Split

The next day we were up the coast, still in Croatia, but at Split. We had visited here before so I selected a tour which took us out of the city mainly based on information I received a couple of months before from an ADFAS lecture given by a Croatian lady who talked about these places. Our first stop was the Mestrovic Gallery. Mestrovic was a famous sculptor who has works shown all around the world. The gallery is at his former residence which he actually designed in his role of an architect.
More steps to climb up!
The view from one of the rooms at the gallery.

A self portrait.
And some of his sculptures.


We next visited Roman remains at Salona - this is a graveyard.

This is a feature of the garden in the area.

We next visited the cathedral of St Lawrence

Part of the door of the cathedral - it is a huge portal with lots of carvings and very difficult to get a good photo of it as a whole.

The carving of Adam.
And Eve
More details including one of St Lawrence who was always depicted with a grill and I'm trying to remember the reason why - I'd like to say something to do with barbecues but it wasn't quite that simple.

Durovnik

The next day, with the weather behind us for a while at least, we docked at Dubrovnik. This was a beautiful place and it is hard to imagine how recently they were at war. We were told that the houses with the red roofs were all new as the previous had been destroyed in the war - there were a lot of bright red roofs. This is a view of Dubrovnik from the ship.

I went up in the cable car to the top of a hill and this is the view of the mountains behind the town - very bleak.
Looking down the coast from the top of the hill.
The old walled town of Dubrovnik from the hill - this is where we went next.
The Western Gate to the Old Town. The town is completely enclosed by a wall which you could walk around - I didn't feel up to climbing all the steps to get to the top!
An interesting door handle.
More decorative buildings.
The narrow streets full of cafes waiting for all those tourists.

I'm not sure how far the owner of this bike actually road - hopefully not down the steps.
The clock tower.
A church.

Dubrovnik

Corfu

After leaving Athens we had a delightful day at sea basking in the sun. We then arrived at the Greek Island of Corfu only to find that it was raining very heavily. Added to this we had to tender in on our lifeboats. Needless to say once I arrived back at the ship it was a complete strip and a very hot shower! The photos don't reflect how heavy the rain was. The first stop was at Achillion which was the Empress Elisabeth of Austria's summer palace. She was known as Sissi and apparently there was a film made of her life around the 50s. This is a bust of Sissi.

A fireplace in the palace - not sure I'd be game to light a fire in such a beautiful place.

A beautiful book on display.
Whilst it was very wet I did venture out into a quick tour of the gardens. This statue of a naked lady apparently caused much controversy at the time. The model was called into court on account of her nudity. However her lawyer asked her to strip before the judge - who was so impressed by her beauty let her off any charges!

The rear of the statue of Archilles showing the arrow in his heel.

We then drove up a hill to look over Pontikonissi and the Monastery of Panagia Vlacherna.

After a very wet walk through the town we resorted to a coffee in a line of cafes which overlooked this green park which is actually a cricket pitch - a remnant of the British rule over the Island.

Corfu

The end of the First part of the Cruise

After leaving Yalta we sailed across the Black Sea and up the Bosphorus and eventually arrived at Piraeus the port of Athens. We were there for 2 days but didn't leave the ship as the were continual strikes in Athens and no one knew if you could get around or not! The weather was delightful so we just lazed around the deck eating and drinking!

Yalta

Yalta is in the Crimean part of Ukraine - note the barren hills behind the city.

My first stop was Massandra Palace which was commissioned by Czar Alexander III and took 25 years to complete, however Nicholas preferred Livadia (which we went to next) and used this as a hunting lodge but the czars never lived in it! Lots of beautiful wood work inside. It was used by the KGB as a summer dachau during the Soviet regime.
When restoring they discovered part of the original frescoes.
And the rose garden was planted with 100s of different varieties.
Lavadia Palace which was built by Nicholas II.
Two cats at the entrance!
One of the chandeliers in the upper section.
This is where the Crimean Treaty was signed by Churchill, Roosevelt & Stalin at the end of the Second World War.
As depicted in this photo.