27/7 farewell Costa at Savona

Friday 27^th Train to Civitavecchia

Olympic opening ceremony tonight. Made it downstairs by 8am – the passports weren’t where they were supposed to be – the Mexicans told us they were at the main desk, where they were higgledy piggledy in a large box. They eventually found ours and we were delighted that they had laid on an air bridge because we had not been looking forward to teetering down their rickety gangway with the big bags.

Views of Savona ( above & below)

Waterslide on Costa Mediterranea

We jumped on the bus to the station and decided that we may as well catch one of the earlier trains. Our ticket for the first leg to Genoa was open dated. There happened to be one just about to leave so we jumped on. Next thing I knew I had a ticket collector demanding 5 Euro fines EACH for not validating our tickets at the station. He triumphantly turns the ticket over to where it says (in Inglesi) that tickets which are not for reserved seats should be stamped or you may get a fine.

I told him we wouldn’t be paying any fines and that “may” means that he has discretion, which he should use, and we would accept a caution. Plainly we had a reserved ticket to go on to Civitavecchia and had no intention of using the local ticket again. Both tickets had been issued the day before. He launched into Italian and seemed disinclined to yield. Subconsciously, I reviewed all the training courses and the Dale Carnegie principles of How to Win Friends and Influence People. I have always tended to see that as more of an “or” than an “and” . . . so I influenced him. He staggered off down the passage, apparently considering career change or suicide.

We had a couple of hours in Genoa so we went in search of the Golden Arches . . primarily to use the wifi. There was a poster within sight of the station, proclaiming that a Maccas was 100m away and had 1Euro chickenburgers. We followed the arrows for about half an hour – at times there were signs pointing to 2 different Maccas in opposite directions. Eventually we stumbled across one in Via 20 September (its just like South America – the maps look more like calendars).

We arrived at 10.51 and Maccas didn’t open until 11. The lovely lady at the counter spoke Inglesi and fetched us a brochure showing how to log on (in Italiano).  Alas it became apparent that you have to enter an Italian mobile number where they can SMS you a password. Wotaloadacrappa! So we couldn’t get online.

20th September old city gate

Very nice looking railway building

The station was somewhat disconcerting. We found our way to platform 9 but a succession of trains passed through with no way of knowing what they were or where they were going. Nothing on the front of the trains and the TV screens just kept playing adverts. But train 511 duly appeared at 1pm and we jumped on.

Not quickly enough. This train had individual compartments and the other 4 were already seated and had filled the overhead luggage racks. So our jumbo bags sat in the passageway for 5 hours, providing a constant source of entertainment watching passengers trying to get their luggage past or over. Our favourite was the man with the refreshment trolley.

Interestingly, we had reserved seats and for the entire 4.5 hours nobody showed any interest in examining or clipping them.

An unexpected bonus was that the track passed along the coast for most of the journey, which included the Cinqueterra (5 old towns hanging off or between cliffs along the coast). These are a renowned and favourite place for walking holidays, each being a good day’s walk apart. There were some glorious vistas of sun, sea and (black) sand in between the buildings and tunnels. The Italians are great builders of horizontal tracks through and between mountains – you are permanently either in a tunnel or up a viaduct.

We managed to lose 10 minutes before Civitavecchia and Michaele seemed less than his cheerful self when he picked us up at the station. Maybe that had something to do with the leeeeeengthy high-pitched telephone argument right outside our door while we were trying to sleep?

We had a relatively small and dingy room downstairs. We were pleased not to have to lug the bags up but our room in May was much nicer. We had bought dinner from Genoa (yes a baguette but no not salmon . . cheese and ham) which we ate on the bed while we gorged on internet use. We didn’t make it upstairs to watch the Olympic opening but it seems to have been a cracker.

Back on the ships tomorrow J

26/7 Civitavecchia

Thursday 26^th Civitavecchia

Brekky and straight into town. They laid on a shuttle bus to get out of the port and we strolled to the station, where we bought a train ticket to get back here tomorrow. We found a café and sat with a coffee for 2 hours on the internet until our battery ran out. We got a reply from our host tomorrow night confirming that they are expecting us and will meet us at the train. Also a quick chat with Lissa, who was certainly more focussed on the screen than previously.

Lunch, 30 minutes of sun, and into the gym for an extravaganza of sweat. Well over an hour. Quick laundry to take advantage of hot sun on the balcony *sniff*, went to the quiz on national anthems, which we don’t know any of but only missed a share of first place by 1 point. Ready for The Last Supper.

