I have visited Turkey several times both on cruises and also land tours so there were many places I could write about but one of the highlight tours was a visit to Cappadocia in central Turkey to see the strange rock formations or ‘fairy chimneys.'

The story of this month-long sea-based journey from the Black Sea to the Western Mediterranean is written as three distinct travelblogues. This is the index to the stories. Links will be added and activated as each story is posted.

The first part is about Istanbul and the Black Sea on the MV Aegean Odyssey during which we will learn of the history, art and culture  of the countries bordering on the Black Sea.

Then follows a four night cruise in the Western Mediterranean on Costa Luminosa.

A brief stay in Venice and then we embark on the Italian Dreams cruise on Crystal Serenity through the Adriatic, Mediterranean and Tyrrhenian Seas to Monaco.

Three Ships: Aegean Odyssey, Costa Luminosa, Crystal Serenity.
Seven Seas: Black Sea and the sub-divisions of the Mediterranean including the Sea of Marmara, the Adriatic, Ionian, Tyrrhenian, Ligurian and Balearic Seas.

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.

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. 

When circumstances result in reservations through different airlines, airport connections can be tricky with connection times either very tight, so you sit wondering how long it will take to retrieve your luggage and get it to the next check-in, or else layovers too long to be comfortable but not long enough to leave the airport and go do something fun. Travelling from Vancouver to LAX to connect with a 7:15 pm international flight on Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and onto Athens, I looked in vain for a direct YVR-LAX flight to get me into LAX with at least 3 hours before the TA flight, but my options were limited. So in the end I took an early morning flight and planned to sit patiently in LAX and get writing done.