Turn around day

So we have left the eastern Mediterranean and started our slow journey back, we have one more stop at Palma on Tuesday and then it is full steam ahead for Southampton.  With no tours today we had a lie in and didn’t drag ourselves out of bed until 8.30am but instead of heading off to a restaurant I took myself up for a swim.  The weather is sunny but as we have a cruising speed of 22 knots and a headwind of 10 knots it is still quite chilly up on deck.  But the good news is that the pool is heated and I spent a good 20 minutes or so on my own doing lengths – well they are quite short lengths but other than swimming in circles what else can you do?

Last night was another casual night but this time with a tropical theme so we both put on our best Hawaiian clothes for dinner where we had the rare choice of Skate or Mahi Mahi.  We both had the skate but when Peter’s Mahi Mahi arrived I wish that I had stuck with the Hawaiian theme and had that instead.  The evening show was another Headliners concert this time with an ABBA theme, it was very good and you can see that they are getting more confident with each other as the shows roll by.  We happened to meet the two male dancers and one of the girl dancers outside the lift the other day and spent 15 minutes or so chatting to them.  Six weeks ago they had never met one another, so they have done well to put on their performances so professionally.  Perhaps we judged them harshly at the beginning comparing them with the group that we got to know so well last time but then of course they had 82 nights with us whereas this group we only have for 16.

We have completed our two lectures for the day, the first one with the fingerprint expert and the second with our Shakespeare man who is beginning to grow on me.  I had never heard any of the sonnets before and his explanations have been brilliant – the biggest problem that we have is the location in the Pacific Lounge which seems to have its air conditioning on full blast all the time.  Hilary had to move at one stage so that she had the warmth of a high chair back behind her and she was still cold.  At the moment she is waiting for me in the Crow’s Nest which is surrounded by glass and nicely warm, for all that I know she may even have ordered herself a hot chocolate to drink.

OK, no pictures today so I am hoping for a quick upload and then I am to join my wife for a snooze in the sun.  Thanks for all the comments, we look forward to reading them, please keep them coming.

Rhodes

We did the steps!  All 365 of them up to the top of the Acropolis of Lindos and then down again.  Leaving around 8.45am we pretty much drove straight there from the dock, through some towns which apparently are heaving in the summertime with many of the bars being open until 6.30am – glad that we did the early season!  It was a long and winding 45minute drive with our guide Joanna describing what had happened to the island in its long history over many centuries BC.  It was so enthralling that several people on the coach dozed off including the lady opposite me who managed to rest her head on the adjacent person’s shoulder until sternly reminded to “Get off.”

The climb up however was well worth it and the view of the bay of Lindos from the top is spectacular with the blue sky and sea and the whitewashed houses.  But we were there to see the Acropolis which was a temple to the goddess Athena and dates from 400 BC.  Many little tourist shops line the stone pebbled pathway that preceded the steep steps up to the summit and we ignored them all.  Probably not having enough breath to speak was a good part of it, but so was the fact that we were pretty much out of euros and trying to conserve some of them.  On the way up we passed an enterprising Greek lady displaying table cloths hand-made from lace and stitch work, managed to get a price from her and carried on walking.  On the way down though we offered her €60 euros and settled on €65, Hilary considers that was a good deal in view of the fact that it was hand made by the lady’s family and included 12 napkins.  The good part of this is that we had no more money with us with which to buy trinkets (other than a fridge magnet of course).

Back on the coach we did the 45 minute trip into Rhodes for our excursion around the old part and this was really interesting.  In the 15^th century the Knights of the Templar rode into town and built a fortress and settled in the area between the Acropolis and the sea and this is still in great condition today.  Walls and moats protected the inhabitants and despite many invasions from the Turks they were never enslaved for very long.  Lots of the original frescos still exist and the pathways are made from mosaics of small pebbles, a bit hard on the feet (definitely not good for high heels) but all our coach party made it through the old town and back to the coach.  Tradition has it that the apostle Saint Paul landed at the beach of Lindos to preach Christianity to the people of Rhodes.  And here I must correct yesterday’s blog when I wrote about the Virgin Mary being taken to her final resting place by Saint Paul, she was of course accompanied by John the Baptist – but then you knew that already didn’t you?  That was just my test to see if you would correct it in your comments.

