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Posts tagged ‘cruise’

Venice to Turkey 14, Part 2

Day 13, Istanbul, May 17, Part 2

We are quoted €8 round trip to the river boat and think it’s a bargain. So we get in the taxi and happily ride the 15 minutes to the boat. We get a view of the Galata Tower on the way. This Tower will become more important later in our vacation!

Once there, it takes 15-20 minutes to find the correct boat. It turns out the boat wasn’t back from a previous cruise until the last minute. We find the boat and board it right as sunset was beginning. We get underway and begin capturing photos of the city as it lights up at night. The cruise lasts 2 hours and the views are great! We even pass by our cruise ship as we start the tour! And yes, those are random rainstorms you see in the cloud formations!

Continuing on, we watch as the city wakes up at night. A lot of the passengers on the cruise go to the lower lever because it is enclosed and the crew serves them tea and biscuits. I opt to stay up top and keep my camera entertained.

We finish the cruise and are glad to get off the water for it is very chilly. Luckily, we dressed appropriately. As we wait for our taxi driver, suddenly The Call To Prayer erupts from loudspeakers all around us! It seems that we are surrounded by approximately 6 mosques, all broadcasting simultaneously! We find our taxi driver and go back to the ship. I ask him for €10 change from the €20 note I hand him and he looks at me strangely.

He informs me the fare is €80, not €8. I object and insist we were quoted €8. He either calls his boss or pretends to and the price drops to €50. Still not acceptable, I argue the price again. We settle on €40 round trip and I cave in. So beware of scams like this and possibly get your quote in writing.

We get back on the ship and get most of our packing done as we get off the ship in the morning.

Good night everyone!

Venice to Turkey 13

Day 13 Thessaloniki, May 16

We had a ships tour scheduled today that we managed to cancel at the last minute in lieu of riding the HOHO Bus and doing our own thing. We have been less than impressed with the ships tours as their organization is somewhat lacking.

So we have a leisurely breakfast in the restaurant and get off the ship around 9:30 AM. We see the HOHO Buses right in the taxi area. How convenient!

We pay €18 for the bus and board it right in front of the ship. It takes us around the city, stopping at all the ancient buildings and we get off at the top at the Fortress of 7 Towers, or the Heptapyrgion, an old castle. It actually had 10 towers, and we never find why it is called 7 Towers. Situated at the highest point of the city within the Situated at the highest point of the city within the historic Ano Poli (Upper Town), the fortress offers panoramic views of Thessaloniki, the Aegean Sea, and on clear days, Mount Olympus days, Mount Olympus. We don’t spot the Mount.

Walking around the ruins keeps our cameras engaged and we marvel at the vistas. We walk back down to the bus stop and ride for a bit more. We get off at the Rotunda and the Arch and entertain our cameras once more.

We choose to get a bite of lunch here and have a tomato and cheese dish along with an eggplant dish. Wash that down with some local beer and wine and life is good! More street art and graffiti are everywhere.

While we eat, we watch the HOHO Buses come every 15 minutes. So we time our finishing eating a couple minutes before the bus comes.

We step over to the bus stop and wait. And wait. And wait some more. A half hour later another HOHO Bus comes and accepts our tickets. There is a White Tower that we would like to see but it means we will have to ride the bus two more times. So when we get back to the stop at the ship, we opt to just get off.

Back on the ship, we get back in shipboard mode and begin by relaxing in our stateroom. We visit with Patrick and Sue from the west coast of Ireland in Palomar Restaurant during dinner. Fun chat!

Tried to get seats for “The Prom” in the theater tonight but it was standing room only. We stood and watched for a short while but sitting down has a real value. So back to our stateroom it is to catch a movie. While watching the movie, I felt a bit of movement so I looked out the window and there are two meter seas! Yay!

Venice to Turkey 07

Day 07, Bar, Montenegro, Mother’s Day

So today, being the romantic that I am, I took Elee to the City Bar for Mother’s Day!

Today we sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast. We get off the ship at 9:30 AM. We take the mandatory shuttle out of the industrial port to the Promenade where we get a taxi. Our driver, Marco, speaks very good English. He takes us to the Old Town and we agree on a pick up time. We don’t have to pay him until the end so we feel comfortable that he will be back. On the way to Old Town, we have him take us to the oldest olive tree in Europe. Marco comments that he doesn’t understand why tourists are willing to pay €2 to see an old tree!

We walk into the quaint cobblestone streets of Old Town and it’s lined with small boutique shops. As we walk further, boutique shops turn into restaurants. We walk through and come across the entrance to the old ruins.

A slow climb up through the ruined streets reveals an ancient life of different buildings. Amazingly old structures mostly built of stone show a civilization from days of yore. Many vistas for our cameras entertainment present themselves.

We find rooms that were used as public baths and on of them even has natural lighting window in the ceilings!

Eventually we reach the top and it’s time to come down. We make it back to Old Town and stop for refreshment in the form of Pomegranate Beer!

Feeling a bit refreshed, we walk down further and find a restaurant for lunch. Here we have Cevapi, a rolled meat sausage, Dolmas and an eggplant dish. Top it off with Pomegranate Wine and life is good.

We then meander back through Old Town and stop for a t-shirt purchase and walk back to our taxi. Marco takes us back to the Promenade and we ride the shuttle bus to the ship.

In the afternoon we take walks around the ship, take part in trivia games and generally have fun on the ship. We even found the original “Rock, Paper, Scissors”! Off to dinner and then to a magic show before bed. When the ship departs, locals gather on the docks and piers and wave goodbye to us!

