The "Bucket List" Mediterranean Trip - View from our room (1/19/2009 - 1/24/2009)

This is our first feeble attempt at blogging, the aim being to simply document our recent trip to the Mediterranean. We hope that friends and family will enjoy the pictures and some of the vignettes. Our dear friends Robbie and Glenn came up with the idea and were our cruising partners for almost all of this 19-day adventure. The basic premise was to experience and mark off as many items as we could from our "bucket lists." We began this journey from our home in the Florida Keys and rendezvoused with Robbie and Glenn in Barcelona, a wonderful modern city of many flavors. Our cruise began and ended there, making the full circuit around the Med with stops in Rome, Athens, Izmir, Alexandria/Cairo and Malta. More about that later. This was the first extended vacation Pamela and I have taken together in almost 34 years of marriage. Better late than never. The trip from our home in the Florida Keys to Barcelona was actually quite relaxing. We loved Barcelona, as you will see. Pamela made a great choice in this 5-star Hilton on the Med. We enjoyed the "Executive Club" every evening, especially the view and the cava.