One other apology as the picture of Ted reading the Sudoku didn’t upload either so I shall try again today along with some of today’s pictures.  And with that I am going to make a nice cup of tea before I go up to the Crow’s Nest and upload this load of old rubbish.  We have two days at sea to come before our last port of call which is Palma and we are really looking forward to lying in and not worry about getting up early to pick up stickers and head for coaches.  The weather over the past few days has been fantastic, not too sunny or hot but temperatures in the high 60’s and low 70’s (Fahrenheit of course), long may it continue and if it does so I will be back in the pool as often as I can.  I need the exercise and I also need to cut down on my calorie intake – a late New Year Resolution is to lose at least 14 pound in weight and I won’t do that if I keep snacking on biscuits between large meals.  On our RTW cruise I know I blogged about men with big guts sunning themselves in tight vests – well I am one and that must stop.  Enjoy yourselves, we are back in exactly one week.

Kusadasi

Kusadasi is the gateway to Turkey, a smallish port but capable of holding two cruise ships simultaneously as today showed when the American owned m.v. Amsterdam arrived at the same time as us – we docked within minutes of each other and that kept the immigration people busy when we all tried to exit and get on our coaches at the same time.  But the day dawned clear and bright with sunshine all the way, we had breakfast in the open air, strolled down to get our boarding stickers and onto number 12 coach where we met up with our guide Kahn.  He was very good throughout the whole process and we each had a little receiver and earpiece so that we could keep in touch with him as he gave his detailed speeches. Actually our first visit was not to the ruins themselves but to the place where the Virgin Mary is supposed to have gone to live when Saint Paul took her there some 12 years after Jesus died.  By our reckoning she must have been into her late 50’s by then so it would have been an incredible journey.

 If you have never seen the ruins at Ephesus then you should go as they are far more impressive than anything that we saw in Greece, it is a good day out, most of the walking is on the flat (not too many steps although the marble slabs can be a bit slippery – I would not want to go there after a rainstorm or come to that in the height of the tourist season when it must be over bearably hot.  But we learned a lot about the Romans who built the place and this time it was all real life stuff and not lots of Greek gods and goddesses that we have never heard about.  We took lots and lots of pictures and even had some taken by a professional that we bought from him at the end of the tour, I will post some, but as you can probably tell Blogspot is not a good place to post photos unless you have lots of time on your hands and at 25p per minute I can't afford that luxury.  Not far from the ruins is the museum where you can get up close and personal with a lot of the statues dug up from the ruins and this is a nice way of rounding off the stay but for us it was a bit too short as we were on a time schedule to get to our luncheon place.  We could have happily spent more time in the museum.

Lunch was excellent, lots of hot meats for those that wanted it and plenty of salad with cheeses for those who didn’t – they also had a very nice lentil soup and to finish a selection of desserts that put pounds on just looking at them.  We were ordered by Kahn to have two slices of baklava although some of us couldn’t resist trying several of the other desserts as well.

Our final stop was back in Kusadasi where Kahn took us to a very large store that sold handmade Turkish rugs, leather goods and silver jewellery.  We managed to resist all the owner’s pleadings although I was very tempted by a nice silk rug that we could probably have got for less than €1000.  Hilary would have liked a wall hanging rug, while I see no point in those – for me rugs go on the floor and are to be used – even after 47 years together we still can’t agree on some things…

Left to our own devices we wandered through the small shops begging us to buy and we did succumb at one shop where we got several boxes of Turkish Delight in different flavours and of course the compulsory fridge magnet.  Where I lost my will power was a shop selling genuine fake Ralph Lauren polo shirts so I bought two… for followers of the RTW blog you will remember that during that cruise I ended up with 15 new short sleeved shirts, so two so far is very good.  Do I need them? No.  Did I want them? Yes.  Why? – I don’t have any with that logo or in those colours, case closed.

Just before I post you should know that Ted is leading a life of his own, especially in the evenings when we come back from dinner.  We have posted a couple of his pictures and today I have included last night’s where he was found with my reading glasses on sitting upright on the bed and doing the Sudoku.  I think that Agnelo our cabin steward is having fun with him.

