Trip Report Our 19-Day Mediterranean Adventure – Greece, Turkey and the Search for Free Wifi

Finally, right? It seems like I’ve been waiting forever to start this, but really we’ve only been back three weeks! And in that time I’ve lived in a hotel for two weeks and driven across the country from Washington DC to our new home in...wait for it...Las Vegas! For some reason I have chosen now, surrounded by boxes that need to be unpacked, as the time to start my trip report. Stalling maybe? :D So here it goes!

What: A massive 19 day (13 days on the cruise with 6 more including travel time and extra days in Europe) trip extravaganza. A 12 night Mediterranean cruise with a day in London beforehand and a few days in London and Barcelona afterwards. So yes. This is going to be a long stinking trip report. Oh, and I took 5239 pictures. On my camera! That doesn’t even count the Instagram/iphone photos you’ll see scattered throughout the report.

Great day in the morning.

Why: Because cruises are awesome mostly. But also because I was able to do a last-minute 11 night Med cruise back in April of 2010 with my daughter and some other family and friends, so this was a makeup cruise for my son and husband. It worked nicely as a graduation trip/present. :)

When: June 13-July 1, 2013

I booked this cruise the day it came out, back in January of 2012.

As time got closer we realized it was going to get crazy. My daughter was going to have to miss the last day of school, my son was graduating from high school the Saturday before the trip, we had a house full of family that whole weekend and a big graduation party on Sunday, he then left and was coming home one day early from his senior trip to make it on time, and we were moving across the country to Las Vegas so our household goods were all moved the day before we left. Then the kids were traveling with their youth group to Scotland 3 days after the cruise ended, so it really didn’t make sense for us to come all the way back home and we needed to stay in Europe for three more days before we dropped them off in London Heathrow. Got all that? Yes. Like I said, a little crazy.

Totally worth it though. :)

Who: Us! Here we are a few days before we left! This picture is a celebration of the whole Whiting family – but mostly Chase. The high school graduate. Also appearing in this photo are myself-Tammy, hubby-Stephen, and daughter – Ally.



My parents! My parents were on our last Med cruise, and have been in several of my trip reports. They had quite the trip in store for them. Here they are in Monaco:



My in-laws! My in-laws were also on my last Med cruise, as well as a few other cruises with us, so they may look familiar if you've ever read one of my reports. Here they are in Palo:



My brother-in-law! Scott has appeared in a few trip cruise trip reports as well. He’s the oldest of three boys with my hubby falling in the middle. Here he is in Mykonos:

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I’m back! Photobucket wants to charge me a fortune to add more storage, so these will be from Flickr from now on. They may look a little different. :)

So the train came and we were finally on our way! The train was fairly crowded, but it was only about a 20 minute train ride. Stephen had to stand:


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Last time we were in Monte Carlo, we came out of the train station and were basically at the top of the city and we worked our way down. That was pretty neat and there were elevators all over the sidewalks to help, but it did take a while. This time I had found some directions to come out at the bottom of the city. Somehow that didn’t seem possible but it was worth a try!

When we got off about 600 people went the other direction. Someone even asked me which way to go and I said we were going the other way but I wasn’t sure if it was right. Shockingly, she didn't follow me. We were going deeper into the tunnel instead of towards daylight. There were a few people doing what we were.


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Hey, what do you know? There were stairs going under the tracks and into the tunnel on the left. This was promising!


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The tunnel:


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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ah man! The pictures are so much smaller on Flick'r!! Whyyyyy!!

Edit: Nevermind! Fixed thanks to gsrjedi!!
 
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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
There were incredibly long moving walkways.


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And then, at the end of a good 10 minutes of walking, we found the doors and we were out!


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Oh my word it worked! We were at the bottom of the city! Here’s a look back at the door we came out of. It’s on the left at the end of the moving walkway:


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We came out in a little alley way and made our way out to the main street. We took a left at the street and we were at a little market at the base of the hill the castle was on. Perfect!
 
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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Looking back up another side street:


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And another:


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Here’s the market:


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There were restrooms across the street and while we waited for everyone to go in, We found Wi-Fi!!! Let me tell you what happened every time we found free Wi-Fi. There’s Wi-Fi onboard, but my word is it expensive. You don’t want to get on just for fun. So while we were walking in ports, we would periodically take out our phones (keeping them safely in airplane mode to avoid any crazy bills) and search for a network. When someone would find one, they’d let out some kind of triumphant cry and we’d all stop!

Everyone did something different. Kids checked email, Stephen checked…I’m not sure what Stephen checked..., and I posted photos on Instagram and Facebook like a madwoman.

After 5-10 minutes of that, we’d carry on with our touring. :D

So here, outside the public restrooms at the base of the hill to the castle, we found free Wi-Fi. Glorious. I got them to look up for a picture:


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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster

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Is everyone done? Well let’s carry on then!

We started up the hill and saw this sign. I’m guessing you’re not allowed to walk up the hill in your underwear? Or speedos?


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Here’s the hill:


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This could have been a good picture if I didn’t look like I’m hiding behind Stephen and there wasn’t a pole growing out of my head.


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And why didn’t we take it with this in the background? Feast your eyes on Monte Carlo!


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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Looking back down the steps after we curved to the right:


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We made it! But we were starving and didn’t stop for pictures yet! Well, except for a giant gelato picture:


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Right across from the castle are some little walking streets full of shops and cafes. We were all starving so we went in search of lunch. We decided on this adorable little café. We passed by the first time and saw a table with some amazing looking bread and we were sold:


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What did they have here you ask? Well they had ice cold cokes (and afore mentioned bread), so what else matters?


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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
This was a hit at our table:


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I took quite a few pictures while we waited.


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I think I would like to live up here. With the hustle and bustle below, and the smell of hot pizza drifting up through my window. :)


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We noticed a family behind us with Disney excursion stickers on. At one point a CM came and found them. They apologized for being late and said they were paying right then! The CM said that was fine and then asked, “Have you seen anyone else?”

Oops.
 
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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
To the left of the castle are some walkways with views of the other side of the city. There’s a lovely garden and playground.


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Chase made out a soccer pitch and stadium among the buildings. Can you see it? It took me forever to see what he was talking about. Can you see it?


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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The public restrooms up here were packed!


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We walked back up to the castle and took pictures from the same buildings from a different angle.


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Look at how many roofs have a pool!


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After admiring the view for a while, we crossed back in front of the castle and started to make our way down. How about a panorama?


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by tammyfalcon, on Flickr


Ah man!! It's tiny!! What up, Flickr?
 
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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We tried a different way down but that didn’t work so we did backtrack at some point.

It was here that we had another near brush with royalty in a car. While we were walking down the narrow street, two cars zoomed by and went right into the castle. This time it was Prince Albert! Woo hoo! I tried to snap a picture but I was a little slow.


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I present you with Prince Albert’s jaw:


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I was also almost struck by a Ferrari zipping down that street a few minutes later. So that happened.


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The ‘rents!


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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We couldn’t pass up one more shot at Wi-Fi! After all, we had more pictures to post!


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These cool trains kept passing us:


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Aren’t they cute?


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Remember how excited I was to find the way out of the train station that led to the bottom of the city? Well it was even more exciting on the way back! No walking to the top of the city!


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Here’s the little sign towards the very obscure doors you enter from this direction.


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fractal

Well-Known Member
There has got to be a way to post larger pictures. I now use smugmug and it gives me links to 10 different sizes.
 

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