Today’s Daily Programme can be found here…
We had a busy day ahead of us as we’d decided to take an excursion in Cagliari. I had really fancied a walking tour around the city, but the only walking tour was a hike up Devil’s saddle and I really didn’t fancy that so we opted for the Ancient Sardinia one which was a trip to the Roman ruins at Nora, about 30 kms West of the city. We had a tour time of 09:15 and the Daily Programme said to meet at the dock at 09:05. This meant a reasonably early breakfast and we headed up to the PG restaurant for 08:15, plenty of time.
The guide gave us a running commentary as we left the city heading out past the salt lagoon where pink flamingos waded, lunching on crustacea. The drive to Nora was uneventful and we arrived in the car park a short a walk from the archaeological site. We walked along side the beach and it was a sore temptation to go and dip a toe as the sea looked very inviting, I’m not sure I would have fancied walking around with sandy feet though. After a comfort break and a short wait while our guide collected the tickets for admission we were off. Nora isn’t a very spectacular site, there is plenty to see but it is very much a ruin. The guide gave a sterling commentary during our walk, unfortunately some of our companions also thought they could help by pointing out the obvious, as frequently as possible. I had started to lose the will to live by the time we arrived back at the ticket office, where it was time for another comfort break and I took the opportunity to buy an ice cream to try to cool down a little.
We headed back into Cagliari where we were going to do a bit of a drive around looking at some of the sights around the city before heading up to the viewing point at the top of Monte Carlo Urpinu which gave panoramic views over both Cagliari and the salt lagoon. We would have liked to get off the coach in the centre of Cagliari as we planned to have lunch off the ship, but that wasn’t allowed we had to return to the ship and the get the shuttle back into town, a count them all out and count them all back thing apparently.
After all the faff of returning to the ship and getting the shuttle we were back in Cagliari and now had the task of finding somewhere to eat. I’ve not got a very good track record of finding decent eateries, invariably I spend too much time trying to avoid the tourist traps I miss the good ones, not today, we ended up in Sa Schironada Bistro which had a much needed cold beer/glass of rose and a charcuterie platter that could feed an army.
We were back on board by 15:30 having been through two sets of x-rays and a good snuffle by a sniffer dog, nothing found. We’d been directed through the port’s x-ray scanner when going to the shuttle bus, but oddly it didn’t seem to be everyone, but rather a select few of the more disreputable looking passengers.
Suitably shattered after quite a long day we went back to the stateroom for a quick relax when Jane decided a nice cup of tea was in order, and rather than going out for it she sent me up to the Lido to get half a glass of milk and to make a cuppa in our room. I was warned, “no cakes!”, but no one said anything about ice-cream, so with the milk I procured a “small” cornet for consumption on the way back to the stateroom. I almost got away with it by finishing it off on the room sofa while waiting for the kettle to boil, but not much gets past Jane.
While waiting to get ready for dinner I watched Wales throw away their chance of glory in the rugby world cup, we lost the TV signal when Argentina had clawed back a 10 point deficit to lead 10-12, so I decided to drop our smalls in the laundry. I’d already sent the big stuff to be laundered utilising the 15 items for $52 offer and my 20% Diamond loyalty discount. I made sure the machine was filling before heading back and when I arrived in the room the TV signal had returned along with a 17-12 lead to Wales after that it all went wrong and Wales ended up with a heavy defeat.
We’d ordered rack of lamb from the A La Carte menu, lamb cutlets was on the dinner menu, but Jane doesn’t like her lamb with a crust, apparently that’s considered to be messed about with, so the idea was the rack would be better. It turned out to be exactly the same, it’s just the rack came with an added Maitre’D interaction.