In Adam’s departure talk yesterday he gave his version of the list of silliest questions such as “do the crew sleep on board?” and “does this lift go to the front of the ship?”.  He makes it into our blog for his explanation of how to fill in the review questionnaire:

When you review the entertainers’ performance remember that “excellent” does not mean that it was good or anything – it’s actually Italian for “cruise ship”.  Just  tick “excellent”.

He is reverting to the role of singer/dancer and joining P&O Australia – might just see him again. (J thinks he is like Robbie Williams only hotter.)

A nice dinner. The Americans had enjoyed their day in Rome and had actually gone on a guided tour on Segways! Tom and I totally gorged on coffee ice cream but it was the last opportunity. We dug out the blog on our 4 day Royal Caribbean cruise last night and we seem to have enjoyed it greatly – particularly the food! So the next cruise starting in 2 days should be good. In 2 days we will again be steaming north out of Rome, bound for Genoa, Nice, Barcelona etc.

It was sad to bid farewell to the Americans. We share a lot of experiences and issues and we related to them as individuals and a couple and a family. We didn’t manage to bond greatly with the waiters but they were always helpful within the limited service model on Costa.

25/7 Once more at sea

Wednesday 25^th At sea

Both of us were up on the micro-deck soon after 6 for a good yoga stretch thingy. Must have had a bit of a headwind on top of our forward motion because there was quite a wind to make the balance moves interesting. We had a couple of juices and were first in line at the omelette station for our favourite salmon shrimp and tomato. They have beautifully crunchy and tasty shrimps.

Back to the gym for a solid sweat, half an hour in the sun and in to the first quiz of the day. This was music from the movies and turned out harder than we expected. J scored a couple of points with movies I had never heard of. The Italian host mentioned that she had said we would win again today, which would have been nice because they handed out a Costa towel. But we tied with 7 points and lost the tie break (Xmen) L

The English host gave a disembark talk and was telling the Indians in front of us that they would have to write to head office to get their service charge reimbursed. We had our interview with Guest Relations immediately after that *wink*.

Lunch was a good seafood buffet with leftovers of yesterday’s delicious walnut slices. The afternoon featured another pair of trivia, both of which we fancied. Celebrity photos turned out to be negatives and distortions which reduced the contest to guessing and we were 3 off the pace in the cartoon quiz *sigh*. We went up to have another spell in the sun but the wind had blown into a gale and my crocs were actually cartwheeling along the deck. We passed through the very narrow strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily and watched from a second deck window as the pilot boat collected the pilot right next to us. It was quite precarious at high speed and he had to keep going back round the front of the boat to fetch 3 suitcases.  The scenery was spectacular.

Tom and Nava are booked into the pay restaurant tonight so we should have the table to ourselves, followed by a free cocktail session and free photo with the Captain courtesy of the Costa Club. We are rather looking forward to another 4 cruises on Royal Caribbean by which time we will have climbed to Admiral status. Apart from providing a venue for watching passing volcanoes and grossing out the neighbours, the lack of a balcony is going to deprive us of anywhere to dry laundry. We apologise to Southern Hemisphere readers and Poms . . . but the weather here is Glorious.

We had an email from Dan the Sax (from South America) yesterday saying that Celebrity are cutting back on sax players and his contracts have been cut short and cancelled so he is less than happy.

Yes we had dinner all by ourselves – yet another episode of parades, singing and APPLAUSO – God these Italians must be insecure – they just demand constant Applauso. This time it was all the waiters then the chefs and the maîtres d’ (6 of them – what do they all do?). 

We popped out to have a passing look at a volcano perched on its own in the middle of the ocean. It turned out to be the one we passed in the opposite direction about 10 days ago. We now know that it is Stromboli. It was steaming and putting out black smoke as before.

The cocktail function was somewhat constipated – you got one glass of champagne as you went in and then we were all stuck in seats in the theatre watching a handful of guests shuffling round on the stage to the music of one of the bands. It was the longest time before they brought another drink. The previous general cocktail was much better – heaps of whisky sours.

The show was very high energy – Jive Jukebox. Interesting costumes! The girls finished in huge plumed headdresses, legware rather like chaps with the whole crotch area missing and minimalist G-strings. Similarly, they had sleeves but no tops which just drew attention to the microbras.

24/7 Athens

Tuesday 24^th Athens

We made the latest start today – the sun was well up before we made it up to the yoga deck for a long duo session. Brekky, spa, half an hour in the sun and then a good hour in the gym before lunch. We decided to give dinner a miss and bumped into our table waiter so we were able to send a message to Tom & co. He said that C’s favourite coffee ice cream would be on the menu (and the Italians DO make excellent ice cream) so we may pop in for some of that. We brought bowls of lunch up and kept it in our fridge for our dinner.

