The cruise is over!!!

Well, the Melody berthed this morning back in Genoa after a great 11 days. Since we left Jerusalem where we had an incredible two days, we have had half day visits to Limassol (Cyprus), Heraklion (Crete) and Sorrento (Italy). These half day visits are way too short and very unsatisfying. In Limassol, we hired a cab with friends and went out to visit some of the sights (Citadel, the amphitheatre and Temple of Apollo) and then back to have a beer overlooking the sea. In Heraklion, John went to Knossos while I stayed with a group of friends and drank iced coffee at a local cafe and wandered around the town. It was Sunday when we were in Sorrento so we caught a local bus over to Positano (spectacular drive - possibly the most spectacular in the world) and had a coffee overlooking this wonderful city and then caught the bus back. Shame but that is all the time the cruise offered. We arrived back into Genoa this morning and caught the train back to Milano.

All in all, for us, the cruise was a great experience. There was certainly room for improvement with MSC. Not a lot of activities that we wanted to do and the ones we did want to do were not very good. The food was really good especially for us travelling. We were so lucky to have wonderful people at our table whom I am sure we will stay friends with now. Actually we are meeting Ron and Sunny for dinner in Milano tonight. We helped the other couple, Bruce and Marg, celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on the 27th so that was special. This made the cruise for all of us - to have made such good friends. There were not many English speaking people on board so we tended to band together. Some "many time" cruisers were disappointed in the boat but we quite enjoyed it. John was one of the table tennis kings and won two caps for us.

We fly out to Prague tomorrow afternoon and will go for a walk around Milan this afternoon. We are booked to see the Last Supper tomorrow morning. We are looking forward to moving on now and begin the main part of our trip.