Introduction

This is a blog of the Jazzbeaux cruise from Istanbul to Venice in May 2014. We flew to Istanbul and spent two nights in a hotel and one overnight onboard Crystal Serenity, then sailed to Kusadasi, Turkey (for Ephesus); Santorini and Corfu, Greece; Dubrovnik and Korcula, Croatia; Koper, Slovenia; and ended with one overnight onboard and one night in a hotel in Venice before flying home.

During the trip, Jazzbelle kept detailed notes and I [Jazzbeau] took lots of pictures. After returning home, I revised the notes to remove names [to protect the guilty, as they say…] and put it in my voice to avoid confusion. Jazzbelle became “DW” in internet parlance [“Dear Wife”].

Monday, May 5—Arrival in Istanbul

We flew Delta overnight to Amsterdam and then KLM to Istanbul, arriving late afternoon. We got Turkish Lira from a bank ATM in the airport and then found our van to the hotel in the old town; it is technically a shared van service, but we were the only group, so it felt like a very good value.

The DoubleTree Istanbul-Old Town hotel upgraded us to a suite with two rooms and two full baths and a terrace on an upper level of the hotel. Not too shabby! There were also treats in the room (cheese, nuts, and very good quality Turkish Delight that spoiled us for the regular kind) and bottled water, and our upgrade included free breakfast and internet. The hotel was very conveniently located near a tram stop, and there was an ATM right outside—this was very handy because we didn’t want to end up with Turkish Lira left over, so we made several small withdrawals.

After getting our act together we hit the pavement and walked around for a couple of hours in the cool, light rain, getting a feel for what this famous Turkish city had to offer and an idea of how we wanted to get to the big tourist attractions. Turned out the best way was via their public transportation system, especially the tram/street car that ran frequently and didn’t get bogged down in traffic jams. And it cost around $1/ride.

Tuesday, May 6 —Istanbul

We were in Istanbul for 3 days and saw all the major attractions: the Underground Cistern, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Hippodrome, Grand Bazaar, Suleyman Mosque, Spice Market, Topkapi Palace (where DW bumped into someone from City Island), Chora Church, the City Walls and the Golden Horn, and last, but not least, whirling dervishes. Mostly we followed the walking tours and detailed guides in the Rick Steves Istanbul guidebook. We like Rick’s approach, which is to cover only the top attractions but to provide really in-depth coverage. We also used Rick’s recommendations for dinner, although the first restaurant we tried was completely full when we arrived (foolishly without a reservation); the backup choice, Sultanahmet Köftecisi, at no. 12 Divan Yolu, was a very “Europe on $5” kind of place that took us back to our youth but the Turkish “meatballs” were very tasty and the price was right.

We are glad we visited this Middle Eastern city, but would not want to return. The people are not friendly and the only ones who think they are, are the hucksters who accost you at every doorway or follow you when you are sightseeing, trying to sell you carpets. We couldn’t even window shop without being confronted by the shopkeepers. It was alarming to see the numbers of small children left by their parents to beg on the streets. The city also seemed to be overrun with stray cats and dogs. The flowers were beautiful and WCs were plentiful, but all in all we did not feel comfortable in Istanbul.

Wednesday, May 7—Istanbul (cont)

The taxi ride took forever because of the notoriously bad traffic. After checking in we had a late lunch in the Crystal Dining Room (a Turkish dish called Pide made with lamb and cheese), and then headed out to the Topkapi Palace which was very interesting and filled more time than we had expected. The famous Topkapi dagger is still there, but in a wall case unlike the movie set!

We got back to the ship at 7 pm and changed for dinner at 8 in the Crystal Dining Room. I had ahi tuna with wasabi, baby halibut sautéed with snow peas, and zuppa inglese. DW had crab soup with brie, Caesar salad, pan-fried salmon, zuppa inglese, and cannoli citron.

A word about the menus in the Crystal Dining Room. Shortly before our cruise, Crystal unveiled a new approach to dining at sea. The right side of the menu each night is traditional continental cuisine, which changes every night. The left side, which on most ships is the “always available” menu of staples like steak and chicken, is now an ambitious nouvelle cuisine menu; this also changes every night. You can order any dish from either menu, so it’s like dining at two different restaurants at the same time! This is very difficult for the kitchen to pull off, because nouvelle cuisine requires different equipment and techniques (sous vide, molecular, etc.). But Crystal reportedly got it right from the first night, and certainly by our cruise the food was nearly flawless.

