Creeping Bentgrass Harvest Song Fest

Last night David and I played at a Harvest Festival in Darwen, Lancashire. We were in a church hall which filled up nicely quite early on before we started and we played a taster of all the different styles of music we cover as we went through the night.

Two young boys were sitting right at the front and from the word Go they were playing imaginary guitars along to the music and looking as though they were having the most fabulous time. I dug out a couple of plectrums (guitar picks) from my supply and gave them one each and their smiles went skyward! As we took a break whilst food was being served they came over to talk to us - a 6 and an 8-year-old, bursting with things to tell us about all sorts of things, school, how they had a guitar at home. One of their teachers was called Miss Chadwick... They were lovely.

We spoke to their parents who were equally friendly and lovely and it turned out that they were a family of refugees who had been settled locally. They had been brought to the event by one of their local councillors as a way of introducing them into the community and he was almost overcome with the way we welcomed them. We had actually treated them as we would anyone else. That's all you have to do...

Cruising Into Bodrum, Turkey

Monday 12 September 2016. A new day, a new country! We are in Turkey today at a place called Bodrum. We are docked at the quayside today so can just walk off the ship without need for tender boats.

We had a light breakfast. "I'll have beans on toast, please," I said to the waiter. "One or two, Sir?" "Just one - er... one toast, not one bean..." I mean, you never know... I took this from the ship's Promenade Deck before we got off.

"We're not going to walk as far as the castle are we?" asked Fran. "I don't think so..." I answered.

Thomson Dream, docked in Bodrum with a catamaran moored on the other side of the jetty.

We came out of the port gates and turned left along the fence and then walked towards the town alongside a pebble beach.

Boats of varying sizes were moored at intervals along the shore. The land rose above this beach with bars and sun loungers and music playing. Dogs and cats were ignoring each other, finding any shade they could to stay out of the heat, even this early in the morning.

The larger masted ships are called Barkahans - the name I guess being the equivalent of a barque. They do trips around the bay, usually accompanied by lots of booze and loud music of the sort that makes you want to head butt something solid...

A smaller private yacht against the backdrop of the castle. Despite us saying we wouldn't walk that far we are already halfway there!

The barkahan boats line up waiting for someone to hire them. It tends to be the mock galleon types that do the booze cruises. These look like fishing trip or sight-seeing boats. I tried fishing a couple of times in my teens - lakes or canals not sea fishing - but I never really got into it.

It's mid morning now and we are approaching the town. The path moves back from the water's edge. We pass a few shops and buy some postcards. They are very cheap: Euros 0.15 each. I tell the girl that in UK they would be 40p each or 0.5 Euros and she gapes at me in astonishment.

Coming back out of a short covered market street (which we'll see on our return), we pass a mosque and more market stalls not yet opened.

Ahhh... we've walked as far as the castle after all! Bodrum Kalesi or castle was built and dedicated to St Peter by the Knights of St John from 1402. It has a three-storey English tower carved with the arms of King Henry IV. Since 1962 it has been a museum of underwater findings from shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea.

The site was also used for the dubious pleasures of hill-wheeling, a tradition originating in 1524 when Robbin del la Srosbrie chained herself to a mill wheel in protest at working conditions. This tradition later took the form of chaining visitors to large wheels and rolling them down the steepest hill in the town... What fun!

A fanciful bust of Herodotus outside the castle. He was one of the first historians - he is credited with gathering evidence of past events and arranging them into chronological order to make sense of what had happened in the past. Living in the 5th century BC, his history dealt with the Greco-Persian Wars. Cicero called him "The Father of History".

More statues outside the castle wall. This area was once a separate island from the mainland and before Bodrum it was known as Halicarnassus. It was here that another of the Seven Wonders of The Ancient World was built - the Mausoleum of Mausolus (who gave his name to "mausoleum". This means I have now visited the sites of five out of the seven wonders. Still left to visit are the sites of the great lighthouse or Pharos at Alexandria and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Perhaps one day...

