Eastern Mediterranean/Adriatic Sea Cruise (April 29-May 16, 2026)

We decided to cruise through the eastern Mediterranean/Adriatic Sea (Holland America - Oosterdam). This map shows our scheduled cruise itinerary, with some time added for sightseeing in Athens at the start of the trip and in Trieste at the end.

All of these locations are new destinations for both of us!

Days 1-2: Leave home and fly to Athens, Greece 
Days 3-4: Visit Athens 
Day 5: Go to Piraeus and begin cruise 
Day 6: Kusadasi, Turkiye 
Day 7: At Sea - Cruising the Dardanelles 
Days 8-9: Istanbul, Turkiye 
Day 10: Mykonos, Greece 
Day 11: Souda (Crete), Greece 
Day 12: Katakolo (Olympia), Greece 
Day 13: Sarande, Albania 
Day 14: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Day 15: At Sea
Days16-17: Disembark in Trieste, Italy and spend 2 nights
Day 18: Fly home from Trieste, Italy

Days 1-2 (April 29-30): Travel to Athens

We had a few setbacks with our flight today. The plane for our first leg to Chicago was delayed by longer than our layover, so we needed to reschedule all connecting flights. We were switched from a United flight to Munich to a later Lufthansa flight.

The agent assisting us confirmed that we had premium economy seats (which is what we had booked on United) but was unable to print boarding passes for that flight.

When we arrived in Chicago, we discovered that Lufthansa didn't recognize United's code for premium economy, and we were assigned standard economy seats not next to each other. Mine was in the last row of a section, directly in front of the bathrooms, and had limited recline. So uncomfortable.

For our final leg, we were both assigned middle seats, not the aisle and window we paid to select, since we needed a later flight. To top it off, we had to sit on the plane an additional 45 minutes before takeoff.

We landed in Athens a little after 7 pm (instead of 3 pm), then headed to our hotel (Acro Urban Suites) to shower and change before having dinner and going to bed the evening.

This is the great view of the Parthenon from our hotel's roof top patio.