This will be the last installment of our Mediterranean cruise. When I got back from Rome, I was exhausted and Heather wasn’t feeling much better. We went to the onboard medical center and got some medication for Heather and instructions to isolate for a day.
Which was fine by me. It also meant that when we pulled into Naples, we stayed onboard and ordered from room service. The rest was welcomed. Likely we missed something interesting in Naples, but one thing we did learn on this cruise is that you can’t do everything and likely we should have scheduled fewer tours. There’s plenty to do on the ship and in most ports you can get a shuttle from the ship into the local city for a short walk around town.
The ship’s doctor called us in the afternoon and since we were doing better said it was fine to leave our cabin. We went up for afternoon tea in the ship’s “Winter Garden,” for their version of English tea – a pot of tea, little sandwiches, biscuits, chocolates and a scone. The only disappoint was the scone. I make better scones than they served, but everything else more than made up for that.
They had a guitar player doing the entertainment for us. That was okay, but she wasn’t the best. Still it was nice to have some live entertainment.
Actually, most of the entertainment onboard was good, some excellent. One of our favorite places to hang out on the ship was the atrium. There were comfy chairs, places to read, a jigsaw puzzle for guests to work on and an area for board games. In the afternoons and evenings they had a piano player who did mostly classical music — she was just wonderful to listen to. They also had what the called, “The Classical Duo,” a piano player and a violinist. They were just outstanding and we would often check the schedule to see when they were playing.
The ship had one theater with a number of entertainers and from time to time they’d bring on an act from one of the ports. In Barcelona they brought on a Rumba band with dancers which was a fun energetic show. They did a country music night, and for matinees they’d do solo shows with one of the singers from the onboard entertainers. We went to a couple of these. One was very good and the other a nice afternoon music show.
There was also a pool, a bar and grill near the pool, the forward facing “Explorer’s Lounge” that seem to have hyperactive air-conditioning that we froze in for five minutes before leaving. There was an area they called the living room where you could get a fancy coffee made. Our only disappointment with this area is that we didn’t discover it until the last day on the ship.
sigh …
By cruise ship standards ours was a small ship, but still for people who’d never been on an ocean cruise before it seemed large and lots to do.
After leaving Naples, the ship sailed through the strait of Messina. I’d been looking forward to this. I’ve studied a lot about WWII and the Italian campaign so it was nice to see something in real life that I’d read about. After passing Messina, we passed the toe of Italy and spent the day sailing the Ionian Sea arriving in Corfu the next morning.
Corfu is a Greek island on the northwestern frontier of Greece. There we took a tour of a local monastery and had sometime in the town of Corfu where we had lunch and did a little shopping. Heather was interested in seeing Corfu as she watched the PBS Masterpiece Theater show, The Durrells in Corfu, and wanted to see where it had been filmed. We found out that only a few parts of the show were filmed where we were with most of the production being on the coast further north from the town.
After Corfu it was on to Croatia and the ports of Dubrovnik and Split. Both stops looked the same and a lot like California. We learned from our tour guides that they have relatives in California and apparently California is a common place Croatians emigrate to. The areas we visited were also the filming locations for “Game of Thrones,” and most tour stops including a guide saying something like, “This is were they filmed …” and some reference to the show. I’ve never see Game of Thrones so that was mostly lost on me. I didn’t buy any of the teeshirts.
Our last stop was Venice. Well, sort of. Actually the ship docked at the port city of Chioggia. Cruise ships aren’t allowed to sail into the Lagoon of Venice and have to dock near the entrance to the lagoon. To get into Venice you have to transfer to a smaller boat and take an hour and a half boat ride into the city proper.
The tour we signed up for was a short walking tour of the city followed by a large block of free time before we had to get our boat back to the ship. Our guide walked us from the landing dock through some back streets until we got to Saint Mark’s Square. When we arrived at the Square we found that some military ceremony was just ending and the crowds were very large.
We then did what most travel writers say you should do in Venice, and just wandered and got lost. We just walked around, went into shops and finally found a place for coffee. We took pictures and just were there. I wish we had done this at other ports of call. Then it was back to the dock to get our boat and the 1.5 hour ride back to the ship.
The next morning we left the ship and were taken to the airport where we got a flight to London where we caught a train to visit Heather’s family for a few days before returning home to Reno. I always enjoy my trips to England and visits to Heather’s hometown, but this time we didn’t have much time to do anything other than just visit family and enjoy a walk on the Malvern Hills.
Our last day of travel was a 24 hour travel marathon that left us just plain exhausted. It took us a few days to get over jet lag and regain our strength.
We haven’t decided on our next adventure, but we’re thinking of something closer to home next time. There’s the cruise to Alaska, one to Mexico, or maybe exploring the east coast around Boston. Not sure what we’ll plan, but it will be something.
For now though, winter is settling in here in the high desert and if it starts snowing, just getting to the grocery store could turn into an adventure.
Here’s a few pictures from our trip:
