Via Dolorosa and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem - site where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.





Stone of Anointing - spot where Jesus' body was prepared for burial

Fabulous pictures--thanks for posting. Sounds like it's really been a good trip.

Thanks to all for the wonderful pix and reports!

Unbelievable pictures.
Thank you for sending them to LCT

Wow :lct: - I think I have said this before, but I'm going to keep saying it again and again - what a privilege it is to be a member of LCT and share in your experiences. These photos are so amazing. I am awestruck!

:lct: :lct:

Love all the great pics and reporting. Israel is definitely on my to do list in the future.

Ngaire, are you and Ken going to Goreme?? If so, you will love it. We were there in April after I attended a medical meeting in Istanbul. Lots of great hiking.

Ken and I are going to Cappadocia been trying to get there for years. Have the hot air balloon booked as well hope the weather is good. This cruise seems to have simply flown by so quickly. We debark tomorrow (one day early) have to pack today!

Another wonderful day the seas looked a little rough last night but the ship still was pretty smooth. Today totally calm again for our port call in Kusadasi. Off to the terrace houses today.

What wonderful pictures.........I agree with Kristin. LCT is not only a wealth of information, these pictures give me a momentary illusion that I am there with everyone. Leslie, did you do the mud treatment?

Great day at Ephesus today - we took the Ephesus with an Expert tour and visited the museum, many parts of Ephesus along with the Terrace Houses with an archaeologist who has been working there over 40 years. He was very excited to show us many of his personal finds - he has had quite a career!

The Terrace Houses were fabulous - it was so interesting to see the restoration work in progress and realize what an amazingly complicated jigsaw puzzle it is. The weather was beautiful - mild and breezy - you could have stayed there all day without any discomfort. Pix will be forthcoming - hopefully from the lens lads as ours do not do it justice (plus it takes forever to get anything done on an iPad - I just learned that a session on an ipad times out if you are idle just 3 minutes which explains alot!)

Below are some pix from our first day in Israel that I finally got uploaded. The first are from a pretty town in northern Israel, Rosh Pinna.

The Mer house - home of an expert on malaria and an important contributor to the eradication of malaria in the 1930's:



There is a lot of development of older homes into B&Bs - love all the pretty doors in town:

And now some from Safed, one of the four holy cities of Judaism and a center for Jewish mysticism. It is located in a mountain town in the Galilee, with views east to the Golan Heights, north to Lebanon, and south to Tiberius and the Sea of Galilee:

The Messiah's Alley:



Fresh juice vendor Leah poses with a Hezbollah rocket that destroyed her home ion July 13, 2006 while our guide Jakob explains.



plaque in Defenders Square:



The Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue - named after a famous Kabbalist scholar - the oldest synagogue in Israel that is still in use.





many blue doors here too - blue symbolizes heaven according to the Kaballah:



musicians draw quite a crowd:

And finally some from yesterday's stop in Rhodes:

Ngaire, if a big guy named Mustafa is your balloon pilot, tell him hello from George and me. He was our guide at the cave churches and is really a great guy, but he also does balloon rides in the morning.

As we sailed into Instanbul, Seven Seas Society...Titanium, Platinum & Gold members attended an exclusive event on the forward deck where beverages and caviar was served. Beautiful day and a wonderful sail-in to scenic Instanbul. We also gave our send-off to Ngaire & Ken.

Next an excursion and a dinner gathering tonight. And, of course, finish packing.

Can't get my Blog to function today so won't have any photos posted of Kusadasi, Instanbul & Society event until after we returned home.

Wonderful cruise with people to match.

Cheers! Ray & Penny

From the Ephesus with an expert tour:

What a Terrace house may have looked like





Our expert archaeologist



Lots of little pieces to figure out where to place





Restoration work in progress

I have no idea what ships these are? Is the the Mariner behind the big one? The funnel on the big one looks like Regent's style but the back end of the big ship doesn't look right.

