Category: Greek Islands

Day 5 – Friday 31st May 2024-Cefalonia -Greek Island Cruise and other places.

Published on by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

Last nights show, in the theatre, was a musical tribute to some of the biggest icons for the last 70 years…. It wasn’t the best we’ve seen… only two sang and the rest was recorded backing vocals and dancing… nothing really to write home about so I’ll leave it there and move on to Day 5 ….

This morning we woke without the alarm and got up… hard decisions to make… does one put ones one peice swimming costume before breakfast and hope you don’t need the toilet or does one change on the beach…. Ummm … I risked it and struggled into rent a tent!! Pulling a large T-shirt and my standard white baggy linen trousers …. Right! ready for breakfast… we couldn’t decide which restaurant served breakfast so once again we braved the buffet. This time we tried the other side and although it may have been my imagination it seemed less manic. I spied a free table and endeavoured to reach it, politely asking a gentleman, who was sat in the aisle with his adoring 15 strong family around him, to “excuse be” whilst gesturing Incase he didn’t understand me…. No response!!!
Well!!! There’s some truth in the saying “if you can’t beat them join them” !!! So mustering all my strength I barged passed his chair almost catapulting him under the table .. all done with a lovely smile and an “oops so sorry”… I think he got the idea and shuffled his chair in to let John pass. Yeah! We have a table … from there on breakfast was quite simple…. Noisy but at least we could get to the food. …….. oh no !!! I did need the toilet … so I raced back to the cabin whilst John finished his coffee… dilemma overcome and we still make it to the theatre for our excursion in good time even though John is shaking his head at me in dispair…. Obviously not convinced that my tactics were brilliantly executed !!!!
Bus Numero 12 was called luckily our French is better than our non existent Italian so when the caller forgets the English we still have some idea of what’s going on…

Today is our beach day…. I just love swimming in the sea so I am like “tigger” bouncing and bounding around. The coach took about 20 minutes to get to an area above a Sandy beach resort. It was Makris Gialos Beach and the beach facility was called Costa Costa beach. The track was quite steep and wound down onto a lovely yellow Sandy beach. Two loungers and a parasol were €30 , which we willingly paid…

We quickly stripped down to our swim suits and went straight into the sea… a few of our fellow beach goers squealed as they paddled in the cool ripples. But we are British we are made of stronger stuff than that !!! Out we waded and 1..2…3… we were in…. It was lovely , only taking seconds for our bodies to acclimatise to the temperature of the soothing sea… we swam, bobbed about and enjoyed the submergance.

Some considerable time later we took up residency on our loungers.

We did a repeat of this 3 times. Our lounger time was spent people watching and laughing in amazement at the adaptation of a paddle boat.

A lovely time spent on the beach. John played in the sand for a while !!!

We changed out of our wet costumes and meandered up to the bar for a Coke Zero.

We returned up the steep track and fortunately the bus was already there. He had just prevented a couple from embarking but I blew him a kiss and he opened the door…. I was probably the only person who had thanked him when he had dropped us off… he also turned the aircon up and gave me the thumbs up I blew him another kiss…

On returning to the ship we had a quick salad lunch and a Magic Island Mock-tail in our nearest bar before retiring for a siesta…. I went out like a light and only woke in time to shower and change for supper.

Now let me tell you about the shower … it is a sort of triangle with the longest straight side being about 2 foot and the other straight side being about 18 inches. To wash one’s hair you need to stick your head in the corner under the water meaning your derrière pushes itself out and becomes shrouded in the shower curtain. The opposite happens when you wash your derrière with your head pushed against the shower curtain… it really would pay to be a contortionist… if anyone has found an easier way to use this tiny shower I am open to ideas!!!!

Having completed the task, dried hair, ‘booted and suited’ we headed for the dining room…. Once again we had a wake view in Salem’s area. A nice menu allowed for a pleasant meal.

A quick night cap and we’re off for an early night as we have a busy day tomorrow….. So after applying copious amount of moisturiser to my lobster pink front, back and nose!!!!… we will say good night until we reach Bari.

Day 4 – Thursday 30th May 2024- Corfu- Greek Island Cruise and other places.

Published on by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

Before starting the new day I think it’s important to give you a quick glimpse of our theatre experience yesterday evening. We seated ourselves in the theatre about 50 minutes prior to the start of the show. We had a choice of seats but as the time got closer to its start the theatre got really full. The show was called Storm… well!!! Wow! Wow! Wow! Cirque de Soleil you better watch out…. This was one of the best Cruise Ship Theatre shows we have ever seen

So…. Moving on to Day 4 ……

The day started with our ship pulling into Corfu dock next to The Queen Victoria, a Cunard Ship.

