This morning we docked at Port Vell in Barcelona, Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. Barcelona is one of the largest metropolises on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, bounded to the west by the Serra […]

It was raining off and on as we pulled into the harbor at Marseille, France. Founded c. 600 BC by Greek settlers from Phocaea, Marseille is the oldest city in France, as well as one of Europe’s oldest continuously inhabited settlements. Since the Viking Sea was already docked at the town center Joliette (J4) Terminal, we were docked at the […]

This morning we anchored in the deep bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, the gateway to the resort areas of Nice, France and Monte Carlo, Monaco. We have visited both of these areas before, but have never been to Villeffranche, so we decided to take this opportunity to visit this small port town. Since we were anchored […]

Day 85 of this cruise had us back in Italy, this time in Genoa. Located on the Gulf of Genoa in the Ligurian Sea, Wikipedia says Genoa has historically been one of the most important ports on the Mediterranean: it is the busiest city in Italy and in the Mediterranean Sea and twelfth-busiest in the European Union. We can believe […]

It was pouring down rain as our pilot met us in the harbor to guide us to our berth in Livorno, Italy. This Ligurian Sea port city is located on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. The cruise industry uses this port as a gateway for tours to Florence and Pisa, Italy. We would not […]

Today we dock in the picturesque city of Ajaccio, France, on the island of Corsica in the Ligurian Sea. Ajaccio, capital of the island, may be best known for being the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1769. The city has several tourist sites dedicated to Napoleon’s history in the area. We docked at 8AM and made […]

Today is transition day as we dock at the Tyrrhenian sea port city of Civitavecchia, Italy. The Port of Civitavecchia is one of the major cruise ports of Europe and is huge with over 3.3 million passengers passing through each year! There are 5 cruise ships in port today, each of them offloading and onboarding passengers. […]

Today we visited the absolutely gorgeous city of Valletta on the Mediterranean island country of Malta. Check another country off the list! We would have to say, without a doubt, today was one of the most beautiful harbor sail-ins so far for this trip. The city was officially listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980. The […]

After a couple of diversions due to weather, we were once again back on schedule for this portion of the world cruise. Today we visited Taranto, Italy. Located in the upper heel of boot. Taranto was founded by Spartans in the 8th century BC during the period of Greek colonisation,  Our early morning sunrise arrival was […]

For those that have actually been following along, you will remember that our stop in Bar, Montenegro was canceled due to the Bora winds causing trouble in the Adriatic Sea and we were diverting instead the predicted calmer Ionian Sea location of Argostoli, Greece. Well today we heard that Argostoli’s weather was being uncooperative as […]

We received notice on April 4th that the Bora wind was kicking up storms in the Adriatic Sea so our scheduled stops in Dubrovnik Croatia and Bar, Montenegro would not be happening. We were really disappointed with this as these stops would have checked two more countries off our list. Instead, we were staying in […]

Today we venture back to the island of Crete, this time docking at Chania. To be honest, after the full day at Rhodes yesterday, he fact that we were just in Crete on April 1st, and we are still recovering from our weeks long illness, we didn’t really do much today besides enjoy the ship. […]

As we continue the Mediterranean portion of this world cruise, we find ourselves visiting the island of Rhodes, Greece. Historically, Rhodes was famous for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site.  Since we were docked close and both […]

Ah, the historic port of Kusadasi, Turkey. The gateway to the ancient city of Ephesus, the Temple of Artemis, the House of the Virgin Mary, and several other significant religious sites. We first visited Kusadasi in 1998 aboard the “original” Island Princess as part of a Holyland Cruise (she was scrapped in 2014), so it […]

As we were leaving Athens last night, the captain announced that our next scheduled port, the island of Patmos, Greece, was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions and we would be diverting to Herkalion on the island of Crete. Herkalion is said to have some very nice attractions worthy of exploring, such as the old […]

We are in Athens, one of the world’s oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years,[9] and its earliest human presence beginning somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. The city just oozes history and culture. With such amazing sites as the Parthenon, the Acropolis, the Temple of Hephaestus, and the Temple of Zues just to name a few,

Day 68 finds us docked in Siracusa on the Italian island of Sicily. The city is notable for its rich Greek and Roman history, culture, amphitheaters, architecture, and as the birthplace and home of the pre-eminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes. We were still inflicted with the shipboard “respiratory crud” so were taking it fairly slow. We had a […]

Our next stop on this 117 day journey is the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Located in the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean Sea exits into the Atlantic Ocean, Gibraltar was established as a permanent watchtower in the year 1160. Follow the links for the fascinating history of this area. We met our pilot […]

Today we visited the city of Funchal, on the island of Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal. The island region is located in the Atlantic Ocean about 320 miles west of Morocco. You can use the links to learn more of the history of Funchal and Madeira, Our pilot and tug met us at 7AM […]

We’ve been at sea for 7 days since leaving Namibia, cruising North up the West African coast, so we were excited to be making landfall in Mindelo, on the island of São Vicente in the Republic of Cabo Verde. Check another country off our list. We were awake early and toasted the sunrise and watched as […]