Welcome

Welcome to my first blog. In two days, Allen and I will depart for our Mediterranean cruise and I will attempt to update this blog with info about what we are doing and seeing on our trip. Hopefully, I will even find a way to download some photos. (This all depends on internet access aboard the ship. There is an internet lounge, but we don't yet know what they charge for access or how heavy demand will be. Who knows, there might be hundreds of other bloggers aboard. I'm pretty sure there will be better things to do onboard than sit around waiting for a computer to open up.)

By the way, we will be cruising aboard Swan Hellenic's ship, the Minerva II. Swan Hellenic (http://swanhellenic.com/) is a British company, known for "discovery cruises". We will have several guest lecturers onboard, all of whom specialize in Mediterranean history.

Here is a link to information about this cruise: http://swanhellenic.com/itinerary.asp?CruiseID=220.

And here is information about the Minerva II: http://swanhellenic.com/aboutminerv.asp, including some fun 360 degree views of different areas of the ship.

Finally, here is a link to a shipboard webcam and map of where the ship is at the time you access the page: http://swanhellenic.com/minervawebcam.asp Just remember, if it's daylight in Arizona, it is probably night in Europe, so the webcam might be black.