Cannes

7/07/2010 9:22 PM
Bonjour/Bon soir Monsieur and Mademoiselle
We have spent the day in the French Riviera and enjoyed it... Was fascinated by the number of luxurious boats of all sizes and the number of luxurious hotels..have never seen so many big flash boats in one place...it definitely is a playground of the rich and famous...We saw the hospital where Angelina had the twins... Elton John’s Riviera home...Greta Garbo’s home...the names dropping could go on and on.
We came ashore in Cannes like the poor relations in our tender boats and began our tour of Nice and St Paul de Vence. We saw old Nice from “The Little Train”...Hobo 1 was flabbergasted by the extent of the bird population(brown nosed tits) on the stony beach...there is no sand on the beach only small rocks...looks a most uncomfortable place to sunbake.
We lunched at St Paul de Vence ... Hobo 2 was flaggergasted by her seafood salad lunch...a very tasty work of art!
We are now on our way to Barcelona tomorrow...our reception will probably depend on the result of tonight’s soccer semi-final! (Looking favourable with the Spain having just scored in the 73 minute)
Au revoir until demain!

Cinque Terre

6/07/2010 10:46 PM
What a strenuous day! We visited a fabulous place, the Cinque Terre, five little “hamlets” that cling to the side of these mountains which drop 800m into the sea below. The houses jam themselves together and completely fill the tiny little river valleys that drain out into the sea. (Think of building and farming on the sides of the hills on some of the Whitsunday Inlets and you get the picture.) It was the most spectacular place we have seen so far.
Only one village can be reached by bus. So first we had to walk down steps into the second village, Manarola; then travelled by tunnel through the mountain and around the side of a cliff face to get back to the first village, Riomaggiore, where another tunnel took us to a ferry; the ferry carried us past the third village, Corniglia ,which cannot be reached by the boat and on to the fourth village, Vernazza, where we bought the juiciest grapes and cherries for a snack before we boarded the ferry again to go on to Monterosso.
Here we had a two hour lunch break. We found a little cafe and had the best mixed seafood lunch you could imagine followed by a short expresso coffee...Thank goodness it was short. It would blow your head off. Then it was through another tunnel and down yet another hill before we reached the bus. Then came the most amazing climb back up from the shore to the summit and an excellent drive home through the most amazing Tuscany countryside.
With very hot days our clothes are saturated by the end so I’ve had to wash tonight and am quickly putting this blog together before falling into bed. Hobo 1 is chuckling his way through a movie which is almost finished so I’ll find a few photos to attach and call in again tomorrow night after our visit to the Cannes.

Thanks for the advice Rhys...we'll look for mousetraps today!

Tarquinia

5/07/2010 9:00 PM
Today we had our first disappointment of the tour.
We avoided Rome and were looking forward to viewing some Etruscan tombs and the museum in the Palazzo Vitelleschi in Tarquinia but we whizzed past the burial sites being told that all the artefacts from the site were stored in the museum. Then when we got to Tarquinia, we were told the museum was closed on Mondays. Very disappointing. We took a guided tour through the old mediaeval township and I ducked in to visit the Cathedral of St Margaritae before finding our way out to a beautiful lookout over the Marta River valley and Tyrrhenian Sea from a site chosen by early Popes as their summer retreats.
Still believing the farm visit would make up for our disappointment imagine how we felt when we were taken to a family restaurant in the middle of town, crowded into a small courtyard eating area and told what ice cream was made from. While a $40 000 machine made the ice cream we went and chose ourselves three scopes of ice cream from the front of the store and sat back down and ate it. Then when the “demonstration” ice cream was ready we were served more ice cream – all very pleasant but not what we’d been anticipating.
The Tuscany countryside is very rich and a kaleidoscope of colour from the wide variety of crops farmed. We enjoyed this aspect of the day but saw no livestock either – just one field of sheep and a couple of horses. Fortunately we did get an opportunity to buy some local produce... peaches, figs and tomatoes ...all very fresh and delicious.
I’m glad we are avoiding the bigger, more crowded cities. The stories of pick pockets are growing daily. Since Athens people have been robbed everyday and laundry gossip has it that Barcelona is the worst. People on Princess Tours seem to be safe. It is independent travellers who are getting caught out.
Back in our cabin early we had time to kill before an Italian tenor came on board to sing for us in the Atrium...Can you believe this is the foot of Hobo 1? How will he get on in the bindies when he gets home AND he has another two months at sea to go!!!
Can you believe there were 10 cruise liners in Civitavecchia with us today? It was spectacular to see us all sail off one after the other this afternoon each heading off in different directions once out of the harbour. Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Stromboli

