After a lot of planning, and a lot of anticipation, we flew out of Melbourne this afternoon to Singapore, on our way to Europe. We arrived in Singapore a little after 9:30 pm and relaxed in the lounge before walking down to the gate for our 11:30 pm flight for Milan.
We slept pretty well on the flight overnight (although Keith may have slept better had he not consumed two Lobster Thermidors for dinner not long after take-off!) so we felt reasonably good when we landed just before 6:00 am. We were met at the airport by the concierge service, so we were ushered through the diplomat line and cleared immigration in about two minutes, which was nice.
This morning we were up early and downstairs to the hotel restaurant before 8:00 am, so we could enjoy breakfast before heading to the train station to catch the train to Verona. Our Uber picked us up from the hotel a little before 9:00 am for the ten-minute drive to the beautiful Milano Centrale train station, where we boarded the 9:35 am high-speed train for Verona.
After a good night's sleep last night, we were up early again today, and downstairs by 8:00 am to enjoy breakfast. Just before 9:00 am, we hopped in a cab from the hotel, and headed for the Milano Centrale station to catch the high-speed train to Turin. We arrived in Turin at 10:30 am, and walked from Porto Nuova station through the Giardino Sambuy (Sambuy Garden) to Via Roma, a lovely street lined with beautiful shops. We continued on to Piazza San Carlo, Turin's iconic 17th century square, where we decided to stop for a bicerin and cake at the beautiful Caffé San Carlo. Meaning "small round glass" in the Piemontese dialect, bicerin is a traditional hot drink native to Turin.
We were a bit slower getting going this morning. Andrea didn't feel 100 percent, so only Keith made it downstairs for breakfast. After breakfast, Keith walked about 20 minutes to the car rental office (near the duomo), while Andrea tackled the re-packing of the suitcases (which is already proving to be a challenge). Our rental car is an Audi Q8, which it turns out is probably a far larger car than is ideal for navigating around the hectic (and sometimes very tight!) streets of Milan.
After having slept well last night, we got down to breakfast around 9:15 am, where we may have ended up slightly over-indulging! After breakfast, we had our car brought around, and we set off for Annecy in France, a drive of about 50 km.
After a good night's sleep, we were ready to take on another big day of activities. Of course, the first big activity of the day was breakfast! We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast, while discussing plans for the day. Our initial plan was to head out immediately after breakfast, but we ended up relaxing in the hotel for a while, before going out around 2:00 pm.
We started the day with a lovely breakfast, just after 9:00 am. After breakfast, we headed out to solve a small issue: after a few purchases in Italy, France, and Switzerland, we now couldn't get our suitcases closed! So, we had to go out and find a new suitcase.
After a good night's sleep, we headed downstairs to enjoy a beautiful breakfast. After breakfast, we went back upstairs to our room to get organised for the day. We decided that our first activity for the day would be a trip to Lucerne.
We slept very well last night and, in no particular hurry, we meandered down to breakfast at around 10:00 am.
We were up early this morning to get organised for the drive to Zurich airport to catch a flight to Rome. We got downstairs to the restaurant at around 7:15 am, and enjoyed a very nice breakfast. We were on the road just before 8:30 am for an easy hour-long drive to Zurich Airport. We dropped off the car and made our way into the terminal to check in, after which we headed to the lounge to relax. We boarded on-time, around 12:30pm.
This morning was all about getting organised to board the ship for our cruise from Rome to Athens.
We slept well on our first night on the ship, and awoke shortly before arriving in Amalfi, Italy. We skipped breakfast and went straight to the meeting point for our tour to Grotta dello Smeraldo (the Emerald Grotto).
We docked in the Sicilian city of Palermo just before 7:00 am this morning. We had booked a walking tour of the city that required us to be ready by 8:00 am, so we grabbed a light breakfast in the ship's cafe before heading to the meeting point for our walking tour. Human settlements in Palermo date back to prehistoric times.
We slept in a little this morning, since the ship was not due into the Maltese capital, Valletta, until 10:00 am.
With a sea day today, we had a wonderful sleep-in, something we haven't done much so far on this trip! We started out just relaxing on our veranda. Just after 12:00 pm we went upstairs to deck 10, to the lovely Chartreuse restaurant, where we enjoyed a lovely lunch. After lunch, we did some reading, walked around the ship, did a little shopping, and generally just relaxed. Just before 6:00 pm we made our way to the Constellation Theatre for the Captain's Reception, an event put on for repeat passengers. When the reception ended, we made our way to the Compass Rose restaurant, for a beautiful dinner. We finished dinner a little after 8:00 pm, which gave us a bit of time to relax before heading back to the Constellation Theatre for the second performance by Stephen Barry, who was just as incredible as he was when we saw him two nights prior. After the show ended, we headed back to our suite to retire for the night, after what has been a very relaxing day.