We skipped the magician in the theatre last night to see a Jim Broadbent film, another strange one that takes place over the four seasons and is about the life of a geologist and counsellor and the friends that they have.  Not quite as strange as the one about the babies born for spare parts, but still pretty baffling.  Unsure tonight as to what to do, the main star is a lady singer and we are uncertain as to whether to see her or not; the film is Toy Story 3 and we have already done that in 3D.  Might just go to bed early and get ready for trekking around Rhodes for 4 hours tomorrow….  Goodnight all.

Athens

 

I didn’t sleep well last night, we went to bed a bit later than usual and I woke about 4.30am and just dozed on and off until 6.30am when I decided to get up.  We knew that it was an early start as we were on a coach trip from Piraues, where the ship moored, to Athens and that we could pick up our tickets anytime after 7.15am.  I wanted to be one of the early birds but even getting to the ticket place at 7.05am still meant that others had got there before me, but if was then off to Al Fresco for an early morning scrambled eggs and tinned tomatoes on toast before ambling down to catch the coach.  This we did manage to be first on and grabbed two nice seats with a big picture window before anyone else could get them.  The day was a little overcast but I risked going out in a short sleeve shirt but when I saw our guide all decked out in a black quilted jacket with a fur collar I did wonder if I had gauged it wrong.

With a full coach we were taken from Piraeus to the Acropolis via a short tour of Athens and during the ride (and subsequently during the tour) she proved herself to be an absolute master – or should that be mistress – of her subject.  We were bombarded with details about Zeus, Athena, Mars, etc. etc. until we were all quite bewildered by it all.  However it was all great fun, if a little crowded and also a little bit ankle twisting as we climbed up and down steps and over rocks.  With the tour of the Acropolis over it was time to see a bit more of the town from the coach before being dropped off close to the Plaka which is the narrow streets containing huge numbers of tourist shops and cafes.  Hilary purchased a nice loose cotton dress in blue which she may wear for the wedding in August plus a long sleeved cardigan/shawl that you can apparently tie in dozens of different ways.  I forgot to add that while sitting on the coach the first time around we succumbed to the sales pitch of a little Greek man selling 10 postcards and a book about Greece for €5 and at our first stop we bought a table cloth from a little Greek lady, although we did knock her down from €30 to €15.

Our coach party was packed up and ready to come back and we left Athens at 3.45pm and back on board for a nice cup of tea by 4.30pm.  There is WiFi in the Piraeus port terminal and I could just get a connection in our cabin, but it was too weak to be useful so I will have to pay for this blog.

As you could probably see from last night, getting pictures up and in order is a problem with Blogspot unless you have a lot of time to play around with it, so I will just continue to stick some up and hope that they come out OK.

It’s another casual night tonight (hooray for tour days) and then we must prepare ourselves to walk around Ephesus tomorrow, if the weather is as kind to us then as it was today we will be in good shape – I would hate for it to be too hot or too  cold to be honest.  I haven’t looked at our tickets but being another 6½ hour tour it probably means an early start so wish us well… 

Zakinthos

Our first real Greek island and one that we had to be taken to by small boat as the harbour is too small for the Oriana to enter.  The clocks went forward again last night so it was a pretty tired pair that dragged themselves out of bed at 7.00am to go onto our small deck and take pictures as we entered the outer harbour and dropped anchor.  As you can see from the photos Ted came too on this trip and he seems to be enjoying himself although he hasn’t made quite so many friends as last time.  We breakfasted in Al Fresco (can’t say the prunes are working terribly well, but I will persist with them) before making our way down the stairs to the Theatre where we got our boarding sticker for the first boat going ashore.  It didn’t help very much as it turned out for although we got to the quayside before lots of the others, we had to wait for an elderly man and his wife who were on the wrong coach and they had great difficulty getting him up the steps of our coach.  I don’t mean to sound unkind but why do people with severe disabilities book themselves onto tours which require lots of steps and walking?  The brochures are pretty clear about what degree of mobility may be required but some people still persist in trying to stretch themselves too far and then complain about it.  While I am on a rant the other thing that pi***s me off is people who rush into the theatre to grab an end of the row seat and them complain every time that they have to get up to let people in who are sitting further along the row.  It’s stupid; but we did see one comeuppance today when about 4 people managed to get on the trot boat, seated themselves in the open area closest to the exit so that they could be first off and then got absolutely soaked through with the spray which bounced through the gap – that’l larn ‘em as my Gran would have said.  But I am getting ahead of myself here….

