Wednesday 21st Leaving Rome by tour coach with 30 or 40 other ageing tourists of varying degrees of decreptitude, we headed south for Naples. We were taken on a walking tour of the highlights of Naples, past the Museum which was once the summer palace of King Vittorio Emmanuel 11, through a large square with a large church and copious touts selling postcards and various other trinkets of indescriminate origins - although probably China. We also went through a ...

Monday 19th Arrived in Rome after a 1hr 15m flight on Crotian Air - good airline didn't crash. Spent 1hr 30mins queuing for passport control!!!! Shades of Heathrow in the late 80s. Cabbed to our hotel - 40 minutes of amazing sites past the Colosseum to our nearby hotel - Hotel Grifo - tiny back street right in the centre of Rome. Great Hotel, old but tidy with helpful staff, free breakfast & Wi Fi. Out for lunch - by this time 4.30pm - no food on the ...

Tuesday 13th Left Mljet around 8am heading for Hvar. Plenty of reading, talking, relaxing - coffee and complimentary slivich (or something that sounds like that) - a rocket fuel based schnapps like drink that we kept away from the engine room! Stopped in a small bay alongside a couple of other cruise boats for a swim, (warm water around 24 plus degrees very salty) lunch then onto Hvar. Moored in Hvar rafted alongside a couple of other cruise boats and went ash...

Saturday 10th Arrived in Dubrovjnic after meeting the Donnellys at Zagreb. Pick up by our B & B host Ivan and taken to our accommodation overlooking Dubrovjnic harbour. Drinks on the balcony and an informative talk from Ivan before bed in our room overlooking the Harbour. Sunday 11th Breakfast Sunday morning on our own private patio before catching a bus to the old walled city. Trekked around the top of the city walls with thousands of other tourists...

Friday 9th Sept. Started the day by watching the ABs beat Tonga. Looked like the opening night was bigger brighter and better than anyone anticipated judging by the comments from Joel & Ian who were at the viaduct - and the articles on the internet. We trained to Pudding Hill Lane to view the construction of the facilites for the 2012 Olympics - very impressive with the 60,000 plus main stadium looking from the outside pretty well completed. Caught the Doc...