Planet Ruby Starrs

Hanging there on this adventure 🤣🤣 - not us 🤣 but a serene hang glider over the acropolis but I thought I,'d try trick you... We spent 2 more days in Rhodes port as more ships passengers changed over - flying home or flying in rather than metamorphosing...  On day 2 we had a very late start and then walked through the town to the Acropolis. Not much of the actual temple is left - and its heavily scaffolded at the moment - but theres a pretty impressive amphitheatre and some nice ruins. A further ten minute walk took us to a view point overlooking the other side of the penninsular... impressive views and potential rocks... it was quite a hike though, and I'm glad we left it later in the day when the sun was less intense.  We walked back into the walled streets, it was early evening and the town was much quieter. We met up with some friends and had a drink and some nibbles in a lovely roof top cafe.  The town w...

Life on the ocean wave .... today we docked in Rhodes. We are here for 3 days...  To be honest not somewhere I have ever given any thought to.. so I was quite  surprised when I opened the curtains to much nicer view than expected. We walked into the Old Town and it was instantly very beautiful. Huge walls and collective ruins greeted us from the onset - its very well preserved, it is full of tourists, tourist shops and cafes but it has not been overly spoiled ( well it has been - but natives have to make a living🤣) so it's still looks incredibly atmospheric.   I, obviously,  hadnt done much research but I wasnt surprised to find it is a UNESCO Heritage site so I'm guessing that means that they can't mess too much with it.  In the main town we walked through the busy square and up the wonderful straight street that is famous for the Knights of the Templar. On each side of the street are allegedly inn dating...

Agios Nikolaos in Crete was pleasantly charming... I cant put my finger on why but it was so much nicer than Thira in Santorini. Simpler, less busy but just a nicer softer vibe. Obviously its not so dramatic and perhaps thats the key - theres nothing to 'live up' to...  A small town with a dense tourist centre and dwellings sprawling away from the coast it feels compact and easier to navigate. Theres a large marina and then a little picturesque lake in the middle of the main town... makes a nice change from a market square. Its still very touristy but definately less crowded... wider streets - same tat but less hassley. We wandered round the small lake and into the shopping area. Theres a serious lack of supermarkets and we ended up buying olive oil from a shop at the top of town. There was alot of choice... brands ... numbers... in the end I just picked the prettiest tins.    We finally found some rocks... nothing too spectacular ...

This a bit of a nonstop whirl of a greek oddesy... its fun but quite exhausting every day a different port... Dr Fred is a bit frustrated by apparent lack of organisation regarding stargazing... hes been trying to get sessions organised but they get omitted (forgotten)  from the daily timetable so noone knows about them!   Hopefully he has pushed the issue enough and it should appear in tomorrows daily times...for tomorrow evening... if not he will be very fed up ( thats being polite).... Meanwhile we continue to cruise along... Todays Port was the island of Santorini.  We were excited about this stop - especially when disembarking required a tender into the quayside and a cable car up the cliff.  Its a spectaculary pretty place.  From the sea the cliffs tower up and the houses all along the top look like snow, or icing.  The cliffs themselves are very striated with different rocks and the colours just continue the cake theme. ...

After a night of massive non stop thunder and lightening ... really quite exciting, the day dawned dry and gloriously sunny. Piraeus to be honest wasnt very exciting... huge massive sprawling port with disappointing rocks and a very swanky marina. We sat by the super yachts having (silly price) coffee pretending we were out with big boys... walked back through town - it was full of manky looking feral cats and in places stank unbelievably of cat pee.... very little interesting architecture... the museum was closed on tuesdays and we were hot and bothered so didnt venture further into town so we missed the cathedral. Nb - there was no way Dr Fred was going to do 2 huge cities in such a short time... so I placed all the empasis on Istanbul and decided not to push for Athens... after all if it wasn't for Dr Fred we wouldn't be here at all......  Back on the ship, I went to the Bubbles and Speak session where you get free fizz and the chance to chat with th...

We suddenly got busy catching up with old friends met on previous cruises - and making some new friends who were working this cruise. Dr Fred got organised arranging Stargazing sessions and future talks, while I'm embroidering a coat!  All this takes time and energy inbetween being available for food..... It was formal night in the 1920s style with the Captain's Cocktail party. So we donned our gladrags, smartened ourselves up and went meet the captain and have a to drink in the Neptune theatre before dinner. I have to say I'm quite impressed with the effort that people go to on these formal nights and some people have some amazing clothes And it was particularly good this night because of the 1920s theme They were an awful lot of headbands with feathers in them but they did look good and some of the frocks were just absolutely stunning.  They've refurbished the selfservice area. Its now known as the Thistle - and it's very pleasant - al...