Singinalot's 2023 Land Trip to Istanbul, Cappadocia, Rome, Amalfi Coast, & Florence

[Guest]

***Hi everyone! 

 

I started cruising in fall 2014 when I made the leap to move from my home in Seattle to where my long distance at the time boyfriend lived in Colorado. He had been cruising for years solo or with ex girlfriends that we will not mention. I had just returned from a DIY land based in Ireland and then pretty much went straight into my first cruise: the Southern Caribbean. 

 

If you’ve read my previous trip blogs you’ll know Nate and I got engaged in Sept 2018 in Rome on top of the Altar of the Fatherland in Palazzo Venezia. When we got back from that cruise we almost immediately booked the same cruise again for October 2019. 

 

Over the last few years, you’ve seen me post on a few land based trips to Greece and one cruise last fall. So why am I posting about another land based trip on a cruise forum?  Because we headed to cruise ports and a lot of this may be helpful to those planning cruises or visits to these spots. There is not a lot of first hand reporting of Istanbul on here so I hope this helps!

 

How did this trip come about?

In February 2023, we got together for dinner with our good friends (those we shared the Paris trip with last year) and basically mapped out an entire 2 week trip to Switzerland and Italy for this summer.  Everyone was excited!  By early March, though, we realized that schedules just did not align for this year. Of course, I was greatly disappointed.  International flights are astronomical these days so I started looking to see where Nate and I could go if we used our points instead.  Nope…point values were astronomical as well.  What’s this I found, though?  77,000 miles each for one-way business class to Istanbul?  Hmm…Turkey was further down on the bucket list, but that’s a price I can’t pass up. In comparison, it was about 300,000 miles to places like New Zealand or Thailand.

 

[Guest]

So let’s get started, shall we?

The above screenshot was the rough itinerary I put together for our time, and I’ll talk about each day as we go along.

 

As I said, I booked us on Turkish airlines via United out of Tampa. We ended up with a 10 hour layover in Washington DC which I ended up being excited for. I hadn’t been to DC since I was a preteen and Nate had never been. The other exciting fact? My dad lives about an hour outside DC. He came to pick us up at the airport and spend the day with us.

 

We landed in DC around 11:30 and my dad was waiting for us. 

 

First view of the Washington monument:

 

and the White House

[Jimbo]

34 minutes ago, singinalot said:

So let’s get started, shall we?

The above screenshot was the rough itinerary I put together for our time, and I’ll talk about each day as we go along.

 

As I said, I booked us on Turkish airlines via United out of Tampa. We ended up with a 10 hour layover in Washington DC which I ended up being excited for. I hadn’t been to DC since I was a preteen and Nate had never been. The other exciting fact? My dad lives about an hour outside DC. He came to pick us up at the airport and spend the day with us.

 

We landed in DC around 11:30 and my dad was waiting for us. 

 

First view of the Washington monument:

 

and the White House

Cool start, a little side trip.

 

For our cruise next month, we are taking the train from Roanoke, Va  to Newark Penn Station, NJ. We have a 30 minute stop in DC, guess there isn't much we can see in 30 minutes is there? 🤣

[#55worktoplay]

Great start can’t wait to read all about it. 

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Cool start, a little side trip.

 

For our cruise next month, we are taking the train from Roanoke, Va  to Newark Penn Station, NJ. We have a 30 minute stop in DC, guess there isn't much we can see in 30 minutes is there? 🤣

 

hahaha nope!  That'll be a fast turn-around for you. 

 

 

16 minutes ago, #55worktoplay said:

Great start can’t wait to read all about it. 

 

Thank you! Excited to relive the trip while it is fresh in my mind

[BonTexasNY]

Looking forward to another fabulous trip report.  I'm glad to be along for the ride!

[Guest]

My youngest sister lived outside of DC for several years so I reached out to her when I was planning for a lunch restaurant suggestion. She suggested Old Ebbitt Grill https://www.ebbitt.com which I then suggested to my Dad and Nate. After Dad picked us up, we headed straight there.

 

Parking was easy in the garage directly below the building.

 

Loved the old bar

 

 

 

 

Nate got the reuben, my Dad got the meatloaf, and I got the filet.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, BonTexasNY said:

Looking forward to another fabulous trip report.  I'm glad to be along for the ride!

 

Thank you! Glad to see you found it!

[erby2283]

I'm gonna need you to adopt me. I love reading your reviews. I haven't sailed since 2019 and am itching to go back to the Mediterranean. I only require a minimal allowance and love dogs. 🙂

[dani negreanu]

1 hour ago, singinalot said:

 

Thank you, Crystal. Glad you posted the link, and enjoying your "ride", along with my +40 years old Gucci 😉

 

 

 

 

[bobmacliberty]

Looking forward to this Crystal!  Istanbul is definitely on my list.  

[jmh2006]

Off to a great start Crystal!!

[Guest]

Thanks everyone!

[Guest]

After lunch, we walked outside to see the beautiful Treasury building across the street and made our way towards the White House.

 

A brief view of the capitol building.

 

My dad got a kick out of this

 

 

[Guest]

The Smithsonian Air & Space museum is free but you must book for a timed entry online. I had reserved us entry for 3pm.

 

We were all honestly underwhelmed by it. 🤷🏼‍♀️

 

 

 

Dad mentioned that he had been to an air and space museum closer to the airport so we decided to head there.

[Ozark_Kid]

Crystal,  thanks for the link.   I am looking forward to the review!

[Mrs.Dukes]

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip! Have enjoyed reading your other trip reports of your cruises.

[aussielozzie18]

Love your reviews especially the food.  Great photos so far.

[Guest]

It turns out the other air & space museum is some type of sister museum to the one we just visited. The entry fee is $15 per vehicle…That’s a pretty great deal! This place is insanely huge.

https://www.si.edu/museums/air-and-space-museum-udvar-hazy-center

 

The first thing we did was go up in the viewing tower because it (the tower only) closed at 4:30..so we had about 10 minutes.

[Guest]

The inside of the actual museum is basically an old hangar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

The Discovery space shuttle…this was crazy to see up close…the outside of it almost looks like paper mache

 

[Guest]

My grandfather was a Brigadier General in the Air Force and I always love hearing about the planes he flew. A couple videos here of my dad describing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Nate’s videos of the space shuttle

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

We spent about an hour or so wandering the museum before heading back to the airport. Dad dropped us off and we went back through security with no problems. I have lounge access with one of my credit cards so decided we’d spend our remaining time lounge hopping while I did a bit of work.

The Turkish Lounge first

 

 

Followed by Lufthansa

 

We then went to the British Lounge but did not stay. 

 

A benefit of our flights was that we also got access to the United Polaris lounge so we made our way there. By far the most beautiful and well equipped. They have an actual dining room with servers in addition to showers and very nice decor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ozark_Kid]

2 hours ago, singinalot said:

The inside of the actual museum is basically an old hangar.

 

 

IMG_0376.mov 27.78 MB · 0 downloads  

I visited the the Smithsonian in the late 70s but didn't know about this place.  I bet I would of liked it.  Although I been to Huntsville Alabama, I have not yet visited the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.  I should someday.

Sharon's 1st cousin is James Voss, an astronaut that has gone to space five times.  He and another astronaut is recorded as having the longest spacewalk at 8 hours and 56 minutes. On the way back from one of his missions and while orbiting earth, he was able to call us through some radio operators in I think California. He called to congratulate our oldest daughter for graduating from High school.