I'm still feeling quite miserable with a cough I simply cannot shake; it has been there at various levels of nasty for the whole trip. I got a pharmacist on Elba to sell me some cough medicine which only vaguely helped. I've tried again here in Canterbury so we'll have to see how it goes. The worst thing is that it's worse when I'm in air conditioning, so for example on the flight yesterday I had a horrible attack of coughing, and same last night here in the hotel (and unlike many hotels in England, this is a new building with windows that don't open). I really hope that this latest lot of medicine helps. Part of the problem of course is that I'm now taking blood pressure medication which means I can't take any of the pseudo-ephedrine based medication. Well, I could, but I shouldn't.
Anyway, today was our day for seeing the nearby sights of Canterbury.
First we went to the Cathedral, which is simply amazing.
Then, we went to the Roman Museum- a really interesting place set up around an old Roman mosaic that they found buried well below the current street level. However, as well as the mosaic there are lots of other finds and some really interesting explanations. We were part way through the museum when we saw a man talking to some people about the artifacts, and we both recognised him instantly - Mark Corney who has appeared on Time Team on quite a few occasions. Turns out he does a lot of tour guide work and it's somewhat disappointing that I didn't know this; the short tour he is currently running co-incides exactly with our stay in Canterbury and would have been really, really interesting. And, once I started looking further into the tour web site I realised that there are a number of future ones that we would really really like to do. So much for retirement!
Anyway, back to Canterbury today.
We had also hoped to see the Canterbury Heritage Centre, but it opens 'seasonally' and this isn't the season :-(
Then we wandered off to find the Norman Castle but became side-tracked by the Westgate. This is the only remaining old gate into the city, all the others have been destroyed over time. The view of Canterbury from the tower is quite interesting, and there is also a small display of militaria. The tower was also used as a prison for a long time, and some of the old areas of the prison are set up with information about that part of its history. For the admission price this was quite an interesting place and I was really sorry to hear from the guy looking after the museum that we were the first visitors there for the day. I'm going to put a positive note on Tripadvisor, hopefully it might encourage other people to visit!
So, after a break for lunch we went and found the Norman Castle - mostly ruins of course but still interesting - and the city walls.
Then, back to the hotel for recovery, then catching up on blogs etc. Paul is also researching where we might go tomorrow - maybe Margate and Sandwich.
Thursday 29 September 2016
UK and Med Cruise - Day 23 - 27 September - Return to England
First, some final comments about Rome - there's an amazing amount of history here; I think you could spend a lifetime investigating the history of just one street. Everywhere you look there are ancient buildings with fascinating history - for example, our hotel is in a street called "Via di Santa Maria Maggiore". This is because at the end of our street is the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
and it "is agreed that the present church was built under Pope Sixtus III (432–440)"- although on the site of an even older building. This is somewhat mind-boggling when you come from a place where - as someone said on our Ostia Antica tour the other day - if a building is more than 100 years old we're likely to stick a plaque on it.
Or, another example- on our walk to the Trevi Fountain the other day we realised we were standing on a corner where there were fountains in the corners of all four buildings. This is the Quattro Fontane and they were installed between 1588 and 1593. I had no idea that these fountains existed, and obviously with only three days in Rome we missed the vast majority of the visible history.
On the down side though, the city seems to be struggling somewhat when it comes to dealing with the sheer number of people who want to see these amazing old buildings and structures. Apart from the early hours of the morning, there are always people everywhere. As a pedestrian you take your own life into your hands any time you leave a building; not just on the roads but on the footpaths too; people drive and park their cars and bikes anywhere!
I'm glad that we saw the little bit of Rome that we did- the ancient feeling of the old city is something special and even as a non-Catholic the cross border trip to the Vatican was a real highlight. However, I doubt that we'll be back; overall between the heat and crowds I think that touring Rome is a young person's game!
Anyway, back to our travels. We booked a transfer to the airport; the driver was due to arrive at 8:30am and I hoped we could be at the airport by 10am. All those stories about outrageous amounts of traffic were true, but it didn't stop the driver from arriving early and getting us to the airport at 9:00. So, we spent more time than we needed to sitting around, not helped by the fact that I completely misunderstood the signs about where to check in for British Airways, so we didn't go through check-in/ security/ customs until somewhat later than we could have. Oops.
Had a somewhat uncomfortable trip back; we had aisle and middle seats but when we got there someone was already in the aisle seat. He didn't want to believe that he had to move over to the window, not helped at all by the fact that I sat on his arm (quite unintentionally, but if I'd realised later how rude he was going to be I might have done it deliberately). Once we landed at Gatwick everyone who could of course immediately jumped up and started to try to get their bags. We waited for a few minutes and then he insisted that I must get out of my seat even though there was absolutely nowhere I could stand. Someone in front of Paul took pity on me, but I don't know where the man thought he was going to go. Anyway, we finally got off the plane and I have to say I was really pleased that it was over.
We had pre-booked a taxi to take us to Canterbury - it's well over an hour's drive and cost 87 pounds, but trains would have been almost as expensive and much slower.
Got to our hotel without too much drama - it's a Premier Inn which is a chain we have used before - at the low end cost and facility wise but with really comfortable beds and they always have a restaurant with completely predictable and acceptable food.
and it "is agreed that the present church was built under Pope Sixtus III (432–440)"- although on the site of an even older building. This is somewhat mind-boggling when you come from a place where - as someone said on our Ostia Antica tour the other day - if a building is more than 100 years old we're likely to stick a plaque on it.
Or, another example- on our walk to the Trevi Fountain the other day we realised we were standing on a corner where there were fountains in the corners of all four buildings. This is the Quattro Fontane and they were installed between 1588 and 1593. I had no idea that these fountains existed, and obviously with only three days in Rome we missed the vast majority of the visible history.
On the down side though, the city seems to be struggling somewhat when it comes to dealing with the sheer number of people who want to see these amazing old buildings and structures. Apart from the early hours of the morning, there are always people everywhere. As a pedestrian you take your own life into your hands any time you leave a building; not just on the roads but on the footpaths too; people drive and park their cars and bikes anywhere!
I'm glad that we saw the little bit of Rome that we did- the ancient feeling of the old city is something special and even as a non-Catholic the cross border trip to the Vatican was a real highlight. However, I doubt that we'll be back; overall between the heat and crowds I think that touring Rome is a young person's game!
Anyway, back to our travels. We booked a transfer to the airport; the driver was due to arrive at 8:30am and I hoped we could be at the airport by 10am. All those stories about outrageous amounts of traffic were true, but it didn't stop the driver from arriving early and getting us to the airport at 9:00. So, we spent more time than we needed to sitting around, not helped by the fact that I completely misunderstood the signs about where to check in for British Airways, so we didn't go through check-in/ security/ customs until somewhat later than we could have. Oops.
Had a somewhat uncomfortable trip back; we had aisle and middle seats but when we got there someone was already in the aisle seat. He didn't want to believe that he had to move over to the window, not helped at all by the fact that I sat on his arm (quite unintentionally, but if I'd realised later how rude he was going to be I might have done it deliberately). Once we landed at Gatwick everyone who could of course immediately jumped up and started to try to get their bags. We waited for a few minutes and then he insisted that I must get out of my seat even though there was absolutely nowhere I could stand. Someone in front of Paul took pity on me, but I don't know where the man thought he was going to go. Anyway, we finally got off the plane and I have to say I was really pleased that it was over.
We had pre-booked a taxi to take us to Canterbury - it's well over an hour's drive and cost 87 pounds, but trains would have been almost as expensive and much slower.
