Thursday September 26th, 2013 At Sea

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 and pure relaxation. Today the ship is sailing south and east along the Greek coast and between several unpronounceable Greek islands and across to the east coast of Turkey and the port is Izmir; we'll arrive there tomorrow morning. The sea is almost dead calm, there is a warm breeze, and our cabin is on the shaded side of the ship so it's perfect for sitting out on the balcony.

This morning we attended an excellent lecture by the former chief foreign correspondent for the BBC, Margaret Gilmore. The lecture was focused on terrorism and the balance between reporting quickly and reporting accurately. Mrs. Gilmore used the London bombings on July 7, 2005, as the basis for her talk which included many photographs and videos, some of which were difficult to watch. I found this talk to be very informative and commend Cunard for putting on what some might feel was a pretty controversial topic for a cruise.

We witnessed a spectacular sunset as the ship sailed past another Greek island.

Some words and pictures to describe the ship; the Queen Elizabeth is the 3rd and newest ship in the Cunard fleet, launched in 2010 - she's bit smaller than the Queen Mary 2 and about the same size as the Queen Victoria. The Queen Elizabeth is lavishly decorating in the Art Deco style; rich wood paneling is everywhere and all the trim from the staircase railings to the light fixtures are perfectly designed for the period and just seem to flow together - we love it.