Bills Posts

Oh Dear. We’ve just been going through what we have done over the course of our holiday and I was looking at my blog and I suddenly realised there was no post that had covered our visit to Ville Franche. I knew that I had written something but it was not where it needed to be. So, here is the story of our visit to one of the most exclusive casinos in the world.

The Sunday morning trip was relatively straightforward and required only a little effort.

Our tour guide whose name I have sadly forgotten was very good. She was quite a cheerful person without being overboard.

One of the first things she did was something I had never thought about and that was to clarify the relationship between the two. It turns out that Monaco is the second smallest principality in the world, the smallest being the Vatican. Monaco is politically divided into four quarters, of which one is Monte Carlo. Easy when you know isn’t it?

I can’t check who rules Monaco at the moment as I don’t have an internet connection, but whichever Prince it was was clearly interested in marking Monaco’s place on the world map. Gambling may not be one of its main industries, but it is certainly one of, if not the biggest earner. (Afternote; it is of course Albert II, Prince of Monaco).

By far the biggest and most opulent casino is the Grand Casino. This building dominates the square. It doesn’t open for business until 1pm but it is possible for a small fee in the morning to view the casino as a museum. We wanted to have a go on the slot machines, but sadly weren’t allowed to.

I’d love to know how much money changes hands on a typical day, I’m willing to bet it’s hundreds of thousands if not millions of pounds.

Of course Monaco is also famous for the Grand Prix, and even I can admit that it was interesting to stand on part of the track (route really – it’s all normal roads).

We went to the palace, we saw where Princess Caroline lives and watched the changing of the guard, an impressive little ceremony involving much slamming down of rifle butts and slapping of thighs. I don’t mean to paint any kind of silly pictures. It’s just the was it is. It was nice to see.

There were several old American Second World War vehicles lined up on the square, and there was a rather good jazz band playing ‘40’s music. A little bit of digging revealed that the day we were there, 3rd of September was commemorating September 1943 when leadership of Monaco passed from the Germans to Mussolini but much more importantly, 3 September 1944 when Monaco was liberated by allied forces and this date is a public holiday.

We returned to Azura via small village called Eze. It is to be found at 1400 feet, making it one of the highest villages on the French Riviera. A very interesting and informative day.

Yesterday afternoon, we could have gone ashore in Heraklion but decided against it and instead watched a Mission Impossible film (Fallout if you must know) before going to dinner. I think it’s number six in the series. We had only got to Number 3 at home, so we are a bit out of sequence. Oh dear.

This morning, we did something that I am always a bit wary about doing – just going for a brief walk in to town is fine, but going somewhere else using local transport can be a bit stressful for me.

I don’t like it when people get in your face, the locals were very keen for us to use a taxi or to take a road train trip (as we did in Ajaccio, but that was not stressful at all – they weren’t in our face) or one of the open top busses – there were about five different services on offer. In each booth there were ladies shouting at us. That disturbed me. We ended up buying tickets for a city scene tour we were almost first on and got the seats at the front on the top deck. They were loose, very loose, ok when accelerating., but when braking you tended to lunge forward. Rather disconcerting to say the least.

Geek driving (I don’t think it is exclusively Cretan) is interesting. Roundabouts are obviously an inconvenience and don’t seem to have any discernible rules such as giving way on entry, or when you have an accident on one, just get out of the car and start arguing. To be honest, I didn’t see the accident, but I could not see any damage to the car of the offended party.

We got off at Knossos, a Bronze Age site, and capital of Minoan society.

It is also the site of the labyrinth and the Minotaur, the monster having the head of a bull and the body of a man. Unfortunately the labyrinth isn’t open to the public, but a maze certainly does exist.

The remains of the Minoan kings palace are available to be explored and are fascinating, well worth a visit. I can’t help comparing the level of sophistication in a Stone Age society in Crete with the same time in the uk. I get the impression we were a millennia behind. The quality of the construction and the artistry has to be seen to be believed.

The lack of precision in the timing of the return trip left a fair bit to be desired. But it is like many places, Heraklion is interesting to visit.

