Picture the scene: a gleaming ship glides out of Athens carrying 1,900 passengers on a ten-day sweep of the Mediterranean. On board are honeymooners and first-timers, retirees and chosen families, outfits planned for every deck party (three options each, obviously) and Patti LuPone, no less. All of them ready to spill into port towns and do what travellers do best: eat, drink, wander, tip generously and buy carpets they have absolutely no room for in their luggage.
Then Turkey slammed the door, with local authorities denying the ship’s entry at the port of Kuşadası declaring its passengers "incompatible with the fabric of our society and our moral values". The ship rerouted to Alexandria instead, and in the middle of the night a note slipped under every cabin door to say that Egypt had turned them away too.
