Nov 5 – Valletta, Malta

one of many churches

we're back!

Weather – 21º

Steps – 11,445

Malta is a very interesting place visually - it’s interesting otherwise of course, but especially visually. It is basically a rock in the middle of the sea that people decided to inhabit. This makes everywhere you look beautiful.

Over the centuries, Malta has been invaded by pirates, Ottoman Turks, Napoleon’s army. Its strategic location has made it disputed for centuries. During WWII, it allowed Allies to block Axis supplies to North Africa, but because of its location was also heavily bombed. There is still evidence of this.

view from the balcony

We are docked in Valetta – the same port we boarded the ship at 2 weeks ago. Valetta (pop. 5,233) is the capital of Malta (pop. 600,000) and is one town in a series of other small towns that blend into on another.

Our tour today started as many do, with a coach tour. Although not technically panoramic tours, we always get to know a bit about where we are en route to

we sailed through that tiny opening

where we are going through the guide’s descriptions. It was a packed tour again…about 30 today. We still get our own window seats on the bus as they typically accommodate about 50, but it’s still a big number to wangle.

After a 30 min coach ride, we were in Sliema town, where we boarded a large sightseeing boat for an hour tour of Malta’s 2 natural harbours. The water is the best way to see a view of the fortifications, shipyards, mega and super yachts, fishing boats, caves, churches (apparently Malta has over 365!) and Malta’s
rugged, rocky coast. The fortress walls bl

fortification

end seamlessly into the rock, that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

beer & boats

Then we were back on the bus for about another half hour to get to Senglea town where we had about 45 min of free time. We wandered a bit, looked at more boats and sat at a canal side café for a Cisk beer.

The ship is docked super close to Valetta town, so after the tour we headed in for a wander and to find lunch. It is nice to have been here recently, so we have an understanding of where and what there is.

The ship of course is on the water, and the town is fortified, so somehow we need to get waaaay up to the town from the ship. Thankfully, there is an €1

more fortification

(round trip) elevator that’ll take you up the 58 meters. We were the only ship in town today and everything still seemed busy. I wouldn’t want to deal with the elevator with 8 ships in town, which apparently is what can happen in the summer months – no thank you. It is walkable, but not all people could, I’m thankful we can.

I keep telling Chris we have to train for our travels…especially Antarctica in January to keep up with the penguins! I haven’t convinced him…yet. Way back when we rode camels, I thought this is a reason to stay fit and strong…so I can continue to hoist myself onto a camel and hang on.

Valetta has a ton of places to choose from for lunch – many were Maltese cuisine, but we were in the mood for a good ol’ European pizza. The day was

sail boats

nice enough, that we wanted a busy

church

square to eat outside. We found a good spot with lots of people (and pigeon) watching. At one point a pigeon actually plopped onto our table and helped itself to our pizza. It took a bit of effort to get it to shoo.

war museum

Then at a neighbouring table at least 30 pigeons descended on the table to devour what was left of the food – with people STILL THERE. The people who were

everywhere is fortification

sitting there kind of just watched one or 2 land, and before they could do anything the entire flock were there. I have never seen anything like it. For about 5 minutes it was utter mayhem. Eventually the

Valetta by night

staff cleared the plates, but WOW. Valetta needs cats to come in and take care of the pigeons, or to at least make them a bit skittish. These pigeons were the

The Birds!

kings of the fortress, that’s for sure.

Malta by night

us and the ship

even more fortification

Nov 4 – AT SEA, Cruising the Ionian Sea

our spot for the morning

Weather – 21º, sunny and glorious

Steps – not many

Today is the one scheduled sea day for this leg of the cruise. Last night we planned that we would try to get to the pool early-ish to stake our claim to one of the coveted 2-person nooks. These are spaces

Chris and his Blue Sunrise

at the back of the pool deck that accommodate 2 lounge chairs, a table, and some space. There are perforated screens (like room dividers) between each. They aren’t private at all, everyone can see and hear you, but they give some space and the illusion of privacy.

By the time we got there is was 930 and not very many people at all were there. Plus, few if any people dropped books, a magazine of a hat and left – this is frequently rampant on Regent (and other cruise lines too) that it can be next to impossible to get a spot. This sea day and the one on the last leg didn’t seem to have many if any chair hogs!

giant bottle of Veuve

There are a lot of new Regent sailors on this cruise just like the last one – maybe that’s why no chair hogs…who knows, but it is great.

