Riviera Venice to Istanbul to Athens

[Emperor Norton]

Ephesus, Turkey

Interesting use of faux columns
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Another column top
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Very faded tiles
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Slightly less faded tiles
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Wall decorations
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[Emperor Norton]

Ephesus, Turkey

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Can you find the gladiators in the image?
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[Emperor Norton]

Ephesus, Turkey

It seems they liked their flowers and birds
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And people too
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Mosaics
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[Emperor Norton]

Ephesus, Turkey

After exiting the terrace houses we were taken to a closed off area of unexcavated ruins. (That green valley used to be the harbor)
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Backside of the terrace house enclosure
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An empty street leading to merchants row
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One of our guides resting in the shade of an archway
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The library seemed to be the most popular attraction
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[Emperor Norton]

Ephesus, Turkey

Interior decorative work
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Kitten break
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Merchants row
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[Emperor Norton]

Ephesus, Turkey

I mentioned the tour difficulty in an earlier post. Why? Due to a shouting episode that I was lucky enough to be near. It seems that one couple had reserved handicapped seats on the bus (which for some reason were not in rows 1 or 2) and some trespasser had the nerve to steal "their" handicapped seats (which weren't in the first few rows). Enough of that.

After leaving Ephesus we went past the remains of the Temple of Artemis ([url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis[/url]) and on to St. Johns Basilica.

The lone column left from the Temple of Artemis, one of the wonders of the Ancient world
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Near the column were bee-hive dwellings
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[Emperor Norton]

Ephesus, Turkey

At the base of St. Johns Basilica was a Mosque
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St. Johns Basilica
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Stork
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[Emperor Norton]

Ephesus, Turkey

St. Johns Basilica
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[Emperor Norton]

Ephesus, Turkey

After leaving the Basilica we went to a restaurant for lunch
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Where I tried the local brew
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Ephesus-Kusadasi-Turkey-July/i-8pXsrpt/0/XL/DSC_1937-XL.jpg[/IMG] Closer to water than Bud

And got to spend some quality time with this guy
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Ephesus-Kusadasi-Turkey-July/i-wCWjQ2g/0/XL/DSC_1938-XL.jpg[/IMG] Actually, I had a nice time with a family that split their time between Florida and Russia

The competition across the street
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We stopped for a few pictures before heading into town for a silk/rug making demonstration - which I declined and walked back to the ship.

[Emperor Norton]

Ephesus, Turkey

Lyonnaise potato salad
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Bourbon vanilla profiteroles (couldn't taste the bourbon)
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Oceania luggage tag
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Ephesus (first segment) Gallery: [url]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Ephesus-Kusadasi-Turkey-July/30336593_B6jTr6#!i=2693945531&k=ZgRshDH[/url]

Next stop: Kavala/Philippi, Greece

[Emperor Norton]

Kavala/Philippi, Greece

Today was a lazy day and I didn't get off the ship.

I noticed the crew taking advantage of some of the geography
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The most action of the day was watching this crane extend the sea wall
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/KavalaPhilippi-Greence-July/i-smc2***/0/XL/DSC_1954-XL.jpg[/IMG] <--This would work but CC censored part of the link:mad:

They did have a fort
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Lunch was in the Terrace where I was photobombed
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The line for Waves Grill seemed a bit longer than usual
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[Emperor Norton]

Kavala/Philippi, Greece

Toscana
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Kavala/Philippi Gallery: [url]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/KavalaPhilippi-Greence-July/30336600_BbFJ9R#!i=2694168160&k=Q6ksbbQ[/url]

[Emperor Norton]

Istanbul, Turkey

Today for the first time, this sign came out
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Interesting to note was people were trying to use their butlers to circumvent this time limit. The Jr. Head Waiter however seemed just as happy to collect placeholders left by butlers.

I've been told that both my segments were unusual in the high number of children on board. For the first segment (this one) the children were really only seen on the pool deck. Then there was the one who discovered you could graffiti the walls.
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I went up to Horizons for tea time
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[Emperor Norton]

Istanbul, Turkey

So the first segment came to a close. Aside from La Reserve I was underwhelmed by the food. Service in the GDR was erratic, and wine stewards could either make good suggestions for pairings or would run away and hide. Children were well behaved, people were polite and it seemed everyone knew how to politely use the elevators.

