Day 39 - Shopping in sunny Santorini

Leaving the balcony door open again certainly helped as neither of us were disturbed by coughing, but at 6:30am,  people on the next door balcony jabbering, acted as an alarm clock.  We closed the door and almost straightaway, Paula was complaining about a bunged up nose.  It is a pity that we can't totally shut off the cabin air conditioning.

Anyway, we ambled up to the buffet whilst the keen ones queued for the local tender boats and by the time we had finished breakfast, Angus made the call that there was no longer a queue, therefore numbered tickets were no longer required.

As he made the call, the Rhapsody of the Seas was just anchoring so we decided to go ashore before the queue for the cable car wasn't too long, as we didn't fancy either the long walk up the zig-zag path or a donkey ride.  We walked straight onto the tender and were last aboard so a few minutes later, we were ashore.  We had to queue about ten minutes for the cable car which is €5 each way (apparently, the same price as the donkey ride, but less smelly, usually, depending on who else is in the cabin…).

We ambled through the cobbled streets down to the main road.  Four items were on our shopping list.  Most important for me, was sour cherry juice.  For Paula, a pair of Greek ear-rings to match the necklace.  Less important was an English newspaper and a packet of ink cartridges for my fountain pen, probably the only thing I forgot to pack.

I managed the cherry juice – a 1 litre carton of a brand that looks like 'hby' at €2, is a far better bargain than the €3 for a single serve carton of a few days ago. I tried a swig outside the store, as previously, one of the carton's I'd bought wasn't very tasty.  This was fine, so on the way back, I bought another 2! (It flavours the cider nicely and I'll also try it in the Heineken shortly.  Only the Belgians seem to make cherry beer so I'll blend my own.)

We managed a Daily Express only to read more of the horrors in Tunisia.  We realised then, if we hadn't before, that no matter where you are, you can never guarantee 100% that you'll be safe from extremist nutters.   We can only live for today.  Sadly, the shop had plenty of stationery items, but no ink.  Our last shopping purchases were a scarf and then the ear-rings that Paula wanted, so overall, a successful trip.

On the way back down in the cable car, the other passengers were from the Rhapsody, but not the Rhapsody of the Seas.  There was another smaller cruise ship, with 150 passengers, just called Rhapsody!  They were doing a 14 day round trip from Istanbul, and were staggered that anyone would be spending over 100 days on a cruise.

Back on the ship quite early, about midday in fact. Too early to eat, so an Atrium coffee.

Later, yet another nice lunch upstairs.  Neither Dave & Sandie's team nor our team had the remainder present for afternoon trivia, so we joined them.  It didn't help too much as we still didn't win.

The early show was one of the few repeats we really don't mind.  Maggies 'Life is a Lemon'.  She dedicated her last song to the new love of her life, who is 'quite high up'.  Good on her.

Dinner was fine with probably the best roast veal we have ever had. 

The late show was another act we had seen before.  Comedy impressionist Gary T Thompson.  The audience were a bit slow warming to him, but when he did an impromptu impression of Cruise Director, Peter "Rabbit" Tredgett, it brought the house down!  He sings well and his Freddie Mercury and Tom Jones were very good.  I like his show a lot but I think he is a bit quick for some people.  When CD Peter closed the show, he got his own back and thanked Gary for his final performance – ever…  For those who haven't cruised with Peter before, we call him Peter Rabbit as he always uses 15 words when 3 will do nicely.  Very effusive, bowing and scraping, ('Nice to see you, to see you, nice' – with a real touch of the Bruce Forsyths, who must be his role model.)

Clocks back an hour again tonight and another relaxing sea day before our overnight stopover in Venice.  We arrive 2pm and leave 12:30pm the following day, so it isn't easy to make the most of it.  We have all been deducted $29 from our accounts, to cover for the water taxi over both days from the port to St Mark's Square.  If you don't use the ticket, you can hand it in for a refund.  Day 2, we may just wander from the dock and either call at the market at the bus station, or catch the monorail towards town.

Tomorrow, a new innovation.  Italian brunch in the dining room at 10:30am, but no normal breakfast!  That will upset one or two, but the brunch may well be very popular.  In the evening, in the Horizon Court, an Indian buffet, so we may well be torn.  In the past, we can't remember speciality buffets, other than at lunch time, so this may be a change of structure on this cruise, which means that we'll have to swot up on the dining room menu first and make a choice.