See you all tomorrow!

Venice to Turkey 06

Day 06, May 09, Zadar, Croatia

This morning we wake up in Zadar, Croatia with clear skies. We feared rain for during the night we went through a fairly wet storm.

It’s going to be a short day in port as we hear the All Aboard will be 1:30 PM.

Breakfast at 7 AM, then to our room to gear up to get off the ship. Another couple that speculated traveling with us didn’t respond so we go off the ship around 8:30. It costs us €20 to get to Old Town via taxi and off we go.

Old Town is an interesting walk among buildings several thousand years old and streets, some in amazingly good condition.

We come across a tower, that for €5, you can climb! So up we go. Very interesting views from the top after 203 steps up one way steps. We take several breaks, primarily to let other tourists go the opposite direction.

Once back down, we head to the end of Old Town where we find Pozdrav Suncu, or the “Greeting to the Sun”, a modern circle of solar panels where we find young people doing cartwheels and headstands, for what purpose is not clear.

Then, next to that, we visit another modern structure, “Morske Ordulje”, the “Sea Organ”. These simple looking concrete steps at the sea’s edge are built such that when the waves crash against them, they produce deep notes that reverberate into tunes. Quite the unique place where we sit for a while and enjoy the different melodies as ships go by and create different rhythms.

After a while here, we stroll back into Old Town and meander back through the ancient streets. There are festive parties preparing for a marathon type street race to occur tomorrow. We stop at an outdoor cafe and enjoy some cold water and a couple glasses of local wines that we have never tasted before.

As we stroll again towards the gathering of taxis, we indulge our cameras a few more random photos. For some that have asked, we are traveling with cell phones only this trip after our successes a few months ago! Elee is using the Samsung Galaxy S23 Pro and I am using the newest iPhone 17 Pro. My images are better than hers but they are all good! We step inside a small church for a moment but don’t choose to pay the tithing to go all the way in. As I arrive at the taxi spot, I pull out the card our taxi driver, Tomaslav Toric, gave us, he is there and spots us just as I spot his car! So with no waiting, Tomas takes us back to the ship. He earns himself a tip for that!

We walk the final half mile to get on the ship and go to our stateroom. A bit of rest and we head out to find a bite to eat. We go to the “Local Bar” and have chili and salad. Then it’s off to explore more of the ship. Watching the cart racing, taking a stroll around the decks, the “Galaxy Pavilion”, a glowing arcade, the “Observation Deck”, and many other things on the ship. I even spot a set of umbrellas that you only get to use by paying approximately €400 Euros per day!

Then to kick back and relax in the “Penrose Atrium”, watching trivia shows. Before we know it, it’s time for dinner. Tonight we dine in the “Commodore Room”, another main restaurant. The food was just okay.

After dinner we secure seats for some music and a silly game show that Elee enters. She doesn’t win but everyone has fun!

Time to call it a night.

Venice to Turkey 05

Day 05, Board the Norwegian Viva

We get up early and go for a walk in search of our shuttle location to take us to the ship. Once found, we patronize one of many Patisseries that line the streets and have coffee and pastries.

Then it’s back to the hotel to pick up our luggage to go to the bus stop. We have been told to be there at 9:20 AM promptly. The bus arrives at 9:45 AM. So much for promptness. There was a line of people ahead of us when we arrived at 9:10. But the good thing is we put our luggage on last which means we are first off.

Our boarding time is noon and we get to the ship at 10:30. But we are third in line and security is ready for us at 10:45. We check our bags and wait in a 20 minute line to check onto the ship. Formalities taken care of, we board the ship. Our stateroom is not ready, so, with heavy backpacks on, we start touring the ship. Elevator up to deck 17, stairs to 18, walk around, find the main buffet, arcades and race track, yes, race track! Down to deck 7 and inquire about details at the front desk. Whew!

Back to the buffet for a snack to offset our plans to visit a bar. Looking out over the harbor, the compression effect of my telephoto lens makes the docked boats look interesting.

Then to the front theater where we sign up for one of our paid dinners. Interesting space, the theater is just one big open room! Wonder what it’s like to see a show in here? Now to a bar for a glass of wine. We study the things to do on and off the ship, get events into our calendars and go back to the theater to book another dinner. A salesman sees me with a glass of wine and successfully gets us to book a wine tasting.

One thing we don’t care for (we learned this on Royal Caribbean) is that even complimentary restaurants and events must be booked in advance because the ship is so big. We walk around the ship more and stumble across the Welcome Aboard Party by the pool!

We try to go to our stateroom to deposit our backpacks and find it is still not yet available. So we lug our stuff up to what turns out to be the whiskey bar. They have whiskey and wine. I sit with our bags and Elee walks to the ‘Local Bar’ for a rum drink. She returns with her drink and a small pretzel snack and we are immediately informed by a waitress that food is strictly forbidden in this bar. WHAT? Unheard of! A snack prohibited in a bar? I guess we have learned what bar to not patronize on this cruise! So I note to self to include this in our review of the ship.

Elee walks back to the other bar to enjoy her snack and I hold down the fort. I don’t know how long to wait to find our room available so I sit and relax. Elee returns and we relax together. When our room is finally ready, we are impressed with the size of it!

At dinner, we have fabulous food between seafood for Elee and New York Strip Steak for me which tastes and looks more like Filet Mignon. We meet and chat with several people from Australia. After dinner I get a glass of wine and go back to the stateroom for the evening.