Globe hopping
14 / Ocean cruising
Window to
the world The popularity of the ‘seacation’ has inspired cruise novices to venture beyond home shores. Jane Archer looks at what will be tempting them in 2022
W
hat did the Knights of Rhodes ever do for Greece? It’s an easy answer, I realise, as I gaze around the splendid medieval old city of Rhodes. A maze of narrow alleys here, the magnificent Street of the Knights there, the gothic Palace of the Grand Master, all enclosed in stout walls that still inspire the awe that must have greeted travellers in the 1300s. No wonder the Ottomans wanted the city. They took it in 1522, booting the knights out in a one-sided fight: 100,000 Turks versus 7,000 knights. I’m discovering the Greek Isles with Azamara, on the line’s first sailing since Covid. Azamara reckons the destinations it goes to are at least as fabulous as its ships. I can’t argue. Every island we visit has a story to tell – the Minoans who vanished from Santorini; the mythical past of ancient Delos, a small isles off Mykonos; Ottomans again, this time laying siege to Heraklion. It took 21 years but they took it in the end. Modern cruise ships are spectacular but, like so many others, I love cruising for the ease with which you get to visit lots of places on one holiday. All that history, culture and food in just seven nights!
Sailing santotini and other Greek islands is a classic first-time cruise
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Ocean Cruising V10.indd 14
12/21/21 02:53 PM