Wow!!!! Thanks Leslie. I am loving these pix!

Thank you all for taking us along - great pixs and reports - any Regent trip is a delight!

Cappadocia I LOVE this place.

Much bigger and more impressive than I thought it would be and the topography is truly spectacular. The balloon ride was fantastic and the area has so much to offer. I saw most of the key sites with a few more planned for tomorrow. When I get back I will write up a report as I can really see coming back here with a group pre or post cruise from Istanbul perhaps the Black Sea in July, 2012.This is definitely a place I would be happy to return.

With this in mind I spend the last part of the day looking at hotels. The place we are staying is stunning and the web pictures do not do it justice. Definitely princess like. Doing some more site inspections tomorrow.

Two more nights and then back to reality.

What a great cruise this was, wonderful people and some intensive but fascinating touring, perfect weather. Even here in Cappadocia the weather report was for rain. However, it was calm and very clear for the balloon ride this morning and been wonderful all day. Not hot, not cold just perfect.

As my new favorite tee shirts say "Life is GOOD"

Trip sounds as tho is has been perfect. Thanks for all your reports and photos. Enchanting for sure!

John and I are home from a wonderful CLEO experience. We're probably the first to get home, as our flight from Istanbul to Frankfurt left at 5:50 a.m. We had a 2:00 a.m. wake-up call and left the Mariner at 3:15. Didn't manage to make it before we left, but we were informed that coffee corner would open at 2:30 a.m. for the early departees!

CLEO was a fantastic trip, with extremely interesting sights -- as can be seen from the great pictures that have been posted -- and a really great group of people plus the Mariner in good shape with tip-top service. Memories of a lifetime ....

Welcome home Priscilla!!!! We loved reading about your adventures and it is so special to have fellows LCTers onboard - :hug: :hug: :hug: the 4 of us will cruise again I just know it!

WOW Priscilla Home already!!! I can't beleive it is over. Glad you had a wonderful time and a safe trip home.

Priscilla, glad you got home safe and sound. Unfortunately it's probably hotter here than where you were on CLEO--but at least it's home.

Hi Priscilla and John! Glad to hear you've arrived home safely. We are in London today and - funny coincidence - they are having a general strike here today! We can't get away from it :rolleyes:

Safe travels Everyone - miss you all!

We arrived home last night after about 27 hours in transit. We got an aerial view of the fire near Los Alamos from the plane. Fortunately the wind shifted from the south, pushing the fire to the north (and away from the town and lab) so we currently have no real smoke impact at the moment at our house and were able to open all of our windows and cool the house down.

Strikes everywhere, Kathy! Surprisingly there was no line going through Heathrow Terminal 3 security yesterday. Enjoy your day in London.

We made it to Dallas last night at 11 PM after a very long day. Driving to Midland today and back to work tomorrow.

Cleo was the best in every way.

It IS good to be back, even with the Texas heat! As you say, Peggy, it may be hotter here than in Israel, but at least it's home. Right, Susan?

Good to see that our co-travelers are arriving home and checking in after their long flights. Arlene, as you say, it's hard to believe that this long-anticipated trip is over, but we have lots of happy memories.

Kathy, not more strikes! Enough already. Hope you are able to enjoy London anyway.

Leslie, good to hear that this new fire is not threatening for you.

Joanna, one of these days .... :hug:

We're back at our digs too.

We had flights just like you want them....uneventful.

We're spoiled from the 2008 WC. Twelve days is not enough. Three weeks at the minimum ; > )

Cheers! Ray & Penny

And a few final pix from Istanbul. We took the Dolmabahçe Palace tour and then walked back to the Mariner. The Palace was the palace of the last six sultans and the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1856 to 1922

view from the palace grounds across the Bosphorus to Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque; that's the Mariner to the right:





detail from the Sultan's gate:



gate along the water:



Many were out enjoying the gardens:

And backtracking to our visit to Cyprus:

Kourion:



villa with a view:



elaborate mosaics:



sophisticated baths:



the ship's Welsh baritone/comedian gives an impromptu demo of the acoustics of the Greco/Roman Theater:



and the Temple of Apollo:





Cindy & Cheryl:

Omodos Village, Cyprus:

monastery:







making lace:









Brad and Al relax in the shade:

Leslie, your pictures are incredible. It sounds like such a wonderful trip. It really sounds like this cruise made up for "unTUT" the best that it could. Thanks so much for taking us with you!

