Genoa Waterfront and Aquarium

It is (still) Tuesday, 28 August 2007 and we emerge from the alleyways of Genoa onto the waterfront.

We emerge into the shadows of the elevated roadway but having crossed the roadway at ground level and passed under the elevated flyover, we come out into sunshine once again. There is an aquarium nearby and we are in no hurry to rush back to the ship so we decide to go for a look.

We are first directed into a cinema to see a 3D film about deep sea creatures. Of course - we can't understand a word as it's in Italian! The first tanks we come to hold jellyfish and whilst it is too dark to get sharp photos (flash was not allowed) the colours are fabulous.

It was a large and well-stocked aquarium and had some absolutely huge tanks. There were sharks and dolphins too, although I always feel it a shame to keep such intelligent creatures as whales in captivity as even their large environment had to seem very confining to them. It also had no vegetation, furniture to swim around or through and no playthings to stimulate them.

There were three dolphns in the tank and this one kept coming up to me to say "hello", or more likely, "help! Can you get me the hell out of here?" The captive dolphins' smile does them no favours at all... it's easy to assume that they love it where they are.

There were giant sea turtles, a pool with seals and a flat fish touch pool.

There was a superbly set out penguin pool with the water surface at eye level so that you could view the penguins both in the water and above. We spent a good hour and a half to two hours in the aquarium and thoroughly enjoyed it, although there was that touch of guilt about enjoying the dolphins. I'd much rather see them in the sea even if they are a much rarer sight and harder to spot!

A huge ship of the line battleship is moored along the waterfront, I'm guessing but it must carry somewhere around 70 guns. You can count over 30 gunports on the side, double for the other side and there would be stern chasers and bow guns. A standard British ship of the line of the late 18th century carried 74 guns.

As we walk west along the marina we pass in front of the basttleship and get a better view of the figurehead. A bus passes behind us, ooh -they have trolleybuses here!

The flyover is a bit in-your-face and dominates the seafront of Genoa. However it allows traffic to flow freely along what would otherwise be a pedestrian heavy environment and slower, frequently stopping traffic such as buses can operate at ground level without obstructing or delaying through traffic.

The Stazione Marittima, with it's sculpture of the prow of a galley under the pediment and fountain playing over a ship's screw. As we reached the ship, we came up behind Cissie and Ada on the gangplank. "Do you want to get past?"
"How?"
"I can't go fast!"
"You are going fast enough!"

We went for a spot of lunch and joined the two ladies on the pool deck. "Do you want to borrow my sun cream?" asked Cissie, pushing a plastic bottle of Nivea sun lotion at me. The top was wedged on with a rather soggy tissue.
"What's this for?" I asked.
"The top won't stay on..." The tissue was between the top of the bottle and the lid, wedging the lid open. I pulled the tissue off and the lid clicked shut. "Well, I can't press it hard enough," she said. I replaced the tissue...
"Tell him what you did when you got it," Ada said to Cissie. She began her distinctive laugh - a sort of "Hih hih hih!"
"I asked my son to get it for me," she said, "but I got confused and asked him to get me some viagra by mistake!"

Return to Mediterranean Explorer Cruise, 2007 Index

Off the Rails, On the Road

Dear diary...

The week started with a train ride up to Bonnie Scotland. Edinburgh in fact. The train was packed with people lugging heavy suitcases - ye gods, how did those poor people manage in the 1950s and 60s with those tiny flat leather suitcases? At least in the 1930s and 40s they had trunks. Not the swimming kind you understand... those knitted woolly things with a gusset that hung down to your knees once wet would have been useless for carrying clothes about on holiday.

These days though people drag hard plastic cases of the size you might see on the back of a lorry having just brought it from the port. Anyway there were lots of those on the train. And the journey was enlivened by a loud American telling a woman, who insisted her dog had to have a seat, how to react when coming face to face with bears, moose and wolves. All of which roam the streets of Edinburgh I expect...

