Day 30/31: Venice: To Gondola or Not to Gondola.

Wed/ Thurs, Cruise Days 8 & 9...Venice.

We cruised into this amazing city basically down what you would call the Main Street (our equivalent of King William Street but only water) at about 2pm.

I have seen pictures before but nothing like really being there. With the ship safely secured with the other 4 or 5 cruise ships it was off to St Marks Square by water shuttle. 

So far this cruise Venice has been the busiest city, people/ tourists everywhere, tourism in Europe is huge, every " tourist" city just has thousands and thousands of people, regardless of day of the week. 

The one thing I have noticed is how similar the ferry logo is to our SAWater Logo.....I think someone has done a little copying..... And the worst bit is I get reminded of work when I don't want to be. 

We were meeting some friends in Venice, who just happened to be here at the same time. Friends met and being used to the 28 meals a day we were having on the cruise ship it was tea time. We did find a nice restaurant where we ordered large drinks.

They were massive, about 1litre each, who needs food when the drinks are this big. Dinner over and it was back to our floating hotel (so convenient). I'm sure I will miss the constant motion once off). It's Thursday and we are up early to negotiate a cruise around the canals on a water taxi. We thought about the Gondolas but liked the idea of a classic wooden water taxi better.

I have found my ideal job, a water taxi driver... The boat was fantastic and the drivers were great, taking us in and around Venice for an hour in style.

Boat ride over and it was coffee time and shopping... Venice is known for its glass, and it is absolutely beautiful, although not easily transportable, so I settled for something leather, guaranteed to make it home in one piece.

Back on the ship, we cruised out of Venice the way we cruised in. Spectacular... Croatia here we come.

Day 29: Kotor, Montenegro ( The Day We Survived The Hurricane)

Tuesday, cruise day 8, due to lack of WiFi  I am about 6 days behind, so I either have to stretch my memory or start making things up... 

The day began with me waking at about 5am, thinking I was sliding out of the bed feet first. I laid awake for a while but felt nothing more so I went back to sleep, it was only when I got up and went out on deck and noticed the deck chairs all over the place that we realised something must have happened. On our way in to this speccy little port, there was a storm with gusts of wind, about 80 knots ( hurricane classified at 64 knots), must have just leaned the boat over a bit and then righted itself, probably lucky we were all in bed ( and that wasn't made up either).

Anyway back to Montenegro, if you have been to Milford Sound or any of the fjords  in Norway then this is just as spectacular.

There were mountains on all sides and in front, we had travelled approx 3 kms I think ( my facts have got a little fuzzy). I did disembark, and instead of turning right I turned left, only to find a semi modern smoke( cigarette) filled supermarket, so a coffee and free wifi later it was back to the ship, amazed by the scenery but disappointed by the town of Kotor. Only to find out later if I had turned right there was a charming "old town"..... Luckily the location made up for it.

Day 27/28: Greek Style

It is day 6/7 of the cruise. Day 6 is a day at sea, rest day... although resting doesn't appear to come easy, not that it isn't relaxing just struggling to find time to listen to music or read. 

Day 7 is Corfu, Greece, and due to a ferry being grounded we had to use tenders to get ashore rather then dock.

Corfu was a very pretty town, I was sort of hoping it was going to be all blue and white, but it wasn't, it was quite flat with numerous narrow streets lined with jewellery stores and wood shops and souvenirs. I have become a souvenir hunter and can smell a shop before I get on land.

Corfu appeared to be quite cheap so we made a few purchases before lunch. Lunch was traditional Greek with grilled squid, grilled prawns, souvlaki etc, all delicious and made even tastier with a swig of ouzo supplied by our fellow travellers.

I am assuming the bottle is the shape of Corfu, although I can't be certain as geography isn't my strength. Corfu also appears to have numerous beggars, which isn't really surprising given the state of the economy. 

Once again the weather was perfect so my reverse Panda eyes are progressing quite nicely. I have now learned to speak Greek( yasou) which can now be added to my current list of languages, which is growing daily....English, Scottish, Welsh, French, Italian, Greek and expecting to add a few more before this adventure is over. 

Yasou xx

Day 27: Malta: What a Surprise

All the days are starting to get blurry, lucky the days are labelled on the lift floor so I know it is Saturday. Malta day. 

What a beautiful port to sail into.... It was a complete surprise as we had no idea what to expect. We decided we would do the hop on hop off bus which took

approx 2 hrs to do the round trip. We got off at the first stop which was an ancient temple and by ancient I think it was BC. Once again so much history. It was a particularly hot day, so much so that Sandy decided she would stay on the bus and take the rest of the tour back to the air conditioned comfort of the boat while I decided to stay on and get some extra sun. Our next stop was the fishing village, absolutely gorgeous, just like a postcard.

All the boats were painted with bright colors and there was a whole esplanade of souvenirs and restaurants, obviously fish and rabbits are food of choice in Malta, not Maltesers as some may think.

Malta is the home of The Blue Grotto, an ocean cave with the bluest of water.. This was to be our next stop but time was limited so we had to stay on the bus.

