drron29

We entered the Bapistry.

Now walking from the bus to Pisa. We met a local gude here who was excellent and a lot of fun.

Now on the bus to Pisa. A lot of wheat for pasta.

It is unusual for the bus to stop for any view just as it is unusual for people to take photos from the bus. I use a pocket Sony but do use the S setting and manually set the shutter speed. Unlikely to get it right all the time. But back to the report. Once again it was back to Atlantide which is our go to restaurant for dinner. There are enough changes on the daily menu so that it doesn't get boring. As well Rojaan's favourite waiter is in Atlantide - Therarith from Cambodia. We have cruised with him before. Sofirst the daily menu. So we both started with the soft shell crab with Rojaan's without the chipotle aoli. mine was by far the better as a lot more crab meat. I then had the Vindaloo pork with extra spice and it was great. Rojaan went again with the lobster tail I then had the white chocolate sandwiched between pistachio and wild cherry. OK. On friday we awoke in Livorno. We had a late start at0900 for Pisa.

Well you wouldn’t speak to us then because even though we will be 400+ nights at the end of this cruise we have never received a Venetian Society pin.

Just think of the numbers in my reply. If 542 guests averaged just 7 nights it means more than half the cruise consisted of new guests so the chance of them sitting next to another new guest is greater the chance of sitting next to someone who has done many cruises on SS.

Back in Menton. And our tender arrives. A bit choppy on the way back but the wind got stronger and the swell higher as the day went on and some of those coming back late afternoon got a bit wet.

Down the mountain we go.

Now back through the village to the bus.

Really amazing views from our seat. And a nice plate of sweets plus coffeee or tea. And you couldhave seconds. You could walk down this path which became steeper and narrower to Menton if you liked.

And great views. And now to a restaurant for refreshments.

The commanders quarters. Now to the real purpose. One of the gun positions. Most guns have been removed. A mortar. The storage for the mortars may make a good fitting for a wine cellar. And now the gun batteries from outside.

An operating theatre. Command centres. Drinking water. 50 men slept in this room. Showers.

The kitchen. Air purification.

This is another clue. And itis on this map. And this is it with a real retired French soldier to guide us. With a big key in his hand. And so inside we go.

And a restaurant with great views. And the real reason they have this tour.

And I'll find more Italian ones to post! 😀😉😮

After the church we climbed the main street. No cars on this but there is road access to the top of town.

The difference is in the make up of the passengers. Definitely a much younger group. Quite a few children and teens including several infants. This impacted us in a few ways. First several children on our deck. Two of them would run up and down the corridor making a lot of noise. They would do this after lunch and late at night- after 11pm. For me it also meant that the golf putting was not fun as a lot more turning up and more than half children. The 2 of us from the previous segment which was the most fun of any of our previous cruises decided not to go anymore. However on the positive side we are doing a lot better at trivia. Not getting higher scores but now have not finished out of the points with 3 firsts and 2 seconds. The other major difference is the very large number of new SS cruisers. The butlers have noticed this and found the work load much higher than normal. When we went to the Venetian cocktail party it was the lowest attendance that many of us had ever seen. So I checked on the figures. Total guests 582. Total number of nights on SS was 10600. Top 40 guests 6800 nights so 542 guests had 3800 nights between them. That is an average of 7 nights per guest. So the new guests have little opportunity to mingle with those who have had many nights and can point out many of the ways you can make things happen better. Still enjoying the cruise but hope things can change in 3 days time when our third segment starts. Sorry Stumbles but it’s now your turn to be more observant. JP answered your question on my cruise report. I only took 30 euros and spent 9.5 euros on the ramparts tour so only had 20.5 euros left for lunch. Mancunian my current thread is too long and I don’t think people can be blamed if they find it a bit much.

We had reached the village and the first stop the church. A memorial to those men from the village who died in WW1. More than half from 2 families.

The bus driver was amazing. a very windy, steep and narrow road with many 1 lane sections. Not helped by French drivers who seemed to want the bus to back up and let them through. None succeeded. Also motor cycle riders who tried both overtaking or those going the other way thinking that they could easily get through on the one way sections. Then there were the cyclists thinking that they were training for the mountain segments of Le Tour with many of them sticking to the middle of the road.

We have got to the stage where we have no idea which day it is but know we are steaming into Menton today. Off on our tour to St. Agnes an Eagle Nest village. As we got off the tender we were each canded a cup of local lemon juice. When on the bus we passed the store where the lemon juice is sold. It was very nice lemon juice which would go well as part of my Grandfather's treatment for the flu - equal parts of lemon juice and rum. Probably didn't help defeat the flu but you no longer worried about it.

Late afternoon St. Tropez. Dinner again in Atlantide. Rojaan had the teriyaki chicken and I the scallops with strawberrie, She once again went with the lobster and I had the cajun crusted tuna -a little dry. And the last of sunset.