Day 20.  Athens and Acropolis

This morning we awoke in Athens to a forecast of a mild day of a max. Of 30 degrees C and after breakfast had to be at an assembly point by 8.00am for our tour of Acropolis and Athens. On a coach for half an hour through the city to get to Acropolis and we were surprised there was very little traffic . We climbed 80 steep steps of the historic Acropolis through the Propylaea, the monumental marble gateway to these incredible ruins. To think they were built about 2,500 years ago (446BC)and entirely of marble makes ones mind boggle. It was dedicated to the goddess Athena.All the steps and surrounds are marble and very slippery. We would hate to be walking there if it was showery - it would be like black ice. There were crowds everywhere so you had to be careful of your footing.Once at the top you are rewarded with stunning views of Athens on all sides. These forward thinkers sure had grandiose ideas.

We then visited the old Olympic Stadium the site of the Olympic Games of 1896. It too is huge seating many thousands of spectators.Then we had free time in the Plaka (sort of marketplace come square) where we had a light lunch and did some browsing of the souvenir shops (mindful of the pickpockets) before rejoining tour bus back to ship and a delicious afternoon tea (again).

We are lucky we won't be here when there is a general strike on Sept 26 protesting against the economy. Apparently unemployment is 25% in general and 53% for those under 25yrs.

We enquired at a travel agent re free wifi and were offered theirs so that was good.We are still waiting to see what type of suitcase they can offer us as a replacement.There is quite a wind and dark skies just now so hope it doesn't follow us tonight. Everywhere we went today there seemed to be stray dogs and the guide just described them as city dogs. I guess they were abandoned but all looked to be well fed. Other places shown to us were Hadrian's Arch, statue of Lord Byron, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Constitution Square, the former Royal Palace, the National Gardens, the Academy and the University Library.After dinner we went to the Theatre and saw a great show with tremendous costumes and music. We have now been told they have a new policy as regards our damaged suitcase. We now have to purchase the case ourselves and submit our claim when we get home. We could have picked it up in Athens had we known so now will look for one at the next couple of ports.

                         Day 21.     Mykonos, Greece (Sunday )

Woke up this morning anchored in Mykonos and after having breakfast lined up to be taken on the town tour commencing at 9.00am. Got on and off the coach 2 or 3 times before being taken into the main shopping / tourist area where we had free time to look around and have a meal before coming back to the ship about 2.30.At first we were feeling quite disappointed with the area as it just looked ever so barren and dry and dusty though we were taken with the clean lines of the houses all white and trimmed with mainly blue shutters. The whitewash isn't merely for looks but acts as a deterrent to insects as well.I really think we are pretty much tired of hearing the various histories of these ancient places and of their gods and goddessesa and just tune out now as we haven't a hope of remembering any of it.

The pop. Here is 10,000(supposedly) with 1.3mill visitors per year in the summer months.There is a northerly wind blowing 95% of the time and it is rather strong.Very few or no visitors in winter when it is raining etc.However today when there were a few ships in, the place was really pumping and it was difficult to move in the very very narrow alleyways though very small delivery vans and scooters do manage with a lot of difficulty.It really is something to see.It is like a labyrinth with tiny shops and eateries tucked in everywhere with the proprietors just sitting out the front nonchalantly waiting for custom.

We also visited a monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary. There are 1,300churches (chapels) and only 8 priests so I would say not many are used and as the religious don't pay taxes well!

We noticed there are quite a few very sleek boats moored here and I guess these belong to the rich and famous or infamous.Some of those who have homes here rarely visit - I guess it is just for show.

We didn't see any crops growing but did see some lovely veggies being sold outside the church - like cucumbers and capsicum and tomatoes and melons.

We had a look to replace our suitcase but didn't see anything - didn't try Louis Vuitton or Ralph Lauren shops!!!! After dinner we went to the theatre for a show by a Ventriloquist who was one of the finalist in the British show " You Got Talent" which was won by Susan Boyle. He was very good.       

                      Day 19 Santorini

We dropped anchor about 8 am and then gathered in theatre to wait our turn to board the tender to land on Santorini  by 9am for our half day tour.Our first stop was at  the ancient site of Akrotiri (the Greek Pompeii).This was only unveiled in 1967 after being shrouded for over 3,000 years.It is remarkably preserved and offers a great insight into the island's history.Now that funds are tight here it looks like further work will be very sporadic. They have just spent 40million putting a roof over part of it( it's estimated that only one third has been worked on) as the previous one fell down!

Then the bus took the winding road  ( they are all winding) up to Mt.Prophet Elijah 2,000 feet above sea level for a panoramic view of the whole island but there was a bit of smog around and we seemed to be above the clouds.

It's amazing to see all the houses and buildings clinging to the sides of the extinct(?) volcano.On first sight it looked like glaciers spreading down the basalt rock.

