23/06 - departure day - early breakfast - what a difference in guests - yesterday a bright and chirpy group at breakfast, this morning all dark and morose, avoiding eye contact at any cost. Doesn't look a happy bunch. A final walk through the alleys browsing through shops, then a snooze, light lunch and wait for water taxi in hotel lobby. Boarding went smoothly. Seabourn Odyssey certainly has a luxury feel. All food and drinks - wine, spirits and soft - included. Plenty of cupboard space. Dinner 11 course degustation in special Restaurant 2. Quite interesting tasty little morsels but not enough for a decent meal. No rush to return.

Photos: Odyssey cabin, circular staircase, corridor, breakfast and reading on balcony.

24/06 - breakfast great - whatever you want - excellent service. Arrive Sibenik, Croatia, 1t 10:00. Walked around - small town - quaint - very old. Then tour to Split before departing at 6:00. Dinner with an older couple from England and Liz and John [took sick and left before dinner was served] from Lane Cove. This is the 3rd Seabourn cruise for the English couple and first venture out of Australia for John & Liz.

Photos: Sibernick - tender to shore, turles in main square and ancient walls throughout town.

25/06 - Kotor, Montenegro - picturesque town of some 13,500 with fortifications extending 100s of feet vertically up a rugged mountain and horizontally along the shore to protect the town from Turks eager to conquer. We spent a couple of hours walking around and then relaxed on board. Nice dinner tonight [escargot & NY steak for me] sitting with Michael and Michelle from Brisbane - a barrister and hight profile beauty salon owner respectively. This is also their 3rd Seabourn cruise. Interesting and lively chatter. Show was pretty average - 3rd place getters from 23006 UK X Factor - two guys singing [yelling?] loudly most of the time..

Photos: Kotor - approaching, dock area and part of fortifications.

Photos: Kotor - Streetscape and fortifications up the hill behind city.

26/06 - Corfu, Greece - very tropical feel - town of some 93,000 - extensive old ruins and fortress. We had some 3 hours in town, wandering around a rabbit warren of streets and alley ways in the Old Town. Same as most old towns... brick a brack of all description, souvenirs, artwork, coffee shops, restaurants, fast food etc. Walked into, around and up the Old Port Fortress. Very hot. Please to get back on shuttle bus around 1:00 to get back to some cool air. Spent the afternoon having a snooze, followed by a few drinks and local Greek dancing demonstration in the Grand Salon. Dinner tonight with Joerg & Gisela from Pottsdam near Berlin, a nice couple and a good opportunity for Marta to brush up on her German. Then a Rock The Boat dance party on the pool deck until 11:15 before hitting the sack.

Photos: Corfus street scenens, fortress and Greek dancing in the evening.

27/06 - Argostoli, Greece - another small town of 13,500 or so on a small Greek island. Holiday destination for Europeans mainly according to a local I spoke to. We walked around for about 3 hours and then had lunch at a seafood restaurant. E5.50 bought a Greek salad - a huge bowl stuffed full. E8.50 for a plate of squid that Marta and I both had trouble finishing it. On the other hand my mussels in spicy sauce contained just 5 mussels for E9.25. With a beer and glass of wine it was a most filling meal. Cocktail party at 6:30 to celebrate Black Caviar's win at Ascot [any excuse], dinner with Joerg and Gisela again for another German lesson for Marta, followed at 9:45 songs from great musicals performance. It's interesting that while alcohol is free on board everywhere, we are drinking very little. The two bottles in our room have been touched only once and we have bought few drinks in the bars. The cocktails they make are too strong for Marta and the heat has made a beer more enticing for me. What a waste eh?

Photos: View of Argostoli from ship.

Photos: Argostoli street scenes, lunch at local seafood cafe and tender back to ship.

