Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 4

 Tuesday, 10/19 - Sardinia

Lots of wine and cookies

The next day was another shore excursion on another island. The island was Sardinia, part of Italy. We got up and had breakfast, and went to the theater to wait for them to send us out to the bus. We drove through the port city on narrow streets, looking at various buildings and ‘points of interest’. At one point, we drove up a hill and stopped to take pictures. On one side of the bus was the ocean and some salt ponds. We were told that these salt ponds were no longer used to produce salt, that was all done on the other side of the island, but these were maintained for the benefit of the flamingoes and 230 other bird species that use them.

After a few minutes, we were back on the bus, and headed out of the city. A farmer in a local village would welcome us into his house for some folklore, traditional clothing, music and refreshments. We arrived at the farmer’s house, in the middle of the village, at about 1. We were joined by a 2^nd tour group, so quite a large gathering in the courtyard.

There was a small group of performers. One man played the accordion. Others played an ancient instrument consisting of 3 pipes of different lengths. The longest one had the deepest sound, and needed to have air blown through it consistently. We were told that, starting as a child, they were taught to practice that constant blowing by blowing into a straw into water while breathing normally. One of the men did a short demonstration with a mouth harp. Most all the performers sang the songs, and at least 6 performers participated in the dancing.

Generally, we got a short history lesson of the song or dance about to be performed, and then they performed a song and a dance. Then they would tell us about the cookies they were handing out, and the wine being poured. Then another song and a dance, then another type of cookie and wine. There were, I think, at least 6 different cookies and wines served. By the time we were getting ready to leave, at 3, everything above my ears felt slightly fuzzy, but I made it back to the bus and thus to the ship.

We had a reservation to see one of the stage shows at 7:30. It was an interesting and entertaining show, but had its confusing moments, too. A dress made of flip flops? I guess I don’t hang out in the LGBT world enough to understand. Or maybe that was pertaining to ‘high fashion’? Certainly I think some aspects of high fashion are hideous and not functional.

Afterwards, we went to supper, I’m not sure where. Possibly we tried to go to the Manhattan, but we didn’t meet their dress code, so we went down one deck to the Taste. Unfortunately, we were seated in the chandelier area, which was quite noisy, so talking was next to impossible.

We knew the next day would be a long excursion (10 hours), so we went to our cabin and went to bed.

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 3

Monday, 10/18

Shore Excursion on Palma

Having gone to bed so early, we were a bit surprised to wake up still tired, but we shuffled our way to the buffet and had some breakfast. I thought the scrambled eggs looked good, but as usual with buffet scrambled eggs, they were still a little runny. Not enjoyable. I don’t like food that isn’t well done. I got some other stuff, too, from potatoes to fruit, and some orange juice. What I really wanted was a cola, for my morning batch of caffeine, but I didn’t get any.

We went to the auditorium and waited for them to call our excursion. We got there about half an hour early, so it took them a while, but eventually, it happened. They sent us down a long black corridor and at the end of it, crew members put a sticker on our shirts that had a number on it, and we were sent down to the gangplank, where crew members scanned our room keys to note that we were leaving the ship.

Outside, there was a long line of buses waiting. A crew member took a final look at our tickets and said, “30. Your bus is at the end of the line. So we trotted off, taking him at his word, headed for the last bus. We had almost reached it when one of the tour guides stopped us. “Wait, wait, you just went past your bus,” and pointed to the sign sitting on the dashboard, instead of the sign at the top of the bus. Sure enough, the dashboard sign of the 4^th bus from the end said ‘30’, and the title of our excursion. So color me pink with embarrassment as we went back and presented our tickets. Then we climbed aboard and found seats. Before long, we were on our way.

I don’t remember the name of the port city, but the island was Palma. It’s part of Spain. While the tour guide pointed out some buildings for us to look at, and told us some of the city’s history, the bus driver weaved his way through narrow streets and up a hill to the castle at the top. After the bus was parked, we were given about 20 minutes to walk back to the front of the castle and take pictures. There was a long staircase to get from the road to the castle. I opted not to tax myself by climbing all of them, but John went up and took pictures. I started to get worried as the minutes ticked by, wondering if I would have to race up the stairs to find him and drag him back to the bus. But he showed up, and we got back more or less on time.

Then the drive back down the hill, and through some more narrow streets, past more homes and churches. Then the bus stopped at the corner of modern thoroughfare, and we all got off. We walked about a block and then crossed the busy street, paused to hear some history of the building in front of us. Then we walked for about 2 days, uphill, on cobblestone sidewalks to get to the center of town. Or if not the center, then a downtown section of the city. Many important government buildings were pointed out to us, which John dutifully took pictures of.

At one point, the tour guide pointed out an old olive tree in the square that was purported to be 800 years old. It had a very interesting shape, which I would have loved having pictures of, in case I ever felt inclined to paint a portrait of a strangely shaped tree. But John never thought of taking pictures of it, and by the time I thought of suggesting it, we were off and walking elsewhere.

A block or 2 later, we paused to compare architectural details of 2 buildings. One of them was under renovation, and we had to stand about the base of the scaffolding. When we started off again, one of our group stepped forward to go through the scaffolding, only to trip over a bracing bar. He got back up, and those of us around him wondered if he was okay, but he wasn’t bleeding. So we hurried on, sometimes sharing the half-lane street with vehicles or delivery trucks.

Eventually, we came to a building which the guide called a market. Think of a mall, only instead of store fronts, it was full of booths of all sizes, selling all sorts of things, including meat and produce. We were given half an hour to roam among the booths before we gathered back together. In that time, the man who had fallen and his wife had found a pharmacy and bought some antiseptic ointment and a couple bandages for his banged-up shins, so he was a little more inclined to shake off the experience.

Once we had all rejoined the group, the guide took us inside, up the escalator to the 2^nd floor, and to a special event restaurant, where they served us a traditional meal of Palma, complete with wine. It was very good, though the wine was a little too dry for my taste. (I like soda-pop wine.)

After a filling meal, I wasn’t looking forward to walking any great distance, but it turned out we only had to walk about 3 blocks to get to our bus, which had changed location and was waiting for us. A quick trip back to the pier, and we were boarding the ship.

John went to the hot tub. I laid down on the bed and rested. In years past, I would have fallen asleep, but not this time. I’m proud of myself. I may not have made it to the hot tub, but at least I didn’t fall asleep.

We had a reservation at the Japanese specialty restaurant that evening. The type of place where they cook the food on a big grill right in front of you. This place included making the fried garlic rice on that grill, which was a fun addition. They used about a pound of garlic butter making the fried rice. Our drinks package allowed us to get mixed drinks that were $15 or less, and this restaurant had 2 cocktails on their menu, so we each got one, and then tasted each others.

Anyway, I opted for the filet mignon, well done. I usually tell them to ‘burn it, stomp on it, and burn it again’, because I’ve had ‘well done’ meat that was still mooing. But John begged me not to add those instructions, for fear the chef might actually climb on the grill to stomp on it. So I quietly asked for it to be cooked well done, and wasn’t the only one to ask for that, so there!

When he got around to cooking the filet mignon, especially the well done portions, the chef added butter and soy sauce to the meat. So when I got to eat it, it was soft and tasty, not hard and cardboardy. I’ll have to remember that trick if I ever decide to cook meat at home.

After we ate, we went back to our room, took our evening pills, checked our tickets for the next day’s excursion, set our alarms, and went to bed.