The transit across the various seas between Malta and Greece, the Aegean & Ionian mainly have had a deep low pressure area hanging over them these last few days. The captain of Azura, Neil Turnbull, has made no bones about it likely to be a bit rough. As it turns out, nowhere near as bad as the first time we were in this area onboard Azura, about fourteen years ago. We did need the assistance of a tug though to help us through the narrow entrance into the international port at Piraeus.

We think of Southampton as being busy. If Piraeus is a motorway, Southampton is a country lane. Many, many ships waiting outside and inside the harbour. Multiple ferries servicing the many Greek islands.

The late departure from Valletta and the rough weather have conspired to cause us to arrive at the busy Greek port significantly later than intended. Around midday, instead of the intended 0700. All of the morning trips had to be cancelled as some were due to last all day, like the one we had originally booked to explore the Acropolis and Parthenon. A return visit for both of us, even if mine had been around fifty three years ago. As it happens though, a dicky knee meant we had cancelled the all-day high activity trip, and instead replaced it with an afternoon sightseeing trip with minimal walking. The logistics involved in the reorganisation must have been nightmarish, but it all seemed to go quite smoothly.

We didn’t get quite as close to the Parthenon as we had hoped, but we did get some close views I have to say, that I did not remember the acropolis being as high as it is.

The trip was an easy stress free three hours. That’s fine. We saw mostly what we wanted.

The ship departed Piraeus with the captain warning us that there was still tough weather out there.

I have to say that the drivers of the ship have done an excellent job in minimising the impact of the 65mph (Force 8) winds that have been battering the ship all night. A little bit of motion, but nothing drastic, until about 0700 this morning.

Laying in bed the distinct roll we felt was very pronounced. It didn’t last long. Checking the navigation display on the TV showed that we had turned around in a wide loop. It didn’t take long for the captain to come on the tannoy to announce that the visit to Mykonos has had to be cancelled. it would have been a tendered visit (transfer from ship to shore and back via small craft each carrying about 100 passengers from fit to varying stages of frailty) whilst we might be able to get off the ship, there was no guarantee we would be able to get back.

Captain Turnbull was most apologetic and informed us that the plan was to head to our next port Heraklion on Crete. We would arrive late afternoon, giving us an evening securely tied up and therefore a comfortable nights sleep.

As I write this, it looks like we are about an hour away from Heraklion. Once again, the crew have done an excellent job of giving us a smooth ride.

A late update to confess my hypocrisy. I have now paid for internet access again.

Here we are at the end of one stage of the holiday, and the beginning of another. Today being marked by a stop over in Valletta.

We are going to be here slightly longer than expected which means we can take a look at our plans. It turns out that there is a problem with at least one flight resulting in the passengers not reaching the ship until 0100 on Friday morning. The captain, who had been expecting to sail between 7 & 9PM had to wait. The benefit of that for us was an extended stay in harbour.

That was good because we had booked an early trip to Mdina, from which we would return at about 1400 and still have plenty of time to go into Valletta, which in turn meant that we would not have to rush at the end of the holiday.

On then to Mdina. We only had a guide for the 45 minute transit from the boat to the ancient walled city, after which we would have some time to explore by ourselves.

The guide gave us a potted history of the city, the defences of which were built by Arabs, it then changed hands to Europeans who added to the defences, only to be besieged by the ottoman Turks, possibly changing hands again (this is all related for effect, and is not by any stretch historically accurate, it just that my memory and ability to search are limited).

What I can tell you is that todays version of the city is quite beautiful. Built from the honey white limestone that is characteristic of Malta, it stands like a beacon on top of its plateau in the middle of the island. Surrounded by a deep ditch dug out by the Arabs to add to the defences, this feature has now been turned into a lovely, well kept garden that one can walk through.

There are only three gates into the city. We enter via the main gate, but in a slightly unusual way.

The only modern motor vehicles allowed to enter the city are those of the one hundred (yes, that figure is correct) people that live there and service vehicles. The next alternative to walking is to take a Karozzin. A horse and buggy. In our case the horse Bobby and his driver Steve. We had only gone a few yards before we’d worked out that we didn’t have enough cash to pay Steve the agreed and regular price of €35. Of course, we told Steve that maybe he should stop and let us off. “Not a problem” he replied “there are several ATM in the city, we will stop at one”. The ride continued. It was a lovely if slightly unnerving method of travelling the streets which in places were so narrow, it was possible to reach out and touch the walls.

