A collection of videos from Western & Eastern Mediterranean shore excursions

In case you are going to any of these places and it's of any interest or help with your planning :

 

WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN (2011)

 

ROME (Civitivecchia)

St Peter's Basilica

The Colosseum, inc. the Underground tour

Palatine Hill and the Forum

The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps

 

Florence

 

Monaco/Monte Carlo

 

Palma, Majorca

Beach day at Illetas (skip to 1.05 in this video)

The North of the Island

 

BARCELONA

Gothic Quarter and Columbus Column

La Sagrada Familia

Parc Guell

 

TUNIS (La Goulette)

Carthage

Sidi Bou Said

 

NAPLES

Pompeii

Herculaneum

 

EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN (2009)

 

Dubrovnik Walls Walk

 

GREECE

Athens (Acropolis and Agora)

The Ancient Sanctuary of Olympia

Santorini inc. Volcano and Hot Springs

Corfu (Old Town & Old Fortress)

 

Ephesus inc. The Terraced Houses

 

Messina (town only)

In case you are going to any of these places and it's of any interest or help with your planning

 

Tony,

 

That is some list of videos you have compiled and I've seen most of them. You do a very nice job of presenting the material in a very informative way. I'll check to see if there are any that I've missed.

 

Ron

In case you are going to any of these places and it's of any interest or help with your planning :

 

WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN (2011)

 

ROME (Civitivecchia)

St Peter's Basilica

The Colosseum, inc. the Underground tour

Palatine Hill and the Forum

The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps

 

Florence

 

Monaco/Monte Carlo

 

Palma, Majorca

Beach day at Illetas (skip to 1.05 in this video)

The North of the Island

 

BARCELONA

Gothic Quarter and Columbus Column

La Sagrada Familia

Parc Guell

 

TUNIS (La Goulette)

Carthage

Sidi Bou Said

 

NAPLES

Pompeii

Herculaneum

 

EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN (2009)

 

Dubrovnik Walls Walk

 

GREECE

Athens (Acropolis and Agora)

The Ancient Sanctuary of Olympia

Santorini inc. Volcano and Hot Springs

Corfu (Old Town & Old Fortress)

 

Ephesus inc. The Terraced Houses

 

Messina (town only)

 

WOW THank you NOW I am really looking forward to my visit to Rome..and other places you documented GOOD JOB

Great info great videos Perfect activity on a lazy sunday I will see them all Very educational ..Thanks again ..Now to remember it all

 

Michele

In case you are going to any of these places and it's of any interest or help with your planning :

 

 

I watched all of your youtubes a few months ago for our last cruise and they are fabulous. Now I'm doing "the other side" of Italy and watching the rest.

 

We are only in Dubrovnik from 7am to 2 pm - a shame as it looks beautiful. Is this enough time to do anything reasonable? It is a tender port I think, but how close is the city to the Port? Hopefully nothing like Rome. I am hoping it will be like Villefrance.

I watched all of your youtubes a few months ago for our last cruise and they are fabulous. Now I'm doing "the other side" of Italy and watching the rest.

 

We are only in Dubrovnik from 7am to 2 pm - a shame as it looks beautiful. Is this enough time to do anything reasonable? It is a tender port I think, but how close is the city to the Port? Hopefully nothing like Rome. I am hoping it will be like Villefrance.

Thanks for your kind words. I'm just back from 12 days on the Nieuw Amsterdam and will get some more Med ports done as soon as I can, including Venice and Istanbul, but on Dubrovnik I'll leave it to those more knowledgeable about what else you can do in your relatively short time. Once at the port it was a quick (5 mins ?) taxi to the Pile Gate, and we walked back down (20 mins) after we had pottered about the town and walls. I would estimate it's about 2km from port-city so certainly nothing remotely like Rome. Good luck, Tony

The Grand Canal (Piazzale Roma - San Marco)

 

The Doge's Palace

Piazza San Marco

 

The queue (11 am. July 30) for entry to St Mark's Basilica was almost back level with the facade of the Doge's Palace that overlooks the lagoon but it moved quickly and we were inside with 20 minutes.

 

Entrance is free but you have to pay a couple of euros to go the the High Altar, where the Pala d'Oro is, and €3 to go into the Treasury. And there is also a charge (€4 ?) to go upstairs to the museum where the Bronze Horses are but I didn't have time to do that.

