Jewels of the Mediterranean Cruise, Thomson Destiny, May 2011

Highlights of a week cruising the Mediterranean Sea on the Thomson Destiny cruise ship, 12-19 May 2011. The itinerary is Palma, Majorca > Day at Sea > Trapani, Sicily > Naples, Italy > Ajaccio, Corsica > Toulon, France > Barcelona, Spain > Palma, Majorca. Excursions on this trip cover Segesta, Sicily, Herculaneum, the Roman city destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 CE, Bandol and Sanary-sur-Mer on the French Riviera and the aquarium in Barcelona.

Each place of interest is shown on its own separate article, reached by clicking/tapping the photos below. A link on each page will bring you back here.

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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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A Night With Destiny

Well I like a bit of drama, but perhaps the title should more realistically be A Night Onboard the Destiny!

It's Tuesday, 17 May 2011 and we have left Toulon - you can't stay too lon-g in toulon - and having had a quick wash and brush up, straightened my jacket and curled my hair and teeth, we find the evening meal enlivened by the waiters and chefs parading the baked alaska around the dining room.

Here Pipit, our Head Waiter presents Fran with a silk rose - she blinked at the wrong time here and once we got back and realised I have had to refuse firmly as she wanted to go back for another week to retake the photo...

Here he... well I'm not sure what he was doing really but anything involving fire and napkins is a welcome diversion as we await the next course!

Then we went into the Can-Can show lounge to watch the night's show. The cast posed on stage following the performance for people to take photos. There was one who posed every night come to think of it... He reminded me of that advert with Cilla Black where she looks like she's had the sides of her mouth sewn up and just the middle bit opens... Every night I wanted to tell him "For Heaven's Sake, stop simpering, man!!!" And one of the girls was the only person I've ever come across who sings slightly sharp... But apart from that they were quite good really!

Then after the show we went for drinkies in the Clipper Bar then as usual made our way up top for a shufti over the side (a look not a chuck) and found a romantic full moon reflected from the far horizon.

I turned to Fran to whisper something suitably seductive only to find her sitting waiting for me to bring a coffee from the self-service restaurant behind the pool deck... Where has this week gone? Tomorrow we will be in Barcelona for the last day of our cruise!

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Bandol and Sanary-Sur-Mer

Tuesday, 17 May 2011. The Thomson Destiny docks in the French naval port of Toulon and we have booked an excursion out to two different resorts, Bandol and Sanary-Sur-Mer.

It took us a while to get to Bandol. First there was the problem of the two passengers who were somewhat wider than the door of the coach. The driver had to get off and push the two ladies on from behind... Then he had to push them up the steps... I've never seen a man in such an intimate position with a woman look so aghast... Once back in the driver's seat, the courier had to prod him before he could move himself to set off...

Then we immediately joined a traffic queue. A cyclist had been involved in an accident. 15 minutes later we had crawled past the accident enough to join another queue. This time it was a bus with a very flat tyre!

Eventually we reached Bandol about halfway from Toulon to St Tropez. It was a nice looking place, but we didn't see too much of it as all the women on the bus made a beeline for the market along the marina. It did have some nice stuff on some of the stalls. Mainly because it was French. I suppose the locals were mooching around saying "It's all the same as always isn't it?". Seeing the rolls of bin liners on Preston Market would have excited them no end. And their market did the same for us. Miss Franny called upon my meagre knowledge of French to buy a shawl styled top for a wedding later in the year.

We thought the crockery might have weighed a bit much, quite apart from the risk of opening cases in England to find it was now a 532 piece set... The bus returned - he had had to drive somewhere else as the road didn't have the space for him to wait. Or perhaps he just needed to settle his nerves before helping the two women back on the bus again. Anyway, it was no easier a time for him. They were late. Not just late but a quarter of an hour late.

A gendarme had created a space the coach could wait in and the two ladies eventually returned after the courier had almost torn his hair out, making lots of frantic calls back to the ship and the bus company. They had "had to go to the toilet"... So had most of the rest of us I presumed, but we had got back on time. Anyway the driver went through the same palaver as before, which took another good quarter of an hour and sat muttering feverishly about taking up his cousin's offer of fishing for sharks from a rowing boat in the mid Atlantic... He was not a happy homme...

Sanary-Sur-Mer turned out to be one of the most delightful places I've ever had the luck to find myself. I could easily have spent the full day there rather than the mere 45 minutes that we had.

Even that was long enough to walk the length of the Promenade and back, drinking in the sheer delight of the scenery. The buildings, the boats, moored against the sea wall and floating piers of the marina, the pavement cafes with the bright table umbrellas.

We bought an ice cream and sat on a bench, drinking it all in until the wind got up and one of the table umbrellas detached itself from its weighted foot and knocked over three tables, on a wild flight from its original spot towards us! Luckily it caught on another table and stuck, the pole bent and useless. The cafe owner rushed out in haste somewhere around ten minutes after...

We walked back to the coach the long way to stay near the seafront as long as possible. Our way took us through a small park with a formal garden with an oblong pond into which twenty fountains sprayed an arch of water.

Back at the coach the courier was consoling a weeping driver saying "It's the last time Jacques, the last time," in French over and over.

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Ajaccio, Corsica

Monday, 16 May 2011. The Thomson Destiny sails into Ajaccio on the island of Corsica.

