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Vienna Austria.... Palaces, Bones, Wrinkled old boobs & accordian playing horses!

In Austria pictures below…. Ilea holding a map during one of our many trips using the Austrian railway system; Wooden TILED floors (common, and many centuries old!); The two of us at the Shonbrunn Palace Gardens…. Note the fountains and the building in the distance in back of us, as another picture shows the fountains up close. Here, check out for size comparison, the size of the tiny lady standing in the right side of the photo as she is dwarfed by the fountain statues; The “PRATER” is an amusement park that has a famous icon of Vienna- the over 100 year old ferris wheel “Weiner Riesenrad”… where instead of seats, there are kind of RED SHEDS that you go in… also shown is an advertisement which shows how you can rent one of these for the night to have a romantic dinner in (and …. Who knows what else?!?!?)… one shot shows Ilea looking worriedly out of the “SHED” when we are looking down on the treetops; Also at the Prater are playful pix of us as skeletons (which by the way we did see real ones at the Catacombs beneath St. Stephan’s Cathedral); The pic of Bill outside the store that says .. SCHNEIDEREI (indicating what the shop is, a TAYLOR where clothes are altered…. The meaning of SCHNEIDER is TAYLOR)…. This shot was followed by a very friendly, animated, non-english-speaking owner ushering Bill in to sit down for yet another photo op at the sewing machine!; Some museum pics… one of GOLD dinnerware and candelabras used by Austrian “Top 1%”….. and several of some cool sexy sphynxes  that guard the outer perimeter of the grounds at Belvedere Gardens;  Check out the cute, yet evil cherub that is killing the old lady with the REALLY WRINKLED BOOBS! Seemingly in the name of the lord as another person holds high a crucifix; finally, is something you don’t see everyday- a horse playing an accordion!!!  

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Cutting Through FOG in FIORDS of Kotor, Montenegro…..Imprisoned in Venice…. Escape to Vienna!!

We had to cut through some thick morning fog as we approached the port of Kotor, Montenegro- and you can see the ‘hole’ in the fog that the boat left as it cut through.  Another picture showing how small the HUGE cruise ship looked with the HUMONGOUS mountains in the background (view is from the tender boat as we went to shore.)  On land in Kotor, there is a shot of Ilea on the cobblestones of an alleyway….  You wouldn’t know it from the picture, but Ilea is about to become imprisoned!  She had developed some ‘digestive problems’ .   We both decided on Friday, that she probably should just check with the ship’s doctor to see if they had any Immodium like products to have as backup- but just going to the NURSES STATION- without us ever seeing any doctor, or having any tests done- they started filling out a CDC (Center for Disease Control) form.  As soon as I saw that, I immediately attempted to extract ourselves from the office, claiming that Ilea felt much better suddenly.  They would not let us leave the office (SECURITY WAS CALLED, and an armed woman showed up.)  Sooo- here is the situation: do NOT EVER EVEN MENTION that you have any  digestive upset to the medical office on board a cruise ship!  Because- without even being examined, you will BE QUARANTINED TO YOUR ROOM and unable to go out of it to do ANYTHING!  No shore excursions, no formal dining – NOTHING!   So Ilea missed out on Venice…. THAT REALLY SUCKED!

The pictures of Venice include the incredibly packed St Marks Square… way too many people there; and in addition, a shot of one of the quiet EMPTY alleyways that only Bill got to walk through (while Ilea was stuck in the cabin…..)

We did finally break Ilea out of the cruise ship at the end of the trip (ALTHOUGH- as we left, and they scanned her sea-card, it set off all sorts of embarrassing alarms…. b/c she was not supposed to leave ship during the cruise…. BUT , DUH, they can not keep you on AFTER the cruise!)  So, off to Vienna, Austria by bus & train.  Pictures of Vienna show the famous St Stephan cathedral, along with a closeup of a couple of its scary gargoyles. Also there is an awesome CLOCK that has a parade of 12 different statues to indicate the different hours…  There is a sculpture of an apparent problem with a toilet paper shortage in ancient days: you can see the angel is clearly RATIONING toilet paper (AngelSoft brand?)…  In addition, there is a sign in a park warning NOT to feed the pigeons because if you do they’ll turn in to RATS!!!!! AND you will get fined 36 euros!!!!!    Then there is the issue of cleaning up after your dog- b/c if you don’t, you get fined 36 euros (~$50) .. that dog sign asks if “THIS YOUR SAUSAGE? (according to my translator…) then it warns you to take a bag, have the crap in hand, or get fined!  And they have cute miniature pineapples….. OH- and anytime you get coffee in Vienna, they will AUTOMATICALLY serve it with a glass of water to wash out the strong taste perhaps….

Santorini Greece, Ephesus Turkey & Athens Greece….

Had a terrific day in the Greek Isles…. Went out on a private boat with Panos, who took us to three awesome places to swim- one of which was a volcanic HOT SPRING where we were all alone.  Learned the interesting history behind Santorini, and enjoyed a seven course specially prepared greek lunch on the boat along with some local greek wine…. Probably the best meal we had in a couple of weeks.  Visited the Ephesus region in Turkey-  and saw the supposed last house where the Virgin Mary lived …. As well as the supposed place of the burial of Saint John the Baptist.  There were throngs of people in this extremely touristy area.  One of the pictures shows a highlight of that day, which was  a really cool cat which was nestled within the bottom area of one of the statues.  Kitty really enjoyed all the attention it was getting!   Spent a good solid day exploring  Athens- shown is a shot of us up on top of the Acropolis with the Parthenon in the background (That was the building that used to house the statue of the goddess Athenea.)  Yet another shot is one of the spectacular sunsets that was visible from our balcony.