Athens

We’ve had an absolutely brilliant day. We knew we wanted to get to The Acropolis and The Parthenon and all we had to do was work out how?
We left the port terminal quite early to be met with the usual line of taxis. Peter asked how much, the taxi controller was only really selling taxi tours of 5 hrs, so he directed us to the bus. We found our way to the bus stop, and one of the guys waiting helped us identify the 049 to Omonia. The bus arrived; we followed everyone else by getting on the bus and then sitting down. No paying for a ticket?
It takes 30 minutes to get to Omonia, and in that time, we worked out that there was no money changing hands, but some people seemed to have tickets when they got on board though not everyone. We worked out that what we should have done was buy the ticket before getting on the bus. There was probably a booth near the stop. As it happens we got off in Athens, and (I’m whispering now), we didn’t pay. We couldn’t see how to be honest. Peter, like the true Yorkshireman he isn’t, but should be, was delighted. I felt a bit guilty though.
We had a bit of a potter through Athens on the way to our target and came across the most amazing meat market ever. Definitely the place to get your roast, or chops or offal. I have never seen so many butchers in my life, never mind all in one place. Their stalls lined a massive rectangle, the inside of which was an equally abundant fish market. Absolutely astounding. We really couldn’t believe what we were seeing.

We continued our meander until we finally reached the one thing both Peter and I had been waiting for........The Parthenon. And guess what? It was covered in scaffolding and cranes! A bit of a let down really. We enjoyed what we could, and made our way back down the hill to Athens, and that’s when we discovered we’d got a bonus prize. There’s a gate that leads into the Agora grounds (we can’t remember if it said gardens of Agora, or city or Agora), the lady at the gate said “tickets please”, and we learnt that our tickets for the Acropolis would allow us into these grounds. They turned out to be fascinating and more than made up for the less than perfect views of the Parthenon.  We saw so much, I’ll leave the pictures to explain.

On the way up the hill to the Acropolis entrance, we looked down on the amazing Theatre of Dionysus, heavily restored as can be seen by the white marble, but the backdrop to the stage is the original setting. Awesome.

Within the Acropolis
Propylaea – the entrance to the area of temples.

The Parthenon with scaffolding, dedicated to the Goddess Athena and where Athens gets its name.

The Erechtheion, dedicated to Athena, Poseidon and several other gods and goddesses. 

Within the Agora Grounds 

The Church of the Holy Apostles and Stoa Ol Attalos.  The Stoa has been rebuilt with as per the original, and houses many statues, reliefs, pottery and artefacts from Athens’ history; we just had to show our Acropolis tickets to go inside the museum part.

Hephaistos Temple. Because so much of the original temple exists, without scaffolding, we really liked this one. 

And who would have thought the Romans would have had an impact on ancient Athens? This statue is of Emperor Hadrian 117-138 AD, you can even make out on his breast plate Romulus and Remus suckling on the wolf.

We really enjoyed Agora. I am so glad I suggested to Peter that we” go through the gate and head for that temple”. 

And after all that mythology and history, we back into the present day with a little retail therapy in the flea market. We needed to get back to the ship of course, and this time chose to travel by taxi. Driving in Athens and Piraeus is completely mad. I wouldn’t do it. Our taxi driver was friendly and entertaining without speaking a word of English. He managed to convey that he thought every other driver on the road was crazy and in particular the motorcyclists. We agreed. They appeared on all sides, from all directions, with little care for safety and many without helmets. We passed an accident where the motorcyclist was on the floor, and there was a very big dent in the car. Hopefully the rider will be OK. The other sad thing we noticed was the graffiti. Extensive and ugly, it made the cities look rough. A real shame.

We got back to the ship with an hour to spare which we spent taking advantage of the free wi-fi in the port terminal booking my flights back to England etc.

As I’m typing this, I want to do it all again. It was a brilliant day, and I would recommend it to anyone, especially if they ever finish putting the Parthenon back together again and get rid of that scaffolding.
We’ve a sea day tomorrow, but it’s going to be much more interesting than usual because we will be travelling first through the Dardanelles Straight in the morning, and then past Istanbul through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea early evening. I’m really looking forward to it.

The Blue Grotto, Maltese Heritage and Valletta

Valletta in the morning.

