Dan,

Is this what you were trying to do?

On 2014-06-20 09:28, hang10tiki wrote:
Reminds me of an ACDC song
:)

I think Grog nailed it
Wait
That didn't sound right

Atomic Tiki Punk WHAT! WHEN! HOW!
A photofaker, approx. 1990. In Las Vegas!

hang10tiki we try.

GROG you nailed it, oh hang10tiki said that!

MaukaHale now that's cute.

hang10tiki he nailed it, you were correct.

Our next stop was a hot spot Vatican City. The pope was there but we didn't see him. He was in a room that we were to tour but we had to detour around it so he could continue signing papers.

This shows what Vatican City looks like. It is a country.

Inside was crowded and very hot.

There were many beautiful ceilings.

Inside was crowded and very hot. Oh I said that.

There is art everywhere. So much has been saved and preserved by the catholic church that we all owe them a debt of gratitude.

I felt sorry for the pope they kept on view. Here there is no Rest In Peace. I'm glad he's really in heaven and not in this body.

Seats were out for the next mass for the masses.

Dan preferred his favorite seat on the ship.

Tomorrow the Amalfi Coast.

Wow, the Vatican looks really crowded and hot. :)

Their collection of artwork is amazing...so much incredible, irreplaceable stuff massed in one location. Almost frightening.

Thanks for sharing the pics.

• Dale

Wait
Ahhhhhh, now Dan-0 looks even more relaxed

This may be why it's called the Vatican, and not the Vatican't:

or, on other newstands....

(have I gone too far? If so, my apologies... :)

littlegiles I love to share and meanwhile I'm working and taking tiki project photos to share when these are done. On all the tours we heard the words priceless over and over again and we agreed.

hang10tiki indeed!

TikiAno good point.

I would say that Dan's laughter meant that you can go that far whenever you like. Not only that we are very flattered when you all take the time to honor is with your creations. It's so much fun to find them and to share them with our family. We all enjoy a good laugh.

PS remember when you sent us the Hot Chocolate Powder from your business? Dan fell in love with it and asked me to buy two bags. We are missing Oasis this year so send me a bill with shipping charges. I sure hope you still have it.

======================================================================================================

Our next stop in Italy.

We pulled into port at Sorrento.

Close up of the buildings that line the Amalfi Coast.

We got off our ship to take this tour of three places.

We boarded another boat for the hours journey to the island of Capri.

Once off that boat we took a tram to the top of the island where tourists hang out.

Post cards for sale.

I had my next Tiki Magazine photo taken by Dan.

It's beginning to be a trip to shops over and over again. We only buy tikis so this part is really boring.

I did snap some photos of art the inspires me. This was carved from a single piece of coral.

At the end of the shopping isle there was a redeeming garden to enjoy.

Overview of the garden.

Dan posed for Tiki Magazine.

For the first time I was able to touch the Mediterranean Sea.

Now it was time to catch the boat back to Sorrento.

Cheers, Wendy

So beautiful! I have wanted to visit Italy for a long time. Pompeii is on my bucket list.

• Dale

Looks like the weather was beautiful and so was the scenery. Love seeing these photos of you guys enjoying it all! More please :)

Hi Wendy!

Glad you're both back safe & sound! I've been busy with the last weeks of school. Tomorrow is my last day so I'm catching up and loving the trip of a lifetime pictures. You really do a great service sharing your vacation pictures. As someone who is always planning a trip in her head I just love them! (Love the tiki pics too of course.)

Can't wait to see more!

littlegiles Pompeii was the place I most wanted to see on this trip. Here it comes.

TikiHula sunny but very hot. We needed to keep drinking water all day long to survive. However it was 109 in my home town while we were gone (as you know) and it was around 90 most of our trip. The difference is we were in the sun and mostly we never stopped in a shady place long enough to cool down.

LoriLovesTiki schools out, yippy, time for summer fun! I hope you have a wonderful summer.

