It was a beautiful drive from the Rome on the western side
of Italy all the way across to the eastern side to Ancona, a seaside port some
320km away. We crossed the Apennine Mountains where we encountered some
wonderful scenery and quite a few long tunnels – one was 10km long! A few short
comfort stops along the way found us in Ancona at 12.30pm with plenty of time
to make our 2pm sailing. We alighted from the bus before it boarded the ferry
and made our way on-board with only overnight bags packed with essentials as
the coach is strictly off limits to everyone while it is on the ferry.
We were given “keys” to our cabin and then settled in for 24
hours of relaxation as we sail to Greece. The cabins are very comfortable with
twin beds and a bathroom with probably the best shower we have encountered
since we left. Well, it is the best in terms of water pressure, temperature and
ease of use…the only downfall is that the drain is extraordinarily slow and the
shower base only about 3cm high so you have to turn the water off or down to a
trickle every 30 seconds or so and wait for the water to drain before you go
again in order to avoid flooding the bathroom. Tricky…but strangely engaging!
Our first task was to get some lunch. We had boarded at
about 1pm but were advised to immediately advance our watches by 1 hour to move
to Greek time. This seemed to make us inordinately hungrier as, after all, it
was now 2pm and way past lunchtime! So off we went to the cafeteria where we
looked in puzzlement at the array of food before us. (We did later discover a
menu of sorts with Greek and English descriptions at the entrance but this went
unnoticed at this point). Carly pointed to something that looked like a lamb
shank and that looked good to me too so we got one each with hot chips. We
later discovered it was a knuckle of pork and can I tell you it must have been
a monster of an animal as it was a huge serving. We did manage to eat it all
though – it was very tasty.
Armed with our kindles, we retreated to the cabin at about
3.45pm where I was soon putting the kindle aside and I slept until about 5.45pm
– Carly kept reading – she couldn’t believe that she fell asleep within minutes
on the bus but wasn’t tired here where she had ample time to sleep in comfort.
We met up with the group again at 7pm for our official
welcome drink in one of the ship’s bars. We stayed chatting for a few hours
hoping we would soon feel hungry enough to go and get some dinner but that time
never came so we just came back to the cabin at about 10pm and kept reading
after getting ready for bed. We only turned the light off at midnight –
breakfast is scheduled for 9am tomorrow – what bliss – no need to jump up and
get ready to head off somewhere!
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