Day 4 of our Black Sea Cruise - What time did you say it is?

Peter set the alarm for 5.30 am. The amazing thing about the fact that we actually we got up! Before sunrise, bleary eyed and sleepy, we dressed and made our way up to the top deck to see Istanbul and the entrance to Bosphorus.

We were due to start on our journey through the Bosphorus at 6am, when the pilot joined the ship. Sunrise was at 6.08 and the hope was that we'd see sunrise hit Istanbul as we passed. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out like that, but we did get to see Hagir Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace in the early morning light.  (You can see them in the top photograph.)

It was freezing on deck, and after a cup of tea and warm downstairs, we decided our body clocks still hadn't worked out what was going on....... and went back to bed. That was at around 7am, and we didn't emerge from the cabin until 11 o'clock, just in time for morning tea and biscuits, (food never stops on this ship).

So after a leisurely morning and lunch, it was time to get ready for Peter's first class. The Opheous Lounge is a lovely place, large and light. Large means that people can spread out, and the first class was, as always on a new ship, chaotic. About 40 people turned up, which meant there weren't enough notes, and they needed help with things like brushes, and boards and paper. But the class seemed to go well, and we think the majority enjoyed themselves and will be back for the next session.

And for us it's now a bit more leisurely relaxing until the morning. Tomorrow the ship will dock into Sinop, where we were going to do our own thing, but as the Excursion team needed someone to help, I volunteered Peter to act as an escort on the walking tour, so we have to be ready by 8am.

So let's see what Sinop brings.

Day 3 of our Black Sea Empires cruise - Canakkle

Today we woke to see the ship docking into Canakkle, a port sitting at the entry to the Dardanelles. Canakkle, pronounced Channa-kalee, is in Turkey, and from here there are tours to Gallipoli and Troy. We've visited before and know that the town itself is very pleasant - you can read about that visit to Canakkale here..

Wooden horse at the entrance to the Troy site.  All good fun. 

Peter was an escort on the Troy tour. (I've bought a ticket), so we were down on the quay by 9 o'clock. The bus was filled by 9.30 and our Greek guide told us the mythology of Troy as we drove towards the ancient city.

Now to be honest, we weren't expecting much, and in truth there isn't much to see - just loads of walls.

You really can see 4000 yr old straw in the bricks!

The thing is, those walls are up to 5000 years old and parts are so well preserved we could see the straw in the ancient bricks. Troy has been built up on itself nine times. That's nine times the archeology, but as we were walking around the site there were plenty of markers indicating which age of Troy we were looking. (The Trojan Horse was delivered to the senventh city by the way).

Note the markers telling you which city of Troy the wall came from.  1 through to 9

Our guide explained different sections such as the differences between older and newer brickwork and the Temple of Athena where wells were dug to "take the blood of the sacrifices" . When you learn that up to 300 bulls could be sacrificed at a time, you could understand the need for the wells.

Temple to Athena in Troy.  The wells are for the blood of the sacrifices.  Ugh!

A couple of unexpected delights came in the form of a wild tortoise, and an owl.

And there were Roman buildings in the form of baths and an amphitheatre.

Roman amphitheatre at Troy

For many years I'd thought of Troy as only a place in story, never taking the time to find out how much of it was real. Today's visit has brought an ancient city to life in my head and I'm wishing I'd brushed up a little more on Greek mythology before I visited. Maybe I'll have a look in the library later.

As I said, there isn't much at Troy, just lots and lots of walls.  Kinda interesting really. 

All in all a pleasant an interesting morning out.

We got back to the ship about 1pm, and by the time we'd eaten lunch we'd worked out that a trip into Canakkle wasn't feasible as we had to be back on board by 3pm. So we took advantage and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on deck. In fact, we got so relaxed we had to go to the cabin for a nap!

7.30 was the lecturers meet and greet, where we chatted to one of the opera singers and a couple of the lecturers. Then it was dinner in the Veranda Restaurant, where three more lecturers kept us entertained. We were persuaded to broaden our horizons and went to listen to Barcarola, an operatic foursome for a program of songs. Not really our thing, but the highlight was the piece of music composed by the pianist, Marcus. Called "Wanderer" it was very evocative. An absolute delight to listen to.

And finally to bed. We are going to be up very early in the morning as the ship sails through the Bosphorous, past Istanbul at 6am, just as the sun rises - so we'll be there to see it with bleary sleepy eyes.

Tomorrow is our first sea day and Peter's first lesson. I wonder how many will turn up?

Black Sea Empires - Piraeus

So we've had a lovely lazy day today. We woke late, and only just managed to get breakfast at 9.25am, (they close at 9.30). Most of the passengers had already gone ashore on tour, but we decided to have a short walk around Piraeus, just to see what's there.

