Kissimmee Old Town and a Wild West Dinner Show

Friday 9 July 1993. We have booked to go to a cabaret dinner this evening so decide to have a lazy day. We visit the Mercado shopping mall and have breakfast at a cafe with a huge signboard describing all the different ways they fry eggs. Apparently we like them easy over and a little bit more...

After breakfast we had a look round the shopping mall and bought a couple of CDs of music that we were getting used to on the car radio whilst in America. I bought one by a hillbilly-looking outfit called The Cactus Brothers and it turned out to be excellent and a real foot-stomper. Then after a humble milkshake which made us stare in disbelief at a pint each plus a huge jug as top-up, we made our way to Kissimmee Old Town for a look round.

There was an Elvis Presley museum at Kissimmee and that had certainly made Fran excited about visiting. I like a lot of his stuff, but think it slightly weird the way he has been almost deified to be honest. He was however one of the originals and it's only right he should be remembered with love and respect. So we went round the museum that had a couple of cars, a large collection of gold discs, his pinball machine and some memorabilia of army days etc.

There was a large memorabilia shop themed around Coca Cola. I bought several postcards showing older advertisements and we bought some of the old original crimp-topped bottles of coke which at the time had disappeared entirely from UK shops. The place was fascinating to walk round and it was quiet enough for me to fall into a conversation with the guy serving behind the counter.

Then an afternoon of relaxing at the hotel before we headed for our dinner and cabaret at Fort Liberty, the home of Wild Bill's Wild West Dinner Show. We were seated at tables for around eight people and at each table one person was chosen to dish out the vittels. It fell to Fran to play the server for our table!

We were each given a cowboy hat adding to the atmosphere. They were made of straw... so it took a little imagination and suspension of belief (or disbelief) for this to work, but we were all looking forward to the proceedings so we went along with it!

The show had lots of music and a lasso-twirling rootin', tootin', ropin' cowboy! As the dancing girlies did the can-can you could see from her bandaged ankle that she had done it before!

Then a Native American Chief in full dress did a war dance and chucked a few tomahawks and knives around to great applause. When he finished he came down to our table to talk to us after hearing our accents. He was from Liverpool...

As the night came to an end Fran was presented with an Ornery Discharge from her duties as table monitor!

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Ancient Roman Amphitheatres

A look at some of the Roman amphitheatres that we have had the privilege of seeing during the course of holidays over the years.

We start in Sagunto, Spain. It sits near the coastal port of Valencia. The shocking thing about this particular Roman amphitheatre was that the locals had rebuilt it. Not particularly to look exactly as the Roman original would have done...

"Ah, well, it is illegal of course," our guide told us. "The architects have been told to dismantle all the restoration work next January..." Well that was 2007 and I believe it still looks this way. Sometimes I feel that a bit of restoration wouldn't go amiss to give the vistor an idea of what it may have been like in its heyday. But restoration is the key - not a modern brick wall just stuck onto a few original stones.

Taormina in Sicily. Equally as spectacular for the view along the coast to Mount Etna, which was puffing smoke out at the time.

It is described as a Greek amphitheatre, but is built mainly in brick which suggests that the Romans built over an earlier Greek theatre. Here the back wall of the stage is original - and a very rare thing.

Verona, Italy. This arena held 30,000 spectators in Roman times, though the current set-up with the stage area has reduced this to 15,000 for current visitors who go to watch opera more than death and destruction. Oh... no wait a bit... The yellow finger points out Miss Franny who decided she wasn't climbing all the way up just to watch me take a picture...

Here we went into the arena where the rocky ceiling above us shows how sophisticated the construction was in the days when lions rather than the odd off-key note brought about the death and mayhem.

The Coliseum (or Colosseum) of Rome, built 70-80 AD and the largest Roman amphitheatre in the world. It could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 people and was the site of games, gladiatorial combat, executions and re-enactments of Roman battles (complete with actual slaughter...)

It is one of the most instantly recognised of any building on the planet and receives millions of visitors every year. Unfortunately the one-day tour we were on during a cruise didn't have time to go inside.

The Great Theatre of Ephesus in Turkey was first constructed in the Hellenistic Period, in the third century BC during the reign of Lysimachos. Once the Romans arrived it was enlarged and formed its current style as seen today. It seats 25,000. The Apostles St John and St Paul both preached here, sparking off the Riot of the Silversmiths, who made their living making and selling silver representations of their goddess Artemis. The ruins of her temple, one of the original Seven Wonders of the World, lie scattered across a field a short distance away.

