Mira que punto! Eng: Adventures and misfortunes of a crocheter in a cruise- II

Bari view from the ship

Sunday, September 1st

A little bit dizzy this morning. They've told me that because the ship is mega-huge ( Little Romulan's favourites, mega and huge) I won't feel anything but of course I do! Every time the ship tacks somewhere I do so too, so right before going out of the mini- bathroom I've tacked to one side and hit my head with the wall. Hurray!

We've managed to have breakfast a little bit more quieter than yesterday's lunch but only a little bit. We are more than 4000 tourists on board so it's hard to find a free table together with hundreds of people at the same time. At least we have an assigned table and a waiter for dinner in one of the many restaurants of the ship (yipee!).

Everybody takes a tray and the breakfast hunting begins. We find a table but not Little Romulan who appears 5 minutes after we sit with a dish full of bacon. Nothing else! Reminder: review the ingredients of a healthy breakfast with him when we go back home.

We are going to visit Bari by ourselves, no tourist guide, no rushing from one place to the other. That's because one has made her homework- Saint Google has helped a bit- and we already have an itinerary : the Normand-Swabian Castle, the Cathedral of San Sabino, the Basilica of San Nicola and a nice walk around Bari Vecchia (Old Bari).

The Normand- Swabian castle

We take the shuttle to the town centre and the first monument we see right there is the Normand- Swabian Castle but we decide to visit it later because it's close to the shuttle stop and we have plenty of time.

Front view of the cathedral

It takes us a 5 min walk to find the Cathedral and 20 seconds for the children to ask where "the mummy" is. The mortal remains of San Sabino are preserved in the crypta as well as the relics of Santa Colomba, that is, her mummy. So we spend most of our time studying the mummy from every possible angle...

Relics of Santa Columba or "The Mummy".

...and when we go out of the Cathedral we decide to have an ice cream and a walk through the narrow streets of Bari Vecchia.

¡Gelatoooo!

Narrow streets where people still leave the doors of their houses wide open- aren't they afraid of someone robbing them? Asks Little Romulan-. From time to time we find women making and drying orecchiette (ear shaped fresh pasta) at the door of their houses. The other tourists buy bags of orecchiette but I prefer to save space for my yarns ( I know, I know, I'm being selfish, bad karma).

Time had flown away and although it's 12:30 we talk about having an early lunch hoping that this way we can have a table in the first 30 minutes. Hahaha! How naïve we've been! Hordes of European and overseas tourists with the same idea, uncountable dangers (well, you don't know what a hungry tourist is capable of, do you?)... Ok, maybe it's us, Spaniards, who have the dammed habit of having lunch late in the afternoon... Anyway, this time we know how to deal with the hordes.

Back to our cabin for a little siesta but after 30 minutes, children insist on going to the swimming pool. Ten minutes later we're in the swimming pools' deck but I tell them that my belly is still full and that I will crochet for an hour or so while they swim, them go to the pool with them ( I should have a honorary title from the Bad Mothers' Club, bad karma again).

It's really hot but I manage to crochet a sc foundation for a new capelet and 3 more rounds before I dehydrate, leave my crochet behind and jump into the swimming pool and stay there for the rest of the afternoon.

We are back in our cabin to have a shower and dress up for the musical show at the ship's theatre. We have plenty of time but will surely get lost. Oh, don't look at me like if I was mad! It's a huge vessel and it's very easy to get lost even if you have a map. Still don't believe me?

Ok, we go back to the cabin before meeting the Grandpas at the restaurant. We've learned that the restaurant is in deck 6, bow side of the ship so we go to the bow side of our deck, 11, take the elevator and go down to deck 6. Right? No, the restaurant is not there. Then we walk from bow to stern and vice versa and still cannot find the restaurant, have a look at the "you are here" map and the restaurant is pictured as I said, to the bow of the ship. We try again- just in case we've missed it, it has been shrunk or something- but no restaurant at all ( now I'm beginning to think that someone has put some drugs in the still water of the mini-bar of our cabin).

We are desperate and late so we ask a member of the staff. He smiles at us, with a suspicious smile, and tells us to go up to deck 7, take one of the bow elevators and go down to deck 6, then turn to the right. We do so and magically our restaurant appears. My jaw drops down to the floor in amazement, I feel like I'm all thumbs. Or...maybe they've done this on purpose? Or maybe they're studying us like rats in a maze?

Anyway, after dinner I will have forgotten what we've done to reach the restaurant. Will have to trust Mc Husband's inner GPS next time.