john and gail's cruise

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

More Cinque Terre photos

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Just got back ... have to get ready for dinner so this is brief. We went to the Cinque Terre today – a series of five villages which cling to cliffs overlooking the sea. I've wanted to go there for some time but I researched it thoroughly before we left home and it seemed impossible to do it on our own and get back in time before the ship sailed. I even exchanged emails with a lady in Livorno who also said it would be very difficult. Princess didn't offer Cinque Terre as a tour on the website before we sailed. However, there was a tour offered on board. Really glad we did it. We walked from before Riomaggiore through to Manarola then went by boat, which just pulled in to the base of the cliffs and put out a gangway for us to walk up. Then by boat to Vernazza where we disembarked and spent an hour or so. Back to the boat and on to Monterosso where we had an hour and a half and time for lunch. The drive back was quite spectacular as we had to climb very windy roads right up into the mountains. Had superb, and sometimes scary, views. Really worth the trip.

Civetavecchia (for Rome)

5 July

Didn't go into Rome but stayed on board and had a lazy day. Did the washing – no one in the laundry!!! John and Rick (Dickwho/Amanda Vanstone/Onslow) from Broken Hill went into Rome on the train which they said was quite an easy exercise. Lots of passengers seemed to do this. For those cruisers next year if you don't want to go to Rome, there are quite nice beaches near the shuttle (free) drop off point at the port gates. Had a great sailaway party on our annexe on deck 11, stern. Drank most of the wine we had left over and ended up eating dinner at 9.30. Not a good idea if you have an early tour next day,

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Sunday, July 4, 2010

Dubrovnik

For next year's cruisers, when your credit card is charged at the end of each sector, make sure that the amounts charged to his and her's accounts add up to the total charged to the credit card. Ours didn't – there was an overcharge of $55. We know of a few other people that this has happened to. Waiting for an answer from the purser's office as to why, and what will be done. All my good instructions on how to get into Venice for nothing. Next year's cruise doesn't go to Venice which is sad because it is one of the most spectacular sail-ins in the world. Doesn't go to Dubrovnik either which was also very scenic. No doubt you have something just as wonderful to make up for it.

Dubrovnik yesterday. At the moment, we are sailing past the toe of Italy, through the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Italy and can see Messina Sicily. Just sitting on the balcony with a coffee, watching Calabria pass by. It's a hard life. Had a good day in Dubrovnik.Went by cab with Allan and Sally to the Old City which was very interesting and packed with tourists. We climbed up to the city wall on one side of the city and just meandered through the little laneways. I'm awfully glad that I don't have to carry my groceries etc up there. No cars and lots of stairs. We then went all the way down to the other side and climbed up to the walk around the walls . Once at the top of the stairs, it countinued up, up, up until half way along the walls, then down. It was humid and in the mid 30s. Great views from up there. Allan and Sally elected to stay in the old city and we'd planned to go to Cavtat, a seaside town south of Dubrovnik for lunch. Went in a small ferry with Barry and Rosemary and had a lovely leisurely lunch on the waterfront, looking at the beautiful views and the expensive yachts. Would be impossible to give people instructions to your house in Cavtat and also Dubrovnik – it's a brick house with a terracotta tiled roof!!!! Ha. Got back to the ship almost last minute again and hit the pool. Bliss. Having a lazy sea day today. I'm not going in to Rome tomorrow. John may go with Rick from Broken Hill – just for the train trip.

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Friday, July 2, 2010

Venice

2 July

Not a lot I can say about Venice but wow!!! Sensory overload. Sailing in to Venice is probably one of the outstanding moments of the cruise so far. I've been to Venice before, a long time ago but didn't sail up the Grand Canal or approach it by sea. Last time our arrival was by train. We each bought a 24 hour vaporetti ( small water buses) ticket for 18 Euros as we arrived at 12.30pm Thursday and sailed again at 12.30pm Friday. Princess provided a water bus shuttle from the dock to a couple of blocks from St Mark's square, and automatically charged us with $15 each with no consultation, and provided us with a ticket each. They were refundable if we didn't use them. Ours went in for refund today. It is very easy to get around Venice. Those people who used the shuttle would then have to either walk everywhere or pay 6.5 Euro per trip on the vaporetti. We did a vaporetti cruise down the Grand Canal out to the Lido yesterday, then back again to the Rialto Bridge. We met up with our 'family' from the dining table and had a few drinks at a place on the Grand Canal and then had dinner. Lots of fun but quite expensive (wouldn't have been too bad without the wine). We then took a vaporetta back to the ship. Today we were out early – went in a vaporetta to St Marks then walked back to the ship, quite a doable exercise. The walk back was meandering through back streets. We were lost once but all the guide books say you must get lost in Venice at least once, so we're following procedure. I managed to find a little hole in the wall hardware shop and bought some superglue to fix my ailing walking shoes.It was interesting being on the canals early in the morning because that's when all the business end of the day happens. There were grocery boats, milkman boats, garbage boats – you name it, they were there. It was a good time also to get to St Marks – no huge crowds but there was already a queue to go into the basilica. For those on next year's cruise how we got to P. Roma where the vaporetti leave from won't be current because they are building a grand new cruise terminal. You will probably just walk out the front of the terminal and on your right is a people mover – a monorail. Take the monorail to P. Roma Cost is 1 Euro (only 1 stop) or you can walk.. When you exit this you will see a large bus exchange area and the vaporetti terminal where you can buy your 24 hour (or 12 hour) vaporetti ticket. You will need to validate the ticket by holding it against the little validation machine, then, voila, you are in business. Can go anywhere for 24 hours. There are also a lot of nice little restaurants on canals around P. Roma, much cheaper than those around St Marks and Rialto and the other touristy areas. Princess have also paid us $300 each compensation for missing Safaga and the Valley of the Kings. It has been credited to our onboard account but the letter didn't make it clear whether it will reduce the balance we already have or it is for future spending. Will have to investigate. May have to spend up big in the next ten days...more stuff to pack. Dubrovnik tomorrow then Citatavechhia for Rome. We've decided not to go into Rome, despite the detailed research I've done of how to get there and around on the train. We've been to Rome before and after several days in port in a row, I don't want to deal with the traffic and chaos in Rome.

