Peter's Travel Blog

Today has been a sea day, but one with a difference. In the morning, we passed through the Dardanelles Strait; worth getting up early for and listening to the on-deck commentary by Dr Roger Cartwright…   This is an area steeped in history and myth. It was the scene of a major military campaign in the 2nd World War, at...

Today, we arrived in the port of Piraeus, in Greece. It was another relatively early start, in order to get up on deck and see whereabouts we were. Piraeus is a large port, so it pays to establish your bearings as soon as possible. After a hearty breakfast, we got our things together and went ashore. Today’s objective was to...

Having workshops at the latter end of the afternoon has given us lots of time to enjoy the sea (and reduced the need to get up too early). Standing at the pointy-end of the ship and watching the world go by is a very relaxing thing to do, and surprisingly absorbing; The Mediterranean is a busy place, so there are...

Today, we arrived in Malta. It was an early arrival, so we’d even set the alarm to make sure that we’d be up on deck in time to see the city as we sailed in. And what a truly beautiful city it is – from the harbour, at least; Malta has quite a colourful, and turbulent, past, and its impressive...

Another day at sea, and another nugget of trivia from our esteemed captain; did you know that United Airlines cut $40,000 off its annual budget just by removing a single olive from its in-flight waldorf salad? Strange but true… apparently.   The second workshop – a tonal study in one colour (Paynes Grey) – went well. Everyone seemed very settled,...