Author: Zogman

Monaco – 12 October 2025

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We actually went to Villefranche – Sur – Mer on a tender. It used to be the case that the cruise ships would drop anchor in the bay and then passengers wishing to see the sights of Villefranche would be ferried ashore in the ship’s tenders, smaller vessels that act as a support for a larger ship, often a cruise ship. However, purpose built craft capable of carrying more passengers, more effectively are now being used instead.

Once we were ashore we headed for the train station, bought tickets and were whisked away along the coast for four stations to Monaco. With our prior knowledge of Monaco station we knew not to walk out on to the the road that form part of the famous F1 GP circuit. The reason being that the only way down to the town proper is a long walk down the sloping road. Instead, we took the lift down to lower exit, saving aching feet from that long walk.

Monaco is a bit of a let down. Almost all the shops are shut until late afternoon and although there are quite a few petrol guzzlers around the Casino, we weren’t all that interested. We’d done it all before and were impressed then, but now not so much. We could have stopped to have an overpriced coffee in one of the roadside cafes, but instead, we went back in the train to Villefranche, then caught a boat back to the ship.

Things we’ll remember:

  • Mr Top Hat!
  • Morning Glory flowers that lined our path to the station.
  • Lantana flowers. Brightly coloured flowers that seem to grow everywhere in the Mediterranean.
  • The boat trip to and from Villefranche
  • Two show-offs on jet powered surfboards.

PoD just had to be Mr Top Hat.

 

Piombino, Tuscany, Italy – 11 October 2025

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We were docked in Piombino, a town neither of us had heard of before today. Across from us were what looked like a some abandoned industrial buildings. Lorries that looked like toys from our vantage point in the ship were constantly offloading rubble onto ships. Not the scenic delights we were expecting. However, once we’d taken a free coach to the town, we realised this was a quiet and elegant little town.

What we’ll remember:

  • The heat! And this from the man who thought, before he left UK, that he might need a couple more layers because, well, it was October!
  • Bumping into an Indian family while we were checking out an open air market. This happened to us quite often!
  • In that same market we found an English man selling tables of forks and knives from a market stall.
  • Kids zooming about on electric scooters.
  • Bruschetta served on a wooden plate outdoors from a restaurant.
  • Washing down the food with an Aperol Spritz for Scamp and a lemon flavoured local beer. Sounds awful, but was really refreshing.

PoD was a view down a narrow lane looking out to sea. Lots of narrow lanes in these small towns. Check the street lights.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Monaco home of the Rich and Famous.

Naples, Italy – 10 October 2025

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Not one of Scamp’s favourite places. The traffic is absolutely crazy and crossing the road means you’re taking your life in your hands. With that in mind, we were amazed to find that you could walk down under the madness of the roundabouts and the traffic and come out at the other end after having passed the underground rail station on the way. A much safer, but at the same time a bit disappointing place too. I did rather like the madness!

Things we’ll remember:

  • Scamp still wasn’t happy in the traffic.
  • How easy it was to walk under the cars and buses and come out into sunlight on the other side.
  • Searching for a pizza place we’d visited a few years ago – We never did find it.
  • Having a White Pizza for lunch. That’s what happens when you don’t take care to read the menu properly.
  • The pizza was good, just not the one we’d hoped for.

PoD was the view looking to Vesuvius in the distance.

Cagliari in Sardinia – 9 October 2025

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Cagliari is the capital city of the Italian island of Sardinia and is an old fashioned town. We spent most of our time wandering around the narrow streets. Scamp wanted to climb up to the hilltop Castello, a medieval walled quarter situated high over the rest of the town. By the time we got to the top we were exhausted, but the views round the city were amazing.

Things we’ll remember:

  • The climb up to the Castello.
  • Scamp got a silver ring from a wee jewellers shop in the city.
  • The heat in the city.
  • Watching a rather ugly ship berthing next to us, The Virgin ship Scarlet Lady. I preferred our smaller ship.
  • Trees everywhere in the city.
  • Hills everywhere too. Good exercise.

PoD was the view to the front of our ship taken from our cabin.

All at Sea – 8 October 2025

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The first sea day of this year’s cruise.

