Kotor, Montenegro

We have access to all the local weather information via the TV screens in our cabins. For some time it has been forecasting rain for Kotor and they are absolutely spot on.

We are only in Port for 5 hours today and with steady rain outside we will wait to see when we will head in, even if only for a short time just to say we have been into Kotor.

The worldwide sim card had problems connecting this morning. But after changing the settings from Europe to Global it eventually connected. The phone connected quickly enough but it seems to take forever for the data to connect. And then it only worked once, enough for me to see my footy team had a good lead 10 minutes into the final quarter.

So a quick trip ashore hopefully will give us a WiFi connection as well.

Tomorrow is Venice and fine weather is expected.  We leave here today at 1pm and get into Venice soon after lunch tomorrow (Sunday).  We expect a big change over in passengers as many of the Americans complete their Fort Lauderdale to Venice Cruise and need to disembark.

Dubrovnik

This photo is of the old city of Dubrovnik. Check Trish's Facebook pages for more photos.

Dubrovnik (Friday)

The New Amsterdam departed Corfu around 10:30pm Thursday night for the short hop up the coast, and back in time by 1 hour into Croatia and the city of Dubrovnik. The Friday morning sky was clear with lots of sunshine.  The ship had docked by 8am and passengers were disembarking soon after.

This is the view as we sailed into Dubrovnik.

The place to see in Dubrovnik is the old walled city.  As usual the ship had organised bus transfers to the Old City at US$32 return per couple. Others used the local bus service, a 1 minute walk just outside the port's gates with same return deal at a little over US$6 per couple return.

We actually shared a cab to the old city and still saved heaps of money. We returned to the ship a little after lunch totally exhausted via the local bus service.

Just to complicate things, today was a public holiday in Croatia so the 2000 passengers on our ship weren't the only ones looking for things to go and see.

The old walled city of Dubrovnik is a fantastic place to see. You really do feel like you are stepping back in time.  Much of the city was damaged during fighting in the early 1990's between various ethnic groups but has now almost totally been rebuilt.

Among other things we walked the entire city wall. You had to be part mountain goat going up and down stairs. The trek took us almost 2 hours.  Around each corner was a new sensational view.

The town is surrounded on a couple of sides by the sea and you could look down from high up on the wall into crystal clear waters below.

After completing the walk around the wall, we found a place that sold us a small bottle of Coke for a little over $3 but had seats, toilets and free wifi. We each enjoyed a soft drink, updating the blog and Facebook, and a quick trip to the 'loo' before making our local bus trip back to the ship.

We will most likely have aching legs for our last port of call to Kotor in Montenegro tomorrow.

If you are planning a trip to Europe in the near future, put Dubrovnik on the 'should visit' list.

The slide show below was put online some time after we had visited Dubrovnik.  All photos are from in or around the Dubrovnik old walled city.  Dubrovnik was attacked during the wars in the area in the 1990's and the city was shelled from the hills just to the rear of the old walled city.

How anyone could set out to damage such a beautiful historic place defies all human logic and sensibilities!

Many of the roofs on the buildings are of new roofing tiles and fortunately the city has been restored to its former glory!

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In Corfu

We arrived in Corfu today (Thursday) around 8 am.

We had to put our clocks an hour forward as Corfu is a part of Greece.  Greece is in a new time zone.

The ship offered us transfers into town at $8 US dollars per person each way.  We decided to do our own thing and were able to get into town for 1.5 Euros per person each way.  Our costs for transfers for both of us was around 6 Euros (a little over $6 US) while the ship would do it for US$32.  Yet another ripoff.

Lots of people did what we did and by passed the ships' offer.

Now Corfu is a place we both like.  The photo was taken from the top of the new fort which was 4 Euros entry each but with a free drink.  Ouzo on the rocks as at 10 am is a bit of a challenge!

The views from the top of the Fort were well worth the effort!

There were heaps of market type shops with lots of bargains in the town.  I got a new polyester T Shirt and cloth belt at a good prices. It's a great spot for easy relaxed shopping.  Nothing is too expensive and seems to be just the sort of things tourists are after.  Knick knacks, cheap clothing, all sorts of things.

