CORFU TO NAPOLI

CORFU, GREECE:  We had a very pleasant day on Thursday but unfortunately our stop in Corfu lasted only until early afternoon,  as the ship had a long sail for the next port.  We spent a sunny and warm morning walking through the beautiful old town with Betty doing some shopping (I have given up monitoring her spending, but I do try to get her to buy only things that are small and light in weight).

At lunch they had, to our surprise, some lovely aglianico (not on the wine list) but Betty and I seemed to be the only ones drinking it.  In the afternoon there were lectures on Malta (so so) and Sicily (excellent).  Unfortunately I had to leave this lecture partway through as the Captain was having a cocktail party for Oceania Club (repeaters) members.  We were then invited to the General Manager's table for dinner.  Again, the small world phenomenon showed itself as one of the others at the table attended Mt A with my sister.

After dinner we went to a main stage show where the energy level of the performers was somewhat beyond what I can only imagine having.

MALTA:  Along with two other couples we took a 5-hour tour of the small island country of Malta.  We visited the capital of Valletta along with the villages of Balzan, Rabat and Mdina.  Malta has a very long history with many, many invasions and conquerors.  Thus, the buildings all seem to look alike in that they have plain, largely windowless walls with everything focused on interior gardens.  In other words, everything was built with defense in mind.  Although we enjoyed the driving and walking tour this is not an island that particularly appeals and we are not anxious to return.

COMPLAINTS:  We received a questionnaire asking for suggestions for improvement in service, etc.  I have given this quite a bit of thought and and best I can come up with is that the bar of soap in the shower is a little too large and keeps slipping out of one's hand.

AGLIANICO WINE:  While this wine is not on any wine list, nor available any longer as a special, we have found one wine steward who seems to be able to come up with a bottle for us whenever we are spotted.

CATANIA, SICILY:  If we are not anxious to return to Malta, we are always anxious to return to Sicily.  Although we docked in Catania a couple of years ago, we didn't spend any time in the city as we had a tour to Mount Etna.  Today we got off the ship and took a hop-on-hop-off bus through the city and up the coast.  We stopped at Piazza Duomo and after visiting the cathedral walked up the beautiful Via Etnea.  When we got back to the spot to take the hop-on back to the ship, the bus was full and there were several others waiting.  However, the attendant spotted Betty's cane and we were taken to the head of the line and got the only two remaining seats on the bus.

NAPOLI:  We decided to a hop-on-hop-off tour of Naples.  However, all of the seats on the double-decker were full on the first deck so we went to the open upper deck.  The tour was fine for the first 25 minutes or so when it started to rain.  There didn't seem to be any point in trying to go down the stairs so we sat for another 40 minutes or so getting wetter and wetter.  When we got to the end of the tour there was no shuttle bus to takes us to the ship.  However, they looked at two drowned rats, one with a cane and put us back on the big bus and drove us to the ship.

Back at the ship Betty burned out her hair-dryer and in the process blew out all of the plugs in our stateroom.  I guess her drowned rat self was more than with which a small hair dryer could cope.

TUESDAY, NOV. 14:  As this is the end of the first phase of our two-phase cruise we are enjoying a quiet morning on board as most of the passengers are disembarking.  This afternoon a new set will join us.