This wasn’t our ship–but one just as big and obnoxious as ours, coming into the Santorini harbor; fours hours were soon to follow. The following morning, there were six ships, with something like 20,000 passengers, all of whom had to take a tender from their ship to the shoreside dock, then wait for a spot on the funicular to take them up to the village on the hilltop. I don’t know how many people actually succeeded in seeing anything on the island of Santorini, but I know a lot of people never made it off the dock. Fortunately, we had decided against even trying as we had see Santorini before.

In the last decade, cruising has became a nightmare–there are just far too many people just like us–with time and money enough to afford a Mediterranean cruise, but there are just so many places you can visit. The next stop was Athens. We thought that it wouldn’t be too hard to get into town from the harbor at Piraeus. So did all the other people in line with us.

Don’t get me wrong. Sue and I have taken some cruises that we have enjoyed. Our favorite are the TransAtlantic repositioning cruises that leave from Florida, perhaps stop by a Caribbean island or two and then sail for six or seven days without touching land. Sure the food, drinks, and entertainment can get boring, but it’s usually peaceful and serene sailing from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean. We might even do that again, but not sure now if we can bring ourselves to try it. You still have to contend with your three to four thousand fellow passengers, all striving to get fed or into the nightly theater production.

The saving grace on this trip was being with John and Bonnie, Sue’s brother and sister in law. We do enjoy being with them and sharing some of the experiences.

On this cruise, we enjoyed seeing Mykonos with them:

Olympus:

The Amalfi Coast and Sorrento:

And most especially the stop in Malta and the visit with their granddaughter, Betsy, who was there for her semester abroad: