First blog

I have never written a blog before and do not claim to have any real skill in committing my thoughts to print. However, having a go could be fun so I will give it a try.
Last Sunday I returned from a cruise on a beautiful ship named Costa Serena. It sailed from Venice which required a flight from the third London airport (Stansted UK) and that was preceded by a 300 mile plus drive to get to Stansted in the first place. I have cruised a number of times before but mostly in the Caribbean on English speaking trips. On this trip I was accompanied by my partner, who happens to be my ex wife, our 20 year granddaughter and my son who is three years younger than she is! I arrived in Venice extremely tired after the long drive and flight and although there was five hours of free time before sailing I gave going ashore a miss in order to catch up on much needed shuteye. The youngsters went ashore and had fun! This cruise was very different to previous ones and was geared to the Italian passengers who made up a good 80 per cent of the travellers. Every announcement was made in five languages and there was no way of switching the system off. Italian, followed by English, German, French and Spanish was a bit wearing on the eardrums. The food turned out to be first class with everything imaginable available for breakfast and seven course lunches and dinners served in the ornate dining room. My only criticism was that the kippered herrings offered for a breakfast choice were like biting into a lump of rock salt!
Our first port of call was Bari in Italy and the weather was good and the place pleasant for sightseeing and shopping. The following day we docked at Katakolon in Greece and had a fantastic day. I had booked a taxi a couple of months earlier to meet us on the jetty and take us to Olympia where the first Olympic games were held.

Olympia

I found the taxi driver on the internet and he was absolutely great and was waiting on the jetty as soon as we stepped off the ship. We had four and a half hours with him for 140 Euros plus a 20 Euro tip (about 230 US $ in total). He spoke perfect English and took us to a number of places on the return trip that were well off the tourist track. The organised trips to Olympia on crowded buses would have cost about twice as much so that was a good decision of ours.
We were next due to call at Izmir in Turkey but due to a medical emergency had to divert to land a sick passenger. Izmir was cancelled and we had a splendid day on the Greek island of Mykonos instead. Istanbul was a great day with a visit to the Blue Mosque via the Spice Market and Grand Bazaar being truly memorable.

Granddaughter - suitably attired!

Sadly, my son and granddaughter were both robbed near the Blue Mosque by a shoeshine man but I guess it taught them not to get their notes out in a public place without due care in future.
Before returning to Venice another great day was experienced in Dubrovnik in Croatia. The walled city is really impressive but, unfortunately, I got caught by a torrential downpour whilst on the city walls without anywhere to shelter. I was absolutely sodden and back on board the ship had to wring out all my clothes, including underwear.

It was a great week but I would not cruise with Costa again - everything is extremely expensive onboard compared with ships that use US $ or UK pounds - and the cruise was really aimed at Italians with other nationalities not really catered for.
I am going to finish here and see what happens when I try to publish this blog - at least my good pal in Brisbane Australia will read it.