Went ashore in Piraeus to do some internetting – only 1 boarding card not printed yet. Had been looking forward to the Capital Cities quiz – until they asked 6 questions about eastern Europe – not our forte. 2 teams got 10/10 and the tie break (Moldova).

Tonight was another circus show and was a lot better than the last one. We get our hour back tonight.

23/7 Izmir Turkey

Monday 23^rd Izmir (Turkey)

C on his private deck by 6am as we cruised in. We did an hour in the gym which was almost totally empty and then lined up for the good stretch class but there was a glitch in the program and he wouldn’t do it (although he would have run yoga if he had 5 paying guests!).

We went ashore and settled into a lengthy blog photo session until lunch. Alas the Eagles lost badly at the weekend – they don’t seem to be able to beat the other top teams – good luck with Collingwood and Hawthorn in the next 2 weeks. Also very sad to see the open warfare raging in Syria in the cities we visited – Aleppo and Damascus.

We have signed up for the $30m on Thursday so if you don’t hear from us ever again nobody would notice anyway. Pasteur discovered a cure for rabies, which is why the bloody French all knew it yesterday.

Today we are tied up next to Costa Atlantica.  It seems to be our sister ship.  Same size, shape and water slide.

After lunch we walked along the water front to the main town square area.  It was hot but there was a strong sea breeze that saved us.  Wandered around some of the older streets/bazaars.  Located the Konak clock and pier.  Then wandered our way back to the ship.

Konak clock tower.  Has never stopped working since it was built.

                                                       Mini Mosque

Where we won yet another quiz – we were always going to be challengers at Geography but we knew everything including the question where the answer was wrong – Sudan is no longer the biggest country in Africa (Algeria). Flushed with success, we advanced to the Costa Club desk and got our memberships confirmed and activated, including credit for our earlier trip. This will get us (hopefully) a fruit basket and another cocktail party.

We were feeling like we didn’t want to go down for dinner – takes too long and we eat too much. But we discovered there is no buffet in the evening! That’s wild – we have never seen that before. Some boats have 24 hour buffets and several have multiple places where you can eat in the evening (as well as the ones where you have to pay a token amount). Costa has free pizza 7x24 but you wouldn’t want to eat it for dinner.

After dinner the waiters paraded around the room and then between the tables and then 2 of them got up on a table and did the Sexy Dance. Right next to us. It probably wouldn’t have taken too much to get J up with them thanks to all her new skills learned on the last MSC cruise. We first saw this one on the Costa cruise in the Pacific.

Race is on and we are winning ...

22/7 Another sea day

Sunday 22^nd Good to be back at sea

C was up on his private deck at 6.30 again. Very apt to be doing Sun Salutations to the rising sun. We were one off the pace in the Science quiz after forgetting who discovered the cure for rabies, which most people knew. A lazy restful day. Our luck picked up later on and we won 2 sessions in airline emblems (thanks Dieter for Solomon airlines) and animals even though they insisted the Chinese zodiac included the wart hog ( for which the German and French answers were both “pig”).

We had a big go at the gym before dinner, having to prise the Fn French off the joggers to have a turn. There is a 20 minute limit but somebody has torn all the signs down and these cochons would not budge despite their machines reading 34 and 43 minutes. We have never seen such behaviour before.

The American/Israelis were back in force for dinner. Yaldon is staying awake all night and sleeping through the day but they are treading lightly because he has been at the wacky backy at home and they are trying to steer him back. They bought him a skydive yesterday which he was quite blasé about, although J managed to elicit some admission of feeling nervous.

They had had enough of the evening shows but we went along because they had scheduled another production show – Elements (earth air fire and water) .The costumes were extravagant in the extreme and contributed to the dancing. The singers were ok but we have all seen the man dangling from ribbons over and over and he needed to take it further.

21/7 Haifa

Saturday 21^st Haifa

I was up at 6.30 doing tai chris on the 5mx5m deck between the pools. The sun had just come up and we were approaching the coast slowly. I really enjoyed it – better than in a gym.

We had done brekky before 8 so we were ready to head off when they opened the gangway. Right in the port terminal there was a kiosk selling tours to Nazareth for much less than the Costa version but we had already decided to stay in Haifa. The tour took in the Church of the Nativity but that is really only a commemorative structure built in the modern era and not necessarily anywhere near the original manger. Some people went to the River Jordan and had the option to be re-baptised but that didn’t excite us.

