Venice September 18 (Geoff) Today we went exploring. We went searching for some breakfast, having been told that most Venetians eat breakfast and lunch standing up, and found a little coffee place that also had croissants. They looked a bit surprised when we asked for tea instead of coffee but managed to track down a couple of old tea bags that hadn't passed their use by date. We also had a couple of croissants. This had to be the cheapest meal of the trip so far costing us just over 4 Euro. After breakfast we decided to meander through the alleyways [View Full Entry]

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Venice at the Rialto - September 17 (Geoff) What a day! We had decided that rather than pay US $15 each for a hotel transfer from the ship (and then they don't go to all hotels, only the more recognised ones), we would make our own way to the place we were staying. We had a map of the city with us and headed off the ship to collect our bags and head into town. The collection of the bags was no big problem but the interesting stuff started once we exited the terminal to find transport. We were going to [View Full Entry]

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Cruise Day 11- Dubrovnik, Croatia (Sue) Captains log stardate ..... sorry I thought I was in outer space. Talk about being long way from home! The pattern of our lives on board this ship has fallen into an odd routine. We get up, go touring through another city for 4 hours, come back exhausted, eat, drink and sleep. Occaisonally we catch up with fellow cruisers to share common experiences. Our standards are starting to slip as we haven't been to the restaurant for dinner in a couple of nights. We discovered the casual dining restaurant that does brekkie and lunch also [View Full Entry]

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Day 9 - Katakolon, Greece (Geoff) Sue has organised for us to take a later tour today - Yay!!!. Our tour today is off to Olympia but thankfully doesn't start till midday. A chance to sleep in a bit and have a quiet start to the day. Olympia is about 40 minutes out of the village of Katakolon. We head to the bus at 11:45 and head straight out there. The itinerary is to visit the museum first and then tour the archaeological site. We see some amazing statuary that has been saved at the site, some of which has been [View Full Entry]

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Day 7 - At Sea (Geoff) Not much happening today - we left Messina at about 11.00 p.m. heading for Navplion in Greece. All the non-Europeans had to hand in their passports for checking by the Greek authorities. I was not very happy about this as these are very important documents when you are such a long way from home but there is nothing you can do so we duly handed them over and are holding onto the receipts so we can reclaim them after Corfu. We had a laid back day and after lunch they were holding pool games so [View Full Entry]

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Day 8 - Navplion, Greece (Geoff) Today, Sue has booked us into a 7 hour tour that will see us explore the ancient city of Corinth and then have a look at the Mycaenae citadel. We are up early, have breakfast and head to the tour departure area. We barely have time to sit down before our tour is called. We head off to discover that the ship can't dock here so we will be going ashore in the lifeboats as tenders. Not a problem as the sea is smooth and the trip ashore is quiet. We get on our bus [View Full Entry]

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Cruise day 3 - Monte Carlo. (Geoff) Day 3 sees us pull up at Monaco (Monte Carlo) around about noon. Only problem was there was a cruise ship already pulled up at the dock (very small marina) and we had to wait till it left and made space available for us to dock. In the meantime, the crew manned the lifeboats (literally) and provided a tender service into Monte Carlo. We had not booked anything so we watched as lots of people left the ship and traversed the washing machine before getting into the harbour and heading to shore. We were [View Full Entry]

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Cruise day 3 - Monte Carlo. (Geoff) Day 3 sees us pull up at Monaco (Monte Carlo) around about noon. Only problem was there was a cruise ship already pulled up at the dock (very small marina) and we had to wait till it left and made space available for us to dock. In the meantime, the crew manned the lifeboats (literally) and provided a tender service into Monte Carlo. We had not booked anything so we watched as lots of people left the ship and traversed the washing machine before getting into the harbour and heading to shore. We were [View Full Entry]

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Thursday 4 September Today was as much fun as you can have either standing still or walking for miles in a vibrant, dynamic city. We decided against any tours and just roamed the city. We started late after a few phone calls home and updating the blog at the Internet cafe across the road. The local fruit and fish market has become a favourite with freshly squeezed juices, bakeries, fish and fresh packaged fruit. We stopped here first to have a quick morning tea before walking down to the dock. We were hoping to get some idea of where to join [View Full Entry]

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Friday 5th September (Geoff) Today is the day that we will board the ship for our long awaited Mediterranean cruise. Before that happens, we have a few loose ends to tie up in Barcelona. We sleep in a little (jet lag is now long past) and after breakfast we head back towards La Rambla. We potter around here for a little while before we decide to head back to the apartment and get a taxi to the port where the ship is docked. This sounds really easy doesn't it? Well it doesn't work out to be so!! We visit the markets [View Full Entry]

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