Hi everyone.

Sorry I have not posted much. It has been an incredibly busy cruise. There are NO sea days on this trip so it is go go go.

FOOD the all important subject.
The first night I was welcomed with a huge plate of rack of lamb, about four racks. Only four of the six at the table ate lamb but we managed to eat most of the lamb presented. It was delicious. The next night at dinner I induldged in Lobster and Beef Wellington in the delightful company of Sandra the lecturer and Olivia and Joanna.. All this washed down with a delightful shiraz of course,

MYKONOS
The first day we went to Mykonos and we have been here before so decided we wanted to rent a car and drive the island. Russell and Debbie boarded our shuttle bus just as it was about to leave so we asked them if they wanted to join us. Off we all went to rent a car, 40 euros for all day seemed okay to us and we were off!

There is a surprising amount of traffic now in Mykonos and the streets are very narrow so be warned if you decide to do this. Once outside of town there was not much traffic but still narrow and windy roads. We drove all over the island, visited the key site of the Monastery and could not believe that when we came back for lunch on the ship we could drive right up the ship and park the car! In the afternoon we decided to visit the scene of much of the wild night life in Mykonos, Super Paradise Beach. This took a good thirty minutes on extremely windy narrow roads and I kept thinking about driving this at night let alone driving it after drinking!! The beach is quite charming with a ton of covered beach chairs and a large bar with a swimming pool. It was quiet during the day but I think all the action takes place at night.

NAVPHLION
Navphlion is a port I had never visited before. Now this is a WINNER. The town itself is charming and looks like an Italian village to me. Venetian styled homes and neo-classical mansions line the narrow flower filled streets. The cute shops and cafes in the seaside setting with a great fort in the harbor and a fort on the hill above the town create perfect picture opportunities. Unfortunately we had little time left to enjoy this wonderful town but we are coming back next year on sea to sea so I can do more investigation at that time. There is also a lot to do here.

Marc, Arlene, Ken and I hired the Athens taxi driver Stelios to drive us for the day. He came down from Athens about 2 ½ hour drive. He was waiting on the dock with his big smile when we debarked the tender. We had an action packed day, visiting three archeological sites, Mycenae, Ancient Corinth and the Epidaurus Theatre. We also visited the Corinth Canal, and a wonderful Greek Orthodox church with totally painted walls and ceilings. It reminded me of some of the churches I have seen in Russia.
The gem of the day was a 1000 year old tiny church. It is not visited often and the nuns come in each day to tend to the flowering gardens and the church. It was truly beautiful and hard to believe how old it really was. Stelios told us that this is somewhere he
always visits and everyone loves it. The topography changed during the day from vineyards to mountains. The day provided us with some wonderful views and stunning countryside, it was so diverse.

At one point we stopped so Stelios could buy wine from a street side vendor. He bought us both a bottle and also two bottles for his wife. It came straight from the barrel, is 100% wine grapes and was presented in plastic water bottles. 2008 vintage and it had been fermented for four months. So we have two large water bottles of this brew so plenty for everyone to share!

PRELIMINARY CRUISE WINNERS.
Back to the ship and then we had the Brown and Keene cocktail party. It was a noisy affair and the Captain drew the names for the four preliminary winners. Amazingly of the four names drawn three of them were the friends of Joanna and Tony. No LCT people were drawn but there is always next week! After the party we had a nice diner with Tom, Mona, Arlene and Marc. A delightful beef filet with hollandaise.

POOCH
Been too busy but four of us played this morning and we plan a game for this afternoon after trivia. I have ordered shrimp and chocolate covered strawberries and we also share our local “quality” wine with everyone at POOCH this afternoon

Today is Tom’s birthday so we look forward to Signature’s tonight with Tom, Mona, JoAnn and Frank.

That gets you up to date. Be back later.