Got to our hotel without too much drama - it's a Premier Inn which is a chain we have used before - at the low end cost and facility wise but with really comfortable beds and they always have a restaurant with completely predictable and acceptable food.
UK and Med Cruise - Day 22 - 26 September - Rome - Vatican
And another early start - this time for a tour called "Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums and St Peter's Basilica"
All I can say is, wow.
The tour company (the same one from yesterday's tour; different guide though) gets an early entry into the Vatican for this tour, and some special/quicker ways to move around. I don't know quite how to explain how crowded it was - we at least didn't have to wait in line to enter (at one point we saw the lines and the guide said their waiting time would be in hours!), but it was amazingly busy. However, our guide was really good, he managed to tell us a lot of detail without at all being boring or overwhelming, he had answers to every question he was asked, and he managed to manoeuvre a group of 20-odd people through the busiest crowds without losing us, all while explaining what we were seeing. I was just so impressed.
Everyone has seen many pictures of the Vatican and related places, so I'm not going to post any of them. However, this one came as a surprise to me - in the Vatican Museums, an entire gallery done by one monk who drew maps of the entirety of Italy. Amazing how he managed these birds eye views so many years before a birds eye view was something a human could do - this is just Sicily and Sardinia:
We had a different sort of Rome experience on the way back from the tour. We went to catch the Metro, and it was obvious that there was a delay - there was a breakdown on the line, not in the section we were travelling on but further out. However, it took quite some time for a train to arrive and when it did, it was already crowded. By the time people got on at our station and the next, we were packed like sardines. And, we kept being packed in further - I simply could not believe that so many people could fit into one Metro carriage.
Later in the day, after a rest and recuperate session, we decided to walk to the Trevi Fountain which is only about 1.3 kilometres from our hotel. We could have cut down the distance by catching the Metro, but I didn't think I could face another sardine session. We found it without too much trouble, although I have to say that without the smartphone and the Map app, we would have had some problems - modern technology is really helpful sometimes. Of course, at the same time as we found it, approximately a million other tourists found it too, so there was no chance to get anywhere near enough to toss a coin. However, we did get a really good look at it and I was amazed- I simply had no idea how huge it is.
All I can say is, wow.
The tour company (the same one from yesterday's tour; different guide though) gets an early entry into the Vatican for this tour, and some special/quicker ways to move around. I don't know quite how to explain how crowded it was - we at least didn't have to wait in line to enter (at one point we saw the lines and the guide said their waiting time would be in hours!), but it was amazingly busy. However, our guide was really good, he managed to tell us a lot of detail without at all being boring or overwhelming, he had answers to every question he was asked, and he managed to manoeuvre a group of 20-odd people through the busiest crowds without losing us, all while explaining what we were seeing. I was just so impressed.
Everyone has seen many pictures of the Vatican and related places, so I'm not going to post any of them. However, this one came as a surprise to me - in the Vatican Museums, an entire gallery done by one monk who drew maps of the entirety of Italy. Amazing how he managed these birds eye views so many years before a birds eye view was something a human could do - this is just Sicily and Sardinia:
We had a different sort of Rome experience on the way back from the tour. We went to catch the Metro, and it was obvious that there was a delay - there was a breakdown on the line, not in the section we were travelling on but further out. However, it took quite some time for a train to arrive and when it did, it was already crowded. By the time people got on at our station and the next, we were packed like sardines. And, we kept being packed in further - I simply could not believe that so many people could fit into one Metro carriage.
Later in the day, after a rest and recuperate session, we decided to walk to the Trevi Fountain which is only about 1.3 kilometres from our hotel. We could have cut down the distance by catching the Metro, but I didn't think I could face another sardine session. We found it without too much trouble, although I have to say that without the smartphone and the Map app, we would have had some problems - modern technology is really helpful sometimes. Of course, at the same time as we found it, approximately a million other tourists found it too, so there was no chance to get anywhere near enough to toss a coin. However, we did get a really good look at it and I was amazed- I simply had no idea how huge it is.
UK and Med Cruise - Day 21 - 25 September - Rome - Ancient Ostia (Ostia Antica)
Another early start today - we had a tour booked to see Ostia Antica
This is an amazing place, and the guide (Rebecca from City Wonders) did a great job of explaining what we were seeing.
This is Rebecca showing us the map of the site:
This site was covered up quite differently from the way Pompeii was - it was just covered up gradually by river silt. It was also uncovered quite differently as well - much of the uncovered stuff was dug out on orders from Mussolini with no care for proper archaeological process, so no-one will ever know how much evidence and information was lost in the process.
There is a bit of competition between the sites; there's very little money available for archaeology so any money that's spent on one site the other one feels they've lost. In reality both sites are so huge that you could spend outrageous amounts of money investigating and researching them properly, but sadly in the case of Ostia Antica there doesn't even seem to be enough money to properly protect the parts of the site that have already been opened up. Honestly though, if you only have time to go to Pompeii or Ostia Antica and not both, I'd go to Ostia Antica.
Just a couple of photos of this huge and interesting place:
This is an amazing place, and the guide (Rebecca from City Wonders) did a great job of explaining what we were seeing.
This is Rebecca showing us the map of the site:
This site was covered up quite differently from the way Pompeii was - it was just covered up gradually by river silt. It was also uncovered quite differently as well - much of the uncovered stuff was dug out on orders from Mussolini with no care for proper archaeological process, so no-one will ever know how much evidence and information was lost in the process.
There is a bit of competition between the sites; there's very little money available for archaeology so any money that's spent on one site the other one feels they've lost. In reality both sites are so huge that you could spend outrageous amounts of money investigating and researching them properly, but sadly in the case of Ostia Antica there doesn't even seem to be enough money to properly protect the parts of the site that have already been opened up. Honestly though, if you only have time to go to Pompeii or Ostia Antica and not both, I'd go to Ostia Antica.
Just a couple of photos of this huge and interesting place:
UK and Med Cruise - Day 20 - 24 September - Rome
Terrible night's sleep last night unfortunately, because we needed to get up quite early today - we needed to up and ready to leave and get to our assigned onboard meeting place by 7:10am. I had booked a shuttle ride for 9am to go back to Rome. Princess is so very definite that you won't be allowed off the ship until it's your turn, and of course we also had to pick up our suitcases once we got off the ship, and go through customs. I had no idea how long all of this might take, which is why I asked for a 7am to 8am departure.
Anyway, we got to the meeting place at around 7am only to be told that we could leave straight away if we wanted to. No chance of that; we sat around in the lounge until closer to 8am. Turns out that the disembarkation was going really quickly; while we were there they started calling for people who were still on board to come to their departure areas 30 minutes earlier than planned. Once we got off the ship we realised at least part of the reason that it was going so well - the customs check involved walking out past a sign that said that if you had anything to declare, you should declare it. And, no immigration check at all.
Bye-bye Royal Princess:
So we wandered out thinking that we were going to be really early, but the shuttle driver arrived quite early and all eight passengers showed up early too (and just to keep the numbers up, at least half the passengers in the shuttle were Australian; I still have no idea why there would have been so many Aussies - and Kiwis for that matter - on this cruise). This was a far less dramatic drive than the shuttle transfer to the port at the start of the trip - for a start, this guy used hands-free for his phone. It ended up taking quite a long time to get to the hotel; one of the people wanted to be dropped off at the airport, and of course we were all being dropped at different hotels. The big delay was caused by a fire though; some of the main streets in the centre of the city were temporarily closed off by the police and fire brigade.
