Piraeus Sail-away & Sunset

Thursday 22nd May - Continued.

On such a beautiful afternoon, the sail-away from Piraeus was just lovely, so I had to take more photos & decided to use them in a short post here. As our ship reversed out of her mooring we saw much more from our balcony than early this morning when we docked.

As we headed out to sea there were many (I counted at least 20) ships of all shapes & sizes that seemed to be just waiting to come in. Several looked like warships, although I doubt they were. If there is a war in this area no one has told us!

After sail-away we went up onto deck 14 and had a cocktail, then grabbed a 2nd to bring back to our cabin & drink whist we prepared for dinner. 

When we returned to our cabin after dinner the sun was just beginning to set (after 9pm) so we sat on the balcony & I took some nice photos which I will share.

Tomorrow we dock in Corfu around 12.30pm.

Goodnight :)

Piraeus, Port for Athens, Greece

Thursday May 22nd 2014

Weather fine & hot 16-31C

We were up early & to breakfast before 7am. Our ship docked in Pireaus Port whist we were eating. This is a very large shipping port (3rd largest in Europe) so very busy.

Lot's of yellow taxi's lined up hoping for customers!

Our booked tour today was a Panoramic tour of Pireaus & Athens, so we set out at 9am, left the ship & met our guide at the coach terminal outside the port. We were taken on a tour of the 3 different Pireaus Ports, then headed to Athens.

Our first stop was the original Olympic Stadium from the "modern" era, made entirely from marble & seated 60,000 people. Not sure my photo does it justice as it is huge!

Next we drove through the old area of Athens & saw glimpses of The Acropolis & The Parthenon and other relics before parking near the Acropolis Museum & taken by our guide to an area where it was possible to take photographs. As you can see there is currently a lot of restoration work taking place, however the ancient structures are still pretty amazing.

We were give approximately 1.5hrs free time in Athens so we went for a walk, had a coffee (have discoved it's easier to buy a coffee & then use the rest rooms for free, rather than finding & paying to use public toilets). It was very hot in Athens today so we tried to remain in shaded areas.

Lot's of derelict buildings in parts of Athens, due to their economic status & many businesses closed.

 

After boarding the coach again we returned to the ship around 1pm, dropped our bags in the cabin & headed to the dining room for a nice lunch. I am now trying to finish this before we sail at 4pm because there is free WiFi in port.

More tomorrow after we visit Corfu :)

Betty & Mike

Santorini, Greece!

Wednesday May 21st 2014 - Very warm & sunny 25 C

Today is the port I have been looking forward to for many months. Well it certainly met all expectations, and more. It was such a beautiful day, not a cloud to be seen as we sailed into the bay. All those postcards & photos I have seen don't lie. The blue of the sky & Mediterranean Ocean here is like no other. 

Santorini does not have a port suitable for large ships to dock so we arrived by tender boats sent out to meet our ship. The excursion we selected began at 8.30am with our 10 minute boat ride to the port.

We were met by our lovely guide (a resident of Santorini) & proceded on a coach to the beautiful village of Oia where we spent an hour or so looking around and enjoying the scenery. We also had a coffee in a gorgeous cafe overlooking the port.

Our next stop was a winery at the very top of a mountain, overlooking the ocean. What a beautiful place to sit & relax, tasting 3 different wines they produce on the island. Just a bit of trivia ..... their grapes are grown on the ground, not on a trellis as per norm, for 2 reasons; the main being the high winds they often have doesnt damage the vines & Santorini had a very low rainfall so they do not require as much water when directly on the soil. So you see lot's of grapes just growing everywhere, not in any neat rows either.

After an hour at the winery we headed back on the coach to the capital of Santorini, Thira. The beautiful town also has lot's of the blue & white buildings with cafe's along the mountain top with outdoor eating areas overlooking the ocean. We had a lovely light lunch of Greek dips & local Santorini blonde beer which was very refreshing.

We had been given cable car tickets by our tour guide and instructed to make our own way to the cable car so luckily we allowed plenty of time as their was quite a long queue. The ride down took just 3 minutes then we waited only a short time to catch a tender boat back to our ship. We arrived back just before 4pm & the ship is due to sail at 4.30pm.

The photo below is of the alternative route down, lot's (2,000) of steps or donkey rides.

It has been a wonderful day, even better than we had hoped for. Lot's of walking especially steps & steep slopes so we will crash tonight.

