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Farewell MSC Armonia

We’ve made nice friends and had a great time cruising. Till next time!

Now off to Florence on the train from Venice.

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Marjin forest views down to the beach we swum at, expansive Split city and ancient churches.

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Captivating Croatia

We woke early with the time change and were happy to see a shoreline that resembled something closer to the Hawkesbury River and not the arid ,dry leafless landscape we had been used to in Greece. We reached Split port at 7am and prepared for a day ashore - stepping right off the boat to the shoreline (it’s always a plus to be able to come and go as we please.

We instantly fell in love with Split - promenading the waterfront, friendly shopkeepers with different wares to sell, a beautiful blue harbour, interesting architecture, cheaper prices, great coffee and a sunny 30 degree day.

We headed straight to the market to find sunglasses since I sat on my new prescription pair the day before and definitely need to cut the glare of white marble streets and buildings.

The market was in full swing with the freshest of produce including watermelon, strawberries stone fruits we just had to try, figs, fresh flowers, seafood, cheeses and charcuterie.

After buying a few souvenirs we ventured to the Diocletian palace one of the best preserved samples of Roman architecture built in the 4th century. It was impressive and fortress Ike and had a vast cellar area used for storage. We also came across two young men dressed as Roman soldiers - uni students studying medicine and tourism hoping to make some tips. They were great fun and we had a good chat.

We planned to grab the #12 public bus to the famed Kasjuni beach but missed it and then ran into an Australia couple who we shared an uber with to get there for 5 euros. The water looked inviting and we braved the pebbly shore to sink into the blue waters. Chilly but perfect.

An obligatory cheeky local beer after the swim and back to town in a cab with a Croatian driver who used google translate to point out a few of the important sites. Everyone here seems to love their country deeply.

Next we took a little train to the top of Marjin Hill a national forest with expansive views sweeping over the entire city. We could see the beach that we had swim at from above and the waters looked even more perfect.

We wandered through more of the city and talked about our planned return in retirement to spend three months exploring and island hopping.

We didn’t leave the city before a sweet fix at a really unique lolly shop. Tennis ball gum, marshmallow mushroom or pizza jelly anyone?

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The sun rises and sets on an at sea day … making friends at the Mediterranean dinner and on board entertainment.

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Athens, overcrowded in every way

We sailed into the port of Piraeus, busy with sea ferries, moving people about their day between islands and nearby countries.

We were booked on a tour of the Acropolis and the old town Plaka grateful for the bus aircon on a very hot 38 degree day. Athens is an unplanned ancient city and so the roads and traffic problem here is immense. We had plenty of time sitting in the traffic to check out apple and citrus trees that line the footpaths and observe everyday life.

First stop was the Panathenaic stadium - built in the 4th century for Athena and then relined in marble for the first olympics of our time. We jumped off the bus and had 2 mins to take photos. I snapped a pic of Carl with this guy in traditional Greek costume - he even popped a wreath on Carls head for effect and then he demanded 15 euro. We didn’t have any cash on us so offered to delete the picture, but he grumpily waved us away.

The old town Plaka was throbbing with people but we were on a mission find Carl some PJ’s (some Venetian is enjoying his old ones left behind). Google maps told us there was Marks and Spencer’s so we tracked it down and power walked to make the purchase getting back just in time for the walk to the Acropolis.

Sitting atop the highest point in the town we marvelled at what it must have taken to build the impressive Parthenon and surrounding temples. The guide talked about simple but effective crane systems and the sheer number of workers who toiled over 40+ years to build what stands there today to honour the goddess Athena. There was a previous temple on the site but the Persians had destroyed it during battle leaving nothing behind. 

It took so long to rebuild because of the wars, but also a plague broke out and one third of the population of Athens died. The original temple had a statue of Athena three stories high, dressed in ivory and gold weighing 1045kg.

From the top, Athens stretched below us - crowded and bland with very little trees and everything an off white colour.

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Welcome to Greece … first stop Mykonos

We enjoyed our at sea day swimming, playing bingo and doing craft while we cruised an entire day and night to reach the island of Mykonos. Carls paper flowers surpassed mine in both quality and creativity. Who’da thought!

There were three large cruise ships docked in the Mykonos new port so we moved by tender to the shore. I was surprised by the barren, rocky sandy coloured landscape out of which popped little white houses.

