Chania, Crete: July, 2007

Normally, I stay with my personal viewpoint in this blog. Billions of other events happen elsewhere while I am experiencing my own life, and I can easily become too bogged down with extraneous details of my own adventures to seriously consider relating other views of reality.

Because I brought it up earlier, however, I should at least tell you that the contingent that went to Chania in search of relatives found a house that belonged to John Megas' cousin, Eftalia Barakis, but she had gone to a home in the hillside village of Madaro to escape the city heat.

While Eftalia didn't have her own phone, her neighbor knew the number for the village phone in Madaro.

Their taxi driver placed the call for them, and after several minutes in which a village messenger found her and brought her to the phone, reportedly spoke with Ms. Barakis, who told him finding the village would be easy if they drove up the hillside.

The two taxis began winding up the narrow country road, but before long, our intrepid voyagers realized they were running out of time. Some short but costly time delays getting off the ship, pumping gas, and stopping at a bakery, which actually proved to be the highlight of their journey for most, delayed their arrival enough to make them abort the culmination of their trek.




Still, they saw much of the coast of Crete and got a feel of where Grandpa Nick lived until he was 18 years old and bravely set out for new worlds.

At the bakery, they enjoyed eating chunks torn from a giant loaf of freshly baked bread, the aroma and texture of which competed with the taste in a sensory celebration. The black ash on the bottom highlighted the unique flavor and appearance of this bread. For them, it was the taste of Crete.

Chania Dig It?

In the summer of 2007, our family went on one of my all time favorite cruises. Traveling with extended family and friends always makes a trip extra special, and in this case, we had the added enrichment of returning to the home of my gorgeous wife's grandfather. (I was referring to Julie as gorgeous, although I don't intend to imply that old Nick wasn't a Greek god in his own right when he set out for America as a young man.)

With a full day on the isle of Crete, the idea was to rush off the ship, snag a cab and head to the hillsides above Chania to see Grandpa Nick's village and find some long lost cousins. As it turned out, they never made it to the village, but they enjoyed a generally enjoyable day touring the countryside of Crete.

I won't say I had an Oracle's premonition that they would not meet their cousins face-to-face, but I had a feeling it might meet with some frustration, leading me to join my oldest daughter Gina and brother-in-law Rollie exploring the ancient Minoan ruins of Knossos near Heraklion. Our jovial trio had an amazing time.


Reunited with the others back on the ship, we celebrated throughout a great evening.

While we enjoyed highlights literally every day, Julie was disappointed to have not met her cousins, and we vowed to return. As luck would have it, this coming season Royal Caribbean announced that the incredible Navigator of the Seas will dock in the village of Chania on her seven night voyages in the summer of 2011, and our die was cast.*

Here's the amazing itinerary visiting some of the greatest places in history with prices starting at just $749 per person:

15-May Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 5:00 PM

16-May Messina (Sicily), Italy 10:00 AM 7:00 PM Docked

17-May Cruising

18-May Piraeus (Athens), Greece 7:00 AM 6:00 PM Docked

19-May Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey 7:00 AM 5:00 PM Docked

20-May Chania, Crete, Greece 6:30 AM 3:00 PM Docked

21-May Cruising

22-May Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 5:00 AM

*As my brain works, I wondered how the word die would be spelled in the phrase, "the die is now cast." According to my research, when Julius Caesar acted to bring his Legion across the Rubicon River into Rome in violation of the law, he said, "Iacta alea est" which means "the die is now cast," referring to the singular of dice. In other words, he had now gambled by throwing the dice, and as any craps player will tell you, there aren't do-overs until the bets have been paid. This seems most likely, but some say the phrase is "the dye is now cast," meaning the dye or ink has been thrown in the water and it has thus changed permanently. If the Latin translation is correct, then the former must be true, although the latter also makes sense. In the case of what I meant, it is more like throwing the dice. We would like to go on that cruise, so I set up a group, gambling that perhaps, if we go, perhaps you would like to join us.

I went with the least expensive date, with inside rooms starting at $749 per person and balconies from just $1199 per person, but if more people could go on a date other than May 15, 2011, we can look into an alternative roll of the dice. Would you like to join us on an amazing voyage from Rome?

Corfu: July, 2007

After a leisurely morning on the ship, we were to arrive in Corfu about 12:30 PM.

The captain announced we would be staying three hours later in Corfu than scheduled, but then we ended up being delayed getting off the ship by about an hour.

Cheryl decided to spend the day onboard enjoying the ship, and Laszlo planned to go out on his own around 2:00 PM.