Last night dinner was a Gala, formal night so we had to dress up. Tonight is just a normal smart casual night. The food had been very good on the whole & plenty of choice. I tend to stick with the fish/seafood choices as I have heard some of the red meat dishes are only average.

Will add some photos & try to send this tonight.

Before I go ..... A BIG HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL GRANDSON - JAMIE for 22/05

I'm sure someone will read this & pass on my message :)

Katakolon, Greece

Tuesday May 20th 2014 - Warm & Sunny!

We were up pretty early today & off to breakfast at 7.30am. Grabbed a coffee & headed back to our cabin to sit on the balcony & watch the sail in to Katakolon, our first Greek port. It is only a small port but very quaint.

Today we have an excursion booked to Olympia, the ancient city & home of the first Olympic Games, plus a visit to a Greek farm for lunch, wine & dancing. We assembled in the main Theatre at 11am & were given our coach number tickets, then proceeded to our coach which was parked just near where we disembarked.

After driving through the village of Katakolon, we drove through countryside for approximately 30minutes before arriving at Olympia. It was very warm & sunny at the ancient site & we took lot's of photos of the ruins & excavation sites. A very interesting 1.5 hours were spent there. 

We then boarded the coach & were taken to Magna Grecia, a farm about 10 minutes from Olympia. The owners of this farm grw all their own olives, grapes, lemons & numerous other vegetables. We were greeted with a glass of their own white wine & a little homemade "pie" which was freshly baked bread with caramelised onions & fetta  cheese inside, just delicious!

Then we were shown to tables containing our ready plated lunches. The owner came around & explained what each item was (see photo - was taken after I had started). There was homemade pork sausage, brushetta, courgettes, goats fetta, bread & their own olive oil. Not to mention bottles of their own red wine on each table. Very tasty! The owners then gave a demonstration of traditional Greek dancing & invited everyone to join in. After that we were allowed to wander around & check out the farm.

Back on the coach & arrived back at the ship around 4.15pm. Sailed at 5pm heading towards Santorini where we have an excursion booked for tomorrow. Very exciting! 

Tonight is a Gala night, so time to dust off the glad rags & dress up.

Free WiFi has been impossible to find so I have purchased a small block from MSC at ridiculously high rates! I just log on, upload blog & download emails, then log off. Hopefully we will find some WiFi in Santorini.

More tomorrow :)

Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Day 2

Monday May 19th - Weather, Partially cloudy 22C

After our best nights sleep in days we awoke to a coolish day & enjoyed tea/coffee & fruit juice from room service before showering & heading to the dining room for a nice breakfast. Because less than 20% of passengers on the cruise soeak english, staff try to seat us with outher english speaking people. This morning we sat with 2 ladies from Yorkshire in the UK.

Today is just a very short port stop in Bari, Italy so we didn't dock until almost 1pm & sailing again around 5pm. We did some exploring of the ship during the morning, finding all the areas we will need to visit whislst onboard. This is a beautiful ship, very clean with lot's of marble & glass. All bars serve great quality Italian coffee as well as the usual alcohols etc.

Photos from our sail into Bari:

We had lunch around 1pm and then walked around deck 14 to check out Bari (our cabin is on the starboard side so unable to see the town from the balcony) & decided to stay onboard as we hadn't organised a tour & it was a long walk into town. We have tours booked for the next several days so this was an opportuntity to relax & explore the ship. Unfortunately, we discovered the Gelato bar with about 40 varieties of genuine homemade Italian Gelato. We found out that is included in our pre-booked drinks package as well. Sometimes on an ocean cruise the ''extras" can end up costing almost as much as your cruise. On MSC they charge for water (always bottled), coffee with meals, wine, spirits, gelato etc. The package costs about 23 Euros/day per person. We added up yesterday's dockets to discover we would have spent over 70 Euros without the package & we were only onboard from 12.30pm. So we will certainly get our moneys worth! 

Dinner tonight was an Italian theme night & passengers were encouraged to wear red, green or white. The restaurant was decorated in those colours & the waiters wore lovely striped vests. Food was delicious, I had prosciutto & melon, minestrone soup, caprese salad & lasagne. Sounds a lot but servings are ver very small. Of course we had to sample the tiramisu!

After a wander around deck 7 we found a great little bar where a pianist & singer were performing. Very relaxing music. We chatted to a group from the UK for a while, then back to our cabin & bed.