It's been a good cruise. We visited some ports that were old friends, like Kotor, Montenegro, Santorini, Corfu and Venice. We visited new ports like Cadiz, Spain and Rhodes, Greece. We sampled some fine prosciutto in Kotor; saw where the Colossus of Rhodes stood (it collapsed many centuries ago). We saw the mules on Santorini in the "off" season where they are used to transport goods instead of people up the high cliffs to the cities on the tiny island. We visited a few old churches, which are always special to me. One of the highlights of the cruise and maybe the year was visiting the village where my father was born. I've heard of the village all my life, but I saw the house that belonged to my grandfather. I walked the tiny lane that my dad played on when he was a toddler. I saw my great uncle's home. I even visited the parish church. Sadly the church is no longer a church--it serves as a gathering place and the day we were there several men were playing cards and laughing. I tried to talk to them, but we had no language in common, only smiles. They did recognize my name and they pointed me in the direction of the little street with the same name. I tried not to cry, but something leaked out of my eyes.
The first leg of the cruise had many stops ashore, while the second leg was devoted to crossing the Atlantic. For the most part the crossing was easy, except for the last 2 days. We've been rocking and rolling a lot. The seas are gray and uneven with lots of whitecaps. The blue skies we had in the Mediterranean have been replaced with drippy blackish clouds. I've been keeping myself entertained listening to lectures and crocheting with our merry band of "happy hookers" as we like to call ourselves. I've only made 2 blankets, but I did learn how to make a cute stuffed teddy bear or kitty. I figured out the prototype pattern after translating it from Knit to Crochet. I've never done that before so I was proud of my efforts.
The best lecture series I've heard in a long time happened on the second leg of the cruise. It was a set of 3 lectures by a professional musician, AJ Clarke. He had excellent programs based around a clever organizing principle...the letter B. So we painlessly and eagerly learned about "Bach to Beethoven," "Berlin to Bernstein," and "Beatles to Bacharach." He knew his topic well. I wished he had taught my music appreciation class I had to take in my sophomore year of college. I would have learned something!
The singers and dancers gave us many nights of great music too; as did other entertainers. We laughed at comedy routines, swayed to country music and kept time to familiar tunes. The nightly shows were very very good. We know we've been doing this awhile as we have several favorite artists who show up on cruise ships...and a few showed up on this cruise.
The food was good but not great. There was definitely enough of it; and it was displayed with gusto. On the second leg of the cruise, the ship was decorated for Christmas. We have gingerbread villages in several places on the ship; lots of pretty trees and greenery. I have a feeling the next sailing will be more heavily decorated.
Alas, it's time to pack and leave the Pacific Princess. She's a good little ship. Lots to do today. We have a fun, relaxing cruise and we're ready for the next challenge...that of bearding the airports in 3 cities as we fly back to reality.
