Review of "Cruising the Mediterranean," by Al & Sunny Lockwood

Review of

Cruising the Mediterranean, by Al & Sunny Lockwood ISBN 9780692599860

Four out of five stars

This is basically a “How I Spent My Vacation” report expanded out to 300 pages. The authors are retired, living in California and love to travel. Al has problems with his knees, so anything beyond a few stairs is problematic and it is often necessary to use a wheelchair. Therefore, this parameter must be factored into any activity they engage in.

 Their first stop was the Dutch city of Amsterdam, where they stayed in a Bed & Breakfast run by a Dutch woman. While there, they experienced the art of many of the famous Dutch painters and traveled the canals. The next stop was Venice, where they toured many of the famous buildings and works before boarding a cruise ship that took them to the Eastern Mediterranean.

 Istanbul, Turkey, Athens, Greece and some of the islands in the Aegean Sea were their ports of call and they visited some of the oldest buildings in all of Europe. A very significant point was their realization that in terms of age of the country, the United States is a mere child. Some of the buildings they visited in Amsterdam predated the establishment of the United States by hundreds of years and some of the structures they visited in Greece predated them by thousands of years.

 Everything from the food and desserts to the restaurants to the entertainment on the ship is described. All of this is done in a conversational tone with very little in terms of emotion. The only real problem they had was on the flight into Amsterdam, where they thought that Al had an aisle seat to provide room for his legs but were instead given cramped seats in the middle. This was further compounded by bars under the seats in front of them so that they could not stow their bags.

 In general, people read logs of other people’s travels for relaxation and to get a feel for what a place is like before they consider traveling there. Unless it is humorous, few want to read about the horrific travel experiences of others. This book is one that will relax you and stimulate an interest in the places the Lockwoods visited. There is no drama and nothing near a crisis.

This book was made available for free for review purposes.