========================================================================================

We continued this tour with a stop in Sorrento, Italy.

We were in a bus that drove us through town to

a restaurant for lunch. Dan loves that these countries always serve wine and he gets my glass too.

Back out on the street waiting for the bus that will take us to...

the city of Pompeii.

On the drive there Mount Vesuvius was pointed out. This is the volcano that destroyed Pompeii and could do so again.

The entrance to Pompeii.

There are thousands of these rooms where people lived and had businesses.

To walk from one side to the other in any direction takes one hour.

My Tiki Magazine shot.

Even back in time people thought to put speed bumps in the road to protect the people.

There were impressive views where you can imagine the grandeur.

They have moved much of the best art to museums but there was this one big area of pottery (no tiki mugs) and casts

of the holes left by bodies.

The volcano gave warning weeks in advance that it was going to erupt. So all the rich people left the city.

They insisted their workers stay behind to protect the businesses and homes. So those who perished were not the wealthy.

We saw a small amount of art along with

these casts.

Even stone roads show wear from the wheels that passed over it.

A corner bar. They had one on every block. Big wine vessels we put into these holding cells.

A city street would have not just a bar but a public

fountain with running water. They said that the wear of the stone shows where a person put their hand to lean forward to put their mouth under the flow. The wear shows that most inhabitants were right handed.

This shows how close the volcano was to the city.

We are now on the way back to the ship. All of the red light district with mosaics was under renovation so we weren't taken to see it.

Here is the modern Pompeii below the ruins. I wouldn't want to bet that the volcano won't erupt in my lifetime.

Back at the ship.

Time for dinner.

Now we are going for a walk before starting our work day. Cheers, Wendy

Thanks Wendy!

Today was my last day of school and boy, was it busy! My friend and vice principal is retiring in a month and I made a slide show of funny pictures of things she won't miss in retirement for everyone to see at a breakfast for her. Now I get 2 days off and the weekend and I work again for a week next week at a camp teaching digital photography. Actually that week is just 4 days. Then I have the next week off and I work the following. I'm off for the rest of the summer except for the first week of August when I'm filling it at my school's summer program. But soon I'll have lots of free time! Then I'll be on here more often. I need to think of some tiki art to do other than clay.......

Thanks for sharing those beautiful pics. Pompeii must be very haunting. Still so lovely after all those years.

• Dale

Thanx again for letting us all "tag along" and see your vacation...

Jon

LoriLovesTiki you've been really busy. I've been tiki busy too. I'll be sharing that after the trip is done here. You should be back to your art work, there's nothing more rewarding.

littlegiles it has the best views in the region and it was a bustling city. Such a sad history.

hang10tiki I think it would be fun if everyone posted a favorite photo from one of their vacations. Please this is a request.

===============================================================================================
The next day on the cruise was at sea. Now is the time to do activities on the ship.

hang10tiki your necklace was worn most days of our trip. It was easy to miss in the photos with my colorful shirts so here's one looking at the ocean. Thank you for this gift.

Our first activity was to go to a specialty restaurant. For $5 a person you may go to one and have a meal. Dan choose the crêpe place.

His coffee was a work of art.

We are always able to see where the ship is located.

My favorite photo of myself in that spot. I'm smiling at you for looking at our vacation photos.

Next we went to the glass show. Dan's holding a seahorse goblet.

It's so much fun to watch all the techniques. The glass artist lined this melted glass string up perfectly and then

he took needle nose pliers and twisted all the lines of colored glass.

The luckiest people we know. Polynesian Paddy and his wife Barbara won 3 works of art on the last cruise and 1 on this cruise. We have won zero.

The next day was a tour in Santorini Greece.

This is the island of all the famous views of the white cities with blue roofs.

Coming into port we could see these home lining the rocky island hills. This is not Hawaii.

This is the island.

I am at once honored with signs showing me the way. I was a bit confused. Was I to dig a hole?

