l have a photograph of my sister and l at a children’s party when we crossed the equator, while on a Union Castle liner from Cape Town to Southampton (London) in 1961 . My Dad was specializing in OBGYN in the UK  and when he completed his specialization  we returned home by cruise liner as well.

A few years ago, Ray and l went on a Mediterranean Cruise with Maya. It was one of those monster cruise liners where lobster pink, drunken people lounge around the swimming pool, and there were very long queues passing through passport control to get ashore. However having said that, the places that we visited were both historically interesting and  gorgeous. Some of them like Athens and  Venice l had been to before. I loved walking along the walls of the old city of Dubrovnik,  full of  red roofs and visiting the quaint  and informative  Jewish Museum and Synagogue which is the second oldest in Europe (after Prague). One only needs to think of the not too distant past of Croatia to marvel that people feel comfortable today to visit Dubrovnik and Croatia.  There have been vocal debates as to the future  of cruise liners to some cities.  Many  of these places  have been overwhelmed  with the influx of  cruise liner tourists , so much so that there has been talk of cutting down on the amount of cruise liners permitted to enter their port.

We are fortunate to be having the opportunity of traveling on a relatively small cruise liner with 300+ passengers. A day or two in a city or island hardly qualifies one to begin to ‘ know’ a place. However on this trip we will have the chance to visit places often isolated. Easter Island, Falkland Island, Tonga, Fiji, Robinson  Crusoe Island and Antarctica are amongst the places we will have the privilege of visiting.