Casablanca -Morocco

Well a fairly hairy entry to the port at 6am when we literally broadsided into the harbour. Glasses went crashing in all restaurants as well as suites. Lots  of broken glass and plates and after 2 hours they literally had the place back up and running. Unbelievable what they did so fast. I lost a new bottle of perfume, crashed from the shelf to the floor. So we were very weary as we left the port and put things away that might slide. Casablanca has a pop of over 3 million and most  of its buildings are from the 20th century. We went to the Hassan 11 Mosque which is 210meters high. The prayer hall is the size of four footy fields and the crowd of 80,000 additional faithful can be accommodated on the sq outside. It has a roof which opens electronically when air is needed and you'd never know the speakers were there, everything is camouflaged so well. Lights as cleaned by hitting a switch and down they come. Their rituals are so different . All the other auxiliary facilities from schools to underground garages are on a  similar superlative scale.  Onto a church and a walk around where Casablanca was filmed  and then tour along the beaches (volcanic) not nice. Walk around United Nations Sq where a fairly new light rail was running. Not the nicest place but interesting.
Photos below depict the beauty of the Mosque it's size and the ablution area below!

Gibraltar - so much to see!

As we sailed into Gibraltar, the huge rock was shrouded in cloud and the top was not to be seen.
Our little bus, for obvious reasons,(there are very narrow winding roads and steep hills), set out and our first surprise was actually crossing the runway of the International Airport which also divides Gibraltar from Spain. Drove to the southern most part of the island to Europa Point, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean and the most narrow point where you can see the North Africa mainland.
We then headed to the cable car that took us to the top of the rock to see the fabulous views.
On the way down we stopped at the middle station (very scary) where the apes are mainly located.
our guide warned us to be careful, as they tend to snatch jewellery, cameras etc, but we had no trouble and took some  Vera y cute photos. Our next amazing sight was the visit to the Great Siege Tunnels a system of tunnels carved out of solid limestone, commenced in 1782 by the Royal Engineers, we walked for about 500 meters through them to see the old gun fortresses and caves an amazing feat all done by hand. Wow!
Then back to the old Town and into the Museum which revealed spacious 14th. Century Moorish baths of old Gibraltar. There are likely to be many more underground sections underneath the old buildings, but they will never be found as no buildings are allowed to be demolished any more. What a great visit, one we will remember for a long time? Our stroll through the  city reminded us of England, the helmeted bobbies, pubs and restaurants selling fish and chips!

Barcelona - Spain

Well the end of one segment of our cruise and what a joy it's been. Beautiful places we've seen and a few new friends to add to our list. There were 3 other huge ships when we docked in Barcelona, thousands of people on them, some going home and others getting excited getting on.
We took a bus to the town centre and wandered the cobbled streets for a few hours looking at the beautiful buildings and little shops . Hundreds of souvenir shops, not sure how they survive, all sell exactly the same things. Went to the huge marketplace where they also sell everything, packed with the locals buying their weekend goodies. Lovely array of goods all fresh especially the fish, do like looking at them, different varieties than some of ours and twice as cheap. We must have the dearest fish in the world. Also unprocessed  hare, pigeons , rabbit,  pheasant and a few more.
Back to the ship and of course new people coming on, so ended up lunching on the patio as the Verandah was full. After sailaway we went to the lounge and met up some members of Cruise Critic , an online site where you ask people about what they think of ships, restaurants etc , anything to do with cruising. Nice hour or so.
Today is a sea day. Tony went to a lecture, and I did some chores. Then to trivia, mainly poms, all knew everything, so we'll see about continuing there, could end up in a war.
Captains welcome tonight, which are always quite good.
Tomorrow Gibraltar and perhaps an encounter with the Barbary apes or tail-less monkeys .

Valencia Spain

We thoroughly enjoyed this large city! the architecture of the many old buildings is remarkable? Valencia more recently has become well known for the Formula 1 street race and also the previous America's Cup races were held in the harbour.
Our excursion today took us the the City Market which is probably one of the best markets we have seen. As market freaks we have lots of experience, some of the photos depict the lovely presentation of the goods they sell.
A two hour walking tour took us to the Cathedral which we did not enter but rather walked around it vast perimeter. Santa Catalina Square was another interesting place we saw the Santa Catania Tower with its unique construction mostly built of marble.
Our visit ended with a very brief visit to The Science and Arts buildings which are truly amazing.
Unfortunately twenty minutes is not enough time to see its benefits but the construction of the building with three floors of Exhibits and different games etc is worth another visit in the future.
We loved Valencia and hope to comeback another day some time.

