Cruising Day 13: Slovenia. Wow.

After the jaw-dropping beauty of Croatia, we were convinced that we’d seen the best that the continent of Europe had to offer. Then came Slovenia.

I’ll be honest; I was ready to scrap this excursion, or at least try to. It was yet another pre-7am start, and I was getting tired. We were now burning the candle at both ends to make up for the first few days where we’d felt like crap, and my stick of wax was starting to run thin (not a dick joke).

However, I’m glad I got on that bus and drove to Lake Bled because it was even more gorgeous than the scenery we’d been chewing on in Croatia.

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Cruising Day 10: The Konavle Valley and Dubrovnik by Galleon

Holy shit, Croatia is beautiful.

I was smitten as soon as we arrived in port. This wasn’t a big ol’ industrial shipping port where we’d often berthed at our previous locations. Our ship nudged up against a modest-sized and modern-looking dock right next to some gorgeous mountains with a modern-looking bridge stretching off to another part of the country. The sun beamed into our cabin, people milled about below, and we were excited about our excursions!

That’s right, today was a day of multiple things, starting with wine.

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Cruising Day 8: A well-needed Sea Day

We’d been to Southern France, Monaco, and the Tuscan countryside and seen everything there was to see in a whistle-stop tour of Rome. That was just in the last three days! We were feeling better by now but a bit exhausted from the previous days’ activities.

A Sea Day was needed, and a Sea Day was what we got. This promised to be no ordinary sea day, however, as we would be sailing past an active volcano! By the end of the day, we’d also be art collectors.

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Cruising Day 7: Imperial Rome

Rome. Lots, and lots, and lots of pictures.

I’ve been fortunate to visit Italy on a couple of prior occasions and was excited to take AJ there; it was also on her ‘must-visit’ list. We’d just spent a wonderful, sunny, lazy afternoon in the Tuscan countryside eating and drinking delicious things, but today was all about taking in as much as we could.

My parents have been to Rome, and my dad absolutely loved it. The upshot, he said, was to see as much as possible because there’s nowhere else like it. So, that’s what we tried to do.

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Cruising Day 5: Discovering Éze and Old Monaco

Any concerns I’d had about the weather were burned away on Day 5 as we rocked up in Villefranche, anchoring in the middle of the bay as we were too large to dock. It was another early morning, but after the fabulous night before, we felt much more energized and ready to seize the day!

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Cruising Day 4: Toulon, France & New Friends

If you’re thinking to yourself “Wow, there’s been a long pause in between these posts”, then I would congratulate you on your observation, obvious though it is.

Since returning from our cruise we’ve also been to Madrid (a sorry travel tale in itself) as well as moved house, not to mention dealing with some significant work stressors. This series definitely hasn’t gone as quickly as I’d hoped!

But, we’re back, and ready to write! I think …

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Cruising Day 3: All at sea with Covid tests

Day 3 was our first sea day, as we sailed from Palma de Mallorca to Toulon in France, and we were very happy to have it. The itinerary for this trip had three sea days, which is not many on a 14 day cruise. We were still feeling pretty wiped out – despite the previous evening’s fun – and made the most of our day of no commitments by sleeping until midday, letting our bodies kick more virus butt, and deal with the Moderna booster vaccine.

We did actually wake up early to receive our room service breakfast which we ate, then promptly went back to sleep. The first photograph I have on my phone of this day was at 1:37pm, so we got a good rest!!

Our first port of call after some snacks at the Oceanview Cafe was the Celebrity Theatre, where ‘The Ultimate Boy Band’ was performing a matinee show. We’d enjoyed them so much when we caught the end of their show on Day 1 that we wanted to catch a full show, and fill in some time by doing something other than sleeping or eating.

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Crusing Day 2: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

A few things you don’t want for your first proper vacation day:

  • Being ill
  • A terrible night’s sleep
  • A really early start the next morning

Guess what!

Yes, the morning of Day 2 was a tough one, but let’s be honest … if you’re going to be actually sick and tired, being on a cruise ship docked in Palma de Mallorca is not a bad place to do it!

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