An overgrown street in Piraeus

Our impression of Piraeus wasn't very good to be honest. Not in a bad way, it's just that you can see that all of a sudden the money stopped. Loads of buildings empty, the older ones falling into very poor states of repair. We saw several cars abandoned on the side of the road, bumpers missing and no longer roadworthy. These old cars just take up car parking spaces which the city very obviously hasn't enough of, but equally the city doesn't appear to have the money or the motivation to get the cars towed away.

An overgrown park in Piraeus - behind it, the ruins of a roman building buried in the grasses.

Parks and pavements overgrown, roads and pavements full of holes, shops empty and netting around dilapidated buildings to prevent falling plaster hitting passers by. It's a shame to see such a large and previously wealthy city suffering like this, and made me think "there but for the grace of good fortune" - it would be so easy for our British cities to end up in such a mess.  Something to think about...........

I bet this building was stunning when it was new.  Now it just drips old bricks and plaster. 

There were some good spots though.

A tiny little chapel in Piraeus

Inside the little chapel.  Isn't it wonderful.

The Cathedral was gorgeous inside, although I didn't go in. I didn't think about covered shoulders and bare knees before I went out. I'm not religious, but I think it's right to respect the culture of those that are. Peter went in and took all the pictures, I just looked enviously through the door.

The beautiful  Cathedral in Piraeus

After our short walk, we returned to the ship for the Emergency Drill (compulsory on all ships at the start of each cruise), and then lunch. (A very nice salad for me, and excellently cooked fish and chips for Peter). The afternoon was spent wandering the ship a little more and then spending the afternoon on the rear deck, relaxing in the sun and the cool breeze. What holidays are all about I reckon.

There is no rush of activities to join in on this ship. It is just very, very relaxed. Later, we went down to the cabin for a short nap before getting ready for dinner. Formal tonight, so Peter has got his tux on, and I am in a long posh looking skirt I got from Long Tall Sally, with a gold top I got out of TK Maxx. We went to eat in the Veranda Restaurant, expecting the buffet and were very surprised to find it was A La Carte and silver service. An even nicer surprise was the complimentary wine with our meal. I don't drink it, but Peter made up for me.

Once again, the meal was really good, we can't fault the chef or the service. Peter even got his plain vanilla ice-cream with wafer for dessert. Very impressive.

After dinner, we took a walk around the ship and wondered "Where is everyone?". Most of them were still in the main restaurant at that time, but it seems Peter and I are just about the only ones that are out and about in the lounges. There are no shows or evening entertainment planned, just some music in the Orpheous Lounge, and it's all very quiet which we quite like. We're sitting in the Shackleton Lounge and the most we can hear is a quiet murmur from the other side of the room, and the gentle hum of the ship as she sails her way towards Turkey and Canakkle. Lovely.

Eventually Peter will have to work I suppose, but tomorrow is another port day. Let's see what it will bring.

Black Sea Empires on Swan Hellenic Minerva - Just arrived!

Well - where did we start? At home of course. We drove from home to the Mercure Hotel near Heathrow a couple of nights ago, (Sunday). A nice hotel, and we were able to leave our car parked in the hotel car park for the two weeks we will be away. Monday morning we were up and out at 8.45, ready for the 9.15 Hoppa Bus to take us to Terminal 2.

Our Aegean flight was scheduled for boarding at 12.15, but due to the normal queuing process that goes on at Heathrow, we didn't take off until 1pm. Then it was a relatively uneventful flight to Athens landing at 6.15 pm Greek time (2 hours ahead of England). At Athens we were met by Swan Hellenic reps who organised our bags and put us on a bus. By 7.30 we were on the Minerva. 

So........... First impressions?

It's a very nice ship. Small but perfectly formed. Well...... not quite, I still prefer decks that go all the way around the ship, and I'm not entirely sure about the multitude of carpet pattens, but to be honest, there's not a lot to fault. There is more than enough lounge space for the relatively small number of passengers, the staff are very attentive and again, there are more than enough of them to look after us. We were very pleased with the cabin. It doesn't seem much bigger than any we've had in the past, but it is much better fitted out, and the bathroom has obviously been refurbished in the past few years.

Our Cabin on Minerva

The meal on the first night was very good. The Veranda Restaurant has a buffet service, but it is very definitely a restaurant, with tablecloths, wine glasses - the works. All in all, a little more upmarket than anything we've been on before, and for those of you who are interested, here are the pictures.

The Veranda Restaurant

The Library

The Shackleton Bar.  A very pleasant atmosphere

The Swan Restaurant

The rear deck.  We found it very pleasant and not to windy to eat here on our first evening in Piraeus.  

Looking down on the rear deck from above.  

Last but not least, the Orpheous Lounge, Peter will be holding his classes here.  It looks a really nice space. 

Yep.  So far so good.  We really like this ship.

Tomorrow the ship stays in Piraeus until 1pm.  Most of the passengers will take a tour to Athens.  We've decided to be lazy and take it easy on board, with maybe a short walk from the port just to have a quick look at Piraeus.  And then it will be onward to the Black Sea.  I am really going to enjoy this cruise.