Author: Jimbo

We had a really, really lazy evening. Jane was exhausted and full after the Taormina visit, so we’d decided to give the Commodore Club a miss tonight and watch a film instead. We watched Florence Foster Jenkins, very enjoyable, before getting ready for dinner. Dinner was, as usual, excellent with a chicken boudin starter and a chicken curry main. Dessert was a hazelnut parfait, heavier than I thought it should but very tasty. The petit fours were a mixture of lemon marshmallow and praline cakes. Germane our waiter left a plate full of them on the table after dinner was

I had another lazy day today knowing I was going to be doing a lot of walking on our shore excursion. We were doubly lazy, not getting up until 08.30 and drifting down to breakfast in the MDR. Jane was feeling particularly antisocial so we ended up on a table for two and unusually, it was fairly isolated, so there was no-one near for me to chat to. I had figs and prunes followed by kippers and poached eggs.  We then made our way down to the dock side were our coach was waiting to transfer us to Taormina. This

After the Commodore Club and a second Martini, breakfast variety, this time. We headed back to the room for a little rest, and then it as time for dinner. It was informal again, we don’t have a formal night until the Captain’s cocktail evening on the 19th. While we were getting ready, we took advantage of the 6pm lull and stuck on some laundry. The launderette is usually very quiet at that time. Dinner was very good, I had chicken and leek terrine followed by partridge, and since it was roast beef night I got a couple of Yorkshire’s thrown

Yet another early start today. This time we are both on a shore excursion. At least the early start was softened by the clocks going back an hour last night when we moved from Greece to Albania. After the usual run, I headed back to the stateroom for a shower and to chivvie along Jane into going to the MDR for breakfast, I did this with the promise that we’d have a table for two rather than sharing. I ordered up figs and prunes as did Jane and followed that with smoked haddock and poached eggs. We went straight from

Lunch was massive, we had ordered two Greek salads, a small fish platter and a small meat platter to share between the four of us. The small platters turned out to not be very small, so by the time we had finished we were all stuffed, with a lot of food left over. After posting the postcards, I waddled my way back to the ship, leaving Giana and Jane to look around the port shops. I headed to the stateroom for a little rest, I must have nodded off for a minute, because we ended up missing Commodore o’clock. So

It was a slightly earlier start for me this morning, as I had a shore excursion booked. I was in the gym for 06.45 and did my morning run. I went straight from the gym to the Lido buffet to get some breakfast and a cup of tea, and the headed back to the room to eat it. Jane wasn’t coming on the excursion today so she had ordered breakfast from room service for 8am. When I got back to the room Jane was still in bed and decided to steal my cup of tea. I had arranged to meet

Jane’s second cocktail was another old favorite, the Breakfast Martini, while I had a very nice pint of Marston’s Pedigree. We sat and chatted to Pat and Giana far beyond the 18.00 dress code cut-off, so didn’t get much of a rest back in the room before dinner. We were back up to 10 for dinner, as expected Peter and Linda had had a tiring day yesterday and retired early. For dinner I had had chicken livers to start followed by roast turkey, nice but not a massive portion, so I supplemented my dessert with cheese and biscuits. Jane and

I’m back on it, even though I hated the alarm going off at 06.50, I dragged my carcass out of my pit and up to the gym for my morning’s run. I came back to the room with a cup of tea from the Lido for Jane. She’s not well, apparently her gills are up, which I think means she has a sore throat. We’d shared a lunch table with a lady who was complaining about the “Cunard cough”, so maybe she had caught it from her. After a shower I breakfasted alone in the Lido, assuming that I would

We.returned to the ship at about 15.30 travelling back from the marina at Faliro by trolly bus into the centre of Piraeus, and then walking back the rest of the way, proper little adventurers. Greece may be on it’s uppers, but there’s still plenty of money about looking at some of the yachts in the two marinas that we passed on our travels. We timed getting back on board quite well, normally there are several returning coaches, pulling in when we get back to the ship, but this time there were none, so we breezed through security, dropped our postcards