Join us for a nine-day cruise on the Norwegian Cruise Lines' ship NCL Pearl, starting at Trieste and ending at Athens, sailing down the Adriatic Sea. After five years of not cruising because of Covid and cancer we at last manage to catch up with entertainer friends Tomas and Maris!
Each day is shown on its own separate entry, reached by clicking/tapping the seven photos below. A link on each page will bring you back here.
It's Tuesday 27 August 2024. The ship anchors off Mykonos and the sore leg that has been plaguing me all week is inflamed and angry (angry? It's livid!) and we decide reluctantly not to go ashore. Seldom have we spent so many days on a ship with so few days' outings but we have to fly home tomorrow and then it will be off to the doctor's for me to have it looked at.
At least we have a good view of the town from where we are anchored. NCL Pearl is sending people ashore via tender boat and with other ships sending their boats to the more central pier, it would leave us having to walk that bit further to get into town.
Sadly the prospect of a drink sitting outside Zorbas bar will have to wait for a future visit. But there's an opportunity for the sketchpad to come out again, though the scene with the many white flat-roofed buildings presents its own challenges. There's the row of "mop-haired" windmills and the slope that goes up past Zorbas into the shopping streets. And further towards the left, off the side of this view, the beach area with its line of other bars, at one of which I learned my Greek word for "thank you". And there's the street where my mate walked in the middle of the road oblivious to the delivery van behind him trying to get past... Illnesses and injuries willing, we'll be back!
Then a last night for this cruise with Tom and Maris, lots of hugs and kisses as we say goodbye. The bar staff shouted out their goodbyes too - we had become known to them as "the coffee couple" due to our daily visits to the Starbucks counter in the atrium!
And so the cruise ends on Wednesday 28 August as we board a coach at Piraeus, the port for Athens and are taken to the airport. The photo shows us with Tom and Maris one night as we had a meal together.
The journey to the airport is easy and efficient but as we get our boarding passes we are told that our second flight from Munich to Manchester is overbooked and we are on standby and not guaranteed to be on it. "Once you get there, go to the gate as soon as possible and they will be able to tell you if they can give you seats." Otherwise it will be a case of waiting for a later flight.
So we get to Munich and bearing in mind the nightmare of the outward journey when we found ourselves having gone the wrong way and had to go through security a second time, we asked for and followed directions which involved going on a train between terminals. Thankfully we were in the right place. Despite breakfast having been at the UK equivalent of 4:00am we had to dash past all of the main food outlets to get to the departure gate where we were subject to the added stress of the chap's computer taking forever to log him in. Then with relief we were allocated seats. I would be on the emergency door row and Fran seated behind me.
By now there wasn't time to go back to the food outlets but there was a W H Smiths nearby so feasting on a tub of Pringles, we got on the plane where I was told that because I used a walking stick I couldn't sit on the emergency door row and ended up sitting next to Fran instead. This meant someone else came along thinking I'd nicked their seat of course but the stewardess had stayed nearby to sort this out and there was another single passenger willing to move so the other couple got to sit together as well.
Monday 26 August 2024. By the time we are getting up the NCL Pearl is already in the lagoon at Santorini.
The cliffs go up 900 feet (274.3 metres) and below sea level drop a further 1300 feet (396.2 metres). Only ships with an extra long anchor chain can safely stabilise their position without drifting. It is said to have been a single island, obliterated by volcanic action some 3,600 years ago (give or take a week or two) that destroyed the centre of the island leaving a caldera surrounded by the surviving islands of today. The main landing point where tender boats will take you is called Thira with the village of Oia being the one famous for its sunsets and fabulous views.
Thira is also a very picturesque village, reached by a cable car from sea level or by walking up a zig-zagging path, or by donkey up the same path. For those familiar with Clovelly in the UK where there are similar options (minus the cable car) it should be noted that Thira is approximately the same as walking up Clovelly's hillside around 3.5 times... Consequently the queues for the cable car can be long - 45 minutes is common when it is busy and today there are another 3 cruise ships in the lagoon so we decide against going up. If you want to see more photos then see my article from our visit in September 2016.
So we spend some time on our balcony with books and drinks and just have a chilling out day until it's time to go and enjoy the music of our friends, Tomas and Maris.