The alarm went off at 7 and Peter was straight up looking out the porthole at the city of Valletta. The sun was just rising, the city looked a lovely mellow sandy colour in the early light and without so much as a mouthful of coffee we were up on deck, camera’s in hand.
The lovely city was all around us, sadly the view was broken and disturbed by the cranes of new industry, but without them it would be quite stunning. The old buildings were lovely, the architecture proud and everywhere the stone walls and fortifications of a city well used to defending itself.

Looking down on the Blue Grotto Caves

We had plans for Malta.  I’d done me research and we had decided to visit the Blue Grotto and the some ancient structures on the south side of the island. We stocked up with a hearty breakfast, and left the ship, heading for the usual bevy of taxi drivers vying for our business outside the port gates. We wanted a taxi to the Blue Grotto, and ended up with a surly character who spent a lot of time trying to convince us we needed to pay him for more of his services. He and got quite bad tempered when we refused.
We got out at the viewing point overlooking the caves of the grotto, cameras clicked away capturing the glorious scene below us before we made our way down to the grotto itself. (The taxi driver would normally have waited and taken us down, but we chose to walk). The tiny inlet at Wied Iz-Zurrieq is one of the only places where a boat can be landed on the south coast of Malta. When we reached the bottom of the cliff and the waters edge, we bought our tickets and hurried to the waiting boat. The boats are small, with a little outboard motor, seating 8-10 people. Perhaps it was the size of the boat that made the waves feel so big. Definitely a bouncy ride.

I’d been really looking forward to this little visit, but I was a bit disappointed. The caves are lovely, and the water really is a lovely shade of blue, but it all felt rushed, we were only in each cave for seconds before the boat hurried on to the next one. It wasn’t an expensive boat ride though (7 euros each), and I am glad we went. The cliffs towered above us and were a sight in themselves as we moved from cave to cave.

Once that was finished, we pottered around the little hamlet of Wied Iz-Zurrieq for a while, before walking up the hill towards the National Heritage sites of Hagar Qim and Mnajdra. They are called temples because archaeologists believe they are sites of worship, but no-one really knows what they were built for, or by whom. The day was already very hot as we walked up to the temples, and I would not recommend it to anyone of less than perfect health. But we had plenty of water and it only took us 15 -20 minutes to reach the visitor centre for the two ancient sites.

Looking down on Wied Iz Zurrieq   

The thing about Hagar Qim and Mnajdra is that these two extensive temples are made from massive monolithic stones. They made us think of Stone Henge as we walked around, but these sites were much more sophisticated, with massive stone slabs making up floors, walls and ceilings.

Archaeologists have worked out that the buildings go back as far as 3600 BC, which is why it is so incredible that so much of them remain. The two sites are about 500m metres apart and walking between them was very hot, but the sites themselves are covered to protect them from the damage caused by the sun and visitors are kept away from many areas, we could look but not touch.

Quite a bit of restoration has gone on to give a better idea of the layout, and it was interesting to see how they had made doorways and windows in the slabs, and decorated them with pitting. All very primitive, but I bet 5 ½ thousand years ago, these places would be awe inspiring to people who lived in simple huts or caves around them. Definitely worth the visit.

From there we got an air conditioned Arriva bus ride back to Valletta. From the Fountain of the Tritons, we walked through Valletta to Fort St Elmo. The Maltese folk enjoy an afternoon siesta, so everywhere was closed, but it was interesting to see the architecture and the changing of the guard at the Grand Masters Palace. The fort was closed too, but we walked along the sea front and visited the World War II memorial, where we could look across the harbour. We finished with cool drinks under a parasol close to the terminal gate, watching the fish flash silver brown in the harbour beside us.

There was only one thing that marred the day for me and that was the horse drawn carriages. Although the majority of horses looked well cared for and healthy, the very first horse I saw was far too thin, starved even. Later as we walked back towards the ship, we overtook another poor animal that was severely lame on his hind leg, and his driver was whipping him to move downhill with himself and two passengers on board. It was quite heartbreaking, and I wanted to drag the driver off the carriage and scream at him. Again, the horse was very, very thin. I ask any fellow visitors reading this to take a look at the horse before climbing into the back of a carriage. If it looks underfed in comparison to others, tell the driver to feed it and pick a different one. I have a vain hope that the driver will listen and maybe a horse will have a better life. But back to cruising.... We were back on board before 5, and the ship sailed away under the early evening sun. Valletta glowed in the light as we watched it disappear behind us. All in all a wonderful day.