Bobby would plod along whilst Steve told us about the various sights, including photo stop at the furthest point so that we could admire the view from the city walls. Whilst I dashed for cash, Steve told Elayne that he had seven horses, three of which he used for working, and the other four living out their retirement. Bobby would break into a brisk trot to go up the very slight inclines that were on parts of our route. We were returned to the main gate.

We had about two hours from there to have a wander around. The streets of Mdina were built to be narrow not in straight lines, be weaving gently, making the place easy to defend, hard to attack. With a gentle stroll, pausing to look at places I reckon we could walk the length of the Main Street in about twenty minutes. The place is not big, but it does have a cathedral, hence its status as a city (apparently one cross is a church, two a cathedral and three a basilica).

We did the Mdina Experience this started with a 3d film about the establishment of the Knights of St John a mostly peaceful group separate to the more violent Knights Templar and were devoted to treating the sick. I don’t recall ever hearing of the Knights of St John before, but the link between them and St John’s Ambulance becomes obvious as they both use the same eight pointed star of Malta as their symbol.

The experience continued with a walk through series of wax models in dioramas depicting the struggles surrounding the history of the city. With hindsight, interesting. I think would rather have walked around the city a bit more, given the limited time we had. Perhaps a little bit too soon, we were back on the coach for the trip back to Azura.

Back on board ship, the flight delay problems had got worse. Our departure time from Valletta was now expected to be 0100 on Friday. The knock on was that last passenger on time was now 2300, if we were of a mind we could have experienced a bit of Valletta’s night life.

We were not of that mind! We had lunch and decided we must go into Valletta to at least say we had experienced it. The lift to take us up to the Barrak Gardens was a six or seven minute walk from the ship taking us what felt like a couple of hundred feet up to the city.

A walk through some lovely memorial gardens led us on to South Street, not one of the main shopping or historical areas but still with plenty of cafes. As we walked along the grid layout of the city allowed us to look along the main streets the main characteristic was the steep hill leading down to the lower levels. Sadly, that really did put us off exploring any deeper. Hot and bothered and hurting knees made the prospect of climbing steep hills very unattractive. We very slowly made our way back to the lift.

The approach to the lift was crowded and we realised that people were there to see the firing of the 1600 hour time gun, a once a day event. I would quite like to have seen that. I went to investigate and with the crowds being five deep, even with my height I gave up and feeling a little sad we made our way back to the lift, which at least was empty. Life sometimes has its little rewards. The lift is glass fronted, I stepped to the back of the lift just in time to have a perfectly unobstructed view of the soldier stood at attention, heard the shouted command “Fire” saw the soldier reach to the cannon and saw and heard its firing. The lift started its descent. We returned to the ship.

Our first sea-day of the second cruise was a write off. Bad weather, quite a heavy swell apart from meals we stayed in the cabin. After my bold assertion in my intermission post that I wouldn’t pay for the internet, I did damned expensive, but the speed was good. I think that’s all I’m going to say about that day.

You’ll gather from the intermittent posting that my connection to the internet is also exactly that. To be honest, I refuse to pay the ridiculous rates that they want to charge on board, so I’m afraid I’m dependent upon when I get a good phone signal.

You’ll also notice that I have completely given up trying to exclude people, strangers from my photos unless I am incredibly lucky.

I am in discussion with Elayne about where we could go that does not attract the screaming hoards. I’m afraid the moon is a bit out of our reach!

Perhaps the term screaming hoards is a bit strong, just hoards really.

On then to Civitaveccia the port that gives access to Rome.

Another early rising, and the coach for a two hour drive to Rome.

We were booked to go into the Colosseum. You can probably imagine that we were a bit concerned after we read a newspaper report a couple of weeks ago about the severe rat infestation that was being reported, coupled with piles of rubbish that probably wouldn’t help the rat situation. What would we find when we got there.