I had a pair of gold simulated crocodile skin shoes that I sometimes wore on stage, but I had to admire the shoes Maris was sporting this particular night!
It had gone dark by the time the ship left the lagoon and I snatched a photograph of Thira by night, seemingly suspended high in the air above us.
Sunday 25 August 2024. We are in Corfu for the day and have booked an excursion out into the beautiful Greek countryside with a meal and spectacular views.
The coach has some climbing to do before we reach our destination for lunch and passes through one village where the road between the buildings on either side is so narrow that it is traffic light controlled as two vehicles approaching head-on would have no room to pass.
This is the Golden Fox, a hotel, villa and studio complex as well as a restaurant. We are set four to a table and sit with an American couple, Terry and his wife.
The views are just wonderful and we are sitting outside on a terrace whilst a succession of waiters bring dish after dish of starters - far too much to eat as a full meal for which we have already made our choices!
The waiters cheerily take away dishes still loaded with food, though we have made valiant efforts. It is the Greek way and so more dishes arrive with the main course - equally as tasty and equally as plentiful as the starters had been. I'm banned alcohol these days but an ice-cold coke went down very well and Miss Franny and our fellow diners each got an attractive cut glass carafe of wine to wind their tonsils around.
We forego desserts in preferance for having a tub of ice cream later. At the end of the terrace behind me was a lower level terrace with a swimming pool.
Most of our fellow coach passengers were taking photos of the views from the terrace and chatting. I made sure I thanked the staff in the bar area and kitchen and we went around the buildings to an ice cream outlet in a side bar. Here we are, sitting on a bench by the road at the back of the restaurant / hotel.
Our guide for the day, dressed in a typical Greek-style long white dress chatting with some of our group. We got back onto the coach and our next stop was at a souvenir shop and bar. We had a quick look in the shop but then repaired to the bar where another coke for me and another glass of wine for Fran kept us cool and we found a table outside with some shelter from the sun.
The coach then returned us to the port, where we and the passengers from two or three other ships were battling to elbow paths through the security gates and x-ray machines before the walk along the pier to NCL Pearl.
We have joined so many ships here at this same pier in the past. Ocean Village and Thomson/Tui/Marella Celebration, Spirit, Dream and Majesty to name just a few. This current cruise was our 28th cruise. We'd love to notch that score up some more!
Saturday 24 August 2024. The ship is moored against the dockside in Gruz as we leap (slither slowly) out of bed. This is the port for Dubrovnik and almost every time we have been there so far, we have wandered down along the port to the far end of the basin rather than go into Dubrovnik itself.
There's a lot to be said for it. You get a nice peaceful walk down a long street lined with cafes, bars and grocery outlets on one side and ships, boats, yachts both large and small and a sailing ship on the other. In Dubrovnik itself you get a chaotic square-cum-bus station where buses, coaches and pedestrians all compete for the same bit of road and crowds of Game of Thrones fans all craning their necks to spot a recogniseable bit of King's Landing from the show.
Now I'm as enthusiastic about the show as the next person - actually considerably more so, as Miss Franny was the next person and she hated it... What I'm not enthusiastic about are massive crowds and people who seem to treat anyone walking with a stick as an opportunity to see how close they can get, dodging from one side to the other across your path after approaching silently from behind. So we walked down the length of the port again and very nice too. Buying drinks on the way back I learned my first word in Croatian - "vala" means "thank you" The conversation went like this:
"How do you say thank you in Croatian?" "Vala!" said with a smile of appreciation that I should take the trouble to learn. "Vala?" I said, trying it out. She nodded. "Oh thank you! Er... I mean vala!" I stuttered. Old habits die hard and all that...
We had a few other cruise ships travelling along pretty much the same route during the week. Sometimes there were four of us, sometimes three, occasionally five. A regular was Cunard's Queen Victoria. Actually owned by Carnival Corporation, she is operated by Cunard and was built 2006-2007 with delivery to Cunard in December 2007, when on the same day it was named by Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall. The champagne bottle did not break on hitting the side of the ship, a bad omen traditionally, but a second bottle duly smashed immediately. None-the-less much was made of the incident later that month when over 130 people contracted the winter vomiting disease norovirus aboard her. Moral of the tale is to never try to lick old champagne off the side of a ship...
