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Edmonton Journal, Oct. 31, 2009
Cruising the Med: Excursions, excursions
“Welcome to Albania—my ex-beloved enemies,” said the tour guide as our air-conditioned coach rumbled along a narrow hillside road to the ancient city of Butrint in the southwest corner of this little-visited country.
It was a slip of the tongue. Vangjel Xhani—who went on to explain that his Balkan country, bounded by Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Greece, only recently emerged from political isolation—had intended to call us his “beloved ex-enemies.”
“Twenty years ago you were aliens,” he continued. “Albania was just like North Korea or China. It taught us to see everyone foreign as an enemy. There was a lot of paranoia. Today you are 37 ambassadors from the West.”
Given that we “ambassadors” were cruising the Mediterranean on Holland-America’s well-appointed 1,900-passenger Oosterdam, this still isolated country may seem an odd place to spend a day. But not all of the 70 shore excursions offered on this 12-day port-intensive cruise are about conventional sights or shopping ashore.
In this case, we disembarked at Corfu and travelled by hydrofoil to the city of Sarande on the “Albanian Riviera,” then by bus to Butrint, a UNESCO World Heritage site. This “Albanian Adventure” turned out to be an eye-opener—and a cruise highlight.
Not all excursions are so successful. A challenge on any cruise—in this case, Holland-America’s “Mediterranean Romance” from Venice, with ports in Croatia, Greece and elsewhere in Italy, and concluding in Barcelona—is choosing excursions that deliver a rewarding experience at a reasonable cost.
The walled city of Dubrovnik is among those destinations relatively accessible from the ship dock, meaning you can visit on your own. A shuttle bus ($19 return) will get you there in 15 minutes (traffic permitting), or you can walk in 25 minutes. However, other cities or sights are not as easy to get to. Rome, for example, is a 75-minute train trip from the cruise port of Civitavecchia, while coach travel to Florence from the dock in Livorno takes 90 minutes.
Of course, the ship provides its own attractions. Our group met nightly at 8 in the Vista dining room, at a window table over the stern. The wine flowed, as did the talk; the food was excellent. At the Pinnacle Grill (also on the Lower Promenade Deck), a modest surcharge ensures that your wine will be poured into hand-made Riedel glasses and you’ll enjoy the highest-quality filet minion. Some passengers prefer the buffets at the Lido restaurant, where the food is copious and good, or the Canaletto Italian restaurant. Many move around the ship, dining where and when it’s convenient.
My favourite of 10 Oosterdam bars is the Crow’s Nest, with a panoramic outlook. From a plush chair—a soda with lime, or a flute of champagne at hand—you can watch the Mediterranean landscape pass before your very eyes.
South from Corfu, we anchored at Argostoli on the Greek island of Cephalonia. Flattened by an earthquake in 1953, the town itself is unexciting. However, those who took excursions into the wilds of the island—inhabited since the 5th century BC, and a favourite of Lord Byron—were happy they did.
Back aboard, everyone seeks out their niches. I took to the rear Lido deck and “adult” pool, while friends could usually be found around the computers (meaning Internet access) in the Explorations Café, or at a morning stretch class in the gym.
Another popular centre is the Digital Workshop, where staff techie Chase Cheviron delivered daily classes with names like “Your away-from-home movie” and “15 minutes of fame: learn to blog about your cruise.”
“What we’re offering is practical information,” Cheviron said of the program jointly developed by Seattle-based Holland-America and Microsoft Windows. “You can come in with your camera or memory card, upload the photos onto your web pages, and e-mail them out.” The free program includes “techs-pert” time, when workshop-goers can hone their newfound skills and draw on the instructor’s expertise.
While one expects a lot from the Greek island of Santorini—recognizable from ubiquitous photos of blue-domed churches set against a sparkling sea—the wider setting took my breath away. Here, in 1500 or 1600 BC, one of the largest volcanic explosions the planet has known left a massive caldera—a “cauldron” of sea water—surrounded by a semi-circle of ragged volcanic slopes. Approaching by ship, the mountaintop towns or villages, uniformly white, appear as snow.
An excursion called “Essence of Santorini” took in one of the loveliest or these towns, Oia, followed by a visit to a winery with a spectacular view of the entire island setting, including a miniscule Oosterdam anchored hundreds of metres below.
On our only full day “at sea” we travelled west again, past the Peloponnese peninsula to Sicily. On a “behind the scenes” ship tour, we visited the round-the-clock pastry kitchen, and ventured into cold storage, where men in Arctic-style jackets were moving around crates of frozen produce. That night we watched the Singers & Dancers of the Oosterdam strut their stuff in a show called “Ballroom Blitz” in the Vista Lounge.
