Photoblog

Thumbs up for TSH

The visit to Zadar exceeded expectation. The weather was once more very pleasant and the seaside promenade provided the opportunity for a good walk. The Roman remains are now better presented and there is a museum which may be worth a visit at a later date. The sea organ was in good voice. As Silver Spirit prepared to sail, a crowd was gathering but it turned out that they were there to watch a light show at the monument to the sun. Not a send-off party for TSH and Diva, then.

The entertainment on Silversea needs some attention. TSH and Diva watched 'Blues Brothers Soul Sisters' in total disbelief at the cheesy performance. About 70 years out of date.

TSH and Diva rose at 5:45 in order to be in Observation Lounge for the sail into Venice. Unfortunately the Captain had got ahead of schedule so it was still dark and the Cruise Director who planned to give a commentary didn't realise the ship was opposite St Mark's Square until it was almost past. Early morning mist then descended, so the omens for the day were not great. However, the sun burnt off the mist and the tour of the Doge's Palace, the prison (via the Bridge of Sighs) and St Mark's Basilica was excellent. More views of Venice from the boat which took them back to the Silver Spirit.

On return to the Silver Spirit, they went for farewell burgers on the pool deck,  only to be assaulted by the pungent smell of a cigar from a nearby table. TSH went to point out that the smoking area was elsewhere. The smoker apologised and moved, at which point a massive thumbs-up sign was sent to TSH from a neighbouring table.

Towards Venice

A leisurely day at sea was followed by Venetian night - once again the 'top cruisers' had spent more than 1400 days on board. TSH and Diva were invited to dine with the Captain - for the first time on this holiday.

The visit to Dubrovnik started early enough that they had good views of the impressive marble streets and stone buildings before the hordes arrived from the large cruise terminal along the coast. After that, the streets became very over crowded.  At some of the smaller ports on this holiday, there were no other cruise ships but at the larger, or more popular, ports there have been regular sightings of Viking Sky and Celebrity Edge.

The coast along the eastern Adriatic sea is beautiful, with mountains and many small islands, so the last few days will be very scenic.

In spite of not having a good internet service, Diva has managed to just about keep up with her OU course, although a large amount of work will be needed as soon as she gets home to a good signal. The first assignment - as yet incomplete - is due very soon. She has also almost finalised her U3A talk on the golden ratio. TSH has worked on cataloguing and photoshopping his pictures, but the signal has not been good enough for much work on his website. TV reception has been patchy and at present their suite has vision but no sound.

Dinner with Ruth and Michael from Northern Ireland - they first met them in Alaska in 2018.

Volcanic ventures

Herculaneum, destroyed in the Vesuvius eruption of 79AD along with Pompeii, was a small but very prosperous town. It is a much smaller site than Pompeii and more of the buildings, along with some of their decoration, are still standing. An excellent guide really helped the visitors to understand what life was like. The visit is much easier than Pompeii because of the smaller size and the greater number of recognisable houses.

The Silver Spirit then anchored off Taormina in Sicily, providing excellent views of an erupting Etna. Intrepid TSH took the tender ashore to visit the volcano at close quarters, whilst Diva stayed on board. The tender ride was notable for being smooth.


He went to the Silvestri craters which are at 5,700 feet above sea level. The highest point of Etna is at nearly 11,000 feet but to progress any further up required a cable car ride and a further road trip which could not be completed in the time available. During the bus drive, he saw ash and lava  from many eruptions, including some this century. The walk round the extinct craters was interesting and provided views over a number of other craters and lava fields.


One enterprising “shepherd” was sitting by the path with a goat, posing for photographs – he appeared to be making quite a bit of money.


The drive up and down Etna was also interesting as a study of the behaviour of Italian drivers. The  road was very narrow in parts and one town was very busy because there was a festival.  At one stage the bus driver needed to ask a policeman for directions because of road closures. TSH learnt that rude gestures are universal.


Surprisingly, TSH saw at least one ladybird high up on Etna.

Magnificent sunset over Etna before an Indochine dinner.