 

The lift up the Campanile only takes about 8 people and I waited about 15 minutes for that at 3.30 pm that afternoon. Once up there a maximum of 10 minutes is all you need. I tried to go up the San Giorgio Maggiore campanile too but it was shut without indication of when it would be open to the public. However I would have thought the view from the top deck of your ship on the sail-in or out would be just as good, perhaps even better as you are not obstructed by window frames and walls and that bit closer to the city.

 

At around 6.30 shows the Clock Tower. I would have like to have done that to see the workings of all aspects of the clock, as much as for the views, but you are much higher up in the Campanile and can see the Piazza and Piazzetta pretty well from that.

 

 

Views of Venice

This one features areas not covered by the other 3 videos, and includes the gondolas, a quick visit to Murano, the sail-out from the Giudecca canal and (at the end) St Mark's Square by night.

After Venice it was Kotor on 20 July

with another spectacular sail-in. The tender takes you right to the Sea Gate city entrance, through which you enter the main square and can explore this charming town.

 

If you want to walk up to the Fortress of St John it costs €3 and will take about 35 - 40 minutes going up, and about half that coming back. The steps and paths are uneven and in some areas unstable so ensure you have footwear that is up to the job.

 

That boat rode around the bay costs €12 pp, but as we were 6 including 2 kids we were charged €60 in total. It leaves on the hour and the ride is about 45-50 minutes. The boat stops at Perast but I'm not sure if you can get off there and catch a later boat back to Kotor without paying again.

 

At the end of the video we are shown swimming off a beach area more or less in front of where the our ship (the Nieuw Amsterdam) was anchored. The water is very clean and a good temperature too. All the best, Tony

Topkapi Palace

 

Entry to the palace was 25TL (u12s free), + another 15 for the Harem (where the kids had to pay ) You only see relatively little of this enormous complex, but there's still plenty to be fascinated by and I loved it. The Topkapi without the harem is like Laurel without Hardy so if you go, don't miss it.

 

The next morning we went to the Hagia Sophia

and spent an hour there. Entry cost 25 TL and we bought our tickets in advance from http://www.muze.gov.tr/hagiasophia This worked well as we went straight in past the long lines. You print out an email with a QR code for each ticket and remember to take it with you :)

 

Again, u12s are free but you don't get any sort of ticket for them. Our youngster was obviously under 12 and the official at the turnstile waved her through, but we had her passport with us anyway.

 

The only downside with buying your ticket in advance is that the website makes it clear it is non-refundable so if you don't use it, it's lost. But as 25TL is not a fortune I'd say getting it this way is well worth it - just double check you get the date right.

Next up was the Blue Mosque

Entry is free and they provide clothing if your shorts don't cover your knees. You can't go in at prayer times, so as the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque are almost next to each other go to the mosque first and check your possible entry times (i.e. outside of the 5 prayer periods). That way you will know when to go there and not waste precious time. If you get lucky and can go in straight away, do so and go to the Hagia Sophia afterwards - your ticket there is for the day and does not specify a time.

 

Then we went to the Basilica Cistern

You can't buy your (10 TL) ticket in advance but the queue moves quickly. There are over 50 steps down to the cistern floor. I think this is another 'must-see' as there can't be too much else like it anywhere. It's a one trick pony but a great one, and we spent 15 minutes down there.

 

It was close to 1 pm by now so we jumped on a tram and went to the Grand Bazaar (10 minutes there) then back near the port to see the Galata Tower (12 TL), walked across the Galata Bridge and had a quick look at the Spice Bazaar. This

shows those. All the best, Tony

We arrived here at 1 pm, and as we were not doing a ship's excursion we weren't on the first tenders, so a trip to the island of Delos was not possible.

 

No matter, on a hot, intensive cruise you sometimes need a port to just kick back and relax in. And this is one such place.

We'd been to Ephesus

in 2009 so this time we just went to Ladies Beach

 

It's a 15TL taxi from the port and riding the scrambler cost €20 pp.