We got to our hotel hours early - at around 10:30am - and by a miracle our room was ready and they let us check in straight away!
So, we got ourselves sorted out and then went out to have a look at the Colosseum:
and had a quick, early lunch at a cafe.
We have also managed to buy our three day Metro passes - which let you use most of the trains, trams and busses - and went on a couple of Metro rides just to make sure that we know how it all works. This might sound a bit anal, but we actually need to take the Metro to the starting point of our tour tomorrow, and I didn't want to have to deal with working this all out early on a Sunday morning.
I'm very happy with both hotels we have stayed in; the prices were quite reasonable by Rome standards and the rooms have all we need, including far more space than you'd get in a similar hotel in London for example, and air-conditioning (although that was deliberate; air conditioning was a non-negotiable part of my search for these hotels!
Anyway, we got to the meeting place at around 7am only to be told that we could leave straight away if we wanted to. No chance of that; we sat around in the lounge until closer to 8am. Turns out that the disembarkation was going really quickly; while we were there they started calling for people who were still on board to come to their departure areas 30 minutes earlier than planned. Once we got off the ship we realised at least part of the reason that it was going so well - the customs check involved walking out past a sign that said that if you had anything to declare, you should declare it. And, no immigration check at all.
Bye-bye Royal Princess:
So we wandered out thinking that we were going to be really early, but the shuttle driver arrived quite early and all eight passengers showed up early too (and just to keep the numbers up, at least half the passengers in the shuttle were Australian; I still have no idea why there would have been so many Aussies - and Kiwis for that matter - on this cruise). This was a far less dramatic drive than the shuttle transfer to the port at the start of the trip - for a start, this guy used hands-free for his phone. It ended up taking quite a long time to get to the hotel; one of the people wanted to be dropped off at the airport, and of course we were all being dropped at different hotels. The big delay was caused by a fire though; some of the main streets in the centre of the city were temporarily closed off by the police and fire brigade.
We got to our hotel hours early - at around 10:30am - and by a miracle our room was ready and they let us check in straight away!
So, we got ourselves sorted out and then went out to have a look at the Colosseum:
and had a quick, early lunch at a cafe.
We have also managed to buy our three day Metro passes - which let you use most of the trains, trams and busses - and went on a couple of Metro rides just to make sure that we know how it all works. This might sound a bit anal, but we actually need to take the Metro to the starting point of our tour tomorrow, and I didn't want to have to deal with working this all out early on a Sunday morning.
I'm very happy with both hotels we have stayed in; the prices were quite reasonable by Rome standards and the rooms have all we need, including far more space than you'd get in a similar hotel in London for example, and air-conditioning (although that was deliberate; air conditioning was a non-negotiable part of my search for these hotels!
UK and Med Cruise - Day 19 - 23 September - Portoferraio, Elba
We found out today that this is the first time any Princess ship has come to Portoferraio. It's a nice little city; we wandered around to the Archaeological Museum where we could also see the remains of a Roman Villa and one of the many fortifications around the island.
They don't really seem to be set up for cruise passengers - classic example being the public toilets in the main 'touristy' area around the bay. They gave us a really nice tourist guide which included these toilets, but when we went there we discovered that the toilets are locked for siesta(!!) from about 1pm to 5pm. Fine if you're staying in a hotel in the area, not so good otherwise. There are lots of restaurants and cafes but most of them don't have facilities either :-(
On the other hand, I finally managed to track down a pharmacy which was open and where I could get some medication for my sore throat and cough which are still bugging me. I got some lozenges and cough medicine, both of which are helping a little. Not sure why but they are only sold from behind the counter here - just one of those interesting differences between places.
Back on board in time to waste some time for the rest of the day.
They don't really seem to be set up for cruise passengers - classic example being the public toilets in the main 'touristy' area around the bay. They gave us a really nice tourist guide which included these toilets, but when we went there we discovered that the toilets are locked for siesta(!!) from about 1pm to 5pm. Fine if you're staying in a hotel in the area, not so good otherwise. There are lots of restaurants and cafes but most of them don't have facilities either :-(
On the other hand, I finally managed to track down a pharmacy which was open and where I could get some medication for my sore throat and cough which are still bugging me. I got some lozenges and cough medicine, both of which are helping a little. Not sure why but they are only sold from behind the counter here - just one of those interesting differences between places.
Back on board in time to waste some time for the rest of the day.
Friday 23 September 2016
UK and Med Cruise - Day 18 - 22 September - Messina
One of the disappointments of our trip. All of the really interesting places around Messina need more than a half day by the time you get there and back, but a half day was all we had once they finished tinkering with the itinerary.
In the end we just walked around the parts of the city that are close to the port, then came back on board. We did stop at a cafe to get a fruit juice, and on looking at the menu we decided to have a very early lunch. We shared a delicious mushroom pizza and Paul had a lemon gelato which he voted to be excellent. While we were there a rainstorm hit - we were outside under the cafe's umbrellas and managed to stay pretty much dry. Fascinating to notice that the street vendors are really well organised - we had umbrellas but a number of people around us didn't, and the street vendors who until that moment had been selling cheap selfie sticks and junk jewellery all of a sudden appeared with umbrellas for sale!
Only one more full day on the cruise now, and then this part of the holiday will all be over.
In the end we just walked around the parts of the city that are close to the port, then came back on board. We did stop at a cafe to get a fruit juice, and on looking at the menu we decided to have a very early lunch. We shared a delicious mushroom pizza and Paul had a lemon gelato which he voted to be excellent. While we were there a rainstorm hit - we were outside under the cafe's umbrellas and managed to stay pretty much dry. Fascinating to notice that the street vendors are really well organised - we had umbrellas but a number of people around us didn't, and the street vendors who until that moment had been selling cheap selfie sticks and junk jewellery all of a sudden appeared with umbrellas for sale!
Only one more full day on the cruise now, and then this part of the holiday will all be over.
UK and Med Cruise - Day 17 - 21 September - Corfu
We decided not to go ashore today; the weather forecast wasn't promising and we didn't have anything in particular that we wanted to see or do. Unfortunately I was feeling off colour most of the night and it didn't go away in the morning; and I finally realised that I was a bit seasick. While we were docked. Unbelievable.
However a seasickness tablet seemed to do the trick.
In any case, the biggest effort today was to catch up on some laundry - we probably won't get another chance now until we're back in England.....
However a seasickness tablet seemed to do the trick.
In any case, the biggest effort today was to catch up on some laundry - we probably won't get another chance now until we're back in England.....
UK and Med Cruise - Day 16 - 20 September - Kotor
Back to Kotor today. We decided to just walk around the old city. When we got off the tender we started walking in the wrong direction, but we realised there were signs pointing to a shopping centre that way, so we continued on. I needed to buy some conditioner, which I found without too much trouble. While waiting to be served an American lady in front of me was stopped because the security system beeped when she tried to walk out, and she ended up being escorted to the back of the shop with her daughter; they obviously were quite convinced she had stolen something. I was a bit worried that it might have been her cruise card that set off the system, because of course I had my card with me too. However, I got out of the shop with no problems, and a little while later I saw the lady again, so it must have all been sorted out, but I have no doubt that it was a scary experience for her.
We had a 'map' of the old city provided by Princess, but we knew it would be hopeless; they go out of their way to make sure that you decide that it's all too complicated and go on one of their tours. However, there was a tourist information centre just outside the old city gates - they were also handing out maps and we hoped theirs would be more useful. Not so; it also seemed to have been designed to encourage you to book a tour with a guide.