To be honest, the main problem wasn’t rats, it was people. Way too many of them. Of rats not one sign. Of piles of rubbish? A very well swept place. What there is today of the Colosseum is most.y a shell of what the building was like nearly two thousand years ago at its height, and it would have been viewed as a technical marvel, even if slave powered!

Our tour guide was very good at giving a graphic description of the kinds of activities that went on there without being too graphic.

After the colosseum, we moved on to the Forum, I suppose the political centre of the city. We saw the spot where Julius Cesare’s body was cremated after his murder. All of the buildings in the forum were only the remains, with much dereliction, but there apparently is much evidence of where the various temples were. I have to say it was absolutely fascinating.

From the forum we had a walk of probably about a mile to Navona Square. The walk was an experience in its own right, involving as it did the crossing of a number of rather busy roads. The only thing I can say about this is that Roman drivers do not like pedestrian crossings, and they most certainly do not like pedestrians crossing. They seem to find the whole business rather annoying hence the remonstrations of our guide to make sure we hurried up as we crossed as the lights didn’t stay very long on the green person. Luckily, we all made it although I can very sadly report that two days after our venture into the city two tourists were run over and killed.

Navona is a large piazza containing three graceful fountains and lots of cafes. From here we had three hours of free time. What with the excitement and challenge of crossing roads, most of our group were feeling a bit jaded and looking forward to a break from the traffic, the crowds and the unrelenting sun.

When Carolina, our guide, offered to take us to a restaurant she recommended many of us grasped the opportunity. I have to say that I was quite impressed at the apparent ease with which the restaurant coped with an additional twenty people turning up unannounced during what appeared to be a rather busy lunchtime.

After a delicious meal of antipasto and mushroom pizza, we wandered around Navona square for another hour before partaking of some delicious gelato (banana, lemon & coconut for me, I can’t remember what Elayne had, but it probably involved chocolate & coffee), we then hung around waiting for the walk back to the pickup point and the return to the ship.

I think if I had one negative comment to make about the day was that it felt a bit rushed. I think that they could have added an hour to the guided part and reduced the three hours of free time but one hour. Apart from that, it was really enjoyable and educational.

From the port of Livorno, we could have headed for Florence & Pisa, but we have done both of these before, a few years ago, I had the typical picture of me trying to hold up the leaning tower. I must admit I fancied the idea of try to get one pushing it over. Instead, we went off in an entirely different direction, starting with an almost two hour drive to Sienna.

Tuscany, how many of us who haven’t visited the area have seen pictures of its beauty? Well I have to tell you that when the scenery is right, those pictures are very accurate. I expect that the effect is even more dramatic in the early morning or evening light.

We drove through the gently rolling landscape with those narrow, sharp Cyprus trees coming to a point that’s slightly blown over to reflect the prevailing wind. A delightful looking house on a low hilltop, with half a dozen trees around it surrounded by a gently rolling landscape. The towns are no worse, dominated by a church tower it inspired a feeling of intense community and family spirit.

I have never read the Canterbury tales, but I believe they involve at least part of a pilgrimage. Sienna lays on the path to Rome, eleven days walk we were told. Churches abound, centred upon a really quite spectacular cathedral. The religious paintings are protected in an area that is naturally temperature controlled. Pictures that are as rich and colourful as the day they were painted, easily compare with pictures not as well protected which as a result are dark and faded.

The centre of Sienna is a huge square, almost angled and shaped like an amphitheater where every year they hold a horse race. The square specially prepared; a sand track is laid, padding located at strategic points to protect horses and riders (mostly the horses I suspect, I dare say they don’t understand the risks) falls happen, injuries, sometimes fatal to both rider and horse occur.

The square at this time of year and even more so for the summer event (the race happens twice a year) Is baking hot. But ten thousand people can be crammed into the centre, from which there is no escape, and for which they pay hundreds of euros. Even our Italian tour guide thought those who did it were made, but she is as devoted to the race as any Italian.

We departed Sienna, hot, tired and informed.

