Friday 19th September - en route to Dubrovnik.

Sorry about the lack of information.......

Have had a glorious week on this cruise - the weather has been stunning - absolutely perfect, sunny every day, often a slight breeze, and beautiful calm, warm evenings......

Our fellow travellers are mostly Americans...  Out of 36 people, there are two Canadians who speak to each other in French all the time, Heather & John are from Britain, and Arch and Annie from Oz....   So.   the food supply caters for our American friends - SO much food at every meal, it's positively off-putting....     We have breakfast and lunch on board, and the usual continental breakfast, plus cooked is available.   Okay.....

Lunch EVERY day is FOUR courses.......  Omigod.......

Soup - substantial,   various.....

Salad - queue for it - help yourself, and stuff as much as you can on your plate.    At least that's what the Americans do, so by the time others (us) get there, there is nary a morsel left.     So.... Heather and I decided yesterday that we would make a charge to be at the front of the queue when the first plate of salad was put on the table.   Yee haa - it worked......  much to the chagrin of the others!!!  Worked so well, we did it again today......  What a hoot!!!

Entree (I guess)     Pasta of some sort, AND Risotto of some sort...   Again help yourself!!!

Main    Often a whole cooked fish with a dollop of mash of some sort......  haven't seen a green vegetable on our plate at all - although of course there are wonderful vegies in the markets everywhere..  Just like Germany........    Why don't they ever cook them for visitors??

Dessert - of some sort - cake or some other sweet tid bit.......

After day 2, when I thought I would die from overeating, I decided to resort to Salad and some pasta, OR salad and the main course (when it was NOT a whole fish).....   Good choice...

We have stopped for a swim most days, always in small sheltered coves;  amazingly clear, azure blue water.  Delightful....

We are always sailing along beside the most lovely little islands - very seriously denuded of trees - not sure what the real reason is, but some small scrubby plants seem to be re-establishing themselves.

Small towns dotted everywhere, very gravelly beaches, or NO beaches - people just clamber into the gorgeous water over enormous rocks!   So nice to have our Aussie sandy beaches - we DO take them for granted I think.

With the exception of one night when the Captain's Wife came on board to entertain us with some Croatian Food and hilarious banter, we have gone on shore to eat every night.   Food's not bad, and compared with Italy and Switzerland - VERY cheap......

Anyway, this is possibly all for now from me, busy day travelling tomorrow, and then two days in Orvieto before we go home....

We are out quite a long way from civilisation right at the moment, have no wifi, and have been unable to watch the Aussie Rules football preliminary final between North Melbourne and Sydney...   Thank god as it turns out, because poor old Arch is waiting until we hit town tonight to watch a replay, totally unaware that North have been murdered.......     Kirsten has been drip-feeding me with the bad news via text messages....

Okay, cheers for now, it's been an absolutely fabulous holiday, but now we're ready to go home to see our kids and grand-babies........