Catania, a Sicilian city of 750,000, sprawls at the foot of a visibly steaming Mount Etna. The city centre is a short walk from the dock.
“Two or three more minutes to the Piazza Duomo and Via Etnea—plenty of shopping,” said an elderly man who must have noticed me wavering in the morning heat. But I wasn’t after the shops. What interested me were the massive 17th and 18th century churches—sometimes several in a single block—of astounding grandiosity and glamour.
On the cobblestone Via Crociferi—beyond a square devoted to Francis of Assisi, and a charming museum honouring native composer Vincenzo Bellini—appear no fewer than four of these massive masterpieces. Each boasts outrageous features or details—neo-classical pillars and huge carved doors, ornate wrought-iron gates or powerful statues of heroes and saints—“Catania’s baroque street par excellence,” says a website.
After all this flamboyance—someone rightly calls it a “mouldering charm”—the larger Italian ports didn’t quite deliver. But then maybe I didn’t make the best excursion choices. While “Panoramic Naples” took in impressive outlying vistas, I saw little of the famously anarchic city. And an all-day tour to the Roman countryside was dominated by a time-consuming if authentic Italian lunch.
Yes, this tour took in the catacombs. And the Pope’s summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. And I saw the lovely Tuscan town of Lucca. Even the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But my favourite off-ship experiences remained baroque Catania and, of course, my visit to Albania as an “ex-beloved enemy.”
Alison Appelbe travelled as a guest of Holland-America, www.hollandamerica.com
Considerations when choosing cruise excursions:
• Cost. Excursions usually range from $50 for a transfer to a city, to $250 for a full day of sightseeing. A multi-course meal will add considerable cost. “Transfers” are usually less than conventional excursions, but more expensive than doing it on your own.
• An alternative is to walk or take a taxi from the ship into the city centre or other sights. Sometimes, as in Venice, you walk into the historic centre in as little as half an hour. A Venetian vaporetto (passenger ferry) provides return service from the pier for about $20.
If you have full day in port, you can travel from Civitavecchia into Rome, or from Livorno to Pisa, for example, by train. Be sure, however, that you have detailed travel plans and confidence in your ability to get back to the ship before the gangway is raised. A cruise ship staff person will provide this info.
* Level of difficulty. Excursions range from “easy” for, for example, the “Panoramic Naples” tour to “strenuous” for the “Roman Holiday.” Most cruise lines are at pains to ensure passengers understand the type and level of exertion involved.
* These locally run excursions vary in quality. Some guides are well informed and speak good English; others, less so. Occasionally they descend to shilling for tips.
It was a slip of the tongue. Vangjel Xhani—who went on to explain that his Balkan country, bounded by Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Greece, only recently emerged from political isolation—had intended to call us his “beloved ex-enemies.”
“Twenty years ago you were aliens,” he continued. “Albania was just like North Korea or China. It taught us to see everyone foreign as an enemy. There was a lot of paranoia. Today you are 37 ambassadors from the West.”
Given that we “ambassadors” were cruising the Mediterranean on Holland-America’s well-appointed 1,900-passenger Oosterdam, this still isolated country may seem an odd place to spend a day. But not all of the 70 shore excursions offered on this 12-day port-intensive cruise are about conventional sights or shopping ashore.
In this case, we disembarked at Corfu and travelled by hydrofoil to the city of Sarande on the “Albanian Riviera,” then by bus to Butrint, a UNESCO World Heritage site. This “Albanian Adventure” turned out to be an eye-opener—and a cruise highlight.Not all excursions are so successful. A challenge on any cruise—in this case, Holland-America’s “Mediterranean Romance” from Venice, with ports in Croatia, Greece and elsewhere in Italy, and concluding in Barcelona—is choosing excursions that deliver a rewarding experience at a reasonable cost.
The walled city of Dubrovnik is among those destinations relatively accessible from the ship dock, meaning you can visit on your own. A shuttle bus ($19 return) will get you there in 15 minutes (traffic permitting), or you can walk in 25 minutes. However, other cities or sights are not as easy to get to. Rome, for example, is a 75-minute train trip from the cruise port of Civitavecchia, while coach travel to Florence from the dock in Livorno takes 90 minutes.
Of course, the ship provides its own attractions. Our group met nightly at 8 in the Vista dining room, at a window table over the stern. The wine flowed, as did the talk; the food was excellent. At the Pinnacle Grill (also on the Lower Promenade Deck), a modest surcharge ensures that your wine will be poured into hand-made Riedel glasses and you’ll enjoy the highest-quality filet minion. Some passengers prefer the buffets at the Lido restaurant, where the food is copious and good, or the Canaletto Italian restaurant. Many move around the ship, dining where and when it’s convenient.