Squabbles at the Vatican

TSH and Diva set out on the long day tour from Civitavecchia to Castel Gandolfo - the Pope's summer residence, which is not used by the current Pope. The private apartments were not as luxurious as they had expected but the marble floors were stunning, as was the view across the nearby lake, which sits in the crater of a hopefully extinct volcano. The gardens were very pleasant - as well as trees and some good flower beds, they had a number of ancient Roman features, including a partially-excavated theatre. The whole site is part of the territory of the Vatican and is larger than Vatican City itself. Lunch was a simple affair of bread and local cheese and ham.

There appeared to be many problems with the schedule of the tour and there was a lot of loud Italian   interaction (complete with a lot of body language and hand waving) between the tour guides and the apartment guards and then between the tour guides themselves. 

A street seller had a turtle on the top of his head but this was definitely not real.

Diva treated herself to a dessert at dinner - the lemon meringue pie had 15 small whirls of meringue surrounding the small lemon tart.

A change for the better

Before sailing from Monte Carlo, the captain announced that Silver Spirit would be going to Genoa in order to dock, as the swell was too great at Portofino to use tenders. Diva and TSH were pleased about this because they have visited Portofino twice already on this cruise, so they cancelled their booked tour  and instead paid their first visit to Genoa.


Genoa turned out better than expected. There were many fine buildings and the cathedral was well worth a visit. Outside the cathedral Diva and TSH talked to a member of the crew from the ship who was touring round Genoa on his bicycle.


Whilst on the shuttle bus from the ship to the city centre Diva and TSH overheard many inane comments.  One person was very confused when the guide said that Silversea had arranged for a shuttle bus to run at half hourly intervals from the ship and the city centre. 'So at 11:00 is the bus starting at the ship or at the city centre?' He had not grasped that the answer was 'both', as two buses were running – obviously he could not read the supplied timetable. Diva ended up in fits of the giggles.


TSH has been quite amused by the voice in the lift which announces  “Going Down”. Not really a cheerful message on a ship.


At lunch time, one confused passenger returned from the buffet to what he thought was his seat but was in fact on the other side of the dining room. It was of a concern to Diva that he had left his white wine behind but he solved this by getting a new full glass (the wine is included in the price paid for the cruise).  


Whilst going to the dining room, Diva and TSH encountered some people waiting for other members of their party to join them for dinner. This was at the back door to the dining room. At the proper entrance to the dinning room, there were also people there waiting for others to join them.  The same group, perhaps?

At the third visit to Livorno, TSH and Diva took an excursion to Pisa, which looked as beautiful as ever. In the cathedral, TSH was so busy spotting the place where he rescued the bat in 1995, that he tripped over the base of the column - but avoided falling. No harm done except to his pride.  They missed the final bit of the tour in order to buy tickets for the cemetery building, so that Diva could be photographed with the statue of Fibonacci which is kept there.

They were lucky to get to Pisa - a very loud noise followed by a clunking noise caused the bus to park at the side of the road. It turned out that the bracket holding the spare wheel had become loose. With the help of a passing lorry driver, the bus driver resolved the problem quite quickly.

In Pisa, as in Florence, there were vigilant police not only armed with automatic rifles but with their fingers on the triggers.

Despite the number of cancelled tenders and re-arranged ports, the sea is very smooth - on only one night so far has it been possible to feel the motion of the ship.


Diva and TSH hope that the news that someone is buying the Thomas Cook stores is good news for Thomas Cook staff.

The handshake

Back at Monte Carlo again – this time for two days. The first day the ship was anchored in a very heavy swell. The sea conditions for going ashore by tender were much worse than other days when the captain decided against it and went to another port. Could this be because senior Silversea people based in Monte Carlo are getting on the ship for a 'special event' tonight?

This is not just a Venetian Society reunion cruise - it is also celebrating Silversea's 25th birthday. There have been special events and gifts. The haul so far is: box of toiletries (Diva's favourite), Silversea tie/scarf pins, Silversea 25th anniversary tie/scarf pins, passport holders, commemorative small plate with traditional Monaco emblem. 

Diva and TSH dined with the SVP Hotel Operations & OBR who sounds important and is based in Monte Carlo. His home town is Sutton Coldfield, which detracts from the glamour a bit. Before the dinner, Manfredi appeared and shook hands with everybody at the table. Diva vowed never to wash again. Manfredi is referred to as 'the owner' (of Silversea), although, since he sold the majority share to Royal Caribbean, this is not actually the case. 