However, we went ahead by ourselves and managed to see lots of the old city. We eventually found the Cat Museum but our main target was the Maritime Museum which we found twice - the first time it was jam packed with people on tours, so we didn't go in. It took us a while to find it again, but we eventually did, and it was truly worthwhile (although we still had to stay out of the way of multiple tour groups!)
As obligatory now - another photo of Paul and a gun - not a big one this time!
We had a 'map' of the old city provided by Princess, but we knew it would be hopeless; they go out of their way to make sure that you decide that it's all too complicated and go on one of their tours. However, there was a tourist information centre just outside the old city gates - they were also handing out maps and we hoped theirs would be more useful. Not so; it also seemed to have been designed to encourage you to book a tour with a guide.
However, we went ahead by ourselves and managed to see lots of the old city. We eventually found the Cat Museum but our main target was the Maritime Museum which we found twice - the first time it was jam packed with people on tours, so we didn't go in. It took us a while to find it again, but we eventually did, and it was truly worthwhile (although we still had to stay out of the way of multiple tour groups!)
As obligatory now - another photo of Paul and a gun - not a big one this time!
Monday 19 September 2016
UK and Med Cruise - Day 14 - 18 September - Santorini
And after yesterday, today was an example of a ship's excursion that went really well. I started off the day feeling less than stellar, and I really felt that it was a bad idea to leave the ship, particularly seeing how hot and humid it was. However, Santorini was on my bucket list, so I dragged myself along and didn't regret it for a minute.
Our tour started with a trip to 'Ancient Akrotiri' - they don't know what the town was called, so they name it after the current name of the area. This is just astounding - it's a town from 4000 years ago, that was buried under around 30 metres of ash and pumice during the volcanic eruption that turned Santorini into the island(s) it is today. The town showed some astonishingly modern capabilities - for example they had buildings up to 5 stories high but in the rest of the world 2 or 3 stories was the maximum for many, many more years. About one hectare of it has been excavated, which is what we went to see. Fortunately UNESCO decided that this was a place worthy of some significant expenditure, and they spent 40 million euros putting a roof (the largest area roof in the world apparently) over the whole of the current excavation area. This made it almost comfortable to walk around and listen to our guide - who is an archaeologist. Unfortunately there is nowhere near enough money to continue the excavations properly (the money you pay to see the site goes to the Government, not to the university); which is really sad because this history could be completely lost. What we did see was amazing though. Here's just one example:
After Akrotiri we went to the highest point on the island for a photo stop, and then back to the shopping area (of course) and from there we got the cable car back down to the dock, and then a tender to the ship.
Overall, our guide was informative without providing the overwhelming amount of information that we got in Athens, and I really enjoyed the whole excursion.
In the evening we went to dinner, and found that we actually have a full table of eight people for this part of the cruise - two of the regular couples didn't show up (not surprising since the day on Santorini didn't end until after 9pm) but another couple joined us. They unfortunately had no idea about the itinerary changes so it was quite disappointing for them to discover that we aren't going to Turkey and nor are we going to Naples. At our table we now have two New Zealanders, two Australians, three citizens of the USA, and one Mexican, and all seem like really nice people, which is always a good thing!
Our tour started with a trip to 'Ancient Akrotiri' - they don't know what the town was called, so they name it after the current name of the area. This is just astounding - it's a town from 4000 years ago, that was buried under around 30 metres of ash and pumice during the volcanic eruption that turned Santorini into the island(s) it is today. The town showed some astonishingly modern capabilities - for example they had buildings up to 5 stories high but in the rest of the world 2 or 3 stories was the maximum for many, many more years. About one hectare of it has been excavated, which is what we went to see. Fortunately UNESCO decided that this was a place worthy of some significant expenditure, and they spent 40 million euros putting a roof (the largest area roof in the world apparently) over the whole of the current excavation area. This made it almost comfortable to walk around and listen to our guide - who is an archaeologist. Unfortunately there is nowhere near enough money to continue the excavations properly (the money you pay to see the site goes to the Government, not to the university); which is really sad because this history could be completely lost. What we did see was amazing though. Here's just one example:
After Akrotiri we went to the highest point on the island for a photo stop, and then back to the shopping area (of course) and from there we got the cable car back down to the dock, and then a tender to the ship.
Overall, our guide was informative without providing the overwhelming amount of information that we got in Athens, and I really enjoyed the whole excursion.
In the evening we went to dinner, and found that we actually have a full table of eight people for this part of the cruise - two of the regular couples didn't show up (not surprising since the day on Santorini didn't end until after 9pm) but another couple joined us. They unfortunately had no idea about the itinerary changes so it was quite disappointing for them to discover that we aren't going to Turkey and nor are we going to Naples. At our table we now have two New Zealanders, two Australians, three citizens of the USA, and one Mexican, and all seem like really nice people, which is always a good thing!
UK and Med Cruise - Day 13 - 17 September - Athens
We arrived in Athens quite early - it's a fairly long day here as lots of people are leaving the ship, and new ones joining of course.
We had a shore excursion today and it was an unfortunate demonstration of why doing ship's excursions is a risk. It sounded really good - drive around Athens being shown the sights, go to the Acropolis, go to the Archaeological Museum, some traditional Greek food for lunch and then finish with some shopping at Plaka and then back to the ship.
And really, there's nothing you could complain to Princess about; the excursion delivered exactly what they said it would. Unfortunately there were two big issues with it as far as I was concerned. Firstly, the tour guide seemed to subscribe to what I think of as the "American Baseball" form of entertainment / information - never let a single second go by without saying something. I love to learn about new things and places, but I was completely in information overload by the end of the tour. Secondly, I didn't think a tour guide could manage to destroy a visit to any Archaeological Museum for me, but this one did. She gave the impression that she was just going to show us a few things in the museum and that we would then have some free time. However, that wasn't what happened. First she dragged us past a dozen or more displays in the 'pre-historic' section (I think) going into huge detail about the use of gold and other stuff that has since escaped me. Then, she dragged us through at least 10 different rooms showing us the differences in statue making and funerary displays over time. Now, these are not the things I'd have necessarily wanted to see, and we didn't get any free time. Of course this is a problem with these large tours, you simply have to follow the tour guide's lead. But, I think if I had known that's how the Archaeological Museum visit would be handled then I'd probably have booked a different tour. The rest of the tour wasn't too bad - although the meal was at the distinctively "not traditionally Greek" Radisson Blu hotel, the food did seem to be at least somewhat traditionally Greek and was quite nice. We did get to see quite a lot of places, and as I said we heard a lot of words, but unfortunately most of it didn't sink in...
When we got back to the ship we finally had a chance to take a photo to show where our cabin is; mostly so far the ship has parked starboard side to the dock but this time it was finally the other way around. If you click on the picture you can see a little red arrow showing where our cabin is:
We had a shore excursion today and it was an unfortunate demonstration of why doing ship's excursions is a risk. It sounded really good - drive around Athens being shown the sights, go to the Acropolis, go to the Archaeological Museum, some traditional Greek food for lunch and then finish with some shopping at Plaka and then back to the ship.
