We got to Cartagena before the sun came up this morning. The cruise terminal is very close to the town and it was an easy walk into the main shopping and restaurant district that is also part of the old town. We decided to take it easy today as I am getting over a cold and Linda still has sniffles and is sneezing from time to time. Right in the downtown area, they recently discovered a Roman amphitheater.

Downtown Cartagena from our balcony

Sun from the top of the city walls

Roman amphitheater

We walked into the main shopping area and bought a few souvenirs. We stopped for a light lunch along with some local red wine. After lunch we had gelato and cappuccinos for dessert.

Local cheese, almonds and olives

Grand Hotel in Cartagena

The tight port in Cartagena

Old fortification and Red Light showing the rough coastline

We have left the port and are now on our way to Palma in Mallorca. We will probably have a light day of touring tomorrow as well. More from Palma tomorrow.

We arrived in Gibraltar about 7:00 this morning. The weather is supposed to be very nice today and the people in Gibraltar are happy to be drying out after 4 days of rain.

We had an early tour to the top of the “Rock.” It was still a little dark when we boarded our minibus for a short trip to the cable car to the top. We were in the second cable car and we had an opportunity to see the sun come up over the sea east of Gibraltar.

Sunrise from the Tob of the Rock at Gibraltar

Linda with the Sun Princess in the harbor

The “Prudential” view of the Rock

After we rode the cable car back down, we walked to Main Street, a shopping and pedestrian area of Gibraltar. We had coffee and tea along with a Spanish style light breakfast. We brought a few souvenirs and walked along Main Street on our way back to the ship.

One of the Gates in Gibraltar

Trafalgar Cemetery

Main Street Gibraltar

Gibraltar and the Rock with our fireboat sendoff as we are departing

Europa Point Lighthouse (southern most point of Europe)

Morocco across the Strait of Gibraltar

We are on our way to Cartagena, Spain tomorrow. We will be going into the city on our own. Should be a relaxing day of sightseeing.

Today is the day the first part of our cruise ends. We had originally (before we looked at the calendar) thought about going into Rome. Because of the likely crowds for Good Friday, we decided to take a tour into the local country-side for a wine tasting and a visit to one of the volcanic lakes near Rome, Lake Bracciano. The ride to the winery was beautiful.

Vineyard on the way to the winery

At the winery we had a very informative tour of the wine making operation. One very interesting fact is that the wine is fermented in cement containers so that the wine breathes as it ferments and ages. We also had a light snack of Italian Meats and cheese with the two wines we tasted. The wine caves were very romantic.

Exterior of the winery

Lunch are in the wine caves

The selection of Italian meats and cheese.

After the winery we took a short drive to one of the volcanic lakes near Rome, Lake Bracciano and the village of Anguillara Sabazia.

Anguillara Sabazia

Lake Bracciano

Got back to Civitavecchia port in plenty of time to reboard the Sun Princess. We have two sea days before we begin touring the Mediterranean Sea with a visit to Gibraltar. More after Gibraltar.

We had a very long and tiring day touring Sorento and then the ruins of Pompeii. We had been to Pompeii before but it was a rainy day and it was difficult to see everything. We arrived early in Naples and the rain from yesterday was gone.

Naples Cruise Terminal

Our day started relaxing enough with a drive down the coast to Sorento. We had some time on our own to walk around the old town of Sorento. It was fun looking at the shops in the narrow streets. The smells coming from the leather shops was wonderful. We joked that they must have leather air freshener. We stopped for lunch at a sidewalk cafe and they of course had pizza on the menu. I asked if they had gluten free pizza and the answer was “of course.” We ordered a Margaretta pizza and it was wonderful. Very nice crust that was tasty and well baked.

Bill in Old Town Sorento

Linda at the sidewalk cafe. GF pizza here was great!

Italian Coast north of Sorento

After visiting Sorento we loaded back on the bus and headed to Pompeii. When we got there the ruins were pretty crowded. Our guide took us down some side streets that were less crowded and he explained the layout of typical houses. One interesting thing is that many houses had an area to conduct business. He explained that business was not conducted in the Forum but in homes. The mosaics and frescoes were beautiful. It is amazing that they survived the volcano and the years.

Plaza of the amphitheater. The theater is in the upper left of the picture.

One of the many preserved mosaics

One of the main roads in Pompeii leading to the Forum

The Pompeii Forum

Tomorrow is the Transit day where the current passengers leave and the next cruise passengers embark. We will be taking a tour out into the countryside to do a wine tasting and see some lake scenery. More tomorrow

Yesterday we visited Athens and rode the Hop-on Hop-Off bus to view the Tomb of the Unknown Solder, the first Olympic Stadium, and the Acropolis Museum. If you have ever visited Athens, you know that the Acropolis is visible from much of Old Athens, also known as the Plaka.

View of the Acropolis from the Hop-On Hop-Off transfer point

The 1896 Olympic Stadium from the Hop-On bus

Linda at lunch at a Plaka Taverna next to the Roman Agora

Bill at lunch at the Taverna

Tower of the Winds

Narrow street in the Plaka

We heard birds singing and turned around to see this

Steps that were part of our unintended detour on the way to the Museum

Acropolis from the Plaka

We walked from the Taverna to the Acropolis Museum. We used Google Maps to show the way. We did make one wrong turn and had an adventure up some steps that reminded us of our Portofino adventure many years ago. We also did a little shopping at some of the shops on the way

The Karyatids in the Acropolis Museum. These statues were columns from the Erechtheion on the Acropolis.

View of the Acropolis from the Acropolis Museum

View of the Piraeus (Athens) harbor from our balcony.

