Back in Kotor, Montenegro April 22, 2017

We were just in this port 6 days ago but the weather is bright and sunny today as compared to the rain and cold we had on the previous visit.  Instead of taking one of the tours we decided to just walk around the old city.  Being Saturday the local open market was very busy, everyone seemed to be buying flowers, both bedding type plants and hanging baskets.  Many of the vendors were selling olives and oils as well as fruits and vegetables.  We went into the walled city and walked around for about an hour.  Kotor is known for being the "cat" city and the cats are everywhere.  We saw cats of every color and many of them just lay in the shops and on the benches and chairs.  We looked in some of the shops but did not buy anything.  We were back on the ship in time for a light lunch as we have a reservation in the Prime 7 restaurant tonight.

Many vendors were selling different types of olives

The outdoor market had many flower sellers

One of the squares inside the city

One of the gates to enter the walled city

Our ship was docked so close that it looked like it was parked on the street!

Dubrovnik, Croatia April 21, 2017

It was a beautiful day to sail into a new port.  The day was sunny but a bit cool with a fairly strong wind.  We had a 9:15 am tour that began with a trip by bus to the quaint seaside resort city of Cavtat.  Our guide showed us a few things and then we had free time to walk around and take some photos before getting back on the bus.  We drove through the agricultural area and had a stop at a historic restaurant next to a river where we sampled some local cheese and wine.  Nearby were some very old water mills and we were shown how they "fulled" wool fabric at one location and ground grain at another.  Our final stop was in the old walled city which is used for many scenes in the tv show "Game of Thrones".Much of the old city was destroyed in the 1992 war but has been nicely restored.  We were every impressed with this entire area as it was very clean and most of the signs are in English.  We saw very little graffiti which was a change from many of the places we have been lately. 

In the evening we attended the cocktail party for the Seven Seas Society and since we did not sail until midnight they were able to bring on board a local group of musicians and singers.  It was really very nice.

Great view of walled city from top of hill on our way to Cavtat

Pretty seaside village of Cavtat

Historic restaurant was right on a river

Part of walled city as viewed from bus

The main square inside the walled city

Ancona, Italy april 20, 2017

It was a cool, breezy day in Ancona and since none of the offered tours appealed to us we decided to just stay on the ship.  We had a nice leisurely breakfast in Compass Rose restaurant and then spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing until time for trivia.  Since this short seven day segment has a lot of younger people there are very few trivia players so they have moved it back to the observation lounge during tea time.  With less competition we were able to win!!

View of Ancona from the ship

Pretty church on the hill

Venice, Italy April 18 & 19, 2017

We were in Venice overnight and on the second day was the change over to a new cruise segment.  

Our first day we had a tour to Murano Island and Burano Island.  It was about a one hour boat ride to our first stop.  We boarded the "water bus" directly from our ship which was nice.  The weather was cold, windy and rainy so not a good day for pictures as the boat windows got very dirty.  We visited one of the more famous glass factories and had a glass blowing demonstration as well as time to browse in their showroom (of course!).  We then boarded our boat to go to Burano Island which is know for its lace making.  We toured a small lace museum and had a lace making demonstration.  We then had ninety minutes of free time so we decided to have lunch as it was too cold to spend much time outdoors.  We ate pizza of course!  We arrived back at our ship about 2:30 with plenty of time to get ready for afternoon trivia.  We finished second again. 

