We arrived in Thessaloniki, Greece this morning at about 7.30am. Our overnight voyage was smooth and our docking took place without us even being aware that we had made the transition from sailing to stationery! By the time we ventured out of bed the ship had already been in port for at least half an hour. We had a leisurely breakfast before heading off into Thessaloniki for a few hours. We walked along the sea front to the White Tower which houses Thessaloniki's history museum. All the interpretative boards were in Greek and the English audio guide was disappointingly scant on information. Still, it was a tower that we could ascend for a view over Thessaloniki's harbour-side area ... and we hadn't climbed a tower for a week or so!! From the White Tower we walked ... read more

Ugh, our earliest start yet. The alarm was set for 3.45am this morning so that we would be ready to be picked up by the mini-cab at 4.30am in order to be at Manchester Airport in time to do the check-in for our flight to Turkey at 7.00am. We weren't active enough yesterday to work up a sweat so we didn't bother showering this morning, just cleaned our teeth and dressed and stuffed our toilet bags into our travelling bags ready for the next instalment of our holiday - cruising the 'Undiscovered Aegean' with Kath and Albert. Because we were going on a cruise we didn't have to join the ridiculously long check-in queue, we were fast-tracked through the 'Premium' queue which was virtually empty. Our bags all came in under 20kg, thank goodness. Kath and ... read more

This morning we made our traditional visit to the Crownpoint Shopping Park at Denton. Over the years we have made some excellent purchases over at Denton. We're a bit worried about the formal night on the cruise and wanted to buy some suitably dressy gear so as not to look too casual on the night of the Captain's Dinner!! Bernie thought that if he bought a jacket to wear with his travel pants that he might be able to get away with it. Hmmn, we looked at some jackets in T K Maxx, but their jackets were expensive ... and, frankly, quite horrible. It also became obvious that a jacket with his very jean-like pants was going to look naff. Our next stop was Marks and Spencer where we found there were plenty of reasonably priced ... read more

Continuing to indulge my obsession with Captain Cook, this morning we headed off to North Yorkshire where James was born and lived until he joined the navy in his mid-twenties. In the past we have headed north-east towards the Yorkshire Moors from Stalybridge by cutting up through Mossley, Uppermill, Dobcross and Denshaw to pick up the M62 at Junction 22. With Bernie being more than happy to take Ken's directions we actually headed west around the M60 ring road before joining the M62 at Junction 18. It's hard to say which is better. I guess the traffic on the motorway travels faster than it does going through all the small villages on the A roads?? The traffic was moving pretty well until we merged with the M1 to the south of Leeds. For some reason the ... read more

Another big driving day today as we made our way from Marazion, Cornwall to Stalybridge, Cheshire. Bernie asked Ken to calculate the journey with and without a detour to Plymouth. It was only going to add half an hour to the travel time (plus whatever time we actually spent in Plymouth!) so we decided that we could call in for a very short visit. Plymouth has a long military association which goes back to 1588 when the ships of the English Navy set sail for the Spanish Armada through the mouth of the River Plym. In 1689, in the time of William III, the Devonport Royal Dockyards were built in the Hamoaze area on a section of the River Tamar. Both the Tamar and the Plym flow out through The Sound into the English Channel. The ... read more