The amphitheatre of Segesta, Sicily. The back wall of the stage is completely gone and the result is an amazing view for miles with the sea flowing into a bay on the horizon and the road from Trapani to Palermo, snaking in an elegant S-bend whilst elevated from the ground on pillars.

Miletus is not far from Ephesus in Turkey and was a major trading city in ancient times. This was where goods from Asia were bought and from where the great caravans set out south and west across the Holy Land and Greece then west to Italy and Western Europe. The theatre held a crowd of 15,000 spectators.

The four columns would have supported a canopy for the rich folks to keep dry and be sheltered from the sun and flying limbs from defeated gladiators.

Once again in Turkey, this is the amphitheatre at Side (pronounced "see-day"). We approached from round the back and then found we couldn't get in because they only accepted Turkish Lira and I was carrying Euros which were ok in most of the shops. They also didn't take credit cards. However as we walked on, we found the ruins of a Temple to Dionysus (the Greek equivalent to the Roman Bacchus - the drink-loving god) and once past that we turned to see a perfect view of both the temple remains and amphitheatre. Again it held 15,000 spectators.

Curiosities: Buildings and Infrastructure Index

A Wander Through Palermo, Sicily

Monday 21 May 2018. Marella Explorer is on her first cruise. We are on Marella Explorer. At eight o'clock in the morning she slides into Palermo after a day at sea and we prepare for the first port of our cruise.

We have no excursion booked for today. We've never been here before so will just get off the ship and have a walk round. The map we got from Destinations Services last night shows a few things of interest.

This is our first chance to see the pointy end of the ship without walking off the dock into the water and almost everyone stops on their way out of the port to take a photo or two. A great many taxi drivers, bus reps and more desperate men eager to give piggy back rides are waiting to accost us outside the port gates. It doesn't put them off having watched us refuse a score of their colleagues before we reach them. We have to cross the road and get into the city streets before leaving them behind.

I read that Palermo is not the richest of cities. Not that I'm entirely certain what makes a city rich... There are some wonderful buildings and some areas of poverty but that is surely true of most cities? I find these little quirky kiosks enchanting and even the wall full of old overlaid posters on the left adds somehow to the city's character.

But amongst the more neglected areas are some green oases, piazzas and impressive buildings with some good architecture. We came off the ship armed with a map but having plunged into the streets straight way to avoid the press of taxi drivers etcetera, we ended up heading off at an angle to where we wanted to go. This is the Politeama Theatre which holds an audience of 950 and was opened in 1874. The statuary over the entrance represents the Triumph of Apollo and Euterpe, flanked by two knights on horseback.

Before the theatre is a statue of Ruggero Settimo a Counter-Admiral of the Sicilian Navy who retook Malta from the Napoleonic forces and who later became Prime Minister of Sicily following the 1848 revolution that brought about the independent Sicilian Kingdom. This did not last more than a few months however and he spent the next 12 years in exile in Malta, returning to act as the first President of the Italian Senate following the Unification of Italy.

We sat on the low wall to the right whilst I got my bearings on the map and worked out which direction we needed to go to find the old cathedral of Palermo.

Setting off again, we soon came to the Massimo Theatre. This opened in 1897 as the largest opera house in Italy. Above the seating of the stalls there are six galleries of seating. An audience of 1381 can be accommodated.

The final scene of Godfather III was shot here.

Another old kiosk, housing a news stand and tobacconists shop.

Whilst the Mediterranean area certainly gets the heat, it is a dryer heat than we get in the UK and more conducive to the longevity of ancient cast iron lamp posts.

Our route to the old cathedral took us through a maze of narrow streets, most half the width of this at the most and filled with market stalls and the bustle of people, scooters and dogs. We got lost and were trying to head back to the main streets when we overheard someone pointing out the way to the cathedral to someone else. We followed the path indicated!

One stall had a section of tuna, cut crosswise behind the gills. It was at least 12 inches in diameter. Here, we have reached the cathedral area and a protected section of Roman mosaic flooring.

The Roman paving was just to the side of the cathedral grounds and was behind me as I took this photograph. Palermo Cathedral was first built in 1185 though most of what is visible today dates from the 14th and 15th centuries and a great twenty-year project from 1781-1801.

The grounds were well laid out and there were lots of people walking about. A group of novice nuns were taking turns to dance with visitors and then take group selfies with a great deal of laughter and enjoyment. I don't know what they are going to do about Maria...

The portico of the main entrance dates from c1465.

The cathedral is connected to the Archbishops' Palace by arches across the street.

Porta Nuova. It was originally built in the 1400s, and after Emperor Charles V's visit in 1535 after defeating Tunis it was rebuilt in a more ambitious style in 1583/4. Unfortunately it was burned down in 1667 but was rebuilt once more two years later.

