Istanbul

So, this morning we've woken up at Istanbul. We've been here before, and we LOVED it, so you can imagine how pleased and excited we are to be here again.
Last visit, our ship docked right alongside the old town. True, we had to negotiate a road crossing that could be likened to crossing the path of stampeding bulls, but once across (and still alive), we were in the gardens surrounding Topkapi palace,  with the rest of the delights of old Istanbul just minutes away.

But not today. Today we were docked on the opposite side of the Golden Horn, and would need to cross the Galata Bridge to get to the old town and all its treasures, and we decided to walk.

You can just see the wells, one at each side of the building. People sleep in them!

First, we had to walk through the new city, but even here there are beautiful and amazing things to see. We never got to the Galata Tower, but we did see a couple of mosques and this disused building, only it's not completely disused. The well on each side of the building makes a perfect bed for a homeless man. He's hidden from view, sheltered, and probably quite cosy. We know this from watching someone climb in.

Eventually, we got to Galata Bridge. It was already busy, with fisherman, street sellers, trams and tourists. We love the hustle and bustle of this place.

Fishermen on Galata Bridge, and the New Mosque behind

Across the bridge we could see a large Mosque. We've been here before and visited the Blue Mosque, and we know how amazing these buildings could be , so we decided to visit this one.  And we weren't disappointed.

After the New Mosque, we made our way through the streets, following the tram route to the main attractions.  Last time we'd visited, we managed to see much of the Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque, but we'd missed the Harem, and the Hagia Sophia, so of course that's where we went. The queues were long, but we've learnt that they move forward quickly, so it wasn't too long a wait to get into each one of them. First the Hagia Sophia.

Then a walk to the Topkapi Palace, popping in to an artists gallery on Soguk Cesme Sk. on the way.

After the Harem, we headed for the Grand Bazaar, which is somewhere we've been before and loved.  Sadly, it wasn't open, so we made our way down to the spice market, another place we'd found really interesting. (I say we, what I really mean is I. If I remember rightly, Peter sat in the square whilst I shopped.)

This city is amazing. It is so alive, so vivid (and so full of tourists).  Stalls overflow, the shops are full of colour, the street vendors fill the air with the smell of roasting chestnuts, corn and sweet cakes, and people of every creed and colour fill the streets.

Day 13 of our Black Sea Cruise - Nessebar

So, we left the  perfectly acceptable port of Varna to sail just up the coast to Nessebar.

Why?

We could see as we approached that the place wasn't very big. In fact, it was tiny! I think our little home town of Richmond would dwarf it.

Ancient Nessebar used to be known as Messembria.  What was a small island is a World Heritage site, and it is now connected by an isthmus, or road, to the rest of Nessebar city and Bulgaria, which makes it a peninsula. It's been a strategic port in the Black Sea for around 2500 years.  Many civilisations over the centuries have each claimed the island for their own, and many have left their mark.

A model of Nessebar island - you can see the strip of land and road which connects the island to the rest of Bulgaria on the right. The larger buildings on the model are ancient and archeological sites. 

So our small ship approached this small island, and the passengers watched from decks.  It took a while for the captain to manouvre the Minerva into the little port.  It really didn't look like we would fit.  As we edged into the dock, Nessebar started to glow golden in the late afternoon sun, and we began to understand that coming here for the night was probably a good idea after all. The town looked interesting, tempting us to come ashore with the ruins of an ancient ampitheatre right next to our dock,

The sun begins to set on Nessebar

Peter and I decided that we'd have an early dinner before going ashore.  Armed with our cameras we couldn't wait to go see, and we weren't disappointed.  Even as the sun set and with everything closed, the old town charmed us. We wandered through the narrow cobbled streets, looking for an Eco bar that had been recommended.  It was closed, but we found instead a delightful little restaurant overlooking the sea.  We already had dinner, so we simply sat and soaked up the view and felt the peace of our surroundings as the night fell.

A wonderful evening. The cat is enjoying the scenery too.  Or perhaps she has her eye on the bats that had come out to play. 

Early next morning, we are keen to see the little island again, and this time we have all day to explore.  And explore we did.