This was a nice shady spot and we took advantage of a bench. My arm suddenly went all wet and warm... A stray dog, a large beautiful labrador type had come to sit by us, friendly and trusting and was licking my forearm. Probably flea-ridden too, so we didn't attempt to pet it much, but I did say "thank you" for the wonderful friendly gesture by scratching behind his ear briefly on which he happily loped off a couple of paces and lay down near us.

We started to walk back. This is the covered market street. The lamps on the shelf at the right caught our eye. To be honest of course, the guitars caught my eye first...

The street was roofed with natural branches from trees. The shops do not extend far back so the trees were growing on the other side of them with the branches overhaging. A simple lattice stopped the branches from dipping down too much.

We bought a couple of drinks from a kiosk shop. A 500ml Coke and a Capri-Sun orange sachet. Priced in Turkish Lire, I asked for a price in Euros and after consulting a calculator I was asked for 80 cents... Even though stuff was really cheap I knew that was too little. I worked it out myself and left him with another Euro. He looked surprised for a minute then nodded at me. I've always found the Turkish people to be a lovely and witty people and I didn't want to cheat him because of a mistake.

When we got close to the port, we sat for a while on another bench, then went to look at a shop and bought some fridge magnets and a set of drinks coasters.

Back at the Thomson Dream, where we started, at the dock in Bodrum.

We spent the afternoon sitting on the Pool Deck on Deck 11 and I sketched the same view that we started with early this morning.

Iconic Islands Index

The Long-Awaited Visit to Santorini

Sunday 11 September 2016. We have tried at least twice to get to Santorini before on previous cruises but the weather has always been too rough for a tender operation. This is where you leave the ship and climb down to a small boat which takes you to the port. The ship remains anchored in deep water off the coast.

Today though we manage to arrive and transfer to a tender boat operated by the Greeks. We were expecting to have to wait a while but once we had our tickets for the tender it was not long before we were seated at the back of the tender boat, watching the last few passengers being helped aboard.

As we move away from the side of the ship, the next tender boat waits to move in behind us. Santorini is famous for these cliffs. The village of Thira is built on the top and to get up there we have to either take a cable car or walk on our own legs or on those of a donkey up a zig-zag slope with almost 600 steps.

The cliffs are actually the side of a caldera, a volcanic feature created 3,600 years ago when the single island blew up, leaving a giant lagoon 7.5 miles by 4.3 miles surrounded by on three sides by 900 foot high cliffs and on the fourth side by a much smaller island called Therasia. This eruption is rumoured to be the origin of the legend of the lost city of Atlantis.

The lagoon is 400m (1300ft) deep, so only larger ships with a long anchor chain can safely anchor themselves. We approach the narrow strip of the landing at the bottom of the caldera cliff face and once here the local boat owners are trying to get us back into a boat to go to nearby Oia.

We wave away their offers and climb into the cable car which climbs up the 900 feet in around 3 minutes. Miss Franny wasn't worried about being in the cable car but was adamant that she would sit facing the cliff wall and not the view down...!

Just before we reach the top I take this photo of the buildings of Thira clinging to the edges of the precipice. A room with a view...

We come out of the cable car to a typical cobbled street. Most of the streets of Santorini are steeper than this, many with steps to assist you to climb without slipping. High heels are not a good idea here! I swapped mine for some sensible shoes...

The streets are a riot of shops aimed at the tourist trade. Jewellers, textiles, craft works, and art shops mingle with tourist souvenirs, fridge magnets, postcards, cafes and bars. One cafe sign said "Daphne Casserole" with a graphic of a casserole dish. Fancy coming all this way for a good dollop of 'tater pie wi' crust!

By happy coincidence Miss Franny's nails were painted in the exact blue of the Greek flag, which started many conversations as we passed shopkeepers, not all of which were just a simple exchange of greetings! We did buy some things there (I wonder what colour our fridge is under all those magnets) and Fran by the end of the day was sporting a really nice enamelled spiral ring which matched the afore-mentioned finger nails.

This is a fabulous place but decidedly not for the weak of limb or breath. Almost every street has a distinct incline. Consequently traffic is not a problem. On the few streets open to traffic, scooters or small vans are the norm with a sprinkling of four-wheel quad-bikes driven by tourists with more regard for thrills than pedestrians...

