Merry Christmas everyone!

Church this morning. 21 people there including the priest...

...but not including the characters in the nativity scene!

Posing with our Christmas tree on our return.

Coffee time and time to open the presents...

...and I got the best Christmas jumper yet from Margaret's sister Eileen!

Then Christmas dinner after the Queen's speech on TV followed by a relaxing evening. Perfect!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Winter solstice sunset!

A Michelin Star for our favourite restaurant!

We have been going regularly to l'Antic Moli Restaurant for a few years now and I have included it in this blog on a number of occasions. 

A week ago we learned that it had been awarded a Michelin star!

This was very well deserved in our opinion as we have praised the quality, originality and presentation of the food on several occasions.

However, it is not just the chefs and the food on the plates that deserve the star of quality - it must have been awarded to everyone involved including the waiters/waitresses, the suppliers of the meat, vegetables and wine, even the cleaners and the laundry company as everything and everone work together to provide a great experience.

Today the restaurant was packed - maybe it's an end of the week thing especially as this weekend is extended to include Monday and Tuesday as holidays.

For the first dish Margaret had the mozarella salad with jamón de pato, I had the fideuà...

...and for the second dish Margaret had pork fillets with mushrooms, I had the rabbit and vegetables. Included is postre, a sweet course, bread, a bottle of wine and a bottle of water and all for €12.50 per person. Superb!

l'Antic Moli

Lunch today was at one of our favourite restaurants, l'Antic Moli which is situated just outside Sant Rafel del Riu and is actually on the border of Catalunya and Valenciana.

We always choose the Menú del Diá, excellent value at €12.50 as it includes a bottle of wine, water and bread. My starter was lentil soup with cod...

...and Margaret had the chicken salad.

My second course was pig's cheek with 14 snails - delicious! Margaret had cod then lemon sorbet for sweet, I had the tiramisu.

You don't get dishes like these in ordinary restaurants but this is not an ordinary restaurant.

We've been to this restaurant many times and I am sure we will be back many more. The menu is never the same and the standard of cooking lives up to their slogan - With the senses, the experience of good eating.

Venice

Yet another extra hour in bed as the clocks were turned back overnight!

The ship arrived around mid-day but the excursion didn't get underway until after lunch at 13.30 when we boarded a shuttle boat to take us to the city quayside.

We headed through the extremely busy walkway and over a couple of bridges crossing canals flowing into the sea to the Piazza San Marco...

...where we visited the Saint Mark's Basilica. I really don't know why you are not allowed to take photos or video in such places. I now have nothing to remember this part of the visit by.

Next door to the Basilica is the Doge's Palace, (the Doge being the supreme authority of the Republic of Venice,)  and here you are allowed to take photos and video...

...and what an incredible building both inside and out it is. One advantage of an organised excursion is that in both the Basilica and the Palace we were able to bypass the very long queues of visitors and just go straight in.

Here we are in front of The Giants' Staircase with Mars and Neptune on guard at the top.

In the photo above is the ceiling of the Golden Staircase which links the Doge's private apartments to the public rooms.

The ceilings of the rooms in the Palace are wonderful featuring works of art by the most famous painters of the time beautifully framed by very ornate carving. Each room is better than the previous one - breathtaking!

We walked over the Bridge of Sighs in the photo above on our way from the Palace on the left to the New Prisons built in 1614.

After our visit we explored Saint Mark's Square with the Basilica and the clock tower of 1499 behind us.

It was getting dark pretty quickly but the canals looked lovely...

...as did the silhouette of the buildings.

Back on board it was time for our last evening meal of the cruise with our friends Maria-Luisa and Ricardo.

What a week of unforgettable experiences!

If you want to see a slideshow of the photos from the complete trip, click HERE.

If you want to see my video of the complete trip, click HERE.

Dubrovnik

Saturday morning and we had moved back 1 hour into our normal time zone which gave us 1 hour extra in bed. Great!

There was a lovely sunrise as seen through our cabin window. Our cabin steward was very good, the cabin was cleaned impeccably every day but I didn't see him once clean the outside of the window!

The tour took us to a viewpoint to see the city.

The old city walls run for almost 2 kilometres around the city and have been featured as the setting on Game of Thrones.

We were then taken into the city itself to see a Franciscan Church and monastery...

...and the 18th century Cathedral...

...which houses relics of Saint Blaise, the city's patron Saint.

The busy main street had many alleys running off it...

...and there was the very nice Old Harbour at the end.

The market was in full swing and although the currency is the Kuna the enterprising sellers and coffee shops also accepted the Euro.

A brilliant experience and certainly worth another visit at some future date.

Kefalonia

We had also signed up for a trip on a boat visiting Lake Melissani,...

...to see panoramic views of the island,...

...to visit the monastery of Saint Gerasimos...

...and the shores sloping down to the Ionian Sea...

...but we go didn't as it was called off due to bad weather. (I took the photos above from a brochure.)

Staying on board meant we had time to try out the proper restaurant, instead of the buffet restaurant, for lunch.

I had the grilled octopus and I didn't get one leg, I got two!

As we headed north the sea got calmer and the weather brightened up...

 ...and we had time to explore the top deck of the ship...

...then before you knew it, it was time for our evening meal with more celebrations.

Next stop Dubrovnik.