The streets were for walkers only. As was most of our tours the walkways were lined with many shops and restaurants.

When I did this selfie I missed the view and got the garbage cans.

There is the famous church seen in all the postcards.

Dan did a better job getting this one for submission to Tiki Magazine.

Once again I was sent on the right course.

We ended up at a Greek Winery. Dan was so happy.

It was a beautiful view and we could see our ship.

Dan enjoyed trying out all the wines.

I tried to be a real photographer by doing this artistic photo.

We took the tram back down the hill and

got on the boat to the ship. I got Dan with the magazine.

I'm good at selfies that show us but I always seem to miss the view.

One last view of the hillside of Santorini.

The ship heads on and we are back

at the glass show. This time they made a sea turtle.

Now I'm off to work on the Tiki Atari kickstarter mugs. Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-06-26 13:19 ]

I love that sea turtle!!

How tall is Polynesian Paddy?

Glad u like the necklace...
Great photos

Jon

LoriLovesTiki they had a charity auction at the end and they piece went for hundreds of dollars.

Atomic Tiki Punk taller than a sky scrapper. He and his wife are a very cute couple. I've sent him a request for his height.

hang10tiki tiki necklace will travel is its motto.

=====================================================================
It's time to take a break from the trip to show what I'm currently working on. This it the project for Tiki Atari's kickstarter.
He designed this mug and did a 3D cast. I made a mold and cast the mugs. Now after finishing the first set of 12 I am working on the specials.

This first mug is 6/6 for a topless version.

Here is how I'm glazing it. Scary part is that all the colors will change in the kiln so I don't know until it fires if it will be as good as I hope.

Tiki Atari decided that he wanted the inside of the mug to match the hula girls skirt. These are two types of glazes so I worked to pair them up.

I started by doing the inside and bottoms of each mug.

I then used the teal blue to cover the background of the mugs.

This is a very complicated mug to glaze.

All done. Think of this, it had to be done three times for each mug. It would be so nice if glaze only took one layer.

Next I brought in all the underglazes that will not travel from where I paint them on. Regular glaze moves as it fires.

I started with the letters.

I am also using the glaze to build a letter that Tiki Atari and I missed on the mug due to a mold line.

There is so much detail to paint over and over again.

I don't know if the black will show through once the mug is fired. An underglaze such as black will show through a glaze that covers it but I think the layers of the next color will hide this black. So it's an experiment.

With the layers being repeated three times it has taken me one day to glaze the outside of this one mug.

======================================================================

Here is how he has displayed these photos on his kickstarter page.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/104119888491198424312/albums/6029270892615853617

Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-06-27 09:28 ]

Wendy,
Wow…that is soooo ah… so DEEP!
Wow, I love it! Only on TC can I find people who not only share my love of Tiki but also my love of Lovecraft!
Wendy- you so totally RAWK!!!

Now listen to this while you make your next mug…
http://hppodcraft.com/podcasts/TheCallofCthulhu-hppodcraft.mp3

Love that Gillman House mug! Brad is right, it is a bit Lovecraftian. :wink:

Your trip pictures are great! It pulled at the archaeologist in me to see Pompeii. It really has come a long way in clean up, I have a tourist souvenir booklet from the 30's or 40's and there was not as many streets etc to view.

In honor of your fantastic trip reports I put one together on my trip to the Egyptian grand opening since I know how much you wanted to see it. Probably not nearly as entertaining as yours, but I gave it a shot. :wink:

Looks like you two had a blast. :D

Tiki Shark Art thank you for the link. I listened to it last night. Now I know where Tiki Atari got his idea or maybe that was his link. I've sent him an inquiry. It does say Horror in Clay on the bottom. I'm doing my best to glaze these well.

tigertail777 I just looked at all your trip to the Egyptian Theater photos and read your words. Impressive. I love the nooks and crannies photos.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=40795&forum=18&start=285&288

This is not to be missed.

