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Subject: Re: SS Uganda Christmas cruise Author: RMC [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 20:00:09 07/30/23 Sun In reply to: Glenn H 's message, "Re: SS Uganda Christmas cruise" on 23:28:27 10/02/18 Tue Yes, December 1980. We flew to Piraeus from Gatwick, and visited Athens. I remember the Acropolis and the Parthenon; I remember sailing onwards to Rhodes next (I think). I got up early to see us coming in to port (Lindos?) and seeing the windmills. I remember wandering around narrow cobbled streets past lots of white painted cottages, and some elderly Greek women sitting outside and trying to sell us beads or something similar. Afterwards, I can recall heading past Crete to Haifa and seeing Israeli soldiers with Uzis at the bottom of th disembarking gangway. Then by bus in the pouring rain and across the Sea of Galilee - and yes, so much rain that you couldn't tell where the sky ended and the sea started. Wandering through Bethlehem in the worst weather for fifty years, my shoes filling up with water as we were taken through a market not far from the Wailing Wall. I recall most of the religious sites we visited but I can't say which was which. I recall the packed lunches with "Tab" cans of pop, a brand unknown in England at the time. I remember the minibus stopping next to a banana plantation so we could get off and see them on the tree! Then again, getting to Corfu and me getting up early again to see the land come into view (I am/was a huge Gerald Durrell fan so it had specific meaning to me). We went to Paleokastritsa and I also remember walking through the centre of Corfu town and seeing a taxidermy shop, as per Durrell's book. Onwards to Dubrovnik except a force ten gale (I remember the vomiting, especially throwing up from a lower deck and watching the wind take the sick straight up into the faces of boys above, leaning over!) meant we had to dock at Split and get a coach all the way down to Dubrovnik. Walking round the town, the only bit I remember was seeing a shop selling burgers which must have been a foot in diameter - no money, didn't get one. Then Siciliy and Taormina and seeing a monkey cross the street on a telegraph line (someone's pet, we presumed) and prickly pears by the roadside up to Etna. We walked around somewhere trying to buy flick knives - probably Sicily but it could have been Athens at the beginning I suppose - no luck. And then to Malta but storms or schedules meant a late dock and a cross country dash at some horrid early hour to the airport and back to England (Gatwick?). I remember the brown Martian landscape and a few drystone walls from the coach window. That's about half of what I recall - too much to type and I have a very good memory I am pleased to say - but I recall the largely Indian or Bangladeshi crew being very generous in exchange for a couple of porno mags which the older boys from the fifth year had smuggled n board! There was an evening snack - a piece of cake and a cup of cocoa - which was pretty edible but the rest of the meals less so. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]