Then the Franjo Tuđman bridge takes the road to and from Split over the River Dubrovnik. The brave - or foolhardy - can bungee jump from it... I was going to have a go - but the Norwegian Pearl was already sailing away. I settled for a jump down into the shower tray instead... It was perhaps just a little safer, there being a handle on the wall to hold onto. But - and readers might like to draw an admiring inward breath at this point - I did it without the aid of any harness or elastic band!
The Rose Garden Restaurant was a buffet style dining area and our usual go-to place to eat. The food was mostly ok, but Norwegian Cruise Lines, depite the name, are an American-based company and the food reflected North and South American tastes primarily. We did expect this and the majority of passengers were indeed from the countries of those continents. Some items were very sweet to our taste. Surprisingly, steaks which Americans are famous for were sometimes so fatty that we just left most of them on the plate. I've never experienced that in America.
Our main reason for choosing this cruise was the chance to see these two wonderful people again. Tomas and Maris, singing as "2 Intense". It was a joy for us to see them again and we had a meal together one night with a chance to sit and talk and catch up on all the things happening at home and with families etc. "He's itching to get up here!" grinned Tomas one night. Yes I was but I'm still not in any fit enough state to try it yet! Hopefully someday.
Friday 23 August 2024. The approach to the port is up the most southerly fjord in Europe and we were already moored by the time we got out on deck. The scenery is outstanding though.
From where we are moored we can see Kotor's magnificent medieval walls climbing up the mountainside, but not the town itself. The ship's tenders are pressed into service to take us into the city and we collect our tickets after breakfast and wait for our group number to be called. There's still a bit of waiting on the staircases to be done but I manage both that and the transfer to the bobbing up and down of the tender boat without mishap.
The city itself is jam packed with people and is more of an ordeal that a pleasure. We walked through as best we could, coming out at the southern gate for a breather and to catch any available shade in the heat of the day. There was precious little. Most benches were out in the glare of the sun and I sat having swivelled my cap to protect the back of my neck from burning as best as I could, looking for all the world like a little old man desperately trying to appear hip. Or whatever the term is these days... Other old men were passing, hunched over their beer bellies and drawling "Hey man! How's it dribblin'?" ... "Far too frequently..." seemed to be the correct response.
Kotor is a medieval city with walls surrounding it, leading high up into the mountains above on each side of the city before meeting at a point making an almost impregnable barrier to any invader from land. We made our way back through the crowds - far more people than previous visits - I checked and they were in mid-October... Coming out near the pier where the tender boats were waiting I decided a drink wouldn't wait and we found seats in a small courtyard and ordered a Coca-Cola and a Sprite. I do miss the days when I could order a glass or two of wine, but long drinks took the edge off our thirst.
We made our way back to the ship and Deck 12 to our customary table and the sketchpad came out again. We couldn't see the city, but the very edge of the city walls can be seen on the right-hand edge of the drawing. This is probably my favourite sketch of the week. The mix of scrub and vegetation against the bare rocks of the cliff face gave me a challenge and the red roofs and line of boats give added interest at the bottom. I had a few more onlookers from behind apparently - unless they speak I don't see them, but Miss Franny told me after that there had been a steady stream of people.
That night as we got into one of the lifts someone suddenly said "Are you the gentleman that does those beautiful paintings from the side of the ship?" and I had to pause just in case there was someone else who did better ones...
Thursday 22 August 2024. Today we are in Zadar. We've been here before but I totally fail to recognise the port. We must have been moored either somewhere else or perhaps somewhere so hideous that I've blocked it from memory... I do know that, like today, shuttle buses had to be taken to get into the city and that we had done it and enjoyed the city. Today we decided not to bother and spent the day again on the ship.
The view off the side of the ship was particularly pleasing with a harbour with twin piers directly opposite and berths and more piers to the rear of the ship from where a steady stream of ferries all bearing the company name Jadrolinija passed us by on their way either into or out of the port.
All day cars and vans were forming lines, waiting to board the next ferry and none of them seemed to have to wait long as another ferry sailed in well before the outgoing vessel had disapeared.
