April, 2016 | Captain, who's driving?

We have just passed through the Straits of Messina, passing the volcanic island of Stromboli and enroute to the Italian port of Civitavecchia, the gateway port to Rome.

I know, I haven’t posted recently, however we have had so many ports in a few days and the additional responsibilities with shipboard management that I just haven’t found the time to write. Even now, I am seizing an opportunity in between other functions. My last post was after Suez and since then Haifa, Ashdod, Piraeus and Katakolon have flown by. I have not managed to put my feet on dry land, until yesterday that is, when I went ashore in Katakolon to have lunch with the ‘mob’. The wonderful waterside restaurants in this lovely Greek town are but a short stroll from the ship and, more importantly, the food is out of this world, all fresh ingredients and one of mu favourite dishes, grilled sardines. Tomorrow, in Civitavecchia we will rendezvous with our sparkling new ship, the “Konigsdam”. She has been greeted with rave reviews by the cruise community and I can’t wait to see her ‘in the flesh’. We have almost 500 World cruise guests touring her, not to mention as many of the crew who can get off; I will most certainly take my camera for this one.

K1 and K2 have been ashore at every opportunity, therein lies a challenge though. K1 took a large number of photos when she visited Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem, trying to find out which photo is of what is another matter and rather than make errors, I decided not to try and post them; you will have to make the most of my mundane ‘ship’ ones I’m afraid. I’ll start with Haifa, being a Saturday, all the shops were closed 😀 and the vast majority of guests went on tours; Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee being the primary destinations.

Haifa, a Greek destroyer is berthed ahead of us

The city itself

Onwards then to Ashdod, this lies south of Haifa which,oddly we called at first, even though we went past Ashdod on the way. Security is tight, even coming in from the sea, we are monitored from 100 miles out from the coast and had to complete endless paperwork prior to doing so. I did not take any photos of Ashdod, nothing of note from the ship, except for other ships and docks and so to Piraeus.

Out route across the Mediterranean, past Crete and the Greek Islands

The final leg towards the port

The approach, our track, green

and through between the narrow gap, a pirouette and back down to the berth

I am always wary of the docking here, its harbour is relatively small, the approach to the breakwaters has to be timed to perfection and, more often than not, its always windy. It is not for the faint-of-heart, that I can tell you.

The northern breakwater, slightly askew, having been belted by a cruise ship in strong winds.

The new terminal

across the harbour

One of the many ferry terminals. The ships serve the numerous Greek Islands

Tucked over by the ferry terminal, refugee tents

and more further along

A telephoto of the Acropolis above the city of Athens

Thence onto Katakolon, a lovely little port and the gateway to Olympia. The pilot, Stephanos, has become a friend, always humorous and generous to a fault; it was he who took Sam, Ant and the children to his hotel for a special BBQ. He has not changed and much handshaking and hugging took place on the Bridge before docking. Parked, we had a Port State Control inspection, a matter to be taken very seriously and it wasn’t until 12 that I managed to go ashore. Finding the ladies was not very difficult, there is one main street, lined with shops, so keeping my eyes peeled I found them easily.