ZECO TRAVEL TALK

Croatia, Crossroads of Empires: Crete to Venice

Today was another beautiful day on the Med—or I should say Adriatic Sea. We entered the ‘fjords’ of Kotor at 0700 this morning and took on the pilot. He and the Captain navigated us through the Kotor Gulf, skirting the little islands and passing small hillside village towns. We arrived in darling Kotor around 9 and immediately disembarked for our walking tour—a few passengers commented that it’s like a Hollywood set, it’s so perfect! Kevin and I took the hikers 1,617 steps up to the fortress that overlooks the town and the bay. There were great views of the ship and lots of people were ashore…In the late afternoon we set sail for Dubrovnik and arrived at sunset. It was gorgeous… Everyone was on the top deck and eager to go ashore. Le Levant’s tenders shuttled people back and forth all evening; many of us took the opportunity to enjoy the evening, walking around the old city’s beautiful medieval streets.

La Gomera, Azores with Madeira, Canary Islands, Morocco, and Gibraltar

What a spectacularly beautiful island, maybe because it’s off the beaten track. Our hiking group really enjoyed their trek, capped off by tapas on the beach… Damien, our local guide, was able to get two school girls to give a short whistling demonstration. The birders returned from their day excited that they had seen “everything!”

Albania, Crossroads of Empires: Crete to Venice

After a relaxing early afternoon on board, we “surprised” the passengers with a stop at Porto Polermo! It was incredible. We pulled alongside this teeny tiny dock which felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. The hotel department disembarked first thing and ran to Ali Pasha’s Castle, an old abandoned castle right on the water. We were the only ones there. When we walked to the entrance of the castle it was illuminated with kerosene lanterns! It was beautiful and quite romantic. On the rooftop terrace, the Le Levant hotel staff set up a bar and served champagne and appetizers! It was such a special treat!

Lebanon, Crossroads of Empires: Jordan to Crete

I’ll cut right to the chase about Lebanon. It was FABULOUS!! It was one of the best days we have had so far, a definite highlight! Baalback exceeded everyone’s expectations. We had lots of time to explore the site, and used every minute. We then had an excellent lunch with traditional Mediterranean cuisine: hummus, tabouleh, shish ka bobs, fresh pita bread, local beer and wine… all while overlooking the gorgeous, not to mention massive, site.

In the city center of Beirut we walked through the fairly modern downtown and drove along the green line and along the corniche, observing the war damage from the late 80s and early 90s. We didn’t witness much of the ‘new damage’ from last year, but the few things we did see, bridges bombed out, the detoured roads we had to travel on because the main highway was so badly damaged… all were a chilling reminder of the world we do live in. Still, we all felt very safe and the local people were so nice, kind, and welcoming. We all wished we had had more time….it was not the city we expected and we didn’t have the feeling of insecurity that we thought we would have either. It really was a wonderful day. Our ship sailed at 2300, so we had the opportunity to see Beirut by night.

Goa, Splendors of India: Chennai to Mumbai

Wow! Today we were in Goa for the festival of Holi—it was incredible. During the festival the tradition is to cover each other in flour that has been colored green, pink, purple, red, yellow, etc. so people are covered head-to-toe in brilliant colors. Even the streets were stained from the amount of powder that was thrown around. Many of the passengers and crew were painted today, as well as the Captain who came back to the ship with his face bright green! Everyone was happy to see a festival in action—it’s once a year, so very cool that we were here to witness it. (Though I’m not so sure the folks in the laundry room here on the ship are going to be so happy about their towels and washcloths…!)