After dinner we unpacked. All four of our bags had been piled on the bed, and we discovered that one of them had been dragged through a puddle. The water dripped onto the bed protector and then ran onto the bed itself. We had to summon the late-night crew to strip and remake the bed (thankfully a waterproof pad had saved the mattress). The next morning we asked for an egg crate, which made it more comfortable. After that, no more issues with the cabin!

Thursday, May 8—Final Day in Istanbul

The cruise started with an overnight in Istanbul, which allowed us to complete our priority sightseeing. The day started with Mass for DW [Crystal is one of the small number of cruise lines that still has a Priest on board all cruises], followed by a humorous attempt by Crystal to comply with every wish: the Lido buffet was out of apple juice, so they ran some apples through a food processor and presented DW with a glass of sludge! Full points for effort, but no thanks! I felt the onset of a sore throat that morning, so started taking Zicam.

After breakfast we took the tram almost its entire length out to the old City Wall, then switched to a light rail train for 3 stops to get near Chora Church. This was the one time Rick Steves let us down: his directions from the train station to the church were hard to follow, and we managed to get completely lost. We met a French couple who were trying to remember the way, and together we got even more lost! Then we were rescued by a couple that DW had met on the WC line at Hagia Sophia; they had just been to the church and were able to steer us back. I’m happy to report that it was worth it! The mosaics and frescos are very well preserved, given their age, and this church has not been roughly converted into a mosque (which ruins Hagia Sophia in our opinion). This was a high point, and probably the only thing in Istanbul that we would want to see again. We finished off by climbing one of the towers of the old City Wall and then walking all the way North to the Golden Horn (the name of the river estuary that divides the European part of Istanbul into the old and new towns) and all the way East back to the Galata Bridge (which connects the old and new towns). The walk was longer than we wanted, but we weren’t near the tram and traffic was moving so slowly that we easily outpaced the taxis—Istanbul traffic is as bad as LA! Thank God everything else we wanted to see was on the tram line.

We had an early dinner in the Crystal Dining Room because of a scheduled evening shore excursion. DW started with a pear, endive, gorgonzola and pecan salad and I with goat cheese/hazelnut ravioli; then we both had duck with coconut sauce on purple rice.

The Whirling Dervishes was one of four Crystal shore excursions that we booked because they offered things that you can’t do on your own. We started with a visit to the Suleyman Mosque while it was closed (so much easier to view than when we went on our own the day before) and included a private performance by one of the authentic Mevlevi groups. The whirling dervishes were very prayerful and the ceremony was mesmerizing. This was another highlight of Istanbul for us. When we got back on the ship there was a special late show of local Turkish entertainers, including a belly dancer. [From the sublime to the ridiculous?]

We are glad we visited this Middle Eastern city, but would not want to return. The people are not friendly and the only ones who think they are, are the hucksters who accost you at every doorway or follow you when you are sightseeing, trying to sell you carpets. We couldn’t even window shop without being confronted by the shopkeepers. It was alarming to see the numbers of small children left by their parents to beg on the streets. The city also seemed to be overrun with stray cats and dogs. The flowers were beautiful and WCs were plentiful, but all in all we did not feel comfortable in Istanbul.

Friday May 9—Sea Day

We sailed through the Dardanelles, and the port lecturer described the ANZAC cove where so many Australian and New Zealand troops lost their lives in World War I. DW took advantage of the free laundromat on board to do two loads of wash (the cool weather limited us to one portion of our wardrobes), walked two miles on the lovely Promenade Deck (another rarity on cruise ships today), and did some puzzles in the Library. I attended a computer class and the first port lecture, on Ephesus and Santorini.

The port lecturer was Roy Willis, a retired history professor who taught at Stanford and Cal Davis. His lectures were very interesting, and he never mentioned (much less tried to push) the ship’s excursions. There were also two other lecturers on board: Ken Walsh, chief White House correspondent for US News & World Report; and Dr. Louis Rene Beres, a professor of political science at Purdue University and expert on US foreign policy. But despite all these great options we each took a nap to recoup from our whirlwind (or was it Whirling?) tour of Istanbul.

This was the sole Formal Night, which on Crystal is now called “Black Tie Optional.” DW had bought a stunning blue dress and I wore a navy suit—there were a few tuxes in evidence but we fit right in to the mix of styles. We ate in the Crystal Dining Room (mosaic of fresh fruit; ragout of chicken, chanterelle (1) and fava beans in puff pastry; fresh (well, not frozen) Maine lobster, risotto and white asparagus; Valrhona chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce, and rum raisin ice cream) and then attended the first production show, Across the Pond (a mix of US and British pop music of the 1960s, very well done!).

Saturday May 10—Kusadasi, Turkey (for Ephesus)

We took Crystal’s special archeological tour of the Ephesus ruins, the terrace houses and amphitheater, led by a scientist who has been digging at that site for many years and was able to give us insights and perspective beyond any tour guide. We enjoyed this despite the steady rain and cool temps (50s), and would like to see it again in better weather so that umbrellas would not be blocking our view and we wouldn’t have to be constantly watching our step on the slick marble walkways. An amazing place! We had a traditional Turkish lunch at a nearby restaurant, and then visited the site of the Basilica of St. John. We got back onboard around 3 pm. I napped while DW walked two miles. Then we both attended the 5:15 pm vigil Mass (as usual DW was one of the lectors).

We were scheduled to return to Ephesus that evening on another Crystal excursion for an outdoor concert at the Celsus Library, but it was cancelled because of the rain. Since I had a bad cold, we were just as happy not to have to sit out in the damp! Instead we were able to attend a performance by classical pianist Rustem Hayroudinoff (excellent—high brow but not dull), and have dinner at the new Tastes restaurant.

The food at Tastes is very adventuresome—the concept is small plates of various cuisines around the world, served family style. Unfortunately my cold had wiped out my sense of taste at this point, but I still polished off the octopus salad, hamachi with corn salsa, Alsatian tarte, chimichurri beef, and lamb skewers. DW enjoyed all but the octopus (not her favorite species) and the lamb (too well done). For dessert DW had macchiato/espresso whipped ice cream, and I had Bananas Foster bread pudding.

Sunday, May 11—Santorini, Greece

This part of the itinerary was one of the deciding factors for this cruise, since it allowed us to spend our 40th Anniversary on the romantic island of Santorini. This is the island that travel posters show of Greece—white houses with bright blue roofs/domes overlooking the water. The weather was gorgeous (for the first time on this trip). Santorini has the best tenders ever, and with only one other ship in port there were no waits for the cable cars or anything else. My cold had improved, but my head was obviously stuffed with something other than brains because I managed to lose my day wallet; luckily it only contained a few Euro and one credit card, which the Crystal front desk helped my cancel with a free ship-to-shore phone call.

Santorini is a circular chain of islands that show the outline of a huge volcano which exploded back in ancient times (it is probably the source of the legend of the lost continent of Atlantis). We had wanted to hike from the central town of Fira along the rim of the caldera to Oia, but I still felt too weak to attempt this. Then we thought we could take a local excursion by boat to the far town of Oia, then by bus back to the central town of Fira—but we didn’t know the schedule and just missed the last boat. So we did the more usual approach of taking the cable car up from the tender port to Fira. Then we took the local bus to Oia, explored to our hearts’ content, and caught the bus back to Fira. In Fira we visited the Orthodox Cathedral, the Catholic Cathedral (an interesting contrast), and the Santozeum museum which has replicas of the frescos that were found in an archeological dig elsewhere on the island. These aren’t your usual Roman or even Greek frescos: they go back to the ancient Minoan civilization before the volcano exploded!

We got back to the ship in time for Tea in the Palm Court: tea sandwiches, scones with strawberry preserves and whipped cream, and various gateaux for the Jazzbeaux. The resident string quartet played, the waiters wore white gloves, and it was a wonderful way to spend our anniversary. We attended the early show by comedian/musician Steve Stevens, which was good, and then the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet where we got to meet many of the folks I had been corresponding with on the internet.

Dinner was again in the Crystal Dining Room (the new menus are so varied and so good that we were afraid to miss anything, although they will make any special order than can with 24 hours notice). I had smoked scallops in cucumber froth (does that say “nouvelle cuisine” or what?), a small portion of pasta putanesca, sea bass with artichoke and lemon snow, and cherries jubilee; DW had crab cake, butternut squash bisque with seeds, rocket lettuce, garlic marinated tiger prawns with grilled zucchini, and espresso trifle. We poked around the shops and went back to the cabin to read.

Monday, May 12—Sea Day

A stateroom Open House included three vacant accommodations at different levels (our was the cheapest type, so it was nice to see the other options—and especially nice to realize that we were quite content with our C3 ocean view!). We both attended the next port lecture, on Corfu and Dubrovnik. A simple lunch at the Grill, then I took two more computer classes. We got together again for the Galley Tour, and then a performance of the Magic Castle at Sea magician, Peter Samelson; the tickets also included two free passes to the Magic Castle in LA, which our DD had gotten us into last November. We thought Mr. Samelson was better than any of the acts we had seen in LA. This is an excellent tie-in for Crystal.

Then we went to the early show of another Crystal co-license: the iLuminate show The Tourist. iLuminate is a new theatre technology where the costumes include LED lights that allow effects like an actor seeming to transport smoothly across the entire stage (actually several actors positioned left to right with the lights timed to make an arc). It was fascinating—for about 5 minutes; tolerable for about 10 minutes; unfortunately the show lasted 30 minutes and the theatre was completely dark so it wasn’t safe to leave… We hope this tie-in is un-tied a.s.a.p.!

Then on the dinner at Prego, the Italian specialty restaurant. I had a mix of fried calamari, bay scallops, shrimp, and clam; a small portion of lasagna; rack of lamb; and limoncello soufflé with raspberry sauce. DW had lobster sautéed with sage butter on beans; Caesar salad; asparagus raviolus (= 1!); rack of lamb; and dark chocolate tartuffo.

Tuesday, May 13—Corfu, Greece

We joined Jeani from our Cruise Critic roll call and her friend for a private taxi tour of the island. This was a great way to see places, since Corfu is fairly small but the sites are spread around. Our driver Kristos took us up in the mountains on roads the tour busses can’t navigate, for what would have been a great view except for the dense fog that morning. Then on to the usual viewpoints for St. George’s Bay (beautiful) and Paleokastritsa (even more beautiful). We spent some time at the Theotokos Monastery and on the beach at Paleokastritsa, then Kristos bought some fresh bread and took us to his friends’ shop (George’s Cellar) where we sampled the bread with their olive oil and spices, olives, wine, and kumquat liqueur and ouzo. No pressure to purchase! Then we drove back across the island and slightly south of the port to Kanoni, another lovely bay with a monastery and a church on the small Mouse Island. Kristos tried to sneak us in to Mon Repos for the views back to the port, but it was a different guard who was all Barney Fife so we ended the tour with a drive around the old town and back to the ship. A great four hours, and Kristos was even willing to wait at the old town for us to explore for a while (but lunch beckoned…).

Back on board we had lunch at Tastes. DW had a Chinoise chicken salad, and I had a Reuben sandwich [what? New York is an ethnic cuisine too!] We both capped it off with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

That afternoon, we took the ship’s shuttle back to the old town and toured the Old Fortress, including its temple-like Church of St. George (an English take on an Orthodox church) and up to the lighthouse for panoramic views; the Church of St. Spiridon (with a full-size silver casket containing said Saint’s relics); and the Rue de Rivoli-like Liston.

Corfu has had an interesting history of occupying powers, each of which left mementos. A lot of the architecture is Venetian, the City Hall is English (as is the summer palace, “Mon Repos,” where Prince Phillip was born), the street facing the port is French, and the adjacent park includes a cricket pitch. It’s also a green and verdant island, as contrasted to Santorini’s desert landscape. All in all a very pleasant surprise.

We caught the early show by Rustem Hayroudinoff. This was a longer program, and although all the composers were well-known he chose interesting pieces that we hadn’t heard before. Quite a contrast to the Liberace-type pianists we have heard on other cruises.

Dinner in the Crystal Dining Room: we both started with gratinated seafood crepes; then DW had mixed greens with buttermilk dressing; filet mignon chimichurri with eggplant, corn, chorizo confit and arugula mashed potatoes; and carrot cake, raspberry noodles, sauce anglaise, and bergamot ice cream; while I had mushroom soup; duo of salmon (1 fried; 1 poached in olive oil) with lemon foam, purple mashed potatoes, and fava beans; and peanut butter trifle.

After dinner we had planned to attend the late show in the Stardust Lounge (a Billy Joel tribute by one of the two singer/pianists) but we dozed off.

[We later learned that an Asian passenger had dropped dead walking from dinner to the concert. He was our age and in apparently good health. This was handled very smoothly, and most passengers weren’t even aware that anything had happened. DW learned about it because the next day’s Mass was offered for him, and we were slightly delayed disembarking while they removed the body.]