2nd Day at Sea – Sept 2, 2011

This isn’t a long post as really, there’s not much trouble you can get into or sights to see, but still, it was a cool day at sea.  Why?  Because we were headed through the Sea of Marmara on our way to Istanbul and you could see land on both sides the entire way there.  And that land was Europe on one side and Asia on the other.  It was pretty cool.  At one point, the captain of the ship announced that on the shore we were passing by was the original site of Troy.  That’s pretty awesome.  I couldn’t tell for sure what I was looking at but I can still claim that I’ve seen Troy….technically.  Maybe I can’t identify it to save my life, but still.

During this day at sea, the cruise line wisely helped the passengers pass the time, offering lots of different activities.  We had signed up for an international wine tasting, which is always a good way to get drunk.  Especially when you can keep “sampling” wines repeatedly, and there are 12 to taste.  It was a lot of fun, even when the one Riesling on offer, which was from France, was god-awful.  It was terrible.  But there were plenty of other good whites and reds, along with lots of cheese and crackers.  Yum.

Basically though, it was a really nice day to relax, take in the scenery rolling by, and enjoy the wonderful temperature while on a gorgeous, luxurious, state-of-the-art cruise ship.  Life was definitely good that day.  And now, for the pics:

On days at sea, you just wander the ship and hang out

Pool view again

We were on the 11th floor and you can’t quite see all the way down

In another region of the ship, where you can see multiple decks. That’s the Martini bar.

And you can see dancing lessons too. And hot dance instructors.

On this day, we also signed up for a worldwide wine tasting.

The Captain told us that we could see Ancient Troy out there..

Not sure what to look for

The assorted crowd who had paid $20 to taste a lot of decent and some crappy wine

Smelling the bouquet

Bottoms up

We were at the back of the ship in the Tuscan Grill Italian specialty restaurant

A very delicious restaurant, by the way

After the tasting, went up top to the rear of the ship to take in the view

We were traveling through the Bosphorous I believe towards Istanbul

It still is crazy to see there was a lawn up there

Ah, Turkey!

On board, Larry fell in love with the Acapella group, Full Tilt

We then went to the front of the ship too

And someone nicely offered to take our pic up there too

2011 Mediterranean Trip Pics Index

• Rome: Flying there, Day 1 – Colosseum, Ancient City
• Rome: Day 2 – Vatican City, Trastevere, Nighttime Walk
• Rome: Day 3 – Castel Angelo, Pantheon, Misc Rome
• Mediterranean: Day 1 – Leaving Civitivecchia
• Mediterranean: Day 2 – First Day at Sea
• Mediterranean: Day 3 – Santorini, Greece
• Mediterranean: Day 4 – Athens, Greece
• Mediterranean: Day 5 – Second Day at Sea
• Mediterranean: Day 6 – Istanbul, Turkey Day 1
• Mediterranean: Day 7 – Istanbul, Turkey Day 2
• Mediterranean: Day 8 – Ephesus & Kusadasi, Turkey
• Mediterranean: Day 9 – Mykonos, Greece
• Mediterranean: Day 10 – Third Day at Sea
• Mediterranean: Day 11 – Capri, Sorrento & Pompeii