Our Mediterranean cruise got pushed back a couple of years due to Covid, but it was very much worth the wait. This was the first time either one of us has been in this part of the world, and every place we visited was new for us. We enjoyed the advantage of only have to pack/unpack only once while visiting a number of places. Although due to ship’s travel schedule, we did not get us a chance to enjoy a full evening in most locations. Nonetheless, we were able to enjoy a full day’s activities for the most part and get a feel of the local sight and sound for most places we visited. And the amentities on the ship wasn’t bad either.
Venice – City of Canals
After getting through our covid test at the hotel in the morning in preparation of boarding our cruise the following day, we took a shuttle boat ride into San Marco Square area. After some pictures and shopping in the area (all the name brand shops are in this area if anyone is interested), we start food-hunting. The first place we visited was Sosu Gelatoteca, a gelato shop between San Marco and Rialto Bridge, for a couple scopes of gelato. Aside from the nice presentation of the cone, the gelato was very creamy. It is definite worth a try if you enjoy ice cream.
Jessica then found this nice little restaurant, Trattoria Pontini, by Canal Cannaregio that provided a nice late lunch spot with both great food and pleasant atmosphere. Located in the northwest area of the city, it is one of the older neighborhoods and not as swarmed by tourists. On a sunny day in Venice, eating by one of the canals and watching life goes by is something that we couldn’t asked for more. We had a couple of their specialty dishes – Spaghetti with Cuttlefish in Black Ink and Fried Shrimp, Squid and Cucumber, along with a bowl of fries. An interesting part of one the picture we took of Canal Cannaregio area while we waited for our table (picture on the right hand side above), is if you look closely at the top right hand corner, among all the old buildings, you can see a modern cell tower with panels and antenna sticking out skyward.
Rialto Bridge is one of the well known landmarks in Venice, and it is one of the most busy and crowded area in the city. The canal view from the bridge is probably now an Instagram requirement for all visitors, particularly view toward San Marco, although the view from the other side isn’t bad either. It is also the point where we decided to take a gondola ride back to San Marco.
Given we were not sure if we will have another opportunity to return, we decided to splurge to take a long gondola ride from Rialto Bridge to San Marco. Instead of going along the Grand Canal, the gondola ride mostly went through the smaller canals through the city. The skill of the gondolier should not be completely underestimated. A number of times we would have thought that the we would crash into another boat or the side, but the gondolier was able to float by without even a bump. The quiet ride through the city “back canals” provided another perspective that we would not have by walking through the streets on land, including gliding by a house that Marco Polo had lived in Venice while he was there.
As the center of Venice, San Marco Square could be the most well known site in Venice. And stores for LV, Hermes, Loro Piana, etc are located in the northwest end of the square if people are interested. The tide in Venice was relatively low for this time of year when we were there – but it doesn’t take much imagination to see how tough it would be for all the shops in the square to have to deal with flooding in the square every year, if not multiple times a year. I would have liked to sit in one of the outdoor cafes at San Marco Square and people watch, but too much to see and do in one day.
Venice is undoubtedly a water city. Boats rule the city and is the only way to get to different islets. There are no cars in the city – no car can fit into those narrow alley ways. Walking through the narrow streets that has been established long ago allow was a wonderous experience – and one can rely on road signs to figure out the general direction – but boat ride is a better choice to go between more distance points of the city. A convenient way is to take the Water Bus that that traverse the major canals and in the lagoons between islands. We had arrived to the city very late the previous night, and while we weren’t able to see very much during our boat ride from the airport to our hotel through the lagoon, we can ‘feel’ connection of the area to water as we travel through lagoon. And when we exited our hotel front door in the morning and see the full panoramic view of the lagoon that lay before us, it was a sight to behold and just to soak in. Venice is best appreciated by looking at it from the water.
The Cruise Ship – Viking Sea
Venice has pushed out the cruise ship embarkment from the terminal close to main island to Fusina, a terminal port southeast of mainland coast It is far enough that one can barely make out Venice when looking out the front of cruise ship’s bridge as it was docked before departure. Our ship, Viking Sea, is a relatively new ship (2016) that holds less than a thousand guests. All rooms are fairly large and has a balcony. The amenities on board is geared toward a slower crowd – spas, libraries, theaters/lecture halls, etc. There are no casino, roller coasters or clubs. However, the service on board was superb in every way. While there were a few exceptions, for the most part everything on board were included – there were no special charges for dining at any of the restaurants (although there are limitation on how many reservations you can make at some restaurants, and some menu items has extra charges). The food were generally excellent, even the main cafe that served the buffets. The full service restaurants had some great dishes – see the pictures below of some of meals we had onboard.