Luckily the ship issued passes for us to come down on the cable car as there are 650steps or pay for a donkey ride which no tour operator was recommending ( ?insurance) so we walked through a lot of souvenir shops, purchased an ice cream and caught the cable car back to ship for a late lunch as Rob $ Trish had warned us about leaving it till later as it becomes very busy.So here we are sitting on the deck taking in this most interesting of  panoramas enjoying an iced water and a cool breeze. Ah! Spent the rest of afternoon on outside deck reading and watching the tenders bringing back passengers from Santorini. Then it was off to dinner and the Show in the theatre . As we were sitting down for dinner the ship set sail for Athens where we will be when we wake up in the morning . 

                              Day 16   Livorno - Tuscany - Cinque Terre

Well what a day !!!  Up at 5.30am and showered to get to breakfast at 6.00 as we were leaving for a tour to Cinque Terre at 7.15am. There was a coach trip through Tuscany country for about 90 minutes ,then walking along the " street of love - the Via dell" Amore, the famous and aptly named path linking Manarola with Riomaggiore, another of the villages a short distance away. The hillsides ( mountains ) are terraced with lots and lots of small gardens growing their fruit and vegetables. Any little bit of land has been turned into a garden. Then we walked around a path on the side of steep  hills ( about 1.5km )  to catch a motor boat/ferry for a 45 minute cruise along the coast with spectacular scenery . We arrived at Vernazza for about half an hour so had a quick pizza and Coke . Then we boarded the boat again to take us to Monterossa where we had 1.5 hours of shopping . There were also many many little eateries tucked in the smallest of spaces with many Pizzerias and coffee shops where you could watch the passing parade (as many old men do as they chat with their mates.) Eric managed to get a free wifi site to send off emails etc.The streets were ever so narrow and some places they had to cart supplies in on trolleys.But believe me if there is only the slightest of chances of driving their delivery vans in to the extremely narrow streets, they will have a go and usually manage it.Our coach drivers do a wonderful job too as they pick us up in some odd places.After Monterossa we boarded a train for one stop and then met up with our coach for the 2hour trip back to Livorno and our "home" and a scrumptious dinner.

We passed by Pisa and then saw the huge boulders and slabs of Carrara Marble and then saw the mountains where they extract same.They are Very high alps and from a distance we thought the exposed marble was a glacier.It sure looks like they will have enough product for a long time.There was a haze /smog around all day so not good for photos.I remembered from the previous time when we came south for Switzerland that there was smog the whole way so it hasn't changed.It is so amazing to see all the stucco houses either right on top of mountain peaks or precariously hanging to the side.

                       Day 17.      Naples -  Pompeii

Yesterday Eric came down with a head cold and is feeling somewhat miserable.Woke up this morning as we were arriving in Naples and after breakfast were ready for our tour to Pompeii . After 45 minutes in the coach getting out of Naples we arrived at the site of the Pompeii ruins. Many roads in Pompeii are lined with sidewalks a foot or more above street level.Stepping stones were placed to allow pedestrians to cross in wet weather, but spaces were left toallow wheels and horses to get by easily.There are deep ruts in the pavers where cart wheels have worn away the stone.The discovery and excavations began in 1748 .When Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD 2,000 people lost their lives.It was just as well we booked for the morning tour as it was very hot and would have been worse later in the day. I guess this is because we were surrounded by rock and stone walls with nowhere to shelter out of the sun.The area was surrounded by souvenir stalls but we didn't browse much as I had already purchased a small cameo for myself at the factory where they are made. We also saw an elderly man making them - they are so detailed and I didn't realize that they were made from seashells.The old guy's hands were bent from the pressure needed to hold and chisel the features.The smaller and more intricate the piece the more valuable they are.

We were glad to get back to the boat and cool off.We are very pleased with the ship as everything is only 2years old (since refurbishment).However we don,t really have any sense of direction and this is mainly because we have an inside stateroom without a window. I have to keep looking out at the water to see which way we are traveling so I can tell the back from the front (or aft and stern).

My suitcase has been repaired (we think) so I will pack it up tomorrow and see if the wheels work or fall off! While Eric was taking a nap I had a game of quoits and won myself a bottle of wine!

After another beautiful meal with our 2Scottish ladies, we went to the Rock and Roll session. The band was excellent and lots of people crowded the dance floor - even us for a short spell. There is no shortage of entertainment day and night and the only thing not up to scratch, so to speak, is the toilet paper.When everything else is done to perfection well!

                              Day 18.     Cruising

A nice little sleep in till 7am and then to the Da Vinci silver service restaurant where there were more waiters than guests.When we asked for a banana for our cereal it came on a silver tray and the waiter even peeled and sliced it.Now we don't get that level of service at home.Today is the first day we have felt any movement in the ship and will be hoping it doesn't increase. Packed up our damaged suitcase to try it out with some weight in it but it still keeps falling over. Took it back to Reception and they took the measurements and will try to get a replacement at the next port - Santorini or Athens .