And really, there's nothing you could complain to Princess about; the excursion delivered exactly what they said it would. Unfortunately there were two big issues with it as far as I was concerned. Firstly, the tour guide seemed to subscribe to what I think of as the "American Baseball" form of entertainment / information - never let a single second go by without saying something. I love to learn about new things and places, but I was completely in information overload by the end of the tour. Secondly, I didn't think a tour guide could manage to destroy a visit to any Archaeological Museum for me, but this one did. She gave the impression that she was just going to show us a few things in the museum and that we would then have some free time. However, that wasn't what happened. First she dragged us past a dozen or more displays in the 'pre-historic' section (I think) going into huge detail about the use of gold and other stuff that has since escaped me. Then, she dragged us through at least 10 different rooms showing us the differences in statue making and funerary displays over time. Now, these are not the things I'd have necessarily wanted to see, and we didn't get any free time. Of course this is a problem with these large tours, you simply have to follow the tour guide's lead. But, I think if I had known that's how the Archaeological Museum visit would be handled then I'd probably have booked a different tour. The rest of the tour wasn't too bad - although the meal was at the distinctively "not traditionally Greek" Radisson Blu hotel, the food did seem to be at least somewhat traditionally Greek and was quite nice. We did get to see quite a lot of places, and as I said we heard a lot of words, but unfortunately most of it didn't sink in...
When we got back to the ship we finally had a chance to take a photo to show where our cabin is; mostly so far the ship has parked starboard side to the dock but this time it was finally the other way around. If you click on the picture you can see a little red arrow showing where our cabin is:
Saturday 17 September 2016
UK and Med Cruise - Day 12 - 16 September - Mykonos
Paul and I went our own separate ways today. I did a walking tour of Mykonos while Paul came into town later via the shuttle.
The walking tour was interesting and we learned a fair bit about the history of Mykonos. One of the places we visited was the Maritime Museum - they have moved the old lighthouse here:
All the houses have white walls; it's practical (as it helps protect against the heat) but it's also a legal obligation - the window frames and doors can be other colours, but the walls must be white:
I didn't take any photos of the streets in the old town, but they're very narrow and very maze-like - the guide said that this was deliberate in order to make things difficult for pirates. However, motor-bikes and even small vans still drive down these streets; getting out of their way was an interesting experience!
We need to have an early night tonight; tomorrow is a long tour of Athens - we meet at 7:15am and the tour lasts until 3:15. And, it's going to be 32 degrees C tomorrow, we had hoped to miss the worst of the heat but this is going to be a challenge....
The walking tour was interesting and we learned a fair bit about the history of Mykonos. One of the places we visited was the Maritime Museum - they have moved the old lighthouse here:
All the houses have white walls; it's practical (as it helps protect against the heat) but it's also a legal obligation - the window frames and doors can be other colours, but the walls must be white:
I didn't take any photos of the streets in the old town, but they're very narrow and very maze-like - the guide said that this was deliberate in order to make things difficult for pirates. However, motor-bikes and even small vans still drive down these streets; getting out of their way was an interesting experience!
We need to have an early night tonight; tomorrow is a long tour of Athens - we meet at 7:15am and the tour lasts until 3:15. And, it's going to be 32 degrees C tomorrow, we had hoped to miss the worst of the heat but this is going to be a challenge....
UK and Med Cruise - Day 11 - 15 September - Heraklion, Crete
Our tour today was called 'Heraklion on your own'. Basically they drove us into town, gave us a map, took us for a short walk around the streets of the old town and then said they'd meet us in the same place in four hours.
I had done some research into what we could see, so we went straight back to the Archaeological Museum. Spent a fair bit of time there actually, there were a lot of displays and they were set out and explained really well.
We then found our way down to the docks and wandered out to look at the Venetian fort. Unfortunately you can only look at it from the outside, but it's a seriously impressive piece of architecture:
We then had a walk along the shoreline before going back into the town to escape the heat. Had an early dinner in a nice restaurant, back to the ship and then crashed.
I had done some research into what we could see, so we went straight back to the Archaeological Museum. Spent a fair bit of time there actually, there were a lot of displays and they were set out and explained really well.
We then found our way down to the docks and wandered out to look at the Venetian fort. Unfortunately you can only look at it from the outside, but it's a seriously impressive piece of architecture:
We then had a walk along the shoreline before going back into the town to escape the heat. Had an early dinner in a nice restaurant, back to the ship and then crashed.
Wednesday 14 September 2016
UK and Med Cruise - Day 10 - 14 September - Corfu
Only a half day in Corfu today. Paul and I decided not to do a tour but to just get a shuttle and then go and look at the "Old Fortress":
The obligatory photo of Paul with gun:
And this time, an explanation of what the gun actually is:
There is by the way a New Fortress quite close by, but it doesn't really look all that much newer:
I wasn't completely comfortable about where we were at the start of our walk; our SIM cards weren't supposed to work in Greece and the maps they give you on the cruise ship are deliberately vague - they don't want you to go out on your own, they want you to pay to go on their excursions! There is no real pattern to the streets nearby- lots of old alleyways now full of stores (and tourists!). And, although there are a fair few tourist map signs around the area we were walking in, they were mostly only in Greek.
However, I got a surprise. At one point we sat down at a bistro for a cold drink, and while trying to connect to their WiFi I discovered that I do have data access via the SIM card. I have given up trying to understand; Greece was not on the list of eligible countries when we left England, but it seems to be there now. Anyway, it's pre-paid data and they don't have our credit card details, so I'm going to keep using it until it runs out.
We're back in Corfu again next week, this time for a whole day. In the meantime, we'll decide whether to book a shore excursion or maybe we'll just catch a HOHO bus and let them show us some more sights. Hopefully there might be not quite as many cruise ship passengers in the streets; today there were four cruise ships here - this shows our ship, the Costa Mediterranea (with the yellow funnel), and the Mein Schiff2 (with the dark hull); the Queen Victoria arrived a little later:
Formal night again tonight. This is a bit aggravating, 2 formal nights on a 7 day cruise is one more than I'd expect and two more than I want. However, on the bright side, our dining room is almost completely un-populated most nights and they don't seem to be making the slightest attempt to enforce formal wear - one of our table-mates showed up in a tshirt on the first formal night.
The obligatory photo of Paul with gun:
And this time, an explanation of what the gun actually is:
There is by the way a New Fortress quite close by, but it doesn't really look all that much newer:
I wasn't completely comfortable about where we were at the start of our walk; our SIM cards weren't supposed to work in Greece and the maps they give you on the cruise ship are deliberately vague - they don't want you to go out on your own, they want you to pay to go on their excursions! There is no real pattern to the streets nearby- lots of old alleyways now full of stores (and tourists!). And, although there are a fair few tourist map signs around the area we were walking in, they were mostly only in Greek.
However, I got a surprise. At one point we sat down at a bistro for a cold drink, and while trying to connect to their WiFi I discovered that I do have data access via the SIM card. I have given up trying to understand; Greece was not on the list of eligible countries when we left England, but it seems to be there now. Anyway, it's pre-paid data and they don't have our credit card details, so I'm going to keep using it until it runs out.
We're back in Corfu again next week, this time for a whole day. In the meantime, we'll decide whether to book a shore excursion or maybe we'll just catch a HOHO bus and let them show us some more sights. Hopefully there might be not quite as many cruise ship passengers in the streets; today there were four cruise ships here - this shows our ship, the Costa Mediterranea (with the yellow funnel), and the Mein Schiff2 (with the dark hull); the Queen Victoria arrived a little later:
Formal night again tonight. This is a bit aggravating, 2 formal nights on a 7 day cruise is one more than I'd expect and two more than I want. However, on the bright side, our dining room is almost completely un-populated most nights and they don't seem to be making the slightest attempt to enforce formal wear - one of our table-mates showed up in a tshirt on the first formal night.
