Mersey modification

Diva’s first tantrum of Day 1 was during the disorganised embarkation. The second was during dinner when an enthusiastic wine waiter at the next table continued loudly to explain options during the Captain’s announcement.  She missed most of it but eventually discovered that due to an impending storm, Plymouth and Fishguard were cancelled and the next port would be Liverpool. So if they had forgotten anything (which they haven’t) they could go home to collect it.

The Atlantide menu has changed completely (jury still out on that) but the filet mignon and lemon meringue pie are excellent as ever. Wine (Diva)and sparkling water (TSH) very palatable. At breakfast, TSH enjoyed his first Danish pastry of the voyage.

In which TSH falls foul of Diva and the Turkish Army

 After anchoring near the port of Dikili, the Captain announced that the swell was too great for safe tendering operations. Eventually he obtained permission to land guests in a protected fisherman’s harbour so tours could commence. Diva looked at the water and decided to stay on the Silver Moon. TSH set off alone on the carefully selected, easy, non-exciting tour. Except he managed to get on the wrong bus and instead did the ascent to the Acropolis – involving climbing and a cable car. During the tour, the group paused near an army installation and were told in no uncertain terms to move on.

The evening meal included 2 favourites – TSH’s deconstructed fruit crumble and Diva’s lemon meringue.

TSH and Diva made a rare appearance at the after-dinner show. Diva enjoyed the Queen tribute but TSH wondered what Freddie Mercury would have thought of the top hats and twirling umbrellas.

Still no news on luggage.

Lemon meringue - increased to 22 blobs 

Deconstructed fruit crumble

Lunch on pool deck in Istanbul

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.