We returned from our little island paradise of Agistri to Piraeus, the Port of Athens. With the extreme hot weather conditions, some of southern Greece and it’s islands were on fire. We were receiving phone alerts to stay safe and were only 8 kilometres from a fire front. Even from that distance, the smoke was not making breathing comfortable. Luckily we were boarding the Sun Princess the next day to sail to Barcelona and hopefully escape these conditions. We send our thoughts to the fire fighters and residents and hope that this disaster will soon be over.

We’re treating this cruise like a hop-on hop-off bus/ship on a one way trip to Spain.

This ship is only 2 years old and the technology is a step up from any ships we’ve been on. For example, the identity disc we carried would unlock the cabin door as soon as we approached. Also the Princess app allowed you to find the location of any of your onboard group. It also allowed you to order a drink from anywhere on the ship and the waiter would deliver. 

Our first port stop was Santorini which we had only recently visited. It was going to be extremely busy as the cable car was the only way to Fira Town on top of the cliffs as the donkey track had recently been closed due to a landslide. Ruthie and I chose to just explore and shop in Fira Port so it was a pretty chilled day for us.

Next Bar (that’s a place) in Montenegro. This country has only been independent for 20 years and tourism is now one of their biggest industries. It was hot but we walked the old town and rewarded ourselves with a beer. Ruthie had a pomegranate beer (for it’s health properties of course) and I found the local drop quite tasty. We have previously been to Kotor in this country and their old town was probably better preserved but just the same we enjoyed walking the cobblestone narrow streets.

Today’s port is the island of Corfu, belonging to Greece. One of the bigger islands, it attracts more rainfall than the other islands so is nice and lush. It lays midway between Greece and Italy in the Ionian Sea. We have previously done a shore excursion here so we kept today pretty simple. The island has a colourful history and so we took in the old town, rich in the architecture from all the different civilisations that have presided over the centuries.

Again, it was extremely hot and just the walk out of the port was 900 metres. Add to that the walk of  3 to 4 kilometres to get to the old town you can imagine we were feeling pretty scorched. This time we had come prepared and found a local beach swimming spot where we cooled down with the locals. Of course, the walk back to the ship warmed us up again and we found another nice little beach. Ruthie looked at me, swim? Yeah, nah! We settled for a cooling refreshment overlooking the beach instead.

I pulled up the blind this morning and there staring me in the face is the beautiful port city of Messina in Sicily. The Strait of Messina separates Sicily from the Italian mainland and has been a strategic stronghold over the centuries under different rules. In 1908, an earthquake and tsunami killed 80% of Messinas 100,000 population. World War 2 also decimated the city. Today after being painstakingly rebuilt it is a vibrant resilient port city.

Ruthie and I wandered up many steps to a couple of different lookout points over the city. We were told that the locals treated traffic lights like flashing Christmas lights (optional) so don’t take the green walking symbol as gospel but instead you needed to look the driver in the eye before proceeding. A Sicilian famous granita and brioche was thoroughly enjoyed. 

We wandered back to the city square to see the midday performance of one of the world’s largest and most elaborate astronomical clocks. Even given the crowd and the heat, it was well worth seeing. Near by, you could visit the active volcano, Mt Etna and I believe the close by hilltop town of Taormina is worth visiting. Again, another beautiful little city. 

The weather onshore on this cruise has been hot so it’s been comforting knowing we were returning to the ship to enjoy the pools, spa, air conditioned dining, cold refreshments or entertainment.

Hola Barcelona!