Our day has been spent reading and relaxing and just wandering around the various venues catching some music and demos of vegetable and ice carving - very talented.

The ship is now doing a bit of rocking (hitting a few bumps) but not too bad.We've also been watching salsa, cha cha, and line dancing and even saw a bride and groom having photos taken. 

Once again our dinner in the Michelangelo Restaurant was most enjoyable with the Mango Brûlée to die for.Then it was off to the Princess Theatre for the show featuring Greg Scott - a very talented violinist from Manchester accompanied by the Princess Orchestra with music from films and musical theatre.Then we sat in the Wheelhouse Bar and listened to Men in Black playing dance music. I am surprised at all the different dance styles the guests display. Tomorrow we arrive at Santorini .

                            Day 15.    Cruising

What a lovely day of shipboard life!We spent the day trying to navigate the corridors of the ship and looking over the sales that are there to trap us .So far wonderful smooth sailing -just like a millpond - so are hoping it will stay that way for us.The waters are a gorgeous blue jewel to look at.We are on the 12 th floor so sometimes we take the stairs for some exercise.The meals are a lot bigger portions so we will have to watch it figure wise!Our table has 2ladies from Aberdeen both in their 80s who are very easy to converse with.The others are  a Canadian couple and also very nice.Last night I tried a Quail ( roasted) for dinner while Eric tried a steak.This was the first dress up night so it was lovely to see guests in all their finery.Oh, it is easy to see that black is the "in colour".we decided to forego the photo shoot tho it is good to watch others.After dinner we went to the theatre for the show which was a Motown Theme and was good. After that we went to bed as we are to be up at 5.30 am. for a full day tour .

                            Day 12.       St.Petersburg

Thursday night we went to a Russian Folk Show .( we could have chosen the Ballet)This proved to be a great show with lots of dancing, singing and music. The costumes were really colorful and the agility of the dancers was a pure delight.This was held in yet another palace with sweeping marble staircase etc.The tickets don't show a specific seat preference so talk about push and shove up the stairs! The drive back to the ship looking at all the magnificent buildings lit up to show their assets was special too.It was after midnight to bed so another late night.

Then this morning up bright and early and on the coach for a 30min drive to Peterhof Palace passing Vladamir Putin's well fortified castle on the way, set in beautiful park grounds - and why not I guess.Peterhopf Palace was another sight to behold with lots of blues and whites and gold, gold gold!The Great Palace rises like a golden curtain at the far end of Marine Canal (lots of canals in city )  and from where yachts once entered with important visitors.Leading down from the hill is the Grand Cascade with some of the 176 fountains with a golden Samson as the focal  one shooting water 21meters in the air. It truly is a magnificent sight and especially as all fountains are gravity  fed- what wonderful architects and artists they must have been. It sure makes you wonder why Brisbane can't have at least one fountain.Back to the ship by Hydrofoil (30mins) to escape the ???? Traffic, gobble down our lunch, before taking off to city again to visit Yusupov Palace, the site of death of Rasputin.This was not as opulent as others and very different in design but still another wonder.Unfortunately most,of the significant items are now in The Hermitage Museum but I did enjoy the different style and decor.To escape the horrendous traffic we luckily were able to return to ship by Hydrofoil arriving at 7pm just in time for our last dinner on board with lots of goodbyes to be made and to get busy packing for our 3.30ama wake up to get taxi to the airport for our am flight .Most of the passengers on this Russian cruise are from Australia and New Zealand plus a few English .

                            Day 13  - St.Petersberg - Berlin-Rome

Off in taxi at 4.30am with Bob and Venesia Bailosaw(?) for airport. Well what a schmoozle that place is - terribly small and overcrowded and inefficient.Eventually we found our gate hidden behind a pillar like some afterthought(which I guess it is)  and stood in a queue for nearly an hour then in another queue for customs, ( Eric had to take shoes and belt off )just making it through 5 mins before boarding.But that wasn't the end of it as we  then got wet catching shuttle out to plane and sat on board in very stuffy air for yet another hour as a passenger didn't show and his luggage had to be offloaded! One and half hours later we landed in Berlin and another wet shuttle to terminal and huge slow moving ( dare I mention )queue again before running now half hour after we were supposed to board through another Customs check where I even had to remove a chiffon scarf (?) before another dash to our supposed Gate with Eric trying to replace his belt shoes etc and needing a comfort stop. Then the Gate No had changed and it was a further quick move to get on the tail end of our boarding queue before another wet dash to get yet another shuttle bus out to our flight to Rome where we sat all strapped in for a further 30mins.People used to say Brisbane was backward when we had to walk out onto Tarmac to board, well!

