Day 12 (Monday 18Nov19) Naples and Pompeii

We woke up to a beautiful coast passing us by.

We entered Naples harbour about 11am local time. You can see Mount vesuvius in distance.

The port is mix of old and new. A very busy port with boats and ships of various sizes coming and going all the time.

Naples is Italy’s third largest city.

We drove 30-40 minutes out to Pompeii. A interesting drive as the Italian’s building code is like the Greeks. 

Pompeii is huge and impressive. 

Some of the ruins have been restored with a roof.

Early evening (6:30pm) the ship was guided by tugboats out of harbour.

Day 11 (Sunday 17Nov19) at sea travelling to Naples

At sea travelling to Naples 

Not much to report other than a lazy day of rest and food. 

We passed through the Straits of Messina, a sea lane famous for several important sea battles. The Battle of the Strait of Messina was fought on 276 BC when a Carthaginian fleet attacked the Roman fleet. The most recent battle in 1940 when British torpedo bombers (swordfish) attackef  Italian fleet at harbour in Taranto and did serious damage.  The Italians retreated to Naples through the strait to prevent further attacks. The Japanese took note and 12 months later duplicated the attack at Pearl harbour on a larger scale. 

We also dined in ship exclusive French restaurant and ate snails. They tasted strongly of garlic and butter.

Day 10 (Saturday 16Nov19) Mykonos

When you think of Greek Islands, you imagine sun kissed white buildings surrounded by blue sky and a brilliant blue sea, Mykonos fits the image. What a marvellous place!  Lots of meandering lane ways. Each one of the corners seemed to be supervised by a cat. One even walking with us for quite a distance before pealing off and passing to the next. Although wild, the cats are generally healthy looking and friendly and happy to smooch your legs.  Clearly cats  run the place. 

The windmills were amazing. They were in various states of repair, some had the thatch roofing removed and sealed with the traditional white cladding and repurposed others still had thatching and blades but just lacking the sails but the outside had been renovated or being renovated.  Unsure of what they are currently being used for.

The food varied in quality. Early in the morning we found a really nice bakery, and enjoyed traditional pastries and Greek coffee, frequented by some locals.  Later we dined on waterfront for lunch. The food was OK.  Unfortunately as we are on the last cruise of the season most of the authentic eateries in these small places have closed until around March next year so only the touristy eateries remained open.

The people are very friendly. Of course as everywhere, there are beggars. In this case, little old Greek ladies hunched up with hands forward rattling an asthma puffer in a plastic cup mumbling in Greek was most intriguing. Not sure of what they were wanting. 

On the shore front was an older lady sorting fish caught. Of course there was a couple of cats at her feet under the bench. 

The island had a goodly number of tiny churches, some within the same street. Most  of the streets meander every each way, up the hill from the shoreline. We understand it was designed to confuse raiding pirates in days gone by. Despite the narrow streets,  the locals manage to drive bikes with trailers and  small vehicles through the wider streets  with similar skill to Athenian counterparts on the mainland. The vehicles tend to beaten up or top of the line, with nothing in between. One vehicle had its bumper bar held on by rope.  🤨

The Mykonos mascot is apparently the Pelican. We were greeted by a ‘pelican’ as we disembarked. Of course the ship’s photographer using the opportunity for photos. We were told that we may see some pelicans on the island. We hadn’t until we sat to have lunch when one strutted through the sitting area. Almost as if to say ‘here I am’. Happy. Amazingly large and pink. 

A great day. Mykonos is a place where you could lose yourself and forget the world. 

Day 9 (Friday 15Nov19) Athens

The Athenian Greeks are totally mad (when walking, driving or riding on their roads.) There are interesting road rules and it’s everyone for themselves. Indicators are certainly an added extra on bikes,  zebra crossings can only be for zebras as not a relatively safe crossing for humans,  lane markings on the road are for show, parking is very ingenious, (wait maybe pedestrian crossings  are actually special parking bays), unsure of speed limits and so much for the 2 second rule when driving.  But after saying all this we did not see any accidents but lots of hand jestering from hard done by motocyclists who had been cut off.  Car drivers were generally courteous and willing to accomodate at intersections.  Motorbike riders however are very erratic and have a death wish. We will never drive here unless we have a death wish or have gone as stark raving mad as the Greeks. 

The building code (or lack of it) varies depending how far away you are to the Greek Parliament House. Near port, buildings tend to be run down similar to what we saw on Corfù.

The Greeks people are generally friendly and courteous to tourists. We used some basic Greek in our interactions which was generally acknowledged. A goodly number of business operators can speak enough English to communicate and many speak very good English. 

Today we had perfect weather unlike our previous ports. We started our day on a local “hop on hop off” bus. It was exciting ride (see driving above) through the port to Acropolis near the city centre. 