I've run out of time. Tiki Hula is on the way here to glaze today. Gotta go for now. Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-06-28 08:33 ]

Wendy, thanks so much for sharing your great trip pictures. It looks like you and Dan had a fantastic adventure. It's fun to see you share the tiki vibe with folks in the Mediterranean.

Tavarua Tiki it still amazes me that people do not know what a tikis until you explain it. We all have to keep working to promote tiki so it doesn't have a turn down. That's why Sven is such a hero.

===================================================================

Tiki Hula came over today to play. So I gave him a task to make glaze tests for the newest glazes I'd purchased.

First he shook them up really well.

Then on the bisque forms I'd made he did the three sets on each one. 1, 2 and 3 layers.

All done. These will fire with my next batch.

Next he glazed his Sacramento Crawl mug. He doesn't get to take it home until the crawl.
First he painted the outside in black and then scrubbed it back off leaving it in the cracks.

After he glazed the inside and top edge in clear so that it will stay white he painted the outside in Iron Ore. The black added first will still show through.

All done except for a bit

of touch up. His is the only one with fire cups inside. Sorry guys.

We also went out to lunch.

Afterwards he took us out for frozen yogurt. Yum.

Tomorrow I'm going to start showing more of our trip. I've only shown half so far! Cheers, Wendy

Wow, the latest kickstarter glazing is amazing, always so impressed with your detail- and patience. I, like Grog, have grown to hate glazing. :) :)

I've missed a few days of your thread so fun to binge read and catch up. Yes, we still have the Hot Chocolate Mix (actually, have to make a few more bags and will send them to you- unfortunately will be after the 4th of July since we're heading out of town this week).

Fun watching your trip photos- looks like an amazing trip!!!

Tiki Ano glazing is really hard. The whole time I worry that the under-glaze will not stay put and that the whole mug will come our blurry. We'll see. I can't speed it up at all. So far it takes 8 hours to glaze one mug not counting the time to do the inside and bottom. Tiki Hula got to witness that for me yesterday. 4 down and 7 to go.

======================================================

Another day another

tour.

This time to Athens and the Acropolis.

This is the port where the ship docked and our buses were waiting.

Graffiti everywhere.

At the Acropolis we had a nice walk that went from here to

the top of the hill.

On the way we could overlook Athens.

Time to pose with Tiki Magazine.

Dan poses with the Acropolis.

A postcard view.

A view of a postcard.

One more with Tiki Magazine. Are we obsessed?

Looking over the top of the hill. The view was much like Pompeii's.

For the first time I saw my initials set in stone. But everything in Greece is stone.

Back in the bus we saw that even nice building were covered in graffiti.

We saw many of the unique shops downtown. The buss driver wouldn't stop for a shopping spree.

This is our next stop. Not bad we got our stripper show after all.

The wind was really ripping through but this was so much better than the heat that we had on so many other days.

Dan with Tiki Magazine.

The temple alone.

Our Greek bill in Euros.

The breeze under the roof was just right.

They shouldn't have cut Dan loose at the buffet when there were 4 kinds of shish-kabobs.

The sun sets as we cruise on to our next destination.

Cheers, Wendy

Atomic Tiki Punk here is the answer about Poynesian Paddy's height:

I used to tel my math students I'm 5 feet 16 inches tall, but you can just say 6' 4". Funny how things work out. When I was young I was always partial to tall slender blonds. Just my luck to fall in love with a short brunette (at least she used to be a brunette).

One more photo of the two of them lying side by side.

(: Wendy

What no jokes about the Male Stripper?

On our next stop we will visit Turkey. I didn't remember to bring my Tiki Magazine but it was such a spiritual place that it wouldn't have been right. However nothing stops me from pointing out how often I see my initials WC.

Here we go..............

A nice blurry day.

Our tour for the day.

Where our ship docked.

See Dan on the right in his white and black socks.

The first street in Turkey. An old fort on the right.

