(Sort of ) Wordless Wednesday

Psalms 8:3-9

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Fourth Stop: Sicily, Italy

It has been a long time since I posted anything about my trip to the Mediterranean with Melissa, so I am very excited about today's post. (If you haven't seen anything about our trip before, there is a link to all of the previous trip posts on the right side of my blog. It is titled : "Mediterranean Memories With Melissa And Me." Take a peek. We saw some amazing things.)

Here is a picture of both of us on the tour bus. We were very excited to be headed to a beach in Sicily! (Really, you can just totally ignore us in this picture if you want to. We took our picture at the start of each new thing we did together, so we both realize to everyone some people we may seem completely obnoxious. But we don't care.)



We had no idea what to expect as we arrived in Sicily, so we were very pleased as we took in everything (and everyone) that we saw.

As many of you already know, one of the main things that I wanted to do on my trip was to write my name in the sand along the Mediterranean Sea. So I was thrilled when I got to make this dream of mine come true. (This picture may already look familiar to you all. It looks very similar to the one from my blog header that my sweet friend Dianne made for me. Thanks, Dianne!) :)



And I have a surprise for all my sweet blogging friends. You were all in my thoughts as I was on this amazing trip, so I wrote your names in the sand too. Well, not each and every individual name, but when I wrote "Bloggy Buddies" in the sand....I meant all of you.:)



Sigh.

See, it's like all of you were there with me.:)

This is the name of the beach resort we went to. (I knew that I would not remember how to spell the name, so I took this picture.)




It was really a very beautiful beach area. All of Italy is just surrounded by the beauty of God's creation. If you look closely in this picture, you can see the mountains in the distance.



And that is not our cruise ship, by the way. Our ship was about forty-five minutes away.

Here are a few pictures of the scenery surrounding the beach area.



It was so different than the beaches that I have been to in the south here in America.



Can you imagine the view from the homes on top of the mountain?



Feel free to just ignore us once again....We were just so excited to be there.



If you are wondering to yourselves, "Why is Amy dressed in full winter garb at the beach?".....It is because I was freakishly sunburned from our day of laying out on the top deck of the ship.



I even had to pay two Euros to rent this beach umbrella to sit underneath.



Pitiful.

Some of you may already know this, but bathing suits are optional at some of the beaches in Europe. And given my spiritual gift of nosiness, I got a big kick out of this girl exercising her options.



It was very awkward too, seeing how she was the ONLY lady at the beach that chose not to wear her bathing suit top.



Thank goodness!

Well, that is all the torture I will put you through today....But not to worry, there is more where that came from next time.

Second Stop: Dubrovnik , Croatia

Our second port of call was Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Croatia is such an amazing place; it's very picturesque!

This very large bridge is the first thing that we saw as we got off of the cruise ship. We were told that this bridge was made by Americans, but I don't know if that is true or not. (I should probably Google that to find out.)



All of the orange roofs that you see have a meaning. Our tour guide (who sounds like Count Dracula when he talks) told us that every place you see with an orange roof, is a place that was rebuilt after the war. I don't know anything about the war other than what he told us....."It was a stupid, stupid war; started in 1991 by stupid people for stupid reasons." (He used the word "stupid" multiple times.) I'm sorry that I don't have any more information than that, but that is all I know. He went on to say though that after the war, people started to move back in to Dubrovnik, and they began to rebuild. All of the orange roofs are a constant reminder of all of the people and places that were lost in the stupid war.

And I must tell you all that the bright orange roofs surrounded by the beautiful blue water of the Adriatic Sea is quite stunning!



Croatia is covered by these beautiful yellow wildflowers. Our tour guide told us the name of them, but I cannot remember it. If you know the name, please let me know. I had a difficult time understanding him. Don't get me wrong, he spoke English amazingly well, but that Count Dracula accent was so thick, that I didn't always understand what he was saying.



After letting us stop to take a few pictures of the countryside, we were taken to the home of the Sapro family. This family has lived here for over 700 years. They make olive oil and wine for a living.



The first thing we saw as we got off of the tour bus was this little old lady watering her garden. She must have felt like a zoo animal the way we stared at her and took her picture. (But she was a good sport about it.)



Everything about this place was beautiful and charming.....Just ask Melissa!



This Croatian Cutie gave us a tour of the place. He spoke English very well. He welcomed all of us into his family's workplace where the olive oil is made.



We were told something very interesting (we thought) by the Croatian Cutie.....He said there is no such thing as Extra Virgin Olive Oil....He said that "extra" was just a word meaning "more expensive!" He gave this as an example, "If you have a woman, she is either a virgin, or she is not...There is no such thing as an extra-virgin woman." So he said the same is true of olive oil.....Melissa and I did not know that....did you?



The entire place was made out of this stone. Outside that day it was very warm, but once you went inside it was so cool. They don't have air conditioning of course, but with all of this stone, they don't need any.



This is the area where they stored their wine. After telling us everything about their family business, they served us all sandwiches and wine. Melissa and I neither one drink alcohol, but the sandwiches were delicious.



This is a little courtyard type area outside. Over to the left are some stairs that lead up to the family's living quarters. They live right above where they work.



As we drove all through the countryside from the ship to the Sapro family home, we saw so many roses. They came in every color and size that you could imagine. They were so beautiful! I took this picture of the roses growing beside the Sapro's home. They had many other types of flowers as well, but I wanted to show you just an example of some of the roses that we saw that day.



This is the view from the Sapro family home. They are surrounded by the beauty of God's creation.



I'll continue with more of our day in Croatia next time.........

P.S. I wanted to let you all know that I go to have my MRI at 8:30 in the morning on Friday; then I see the neurologist that same afternoon at 1:00. Thank you all again for your kind words of encouragement and especially for your prayers.
God Bless,
Amy:)