Lunch was at a winery, a wine tasting with a meal. Three samples of wine(only a small amount of each, with an opportunity (of course) to buy the wine if we so wished. The first course, antipasto followed by Pasta in a tomato & mushroom sauce, and three more samples of wine. The third course was an almond based biscuit that I knew I didn’t like, so gave it a miss. That was also served with a special desert wine.

We set off for St Gimmignano. The italians have a particular way of saying it, particularly a rolling around the “Migna’ part, with which I am having great difficulty pronouncing.

Up a little bit of a hill, a few steps (seriously, not being sarcastic here) a slightly less than gentle sweep of the narrow Main Street of the village,populated with cafes. All of which sell gelato in some form or another but we are waiting for the shop on the square, which we are reliably informed by our guide is some of the best in the area if not Italy. This anecdotal assertion of fact would appear to be borne out by the fact that the queue for this one shop is huge, I mean really big. But our guide continues to tell us that it will move quickly as they have eight people serving in the shop.

Elayne is determined to partake and so joins the queue with the guide. Seeing my sceptical face especially at the prospect of queuing in bright sunshine, she sends me off to have a look around. I head off up around the back of the church, from where there is a view out over the fairly typical rooftops of a Tuscan village. I loiter a bit, and slowly start to head off back at the square, arriving, much to Elaynes disgust just as she is about to step in to the shop to be served. I have to say that the three scoops of Lemon, Banana and Coconut tasted superb!

I think we were all pleased to head back to our air conditioned coach.

On yesterdays post, I should have said that the first sea day ended with a formal night. Elayne had made sure that my dinner suite was packed. I of made sure that I wasn’t paying attention to the packing and therefore forgot my bow-tie and braces. Luckily the ship-board shop had them, so that was at £35 a very expensive lax moment of attention to detail.

This next piece was written on Sunday 3rd Sep 23. I’ve kind of lost track off things. Did I write about Ajaccio yesterday? In which case why am I doing so today, or haven’t I yet written about the visit to Corsica’s capital? I’m inclined to think I may not have done. I’m going to do so, and if it’s repetition then so be it.

Publishing the post (that is in wordpress speak sending to the Internet) is intermittent. I am trying to be careful with mobile data as although we are covered in Europe, I am not confident that is strictly the case. So who knows when this will land on your screens.

We had no trips booked for Ajaccio, you can just get off the boat and a two minute walk puts you on the main square, hosting as it does a rather nice statue of Napoleon Bonaparte dressed as a Roman empower, which kind of sets the tone for the island.

In the town square we saw a small road train offering a town tour for €12, which by the end of the tour, we thought quite reasonable. We drove past another square hosting another rather grand statue of Napoleon, along with his four brothers. On then to the main feature of the day, a proper monument to Napoleon, with steps leading up to another magnificent statue. This time with Napoleon garbed in the uniform with which we are familiar and him with his left hand hidden in his waist coat (what was wrong with his hand that he did that? Or was it just for effect)?

We drove out to a headland passing villas belonging to famous peoples, coming back in to town we drove down the narrow street where the house in which Napoleon was borne. It is now a museum. The train then returned to its startling point.

Disembarking from the train, we walked back up to the square of Napoleon and his brothers, walked along a street of shops and then back to the ship where we were lazy beyond belief.

We were due to be taken from the hotel to Azura at 1300. We were packed and had eaten breakfast by around 0930, so thought we would take a stroll down to see the illuminated church as it is in daylight. We took what might be a less obvious route by going up hill a bit, and then walking along. We were delighted to have a lovely view across the bay as a result.

The square in front of the church had hosted a festival on the night of our arrival, we had seen some of the fireworks from the taxi. Workmen were now clearing the aftermath & dismantling stages. The church looked lovely but u fortunately we couldn’t get in. We lingered for a bit at another viewing point and then made our way back to the hotel via a souvenir shop to pick up some postcards.

I reckon there were twenty to thirty people waiting to go on to the cruise, nearly all sat in the hotel foyer. The weather has been grey all morning, and the threatened rain arrived at the same time as the travel agent. A coach was coming for us and so the was the rain. Apparently, rain in Malta is relatively rare. It was making up for it today.