Another smooth flight here to Rome to be met by our cruise hostess and eventually walked the 10mins to our Rome Airport Hilton and check-in.The first thing I did was take a nap while Eric went for a snack and a bit of a look see. We could take a shuttle to city but it all seems a bit tiring just now.

Have I mentioned about queues today? It sure makes you wonder why travel is so difficult. Luckily we weren't with Lufthansa though as they have been on strike for a week or so only returning today.

Note: St.Petersberg has plans for a huge new airport - not before time!!!

Had a short rest this  afternoon then went for a short walk back to the airport and had a light pasta dinner  and Magnum before returning to the Airport Hilton. 

                              Day 14   Rome

Still dark when we woke up so showered and got dressed .We then noticed the mobile phone clock had not changed and was 2 hours ahead of the local time so instead of getting up at 7am it turned out it was only 5am. We then went for a short walk outside the hotel then walked to the airport (10 mins) and watched the coming and goings of passengers. Back to the hotel for a scrumptious buffet brecky and then to the room to read and pack our ports and have them down to the lobby by 10.15am. What a cacophony of sound met us as 400 people are arriving for a national tennis conference . They seem to be all men with very trendy clothes and tans and not a tennis racquet in sight but plenty of loud noisy conversation with much kissing of cheeks etc. The coach arrived at midday to take us to the ship which took just on one hour.

Unlike previous Princess Cruise, the embarkation was very well organized with lots of staff directing us where to go and I guess it only took about 15 minutes to get on board and to our stateroom. The "Crown Princess" is 952 ft. long, 113,000 tons and for this voyage has 3,500 passengers - 1,000of which are Americans, 700 From Canada, 400 from England and the rest from all over the place incl. Australia. I'm guessing but there would have to be at least 1,000 crew- they are absolutely everywhere. Unfortunately our brand new suitcase arrived on board in a somewhat damaged condition so we had to empty everything out of it and take it to the reception counter . They will let us know in a couple of days if it can be repaired on board otherwise we will have to get another before we disembark .Its now 10.30pm and Monica has been in bed asleep for about an hour. I better get to bed now as there is a big day of activities tomorrow. I got the iPad fixed up for Wi-Fi today so hopefully I can send my Blogs off tomorrow. We are sailing all day ( Monday ) so should have time to get this off.

                                 Day  11.  StPetersberg

Forgot to mention the Hermitage Museum has some 30 million people a year go through it and most of those would be in the tourist season of 5 months. Today ( Thursday  )we went to Catherine Palace.Well, talk about OPULANCE - you just wouldn't believe it. There is just so much gold and fancy decoration and statues etc etc. And then there is the Amber Room with walls decorated in amber of three different colors - just awesome.After the tour through the palace we went in to the gardens where 550gardeners are employed (used to be 1,000) and saw the lovely lakes and bath houses and structured gardens.It's all hard to believe.The palace was built 1744 and 1746 and is considered a Baroque masterpiece.We faced the horrendous traffic snarls on the way back but got back for a late lunch. After we went for a walk locally we walked around a large market type shed where they were selling lots of clothes and shoes and jeans galore.Tonight we are going to a Russian Folk Show at the Nikolayevsky Palace for a foot tapping time. We had the choice of the Folk Show or a Ballet Performance but choose the folk show.Not sure if we can leave on Sat as Lufthansa is on strike. We travel on Air Berlin and we do not know if they are an off shoot like Jet Star are for Qantas.

                               Day 10.   Svirstroy to St.Petersburg

Left Svirstroy at 3.00pm in rain and at 7.00pm had the Captain's Champagne Reception ( dress up ) followed by dinner. The whole crew ( 100 ) were introduced to us .Went through the last lock on the Svir River and sailed all night and arrived in St.Petersberg at 6.30am Wednesday. I said earlier Lake Onega was huge but last night we went across Lake Ladoga which is about 3 times larger and is Russia's largest - you would think it was the ocean. Had a big day today starting with a hydrofoil to the Hermitage Museum on the Neva River. This place is absolutely huge spread over about 7 buildings ( Palaces ) and includes many paintings by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Goya, Rembrant, and many many more. The decor in all the rooms is simply too opulent to even comprehend with lots and lots of gold trimmings. I must have taken over 200 photos ( flash not allowed ). After 3.5 hours there a bus then took us to the Academy Restaurant for a 4 course Lunch which Eric enjoyed.We then had a 3hour city tour by coach visiting St.Isaac's Square, Church of our Savior on Spilt Blood and Peter and Paul Fortress - all magnificent old buildings. Traffic here is terrible and took us 1.5 hours by coach to get back to the ship ( less than 30 minutes by hydrofoil ).Population here is 5 million. Fuel is about $1.00 a litre. Everyone is tired after a long day as we didn't get back till 7.00 pm and then another 4 course meal to get through.