I was staying in the Travelodge on St Mary Street which has the advantage over lots of Travelodges that it has a place to eat in. Not that I used it at night but it did mean I got a breakfast on the two days I was working in Edinburgh!

At night I mooched along the Royal Mile and ate both nights in a Garfunkels. The prospect of an Eastern European trying to explain to a German couple what mushy peas are was quite amusing. He obviously had no idea apart from the main ingredient... Just for the record, you do not prepare them like mashed potatoes... Although just down the road a bit they prepare Mars Bars like fish and chips I suppose...

Anyway I arrived home by another train which was much less crowded on Wednesday night in time to hear about the cat having been taken ill on top of my desk (note to colleagues - that's why I had to ask for replacement memory sticks to be sent...) We may have to replace the telephone too... Luckily the puddle didn't reach as far as the computer!

Then today I've been in Manchester at the JISC Regional Support Centre Northwest's annual conference held this year at Manchester University. Nice car too - the hire company dropped off a brand spanking new Hyundai i30 with only 19 miles on the clock. I haven't smelt that new car smell since I was a lad and Dad bought a new Mark 1 Escort in the 60s.

Once in Manchester I found the car park dead easy, despite only asking Chrissie where we were late last night once she was already tipsy! "I'll be there from half seven! she said. "I won't..." I responded wittily.

Found the campus map dead easy. Alas someone had been round all the campus maps, knicking the red dot and the "You are here" sign. Coupled with the reluctance of local authorities to pay for street name signs - or the reluctance of owners of new buildings to allow them to be sullied with street name signs - that made finding where I was going rather more difficult than it should have been. It was the Barnes Wallis Building, but whichever way I looked I couldn't see a building with water pouring from a breech in the wall...

There were only a few exhibitors besides myself and the stand that probably got most notice was this one with the massive screen with a new material that could be stuck to either plastic or glass and allowed you to project either from the front or rear.

They were showing a video loop taken in some huge aquarium in Okinawa which included several whale sharks swimming about. I couldn't help thinking how brilliant it would be though to have your mates round for a bar-b-que and sit lolling in the garden whilst your entire bedroom window showed Lord of the Rings...

And now I'm in Telford again - it's becoming a second home as I try to stay in every single room in this Premier Inn near the station. The travel should start to dry up for a few weeks now as summer approaches and college and university staff start to think about holidays. Tomorrow I shall be teaching some eager folks all about Managing Multiple Projects in a Complex Environment.

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Barcelona Aquarium

Wednesday, 17 May 2011. Our last port of call on the cruise is Barcelona. Having been a few times and walked our feet off, we had decided not to go into town this time but to walk along the harbour and try to find the aquarium.

The ship had it on as an excursion, but at thirty pounds each we thought that sounded a bit steep and a look at the map seemed to place it quite close to the port anyway. It was a gorgeous day and we came to the aquarium after an easy 20 minute walk. In fact for a while we ignored it and carried on to stretch our legs a bit.

We came back to it about an hour later and bought tickets from the building opposite - a rather strange arrangement, but I suppose there's more room in the courtyard between the two buildings for queueing. It was still quiet at this time though so we joined the queue behind the people currently buying tickets. The young lady in red was perhaps away from her mother for the first time - or maybe she just hadn't got the hang of buttons, I'm not sure...

The tunnel through the shark tank had a moving walkway to deter people from blocking it entirely and this fella was easily a couple of feet longer than I am.

A quick spat between octopussy and her pal... How do you tell a male octopus from a female? I've no idea, but as I've never really fancied an octopus, it's not been an issue so far...

One to make you go "Ahhhhh". A sea horse surrounded by tiny offspring, itself only a couple of inches long, curls around a branch and drifts to and fro in the current from the bubble filter.

The rather startling looking Sunfish. Adults average a length of 6 feet and can be over 8 feet from fin to fin. The largest ever found was over ten feet long with a measurement of 14 feet fin to fin.

We came back out of the aquarium onto wooden decking leading to a swing bridge to get back to the ship. Three hours have passed since leaving the ship and it's time for our last afternoon lazing on deck with a book and a drink

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