Travel

Zadar is a small city on the coast of Croatia. We docked right next to old town (as with most towns in this area the “old town” is the original part surrounded by ramparts or walls with city gates for entry). This made visiting the old part of Zadar really easy. But, before doing that, one has to notice the big solar display and hear the sea organ that also sits next to old town. (See the first photo.)

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Kotor is in Montenegro, across from Italy. The most beautiful sail-in we’ve had this trip. Kotor is at the far end of a rather large bay that twists and turns between mountains. While it’s not a glacial creation and so not a true fjord it’s often called the most beautiful fjord in southern Europe.

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When the Aegean Greek islands came off the itinerary for the cruise, the storm we were avoiding dictated that we instead see one of the Ionian Greek islands. Corfu was selected by the crew. First, it was available. Second, it was out of the storm. Third, we could dock instead of use the tender so even if the sea was a bit on the high side we could still go into the port and visit.

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So far on this trip the Sun has been with us and against us. But, on a day I least expected it, the Sun decided to have a little fun with me; specifically at sunset.

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Our first two ports in the Mediterranean Sea are tender ports where the ship anchors and we get off via a smaller boat and taken to shore. As mentioned in the Suez Canal post once we hit the Mediterranean area we encountered heavy swells. This appears to be due to a weather system over the eastern Mediterranean. The problem is that with swells in the anchorage area it’s unsafe to get onto a tender from the ship and as the prediction is for worse conditions tomorrow the Captain has decided to cancel the first two port visits in the Mediterranean. This means we will only see Santorini as an outline on the horizon as we arrived there this morning but could not get off the ship. And, we won’t see Crete at all.

[Read more…] about Itinerary Change!

The Suez Canal is another one of those special spots where you can stand on the deck of a ship and see two continents just by turning your head. Even though both sides technically belong to Egypt, for a northbound transit looking to the left you see Africa and looking to the right you see Asia.

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