Holiday nearly over now just the long day tomorrow hanging around to fly back looking after our cases. Our last night on the cruise, the girls wasted no time getting on the dance floor. Pam is like Claire and Sue, she loves to dance and Phil is like me, he would rather she was dancing with the girls.
Phil and I sat back and admired the views. I loved the decor of this bar its just the the music was so crap.
Here we are in Venice with Claire smiling as the sun is still shining.
We wasted no time in using our bus and water bus tickets and shot off to one of the islands; I think it was Murano where they make all the glass. We havent been yet but Burano is another one where all the clothes shops are, maybe the girls will want to go there tomorrow to pass the time.
The usual sights of Venice with canals everywhere, even when you go to the other islands.
Back to our hotel for a shower and out to a little restaurant that got recommended to us. We had a nice meal for the four of us. trouble is we were sat between two tables of women that were all talking to us as well. We had and Australian lady that had flown from Brisbane to meet her mum in Venice because her father took ill while on a cruise with her mum. The other two were just chatterboxes and are staying in our hotel.
We are off again with an early start on our own today so the new lovers can have a romantic day by them selves. We were straight off piste, avoiding the Grand Canal from the start. You soon get lost down little alleyways.
Sometimes they just keep on getting narrower the further you go. I nearly got stuck in this one a couple of times.
But they always keep opening up into a square with little restaurants (cafe's) and shops.
We found our way back to the Grand Canal, but sometimes you come to a cross roads and there are no bridges so you have to backtrack. Around here they need to deliver everything by boats and they all carry those little hand trollies.
Here is a museum that is getting very close to flooding. As Venice is sinking 2mm a year and the sea is rising 3mm a year it wont be long before they have to do something here. You can see the high tide dark line and its already over the step.
We stayed on our boat for a complete lap so I could get some decent pictures and when we went back under the main foot bridge to the bus station they have made it translucent. When people walk over you see their ghostly shadows through the bridge. It really reminded me of the light show on Piedmont Street Las Vegas.
On our trip around I became fascinated with the water level and how it is effecting Venice. This one looks like they have already lost the bottom floor and have moved upstairs.
This one looks like they have had a go at prolonging the inevitable and shortened the door at the bottom but its still got them in the end.
Here is another one that looks like its lost the downstairs. Trouble is it will get damp once the water gets above floor level anyway. All the plaster has started to fall off as well.
Trouble is they have the water all around them its not just on one side. Some alley ways have walk ways while others have canals. Maybe they were all walkways originally but some have sunk.
Back to the Grand Canal again near St Marks square. This is where they catch the gondolas. That hotel is where Claire went in for a wee later I got a picture from inside, really posh.
It is very pretty around here and grand but the maintenance costs must be unbelievable. Venice is sinking 2mm a year but its not gradually and everywhere. With subsidence, one part slips here creating cracks and wonky buildings.
I loved this yacht it is called “Sea Force One”. Great but I don't think its the presidents ship.
We shot over to Lido island that I keep calling long island for lunch. Very nice we had muscles in white wine, lemon, herb and oil sauce mopped up with bread then a spice pizza. It was called a restaurant but it was only a cafe really. Only the hotels have restaurants in Venice.
Lido is very pretty and much more relaxing and quiet than around Venice. If you cross to the other side they have a very long sandy beach lined with hotels so there are plenty of proper restaurants along here.
Last stop back to Venice and St Marks square. Its not really our thing; I can appreciate its beauty but its far too busy and religious for my liking.
Here we are inside. I couldn't believe it, last time we stayed here it was wall to wall people and today it was quiet. So much more civilized, even for religious people.
Here we are back to Claire’s personal toilet. She wont just go anywhere you know, only the best for Claire. Its a good tip though because they charge you in all the public toilets unless you go in one of the many cafe toilets. I wouldn't mind staying here next time we come.
We got back onto the water bus to go back to the bus station and who should we se but Phil and Pam again; what a coincidence. They were on their way back as well because they fly home tonight. Its great for them as they had two nights in Venice before their cruise and another two at the end. They left their luggage in lockers at the station and are getting the bus to the airport. Not sure the best way for us to do it yet but maybe we can leave our stuff at the hotel and get a taxi back to the airport from our hotel and we don't have to lug them around anywhere. We have a bus pass for tomorrow anyway. We will decide tomorrow when we see Sue and Ian.
Cruise over, just a couple of days left in Venice before we return home and back to work. We had a terrible start with our dining table mixup and drinks package mixup but once sorted we could get back to enjoying our holiday. Because Costa lost so many customers after the Concordia sank and the captain buggered off, they have had to resort to lowering prices to get people back. This is when we sailed with Costa last time. However, now they have chance to review their position in the market, they now aim for the lower end of the market. The ships are still the same, the food is reasonable but they water down the wine and beer and don't have quite the quality of food that they have in the past. Their drinks package is reasonably priced but they have took many things off the permitted list and made them premium such as all the nice coffee’s they had last time. Lots more cocktails are now on premium. The biggest cheapening is that you only have half a day in port, either the morning or afternoon. This means that they don't have so much port duties to pay and that they can sail very slowly saving fuel.
