Istanbul

We sailed into Istanbul in the afternoon - this is the Blue Mosque seen from the sea.

The next morning another sunrise over the Asian side of Istanbul
We visited the Spice Markets - would love to have brought some home.
Even more spices.
The people selling pigeon food outside the New Mosque!
Inside the New Mosque - which really isn't that new - only about 500 years old!
This was an old mosque we went to which was undergoing repairs - much simpler than the others we had visited but you see the cracks in the ceiling!
Then a visit to the Fish Market - fish everywhere.

Dardanelles

The next day we sailed through The Dardanelles towards Istanbul.

Yet another beautiful sunrise.

You know you are in Turkey!!

Gallipoli or as the Turks call it Geliboli.

Santorini

The next port of call Santorini one of our favourite places. Lots of doors and gates etc.

Not sure how I managed to get this photo with no tourists in sight because there were plenty there!
Last time I was in Santorini I had lunch with friends at this restaurant - Wayne missed out but that is another story. This time I took Wayne to have lunch here - it requires lots of climbing of stairs but you are rewarded with a lovely view over the Caldera and some lovely food.
We visited a museum displaying some of the pottery etc found on Santorini by the archeologists.
Another colourful house.
And the blue of the Caldera
This was taken from our ship and shows the donkey trail to get to the town - we took the easy route of using the cable car.

Katakolon

Our first port of call was Katakolon in the Peleponese part of Greece. We have been here before but previously we went to Olympia. This time we had a ride in a little train out to another village and then had a lovely lunch.

We saw some spectacular sunrises at see and this was taken from the back of the ship on arrival at Katakolon.

We had lunch at this restaurant - delicious grilled sardines - they were so luscious we had eaten them before I thought of taking a photo!

And this small fishing boat was moored right at our table - we did watch the fisherman catch some fish whilst enjoying a beer. We were having the beer not him.

A Greek Orthodox church on the hillside at Katakolon.

Stromboli & Messina

On our first day at sea we sailed past the volcanic island of Stromboli. To the best of my knowledge there are 2 settlements on the island and access between them is by boat. The volcano is still active.

We next sailed through the straits of Messina which is between Sicily and mainland Italy. The tower in this photo is replicated on the Italian side and used to be the means of telephonic communication.

The town of Messina - or maybe it is a city.

First Day of 2011 Trip

When we arrived in Civicchiveccia (which I can't spell but is where we sailed from) we had a lovely room with a balcony. This is the view early in the morning and here is Wayne on arrival partaking of the Spumante and strawberries which were delivered to our room just as we arrived! Very welcome after 35 hours of travel.

It's a long time since I've posted to my blog but next week we leave for another trip overseas and with my new MacBook Pro and, hopefully, wifi on the ship I hope to keep the blog up to date. These are just a few photos I took last year when we were in Europe.This is a bridge over the Seine between Le Havre and Honfleur where we stayed for a few days. We did drive over this bridge and sailed under it!
I can't for the life of me remember where this was taken.
A church in Helsinki - I did climb these steps and went inside and it was beautiful and simple after all the glitz of St Petersburg.