Turkiye and Greece - April 22, 2026

April 22, 2026

Today was very uneventful.  It was a moving day.  We woke a little later than normal (whatever that is), had a leisurely breakfast, put our luggage in the designated place, hopped on the shuttle, and checked aboard the Viking Jupiter.

We must say that the port authority building Viking uses in Istanbul is the cleanest port authority building we have ever been in.  It was immaculate.  So I’m guessing that it is fairly new.

We were on shuttle number four to travel to the ship.  The lower the shuttle number the earlier you were allowed to check in.  We met another couple, from Australia, that was supposed to be on bus number nine.  We were having a good conversation when the agent came by to tell us that shuttle number four was ready to load.  Being the smart aleck that I am, I asked if we could have them bumped up to shuttle four.  Someone must have thought I was important because they were put on shuttle number four.  I really think it was because there were only four scheduled for that shuttle so two more on a twelve passenger bus is not a big deal.

We arrived on the ship just in time for lunch.  In short order our stateroom was ready so we spent some time unpacking and getting familiar with the ship.

Before you know it, it was dinner time.  It was “Italian night”.  Robin had chicken parmesan while I had an encrusted pork chop.  Both were very good.  And, of course we could not pass up desert.  Needless to say we ate WAY too much today.  I might have to take some time to work out tomorrow (YUK!).  Oh well, I guess I will have to learn to pace myself.

We watched a movie in the theater tonight.  It was Topkapi from 1964.  Neither of us had ever heard of it.  But since it was set in Istanbul and involved some of the places we had seen over the past few days it was shown.

Then it was back to our stateroom to wind down for the day.

Flat Lizzy spent most of her day hanging out in our stateroom.  We let her out for a while and she found the telescope in one of the lounges.  I wonder what she was looking at?

We have nothing scheduled for tomorrow.  The excursion we had scheduled was simply going to take us to a couple of sites we had already been to.  So we decided to visit a local art museum instead.  It is only a few blocks from the port.

Tomorrow will be another adventure.

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