Day 25 Merry Christmas from Aegean Sea

Today is a much-needed Sea Day — and notably, the only planned Sea Day on this entire Leg #3 of our Mediterranean cruise.

To those of you who have been following along, I owe you an apology. I’ve fallen far behind on my FindPenguins posts. The pace of this trip has far exceeded the pace of our World Cruise two years ago. Our days have been filled—almost relentlessly—with excursions, meals, drinks, shows, conversations, and the occasional long nap just to recover enough to do it all again the next day.

Donna and I have been traveling continuously since November 6th. Today is December 25th. That’s 49 days on the move.

We are tired.
Physically tired.
Emotionally tired.

And we still have 21 more days to go, ending January 15th. We’ll be home for just one week before hopping on a plane to Hawaii. Somewhere along the way, we learned a very real lesson about jam-packed itineraries—one that only experience can teach.

As always, I woke up before Donna. We had to set our clocks ahead an hour overnight as we continue moving east—slowly, at about nine knots—through the Aegean Sea. We’re leaving Crete behind and threading our way through the Greek islands, heading toward Ephesus (Kuşadası), Turkey.

My Christmas present came quietly.

I sat alone on our veranda, wrapped in warm air, and watched the sun rise over the sea. No schedule. No announcements. Just light, water, and stillness. It was peaceful. It was beautiful. I’m sharing a couple of photos here because words don’t quite do it justice.

Around 8:30 a.m., I woke Donna so we could get ready for breakfast. Once dressed, we headed to the World Café. But first, I made a strategic stop—dropping my laptop on Deck 8 in the Explorer’s Lounge to stake out a seat for later blogging. Priorities.

After breakfast, Donna suited up for battle.

Laundry Day.

She retrieved our laundry and headed to Deck 6 like a hockey player entering the rink—pads on, elbows out. Hip checks were implied. Gloves were eventually dropped when one woman claimed two dryers, leaving Donna dryer-less. It was a brutal encounter. Donna, ever the sportswoman, yielded to the opposing team.

It’s now noon. Breakfast ended around 9:30, and lunch is already being served. We are absolutely not hungry. The World Café runs until 2:30, so sometime between 1:00 and 1:30 we’ll casually wander over. There is no rush. Nothing is planned—and that’s exactly the point.

Other than that, not much is planned today at all.

With this post, I’m now only 24 days behind.

I’m trying.

Merry Christmas from the Aegean Sea.

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