The second day was the start of a new segment with a turnover of about 700 passengers.  It seems to be a much younger crowd than we normally have on Regent ships.  We had to change rooms as we booked this segment separately from the first two, so we had to pack up most of our stuff so our stewardess could move our things.  The ship arranged a half day tour for the passengers that were continuing on as they like to get us out of the way!  We started with a ride in a small water taxi, it was very difficult for some people as you had to go down a couple of steps onto a bouncing  boat and then duck down into a small cabin. We made it just fine but a couple of people really struggled.  We went through some small canals and then arrived at the Guggenheim Art Museum.  One of our tour guides had worked at the museum so she gave us a wonderful short tour and was able to explain some of the paintings extremely well.  The museum was quite crowded, especially with school groups so we could not see all of it.  After the museum we took  a "traghetto" (sort of a large gondola) to cross the canal so we could walk to St Marks Square.  We only had about ten minutes there as we had water taxis booked to take us back to the ship.  We arrived back at the cruise terminal about 1:30 and had to wait in a long line for security as the new passengers were checking in.  We waited in line about a half hour and when we got to where they look at your passport and ship card we had a very stern lady who did not want to let us on board as our ship cards ended on that date.  We tried to explain that we were changing rooms and could not get our new cards until we were back on the ship.  She did not want to hear our explanation or look at our documents and kept calling other officers over and showing them our cards and passports.  One of them told us to go sit down on a bench and Tom said we were not going to sit down and asked them to get someone from Regent to come over (they were in the terminal checking in the new passengers).  By this time we were holding up the whole line!  They finally let us on after about 15 minutes.  The funny thing was that at least four other people on our tour were also changing rooms and had "old cards", all of them went right through. 

We had planned a nice dinner in the specialty restaurant "Chartreuse" with our trivia team, but Bob was not feeling well with a chest cold so it was just five of us.  We were tired so we did not go to the show and were in bed by 10. 

Buildings along Grand Canal

Main sales area in the Murano glass factory we visited

It was, cold, rainy and windy in Burano

Inside the lace museum in Burano

Of course we had pizza for lunch!

Grand Canal

Our tour guide explains some of the paintings at Guggenheim

St Marks Basilica

Doges Palace

Kotor, Montenegro April 16, 2017

It was a two hour sail into Kotor from the Adriatic.  They have a name for it, but it is similar to a fjord.  The scenery was quite striking with mountains down to the water and quant houses along the way.  Our tour began with a bus ride over the mountains and through a long tunnel to the city of Budva.  This city dates to medieval times and has high stone walls right to the sea.  We were told that it is very busy as a summer resort beginning this month and lasting until November.  Many Russians have homes here that they only visit for a week or two every year.  We saw many unfinished buildings that appeared to be abandoned.  The unemployment rate here is 40% and it shows.  We had a walk through the old city and visited the outside of a few churches then we had free time before taking the bus back over the mountain to Kotor.  We were then supposed to take  walking tour of the old city of Kotor but it started to rain so we just left the tour and went back on the ship.  It was a good decision as there was a lot of thunder and lightning along with some heavy rain. 
Being Easter Sunday the ship was decorated with large displays made of chocolate.  They were in front of every restaurant along with a large one in the atrium.  The whole ship smelled like chocolate!

Beautiful morning sail into Kotor with quaint houses along the hillsides

The old city walls go right to the sea

Small pebble beach in Budva

Huge chocolate Easter display in the atrium

Another chocolate Easter display in front of Chartreuse restaurant

Zadar, Croatia

It was a bright sunny day when we sailed into this port but very cool temperature made us decide to stay on board the ship and just relax and catch up on some things.  Tomorrow we will be in Venice and it is where we will be changing suites so we decided to do a little advance packing.  We also had a nice lunch in one of the specialty restaurants "Chartreuse" which is mostly French cuisine.  Not our favorite but a nice change from the buffet where we usually have lunch. 

Zadar appears to be preparing to receive more cruise ships with several new docks

View our balcony of cruise terminal under construction

Welcome sea day cruising the strait of Messina April 15, 2017

After so many full touring days everyone on the ship was very happy to have a relaxing sea day.  We passed through the strait of Messina early in the day and it was fairly clear and sunny.  While we were eating breakfast we sailed by the Stromboli volcano.  It was nice to finally actually get a good look at it as the last time we came to this area it was the middle of the night and we did not see the volcano.  There were a lot of activities on board today including a town hall type meeting with the President/CEO of Regent.  Noel participated in an Easter scavenger hunt and actually won a prize of a huge box of Easter candy which she gave to our room stewards. For lunch they offered something new, a "galley buffet" where we sat in Compass Rose restaurant but passed through the kitchen area to get our food.  It was very enjoyable and amazing to see the kitchen in action.  Our trivia team again missed getting a prize by one question . :(