The waters at the spring at Agios Nikolaos bay are very 'muddy' so use a synthetic swimming costume or one you don't mind getting stained

The palace is right in front of you as you get off the tender. The beach we went to is about half a mile away

Thank you so much for the videos :) I watched a few a couple of months ago and they are wonderful. I have a day off work tomorrow so hope to catch up with a few more tomorrow.

Did you go to Barcelona in the summer? We are there for 2 days prior to starting our cruise this August and am wondering how busy it is going to be to see the gaudi sights.

Thanks again!!

Thank you so much for the videos :) I watched a few a couple of months ago and they are wonderful. I have a day off work tomorrow so hope to catch up with a few more tomorrow.

Did you go to Barcelona in the summer? We are there for 2 days prior to starting our cruise this August and am wondering how busy it is going to be to see the gaudi sights.

Thanks again!!

And thank you for your kind words. The Barcelona vids were from 13 & 14 July (2011). It was busy but not so that it made any difference to us. Thinking back, we just walked into the Sagrada Familia but it was a rainy day, so maybe book at time or just show up there early, as you will be able to, not being constrained by a ship's start or finish deadlines. Have a great time, I know you will, Tony

Thank you so much for posting all of the links for these videos and for the additional information.

 

Outstanding!

 

Keith

Thank you so much for posting all of the links for these videos and for the additional information.

 

Outstanding!

 

Keith

Thanks Keith ! That will be it for a while, as this summer's cruise visits Bruges, La Coruna, Porto, Lisbon, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Motril and Barcelona, so not many of them are in the Med. All the best, tony

Hi Cruisemom

 

I'd really appreciate a copy of your notes. Thank you. it is tracy-regan at sky dot com.

 

Thank you.

Here's the first of 3 from our day in Gibraltar

 

This one-hour tour is not included on the Upper Reserve ticket and costs £8 pp. You may find it on a ship's tour but I don't think it can be booked in advance independently. I thought it was great, but so much depends on the guide, and Hans was wonderful.

 

If you walk there and find you have to wait more than 15 minutes you can look around the nearby Moorish castle (which is on the UR ticket). The next video will be about the Great Siege Tunnels (also on the UR ticket). All the best, Tony

This one is on the Nature Reserve ticket and is arguably the highlight up there. There's plenty of information about these tunnels (in contrast to the WWII tunnels, where you have a guide - and need one) and of course the cannons and one or two other props are there.

 

Because you can look out of the embrasures this is much more tourist-friendly than the WWII tunnels, although I enjoyed them enormously too.

As we stepped off the ship we took a people-carrier shuttle to the drop-off point by Grand Casemates Square (£3 return) and walked along Main Street until we reached the Trafalgar Cemetery. Here we got a taxi to the Upper Reserve. I think it was £22 pp, but that included entrance to the Nature Reserve attractions so it was more less the same as if we'd taken the cable car up and bought a Nature Reserve ticket.

 

Here's what we did

 

Entry to the WWII tunnels is not included in the NR ticket and costs an additional £8 pp. On returning to Grand Casemates Square we got the return shuttle back to the ship. That concludes the set for the August 2013 Dover-Barcelona cruise on the Ryndam.

This next batch are from a cruise from Barcelona - Rome on Oceania's Marina, starting with the first port stop, Marseille.

 

The cruise line provided a free shuttle for the 4 mile/15 minute ride from the enormous commercial port to the Old Port area. It dropped us at the Centre Bourse, from where you walk almost straight ahead into the Old Port - maybe 100 yards ?

 

From there, as you look ahead to the Notre Dame de la Garde high on the hill in the distance, the Quai du Port, on your right with the Hotel de Ville, is the Petit Train's departure point. It's about 2/3 of the way down that side of the marina. Get your ticket there (€8 pp) from the booth. Trains leave every half hour or so so if you just miss one you can spend time walking around the marina - check out the fish market on Quai des Belges, near the metro station and the famous mirrored shelter and/or the Fort St Jean.

 

The 'train' takes about 25 minutes to get to and from the ND de la G, and you'll want about 30-40 minutes up there. I though the whole thing was great - you get a decent commentary on the train and the basilica itself is amazing.

 

The video

Entry to the Annonciade museum costs €6 pp.

Cannes is not a bad place but the best thing about it is that it has a train station for going somewhere more interesting. This shows the bit we see on telly each May

(won't play on mobiles or Smart devices :mad:)