Aegean Isles 2017

Even though it was before 7:00 a.m. when we went downstairs for breakfast this morning, other members of the Gee Group were already finishing their meal because some had to catch earlier flights than others. Jim and Carol had hired a separate van to take the first group to the...

Getting through Rome on a Monday morning proved more challenging and time-consuming than it had been on Saturday. The day was as beautiful this morning as then, but traffic was much heavier. The one benefit was that we were able to see—and hear Fabrizio’s commentary on--parts of Rome that were...

Our third-floor room at the Hotel President is stylishly modern, and reportedly more spacious than those of some others in the Gee Group. It is at the front of the building, so our large windows open onto the Via Emanuele Filiberto, a busy thoroughfare in the Esquilino district. Even though...

This morning we awoke where we had started last Saturday: the cruise terminal at Piraeus, near Athens. We ate an early breakfast and then hurried to squeeze our pajamas and toiletries into our carry-on bags before thanking all the crew members who had made our cruise such a memorable one....

The ship was still moving this morning when we awoke, en route back to the western side of the Aegean Sea. We were not scheduled to moor until around noon, so everyone except the captain and his mates had a chance to sleep in. Veranda, which normally opens at 7:00...

From our porthole, Santorini looks like a half-eaten slice of chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, resting on a blue plate: dark cliffs topped with a row of whitewashed buildings, rising steeply from the smooth, azure water. This little group of islands (total land area less than 30 square miles) is...

A perfect blue sky was draped over the harbor and the village of Skala when we went topside this morning to enjoy the sunshine and breakfast on Eggs Benedict. (Michael ordered the traditional formulation; Nancy and Mark both chose the Spanish version, made with chorizo sausage, manchego cheese, and saffron-spiced...

On our way to breakfast this morning, the first thing we saw when we opened the outside door at the top of the stairs was a gigantic red flag waving over the cruise terminal. “Oh my gosh,” thought Nancy. “We are in Turkey!” To be precise, we are in Kuşadasi...

This morning we awoke in Mykonos, a “classic Greek isle dotted with hundreds of whitewashed churches and thatch-roofed windmills,” in “a harbor bobbing with fishing boats and luxurious private yachts”—some of them “very private,” according to Kevin, the 20-year-old native who would be our guide later in the morning. “We...

Today we woke up docked in Nafplio on the Peloponnese, “one of the most romantic cities in Greece,” according to the Daily Program the ship publishes each morning. It boasts a "medieval old town with narrow cobblestone alleys and neoclassical mansions with bougainvillea trees adorning the balconies.” They got the...