My favourite of 10 Oosterdam bars is the Crow’s Nest, with a panoramic outlook. From a plush chair—a soda with lime, or a flute of champagne at hand—you can watch the Mediterranean landscape pass before your very eyes.
South from Corfu, we anchored at Argostoli on the Greek island of Cephalonia. Flattened by an earthquake in 1953, the town itself is unexciting. However, those who took excursions into the wilds of the island—inhabited since the 5th century BC, and a favourite of Lord Byron—were happy they did.Back aboard, everyone seeks out their niches. I took to the rear Lido deck and “adult” pool, while friends could usually be found around the computers (meaning Internet access) in the Explorations Café, or at a morning stretch class in the gym.
Another popular centre is the Digital Workshop, where staff techie Chase Cheviron delivered daily classes with names like “Your away-from-home movie” and “15 minutes of fame: learn to blog about your cruise.”
“What we’re offering is practical information,” Cheviron said of the program jointly developed by Seattle-based Holland-America and Microsoft Windows. “You can come in with your camera or memory card, upload the photos onto your web pages, and e-mail them out.” The free program includes “techs-pert” time, when workshop-goers can hone their newfound skills and draw on the instructor’s expertise.
While one expects a lot from the Greek island of Santorini—recognizable from ubiquitous photos of blue-domed churches set against a sparkling sea—the wider setting took my breath away. Here, in 1500 or 1600 BC, one of the largest volcanic explosions the planet has known left a massive caldera—a “cauldron” of sea water—surrounded by a semi-circle of ragged volcanic slopes. Approaching by ship, the mountaintop towns or villages, uniformly white, appear as snow. An excursion called “Essence of Santorini” took in one of the loveliest or these towns, Oia, followed by a visit to a winery with a spectacular view of the entire island setting, including a miniscule Oosterdam anchored hundreds of metres below.
On our only full day “at sea” we travelled west again, past the Peloponnese peninsula to Sicily. On a “behind the scenes” ship tour, we visited the round-the-clock pastry kitchen, and ventured into cold storage, where men in Arctic-style jackets were moving around crates of frozen produce. That night we watched the Singers & Dancers of the Oosterdam strut their stuff in a show called “Ballroom Blitz” in the Vista Lounge.
Catania, a Sicilian city of 750,000, sprawls at the foot of a visibly steaming Mount Etna. The city centre is a short walk from the dock.
“Two or three more minutes to the Piazza Duomo and Via Etnea—plenty of shopping,” said an elderly man who must have noticed me wavering in the morning heat. But I wasn’t after the shops. What interested me were the massive 17th and 18th century churches—sometimes several in a single block—of astounding grandiosity and glamour.
On the cobblestone Via Crociferi—beyond a square devoted to Francis of Assisi, and a charming museum honouring native composer Vincenzo Bellini—appear no fewer than four of these massive masterpieces. Each boasts outrageous features or details—neo-classical pillars and huge carved doors, ornate wrought-iron gates or powerful statues of heroes and saints—“Catania’s baroque street par excellence,” says a website.
After all this flamboyance—someone rightly calls it a “mouldering charm”—the larger Italian ports didn’t quite deliver. But then maybe I didn’t make the best excursion choices. While “Panoramic Naples” took in impressive outlying vistas, I saw little of the famously anarchic city. And an all-day tour to the Roman countryside was dominated by a time-consuming if authentic Italian lunch.
Yes, this tour took in the catacombs. And the Pope’s summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. And I saw the lovely Tuscan town of Lucca. Even the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But my favourite off-ship experiences remained baroque Catania and, of course, my visit to Albania as an “ex-beloved enemy.”
Alison Appelbe travelled as a guest of Holland-America, www.hollandamerica.com
Considerations when choosing cruise excursions:
• Cost. Excursions usually range from $50 for a transfer to a city, to $250 for a full day of sightseeing. A multi-course meal will add considerable cost. “Transfers” are usually less than conventional excursions, but more expensive than doing it on your own.
• An alternative is to walk or take a taxi from the ship into the city centre or other sights. Sometimes, as in Venice, you walk into the historic centre in as little as half an hour. A Venetian vaporetto (passenger ferry) provides return service from the pier for about $20.
If you have full day in port, you can travel from Civitavecchia into Rome, or from Livorno to Pisa, for example, by train. Be sure, however, that you have detailed travel plans and confidence in your ability to get back to the ship before the gangway is raised. A cruise ship staff person will provide this info.
* Level of difficulty. Excursions range from “easy” for, for example, the “Panoramic Naples” tour to “strenuous” for the “Roman Holiday.” Most cruise lines are at pains to ensure passengers understand the type and level of exertion involved.
* These locally run excursions vary in quality. Some guides are well informed and speak good English; others, less so. Occasionally they descend to shilling for tips.