Unexpected Stop in Marseilles

Wednesday 29 August 2007. The Island Star has docked in Marseilles and having walked around the Old Port on last year's cruise, we have opted for an excursion to nearby Cassis.

However, our tour guide asked the driver of the coach to stop near the Old Port so that she could point out something and that turned out to be long enough for the French Transport Ministry officials to board and decide they were going to do a spot check of the coach's condition. This would take half an hour.

The tour guide explained that there had recently been an accident resulting in many deaths due to a coach having faulty brakes and therefore there was currently something of a crackdown. I can remember a similar period in the UK when coaches were being randomly stopped and checked and so we were just unlucky.

We spent the half hour walking around a corner of the Fort St Jean on the eastern side of the port entrance. The guide was trying to juggle between pointing out the sights and talking on her phone to the driver to see if the inspection was finished and to the ship to keep them informed. The ship had just insisted that another coach be sent to pick us up when the driver appeared around the corner with the good news that his brakes worked and we could carry on!

Thankfully we clambered back onto the coach and resumed the journey to Cassis. And that's where we will be for the next thrilling instalment!

Return to Mediterranean Explorer Cruise, 2007 Index

Hidden Gems Cruise - Santa Margherita, Italy

Saturday 21 September 2019. Today requires a tender operation to get us to shore. By which I don't mean that the crew of the ship are any more caring than they usually are, but that we are unable to dock at Santa Margherita. The ship anchors just off the coast - we know this because our cabin is near the front of the ship and the anchor chain makes an unavoidable noise as the anchor goes down!

Then we take to the ship's tender boats for a transfer from the side of the ship to the small harbour. I always enjoy these little boat trips though it can challenge some people. However there are always crew members to help you onboard.

One lady was obviously very nervous and every time the tender bobbed up or down she backed away. But she eventually managed to step from the side platform of the ship onto the boat - true bravery; being very scared of something but doing it anyway.

And today's port of call is well worth it anyway. We came to Santa Margherita in 2008 on a cruise with my Mum. This time Fran and I are on an excursion to Portofino. First though there is a walking tour of Santa Margherita.

We cross this road by the crossing to a tiny park, not much more than a traffic island. The guide we were with watched as someone had to dodge something falling from a tree and then proceeded to talk for ten minutes about the tree... Followed by five minutes on the unification of Italy and then said "Now we are going to walk to the town centre." In other words, leaving the beautiful scenery of the sea front behind. We and several others just asked when and where to meet for the ferry to Portofino and left her to it. Why do guides always feel the need to bore the pants off people? We are there on holiday, we are not on a history course... If we look at a castle I like to know the (brief) history of it and maybe a small history of the actual place but not the entire history of Italy.

There is a castle. Or a small fortress at least. It was built in the 16th century as the Mediterranean coastal towns were being regularly attacked by pirates from North Africa. The doorway under the ramp to the right of the fort leads to public conveniences - of much more relevant interest than the breeds of nearby trees...

We strolled back along the seafront past the harbour and looked round a series of market stalls. We bought a couple of small pottery dishes and the inevitable fridge magnet.

Then we found somewhere just to sit and admire the view over the marina for ten minutes until it was time for the ferry.

The ferries to Portofino depart fairly regularly, the trip taking roughly 20-30 minutes. As members of an organised tour we were allowed to board before other passengers, although the arrival of another ferry boat meant that they were not all that disappointed. In fact they boarded and left while we were still being herded on...

The Marella Dream's tender boat waits for the other ferry to leave the harbour wall before depositing another boat load of passengers onto dry land.

And we're off! Portofino, for us, was the most anticipated destination of the cruise this week. See you there on the next page!

Return to Hidden Gems Cruise Index Page

Italian Flavours Cruise

Friday 29 August 2014. We set off from home at 2:30am in a taxi for Manchester Airport. We will be cruising for a week on the Thomson Majesty for a cruise called Italian Flavours. So where are we flying to to join this cruise around the west coast of Italy? Er... Corfu actually...!

Our flight leaves Manchester at 6:00am and by 11:30 (Greece being two hours ahead of us) we are landing in Corfu and on a coach to the port. Thomson Majesty is sitting in a familiar spot. We have previously joined Thomson Celebration and Thomson Spirit from this spot and called mid-cruise on Ocean Village II.

First we have to register in the cruise terminal at Corfu with the ship. We confirm that we have no deadly lurgy or other contagious diseases and we get our onboard cards. These are used instead of cash onboard and are also your key to getting on and off the ship in each port. On the Majesty, they are also your cabin key. It's also our first brush with the ship's photographers who will be capturing our image at every opportunity during the coming week!