A sign that pictured our stops for the day.

On the hillside leading to the Virgin Mary's home there was her statue.

Arriving with many other buses that let

out the crowds. Here it was beautiful and shady. Of course to see Mary's house the line was long.

This is Mary's house. The darker part at the bottom was all that was left before restoration. We were in line for 45 minutes when 30 Americans shoved past and cut in front of us. Our guide stopped one woman and told her they needed to wait their turn in line. She said, "I'm fine with what I'm doing". As she went with all those who cheated I called out, "I'd like to be there for your Judgment day".

With all these people who blatantly pushed ahead of us we didn't have time to go inside. As we left the line I took this last photo. Mary's tomb is inside. She is revered as a holy person in Turkey a country 98% Muslim.

This is a place where you may collect water from the same spring that Mary used.

Here you can write a message and leave it on the wall.

Pointing the way to Ephesus the city is at the base of the hill where Mary lived.

The last view on the way to the bus was where you went for entertainment.

Back on the bus to the next city of ruins.

We were led through the main portions of the city.

It was the apostles John and Paul who took Mary into hiding after her son was murdered. They too are buried in Turkey although pieces of them may be in many churches in other countries.

Now we were taken to a Turkish Theme Park.

The entrance.

I had a grand welcome.

We were taken to a buffet for one of our very best meals of the trip.

Once again I saw my initials. I kept telling Dan to watch for his but they never show up.

They put on a show about Cleopatra with belly dancers.

I thought maybe these guys in the gift shop were pointing the way for Dan. Grog this sure reminds me of some of your bowls and mugs.

I found that the bathrooms in their theme park are better than in Disneyland.

Our last view of Turkey before we set sail.

This was one of our best stops. I wonder what the next day will bring. Cheers, Wendy

Sorry you didn't get to go see the male strippers Wendy :wink: I'm really enjoying the photos and play by play from your trip since I may never get to see all these places in person.

Great to have you back home again though. I had fun working ceramics and going out to eat with you two as always! :)
mahalo for lunch!

On 2014-06-30 16:18, danlovestikis wrote:
What no jokes about the Male Stripper?

I thought maybe these guys in the gift shop were pointing the way for Dan. Grog this sure reminds me of some of your bowls and mugs.
[img]https://tikicentral.com/uploads/251/53b1c531.jpg[/img

I can't believe you didn't bring one of those home! They're great!

TikiHula thank you for the Frozen Yogurt. We went back on Monday for the Pineapple Tart version. Oh it's heaven.
I learned a lot on this trip. When all my photos are up I'll critique our journey. I always miss those shows.

LoriLovesTiki Dan always stops my shopping by saying you can make one when you get home. You could too Lori!

hang10tiki where are you? I'm getting worried. We know MadDogMike is on his honeymoon but you are already married.

====================================================================================

Another day is dawning.

It's time to get up and go.

Another tour of

rock piles.

Our ship docked out to sea. We took a boat to Mykonos and caught another boat to the island of Delos.

Barbara and Polynesian Paddy joined us for this tour.

This is Mykonos where we caught the next boat.

Our first view of Delos and once off the boat

we began the long hot tour.

Dan carried water in our Big Kahuna bag.

One ruin had many pottery shards that I could relate too.

Even today decorators put these indented shelves in rooms. My mom did this in the 50's.

I finally got to see a mosaic floor like those I missed in Pompeii.

Their rooms had high ceilings.

An aqueduct.

Posing and more

posing.

A long wide street though the town and it didn't have any speed bumps.

Part of the city once looked like this.

It was spread out with lots of places to go.

On our ticket were these famous lions.

When we came across them we were told these are copies as were most statues on our trip so far.

However the museum was on this island so we saw the originals.

They have found some artifacts but most things had been looted from the island.

It's fun to imagine that this man was once living on the island and wasn't from an artists imagination.

Quite a lot of work to save these upright.

Another beautiful mosaic.

