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Having recently recounted the tale of my recent voyage round the Mediterranean, I would like to share some comments on being well travelled. First, rhetorically, what defines being well travelled?

I have been most fortunate to have travelled fairly widely and seen many fascinating things, but can I ever see them all. My favourite television programmes at the moment are the different travel series presented by the intrepid BBC explorer Michael Palin, and while sitting relishing in his commentary I came to the brutal conclusion that you could spend a lifetime exploring the world and only experience a minority of it.

If I set out from any point in the world, I could circumnavigate the world many times, visiting the same places and never see it all, experience all the cultures and just as I had succeeded, history would have made my visit defunct.

Fortunately, explorers like Michael Palin bring us the opportunity to witness things which we would otherwise never see. Michael has written a book to go with each of his journeys, read them online (at no charge) here.

Having left Istanbul, we progressed through Thessaloniki to Valletta in Malta. This trip took a few days and we had a chance to relax at sea. Malta is geographically slap bang in the middle of the Mediterranean and just south of Sicily. Because of its position, it has been of strategic importance all through history. The single most important stage in the history of this (now independent) country was the age of the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem – today St John’s Ambulance.

The capital was founded by the Knights under their leader de la Valette in 1566. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is home to St. Johns Co-Cathedral which is singularly unimpressive on the outside. Inside, however, it must be the most ornate and beautiful Cathedral I have ever been in. The Knights are buried beneath the floor, with de la Valette buried beneath the alter.

Malta is a tiny country – Valletta itself only houses just under 6500 people (roughly the same as the number of students at Rhodes University). Despite its size, it has a remarkable diversity as exemplified by the differences between Valletta and Medina (the ancient capital), which we also visited.

Following Malta, we visited Sardinia. Famous for it’s beaches, we saw an entirely different side of Sardinia. We travelled inland for about an hour and a half to just south of the centre of the island to a small town known as Barumini. The town is home to The Nuragi of Barumini, which is the largest of the nuragi on the island and pre-dates the pyramids at Giza by 1000 years. It was a fair climb into this conical shaped structure and was a little strange to descend through several thousand years of rock walls.

Finally, however, the cruise came to an end. From Sardinia, we spent a day at sea before disembarking the Navigator of the Seas for the last time in Barcelona. In Barcelona we took a open top city tour and simply stupefied on the bus. This was because we had had four hours sleep and had been on the go for 12 days. We did however see a variety of fascinating things, including the work of Antoni Gaudi, most notably the Sagrada Família. Towards the end of the tour, we drove past the cruise harbour and with the sound of a ships horn in our ears, got a final look at the Navigator of the Seas, and our trip was essentially over.

End Notes: This was a very short and terse description of our trip. The 37 photos here are a small sample of the 1200 photos and three hours of video which still need to be sorted. The history and names are as I remember them, with a little help from Wikipedia now and then. Please comment on any errors and notable omissions I may have made.

After Athens, we set sail once more. This time we were destined for Asia. On the bright and sunny Thursday, September 11, we disembarked the Navigator of the Seas into Kusadasi, Turkey. It was the first, and so far, last time any of us have been to Asia. Kusadasi was to be our gateway to the ancient city of Ephesus.

Ephesus which began life as a Grecian city evolved into Rome’s provincial capital in Asia. Located on the Silk Road, it was one of the most influential cities of the ancient world and its monuments bear testament to this. In addition to the actual city of Ephesus, the area is home to the site of the Temple of Artemis – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It is also home to two significant and moving Christian sites, the last home of the Virgin Mary and a Cathedral dedicated to St. John, where he was buried before being relocated to the Topkapi Palace museum in Istanbul.

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 1:1-2

After visiting Ephesus, we returned to Kusadasi with a lunch stop in between. Kusadasi is reputed to be one of the places to purchase a Turkish carpet, so prior to embarking the ship we did a little browsing, coffee drinking and buying.

After our 16h30 departure, at 17h00 sharp the ships alarm sounded and a very moving minutes silence was held on board. On deck, people rose from their chairs and amongst tears honoured the events and victims of September 11, 2001.