UK and Med Cruise - Day 9 - 13 September - Kotor
Our excursion went from Kotor up into the mountains to a town called Njegusi where we got to try some local food. We then went further through the mountains to Cetinje which was previously the capital of Montenegro. Some wonderful scenery and a lot of stories and information from our guide. However, the big discovery for the day was that the narrow winding road up the side of Vesuvius a couple of days ago was just a preparation for today:
Down below in the photo you can see a piece of winding road. The vast majority of the road to Cetinje was like that except that mostly it was far narrower than the piece you can see - most of it was no more than one lane and in some cases there were roadworks that I seriously didn't think were wide enough for the coach. However, we made it in one piece.
Not a lot of pictures today, although this is the view of our ship from part-way up the mountain:
The dark blue ship at the dock is the Queen Victoria; there's only one dock so we ended up anchored just behind her.
When we returned to Kotor our tour was supposed to finish with a walk around the old city. However, we had been badly delayed by traffic, we were both hot and tired, and we'll be back here again next week, so we ducked out of that part of the tour and went back to the ship.
Quiet evening tonight, none of our table-mates showed up at dinner. Not a surprise really, this 'excursion every day' thing is really quite tiring.
Down below in the photo you can see a piece of winding road. The vast majority of the road to Cetinje was like that except that mostly it was far narrower than the piece you can see - most of it was no more than one lane and in some cases there were roadworks that I seriously didn't think were wide enough for the coach. However, we made it in one piece.
Not a lot of pictures today, although this is the view of our ship from part-way up the mountain:
The dark blue ship at the dock is the Queen Victoria; there's only one dock so we ended up anchored just behind her.
When we returned to Kotor our tour was supposed to finish with a walk around the old city. However, we had been badly delayed by traffic, we were both hot and tired, and we'll be back here again next week, so we ducked out of that part of the tour and went back to the ship.
Quiet evening tonight, none of our table-mates showed up at dinner. Not a surprise really, this 'excursion every day' thing is really quite tiring.
UK and Med Cruise - Day 8 - 12 September - Sea Day
One of only two days at sea for this cruise.
Have planned nothing apart from attending a wine tasting in the afternoon. I didn't like any of the red wines on offer (including the $115 per bottle one) but there was a very nice NZ white wine that I'll be drinking with dinner later in the cruise!
Very pleased and surprised to discover that for most of the morning we could still use our 3UK sim cards - we were sailing fairly close to the Italian shore but in Australia there's no way that Optus would be accessible from that distance.
Have planned nothing apart from attending a wine tasting in the afternoon. I didn't like any of the red wines on offer (including the $115 per bottle one) but there was a very nice NZ white wine that I'll be drinking with dinner later in the cruise!
Very pleased and surprised to discover that for most of the morning we could still use our 3UK sim cards - we were sailing fairly close to the Italian shore but in Australia there's no way that Optus would be accessible from that distance.
Monday 12 September 2016
UK and Med Cruise - Day 7 - 11 September - Naples (Vesuvius and Pompeii)
Today's shore excursion was marked down as 'strenuous', and it was!
First stop was Mt Vesuvius. They drive you a fair way up the mountain, and I have to say I was astounded by the skill of our driver. We were in a full-sized coach, on a twisting, winding road where to be honest I'd have thought twice about trying to drive a car as big as the Falcon. And, it's not like we were alone; it was a Sunday so there were many large coaches, smaller busses and of course people in cars and on motorbikes as well.
Lots of people were trying the climb:
The mountain itself was killer. Paul - and a number of other people - decided not to try to walk the whole way.
I made it up to the guided areas and got a look at the crater before staggering back down :-)
I have wondered why people would knowingly live in Naples and even closer to the volcano. Our tour guide (Rosaria) talked about this; she lives in one of the cities that is between Naples and Vesuvius. They know that the next eruption will be bad; the most recent one was in 1944 and it closed the crater; it's well overdue for an eruption and the closure of the crater last time also apparently makes it quite likely that the next one will be violent. Rosaria said that everyone who lives in and around Naples understands this risk but simply prefers not to think about it; they basically just hope that they will have enough warning to evacuate from the area before the next one. I suppose it's the same as people who knowingly live on the San Andreas fault or in any of the other high risk areas of the world.
Anyway, after Vesuvius we got back onto the bus for a drive to Pompeii. I'm not going to say too much about Pompeii; it was just astounding. I had no idea it was so large, or that there are really significant areas still not excavated. I'm also only going to post this one picture - there was just so much to look at and listen to that we didn't take many photos at all. This is an original ceiling, with the design and colours protected for all these centuries due to being buried in the ash:
T
Overall, a really tiring day but well worth the exhaustion. My phone tells me that I walked 10,505 steps for the day, including its interpretation of my walk up Mt Vesuvius as climbing 34 flights of stairs!
First stop was Mt Vesuvius. They drive you a fair way up the mountain, and I have to say I was astounded by the skill of our driver. We were in a full-sized coach, on a twisting, winding road where to be honest I'd have thought twice about trying to drive a car as big as the Falcon. And, it's not like we were alone; it was a Sunday so there were many large coaches, smaller busses and of course people in cars and on motorbikes as well.
Lots of people were trying the climb:
The mountain itself was killer. Paul - and a number of other people - decided not to try to walk the whole way.
I made it up to the guided areas and got a look at the crater before staggering back down :-)
I have wondered why people would knowingly live in Naples and even closer to the volcano. Our tour guide (Rosaria) talked about this; she lives in one of the cities that is between Naples and Vesuvius. They know that the next eruption will be bad; the most recent one was in 1944 and it closed the crater; it's well overdue for an eruption and the closure of the crater last time also apparently makes it quite likely that the next one will be violent. Rosaria said that everyone who lives in and around Naples understands this risk but simply prefers not to think about it; they basically just hope that they will have enough warning to evacuate from the area before the next one. I suppose it's the same as people who knowingly live on the San Andreas fault or in any of the other high risk areas of the world.
Anyway, after Vesuvius we got back onto the bus for a drive to Pompeii. I'm not going to say too much about Pompeii; it was just astounding. I had no idea it was so large, or that there are really significant areas still not excavated. I'm also only going to post this one picture - there was just so much to look at and listen to that we didn't take many photos at all. This is an original ceiling, with the design and colours protected for all these centuries due to being buried in the ash:
T
Overall, a really tiring day but well worth the exhaustion. My phone tells me that I walked 10,505 steps for the day, including its interpretation of my walk up Mt Vesuvius as climbing 34 flights of stairs!
UK and Med Cruise - Day 6 - 10 September - join the cruise
Happy start to the day - the hotel provides a continental breakfast including proper coffee! After that we had a short walk around the general area of the hotel and then checked out to wait for our shuttle to the port.
We got 3UK SIM cards for our phones and our tablets, and they're supposed to work in Italy in the same way as in the UK (ie no extra roaming fees or data costs). Very disappointed at first to discover that this didn't seem to be the case - for example my phone couldn't connect to the internet although my iPad could. However once we got away from Rome it all seemed to be ok.
The shuttle arrived a little late but in plenty of time to get to the port; we were originally going to be early but instead we arrived just as boarding started. I had heard stories about these shuttle drivers and I have to say that they weren't exaggerated. It's about 50km from Rome to the port, varying from crowded busy streets to motorway. The driver spent the entire trip either using his calculator to work out some details on a piece of paper he was looking at, or texting, or both! There is also a tendency to treat lane markings as just a vague hint; we overtook people in places where I'd have thought the risk was a bit high. Anyway, we arrived at the port in Civitavecchia in one piece (and only mildly travel-sick in my case!) so it's all good. I think the driver was hoping for a tip but sadly for him the shuttle company website says tips aren't necessary, and none of the people onboard were Americans - so, no tip for him for that trip.
