Happy Birthday Mama--From Malta to Venice with the Family Day 8--Zakynthos--WOW!

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Zakynthos—aka We Won



Today was our first stop in Greece, on the tiny island of Zakynthos or Zante. The ship did not dock until noon so we had a leisurely morning. I woke up early (5:40 a.m.) and could not sleep so decided to try and get the blog and pictures uploaded. It was fairly successful. It took 2 hours to upload 28 pictures to Facebook. Like I have said before, Wi-Fi on this ship is horrid.

Mark got up around 8 and went to get breakfast. He saw Skate in the restaurant and had a nice conversation with her. I updated and uploaded the blogs and re-uploaded pictures that failed to upload the first time. Sympathize with me here, people, I’m having REAL first-world problems!

During the whole cruise planning process, Julie and I had noted that there were two excursions in Zakynthos—Panoramic Zakynthos and Highlights of Zakynthos. I started looking into what to do and see in Zakynthos and it turns out THE thing to do and see in Zakynthos is the beach. It’s a beach island. People come here exclusively to go to the beach. I suggested to Julie that we just make it a beach day and she agreed. No need to book an excursion in Zakynthos—we are going to the beach. Mark, my water baby, completely agreed.

We went to the lecture at 10:30 (the day in the life of an archeologist) and then went upstairs to get ready to go. Met up with everyone in the Seven Seas Lounge and got our tender tickets. Matt had gone up and asked for tickets and, when asked how many he needed, he said 2 for he and Wil. There were 9 of us going to the beach so Mark went up to get tender tickets and he said 9. His ticket was a different color than Matt and Wil’s tickets. We said, “Oh, we’re all together.” The woman very snippily said to Matt, “That’s why I asked how many!” That was the first Regent person I heard be rude. Anyway, we exchanged the green tickets for blue tickets and we were all assured of being together. Mom was there waiting for her tour (Highlights of Zakynthos) and Michael, Skate and Jack had already left (Panoramic Zakynthos.) Mom’s group was called and then green tender tickets were called. A few minutes later, blue tender tickets were called and as we were walking out of the theater they called orange tender tickets. So truthfully, blue and green ended up all on the same tender so it really didn’t matter. Silly.

Mark had gone up to the pool deck to get towels but as we got to the tender loading area, there was a huge bin of clean towels next to the water. Many people were grabbing towels so there were a lot of beach-goers on this tender. We took the 10 minute tender ride to the dock, decked out in our swimsuits and cover-ups and laden with towels and water, and when we got to the dock, we descended on the Regent Destinations Rep and said, “We want to go to the beach. How do we do that?” He said the best thing was to take a taxi. He checked with the tour guide for Mom’s tour and she suggested Laganas Beach which was the one we thought was best as well, both for location and availability of umbrellas and chairs. Since there were 9 of us, we were going to need more than 1 taxi. We walked into town and after just a bit of wandering and picking up a town map from the guy who was hawking tickets to the tourist train, we found a taxi stand with three taxis. The first driver said, “4 to a taxi. You need 3.” Julie talked him into squeezing 5 into one taxi and he said okay. Now, let me explain something to you. Watkins, especially, are big people. Not fat. Big. Steve is 6’4” tall, Brian is 6’3” and was a defensive lineman on his highschool football team. He is studying to be a firefighter and, I promise you, if you are ever in a burning building, request Brian Watkin to rescue you. Steve, Julie (5’10”), Matt (6’) Katie (5’9”) and Liz (5’11”) all piled into one car with the driver. It looked like a clown car. We took Brian with us so we were a little tight in the back seat but not 4 people tight. Our driver took us down side streets and around curves and through olive groves and corn fields, whipping around cars and mopeds. Brian said to Mark and me, “Is there a speed limit here?” Mark said, “More like a guideline.” Our driver was very chatty and he and Wil, who was sitting in the front seat, talked all the way to the beach. We asked him about getting back and he said there would be plenty of taxis and just say you want to go to Zante Town to the big ship. In about 20 minutes time, he pulled up at the end of a very busy, beachy street and there were Julie, Steve and Company, already out of the Clown Car) and off we went. We walked right out onto the narrow but sandy beach and in both directions as far as you could see, there were umbrellas and beach chairs in front of beach-front restaurants. The very first one had 9 chairs available. The man said, “€2.50 per chair.” Liz, the Spaniard in training, said, “€2 since there are 9 of us.” He said, “You buy drinks?” We all said, “Oh yes!” He said, “€2 per chair.” He said to me, “You from United States?” I said we were. He said, “Who you for? Trump or Hillary?” I said, “Oh, I don’t know…” He said, “Ah, you no care!” I said, “I care a lot just not for them…” Funny how the world watches the US elections.