Unfortunately, the lunch caused a few problems and the following morning a short trip to the ships pharmacy was required. As a result of this, however, when trying to disembark in Istanbul, we encountered a GI-10. Apparently we were in quarantine for a norovirus. This spoilt our day and largely ruined our visit to Istanbul as we were unable to take our original tour, we had to take a one day trip instead.

Nonetheless, on day two we got out there and visited the Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar. This was a highlight visit of Byzantium Istanbul. We found Istanbul a fascinating, but very “Western” city. Despite the fact that it is the city of 10000 minarets, we could have been anywhere in Europe (which I guess we were, we didn’t visit the Asian side of the city). The big difficulty came at prayer time… The Grand Bazaar was also somewhat disappointing as it was like a very large shopping mall, very structured and orderly. You could buy anything though. We limited ourselves to a few souvenirs. In the Topkapi Palace we encountered the Topkapi dagger, which is world famous, and some very significant religious artefacts. These included the remains of St John and Moses’ staff.

What was a particular highlight of our trip to Istanbul was that this was the first time the Navigator of the Seas had ever visited the city and it was the largest ship to ever enter the harbour. We got a wonderful welcome of horns from all the tugs and pilot vessels in the bay and the ferry boats were sailing past us so that passengers could take photos.

Having boarded the Navigator of the Seas, we set out on a 12 night cruise of the Eastern Mediterranean. Our journey first took us to the most southerly region of Italy – Sicily. We visited their capital city Palermo, which is by far the most untidy city I have ever been to.

In Palermo we visited the usual array of castles and Churches, all of which were badly preserved and not of any particular interest. These included the smallest castle I have ever seen – half of it fell down – and a Church which was never completed. We did, however, also visit one of the most disgusting sites that I have ever seen. Catacombs are generally not on my visit list, but somehow these managed to slip into this tour without us realising it. Of course, it was not just a case of going into catacombs. These catacombs – known as the Capuchin catacombs – contain figures which were preserved and then dressed. As a result, most still have skin and some still have hair. We couldn’t take photos, but I found this page which has some links to photos on the left.

After Palermo we had a relaxing day at sea to soak up some of the Mediterranean sun before continuing onto our next stop – Athens. Unlike Palermo, and even Rome, Athens is a clean friendly city. We started the morning with a drive from the port city of Piraeus to Athens. The arrangement of Piraeus and Athens is much like that of Johannesburg and Pretoria, you’re not quite sure where one ends and the other begins – and these two are even closer.

The primary highlight in Athens is the Acropolis which contains the ancient Grecian temple to Athena, the Parthenon. We spent the better part of the morning on the Acropolis after which we wondered in the Plaka and had some lunch. We also engaged in a nominal dose of retail therapy and purchased a few souvenirs. There was the possibility to do some caching, but after lunch I wasn’t that excited and wanted to make sure I was on time for the bus.

Some days later, after the time we spent in Turkey (more on that in the next post), we revisited Greece with a trip to the second largest city Thessaloniki. There wasn’t much going for Thessaloniki, as it is primarily a large industrial city. We did visit a few museums and got a rather spectacular view of the city from the Citadel, but that’s about it.

Well, its been some time since I returned from The Turkish Delight and its time to recount some of the tale. We flew from Joburg to Rome via Frankfurt and had a wonderful trip. Frankfurt Airport was superb and it is officially my favourite airport. Once again Rome Airport was a disappointment.

We had two days in Rome to allow our luggage to catch up with us and we made good use of it by having a look at a few old favourites in Rome as well as a few things that we haven’t done before. We started with a walk to St. Peters Square and the Castel Sant’Angelo. For our first day, it was fantastic to find a Geocache in Rome, unfortunately it turned out to be the only one of the whole trip.

Day two in Rome included a very lengthy walk round the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. It was fabulous to be able to go in to the archaeological dig and to explore the ancient Roman history – all the way back to the mythical beginning.

After Rome we departed for Civitavecchia which was the location of the Roma Cruise Terminal. Here we swiftly embarked Royal Caribbean International’s Navigator of the Seas. The Navigator was a mammoth vessel and we had fantastic staterooms. This ship is so big that it has its own street: The Royal Promenade!