On to Italy!

On Sunday after church and check-out, we took the metro to a bus station where we took a comfortable bus ride from Athens to the port city of Patras.  We were along the sea for much of the journey, so we again had beautiful views of the bright blue water.  In Patras we found a local bus which dropped us off within 1/2 km of our hotel, which turned out to be ON the beach - WOW!!  A travel agent in Liptovsky Mikuláš had booked our arrangements, so we were really pleased.   :-)

We've never had a hotel room overlooking the beach before!  WOW!!  

The balcony was fairly large, so we enjoyed the view a lot!!  

After all those hot days walking all over Athens, we headed straight for the beach for a swim.  It was a beautiful afternoon to just relax!!  

The pool was really nice too!

We had supper on the balcony of the restaurant overlooking the beach.  Lovely!  

The beach wasn't even very crowded, the water was so blue, and the bridge in the background was really pretty too.  

The view of the beach and bridge in the distance, from our balcony. 

Our last sunset in Greece, from the hotel room balcony!  

Beth was always chilly in the hotel rooms when Tim turned the air conditioning on, so she decided to move her bed out on the balcony and sleep in the warm air.  Nice place to wake up and see God's beauty from the balcony!!  

We got a late check-out at 1:00 from the hotel, so we had a really relaxing morning to get re-packed, have a delicious breakfast overlooking the beach, and read on the balcony.  Then we took a taxi into the town center where we did a little shopping and had a light lunch - our last authentic Greek souvlaki and tzatziki - yum!!  

After a taxi ride to the Patras port, we were ready to board our overnight ferry to Italy at 4:00 p.m., for our 6:00 departure.  

First we explored the ship, which was a fairly small one compared to some of the other huge ones in the port.  

And, we're off!!  

Aboard the SS Piraeus, beginning our journey to the Puglia area of southern Italy.

Farewell Greece!!  We had assigned airline seats on the ferry, but they were wider, more comfortable, and had more legroom than seats on airplanes, thankfully.  Until our first stop around midnight, there were hardly any people, so we each stretched across a whole row of seats to lay down.  But then the whole airline seat section filled up completely - it wasn't too bad though.  

We arrived in Bari, Italy around 10:30 a.m. and took a taxi to the airport where we picked up our rental car.  Everything went really smoothly!  

Our Italian cousin had suggested that we visit Trani before our meeting time with the rest of the Doughty clan later in the afternoon.  This fountain on the square was our starting point.  

The architecture and tropical foliage were beautiful.  And of course Beth is eating Italian gelato --- we all had to sample it and compare it with Greek frozen yogurt and Slovak zmrzlina!!    :-)  

We spent some time walking through this beautiful park on the edge of the sea.  

We explored the harbor at Trani on our way to the cathedral.  

St. Nickolas the Pilgrim Cathedral in Trani, dating from the 1100's, sits right on the edge of the sea on a beautiful piazza.  

The crypt area in the basement of the cathedral - to be used as a sanctuary for a wedding, evidently, as beautiful flowers were being brought in by the dozens!  

The cathedral's sanctuary.  

On the square outside the cathedral, looking over at this 13th century fort.  

This cute tour guide approached us outside the church and took us to some really old churches in Trani!  Evidently Trani had one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe in the 12th century, so we saw synagogues as well.  

Our guide, Vito, didn't speak much English, so a few signs on buildings were helpful to clarify his explanations!   This church was several meters below street level - it was so old that layers had been build up around it over the centuries!   

8th/9th century church below the street.  They still use it today, if we understood Vito correctly.  

Exploring the tiny streets winding through Trani, which has many well preserved medieval streets and city walls.    

Sorry for the lack of captions - we have to board our plane now - in Vienna heading to Iowa today!!  YAY!!~!   

P.S. - I added a few more captions to this post later!!