Monday, November 9 2009

In honor of our last day, Bruce wanted to pay homage to the lone plant growing outside of our window in the concrete jungle.

We congregated in the plaza for breakfast and to do our last minute souvenir shopping. Wherever we travel, I always pick up an ornament to hang on the Christmas tree. I had yet to find one, so I bought some olive soap with a small facade of the acropolis glued on top that I took off and turned into an ornament. Sometimes I have to get creative. The boys tolerated the shopping well. I think though that the lack of sleep and all that exercise finally caught up with them!

We spent our last morning at Hadrian's library and took some cool photos. I was absolutely amazed to witness the grandeur of the columns and the craftsmanship of the ancient Greeks. Athens is such a neat city to explore and enjoy history. It was fun to see Allen, Gideon, and Lincoln learn to enjoy it too.

We then headed back to the hotel to collect our luggage and go get on our train to head to Piraeus-Athens (the port). Of course, the boys were pretty giddy about ridding the train. Such cheap entertainment! Upon arriving to the port Bruce found our pier number. We needed to get to pier 10 and the train station was pier 4. We were told that it wasn't that far and that we could walk. So we found a good spot to sit and enjoy our lunch before we headed off the the ship.

No matter what European city we are in, the boys always manage to find pigeons and they become a great game to pass the time. Piraeus-Athens was no exception. They loved feeding the pigeons pieces of bread from their sandwiches.

It never fails that one of the boys needs to go to the bathroom at an inconvenient time. Luckily for us, we have boys. Bruce sent Allen and Gideon to go pee in the bushes and their little brother followed them through the brush. He took matters into his own hands and promptly peeled off his diaper to be just like his brothers. After our lunch we began the hike to our pier.

Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. We each had a backpack on our backs. I had the entertainment bag, Bruce had the baby, and Allen and Gideon respectively carried their own backpacks. Bruce and I then each had one big piece of wheeled luggage. We walked and walked and walked and walked (and yes, we did sing the song, much to the dismay of our sons!). We became encouraged when we got to pier #9, only to discover that the coastline curved and where we thought should have been the next pier, there was nothing there! We could see the ship in the distance and we still had a hike.

We finally had some good fortune on our side when we made it to the arrivals of Royal Caribbeans terminal and there was a bus we could get on to take us to the departure point. We were never happier to see four wheels. As the bus pulled away and made its way to its destination, Bruce and I looked at each other and said, "Could you imagine walking this?" We were not as close as we had thought.

We finally made it on the ship! There was never so much relief. The boys immediately found a surge of energy and went into exploration mode. We found our stateroom to be very nice and accommodating to our needs and found our stateroom attendant to be very friendly. Allen and Gideon were so excited to sleep on the bunk beds. Lincoln wanted to join in the fun too. He was a bit disappointed when we had to banish him to the port a crib to sleep. He had 9 nights to get used to it!

Bonn Voyage! Our cruise adventure is about to begin!

Before departure, we participated in the ships safety drill, visited the children's area, and explored the game area and the pool. Dinner time at the Windjammer Cafe was delicious. We met some of the waiters who would turn out to be some of the kids' greatest acquaintances during the trip. We settled into bed not long after dinner and we all slept like babies.