Grat reports and photos. Thank you all for sharing. I guess this goes in our bucket list

Okay guys move over LESLIE has arrived. Leslie you got some incredibly beautiful photographs, Ken just said WOW Leslie really has a great eye for the best shots. We really enjoyed seeing your pictures now you are in trouble your pictures will be in demand now!

Sitting in Istanbul airport waiting to fly to LHR and then onto Dallas. K&D arranged our Cappadocia trip and when we got to the airport we had a VIP service - fantastic. Private security screening and passport line, golf cart to a private VIP lounge. Someone is coming to get us to take us to the plane. This is the way to travel. Only other airport we have experienced this type of service is Cairo.

We had a wonderful trip to Cappadocia. We saw 10 of the best hotels in the area on our last day. I was amazed at the accommdations available I had not expected this quality of hotels. Still some issues on the food front they need to improve on for westerners but overall it far superior to what I expected. Our hotel,, the Anatolian House was good, far better than the website portrays. Rooms were very large. Ken will post a few pictures of the foyer and pool area. Our guide was great too, young, smart and very "with it".

Ken is working on trying to post some pictures now not sure if we will get them up before we have to board our plane. He took 900 pictures in one day he was snapping away like crazy this was the day we did the balloon ride and the majority of our sightseeing. We had a great pilot who stayed low and then went really high to catch stronger winds to get to another area. We approached a hotel and we were so low I thought he was going to land the basket in the pool. We had tree tops touch the bottom of the basket. We were right next to the "castles" of cave dwelliings could almost reach out and touch them. The best hot air ballon ride we have ever experienced.

The next morning we heard the sound of the hot air balloons when we woke up so we quickly dressed and rushed outside. Spectacular sight with balloons right over our hotel and not very high it was so neat. Ken was in heaven.

The open air museum in Goreme was great. It was a monastery with living quarters and churches in caves carved into the rocks. The inside of the churches were very well preserved with bright colors.

The underground city was also quite amazing. This is a city built deep underground for the residents to escape if threatened. The guide talked primarily about the Christians hiding from the Romans. These tunnels connect to family quarter, kitchens and even wine making facilities.

Just driving around and seeing the landscape was fun. Hard to capture the beauty of this area it just really appealed to me. Anyone who likes scenery, unusual topography and has an interest in histroy should put Cappadocia on their bucket list.

PHOTOS FROM CAPPADOCIA, TURKEY - OUR EARLY MORNING BALLOON RIDE:


Anatolian House - Our Home in Cappadocia.








As you can see we were not the only balloon in the air.


Our hotel from the balloon.




These guys were expelling all the air from the balloon for packing. They were having a good time.

A safe landing.


The sunset at dinner that night.


The next morning some of the balloons were coming over our hotel.


This balloon came in really low over our hotel.

MORE PHOTOS WHEN WE GET HOME, WE ARE AT HEATHROW NOW WAITING FOR THE FLIGHT TO DFW.

WOW! What spectacular pictures from Leslie and Ken. Thank you everyone on this cruise for sharing your wonderful trip with us. Elaine

Fantastic as usual, and I could only view them on my iPhone as our computers at work block photo sites in general. The photo of the hotel from the balloon is really neat as is the one of all the other balloons.

-------------

Eugene

Awesome photos, Ken & Leslie. Thank you so much for posting them. What a trip you all had!

Love the pictures from Cappadocia. Sign us up if you do plan another trip there pre or post Black Sea--been wanting to go there for years.