Black Wednesday, November 6, 2024
We woke up to the horror of the election results. I just wrote some strong opinions that I deleted and am going to keep to myself.
We had breakfast late, and Keith was undercover as a staff member. He forgot to wear his little hat.
It took us a long time to shake off the pain and confusion and to get off the boat. Again, we had no excursion booked. As we started to walk into town (1/2 mile to town, 1.2 miles to historic town), there was a row of taxis offering tours. We said no, then we turned around and said yes. I was in no shape to walk and think – I needed someone else to be in charge.
It was perfect. Our taxi man didn’t speak much English, and we didn’t want to hear much. The first thing he did was drive us up the side of a mountain. A small mountain compared to the Alps, but it. was. high! We did switchbacks up and up and up, and I was so brave (numb? maybe?) We went to Santuario Santa Rosalia. In July, 1624, bones of Saint Rosalia were found in a cave high up Mt Pellegrino. The plague ebbed after her bones were carried through town, so this sanctuary was built. It is built into the wall of the mountain. We found all the flattened metal elements on the ceiling very interesting – they are water redirection. I suppose when your ceiling is part of a mountain, that is an issue. We definitely would never have gotten there on foot, so it was already a win.
Being driven in Palermo (and every other place I have been driven in Italy) is quite a thing. Lanes are sort of suggestions. At one point, both lanes going our direction were stopped as we came up. We didn’t even slow down, just pulled into the oncoming lane and went around three cars and stuck our taxi in the way so the other cars couldn’t move. Turning left against three lanes of traffic is nothing to wait for – you just turn and everyone stops for you. It is the same walking through three lanes of traffic coming around a busy corner. You just go and they stop. I didn’t do so well at that. I was left behind for a bit, with Keith calling that I just had to go. I scurried and I am sure the Italian drivers were very amused. We saw no accidents and I honestly do not know how that happened. (Wait. I took a picture of a police car with a message on top [“incident”]. Someone was stopped for something, but we didn’t see what had happened.) Our taxi went around concrete barriers blocking the pedestrian thoroughfare. The people walking didn’t seem to care or get out of our way. We stopped at one point and some high school boys were standing in the middle of the road. They finished their conversation – two shook hands, two grabbed each others’ forearms, then they all air kissed on both sides (like TV!), all while we waited. No one seemed the least bit put out.
We stopped at the Opera house – third largest in Europe.
We stopped at the national theater.
We traveled up and down two blocks of streets vendors. I cannot live on an island – there is so much fish and even creepier stuff from the ocean. Keith did score the best cannoli of ever, and I got a Coke Zero.
We went to the cathedral. It was gorgeous. The pictures do not do justice. But only on the outside. It was pretty plain on the inside. When it was built, two rulers were competing to make a better cathedral. This guy focused on the outside and the other guy focused on the inside. I don’t know who won. There was a… a …..a parade float parked on the grounds. It was carved out of Styrofoam and on a wagon, so I don’t know what else it would have been. I liked it.
We stopped to see a big fountain (the Fountain of Shame) that is currently dry.
This is the building facing the fountain. I was surprised it wasn’t a highly sought after building, given the location. Wehn we walked around the block, the other side of the building is facing the main street and is filled with fancy shops. Weird. As we wandered around that corner and we found the plaza of 8 corners by accident. It was really beautiful.
Back on the ship, we admired the view from the top deck. The pictures, of course, do not do it justice.
We lost trivia by two today. We sent the four questions we missed to our trivia friends in Wales, and they got two of the answers right. They should hop over and join us!
We scored a dinner reservation yesterday for formal night tonight. It was at 6:40. We arrived at 6:30 and stood in line waiting until 7:20. Not great. I had French onion soup and two slices of tenderloin. Then I ordered the tenderloin again for dessert. It was really very good, and no dessert could have been better.
The show was Disco something and it was mediocre, because Disco music is mediocre, and Disco costumes are horrendous.
Today there was a duck.
Today’s view out the stateroom window:
