Voyages to discover antiquity

If you’re travelling with Captain Greybeard, the next few days could get rather confusing. Let me explain. On Friday, I flew to Dubrovnik and I am now on a cruise which is taking me to Split and Zadar in Croatia, Venice for a couple of days, and then on to Greece, where we will visit Kalamata, Athens, Volos and Myrina before entering Turkish waters and overnighting in Istanbul.
My reports en route will be interspersed with some from another recent voyage which I took from Palermo, in Sicily, to Rome – memorably visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum on the way, in the company of Cambridge classics professor Mary Beard.
So we’ll be jumping about a bit between a number of countries and through countless centuries of history. Not to mention keeping up to date with any news from the present-day cruise world, and all dependent on securing an adequate wi-fi connection to the internet from the ship.
It should be fun, especially as I will be comparing two ships operating in a similar niche of the market – Voyages of Discovery‘s eponymous mv Discovery, on which I am travelling now, and Voyage to Antiquity’s Aegean Odyssey, from which I explored Sicily and southern Italy.
Neither vessel is in the first flush of youth, and nor are the passengers. The ships and their facilities are largely secondary to the destinations along the route, and excursions ashore are preceded by informative talks from specialists who bring their subjects alive.
There is a small show team on Discovery (only a string trio and a singing duo on Odyssey) but it will be interesting to see how many passengers stay up for the Carousel Theatre after dinner when they have to be back there early in the morning ready for the next day’s tour.
If you have travelled on either of these ships, please let me know what you thought about the cruises and the experience. If you have any questions about either Voyage to Antiquity or Voyages of Discovery, send them to me and I’ll do my best to provide answers.
In the meantime, buckle up, it could get bumpy!