terrific speeds experiencing G forces on some of the turns. 

Everyone was excited to see the Batmobile, and later Batman came and got in it, notice Marilyn Monroe striking a pose in the background as she looks on.  We had fun at the Bumper Cars and the Wild West ride. In the heat of the day we sat in the shade and watched the Stunt Drivers.  The fairly small space was filled with scream of revving motors and the smell of burning tires.  The motorcyclist were spectacular as they jumped over the cars and from one side of the stage to another over ten meters in the air.  The show was cut short due to high winds.  

 

It was three fun filled days, Wet and Wild, Sea World and Movie World but I was happy to go back to the motor home before the park closed on the third day as the heat was getting to me.  It was great to create such happy memories with all of our daughters and four of our grandchildren.     

Australian vacation

William, Jennifer, Quinn and I enjoying a ride at Sea World on the Gold Coast in Australia. 

We have just returned from a three week trip to Australia.  We went to surprise our oldest daughter, Trish, on her fortieth birthday. Originally our middle daughter, Jennifer, and  her two children were going to visit and she asked if I would like to come with her to help out with the kids.   Barry decided he wanted to join us because if he didn't come now he may not see the kids until they were a lot older. We asked our youngest daughter Heather to join us so all our children would be together. We were just missing our oldest grandchildren, Cassidy and Elijah who weren't able to miss that much school. 

\Barry and I and the girls, right to left, Trish, Jen and Heather, shortly after we found Trish. 

We started off the holiday on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane, where we attended three theme parks in three days.  We surprised Trish and her family at Wet and Wild, a water park extraordinaire. Heather found her and at first Trish did not recognize her, it was a super reunion. We mixed and matched generations on the water slides, the kids standing tall by the measuring devices. 

The black hole was one of our favourite rides, it was completely dark inside so you would swirl and drop without warning adding to the adrenalin rush of hurdling down the ride.  Quinn and William, the two seven year olds, were the only grandchildren big enough to get onto this ride. 

Three generations floating along on a beautiful day.  

 The next day saw us at Sea World. The dolphin show was a highlight for me. 

More later, the Grey Cup is about to start.