5/07/2010 8:24:31 AM

Yesterday was a day at sea but very interesting. We cruised up the coast of Sicily and passed within “an inch” of the Italian coast as we passed through the channel then came within a nautical mile of Stromboli, an active volcano huffing and puffing away. I heard one of the little kids from day care (pictured) ask if we’d feel it shake next time it puffed.
We ended the day with an excellent production by the ship's production team - A tribute to the Beatles. On our stroll around the deck after it finished at 8:30pm we saw the perfect ending to a perfect day...a big pink orb sinking into the Mediterranean Sea. I sprinted up to our room and just caught this glorious picture of the 4th of July drawing to a close.

Great to hear from our latest followers Kyle, Chyanne and Shan. Love to you all.

Dubrovnik

5/07/2010 8:01 AM

We are safely along side in Civitavecchia (Can you get your tongue around that word?) about to head out into the Tuscania country side thus avoiding Rome. We can see seven tourist ships in the port already! Imagine Rome!!! A day in the Etruscan country side tasting ice creams at a country estate sounds far more civilised to me.
Blair Smith was right. Dubrovnik was an absolute delight although again we avoided the masses and as expected were not disappointed. Again all my research before I left home is paying dividends. We had a delightful day driving North along the Croatian coast to Ston and Trsteno. We saw 400 year old trees in a garden established by a merchant noble man in 1494 ... aren’t the dates incredible? The house was unfortunately damaged in the Bosnian war and half the garden damaged by an associated bush fire but still very beautiful to see. All returning sailors had to bring a plant for the garden so you have this huge range of plants from all over the world. Now genesis of plants dating back 500 yrs have been identified.

The next stop, STON, was a surprise...it included a launch ride to an oyster farm where we dined on oysters and clams delivered fresh to the boat by an 82 year old weathered fisherman and sculled them with Grappa . Should have had a bottle of that when my flu first started. It would have really cleaned out the airways!!! This was supplemented by several glasses of Peljesac on the boat and in the restaurant over a seafood lunch... needless to say I was feeling no pain by the time we turned for home...a most delightful day in the most picturesque countryside. It just keeps getting better!

Venice

Monday, 5 July 2010

Have a look at the crowd in St Mark’s square taken on our sail-in. Given this was the size of the crowd before another 2000 of us descended, a temperature in the mid thirties and marbled walls and streets, we chose not to enter Venice until our gondola ride at 8:30pm.
Our luck continues. The gondolier all go out at once and only one boat has a singer who sings to the whole group when they assemble in the Grand Canal. We had the singer and accordion player on our gondola and were serenaded for the whole of the 35 minute meander through the canals! How lucky was that?
We walked St Marks square at 10:00pm – far more civilised although all we could do was people watch. Orchestras were playing and coffee shops were open along with all the souvenir places (see masks) but as our ship was the biggest vessel in the canal, we had a really good overview of the city on the cruise in -away from the maddening crowds.
The next morning was far more to our liking. We were taken by ferry to Murano and Burano two islands in the lagoon about an ¾ hour from Venice. We visited a glass factory and saw the old traditional way of hand stitching lace. Here I fell in love with a second "Jess" - the embroider's dog. So I've enclosed a picture of her. We enjoyed the far more relaxed pace of these two lovely islands. We were the first group off the ship in the morning and the last group back on.
The ship was on the move immediately the last foot was on board so we hurried to our balcony to enjoy a beautifully relaxed cool sail away.
Our balcony is the third down under the W in DAWN Princess – immediately above the second lifeboat from the right.

