Dorothy, we're not on Regent anymore...

Here is our cozy new home--a modest 2000 passenger, 1000 crew vessel, Holland America's newest ship, the ms Noordam.

Completed in 2006 she has all the latest gadgets and features. Our room on the concierge floor is actually quite nice, better than Regent. But this is a different way of life, if you get my drift.

We have just departed Katakolon, gateway to Olympia, site of the original Olympic games which ran from roughly 800BC to 400BC. Along with Sparta and olive groves, these are features of the Peloponnese area in southern Greece. Maybe it's cumulative fatigue, but we could not rally for the tour to Ancient Olympus, so we just visited the dockside village.

It's a collection of shops and restaurants catering mainly to the tourist crowd.

We did enjoy a wonderful Greek salad, fried cheese, moussaka and local wine lunch that highlighted our time ashore.

The clear winner of the three ports so far is Dubrovnik, Croatia. Almost in tact from the early '90s war, and essentially unchanged from its 14th century beginning, we were quite impressed in spite of a cold, all day rain during our visit. If you have not been, put it on your must see list.





The old city is completely surrounded by the original rampart.

Inside the buildings and streets are immaculately preserved, with delightful shops and restaurants galore not detracting from the historic ambiance.

And what a great place for a future Pet Paradise Resort on the Dalmatian Coast!

Next we came to Corfu, which was OK but did not overwhelm us. The old city had charm, but the rest was pretty much a typical, bustling European city notwithstanding Homeric references.

Santorini tomorrow and hope for better weather. So far a pesky low pressure system spinning in the north central Mediterranean has kept it pretty cool and cloudy, with occasional rain.