ITALY & GREEK ISLAND CRUISE 2017

Another ocean cruise, this time with Holland America, after we had had time to forget the 2014 one!

Food was great, but the main object seemed to be fleecing passengers with overpriced drinks & tours that could be had cheaper with a bit of an online search, which we did. Internet pricing was quite ridiculous & we were told by a performer that they got it for a fraction of what we were charged, so apart from the first day, we accessed it at port calls. 

One thing that really annoyed us was the poor briefing on board which did not advise us of the hopon hopoff bus services available at quite a few stops & which we found out only by advice from other passengers. These were great & made sightseeing much easier without having to book an expensive paid tour.

11 Oct - flew to Venice via Hong Kong, where we had a 3 hour wait to catch our flight to Frankfurt. HK is a dump & not a patch on Singapore if you have a wait between flights. We then had a 3 hour wait in Frankfurt before boarding our flight to Venice. What a contrast to HK. Frankfurt had considered passengers with a lengthy wait by having beds in walkthrough areas - brilliant. Well done to the Germans for considering passengers - a rare consideration in airports generally!

We were booked into Hotel Centauro in Venice & had some fun getting there. The airport bus took us halfway, then we took the ferry to Rialto wharf. We would have been better getting a water taxi instead of the ferry as walking on the cobblestones in Venice is a pain & it is one of the easiest cities I have ever been to in which to get lost. The hotel was fine if a bit cramped, but quite central.

12/13 Oct - explored around St Marks, visited the Doges Palace which had an interesting museum & where we were very lucky to catch an exhibition 'Jewels of the Moguls' which was wonderful. We also took a ferry to gardens near Campo Chiesa, which were quite a pleasant change from the crowds in town, & walked back from there to St Marks during which we saw our cruise ship coming in. How locals put up with the masses of tourists whilst remaining polite & helpful, heaven knows!

14 Oct - joined the cruise in Venice & after the usual settling process went exploring.

15 Oct - cruised to our first port in Albania.

16 Oct - arrived in Sarande, Albania which was still run down after the repressive communist era & had little of interest for us.

17 Oct - now at Argostoli on the west coast of Cephalonia, which was quite a pleasant place, but we didn't have enough time to explore places of interest like Ithaca, home of Odysseus of Iliad fame.

18 Oct - on to Katakolon, part of the Peloponnese & gateway to Olympia, where we took a tour with Olympic Tours which was excellent, in fact we used them for several other tours instead of the ones organised by the ship. Opympia & the village was well worth the visit.

19 Oct - next to Nafplion, which was quite scenic with Palamidi Castle in the background of the pleasant little town. We wandered around & visited the Komboli museum with its extensive display of worry beads, so of course I had to buy some! I took the hopon hopoff bus to the castle, had a look around taking plenty of snaps of the interior & view, then walked back to town down the 999 steps. This was the most interesting of the smaller ports visited from our point of view.

20/21 Oct - on to Athens, or at least Piraeus its port & another tour with Olympic around Athens & then Ancient Corinth & the Canal the next day, both very professional & interesting. Of course, Athens is one of those places we could have spent much more time in, but that's the point of cruising, a quick look at a lot of places to determine which might reward a second visit. Naturally the Parthenon & Roman Agora were highlights, as was the Corinth Canal, which I had passed through in 1969 & remains just as memorable & impressive today. Again, we had to restrict ourselves to what we could fit into the time available.

22 Oct - now at Mykonos, a pleasant little town with the main feature of windmills.

>23 Oct - sailing into Santorini was breathtaking & the vinyards most interesting with the vines grown at ground level, but the wines were poor. Oia itself can be toured quite comfortably in a couple of hours with some spectacular views. Unfortunately our tour did not take in the Akrotiri Minoan ruins & we opted not to climb the cliff by donkey, using the cable car instead - much more comfortable!

24 Oct - at sea.

25 Oct - into Naples, a very interesting city & gateway to several different areas like Sorrento, Amalfi, Pompei, & Capri which we didn't have time to visit, so will put it on our bucket list for another time.

26-30 Oct - cruise ends in Civitaveccia, port for Rome, where we disembark & head for our hotel Dei Borgia. We booked in for several days to enable us to have a quick look around Rome. Again, the hopon hopoff busses were excellent & convenient. The crowds, however, at all major attractions were horrific. We managed to fit in the usual tourist attractions, Colosseum, Circus Maximus, Forum, Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps & Vatican. The Vatican museum has a marvellous display of ancient egyptian artifacts & if you are thinking of going to Egypt I'd suggest you don't waste your time, as you would avoid getting sick & see more by visiting this museum instead! The other artifacts from Assyrian & other civilizations were also great, but the Sistine chapel left us cold. Once again, we could have spent more time, with Rome a convenient spot for tours to Naples, Pompeii, Catacombs, etc, but it didn't appeal as much as Naples.

30 Oct-2 Nov - We took the fast train to Florence & our hotel the Garibaldi Blu. Hopon hopoff busses were again a convenient way to sightsee & we found Fiesole village in the hills above the city a lovely spot, but with too little time to enjoy fully. The Leonardo museum is a must to appreciate the man's genuis. The only disappontment was our visit to the Boboli Gardens, which were an absolute ripoff. We make a point of visiting gardens whereever we visit, but these were very poor, consisting mainly of walkways between avenues of trees or hedges. We should have visited more galleries to truly appreciate the art scene, but by this time we were ruined out & had seen more than enough art & churches too, so were glad to head for home.

