On this cruise, I chose to book several excursions as there is so much to see and I was hoping for excellent and knowledgeable guides. However in Lesbos I planned to simply walk around the harbour area of Mytilene and find a taverna to have a lunch of calamari and Greek salad.
Amazingly for this time of year, the weather was again very good- sunny and quite warm. For this dance-camp on board we decided to schedule dance lessons for mid-morning. I was craving the authentic Greek style calamari that I remembered from years past so the plan was to go ashore and find a seafood tavern in the harbor area.
The Queen Elizabeth docked in Mykonos in the new port area, a short drive round the bay from the old port and harbor front area. Shuttle buses were running back and forth between the two areas for most of the day. I signed up for a morning excursion to Delos, a short boat ride from Mykonos.
Although I have cruised several times on the Queen Mary 2 (and love cruising on this ocean liner) and once on the Queen Victoria, this was my first time on board Cunard's Queen Elizabeth. Once I had checked out my cabin and seen that my luggage was not yet there for me to unpack, I took my camera and went exploring. Very quickly I realized that I liked the smaller, more intimate feel of this ship which has the capacity for 2,092 passengers compared to the maximum passenger capacity of 3090 of her larger sister ship.
The ship is 964 ft long and is the second-biggest Cunard ship, with the Queen Mary 2 (QM2) being the largest at 1132 ft long. Whereas it often takes me till the end of the cruise to figure out where I am on the QM2 (I am a bit directionally and spatially challenged) I felt I could quite quickly figure out my space and directions on the Queen Elizabeth.
On my second day in Athens I woke to another warm and sunny day. Highs were predicted to be around 24ºC. The first task on my mind was to find the local Post Office and buy stamps for the postcards that I planned to mail to my grand-children. I gave them a map of the places that the cruise will take us to and hopefully getting the picture postcards will mean something to my grand-daughter, who has studied the continents and the various countries and their capitals.Today is the day of the big transit strike so I was curious to see what difference this made in the traffic through these narrow streets.
As I exited the hotel ready to walk in the direction of the square where the Post Office was located, the first thing i noticed was about thirty policemen on the opposite side of the road. They were just milling around and it did not look as if anything serious was happening but I wondered.
Following advice on an excellent website for travel in Greece, namely "Matt Barrett's Geek Travel Guide", I made a hotel booking at the Hotel Attalos on Athina Street, about 5 minutes walk from The Plaka area.
The weather in Athens has been unseasonably warm and dry so when I woke with the sun streaming through the hotel window I anticipated a very pleasant day exploring the city. After walking through some of the the narrow streets in the Plaka, and picking up almonds and walnuts from one of the stores, we decided to take a Hop-On Hop-Off Red Bus and tour the city.
The Acropolis was on winter hours and closed at 3, so at the Acropolis stop we got off the bus. For reasons that were unclear, admission was free today. Lucky us!
On this cruise, I chose to book several excursions as there is so much to see and I was hoping for excellent and knowledgeable guides. However in Lesbos I planned to simply walk around the harbour area of Mytilene and find a taverna to have a lunch of calamari and Greek salad.
Amazingly for this time of year, the weather was again very good- sunny and quite warm. For this dance-camp on board we decided to schedule dance lessons for mid-morning. I was craving the authentic Greek style calamari that I remembered from years past so the plan was to go ashore and find a seafood tavern in the harbor area.
The Queen Elizabeth docked in Mykonos in the new port area, a short drive round the bay from the old port and harbor front area. Shuttle buses were running back and forth between the two areas for most of the day. I signed up for a morning excursion to Delos, a short boat ride from Mykonos.
Although I have cruised several times on the Queen Mary 2 (and love cruising on this ocean liner) and once on the Queen Victoria, this was my first time on board Cunard's Queen Elizabeth. Once I had checked out my cabin and seen that my luggage was not yet there for me to unpack, I took my camera and went exploring. Very quickly I realized that I liked the smaller, more intimate feel of this ship which has the capacity for 2,092 passengers compared to the maximum passenger capacity of 3090 of her larger sister ship. 
On my second day in Athens I woke to another warm and sunny day. Highs were predicted to be around 24ºC. The first task on my mind was to find the local Post Office and buy stamps for the postcards that I planned to mail to my grand-children. I gave them a map of the places that the cruise will take us to and hopefully getting the picture postcards will mean something to my grand-daughter, who has studied the continents and the various countries and their capitals.Today is the day of the big transit strike so I was curious to see what difference this made in the traffic through these narrow streets.
As I exited the hotel ready to walk in the direction of the square where the Post Office was located, the first thing i noticed was about thirty policemen on the opposite side of the road. They were just milling around and it did not look as if anything serious was happening but I wondered. 
The weather in Athens has been unseasonably warm and dry so when I woke with the sun streaming through the hotel window I anticipated a very pleasant day exploring the city. After walking through some of the the narrow streets in the Plaka, and picking up almonds and walnuts from one of the stores, we decided to take a Hop-On Hop-Off Red Bus and tour the city.
The Acropolis was on winter hours and closed at 3, so at the Acropolis stop we got off the bus. For reasons that were unclear, admission was free today. Lucky us!
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