Haifa itself was almost totally closed. All we could see were a couple of small cafes and hairdressers. We set off straight up the coastal ridge and climbed steadily for an hour. This brought us to the Bahai Temple high up with sweeping panoramic views across the bay. They opened the gate at 9am and it was noticeable that the gateman had a firearm. We had seen dozens of assault rifles in Jerusalem with young soldiers on their way to or from home for the weekend.

The temple grounds were stunning –acres of landscaped lawn and flower beds sheltered under sprawling trees, some of which were oozing out clouds of fragrance that hung and wafted throughout the garden. The flower beds were enclosed in hundreds of metres of mini-hedges that were meticulously manicured about 6” high and 4” thick with some shrub that held shape and made a very attractive border. The paths were strewn with rounded white pebbles or scrunchy terracotta bits.

The central path leading downhill from the temple itself ran on for hundreds of metres through more gardens, leading directly to a major road that ran all the way down to the sea. The effect was to project the entire landscape as an extension of the temple grounds. Quite amazing.

The temple itself was open to the public. The inside was smaller than you would expect from the grand domed exterior. I should have said that the roof was a shiny gold colour that echoed the railings around the garden and between the sections. There were more staff (some armed) around the gardens, guiding visitors about.  At the temple we were asked to remove our shoes and to remain silent inside. The inside was totally carpeted with rugs of a Persian appearance.  We were in one of 8 rooms set in a 3x3 shape around a central square, that was shielded by a mesh screen. We were only in there a minute or so, reading a prayer on the wall that depicted the usual sort of religious theme of a Prophet followed by a human form of their God. Very similar to the Judeo/Christian/Moslem model. One of the volunteers told us it was a Persian religion that was unusual in that it made everyone equal – even women.

Government building (above & below)

Ba hai temple & gardens

From there we went a little higher to see a sculpture park before wandering back downhill. We had lunch on the boat then went back to the port which had wifi. We found Stephie and had a bit of a chat with Lissa, who seemed to have a much more solid connection between us and the people on the screen than she had before. Stephie also gave us the heads up on the latest correspondence- yeah bills and overdrawn credit cards.  

This reminded us of Cassandra

The boat was sufficiently deserted for us to flaunt ourselves in the Jacuzzi before lunch and J sat in on the craft session again to paint a ceramic bowl. Tom came down for dinner – apparently their weekend was extremely successful and they got 30 or so relatives together to see them, which was very gratifying for Nava (a name at last).

The show was devoted to a tenor who sang very well but didn’t project any personality. Entertainment has been a bit thin of late with little being offered during the days and lacklustre evening efforts. The previous two nights were a quirky 1 man circus and a pianist who played an interesting mix of classics and movie themes but also with little personal touch.

View from the boat with the Ba Hai temple half way up hill right hand side

Nice modern building

20/7 Ashdod (Jerusalem)

Friday 20^th Ashdod (Jerusalem)

The broad plan was that the Americans would get their relative to drop us in Ashdod and get us onto the best bus heading for Jerusalem and arrange for us to catch the last bus back this evening. A whole bunch of her relatives are gathering to meet them. We were going to meet them at the gangway at 8.45 and they would be banging on the kids’ room from 8.00 to make sure they were awake.

That was the theory but we cruised in ahead of time so we went down early. Then there were 2 gangways and they didn’t emerge until after 9. We just hopped onto the shuttle bus that you are supposed to have tickets for and scored a free ride out of the port area. There we found the relatives waiting for us but their advice was that we should stay on the shuttle and just catch any bus from Ashdod.

At this moment in time we were suddenly adrift in a strange country with less idea of where we were or what there was to see or how to get around than we had ever had before. The shuttle dropped us in the middle of Ashdod and we drew some Israeli shekels from an ATM and found an information office where we were told to catch a 438 bus to Jerusalem and be back at the Jerusalem bus depot by 4.30 to catch the last bus of the day. The problem is that we have arrived on a Friday which is the Jewish Sabbath and everything closes and stops mid afternoon. The boat is here until 9pm for people who have been on the 11 hour bus trip.

We found the bus and enjoyed a pleasant 80 minute trip to Jerusalem. We were sitting next to a very nice young Mexican couple who helped us put together a plan of attack. They are very devout Catholics and were planning to stay overnight in Jerusalem so as to absorb more of the sacred sites and then catch the boat tomorrow in Haifa. We bought some baklava-like cakes and were told to catch a train to the Old City. This we managed and found ourselves inside the walls by 12 noon. We entered via the Jaffa Gate and headed for the Via Dolarosa, veering off when we realised that we were very close to the Western wall. As we said, we really had very little idea of where everything was.