We got a plate of breakfast from the buffet and ate it in our nook with a tea and a cappuccino. It was a lovely morning topped off with Cool by the Pool. Chris tried the drink of the day…a Blue Sunrise. It is lovely that bar waiters wander the pool deck with trays of various boozy and unboozy drinks. You can also of course order anything your heart desires.

healthy dose of caviar

Lunch was at the good ol’ buffet. We didn’t repeat yesterday’s mistake and we were pleased. We were able to snag an outdoor table overlooking the ship’s wake – bliss. The new Regent ships have more outdoor space at the buffet compared to the older ships, which is a good change in my opinion.

sunset on the Ionian Sea

The evening’s entertainment was the Loyalty party and comedian. We got our fair share of caviar, I tried to snag the giant bottle of Veuve, the comedian was meh.

Nov 3 – SEA DAY, was supposed to be Katakolon, Greece

Regent Grandeur

Weather – not good

Steps – not many

We were rocking and rolling all through the night and well into the morning. We even passed through an electrical storm. Lightening can often be seen in the distance on cruises, but it is less often that we can hear the thunder. Sea swells were 3-4 meters…that’s significant.

It came as no surprise when we heard the bing-bang-bong – into the room. This is very unusual and is never for a good reason. We heard a lot of these in-room announcements during our Covid cruise. Anyway, the captain told us we would not be docking at Katakolon. Their port was closed due to the winds.

got a three-er

So…another sea day. Tomorrow is a sea day also. I was looking forward to visiting a winery today and having lunch at the same spot we stopped at last week when we were in Katakolon, but it wasn’t to be. Blown off ports are always a disappointment on cruises but are also never a surprise.

Unannounced sea days are good too – forced relaxation. Today was too windy, cold, rainy to sit at the pool, so we went to the spot we hunkered down on the last coolish sea day…couches, tea, and cookies.

We decided to have lunch in one of the ship’s a la carte restaurants – mistake. Sitting and being served is very nice, but the food wasn’t great. At the buffet, there’s definitely the element of ‘rubbing elbows’ with others (which I don’t love) but you can choose what you want and get a good fill of vegetables. There are always vegetables on the a la carte options, but you really have to make an effort, at the buffet, it’s easier. I ordered a ‘bowl salad’ but I don’t think anyone else ever ordered these…or hadn’t today…it seemed a bit sad, wilty, and like it had been waiting for me for far too long.

And if I can pick another nit…Regent needs to sort out food temperatures. Food that is supposed to come cold, regularly comes room temp and hot food is usually warm at best. I’m not super picky but come on…a room temp salad…nope.

Nov 2 – Mykonos, Greece

meze and ouzo

coming into Mykonos - no rain yet!

Weather – 19º, sunny sailing in, then cloudy, then torrential,  then sun in the afternoon

Steps – 9,310

The rain finally caught up with us. Sailing into Mykonos it was actually sunny, so sunny in fact that we had to close the curtains. That did not last.

35 of us boarded the bus, some with rain jackets, hats and umbrellas and others with no rain gear AT ALL! We hoped we would be the fools with our rain gear…nope…we were happy to be decked out when the skys opened. We got from the bus, to the taverna, to the church, to the

monastery

church’s museum, to a short wander around the tiny town, and to another
taverna before the deluge began. It absolutely poured. Luckily for us we were already settled with an Alfa beer (€5, cash only) in front of each of us.

cats are even in the church

I mentioned that there were 35 of us on the bus…this is waaaaay too many for a Regent tour. We find out later that the another group of the same tour had 21! Whaaaat!?! Why on earth is there 35 on one tour and 21 on the next. Anyway…we aren’t not surprised…we know excursions and excursion management is a weak point for Regent, but still…not good.

alter

This tour is a 2-manner. Meaning it’s a bit strenuous or the steps are challenging – uneven, slippery etc. There is a guy with OXYGEN! I’m not sure what he did for a lot of the tour, but oxygen is something we rarely see on tours. His wife had just had a new
knee, but I think he presented the biggest challenge between the 2 of them. There are plenty of tours that are less strenuous – not sure why they picked this one.

