Burano

We visited Burano, one of the islands near Venice, to see their lace and colourful houses. It is a very pretty place. Of course, the lace museum had a bad case of the Mondays and wasn't open.

From a distance we can put into perspective the wisdom of choosing a good building location for towers.

Designed by some guy from Pisa?

A Shady Character in Venice

I selected a book from the ship's library, having spied a Jasper Fforde book that I hadn't read - Shades of Grey. I placed it down on the library check out table and started filling in the check-out sheet. Name… cabin number… book id number…
"Ooh, you've got Shades of Grey," says a middle aged woman waiting to check out a book.
"Yes," says I, "we have a copy at home but I'd never got around to reading it."

I was a bit surprised to bump into another Jasper Fforde reader.

It was about 10 minutes later when it clicked that she most likely wasn't a Fforde fan. I suspect she thought I was about to read Fifty Shades of Grey.

If I see her or her friends pointing at me and smirking, I'll know for sure.

The Bishop of Nin

We had a half day in Split, Croatia, and spent it wandering around the old city, the palace of Diocletian and its temples. Split was very relaxed and musical. Here's what we ran into just by walking around:

Of course, at midday there was some extra "music"

...the tintinnabulation that so musically wells from the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells...

Then we found a statue of The Bishop of Nin.

Bishop Propellorhead points to his symbol of office

Bishop Propellorhead calls down holy light on the city

Bishop Propellorhead's adventurers bravely sneak past a lion

And Greece Again

Back for a day in sunny Santorini. (Posting quickly before we sail out of data connection range.)

Back in Turkey

From the port of Kuşadası we visited the ruins of ancient Ephesus.

The city was crowded.

It had lots of cats.

Visiting the library

Back in Kuşadası. This palm looked warm.

Mykonos

We spent the afternoon in Mykonos, doing nothing. It felt right.

Petros the pelican preened and paddled for passersby. (The current incarnation of Petros, that is.)

Petros

In Istanbul

Ok, can't resist this quote, since we're crusing on the Nieuw Amsterdam.

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say
People just liked it better that way

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks.

-- They Might Be Giants

City Walls

Just one of the 6 minarets of the Blue Mosque

Inside the Blue Mosque: lots of people, lots of glitz, lots of lights

Inside the Hagia Sophia: lots of people, lots of glitz, lots of lights

Inside the Grand Bazaar: lots of people, lots of glitz, lots of lights

Ancient Athens Made Simple

Massive columns for holding up a massive building.

 Many have theorised that ancient Greek sculpture was for artistic expression, funeral traditions, deity worship etc. Very few have seen the obvious functionalist interpretation: the ancients used sculpture just as we use iconography - to communicate simple messages and instructions without need for language.

Today we label alcohol content to indicate number of standard drinks. This urn is labelled to show how many people would be intoxicated by its contents.

Count the figures. This is a low alcohol urn - enough to intoxicate 17 people.

Fresh breath is important at a Greek rave

This is a reminder to always bring your safety ear plugs to a rave.

Context is important. This would have been a sign outside a clothing shop that catered to over-sized men.

A park sign to remind citizens to key their pets on leashes.

Always keep an eye on your clothing at these public baths.

Men at work. Note that two are depicted working while four others stand around giving instruction or chatting.

A typical one-way-street sign. Absolutely unambiguous.

A public awareness campaign: remember to use sunscreen.

This Greek history lesson was brought to you by Moo the Elder and may contain traces of bullshit.

Crouching Kotor...

We sailed in to a delightful fjord. Montenegro is an idyllic location.

See what we had to put up with outside the window for breakfast

The view from atop the city walls

We didn't walk all the walls. Some went up too far.

They promised dragons! Let me quote the ship's Things To See guide: "Drago Palace - Gothic style palace decorated with dragons." And they provided a map, devoid of details like streets, just an outline of the city walls and gates with some number spots to show the rough location of features. We set off, being vewwy, vewwy quwiet, because we were hunting dwagons.

After some wanderings around the area where this palace should be, and some further wanderings in more distant lanes and alleys, we decided to pause for lunch. I had a black mountain of cuttlefish risotto.

Blacker than my soul

So rested we by the wifi tree and sat a while in thought.

We asked the restauranteur. She didn't know where Drago Palace was. We asked a dealer of trinkets in a shop that included the name "Drago". She didn't know either. We asked in the museum, and got a better map, showing the exact location with all the buildings illustrated.

We found a building with no labels and all doors closed. We saw no dragons. And there were no cut-me-own-throat Dibblers selling dragon detectors.

Sad saint is sad

Saint Nick says "Shove off, tourists."

Last day in Venice

Today we were successful tourists. 8am breakfast... check. Visit St Mark's basilica... check (only 15 minutes queuing). Buy masks... check (found a shop that meshed with our tastes). Buy some shirts... check (bargain-hunters are us). Water bus back to people mover back to ship... check.

This is the ship we're cruising on

Bridge of Sighs from the outside

St Mark's Square has a winged Gobbledoc!

Sunny Venice

If anyone tells you about Venice being smelly or damp, don't believe them. It's clean and bright. It's a wonderful city. The modern Venetians haven't a clue how to make footbridges fit for humans. They seem to think that half-height sloped steps with grip-less surfaces is a good idea. At least most of the older bridges were made by more practical Venetians. 

Even though Venice is very very flat, we still got our fair share of exercise here.

Cool streets

Outside St Mark's looking in

In St Mark's Square - paved in people - in some places tightly tessellated by tourists

Let's join a queue for the Doge's Palace

Look what's dancing on the ceiling

Peeping from the Bridge of Sighs

Time to check in to our little hotel room. Hardly room to swing a giraffe.

View to the cemetery island (on the Ghosts and Legends evening tour)

Venetian glass making on Murano

Murano was lovely - fewer tourists.