Our first view of the city wall

The Wailing Wall is the only remaining part of the Second Temple of the Jews which was destroyed by the Romans about 90BC. It is the holiest site for Jews and they can be seen by the dozens praying and folding copies of their prayers into the cracks in the walls. There were a lot of the ultra conservative Chassidic Jews in their characteristic black overcoats and black hats, and long side whiskers. They seemed to congregate at the left part of the wall and we thought maybe the right hand side was for non-Jews. It was only when we had gone in there and were nearly at the wall that we realised that the actual arrangement was that it was men on the left!! I beat a hasty retreat.

Wailing wall

Our next target was the Via Dolarosa – the path Jesus took carrying the cross up the hill, his progress marked by the 14 stations of the cross from where he was sentenced to death until the place of the crucifixion and the tomb. We walked this from beginning to end, with the final 6 stations being inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. We saw the Mexicans with their guide a few times. We paid 5 shekels $1.25 for a little brochure that listed the stations of the cross with maps and pictures that helped us find them in the crowded warren of the Old City.

Via Delorosa

Prison of Christ (above & below)

2nd station

3rd station

4th station

5th station

6th station

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Marble stone that Jesus was laid out on

The Tomb entry

By the time we had finished it was 2pm and we had to be back at the bus station by 4.30 to catch the last bus. This was probably not enough to queue to get into the tomb, which in any case is described as “where the Church venerates a mystery of Christ’s life” and “a place sanctified by the prayers of the faithful”. So none of those locations is necessarily the authentic location of any of the events described by the Gospels. But it was obvious that a lot of the pilgrims were convinced that they were.

Another lotus

We retraced our path back to the bus depot, choosing to catch an earlier bus rather than access the internet or browse around. We again just hopped onto the Costa shuttle bus and were back at the boat by 5.30. There were very few people aboard and we had a quick slice of pizza and hopped into the spa (pretty cool water) with a couple of French ladies, with whom we discussed this and that in  a mix of French and English.

Dinner was delayed until 7pm and we had the table to ourselves – in fact our waiters had no other guests to serve. We were very satisfied with our day in Jerusalem – we had seen pretty much everything that was on the programme for the 99 Euro per head Costa outing and had spent less than $50 between us. It was slightly stressful to start with so little idea of the terrain and to be under threat of missing the boat. We were prepared to have stayed overnight if need be, but as it turned out we felt we had seen what we really wanted to see.

19/7 Sea again

Thursday 19^th At Sea

Brekky and Luciano’s stretch class at 8.30. Straight down to the pool for the stretchy aerobics. I hit the gym for an hour while J went for her massage with Fabrizio. We were supposed to take our passports for the Israelis to have a look at us but the queues were huge so we went after lunch.

*J’s massage mmmmmmmmmmm fffffabulous Fabrizio*

Costa have a long empty lunchtime which we quite like because we can have a nap. We got up for the craft class at 3pm where J made a mask. I caught up on the blog. We trotted down to the disco (quite hard to find) and did surprisingly well in a quiz trying to guess the emblems of international soccer teams. We had seen a few during the recent world cup and deduced a few.

Hey this is good – when they read out the answers, it transpired that the first answer was Bolivia. Something rang in my head and I started saying - hey I should know that because I bought a Bolivian soccer shirt while we were there (why????). At that moment, I further realised that I was actually wearing it . . . . AND WE GOT IT WRONG!!!  It has the emblem embroidered on the chest. Yeah the Quiz Geniuses.

They ran on into another 20 questions where you had to recognise the outline of countries. Very few people got Vietnam Thailand or South Africa (and Aus and NZ) and we thought we might win but when the winners came down from upstairs it turned out to be a bunch of 15. Costa only award one (small) prize per team so they don’t limit the team size. Times have changed since we won large towels and carry bags on Costa Allegra in 2009.

We are allowing ourselves another lazy interlude before dinner and I have caught up with the backblog (how’s that for a new word??).

18/7 Olympia Greece and an Ancient Wonder

Wednesday 18^th Katakolon (Olympia)

A motley morning. Brekky and gym. Fiddling with the monolithic “totem” in the central foyer which is a huge interactive touch screen that gives you access to all sorts of shipboard functions, including the Costa Club for past passengers. The draw for a free spa treatment was held at 11am after a false start yesterday. In short, J won and chose to have a massage.

All the cruise lines have a system of automatically charging about $10 per day per head for “gratuities or service fee”. This offends me because there is no possible way you can expect an automatic tip to have any effect on staff motivation or performance. The real agenda is to split the cruise cost so as to make it look smaller. Each cruise company has its own game that they make you play if you wish to vary the amount they take from you. With Cunard you just front at the desk and they write your name on the list . . MSC make you attend an interview (I think her head is still spinning).

