We didn't expect to visit Bosnia-Herzegovina. But other new countries for us--Croatia, Greece, and Turkey were on the itinerary and didn't disappoint. Not to mention old favorites such as Italy, Switzerland and England.

The cruise could hardly have been better. VaNae did fine despite being 7 months pregnant. Nothing worse than a little fatigue and an occasional back ache. Bryan and Donna were so cool and fun and interesting to talk to. Not one bit of being sick of them after 9 full days together.

First we saw Venice, which was of course incredible.

Then we stopped in Bari, Italy where Stuart just served for several months.

In Greece we saw Olympiasite of the first Olympic games.

In Ibiza Turkey, we took a taxi to the NT-era ruins at Ephesus. Amazing.

Istanbul is an incredible, huge Muslim city. We had fun seeing the Mosques, boating across the straits of Bosporus etc.

On the final stop in Dubrovnik, Croatia, we convinced a taxi driver to take us on a short 10km drive into Bosnia. We just wanted to say wed been and get a couple pictures. There were bombed-out houses and rubble everywhere. He said it was a hot area during the war and he was a soldier. He was really nervous crossing the border. They triple-checked passports and checked the trunk etc. It was awesome. Of the 2000 tourists on the cruise ship that docked with us in Croatia, Ill bet we are the only ones who went to Bosnia. The taxi driver thought we were crazy for wanting to go there. It took a 50 Euro bill to convince him, but it was way worth it.

Dubrovnik was absolutely incredible. Ancient walled city on the coast.

It was one of the greatest trips ever with all kinds of interesting sights and experiences.

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Report of Venice, Greece, Turkey, Croatia by Bryan Christensen

After a good transatlantic flight, we arrived in London early Saturday morning. We grabbed a hotel close to the airport, then took a train into downtown and saw Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Piccadilly Circus and all the good tourist haunts in London. The coolest thing was the National Art Gallery. It was twice as educational and interesting as the Louvre in Paris. They had every single famous artist that you can name. Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" was a highlight. As an added feature, it was free to get into the museum. The art was incredible. We grabbed some really good fish and chips while in London.

We flew to Venice, Italy the next morning. The views of the Alps from the plane were amazing. We toured Venice all day and loved it. We had been to Venice with Aaron and Kim once before but didn't have much time to see it all. Venice is spectacular. The buildings appear to be growing right out of the water. We loved it.

Read and VaNae were really fun to be with the whole time. VaNae was 7 months along in her pregnancy and a great sport. We walked all over kingdom-come and she was with us every step of the way. I also really enjoy the conversations that Read and I have. We always seem to get going and get louder and louder as we become more and more involved in the conversation. Donna and I sure appreciate Read and VaNae for inviting us on such a fun trip.

After seeing Venice we got on the ship. Our room was really nice and we had an ocean view. We were in the lap of luxury the whole time. It is strange to be waited upon hand and foot all the time. We had lobster, steak, prime rib and more every night with incredible seven course meals. I will not talk a lot about the food, but needless to say, we ate like hogs and each gained 10 lbs. The Italian ice cream in particular was to die for. Donna and I hit the Disco on the ship almost every night and danced out guts out. She can boogie.

We got off in Bari, Italy on Monday morning. Bari is the self same city in which Uncle Forrest visited Anthony Beal three weeks ago. Anthony has since been transferred to Sicily. Bari was a nice city without a lot to see. It was fun to explore the old city though.

Tuesday morning we kicked Olympia, Greece across the rear. Olympia was the site of the ancient Olympic games. It was also the site of the modern Olympic games for a couple of events last summer. They had the shot putting in the ancient stadium there. There were tons of really cool ruins of temples, statues, the ancient Olympic stadium, and the ancient city itself. It was very informative and interesting. The statues were the best part. Some of the statues were from 800 B.C. There were a bunch of shields and breast and leg plates from ancient wars. It was cool to think that those items predated Nephi.

We spent Wednesday in Ismir, Turkey. Close to Ismir is the ancient New Testament city of Ephesus. That is the city of the Ephesians that Paul and other apostles preached in. Above the city high on a hillside is Maryana, where it is cooler and has great views. Some claim that Mary and John are buried there but we are not sure. There is evidence that they lived there at one time but we are not sure where and if they are buried there. We did visit a cool stone house that Mary allegedly lived in. The ruins of that city are awesome. It was truly incredible to see the great city that was there. Little has been restored and the city is in good shape nonetheless. There is a stadium there that seats 24,000 people. It was in better shape than the coliseum in Rome. It was educational and spiritual to think of the apostles of Jesus Christ preaching right where we were walking. That was an unexpected gem of the trip.

Thursday we saw Istanbul, Turkey. The Mosques and city itself were spectacular. We toured the Blue Mosque and saw the Hagia Sofia. We then took a bridge from Europe to Asia. Our taxi driver took us to the top of a hill overlooking the city. It was breathtaking to see the city and the river winding through it. We rode a boat across the river back to the ship. I bought a really nice suit and tie for $70. Istanbul has 15 million people...5 million on the Europe side and 10 million on the Asia side. The whole city has a wall around it that is pretty sweet.

Friday we enjoyed a day at sea on the ship. It was nice to just sleep, eat and relax in the hot tub. We went to a formal dinner and a spectacular show. But that was every night. Some shows were better than others. We had a magician, dancers, singers, jugglers, acrobats etc.

Saturday we spent the day in Croatia and Bosnia and Hertzegovina. Croatia was nothing short of spectacular. We climbed a mountain (by taxi) overlooking the Med sea and the beautiful countryside. We bribed the taxi driver to drive us to Bosnia where we took some awesome pictures of bombed out houses. The border patrol was tight and we were a little nervous. He thought we were crazy for wanting to go there, but we wanted to count another country. At one point, he told someone in Croation on the radio where wed gone and they burst out laughing. It was really cool to see it all tough.

Dubrovnik is an old walled city sat on the banks of the sea. The city built in the 500's was so beautiful and interesting. We circled the entire city wall all the while breathtaken by it's beauty and history. It was the best thing we saw on the trip.

We returned to Venice to disembark from the ship. We made our way to the train station. Read and VaNae took another quick tour through the city while Donna and I watched the stuff and talked to a professional baseball player (Orioles) who is now a coach for the Rangers.

We were worried about getting out of Milan, so we took a train to Zurich, Switzerland. It was a beautiful train ride with views of the alps, castles etc.at least until it got dark. We had to find a hotel late at night, which wasnt hard. But everything is really expensive in Switzerland so we shared a big room for four. We had one final Rook tournament and hit the hay. We flew out early the next morning and had a pleasant flight to Newark. From there, Read and VaNae returned to Houston and we got a direct flight to OKC.