On the other side there are two pairs of telamons (supports in the shape of human figures) in the form of the defeated Moors.

Under the canopy glimpsed in the previous photo we stop for a latte machiatto - our favourite Italian beverage (though Limoncello comes close...)

The Praetorian Fountain was built in Florence in 1554 and in 1573 was bought complete with statues by the Senate of Palermo. It was dismantled into 644 pieces and arrived in Palermo the following year, requiring the demolition of several buildings to create a space for it. Unfortunately some statues had been damaged in transit and others were missing altogether so it was 1581 before it took its present appearance.

We walked the length of Via Vittorio Emanuelle which took us downhill all the way to the coast near the port.

Cosmopolitan Classics Cruise Index Page

London's Great Squares

4 December 1995. In the last entry we walked from Oxford Street down Bond Street and Regent Street, the end of which brought us to Piccadilly Circus.

This is theatreland - London is justly famous for its West End theatres and there are many to be found in Piccadilly and along Shaftesbury Avenue, that approaches it from the east. At the time of our visit the Criterion Theatre was showing Taking Sides, a new play by Ronald Harwood that earned him a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play.

The building had a Lillywhites shop as the centre of it's ground floor with the Criterion Theatre on the right and the Criterion Restaurant on the left.

A short distance away, the Piccadilly Theatre was hosting performances of Mack and Mabel, the musical based around the on-off relationship between silent films director Mack Sennett and the ultimately tragic star, Mabel Normand.

The two things everyone pictures when Piccadilly Circus is mentioned are the statue of Eros and the huge illuminated advertisements.

The statue was not meant to be Eros at all, the artist had in mind a joke with an archer about to bury a shaft into Shaftesbury Avenue. However it was set up facing the wrong way and Londoners - those incurable romantics (huh?) - soon made a link with the Greek God of Love, Eros.

In 1995 the adverts are still neon rather than the huge video screens of today. I think I rather prefer them somehow!

A quick peek into the front door and entrance to the Cafe Royal. Established in 1865, it quickly became famous for its wine cellar and was frequented by Royalty, great thinkers, artists, writers and musicians. From Oscar Wilde through the Burtons to Princess Diana and onwards, people have come here to eat and drink in convivial surroundings and to discuss the great matters of the day. It was also here that the Queensbury Rules for boxing were agreed and set down.

On the edge of Piccadilly Circus is this huge statue, set into a corner, of the Four Horses of Helios. These were the horses that pulled the fiery chariot (the sun), driven across the sky by the god Helios during the day. At night he plunged the chariot into the great ocean, thus travelling through the centre of the earth, to emerge again in the east the following morning.

The backdrop to the statue is a large curtain of falling water and with fountains before them, this was not the place to linger for long on a cold winter's night without feeling uncomfortably like wanting to create fountains or waterfalls of your own... We move on...

From Piccadilly Circus a short walk along Coventry Street brings you to Leicester Square. The Empire Cinema the following night was to host the London premiere of the film The American President with Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. We were just five minutes off meeting them but it was so cold and snowing that night that we didn't wait. When they arrived only one brave couple was there (and they must have arrived after us) and they were invited to go in and watch the premiere!

Talking of snow, it is starting tonight too as we walk down from Leicester Square to Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column. The National Gallery is seen in the background.

And this surely dates this visit! Who uses these nowadays? But whilst mobile phones were growing in popularity by this time, we hadn't yet identified a need to have one ourselves.

Admiralty Arch, leading from Trafalgar Square towards the long straight road of The Mall and to Buckingham Palace at the far end. Commissioned by King Edward VII in memorial to his mother, Queen Victoria, he would not live to see it completed in 1912.

Miss Franny poses in front of one of the massive lions at the foot of Nelson's Column. The building of the column commenced in 1840 with the statue being raised three years later. It was another 11 years before the final bronze relief scene was placed on the pedestal and the famous lions were not installed until 1867.

Behind the water of the fountain the National Gallery is seen at the rear with the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields at the right hand side. A church has been on this site since at least 1222. King Henry VIII rebuilt it in 1542 to avoid having plague victims from the neighbourhood carried through the Palace of Westminster. At this time the church was still situated in the middle of fields in an area between the cities of London and Westminster.

The current building dates from 1722-1724 after a survey showed the 180 year old church to be in a state of decay. It is the parish church of the Royal family and contains graves of furniture maker Thomas Chippendale and, most famously, King Charles II's mistress, Nell Gwynne.

A photograph of the same scene with the fountain lit by flash.

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