Costa insist that the fee is set in stone and not variable. So the chief purser’s officer told me and they have a printed sheet that says the same thing. Stay tuned for the ongoing saga. We haven’t paid anybody yet after about 15 cruises and it has become a bit of a challenge.

We had agreed to meet the Americans for lunch in the formal restaurant to discuss strategies for getting to Olympia this afternoon to go round the site of the original Olympic games. The Costa tour cost 60 Euros and we had seen on the internet that the taxi brigands are charging 120 Euros for 4 people. The English speaking host Adam had told us there was no other means of getting there.

Shortly before lunch we discovered a flyer that had been dropped in our room saying that Costa is laying on a shuttle bus for 14 E but the excursion desk had closed and there was no way of knowing how many places were left. So we relegated the taxi to second choice and turned up early and shouldered with the fat women to get first go at whatever tickets were free. Tom and I had decided we wanted to find an internet place and browse the shops but J and the 3 Americans got bus tickets.

Tom is one of those people (the salesman type) who can’t help bargaining with people when he has no intention of buying anyway. It turned out that the taxis were available for 80E and the very next thing we saw was a shop advertising shuttle bus services for 10E. We were rather peeved with Adam at this stage because surely he would have been aware of that and he was making a big point of giving us his personal advice rather than pushing the Costa line.

Tom wanted to talk to his partner in Pittsburgh, some 7 hours behind us. He calculated that he needed to wait an hour first so he wandered off and bargained for fish lunches that he didn’t really want to eat. He came back and set about trying to email then skype and finally phone Bernie. I know this because I ended up doing all that for him. They sell and install commercial or industrial scale solar panels. He is a very nice fellow, larger than life but he can be high maintenance. He is not ungenerous but can be very demanding on waiters and proprietors of internet shops.

I suddenly noticed that the internet place had emptied and it was quiet outside and it was 2 minutes to 5 and I was not sure what time the boat was leaving. This provided some adrenaline but it turned out we still had half an hour to get back to the boat. Alternative – find your own way to Israel sometime in the next 48 hours without a passport.

J:  We travelled through the very touristy area of the port of Katakolon.  The main township was quite large.  The countryside was farmland with a lot of olive trees.  It took about half an hour to reach the site of ancient Olympia.  We only had time to visit the actual site so the museums will have to wait for another time.  It was a hot day and the sun was beating down.  The site was a lot larger than I expected with a mix of Greek and Roman ruins and we didn’t get to explore it all.  Main points of interest was the Temple of Hera where the Olympic Torch was lit just a few weeks ago; the arena which has the original marble starting blocks, the judges’ stands, the winner’s podium and the podium where the only woman was allowed to watch from; and the Temple of Zeus, who the games were in honour of.  The temple once contained the gigantic Statue of Zeus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

This pile of stones is where they light the Olympic flame

Entry to the stadium

People standing on starting blocks, forground is where shotput and javelin events held.  Half way along on right side is judges stand, opposite on left is where the only woman permitted to be there sat

Marble starting blocks

On the winners podium

Stairs to Temple of Zeus

Column reconstructed for the 2004 Athens Olympics

We have established that the children have names which Anglicise to Yadarn (him) and Shaneen (her). No idea about mum yet. She met Tom when the kids were 4 and 3. She would have been late 20s and Tom over 60. They all seem very happy with one another. Shani and J get on very well together.

Some of the people we wandered around with ran around the arena which was brave of them considering how warm it was.  I had a lovely afternoon.

C: Dinner ran for over 2 hours, by which time I had spent almost the entire day with Tom. I went upstairs and fell fast asleep while J went to the show.

By the way, emu eggs are green and beaver teeth are orange – didn’t want to leave you guessing.

17/7 At Sea with Costa

Tuesday 17th          At Sea

We had passed through the strait separating Sicily from the mainland during the night and here we were back in the Med. We managed to get brekky in before the 8.30 stretch session, which was extremely good – stretched all the bits the others leave tight. That was in the gym and then we joined the animators next to the pool for more stretching running into aerobics. They do these sort of things very much like their MSC countrymen. Thence to the gym for a few quick weights and then the first quiz (about colours) . . . which we won. Luckily J knew what colour emu eggs are but we flunked out on beaver teeth.  Lunch which included some delicious mussels in shells which we shared with a Welsh lady. We find we are attracted to anyone who we hear speaking English. More quizzes which we didn’t win, dinner, show and bed. Hell you know the drill by now.