From the open deck of the ship - the Promenade Deck is on Deck 7 and the pools on Deck 10 and 11 - we get a good view of Corfu town and its fortresses. This is the "Old Fortress", the site of which has been a fortress since the 6th century. It withstood three siege attempts by the Ottoman Turks in 1537, 1571 and a seven-week siege in 1716. Two years later lightning struck, blowing up the ammunition dumps which destroyed pretty much all the buildings within the fort and many buildings in the town also.

After the siege of 1537 the ruling Venetians decided to build a new fortress a little way along the coast. 20,000 houses were flattened to make way for the new fortress, which despite being over 500 years old is still known as the "New Fortress". Each forttress had a governor who, as part of their swearing in ceremonies, gave an undertaking not to communicate with each other during their two-year governorship. This to prevent them colluding in any rebellion.

Our cruise will take us from Corfu to Valetta, Sicily and from there to Civitavecchia where we will travel into Rome for a full day excursion. Then a hop down the coast to Sorrento and from there back to Sicily to Messina on the strait between Sicily and mainland Italy. Then the return trip to Corfu in a week's time. Tomorrow will be a day at sea as the ship sails from Corfu to Malta around the bottom of Italy.

Please note my colour co-ordination with the deck... The lengths I go to for this blog are extraordinary...

We'll have a look inside the ship in a later article. Just now we are on the Promenade Deck and I have noticed a complete lack of winches and cables on the bow. These are housed on the deck below and cables fed out from there. There is no access however and my impulse to do the "Titanic pose" remains unfulfilled...

Our cabin is behind one of the hanging lifeboats for this trip. I've never considered this a problem as we use the cabins for sleeping in rather than for taking in the view. You can see over the top of it, but it does restrict the view a little. In the background the bow of MSC Fantasia is sticking out. Sticking out from behind our boat, I should add - it hadn't collided and come straight through...

And finally before we close for now, there is the safety exercise to be undertaken before we set sail. This is important and serious and you should not make fun.

Better luck next time then...

Italian Flavours Cruise Index

Fortresses and Sieges in Rhodes

Tuesday 1 October 2013. We are making our way around the coast of Rhodes from our cruise ship Thomson Celebration. We are heading for the site of the famous Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

We have been walking outside the city walls but now come to a place where they cross the road to a small fortress on a point of the coast. We walk through this archway into the fortress.

This is our view immediately after walking into the fortress. The set of stairs on the right are the only way up to the fighting platform around the walls. Miss Franny likes railings with her stairs so stayed on the ground whilst I went up and around the fort on the platform.

This is the Gate of St Paul. The Apostle came to Rhodes on his third missionary journey, though this gate and fortress is a much later addition. Under the archway a beggar woman sits with her bowl.

The view from over the arch. Miss Franny in white and red is matching at least two other visitors so is definitely on trend today! She's the one leaning against the wall on the right. Over the walls the blue funnel of our ship can be seen behind a sailing ship.

I came back down and we walked through the Gate of St Paul and over a small bridge. Apparently there is a bas relief of the saint on the fortress wall somewhere round here but we didn't see it. At the time I didn't know of it, so we didn't look, to be honest. It may have been staring us in the face...

This view of the gate shows the bridge we walked over. There's a fair amount of damage evident on the external wall of the fortress and a plentiful supply of stone cannon balls littered about the place. The fortress dates from 14th to 16th century, the period when the Knights Hospitallers raised or repaired the many imposing defences which can still be seen in Rhodes. They bought the island in 1309 and defended it several times successfully. However after a six months siege they were forced to surrender to Suleiman the Magnificent on 29 December 1522. The Knights were evicted and were found a new home in Malta, becoming known as the Knights of Malta.

Some of the cannon balls left over presumably from the fighting. They bear the marks of the impact against the wall. Well either that or they were specially made to be set up along the sea road to stop cars from driving over the side of the road into the sea... Several have been used for just that purpose.

Well we didn't quite make it to the site of the Colossus yet, but we will see it for certain in the next entry!

Holy Land Cruise Index Page

A Day in Rhodes

On 30 September we flew (on a brand new 787 no less!) to Marmaris, Turkey, to join the Thomson Celebration for a week on a cruise that had been re-jigged to avoid a planned two days in Egypt. I hope things soon settle down there.

Our cruise was now retitled Aegean and The Holy Land and we would visit Rhodes, Ashdod in Isreal, travelling to Jerusalem and then onto Bethlehem, Larnaca in Cyprus and Alanya in Turkey before returning to Marmaris at the end of the week. Or the beginning of this current week as I write...

It wasn't a particularly blazing hot day as we arrived in Rhodes and we had been warned that there could be rain during the afternoon. They were right as it turned out, but let's not jump too far ahead, we have a morning's exploration to do first. We have been to Rhodes twice before, both times being in 2010.

