It was two
years ago, while we were still planning our epic, nine week 2013 European road trip,
that Vaughan and I stumbled across an early-bird special for a 35 day cruise
with Azamara Club Cruises, starting in Istanbul in April 2015 and finishing in
Nice in early June. It's called Mediterranean Montage. (See map below)
This is a one-off charter planned to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of
the ANZAC Gallipoli landings and covers 27 ports around the east and western
Mediterranean. It caught our eye because of the Anzac connection, the amazing itinerary and the
extraordinarily reasonable entry level price - approximately ten grand (for five weeks)
Since
payment was only required in instalments over the next 18 months, we decided it
was an offer we couldn’t refuse, and we duly handed over our ten percent deposit. I
should point out at this stage that we opted to take a more expensive option: a
cabin with a balcony, figuring that if we were going to be aboard for a whole month,
we’d like to at least see where we’re going.
2015 seemed very
far into the future then.
We went on
to complete our European trip in 2013, then visited Spain in July 2014. We now regard ourselves as fairly seasoned
travellers with those two trips under our belts. We've tackled the rail systems of Spain, Switzerland and Germany, the country roads of France by car and the Rhine and Danube by river boat. How hard can a cruise around the Mediterranean be? I guess we'll find out.
Even though we are generally well equipped for travel, there are always things to be updated and
replaced before we go: eg more quick-dry underwear, a US power adapter and a bigger memory card
for the camera. We’re pleased we can pack more clothing than
our previous trips this time since we really only unpack the once. Nevertheless we plan to give the ‘Scrubba’
travel washing system a whirl to save time, money and mess. I’ll let you know how we get on with that.
The dress
code on a cruise ship may also require some dressing up so we’ve
had to factor in a ‘posh outfit’ or two.
No doubt we’ll want to cool off in the ship’s pool, so I’ll be packing my ‘Speedos’
as well.
Not surprisingly, what started as a terrific bargain in 2013 has become inflated by the need to add in all our shore excursions, spending money, plus our airfares to and from Europe. Unfortunately
we were slugged fairly hard for our outbound flight, as April is peak
traveling time for Aussies and Kiwis going to Turkey (for the Anzac Day Centenary
Dawn Service). Although we are not
attending any official part of the commemorations, we will visit
Anzac Cove the day before and will be moored a few miles off shore at dawn on the
morning of the 25th April. Even so it
should be a very special experience to be at such an historic site on that morning.
We have high
hopes for the rest of the trip too. We’re
each looking forward to different parts though. Vaughan is an ancient history buff, looking forward to any opportunity to visit historic sites and ruins in Turkey, Israel, Greece and Italy.
I’m
especially looking forward to cruising along the Dalmatian Coast and stopping at Dubrovnik and Split. Although I’ve
been to Italy before, I’m keen to revisit Venice, Florence and the Cinque Terre
because they are breathtakingly gorgeous.
I’m also looking forward to visiting some of the smaller islands en route such as
Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, not to mention Santorini and Rhodes. For me it’s about the Renaissance, the architecture
– and the food.
Our cruise finishes with a jaunt from
our westernmost port, Tangiers, up along
the Spanish coast and into the French Riviera.
We plan to spend an extra day in Nice and will take a day tour into the
Provencal countryside before returning to Australia the next day. I have an inkling that it won’t be long enough.to even scratch the surface of that part of France.
This time we’ll
be flying to Europe via the Middle East and will stop over in Abu Dhabi for a day and a
half of sightseeing. Our return flight
is in two stages: Abu Dhabi then Kuala Lumpur.
Unfortunately, the KL connection means that we arrive in Melbourne
in the early hours of Tuesday 2nd June.
We’ve booked ourselves into a hotel there and will fly back home the next
day. With any luck we’ll only be
semi jetlagged by then. I plan to take the rest of the week to recover but Vaughan is due back to work on Wednesday. Poor thing.
So that's the plan. We're both really looking forward to this trip. I hope you will enjoy
reading about our adventures as I post them here and on Facebook. When it’s all over, the photos and blog will be turned into another coffee table book from Blurb.com, and will serve as a lasting memento of our trip.
