Cruising

The kids club onboard was great. Andrew and I did a few shore excursions and we put the kids in to the kids club while we went out.

Tunisia was so interesting and different to any place we’d been before. We walked through the rabbit warren of the medina and Fattie the tour guide took us to a shop selling handmade carpets and also a perfume shop. The silk and cashmere rugs were beautiful. There was a lady sitting at the loom showing how the rugs are made. What a painstaking process, loop by loop, knot by knot.

In Malta the streets are built in a checkerboard pattern, all straight lines and square making it easy for people like myself with zero sense of direction to find my way around. We looked at the beautiful church of St John Co-Cathedral. The outside was plain but once you’re inside, like all the churches we’ve been to, the decoration of the church is unbelievable – ornate and every surface covered with some type of ornamentation and paintings.

We also went into St Paul’s Shipwreck church which was full of very beautiful artwork. St Paul’s right wrist bone is displayed in a case in one of the little side chapels.

In Palermo we did another brief 4 hour tour looking at famous churches, the names of which I don't know because I didn't write them down. Italian churches are unbelievable in their ornamentation.

We visited a real life palazzo, the home of a real life Countess who greeted us in person and showed us around. Her home has been in the family for 500 or so years. The working areas like the kitchen and upstairs certainly looked medieval and didn't look like any renovation work had ever been done.

We visited the noisy and smelly Mercato di Ballaro where they had the usual array of fresh food and unusual bits and pieces. One of the vendors chopped up a freshly cooked octopus about the size of a man's hand for us to try. He sprinkled lemon juice on it. It tasted a tad rubbery but not unpleasant if you like the taste of rubber.