On both those occasions we walked off the ship and through the nearest gate into the old city, spending our time in the medieval city itself. Whilst this is undeniably an excellent way to spend a day, this time I wanted to do something a little different and we walked around the city walls on the outside, heading for a look at what would be our fourth site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colossus of Rhodes. You'll have to wait until at least the next entry to see it because:

1. I haven't done that many photos yet - we only got back last night
2. There are other things of interest that we passed on our way to it
3. It's good to instil a bit of excitement for things still to come!

This is the Marine Gate, the main entrance to the town from the harbour. It has twin towers, the northern one (to the right) having been restored in modern times following bomb damage in World War II. The three figures over the gate represent the Virgin Mary and Saints John and Peter.

Traffic was relentless. I waited for a bit, but finally had to admit to myself that there would not be a chance to take a photo without cars partly obscuring the gate. It was built in 1478 by the Knights Hospitallers who had taken over the city, building on the existing Byzantium walls in order to strengthen the city against possible (and eventual) attacks by the Ottomans. Turkey can be seen from the city, it is only around 18 miles away.

The harbour contains a number of ships kitted out as market stalls selling souvenirs and marine goods like this one. Sponges were six euros each, loofahs a mere five euros and, dear reader, you can scratch your back more easily with a loofah than a sponge! I think maybe the stall holders were missing a trick... True enough though, they had many more sponges than loofahs, so maybe they were just out to clean up... Loofahs are the fibre of a cucumber-like fruit, they don't grow in the sea like sponges. There's a wealth of unbelievably naive articles about them on t'Internet - including articles on how to use them(???) Obviously written by Americans and yes I did mean to add the "s" on the end. No less than 12 people had had a go at editing the article I saw. The Americans must either need - or believe that others need their - careful instruction on how to clean themselves. You start with a circular motion on the decolletage according to the article. Handily, this area is described so that users can find it without having to ask others to point it out. There's also loofah-use instructional videos on YouTube for those who find the article hard going... By heck, I put some research into these entries you know...

Another gate into the city, this is St Paul's Gate from the Mandraki Harbour. This harbour is the one where the Colossus of Rhodes stood, but no, you'll just have to let the suspense build up for a bit because we won't get that far just yet. St Paul visited Rhodes during his third missionary journey. In the next entry we'll see the little fortress corner that the Gate gives access to and look at some of the stone cannonballs still lying on the ground outside that tried to knock it down. We'll be moving closer to the site of the Colossus of Rhodes. Whether we get there or not depends on me resisting being led along ridiculous tangents like loofahs and stuff... Come to think of it, I didn't say nearly enough about sponges in this article...

Just to clear up any final doubts you may have about loofahs, the instructional article mentioned that you should tap them dry with a towel to remove excess water before hanging them up to dry. For readers in the UK and elsewhere I suggest rinsing them in the soup left after your bath and tossing them on the bath rack will suffice. Loofahs that get too stinky should be discarded as soon as you can visit Rhodes to buy another... Other skin cleansing products are available.

Holy Land Cruise Index Page

Caister Roman Fort

Monday 1 October 2012. After leaving Sheringham we drove around the coast back to Great Yarmouth for our final evening before heading back to Blackpool on Tuesday.

On the way out I had taken a wrong turn and ended driving through the town of Caister instead of using the bypass which affords a view of the castle, which we have visited many times, but which closed for the winter season the day before we came down to Norfolk!

I was intrigued to see a brown sign for "Roman Fort" and glimpsed some low walls of a familiar type behind the hedge. So on our way back we passed through the town again and stopped in the lay-by at the side of the site.

The fort was built around 200AD to the Roman standard plan. It defended the huge estuary of four rivers, the Ant, Bure, Yare and Waveney. The land it stood on was a small island at the time to the north of the estuary which covered a large area to the south now covered by land. In fact, now covered by Great Yarmouth...

We are looking at the foundations for one of the gate towers. We are inside the fort and the gate was to the left of the structure with a similar but mirrored tower on the other side. The line of the wall runs off to the right and beyond is a ditch with a deeper ditch which has been filled in and would have been under the modern roadway.

Some of the building foundations from inside the fort. After about 60 years another fort was built on the opposite shore of the estuary at Burgh. This has also been partially excavated and can be visited or seen from the many cruises up the River Yare from Great Yarmouth's dosckside area.

The site is owned or managed by English Heritage and there is a page with a map of the area at the time and a reconstruction of how the fort might have appeared from the air as sketched from an original roman Tigus Moth... Go to the link I have provided then search for "Caister roman fort"

Well, that concludes the entries about this holiday weekend - I'm going to have to go somewhere else now!