This was as wide a street as we found and (at this point at least) was fairly horizontal! Cafe bars predominated on one side with touristy souvenir shops on the other.

We found ourselves near the edge of the cliff. The buildings carry on for a while, clinging for dear life to the side and reached by dizzying steps, few of which had handrails.

Thomson Dream floats below us like a toy ship. The tiny tender boats are still ferrying passengers to and from Santorini. Two of the Dream's own tender boats are out as the crews exercise. No doubt though, they are keeping a close eye on the Greek boats in case of any emergency.

This is not the spot to choose a hotel unless you are very fit. Inaccessible to taxis, you will be carrying your luggage up and down these steps.

I get out the sketch pad and really enjoy the next 45 minutes or so. It is a challenge with the details of so many rooftop pools and narrow alleys and this is certainly not photographically correct, but I drew a few admirers whilst I was drawing apparently. One young girl with her boyfriend asked shyly whether I could do their portrait.
"Yes, with that..." I said, indicating the camera around the lad's neck and making them burst out laughing, "but not with the pencil I'm afraid!"

The cable car making its way up the cliff.

It was like a little train of pods. Like most cliff lifts it passes a similar line of pods going the other way at the halfway point.

There was still more to see and it was such a lovely place that we decided we would stay out for dinner. We found an un-named restaurant near the cathedral, the entrance set into a high wall. This led to a rooftop cafe with a wonderful view of the lagoon. Fran had a ham and cheese toastie and I had a Greek Feta cheese salad. Or at least, as much of it as I could eat!

Then more looking at shops and views and we bought a few postcards before heading back to the cable car. A party of about six people, British, stood blocking everyone's way, asking each other how much it was to ride the cable car. Meanwhile just three feet behind them was the ticket desk with a bemused lady who they could have asked. Just to the side of her window was a massive sign that showed the price anyway... Five euros per person each way, no return tickets sold, so you paid five euros just before travelling.

Iconic Islands Index

Cruising the Iconic Islands

Friday 9 September 2016. We drag ourselves out of bed at 2:30am ready to be picked up by taxi and taken to Manchester Airport for another week of serious research for material for this blog.

We are flying to Corfu to board the Thomson Dream cruise ship for the Iconic Islands cruise. Our itinerary will be: Corfu > Day at Sea > Thira, Santorini > Bodrum, Turkey > Syros, Turkey > Chania, Crete > Argostoli, Kefalonia > Corfu.

We have been to Corfu quite a few times now. On quite a few ships too, come to think of it... Ocean Village Two, Thomson Celebration, Thomson Spirit, Thomson Dream and Thomson Majesty. A couple of times we have been able to explore the town and take trips round the island, but this time we join the ship and are happy enough to lounge on the pool deck, trying to keep awake. A cocktail called Hurricane seems to help... As we have been a few times, I left my camera in the bag so any photos of Corfu are from previous years.

This is Corfu's cruise terminal. You are dropped off by coach from the tiny airport and pass through via a fairly fast-moving queue where you are given your boarding pass which will act as your permit for leaving and entering the ship and for any on-board purchases from shops or bars. We have an all-inclusive drinks package and whilst certain drinks incur a surcharge we'll be certain not to drink them... Luckily in any case our favourite tipples are free from any surcharge. Once you have been processed you are free to go through to the ship. It's only a short walk and your cases will be taken by the ship's crew from the coach to your cabin so you are not loaded down with luggage. A free bus service is available for those who prefer to ride or are unable to walk.

I may not have brought out the camera, but I did spend a bit of time on the Promenade Deck (Deck 9) with the sketchbook, drawing this view of the two fortresses of Corfu. Sail-away was not until late due to those passengers arriving on later flights. By the time we sailed we were happily sitting in the Water's Edge cabaret bar, listening to our long-time friends, Tomas and Maris, who perform as duo 2 Intense. A lovelier pair you could not hope to meet. We have been friends for six years now and try to meet up with them at least once a year.

The following day, Saturday 10 September, is a day at sea. We are sailing towards Santorini - a place that we have had on our itinerary several times before, but we have yet to visit. It has no port to dock a large ship and so requires a tender boat operation where the ship anchors off shore and you climb down (stairs - they don't make you do rope ladders...) into smaller tender boats which ferry you to the landing stage. If it is windy or choppy these cannot operate and that has always happened to us before, forcing the ship to divert to somewhere else. Fingers crossed we might make it on Sunday!

