One of my favorite holidays to date was my 2nd cruise with Annie which was named 'Aegean Discovery'. This time we were on a Thomson Cruise so it was a lot more relaxed and casual than our last but we soon grew to love it for this very reason. With the ports of call being in Turkey and Greece (both firsts for us), the weather and scenery were just fantastic and it was the first time I saw for myself that those images on the front of travel magazines, they really do exist! I really hope to do another cruise like this someday soon!

We set off from Bournemouth airport and flew into Dalaman, Turkey. We then made the 90 min transfer to Thomson Celebration which was docked in Marmaris. It was a lovely drive giving us a good first look at Turkey but given the heat we were glad when we arrived! It turned out that while its always hot in Turkey during the summer, we were actually there during a heatwave for June! While I did enjoy my first taste of real summer heat, it sure made it hard to be overly active at times!

We left Marmaris late that evening with a deck party in full blast and as we watched the shoreline become more and more distant, we saw fireworks going off somewhere in the town. Not a bad way to start

Because our itinerary was being done in reverse our first stop was Aghios Nikolas- aka Ag. Nik- Crete, which we found some interesting tidbits about. One such fact was that there's a Lake Voulimeni nearby which was believed to be bottomless by locales during the war so the Germans sank tanks and weaponry into it while they were withdrawing from the area. Another fact we learned during a brief visit to Lerapetra was that if we were to go straight for 150 miles across the Sea we would reach the Libya/ Egypt border.

After Lerapetra we headed into the mountains to the village Kalamafka which has a small chapel atop a hill, reached only by climbing the 224 steps... and no I did not attempt this! A few of the group began but soon gave up in the heat

After the Isle of Crete we headed for mainland Greece. Nauplion ( pronounced Naf-plee-yo) to be precice. A town which at one time was the capital during the First Hellenic Republic.

Nowadays its a picturesque seaport with cozy streets lined with cafes and venetian balconies. A lovely place to lazily wander. While here I had hoped to visit the Palamidi Castle which towers above the town but there wasn't enough interest in this tour so I hopped on Annies Mycena and wine tasting tour instead..... needless to say I never had cause to regret it!

Next up was the absolutely stunning island of Mykonos. From the clear turquoise water to the whitewashed streets to the well known windmills dotting the island there's no getting away from the fact that this place is a small slice of heaven. The white cubic houses are all no higher than 2 stories and while many have the blue shutters associated with Mykonos, there also many in the 3 other permitted colors, of red, green and brown. The town has tiny winding streets designed many years ago to disorientate pirates and I can attest to it still working nowadays, albeit on the tourists that visit the Island!

Little venice jutting out into the water is full of cafe/restaurants which make great places to stop and people watch awhile or to watch the sunset unfold in front of you. If your truly lucky while in Mykonos, you'll get to meet the resident pelicans... The story goes that in the 1950's a lone pelican became injured flying over Mykonos and after being rescued and nursed back to health by the locals he chose to remain on the Island, becoming an honorary citizen known as 'Petros. After sadly passing away in an unfortunate accident many years later, another Pelican was gifted to the people of Mykonos and so the legend of 'Petros' has lived on, and there are now 3 pelicans making the town of Mykonos home.

Back on Celebration we did the usual dinner and show but our main aim that evening was staying awake for the midnight magnificent.. this involved the chefs spending 36 hours making all kinds of the things with all different kinds of foods and they even had ice sculptures done by the staff! The food was on display for an hour and then we got to try it all! Well worth losing some sleep

The next day we arrived in Piraeus aka Athens. This had been the main port for me before the cruise as I wanted to tour the acropolis (Annie chose a tour of the city) and so I was pretty excited.

This would be the first but not last time I would wander away from my tour group. Our guide was going much too slow given that we only had a limited time in port; if she had her way we would have spent the majority of time on the ascent and descent. So half way up to the acropolis a half dozen of us split away and made our own way around giving ourselves much more freedom. Looking down on the city surrounding the acropolis you could easily make out the different neighborhoods and as for the ruins themselves, they are Huge! Its amazing to think how they managed to create such places without modern day tools. As I wandered I kept running into this one particular couple, to the point of not even bothering to ask about taking their picture, we'd just smile and exchange cameras!

But if I'd thought that Athens would have been my 'wow' point, boy was I wrong! Our next stop was Izmir, Turkey and I had debated all week about doing a trip to Ephesus as my friend Jill had warned about the lack of shade during the summer and the heat was immense on our return to Turkey. But man, am I glad I did it! I still wanna go back for a full day some when as it really is an Ancient Wonder.

The tour began with a long journey where we were given a lot of information about the country itself. The main points I remember are that men have to complete 4 years in the forces even if it means complying after completing university. Iran is 36 hours drive from Izmir. And the really interesting one is that Turkey is roughly 3 times the size of the UK, Iran is 2 times the size of Turkey and Kazakhstan is over 1 1/2 times larger than Iran! Talk about putting it in perspective!

Before visiting Ephesus we went to The House of The Virgin Mary where she is said to have been taken by St John to see out the rest of her days. The house itself has more than a passing resemblance to a chapel and outside there's a 'sacred spring' which is said to have healing properties and a wishing wall where people leave there prayers and pleas alike. It's extremely heartbreaking to read a mothers letter pleading for her young sons return to good health and you find yourself staring at this wall covered in similar messages most of which are on behalf of loved ones, and hoping they get their miracle.

After being given time to write our own messages if we so wished- I didn't as I was lucky enough not to have a need to- we made our way to the awe inspiring site of the ancient city of Ephesus.

Ephesus was once an important seaport and the trading center of Ancient times. Nowadays you can wander through the ruins; walk on the remains of what was mosaic floors; take a seat in the theater which held 25,000 people; stand in the shadow of the stunning Library of Celsus. While I did all these things I still only saw a fraction of what remained through the ages. It is a truly remarkable site in a beautiful valley setting.

After this exciting if exhausting day we only had the one stop left before the end of the cruise. Bodrum. I did enjoy Bodrum but the first thing that comes to mind with our visit is the heat. I know I keep harping on about it but it was in the mid 30's- For someone from the UK that's high!

Our first stop was at the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus which is an ancient wonder which was destroyed by earthquakes. And then we headed for Bodrum Castle which was very pretty and offered up some fabulous views.

The last day of our holiday we got up early so we could have a look around Marmaris before transferring back to Dalaman for our flight home. An uneventful journey following an exciting week.

''Once the travel bug bits there is no known antidote, and I know that I will be happily infected until the end of my life'' Michael Palin