Cruising the Med.

Sunday 18^th September to Sunday 25^th September 2016

This will be a brief outline of where Sam and Diane were and what they saw during the week on board whilst cruising around Balearic Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Ligurian Sea.

Signs of what was about to start - this time is was nothing stronger
than Costa beverages 

The cruised started on the Sunday afternoon in Barcelona and there was a full day at sea for them on the Monday before docking in Naples early Tuesday with a day of sightseeing in Naples and a trip to see the excavation around Pompeii and everything associated with it.

I am led to understand that there was a lot of walking around and there were at least 2 pairs of very sore feet.

What was started during Monday continued on Tuesday evening – with an unlimited drinks-package available to them on-board, the bar was beaten into submission from the Black Russian orders.

The itinerary of the cruise was based on moving between ports overnight and then the passengers had all day to explore the new location and then after a few drinks it was either off to bed to partially recover or you could party all night and recover during the following day.

Our two intrepid explorers opted for the first of these, and so on Wednesday they were off the boat to see around Rome. I think I have previously written, they narrowly missed being left behind – a bus load of other passengers a little annoyed with the 15 minute wait for the pair of them – the boot has been on the other foot previously.

Lighting candles has become a tradition - and now
it is for Diane's parents and also for Lauren

After this exhausting day and the previous few, they opted for a complete rest day and decided that the sights of Livorno would just have to wait for another time – instead the spa was being well used as well as the waiter service for their drinks – by this time they had graduated to a drink called a Mudslide – just cannot trust these two together – not mother and daughter – just two giggling girls up to no good.

By now almost fully recovered (from the walking around, maybe not from the drinking) it was a day in Cannes.

All through this cruise the weather has been fine and sunny (around 22-23C) with a bit of rain only at night.

The final in-cruise stop for them was on Friday and it was at Marseille and despite the chance to recover each night the effort was taking its toll on both of them.

I am pretty well sure that they had not done so much walking day-after-day for a very long time, but they did see so much more than they would otherwise have done if they hadn’t done the cruise.

Finally they docked back in Barcelona and had decided months ago that it would be best to spend that night there and fly back the following day.

The tapas was beckoning and the chance to see a bit more of this lovely city – which is what they have done.

By the time they arrived back in London they were exhausted but both were pretty good – there had been no accidents and they hadn’t done too much too silly – I think I can trust them to go again if they want to.

NB: I have had to sort through about 1500 photos to select a few to add into this blog.