Before we departed the UK I had said to Elayne, don’t bother with a rain coat – you won’t need it. Silly girl, she listened to me! In fairness, it was only a twenty yard dash the driver took our bags and hurled them into the luggage area. And we were off.

The thunder and lightening certainly weren’t off though; streaks of white hot current arcing to the ground, followed almost immediately by huge claps of churning noise, and the windscreen wipers swooshing desperately trying to give the driver a clear view. A journey that should have taken 45 minutes ended up being an hour and a half. Not a problem, the ship wasn’t due to sail until 2100, and it didn’t even then as a plain load of passengers late departing from the Uk were only then being bussed from the airport.

So far, our only view of Valletta had been through misted up coach windows, from inside the limestone was of the city, where we were processed through boarding and from the ship. But as usual, her gentle push off from the harbour and smooth glide out past the city and through the harbour wall was as gentle an experience as we have ever had. We went to bed about an hour later. I’d had the pork for dinner. Delicious.

Our first day at sea,was exactly that – sea day. Relaxed dress, no rush, do what you want. Once we had breakfast out the way, Elayne went off to find a sun bed as close to the pool as she could get, and sought out the most shaded spot I could find to settle down with my kindle.

A bit of a snooze in the afternoon, we have free dining (eat when and where we want, pretty much, almost) and spent the evening with a delightful group of people, we had a real laugh. I also had the Beef Wellington – it was even better than the pork. The show was very good as you might expect. All in, a delightful first day.

The Hotel Solana in Mellieha is quite pleasant, it’s a surprisingly big place given its location in the centre (pretty much) of town. Where we had booked with a holiday company and were only staging through, we had been allocated a basic room. We were offered an upgrade that would give us a balcony and a sea view – the price seemed quite reasonable and as we were there for two nights we decided to take it. I’m glad we did. The view wasn’t spectacular, but certainly better than four plain walls.

We had been disappointed to find that the Solana wasn’t as we thought in Valletta. Mellieha is probably the biggest town that far north on Malta. The next stop is the island of Gozo.

That kind of dictated what we were going to to do on our first free day. As you might expect the hotel staff were very helpful. Busses are very reasonable, €2 buys you two hours, which would normally be enough to get almost anywhere on the island and there was a bus stop outside the hotel with the busses going in the direction we wanted. A 20 minute bus ride saw us at the Gozo Ferry terminal.

Riding from Malta to Gozo is free, you just get on (I might as well tell you a ticket back costs €4.80, but they don’t tell you that going. I said to Elayne tickets coming back are probably a thousand euros. The Maltese are happy for you to go, just not to come back!). The ferries are very good, frequent, roll-o roll-off with double ended bows. They don’t turn round.

We decided that we would take the hop-on, hop-off bus and do a circuit of the island. Just a by-note to say that we hoped on. And only hoped off once roughly in the middle of the island at the Capital, Victoria (there is still a huge amount of British influence here)

The geology of the Maltese islands is pretty much just limestone. A lot, most, nearly all the buildings are constructed out of a wonderfully golden yellow rock that is mined locally. that gives a common timbre to the way villages and towns look, but each has its own characteristics. Most villages are dominated by a magnificent church, 85% of the population of the islands is Roman Catholic, and quite devout.

On the bus, it soon became very apparent that the villages and the roads through them were not built with modern transport in mind. The bus had no difficulty in making any of the turns even those that appeared to be right-angled or thereabouts. It’s that the roads and the level of traffic have significantly influenced the attitude towards driving, especially the concept of give-way.

What appears to be the case is that of when you are approaching a place where to give-way might be expected, under no circumstances must you do so. Instead accelerate to the highest possible speed to reach that point in the road where it is physically impossible for two of even the smallest vehicles to pass, and sit there. And wait for the other vehicle to inch past. Thus it becomes a battle of wills between drivers to see who is likely to dink your car first. Having said that, I saw very few “dinked” cars.

There really was only one place where I would quite liked to have hopped off, at the site of one of the oldest megalithic structures in Europe. We didn’t as by the then we just wanted to get back to the ferry.

Gozo is a fascinating place, and there is clearly much more to see than we saw. I would be quite happy to stay there for a couple of days and explore. I don’t think I would hire a car though.