We were awake just before the alarm went off at 7.15 this morning, despite the fact that we’d lost an hour in bed due to having to put our clocks forward to Greek time.
Looking out of our large glass balcony doors, we could see by the wet decking that there had been showers of rain overnight, and indeed there was lots of grey and purple low clouds in the sky. The Balmoral was slowly manouevring into the port of Argostoli, the capital of the island of Kefalonia, in the Ionian sea.
We got washed and dressed and into suitable attire for the day. Whilst the temperature was a pleasant 19°C, the weather forecast today was for clouds and rain showers. So far we’d been a little disappointed in the weather, but maybe it would improve as the time went on.
We went down to the Thistle self-service restaurant for breakfast, and I enjoyed bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms for breakfast, washed down with coffee and orange juice. Then we returned to 9088 and gathered together what we would need to today; Euros, credit cards, cagoules (!!) and other things like tissues and hand sanitiser. Then we made our way down to the Neptune Lounge on deck 7 to await the call for our excursion.
It only took a few minutes, then we walked down the stairs to the gangway on deck 3, showed our shipboard passes and proceeded ashore, where we were directed to our coach. We took our seats and it wasn’t long before we set off, along the rugged Greek coastline to our first visit, which was to the lighthouse of St. Theodoroi.
The earthquake of 1953, which was devastating for Kefalonia and the other Ionian islands, destroyed the lighthouse, along with countless other buildings. The local architect Takis Pavlatos rebuilt the lighthouse in 1964 according to its original architectural plan. It is still a working lighthouse and it is believed that it projects its white light up to five miles. The peninsula on which it is located offers incredible sea views, especially during sunset. Today, however, all we had was grey sky and low cloud and fine rain.
Once we were all back on the coach again, heading for our next stop, we were dismayed when the rain started coming down heavily. I know the weather cannot be helped, but it certainly does put the dampeners (no pun intended) on your day. We had about half an hour on the coach until we reached the beautiful village of Kourkoumelata, so we hoped the rain would abate by then.
On the way, our very knowledgeable guide told us the story of Kourkoumelata. (I don’t know about you, but that name just rolls off the tongue, and I wanted to keep saying it!) 🙂
Kourkoumelata is a hidden gem in Kefalonia. It is known as a picturesque village with impressive sea views, colourful houses and gardens, excellent town planning and roads.
The same 1953 earthquake that destroyed St. Theodoroi’s Lighthouse also razed to the ground Kourkoumelata and despair overwhelmed the villagers. However, at that difficult time, the shipping magnate Georgios Vergotis and his family, who were raised in Kourkoumelata, decided to fully support the reconstruction of the entire village. To do this, however, he demanded that the new village be rebuilt according to the neoclassical architectural trends of the time. Green gardens, clean public spaces, beautiful buildings, imposing churches, new roads, utilities and facilities were constructed and offered to the villagers. Kourkoumelata was the first village in Kefalonia where electricity and water were installed.
As we arrived and the coach parked up, we all alighted and were happy to see that the rain had actually stopped by now although the streets, of course, were still wet.
As we walked along, the guide pointed out the house where the Vergotis family still live, and we admired the lovely architecture and the manicured gardens of the houses.
We came across a picturesque church and shrine, and I was able to take a photo without trees blocking the view, as they had done up to now. Like everything else in the village, it had been built since 1953.
Once we were all rounded up and back on the coach, our next visit was to the Vassilakis winery to taste some of the locally-produced wines. It took about half an hour to get there, and we were pleased to see that the weather was improving all the time, although there was still a lot of low cloud over the mountains.
The coach pulled up just along the road from the winery, and we all alighted and walked the short distance into the building. There were chairs and tables in the centre of the room, and shelves on three sides containing rows and rows of wine bottles as well as bottles of high-quality olive oil, and vacuum-packed fresh olives. Our attention was caught by a couple of cats roaming around; a female tabby and a large ginger tom. The ginger was quite vocal and had a loud and plaintive miaow.