A couple of sea days in the Mediterranean

On sea days, the shops are open on the main deck, perfume, jewellery and clothing spilling out of the glass doors, (all duty free of course).  There are port talks and bridge classes, shuffleboard, ballroom dancing and singing lessons, darts, table tennis and films. The entertainment is designed for the clientele, and Fred Olsen ships specifically target a certain age, which is basically retired folk.  There are ramps everywhere for the less able, and a fair number of the passengers use sticks, zimmerframes and wheelchairs.   Peter and I are considered young. 

There is a show, twice every night (to cater for the two sittings).  Sometimes there are theme nights, which the show will latch onto.  Passengers are encouraged to participate.  Sunday night was international night, with the show company putting on a display of international song and dance.  To keep within theme passengers appeared in all sorts of colourful regalia just for fun, anything from the red white and blue of the Union Jack up to the blanket over the head type Arabs.

This is the first time we have been on the Black Watch.  There are many similarities to the other Fred Olsen ships (not least the carpets), but the lounges and the pace of this particular ship is very genteel and relaxing.  Because the ship does not feel busy, we thought it may be a good part empty, but apparently not, somehow there are 800 passengers on here this cruise, but you can’t tell. 

Sunday was especially lazy.  We didn’t get out of bed till 10, and had a couple of naps between getting up and bedtime.  We worked out we must have been knackered after quite a busy week, (well, me anyway).  We took a wander around the deck to watch the north coast of the African continent on our right (starboard) side and Algeria in particular goes past.  I saw a single flying fish but as I was the only one that did, I’m sure Peter half thinks I imagined it.

Peter had his first class which was a bit (lot) chaotic, but everyone seemed happy and many even said they would come back.  We didn’t watch the show company, choosing instead to catch up in the library on emails n stuff.  We finished in The Observatory, a lounge at the front of the ship high up, with loads of big picture windows giving a splendid view of the way head.   The sky was clear, the moon was nearly full, and its silvery reflection on the sea was quite beautiful. 

Monday was a little of the same, less the naps.  Peter had his second class, which went a lot smoother than the first, (the passengers are much more organised than we are). But there were more people this time and we ran out of table space.  Oh oh!

Out on deck, we had the coast of Tunisia on our starboard side this time and we spent some time watching the traffic.  It’s like we are on the shipping equivalent of a motorway, there are ships in front and behind, travelling at the same speed in the same direction.  On our left (port) side, the many tankers, container ships and cruisers are all going the other way.  Amazing!

We watched a “fizz plop” sunset before preparing for the evening meal.  It was “Informal” so that means Peter has to wear a jacket, and I have to posh up a bit.  All smartened up and looking classy (I can pretend at least), we turned up at the Garden Cafe to find out we can’t eat there.  It turns out that it was a “Special” night and the cafe had been turned over to the passengers who had to book either 1^st or 2^nd sitting.  We hadn’t booked, so we ended up in the restaurant.

The way it works for the on board “entertainment” team is that we have to wait until the Maitre D' calls us forward to a table not needed by the passengers.  We are only able to go in two’s because of Fred Olsen rules about the entertainment staff not being allowed to get together and maybe cause a riot or something.......  It worked out quite well for me n Peter; we were put on a table by ourselves where we waited to see what the restaurant experience would be like.

It was a bit of a surprise to be honest.  I think I was expecting a lot more formality, a slower meal, and maybe the family silver or something.  But the system is very smooth and waiters were incredibly efficient.  We selected our starter and main course (as did everyone else at the same time), and then hundreds of plated up starters appeared.  The waiters knew exactly which table for what, and I was really amazed at how they simply spotted when people had finished one course, cleared the plates and appeared with the main course.  It didn’t matter that tables were finishing at different speeds.  It was actually a very pleasant meal, even finishing with a coffee.  If I have any complaints, it would be that if Peter and I had served ourselves as per normal, we may have had fuller plates and more chips.  4 chips!   4 chips!  Everyone could be heard making the same comment.  They were nice chips though.

We finished Monday night by spending a little time in the Lido Lounge, meeting other members of the entertainment team.  This was followed by show time in the Neptune Lounge with the very entertaining magician and the comedy act, and finally, a relaxing drink in The Observatory.  We couldn’t stay up to late.  Tuesday, the Black Watch berths in Valletta, Malta, and the alarm is set for 7 am.