We slept reasonably well last night, but we certainly noticed the ship moving around a little in rougher seas than we have encountered so far on this cruise. We expected to arrive this morning at the Turkish island of Bozcaada, at 11:00 am. However, as we approached the island, the captain declared that the seas were too choppy to use the tenders to go ashore (since Bozcaada has no dock big enough to accommodate our ship), so we had to sail past and continue on to Istanbul. We did get a nice view of Bozcaada Castle, however, as we sailed past the island. Since we had not had breakfast, and we now had plenty of time since we weren't getting off the ship, we headed to the Prime 7 restaurant to enjoy some lunch. After lunch, we took advantage of the unplanned sea day to just relax in the afternoon. Late in the afternoon, we entered the Dardanelles Strait.
We had a pretty good night's sleep last night and were up at 6:45 am, a little over an hour before we were due to dock in Istanbul.
We slept very well last night after our big day yesterday exploring Istanbul. We had a pretty slow start to the day, eventually surfacing late morning. We had a walk around the ship for a little while, before going up to the Pool Grill for an early lunch.
We were up at a reasonable time this morning after a good sleep, and we got to the Coffee Connection cafe around 9:30 am to have breakfast.
We were up early this morning so we could have breakfast before meeting our tour guide for the day in Santorini. The ship anchored at about 8:00 am in Santorini and, by about 8:30 am, we were on a tender, heading to the shore to board the bus to explore the island.
The ship arrived in Athens this morning at about 5:30 am. We were still asleep then but were up not long after that, to get organised to disembark and meet our driver to take us to our hotel in Athens, where we'll be spending the next two nights. We had a light breakfast before getting off the ship just before 8:00 am. Our driver was waiting for us, and it wasn't long before we were on the way to the hotel.
We had a fabulous sleep last night, which we clearly needed. We went upstairs to the rooftop restaurant for breakfast.
With no fixed plans for the day, we had a nice sleep-in, before heading to breakfast just before 10:30 am. After breakfast, we relaxed in the hotel for the morning.
We slept quite well last night, and were up and organised by about 8:30 am. We were going to skip breakfast but, since we were going to be spending a few hours on the road, we decided to grab some breakfast in the hotel before we left.
We had a leisurely start to the day today, meeting Earl and Sue at 10:00 am for a lovely breakfast outside in the grounds of Grantley Hall. Our loose plan for the day today was to explore some of the Yorkshire area. We hopped into the car around midday, and headed west to the very pretty town of Grassington.
It was another relaxed start to the day, today. We met Earl and Sue for breakfast at about 10:30 am.
We slept pretty well last night, and were downstairs to breakfast by about 10:00 am. We had breakfast outside again this morning, which was very pleasant. It was a lovely summer day to take in the grounds of Grantley Hall one last time before we got on the road today. We left Grantley Hall around midday, bound for Edinburgh.
After a good night's sleep, we decided on a quick breakfast downstairs in the hotel. This turned out to not be one of the better breakfasts on the trip so far.
After a good night's sleep on our first night on the ship, we were up early this morning for a walking tour of Edinburgh, primarily along the Royal Mile. We set out at 8:00 am with our guide, a very jolly chap named John.
We took the opportunity to have a sleep-in this morning, since the scheduled arrival time into Invergordon today was at 12:00 pm. Invergordon is a small port-town, nestled on the shores of Comarty Firth in the Scottish Highlands.
We woke this morning around 8:00 am as the ship pulled into Lerwick, the main town and port of the Shetland Islands.
Overnight we sailed 362 nautical miles (the longest sailing leg of this cruise) to Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands. We slept well on the journey, and were up and organised by about 8:30 am.
We felt the swell overnight last night as we sailed northeast through the Norwegian Sea. Nonetheless, we slept pretty well, and enjoyed a sleep-in and a very leisurely start to the day.
We had a good sleep last night, and we were up early this morning for our arrival into Ålesund on the west coast of Norway. We had time for a quick muesli and coffee before getting off the ship at about 7:30 am to meet out tour guide, and hopping onto the bus we'd be touring around in for the day. We drove for about two hours before our first stop to stretch our legs, at the Trollveggen rest stop. After a short stop, we headed along E136 to the turn-off to Norwegian County Road 63, where our very skilful bus driver negotiated the Trollstigen mountain climb.
The ship arrived this morning at about 10:00 am in the city of Stavanger, on Norway's southwestern coast.
