Wonderful & Amazing Summer Vacation of 2010!

We just returned from a wonderful vacation aboard the Costa Fortuna Cruise ship! Our summer vacation began on Saturday June 26th when we left our home and drove to Frankfurt Hahn. We spent the night at a nice hotel in Frankfurt Hahn. Sunday morning (June 27th) we boarded our plane on Ryan Air (a European airline) and flew to Treviso Airport. Once we landed in Treviso, we collected our luggage and boarded a shuttle bus to Venice, Italy. Once in Venice we found the Bread and Breakfast where we would spend the night. Joslyn, Philip and Allison changed into fancy clothes and took a water taxi to the opera house, Teatro La Fenice to see Giro Di Vite in Italian. Moriah and I sat down at a restaurant along side one of the canals and shared a pizza. Once Philip, and the girls returned from the opera and shared their experience with me, we all went to have dinner, explore some of Venice and had ice cream. We had a nice night in our hotel and we all slept well.
Monday afternoon (June 28) we all went to a resturant in Venice to have lunch before we boarded the Costa Fortuna Cruise ship.

We were so excited to board the Costa Fortuna Cruise ship and make it our home for the next 7 days!

After Philip, the girls and I settled into our room we went to explore a bit of the ship. We went out onto the deck and saw Venice from the ship. We took the girls swimming for a bit. Our Cabin Stewart gave us an itinerary of the evening events aboard the ship. We were also given information about the restaurant that we would eat at every night while on the ship. The restaurant we ate dinner at every night was The Michelangelo Restaurant. (The ceiling in the restaurant was a replica painting of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel)We would have the same waiter every night. We would also have the same assistant waiter every night. Our assistant waiter would bring our drinks to us.
Every night at around 10pm our Cabin Stewart would deliver a daily paper titled Today to our room. The Today paper was an itinerary of the daily events, hour by hour, that would happen on the ship the next day. The Today paper also gave us the weather and time expected to be at our next days' destination. We were also given the time that the ship would leave the port of the city we were to visit. I carried our daily Today paper every where.
Tuesday morning we woke up in Bari, Italy (June 29th). Our ship took us from Venice, Italy to the bottom of the "boot". We had breakfast in our room before we headed out to explore Bari. (every evening we also received a menu with breakfast items for the next morning. We checked the items we wanted and how many of that item we wanted and hung the order/ menu form on the outside of our cabin door.)
Wednesday (June 30th) we went to Olympia, Greece however Philip was not feeling well at all so we stayed on the ship. The girls and I spent most of the day at the pool.
Thursday (July 1st) we arrived in the bay of Santorini, Greece!

Santorini, Greece is so beautiful! I absolutely love Santorini. The people are so sweet and the food is delicious! After visiting Santorini I know my 3rd favorite place in the world! #1 is San Antonio of course. My family is there and that will ALWAYS be my home! California is #2. I love CA. I love the weather, the beaches, the cold lakes, rivers, (unlike TX the bodies of water are actually cold and will cool you off on a hot day) mountains and of course most of my extended family lives there! Now #3 is Santorini, Greece!
After we did some sight seeing in Santorini we had to be on the ship before 12pm. The ship was leaving Santorini at 12pm. We only had about 2 hours on the ship before our ship docked in Mykonos, Greece. Mykonos, Greece is a very beautiful city too. I think Mykonos is a more modern city than Santorini. We saw windmills and the beautiful beach in Mykonos! We also witnessed an amazing sunset while we were in Mykonos!

On Friday (July 2nd) we stopped in Rhodes, Greece. We walked to the "New City" of Rhodes and saw the place where it is believed that The Colossus of Rhodes stood (at the entrance of the harbor) It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

We also had a fun and educational experience as we walked through the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes which is in the medieval building of the Hospital of the Knights.

It was a great experience for the whole family!
Saturday (July 3rd) was our last stop. Our cruise ship took us took the country of Croatia. We visited a city called Dubrovnik. It was beautiful. We walked along the city wall of Dubrovnik. The view from the high city walls was amazing! The sea is so blue and so pretty!

Sunday (July 4th) we spent the entire day at sea which for our family meant an entire day at the pool! We had lunch poolside and Moriah had a nice long nap in the shade close to the pool. Our family was invited by some of the Costa Cruise staff to one of the party rooms on the ship. We celebrated the 4th of July with about 10 other American families on the ship. We were served glasses of champagne and the kids were served glasses of punch. We were also served delicious hors d'oeuvres. There was a cake as well!

Bright and early Monday (July 5th) morning we woke up back in the port of Venice, Italy! Our family along with the other guests disembarked the ship. Our vacation however was not over yet! We said good bye to what was our home for the last week and made our way to a beautiful in Venice!

We did a lot more exploring in Venice. We went to San Marco Square, Rialto Bridge,  and of course rode a Gondola down the canals of Venice and through the Grand Canal of Venice! We had delicious Italian pizza, and did a lot of souvenir shopping as well!

Tuesday night at 10pm (July 6) we flew out of Treviso Airport and said good bye to Venice, Italy. We arrived in Frankfurt Hahn aound midnight and drove to a small town a few miles from Hahn. We were exhausted! Early Wednesday morning (July 7th) we ate breakfast at the hotel and then drove back to our home in Schweinfurt! We all had a WONDERFUL summer vacation!!!