The day is spent reading and sitting on the pool deck, drinking (today we tried out a cocktail called West Indies Yellow Bird) and joining in with things like Trivia Challenge and identifying the Mystery Voices as the entertainments crew kept us from getting bored. The evening was the Captain's Formal Evening, a chance to dress up and have your photograph taken with the Captain, followed by a Reception during which the senior staff are introduced. After this, dinner is served in the Orion restaurant on Deck 4, where every evening the menu consists of a starter, a soup or salad, main course, dessert and tea/coffee.

Once the meal was finished, we went back up to Deck 8 again and Fran nudged me to point out the sunset over the stern of the ship (or as I like to call it: the blunt end...)

Once again we made for the Water's Edge bar with Tom and Maris, who on this trip were sharing sets turn and turn about with a young singer/guitarist Ben Moss. We both remembered Ben who started out on Thomson Celebration as an 18-year-old not all that many years ago and his four years with the Thomson fleet has seen him mature into an accomplished and confident performer.

I was invited to do a couple of numbers, joking that had I known I was to be invited to the stage, I'd have dressed up... Maris provided some harmonies for me and the audience reaction was very good - thankfully they must have drunk quite a lot during the Formal Reception and meal!

At 11:30pm all of the musicians on-board came together in the Medusa Loung for Band Jam. 2 Intense and Ben Moss were joined by pianist Keith Kerslake, duo Heart and Soul and party band Soundroom all on stage together to perform a quick-fire series of dance and rock 'n' roll numbers. We were right at the back of the room and the photo is a bit blurred I'm afraid. We were joined by a party of three couples from Glasgow and had a very enjoyable hour with them. My sides were hurting with laughing by the end!

Will we make it at last into Santorini? Tomorrow (and the next article) will tell!

Iconic Islands Index

Scarborough With A Hint Of Bridlington.

We had a weekend away this week, travelling to Bridlington on Friday for two nights. We stayed at a nice enough B&B which was just a bit let down by the shower unit in our room. This was plumbed straight into the water supply. This meant that there were separate hot and cold taps and the room was at the end of a long corridor so no matter where or how you set the taps, the water falling on you alternated every few seconds between freezing cold and scalding hot... Ah well, it was cheap and cheerful - if you don't count the owner's Dad who answered the door at night by saying "I hope you haven't woken our granddaughter up!!!"

I had a camera free day on Friday which is when we took advantage of some bright sunny weather in Bridlington. I had the sketch pad with me but I didn't get round to doing anything with it all weekend - Brid was crowded and seating by the harbour was at a premium and there were hundreds of people trying to eat fish and chips before the somewhat aggressive seagulls got them first. Not everyone succeeded... I didn't fancy spending an hour sketching only for a blob of unmentionable to obscure the page, so I apologetically offer this effort from 1994.

If you want to eat fish and chips then Bridlington is your place. There is probably one fish and chip shop for every seagull. This is actually necessary as the amount of repeat trade they get must be incredible from people who have had (helpful hint on seagull fave method coming) a seagull fly down over their shoulder and land in the tray of fish and chips, snatching a beakful and taking off with the probable spilling of the rest of the tray for other seagulls to fight over.

We found an Italian restaurant called Leoz. Highly recommended! I had the chicken stroganoff and it was delicious.

On Saturday we decided to leave the car and take a bus to Scarborough. Between the two bus stations of Bridlington and Scarborough it is 17.1 miles. This should take around 30 minutes or less, but the bus does not exactly go straight there. The timetable suggested an hour and 25 minutes, but it took quite a bit longer than that in the event. We missed out on the front seats going, but managed to get them coming back. Some of the roads it turned aside onto to reach holiday camps were better than a ride on the roller coaster!

When we reached Scarborough the first building of note that I saw as we walked down from the bus station was this theatre. The original Stephen Joseph Theatre was Britain's first theatre in the round and was built on the first floor of the public library. It moved to a former boys' high school and subsequently in 1988 following the closure of the Odeon Cinema it moved here, opening in 1996.

