Ready to leave Asheville for Newark

The Grella’s, Strouds and Vanderkwaak’s are headed to Venice Italy on United Airlines to board the Viking Star for a cruise to Athens. The Dean’s are also joining them, but wanted to fly Delta because they had status. Their flight went from Atlanta-JFK-Venice.

It was a nice sunny day in Asheville, but halfway into our flight to Newark we hear “Due to storms in Newark, there is ground stoppage. We don’t have enough fuel to circle that long, so we’re diverting to Richmond to fuel and then we will take you on to Newark.” Five hours later we were told the flight was rescheduled for 9:30am on Sunday. Our flight to Brussels ended up being delayed almost 3 hours. We would have made it if we had gotten to Newark.

Unhappy travelers

Tom was just happy to be on vacation!

Tim was happy not to be at the hospital!

Tom was on the phone for 2 hours trying to get us booked on another flight. He got cut off at the very end of the call, but when we went to bed, we \240thought we had a flight from JFK-Frankfurt-Venice on Sunday.

Little did we know, this would be the last time we would see Cathy’s bag the entire trip!

Once were in Newark, we were able to check in for our Paris flight. Since Tim and Michelle couldn’t check their bags through Vienna to Venice, Tom and Elaine each checked one of them. Then we went to the United club room to wait about 6 hours. Michelle began the process of standing in line to figure out their flight. Turns out there were no more seats available from Vienna-Venice. \240A nice guy named Marcus worked really hard and ended up getting her and Tim the last 2 seats on our original flight to Brussels-Venice. He even gave her a hug because he was so excited he could make it work!

Michelle was fed up with United

Her new friend Marcus got everything worked out!

Sitting around the United Club room all day

Meanwhile……

John and Caroline arrived in Venice on time Sunday morning and had drivers that Tom had arranged for all of us take them to the hotel in the town of Chiogga where the port is.

According to Caroline, the hotel was lovely. \240I guess we’ll never know….

Tom, Elaine, Steve and Cathy said goodbye to Michelle and Tim and headed for their gates to Paris and Brussels. Both flights were delayed but we all finally took off headed across the pond.

See you in Venice!

See you in Venice!

The Paris flight was 1.5 hours late so the Grellas and Strouds missed the connection. When we got off the plane someone was there telling us our new flight info. Tom and Elaine were going to Frankfurt-Venice and Steve and Cathy were going to Zurich-Venice.

Meanwhile, Michelle and Tim barely made their connection from Brussels to Venice and were able to board a Viking bus to the ship around noon.

They made it!

Elaine and Tom finally arrived!

Tom and Elaine’s flight to Frankfurt was over an hour late leaving Paris and towards the end of the flight a flight attendant told them there flight had been changed because they would miss the connecting flight to Venice. It turned out the next flight was boarding when they got to the gate, so finally they were actually on their way.

Steve and Cathy’s flight to Zurich and Venice on Air Baltic was actually on time, and we all made it to Venice about the same time but with no bags.

We filled out a list bag claim. The Grella’s and Vanderkwaak’s bags were in Frankfurt. The Stroud’s bags were in Paris at Austrian Air, because we originally were supposed to be flying to Vienna and theirs didn’t get changed.

We took a Viking Van, and got to our ship at \240the port of Chioggia about 10pm, 49 hours after leaving Asheville.

Rialto bridge

St Mark’s

Elaine and Tom bought some Murano glass from the artist who made it.

Elaine was so sleep deprived she put her shirt on inside out!

When we returned to the ship we were very tired so we all napped for awhile. Around 5:00 there was a knock on our door, and there were our bags! \240All of our bags arrived except Cathy’s. We were still hopeful, since there was one more flight from Vienna, which is where Steve’s came from.

Michelle and Tim’s luggage arrived!

Elaine and Tom’s luggage arrived!

Steve’s luggage arrived, but unfortunately Cathy’s didn’t.

We enjoyed a nice dinner with our whole group and had a nice view of the sunset from our table.

The ruins in Salona

We also did a \240walking tour of the 2,300 year old town of Trogir, the best preserved Romanesque-Gothic complex in Central Europe. It was built on a small Adriatic island connected to the mainland by a bridge and had spectacular stone houses, palaces,churches and monasteries. It was a rainy day, but the sun came out occasionally, so it wasn’t a complete washout.

God

After coming back to the ship for lunch, we then met a tour guide that Tom had \240arranged. \240We had our own private van and drove about 60km North up the Dalmatian coast. We were very close to Bosnia.

Our first stop was a family owned winery. We tasted several varieties of Croatian wine and tried their olive oil.

Our tour guide Kristina and the winery owner, Marianna.

After the winery, we drive to the town of Ston. It has the largest stone wall on the Adriatic Sea, 2nd only after the Great Wall of China.

