Izzywiz

I was so impressed with Ephesus

We visited the huge Golden statue and the House of the Virgin Mary 

This thread is so uplifting in these gloomy times and I'm loving revisiting such exciting destinations. We have been to Kusadasi twice, the first was at the end of October 2008 and the second time was at the end of November 2015 so we enjoyed pleasant weather and missed the crowds.

and, lastly, my absolute favourite....The Grand Bazaar

Now Kusadasi...here we come !!

Hagia Sophia

Topkapi Palace

The Blue Mosque

Our last port was Istanbul and we were up early to see the sunrise before joining our city tour. The city is certainly the meeting place of east and west...

So sad to hear that comment from Zap99 but, unfortunately, that kind of attitude happens and it can cloud the impression of a place. We were lucky to have a wonderful guide who brought Istanbul to life and who welcomed us to her country and culture so we had a great experience and loved the city.

Sailing through the Dardanelles Strait was a sobering reminder of WW1...

We then sailed through the Bosphorus before heading into the Black Sea for the main part of the cruise...

My last few were taken from the HOHO bus as it toured Athens city centre. You can see that the city was getting ready for Christmas

I'm looking forward to Istanbul. It is such a city of contrasts and very definitely east meets west....

The Acropolis and Parthenon

Very sorry to leave Santorini because the photographs were stunning and brought back such happy memories. Britboy is right that the island gets very crowded in the summer months but we were so lucky to go in November when there were only 2 smaller ships there. We hardly had to queue for the cable car and the resorts weren't crowded at all.

The Corinth Canal photos are stunning and I would love to do a transit so the 'bucket list' grows even longer!!

Now to Athens, and again, we visited in November so it was pleasantly warm and relatively uncrowded. We got the HOHO bus just outside the terminal so we got to see a bit of Piraeus first....

Oia must be one of the most picturesque places on earth and we were lucky because we visited in early November so it wasn't too crowded and we had glorious sunshine.

We got the cable car up to Thira...not my favourite form of transport as you can see.... but the alternative was worse!

We caught the local bus from Thira to Oia and were surprised to see how different the scenery was on the other side of the isalnd....

Fabulous pictures of Santorini. It is definitely one of my top 5 destinations. We visited  in 1992 when we were on our first cruise and were totally captivated. Our second visit was in 2008 when we got up very early to see the sunrise...

After walking the walls, we did an hour's boat trip from the port which took us along the coast. We packed a lot into that day. We should have returned on a cruise in 205 but the port was cancelled because the ship was very late leaving Venice as there was a terrible storm. i was very disappoited but that's cruising for you!!!

I'm now looking forward seeing lots more Dubrovnik photographs and then visiting Santorini tomorrow...

Our second visit was in 2008 when the city was still recovering from the war and we were staggered by how much damage had been done and how well the city was being restored. These pictures were taken from our walk around the wall so we could see where the new shiny, bright orange tiles had been used to repair the damaged rooves. We thought that the walk was well worth while as it gave a wonderful perspective of the whole old city.

This cruise is taking me to some of my very favourite places. We had a holiday in Dubrovnik in 1983 when it was still part of Yugoslavia and found the city to be fascinating. These  2 pictures are from that holiday when we had time to go up the cable car and leave the city at sunset.

Ooops, I don't know why  it has rotated this way but I can't get it to rotate back....sorry

on our cruise that finished in Venice in 2009, we did an excursion to Padua before being dropped off at the airport. Padua was a lovely city......

Isn't Vernice fabulous! We have been there many times over the years and there is still so much to explore. I've loved all the photos and like Damian, I have tried to find pictures that are a little different so here goes...

I've eventually caught up with you in Corfu. We have many happy memories of the island. Our first visit was in 1976 when our son was just 1 years old and we had a lovely time. He was cute and blond so the local people loved patting his hair...

Hot and bothered after a trip to Corfu Town...

We returned in 2006 on a cruise and used the local busses to visit Mouse Island and then got caught in a torrential downpour on our way back to the ship.

In August we have a family holiday booked for a week's stay in Corfu followed by a cruise. This trip was postponed from last year so we have all fingers and toes crossed but it is looking less likely to happen as each day passes.... 

I'm still on catch up so please bear with me. We had a lovely day in Messina and enjoyed the sail-in and

our visit to Mt. Etna

Sorry Gettingwarmer, I was just following places in sequence on the map that we have visited on cruises over the years.

Last ones...

Livorno

Pisa

Naples

Capri

Rome

Nearly there....

Palma

Palamos

Villefranche

Monaco

Propriano, Corsica

and Olbia, Sardinia