We walked the couple of kms into the old port town along a narrow road - pretty much taking our life into our own hands with traffic whizzing by. The turquoise waters sparkled beside us - and we were glad we’d brought our Cossies for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea.

We did another self guided walking tour and visited the old port, little Venice, the windmills a couple of churches and then ditched the tour to do a spot of shopping and find the bus station to head out to the beach. Everything was so expensive so we made do with just a few small gifts and souvenirs.

The little narrow streets zigged and zagged all over town (designed this way to confuse pirates) and row after row of little white shops and houses beamed against the bright blue sky and rich purple bougainvilleas and pale pink oleanders. Carl even spotted a few gum trees.

We boarded the public bus at Fabrika and headed on very narrow winding roads to the other side of the island to swim at one of Mykonos’ famed beaches - paradise.

First Impression was - this is not paradise! A dusty weedy road led to a pebbly beach heavily dotted with sun lounges and umbrellas but the water looked amazing and we were pretty hot by now.

We found a spot at the end of the beach and jumped into surprising chilly water but we didn’t care.

After a swim we ventured up to a pretty flash bar called Tropicana and had a few local Mythos beers then shared a delicious bbq octopus with avocado tzatziki.

Carl tried some scrumptious oregano flavoured potato chips (Frito- Lay he wants these back home) while we waited for the bus and he made friends with one of the many many stray cats on the island.

Tonight we sail to Athens and we’re looking forward to the tour of The Acropolis and Plaka.

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The cruise begins

We boarded the cruise MSC Armonia in Venice after a last photo stop at the Bridge of Sighs. We’ve been upgraded to a junior suite and loving the extra cabin space, wide balcony and full sized bath for the man who loves to bathe.

The seas have been eerily calm and the blue hues of the Adriatic Sea, are something pretty special.

We left the ship yesterday to visit the ancient city of Brindisi which we learned was actually the capital of Italy before Rome. Brindisi is at the end of the Appian Way an ancient road that connected to Rome and so very important for military and trade purposes.

We bought a self guided audio tour and did Brindisi our way - visiting important archeological sites and little out the way cafes for refreshing Peroni’s and Aperol spritz. We had a little welcoming committee of drummers, trumpeters and flag tossers, spontaneous dancers in the streets and in the sunset DJ’s belting out dance tunes.

Highlights were castles, buildings and ruins from before Christ times, tales of Hercules and Carl enjoyed all the ancient water storage infrastructure.

We now have an at sea day on our way to Mykonos Greece and are enjoying the arts and crafts and other activities - check out our iris folding.

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Cortina for the win! And a step back in time

Did you know Cortina will host the 2026 Winter Olympics? Well today we visited Cortina on our day trip to the Dolomites and Carl’s first impression was - that’s the most expensive snow ski town I’ve ever seen. They hosted in 1956 and there’s still some relics left behind like the ski jump and a bob. We spent a good half hour looking for the Olympic rings only to discover the real ones and then realise we’d gotten excited over the Audi logo.

Final stop was the largely untouched 16th century town of Cibiana di Cadore. It really was a look back in time and great to see the Govt preserving this rich cultural history.

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From Prosecco to the precipice

After waking wide eyed at 4am (we’re still on Sydney time) we headed out on a 12 hour day tour from Venice to the Dolomites (think Italian alps) reaching almost to the Austrian border. Julia our tour guide has been great filling us in on all the high points of natural and historical significance. Like who knew they had brown bears and roe dear, that buttercups were poisonous or that the little town of Longerone was destroyed by a landslide in 1963 wiping out the entire town (they have since rebuilt - not sure I would live there). We travelled through the Prosecco region and learnt that Prosecco is made from the Glera grape and the vineyards producing Prosecco have to be certified - all vineyard work must be done by hand.

Much of the way we followed the Piave river which runs from the peaks to the river mouth near Venice. The natural beauty in this region can’t be matched by any mountain beauty we have at home. The photos don’t do the height of these peaks justice.

First stop was Lake Misurina which freezes over in winter and will host some of the 2026 winter Olympic events. We walked the lake shoreline and found a restaurant for a well earned Hacker Pschorr beer after our little trek.

We then visited the beautiful aqua blue Landro lake which was the front line in WW1 - Hungary on one side of the river and Italians on the other. We dipped our feet in and definitely would have swum if we had our cozies.

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What a way to finish a day.

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And voila… we are in Venice

After a long haul from Dubai, we arrived in Venice to more warm sunshine, a not so friendly uber driver and a surprise $160 water taxi ride to get our hotel in the heart of Venice but so worth it - to be staying at the centre of things and see the city long after the day visitors have left.

