Roemin Aboat

We sailed though the night to Civitavecchia, the gateway to Rome for disembarking our cruise. Up early enough to see  a lovely sunrise in the port. Mark was doing a city tour and drop-off for his late flight to Luton. We had a taxi transfer to Rome airport, 2 flights via Frankfurt to Birmingham and a final taxi to home. We took advantage of the Lufthansa flight transit via Frankfurt to enjoy a couple of Frankfurters and a glass of beer during the 1 hour stop.

We are on our last sea day cruising to Rome around the foot of Italy. Equinox made its way slowly  through the narrow Messina straights between Italy and Sicily where a pilot is needed. Then we passed quite close to the active volcanic island of Stromboli which managed a few small puffs of smoke and steam for the photo album. Ocean view cafe put on a excellent sea food buffet with mountains of prawns, mussels and salmon for our last lunch on board. We packed and put our cases out before dinner in MDR. We had a farewell talk with Carlos our waiter, Jean Paul his assistant and xxx the rather snooty sommelier.  Then a last coffee at Cafe Bacio with Ingrid who we chatted to most evenings.

This is the gateway to Ancient Olympia and we intended to do a  self guided tour. However it was the hottest day of the cruise and we were all too tired to make the effort. Instead we walked along the promenade until we found the very interesting Museum of Ancient Greek technology. Unfortunately it was just about to close but we had enough time to witness the water powered alarm clock and I bought myself  another birthday present of a Pythagoras Cup. It was invented to teach his students not to drink to excess. We had a fishy octopus and Greek dips lunch at a Greek Tavern before taking the tender back to Equinox. The staff in Cafe Bacio surprised and embarrassed me with a of plate of cakes and a rousing rendition of happy birthday. We finished the day with an outstanding birthday dinner at Murano, featuring the signature lobster for Mark and I and Dover Sole for Rosemary and Katie, prepared table side. Not to mention another birthday cake, with candle but without t...

Another warm, sunny day and another picture perfect Greek Island. We are just having a browse in town and a paddle in the Aegean day today. We were docked in the new port and had to take the 10 min sea bus ride to the old port and centre of town.  We lost Mark in the maze of streets designed to confuse pirates but met up again thanks to Whats App location sharing feature and found the iconic windmills for the photo album. We had some mezze and beer the walked along the Little Venice sea wall back to the harbour lost Mark again. Met up again there and Katie and I had a paddle in The Aegean. It was chic night back on board with the traditional lobster, beef wellington and baked alaska dinner.

This is our second visit to Santorini so we had a leisurely start to the day while Mark and Katie were up early to get one of the first tenders ashore. They took a taxi to Ioa, to beat the influencers, where they could see the iconic blue domes and have breakfast without the crowds. We took the cable car and joined them in Fira at lunch time for some nibbles and a bit shopping. Mark bought me Tshirt with donkey and Rosemary bought herself a Ms Marples sun hat. We were back on board by 3:30pm. Mark walked down the 508 steps, meeting the donkeys going up, while we took the cable car. We stayed on board to see the sunset from the ship with our complimentary bottle of fizz on the lawn deck. Meal in MDR and 20 mins of ABBA sing a long before bed.

It's Turkey today and the old fishing village of Kusadasi now transformed into a holiday and cruise ship destination. It's two main attractions are nearby Ephesus, the ancient city and fake merchandise. We all walked round to Pigeon Island and Mark and Katie went in the castle (too many steps for us). We avoided the genuine fake merchandise and went for a local Turkish style lunch of sea bass for the ladies and meat platter for the men, delicious but filling. We could not leave without picking up some Turkish delight and the ladies were gifted souvenir bracelets by our new Uncle Giuseppe (it's complicated !)

We are in Athens and took the HOHO bus to the Acropolis. We alighted at the terminus and walked down the hill beside the Parthenon to the Plaka district. We had an authentic lunch of meze, cheese pie and souvlaki then took the HOHO back to Piraeus by 4pm. Cocktails in sunset bar and caught the early show. We have a new captain onboard and are late leaving for some reason. Ship seemed to be going full speed most of the night to make up time.

It's another sea day on the way to Athens. The forecast was sunny but, after a red sunset leaving Malta, we awoke to a grey and at times, very wet and windy day. We went to learn a bit of Greek mythology from a visiting speaker but left even more confused. The senior officers party filled us up with fizz and canapes, before we joined a table top escape room team. We helped our team of 8 to win, but there were only 4 teams.

We were moored by the walls of the old city of Valletta the capital of Malta. There is a lift 10 mins walk along the dock from our berth which takes visitors to the lower bastion gardens and the salute battery. A cannon is fired at noon and 4 pm every day with appropriate ceremonials.  From here there are walks around the old city taking in many of the historical and cultural sites. It was very busy so we only wandered a few hundred yards from the lift but there was enough to see in the 3 or 4 hours we had on shore. We finished in a bar in the square to taste the local mushy pea and ricotta pie before going back down in the lift to the ship. We picked up one or two souvenirs in the shop on the quay. I went to the sailaway on the helicopter pad, but it was a bit of an anticlimax as it only took about 10 mins to clear the old harbour. It was a pleasant enough stop on our way to Athens.

It was a very warm sunny first sea day and ideal for recharging after 2 busy days. We attended the Captain's Club welcome party, the cocktails and canapes were in abundance as usual so we didn't need much lunch.  It's the first chic night tonight so we will dress up and catch the early show after the odd martini before dining later. I met our concierge, Sean, today. We mostly discussed the Foxes relegation to league 1 and arranged for our complimentary fizz delivery on Friday.

We had a good Innside breakfast, checked out around 11:00 and  we're boarded soon after 12:00. We found our cabins, 2 on deck 6 and ours on deck 9, to drop our carryon bags and went to the Concierge lunch. Mark and Katie posed as our carers to get in. We had our first round of cocktails while waiting for cases to be delivered to our cabin and met again for the sail away at 5:00.  Sea day tomorrow so - hasta la vista Barcelona. We went to the 1st show staring Leanne Mitchell, the first ever Voice winner. She was very good. Then we had dinner in the self service Seaview cafe and finished the day with coffee at Cafe Bacio. I had a banana bread matcha with oat milk served in a small milk bottle - which was fun.

Everyone is checked in and ready to go. The flights from Birmingham and Luton will converge on Barcelona airport and we will all go to the Meliá Innside airport hotel on Friday afternoon. Katie drove up on Thursday night so we were ready for the taxi at 8:30 on Friday morning. Arrived at Birmingham as bag drop opened so we were soon through security and had plenty of time for coffee and breakfast as snacks. Mark made it to Luton Airport Burger King for breakfast. We boarded a bit late and the captain announced there was no hot drinks (running water problem) so we had to make do with alcohol. We made up for lost time and arrived on schedule. Mark was also on time and we all met in the arrivals hall. We found the hotel courtesy bus stop, Katie went ahead and stopped it leaving without us. We had a dinner bed and breakfast package, so had a nice 3 course evening meal to kick off the holiday and an early night.