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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

More Santorini photos

Shows how little room there is for pedestrians with donkeys going both ways.

Great spot for lunch!!!! John, me, Barry and Rosemary

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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Santorini

Photo – Dianne, John and George half way up the donkey path. (he probably has a photo of me on the donkey path on his blog). George and Dianne passed us. Didn't even offer to help us old people up the stairs...young people today, I don't know!!!!!

29 June

What a great day in Santorini. We sailed in to great cliffs topped with shining whitewashed houses. Santorini is a tender port and, unless you are on a ship's tour, there are three ways up the cliffs to the town of Fira – a cable car with six cars, taking 4-6 people in each car for 4 euros per person, ride a donkey for 4 Euros per person or walk up the donkey path which zig zags up the cliffs, 588 steps to the top. We arrived at 7.00 am and my plan was to let most people go ashore figuring that the queue at the cable car would have diminished. This was before we were eating breakfast and saw three other ships arrive. We were waiting for Allan and Sally and at 8.30, because Allan was still having breakfast, we decided to go on our own and meet them somewhere. When our tender number eventually was called and we arrived ashore, the queue for the cable car was about a kilometre long so we opted to walk up the donkey path. An interesting exercise !!. The 588 steps were the least of our worries. The two way donkeys, those carrying people up, and those coming back empty were an interesting addition to the path and there were dozens of them at a time, going both ways. Neither way had any method of actually steering the donkeys, the donkeys just decided for themselves where they would go. It was an experience I wouldn't have missed but was glad to get to the top. The walk down didn't have as many donkey obstacles, more people opted to go up on them than down. Took 45 minutes up and 30 minutes down. The town of Fira at the top and the views around Santorini are stunning. Next year's cruise doesn't go there but to Mykynos I think. My son, Peter, says he much prefers the island of Ios so if it is nicer than Santorini, I would like to see it. On the tender going over, we met up with Rosemary and Barry who are at our dining table and had a great day, finished by having a late lunch in a restaurant with magnificient views over the town and the Aegean Sea. I bought a leather handbag – first new handbag I've bought for about eight years – told you I'm not a shopper. John, of course, bought another shirt + a belt, a wallet etc etc. We were to stay in Santorini until 8.00pm but because of our revised itinerary due to the general strike in Athens, we sailed at 4.00pm. Didn't give us a lot of choice of things to do. Either travel around the island or stay in Fira but not a lot of time to do both. We were supposed to be back on board by 3.00 and we arrived at 3.00. When I started writing this blog, I could still smell donkeys then I realised it's my shoes. Yuck!!! They are living on the balcony for a while.

Note: John and Barry did the downhill trip in less time than Rosemary and I and were having a cold beer at the bottom when we arrived. Rosie and I could have fallen and broken our legs or been knocked over by a donkey and they wouldn't have known.

We have almost two days at sea now arriving 1.30pm in Venice, Thursday. We are down to two weeks until the cruise ends for us. I hope you are all feeling sorry for us.

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Monday, June 28, 2010

ANZAC Cove

28 June

ANZAC Cove today. We arrived at 6.00 am and there was a service in the Vista Lounge as we arrived. The main ANZAC service was held on deck at 11.00am and was really well attended. One notable absentee was the Captain. The Staff Captain and quite a number of other officers attended and the ship's passenger choir sang. Veterans were given their own roped off space on Deck 14 where they could get a good view of proceedings. I was really pleased to be able to see where the ANZACS landed from the same view they would have had as they set out but could only think how scared they must have been when they saw the cliffs and the high terrain they were supposed to overcome. For those who don't know, my grandfather was wounded on the first day of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli. Can't help but ponder on the contrast as, here we are, comfortable on a cruise ship, looking out at where they landed. The fact that ANZAC Cove was on the itinerary was part of the reason I decided on this cruise. The ship did a great job with the service; Australian and New Zealand flags were in evidence, but I couldn't see why we were singing "God Save the Queen". The memorials, Turkish and ours were visible although we weren't close enough to see them clearly. Earlier, there were commentaries broadcast on deck by an Australian and a Turkish historian. Was quite interesting to hear both histories. We sailed away at midday.