Our coach guide was a Greek lady who had lived in both California and Chicago for 30 years and then married a guy from Zakinthos so she came back to the island to live.  She was excellent and allowed us to get off and take pictures at several stops around the island, including some inside the cathedral that was the only building left standing following a 6.7 level earthquake in August 1953.  I decided that we needed to light a candle for all those that lost their lives in Japan so duly purchased one and watched it burn before going to look at the sacred relics of the island’s patron saint. Alexandria then took us to a pottery where we watched the owner make a variety of items including the traditional pomegranate that is ceremoniously broken during a wedding reception to ensure lots of healthy children in the new family.  We bought a small bowl with a lid that was signed by the potter and it could be useful for sugar or something similar.  At the high point of the island we found a local ice cream man so Hilary and I plus a couple of others sneaked a quick sugar cone (not quite Lappert’s standard but pretty good and locally made.  Then it was to a hotel for a quick free cup of coffee and a biscuit before it was shopping time.

Zakinthos is strictly for tourists nowadays and the town consists of two main squares and two main roads lined with gift shops.  A speciality of the island is nougat with almonds, so of course we are bringing back some of that – then of course postcards and a fridge magnet (we will need a bigger fridge soon) and finally a successful hunt for a bolero jacket that Hilary can use in the evenings when it gets cool – and believe me it does!  The coach took us the few hundred yards down the jetty where we queued up for the trot boat (much pushing and shoving, gotta get there first) and we got on the second boat to leave which is where the fun started.  Our ride into harbour from the Oriana was as calm as a mill pond but going back the wind had picked up and it was a roller coaster of a ride, I noticed a few apprehensive faces as it bounced up and down but apart from the stupid few who had insisted on being near the exit and got soaked in the process, it really was quite good fun.   We think that Julian would have needed all his skill to get the boat alongside and moored against the Oriana’s hull but that he would probably have enjoyed it too.

Back on board, a quick nice cup of tea and back up to the Riviera deck for a swim for Sam and a relaxing read for Hilary.  There was a breeze on board though and the warmest places were definitely the pool and the hot tub, both of which I enjoyed all on my own for a good 45 minutes.  A shower, quick change, some cheese and biscuits and a bowl of fruit – plus of course another nice cup of tea and it was back inside into the warm.  I came up to blog while Hilary went off to do the one and only laundry session of the trip (we hope), not sure if she was successful or not but I will find out later on.

Tonight our Headliner’s show has been postponed for 15 minutes as something else has been planned for the sailaway so it will be a somewhat later night for us tonight but at least we don’t have to put the damn clocks forward again, but we do have to be up early ready for our full day walking up and down to the Acropolis and around the Plaka.  Let’s hope that it is a bit warmer.

OK I am going to post this with a few more photos, hope that you enjoy them…

Messina

Now this is how we expected the Mediterranean to be, blue seas, blue skies and warm sunshine.  It wasn’t too warm though with the temperature rising from around 63F as we entered the port at 8.00am, rising to 72F at the end of the afternoon.

Let me first explain the two Ted pictures; each night our cabin steward Agnelo takes great delight in sitting him in different positions – we have found him on the windowsill facing out and facing in, we have found him tucked in bed under the covers and these are the last two configurations where he has the notice regarding change of clocks and the next day’s proceedings.  Ted also features in some of the pictures we have taken and on this page they were obviously taken in Messina.

Messina is a busy port and from the harbour it is easy to see mainland Italy which is served by numerous ferries – we saw lots of them heading out just as we were coming in, presumably people going to work.  The town is a lot larger than the part we saw for we just walked to the main square and luckily got the last two seats on an open air tour bus. €10 each for a 45 minute tour was not bad and we saw all the highlights of the immediate area and then got back to the main square in time for noon, which is when the real highlight of Messina is shown.  Attached to the main cathedral is a tall clock tower and at noon just after the strikes have finished all the animals and figures in the clock tower start to move.  First a lion wags his tail, waves the flag he is holding, pulls back his head and roars – then a cock crows several times, a replica of the cathedral appears from desert sand, a procession of angels and attendants move to bring on the Nativity.  Very impressive and the whole thing lasts about 15 minutes.