We have not booked an excursion for this day and set off by walking around the harbour, which gives us this great view of the Destiny. Halfway up the chimney stack is a small bar that gives great views in all directions, though with only limited space so after having a look we didn't bother with it again.

The Clipper Bar was our favourite, with its nautical theme and ropes, halliards and mock ratlines as decoration. More or less from the same spot, but taken after twirling round to face the other way. Ajaccio was absolutely lovely.

We walked the full width of the harbour to where the harbour wall sheltered the moorings from the sea and then went back to the centre to explore the town a little.

Old street furniture - one of my great pleasures! Street lighting, signboards, road signs, advertising on walls, bollards, traffic lights, street name plaques... In England the latter are disappearing rapidly from our cities as new modern builds go up and owners or architects refuse to have them "disfigured" by street names. Madness. And maddening for strangers to a town or city, trying to find out where they are in relation to the map they are using.

A last look at the port and harbourside before we head into the town for a look round. There are statues of Napoleon Bonaparte all over the place. He was born in the town over a little shop a short way from the waterfront, which I think was either a dress shop or a tanning salon when we went past it - I should have taken more notice!

This statue has him dressed as a Roman emperor, one of his favourite fantasies so I believe - Josephine must have had an exciting time of it... This diminutive would-be Alexander the Great conquered a sizeable portion of Europe until his march into Russia ended disastrously and even once defeated and imprisoned he managed to escape and gather his devoted armies until he was finally defeated for good by Wellington and Blucher at Waterloo in 1815. Without him where would Sean Bean be today...?

So many inventions and everyday sayings came out of those horrendous war years when the whole of Europe including England were either conquered or convinced it was only a matter of time before he turned his attention their way. Tinned food, rifles, baguettes, "Going off at half-cock", "freezing the balls off a brass monkey" - actually the stand of brass on a fighting ship that held cannonballs ready for use.

We found a small road train and took a trip on it for a couple of hours for a very reasonable price. And look at the phone box too! Nice that a town so proud of Napoleon can find place for a reminder of the country that brought him to a halt!

We sat right at the back of the road train so that every little correction of steering at the front made us sway out into the middle of the road or to the kerb... A small party of French or Corsicans came late and a tiny woman squashed beside me. The commentary wasn't working so well in our carriage so they sang instead, doing drum and symbol noises for added effect. It was very jolly! At first...

The train stopped for photos at a few places then retraced its way along the coast back to where we had got on. The little woman was by now dozing and in grave danger of actually resting her head on my shoulder. I say, this entente cordiale is fair enough, but... with the memsahib sitting on my other side you know...

We returned to the ship and I had time to risk ridicule again by sketching the harbour wall from the Promenade Deck. From Corsica our next stop is Toulon. In Napoleon's time it was a huge French Naval Base - it remains so today, but during NB's war it was the scene in 1793 of a would-be rebellion in favour of restoring the French King which was foiled, resulting in the British Navy under Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, having to scarper as Napoleon retook the city. Napoleon was wounded and missed the brutal massacre of Toulon's rebels. Around 800-2000 people were shot or bayonetted to suppress the rebellion against... er... the rebellion.

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Herculaneum

Sunday, 15 May 2011. The Thomson Destiny docks at Naples and we are booked on an excursion to see the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum. Like its near neighbour, Pompeii, Herculaneum was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in August AD79.

Unlike Pompeii, Herculaneum was not subject to the intense rain of heavy ash that brought down the roofs of Pompeii's buildings. Herculaneum was buried by molten rock from successive pyroclastic flows to a depth of 50-60 feet and Naples was built over it, the builders having forgotten its existence. It was buried deep. I was standing between Herculaneum and the coast on top of today's ground level. Those buildings at the bottom of the photo are boat houses...

This point was close enough to the coast then to sail right out. Unfortunately for around 300 people, whose skeletons were found in the boat houses, there were not enough boats for them all to escape.

Whilst sheltered from the direct impact of the surging ash and molten material, the intense heat (around 500 degrees) caused instant death and sucking all moisture from the structures which were then buried and preserved for us to see.

The remains were discovered by builders digging a well over one and a half millennia later, in 1709. Much of the site still lies beneath modern Naples.

A mosaic floor showing Neptune. I couldn't get to the bottom of the artwork and so had to turn the photo upside down to view the image properly. That's why it looks more like a ceiling... The flooring in this building showed sagging and breaks caused by earthquake motion during the eruption. At one point the floor elsewhere in this room had broken, falling into the hypocaust.

The College of the Augustales. In this building with its fresco of Hercules, after whom the town is named, it looked as though the roof had lurched sideways. The top of the fresco leans out and in the adjoining room the top of the wall correspondingly curves inwards.

A stack of amphorae in the remains of a shop.

Some of the buildings have remarkable treasures. Wooden staircases, partitions and doors, albeit somewhat carbonised by the heat of the pyroclastic surge. One room still contains a bed frame.

This would have been a beautiful place to live, with views of the Bay of Naples and the mountain behind. Vesuvius had been inactive for 800 years prior to the AD79 eruption. No one even dreamed of it being a volcano. Few people had any idea that such things existed. It has erupted around 40 times since that fateful day. They say a large eruption is overdue...

Our excursion comes to an end and our coach takes us back to the ship at modern-day Naples.

We are up on deck, shivering a little to watch us sail out. The top of the volcano has disappeared under cloud.

We pull out from the side of the Maritime Station and glide past the ferries in the harbour. Our next stop will be Corsica.

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