Santorini

3:30 pm 30th June

Ship’s position is 40.48N, 18.15E which means we are presently cruising off the heel of the Italian boot on our way to an overnight stay in Venice tomorrow after a 1:30pm arrival...Will be a very pleasing to sail in at midday instead of dawn when you have to peer through the gloom to see what lies ahead.

Yesterday’s port of call, Santorini, was very spectacular and a different volcano experience again from the two on our last voyage. The island is the rim of a huge caldera with absolutely stunning views from the cliffs that rise 300m above the sea. A volcanic eruption in 1600BC, which possibly gave rise to the myth of Atlantis, completely blew the top out of the island and left a huge crater that collapsed on the north-west side and formed a huge natural C shaped harbour. Centuries later pirates came and dug hideaways into the soft pumice stone which settled on top the cliffs and gave rise to the towns that now cling to the very tops of these steep cliffs and spill precariously over the edges like guano on rocks.
We began the tour sipping wine in a vineyard at the top of the cliff after a very dramatic bus ride up the impossibly steep cliffs on a single lane road with only two passing points...this was an absolutely breathtaking journey not to mention the beauty of the spot and the joy of an Italian breakfast of goat’s cheese, fresh bread, tomatoes, olives and wine sipped in the early morning sunshine.
A brief bus tour had us at Ioa ,(pronounced eea), a village at the tip of the island shown on “Get Away” as the place to see the best sunset in the world. Although we were there mid morning I walked out to the end through the narrow streets and was not disappointed by my effort. I been about to give up the walk when a shop keeper (tiny shops line the whole thoroughfare) said , “Don’t give up. Keep going. You won’t be disappointed.” And I wasn’t it was amazing. You had a bird’s eye views of the tiny houses cling to each other and to the cliff as they spill over the edges of ridge that forms the rim of the caldera. The “streets” are just walkways with little steps branching off and winding their way down and around the cliff to the doorways of each little house or shop - hard to tell which was which.
Later in Fira, we enjoyed coffee in one of the many coffee shops the line the cliff tops before Hobo 1 joined the very lengthy queue that had formed for the 6 little cable cars that carried 6 people each back down to the boats. There were 12 000 tourists that visited the island that day from 7 cruise ships and it was either wait for the cable car or ride a donkey (with no reins just holding the pummel on the saddle) or walk the 529 steps with about 10 steps between each step. So Hobo 1 considered it no contest and volunteered to work our way round the queue while I dashed up a little alley way to visit the cathedral of St John the Baptist. I returned with still half an hour’s waiting to be done. We were all aboard by 4:20pm in spite of 3:30 having been our scheduled departure time. The captain had the anchor up and as the last foot touched the deck we were away.
Hobo 1 was delighted with the shopping opportunities offered by the island – jewellery, clothing, leather goods, wine and souvenirs...He could hardly restrain himself ... eventually gave in to temptation and lashed out and bought himself TWO packets of pistachios – sugar coated and rolled in sesame seeds. I am pleased to report that he is sharing them today and they are very tasty – a well chosen purchase.

Being a sea day and feeling a little better i made it a washing day and was pleased to get a washing machine immediately I entered the laundry. There’re only two machines per floor and getting a machine without queuing is like winning the lottery. We also had our next emergency evacuation drill... So not a very exciting day today. But we did begin by watching a movie before we got out of bed this morning- quite decadent for these two hobos!!!
9:00 pm. We have just enjoyed our Dawn Princess orchestra entertaining us with a night of Dixieland jazz. They are superb. Love them every time we see them. Last night we were entertained by the dancers and singers of the Production Show, Vintage Vegas - another excellent show ...all feathers and sequins with great singing and dancing. It is still twilight when the shows finish and we are able to stroll around the deck before coming up to post our blog.
The days just keep getting better!!!