It was a man shop though, under an hour for jacket, shirt and shoes as well as lunch (freshly cooked wood fired pizza from a supermarket!). We made it to the port in good time. Apart from Oliver getting pulled aside by customs for trying to smuggle a bread knife aboard it was a reasonably easy start.
We hadn't known that the same rules about planes applied regarding sharps on the boat. It was a bit crazy as they could have come aboard in your luggage just not carry on. I had walked all the way back to our car park with mine and Sam's pocket knives as we had those. Ollie still had a bread knife from the house in Tuscany that he had been carrying around in his backpack just in case he wanted to make a peanut butter sandwich. The officials stopped him after scanning his bag and asked if he had a knife. We all swore he didn't but they insisted we unpack the bag (teddies galore) and there it was! Then Tan got pulled up as well, she had a small pair of scissors.
Life on board was your usual cruise apart from being filled with Italians and a few other nationalities, but mostly Italians. Every announcement was made in 5-6 languages (the cruise director Franco was pretty good, he called the bingo numbers in 6 languages!). We tried not to eat and drink too much but I'm sure a few extra pounds may have slipped on. The kids have had healthy appetites. Ollie didn't like the restaurant we ate at so would sit with us from 7pm until the buffet opened at 7.30. Then he went and ate alone at what he called his 'lonely table in the dark corner'. We usually then went to the show at 10pm and then headed off to bed. Emily and Sam had a night out at the disco one evening though, dancing with the Aussie's, the girls from the table next to us at dinner as well as another three families we got to know on the tours.
We only had one full sea day, every other day was a different port. I'll try to be brief as it'll be too long a post otherwise:
Day 1 - Bari: Southern Italy, port town. We did our own thing here, a tourist tractor train tour. Mostly churches, main one was St Nicholas containing his tomb. His bones were brought from Turkey. Also did a walk through alleys of the old town to see Italian Nonna's making pasta.
Day 2 - Katakolon, Greece: Went on organised tour of Olympia, site of the ancient games. Lots of ruins as the site was destroyed by an earthquake and forgotten about until restoration of the olympic games in modern times. Highlight was Sam racing the length of the stadium and back with some kiwi's (just over 800m).
Day 3 - Izmir, Turkey: Organised tour of Ephesus, the third version. There were actually two cities of Ephesus preceding the one of New Testament fame. Again ruined by earthquake with much archeological work done over recent times. This was one of the highlights of the trip, it is quite amazing to see an ancient city still laid out in it's original form without the layer of modern roads and buildings. Amazing to have walked the same marble streets as the Apostle Paul, and seen the public toilets he may have used!
Day 4 - Istanbul, Turkey: Organised tour of city to see the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia church/mosque/museum, as well as shop in the grand bazaar. Both amazing buildings, St Sofia more so as it is so big but so old. Built in the 6th century it was the largest cathedral in the world for 1000 years! We didn't have a lot of time in the grand bazaar but had fun haggling, even Sam and Ollie were getting into it. The shopkeepers here are very good humoured about the haggling and weren't in your face like the street sellers.
Day 5 - At sea: We had a bit of cabin fever, the kids program didn't really run as there weren't a lot of kids on board. Enough for Sam to make friends with some Italian and Chilean soccer lads though. They played on top of the ship in the enclosed tennis court.
Day 6 - Dubrovnik, Croatia: Beautiful city, quite small only 50,000 residents, 1000 in the old town (+9000 tourists mostly off cruise ships!). We really loved Dubrovnik, again we did an organised city tour, our guide was a passionate local gentleman unfortunately it's hard to always hear with the crowds. It's had a very long history as well but was mostly destroyed by a massive earthquake in the 17th century. It has also survived being bombed by the Serbs in 1991-92, they strategically targeted the most historical buildings out of spite apparently.
Day 7 - Venice: Disembarked and did our own tour of the city. Loved Venice, very beautiful as well. We found the Gondola rides to be a lot cheaper than we had thought so did one and don't regret it. Travelling around the canals away from the main areas was so peaceful and relaxing. There were 6-7 cruise ships in port so it was very crowded in the middle of the day.
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| Venice 1 |
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| Bari |
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| Olympia |
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| Ephesus |
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| Istanbul |
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| Dubrovnik |
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| Venice |
Wow what a fantastic cruise you have had!!! And the ship looks gigantic. Glad there was some haggling done in the grand bazaar. We found those eveil eye things a bit freaky. Did you get one??? On the down hill run to home now. Look forward to seeing you soon xo
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