It was in late January in Sorrento, Italy when we sent out our last postcard. Just after that postcard was sent, we left Sorrento and spent a day touring the ruins of ancient Pompei and walked down its main street, Via Abudancia, imagining what it must have been like almost 2,000 years ago when Mt Vesuvius exploded and froze the city in time forever.

We then hurried up to Rome to meet up with our Danish friends, Carsten and Bollete. We spent a couple of days looking at the sites and sipping coffees in the cafes along the piazzas, then they headed off in OZ (the camper/caravan) for Paris, where they returned OZ to the British rental company. It was in Rome that the computer bit the dust. The problems with the computer got progressively worse, so instead of waiting in Rome we decided to head on up to Sorrento, in the Tuscany area of northern Italy. The old town of Sorrento is criss-crossed with narrow cobbled streets that wind around pastel terra-cotta stuccoed and red tiled roof buildings. We had fun discovering its charms.

Then it was back to Rome to pickup the computer. But, it went on the blink again a few hours later, so back into the shop. So much for Italian computer technology. We spent a few more days in Rome, but then decided to head off for Athens, Greece. We spent a couple of days touring the Acropolis and the old Plaka section of Athens, then headed for the Greek island of Santorini. Given that it was off season, we found that we had the entire town to ourselves. Most of the hotels and restaurants were closed and many were under reconstruction, as this is the time when they spruce everything up before the next season's onslaught of visitors. This was all to our liking and we enjoyed walking the terraced winding paths through Fira and Oia that hang on the cliffs overlooking the bay that was created when the island's volcano exploded over 2,000 years ago.

Ken gave us a little scare when he found a lump on his chest and complained of a constant upset stomach. Fearing a recurrence of the cancer, we headed back to Athens were he was checked into a hospital for a full workup. He was attended to by a fine physician who we now count among one of the many new friends we have made on this trip. Fortunately the diagnosis was a peptic ulcer.

We all breathed a sigh of relief, appreciated each other a little more, and thought how glad we were to be on this adventure together. We then headed for the Greek island of Mikonos. We were blessed with unseasonably good weather. But once again the island was empty of visitors so we had its many charms all to ourselves. Skyler made friends with the island's mascot pelican, called Petros. We spend our mornings drinking coffee and tea at the harbor watching the fishermen bringing in their catches. We watched the farmers walking their donkeys to the open air market with baskets filled with fresh vegetables. We made many new friends in Mikonos and it was one of the highlights of our trip.

We had computer problems in Italy which in addition to Ken's illness, forced us to skip Turkey. Instead, on February 20, we flew from Athens to Nairobi, Kenya, via Cairo.

              
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