The ship arrived in Mandal around 8:00 am this morning. We got a nice view of the Hatholmen Lighthouse on the way in. Mandal is the southernmost town in Norway.
We had a good night's sleep last night, and were up early in preparation for an 8:00 am disembarkation.
We got down to breakfast at about 9:30 am this morning, after sleeping pretty well. After breakfast, we walked to the Oslo Opera House, one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, where we met Peter and Joy. From the Opera House, we boarded the hop-on, hop-off bus, to head to our next stop, Vigeland Park.
We were up early this morning and downstairs for breakfast by 7:00 am. After a nice breakfast, we checked out and hopped into the car we'd booked to take us to the airport, where we checked in for our flight, and headed to the lounge to relax.
After a great night's sleep, we headed downstairs at about 9:30 am and enjoyed a lovely breakfast. We took our time having breakfast, and it was about 11:30 am before we managed to get sufficiently organised to leave the hotel. We decided to make our way to Łazienki Park (Royal Baths Park), to walk through the gardens and explore the beautiful buildings.
We were up early this morning to get organised to spend the day in Kraków, the former royal capital of Poland.
We slept well last night, and got to breakfast a little after 10:00 am. After enjoying a very leisurely breakfast, we relaxed in the room for a while before packing in readiness for the car we had booked to take us to the airport at 1:00 pm.
We got downstairs by about 9:00 am, and while enjoying a lovely breakfast, discussed our plans for the day. Our first stop for the day was St.
We enjoyed a nice breakfast this morning, while mapping out the activities for the day in Budapest. We decided that our first stop would be the "Shoes on the Danube Bank" memorial, knowing full well that this was going to be very confronting.
With our flight to Madrid today not departing until the evening, we were able to sleep in and head downstairs a bit later than usual for breakfast. After breakfast, we relaxed in the hotel for a little while, before deciding to head out to visit the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center.
After getting in late last night, we had a nice sleep-in this morning before venturing downstairs for breakfast. After breakfast, we headed out to explore Madrid on foot.
With a big day of driving ahead of us, we were downstairs for breakfast just after 8:00 am. Even though hotel breakfasts are very nice, after nearly seven weeks away, we decided this morning to bring a jar of Vegemite with us to smear on some toast.
We got off to a pretty slow start today, but it was nice to have a sleep-in. We got down to breakfast around 10:15 am.
We decided that we'd sleep in a bit this morning, even though we are driving to Lisbon today, because we wanted to visit the baby clothes shop we found yesterday.
It was another slow start this morning. We got down to breakfast just after 10:00 am. We left the hotel at 11:15 am, and headed towards the town of Sintra, about 30 kilometres west of Lisbon, to visit Pena Palace. Pena Palace is a vibrant and whimsical Romanticist castle in the Sintra Mountains.
The main activity for today was the drive from Lisbon to Seville, Spain. There was no pressing need to get up and go early, so we didn't! We ambled downstairs to breakfast a little after 10:00 am.
Over a relaxed breakfast at about 10:30 this morning, we discussed the plan for the day. We decided that the first activity in Seville today would be a trip to a laundromat to get some washing done.
This morning we were up early and downstairs by 7:00 am for a quick breakfast before getting on the road. We had the car brought around and set off at about 7:30 am, for the 200-kilometre trip today to Gibraltar. After about two hours of driving, we got a nice view of the Rock of Gibraltar from the coast of Spain. We continued along the coast until we got to a car park, just before the border between Spain and Gibraltar.
We managed to get downstairs by about 10:00 am this morning, having had a sleep-in after the big day we had yesterday.
With a big day of driving today, we planned to be up early. But that didn't happen! We managed to get downstairs to breakfast just after 10:00 am. After breakfast, we went back up to the room to pack.
We weren't really quick out of the blocks again this morning, getting down to breakfast at about 10:00 am. After breakfast, we went for a short walk, browsing in some of the local shops. We returned to the hotel around midday, to catch a taxi to the Lladró factory, where we had arranged for a guided tour.
We got downstairs by 9:00 am this morning, and we enjoyed a very nice breakfast. We left the hotel just before 10:00 pm for the drive to Valencia Airport.
We were up early this morning to check out of the hotel and walk back into the terminal to check in for out 12:15 pm flight to Singapore. After checking in, we went to the lounge and relaxed before our flight. We boarded the Singapore Airlines flight at 11:30 am, and relaxed with a drink before take-off on the twelve-and-a-half hour flight down to Singapore.
After a pleasant flight, we landed in Singapore this morning just before 7:00 am. We had enough time to briefly relax in the lounge before heading to the gate to board our flight to Melbourne. At 4:56 pm, we landed in Melbourne, after an incredible trip.