Similar to yesterday we went to the buffet for breakfast….. I think tomorrow we will try the restaurant because the buffet really is a case of”fight the good fight with all thy might”!!! Getting a table is hard enough but getting some food without being pushed, shoved, trodden on is nearing impossible….. so with that early morning ordeal over with we headed for the excursion desk. We had received our tickets for todays excursion under our door last night… they had been duplicated so we needed to check that we hadn’t been charged twice… The lady at the desk said we wouldn’t have been, but when I pointed out there were 4 different ticket numbers she looked into it and realised yes we had been charged twice so she said we would get a refund for two of them…. I’ll be chasing that up…

Then on to the theatre to wait for the start of our excursion….. As we have visited the sights of Corfu before we had selected a scenic coastal cruise so we could see the island from the water and there were chances of seeing dolphins and turtles. 9.35am our tour was called and with what seems to be the normal amount of pushing and shoving by some very loud Italians we headed out to the coach……. we have never cruised with so many Italians and I am certain they are not all rude, loud and very pushy but those that have been around us on this cruise have certainly shown themselves in very poor light when it comes to good manners and common decency towards other people. ….. Rant over !!!!!

The coach took us along the quayside, around the dock to the other side, from where we walked to a smallish boat, which seated about 35 on the lower deck and 15 on the top deck. We headed for the top deck…… I was quite proud of the way I shinned up the stepladder…. Not bad for a little round ball on legs!!!!!! We found virtually the last 2 seats…ummmm no 2 laddies arrived and squeezed in…..and then a very pushy young man arrived with sour faced girlfriend in tow and decided where they were going to sit, regardless of the fact that someone else was already say there!!!! Another example of total disregard for other people….. but as a firm believer of Karma remember this couple for later on….. This time the top deck really was totally full and we set sail. Our tour was supposed to be in English and the lady commentating started well in English… We sailed past the old and new fort and the monastery on the top of the hill.

Our Captain then retraced our steps and we sailed up the coast in the opposite direction… we were just beginning to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery and the peace and tranquility when soundenly our eardrums got a bashing and modern music blasted out of the speakers… surely not !!!! But yes the peacefulness was definitely broken… what’s more the music only stopped when the guide wanted to speak and she was suddenly saying very little in English and a lot in Italian…….. not funny when you’ve booked and paid for a English narrated tour…. Grrrr!!!

She did point out an area where King Charles likes to visit and an area where British holiday makers visit…. Before rattling on for a long time in Italian with lots of ‘Angles’ being said and hoots of laughter from the Italians…. Now! we could tell our nationality was being laughed at but not what was being said.. we were defiantly feeling very uncomfortable and humiliated…. Not nice….. we tried hard to concentrate on the scenery.

On we cruised, the couple opposite us, who had been pushed out of their preferred seats by the couple who I now refer to as the 2 Italian Ignoramuses, leant forward and said the narrator had just said in Italian to turn your mobile phone on to flight mode because we were close to Albania and we could pick up roaming charges as it is outside the EU. I thanked the couple very much as without their help we wouldn’t have known what was said. It turns out that they are from Germany and had expected the commentator to speak in English, their English was perfect and we were very grateful to find out that we were not the only non Italians on the top deck.
We continued along the coast for a little longer before the narrator announced we were coming to an area where people could swim. Well! At least that stopped the surly faced Italian Ignoramose from vaping for a few minutes because in front of everyone she had to put her “Ipsy bitsy” bikini on… … unfortunately she managed it too quickly and the vaping started again… thankfully the boat pulled up on to a pebble strip of beach and everyone from the top deck excluding ourselves and The German couple went down for a swim. Peace at last … no more “jabber, jabber hoot hoot”…..

A member of the crew came and moved the seat opposite us and behind it was a drum barrel bar-b-cue, on which he proceeded to cook spiced sausages and kababs … amazing…

We got chatting to the kind couple from Germany. Lillian and Jonas had got on the cruise in Bari. They were both Drs and had done some of their training in a part of Germany we liked, we had visited it on a cruise -Warnemunde. A very interesting couple… who like us had expected a quiet scenic cruise with wonderful scenery and wildlife views in a peaceful surround…. They had also expected the commentary to be in English not Italian and they were not amused by the Italian Ignoramus couple who had literally pushed them off their chosen seat… The guide came up to see if we were ok and I tried hard to explain that we were not happy with her obvious comments about the English which had sent the Italians on board the boat roaring and hooting with laughter. But she either pretended not to understand or her English really wasn’t up to being a guide for this type of trip…. She did manage perfectly easily to explain a lot of the recent history to Jonas. We were actually beginning to enjoy this totally missold cruise… so we thank Lillian and Jonas for coming to our rescue and having nice conversation with us .. they made our excursion enjoyable…