Our passage out of the dock at Venice that night was an interesting experience as I watched from the balcony as the ship moves out of the harbor into open sea. Couldn’t see much except for these lane markers that helped lead the ship into the sea. It was kind of like driving on a marked road.
Koper, Slovenia
As we approached Koper, Slovenia, our first destination at dawn, I was able to get an picture from our balcony. The weather was cool outside but I could feel the fresh ocean air. When the ship docked at the harbor, we were surprised how clean the water was. From our balcony – we were on the fourth deck – we can see the jellyfish floating in the water. When we walked along the coast in Piran during our excursion, we could see how clear the water at the marina as well. It is still vivid in my mind as a kid growing up in Hong Kong, my first impression of sea water is that it is dark and black. This is certainly not the case of the water in this area.
The seaside towns of Izola and Piran are along the coast to the east of Koper. Our shore excursion took us on a drive along the coast, getting a spiel of the history of the area along with the scenic view. We had an opportunity to spend some time walking around Piran’s Old Town, which is very much still a normal town today, even if the basic foundation is in much the same state it has been for the past couple hundred years. As we walked through the down and looked closer at the building, we can see the modifications that has been done to accommodate the modern world. Whereas today’s new buildings would have all the wires would be set inside the walls and hidden, these builidngs have many wirings drilled into buildings from the outside – with all kinds of wires and cables running along and across the buildings.
It was a warm Saturday morning on the day we visited, and we saw many local people at cafes around the town enjoying the weather and the ambiance of the town, as a few bus loads of cruise crowd parade through the area.
After Piran, we drove further along the coast and then into the hills to Padna, a town in the local farm country. Viking had arranged some sample food that the local village groups can offer, such as cheese, wine, truffle sauce, jams, etc, as well as some arts/crafts. While the food was not that memorable, it was a chance to see the expanse of the land of the region. We returned to Koper by early afternoon, giving us time to explore the Old Town, located next to the ship’s terminal, on our own. There was little crowd at that time, as most of the cruise tour had visited in the morning, giving us an opportunity for some quiet exploration. After walking around the area looking at the buildings and shops, we decided to go up to the top of the Koper Bell Tower for a birds eye view of the town and the port. (The walk up the tower was a good Stairmaster exercise.)
During the night’s journey from Koper to Zadar, the sea became a bit rough as we sailed through a storm. As Snoopy would say, it was a dark and stormy night. We could feel the up and down bob throughout most of the night, lest we forget despite all the elegance we enjoyed onboard that we are still on a boat in the middle of the sea. In the early morning hours, with the moon still shinning through the cloud, we can still feel the waves’ ebb and flow. However, by the time we docked at Zadar, the sky cleared but still quite windy when we disembarked.
Zadar, Croatia and Krka National Park
Krka National Park, about an hour’s drive from the port in Zadar, Croatia, encompasses over a hundred square miles. Our visit the part was to an area that is highlighted by the Skradinski buk waterfall. The park built a wooden walkway around the waterfall area to allow visitors to stroll through numerous streams and falls easily. The park provided several viewpoints for various waterfalls without too much hiking. Walking through the falls and streams in that area was soothing to our senses and gave us an opportunity to enjoy one of nature’s best relaxing sounds – the sound of flowing water – not to mention plenty of opportunity of great pictures. The park also kept a ‘museum’ area where it maintained replicates of things that people in the old days had used to harness the water power in the area, such as milling. This area was also where an early hydroelectric dam was build in the early 1900s.
After the visit in the park, we went to another resort area for lunch. All the ‘tours’ seems to be eating there, as we ate in a banquet hall filled with tables. The food offerings was somewhat bland with a slight local touch – prosciutto and cheese for starter, a grilled chicken with vegetable for the entree and a strudel for dessert, with local wine. Not the most memorable meal from a food perspective although we had some interesting conversations with some of our fellow travelers.
After lunch, we were drove back to Zadar for a quick tour of the town. Zadar is a blend of old and new, with new buildings melded with some of the old Roman buildings and ruins. Our tour guide gave an interesting story during the time when France had occupied the area – how the locals who wanted to thwart executions wasn’t able to move the guillotine due to its massive weight and instead removed the blades – and to this day, no one knows where the blades were hidden. The waterfront area where the ship was docked also had an interesting feature – there are pipes of various length build underneath the pier steps that led to the water, such that when the tide moves in and out, it would play out notes as an organ would. Our guide said the sound can be so loud during some tides, that people that want to sell their houses in the areas would select calm days to show their houses.