Everyone else departed the ship together about 1:45 PM with a general plan of going to the beach, although some spoke of first seeing some sites in town.

By this point in the trip, we had come to realize that trying to get more than a handful of people moving in the same direction at the same time can be slow going, as coming to a consensus takes time.

Julie didn’t want to take a chance of missing the best part of the afternoon transporting to the beach.

To reach the Bay of Paleokastritsa, which we heard had the most beautiful beaches as well as some decent snorkeling, Julie grabbed one of the waiting taxis, pointed to a map and told the others we would be going there with Jay and Amy.

We said we would love to have everyone join us but understood if they would prefer to do something else.

The cab driver quoted 40 Euros, and we didn’t try to find any other rate, worried that if we didn’t act, we might miss the chance when other cruisers began swarming the taxis, as happened in Santorini before we decided to just take the bus to Oia.

Corfu is definitely the greenest of the Greek Isles we visited, which I understand is due to Corfu receiving about three times as much rainfall as the other isles.

This, however, was a bright, sunny day with temperatures in the eighties.

We enjoyed a quiet ride on the winding road through the lovely countryside. Our cab driver made few comments but efficiently delivered us to our beautiful destination.

Old Greek dead dudes, as Bill and Ted would call them, like Sophocles and Homer (not Simpson) wrote about the gorgeous Sirens whose alluring songs tempted sailors to abandon caution and crash their ships on the rocks of Sirenum Scopuli where they lived.

While I don’t think Corfu was the Sirens’ home, it is hard to imagine more tempting, craggy rock-lined beaches than at the Bay of Paleokastritsa.

There are actually two bays with beaches separated by the main drag.

The larger beach attracted more people, including several modern day Sirens sunbathing topless.

We went to the smaller of the two beaches, which our cab driver told us would have better snorkeling.

The sea was surprisingly cool. We expected warm water similar to the Caribbean or Hawaii, but this water was cold enough to give me chills if I didn’t keep swimming.

I suppose this shouldn’t have been shocking, since our previous swim in the Aegean Sea by Santorini proved to be cooler than the waters off the Dalmatian Coast in Dubrovnik, but I didn’t think I would wish I had brought a rash guard to stay warm swimming on this trip.

The coral and underwater vegetation is generally muted shades of brown and green here, so it isn’t surprising that the fish trying to blend into their environment were also mostly undistinguished in color. Still, swimming in the turquoise sea around the craggy rocks was refreshing.

Jay and I enjoyed hiking through the crags along one side of the bay, catching some different views of the scenery.

There were boats pulling innertubes, banana boats and something that looked like an inflated easy chair from a dock in our bay.

The larger bay had cave tour boats that go in and out of some small coves.

It all looked fun, but we passed on boat rides this time.

As the afternoon flew by, it soon became apparent that the others had sought a different path.

Eventually we decided to head back to the port town.

At a café between the bays, we ordered a taxi.

While we waited, the kids made it clear that they preferred to head back to the ship so that we could have dinner at our usual table.

A few minutes later, a jovial and loquacious cab driver arrived with our chariot…okay, it was a regular taxi with a price of thirty Euros for the return trip.

As we drove, he spoke lovingly of Corfu and everything we were missing.

He couldn’t believe we hadn’t asked him to take us up the hill to the monastery above Paleokastritsa Bay, or to a scenic viewpoint called “God’s Balcony” when we were right below it.

We told him about the Crete quest, and he said how much he liked people from Crete.

He said many of the people of Corfu were Venetians or Europeans from other areas that had arrived in Greece later than citizens of Crete.

When we told him about drinking ouzo, he asked if we had mezes (essentially appetizers) with the ouzo, saying there were many bars that served only different kinds of ouzos and mezes.

He gathered his fingers together and kissed their tips, spreading his fingers as he took his palm-up hand away from his lips, a gesture he repeated frequently as he described delicious cuisine and beautiful sites of Corfu we were missing.

I asked how much extra it would be to swing through the town and point out some sites, and he agreed to ten Euros, but the kids insisted on returning to the ship for dinner, so we passed, although I still paid him the extra ten because he really made the cab ride special.

We learned later the others had taken a bus to a closer beach and then gone out to dinner in town.

We picked up Cheryl and enjoyed another wonderful dining room experience despite our half empty table.

Nobody missed the ship, and we dutifully headed for the Trivia game, in which we had been humiliated (and rewarded with key chains) the previous night.

Did I already mention that we won this night?

I guess I did, but perhaps I should remind you: WE WON!

