Day 11 Back in Rome Well the cruise has finished and when we set out we weren't sure whether we'd love it or hate it. The 11 days were enough to convince us that saving for another cruise would be well worth while. Maybe the Inside Passage in Alaska would be good. Many of the other passengers told us how they had enjoyed that. Some may say that we spent most our trip visiting old buildings etc and that's true. But they all have so much history about them and we thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and everything about it. 11 days [View Full Entry]

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Day 10 Messina Messina is on the northeastern Sicilian coast. It's on the western shore of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the Italian mainland - Calabria Province. Our guide took us around the town with a highlight at 12 noon. In a number of niches of a large bell tower was presented a tableau of metal sculptures with religious motifs. [View Full Entry]

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Day 9 Malta - Valetta & Mdina Our excursion today took us to look at the ancient (quiet) city of Mdina and then we returned to look around the modern capital of Malta, Valetta. Paid for a sumptuous meal in the "Pinacle Grill" - very nice. [View Full Entry]

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Day 8 At Sea Slept in late. Relaxed. Listened to several presentations from different speakers ranging from the executive chef talking while a bloke made fancy carvings into fruit and vegies. Arrived late and played in a trivia competition. Most of the questions related to USA history - sports people and actors etc. Attended an art auction and, wait for it we bought two paintings. That’s right we bought after the auction, but saw the two during the auction. Got dressed up for dinner in our glad rags and ate snails and lobster. Lost money at the casino’s roulette wheel. Terrible [View Full Entry]

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Day 7 Kusadasi, Turkey After sailing overnight through various Greek islands in the Agean Sea we berthed early morning in the Turkish port of Kusadasi. This port is close to Ephesus, the Agean’s best-preserved ancient city. Layers of silt covered this 2000-year old city over the years and much has been discovered but much is still buried. Associated with Ephesus is the tomb of St John the Apostle, which we visited. As an athiest, you can imagine Geoff’s impression of the claimed house of the Virgin Mary, which we also saw. A very interesting day concluded with open-air buffet lunch and [View Full Entry]

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Day 6 Beautiful Santorini Mary Donohue will remember Geoff saying how he longed to visit the Greek Island one day. Well today he got his wish and got to experience the magic of Santorini, with its white buildings, some topped with blue at the top of black cliffs Magic! [View Full Entry]

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Day 5 Sailed into the small town of Katakolon on the coast of western Greece. This is the closest port to the famous ruins of Olympia. Bus to the site and we weren’t disappointed. The Olympic torch is lit some month before the start of each Olympic Games at a very insignificant spot in the complex. On our return to the ship, we stopped at a tavern and were given light snack food including local octopus and then entertained by music and Zorba dancing. (video included) [View Full Entry]

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Day 3 (of the cruise) Sitting back during the past few weeks and thinking about each of the ports of call on this adventure, I formed an image of Dubrovnik, encouraged by my reading and the internet images I'd seen, and knew I would be very pleased after the visit to the town. Pleased? I was absolutely enthralled!! We paid for some personal service from a local guide and it was well worthing the very big price. A driver, Mato, and our guide, a young woman who has lived all her life in Dubrovnik and just completed a university degree. Jasna [View Full Entry]

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The first of the cruise days and after killing some time around the neighborhood near our hotel, our hire car driver made good time (Italian drivers are maniacs) to the port city of Civitavecchia. Got through the security checks etc and boarded about 2.30 pm Much to our delight we had been upgraded from an outside cabin on the 1st deck to a cabin on the 5th floor with our own verandah. Mrs Burt got into a panic when our luggage failed to arrive after about 2 hours. We went for a pre-dinner drink and when we got back there were [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 (or is it 3 - who's counting?) OK so I was tired and jet-lagged when I posted our first entry and the spelling wasn't the best. Most of you will have spotted the spelling variation of Mediterranean. Right? Pat & Geoff spent most of today (Monday) exploring Rome and meeting up with other old ruins like us. One of the best ways of getting around big cities is on board the open top double deck buses. Rome seems to have a number of companies touting for business. The one we chose went close to all the major tourist attractions. [View Full Entry]

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