Mykonos town

The tour started with a panoramic tour of Mykonos with its whitewashed buildings.

After about 30 min of the bus negotiating the very narrow and winding streets, we arrived at Ano Mera village. Here (at 930AM) we had ouzo and meze.) The meze was easier to identify than the last meze we had, but not as exciting.

beer in the rain

The 16th-century Panagia Tourliani Monastery is small but beautiful. It is similarly decorated to the ones we visited in Lesbos – to me these are more churches than they are monasteries. There was also a small but impressive museum with artifacts from the monastery.

monastery

On the way back to ship we were supposed to stop for a walking tour of Mykonos town, we had pretty much decided to blow that off because of the weather, but as we got closer, the weather seemed to break, so we stuck with it. Only 12 of us out of the original 35 remained.

5 churches - Panagia Paraportiani

We wandered along with Sarah, our guide, as she told us this and that about the old town. We walked along narrow, whitewashed streets apparently laid

monastery museum

out in a labyrinth pattern to confuse attacking
pirates, saw windmills, and stopped for a traditional Greek bread called Koulouri Thessalonikis – very much like a bagel covered in sesame seeds. There were many, many churches – some very tiny and some privately owned.

Aphrodite's boobies

After the tour we decided to stop for calamari and wine – the calamari was fine, but I expected seaside calamari in Greece to knock my socks off a bit more. The location along the sea was lovely.

The photo of Aphrodite's boobies - 2 hills (everyplace has to have some kind of

Koulouri Thessalonikis

reference to breasts it seems) shows how much rain there was at one point.

Chris is looking for a job

Luckily we were on the bus at this point.

Mykonos sea side village

yet another church

Mykonos street

little Venice

Mykonos street

calamari, wine and the ship in the distance

windmills

Nov 1 – Athens (Piraeus), Greece

Odeon at the Acropolis

we missed virtually all of it!

Weather – 18º, periods of heavy rain (not
when we were outside!), also sun

Steps – 8,713

Other than cruise day #1, today is the second-best day on a cruise – the turnaround day. That’s the day most of the passengers disembark and others embark. Turnaround day is the second-best day when you are staying on for the

next leg. No suitcases out last night, no flights today, no up early and stressed that you aren’t making it to the airport…that can wait another week for us.

Caryatids 

me at the Acropolis

Often on turnaround days, Regent will arrange a tour the remaining guests. We are welcome to stay on the ship, but there is also a tour. We were told there needed to be a minimum of 20 participants and today there were 24…were supposed to be 24. 4 decided to stay on the ship despite signing up for the tour. This is a danger of offering included excursions – people blow them off and don’t tell anyone.

From the port of Piraeus (the port for Athens) to the Acropolis is a 20 min drive. Technically, 2 separate cities, but they blend into each other.

temple of Hephaestus

We spend about 2 hours at the Acropolis with a guide. We were here last in 2008 – the Acropolis infrastructure is more developed than it was then. Today was

Chris at the Acropolis

busy. I’m not sure how busy it is compared to other October or November days, but today as it is the first day of the month…entrance is free. 

Of the 20 people on the tour, only 15 stuck with the guide until the end of the time at the Acropolis. It is steep climb, but more arduous are the uneven footing. Much of it is marble steps, which is also a

Athens modern Olympic monument

reason to be thankful we didn’t get rained on…slippery steps. The pathways are also chucks of ancient marble, worn very smooth.

There were weather warnings for Athens today…heavy rainfall. We missed being

Dromeas (The Runner)

rained on, other than a bit getting from the ship to the bus. It also rained when we were driving. We were extremely lucky.

On the way back to the ship from the Acropolis, we had about an hour of a panoramic tour of Athens – panoramic tours are done entirely from the bus.

lots of photos!

Athens struck me as more of a regular big city and not particularly tourist heavy. There were lots of tourists of course around the Acropolis, but on the regular streets, there seemed like mostly regular citizens.

We drove past the parliment, a monument to the modern Olympics, a cool sculpture made with thousands of pieces of jagged glass, and The Academy of Athens among other things. Although my favourite

Socrates & Plato at the Academy

excursions are walking tours, panoramic tours let you see many thngs quickly. like ours did today.