After the longest losing streak in our Trivial history, the hostess finally asked the right kind of bizarre questions.

The previous night, questions about sports photos found us floundering, but this night asked questions about topics with no particular point or significance, which is our specialty.

Leatherette baggage tags….ooohhhh yeah!

We all went to the 42nd Street Theater to see Spectrum, a quartet of tuxedoed singers, perform “A Tribute to Motown and R & B.”

Several of us were in the front row center, and when Spectrum did their Temptations-influenced dances to the catchy melodies, we did our best to keep up, prompting them to give us props from the stage.

They asked for a man in the audience to stand up and say something about loving his woman.

Now of course I would have stood up and made a spectacle of Julie had she been next to me, but she was sitting in the “mature” section next to Rollie and Cheryl about 2/3 of the way back in the crowd. Rollie, between the two ladies, stood up and received the microphone.

He proceeded to speak for about fifteen minutes about his first date with Cheryl and how it was impossible to get him to utter more than a few syllables before meeting her.

I must say, she changed his life!  He paid her a nice tribute and received a big round of applause.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the show, and being fired up by all those great Motown classics, we were ready for Rock-A-Rokie.

As inspired as I felt, I couldn’t bring myself to sign up to sing in front of a crowd.  Considering that twenty years ago I used to carry a guitar with me and serenade unsuspecting people almost everywhere I went, perhaps I changed even more than Rollie.

Gina and Cheryl did eventually drag me up to join them on a song, but my microphone didn't work, and I can't say I was upset about that.

Thinking about this late night out, I just realized I forgot something that happened the night before at the Rock n’ Roll Dance Party.

There was a twist contest, with Jered and Amy selected from the dance floor to be one of three competing couples. Amy backed out, so the hostess brought in a woman to replace her. Jered didn’t win, but got a T-shirt for participating.

Getting What You Want

"You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want."
— Zig Ziglar

My parents lived by the same principals espoused by Zig Ziglar, and they raised me to do the same. I wish I had been more attuned to their lessons when I was a teenager. I wouldn't have been the equivalent of an "American Idol," but I would have accomplished far more than I have career-wise.


Madaro, Crete

However, I have enjoyed an amazing life, primarily due to helping others get what they want. As a travel agent, a field with admittedly limited financial potential for a one-person operation, I do my best to help my clients get the most from their vacation time. As a father, I have successfully worked to help my children find their own paths. As a husband, I have supported my wife's career, holding down the home front so she could focus on her career goals.

My wife is arguably my best "customer." Whether getting her Baby Ruth bars and Johnny's pizza when aerobics burned off the calories in the 1980s, Reduced Fat Doritos and Wow potato chips during her low fat days of the 1990s, or sunflower seeds and Atkins bars for the low carb decade, I have tried to provide her what she wants.

Julie is an avid traveler with a bucket list full of check marks, and as ironic as this seems for a Cruise Planner, I really have little say in where we go on vacation. I just help Julie get there, and in doing so, I end up seeing some amazing places myself.

Most recently, the goal was a return to Crete so that we could visit the village of Madaro where Julie's grandfather Nick was raised before immigrating to America as a teenager about 100 years ago.



Nick wasn't deterred by 35 miles of winding roads between Madaro and the coastal town of Chania, most likely riding there in a bumpy horse-drawn cart, or by thousands of miles working and living in the belly of a ship without stabilizers to cross the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas and then the vast Atlantic Ocean. He reached his goal, America, and then migrated across the country until finding work in a coal mine in Rock Springs, Wyoming. As a result of the courage of his convictions and the sweat of his brow, his son was able to attend college and become an engineer, and that man was Julie's father John.

What's stopping you from getting what you want? I would love to help you get there. "Better service leads to better trips."

Why should you cruise on Royal Caribbean?

Few if any prospective cruisers need me to tell them why they should cruise with Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean has done an excellent job making their own case, as evidenced by the fact that they frequently win best cruise line and other top rankings among their peers.

Like many other Southern California residents, I personally accumulated many notches in my Crown & Anchor profile with three and four night cruises back in the day when Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas and other ships regularly cruised from Los Angeles.

Royal Caribbean had newer ships doing longer cruises from Los Angeles, too, always delivering terrific experiences.

We enjoyed our West Coast voyages so much that we were happy to trust RCCL for our first European cruise when they included Crete, an island rarely visited by modern ships prior to that cruise in 2007.  Julie's grandfather immigrated from Crete, so her sisters and their families joined us for a family trip to their ancestral homeland.

