Blog

After all the planning, arranging, list making, booking - oh and saving, we are finally off on our next big adventure. We said goodbye to...

Nine and a half hours from San Francisco to Amsterdam followed by a two-hour layover then one hour and twenty minutes got us into Marco...

Having stayed up until midnight last night we both had excellent night’s sleep so hopefully we won't be jet lagged today. Breakfast...

This morning we made an ascent of the Campanile (Bell Tower) in St. Mark's Square; no ropes, pitons or grappling hooks were required - we...

Last day in Venice, sad - we've really enjoyed our stay, but today we have to get on the ship for our cruise. We spent the morning doing...

Today we had an excellent port day in Split, Croatia; the ship was supposed to anchor offshore and use the tenders to transport guests to...

Another stop in Croatia, this time at the port of Dubrovnik - about 200 miles south, down the coast from Split. Although the overall city...

Another beautiful day in the Adriatic. Today we stopped at the Greek island of Corfu which is the northern most of the Ionian Islands off...

When we first started going on cruises, we used to look upon sea days as wasted - but now we look forward to them as a day of no plans...

Today we visited the port of Izmir on the west coast of Turkey. The primary attraction of stopping in Izmir is to use it as a starting...

Another fantastic sea day - really fantastic, we got to sail through the Bosphorus Strait and into the Black Sea. We had a lazy morning,...

Having crossed the Black Sea, this morning the ship docked in the port of Yalta which is on the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine; this was...

Odessa, Ukraine, is a lot larger than Yalta - in fact it has ten times the population, and with its wide boulevards lined with large...

Disappointment today as the seas were too rough for us to visit the town of Nessebur in Bulgaria. Overnight we sailed south along the...

A full day in Istanbul! The weather was quite miserable today; raining and cold with strong winds - but we vowed not to let this get in...

The ship sailed from Istanbul at about midnight last night; we had thought we might get an additional morning in port, but this was not...

Today the ship docked at the port of Piraeus which is about 6 miles south of Athens; this was a "turn around" day for the ship with most...

Time for one last spin around Plaka before heading out to the airport. We wandered through the streets and made our way up to Parliament...

This was my first trip to Amsterdam, but Sandra had been twice before – so I was looking forward to a bit of a guided tour. With only one...