Italy in sight!

Wednesday 25 May.

 

I felt terrible this morning, my throat was so painful I could hardly talk. But somehow I had managed to sleep well, I was still sound asleep at 7:30 am when Moira woke me with a lovely cup of hot coffee. She dosed me up with pills then went to the buffet and came back with little packets of salt. She made me a gargle of salt and water which helped, as did a shower.

 

It was a day at sea again, we were heading for Dubrovnik in Croatia. That was in the Adriatic and we were in sight of land most of the day as we rounded The foot of Italy. Moira again pinpointed our position on her iPhone with the GPS app. First of all the shore line of the toe of Italy was seen then a gap (the instep) before the coast again appeared as we turned the heel. We saw all this from the stern where we spent the day stretched out on loungers. There had been a cool breeze blowing on top as we went for breakfast in the buffet but we were shelter at the back of the ship.

 

I finished the second 'Shetland' series book by Anne Cleeves I was reading, I then concentrated on the crossword in the 'Telegraph'. My throat was a bit better but I must have been coughing a lot as a woman who was sunbathing nearby came over and gave my a few Hall's menthol eucalyptus sweets for it. They did help to ease the irritation.

 

We left something lying on our loungers when we went for lunch, this apparently reserves them. When we returned the sun had moved and was now shining on where were sitting. I took off my top and did a bit of sunbathing for an hour. The Mediterranean is certainly a busy sea route and there were always a number of ships visible, also a few other large cruise ships passed close by.

 

At 5:00 pm we went to our cabin and had a glass of wine before making our way to the theatre for the early show. This was the last one and it was also a Gala night in the dining rooms - they all dressed up in their finery. There were three performances 'due to overwhelming demand' and we went to the first one at 6:00 pm. It was just the 'music hall' type of acts, the dancers, a couple of poor singers, acrobats and the contortionist. We were more amused at the wonder and enthusiastic clapping by some of the audience for the stunts of the acrobats. I remember someone saying that when jugglers, magicians and acrobats came on the likes of 'Sunday Night at the Palladium' that was time to go and make a cup of tea. The best part was at the end when the entertainment director, Stephen Cloete ( the good talker) came on with the Captain and crew, he sang and was much better than the others we had just heard.

 

It was time for dinner when the show ended and there wasn't a queue at the buffet now. I ordered another 'bucket' of Castle but the glasses you get are made of plastic and the beer doesn't taste the same out of them! After dinner I wasn't feeling too good again and we headed off to bed. I read for about an hour then it was off to sleep for an early night. My throat was again sore but I still managed to sleep. Tomorrow is a long day in Dubrovnik.

 

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