Mahon (Menorca) Spain

Menorca is the most eastern island of the Balearics not too far from Majorca. It is 45 km long by 19 km wide.
Mahon is the sea port and has the second largest natural harbour in the Mediterranean 6 km long. Our excursion visited several picturesque villages in the centre of the island, although they were almost deserted as it is the end of the season and many people just lock up and go home.
We drove to the highest point of the island to Monte Toro  where a large statue of the Christ redeemable stands? We then drove back to the mouth of the harbour and visited the huge fortress La Mola,the British built to protect Menorca from the French navy back in the 1800's.
The photos below depict a typical front gate on the seaside, a little village, the fort at the entrance to the harbour and a couple of panoramic views of the harbour of Mahon. Beeeautiful.

Valletta - Malta

This trip was arranged with Bruce and Ruth from Brisbane around the beautiful island of Malta. We met on the pier and was greeted by Ronnie, our chauffeur for the day in a Mercedes 320, black and lovely. Seats a little small with three in the back but we managed. Malta has pop. of 440,000 and is 19 miles by 9. Densely populated all over island. Visited the fishing boats at Marsaxlokk with its colourful boats, verypretty place then to the archaeology site which is called Hagar Qim, which dates back 6,000 years and the site came to light around WW1. Huge megaliths all in great order. We then headed to Naxxar where you see the tiny island of Comino and the cliffs are like grottos , boats take you into them.
The dome shaped church in Mosta is where the Germans dropped a bomb, but the bomb did not detonate and it took days to dismantle. Amazing.
Lunch in a beautiful garden called Luna Di Sera, lovely food but too much, enjoyed the garden much more, but a great place to visit.
We then returned to Valletta the long way round the coast which was very scenic. On arrival we stopped at the Barraka gardens which overlook the lovely harbour, Fantastic views  and another great garden. A nice way to finish a beautiful day.

Syracuse - Sicily

Syracuse is located on the east coast of Sicily and was once a powerful Greek colony that rivalled Athens . The visit to the amphitheater,which was the site of contests between gladiators and wild beasts was still in great condition. The great thing was what they called the Ear of Dionysius grotto, which the prisoners carved out from the top and is 75metres high. A gentleman sang a song and the acoustics were sensational as were the caverns once used as prisons . A natural freshwater spring runs from the amphitheatre, down the hill under the earth and runs into the Arethusa fountain down in the town of Ortygia.
Once back in the old town of Ortygia we walked around the medieval city with Baroque palaces and churches. It is a delightful city and it's many narrow lanes and shops lead to a very nice visit.
The church called Madonna has a wonderful spire and inside is amazing with its narrow lead light windows. So different from other churches, only built in 1980 and now a landmark for the city.

Wow Santorini

The island of Santorini is a delightful place.
The two largest towns are Thira and Oia. Thira is the area where you get from the port area to the top of the volcano by way of a donkey or cable car. Oia is at the northern end of the island about 30 minutes drive.
Our excursion was to catch a tender to an area serviced by buses etc that wind up the side of the volcano to the top. Our bus took the scary trip to the top and then onto Mt Profitis Ilias where we saw the fabulous views across the island.  We then continued onto Oia again by winding road to the edge of the village and then a 10 min.  Walk into the centre. Oia is built on the side of a cliff, all of the houses, hotels and restaurants are nestled in niches into the volcanic rock. The beautiful narrow streets are mostly of marble and cobblestone, spotlessly clean, just a sight to see. We thought Thira was so beautiful when we came here several years ago, but Oia is arguably the nicest place we have ever seen in the World. We spent 2 hours there wandering around this photographers dream and then went back to Thira before catching the cable car to the bottom and back to the ship. Unfortunately We can't seem to get captions onto our photos, but I'm sure you can see the beauty in them.
Several shots (make sure you expand them) depict the delights of Oia, the bottom one shows the donkeys taking people to the top at Thira. Last time we walked to the top and back down, that was an experience, we chose not to take that option this time.

Patmos - Greece

We'll after a little rough water last nights woke to a nice day. Again we had a tender to shore . After having breakfast and managing, by default to sit next to our neighbours Ross andLucy from Uk we took a tour of the bridge. What an amazing experience, have done it before but this ship is high tech with everything whiz bang down to data entry on everything going on by the press of a button.

Then went ashore . Patmos is not a big island. This is where you good Catholics will know that St John had his vision and wrote the apocalypse. The monastery towers over the capital, Chora and the whole island breathes faith!!!! There I knew you all knew that too. Anyway we shared a taxi with John and Mary, what more could you get ? and stopped at the Grotto of St John. This small cave now a chapel is where the saint lived. Down 40 steps and now a beautiful chapel. No photos allowed.

Then onto and upward to the Monastery of St. John , which we circled but never found the front entrance, so continued down thru the neighbourhood, completely lost until we found Jimmy's Balcony, what a relief,  beer and wine for a job well done and down the windy road and back to the port where we hooyed the tender that had left and they came back and got us, only Marsdens could do that.
A very pleasant day and now we have a Captains welcome reception to go to, so better put on my glad rags and try and look beautiful . Easy. Met him today on the bridge so am sure he will remember us.
Santorini tomorrow so hoping for a sunny day. Goody morning to you all.