These arches are the entrance to the ampitheatre from the port.  There is quite a bit of restoration here, but mostly to allow visitors to understand how it was.  We loved it. 

First, we spent hours looking around the middle of the island, Wandering up and down the cobbled streets, admiring the wares and trinkets which overflowed from the packed gift shops into the streets.  We'd arrived early in the tourist season, which meant a few shops and bars were not open yet, but there were more than enough to keep the passengers of the ship spending money, and it also meant that the streets were quiet and we could enjoy the old town at our leisure.

We were early in the season and the streets are empty. It won't be like this in a few weeks time. 

Nessebar is a World Heritage site with good reason. It started as a Thracian settlement in the early 6th century BC, before changing ownership to the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines and finally the Bulgarians.  Ancient coins have been found at the site, and many buildings, churches and ruins on the island date back to the 11th and 12th centuries.

And then there are the houses, which, with their top halves lined with wood, lean over the streets, giving them a cosy, sheltered feel.  They give the island it is charm and character and are almost certainly one of the main reasons Nessebar is so attractive to tourists.



We decided we'd like to visit the old churches on the island and bought a ticket that would get us into all of them and save a few Euro's in the process.  My advice to fellow tourists is that a visit to St Stephan's will suffice.  It is easily the best of the churches, and the rest are very similar, so unless you are really keen, I'd leave it at just the one.

The interior of St Stephan's.  Quite quite lovely.  

The ruins of St Sophia church

After many hours spent wandering the little streets, we took a walk around the outside of the island, along the little beaches, although we weren't sure if swimming would be acceptable,  and then following the road that circles the whole town.

Eventually we reached the isthmus and walked along to the iconic old windmill on this connecting strip of land.

Walking back, you can see the old fort walls, and this statue of St Nicholas at gateway.


So we ended our day with tired legs and sore feet, but they were well worth it, definitely somewhere to go back to again and again.


Tomorrow we will visit our last port, Istanbul.  Peter and I have been before, and we are so excited to be able to go back,  we have so much to see that we didn't get to last time.  I can hardly wait. 

Day 12 of our Black Sea Empires Cruise -Varna Bulgaria.

So today's port was Varna. Just a morning visit and Peter and I were escorting a tour to the Archeological Museum and Petrified Forest. To be honest, we weren’t that interested in the museum, but the idea of a forest turned to stone definitely appealed.

So we duly stood outside the bus as everyone got on board. At this point I should point out that shore excursions are arranged by local companies, i.e. when in Bulgaria, a Bulgarian excursion company works with the ship’s shore excursion team to provide the tours when the ship arrives. Considering the ship may be early or late and that passengers can be so disorganised that some of them don't know which tour they are on (despite having the tickets in their hands), the whole exercise runs incredibly smoothly.

And usually passengers accept the options they are given, the procedures that they are asked to follow, and understand that their actions on a tour will often affect everyone else. Most people are very considerate. But there is always someone that bucks the trend, and just such a couple were due to get on our bus which had filled up nicely and just in time for it’s scheduled departure.

Problem: This couple weren’t entirely happy with the tour, because it was due to go to both the Petrified Forest and the Museum. They only wanted to go to the museum, and weren’t interested in an area full of old rocks.

Answer: Well, they could remain on the bus whilst the rest of the group took a walk around the Petrified Forest.

Problem: This couple didn’t think they should have to wait on the bus. They didn’t want to go on a tour and sit on a bus for ages until they got to where they wanted to be.

Answer: OK, the ShoreEx teams would take them off the tour, and refund their payment. They could then go independently to the Museum – it was only a cab ride away.

Problem: Nope. That was not suitable as our these passengers didn’t have any Bulgarian currency to pay a taxi driver or get into the museum.

(Peter and I are stood waiting outside the bus getting a little frustrated by now. This couple had received the same information as the rest of us when they booked the tour. Why had they left it until now to raise these problems? They could have spoken to the ShorEx team on board ship at any time.

The whole bus load of passengers waited.