Dubrovnik, Crotia
In the Fitness Center as we sailed into Dubrovnik this morning, staring out into the water and seeing the waves subsides as land starts to appear onto the horizon, I saw smaller boats gliding through the water in the early morning hours and wonder about the lives they have in these waters and how they are able to enjoy this scenic area every day.
Dubrovnik is coastal town that buttress against a hill. There is not much flat land between the sea and the hill, but a vibrant city-state was nonetheless created over a thousand years ago. The Old Town is literally build on the water, with a good section of it being landfill. While the Old Town itself may be essentially a tourist town today, with restaurants and shops build around museums, churches and other historical buildings, absorbing the history is what makes the Old Town a place of interest.
There is a Cable Car service just outside the gate walls that takes people to the hilltop for a spectacular view of the coastal area. Jessica found the Panorama Restaurant located on the hilltop where we could have lunch. The food was surprising good – we had the King Prawn in tomato sauce and the Seafood Risotto, but the view may have been even better.
After returning back down to Old Town, we decided to walk Dubrovnik’s City Wall. It is well worth the effort to explore the City Wall even if you will only walk a portion of it. It provides a great visual perspective of the town and its surroundings. We strolled through about two-thirds of wall in about an hour and a half. All the walk that day made the massage appointment we scheduled for that evening on the ship almost perfect way to end the day.
Montenegro
The view of the shorelines and mountains as the ship sailed into the Bay of Kotor in the morning was as good as advertised. And this was accentuated when we drove to the mountain top overlooking the bay. This may have been the highlight of our visit there from a scenic perspective. After the view of the bay, our excursion took us to a local farm restaurant that specialize in local prosciutto, which is a bit saltier than ones we typically have. After that, we drove to Centije, the old royal capital of Montenegro, where we visited the residence of the last king of the country, King Nicolai. The tour provided a more indepth understanding of the country’s history, particularly the relationships with other Balkan nations and the wars with Turkey. The town itself is fairly quiet when we were there, even with all the tour groups running about.
On our way back to Kotor, we drove by the resort town of Budva, which is where some of the rich and famous would vacation. Casino Royale, located in Hotel Splendid, is where the casino scene of the movie Casino Royale was based (the new version with Daniel Craig, not the one with David Niven and Peter Sellers), although actual shooting of the scenes took place in Czech Republic. If you enlarge the picture of Budva below, the building with an ‘S’ is where Hotel Splendid is located. By the time we returned to the port, we had about an hour to tour Kotor’s Old Town, which is by the ship’s terminal, before the ship has to depart. Not as large or impressive as Dubrovnik’s Old Town, it nonetheless has some interesting ambience and history. Due to the time constraint, we grabbed a slice of pizza and sausage pie as we walked around town. Despite the rush, we were able to see quite a bit of the town.
Corfu, Greece
Our first stop in Greece was in the island of Corfu, an island off the west coast of Greece’s mainland along the Albania border on the Ionian Sea. This turned out to be the worst day weather wise on our trip. There was spot showers throughout the day, but it was the wind that made it feel colder than it was. Our first visit of the day was at Kanoni point, which provides a perfect vantage point of a Viachema monastary and “Mouse Island“, a little spec of land that is just off the shores of the island. On our way to Old Town, we drove by the villa where Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh was born.
Before walking through the town, we stopped by the old Fortress, on the edge of the town, which has two mounds and a large moat that is now a marina. In between the fortress and the town is Boschetto Garden, a little park with statues of German and English person, none of whom we heard of but of course that doesn’t they were important people. And on the edge of the town, there is a large promenade that flank the facade of the restaurants and shops on the edge of the town. The Old Town has characteristic of many of the similar towns in the area, narrow streets with court yard centers. But our tour guide noted that the houses were internationally build more closely together here because when pirates came onshore, the locals can throw hot water and other things down from high floors to drive them out.
We did a bit of souvenir shopping during our free time there and also grabbed some local snacks, potato and cheese rolls. We had decided not to eat formally in town but go back to the ship to grab something. On our way back to the ship, we were able to take this picture below of our ship, in front, and a MSC cruise ship behind it. Even though we feel our ship was reasonably large, it is a minnow compare to the MSC ship, which is about a third longer and several decks higher.
