Kusadasi, Hotel and host (Liman/Mr Happy) is very good, very welcoming - whilst not the Ritz, it makes up for that in so many otherways. With 3 large cruise ships parked out the front on the 1st. day we decided to postpone our visit to the ancient site/ruins of Ephesus; - spent the day instead on a deck chair with another crowd on Ladies Beach; - streets ahead of the other beaches we have come across with something resembling beach sand. Over indulged on a Turkish night (dinner, show with unlimited drinks) and decided to again postpone our visit to Ephesus; instead visited the Hamam to cleanise the body and clear the head - that was interesting. Final day missed breakie to visit Ephesus early to beat the crowd of a couple of new cruise ships ... read more

The Perıkıleous ferry from Santorını was an hour late and later arıvıng ın Rhodes or Rodos cıty, other than that, enjoyed the cabın and what turned out to be a nıce half day cruıse vısıtıng Islands; then the proverbıal !'&$ hıt the fan. Despıte havıng more dırectıons than for any other hotel we couldn't fınd the Spot Hotel, ıt certaınly wasn't ın the spot I had reckoned on; even the locals were confused by my Google Maps. Turns out the Spot Hotel ıs wıthın the fortress walls of the Old Cıty (shoulda known that) and ıf we had been deposıted at the rıght wharf ıt would have been a pıece of cake. Anyhow, after an hour or so Leyland Bros tour of Rodos ın the heat we found ıt. Stays lıght quıte late and managed to ... read more

The plane trip from Kiev to Athens was nice with views over some of the Aegean Islands we will be visiting until the auto pilot was switched off; then the plane seemed to be all over the sky. The plane landed OK to a round of applause. We used the Hop-on/hop-off Red Bus to take in the sights of Athens as we only have a short stay - need to preserve the legs for Santorini next. The Red Bus works much better in Athens than in Kiev - I suspect due to the increased amount of tourist traffic. Had a couple of pieces of luck i) Did most of our touring the 1st day; the 2nd. day turned out to be a real scorcher. ii) Visiting the Acropolis 1st. and holding on to these tickets afforded ... read more

Our apartment was a good central location close to the main pedestrian street (Deribasovskaya I think) full of resturants and close to most attractions. Everyone speaks Russian with most signage in Ukrainian. The street signs are huge; seems like they feel the need to use every letter in the alphbet for each one. The Potemkin staircase is a set of 192 steps leading to Odessa's port. (Odessa's Eiffel tower or Sydney's Harbour bridge). Not part of the plan but managed to climb them 3 times; and no, there wasn't a Rocky Balboa moment. Visted the Catacombs - a tunnel system from quarryed sanstone used to build the city; it runs for 100's of miles and has been used by smugglers, revoluntionaries and the Nazi resistance movement during WW11. Russian tour guide was useful; didn't draw breath ... read more

Arrived Kingston to find no pick up driver; OK, go to Plan B. Contact with accommodation person was greeted with a no answer. Plan C - wing-it with local taxi; all good in the end. Like most Caribbean places, homes/buildings are heavily protected with security grills, steel fencing, razor wire and the like. I have seen no evidence of crime in travels so far but the amount of security guards suggest otherwise. Main attraction was the visit and tour of Bob Marley's place. Tried the roasted peanuts from the street vendors pushing trolley type boilers whistling with steam - very good. Jamaica gets my vote as having the best mangoes; extremely juicy and fleshy. They have a slightly stronger flavor and rival our home grown Bowens. ... read more