The Shorex team were also getting impatient and it was at this point Bulgarian tour company stepped in. Eventually, (despite the fact that to us, this seemed to be giving in to unreasonable demands), the Bulgarian guides agreed to give the couple a lift to the Museum and leave them there. We (the bus) would meet up with them at the museum and bring them back to the ship.

See what happens when you kick up a fuss and demand stuff. You get it! And our bus left a good 15-20 mins late.

Our first stop was the Petrified Forest. Our tour guide, lovely as she was, was a little bit tyrannical about getting around the site and leaving on time. The fact that we had left late didn't help. She was really good, explaining that we would have to split into groups and that she would lead the faster walkers to show them an area of a stone circle. I was to remain with the slower walkers to potter around the area nearer the bus.

I have to say that area was so much better than I expected,( although I don't really know what I expected). It's not really a petrified forest - it's also known as the Pobiti Kamani (translates to Stone Desert), and it is Bulgaria's first Natural Reserve, created in 1937. There are 253 acres of limestone columns here which baffled the experts for many years.

They've now concluded that the columns were formed as the skeletons of dead sea creatures slipped into cracks and crevasses in the seabed. (When the area was coverd with water of course). Then, when the seabed lifted, the sand surrounding the limestone columns was eroded away - leaving he column standing proud and looking like ancient fossilised trees.

Anyway, so whilst the guide, most of the group, and Peter dashed off into the distance (and the heat) I took it easy and enjoyed the nearer surroundings. This place is awesome.

All too soon it was back onto the bus. Back in Varna, roadworks caused all sorts of problems but eventually got into the museum. Again, our guide was really good, and so knowledgeable. I suppose I hadn't really thought about how far Greek Empire stretched, and all the mythology and legend that surrounded us. 

There were a couple of things in the museum that interested me though. The first was a recreation of a burial, I was quite amazed by the detail, the way he was laid out the gold discs that were probably part of his clothes originally.

The second part was something we'd been promised by the guide. In a hall upstairs in the museum, four men and three woman sang old Bulgarian Orthodox songs a cappella. The resonance of the hall, and the quality of their voices created a sound that was truly angelic. They are not professional, but Oh My! It's hard to describe how wonderful it was. None of the ship's passengers understood the words, but all of them rushed forward to buy a CD, or even two, at the end of the performance.

Magical!

Afterwards, we were joined by the couple who'd missed the Petrified Forest and were all packed back on board the bus and hurried back to the ship. The guide did well. She got us all back in time, and the ship sailed as planned at 1pm

To reach Nessebar at about 5 o'clock. We watched over the rails as the ship manoeuvred into dock. Nessebar looks really interesting...................

But that's for the next blog post.

If you want to read about our last visit to Varna (or Varne), click here

Day 11 of our Black Sea Cruise on the Minerva - Constanta, Romania.

Hand painted street signs in Constanta  Charming. 

No escorting duties - just ourselves to please today as the ship docked into Constanta. The Romanians seemed eager to please, with a band greeting us as the ship docked and a shuttle bus laid on with shuttle bus guides.

Once again Peter and I had decided to do our own thing. I'd half hoped it would be warm enough for us to go to the beach, but unfortunately not. So we took the shuttle bus to a point in the old town and walked back.

We have no idea why.  But we liked it. 

The old town had a few little quirks that we really liked. For instance, all the manhole covers had the city crest imprinted into the metal, and the street signs were hand painted.

Although Constanta Old Town does not have a massive amount to attract a tourist, we enjoyed a morning's meander to see what there was.

Inside a very lovely Romanian Orthodox Church,
I couldn't find it's name though?

There are a fair number of Romanian Orthodox Churches about, and we went inside a few. They are very ornately painted, every surface inside the church covered in religious fresco's. Unfortunately time and candle smoke have darkened the surfaces to a point where some of the pictures were almost black. I did manage to find one though were the colours were bright and strong. The church is really quite beautiful inside, you could spend weeks studying all the various paintings. 

The Roman Mosaic Floor in Constanta.  Now it looks a bit washed out, but imagine the colours originally.

And it was quite extensive. 