The swimming hour passed too quickly and everyone soon arrived back on board. Lillian and Jonas choose to sit next to us and a few of the original people didn’t reappear and a couple of new people took their seats. The ship was pulling away from its mooring when suddenly on the beach the Italian Ignoramus duo appear running out of the bushes shouting and waving for the boat to stop….. Lillian and I looked at each other and said “Karma”. The 4 of us had a good laugh … the couple were really waving and shouting… the boat took a few minutes to stop and manoeuvre back into the shore…. They were a bit sheepish when they came back up to collect their shoes.
Both John and Jonas went and collected two plates of food each. Jonas kindly helped John by taking the food to let John climb the ladder.
It was quiet and peaceful while everyone ate …then the loud music began again and everyone apart from the 4 of us started dancing… this excursion should have been sold as a party coastal cruise because that is what it was… We were fairly pleased to return to our ship to escape the loud noisy crowd we had unwittingly been on an excursion with. We do however sincerely thank Lilian and Jonas for their company and we hope to catch up with them on another occassion.

Back on The Opera we headed for the bar and had a couple of Magic Island Mock- tails and a game of canasta before returning to our cabin for a siesta.

Once again we arrived at the restaurant in good time and were seated in Salem’s serving area in a wake view window. The meal was very nice, tonight had a Mediterranean theme and we both enjoyed the seafood. Moogessen, who waiters in Saleem’s area presented me with a tissue white rose .. a. Nice touch..

Before heading into the theatre for tonight’s Medley of Iconc Hits we enjoyed a lovely sunset… and on that note we’ll say goodnight !!

Don’t forget you can always contact us on

2jsworldofadventure@gmail.com

Day 3 – Wednesday 29th May 2024- Greek Island Cruise and other places!!

Published on by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment


Our alarm woke us with a jump at 7.30am. We were soon washed and dressed and heading for the buffet for breakfast. It was total mayhem and although I am certain all the usual components for breakfast were there it was too crowded to actually see. A couple of tiny croissants, a bowl of Greek yogurt and a banana sufficed. We were in the theatre by 9.25 awaiting the start of our excursion… a trip to Olympia. We had docked at Katakolon on a Greek headland jutting out into the Ionia Sea. This is where the first ever Olympic Games took place in 776BC. There were 5 events – running, jumping, wrestling, javelin and discus.
We were soon on our coach for the 45 minute journey to Olympia. Our guide spoke in about 6 different languages and we were thankful that one was English. We were told that the area is world famous for its olives and it’s fine virgin olive oil because evidently it has close to zero acidity. The area is very fertile and produces wine, watermelons and honey… everything was very green.

Arriving at the Olympia UNESCO site we were divided into language groups.. so our group was a total of about 12, it was made up of Americans, Australians, New Zealanders and another couple of Brits, who nearly pushed me down the ships steps in order to get to the bus first… typical Brits!!!! Ther was my favourite mode of transport, horse and cart waiting to take people to the ruins….. but alas our guide was all for walking…

We first saw the remains of the gymnasium. Our English speaking guide gave good information, although for someone with the attention span of a fly I soon switched off…. But I did learn that they used to run 192 metres and the men all ran naked… this surprised me as from the history of athletics which I had briefly studied in my degree years I seem to remember ancient pictures depicting them running in loin cloths… but who am I to question…. When someone asked about the ladies our guide made a derogatory comment but did later say that when they were allowed to compete they only ran 100m and wore white tunics.


When the statue Zeus, which was 14 metres high and over saw all the area, was removed to Istanbul the town of Olympia became abandoned. I think he said this was in about 400AD. The only resident of the original old town today is the cat!!!!


Earthquakes were and still are common place but a big one around 600AD lead to the collapse of the buildings. Having been abandoned the town lay covered in mud until exploration by archaeologists in 1876.


We wandered around looking at the various ruins before going through the arch to the actual Grass Olympic arena/ stadium…. This was fairly unspectacular as a flat ground for the running, standing long jump and Javlin neither of which needs todays run up as they were all performed from a standing position. There can still be seen some starting stone blocks and the space where the water flowed around the outside of the field so that the spectators, who viewed from the mound had drinking water.