The Americans are interesting – Tom is Jewish American and about 80.The rest have unpronounceable names and were Israeli. Mum is 40 something and there are a very nice pair of 16-17 year olds. Tom is on his 4^th wife, having split from all the others when they were 29. She says she was waiting for him to grow up J

Random volcano we passed.  Then it bellowed a bit of black smoke for us.

16/7 Off to sea with Costa!

Monday 16th

Easy stroll to the central station. Train to Savona took 2.5 hours – pleasant green countryside but nothing remarkable. Caught a bus down to the dock and boarded fairly easily. The ship is carrying about 2500 passengers, half of whom are  . . . French? We expected Italians but there are only a few of them. There are 250 English speakers but maybe only 1 other Aussie.

They had a boat drill at 4.30 before sailing at 5.00. Well we were on station but none of the crew turned up until 5. They proceeded to herd us all into rank and file 6 deep and then we stood there for another  30 minutes before there was an announcement over the LOUD speaker with the usual bumpf about 7 short blasts and a long one and blur blur don’t throw cigarettes overboard blur. All totally unnecessary and very sloppy to stand your guests out there for 80 minutes for something that everybody else does in the lounges in 15 minutes.

So not a good start. We were late following the other Costa boat out to sea and were relieved that it didn’t hit a reef. Straight into dinner, which we share with an American family. More of them later. The food wasn’t bad.

They put on a production show later on which was the usual sort of song and dance – no high energy specialty acts like we have seen on recent cruises. The boat in general is pretty new and well laid out. Some of the décor is out there a bit more than we would choose but our cabin is good. This is the only balcony we will have during the present holiday so we are enjoying it. We have a view out over the top of a lifeboat -  so we are well placed for when the Costa captain heads the Abandon Ship stampede.

15/7 Milan Italy

Sunday 15^th

The hotel was very nice apart from the lack of a lift . . . but its only 2 flights up and we are relatively lightly loaded. The eccondishning didn’t seem to turn off and we woke in the middle of the night quietly freezing. And there is some strange piece of electrical apparatus under the Utube in the toilet that starts up and gurgles every now and then.  As usual, there is free wifi in the room.  It is a large room that has been very tastefully renovated.

It has the weirdest toilet I have ever seen.

It had been a LONG time between sleeps – we had less than 3 hours on Friday before getting up at 2.30 and we then had 27.5 hours with only catnaps on the plane. Hey but we are tough. Woke at 6am today (noon in Perth) and are about to drop in at the supermarket for muesli and yoghurt.

Yeah well that worked well. I ended up going up and down the stairs 4 times into the total darkness of the stair well before the hotel manager took me out the side exit through the 1^st floor terrace and showed me where to press the button to get onto the street. I had been groping round in the dark trying to find the (non-existent) button to open the steel door at the bottom of the stairwell.

So after all that I was pretty relieved to get into the supermarket. Well I would have been if it had been open. It doesn’t open on Sundays but the slack jawed local outside the nearby tavern told me where to find another one that will open at 9am. I have given the directions to J, whose turn it must surely be?

Just to complete the brekky saga . . . J got back from the supermarket and announced that there were breakfast trays on the counter. Yes . . . we get free brekky! Bugger. Very similar to what we got from Franco in Rome – long life croissants, biscuits, biscotti with jam and nutella (but no banana). Much of the above will accompany us on our ramble and make a free lunch. The best part – there is a coffee machine which does the full spectrum of coffees etc . . including cappuccino and cappuccino with chocolate. They are usually 60c per small cup but we sort of understood they are free for brekky. So we had 6 J This is a new establishment that only has 4 reviews in Hostelbookers – all 100% satisfaction rating.

I discovered that the Eagles are currently playing their critical game against Sydney and we have it going on 6PR on the laptop (how did we EVER manage to travel without it???). I was much happier when we were leading 20-0 than I felt when it was 27-48. But I fear that this particular avenue of pleasure is about to be closed to me as Her Indoors seems to be poised for the Daily Walk.

And walk we did . . . for about 6 hours. We started with a general amble through the shopping district. Milan is famous as a focal point of the international fashion industry and we were not surprised to see a lot of very well-turned out women and some very stylish outfits. Perhaps more so . . some very fashionable and even bizarre outfits on gay men. Some of them REALLY out there.

