Days 14, 15, & 16 - Sea Days and Palermo Italy

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Tuesday was an at sea day so we were able to relax on ship and take in some of the activities offered. The ship is very nice and in comparison to other ships we have been on, the Brilliance of the Seas has a much different layout. Even though the ship was sold out it feels like most of the passengers are staying in their rooms. We both entered the slot tournament but only Lisa made it to the final round. She did not win the big prize but did get a t-shirt. Later in the day the casino held a free raffle and Lisa won a prize, a free facial massage in the spa. Jim had fun playing a game where quarters are dropped into a slot and then a moving shelf stacks up the quarters until they fall off. To make it interesting a few bills are placed by the casino among the quarters. The idea is to drop quarters in to keep pushing the quarters on the shelf off and hopefully a $20 or $50 dollar bill will fall with the quarters. Jim spent an hour playing the game and was able to get three $20's and one $50 to drop. In the end he won $12 for his efforts, not bad entertainment. Later in the day he left his usual donation at the tables playing three card poker.

On Wednesday the ship docked in Palermo Italy, and the walk to the city center of was about four blocks. Since we had no plan on what to see we just wandered around the town seeing the sites. The weather was cool and as we got off the ship it started to rain. Fortunately the rain was sporadic and did not keep us from walking the city. The traffic in Palermo is chaotic, crazy, and death defying at best. Even crossing the street is an adventure. There are street lights and cross walks but we got the feeling they were more of a suggestion rather than a law. Like most European cities the cars are very small and Jim felt that if one was to hit him he would win the battle. Even so we didn't want to test his logic. One suggestion, buy stock in car horns because it seems the drivers have one hand on the wheel and the other on the horn. There is also an equal number of scooters that weave in and out of traffic. We actually stood on a street corner and watched just to see how long it would take for a collision to happen but surprisingly it did not. Along the Via Roma, the main road through the city, there are many high end designer clothes stores. Prices are very high, for example, we saw a pair of standard Nike running shoes for 160 euros. The same shoes back home might cost $60. One of the main attractions in Palermo is the cathedral built in the 12th century and restructured many times. Instead of touring the cathedral we peeked in to the smaller churches in town as we walked by. On the edge of town is the original gate to the city that leads to a piazza with a fountain, and yes, more traffic. We did see a lot of restoration going on as some of the buildings were quite run down. The one negative thing that stood out for us is the amount of graffiti around the city. Even on some of the city's monuments there was graffiti. We heard the coffee in Italy is some of the best and we agree. The espresso was thick and very strong, two of these in the morning and it is easy to see why Sicilians drive the way they do. For lunch we found a small restaurant called Cafe Royal and ordered pizza and a glass of wine. Lunch was excellent and very reasonable, for 20 euros with tip we had two pizzas and a half bottle of wine. After lunch we walked until we found a pastry shop and shared a cannoli which rounded out the trifecta Jim wanted to do for the day, coffee, pizza, and a cannoli! We had to be back on the ship by 4:30 PM so we headed back around 3:30 PM since our feet were starting to get sore again. Later in the evening we had dinner and enjoyed the live show, a singer from Scotland named Brenda Cochrane. Thursday was another sea day and we spent the afternoon reading a book in the covered pool area. It has been months since either of us has had time to just sit and read. Our dinner plans included attending a murder mystery dinner where the staff of the ship played the characters in and the dinner guests had to figure out who was the murderer. We sat with some very nice folks from New Jersey and Florida and had a good time. None of us guessed who the murderer was but we had a great time. Friday we dock in Athens and get to see the Acropolis, we can‘t wait. So far all of our clothes still fit, all the walking must be helping!

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Photos

At Sea
Looking towards the front of the ship from our balcony on our way to Sicily.

Formal Night
Two nights on the ship are formal night and we both got "formalized" for dinner. Once dinner was over it was back to more comfortable clothes.

City Gate
This is the gate to Palermo which leads to the center of the city.

Open Market in Palermo
Not as nice as Barcelona but the selection was great.

Our Ship
This shows how close the ship was docked to city center.

Palermo From the Ship
As we left port this is a shot of Palermo from our balcony.

Comments

[Jila]

Your Formal Night photo
Great photo! We'l like to see you occasionally show up for work like that...glad you're having such a wonderful time!

[Alan]

Great Pictures
Looks like you're about to perform in Dancing With The Stars...