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 Turkish dancers, followed by a visit to a Turkish carpet sales room where the boss gave a display of his collection and his off-siders attempted to flog the goods - at big prices. Another great ... read more

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) ... read more

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 the bags as Geoff said they would be (smart arse) Casual dress tonight for a lovely dinner, but tomorrow we put on the glad rags for the first of the 3 formal dinner nights. We ... read more

Days 1 & 2 (I think) Pat & I arrived in Rome about mid-day Sunday. The Singapore Airlines plane should have got here about 3 hours earlier but an undercarriage malfunction on the original plane saw us take 2 security checks at two different terminals in Singapore. We were met as planned by a driver who took us to the city - very quickly. At stages, on a 110km motorway not an autostrada were hitting 145 -150 km. Didn't tell Dave as we spoke on the mobile on the way. The hotel (Hotel Golden) is quite good. On the second floor and reached using a very old lift. It's one of those that you can see through a heavy metal mesh and it has two doors which swing in and out. The very friendly, obliging manager ... read more

After flowers, trees & other plants the Traf Duo wandered around in the London rain on the next two days. That's right, almost an hour after the sun-blessed Chelsea Flower Show finished, the wet stuff began and it hasn't really stopped since. What is there to do on a wet London day? Pat pointed us in the direction of one of the most well-know, high class and EXPENSIVE stores in London. What did she want to buy? A Harrods bag! That's right a bag - not a handbag, but a carry bag with "Harrods" written on the outside. When we finished making a claim for tax exemption, we had TWO bloody Harrods bags, a computer bag for Geoff's newish laptop, a hat to match Pat's Burberry coat which she bought in LA and we didn't ... read more