After visiting Ston, we went to Mali Ston (Small Ston). There we boarded a boat and went out to a floating dock where we learned about farming oysters and mussels. We were then treated to some wonderful raw oysters and mussels cooked with onion, garlic and wine. We were \240also served white wine.

Oysters

Cleaning the mussels

Shucking the oysters

Mussels

Michelle eating her first raw oyster.

Cathy ate the most at her table!

We asked him to steam some of the oysters

Cathy’s cruise wear

Steve enjoying room service in bed

Michelle and Tim dancing under the stars.

Dubrovnik bridge at night

View of Montenegro port from our cabin

We did several different excursions In Montenegro. The Grella’s first took a boat in the Bay of Kotor to a tiny man made island which was created over centuries by sailors who placed rocks there on thanks for a safe return from sea. In the Church of Our Lady of the Rocks there were many 17th century paintings.

Boat ride in Bay of Kotor

Abandoned church

Our Lady of the Rocks

Paintings on the ceiling

From the island we took a short boat ride over to the town of Perast. It only had one Main Street, so we walked from one end to the other. There were many baroque homes built by wealthy sea captains.

Church in Perast

Coffee break

The Strouds and Vanderkwaak’s did a walking tour of Budva, one of the oldest towns on the Adriatic coast. They also got a panoramic view of the island of Sveti Stefan, a resort for the rich and famous, where celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren stayed during the 1960’s.

Cathy’s luggage never arrived, and she bought several outfits in a shop in Budva.

We had a walking tour of the old town of Kotor.

Tom, Elaine, Steve and Cathy did a bike excursion today on the island of Corfu. The description was a little misleading. It said we would be embarking on a 9 mile ride and would begin with a short easy climb to a village. It wasn’t short and wasn’t very easy! We had some beautiful views of the island, and went through some cute villages along the way. The guide said we did about 5% incline and the highest point was almost 500 ft. above sea level. Once we reached the top we had a nice snack of a traditional Greek salad. Going downhill was much easier

Cathy wore Michelle’s shirt

Stop for a snack of Greek salad

The Deans did a walking tour of the old town of Corfu.

Mouse Island

Getting ready for a baptism

The Vanderkwaak’s did a 7 hour tour of the island. They stopped in Paleokastritsa to visit a monastery dating back to 1228, explored several villages, had a traditional Greek lunch, and walked through the old town.

Paleokastritsa Monastery

Rock is said to be ship carrying Odysseus which was turned to stone by Poseidon

Lunch by the pool

High tea

Tim with his favorite performer, Lily

Sunrise port of Katakolon

We took a tour to the site of the first Olympic Games in Olympia.

Temple of Zeus, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Once housed huge marble and gold statue of Zeus

Entrance Gate to Olympic Stadium

Olympic stadium. Had no seats but could hold 45,000 spectators.

Next we went to the Magna Grecia Estate, a family run olive oil and winery. We tasted their olive oil and had a great lunch with wine.

Tasting olive oil with bread

Olive tree

Our snack/lunch

Baklava

Greek dancing

Michelle and Steve were chosen to dance.

Our last night on the ship we had reservations for Manfredi’s, the Italian specialty restaurant. We thought we were going to have 2 tables of 4 near each other, but when we got there we were put in the private dining room with the head waiter as our server all evening! He just kept bringing us food! \240It was a great evening!

With our waiter “Rocky”

Tim’s hidden talent

Cathy wearing the same clothes she wore all week! \240Her bag never arrived. She was a real trooper!

We had a driver pick us up from the ship and take us to the Acropolis.

Some kind of seaweed salad

We went back into the kitchen and chose our own fresh caught fish.

Tim’s fish

Steve’s mussels and Prawns

La Grena Beach Village where we stayed. The owner lived on the right side and we had the left.

The marina

The island of Kea where we stopped

Kea, Greece

Coffee break

Lunch

Lobster pasta

Lobsters used in the pasta

Tom picked out his fish

The beach across the street from our villa

We stopped in a local coffee shop for a cappuccino

Olive trees

Trying to light candles on Steve’s birthday cake

Happy birthday Steve!

One of the 3 outfits and shoes Cathy bought in Montenegro.

Our last Greek dinner

Steve loved the muscles!

Our large salad!

Walking back from dinner

Sunset in Sounion

We sat in the United Club room all afternoon. Just found out our plane to Asheville will be delayed an hour. Our bodies think it’s 1:40am so we’re exhausted!

Bags all loaded up

After a 1.5 delay in Chicago, we made it back to Asheville about 10pm, 5am our body time. We were all beat, and ready for our own beds.

Cathy’s bag is still MIA

UPDATE

Cathy received a call from Austrian Air on 4/29 that they would be shipping her bag soon….

5/5

Cathy’s bag was delivered by our friend Jill Martin who works for United in Asheville. She said the only reason the bag was found was its color!

If this bag could talk!