Along the fourth side of the room was a long counter, which contained rows of small wine glasses waiting to be filled. Next to the counter was a table containing plates of Greek meze. Meze are small platters containing a selection of appetisers, similar to Spanish tapas. The idea behind the meze was that it brought out the taste of the wines we were going to try.
We were invited to collect a plate of meze each and take a seat at one of the large tables. The plates contained slices of cucumber and tomato, as well as some local cheese and a sesame seed-coated breadstick. As soon as everyone sat down, the ginger tom came over to the tables, miaowing loudly and hoping for a tasty titbit. I gave him some of my cheese, and his noise became even louder. 🙂
One of the staff then brought over some glasses of red wine for us to try. I’m not really a red wine drinker, but this was quite pleasant and fruity, and not too acidic. It was then followed by a dry rosé wine which was very palatable, and finally we enjoyed a glass of white wine.
We had a good look around the shop afterwards, and I bought some of the local olives to take back to work. I also decided to buy a bottle of the rosé to take back and enjoy at some point on our balcony. 🙂
We didn’t have far to go until our next stop; in fact it was just over the road and was the church of Saint Gerasimos, named after the patron saint of Kefalonia. I took a great photo of the church which still showed the low cloud in the mountains, even though most of the rain had cleared up by now.
We followed our guide to the nearby monastery, which featured another large church, built in the typical Greek Orthodox style. The front doors were locked but our guide said we would be able to gain entrance around the side. When we got there, however, a man at the door spoke to us; we couldn’t understand what he was saying as it was all in Greek, but his body language made it clear – we were not allowed in. Apparently there was some sort of service on this afternoon and a coffin was shortly to be carried into the church, so they weren’t letting visitors in, much to the disappointment of our guide.
However, there was a smaller church nearby, which we were allowed to visit; it was very ornate inside and several local people were praying, some of them in front of the alter.
Back outside, we wandered around in the pleasant gardens, and saw several monks and nuns walking about outside the distinctive monastery building. Although the original monastery of St. Gerasimos was founded in the 16th century, like just about everything else in Kefalonia it had to be rebuilt in the 20th century. The photos below show the main church, the smaller church, the main monastery building the bell tower.
Because we had been unable to gain entry into the main church, we had some spare time at the end of the excursion, so we were able to visit a nearby food fair. There were lots of stalls selling Greek food; the inevitable olives, sweets, fresh fruit and vegetables, hot snacks and other things. We didn’t buy anything.
After a very interesting tour, it was time to start making our way back to the Balmoral. We’d been fairly lucky weather-wise, it seemed the only time it rained was when we were on the coach and not outside. 🙂
We arrived back around two o’clock and made our way up the gangplank and into the Balmoral. As Trevor’s rucksack and my bumbag were put through the security scanner, the guy asked Trevor, “Have you a bottle in there?” When we said we’d bought some wine ‘to take home’, the man said he would have to confiscate it for safekeeping and it would be returned to us the day before we disembarked. So much for enjoying it on our balcony! 🙁
Once we’d been given a receipt for the wine, we decided to go and have a light lunch in the Thistle self-service. Once again, I enjoyed a plate of fresh salad vegetables and some cheese; it was a fairly late lunch and we didn’t want to let it spoil our dinner. By now, the skies had cleared of cloud and the sun shone down brightly. What a difference! We went out on the pool deck after our lunch and the sun was warm on our backs; we laughed because the last time we had stood on these decks they were coated with a couple of inches of snow! 🙂
After an afternoon power nap to make up for the lost hour, we went out onto our balcony where the sun was round our side of the ship (the port side). We sat out until it was time for the Balmoral to prepare to be underway once again, and we watched as the ropes were cast off and she slowly moved away from the dockside.
Looking at the Daily Times events programme, we noticed there was a session of “Bubbles and Speak” taking place in the Lido Lounge at 5.00pm. We had attended these 30-minute sessions in the past and they were fun and informative. Basically, you receive a free glass of fizz (!!) and sit and chat, with the head sommelier, about wine and food. It’s not a sales pitch in disguise like so many of these ‘talks’, it is quite literally just an informal chat.