Sea days are usually the first day of the cruise. Yesterday evening we sailed away from Palma and headed east towards Sardinia. That would take a full day’s sailing. Sea days tend to be a bit boring, because you can’t get off the ship, but there are lots of things to do on the ship

Here are some of our memories:

  • Breakfast in the posh restaurant.
  • Very slow service.
  • Salsa dance class with Kevin & Gabriella. Good dancers, poor teachers.
  • We all learned the steps, but nobody learned to actually Dance.
  • Scamp made friends with a pink llama.
  • Walking around the ship, finding more places.
  • Went to the show, ‘Revive’ Brilliant show.

PoD was a distorted view looking up at the ceiling of the breakfast room.

Flying through the air in a metal tube – 7 October 2025

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I can’t remember where I read that comment, but it springs into my head every time I’m in a plane.

Everything went like clockwork. The plane was on time we were seated staring out at a dark, wet and grim looking Glasgow Airport but soon we were beginning to taxi and then we were flying. The longest flight we’d been on in quite a few years. Still, the worries were there. Did I lock the back door? Were all the back windows closed? Oh what the hell, we were going to a few new countries and a lot of places we’d not been to in a long while. Just a case of lying back and enjoying it.

Sooner than I thought, I felt the plane begin to decelerate as it started its approach into Palma airport. Everything was going to be fine.

After the traditional first Holiday Beer at about 10:30am we went on a wander around the ship, our ship. Lots of places looked familiar and some didn’t . It was a slightly smaller ship than our previous Tui Discovery 2, but that would turn out to be an advantage. I needn’t have worried about the temperature. This was ‘shorts and tea shirts’ weather.

We went for a walk around the shore area and I caught sight of an aircraft carrier. The first I’d seen in a long number of years. I asked a Police man if it was an old ship, but he said “No. It’s real. It’s for the War”. That sort of took me back down to earth. You forget that although there are hundreds, if not thousands of folk arriving or leaving these cruise ships, there is a real and definite undertone of threat there too. We made an unspoken decision to put I to the back of our heads and not speak about it again this cruise.

On the way back from our walk, we found a ‘Cherry Picker’ being used to wash the windows of the top deck of the ship. I wondered if the bloke at the top had his “Working At Height” licence.  It must be a wonderful view from there.

The day was a bit of a blur. We did go for a walk outside the ship and also around the inside. We had lunch in one of the restaurants and had a few drinks too. There was the usual ‘Sail Away’ party on deck after the final late arriving folk were checked in and we spent a fair amount of time watching the goings on.

Eventually we agreed we’d had enough and went to bed. We’d been up since about 6am and it was now about midnight. Time for a bit is shut-eye … after one more glass of wine perhaps.

Tomorrow is a sea day with the chance of a dance class.

Getting Closer – 6 October 2025

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I always get edgy as we get nearer to the day we fly. This was no exception.

Were my cameras packed properly? Was the batteries charged? Was my checklist ok? Did I have enough warm clothes, because, despite what Scamp never tired of telling me, it wasn’t going to be all that warm where we were going.

Eventually I bit the bullet and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Taking photos is what I do to calm down and it worked. Not a lot of photos, but enough to take my mind off the possibilities of things that might go wrong and concentrate on taking some photos of the autumn leaves. Do they have autumn in Palma?

But first, another chance to worry. Would the taxi arrive on time. It did. I was soooo glad that I’d agreed with Scamp that we wouldn’t take our car, because the poor taxi driver had to manage the lane changes that were needed to get us through the roadworks that will be with us until May 2026, or so we’re told. We got to the airport just a little later than he’d predicted, paid him and walked over to dump our cases in the check-in hall. With the cases gone, my stress levels started to decrease. A glass of beer with a glass of expensive wine for Scamp and I was beginning to believe we could do this. Heavens, it sound like we’re a pair of bank robbers instead of just a couple of oldies going on holiday.

I knew we wouldn’t sleep much but we set our watches and phones anyway, and we did begin to drift away ………..

Tomorrow would come in its own sweet time.

Much calmer at last – 5 October 2025

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Today I think Storm Amy has left the building.

It was much quieter this morning and we only had Wordle and Strands to worry about. If that doesn’t make sense to you, I’d suggest you look for puzzles in New York Times, online of course. Once we had solved the puzzles it was almost lunchtime and Laura Kuenssberg’s morning battle with politicians. Today it was Kemi Badenoch and she was a much feistier opponent for Ms K. It was a close fought battle, but I do believe this round went to Laura.

After lunch I started changing things around and putting stuff away. It only happens once or twice a year and it usually doesn’t last long before I get fed up or get side tracked after finding something new to play with Today it lasted for almost a half hour before I got fed up, put my boots on and went out for a walk.