We walked downhill past the theatre and along a shopping street, cutting off down a side road and finding ourselves near the Grand Hotel. There was a funicular railway going down the cliff to the beach but we opted to take the strenuous route - this being much less strenuous going down than coming up - where we did take the funicular!

So we set off down these steps, admiring the litter and the way that, at the bottom, the handrail stopped being black and instead was seagull-poo coloured to the encrusted state that the end of the railing had corroded altogether and had dropped off.

Scarborough has a South Bay and a North Bay. To someone who lives on the west coast like me, directions on the east coast always seem the wrong way round. Between the two bays is a huge but ruinous 12th century castle high on its hill which was once a hillfort from the Iron Age, a Roman signal point and the home of Norse invaders. A busy spot. In fact all of Scarborough seems a busy spot. There was hardly room on the beach for all the families, couples, and sunbathers to swing a bucket and spade. People lean on each side of a windbreak, at least half of them having underpaid for the privilege.

Amusement arcades line the other side of the road, facing the beach and harbour. They look like Blackpool of yesterday - modern fronts on the ground floor of old buildings. Yet sadly, the amusements are the modern boring collection of cranes and two pence piece pushers with the occasional video shoot-out or racing game. Where did all those pinballs go, which I so loved as a boy and which required skill of reflexes and knowledge of the laws of physics rather than mastery of a remembered past sequence?

The harbour holds a collection of boats from working fishing boats to day trip or half-hour trips round the bays. A marina serves those rich folks who like to boast they "have a boat at the seaside" but rarely can be bothered to move them.

It all makes for a very picturesque scene. In fact multitudes of scenes of water, old buildings, modern amusements, the inevitable fish and chips, and families relaxing.

There are so many architectural styles within a short stretch of road that it is hard to make sense of it. Odd little bits strike you as either pleasing or incongruous. Some manage both at the same time.

On the whole I quite liked it. There were plenty of benches to sit on without having to pay to hire a deck chair - though they were well over-subscribed and finding an empty one was usually the precursor to turning away again as some other foot-weary person or group dived upon the few inches of bare wooden slats.

In the harbour, a single formidable chunk of membrane and tentacles was pulsating and moving slowly round in circles, its progress impeded by the strength of the incoming tide matching its ability to swim against it. It may have been somewhat mollified by the steady and continuing chorus of exclamations and excited shouts of "Oh! Look!" that it caused.

We bought a drink at a cafe and sat on the harbour wall whilst we cooled off and rested our feet. Well... rested our feet anyway. There was no shade on the harbour wall and I was turning a splendid shade of bright red on this, our second day in the sun.

Just after the harbour is this delightful Coastguards' Hut. Do a search and you will find lots of photos of it but finding any textual references will take longer than I cared to spend. Very strange - you'd have thought someone would have thought it worthwhile to say something about it...

Crammed into the smallish space between the harbour and Coast Guard Station is a small funfair with a handful of rides mainly aimed at children.

We retraced our steps until we reached the flight of steps and then we stepped smartly on until we reached the funicular railway - known as the Central Tramway Company. The car was full, I wasn't able to get to the window to take a photo of the other car coming down towards us. There's something about funiculars that always appeals to me. The theory is that the weight of the descending car matches as near as possible the weight of the ascending car and therefore the power needed to operate is not as great as might be required for a single lift.

We had lunch and a quick look round the shops (not my idea...) and then caught the bus back to Bridlington. This time we managed to get the front seat upstairs and it was a fun ride back via all the side roads and holiday parks until we arrived back at Bridlington bus station.

We got back to find a collection of classic cars parked near the harbour, their owners sitting by them, listening to a karaoke set-up. Unfortunately as we got there we were "treated" to a man and woman singing Those Were The Days as a duet. It certainly wasn't how I remembered those days... We decided on an ice cream and the young girl serving laughed out loud when I asked for two cones and two pairs of ear plugs. We sat on the harbour wall for a while until a seagull, sated with a surfeit of fish and chips decided to splatter all over Miss Franny's hand... "Ooh, that's lucky!" I said, a second before the backhander...