When issues were brought to managements attention they didn't seem to care. Trivia was great, though everyone seemed to agree that Martinis was not an ideal spot for the night game. The one tour I had been on was excellent and the staff at Waves Bar seemed to be the most well sorted and best customer facing employees on the ship. So thank you: Chadwell, Oscar, Gregory, Carlito, Komar, Riplon, Htun and Falroy for being bright spots in an otherwise dull cruise. In the GDR IMade was the best of the servers.

About 11pm in Istanbul there came a sound of loud industrial machinery that ran until around 3am. It seems that even though we were in port for over 24hours someone decided the best time to suck muck out of the ship (I assume it was sewage) was late at night when people were trying to get the last bits of sleep in before their 0230 wake up call to begin disembarking.

On to segment two where service gets better, food gets a bit better, passengers get worse and management turn into pests when they have an issue.

Since you've made it this far, how about a sink full of kittens?
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[YoungRestlessOne]

Would you mind commenting a bit about what you thought of the food in Toscana and also the afternoon tea selections? Italian is my favorite cuisine, and I love a good afternoon tea, so I'm curious what you thought about the food for each of these. Thanks.

[Emperor Norton]

[quote name='YoungRestlessOne']Would you mind commenting a bit about what you thought of the food in Toscana and also the afternoon tea selections? Italian is my favorite cuisine, and I love a good afternoon tea, so I'm curious what you thought about the food for each of these. Thanks.[/QUOTE]

Tea was the same that was available elsewhere on the ship (excluding Red Gingers proprietary list). The food ranged from sandwiches that were available at the Terrace, or the Exec/Concierge Lounge/Barristas to cookies (also available in the same venues) to little tarts and scones.

Toscana was my favorite restaurant after La Reserve. The staff seemed more attentive and the food seemed to come out correctly - the first time. The osso bucco came out too salty and the waiter told me they could make me a new one if I gave them 10 minutes:rolleyes: (the eyes are because it takes 3 days to make the dish)

I had the veal with lemon sauce instead which was as advertised and very tender (arrived at through use of a jacard press or meat mallet). The carpaccio tasted good and had good marbling. The leaning tower of lasagna was like a lot of other restaurant lasagnas - neither terrible nor excellent.

The bread basket was interesting and the roasted garlic to spread was a nice touch. The selection of olive oils was staggering and if you get a group I'd recommend each get something different and then swap them around. They also have variety of balsamic vinegars which I would recommend working through (I tried for short pours).

The cheese from the wheel is nice and gives you something to nibble on other than the bread. The oddity was the veal marsala - it came with an amazing demi-glace but not a hint of marsala.

The tiramisu was a good tiramisu.

[YoungRestlessOne]

Thanks. Now I'm looking forward to Toscana the most! Did you find that it was difficult to get reservations in the specialty restaurants a second time? Apparently, Oceania will let ou reserve once in each restaurant before the cruise but not multiple times. Just wondering how problematic it is to get a second reservation in any of them.

[Emperor Norton]

Nessebur, Bulgaria, or my visit to a potemkin winery

Another tender port. Other cruise lines seem to have tendering down to a science and get it up and running quickly. Lines are formed and maintained and people are loaded in an efficient manner. On these cruises it seemed like theyd launch a single tender, wait until people were hopping mad then put out a second etc... When loading the tenders they wouldn't insist that people move to the farthest reaches thus speeding up loading and making it safer (people weren't tripping over each other to fill space). The flow in and out of the Riviera lounge wasn't maintained so there were frequent traffic jams. In short Oceania could learn a lot from Disney on how to efficiently move people and maintain order rather than have every tender operation devolve into a frenzied zerg rush. Other than a few photos, I won't mention their tender issues again until the summary:)

Oh, hi guys!
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After tendering in and going through passport control we almost made it to these ruins - but someone near face planted.
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It probably pays to do a realistic assessment of how mobile you are before going on a tour. Had the person gone fully down that would've been a terrible way to start a cruise and potentially a cruise ender.

It looks like a nice quiet little seaside town.
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Here you can see a row of Ottoman tax breaks (in the Ottoman empire your property tax was based on the square footage of your ground floor, so people would build small ground floors and bigger upper floors).
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[Emperor Norton]

[quote name='YoungRestlessOne']Thanks. Now I'm looking forward to Toscana the most! Did you find that it was difficult to get reservations in the specialty restaurants a second time? Apparently, Oceania will let ou reserve once in each restaurant before the cruise but not multiple times. Just wondering how problematic it is to get a second reservation in any of them.[/QUOTE]

I found showing up at 630 in person and asking was the best bet. However on this (the second segment) there were people who I think worked it to only have dinner in the GDR once or twice with every other night in a specialty. I should've asked how they managed that. Id also pester the reservations desk on 5.