I once again got out the sketchpad and today used pastel pencils to produce a coloured sketch of the harbour opposite. The red roofs added to the mix of colours. I left any large boats and ships out but added a few very basic shapes to represent the small yachts and pleasure boats lined up against the harbour wall.
Miss Franny told me afterwards that I had several onlookers as they passed our table on Deck 12. I was mostly oblivious, looking out over the side as I was, but one or two stopped to talk and made nice comments.
A closer look at Miss Franny's bracelet which was made for her by our granddaughter, Grace especially for the cruise. It wouldn't be Grace if there weren't a few Disney motifs included!
Wednesday 21 August 2024. Today the NCL Pearl has docked in Rijeka, the first of three Croatian ports that we will visit on this cruise and the only one that we have not visited before on previous cruises.
We have breakfast in the Rose Garden buffet - "Washee washee, hungry hungry, yummy yummy!" as a squirt of sanitiser hits your hand from what appears to be a highly pressurised squirt gun - and return to the cabin to get our going ashore essentials. Passports and money mainly. You will seldom be asked to show passports, but if you are for some reason arrested or injured during the day or simply miss getting back onboard before the ship sails then you will need both it and money! Whilst ships may be able to make some small allowances, they cannot wait where a falling tide might leave them unable to leave the dock and so you will be able to wave goodbye to the ship, your fellow passengers who will be lining the rail shaking their heads at you and all your belongings other than what you have on you...
Pushing all this to the backs of our minds we get off the ship and walk down the pier we are moored at and into Rijeka. A couple of weeks ago I took a step short coming downstairs at home and scraped the back of my leg on the step, leaving a carpet burn that blistered. I'd been putting antiseptic cream on but Miss Franny had only packed the small tube we were halfway through so needed to buy some more. I know it sounds trivial but at age 70 and with diabetes, these things do not heal quickly and can be very painful.
The Botel (boat-hotel) Marina has been refurbished inside to function as a hotel and has 35 guest bedrooms and is rated 4-star on TripAdvisor.
We made our way into the shopping streets in search of a pharmacy. These are fairly easy to spot just about anywhere as they usually have a bright green cross on a sign at the front of the shop. There will usually be someone able to speak English too, though I do like to be able to speak a few words if only to say please, thank you, coffee, white wine, red wine, beer and to be able to count up to at least five. Most of which I can do easily in western Europe but in Croatia on this trip I learned my first Croatian word: "vala" means "thank you". The locals will appreciate the effort.
There were quite a few street works going on in the centre, we had several roads to cross and whilst the familiar lines denoting a pedestrian crossing can be found easily, the reaction of drivers will not be exactly as you might expect. Keep eyes open for approaching cars and don't assume they will automatically stop for you even if you are already three-quarters of the way across!
We came through a small street market with some yummy-looking fruits and then to this small park and plaza where we found a bit of shade to sit under for a while. Temps were pushing 40C and drinking plenty was on our minds. A local two-year-old girl was riding a tiny bicycle / scooter with no stabilisers up and down like she was born in the saddle. Her Mum was nearby and gave a warning shout if the little girl looked like straying too far away.
Then, just in time before we totally melted away, we were back at the portside and walking back along the pier to the NCL Pearl.
Looking back towards the city from ground level just before we got back on the ship. The yellow building just right of centre is the headquarters of the Jadrolinija state-owned ferry and shipping group. Croatia has over 1000 islands along its coast and therefore requires a large fleet of ferries both for goods, cars and pedestrian traffic. They also service other ports of call on the east coast of Italy.
We made our way up to the side of the Pool Deck on Deck 12 where we settled at a table and I got out the sketchpad for a pencil drawing of the port and city. The only pencil sketch of the week, as for the remaining days when I did sketches they were all in colour using pastel pencils which I carry in a roll-up canvas holder which has a loop to hold each pencil, a sharpener, an eraser (long since lost) and a small case containing extra leads for my propelling pencil.
Monday 19 August 2024. Our first cruise for five years. First one with the Norwegian Cruise Line and therefore our first on the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship. First one since I had had to start using a walking stick and the first one since being diagnosed with cancer two and a half years ago. But enough with the grotty side of things - it's our first meeting since 2019 with Tomas and Maris, the entertainers we first met fourteen years ago on Marella ships (they were still Thomson then!) and with whom I've shared a stage so many times in the past.