When we arrived, there were a dozen or so people already there, the chairs arranged in a rough circle. The sommelier, Ivan, soon appeared with several bottles of the Pere Ventura cava and started to dispense it into flutes. Then, once we all had a glass in our hands, Ivan took his seat and the session began. 🙂
It was interesting and we enjoyed our free glass of fizz. The talk overran by about 10 minutes, and we had to give our apologies and leave because we only had 20 minutes to get ready for dinner at six!
I’m so pleased I always bring a wig on cruises; it meant that my hair was immaculate in seconds, and I hurriedly retouched my makeup and changed into a pair of black trousers with sequins down the outside of each leg, with a black one-shouldered top with diamante. I looked as if I’d taken more than 20 minutes to get ready! 🙂
Dinner was delicious as always, and the company of Steve and Tracey on table #99 was pleasant as well. The good thing about Fred Olsen cruises is that the passengers all tend to be well-cruised, well-travelled and pretty like-minded, so you’ll always meet people with whom you have a lot in common. We were enjoying our chatting so much that the waiter had to start dropping large hints that he needed us to leave the restaurant so he could get our table ready for the next sitting. We said we’d see Steve and Tracey later, at the quiz.
We had noticed on this cruise that showtime had been moved forward half an hour from the usual 8.45pm to 8.15. We were a bit disgruntled at this, because we like to take part in the 30-minutes of pre-show dancing that takes place in the Neptune Lounge. But the earlier start meant that we usually arrived in the lounge just as the dancing was finishing, as was the case this time. We didn’t know why everything had been moved forward.
The show tonight featured a vocal harmony trio of lads called “The Base Tones”. They were pretty good singers and the harmonies and a capella singing was good, but they tried to add in a bit of comedy which, to be frank, was a bit unnecessary. I wished they woud just stick to what they could do well. Overall, though, we enjoyed the show.
Then it was up to the Lido Lounge once again for the quiz. We took our seats at the table and ordered drinks while watching The Mix Trio sing their way through a couple of numbers. Then a member of the entertainments team came round with the quiz papers and pencils, and we called ourselves “Table 99” once again.
However, Steve and Tracey didn’t show up tonight. Maybe they were tired or had changed their minds or were doing something else, but there was no sign of them by the time the quiz started, so it was just Trevor and me.
We answered the questions; there were none that we struggled with and we thought there would be a lot of high-scoring answer papers in this quiz. At an adjacent table there was one team that had a vicar as one of their members, as evidenced by his clerical collar. We laughed and said that we’d ensure the vicar marked our paper, so it would be blessed. 🙂
When it came to the time to swap papers, we passed ours to the vicar’s team and vice versa, then we waited until the answers were announced. We were amused that the vicar had got a religious question incorrect! Anyway, our paper was indeed blessed, as we scored 15/15. 🙂
“It will go to a tie-breaker” I said to Trevor. As the host said “Hands up if you’ve scored more than 10… 11… 12…” etc and more hands went down, it was then “does anyone have a full 15/15?” and Trevor and I were astonished that ours were the only hands still raised. We’d won the quiz! 🙂
Our prize was a bottle of the ubiquitous Pere Ventura cava. Wait until Steve and Tracey heard that we’d won, and they’d missed out! 😀
It looked as if we would have a nice bottle of fizz to enjoy on our balcony after all! 🙂
We decided to go down to the Morning Light pub, as the resident singer/guitarist Jon Kelly was doing his rendition of Beatles songs. We took our regular seats at the bar; “Hello Sir Trevor, Ma’am Debbie!” said the friendly barman. I ordered a sangria while Trevor had a can of Somersby cider.
We stayed until around 11.45pm before heading back to 9088. I wanted to sit out on the balcony but it was still a little wet and, as the ship was going along, it felt colder than it was.
We could have a lie-in tomorrow as we weren’t booked on any excursions, preferring to explore on our own. Once again we left our curtains wide open and our balcony door ajar, in order to enjoy the sight and sounds of the sea.
On the whole we slept well, but there were one or two occasions when we were woken by bright flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder. We hoped the storm would clear the air and we’d have good weather tomorrow.