[Emperor Norton]

Nessebur, Bulgaria

Hello ship
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After a tour of the old town it was time to head off to the wine cellar. I've never seen a wine cellar quite like this.

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[Emperor Norton]

Nessebur, Bulgaria

Once the "tour" of the cellar was over we were taken to tables that were setup with glasses and plates of cured meats and cheeses.
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[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Nessebur-Bulgaria-July-2013/i-bZQDFWp/0/XL/DSC_2113-XL.jpg[/IMG]

It was interesting to note that the wines here used California grapes and were aged in California oak.

[Emperor Norton]

Constanta, Romania
The mighty Romanian Navy, a national basketball player turned tour guide, more wine tasting and a second dinner in La Reserve

In Constanta we were docked in with the Romanian Navy
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-RzGcfJN/0/XL/DSC_2171-XL.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-7XthDpD/0/XL/DSC_2172-XL.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-H9ZRLNL/0/XL/DSC_2173-XL.jpg[/IMG]

After an interesting bus ride into town (the roads at times resembled a war zone or partially exploded mine field) we arrived at the National Archaeology museum.

The museum did a decent job of covering the history of the area from the Greeks on up.
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-Jtsg8bq/0/XL/DSC_2135-XL.jpg[/IMG]

One of the streets
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-gH3PN5F/0/XL/DSC_2137-XL.jpg[/IMG]

A bit of Roman history
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-BvLjcfv/0/XL/DSC_2139-XL.jpg[/IMG]

[Emperor Norton]

Constanta, Romania

When economies go down
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-j96MtMk/0/XL/DSC_2143-XL.jpg[/IMG]

These buildings provided an interesting story
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-jGSJZ9p/0/XL/DSC_2141-XL.jpg[/IMG]

After the fall of communism the government decided to return properties taken under communism. The problem being is until the courts can adjudicate who should own the property, it stays in limbo.

We came across this church which was having a massive outdoor ceremony
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-H2fGWC6/0/XL/DSC_2144-XL.jpg[/IMG]

Refill your holy water here
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-hrmGqSG/0/XL/DSC_2146-XL.jpg[/IMG]

Our Guide who used to be a member of the National Basketball team
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-KXnpqFm/0/XL/guide-XL.jpg[/IMG]

Beware the open trenches
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-nqpnhxt/0/XL/DSC_2153-XL.jpg[/IMG]

[Emperor Norton]

Constanta, Romania

As we make our way out of town to part of the Romania wine country
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-ndxrswq/0/XL/DSC_2145-XL.jpg[/IMG]

We pass some nice looking houses and the old casino. It will be interesting to see if in the next fifteen years or so that casino is up and running again.
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[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-c98t5Qb/0/XL/DSC_2155-XL.jpg[/IMG]

After a wee trip we arrive to see
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-w4qfFDN/0/XL/DSC_2167-XL.jpg[/IMG]

At first glance this looks almost like the central portion of the Opus One building in Napa
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-ssfVKdd/0/XL/DSC_2169-XL.jpg[/IMG]

I never did see what was on the second floor
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-9LC5T9t/0/XL/DSC_2162-XL.jpg[/IMG]

[Emperor Norton]

Constanta, Romania

Table setup to sample the wines
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Eager tasters
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-sdPSGM5/0/XL/DSC_2157-XL.jpg[/IMG]

The host
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Easy access to sales
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-QwHbWwJ/0/XL/DSC_2161-XL.jpg[/IMG]

Bits of old construction
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Old tank converted to... something
[IMG]http://joee.smugmug.com/Other-1/Riviera/Constanta-Romania-July-2013/i-tPL6TWb/0/XL/DSC_2163-XL.jpg[/IMG]

While the Bulgarian wines tasted like they were meant for the western palette (and market) the Romanian wines were on the sweeter side and on occasion nearing port like qualities. Not my glass of wine as it were. I would however recommend trying some Bulgarian wine (the ships cellar master brought some on board - but oddly not from the wine cellar we visited) for something different.