I wouldn't say that I would never sail with Costa again because we might find something to cheap to miss but we wont be looking for their packages. We don't tend to take the ship package tours anyway but not only are they much more expensive than ones available locally but I don't like them. You spend ages being herded around in groups, sit on an uncomfortable coach and then herded around again like proper tourists when you get there following someone holding an umbrella. I find them ball aching, and always want to come back before they actually come back. In Izmir outside the port, taxi’s were advertising taxi tours around the city for €120 which might not sound too bad for 4 of you, especially when the ships tours are usually over €60 a head but we walked along the coast, had a coffee in an internet bar then took a tour from a normal taxi rank for €30. One quarter of the price offered at the port. Our taxi drove inside the port to drop us off outside the ship, while the expensive ones drop you outside the port where they wait for their next prey. Another cheap way to get about, especially on an island if you have the whole day, is to rent a car ahead of time. They are usually very accommodating, dropping the car off at the port and picking it back up from there and it will cost you around £50 for the whole day in a 4x4. If you can be bothered to organize it before hand and there are 4 of you its a real cheap way of seeing exactly what you want but don't forget your satnav.
As Sue hasn't been to Venice before and they are new lovers, we will be doing our own thing in Venice, I guess walking for miles like we normally do. This time I will keep a good lookout for proper restaurants for the evening. More pictures to come then.
Croatian city and port. Originally called Ragusa until its current name was adopted in 1918 after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The republic of Ragusa received its own statutes as early as 1272. The first pharmacy, still operating today, opened in 1317. Following the catastrophic earthquake in 1667 that killed 5000 people and leveled most of the public buildings, the republic gradually declined. Following 1918 the city was incorporated into the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later to become Yugoslavia.
Dubrovnik has 6m thick city walls which run around the city. The official currency in Dubrovnik is the Kuna but Euros will do in most places. There are around 7 Kuna to the Euro so one Kuna is worth about 11p sterling.
We didn't have such a good day in Dubrovnik, things just didn't go our way. I’ve not been to good these last couple of days with an upset stomach. I have been taking those tablets which stop the problem but leaves you with your stomach rumbling around. We had a day at sea yesterday so I stayed in the cabin most of the time and we arrived at Dubrovnik at about 8am and we got off at about 9am to look for an internet cafe.
It was hot and we had a long walk before we found a nice one and sat down for a cup of coffee. I got the password but couldn't get a connection and we eventually left in search of another one. Same trouble again so they suggested we went inside where the signal is stronger. I was ages but eventually managed to get a connection and by this time I was completely fed up with it so didn't move the text to the right places.
I tried to phone Mum without any success as well, not sure what is up with my phone. We spotted a castle and walked around the bay to it ending up opposite to our boat. There are very few taxis in Dubrovnik and it was a one way street so we couldn't have got back with one anyway. Claire thought there was a ferry crossing the bay so we carried on. It turned out to be a three island cruise so we had to walk all the way back around without any shade. As we had to be onboard by 1pm and by the time we got back around the other side it was already to late for a taxi tour so we got back onboard.
Last night was a Gala dinner and we had a good time but we find the food is better on ordinary nights. The picture is of Phil and Pam who have been sharing our table since the third day, they are a really nice couple from south Wales. We had a few drinks and an early night because Im not to good still. Last night on the boat tonight and we have to be out of our room by 8am in the morning. Not a problem, we will leave our bags outside the door and go to breakfast and maybe even have a couple of drinks while its still free before heading off to our hotel in Venice. We have agreed to do our own thing in Venice so I guess we will be walking miles and drinking in the heat again. Have to make sure we don't fall in like Tom and Youngja.
Is the third most populous city in Turkey after Istanbul and Ankara. It was known as Smyma until the 1930’s. Smyma has over 3500 years of recorded urban history with settlements dating back as far as 8000 years. In 178CE the city was devastated by an earthquake.
The currency of Turkey is the Lira which used to be so deflated that you needed millions to buy an ice cream. In 2005 they knocked six zeros of creating the new Turkish Lira which is currently worth about 28p sterling.
We arrived in port at 8am today but set sail again at 2pm. First stop internet cafe, toilet and a coffee whilst updating the blog. We found a bank because Claire had some of the really old Turkish money but they wouldn't change it.
It was so hot again today, it must have been in the 40’s. We found a taxi rank and booked an hours city tour for €30. Not bad considering they were asking for €120 at the port. As Sue and Ian decided to stay aboard we had the taxi to ourselves. It worked really well as he took us up to the top castle and old city walls first where we had panoramic views over Izmir. Five of these city walls remain standing today which was built by Alexander the Great and is called Kadifekale.
Izmir is an ancient city with 8500 of history, thats twice as old as the pyramids. Out of the 12 ancient Ionian League Cities, 7 lie within the borders of Izmir.
There is a huge bazaar called Cankaya and our drive offered to stop for us as they sell everything from electronics to tack but we refused. I know from experience they are much more trouble than they are worth. We did stop at a blue Mosque but I don't know what it is called.
We also stopped at another panoramic viewing area and our driver bought us some water each. I guess its normal so as to ensure they get a good tip. Our driver couldn't speak a work of English and I can only remember about 5 Turkish words. None were really appropriate for me to use but I used them anyway. Our driver looked really impressed.
Back on the boat in time for lunch a quick beer in the sun and I ha to leave them there while I came in to write this. Its far too hot for me out there. Our body temperature is 37 degrees and once it gets over 40 its hard to survive for any length of time.
Well, we have an easy day tomorrow at sea so maybe I will sit outside in the morning before it gets to hot. The other thing that keeps catching us out is they keep changing the time almost daily, none of us know what time it is any more. I don't think I will be able to post this until we are actually in Dubrovnik the day after tomorrow. This will be our last stop before Venice where we have 2 or 3 days. See you later, Im on holiday tomorrow. I hope Dan and Kylie had a nice stay back in the UK.