Breakfast at Tiffany's.  Not exactly Audrey Hepburn

Similarly, the architecture was very elegant and attractive. I found myself increasingly irritated in absentia with Perth’s insistence that our heritage buildings are important and should be preserved simply because they are “old” and Australian. These Milanese structures are old and Italian but the real reasons they are there is that they are beautiful and valuable and of solid construction. And they are Old in terms of centuries not decades and they depict classical design features rather than local and transient designs and perishable components like tin roofs. My considered advice to the heritage councils of WA is “get rid of it and start again”. We may as well preserve footage of John Howard playing cricket or Juliar speaking English. Yes genuinely authentic Australian but ugly, lacking talent or merit and utterly cringe-worthy.

This was round about the moment we turned a corner and there was the Duomo! I had no idea what it was but it was utterly overpowering for its size, its age and its overwhelming beauty. And freshly maintained. Even the part that was undergoing repairs was encased in a painted structure that showed it as it will be after work is completed. We walked around the outside and it was utterly beautiful from every angle. It is a Gothic cathedral, as is the Gaudi structure in Barcelona, but completely different.

Right behind was the huge statue of Victor Emmanuel II on horseback. VE was known and loved as the Father of the Nation who oversaw the reunification of Italy and its growth as a major colonial nation. His son VE III took Italy into 2 world wars and died in exile. You may recall that VE II was immortalised in the absolutely gargantuan white marble monument in Rome?

We were very conscious by then that we were getting dehydrated and, with the total dearth of supermarkets, we were happy to head into the adjacent Maccas for a drink. While we were there, I supplemented my long-gone lunch with a chicken burger (1 Euro) and J felt that she didn’t really want long-life croissant and biscotti so she had one too. Cheeseburgers in Perth are of similar size and have recently increased by 30% (WHY?) to $2.60.

Victor Emmanuel II arcade

Leonardo Da Vinci

Off the Duomo square to one side was the VEII shopping arcade – a massive cross shaped high-arched edifice constructed with the best materials and impeccable style, and populated by the Royal Family of retail excellence – the central crossroads were dominated by Gucci, Prada, YSL . . . and another McDonalds.

It began, in 1864, as the most posh of endeavors. A magnificent, towering glass and steel roofed arcade, designed by the Italian architect Giuseppe Mengoni and dedicated to the Savoy king, Victor Emmanuel II, was erected to connect Milan's Piazza Duomo with Piazza della Scala, home of the famed opera house.

The resulting six-story Galleria, lined with upscale shops and chic cafés, is heralded by historians as the grandfather of the modern shopping mall. But back in the 19th century, the Galleria was known as the grand salotto — a central, public drawing room for the city's most chic patrons to socialize and shop.

We emerged from the other side into yet another beautiful square surrounded by beautiful buildings. I was committed to a towering rant about the inadequacies of Perth architecture when J pointed out that the central statue was Leonardo and the building at the end was La Scala, the world famous opera house. No wonder it looked good.

Sorry pic is dark...this stage is enormous...dismantling last nights set

Royal box and 'normal' boxes

Puccini

We decided that one of us should go in to get photos and I was selected because I qualified for Seniors discount L The theatre was huge and beautiful – rather like a giant version of the Cunard Victoria’s theatre. The auditorium reacted well to my rendition of La Donne e Mobile – not Verdi’s version but the one from College:

Ta ra ra boom di ay

We went to Monterey

We played with dolls and toys

That’s why we’re sissy boys.

 (J: hmmmm...thank goodness I wasn't in there with him)

The museum was a repository of thousands of paintings and statues of generations of composers, musicians, dancers and singers. I snapped pics of Caruso, Nijinski and Maria Callas. It seemed a pity not to share the experience so I sent J in for a look as well.

She pronounced herself so enthralled that she wanted to attend a performance. I winced, choked and croaked out that it would be my pleasure to accompany her. The posters outside were advertising the previous night’s performance of Don Giovani but there didn’t seem to be a ticket office. We went back into the place that was selling tickets to the museum and viewing access to the boxes, where we learned that the Summer season had ended just as we were pulling into the city last night and that the Autumn season would commence in September. Phew
(J:  Now it is one of my lotto dreams)

We strolled back to the hotel via the central park where we rested to inhale a 2l bottled water and watch the passers-by passing by. Supermarkets sell 2l water for 29c. We also  picked up some salmon for dinner. It turned out to be Scottish (the tartan on the packet should have been a clue) and when we tried to eat it we found that it was not sliced!

So tomorrow we need to get back to central station by 9am to catch a train down to Savona where we will catch the Costa boat to the eastern Mediterranean and Israel.

Beautiful old trams

Beaautiful Milan train station

I see 3 hardy thrill-seekers have already started on yesterday’s blog. Goodonyas. We had better get this one up.