We travelled back to the ship to find all this action going on around us. Multiple stages were being set up, there wet helicopters flying around, naval ships in the harbour as well as a couple of superyachts ( when I win powerball I am getting me one). 

This one is only worth $30 million!! 

Anyway as it turns out it is Malta's 50 year Independance Day Anniversary on Sunday and there is going to be mega celebrations including an address by Prince William, hence all the extra security.

Malta is definitely a place I would return too and spend 4 or 5 days, so different than anywhere else we have been. Put it on your list, you won't be disappointed!!

Day 26: Messina Sicily,

I used to know a poem about how Italy kicked little Sicily into the Mediterranean Sea. I can now sort of see why. 

After being in the beautiful Amalfi Coast area yesterday Sicily was quite disappointing. The boat docked early and we were able to wander off at our own leisure. 

The city was very dirty with lots of rubbish and graffiti, we wandered around the souvenir shops and then around the city. Although there is a lot of history it is hard to look past the rubbish, including burnt out motorbikes.

One of the great things about being on a cruise ( apart from the towel animals of course) is that usually you can get back on whenever you want and it gives you a taste of the city. Well this one didn't taste so good so it was back on the ship after a few hours to enjoy our floating home.

Tonight's towel animal was a puppy and oddly enough I found myself sitting next to it patting it... must be missing Rory, tomorrow's Port is Malta... Can't wait.

Day 25: Take 2,the Amalfi Coast.

This was our first port day on the cruise, Salerno, Italy. We were all up bright and early for the tour that had been booked about 6mths ago for the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento, Positano and Pompeii.

Our first stop was the gorgeous Sorrento with lemons being its primary resource, limoncello, lemon soap, lemon lollies and anything else lemon you could think of. Little narrow cobbled streets, as you could imagine.

 Our next stop was Positano, this town being even more gorgeous than Sorrento, although you would need to be part mountain goat to reside here. These towns are both on the Amalfi Coast( think  of Great Ocean Road, halve the width, times the drop off by about 10 and add 1000 more bends in the road and you are getting close)

You can just see the road in this picture. This was taken at the magnificent restaurant that our driver took us too. We were so high up that if oxygen masks had of dropped from the roof of the van no one would have been surprised. Our lunch was delicious so much so that we almost left a €100 tip.

Travel Tip# 26 When recieving food bill always ensure that it is checked by fellow travellers as quite often €125 can be confused with €225 and you could end up paying significantly more.

Lunch over and we were winding our way back down to Pompeii, occasionally in reverse as 2 vehicles couldn't fit at the same time. Never have I seen a road and the associated views like it, breathtaking on so many levels.

We arrived in Pompeii about 1935 years after Mount Vesuvius erupted, and we all declared it safe to visit. Just a shame we forgot to grab a map, as it was quite a sizeable city. Although using our initiative we hovered behind English speaking tour guides and were able to pass on any important or useless info that we heard to our travel buddies. We did see all the important stuff like all the ruins and the dead people.

What was also an unusual discovery was that apart from their spas, saunas and orgies, the Pompeiians loved a hand stand, so much so that special pillars were placed around the square( as demonstrated by our tour fitness coach).

We had such an amazing day, and honestly I saw places and roads and beaches that I would never have dreamed of seeing. Our driver was fantastic and a brilliant driver, Pompeii Car Service. I cant recommend them enough.  We arrived back at the ship with all senses satisfied... What a day!!

Day 23/24 The Day we were Superheroes!

Another short one, as it is a transit day, travel to Civitavechia from Rome via train.

Being the train snobs that we now are we decided we would travel first class from Rome, an extra 30 Euro but at least a guarantee of a seat.

It is just a shame the same couldn't be said about the airconditioning which wasn't working, but only in our carriage, it was fixed about half way through, and thank goodness because it was getting quite warm. 

We arrived at the train station only to find no escalators, only stairs both up and down. 20 Kilos of luggage each, not really suitable for cruising folk. Luckily for us there was a taxi waiting which took us to our hotel.

Sandy likes to keep abreast of the local news! 

Hotel Traghetto was clean and friendly, all you need for 1 night. We went for a walk around and grabbed some tea,  lucky Sandy got some cardboard in hers, the guy assured her it was pancetta.....yeah right, maybe it was cardboardnara instead of carbonara???  

It was after this when we had to don our superhero costumes and rescue our lost police friends who had been wandering around deepest darkest Civitavecchia for hours ( an hour at least). I am sure our nominations for a bravery award will be forthcoming. Our other cruise guests arrived at about 11.00 so after a quick catch up it was bedtime.

Wednesday cruise day, yeehah!! We boarded at about 11am, so had a full day    on the boat, not as big as the last one but a bit more luxurious. We checked out our bat cave which was larger than we recalled, so we were happy! Today was about getting ourselves aquainted... Although I still have no idea if I am at the front or the back of the ship, but I should have my bearings by day 12. We left Rome at about 5 pm to arrive in Salerno by morning.