drron29

Back to Atlantide. First the day's menu. The wines for the night. For starters Rojaan had the beef tataki and I the artichoke timbale. We both enjoyed our starters. I then had the crab and beer bisque. For Mains Rojaan had the prawn dish from the regular menu and I had the Chilean sea bass. Both were excellent. We again decided against desserts.

More scenes of Palermo after lunch and the late afternoon sail away from Palermo.

On a Mediterranean cruise it is certain that you will not be the youngest on board in September. There are some countries with school holidays that extend into December. On our current cruise the segment from Barcelona which corresponded to Easter holidays there were many under 10s and quite a number in the 10 - to 20 age group. The media age was probably in the 40s.

Sorry I missed this post. I am sure I have posted 1 SALT menu before but there is another coming up soon. We only occasionally go to SALT as we find the meals a bit disappointing eg the Bouillbaise in Marseille was a watery imitation of the real dish and the Greek lamb was nice but the accompanying potatoes a limone had no discernable lemon taste. And just like Christmas dinners the menu is not produced on board according to what is available but on instructions given from Head Office.

She wasn’t feeling well and now it’s obvious why. She has come down with a nasty cold and is on antibiotics.

We often indicate to the Maitre'D in Atlantide that we are willing to share a table. They have restarted this on the last leg of this present cruise. We have often hosted solo travellers.

We are on our third segment of the Moon around the Mediterranean at the moment. Most times when docked the exit has been straight off on Deck 3. On the 2 occasions deck 5 was used the wheelchair passengers on excursions were taken off from deck 3. Deck 5 was used as the ship was being provisioned. Obviously OK for a few wheelchair pax to be catered for but obviously if everyone was using deck 3 the provisioning would be hampered. Also have noticed some wheel chair pax and a couple using rollators being taken ashore on the tenders. Out of the wheelchair on the ship and wheelchairs available where the tender docked. As I have noted before there have been many passengers using wheelchairs and rollators on the cruise and on one segment at least 5 people on scooters around the ship. They were taken by wheelchair on excursions.

Nearly back at the ship. People were streaming back on to the Costa ship. And then up to the Pool Grill for lunch. My wine. I had a Reuben sandwich and Rojjan a chicken Caesar salad.

Across the road a fellow had a boom box and was making all the actions suggesting he was singing the song but with a face mask on.

I guess it didn't help that across the street was a police station. And I came out at what I think is a major theatre. It did have a ticket office

Looks like a redevelopement stalled after finding some ancient structure.

Maybe I should have stopped here. And I came across a market. A lot of street food as well as fruit,veggies and seafood.

It was here I witnessed an accident. I am sure it was a set up. This black car on the crossing was turning right from a one way street. She was signalling that she was turning right. A motorcycle tried to overtake on her right side and seemed to collide. The motorcyclist was obviously accusing the driver of not signalling and very soon had 2 others who seemed to be backing him up. As the only non Italian speaking witness and arguing against 3 young men I thought would be a little dangerous.

Then I walked the back streets heading in the general direction of the Cathedral. One thing you noticed was the parking. More often tnan not the cars were parked on corners and the pedestrian crossings. Sometimes 3 deep. Not surprisingly I noticed a few mirrors like this.

Across another small street and an entrance to another villa. Gardens large but a bit overgrown.

A beautiful area in the city. Then walked across the road to a small garden. Seems the villa is missing.

I wonder if any money laundering goes on here. The orange plastic is surrounding a large area of the garden being renovated.

I was heading towards the English Garden. And in 2 days time they were having a cannolo festival.

And this platform also nearby. And now I walked into town. I think some of this is just made up.

Having eaten at Hawker Chan's I didn't think it worth waiting in line for an hour. Nice food but.

In the morning we were in Palermo. The huge Costa Smeralda was a short distance away. It can carry 10 times the passenger numbers with 2.5 increase in crew numbers compared to the Moon.