Having seen the show, done the tour, bought some cards and a fridge magnet we strolled back to the Oriana and had a nice cup of tea.  It was warm enough for me to change into shorts for the first time so we headed up to a relatively empty deck and found the swimming pool completely empty.  This was too good an opportunity to miss so I donned my bathers and had the pool to myself (including the pulsating hot tub) for a good 45 minutes.  A grand day out…..

As I write this I expect that Hilary has made her way to the small C deck area which we used to watch us come into Messina harbour, it really is a good place from which to watch the ship’s comings and goings and not too many people know about it.

Casual dress tonight and the ballad singer who we missed last time around so we are looking forward to that.  Right this was all written offline with Word so I will try and post it complete with photographs….

We weren’t alone…..

Yesterday we told you about our cockup on the timing front, well apparently we were not the only ones to get confused.  Over dinner last night we were talking about it to our dining companions Peter and Kay and the waiter overheard us.  He was on breakfast duty that day and at 7.30am was surprised to find a couple trying to break into the doors of the restaurant.  “Sorry Madam and Sir,” he said, “but we don’t open until 8.00 o’clock.”  “What do you mean,” they said, “it’s already half past eight.”  The waiter then gently explained to them that the clocks didn’t go forward until later that night and that they were a day premature.  Exit stage left of two hungry and tired passengers, who then were first in the queue 30 minutes later.  So you can see it can happen to anyone…

Just a recap of last night after I had finished blogging.  Dinner was formal and I was in my best bib and tucker with maroon bowtie and cummerbund (bought from Woodside Charity Shop last summer) with the cummerbund hiding my expanding girth and the stretch marks on the waistband of my trousers.  We had our photograph taken with the Deputy Captain who happens to be the same officer who was First Officer on the Oriana during the great RTW cruise in 2009.  According to him the Captain was suffering from Captain’s Flu which is much much worse than the dreaded man flu and that if he didn’t recover soon he was going to put him off at the next port of call.   We didn’t get lobster again, apparently that is reserved for when the Captain is present so Hilary had the tiger prawns and I settled once more for the salmon, which is one of the constants on the menu if you don’t fancy any of the other dishes.  I even passed on the dessert and settled for two water biscuits and a chunk of Stilton.

The evening Headliners show was their best yet and it covered the musicals that had won Tony awards, the finale had two great numbers from Miss Saigon and closed with the revolution song in Les Miserables.  We congratulated the cast on their performances while they were lined up at the exit to the theatre, they did deserve our praise and apart from one wobbly start by one of the girl singers they all performed very well indeed.  After that it was pretty much straight to bed but this time knowing that we were definitely going to lose an hour’s sleep.

Just a couple of other thoughts now that we are on today, we have booked one more trip and that is in Zakinthos the first real Greek Island of the tour (tomorrow is Messica in Sicily and we are just winging that one), the Zakinthos stop is one where we go into port on a tender so we have booked an early morning Best of Zakinthos tour in the hope that it will ensure that we get one of the early tenders instead of having to fight all and sundry for a place on a boat.  And the other thing is that while we were waiting for the lectures to start this morning I went down to get our daily crossword and Sudoku puzzles and happened to find that they were selling off some Cotton Traders Rugby shirts at 2 for 1, so I now have two more even if I already have a closet full at home.  One is blue and grey stripe and the other is purple and grey stripe – if it gets chilly (and today it is getting sunnier and around 65F) and Hilary takes a photograph of me, then you may well see me wearing one of them.  So be on the lookout.

We weren’t alone…..

Yesterday we told you about our cockup on the timing front, well apparently we were not the only ones to get confused.  Over dinner last night we were talking about it to our dining companions Peter and Kay and the waiter overheard us.  He was on breakfast duty that day and at 7.30am was surprised to find a couple trying to break into the doors of the restaurant.  “Sorry Madam and Sir,” he said, “but we don’t open until 8.00 o’clock.”  “What do you mean,” they said, “it’s already half past eight.”  The waiter then gently explained to them that the clocks didn’t go forward until later that night and that they were a day premature.  Exit stage left of two hungry and tired passengers, who then were first in the queue 30 minutes later.  So you can see it can happen to anyone…

Just a recap of last night after I had finished blogging.  Dinner was formal and I was in my best bib and tucker with maroon bowtie and cummerbund (bought from Woodside Charity Shop last summer) with the cummerbund hiding my expanding girth and the stretch marks on the waistband of my trousers.  We had our photograph taken with the Deputy Captain who happens to be the same officer who was First Officer on the Oriana during the great RTW cruise in 2009.  According to him the Captain was suffering from Captain’s Flu which is much much worse than the dreaded man flu and that if he didn’t recover soon he was going to put him off at the next port of call.   We didn’t get lobster again, apparently that is reserved for when the Captain is present so Hilary had the tiger prawns and I settled once more for the salmon, which is one of the constants on the menu if you don’t fancy any of the other dishes.  I even passed on the dessert and settled for two water biscuits and a chunk of Stilton.