Return to Norfolk Transport Weekend index page

Marseilles Vieux Port

9 Aug 2006. Wednesday morning finds us back in France, in Marseilles. Not having booked any tours, we left the Island Star for a bit of exploring on our own. The free courtesy bus, provided by the cruise company drops us off at the Vieux Port - the Old Port of Marseilles. You can't believe the number of boats here! At least a thousand boats and yachts are sitting in the huge marina, with people on perhaps one percent of them. Does anyone, anyone at all, have a boat based in a marina that they take out every weekend for a sail? It is a hot day - perfect holiday weather! There's a bit of a smell... The fisherman has just landed his catch and his wife is laying fish out in trays of ice, lopping off heads and chucking bits into plastic bags that are being snapped up by enthusiastic buyers. We resist with effort and walk around the marina, coming to one of the two forts that guard the harbour entrance. The Fort St Nicholas was built by the Chevalier de Clerville for Louis XIV. Louis reigned from 1643—1715. The fort was 200 years too late to defend Marseilles from the Spanish of Aragon. The harbour was protected in 1423 like most harbours by a massive chain suspended just above the water. We are talking big links here, not something you could unpick with your fingernails. They were designed to take the bottom out of any invading ships. The invaders in this case nicked the chain and took it back to Valencia. Yah Boo... On the other side of the port entrance is Fort St-Jean. It was built by Louis XIV again at the same time as the other one. The Sun King of France said at the time (this is not a joke...) "We noticed that the inhabitants of Marseille were extremely fond of nice fortresses" Ha hahhhhh! Nice try your Majesty. He actually built the fortresses to quell a rebellion in the city. The cannons of the forts pointed inland rather than out to sea! During the Revolution the Fort St-Jean was used to imprison Louis Philippe II, the Duke of Orleans and two of his sons. During World War II the Germans turned it into an ammunition dump. This exploded and didn't do the fortress a great deal of good... It was far too hot. We did the French thing and sat outside a cafe with a drink on the corner opposite the Opera House seen here. I breathed in deeply hoping for a little aria, but it was just too hot... The shopping streets were probably a bit cooler as they kept out most of the sunshine. At least that was Fran's excuse. Then after a mere lifetime, we made our way back to the colourful waterfront of the Vieux Port before catching the courtesy bus back to the ship. Next, we take a bike ride through Barcelona on four wheels - that's two each, right?

Return to Mediterranean Explorer 2006 Index

The Most Southerly Town In Europe

More from Sunday 23 August 2009. Having left the Minoans wondering where their roofs and most of the walls of their houses had gone, we carried on south to Ierapetra

This is the most southerly town in Europe. I looked in vain for a sign at the sea edge that said "Welcome to Europe" though figured it would have needed a large sign for all the bureaucracy and subtitles like "Europe welcomes careful drivers, whether in motors or on camels" and "Europe is proud to have more overpaid bureacrats thinking up absurd rules to make life hell than any other federation"

The town was at its most powerful during the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. The Romans conquered it, knocked it down and rebuilt it in AD66 along classic Roman lines. The Saracens came along and destroyed it again in the 800s but then rebuilt it again and it came to be used as a centre for piracy.

There's a more peaceful air about the place these days. No one called us "scurvy dogs" or did anything more threatening than sell us a bottle of water when we asked politely. Well, to be honest she did look a bit bemused when I asked, but was happy enough when I just opened the fridge and took out a bottle. Luckily it turned out we were in a shop...

We walked around the old town, passing a gorgeous little Byzantine church - note the two domes. This is the Lord Christ Church. Napoleon Bonaparte anchored off here on his way to Egypt and stayed in a house that remembers him still (he nicked an ashtray...)

Along the seafront - known as the Mole for some reason. The beach was a grey beach of pebbles and pretty much deserted.

We passed a series of bars, mostly empty but for a few local men swapping yarns. After we passed one I heard some shouts but couldn't understand the language so didn't think they were directed at me, but later I found my filter must have dropped off the camera and they were probably trying to tell me as I ignored them... duh...

This is the Kales, an ancient fort attributed to a Genoese pirate called Pescatore and built in 1212. It was free to enter and even housed a toilet block in one room.

We walked up the precarious and well worn steps to the left and back down the slope from the battlements in the middle of the photo. The slope actually felt safer... There was a commanding view over both the sea and the land and you can see from the above photo that the fighting platform ran around both sides of the fort so that cannon could be situated to fire inland as well as towards enemy ships.

A couple of doors had rusted but interesting ironwork door furniture.

Looking back at The Mole from the fort ramparts.

Looking on the opposite direction, it's time for us to think about making our way back towards the pick-up point for the coach.

Our path takes us along the edge of the small harbour.

Our hour was up. A last look at the sea off Ierapetra. By the time it hits land again the breakers will be lapping against the coast of Africa.

Pearls of The Aegean Cruise Index