The original Olympic stadium with starting block for the sprint


Walking back to the coach we passed the place where the Olympic torch is still lite to this present day. ( it is at present in Paris for this years Olympics) The area is next to the oldest ruin…. I think our guide explained that a mirror or a piece of glass was positioned under the Olympic torch so that when the sun was in the correct position it’s rays would hit the mirror and set light to the torch. To this day that is how the torch is lite.

where the Olympic Flame is lit.


We wandered back to the coach park stopping at the Olive shop to purchase a very small, very expensive tin of premium virgin olive oil… a gift for my son who likes the finer things in life, a T-shirt for John and a pen for Johns Granddaughter. We decided that was enough shopping and so we sat and waited our time out having a Pepsi Max in the shade of an olive tree overlooking the ruins of Olympia.

We returned to the ship and had a light salad in the buffet for lunch before returning to our cabin for a siesta.

We showered ( you need to be a contortionist in our shower) and washed hair and put on some suitable glad rags in time for a rather nice mock-tail, called a Magic Island, before supper. Once again we got a wake view table and Saleem served us very well yet again.

Tonight’s menu

After Supper we wandered down to the theatre for the evenings 10.00pm show. … more about that tomorrow… Goodnight from us both!

Day 2 – 28th May 2024- Cruising the Greek Islands and a few other places!

Published on by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

We awoke in The Gallery Suites in Piraeus, on the 7th floor of our compact room….I had had a restless night…having moved the bed to allow John to get into it, without crawling up from the bottom, I hadn’t realised that I was in the direct line of fire from the air conditioner. As the room was at 27 degrees we had phoned reception..1100 to ask for the aircon to be put on and set at 22degrees….however this meant I had a very cold head and back…around 3.30 am I’d had enough of dozing and waking up shivering so I turned it off and opened the window…a much better solution and sleep came to me……I can say with conviction that rush hour starts just after 5 am with the roar of traffic, pepping of impatient drivers and of course the ringing of the church bells which strike on the hour every hour … it was hardly a room with a view …

…having said the negatives because I am a sleep deprived grump!!! There are infact lots of positives… the hotel is scrupulously clean… I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bathroom so spotless (not even our own), the staff are very friendly, it’s literally 5 minutes from the cruise port … in-fact you could walk it in 20 minutes…there are lots of good restaurants around and it is literally a stone throw to the metro to go into Athens if you so wish…. Oh! And the shower was of water canon pressure…divine.

We headed down the road 20 paces turned right then left … 60 paces in total and voila a very nice coffee shop selling an assortment of breads, panini, croissants, sandwiches and cakes… we ordered two avocado, tomato, thin Turkey breast and egg panini, a croissant to share and two americano coffees. It all came to £15 a very tasty nice breakfast which put the smiles back on our faces.

After wandering back to the hotel we checked out and took a €10 taxi to the cruise port. Wow…!!! Talk about efficient… we arrived at 11.15am although our ticket told us to arrive at 2.30pm…so we were chancing our luck… our bags were swept away… there was no queue and we were in our cabin by 11.30 and had our first drink on deck before 11.45…. Superb …. The ship was virtually empty so we did a recognoiter and got our bearings….. all very nice …

Our cases arrived before 2.30 pm and with Johns help we were unpacked and all neat and tidy by 3.00pm… We then headed down to the theatre for the Muster drill talk before heading on to the poolside deck for Sailaway … which was proceeded by a very active dance class which we enjoyed watching!!!

The sail away from the open deck is pretty spectacular and really shows how crowded the coastline is with the large metropolis’s of Piraeus and Athens.

After sail away we headed to the Photo and internet services. We had a simple question …. We had pre purchased one device&Streaming package each. When logging on, on my phone it would seem that I can’t log off and then log on, on my iPad … that would need a two device package even though you only want to be on one at a time…. We were spoken to by a very nice person who didn’t know the answer so he referred us to the Deputy Manager who had a very dismissive manner. ……. Most people who know me, know I am not a lady to be dismissed…. His abrupt answer was “No! one device only” I politely asked how much it would cost me for a second device and was told to give my phone to someone else and they would tell me… obviously my query was well below Mr I AM A Somebody’s level of expertise. After several minutes of the other chap still not answering my question we were getting no where. The manager, a pleasant elder gentleman, had witnessed the whole conversation, he apologised for his deputies rudeness and kindly explained how the internet works on the ship and why we couldn’t log out and in… he also explained that because of everyone’s different loyalty level the prices differ according to the package you want and the discount you are entitled too… any way the long and the short of it was that another device was going to cast me a further €88, a price I wasn’t prepared to pay…. So it’s on my phone whether I like it or not … and you readers will have to put up with the typos because fat fingers on little keys are not the greatest….. !!!