But let's not jump ahead too soon. It's also our first flights for five years and they come first. We are joining the ship at Trieste in Italy and to get there we have to fly from Manchester UK to Munich in Germany, transfer to a flight from Munich to Venice and then a bus ride to Trieste.
At Munich and with no-one to ask we followed the signs, passed through passport control and found ourselves surrounded by opaque white glass walls with a staircase leading down and a lift with an aircrew member getting into it. He stepped into the lift before we could ask any questions so we followed him in which turned out to be the wrong move... It took us to the Departures section meaning we had to go once more through security - long queue and flight leaving in just 20 minutes.
In retrospect I reckon that some of the panels in the white glass may have been sliding doors but there were no signs to help. Luckily the aircraft from Munich to Venice was delayed and we made it, though not without a few stressful moments! Once at Venice our luggage turned up eventually and we found people to direct us to the busses for a bus ride to Trieste.
Onto the ship with relief and ready and raring for a coffee. We had a nice cabin (9522 on Deck 9) with a balcony and a bed made up of two generously-sized singles pushed together. We unpacked, shoved stuff quickly into drawers and wardrobes and went in search of a drink.
We found the Rose Garden buffet restaurant on Deck 12 which was the pool deck. Staff at the entrances stand by ready to squirt you with hand gel - "Washee washee!" came a regular cry as people walked in.
Later we found Tom and Maris already playing in Magnums bar. It was an emotional reunion, Maris had started dabbing at her eyes from first seeing us and we all exchanged hugs and kisses. You form deep attachments to fellow musicians you work with. It was disappointing that I couldn't join them on stage. My voice just won't stand up to it after years of inaction, and probably neither would my back...
Tuesday 20 August 2024. Overnight we have sailed from Trieste to Ravenna. From here trips are going to Venice, but having done it so many times and being on a new ship, we decide not to join the inevitable crowds and instead take ourselves for a tour of the ship. As you can see there is a bit of rain coming. It ends up being very light and only lasts a couple of minutes before the sun comes out again.
This is the Pool Deck on Deck 12 as seen from Deck 13. There's a jogging track on Deck 13 running around the top of the ship. The joggers must be as tired as we are though... Through the doors at the far end are the spa on the right and through the doors on the left the fitness centre, which we didn't trouble at all during our cruise. I did treat myself to a head, neck and back massage one day though as I developed a sore neck, probably because in all the bars the seating was at right angles to the stage, meaning you had to sit with your head turned all the time to watch the artists.
The red stripe is the jogging track with a one-way system that most people seemed to ignore completely. Fran had run out of black counters so stood hopefully on the corner spot waiting to be crowned...
The Ievoli Shine is an oil/chemical tanker built in 1998 in Livorno, Italy for Marnavi Spa of Naples. Ravenna may have had a beach on one side of us, but the other side looked quite industrial as are so many ports used by the larger cruise ships. The smaller cruise ships are fast disappearing I'm afraid.
The Summer Palace restaurant at the rear of Deck 6. We never actually ate in there, but had a couple of meals in the adjacent Indigo Dining restaurant which shared the same menu.
Another view of the Summer Palace restaurant. Both this and Indigo were waiter service restaurants.
Back on Deck 12 where we spent quite a bit of time during afternoons either when we had stayed onboard or after we had returned from an outing. I did several sketches from there which got quite a bit of interest from both crew and fellow passengers.
The now ancient and decrepit old soul that encloses the young vibrant witless (sorry..."witty", I meant "witty") inner being still trying desperately to break out every now and then.
Walking with a stick is very limiting too. In a buffet restaurant not only can you only carry one plate at a time but you can only hold one side of it so that any tremor of the hand sets it wobbling and threatening to flick food over anyone passing. Well, yes... it has its lighter sides too! It also means I leave the camera at home these days and make do with my phone. Which is subject to much the same wobble potential. Hence there won't be the hundreds of photos that I was accustomed to take during the course of a cruise. But it's a nine-day cruise so sit back and wait for the next episodes to come.