Trish bought a new necklace pendant at a good price.  Our friend Marg Lehmann would go crazy at this place!  This was a fun place to be.

After 4 hours or so we wandered back to the ship.  There was free wifi at the terminal and it was as busy as with everyone updating emails or having a chat on Viber.  It was a great arrangement and everyone enjoyed it immensely.

Then back to the ship for a burger for lunch and then I took a happy hour beer up onto the pool deck to sit back and enjoy.  One of the ships better entertainers is the guy who plays in the Piano Bar.  He sat near us while he ate lunch so we struck up a conversation for an hour or so.  It was fun.  After he told us how good he was (yes he is from the US) he went back to his room while we adjourned to Happy Hour.

We are now sailing along again with the Croatian Coast sliding past out our window.

We have drinks in hand; I am typing and wondering what the poor people are doing!

Tomorrow is Dubrovnik!

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Life On Board the New Amsterdam.

I I am going to try another method of pre writing my Blog entry so if (and when) I lose it it is still available for me to recover and re post.

Life on the New Amsterdam is not hard to take. The Holland America Line has been around for years and this being one of their newer ships has all the mod cons you would expect.

Our cabin with a balcony on the 7th deck near the stern has plenty of room without being described as roomy. Everything is perfectly designed to make the maximum use of the space available. Grab rails are perfectly positioned, lighting is spot on, the small bar fridge works fine and there is heaps of storage and hanging space. The balcony is great for drinks when the weather permits or for that sensational view as you slide into a new port.

The bed is huge!

When Trish was planning the trip this 24 night cruise came across as good value when you consider the nights we have, the high reputation the line has and the itinerary.

It is an American company and all is done in US currency. With the Aussie dollar losing against the US dollar you have to add around 25% to convert costs. And every time you buy a drink etc there is a further 15% service charge.

I am drinking Budweiser Aluminium @ US$5.25 an aluminium shaped bottle. It is around stubby size. Fortunately there are 3 lots of Happy Hour in 3 different bars daily, the first from 4 till 5, the second from 5 to 6 and the final one at 10 till 11. Happy Hour is full price for your first drink but only $1 for the next. So for around $18 I can get 4 drinks at around $4.50 each. They will sell them 'to go' unopened and allow you to take them back to your room if you want.

The food is excellent and plentiful. There is a bistro which we use mostly, also a sit down fully waited upon dining room, and other first class restaurants which require an extra charge to attend after you have been to your 'complimentary' first meal. We attended our 'complimentary' meal at this top class on board restaurant last night and the bottle of Australian Grant Burge shiraz cost $40 but as our meal was complimentary, the wine was a bargain.

The bistro dining area on the 9th deck (see photo below) is excellent and also is a great laid back place to eat as well. As well there is the free pizza bar or the Dive In which has burgers and cheese smothered hot dogs as well as chips.

The food costs are fully inclusive in our Cruise fares.

Being an American ship which originally set sail from Fort Lauderdale, most passengers are American. American twang permeates the ship and much of the on board entertainment has a strong American bias as well.

Let us now come to the shore excursions arranged for by the ship company. Having travelled in Europe before we have a rough idea on what these extra costs should be. A conservative estimate is ship organised tours are at least double what I would have guessed.

A tour to Sorrento and then Pompeii was available for around US$160 per person from the ship. We did an 'outside' tour to the wonderful Amalfi Coast, Sorrento and Pompeii for 90 euros each, roughly half price. 1 euro is around US$1.

Today is a day at sea, one of only 3 or 4 days we have just cruising. Tomorrow Thursday we arrive in Corfu Greece. Many of the passsengers are like us and will just wander ashore for a look around.

We have been fortunate with the weather. It is a little on the cooler side but today at sea on our way to Corfu I am in my shorts and T Shirt and is around 21 degrees, one of our warmer days.

Now the acid test will come when I have a go at copy/pasting this text into my Blogger app along with the photo. This time however I have a backup.

Remember to keep an eye on Trish's Facebook page for more photos.

At Corfu on free WiFi and removed photo to see if I can publish.  It won't publish with the photo.