Off today to our cruise to Greece. Our suitcases will be locked in the bus on the boat with no way to access them so we had to prepare overnight bags with all that we would need for the next 24 hours. We had a 4 hour drive to the harbour at Ancona.
The trip passed amazingly fast through some beautiful countryside and a nail biting 10km tunnel under the mountain. We were crossing the Apenines, the backbone of Italy. Some of the higher peaks still had snow on them. Just a couple of 30 minute stops for toilets and drinks/food. I finally managed to order a milk coffee, to take away, in Italian! Now I have to learn Greek! We have been warned that in Greece things might work, or they might not, and everything is done 'whenever'.
We had to show our passports as we got onto the ship - odd how some countries want this and others don't. Our cabins are quite reasonable - teeniest shower I have ever seen! It is a larger boat than I expected, a small cruise liner. There are umpteen bars and lounges, and the wifi is appallingly expensive so I won't be using that. We all have outside cabins i.e. with a window. We were given a welcome drink of either juice or ouzo. After a quick snooze, Margi and I headed up for some dinner, with Geraldine, in the Self Service bar. Geraldine and I opted for a salad with feta - realised half way through that salad might not have been the best choice given we had been told not to drink the water on board! Ah well, it was nice going down. Margi had gone A over T walking out of the bar earlier, so she headed off to the ship's medical part with Patricia. I have come down to the cabin to catch up on some much neglected blogging and have a nice quiet night. So much of this trip is early morning rushes and late night returns that a break like this cruise in the middle is very welcomed - it will be approximately 20 - 22 hours.
Oops, apparently while I was typing I missed the sunset! I'm sure Alex has some pics :) Can't believe it is 9:15pm already Trying to decide if I should shower and get PJ'd, or go up and see the stars. We have no wake up calls tomorrow, and breakfast is at 9am. Luxury!
OK. A quick trip up to the deck convinced me that i don't need to be there. It isn't dark yet so there are no stars although it was a nice view from the rear - aft?? - of the last pink remains of sunset, and the long streams from the propellars. It is quite cool and while I have my jacket, the pants are a bit thin! The wind started me coughing again so I have come back down to take my nightly antihistamine and loll about in the cabin. I got some cough medicine in Castelli Gandolfi from nice farmica who told me that 'tosse'is cough. They taste strongly of aniseed and seem to have quelled that annoying tickle a lot. A number of my fellow travellers also have a bug now - much coughing, sneezing and sniffling going on. Sorry, guys! Although I didn't have the sore throats and sniffles that most seem to have.
The trip passed amazingly fast through some beautiful countryside and a nail biting 10km tunnel under the mountain. We were crossing the Apenines, the backbone of Italy. Some of the higher peaks still had snow on them. Just a couple of 30 minute stops for toilets and drinks/food. I finally managed to order a milk coffee, to take away, in Italian! Now I have to learn Greek! We have been warned that in Greece things might work, or they might not, and everything is done 'whenever'.
We had to show our passports as we got onto the ship - odd how some countries want this and others don't. Our cabins are quite reasonable - teeniest shower I have ever seen! It is a larger boat than I expected, a small cruise liner. There are umpteen bars and lounges, and the wifi is appallingly expensive so I won't be using that. We all have outside cabins i.e. with a window. We were given a welcome drink of either juice or ouzo. After a quick snooze, Margi and I headed up for some dinner, with Geraldine, in the Self Service bar. Geraldine and I opted for a salad with feta - realised half way through that salad might not have been the best choice given we had been told not to drink the water on board! Ah well, it was nice going down. Margi had gone A over T walking out of the bar earlier, so she headed off to the ship's medical part with Patricia. I have come down to the cabin to catch up on some much neglected blogging and have a nice quiet night. So much of this trip is early morning rushes and late night returns that a break like this cruise in the middle is very welcomed - it will be approximately 20 - 22 hours.
Oops, apparently while I was typing I missed the sunset! I'm sure Alex has some pics :) Can't believe it is 9:15pm already Trying to decide if I should shower and get PJ'd, or go up and see the stars. We have no wake up calls tomorrow, and breakfast is at 9am. Luxury!
OK. A quick trip up to the deck convinced me that i don't need to be there. It isn't dark yet so there are no stars although it was a nice view from the rear - aft?? - of the last pink remains of sunset, and the long streams from the propellars. It is quite cool and while I have my jacket, the pants are a bit thin! The wind started me coughing again so I have come back down to take my nightly antihistamine and loll about in the cabin. I got some cough medicine in Castelli Gandolfi from nice farmica who told me that 'tosse'is cough. They taste strongly of aniseed and seem to have quelled that annoying tickle a lot. A number of my fellow travellers also have a bug now - much coughing, sneezing and sniffling going on. Sorry, guys! Although I didn't have the sore throats and sniffles that most seem to have.
No comments:
Post a Comment