Once again, we awok early this morning and went to the Lido Café for breakfast. After we selected our breakfast items and sat down we were treated to a breathtaking sunrise. Throughout this voyage we have had the opportunity to witness some unbelievable sunrises and sunsets and today was no exception. It was a great way to begin our day.
After enjoying a wonderful breakfast we went to the Fitness Center for our daily workout. There were very few passengers in the center. Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill and Keith worked out on the elliptical machine. We worked out for a little over one hour. We find that it is easy to keep to this routine of working out each and every day as long as we go over to the Fitness Center right after breakfast in the morning. There are some that we know who do their workout right before breakfast. In either case, it works well to get this behind us before we do other things during the course of the day.
After our workout we got changed so that we could go into port. Today we are in Nafplion, Greece. This was our first time in this port of call. As we understand, when Crystal last visited this port of call they received very positive comments about this city. We share the view of those who enjoyed this port as we had a greatly enjoyed this port of call and highly recommend it.
Nafpilon served as Greece’s first capital after the Greek War. While it has its share of history including two Venetian fortresses and many neoclassical buildings, today it appeals to many tourists from Greece and other countries as it offers a very nice atmosphere with its leafy parks, small museums, picturesque streets and lively outdoor cafes.
We took the tender from the ship over to this delightful port of call. For those of you who are not familiar with a tender we have included a picture on the Blog of one of the Crystal Cruise tenders. The tender ride took about twenty minutes.
On our way over to the port in the tender we spoke with the person who has been running the art auctions for the past couple of segments who many years ago played for the New York Knicks for five seasons. We told him that we remember him from when we sailed on the Grand Princess in the Mediterranean in 1999. We also reminisced about the days when professional athletes played the game mainly because of the enjoyment and satisfaction of playing team sports knowing that with the salary that they were making they would need to continue working after they retired. This contrasts a great deal with the current athletes who view what they do as a business.
Once we got to the town we spent all of our time over there walking around this very lovely and quaint town. For those of you who have been to little towns in Italy such as Portofino or St. Margarita it reminded us of the old warm charm of these towns,
There were many shops, hotels, parks cafes, bakeries, schools, and a couple of museums. The town was very clean and very safe. We walked for several hours and we walked by the pier where we had beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and we also climbed about 600 of the 800 or so steps that lead to the Palamidi Fortress, which was built by the Venetians between 1711 and 1714 to protect the settlement from invasion. The fortress sits atop a 799-foot hill above the town. We would have finished our climb had it not been so windy and we were concerned that our glasses might blow off not to mention the dust that was getting into our eyes. With that said, it was a beautiful day which added to the ambience of walking around this charming town. The temperature was in the low to mid 60s and it was nice being here at the very beginning of the tourist season as there were very so few tourists here at this time of year. We suspect that during the summer months that the sidewalks and streets would be quite crowded, not to mention that it would be quite hot and humid.
We went into a museum and we also walked into a bakery and a supermarket as we always enjoy getting a sense of the variety of foods that are favorites of the local residents. Of course, we primarily look at the various foods rather than purchasing any of them for consumption.. ☺ The baked goods looked wonderful from all of the breads and rolls to the delectable pastries. The supermarket also looked quite clean and it was nice to see none of the already prepared meals that we not only see in the United States but in so many of the places that we have visited on this world cruise. We also saw delicious looking fruits and vegetables. All in all we spent a wonderful morning in this special port of call.
We arrived back to this ship at around 12:30 PM and had a nice lunch in the main dining room. We had the Lamb Chop salad entrée but without the Lamb Chop. Instead, we asked for Salmon. This is one of the nice things about sailing with Crystal Cruises. They are very accommodating in all manners such as letting you order an items(s) that are not on the menu. Many times, if we don’t like the two salad entrée choices that changed each day, we can easily ask for another type of salad entrée. The same holds true of most other items.
All of the medical lecturers that we have listened to during the course of this world cruise would be happy that we substituted the salmon for the lamb chops since each of them wholeheartedly recommended eating salmon several times each week.
This evening we attended a special reception that we were invited to before dinner. The reception was in honor of one of the couples on this cruise having completed 100 cruises with Crystal Cruises. There was a very nice mix of passenger’s in attendance from some on the full world cruise, others on multiple segments and others on one segment. In addition, many of the entertainers were there as well. We had a nice time chatting with so many of our fellow passengers.
Afterwards we enjoyed a wonderful meal in the main dining room. We had ordered a special entrée of Kosher Chicken for dinner this evening and it was wonderful. As is the case on all Crystal Cruises the quartet of musicians came to our table and played a special request. We have included a picture from this evening.
Tomorrow we will enjoy at day at sea.
Keith & Anne Marie
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