Day 23 - Corfu

We berthed at 7.15 and enjoyed brekky up on Deck 15 overlooking the port of Corfu.Once again we have chosen not to do an organized excursion and will do our own thing.We took the local bus to town (€1.50) and just wandered around the labyrinth of very narrow streets.Again it was a real wonder to see cars and motorbikes scurryingthrough amongst the pedestrians.No one seems to worry about who has right of way  etc. as it just all seems to work out.We visited the church of St.Spyridon (his silver coffin is displayed there) and enjoyed a drink at a little cafe while Eric used the free wifi.The proprietors are not at all pushy and very friendly.There are a lot of illegal(?) Africans walking around offering watches for sale and the locals don't seem to mind them wandering in and out of their customers.

It was a surprise to look out today and see greenery again after the barren landscape in Santorini and Mykonos.The old port area is dominated by a huge old fortress and has been governed by different nations.The villa of Mon Repos was built near the ancient necropolis and this is where Prince Phillip was born in 1921.

The swimming pools are very busy in the lovely sunny weather but really I don't know how they can lie out there baking. We haven't bothered to venture into the pools - we have been too busy. Lay around the pool after lunch today.

Tonight we have been invited to the Captain's Cocktail Party (as we are second time cruisers) and then will go to dinner and the theatre show again. The theme is Shake, Rattle and Roll so it sounds good.There are also formal portraits too so we may front up as we didn't previously.The cocktail party was short and sweet with a good selection of drinks to choose from and a little speech from the captain ( he is awfully short of stature so I hope he can see out of the wheel house ) .There were some passengers who had cruised for a total of 930days on Princess ships (all up). Fancy spending that amount of time on  a ship doing nothing but eating and sleeping. At that level (after 16 trips) you get all sorts of privileges like the most popular one of FREE LAUNDRY SERVICE.Apparently that is more popular than the free minibar!

                    Day 24    Split,   Croatia - 

The weather today is much cooler and as we are doing a tour of 4.5 hours we will probably put a jacket in. This will be the first time on this cruise that a jacket will be required. We have been very fortunate with the weather.We enjoyed the show last night with plenty of tunes from our era.Again the costumes were really something and the incredible speed for changes has me bewildered - I really don't know how they don't get something mixed up like black knickers instead of white or black shoes instead of white. It is all just lightning fast.

The population of Croatia is 4.5 million and Split is the second largest city with a population of 450,000 ( I think ). There are some 1,400 islands .The ships tenders ferried us into the city where we joined a tour of 4 - 5 hours.A coach took us 30 mins. to Trogir,a town which sits on a small island of Ciovo. Here is St.Lawrence Cathedral, Trogir's grandest building with an impressive bell tower and an example of Romanesque-Gothic architecture. The local tour guide was a bit of a character and told us a joke which went like this : -

" Tourists often ask me what Croatia produces. I answer by saying ,Idiots - some of them are in Parliament and the rest of them we export ."

I know some of the residents at Sapphire Gardens will go along with this comment.

We then came back to Split and did a tour through Diocletian's Palace built in 280AD - a long time ago but much of it still standing. There were many shops and very narrow streets here.We left the tour a little early and got the tender back to our ship, as we were all "historied out" you might say and finding it all very confusing.Also the guides were not fitted with a microphone so this made listening quite difficult with such a large group.I am really in awe of how knowledgeable all our guides have been.

Once again a beautiful dinner in our Botticelli Dining Room and then to the theatre to watch a magic show which was quite good .We also listened to some Gershwin music in one of the lounges too. Oh, and decided to buy a photo from our formal night as a memento of the trip. There are so many photos taken that we haven't been too bothered to follow them up. 

                                          Day 25 - Venice

Well the guides all rave on about Venice being the ultimate destination so we were up on deck by 7am to watch our progress through the islands of Venice, past St.Marks Square and Doges Palace and to our berth. You could not have wished for a more perfect morning, all clear and bright after a bumpy night (apparently) between 2 and 3am.Fancy me not feeling it at all - probably thought it was a dream or something.Eric said he got up and felt he was on a downhill slope to the bathroom. They had rain here yesterday so we look to be very lucky today.  We don't have a tour booked so will just get the water shuttle to the city centre and walk around for a bit and have a coffee or ice cream or something amongst the pigeons etc.

Eric will have to see if he can reclaim his knife (the pink one you bought Bev) as it was confiscated coming back from one of our excursions when he had taken it with him to peel an apple.Our cases have to be packed and outside the door tonight even though we are the last group to leave the ship at 6pm tomorrow night. We are free to go into Venice again or just laze around on the ship but have to be out of our stateroom by 8am so it will be a very long day and night tomorrow as our flight is at 8.45pm and then a 5 hour trip to Dubai.