Olympia, Greece
Our next stop is at Katakolon, on the southwest part of Greece’s mainland. It is the gateway for cruise ship to the ancient Olympia. The day’s highlight was the visit to the ancient Olympic site. While there is not much standing structures in the location, there are still plenty of artifacts that archaeologists can use to reconstruct what kind of structures were there and their use, and they are still excavating the sites.
The original stadium grounds is still pretty much intact, even if it is just a very simple field with grass grandstands for the spectators. But what was entertaining was the stories behind the ancient Olympics. While it is generally well known that partcipants perform in nude during the Games, it was noted that there was usually only one female who was allowed to watch the games, a high prestiess. Also, it was interesting to learn the word gymmisum originate from Greek word meaning ‘exercise naked’. Part of interesting learning during the tours was the guides providing numerous words assoication with Greek origins.
For each modern Olympics, the flames would be lit at the Hera’s Dedication Altar here on these grounds and be carried to the site of competition. The Altar was part of the Temple of Hera.
After leaving the Olympic grounds, we had a brief stop at the Olypmia village town. Although the town didn’t have that much distinguish its characterisitcs, our stop was a bit too brief to get much perspective of the place – other than a few souvenirs. Wish we had more time to walk around the area and spend more time to have a Greek coffee and savior the atmosphere of the area in Greek style.
Santorini, Greece
Santorini is a place where we have heard about all the time, but it does take seeing it in person to appreciate the spectacular view of the island. This was the only port of call where we had to use a tender get onshore. While the caldera of the harbor may be the most famous part the island, along with its white washed houses on the hills, there really are great views from all parts of the island. The streets and walkways may not evoke the rural setting that was in our imagination (watch Mama Mia too many times perhaps), it is still something to behold and experience.
Our tour started at the southern part of the island, where on a hill, one can see both coasts of the islands. This view also provided a great view of the Santorini International Airport runways – another way visitor can arrive to the island. We actually saw a plane took off while we were there. We then drove to the other end of the island where Oie is located. From the ‘streets’ there, one can get great views of the white stuco buildings on the hillside and coastlines. What surprised us is that the public path can provide a fairly open look into the terraces and patios of hotels and homes there. And even though we were visiting in the low season, most of the area we visited felt fairly packed, particularly since some of the paths we walked through are very narrow.
Our last stop of the day was at Thira, located at the hilltop at the center of the island, providing a perfect view of the caldera. This is also where we decided to get a picturesque lunch with caldera in the center of the foreground while we dined. After walking around the area a bit more after lunch and took more pictures, we took the cable car down to the port below for our tender to get back to the ship.
Santorini is a place that we would want to come back for a more extended stay to enjoy the unique view and a place where you can get away from it all. The thoughts of getting up in the morning and having a cup of coffee looking down at the view of the caldera and the sea below has us thinking of a return trip.
Athens, Greece
The excursion we chose at Athens may not have what we had expected, but it turned out to be a good day overall. The excursion tour we selected only had a brief bus tour of the city and focus most of the time in the Archaeological Museum. But the tour guide did pointed out some interesting spots in the city, including a short stop at the Olympic Stadium used for the first modern Olympic in 1896. I had thought a swing by Acropolis was be on the agenda. It wasn’t. But at the end of the tour, we were able to take leave early and went to the Acropolis on our own to see not only the ruins there, but also a birds eye view of the city.
Acropolis is the ancient citadel at an outcrop hill sitting above the city that contains several historical structures, with the Parthenon (temple of Athena) being the most famous. It was well packed the day we visited, such that it was not easy to take any pictures without getting people in the picture frame. But the site and area at the Acropolis was still amazing place to behold and worth the small hike to get there.
After Acropolis, we went do a little shopping around the Constitution Square area before arriving in the Plaka section of the town for a late lunch. We picked a restaurant that was roasting a lamb right out in front. And that roast lamb maybe the best lamb I had in a long time.
We stayed in Athens overnight on the ship, and as it was Orthodox East Sunday the next day, there was a firework at midnight over the harbor for the celebration. Jessica, with her new IPhone 13, was able to capture nice shots of the fireworks.
The next morning we were able to get a few pictures on the sunrise over the harbor from our balcony before we pack our things to disembark for our return trip home. We were able to spend time in exploring new things and to relax and enjoy just doing nothing while napping in our cabin or just watch whatever is outside on the balcony.