Back outside we were shown where the shapes of feet were chiseled into stone. No one knows why.

It was flattering to have it mentioned that I was at the museum.

Then we did the boat trip to return to Mykonos. We were too tired to walk among the gift shops so
we returned to the ship via another boat.

We had a nice buffet dinner and relaxed.

We love the sunsets here.

Later we went to the glass show and then to bed.

Thank you for the visit. Wendy

Beautiful weather to go sightseeing. And I love watching glass blowing - must have been fun to watch it almost every day? The piece that PP and his wife won is beautiful. Wish you guys had won one too!

WOWZERS! Cass & I just got back from Barcelona, Italy, Greece and Delos, ourselves! How amazingly cool! Kindred spirits...YAY!
~Zero

[ Edited by: ZeroTiki 2014-07-01 19:11 ]

I agree...glass blowing is amazing. Fabulous pictures and comments Wendy. What a fantastic experience for both of you.

That Gilman House mug is remarkable. GREAT JOB!!!

Tiki Hula thank you. More fun times ahead.

ZeroTiki post some photos of your trip here so we can compare. Were you on a cruise?

VampiressRN we learned a lot about traveling. Fun and hard work.

===============================================================

We are at a family reunion and then it will be on to Tiki Kon. If I have access to WiFi I will add photos it not I'll be sad and have to wait.

I'll take lots of photos at the event. We hope to have a special visit with CY and tigertail777.

hang10tiki where are you???

Bye for now, Wendy

Will do, Wendy! I suspect we were on similar cruises...Dan appears to be on the same Celebrity veranda that Cass & I had in OUR room!
:)
~Zero

Hang10 is on the Big Island for his 15th anniversary. They seem to be having fun! Maybe I can post some pics he texted to me. I was just in Vegas and missed him :(

Looks like your vacation was amazing! I hope you got to see everything that you wanted to see.

At the city of refuge south of Kona.

They're on the Big Island livin' the dream (LTD) :)

Happy 15th you two!

ZeroTiki that's very cool. I can't wait to see your favorite photos posted here.

lunavideogames hang10tiki just sent some photos of the Place of Refuge. They are having a great time. Thank you for letting me know.

lunavideogames speak of the photo and it appears like magic! Thank you one more time.

TikiHula I'm sure he'll see your message soon and it won't be long until we see you!

====================================================================================

First off I wanted to say thank you to Woo Hoo Wahine for the beautiful welcome home orchids. You are the most awesome travel agent ever.

====================================================================================

Yep, I'm still working on telling the story of our trip!

We are now having a cruise day at sea. We had to find activities without a tour guide.

It's always fun to see where the ship is located. We are heading away from Greece and the next day we should arrive in Croatia.

After eating most meals in the relaxed buffet area we decided to try our first breakfast in the dining room.

I'm smiling because it was very good food.

Next we found good seats to watch the artists auction off the glassware they had made while we watched. They did very well. One piece went for $1,800 and it wasn't as good as the piece that Polynesian Paddy and his wife Barbara won.

Guess who. We met them back in the dining room for lunch. That's twice in one day.

It's been so much fun to have friends on the cruise with us.

Next we hung around until it was time for

formal night. This time we dressed up and stayed. Three fancy meals in one day!

By now we are so full that we went back to our room and watched TV until we fell asleep.
We are two lucky senior citizens.

============================================================

I'll be back later with some more photos of tiki projects. Right now we are in a hotel and hot baked cookies are coming out of the oven. Can't miss that.

Yuck, the hotel is nice the cookies were the worst ever. We carried them back to our room and fed the bugs in the garden a treat.

=============================================================

Update for Tiki Atari's kickstarter project. His design and my fine tuning and glazing. I've shown one of these topless mugs so far. It takes me 8 hours to glaze one mug. Three layers of glaze in each color.

I don't need to label these photos. I just let you see how I go around and around a mug choosing the next color and spot to paint over and over again. GROG you need to come glaze these for me!!!