Our hotel room is very sweet and very very small, hardly room to open a bag, but it feels like real Italy. We had a nice afternoon spent shopping, visiting Rialto bridge, taking a break to sip aperol spritz by the grand canal, a delicious meal of mussels and sardines for dinner in a quaint out of the way family restaurant and then a gondola ride before finishing off the night in the San Marco Square, sipping Prosecco as live musicians played for us. Just perfect.

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Couldn’t resist a visit to this car showroom. Carl in heaven with a purple Ferrari. Just need a cool $750k AUD to buy that baby.

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We thought we were exhausted after a half day walking tour but then thought again and headed out on our own in the afternoon to visit The Frame, the Dubai Mall and other sights. Dubai Mall is the largest in the world with 1200 shops, and an ice rink and aquarium. All we bought were two Margaritas a big as our heads. Carl braved his fear of heights to walk the glass floor at The Frame high above Dubai. Looking out over what is essentially dessert, it’s incredible what this city has built in the short time since the modern city broke ground in 1971. Many times we heard if you can imagine it, it can be in Dubai. There’s no dream too big or no plan too hard to tackle. Like for example the plan to build an underwater tunnel from Mumbai to Dubai to bring fresh water from India and transport oil and gas back in return.

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Walking tour of the old town

We had an excellent Armenian guide take us through the old town with recreations of traditional lifestyle from mid 19th century till the 1970 ‘s when modern Dubai really took off. Because we bought the premium Aladdin tour with pick up - they kept calling us big boss Susan. They lived in traditional houses with Barjeels which are wind towers for cooling definitely needed in the oppressive 45 deg heat. The town sits on Dubai creek an important trade hub. We had a coffee tasting which I promptly spilled on the hand woven rug - oops and then we visited the old Souk a market with opulent fabrics and other wares.

First purchases of the trip were a green pashmina for Sue and Dubai chocolate for Carl. (Did you know the pistachios come from Iran and it’s not really even a Dubai product - just a whole market created form a tik tok post) gotta say it does taste great but beware there are many fakes out there. I tried to buy some postcards which they offered for the bargain price of $30 each - lucky we know to walk away and finally transacted them for $3 each but came home to find one wasn’t even of Dubai - it was Abu Dabi. Haha.

We then hopped onto a little wooden boat and headed across the river to the spice market.

Incredible colours, textures and scents at the spice markets and crazy opulence at the gold market including the world’s largest ring the Star of Tiaba weighing 63.856 kgs. We learned how to tell real from fake saffron ( the real stuff floats) and learned about natural minerals for deodorant and every other human need and ailment.

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We tried all the local foods for breakfast in the hotel buffet. Delicious!

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Sydney-Dubai

So begins our 6 week European adventure.

We left a chilly, wintery Sydney and flew on our first emirates A380 to arrive 14 hours later in a hot and humid 48 degree Dubai. First impressions were it is a friendly and well organised city rising out of the desert, with incredibly good roads! Our hotel upgraded us to a room with a view of the Burj Khalifa - the tallest building in the world. It was originally meant to be named Dubai tower but during the GfC when Dubai almost went broke there was no money to complete it and so a neighbouring Sheik loaned the money in return for naming the tower after himself. If you are a citizen of Dubai you get free healthcare and schooling, money to buy land and an interest free loan to build a house. However most of the people living here are from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and the language on the street is Hindi. The workers earn about $US500 per month and often sleep in share houses with no regulation on overcrowding. Even after living and working here for many years you cannot qualify to be a citizen except for pure lineage. June and July are the hottest months here with temps rising into the high 50’s so the city feels quiet as many locals have left on holiday to escape the heat.

A light show at night right from our bedroom window.

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Homeward bound

What a fabulous trip we’ve had and we wish it wasn’t ending.

Highlight for Carl - swimming with the Sealions and dolphins at Bairds Bay and the Bunda cliffs.

Highlight for Sue - Coodlie Park at Talia sunset On the beach and cliff top breakfast

This morning we walked the beachfront at Glenelg and had brekkie by the water and then got our final history fix seeking out the old gum tree. A gathering place very significant to the indigenous owners of this land - but where white man essentially stole their rights - said they would look after and treat them like British subjects but sadly as we now know - did not.

SA we loved you and we will be back! Signing off!