Geo: 38.1922, 15.5566May 7th was an at sea day as we cruised from Piraeus to Messina. I caught up with mundane chores like undie washing. However, at 2pm we attended a Premium Wine Tasting in the Pinnacle bar. We started with a Moet and Chandon sparkling which was very nice and then were given a French Chablis and a Californian Chardonnay. Surprisingly, the Chardonnay was far superior with more flavour and freshness. We then had two Reds, a French Pinot Noir and a Californian Cab Sav. Both were excellent. Fernando, the Sommelier on board took us through the wines commenting on colour, flavour etc We also had small portions of food to see which went best with each wine. The finish was a 6 grapes Port. A pleasant hour or so spent tasting nice wine.At 6pm ... read more

Geo: 37.8605, 27.2566For many years I have wanted to travel to the amazing ancient site of Ephesus in Turkey. The extensive archaeological excavations here have only unearthed about 18% of the site but what is there is impressive (to quote our guide, Fatih, who must have used the word over a hundred times!) There is an interesting mixture of the earlier Greek and later Roman buildings though the Emprical Roman tends to dominate.We arrived in Kusadasi early and were on the bus at 7-30am. We drove about 30 minutes to the site along roads lined with Mulberry trees used for feeding the silk worms which produce the threads for the Turkish carpets made here. Our gudie was knowlegeable but did like the sound of his own voice and tended to show us what he deemed important. ... read more

Geo: 39.5062, 21.6156Katakolo is the port from which Olympia is accessed. Having been there we decided to have a relaxing day ashore. The port is very pretty, a small town a couple of minutes walking from the dock.We wandered through the main street looking at the inevitable shops selling all kinds of artefacts. We went out to the local mooring area where there were small fishing boats. We had seen a sign to a Museum of Ancient Greek technology so decided to check that out. This was a terrific little museum. It contained working models of ancient Greek inventions including cannon, cranes, and entertainment devices. There were also models of triremes and biremes and charts showing defence devices. One was a crane and counter weight with a hook on one end that would attach itself to ... read more

Geo: 40.84, 14.2529 We arrived in Naples this morning later than expected. After breakfast in our cabin we went to join our tour to the Ruins of Pompeii. I had been looking forward to this for ages having read so much about it. We eventually (nearly an hour late) got onto our tour bus and were driven to Pompeii at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.This certainly was a bustling tourist attraction with several tour ships in harbour and lots of bus loads here. Our guide was Wanda (nothing like the fish) and she was excellent, entertaining and informative.Our first stop inside the city was the Odeon, a small amphitheatre, beautifully preserved. It was not as large as the one in Jerash but still proportionately interesting. The complex here is amazing with so many small streets and ... read more

Geo: 39.504, 2.64221We arrived in Palma about 8am and after breakfast caught a taxi into the main old town area. There is a maze of narrow streets much like the old areas of most European cities. We started at the old Cathedral and Castle which was very impressive with towering porticos and attractive courtyards. We wandered through the maze of streets finding a very old olive tree in one of the placas. This is an interesting place but nothing outstanding.We found an wifi cafe and spent a happy couple of hours catching up on news from home and updating footy tips etc. Afterwards we wandered down into the more modern streets and here were wide boulevards and a myriad of modern shops. I found a great clothing store, Punta Roma which had great clothes at reasonable ... read more