28/06 - Pylos, Greece. Almost a village at 5,000 population. Has a great feel. Large town square with shops, hotels, cafes all around and cafes/restaurants in the centre. After walking around the town we walked up to the Fortress of Pylos ruins. Magnificent views. Doing a lot of restoration work. Interesting old huge canon barrels, anchors and canon balls. we found this a delightful Greek village. Looking at the way they live, there is certainly no evidence of their lives or conditions ever having been easy. Then back home for a snooze, a talk on our next stop, surf-n-turf dinner poolside and, for me, the nightly show. Marta was too tired and was to bed by 9:30.

Photo: Seabourn Odyssey from tender, returning from Pylos.

Photos: Pylos - typical streets, square, fortress and old canons & balls.

29/06 - Nafplion, Greece - town of about 17,000 but felt like a big city. OK but not as nice as the other islands we have visited. Got tender into town about 9:00. Walked around town for a while and then up the 999 steps to the old fortifications. Very impressive. Very high. Great views. Going back down was more of a challenge due to slippery rocks and no handrails. Then took the tourist train [on wheels] around town before heading back to ship around 1:30 for lunch. Dinner with Garry & Clare [California] and Michael & Margaret [England]. Great evening and lively conversation. Garry wants us to stay with them [he makes wine and has houses in central and southern California] next time we get over that way - has membership of 14 golf clubs and 13 sets of clubs. Michael looks and sounds a great deal like Prince Charles so that too produced a few laughs. Everyone enjoyed the dinner and wants to meet up asgain for another. Then the show and final drinks with Joerg & Gisela as they leave tomorrow morning. Too many drinks and to bed around 12:00.

Photos: Nafplion - start of the 999 steps climb to the fortress, typical winding, unfenced path and view from top.

Photo: Entering Port at Pireus.

30/06 Pireus/Athena - docked at 7:00. Shared cab with Peter & Di [Victor Harbour] to the Plaka at 8:45. Hunted around for and found Acropolis. Crowds already there by 9:30. Quite windy. Walked to the top and back down again. Hot. Then to Acropolis Museum, followed by a coffee at the museum coffee shop. Then a Ride on the Happy Train around Old Town and Athens itself. Good value for E6 pp. Then a walk to Old Town and a cab back to the ship. Cab into Athens cost E26. Cab back was E12. Guess who got stung to get into town. Departed Pireus at 5:00 pm.

Photos: Athens - Acropolis, climb to top and very windy when we got there.

01/07 - Milos, Greece - delightfult little town of 5,000 that swells to 10-15,000 during summer with mainly middle class Italian and French tourists. Lots of hotels and eateries of many desctiptions. Feels like a sleepy fishing village, especially as it's a Sunday morning. Walked around town for a couple of hours and up to the church set on a hill before having a coffee at one of the shoreside cafes and back to ship for lunch. What a lunch... Norwegina crab claws, marinated musses, cooked mussels, prawn dishes, scallops etc. Fantastic. Ate far too much and there were still dishes that looked great that we had not tried. Then a bridge inspection with the captain at 2:30 for about an hour and a quarter. Dinner was lobster with Bruce & Maria, Andrew & Pam, Ken & Pat, all from the UK.

Photo: Milos town.

Photos: Milos scenes.

Photo: Bridge and Odyssey Captain Mark Dexter.

02/07 - Mykonos, Greece - white house with blue trim, narrow white alleyways and beautiful waterfront, especially with a 35 mph wind crashing waves right in front of the cafes. Nothing too special otherwise though. On shore for about 3 hours wandering around and then back for lunch and snooze. Evening with an English couple who are gold Seabourn members Graham amd Pam. Nice folk. Posh accents. Had met the Queen, Prince Philip etc. Head waiter surprised by wishing her a happy birthday and bringing a cake. She tried to avoid a birthday scene by making a run for the exits but the waiters caught her and promised not to make a fuss by singing to her. To bed around 11:00 after watching a Rock The Boat song and dance party around the pool as Marta found it too loud.

Photos: Mykonos scenes.