It was just damp today, never really amounting to rain. That dampness created a host of different fungi growing in the grass. My favourite was the Star Pinkgills you see here. Described in First-Nature as “Definitely not one for the pot!” I took their word for it and photographed the pair, but didn’t touch … just in case!

Last night our next door neighbour knocked at the door and said his wife had made too much chicken soup and would we like some. Yes please was the answer. We had it today as a starter for dinner. We both agreed it was lovely. Scamp had made pan fried trout for our main with broccoli. Dessert was Bramley apple pie. Not home made, M&S. The next best thing.

We watched what could have been a really exciting F1 GP from Singapore. It was spoiled by the childish complaints of Oscar Piastri who basically said he wanted to win. Tough son, that’s the way the cookie crumbles I’m afraid.

We spoke to Jamie and I did feel sorry for him. Back from a weak hill walking in Wales and now having to drive all those miles in the darkening gloom of autumn. At least he wasn’t moaning like Piastri who my spell checker thinks should be Pastry!!

Pod was the Star Pinkgills, although I just missed a clump of Ink Cap fungi that had just gone over into a black slimy mess.

Tomorrow, it’s more organising, I’m afraid. The blogger’s work is never done!

Still fighting Amy – 4 October 2025

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Storm Amy, the first named storm of the season was still clinging on to Scotland today. I don’t know who named her, but she wasn’t behaving in a ladylike manner. Gale force winds and heavy rain battered the west of the country. Although there were some respites, it wasn’t a great day to go out anywhere.

Scamp and I had a couple of exchanges to make in M&S, so we drove there. There were a few trees blown down on our route to The Fort in the east of Glasgow, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We debated whether to have lunch in Glasgow or to just head for home. A splashy rain shower settled that discussion and we drove home.

Lunch was tea and sandwiches as we watched the weather systems come and go across the Campsie Fells from the comfort of the house. No sense in going out in the squalls that were coming in the western winds. Later in the afternoon I did give in and took the A7c out for a walk to St Mo’s with the intention of getting a fish supper for two at the local chip shop. I wasn’t long out when I wished I’d taken a warmer jacket. The wind was icy cold.

I did manage to get a couple of decent photos of reflections in a pool that had been a path a couple of days ago. The water in the big pond was a lot deeper too. The swans and cygnets were drinking clean water for the first time in a long while. The flooded path became PoD.

I walked over to the chip shop and was heading home with two fish suppers in a bag when I turned a corner and found the path blocked by a couple of big trees. At first I thought I could walk round them, bus soon realise that wasn’t going to work so I headed back the way I’d come and found a path that would take me by a slightly longer road to miss the trees. It only took a few minutes, but saved me a long walk round the park. The fish and chips were still hot when I got home.

We got some sad news this morning. Anju, a long time salsa dancer from our classes in Glasgow when they were run by Jamie Gallagher had died last night. Anju was a lovely Indian lady with a wicked sense of humour, and great fun to dance with. We’ll both miss her, even although we haven’t seen her for a while. We’re hoping we’ll be able to say goodbye to her properly this month.

Tomorrow we intend to tie up loose ends and check everything twice.

 

Wild Windy Weather – 3 October 2025

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It all started out so calmly too!

It was a lovely morning. Cool and a bit damp, but nothing to worry us. I dropped Scamp off at the town centre to go for coffee with Shona. I had intended driving to The Fort to exchange a belt that was far too small for me, but by the look of the weather and the warnings on the radio, it looked like a stay at home day, so I drove home and parked.

Scamp arrived back home around 2pm wet, despite her Berghaus jacket, after a short walk from the shops. Then the rain came on more seriously and it brought wind to the party too. For most of the afternoon, the wind got stronger and stronger. It felt like the front windows were going to blow in. About 6pm things started to calm down. Now at just about 11pm it’s becoming calmer still. Hopefully by morning we’ll be able to go out and retrieve the bins that are lying around the garden.

I wasn’t going to risk life and limb going over to St Mo’s today to get blown all over the place just to get a PoD, so the one you see here is a tabletop setup. It’s a selection of the ‘Coral’ we picked up at Coral Beach in Skye, many, many moons ago.
Despite its appearance, its Maerl is a type of algae, not true coral, which are animals. The meal extracts calcium carbonate from seawater to build a hard, white outer skeleton. So says Google and Google is never wrong.

Tomorrow if the weather is in a better mood we may go shopping.