Cyprus and Israel

The rest of the cruise was visiting the following countries:
Cyprus, Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy( Venice) and then we did 4 days extra and visited Zadar in Croatia and Kotor again in Montenegro) and Ravenna in Italy to do a bus trip to tiny country of San Marino.

Once we came out of the Suez Canal, a cold wind hit us . We stood at the front of the ship, and all this time while we had sailed through the Suez canal it had been hot, 30 C. Suddenly the cold wind from Europe hit us. It was quite a shock.

We arrived in Cyprus. It was cold and rainy. We had to have our raincoats on. The bus took us to a couple of villages. The first village was high in the mountains, showed us people's embroidery work, lace table cloth etc.
Second village was the village where the church of Lazaret is.  They believe Lazaret came to Cyprus after he had been raised from the dead by Jesus.

Limasol

Cyprus country

The church where Lazaret was buried

Inside the church altar

Cyprus country side.

Interesting church. The weather improved somewhat.

Back at the ship a lot of people started coughing. I think some people caught a cold after that cold wind had hit us all.

We caught a cold/cough as well. When we watched some evening shows, you could hear half the people coughing. One way to spread the disease.
After Cyprus, the weather turned to a storm, so the visit to Athens had to change to take a different route to Katakolon, and avoid that section where the storm was .Up to 4 metres high waves. I took sea sickness tablets. It worked.

In Katakolon, we went by bus to the original Olympic games venue.   After that we went to a family owned vineyard and olive press. We tasted all the different olive oils and then . had a fantastic lunch and Greek music and dances provided by the family. It was quite emotional as it was a surprise and secondly it was 40 yers exactly since I was last in Greece.

After that great afternoon we went back to the ship by bus and embarked the ship. Every time we went back tot he ship, it felt like we were coming " home" and our cabin became our home and safe place. I highly recommend a cruise. It's so good to wake up each morning a see a different country. It is always so exciting to see the new scenery where you've arrived.
I remember, ( I must have skipped this bit) arriving in Eilat, Israel, and seeing the port where we were berthed, in the distance I could see the hotel where Brian and I stayed in 2016.  The weather was horrible this year. The worse rains and flash flooding of the road, so we could not go to Masada, only tot he Dead Sea. And that was freezing. Very unfortunate for Fred and Christine as they had not seen Masada before.

But anyway, I did a little bit of shopping in the little shopping centre that was there after the swim in the Dead Sea . Bought some nice leggings and a great Israel T-Shirt. And some dead sea minerals lotion.