The evening Headliners show was their best yet and it covered the musicals that had won Tony awards, the finale had two great numbers from Miss Saigon and closed with the revolution song in Les Miserables.  We congratulated the cast on their performances while they were lined up at the exit to the theatre, they did deserve our praise and apart from one wobbly start by one of the girl singers they all performed very well indeed.  After that it was pretty much straight to bed but this time knowing that we were definitely going to lose an hour’s sleep.

Just a couple of other thoughts now that we are on today, we have booked one more trip and that is in Zakinthos the first real Greek Island of the tour (tomorrow is Messica in Sicily and we are just winging that one), the Zakinthos stop is one where we go into port on a tender so we have booked an early morning Best of Zakinthos tour in the hope that it will ensure that we get one of the early tenders instead of having to fight all and sundry for a place on a boat.  And the other thing is that while we were waiting for the lectures to start this morning I went down to get our daily crossword and Sudoku puzzles and happened to find that they were selling off some Cotton Traders Rugby shirts at 2 for 1, so I now have two more even if I already have a closet full at home.  One is blue and grey stripe and the other is purple and grey stripe – if it gets chilly (and today it is getting sunnier and around 65F) and Hilary takes a photograph of me, then you may well see me wearing one of them.  So be on the lookout.

Spent the morning watching two lectures, one on fingerprinting and the other on Shakespeare, I am quite surprised how much Hilary is enjoying both of them – particularly the latter.  The only drawback to these lectures is that they are both held in the Pacific Lounge, which is cold – in fact the whole ship seems cold and the warmest places are the lifts.  Outside it hasn’t got above 17C or 63F all day and with the breeze it is not the place to sit.  Some lucky, or brave souls do go on the Sun? Deck but we are not that foolhardy so we went back to the Chaplin Cinema this afternoon and this time it was to see Made in Dagenham the story of the strike at Ford by lady machinists and which eventually led to the Equal Pay act.  About 10 minutes into the film it all broke down but this was not the old kind of cine film that shows sprocket holes etc. as it is all controlled by a projector that is fed from a computer (running Windows XP!) and the operator merely starts the sequence and then goes away.  We were in the back row so Hilary climbed onto the seat and got outside where she went down to Reception to tell them what had happened.  At the same time another man was phoning them, I don’t know who got through first but shortly after Hilary got back they re-started the film close to where it had stopped.  It was a good film and depicted the 60’s very well, particularly the way that women were treated very differently, but it did not show Harold Wilson in a good light.

Tomorrow we start the big round of island visits and in rapid succession we have Sicily, then Zakinthos, Athens, Kudasi in Turkey and Rhodes all one day after the other.  We have tours booked for all except the first so this is going to be a busy time for us.  Then it is a couple of days before we get to Palma on the island of Mallorca followed by the long trek back past Gibraltar back up to Southampton.  Comfortable clothes and shoes from now on….

Tonight we see the comedian again so I will let you know how he is second time around.  Thanks for all the comments, please keep them coming.

Well the comedian was good and very funny, a tad bluer this time but nevertheless much appreciated by most of the ladies in the audience.  He also has a remarkably good voice and sang some strong ballads.  There was a delay in starting his performance tonight when a gentleman managed to trip on the stairs in the theatre and had to be stretchered off, we were given an update at the end to say that he was having some X-Rays but let’s hope that he didn’t have any tours planned for the immediate future.

So it is goodnight from me and you are now guaranteed to have some more blogging as I have signed up for another 250 minutes and that  I will not waste – you may get more pictures than you would like but I have to use my allowance up somehow.  Will blog tomorrow and tell you all about Messina in Sicily – unless Mount Etna decides to erupt while we are there and we have to beat a hasty retreat.  God bless.