The end of the cruise.

   Well, 6550 kilometres and 5 countries after it began, our cruise has come to an end. After leaving Alexandria we sailed for two straight days back to the port we started at, Civitavecchia. The two days at sea were very welcome break from our long, hectic days in the various ports of call, a badly needed holiday from our holiday, you might say. We retreated from the tacky activities offered onboard the ship and either stayed in our cabins sleeping, or found a quiet place to read our books and rest up for the next leg of the journey. The trip on board the Concordia has exceeded my expectations well and truly. In spite of my cynicism about the idea of taking a cruise ship I was won over by the fact that we were able to go exploring around various places that would take a great deal of time and hassle to get to otherwise, and do so with a hotel to retreat to afterwards.

Kavraj was our long suffering waiter for the cruise who put up with our well intentioned joking and mucking about. Most of the crew on board who are in daily contact with passengers have to have masterly over at least four languages - Italian, English, French, and German. Kavraj is from Mauritius and put us all to shame on the last night when we discovered he's fluent in nine languages. Which is eight more than the people sitting at our table.







Dean and Lisa are a wonderful couple from California who sat beside us at the table. Dean popped the question to Lisa at the Trevi Fountain in Rome the day before they came on the cruise. Don't get any ideas, Rachel...





The Costa Concordia. Our floating palace for the last ten days.





And finally a picture of us. As you can see we've had a bit too much sun and look a teensy bit different to how we did when we left. I know it's naughty to take photos of people without asking permission, but these guys just looked so silly I couldn't resist.