Oops! It's been a while!

 It has been a month and a half since I updated the blog and, as usual, I have an excuse or three.  This time it is travel:  yep, we've been off traveling again.  Yep, another cruise on Viking.  This time we hit ports in Italy, Malta, Crete, Turkey and Greece.  In two weeks!  Yeah, you get only the slightest taste of these countries but it is an introduction. 

Actually, now, because of the whole COVID thing there is a lot less contact with the places you are visiting than there used to be.  And the whole thing was a paperwork nightmare.  Let's start with the PCR test within 48 hours of your flight.  Of course that's in Las Vegas and cost $250 each.  But we passed!  So it was hop on a flight to London; leaving at 5 in the morning.  

 

If you were staying in the UK you'd need to do paperwork for them but we were just passing through so no problem.  But we did have to do paperwork for Italy.  Of course it was close to 9 p.m. local time when we landed in Rome.  However Viking had 2 people waiting to greet us; and a driver to drive the 40 minutes to the ship; and an officer to check our documentation prior to boarding the ship; and a ship's officer to escort us to our cabin and get the first of our DAILY PCR tests.  Wow.  And the whole thing, all 5 people, was just for the two of us.

There were new rules about being on board the ship.  First was that daily PCR test:  before eating or drinking anything you had to spit into a tube.  I never thought I had a dry mouth but I sure think that now!  Filling the tube to the little line was difficult every morning.  But it was just something you needed to do.  You would get a message overnight that you had passed the previous day's test and if you were going ashore somewhere that required it you would get a paper copy that said you passed..  Of course masks were required at all times except when eating or drinking.  Well, I'm pretty overweight so that gave me quite a bit of mask-less time.  LOL  Still, the staff would stop people who'd forgotten the rule.  The final rule was that you couldn't go anywhere on your own.  When you got off the ship, you were with a tour or you didn't get off.  In the past most tours would have time for you to shop in the local businesses:  not this time.  If you were really lucky you might shop in a museum shop but that was it.  In actual fact, most businesses were closed anyway.

So we get onboard the ship.  We have been on the Viking Sky before so the ship was familiar to us.  In the morning we went up to the Explorer's Lounge on the 7th deck at the bow of the ship.  It has a great view of course but what blew us away was that there was only one other couple in the room!  There was the guy handing out rolls and such, there was the waitress ready to bring you anything from water to wine but there were only 2 other customers.  That was weird and it was our introduction to the fact that the ship was perhaps 25% full.  The ship normally carries 930 passengers; for this cruise it was in the 250 range.  They had the full staff; just not many guests!  It was something we eventually got used to but it was certainly weird.  Let's just say that a dirty dinner plate didn't spend much time on the table!

It was kind of chilly for sunbathing but the lounges were set up with towels and all but no takers.

The ship had stops in Rome, Naples and Messina in Italy.  Then we had a couple days in Valletta, Malta.   The we got to visit Heraklion, Crete for a day followed by two days in Rhodes, Greece.  A day in Kusadasi, Turkey followed by a day in Santorini, Greece and a day in Athens.  Clearly you are getting only the faintest whiff of what these cities are like.  Indeed, we didn't get to see so much that it is just painful however it does give us ideas for future independent travel.  

I must admit that we just didn't tour Rome at all.  We have been there before and after the previous day's travel we wanted some quiet time.  So our first stop was Naples.  Again we've been in Naples so we took a tour that just took us out into the countryside around the city.  Pompei would be the other choice but again we've been there. 

The photo of the Tirrenia is our only photo from Rome!

Here is a view of Naples.  From the fortification on the top of the hill you get the impression of ancient wealth in the area.

Another of Naples.  Imagine all those apartments! 

This is from the far side of the bay.  When I took the picture I thought that it was the Viking Sky way over there but it isn't.  And that was our trip around Naples.

Messina was our third port and it was the first time either of us has been in Sicily.  On this trip the ship tried to come into port early in the morning and Messina was quite lovely in the early morning light.

 

We took a tour that primarily focused on the cathedral and it's amazing astronomical clock.  It really is quite amazing with moving statuary and a perpetual calendar.  

Valletta is the capital of Malta and quite rightly is very proud of it's heritage.  We took a walking tour of the old part of the city then got on a bus that showed us some of the outlying areas.  The second day we took another bus tour just checking out some of the ancient ruins and modern buildings.

The harbor has fortificationson both sides.  There were even some where the ship was berthed.

Also right next to the ship was this tiny church.

We took a walking tour of the town.  There were lots of references to the Knights of Malta.  They began as a medical support organization and ended up governing a lot of places.  There were nice buildings and Tritons' Fountain is really very nice I must admit.  

Well, that's half our trip so I'm going to give it a break and come back with the rest of the trip in a day or so.  Have a good one and keep washing those hands!