Day Eight: Nàvplion

Or Nafplio, as we also found it spelled, in Greece. But not in Greek, of course. I couldn't begin to show you how they spelled it...

We were in this port from 0800 to 1600, a pretty short day. And yet, we slept in, had our breakfast in bed, and then went back to sleep some more! Too bad; we should have gotten up, toured around town, and gone to the beach for once. As it was, we did cancel the rest of our tours, being so tired and preferring instead to tour on our own.

Finally, I got up and showered and dressed, and eventually Rob woke up and did the same. We mailed off about 3 dozen postcards and then caught the tender into town.


On the tender, which was actually one of the lifeboats. We were anchored out a way, so the only way to town was by taking these smaller boats.  I remember being in one a long time ago, with my grandparents, and it was probably pretty similar to this one. Our trip over was virtually empty, but the tender was packed on the way back.


A castle offshore - can you see the Greek flag waving on top?


Our first view of Nàvplion, Greece - very tropical looking

 
Scooters and bikes parked in the narrow streets between apartment buildings.


 We walked around the brightly-colored buildings, doing a little souvenir shopping and a lot of people-watching. We went into the folk museum and bought a few trinkets at the shop there, one of which was a bird mobile for a Bunco prize that turned out to be from India. They had lots of interesting things in there. If you're ever in Nàvplion, visit the folk museum!


After we bought  a few souvenirs here, the owner stopped us from leaving. He told me he had a gift for me.  He started pulling out postcard after postcard, telling me he had taken the pictures himself of this, his beautiful town, and wanted me to have them.  So nice, these Europeans sharing their talents  as gifts.  So if you received a postcard from me from Nàvplion, it came from that man.

Robert walking around town


While I was stopping to take a picture of this monument, some Greek teenaged boys came out of a building and shouted, "No take picture!" I looked up, surprised, and they ran off laughing.  Pranks are pranks in any country, I guess.


We had worked up quite a thirst, so once again we stopped at a café for a drink. Here's the  wine list, which I can't read. It's all Greek to me! (C'mon, you knew that was coming.)


Rob poring over the menu, trying to figure out what to eat. They had broken English explanations for lots of the items. We ended up eating sandwiches with our sodas, but  they were kind of weird. The bread was thick and crusty, for one thing, but I can't put my finger on what was so strange, exactly.


I ordered a Sprite, and this is what I received. It had a different flavor than Sprite, and there's no telling  from the bottle what it actually was.  'Twas good, though.

 Once again, the check - all greek - came in one of those cuppy things. Really, you're supposed to squish your money down in there?


We were at the Music Cafe, but there was no music. Perhaps because it was time for the afternoon siesta?

  On my right, there were café upon café upon café, as far as the eye could see. The chairs from one butted right up against the chairs of the neighboring restaurant. I found that very curious. It just didn't seem like there was a lot of competition.


Rob's dessert. We don't know what it was called, but  it turned out to be very good.


Then we decided to take the train ride around town, to look at the churches and monuments and stuff. There was a tour voice over the speaker, but the train was so loud, we couldn't hear a word of it.


The rest of the train


Heading through town


Pretty orange lilies, just like at home!

Another side street - the oceanfront buildings were  brightly colored; the side buildings were all the same beigey-yellow, pretty much.


I did not catch what that was - ruins? - atop the hill.


Pretty roses alongside. There were lots of bright, beautiful flowers all over Nàvplion.


Going through the middle of town

The view from Rob's side

Something kept  drawing my eyes up that hill. I really would like to know what that structure was!

Another monument in the square; no one shouted at me this time!


A memorial

  The Greek Orthodox church

Another view of that castle on the water. Oh, that water.  I would love to be back there again, right now, actually swimming in it.

After the train ride, we spotted something that said "toy store." Being the parents of three little ones waiting for us - and goodies - at home, of course we needed to investigate further. But this 'toy store' turned out to be one of those claw grabber game machines! I thought that was hilarious.

We were still very tired from all the trekking around we'd been doing, so we went back to the tender station to get back and take a nap. There was a long line for the tender this time. But fortunately, as at each other port, the crew were passing out ice-cold washcloths with which to clean and cool ourselves, and cups of lemonade. I thought these were nice touches.

  Finally, after eight days of struggling to get comfortable in bed, Rob finally decided to switch the mattress around! Here's a picture of me, not helping.

At 1730, we had a reservation for just the two of us for dinner. Sometimes it was nice to join others, but sometimes it was nice to just be on our own. It was, after all, our long-awaited honeymoon! I had a Caesar salad, chicken breast, and bread pudding with berries. Rob had a seafood cocktail, cream of asparagus soup, chicken stuffed with prosciutto, and chocolate raspberry cake. Have I told you he put on seven pounds during this trip? That's an amazing amount for him. He ate well, to say the least! (Never mind what I gained, I can do it just looking at the food.) (Okay, I found out today, I gained three.)

After dinner, we headed straight to the infirmary. I was having trouble breathing before, but I was having a full-on allergic reaction now, after taking a nap. (Of course, dinner took precedence, are you kidding?!) It turned out, I was allergic to the down in the pillows. The infirmary was actually closing when we made it down there, but as soon as they heard the words "allergic reaction," they ushered us right in. It was a quick examination, and I was given medication, instructions to find new pillows, and sent on my way.

That was easier said than done. An initial search from the Front Desk turned up one foam pillow. Really? I'm the only person, out of thousands, to be allergic to down?  I took my medication, though, and immediately started to feel better.


While Rob went out and about to search the ship for another pillow for our bed, I became giddy about all the tiny, individually-wrapped packages clogging up our loveseat. So I happily unwrapped each little thing, laid it out, and gazed over all our new possessions, prizes, and pieces. Some of you might recognize some of the items - you might actually now be the owner of them! That blue "bowl"(ashtray)  was from Pisa, and I now find myself using it every chance I get. Looking at this picture brings back a lot of memories for me, of all the shopping, visiting, sight-seeing, and thinking about the folks back home that we did. What fun.


Eventually Aden, our wonderfully cheerful and resourceful cabin steward from Indonesia, heard about my visit to the doctor and came to check on me. He was genuinely concerned for my safety and comfort and begged me to let him know if there was anything else we needed. And, he procured three more pillows for us! What a great chap.

So, we ventured back out, to watch the show. That night, it  was a harpist from Uruguay. She was dreadfully boring, and we stayed for only three pieces before ducking out.  We relaxed in our room some more and then went up to the Lido Deck to partake of the Japanese  late-night snack.  We had miso, tofu, lotus balls , green tea, etc. Good stuff.

Then we went down to the Lounge again to watch the Filipino crew members put on a show and tell about their country. They told  stories, sang, danced and greatly entertained us. It was a lot of fun. Much better than that old harpist.

We went back to the room and crashed.

Stay tuned for tomorrow: Katakolon, Greece!

Fin.

Comments

[Nadine]

This looks like a very pretty little town. Yikes about the allergies.