I’ve
been meaning to write this post for so long already, since it has
already been 7 weeks ago when we went on a cruise vacation.
Six
years ago, I went on my first cruise with my parents and sister on the
Norwegian Jewel on the Western Mediterranean Sea and visited 6 cities
within a week: Barcelona, Messina, Naples, Rome, Florence, Pisa and
Villefranche-sur-Mer. I especially liked Villefranche – it was a small
place close to Nice, but so nice and refreshing.
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Villefrance with the "Jewel" in the background |
This
time, I chose the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and visited Venice and
Greek Isles, like Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos and Katakolon (Olympia). The
cruise was a good choice, since we had two sea days, so that we could
relax on board, but also saw 5 picturesque cities. I have seen views
that have literally blown me away, because they were simply so damn
beautiful. The reason we picked this cruise was Venice and Santorini –
particularly Santorini has been on top of my list of places to see in
Europe.
We
booked an excursion in Corfu, since we only had limited time, where we
could see the highlights. We first went to Perama, where we stopped to
take photographs of the famous views of Mouse Island. Then, we continued
to Lakones, or “Bella Vista” - I liked the view in Corfu very much,
since we could look onto the Paleokastritsa; see mountains in the foggy
background, spot vineyards and olive trees. For the rest, we did not
have time to explore Corfu town due to the time restriction.
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Mouse Island |
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Beautiful view - Bella Vista |
Next
was Santorini, where we only arrived in the early afternoon, since it
was quite a distance. We had to wait for our turn to get on the tender
boats and then again wait for the cable car to get up to the city
centre. Once arrived, after taking a few first shots, we took the bus to
Oia, where the famous sunsets are taken. It was indeed a gorgeous view
from the spot, but I also liked this view very much:
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Santorini |
Unfortunately, it was sooo windy that we couldn't take any decent pictures without my hair flying around. This is the best I could get:
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Windy .. |
We missed the sunset, because we were already on the ship when the sun was going down. However, we could enjoy it anyway:
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When leaving Santorini .. |
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After dinner .. having fresh fruit while watching the sunset .. |
Next
was Mykonos, an island full of yachts and rich tourist, famous for its
pelicans (we didn’t spot one), the windmills and “Little Venice”. It was
indeed very charming, with its white streets and big cobble stones, but
it was very small and a lot of the streets/houses looked the same to
me. And we were kinda ripped off for a cappuccino priced €6 – each!
Nevertheless, we could benefit from this view whilst drinking it:
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One of Mykonos' landmarks: windmills |
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Our ship and Little Venice behind me |
And yes - it was so blue there - blue sky and crystal clear water!
The
last greek island was Katakolon, more famous for Olympia. We are not
big historic fans, but we felt like having to go, since it was one of
the places along the cruise and a historic landmark, but were not blown
away by the many, many old stones in a huge park – I know Philistines!
It was more like been there, done that – check. The street from the
station of Katakolon to the harbor where our ship was located, however,
was very pretty and Mediterranean.
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Katakolon |
Oh and as a proof, I was actually IN Olympia -
We
decided to spend one more day in Venice, since we didn’t get to see it
when we arrived. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy, but it didn’t rain
luckily. Nevertheless, pictures are thus not sooo nice. We took the
vaporetto (watertaxi) up and down the Grand Canal and got to see all the
“must sees”, like the Piazza de San Marco, the basilica and campanile,
the Rialto bridge or bridge of sighs. We had delicious Italian food as
well. The only thing missing for me was going up the campanile and
having risotto (and maybe Italian dessert). What I didn’t like was that
it was so soo crowed. There were tourists everywhere, obviously, but it
was a bit too overwhelming – even after spending 6 days on a ship with
3000 other people.
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So peaceful! |
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Narrow streets in Venice |
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Bridge of Sighs |
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Piazzi di San Marco in the evening |
The
ship itself was fine, there was enough choice of restaurants (there are
two complimentary ones and we basically switched from night to night
and a various specialty restaurants, where you had to pay an additional
cover charge). However, we missed some activities. We didn’t do any
sports (swimming, golf, basket ball), go to the casino, but only went to
the show every night. We enjoyed the cruising experience anyway and
already think about a next cruise :)
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at the atrium/lobby of the ship |
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French dinner at "Le Bistro" |
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pic of the "Jade" |