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.

Santorini

The island of Santorini was originally circular but due to a massive volcano which blew the island to bits some 3,600 years ago it has now changed shape with the centre of the volcano forming the caldera which is now the sea with a large crescent shaped part and a couple of other small bits of land remaining.

At the time of this volcano there was a town in Akrotiri which was covered in pumice as a result of the lava mixing with sea water.

The entire town is an excavation site and has been covered by an enormous roof supported by pillars which go down through the pumice to rest on the solid rock below.

Walkways have been built around and through the "town" for the visitors to see the dwellings which have been unearthed.

The tour continued with a visit to the capital, Fira. 

Here we had a casual stroll along the very high coastal road through the town to the cable car to take us down to sea level to catch the shuttle boat back to the ship.

The town road was very busy as tourists from at least 2 cruise ships made their way to the cable car.

The caldera is incredibly deep so only very large cruise ships can anchor there.

That evening a meal with our new friends Maria Luisa and Ricardo from Argentina where we recounted the happenings of the day.

Mykonos

We set sail from the harbour of Pireas, Athens, on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday morning we were in the port of Mykonos...

...roughly following the course of the line on the map above.

It certainly lived up to its nickname as "the island of the winds"!

We visited a delightful monastery, the Panagia Tourliani Monastery, founded in 1580,...

...decorated with some exquisite silver incense holders and chandeliers...

...and typically was full of icons as opposed to statues. There are over 1,000 small churches scattered over the island usually attached to a nearby residence.

We then went to the town of Mykonos, also known as Chora, and walked around the narrow paved streets...

...to see the windmills at the far end of the town...

...then back to a restaurant for a sumptuous late lunch...

...as the afternoon sun descended.