North Aegean and the Dardanelles

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Geo: 39.9825, 26.009

This is our last full day on the ship and it is a day at sea as we travel further north through the Aegean Sea toward Istanbul. There is a blustery northern wind that we are sailing into which makes it seem worse than it is. The sky is pure blue with not a cloud in sight. As we wake we are passing by the Island of Chios on our starboard and Psara on our port.

We are slow to get moving this morning. We don't have to rush to get off ship. Breakfast is in the Oceanview Cafe. We make a start on packing our cases which is strange for me as I only unpacked mine 3 days ago. We didn't want to be worrying about it later and when done we can relax for the rest of the day.

We head to the photo gallery and pick photos from almost all our ports of call. Unusually we like most of them although there are inevitably some that don't make the grade, they head to the recycle bin. The rest of the day is spent reading or listening to music at various spots around the ship. The reflections lounge, the solarium and even deck 4 outside. We venture into the theatre at 3pm. Leanne Mitchell, who won the first series of The Voice UK is performing. We only stay for a couple of songs as we are not overly impressed. She's a belter but without much range or charisma.

Around 4.30pm the captain announces that the ship will be entering the Dardenelle Straits. This narrow strip of water connects the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmaris. It's about 38 miles long and it will take us about 3 hours to traverse. The captain explains there are many World War One monuments along each side commemorating those who lost there lives, mainly during the Gallipoli campaign. The narrowest point is near the town of Canakkale where the captain say you can see the wooden horse that was used in the Brad Pitt movie Troy a few years back. It was gifted to the town as the movie was filmed nearby. He did mention binoculars might be useful to see it. I search unsuccessfully to spot it as we pass by.

We are booked in The Tuscan Grill for our last dinner on board at 8.30pm. At least we thought we were. Luckily Peter calls to check, they don't have our reservation and they are now fully booked. Peter sets off for the restaurant to see if he can fix. He does albeit for the later time of 9pm. As we are now eating later Peter is dispatched to the Oceanview Cafe around 6.30pm to put together a little tapas plate. We have not eaten since 1pm and I worry we might waste away without immediate sustenance.

Sunset bar is crowded. Most people seem to want to make the most of their last evening. It's strange seeing land on both sides of the ship as we progress gently through the Sea of Marmara. Dinner in Tuscan Grill is excellent. We more or less order what we had on our last visit. We are more relaxed this time as we are not worrying about our luggage and not wearing the cheap shirts on our backs. After dinner we head back to the room to change and put our luggage out into the corridor to be collected later. The sunset bar is much quieter at this hour and we enjoy a last glass of wine as we watch the lights of small towns in the distance. We have a last flutter in the casino before heading to bed around midnight. We are due to dock in Istanbul around 4.30am and will leave the ship about 8.30.

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