We are having a day at sea on the way to Naples, Italy where we are hoping to be at the Pompeii site without rain. If you have ever been there (we have), you know the footing is somewhat difficult and rain makes it worse. Last time we visited, it was raining and we spent so much time watching our footing, we missed a lot. More tomorrow after Naples.

We arrived in Kusadasi at 7:00 this morning. We booked an Ephesus on your own tour as we had been to Ephesus before. The tour was an audio tour that was very informative. Ephesus is a short drive from the port and while there were threats of showers, it stayed dry, at least until we got back to the ship

Kusadasi in the morning

The Odeon at Ephesus

Curetes Street leading to the library

Celsus Library

Commercial Agora

Theater where St. Paul spoke in Ephesus

Kusadasi Castle from our balcony

Harbor Lighthouse in Kusadasi

The sign on this shop is somewhat typical of shops in the Kusadasi area

We are now on the way to Athens. We will tour using the Hop-on Hop-off buss and hope to visit the original Olympic Stadium and the Acropolis Museum. More tomorrow.

We had a relaxing day at sea yesterday. We have been continuing to explore the Sun Princess and enjoy relaxing on this cruise. One of the new features of the Sun is a forward area called the Sea View Terrace. If you have ever taken a cruise, you know that people are always looking for ways to see where the ship is traveling. We spent a few hours on the terrace and just watched the waves and a few other ships in the distance.

There was an opportunity the learn the spoons. The Irish music duo, Rambling Rovers, taught 85+ of us how to play the spoons. Two of the tunes they used were Irish Washerwoman, a jig, and John Ryan’s Polka. Lots of fun and it was very noisy. We went back to the pub and sat with some folks from Northern California to watch the Rambling Rovers. Also watched them after dinner.

We arrived in the harbor of Santorini early this morning. We were scheduled to start the tendering operation at 7 AM, but the Greek Coast Guard held this up even though the Sun was using local tenders and their barge docks for the ship to tender transfer. I suspect this was because the Sun had not visited Santorini before. People finally started to go ashore at about 9:30 and this ended up creating a large crowd trying to get up the relatively small gondola to the village of Fira at the top of the rim.

Village of Fira showing a small portion of the donkey path to the top.

When we got ashore, there was a very long line and we decided to have lunch at the Taverna at the port and do a little shopping at the port rather than try to get up to the village. Lunch was wonderful, we shared a Greek salad and Linda had Musaka and I had mussels along with some nice white Greek wine.

The line for the gondola (It want a long way behind us as well) from our lunch table

Lunch with a birds-eye view of the line

Open fire roasting of meats at the Taverna

We got back to the ship after a little shopping and we are looking forward to our self-guided tour of the Ephesus in Turkey tomorrow.

Left Messina mid-afternoon to sail around the toe of Italy’s boot toward Corfu. Arrived in Corfu about 9:00 AM this morning. We took advantage of the late arrival to have a leisurely breakfast and the left the ship to board the Hop-on Hop-off bus for a tour around Corfu. We got off the bus at the “Old” Fort to go to old town Corfu. The old town of Corfu is a world heritage site and it was a lot of fun to wander around the narrow streets of Corfu shopping and looking at the buildings. We also had a light lunch with coffee. I had Greek coffee which is pretty thick. We bought some local olive oil and some cumquat marmalade we had the chance to taste, yummy!

The main street through old town Corfu

One of the side streets

The walls of the “New” fort in Corfu

We decided to have a little fun and take a horse drawn carriage back to the ship. It was very relaxing and gave our tired feet a rest.

Linda in horse drawn carriage

View of Corfu harbor from our balcony

We will be leaving for a day at sea soon and then the next day we will be in Santorini. We are looking forward to a relaxing day on the ship.

Last evening we sailed by the volcanic island of Stromboli. We saw a few puffs of smoke from the volcano and saw a beautiful sunset befre we changed for dinner.

Volcano on Stromboli, puff at the top is smoke not a cloud.

Sunset near Stromboli

We arrived at the dock in Messina overnight. We were up and on the tour bus by 8:00 this morning. We decided to take an easy coach tour of Messina to ease into touring on this cruise.

Sunrise at Messina Harbor (view from our balcony). Hills in the distance are Calabria on mainland Italy

Views from our coach tour.

Big lake in Messina where they grow mussels and clams. Man is standing harvesting clams

Strait of Messina, mainland Italy on the right

Here we are in front of Cristo Re church at the panorama point

Sun Princess from the panorama point

Mosaic inside the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta

Cathedral bell tower

At the Cathedral Square, we watched the noon bell tower display. The figures are all mechanically animated with gears, and belts. This is more impresive than the animated clock at the Munich Town Hall.

We are now about to sail to Corfu, where we will tour using the Hop-on Hop-off buses. More tomorrow.

The transfer to the Sun Princess went very smoothly. We boarded early and had to wait until about 1:30 to get to our room. This is either the second or third sailing of the Sun Princess (the first 2 sailings were cancelled!). There are still a few kinks but Princess seems to have worked most of them out. The staff is very happy and the service has been wonderful.

The atrium of our ship

The port was busy with a number of large ferries coming and going. There was one other cruise ship in port as well, the MSC Orchestra. We left about sunset on our adventure.

The city of Civitavecchia and one of the large ferries in port. This is the view from our balcony.

View from our balcony as we left port

Sunset as we left on our adventure

After we left , we got dressed for dinner and went down to O’Malley’s Pub, one of the bars and entertainment spots, to see The Rambling Rovers. They are a fiddle and guitar group from Scotland and Ireland. It was a lot of fun and they played a number of well known tunes. Listened for a while and went to have a nice dinner.

The Rambling Rovers

Today we are sailing towards Messina and about 5 PM we will sail by the volcanic island of Stromboli. We will be sailing by slowly so we should be able to get some good views. More tomorrow after we leave Messina.