John Edward Cooper’s Notes
Thursday 26 September 2013
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[2013] [Wednesday 25 September 2013] 10:00–18:00 Mytilene, Lesvos—tender to shore Day 269 Thursday 26 September Nehemiah 1-5 Cruise News     Explore Ashore   Woke up, ca.8am. Janet had been awake since ca.7.30am. We were still moving, with green hills rising from the sea passing by in the distance, with occasional cliffs, and a sprinkling of villages and small towns on and among the hills. We had no excursions booked so weren’t in any hurry. Janet got up ca.8.15am, and I followed when she’d completed her ablutions in the bathroom. We went for breakfast. Janet has been lamenting the lack of variety of fruit at dinner time, notwithstanding the choice at breakfast, so she did the logical thing: take a peach and two large plums away with her for later. She felt as if she was stealing, though! We went ashore on the tender boat. The sun was bright and hot.  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 10:36:02 Going ashore from the tender First, we went to a bar/café facing the harbour from just across the street, and had a drink. Janet had a Coke Light and in the absence of Fanta I had a perfectly acceptable local bottled orangeade drink. The TV set in an upper corner of the room had the word “ΣΚΑΪ” at the top left of the screen, and it took me some minutes to realise that it was “Sky” because I didn’t immediately see the last letter as an iota with a diaeresis.  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 10:49:40 A drink in a nearby bar/café Then we found the road up the hill to the castle, not hard to do, even though the street names didn’t resemble the names given on the map, even allowing for the map’s use of Latin characters. We paid, I think €2 apiece to get in.…  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:28:58 Mytilene castle Janet was unhappy with the heat in the castle grounds, which curtailed my wanting to explore the site more thoroughly.  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:32:42 Mytilene castle  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:35:12 Mytilene castle  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:35:28 Mytilene castle It reminded me of the castle in Scarborough, in that it overlooked both a north bay and a south bay. The prospect over the north bay was easy to find.  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:40:22 Northerly view from Mytilene castle  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:40:22 Detail 1  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:40:22 Detail 2  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:44:22 Mytilene castle  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:45:48  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:47:34 Medrese: Ottoman theological school  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:48:46  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:48:08 Tekke — used for the rites of the dervishes  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:49:30 Tekke — used for the rites of the dervishes  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 11:49:40 Tekke — used for the rites of the dervishes  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:01:14 Mytilene castle  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:02:36 Mytilene castle I risked stepping over a rope barrier to climb some steep stone steps, open on the side away from the wall, to see if an opening in the wall would afford a prospect of the south bay — but it didn’t.  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:03:46 Mytilene castle  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:06:22 Mytilene castle  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:07:30 Mytilene castle, southern gate  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:10:20 Mytilene castle, southern wall I finally got some southerly views that I desired.  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:10:36 Mytilene, viewed from the southern part of the castle  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:10:50 Mytilene, viewed from the southern part of the castle  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:11:18 Mytilene harbour-wall, viewed from the southern part of the castle  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:13:52 MS Thomson Celebration at anchor  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:14:20 MS Thomson Celebration at anchor  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:18:22 Νατάσα (Natasa) loves Δημήτρης (Dimitris)  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:19:22 Mytilene castle, southern wall  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:22:46 Seen as leaving the castle grounds We wanted to find the “City Cathedral”, mentioned in Explore Ashore, but I didn’t find the map much help.  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:30:02 Mytilene street scenes  Thursday 26 September 2013 — 12:31:32 Mytilene street scenes The building we went in seemed to be in the place shown on the map, but equally seemed too small to be a “cathedral”.[i]
Afterwards we went back to the cabin briefly, before going to the
Lido Pool Bar. We had drinks; and Janet had an apple and I a slice, perhaps more than one, of pizza. The ship’s rock band
Top Men were just finishing their set there, and they were followed by a towel-folding demonstration. The commentary was a bit loud and intrusive — the rock band had been as loud if not louder, but welcome, not intrusive — and what’s more, we were pestered somewhat by people
going round trying to sell the towel folding manual that had been produced. A couple was sunbathing, oblivious-seeming, right in front of the demonstration; we despise the subspecies
homo stultus.
—so we headed there at 8.15pm so we could get a good seat before the place filled up, to find the door barred to us: “Captain John’s”
Gala Reception there was over-running. We went to the Lido for a bit, where
Janet bantered with the waiters, then went back to the Broadway Show Lounge and queued up. “When we were allowed in,”
Janet wrote, “I bagged two front-row seats.… The show was fantastic. These young people are so very talented and are a real pleasure to watch and listen to.” We went back to the cabin;
Janet had a shower, and further updated her journal. “It’s now 10.19pm,” she wrote, “and I’ll get my head down soon as we need to be up early
(ca.6.30am) for the Athens tour. I’m still slightly anxious about coping with the heat.” I was doing diary update whenever I had time; the entry for yesterday was done at the expense of completing the day’s before, but I went on to do that and completed it
(i.e. the relating of events; the photos and captions went in after we returned home). Edited a few of today’s photos (22:17–22:23). Decided not to do today’s diary update before I shut down
(ca.00:10) and went to bed. |
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