We arrived just after 1pm. Our boarding documents said that we were to arrive at 2pm, not to arrive early because we wouldn't be allowed to board, etc. However, they almost always say this, and our experience is that they don't always stick to their own rules. As it happened, almost no-one had arrived and they basically let us straight onboard.
Our cabin is a typical cruise ship cabin, although I was very pleased to discover that the refrigerator is actually functional (often they're not powerful enough to actually cool anything, but this one works fine) and also that the air conditioning works (sometimes the air-conditioning is shall we say disappointing).
Five full sized cruise ships in port today, plus a few smaller ones. One of the five is an old friend - Celebrity Eclipse - this was the ship that took us on our Baltic Cruise in 2014:
We got 3UK SIM cards for our phones and our tablets, and they're supposed to work in Italy in the same way as in the UK (ie no extra roaming fees or data costs). Very disappointed at first to discover that this didn't seem to be the case - for example my phone couldn't connect to the internet although my iPad could. However once we got away from Rome it all seemed to be ok.
The shuttle arrived a little late but in plenty of time to get to the port; we were originally going to be early but instead we arrived just as boarding started. I had heard stories about these shuttle drivers and I have to say that they weren't exaggerated. It's about 50km from Rome to the port, varying from crowded busy streets to motorway. The driver spent the entire trip either using his calculator to work out some details on a piece of paper he was looking at, or texting, or both! There is also a tendency to treat lane markings as just a vague hint; we overtook people in places where I'd have thought the risk was a bit high. Anyway, we arrived at the port in Civitavecchia in one piece (and only mildly travel-sick in my case!) so it's all good. I think the driver was hoping for a tip but sadly for him the shuttle company website says tips aren't necessary, and none of the people onboard were Americans - so, no tip for him for that trip.
We arrived just after 1pm. Our boarding documents said that we were to arrive at 2pm, not to arrive early because we wouldn't be allowed to board, etc. However, they almost always say this, and our experience is that they don't always stick to their own rules. As it happened, almost no-one had arrived and they basically let us straight onboard.
Our cabin is a typical cruise ship cabin, although I was very pleased to discover that the refrigerator is actually functional (often they're not powerful enough to actually cool anything, but this one works fine) and also that the air conditioning works (sometimes the air-conditioning is shall we say disappointing).
Five full sized cruise ships in port today, plus a few smaller ones. One of the five is an old friend - Celebrity Eclipse - this was the ship that took us on our Baltic Cruise in 2014:
UK and Med Cruise - Day 5 - 9 September - London to Rome
Had a lazy morning then checked out of the hotel and found our way back to Heathrow. On the Heathrow Express again - it really is a good way to travel between Heathrow to London - not the cheapest but really convenient.
At Heathrow we were reminded again of the funny way they deal with gates - they won't tell you which gate your flight leaves from until quite close to departure time. Turns out this time we had to use the transit to get to the 'B' gates.
We finally got onto the plane, only to sit there. For ages. It ended up being two hours; they couldn't start the left engine.
Of course this meant we arrived in Rome quite late. We had booked a transfer into Rome and fortunately they're well accustomed to dealing with late flights, we had no trouble finding our driver. The real surprise was the airport itself. We have heard that the airport (FCO) is just chaotic and were expecting lots of messing around and delays. But, immigration let us in without asking anything - stamp the passport and get out of here! Our suitcases arrived quite quickly too - as I said, not at all what I had expected.
Unfortunately though we missed our night tour of the Colosseum because of the flight delay. So, in keeping with last night's "inappropriate restaurants" theme, we ate at Chows Chinese Restaurant!
The hotel for the night was amazingly good - huge room with a large table and a comfortable bed, plenty of power points and air conditioning that really worked.
At Heathrow we were reminded again of the funny way they deal with gates - they won't tell you which gate your flight leaves from until quite close to departure time. Turns out this time we had to use the transit to get to the 'B' gates.
We finally got onto the plane, only to sit there. For ages. It ended up being two hours; they couldn't start the left engine.
Of course this meant we arrived in Rome quite late. We had booked a transfer into Rome and fortunately they're well accustomed to dealing with late flights, we had no trouble finding our driver. The real surprise was the airport itself. We have heard that the airport (FCO) is just chaotic and were expecting lots of messing around and delays. But, immigration let us in without asking anything - stamp the passport and get out of here! Our suitcases arrived quite quickly too - as I said, not at all what I had expected.
Unfortunately though we missed our night tour of the Colosseum because of the flight delay. So, in keeping with last night's "inappropriate restaurants" theme, we ate at Chows Chinese Restaurant!
The hotel for the night was amazingly good - huge room with a large table and a comfortable bed, plenty of power points and air conditioning that really worked.
UK and Med Cruise - Day 4 - 8 September - London
Got up early and checked with reception who promised to provide a fan for our room for tonight (and they did).
We were then going to catch the Tube around to the Three store and then a couple of stations further around to the museums. However, it was such a nice morning that we walked through Kensington Park instead. The man at the Three store sorted us out and then it was off to the V&A. I realised quite quickly that I couldn't possibly look at the whole place in a day, so we spent the morning there and left once we realised our brains would explode if we tried to take in much more. Would definitely be good to go back though.
We also discovered that our Oyster cards hadn't expired - more than 2 years since we used them but they both still had 7 or 8 pounds credit.
After lunch we went to the Science Museum and walked around and around - it was amazingly interesting.
Then because we hadn't walked far enough, we walked back to the hotel. And then, we walked around to a (very disappointing) shopping area a mile or so away - we were hoping to look around the shops and see a movie but the vast majority of the shops were closed; not just closed for the day but empty. So, we walked back again. My iPhone told me by this stage that I had done over 23,000 steps for the day!
Since we're in London and we're going to Rome tomorrow and will have every chance to eat Italian food, we finished off the day by having a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant.
A couple of sights from today:
The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens - what an outrageous thing it is!
And the Goat Tavern - apparently the oldest hotel in Kensington:
We were then going to catch the Tube around to the Three store and then a couple of stations further around to the museums. However, it was such a nice morning that we walked through Kensington Park instead. The man at the Three store sorted us out and then it was off to the V&A. I realised quite quickly that I couldn't possibly look at the whole place in a day, so we spent the morning there and left once we realised our brains would explode if we tried to take in much more. Would definitely be good to go back though.
We also discovered that our Oyster cards hadn't expired - more than 2 years since we used them but they both still had 7 or 8 pounds credit.
After lunch we went to the Science Museum and walked around and around - it was amazingly interesting.
Then because we hadn't walked far enough, we walked back to the hotel. And then, we walked around to a (very disappointing) shopping area a mile or so away - we were hoping to look around the shops and see a movie but the vast majority of the shops were closed; not just closed for the day but empty. So, we walked back again. My iPhone told me by this stage that I had done over 23,000 steps for the day!
Since we're in London and we're going to Rome tomorrow and will have every chance to eat Italian food, we finished off the day by having a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant.
A couple of sights from today:
The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens - what an outrageous thing it is!
And the Goat Tavern - apparently the oldest hotel in Kensington:
UK and Med Cruise - Day 3 - 7 September - Singapore to London
Even after a good night's rest, the flight from Singapore to London is really long. We were surprised by the boarding process - in particular we were all made to go through a security check in order to get to the boarding gates even though we had remained air-side the whole time.