We settled in under our umbrellas, preparing for a nice restful afternoon. The kids later walked down the beach and said there were places that looked nicer but there was music blaring and lots of people. Julie and I agreed that we could have spent an hour walking the beach to find the perfect place or we could enjoy the beach. Let’s enjoy the beach.

We ordered two beers and, after sipping for a few minutes, headed out into the water. The water was warm and clear and really beautiful. We walked about about 200 feet and were still only waist deep. Julie and I did the drop down to your shoulders together and it was cold at first but then lovely. I came back in to finish my beer before it got warm. The sign said, Free Wi-Fi so I got the code and for the first time since we left Malta, could upload pictures to Facebook in quick time. Finally found decent Wi-Fi—on the beach in Greece. We had a really lovely day, swimming, sunning (well, okay, I was shading but I was under the sun which was outside the umbrella) and enjoying the water, view and company. Julie and I walked to a shop to get some beach flip flops. Found a bunch (€5 a pair) and Julie also got a shot glass. After I had paid, I found a ribbon that said “Birthday Girl” and I said, “Ooh! I should get this for mom!” I took it up to the cashier and he said, “No charge.” We both said, “No, let us pay.” He said, “You buy a lot. My gift to you.” That’s pretty typical of what we found all over Zakynthos—very friendly, helpful people, very kind, very happy to share their island with visitors.

We stayed at the beach until about 5:00. Matt and Wil left at about 4 so the taxi ride back was not quite so cramped. Brian, Mark and I left first and when we said we wanted to go to Zante Town to the Big Ship and he looked at us. Huh? Luckily I had taken the train tour brochure which had a map of Zakynthos so Mark could point to the port and he said, “Oh, yes, yes.” He took us right to the dock. Perfect ride, perfect day.

There was a tender in port but there was a line to get on so we we queued up to wait for the next tender which came about 10 minutes later. We boarded and were seated in the back of the boat which is nice because you get the breeze coming in. A bus had come up as the tender pulled in and disgorged 40 people so most of the tender passengers had come from the Highlights of Zakynthos tour. The couple sitting across from us had done that tour and he said, “Never again.” They said it was long and there was very little to see and it was depressing because many of the villages were so poor. They would go around a corner and see a seascape and then go around another corner and see a sea scape and then another corner and see a seascape. He said, “I just don’t think there’s much to see on this island.” He asked what we did and I told him we went to the beach and they both said, “I wish we’d done that!” We said it was pretty great.

Back on board ship, we slipped the Galileo’s meeting time from 6 to 7 because Mom wasn’t even back from her tour yet. We showered the sand off (THAT’S a great feeling!) and met in Galileo’s. I said to Michael and Skate, “How was the tour?” Skate said, “NEVER AGIN!” Mom said, “Eehhh…” Yes, it is confirmed. We totally won today. We said the beach was great and Michael said, “We should have done that.” Yep, we won.

Dinner was lovely as usual. Today was Michael’s birthday so Michael and his family sat with Mom and Jack and the Watkins and Elgerts took the other table. Because of our late arrival back at the ship, we missed the show. Can’t do everything!

Mark had laundry to do (Even at Sea—Laundry Man is on duty!) so we skipped the after party at Galileo’s and had an early night. What a lovely day. Tomorrow—Corfu!

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