Awake before the 7:40 alarm, I managed to watch the first 8 laps of the Hungarian GP before breakfast. Pretty good getting F1 on the ship on a channel that only seemed to appear a year or so ago. Prior to that, it was a case of catching the sports news.
After a cooked breakfast - Nadim on the omelette station only needs a nod from me now and the onions and a poached egg are straight on to the plate, just as soon as I grab my hot toast - with Darryl & Sue, we arranged to meet in the Atrium at 9:30am. The F1 race was up to lap 40 and Lewis Hamilton, after another disastrous qualifying session, again, was up near the front of the field, which was a surprise as he had started from pit lane.
We walked off the ship and out of the dock gates to be met by a swarm of pushy taxi drivers, virtually blocking the street. We fended off about three or four, all wanting about $30 or $25 per person per tour. Whilst Darryl and I were fending them off, most from the same taxi co-operative, the girls talked to a lady driver who wasn’t at all pushy and obviously an independent. She would charge us $20 a head and she seemed very pleasant, so we accepted her as our driver. Out to a Suzuki van and away. Good choice - van TX 1303 if you are ever around.
Thankfully, the van had a/c as it was steaming hot and we headed across the island via the now derelict sugar works and the Viv Richard’s Stadium, (along with a fair few other taxi-vans and Princess tours), to ‘Nelson’s Dockyard’. Entry, $8USD. The ‘Hamiltons’ menu board is in local currency and the conversion was about 2.7 to the US dollar.
This is just about the most popular tourist destination on the tiny island. A pleasant enough place. On then to the Shirley lookout (part of the same admission fee) and a view across that part of the island and an impressive house on the point opposite, belonging to ‘Slowhand’. Trivia question of last week – ‘Who is known as Slowhand’? We know now, we didn’t then.
On the way back to the ship, we stopped briefly at a postcard perfect white sand beach. Yes, I paddled and the water was beautiful, so no wonder a fair few passengers spent their time on the beach.
Eventually back to town having had a very pleasant tour with Maria. She happily answered all our questions and didn’t bore us with a non-stop history lesson.
What we noticed all over the route, were that many houses seemed very small and poorly maintained and about half seemed to have at least one, relatively modern, derelict Japanese car on the property. Throughout the day we rarely saw anything other than Japanese vehicles, in varying stages of decomposition, from new to falling apart.
A short walk around the port entry area and the usual offers to buy the merchandise from stalls before re-entering the short street to the ship. Almost the last shop before the ship (on the left…) was a wine and spirit’s shop, seemingly doing a roaring trade. Local rum was the main bargain and at least one passenger in front of us at the till, had been there before - and was buying Vodka, so cruisers, draw your own conclusions from that. I added 3 bottles of Guinness ($3 each) to the fridge, ready to mix with the cider, when I am really, really thirsty.
Back on board after a quick wash, up to the buffet. Oh no! Chicken curry one of the hot dishes… Far too good to pass by; as was the tira misu; and the fresh melon, pineapple etc. washed down with a couple of glasses of ship’s lemonade. Maybe I’ll eat lightly tomorrow?
Although not too many people at trivia, we opted for a low profile and elected to not win. Wasn’t that nice of us?
Down for dinner to an announcement from waiter Don that the chef had prepared for us – a lamb curry! More than one around the table declared it as the best lamb curry they ever had. I couldn’t argue with that either.
The late show was billed as ‘Bobby Brooks Wilson – Tribute Act’. Son of the late Jackie Wilson who you may or may not remember, this wasn’t one of the better singers by a country mile. Sorry Bobby, only a 6/10 from me. Several people didn’t even see it through to the end - and we very nearly didn’t either. D & S skipped out ten minutes before the end and they found the Tritones duo playing/singing in the atrium, level 7, and they were happily dancing. We joined them and others, as did the dance instructor John Graham. This was almost a return to what we enjoyed most about the evenings prior to 2013. An opportunity to socialise and dance and even practice, not tiptoe past, getting the evil eye from the direction of the piano.
The regular occupier of the atrium piano stool sat on the side lines, on his own, with a rather grim, disapproving face (fairly normal – Darryl claims he has the charisma of a wombat!) and when he returned to the piano at 11pm, we disappeared… Most others seemed to have gone too. What a surprise. The passenger dance group may now be small in numbers, but whereas in the past, they could practice their dancing and gain a bit of extra instruction and the numbers were increasing, on last year and this year’s cruise, the numbers dancing have shrunk and that is no reflection on the dance instruction.
Off to the cabin then, instead of the 12 midnight and later of pre 2013 cruises.
Another port day tomorrow and another Caribbean island – Saint Lucia. Once again, no real expectations and as Paula is suffering a bit with the effects of air conditioning on her nose and throat, we’ll probably do no more than wander around in the fresh air for a while.
Internet/satellite access has been out all day again today, much to the frustration of most, so once again, no idea when this will be uploaded.
We are now at the stage of counting down the days every now and again and wondering what is happening back in Auckland!
No comments:
Post a Comment