Smoking Stromboli volcano still has snow

Tom with ice sculpture at beginning of buffet

Huge stacks of dinnerware

Display of fruits and vegetables

Civitavecchia and Naples, Italy, April 13 & 14 2017

Civitavecchia is the port city for Rome so it is quite a busy port.  Since we had been to Rome several times we decided to take a short tour that started with a visit to Bracciano Lake and a winery.  Most of the area we drove through was farming with crops of mostly wheat, olive groves, and artichokes.  There were also cattle and sheep and we saw quite a few horses.  After about one hour we arrived at the small town of Anguillara located on the shore of Bracciano Lake.  The day was quite overcast and hazy so we could not see the other side of the lake.  We visited a small fish market where the fish were nicely displayed.  Tom had a coffee in a small café, mostly so we could use the restroom!  After about 45 minutes we got back on the bus to drive to the winery.  It was a small family winery where we tasted a couple of different wines and they served some nice snacks of bread, olives, cheese, etc.  We arrived back at our ship at 1 pm and had lunch out on the pool deck.  It was pretty quiet around the ship as most passengers had taken all day tours to Rome. All of our trivia team was  on board and we finally won! 

We counted 22 tour buses lined up for our ship

The winery we visited

Snacks and wine

Small fish market

Mobile fruit and vegetable market

Naples was also quite hazy and cool so we could not see much of Vesuvius or Capri in the distance, just a faint outline.  We took a four hour "highlights" tour of the city of Naples.  The traffic is horrible and the whole city seems to be under construction.  Everyone honks their car horns and cars are double parked everywhere so our bus driver did a great job maneuvering our huge bus through the crowded streets.  Most of the tour was just on the bus but we did get out in the old part of the city and walked with the guide to a central square and a couple of churches.  We then had about 45 minutes of free time before we went back to the ship.  There were hundreds of tiny shops selling everything imaginable.  We especially noticed the food shops where all the food items are very enticing and beautifully displayed.  We made it back to the ship in time for lunch. 

Old castle at port entrance surrounded by construction

View of Naples from top of hill

Goodies in bakery window

Shop selling nothing but pasta

Livorno, Italy April 12, 2017

Livorno is the port city closest to Pisa and Florence.  Since we had been here before we decided to just stay on the ship as most of the tours were eight to ten hours and we were tired from the past two long days.  We had a nice lunch in the Prime 7 specialty restaurant.  Since so many people will be coming back to the ship very late we were able to get a reservation for dinner in the "Pacific Rim" restaurant for dinner.  Tomorrow we will be visiting a winery. 

View of Livorno from our suite

Prayer wheels at entrance of Pacific Rim Restaurant

Beautiful Asian Décor in restaurant

Each of the specialty restaurants has themed table settings



Beautiful yacht docked next to our ship

Monte Carlo, Monaco

We arrived in Monte Carlo on a very cool, cloudy day.  The scenery is spectacular and would be even better on a sunny day.  The preparations are underway for the Monaco Grand Prix that takes place in May.  It is hard to imagine that they will be driving up to 170 mph on these streets!  We had a morning tour that took us to Eze village, which dates to medieval times and  is very picturesque.  Our tour guide escorted us up some steep, winding steps to reach the upper part of the village where the church was located.  There were many small shops and a few cafes located along the winding paths.  We spent about 1 1/2 hours in the village before we boarded our bus for the trip back to Monte Carlo.  The infrastructure in Monte Carlo is amazing, large tunnels to carry traffic that have buildings above them and huge underground parking to accommodate the many tour buses.  We had a walking tour that included a stop at the Saint Nicholas Cathedral where all the Monaco Princes are entombed.  Princess Grace's tomb is also located here.  We were then shown where the changing of the guard takes place but it was already very crowded with tourists so we really did not see the event.  We had some free time to walk around before going back to the ship. 

Eze Village

St Nicholas Cathedral

Princess Grace's tomb

Grandstands going up for Grand Prix

Our ship among the yachts

The Grand Casino