Eastern Mediterranean Getaway

This morning we disembarked from the Sinfonia to start making our way back to Rome, but not without having some fun last night. The karaoke last night was a really big bash; they had a live band playing the music for all the songs. Not only that… Cliff finally got up to sing a song. But the finale of the show was a performance by our new friends from Australia. Lily and her cousin William hit it out of the park! Disembarkation was extremely simple — we decided to carry off our luggage to get an early start — and we got to the train station in Bari within 30 minutes from getting off the ship. That meant we had to spend a couple hours waiting for our train, but we all had some coffee or hot chocolate and made the best of it. We were on the high-speed train from Bari to Rome, which took about four hours. It was a very comfortable ride and we played cards along the way. This was also a trip we took mostly in the dark on the way to Bari, so it was nice to be able to see the countryside as ...

Our last full day on the cruise included a stop in Corfu, Greece. Corfu is an island and a town of the same name. It’s on the north west tip of Greece very near Albania, just off the mainland. We didn’t dock until 2 PM which gave us ample time to enjoy breakfast, some cards, some relaxation, and then some lunch before we headed off the ship. We also got to see the ship dock, which is very unusual because it usually gets into port before we get out of our room in the morning. The weather was very overcast and cool, but it didn’t rain the whole time we were in town so again we got very lucky. Corfu is a resort town, but in the winter time it’s a little bit sleepy. Except, we think, when cruise ships dock, because there was plenty of shopping to do. It was a very cute little town with small streets filled with eateries, and lots of shopping with fairly good prices. We spent a few hours walking around, had some coffee, sweet treats, and then we were back on board by about 6 o’clock. Besid...

While we’ve had great stops, we’ve also had fun in the evenings once back on board and on sea days.  Above is a pic of our wait staff at dinner. Denis and Maite, both from Peru, have been fantastic. Our dinner time is 9:30pm, which is quite late, but we’ve adjusted.  Today was a sea day, sailing from Istanbul towards Corfu, Greece, our last stop tomorrow before landing back in Bari, Italy in two days.  The weather today was beautiful as we sailed across the Aegean Sea. It was sunny and cool, not freezing, but not warm enough to sit up there for long. We spent a few minutes up on deck to enjoy the view.  Almost every night we’ve gone to the show before dinner. The entertainment troupe is pretty good. They sing and dance, often performing classic American music hits.  We saw a magician one night. The other night the show ended with a little audience participation — YMCA! — Marylou and Kristi were really into it, that’s why the pic is so blurry. 😆 Marylou and Jim...

We arrived in Istanbul at about 9 AM and disembarked just a little bit before 11 AM to meet a driver who took us into the city. “CJ” met us as we exited the cruise port.  We went from the cruise port directly to the Hagia Sophia mosque. Once there we purchased tickets to tour the mosque and a museum about the history of the mosque and related ancient artifacts. After visiting the museum, we rested a little bit and got to know one of the feline residents. Istanbul is known for its cats. We saw cats just about everywhere we went. They’re not exactly feral because everyone feeds them and enjoys that they’re there. There’s actually a long history associated with cats and they are very culturally relevant to the city. After our visit with the cat, we walked a little with CJ to have some Turkish coffee. It was a nice respite after the tours. It was then time to take a stroll a little way to the Grand Bazaar. We spent a little time walking around and bought a few souvenirs. We even got s...