We left on our mega-trip, mostly to Europe, on the morning of Thursday, April 27, 2023 and we
returned in the evening of Tuesday, June 13, 2023, for a total of 48 days (just shy of 7 weeks).
We started off by flying to Miami where we stayed for 2 nights before leaving on a
Transatlantic cruise. The cruise went from Miami to Haifa, Israel, with 4 stops on the way,
over a period of 17 nights. We then continued on the same ship for another round-trip cruise
of 6 nights with 4 stops. When we returned to Haifa, we transferred by car to Jerusalem,
Israel, where we stayed for 3 nights. From Jerusalem we flew to Venice, Italy,
where we stayed for 2 nights. From Venice we transferred by car to Ravenna, Italy, where
we stayed for 2 nights. We then left on another cruise that lasted 7 nights and ended
in Barcelona, Spain, with 5 stops on the way. We stayed in Barcelona for 3 nights and
then flew to London, England. We stayed in London for 5 nights, finally flying back to DC.
We visited over 20 places on the trip, depending on how you count them, and were in 9
countries outside the U.S. We first visited Miami. On the Transatlantic cruise we
visited Madeira, Portugal, Malaga, Spain, Taormina (Messina), Italy, and Mykonos
(Delos), Greece. We ended in Haifa, Israel where we visited Acre (also Akka or Akko).
On the next cruise we visited Ephesus and Miletus (Kusadasi), Turkey, Santorini,
Greece, Rhodes, Greece and Limassol, Cyprus. Our round-trip cruise ended in Haifa where we
transferred by car to Jerusalem, Israel, visiting Meggido (Armageddon) and
Caesarea on the way. From Jerusalem we flew to Venice, Italy and from there
transferred by car to Ravenna,
Italy. On our next cruise we visited Koper, Slovenia, Messina, Italy,
Civitavecchia, Italy, Pisa (Livorno), Italy, and Villefranche-sur-Mer,
France. The cruise ended in Barcelona, Spain and from there we flew to London, England.
Many of these pictures and much of this narrative were already posted by Susan on her
Facebook page mostly while we were on the trip. I borrowed much of the text on these
pages from what she had already done.
|