Diva decided against going ashore on the first day – short legs and a bouncing tender make the transfer from ship to tender very difficult. TSH has longer legs and took the bumpy ride into Monte Carlo. He then walked around - past the casino but importantly not into it. The return tender was loaded with a number of boxes which rumour has it were treats for the senior Silversea staff.

On the second day, Silver Spirit was docked and TSH and Diva were able to take the local bus to the 'jardin exotique' - a very pleasant cactus garden with spectacular views across the city and harbour.

Diva takes the biscuit

Whilst docked in Laverno, the tour was to Florence, which Diva had never visited before. She was impressed with the marble churches and the other massive buildings. It was not possible to go inside any of them, as the queues were extremely long, but they walked most of the main streets, either with the guide or during 'free time' afterwards.

TSH bought three silk ties (they were on offer at 15 Euro for three) from a stall on the market. There were no ties on sale as colourful as the one he bought in Florence in 1994 - Diva thinks this is a good thing.

The tour was well organised and the weather not too hot, so the day was not as strenuous as feared.

TSH also treated himself to an Italian ice-cream. Diva is not a great ice-cream fan, but was offered a small sample on a small piece of wafer. She ate the ice-cream and the biscuit  (both very good) before TSH pointed out that he had handed her the whole biscuit and was expecting some back. It was a very small biscuit!! TST was told that the biscuit was very good.

Dinner was taken on deck at night - pizza with the backdrop of a spectacular sunset and a few glasses of wine.

The next day was much easier - a tender to Portofino, followed by a stroll around the town. Everything seemed very over-priced, but this is a millionaires' Paradise.

It is true that irony does not travel. Hearing a group of American women discussing past and future holiday 'shapping', Diva said to them that she was aware that there were no shops in the USA. One of the women kindly took the time to explain that there were lots of shops and went on to describe the variety of goods on offer.

The show given by the cruise director himself - singing and comedy - is one of the best on Silversea.

Another change

During the day at sea, the Captain announced that due to the significant sea swell, the Silver Spirit would not be anchoring off Alghero but would instead dock at Porto Torres. This provided the opportunity to walk to the beach, where TSH went to examine the rock pools but they showed no signs of life. Similarly, the only sea creature seen was a statue depicting a dolphin jumping over a rock in the sea - perhaps a local answer to the little mermaid.

Diva and TSH proved the local tourist representative wrong. She said that you could not miss the archaeological museum - they did. In truth, they found the site itself but not the way in and considered that the odd signpost might have helped. They also went to the interesting 12th century basilica, with its gruesome tales of martyrdom. They later viewed the town from the comfort of the Arts Café on the Silver Spirit.

TSH and Diva were invited to Venetian night this time and afterwards dined with the guest relations manager, who admitted that Silversea keep records about the preferences of all guests. He was non-committal about whether this included details of past complaints. TSH and Diva are not very important on this voyage, although they are experiencing excellent service and a lot of recognition by name. On both legs so far, the top cruisers have done over 1400 days. It puts their own 400 into the shade!!

No visible parrots in Porto Torres. Nobody is talking about Brexit - the subject is just too toxic. TSH is still 'playing nicely' but finds it hard going.

Local colour

After dinner with the Hotel Director, the show was, unusually, given by local performers, who sang and danced in local Italian style. An enjoyable experience.

The butler has now introduced herself. She is from Zimbabwe and has just joined the ship. She appears to be suffering from a cold but is soldiering on.

This cruise is intended as a reunion cruise for Venetian Society members, although  TSH and Diva have not met any old friends. The legendary Fernando, a one-time cruise director who is spoken of in hushed tones, is onboard. TSH and Diva have never met him before and have still not seen him in action, as he is taking no apparent part in directing the cruise.

Every Venetian Society member has been presented with a beautiful box containing toiletries and a candle. There was also a special event at a Sicilian farm (the Silver Spirit is docked in Palermo), consisting of cookery demonstrations, a puppet show, singers and dancers and a local-style lunch. TSH spotted a couple of raptors during the drive.

Dinner will be a snack affair from Room Service.