Two down 9 to go with every mug with different glazes.

The colors will not be pastel when they have clear glaze over them. They will become darker and richer.

Until we meet again, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-07-03 18:59 ]

Have fun!

Wendy, great photos- and so sorry about the bad cookies! (There's always one...)

Jon, hope yer having fun in Hawaii! Happy Anniversary!

Wendy, have a great trip, look forward to seeing photos- especially of that Kickstarter mug glazed!

Wishing everyone watching the Wendy & Dan show a Happy & Safe Fourth!

WooHoo! I love seeing all your pictures and am so happy that I have been able to make your Travel Dreams Come True. Happy Independence Day to You & Dan!! Hugs!! :)

LoriLovesTiki thank you.

TikiAno we wish you a fun and happy 4th and the same for all our tiki buddies, male and female.

WooHooWahine I'm so glad to know that its OK to share my photos here. Since we are going to Tiki Kon I'll be posting those in a couple of weeks. I always like to have something to look forward to. It can be a trip or opening the kiln or someone coming to visit.

========================================================================

The Celebrity Cruise continues. I should have bought a t-shirt that read I LOVE CROATIA. This was one of our best tour days.

We docked at Dubrovnik.

As we neared the dock we could see that all the houses matched.

We forgot to ask if this was mandatory for home owners.

AS we left for the mountains we passed the walled city of Dubrovnik.

We stopped at the top to look back at the city.

We took the turnoff to the restaurant.

Polynesian Paddy and wendylovestikis aka Dan.

danlovestikis aka Wendy and Barbara often called mom by her kids.

They brought out wine and small sandwiches. We were in a wild area with

rushing water.

We were allowed time to go for a walk down the

path along and over the river.

Back on the bus we drove out of the mountains and to a beautiful town on the ocean, Caviat.

The bay.

There were many restaurants that looked out on the water.

I found this ice cream shop and we had to stop

and find out if it tasted as good as it looked. Better!

Next we were off to the walled city.

Our tour guide led the way into the city.

This is the map. Guess what I spied. My

initials are also in Croatia. I'm so honored.

A candid view of our friend in the city.

The side streets were very fun to view.

I tried to be artsy.

I remembered the Tiki Magazine this time.

Dan modeling his white and black socks.

This was a hot and sweaty tour but lots of fun.

Well the Queen may have not wanted to sit on the Game of Thrones seat but

Dan didn't mind and he showed off the Tiki Magazine too!

Once outside the walled city I posed for one more photo.

We now regretfully sailed away from Croatia.

Fairwell...

Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-07-04 19:54 ]

We are now in Venice Italy. We will have our last organized tour on Friday the 13th.

We will tour with Polynesian Paddy and his wife Barbara.

This shows the ship on the way during the night.

Our favorite place to dine...the buffet.

Dan liked to take his coffee to the back of the ship to watch the ocean.

Our first view of land near Venice was a beach.

All of a sudden old beautiful buildings appear. Coming in by ship we are almost as high up as a low flying plane.

Piazza San Marco the most famous place to gather in Venice.

Close up.

We continued on until we were at the port to dock.

Canals and bridges.

Ahead is the port with other ships already docked.

Next we boarded a boat to take us to the Piazza.

I'm in Venice!!!.

We followed our guide towards the square and the Doge's Palace that we would tour.

The man on a horse leads the way.

This is a famous site called the Bridge of Sighs.

Here's a close up of some heads that adorn the bridge.

We toured the Doge's palace. Whoever was in charge of Venice was called the Doge and lived here until the next man took over. It could never be someone from the same family.

A view from the palace to its own square below.

The Bridge of Sighs was so named because it goes from the palace where trial were held to the prison. When someone was sent to the prison they had their last view of Venice out these small portals. One side into Venice and the other side

looks out to the Great Canal. One last sigh and they were gone.

The prison had all the rest of the windows with these bars.

