Day: October 6, 2023

Zakynthos

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So I’d already been in Rome, Napoli and Sicily. Zakynthos, or Zaki as the locals call it, was the fist “new”. And it was a good one! A beautiful little island with lots of little farms growing mostly olive trees. The main summer income for the islanders is tourism, the main winter income is olive oil. No wonder that they sell all kinds of olive products everywhere: oil, lotions, along with honey, wine etc.

Our friends Yuki and Bill, Ted and I joined a day-long tour by bus & boat. Half of the day we drove around the island, first on the westside, where most of the 20,000 people live, then on the eastside with its high cliffs and gorgeous views.

The most famous view is down to the shipwreck beach. A group of cigarette smugglers had a problem with their ship and – instead of being caught by the coastguard – they just abandoned their vessel and ran off. The ship ended up on this beach and is falling apart ever since this happened (in the 1980s). Unfortunately the beach is closed and you are not allowed to go ashore because of falling rocks from the cliff surrounding the beach.

We had a few more stops with views to other beaches, one of which had sulfuric gases bubbling out of the water near the beach, making every public restroom small like a perfume store. But it is healthy apparently… On top of the cliff above the stinky beach is a little bar, where the people on the beach can order food and drinks, that then is transported down by an interesting gondola basket

The second part of the day we spent on a boat, moving along the coast and it’s many little beaches, coves and grottos. We drove inside a few of them, we swam in the Mediterranean we had a lot of fun!!! The crystal clear water has all shades of blue and turquoise – like heaven to me ❤️

Taormina

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Last year we fell in love with Sicily, when we visited the Aeolian Islands to do a one week long hike. But our hike organisation Macs Adventure had to change the itinerary, because the volcano Stromboli acted up and destroyed some of the hiking trails we were supposed to use. So we ended up with 2 nights in Taormina and we loved it! We wanted to come back and when we saw the itinerary of this current cruise, we didn’t hesitate to book it.

Unfortunately the day in Taormina was cut short and we were supposed to be back by 3pm. When we wanted to leave the ship by tender, this process took forever and we when we finally were on land we couldn’t find a taxi to bring us up to Taormina 🥴

It was around 11.30am when we finally arrived and we immediately rewarded ourselves with a delicious cannoli 🤩

Cannoli is a round baked philodough that is shaped into a Zylinder and filled with a ricotta cream and sprinkled with pistachios – delicious!
Limoncello Spritz for Edith, chocolate gelato for Ted

There is an image that you can find throughout Taormina: flower pots with an middle eastern looking male face. Legend has it that this handsome guy came to Taormina and fell in love with a local virgin. After making love with her, she discovered that he was a married man. So she chopped off his head and used it as a flower pot. And the herbs growing from this pot were thriving! Ever since the people in Taormina make flower pots with his image so that their herbs and flowers grow well!

Alex – honk – Alex – honk honk – Alexandria

edithted3 Comments

It is loud here in Alexandria! Very loud. And very dirty. And very smelly! I wish I had Ted’s nose; his sense of smell is almost non-existent and that is a big advantage sometimes.

Today is National Armed Forces Day, a national holiday and everything is closed.

Alexandria was on our itinerary, and my brain just jumped up and screened: Bibliotheca Alexandria, but this magnificent modern library, that I always wanted to visit, is also a victim of the National Armed Forces Day and therefore closed 😱

Ok then, let’s go to the national museum then. We met our friends on the way there, they just finished their visit, so we feel safe. We know it is open, small, interesting and it has a bathroom which makes Ted happy. We arrive and the guard at the entrance tells us that it is closed. No electricity.

Egypt is not really inviting today, we are already tired of walking around and we choose to sit in a cafe and drink a coke (Edith) and a water (Ted). And it turns out that they don’t have coke. I guess maybe it has something to do with National Armed Forces Day? Honk honk honk…