We gladly returned to the Mediterranean with Royal Caribbean, plus a couple of cruises to the region featured in their name.

Yes, when Royal Caribbean goes where we want to go, we certainly have no qualms about choosing one of their wonderful cruises.

But it wasn't until the ships started adding surprising features like ice skating rinks, onboard surfing and sky diving that the brand really took off with the general public, justifying loftier pricing than competitors.

Everyone I know who has gone on one of Royal Caribbean's newest mega-ships not only comes back raving about the onboard experience on these amazing ships but almost inevitably begins planning a return trip to bring their friends or relatives along so they can see for themselves.

I don't know of higher praise than that.

Royal Caribbean's marketing appeal is to adventure-seekers and families, but everyone across all demographics seems to love Royal Caribbean vacations.

Their best suites for families have become so wildly popular that it is difficult to book one unless you do so as soon as they go on sell.

While their commercials seem a bit too frenetic for me (which is why I don't feature too many in my blogs versus Princess, another line we love that creates videos I often find perfect to illustrate my blogs), they undoubtedly do the job of appealing to new cruisers, which are the lifeblood of the industry that allows the continued expansion of newer and more astounding ships.

Once you've taken your first cruise, you're probably hooked for life.

Have you tasted Royal Caribbean?

You should, whether cruising to the Caribbean, Europe, Alaska, Australia, South America, Canada/New England, Bermuda, Asia or anywhere else they cruise.

"Better service leads to better trips!"

Return to Ephesus

While clients frequently reject cruise itineraries that take them back to ports they've already visited, there inevitably are alternative side trips on paths not previously taken. On our return to Kusadasi, I found that taking the exact same shore excursion route can also yield a unique experience. How?

Library of Celsus in Ephesus

All of us bring our personal backgrounds and beliefs to our travel and jobs, and that influences how we approach our subject matter. As luck would have it, our guide was the grandson of immigrants from Crete, which gave us an additional connection, since Julie's grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from Crete.

In Ephesus, our guide shared stories about early Christians. In the first century A.D., Christians could be thrown to the lions and ripped to shreds for the entertainment of the masses simply because of their beliefs. This obviously made them cautious about what they said and to whom. To be certain he was talking with a fellow Christian, one person would casually scratch an arc in the ground with his toe. If the other was a Christian, he would casually scratch a mirror image of the arc, crossing through at one end, with his toe. The result was what looked like a crude outline of a fish, the same symbol you'll see on the back of mini-vans throughout the heartland of America.

Our guide four years earlier spoke about Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the Apostle John, who reportedly spent their final days around the great city of Ephesus. He spoke at length about Paul, who wanted to preach the Word of God in the large Greek Theater in that city and who wrote letters to the Ephesians which, like John's Book of Revelations and the fourth Gospel possibly written in Ephesus, are included in the Bible. Our guide this time touched on those pillars of history, but not in as much detail, preferring to share less famous anecdotes, including an explanation of a more complex symbol found etched all around Ephesus that, like the fish, had secret meaning for Christians.

A far less religious marking along the road leading up toward the town from the coast was a primitive ad for the house of ill-repute at the corner across from the Library of Celsus. Our guide said there was a tunnel beneath the street from the library to the whore house. While certainly not exactly the same experience, it reminded me of how my high school friends and I would walk to Thrifty's for an ice cream while we were ostensibly at the library to study. We were always looking for girls too, but we certainly never found carnal knowledge there.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

In spite of warnings about the hottest winter ever, cool temperatures remained the norm most of spring.  

We had a few days approaching 80 degrees Fahrenheit sprinkled in, but more often we were below 60.

That is actually excellent hiking weather.  We enjoyed many forays into nearby forests, including favorite places like Haverford Nature Preserve and Ridley Creek State Park (Julie's short video linked here), which themselves offer multiple trails from which to choose.

We walk daily, including neighborhood walks and the Nature Trail at Haverford College by Emma's skating rink, where we often walk with Gina and Laszlo.

Emma, Laszlo, Gina and I play tennis together occasionally, too.

Fridays usually meant more time with Gina and Laszlo at happy hour on our backyard deck, though occasionally we went to a venue like PJ Whelihan's, or shifting the day to Saturday.

I mentioned rain in the subject, so I will include that some days it rained at happy hour time, forcing us inside, although the showers spread around through the day so that we managed to find a lot of time to enjoy the great outdoors.

With rain followed by sunshine, flowers have bloomed throughout the spring.  Pennsylvania is a lush world from spring through the changing of the leaves in fall.  Having lived most of our lives in arid Southern California, it's a treat to live where lawns are green despite not having sprinklers.