Back to the cabin for a quick wash and brush up before back out again to L’Approdo Restaurant My Choices Dinning(which is the same as anytime dinning on Princess Cruises) . We arrived at 7.00pm on the dot and were immediately seated on a table for two up against the wake picture window….delightful….

We were warmly greeted and introduced to our waiter, Salem. The menus are all on a scan QR code. We had a great choice… it was all very tasty and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

Our starter … we both had the same

After supper we wandered around and checked out the ‘What’s on’. Although we both fancied the theatre it wasn’t due to start until 10 pm and we have a morning excursion tomorrow. So having walked 8500 steps yesterday and 9500 steps today my little legs were feeling somewhat weary so we retired to bed…setting the alarm for 7.45am tomorrow morning… Good night one and all…

Day 1 – Monday 27th May 2024- Cruising the Greek Islands and a few more places!!

Published on by 2jsworldofadventureLeave a comment

Well!!! We are off again. The alarm shot me bolt upright, to a rude awakening at 7.30 am… We showered, breakfasted, John did all the horrible jobs like washing up and bins… while I crammed the last few things into the cases. I’d like to say we took a leisurely walk down the road to the station…. But that would be a lie!!!! I huffed and puffed with my case and hand luggage sat on top … John eventually had enough and took them both…. He has much strength and while yanking it up the kerb the front wheel caved in, looking dangerously like coming off it now has to be a following wheel and no longer a lead wheel!!! We nurtured it to the station. Those of you who know us will understand we only live a couple of 100 yards away.. takes 5 minutes to get there …. 20 minutes later!! John was buying single tickets to Gatwick and we boarded the earlier than expected train arriving at Gatwick at just before 11.00am

We got through baggage drop off, passport control and security in super quick time… Well done Gatwick!!!
Being the last of the big spenders we decided to splash the cash and have a stylish brunch at ….. yes you’ve guessed!!!!…… Wetherspoons….. they get everywhere… we haven’t had one since Scotland last year !!! I must admit it was great and set us up for the day. By 13.30 we were at the gate waiting to board and our next adventure was about to begin……

We are off to Athens for a MSC 7 day cruise on the Opera… taking us to Italy and around a few Greek islands .
…or was it about to begin!!! All aboard and we’re told we are delayed 1hr15 minutes due to the sky being busy over Croatia…. Well! That’s a first for us…. So we taxied to what they call a quiet part of the airfield to wait out our time…. The good news is the fat fella ( I know that’s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black !!!), sat next to me and the window, was already fed up of being sardined into his seat by John and me and moved back two rows to an empty rack of seats… so we were far more comfortable even if we were no further forward with our adventure! I had also purchased a seatbelt extension because those on EasyJet are meant for sizes much smaller than mine!!! So I haven’t had the harsh embarrassment of having to ask for an extension … yeah… well worth the £19 on Amazon !! I know Johns jealous but he would prefer to sit breathing in for hours than admit he’d be more comfortable with an extension!!!

We did take off at 15.50 but much to my annoyance, embarrassment, humiliation the hostess came along with an EasyJet seatbelt extension and said I couldn’t wear my own even though it was as kite marked…. I suppose my only saving Grace was this time she was asking me rather than me asking her.
it was a good flight, even though no entertainment and no usb ports etc… but what do you expect with a cheap airline. Just after takeoff the air hostess came and asked me to move into the window seat because according to the passenger behind us, who just happened to be an airplane technician, half my seat was missing, in particular the bit that holds it upright and I was in danger of being catapulted into a vertical position… I think the poor chap feared for his life !!! So I obliged and moved. The flight was 3 hours 15 minutes and we proceeded to disembark without any problems. We then walked half a marathon to the immigration and baggage claim. We were about 1.5hours late but our driver met us with a cheery smile. He quickly transferred us the 45 minutes to our hotel… We are staying at The Gallery Suites in Piraeus about 5 minutes from the port.

We were greeted by two lovely ladies and after the formalities were completed we squeezed into a minuscule lift ( if you thought ours at home was small you are mistaken by comparison ours is a ballroom!!!). We are on the 7th floor… definitely a very compact room… for those of you who remember my description of our Hilton Hotel in Singapore, or our room in Amsterdam ….well!!! this is even smaller …. Now I come to think about it we have stayed in some pretty tiny rooms around the world… anyway I digress…. The room had all we wanted and with a little furniture moving ( we moved the bed away from the wall so John didn’t have to crawl in, whilst leaving enough room to get to the bathroom) we were soon comfortably in bed… after all it was 11.44pm…. So on that note I’ll say goodnight…sweet dreams …