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Europe 2008
29 Apr 2008 - (unfinished)
Welcome to our Travel Log. We will be updating this site as much as possible. We are not sure of the internet availability where we are travelling, but keep checking.
Regards,
Jo and Ray
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| User: | joandray |
| Name: | Ray Menzies |
| From: | Australia |
| Email: |
| rmenzo2001@yahoo.com |
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I'm currently in: Dubrovnik, Croatia Go there
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19 Jun 2008 |
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| Dubrovnik,
Croatia
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2 Days Left
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Dubrovnik
Our last tour before heading home was Dubrovnik. It had been quite a cold and windy night, and for this port of call we were supposed to be ferried ashore. Due to the stormy conditions the location had to be changed and we waited for nearly three hours for this to be organized. The ship ended up docking at the pier where we were able to walk ashore (the question was asked why the ship doesn’t just dock there all the time). As we were so late our guided tour was cut extremely short, then we had about half an hour to look around the city. If you have seen photos of Dubrovnik, it is a very beautiful city surrounded by a wall two and a half kilometers in circumference. We were both keen to do the walk of the city wall as the weather had changed and was now quite warm but we were also aware of the tightness of time to complete. Well, I am dragging my feet, attempting to take as many photos as I could. We did have one miscalculation, when we got to the top of the wall we expected it to be flat and smooth sailing (I’m right into this nautical talk now). It was up and down all the way, we were behind time and Josephine kept looking at me with a stare that said hurry up you old far.. I kept running, stopping occasionally for that one unforgettable photo shot. My knees were sore, my heart was pounding and yet I still got that stare and “tsk .. comm’n Ray”. Well, after running nearly all the way not to miss the bus, when we got to the bus stop we were not alone, there was over a thousand people waiting for the buses to take us back to the ship. After waiting for about 35 minutes pondering why I had to run so much, we jumped out of the queue and caught a taxi back to the ship to have a well deserved drink.
Dinner, then back to the cabin to pack as our bags, which had to put outside our front door by 1 am.
The bloody trip back.
When we hopped on the plane we were greeted by a hostess who gave us both an attractive toiletry bag. I had trouble undoing the zip, finally when it flew open the unprotected shaving blade sliced off a part of my finger. There was blood everywhere, 5 hand towels and three band aids later we contained the bleeding. About two hours later (finger still throbbing) I blew my nose and my handkerchief was full of blood, now a bloody nose.  Who said flying is one of the safest forms of transport. (Lucky he is so tough!).
Melbourne Terra Firma – you beauty mate.
Thanks to my wonderful wife we had a brilliant holiday. What a patient woman she is. Even more important, I defy any woman to carry more luggage (including mine) around Europe than she did. Jo outlasted 2 suitcases that were both wrecked in the last week of our trip by being accidentally (??) dropped by a taxi driver and the ship’s porter. They could have done with a luggage handling course from my little packhorse. Didn’t happen on her shift. There were not too many arguments …. Only the usual navigational blasts and having to tell her to walk a bit faster with my luggage.
Many thanks to our family and friends who followed us by the means of globenotes. We loved your comments, even the one from that feminist Germaine Greer. I hope you got a giggle (mainly at my expense) and a glimpse of the fabulous adventure we experienced.
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14 Jun 2008 |
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| Istanbul,
Turkey
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Turkey
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Istanbul
A magnificent view as we cruised into the very busy and picturesque harbor of Istanbul. We were on the early tour of the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia Cathederal and the (how) Bazaar.
History lesson for you heathens. Blue Mosque is still a practicing Mosque, Hagia Sophia Mosque/Cathedral is now a museum but was used as a Mosque Monday to Saturday and a Christian church on Sunday. They also took us to a Carpet Factory gave us Ouzo and tried to flog us carpets at $20,000, they didn’t get me drunk enough to fall for that one. Then off to the famous BAZAAR, it was truly amazing, thousands of shops selling those genuine fake goods, how could we resist. After a wonderful morning sightseeing we went back to the boat for a pit stop as the public toilets with a hole in the ground was not for that little black duckess.
In the afternoon we walked around the town and looked for an Internet Café. Easy task you may think. Everyone we asked, no one could speak English, but just pointed north. After half an hour heading north down somewhat dodgy streets we decided to turn around and come back albeit a different street. We kept asking for that elusive Internet Café and everyone kept smiling and pointing. We were just about to give up and we asked one last person who pointed to the sign above his head “INTERNET”. Although we had Internet on the boat it had no access to USB which I had put these notes plus pictures for quick and easy uploading of photos which had been resized onto the USB. That’s what I told Jo but the actually reason is the Internet on the ship was 1 Euro ($1.60) a minute and you all know what a tight ass I am. Anyway back to The Internet Café which was quite good as it doubled as a sauna, it was about 43 degrees in the dungeon where they keep the PC’s but it was cheap 60 cents for half an hour… I was happy.
Again back on boat in time to pour ourselves a drink, watch Istanbul fade in to distance and start planning our return visit some time in the future.
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12 Jun 2008 |
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| Istanbul,
Turkey
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Cruising the Adriatic
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The Cruise.
The last night in Venice old tight ass, even despite the exorbitant cost, took Mutti on a Gondola ride. After the initial shock of the price, I started to relax and enjoy what was a very peaceful and romantic voyage with Josephine through the tiny canals of Venice.
The next morning we booked out of our Hotel, spent our last couple of hours in Venice walking and of course shopping.
Ship ahoy!
We boarded our ship about lunch time. Our cabin is a very nice suite on the 9th deck. The ship has 3,780 passengers and 1,100 staff. Over 3,400 of the passengers are Italian and over 700 kids. The boat is enormous, as you can imagine, and we keep asking for the map that everyone else appears to have. The Cruise Services keeps telling us that no map exists. Eventually we found someone who cared and a map appeared. Does it help – no not really but we can’t admit that.
Day 2
Our first port of call was an Italian town called Bari, which we docked for a few hours. Josephine and I were churched out so we didn’t take the tour and just walked the town, then back to the boa | | | | | |