Cruising Big Ship Style

It’s been a strange few weeks and I’ve almost had separation anxiety from our poor boat! Heron was left at Red Hill Marina for a rather delayed clear out and repainting of the inside of her freshwater tank and a complete sandblast and repaint of her hull. I feel guilty because we weren’t there to see what was revealed on the base plate when they discovered she needed a bit of welding. Nothing drastic (huge relief), but she is beginning to show her age of 27 years (not sure if there’s such a thing as a boat:human age conversion, if she was a dog she’d be well over a 100 and you’re allowed a few rust spots at that age).

So while our narrowboat’s being dealt with, the poor dog got put into kennels and we disappeared off on a plane to Malta! Poor dog, more guilt. But we’ll make it up to both of them!

Our 14 night Mediterranean cruise has been wonderful, but not without its dangers! We discovered that sun beds are notorious hazards on a ship (that’s if you can find a vacant one). Sun beds prefer to be left alone with only a towel for company, they like to hide your sun spray under them and they like to trip you up causing bruising or a break to your little pinkie toe (especially if you’re wearing flip flops).

 

Despite the trauma of dealing with sun beds, the rest of the ship was fairly safe. The sea days gave us time to relax. Time for me to do some crafts, or try line dancing (don’t ask, I haven’t done structured dancing in over thirty years, it was not a pretty sight) or join in with a vocal workshop (Walking on Sunshine and Dancing Queen). Ian would find a well behaved sun bed to chill out with.

 

 

 

In our first week we headed to Greece, calling in at Mykonos, Chania (Crete), Athens and Santorini. We found windmills in the first port and in the next, a 700 year old venetian harbour with stunning lighthouse. I do wonder how many tubs of white paint they use each year to maintain the beautiful white buildings and the weirdly painted granite pavements!

On to Athens and soaring temperatures of 38 degrees, climbing up the acropolis to see the Pantheon was a truly amazing experience. The views were incredible but sadly, so was the heat and we ended up in a crush of tourists trying to leave the top before we all baked. The following day was a complete antidote, in Santorini we played the geology card and opted for a catamaran trip around the caldera which included swimming in sulphurous mineral waters and an onboard BBQ.

 

The second week took us to Croatia visiting Split and Dubrovnik, famed as back drops for Game of Thrones. Ian turned himself into a wet rag walking the city walls in Dubrovnik, the steps, the height and the roof top views were simple stunning. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading back to Greece we stopped at Corfu and we reminisced of our first visit (BC-Before Children) to the nearby island of Paxos. Our final port was in the arch of Italy’s boot and the city of Taranto. It’s a town of two halves and I’m glad we walked around the old town together, as it is a sad place, rundown and dilapidated, a total contrast to the clean, modern and expensive new town which is across the swing bridge

Heading home to the UK, we’d heard about power cuts at Manchester Airport but the only issue we had was the baggage carousel  kept shutting down, it took ages to collect our cases, but at least we got them back. Now it’s time to make it up to the dog and the boat. We’ve got ten days to get the boat back on to the Macclesfield Canal before the next adventure starts!