The A380 is a comfortable plane but economy is still definitely 'cattle class' - it would be nice to be able to afford business class just once.
Finally arrived in London, and as we were getting off the plane there was a call for Paul to contact a staff member on leaving the plane. There was a man waiting with a printout that said that Paul's suitcase had been left behind in Sydney. He was very apologetic and said that sometimes these things are wrong, but that he needed to explain what we'd have to do about the missing suitcase.
Anyway, first we had to get through immigration - the queue was really long and we got the third degree - the man spent about 5 minutes asking how long we'd be in the country, what the address was that we had put on the landing pass, where we were going, what we were doing after we left and when we were coming back; it was definitely an interrogation. However, we were finally allowed into the country. Then we went to the baggage carousels only to discover that Paul's bag was there after all. I suspect that it probably did miss our flight but that it was put on the next flight out of Sydney and caught up with us in Singapore. Anyway, all good.
Once we got through all of that we found our way to the Heathrow Express - only about a 20 mile walk (I exaggerate, but it was a long way!) Then 15 minutes or so on the train and we were at Paddington. Found the hotel without any real drama. Unfortunately it wasn't air conditioned and with the combination of jet lag (from sleeping too much on the plane) I didn't get a really good night's sleep.
Overall comment about Singapore Airlines - they're supposed to be among the best in the world and I have to say that apart from the boarding fiasco in Sydney, our experience with them was pretty good. The food was quite acceptable although a bit surprising - for example one of the entrees included bay scallops which you wouldn't normally expect because of the number of people with seafood allergies. Paul couldn't eat it of course, but I swapped my dessert for his entree. Yum.
The A380 is a comfortable plane but economy is still definitely 'cattle class' - it would be nice to be able to afford business class just once.
Finally arrived in London, and as we were getting off the plane there was a call for Paul to contact a staff member on leaving the plane. There was a man waiting with a printout that said that Paul's suitcase had been left behind in Sydney. He was very apologetic and said that sometimes these things are wrong, but that he needed to explain what we'd have to do about the missing suitcase.
Anyway, first we had to get through immigration - the queue was really long and we got the third degree - the man spent about 5 minutes asking how long we'd be in the country, what the address was that we had put on the landing pass, where we were going, what we were doing after we left and when we were coming back; it was definitely an interrogation. However, we were finally allowed into the country. Then we went to the baggage carousels only to discover that Paul's bag was there after all. I suspect that it probably did miss our flight but that it was put on the next flight out of Sydney and caught up with us in Singapore. Anyway, all good.
Once we got through all of that we found our way to the Heathrow Express - only about a 20 mile walk (I exaggerate, but it was a long way!) Then 15 minutes or so on the train and we were at Paddington. Found the hotel without any real drama. Unfortunately it wasn't air conditioned and with the combination of jet lag (from sleeping too much on the plane) I didn't get a really good night's sleep.
Overall comment about Singapore Airlines - they're supposed to be among the best in the world and I have to say that apart from the boarding fiasco in Sydney, our experience with them was pretty good. The food was quite acceptable although a bit surprising - for example one of the entrees included bay scallops which you wouldn't normally expect because of the number of people with seafood allergies. Paul couldn't eat it of course, but I swapped my dessert for his entree. Yum.
UK and Med Cruise - Day 2 - 6 September - Sydney to Singapore
Breakfast at the hotel - really hard to see the value for money but as I said, this is about convenience.
Singapore Airlines check-in was quick and easy, then we just waited for boarding time. I do get aggravated when airlines say that they'll board by rows and then don't; the economy boarding was pretty much a free-for-all. Obviously I know I'm not going to miss out on a seat but I actually wanted to use an overhead locker for a change, and you can miss out if you're late boarding. Anyway, not a huge drama in the end.
Eight hour flight to Singapore which was interrupted by my own personal medical drama. I bought some earplugs because both my ears were somewhat infected / blocked because of the horrible lurgy I had for a couple of weeks before the holiday; I have gone through the pain that you can get with blocked up ears on a flight and I didn't want to go through that again. And, it seemed to work, but then one of the earplugs got stuck in my ear. They couldn't help me on board, but they did arrange to take me to the clinic once we arrived in Singapore. I was expecting to be charged an arm and a leg, and I was. However, I didn't want to risk hurting my ear, so it really was the only choice. Once that was dealt with, we went to the Transit Hotel where we had always planned to stay. This turned out to be a fine plan; we got a good rest before the next (much longer) leg of the flight.
We had dinner at the airport - Paul likes spicy food but the broth in the noodle dish he ordered reduced him to red-faced, teary-eyed, desperate choking. Pity I didn't have a camera - although at the time I was thinking about calling for medical help!!
Singapore Airlines check-in was quick and easy, then we just waited for boarding time. I do get aggravated when airlines say that they'll board by rows and then don't; the economy boarding was pretty much a free-for-all. Obviously I know I'm not going to miss out on a seat but I actually wanted to use an overhead locker for a change, and you can miss out if you're late boarding. Anyway, not a huge drama in the end.
Eight hour flight to Singapore which was interrupted by my own personal medical drama. I bought some earplugs because both my ears were somewhat infected / blocked because of the horrible lurgy I had for a couple of weeks before the holiday; I have gone through the pain that you can get with blocked up ears on a flight and I didn't want to go through that again. And, it seemed to work, but then one of the earplugs got stuck in my ear. They couldn't help me on board, but they did arrange to take me to the clinic once we arrived in Singapore. I was expecting to be charged an arm and a leg, and I was. However, I didn't want to risk hurting my ear, so it really was the only choice. Once that was dealt with, we went to the Transit Hotel where we had always planned to stay. This turned out to be a fine plan; we got a good rest before the next (much longer) leg of the flight.
We had dinner at the airport - Paul likes spicy food but the broth in the noodle dish he ordered reduced him to red-faced, teary-eyed, desperate choking. Pity I didn't have a camera - although at the time I was thinking about calling for medical help!!
UK and Med Cruise - Day 1 - 5 September - Canberra to Sydney
Monday morning - the taxi arrived right on time. We had an inauspicious start in Canberra when the Greyhound bus left late because of a flat battery. However, once we got underway it was all good- trip to Sydney was comfortable and we were dropped off at the airport pretty much on time.
Because of all the earlier changes to our flights we stayed overnight at the Rydges Airport Hotel which is right at the international airport. As I've said before, you get your best picture of how well a hotel operates when things are going wrong for them, and Rydges did a good job here - their computer system was down when we arrived but fortunately we had already automatically checked in and they managed to do all the other bits and pieces without an issue.
The room was pretty much what you'd expect for what's effectively a business hotel, clean and comfortable with a good sized desk, nice comfortable lounge chair and a good sized bathroom. This hotel of course is all about the location - very convenient for leaving the next day - they advertise the distance to the international terminal in steps!
Because of all the earlier changes to our flights we stayed overnight at the Rydges Airport Hotel which is right at the international airport. As I've said before, you get your best picture of how well a hotel operates when things are going wrong for them, and Rydges did a good job here - their computer system was down when we arrived but fortunately we had already automatically checked in and they managed to do all the other bits and pieces without an issue.
The room was pretty much what you'd expect for what's effectively a business hotel, clean and comfortable with a good sized desk, nice comfortable lounge chair and a good sized bathroom. This hotel of course is all about the location - very convenient for leaving the next day - they advertise the distance to the international terminal in steps!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)