The timing seemed perfect when we saw a discounted cruise around the Greek islands. It meant we just do the epic long, long haul then jump on a ship whilst we sort the jet lag. We would land overnight in Athens and then spend 6 nights cruising around whilst someone else cooks the food, organises the transport and washes the towels etc. A few months after we booked our cruise it was cancelled but they offered us another one for the same price. It was a day longer but otherwise looked more perfect than the one we originally booked.
And now here we are. The cruise is with Silversea and the ship is Silver Whisper, there is about 300 people on here and the same amount of staff. One of the things I love about Silversea is that it’s all inclusive, you don’t pay for anything once onboard. Not at the restaurants or bars and best of all you dont have to worry about tipping. So not good for the waistline nor sobriety but definitely easy going. Our room was upgraded and we are in a beautiful suite which is beyond any of my expectations.
Silver Whisper
We head to Santorini and head of on a village tour of the island, which i must admit was rather boring in the spoken kind of way but the sights and sounds and sun make up for it all as we wander through the lives of the smaller villages in Santorini.
We visit Thira the capital and join the throngs of other cruise ship occupants and tourists. There are 5 ships parked up in the harbour and all of them much larger than ours. We find a lovely restaurant in an upstairs bar and sit in the corner to enjoy the view out to the harbour as well as the tourist ants walking below. The food is delicious as we dine upon a salad thing with promegranates and pistachio nuts along with all the other Greek salad things such as cucumber and tomato and feta it’s delicous. We then eat chicken thighs and potato and you can taste the aniseed and fig amongst the flavours. It doesn’t disappoint. We are supposed to catch the cable car back down to the ship but the queue winds its way around several blocks so we wander around some more, have a drink and come back after an hour or so whereby its still an hour and a half long. We decide to take the donkey route and climb down the 579 steps to the bottom.
The next day is Bodrum in Turkey. A visit to a castle a walk along the promenade. A fascinating tour guide who tells us things I can’t write about on here but will make good wine talk with friends at a future date.
Next its onto Patmos which shall be remembered for its very cute cafe, with very wonderful food. Think zucchini fritters with Tzaziki and of course WH had some sort of sausage thing, but they had this baked cheeses and tomato one which was served in a little clay saucer thing and it was brilliant. It reminded me of what Dad used to cook us from breakfast. Of course we just called it tomato and cheese but he would make it in an old chipped enamel plate which he would slice thick tomato slices into then cover it with cheese and a little bit of milk and cook it all up till it was runny and gooey. If you were lucky he would even break an egg into it and it would cook in the milky, cheesey, goo. Go on give it a go, its great.
The jet lag in check. The sun is shining. The people are lovely. The bed is comfy and I am indeed a lucky girl. I don’t really want to go outside of all this cruisey vibe but can i just say this. I think it’s rude to have your phone on speaker talking to your kids the whole time you are at breakfast. I do not care what they ate or when they went to bed or even how their day at school was. The other bug bear is I don’t want to hear the conversation of people three tables away. I don’t mean a mild hum or drone I mean literally every single word. Maybe it would be different if there conversation was remotely interesting or entertaining but alas it is not. I want to tell them you are not that interesting and let it be done. So perhaps my jet lag still lingers in me and i can blame it for my intolerance or perhaps i am simply getting old. I shall promise not to complain of loud dinner music or noisey children.