We went to have a look at the Roman mosaics, and were pleased that we did.

Looking across Constanta old town from the Minaret of the mosque. 

And the shuttle bus guide told us we could visit the mosque, where, for a small fee, we'd be permitted to go up to the top of the minaret. A first for us, so of course we took the opportunity.

So that's what a mosque looks like from a minaret!

There is a fantastic looking building on the sea front. It used to be a casino, but unfortunately it is now derelict and no one can go inside. It still looks good though.

The Casino on Constanta sea front

And there is a beach on Constanta, but TripAdvisor gave warning that it was in poor condition.  I think the Romanian's are doing something about it.

Constanta beach is covered in diggers at the moment.  Looks like they're improving it.

Constanta also has a very busy industrial port. Watching the innumerable cranes at work kept us happily entertained for some time. 

And of course, I kept looking out for unusual birds. I didn't really see any, although I decided to check on the Herring Gulls, because something about them was different. That would be because they aren't Herring Gulls, they are Yellow Legged Gulls.

Yellow Legged Gull in Constanta

So that was our day in Constanta. I quite enjoyed it really, although next time, I really do hope it's warmer and we can go to the beach. Tomorrow we're at Varna and on a tour to see the Archeological Museum and Petrified Forest. I hope it's as good as the pictures.

Day 10 of our Black Sea cruise - another sea day.

Well, yesterday I commented on how flat the sea was. Today it was absolutely amazing! Even the captain noticed, his noon day announcement included a comment on how visibility was the furthest he'd ever come across on the Black Sea - and how he could actually see ships over the horizon.

The Black Sea.  Yes.... this is a real picture taken from the deck of the Minerva.  The sea really really was this amazingly flat. 

Another relatively leisurely day for us then, sat on the back deck in awe of the sea and toasting nicely under the glorious sunshine.

Our stowaways are still here, and today we got a noisy bunch of visitors who stopped on the ship for a few minutes. (The bird equivalent of a motor way cafe?) They spent a little while preening and chirruping away before they all took off again. Turns out they were Spanish Sparrows.

Spanish Sparrows taking a breather on board the Minerva.  They were crossing the Black Sea, where from and to I don't know.  They were very noisy though.

Peter's class was in the afternoon as usual and seemed to go well, then we were back out on deck, when we got to see a few dolphins leaping out the water towards us. Awesome!

Tomorrow we are visiting Constanta, Romania. We've not volunteered for tour escorting duties and we have a day to ourselves. I'm hoping the weather will be as good as it's been today and we can go to the beach. Fingers crossed eh?

Day 9 on the Minerva - a sea day sailing on the Black Sea

The one thing I have noticed about this cruise is the sea. All the time we have been sailing, we have hardly felt the ship move at all. The sea has been so calm it's been amazing. This has added to the quietly genteel atmosphere, making this the most relaxing cruise I've had the pleasure to accompany Peter on.

Today is a sea day and unlike yesterday, the sky is a glorious blue, complete with sun. It's been beautiful, and we have spent a fair amount of time on the back deck enjoying the breeze and sunshine. Exactly what cruising is all about I am sure. Once again the sea is still, and the Minerva is humming it's way across from South to North, heading for Constanta in Romania.

There's not a lot to report really, Peter's class went well, we've stuffed our faces once again on the wonderful food, and in the evening we enjoyed listening to the Minerva Strings, a piano violin duo who are exceedingly good.

The only other thing to report are the birds. There have been falcons and kestrels flying over the ship, as well as herons and bittens (I'm told). We've also gained a few stowaways in the form of a couple of yellow wagtails, (one missing his tail feathers), and a non descript little brown bird which I have taken loads of pictures of in an attempt to work out what it is.

One of the yellow wagtails

We're not quite sure what this little fellow is, it's been suggested that it's an Olivaceous Warbler

And a swallow landed just to have a nosy and take a breather.  

So that was today. Tomorrow is another sea day - hopefully the weather will hold.

Day 8 on the Black Sea - Sochi

We didn't arrive into Sochi until the afternoon..... A wet, miserable afternoon. The clouds had come down to meet the hills and we saw very little of them through the mist.

The thing about Russia is that you can't get off the ship unless you have a visa. Some people can arrange a visa independently, but most of us rely on the arrangement Russia has with cruise companies, that is, we can get off the ship as long as we are on tour. If you don't have a tour ticket, then you don't have a visa - so to speak.

So, like every other passenger, we were on tour. Peter was to escort the Agura Waterfalls tour, and as usual, I was escorting him. We've been to St Petersburg, and we remember the nightmare of immigration process from then, so we got off the ship well early for our tour.

It was a good job too, the queues were extensive. I remembered to tell Peter to remove his seaman's book from his passport as we went through. It would only cause problems as the customs people would not understand why he had it. It was a good job I did as well! One of thip's staff wasn't able to get through, because of a problem with his seaman's book. He was due to escort one the tour coaches, and because he didn't make it, an escort reshuffle ensued. So now I was escorting one bus to the waterfalls, and Peter the other.

Well, it was one wet walk! It rained the whole time we were out, and we got thoroughly drenched.  It's about 1.5 km each way, and took us around 30-40 minutes. The waterfalls were at their best though.

The longer of the Agura Waterfalls on the right.  >>>>

Back on board, we stripped off and spent another leisurely evening on the ship. A wonderful meal as usual, and an after dinner speech by an ex foreign diplomat whose name I forget (shameful) and bed. It really has been a busy few days with all the ports. Tomorrow is a sea day, which is almost a day of rest, except for Peter's class. Let's hope the weather is better!

Day 7 of our Black Sea Cruise on the Minerva - Batumi, Georgia

No tours today, so a leisurely start. Up on deck, Batumi looked wonderful, especially since the weather was glorious. Bright sun in blue sky - warm enough for shorts.

Looking down on the Minerva and the harbour from the cable car

As I said, we'd given ourselves a leisurely start and made our way to the first thing we'd planned to see in Batumi, the cable car which runs from the port up to a small hill nearby. There's a hotel/restaurant at the top and absolutely fantastic views of the city, the bay and the surrounding hills. It only cost 5 GEL each for the trip up and back. Absolutely glorious, especially in all that sun.

Batumi from the top of the cable car. 

Despite the wealth at the city centre, you can see there is still work to be done.  Those aren't roads, they are well compacted dirt tracks. 

Back in the port, we had to walk past the ship to go to our next intended destination, so we thought we might as well go on board for lunch. We sat on the back deck, watching the many Harbour Porpoises rise out of the water around us (it's called breeching apparently), as we ate.

The Minerva in Batumi, Georgia

Then back onshore, we turned to go look at Miracle Park and wander through the city to see architecture and buildings on offer. 

I couldn't resist this rusty old boat in the marina.  Awesome.

I have to say that I really, really liked Batumi. The park, the city, the buildings, absolutely gorgeous.

So much to see and obviously a lot of money being invested.

This ferris wheel is in Miracle Park. 

Alphabet Tower (left), lights up green at night.  

I would definitely recommend this place. In fact, I even suggested to Peter that it would be somewhere nice to live.

Unfortunately the heat got the better of us.

Not a beach in the sandy sense of the word, but the sea certainly tempted a few locals to swim.

I'm was delighted to spot this female Red Backed Shrike, although it took me a while to identify it.  

The Astronomical Clock

The picture to the left is the astronomical clock.  There were so many wonderful buildings in the city.

I'd have liked that we'd have the energy to walk more, but by 4pm we'd found a bar near the ship to enjoy a cold drink, and after a little bit more wandering to spend the leftover Georgian currency, we were back on board ship by 5.15.

A beautiful city though. I'd be very happy to spend many more days in Miracle Park and the streets of Batumi. Somewhere to look forward to coming back to, if we ever got the chance.

The picture on the right is Piazza Square.  The bells play every three hours, and we just happened to be there at the right time. 

Tomorrow we arrive in Sochi in the afternoon. We've a tour to see a load of waterfalls, something I'm looking forward to. Maybe the weather will be as good as it's been today too.