03/07 - Patmos, Greece - another small waterfront village but one with a really good feel. Would enjoy a relaxing week or so here. Many restaurants and cafes. St Johns Monastery [where he wrote Revelations in AD98] and other historical sites. Also nice beaches. Yeserday's high winds and cooler temp [26] now gone and back to 31 or so. Back to boat for lunch and continual examples of outstanding service. We'd rate them all as 6 stars.

Photos: Patmos scenes.

04/07 - Kusadasi, Turkey - quite a large [100,000+] city of bazaars and walkways - mixture wide streets and narrow lanes - tour this morning Ephesus ruins. We are quite ruined out and don't normally go to see more but this was so highly recommended that we go. Brilliant. Guide was an effusive, helpful and attractive pregnant young lady with excellent English - said she had been told her English was now better than her Turkish, had had a travel series on Turkey TV and had worked for Disney in the US. By far the best ruins we have ever seen. Used to be city of some 250,000 in its prime. About 1/3rd now excavated - even that is huge. Streets and columns, terrace houses, all preserved and undergoing restoration. There is so much of it already there that it is really possible to visualise the daily lives of the inhabitants. Only negative was that Marta lost her hearing aids somewhere on the tour. She had put them into a small plastic bag in her handbag as an audio with earplugs had been provided for the walking tour, to better hear our guide, and the hearing aids must have got caught up and fallen out when she reached into the bag for something else during the tour. Seabourn arranged an evening of classical music amongst the ruins. Great experience. Small chamber orchestra and violinist. White table cloths. Drinks and nibblies provided. Performance commenced in light at 7:30 and finished in the dark at 9:30. A great experience. Back by 10:30 and ship sailed at 11:00.

Photo: Main street in Ephesus.

05/07 - Chios, Greece - small thriving Greek town, few touristy features. Even the old fort was still quite dilapidated. Interesting but not really worth a visit. The shops closed from 2:00 to 5:00 each day so it ended up quite a relaxing day on board most of the day relaxing with drinks around the pool and a snooze before dinner.

06/07 - Cannakale, Turkey - most Australians headed off for 8 hours tour to Gallipoli, we went looked at the local city and sights, meeting Peter & Di from Victor Harbour at the gangway at 9:30. Like Chios, a bit disappointing. A large town of Greeks going about their daily business, without a lot for tourists to see. Final dinner on board tonight, at the Cannonade Rsetaurant, with Peter & Di, on the rear deck overlooking the Dardanelles as we sailed out. Very enjoyable, as always. No entertainment for us tonight as we needed to finish packing for the cases to be out by 11:00.

07/07 - Istanbul, Turkey - great views of the mosques and city as we sailed in around 8:00 am. Disembarked at 9:30 and taxi to hotel.

Seabourn Odyssey Cruise Overview: Truly a fantastic experience. The best cruise we have done. On the questionaire provided to passengers we could rate every aspect of the experience only as 10/10. The food at dinners was superb, every dish, every sitting. Breakfast selections were outstanding. Staff were courteous, polite and extra helpful at all times. All aspects of service - cabin staff, waiters, ship crew and captain - were friendly, efficient and could not do enough to help. As soon as they had identified your regular preferences, drinks and food would be served to meet those preferences without need to be asked next time. A small example...within a couple of days of boarding the maitre de and head waiters were already greeting me by name. As I had never given them my name or cabin number, I enquired from Martin, a tall jovial Serb [?] who greeted us at breakfast each morning, how he knew. "Secret" was the answer, "I cannot say". I then called him Mr CIA and whenever he saw me, usually at breakfast, he would raise a hand to his collar as with a mobile and murmer softly "Attention, Mr Klanberck approaching..."Just a bit of fun and staff interaction. All round, a great experience and difficult to beat. Many passengers had already done multiple cruises with Seabourn and those that had drifted away to try other lines were back, saying they were with Seabourn for any other cruises they will make.