Thanks to guest Keith Larby for sharing some photos of Dancing with the Stars at Sea taken on his recent Ryndam cruise! We’ll be featuring more of Keith’s photos in posts to come, so stay tuned. Or to see more of Keith’s photography visit his website: www.akphotos.co.uk.

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Guests Jan and Dick Yetke set sail on Prinsendam’s 64-day Grand Mediterranean Voyage in March, and we’ll catch up as quickly as possible. Enjoy the journey with Jan and Dick!

Korcula is a small island in the Adriatic Sea, off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia and is beautiful! The main town is a small walled city, and they call it a mini-Dubrovnik. It is claimed to be the birthplace of Marco Polo. It is the sixth largest Adriatic island with a rather indented coast. The highest peaks are Klupca, 1,864 feet, and Kom, 1,670 feet. The island is largely covered with Mediterranean flora including extensive pine forests. The economy, besides tourism, is based on agriculture, namely the cultivation of grape vines, olives, fruit, fishing and fish processing.

The Greek colony of Korcula was established in the fourth century BC. It lingered through Roman and Byzantine rule, and reached great heights after becoming part of its powerful Venetian Maritime Empire in 1470. Named for the island of Corfu (Kerkira), the small community occupies the strategic tip of a narrow peninsula. Easy to explore, the horseshoe-shaped town is a tranquil place, but it was not always peaceful. In the 16th century, Ottomans attacked. In the same period, plague struck, and much of old town was burned to eliminate the disease. The walls were built just prior to that period, but were later taken down. The remains, and a few fortifications are visible along the shore. Walk the perimeter and explore the old towers and narrow streets. Most of the old structures are part of Venetian legacy, but later construction is also blended in. The main gate, and the section around 14th-century Revelin Tower, are the oldest.

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Although HAL blogger Gary Frink is home from his Oosterdam cruise, he still had a few wonderful posts to share. Enjoy!

Suva, Fiji provides exotica in multiple layers: a history of cannibalism through the early 20th Century — “A cannibal fork is the one thing I’ll buy here,” Jeanne announced; military coups; beggars and shoe shine boys in the streets; ethnic Melanesian/Polynesian men wearing Sulus (including police and military,) wrap-around, skirt-like garments bound at the waist (East Indian, roughly half of the population, men wear trousers;) very colorful, attractive postal stamps and currency notes and finally the clock tower, Big Ben of Fiji which, when functioning, strikes on the quarter hour (alas, it was apparently ailing and certainly soundless during our pass-through the campus of government buildings, where it resides.)

The day began with a stroll along the dock, past the police department orchestra, there to serenade us, near the bow of the ship. From the dock, we exchanged “BULAS” (the Fijian shout of welcome) with any and all, as we strolled to our first stop toward realizing our goal of leaving a sprinkling of Yankee Dollars in the City of Suva.

“Go into my shop, have a look around,” said an East Indian merchant, as Jeanne and I entered a long shed, divided into narrow, shallow, shop units. The salesman was leaning against the outside wall facing the one aisle extending through the shed; by loitering outside his limited space, he attempted to chat-up into his space, the foreigners passing down the aisle.

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Topics: Cruise Diary, ms Oosterdam, South Pacific | | No Comments

Guests Jan and Dick Yetke set sail on Prinsendam’s 64-day Grand Mediterranean Voyage in March, and we’ll catch up as quickly as possible. Enjoy the journey with Jan and Dick!

This country and port were a first for us, and for most of the passengers on this ship for that matter. It was a beautiful, great stop! We all loved it!

The local people were very friendly and welcoming. And because we are on this fairly small ship, as cruise ships go these days, we were able to dock right downtown! Awesome! I have also included a map photo showing our route into the town/harbor. Very unique we think.

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Topics: Cruise Diary, Grand Voyages, Mariner Voices, Mediterranean, ms Prinsendam, Shore Excursions | | 1 Comment

Guests Jan and Dick Yetke set sail on Prinsendam’s 64-day Grand Mediterranean Voyage in March, and we’ll catch up as quickly as possible. Enjoy the journey with Jan and Dick!

Welcome to the beautiful and very interesting city of Dubrovnik and the Dalmatian Coast!!! We have been here before but are always happy to return to this location!!!

It was a beautiful day!!! We took the complimentary shuttle bus from the pier to the Old Walled City – a very pretty about 20 minute drive. When we arrived at the plaza just outside the entrance to the Old City, it was mobbed with tourists. Crazy!!! Apparently April is a big tourist month for Europeans. Well, we made our way thru the crowds and into the Old City where we had a great walk all around. We went out to the little harbor, called Old Harbor there and walked around the wall there. Then we started winding our way up stairs and thru very narrow little streets, up and up. Oh, when you first enter the old city (you are on the Placa which is a very wide and beautiful street), you pass by a large fountain (Onofrios Fountain) which was built in the 15th-century. The 16-sided fountain’s carved heads spout cascades of water you are free to take.

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Topics: Art, Activities & Entertainment, Cruise Diary, Grand Voyages, Mediterranean, ms Prinsendam | | 1 Comment

Noel Bell, HAL guest and frequent blog contributor, was on Noordam for 21 days and is still sharing photos from his trip. Here is some snapshot taken during his call at Istanbul, Turkey.

A busy Istanbul harbour and cruise terminal on a Saturday afternoon.

Topics: Cruise Diary, Mediterranean, ms Noordam | | 1 Comment

Guests Jan and Dick Yetke set sail on Prinsendam’s 64-day Grand Mediterranean Voyage in March, and we’ve just received these wonderful posts. We’ll catch up as quickly as possible. Enjoy the journey with Jan and Dick!

We had a very nice relaxing cruise down to Piraeus, the port for Athens, from Istanbul. We arrived in Piraeus at 4 pm. I stayed on the ship, but Dick went out for a short bike ride over to the ferry docks (next to our pier) to check out the ferry schedule to and from the small island nearby called Aegina. We have stopped there in the past on one of our sailing trips and he has always wanted to take our bikes back there when we are docked in Piraeus. Didn’t get to do it last year when we stopped there on the world cruise since there was a ferry strike that day. He got the schedule and was told there would be no strike the next day!!! Yea!!

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Topics: Cruise Diary, Grand Voyages, Mariner Voices, Mediterranean, ms Prinsendam | | No Comments

Noel Bell, HAL guest and frequent blog contributor, is on Noordam for 21 days and is sharing photos from his trip. Here are some snapshots taken during his call at Istanbul, Turkey.

Istanbul arrival.

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Topics: Cruise Diary, Mediterranean, ms Noordam | | No Comments