On many an afternoon, I have stood on the back deck appreciating the foliage while playing my guitar, accompanied by singing birds and watching bunnies hop by.

During April and May, we celebrated many special occasions.

Gina, Laszlo and Emma provided their Giant ham as centerpiece for a delicious Easter dinner cooked by Julie.

On Easter morning, Laszlo and Emma had returned from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where they went so Emma could visit a friend who had attended school with her the prior year.  They had a good time and returned with positive impressions of Riyadh.

Saving some of that huge ham for later meant we had ham as entrees for two other family dinners.  Julie also served roasts and other dishes as centerpieces for almost weekly dinners.

On the weekend of Gina's birthday, Amy and Lukas came to Philly to celebrate Gina's and Amy's birthdays.

They stayed at Gina's house this time, so we mostly gathered there.

But we had happy hour on Saturday on our deck in Ardmore.

Gina and Laszlo served Indian food for dinner.  For dessert, we had strawberry shortcake, with a candle to celebrate Gina's birthday.

When Gina was a little girl, my mom made strawberry shortcake one evening.  Gina did not want to try it.  I knew she would love it, so I told Gina I would give he a quarter if she took one bight.  As expected, she found it delicious.  I asked if she wanted more, which she did.  I told her it would cost her a quarter to get the rest of her serving.  A real deal.

We celebrated Mother's Day on Sunday.  Gina bought craft projects for Julie, Amy and herself.  I helped Julie keep up.  Key birthdays and anniversaries are written on tags which tangle as a sort of calendar.  I now look at Julie's each morning at one point in my stretching routine, so I shouldn't miss any birthdays.

On Sunday afternoon, we sang happy birthday to Amy, whose actual birthday was about a week away.  More strawberries and whipped cream, with most of us putting personal-sized sponge cakes underneath.

Between work, going upstate to visit Lukas's hometown and enjoying Jersey City/NYC life, Amy and Lukas don't make their way to Philly as much as we'd like, so we combine celebrations.  Amy still skates for the Gotham Girls B Team, where she was recently selected as team captain.  Amy also manages their All-Star team.  At a derby tournament in Boston last weekend, she won MVP honors

Amy and Lukas would soon be off to Chania, on Greece's isle of Crete, with Lukas's parents and sister.  They loved the trip.

Amy in Greece

While they were on Crete, Emma's ice-skating club put on a fun figure skating show in Ardmore called "Yo, Philly."  For their number, Emma and four others skated to John Fogerty's Centerfield, wearing Phillies costumes.

Gina, as a new Skating Board member, volunteered at the concession stand rinkside, while Laszlo, Julie and I sprung for the VIP suite upstairs, with a catered buffet dinner including wine.

A month later, Emma attended a figure skating contest held at the University of Delaware.

Coach Russ, Emma and Proud Grampa

I rode over with Emma and her dad in Laszlo's car, while Gina and Julie took Amtrak plus Uber to join us.  Emma skates for the beauty and joy of the sport, but we were all very proud that she won first in her division during this, her second competition.  All her devoted practice pays off.

On their ride home from Delaware, Julie and Gina took advantage of a break changing trains in Philadelphia to take the elevator to the 60th floor of the Four Seasons to enjoy the view.

Gina treated Julie with tickets to see the 4-time Tony winning musical Some Like It Hot, a stage version of the silvers screen comedy that had starred Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon.  They said it was fantastic.  Funny, of course, but also terrific singing and dancing.  Gina generously shares her season tickets with various guests.

I recently heard of a new term popping up in culture: "land-snorkeling."

It refers to appreciating nature and other beauty all around us just walking around, like the wonder we find when snorkeling around coral reefs in the ocean.  I'd say we do this on a regular basis.  We started long before this emerging fad.

A recent land-snorkel took us back to Maybrook Mansion, adjacent to the Wynnewood Train station.

Linked here is a short video of geese at Maybrook Mansion hat Julie captured.

I wonder how many people ride the SEPTA train past that stop never knowing it is there?

While Julie and I didn't go either time, I should at least mention that Amy and Lukas took a trip to California to visit Jay, Sasha and Owen, paired with attending a concert.  About a week later, Gina visited Santa Monica kin in conjunction with a work trip.  And don't pity Julie and me, because we visited Santa Monica in March.

We all enjoyed our very cool spring.

If it rained all day, we walked indoor malls like King of Prussia.

Where I probably spend too much time.

More Spring Photos from Emma

Emma and Coach Russ