The Acropolis was amazing. The thought of all the famous (and not so) who walked this ground over 3000 years gives you something to reflect on. The views are amazing as Acropolis provides 360 views of Athens. The city of Athens is packed with buildings in every direction. We explored the ruins along with hundreds of others. 

Later we headed down into city to see the Agora and the Roman ruins. Again the sheer age of it makes us think how young our country is in comparison. 

Of course we had deal with the dodgy sellers of differing products. Were accosted by Nigerian refugees 😏 with bracelets and and Greek 😏 women selling woven cloth.  With a translator we would now know Greek for cheapskate, nasty person and many other explicit words😂

We walked the market streets and bought some shirts and keep sakes.

We stopped for lunch in the city centre, and enjoy some Guros and excellent Greek coffee. 

In the late afternoon we rode the bus again to the port. It was a ride better than anything at a Gold Coast theme park. A enjoyable day. 

Day 8 (Thursday 14Nov19) At sea instead of Santorini

 

Losing Santorini is a shame but we guess it means we have an excuse to return again. The NCL excuse is technical issues. Apparently 1 of the 4 engines needed repair for their next re-location cruise to the America.

Perfect weather and lazy day of relaxation, wine, food and doing as little as possible. Upper pool decks are packed with sun lovers and foodies. We can see why people in this part of the world have lunch time off for a nap. 

We sampled the buffet of the Garden Cafe, which was noisy but food was good. We are slowly sampling each of the shipboard cafes, coffee lounges, bars and restaurants. (Thankfully we are getting excess of our 10000 steps on shore days to help digest the plentiful food).

Day 7 (Wednesday 13Nov19) Corfu

Last night our ship experienced rough seas. Lots of rock, roll and shutter through out the night. It wasn’t too bad in our opinion but some folks found it too rough.

At noon we went an organised excursion to Corfu. We visited a local distillery for a taste. Very nice!

Interesting history being ruled by Venice, France, Britain and Greece over the last 600 years, so it is mix of cultures.

From medieval times and into the 17th century, the island was recognised as a bulwark of the European States against the Ottoman Empireand became one of the most fortified places in Europe. The fortress is still visible in the old town.

The people of Corfù drive like Italians except without the drama and noise. The streets are narrow and in poor repair and yet the locals drive with no apparent rules in enforced.   More motor cyclists don’t wear helmet than do and not only is indicator fluid obviously an expensive commodity we wonder if actually indicators are optional extras. 

The residential area we went through was unkept, rundown and slap hazard. Houses were rough and many times unfinished.  Shops or living in the bottom floors and derelict in the top. The guide anounced the area near the Achillian Palace were beautifu with lovely gardens.  We saw that the whole of the house was liveable in and quite pretty and gardens were very different to ours. 

The Achillian Palace was located at the top of highhill reached by a narrow and windy road ( think Bruce Highway near Lucinda in the 1970’s). The palace was built in 1891 by the Empress of Austria who fell in love with the island and its inhabitants. The palace is a mixture of various classical Greek styles but with a heavy Austria-German influence. It was also a favourite of Kaiser Willihem the second ( leader of Germany during the First World War, and grand-son of Queen Victoria.) The palace is called the Achillian Palace in honour of the Ancient Greek mythical hero Achillies. The Empress saw Achillies as the perfect man and Kaiser “Bill” saw Achillies as what he wanted to be. 

The Achillian Palace is in fair repair by Island standards and certainly worth a visit. Though the outside marble floors and muses could use a good  hit with a pressure hose. The palace gardens are located and planted to take in the views of the coastline and countryside. and are heavily designed and decorated in the classical style. 

We were then taken back to old Corfù town. The road as mentioned was fairly steep and with around three hairpin corners. All of which the driver had to do a 3 point turn to turn. One was so tight, and in the post rainy weather, he struggled to navigate, skidding a little as the bus was sideways traversing the slope during the final part of the turn.  On arrival the rain had started again. Apparently cruise ships missed the port due to high wind and rain. We were lucky. We quickly ducked into a cafe “The Lisbon”.  We had Greek coffee ‘just like Yaya (Grandmother) used to make’ and share a scrumptious cheese cake and zest cake, which was a lemon zest cheese cake consistency cream on crispy sweet pastry.  It rained quite heavily but briefly while we were in the cafe then cleared. When we finished time was short so we grabbed a Corfù momento, took some quick photos of the hybrid Italian, French, British and Greek architecture and returned to the bus. 

Our Greek guide was good, but obviously has done this tour so many times it seemed scripted. 

In general the locals where more friendly than most we have encountered. 

We passed through customs control with some passengers getting very animated over the initially slow moving long line because another queue was short cutting into longer queue. This changed when someone closed a door forcing the remaining passengers into one line instead of two. 

Later on ship, we enjoyed one of many “shows” on offer and returned to our cabin to collapsed into deep sleep.