We went to the Piazza where I noticed

a man with a tiki on his leg. A girl had to interpret for me so that he would pose his leg for the photo. He must have thought I was a strange old lady.

Tourists everywhere.

Next we were off with our friends on a gondola. Of course we had our Tiki Magazine.

Polynesian Paddy and Barbara.

I took the next two photos to show the decay

of the buildings along the canals.

We are back on a boat to re-board our ship for the last night. Our boat passed the hotel we will stay in after the cruise.

On the Grand Canal.

This shows where the boat was docked.

Our last night on the ship we watched Bourne Identity again. He was in Rome and in Venice. It was fun to see that happen.

On June 14th we are waiting for the time to leave the ship.

We passed the time with our friends. Polynesian Paddy found that he had worn holes in his shoes with all the walking.

It was time for them to leave us and the ship.

They were taking a shuttle to the airport and home to Southern California.

We still hung out until

we were called.

This was our last view of the Celebrity Equinox.

Now we are on a water taxi to start two more days in Venice on our own with no tours.

Signing off for now, Wendy

More of our trip to the Mediterranean. This is the first of the last two days we spent on our own. No tours just the two of us walking around exploring Venice. This really is the best way to see a city.

WC equals Wendy Cevola. I had a lot of fun watching for these signs and seeing how they varied from hand written to carved in marble. I ended up with a good collection of photos.

Just like the good old USA.

There was even a Best Western on a canal.

Most of our meals were salad and pizza at small restaurants.

The wind really made the heat more bearable.

Notice how the WC is pointing to me in the photo above?

I found this photo in a magazine. It shows the cruise ships docked with Venice behind them.

This is the view from our hotel window. We could see the tower of San Marco square.

OK, I just felt the need to share this strange toilet seat that was in our hotel bathroom.

Skull Art on clothing is also prevalent in Venice.

Old buildings everywhere.

Wonderful skylines.

The pizza in Italy is not as good as in the states and costs four times as much as Round Table. Dan felt the need to have spaghetti in Italy. It wasn't as good as in the states either.

While we were having dinner we noticed that people had umbrella's. It had gone from hot and windy to raining in an hour.

Rain made all the tourists disappear. The square had emptied out. We walked back in the rain and didn't get very wet.

However Dan decided to add more water to his head. Isn't he cute?

Breakfast came with our hotel room. The buffet was wonderful but

was topped by the view. See the birds? They were everywhere finishing whatever anyone left on their plates.

I couldn't tell if this high end clothing was based on McDonald's or not.

It was still early so we decided to beat the crowds to the Rialto Bridge.

The view from the top of the bridge.

Dan standing on the bridge.

We just enjoyed walking along the canal taking photos.

Too bad that graffiti jerks ruin old buildings.

We found a nice restaurant for lunch but we were asked to leave. We were not hungry enough. We ordered a bottle of water (we never found any free water in any of the countries we visited) and two salads. Without ordering entrees they would not serve us.
So we left and later were hungry enough for our standard of pizza and salad.

At that restaurant they had my initials posted so no wonder they served us.

In Spain and now in Italy we saw the fish pedicure businesses.

One more view near the Rialto bridge and we were heading back to the square.

On the way we saw many shops with glass animals. I like the space men.

The square had filled up by the time we reached it.

The earlier rain had left some areas flooded and boards were put out so that tours could continue.

We saw birds taking baths.

Of course I found my initials again.

I have a set just like these.

I never get lost.

We saw an artist working on glass animals.

Pointing the way to Dan's favorite shop.

Here it is.

This is what it looks like after the tours start.

We went back to the hotel. I could see which room was ours because

I stuck post it notes in the windows.

One more day and the journey ends. Then it's back to tiki time. Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2014-07-06 21:16 ]

Fish pedicures huh...didn't even know they had feet...

Venice looks like a good place to hang out for a few days. Glad you guys are back though - hope you had a good 4th!