Med Trip - June 8

The day started slightly overcast with rain visible in the distance, but things cleared nicely and we had a sunny afternoon. We were scheduled to arrive on the Greek island of Crete at noon. We discovered that there are more than one class of passenger on Holland America. Sister T's friend and room mate, M., was from Holland. She, along with other Dutch residents, were invited to an Indonesian rice tafel, which is an assortment of Indonesian dishes. She went to the service desk and asked if the rest of us could attend as well, since we were all born in Holland and understood Dutch. They said OK, so at 11AM, after walking off a little of our breakfast, we had a very early lunch. The food was great, including fried food like nasi goreng, chicken, beef and Indonesian vegetables, and a rice pudding. By the time this was over, we were docked at Heralion, Crete. We took a short shuttle bus trip, went through security, if you want to call it that, since no one looked at our documents, and walked into the town centre, a walk of perhaps twenty minutes. There was one modern, pedestrian only street with souvenir shops and higher end clothing stores. Here was very little Greek about it except for the souvenirs. One old church was the only nice historical site we saw. After a little shopping, after all, one needs a shot glass and a pandora bead from the first visit to Greece, apparently, we enjoyed beer at a n outdoor restaurant. These days Jo s outdrinking me. I ordered a Mythos, the local beer, but Jo and BIIl ordered the larger draught beer. Then we slowly made our way back to the ship to get our two for one plus a dollar wine for the evening and take showers before dinner.
Trouble was brewing in the dining room. We had our reserved table by the rear window. They closed the blinds to all the rear windows. We complained because that is why we chose a window seat, to look outside. We were informed by the head honcho that someone at another table asked for it because it was too bright. On our way out BIL jokingly approached him again and said we were requesting to have the blinds up tomorrow. He was told we could move if we wanted. BIL suggested that the other party should move if they don't want the effects of the window. (The dining room was half empty each night. The ship holds 2,100 passengers but there were less than 1,000 on board. We get offers for discounted excursions every night.) after dinner we went on deck to see us leave Crete and watch our first sunset of this trip. Then we took in the early set at the Billboard piano bar before turning in because tomorrow was going to be an early morning. The captain recommended being on de k at 6AM to watch us come into the lagoon at Santorini, an awesome sight.


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