The weather for the whole trip had been wonderful apart from our last couple of days when it turned cool & damp, but what made the trip for me was finding an old childhood friend awaiting us at our hotel in Florence. She had flown out from London to meet us, so we enjoyed some catching up & sharing stories with her.

P&O Cruise 2014 & River Cruise France 2015

Somehow our ocean cruise with P&O in 2014 & the river cruise through the centre of France slipped through the cracks & I never commented on them, so here goes, better late than never!

PACIFIC CRUISE WITH P&O DEC 2014

An ocean cruise that slipped through the cracks was one we did with P&O Pacific Pearl, which Jan won. No doubt I forgot it because it was quite forgettable!

Briefly, Food & service - couldn't fault it.  Shows - Davidia excellent, magician good, rest very amateur.  I've seen better high school performances.  Art seminars excellent.  Rest of cruise boring.

Isle of Pines snorkelling woeful with bleached coral, better at Green Is. 

Lifou crap, no buses or taxis at landing which was dirty, only tours, so we didn't get to see what we wanted. 

Port Vila OK but grubby & expensive being boat day. 

Considering we were in duty free area drinks on board were exorbitant as was internet.  The cruise was slanted to the young who wanted to party at night - one young bloke told us he paid $630 for it, - or to compulsive shoppers.

AVALON CRUISE THROUGH CENTRE OF FRANCE OCT 15

Having previously enjoyed a cruise with Avalon from Amsterdam to Budapest in 2012, we decided to book with them again for a cruise through the centre of France in 2015, taking in the First World War battlefields as well. Below is a summary of the trip & our thoughts on it.

Overall impressions of our French cruise - great, but not as scenic as the one we did Amsterdam to Budapest some years ago, and again, we could not fault the Avalon boat & crew. Also, we were told before we went that the French were rude & Paris was dirty & full of graffiti. However, we found the French friendly, polite, only too willing to help & very tolerant of my fractured french language skills! Paris was certainly not dirty compared to some places we have been & its graffiti no worse. A cruise like this is perfect to give one an overview of a place in comfort & enables one to decide what areas or places to revisit.

One thing that is essential in planning a trip is NOT to leave flight bookings to your friendly travel agent alone - you really need to check everything yourself, or you end up spending 6 hours in a transit lounge like we did in Hong Kong, which is a dump! We were booked throught to Paris, then backtracked down to Nice where we were met & transferred to our hotel in Moraco, which was very pleasant & Monaco/Monte Carlo was interesting.

19 Oct - We spent the next day on an interesting tour of Nice before a 4 hour trip to Arles where we boarded our boat.

20/21 Oct - Arles was a rundown place with many buildings looking derelict, but the Roman amphitheatre was very good & worth a visit. Bull running/fighting is held in Aug/Sep., although the bulls are not killed (it is not the barbaric style practised in Spain), but apparently it is much patronised by the Spanish. The town was very run down with many derelict buildings again & shops opened very late. A pity the Mistral was blowing & it was cold.

22 Oct - On to Uzes which was lovely with the impressive Roman acqueduct Pont du Gard on the way. Then reboarded to go on to Avignon where the ruined Popes palace was less than interesting, except as a reminder of the power & obscene wealth of the church.

23 Oct - Viviers & little of interest in what is supposed to be an unspoiled medaeval village.

24 Oct - Tournon & Vienne, great Roman ruins & pleasant little town with a great market at Tournon. Unfortunately we were unable to visit the Chateau de la Batie which is in private hands.

25 Oct - Lyon, beautiful centre of silk production in the 18th century& we would have loved to spend more time here. Well worth a revisit to explore the aspects of it as the centre of French resistance during the Second World War.

26 Oct - Macon & Tournus, which we did not visit, opting to take a tour to the Chateau Cormatin which was well worth it with its moat & lovely gardens. Then on to Chalon-sur-Saone where we disembark next day to catch a train to Paris.

27- 29 Oct - Paris, which I think is one of the most liveable of cities, much more so than London where I had lived & worked for nearly 5 years in the '70s. We visited the Palace of Versailles was quite disappointing although impressive for its size & the gardens were not much compared to others we have seen. Prinneys Palace at Brighton was much more interesting in that it showed the difference between the upstairs & downstairs life & conditions & possibly because it was more intimate. We also did the obligatory show at the Moulin Rouge & sauntered round the usual tourist destinations. We can thoroughly recommend the Batobus for hopon, hopoff stops at points of interest along its route. Unfortunately we were unable to visit the catacombs, which were closed on the only other day we had free.

We also took a tour of the battlefields of the Somme, visiting some of the allied & German cemetaries, particularly Villers-Bretonneux, where a school, which was the gift of children of Victoria to the children of that town, is now the Franco-Australian museum.  It was very moving to visit these & some of the old trench lines which had been preserved.  It was sobering to think that a whole generation had been decimated, particularly when I remembered stories told to me by my old Aunt & Uncle of people they knew who had gone & having met two other relatives who had been respectively gassed & severely wounded during that conflict.

As before we found Avalon to be an excellent river cruise company in all respects & will use them again. However, for anyone proposing to do some river cruising, we would recommend that they do this cruise before the Amsterdam to Budapest one, as it cannot compare in terms of interest & several places we might have liked to visit we could not, as we wanted to take an optional trip which clashed.