Bills Posts

The train journey from Havant was smooth, except the train was loaded with cyclists and their bikes heading towards the Isle of Wight we think. I didn’t find out if there was an event on. There was no room for the luggage so we were partially blocking the aisle. We managed.

We only had a couple of minutes to wait for the ferry. One of the reasons I’ve separated out was because I want to write about the crossing. Many of the ports that we go into on cruises are very basic, basically a concrete platform designed just to accept cruise ships, with the town being a small village that just happened to be there, nothing that really attracts the interest of passengers. I was very struck how different tthat situation is with Portsmouth. A cruise ship comes in through the narrow entrance fortified on the starboard side (inbound, eastern) built in Henry VIII’s time, pass over the buoy that marks where the Mary Rose sank, Spice Island – an 18th century den of iniquity, on the Gosport Side For t Blockhouse, the Submarine escape tower, the submarine museum and Gosport. How could new arrivals not find these sights interesting and be curious about them?

Then we got home. Before we’d unpacked we went to get Misty from the cattery. She was both delighted to see us, and was very clingy and affectionate and very angry as well.

We had a lovely time, but were glad to be home.

Our pick up was due at the hotel at 0825, and lo and behold there he was. It was rush hour so we took a back route to the airport that was interesting, we saw a part of Malta that we hadn’t seen. It appears that the Maltese authorities have changed regulations private taxis are not allowed to drop off at the official location. Admittedly only a two minute walk to the airport main entrance, not really impressed with that but was it the taxi drivers fault?

Transit through the airport was actually ok, the queue wasn’t too bad and our hold luggage was pretty much spot on, fractions of a kilo out. We had arrived a little early so we had about 40 to 50 minutes to wait before the gate to board opened.

The open gate doesn’t mean we just get on board, a round of document checks and priority boarding first. We boarded the plane pretty much on target for our 1135 departure time. Except we didn’t move. The captain informed us that Gatwick had asked us to hold for an hour because of bad weather in the UK.

We actually sat there for about thirty minutes before the captain gave us the go we had a short taxi and then we were off. The flight was routine, except we went into. A bit of a holding pattern before our final approach for probably about twenty minutes ending in a nicely smooth landing.

Processing through the airport went quite smoothly, no customs, we got the monorail to South terminal. You’d think wouldn’t you that they would have a nice big lift to transfer people from the airport level to the train station, not one that would take only three people and their bags. We took the escalator.

Now, there is the possibility that someone pressed the emergency stop or, it might have been an overly sensitive relay that, when Elayne’s bag connected with the bottom of the trackway caused the escalator to stop. Either way, we kept quiet and slunk away from the rather full mechanism.

We had to wait maybe ten minutes for the train. The journey was smooth no problems, even the change at Havant didn’t need a change of platform and a wait of just a few minutes for the train to Portsmouth Harbour.

To be continued. Perhaps I should give one spoiler; nothing bad happens in part two.

The ship docked at Valletta early, and we had to be out of the cabin by 0800. That wasn’t a problem we’re prepared and headed up to breakfast. Whilst we had access to the ships facilities for as long as we needed our transfer to the hotel wasn’t due until 1130 and as were weighted down with hand baggage we didn’t have time to do anything other than hang about and wait.

When the time was due, we left the ship, customs was unmanned, and the imagine cruising rep was waiting at the meeting point. We had to wait until everyone had gathered by which time, the coach was waiting for us.

Arriving back at the Hotel Solana in Mellieha we were told that ŵe had to wait until 3PM for the room to be ready. Elayne headed for the swimming pool, I sat and read. Within a few minutes I was approached by one of the reception staff and offered a room. A free upgrade no less, with a balcony but no sea view. That was ok, it was only for one night. I have to say it was a very nice room.

We went for a walk up the hill, interesting, but not what we were expecting (more shops than what there were). A bit bored, we jumped on the bus and headed down to the beach.

We found a quiet bar, sat and watched the water. Boats coming to and fro, people wandering around. It was really quite pleasant.

Rather than eat in the hotel, just a few yards up the road was a local Maltese restaurant very nice. Empty when we arrived, full when we left of mostly Maltese including at least one very big family – always a good sign.

Katakolo on the western main coast of Greece was Azura’s last port of call before our return to Malta and then home. We had a visit booked to see the site of the first Olympic village. Ok, that does it a massive injustice.

Olympia the mountain is the home of the Greek gods, and is nowhere near the site of Olympia. The site itself was of religious significance to the Greeks long before it’s role in the original Olympics, the first of which was held in 776BC.

The site has been subject to earth quakes, the original buildings are beyond derelict, but efforts are very slowly being made to restore columns are being rebuilt. The segments of the columns are lined up ready for reconstruction.

Buildings that include the Temple of Zeuss, gymnasiums even hotels for spectators. There’s a separate museum for the artefacts that have been found during excavations. Even the Olympic stadium can still be used. People run the length. It really is an impressive sight.

Our guide was very enthusiastic she became breathless as she described the area. It’s well worth a look around.

We returned to the ship, grabbed a light lunch and then went for a walk in the village, only five minutes from the ship, a little bit of window shopping and then stopped at a bar for a drink.

The ship left berth at 1830, and started what would be a very smooth trip back to Malta. Giving us our last full day at sea to pack.

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.