Arcadia cruise to Adriatic 2015 - part 4

Saturday 26 September – Messina, Sicily

Weather 6/8 cloud, north westerly Force 3, 22.5°C

 

It was a muggy, damp day as we arrived in Messina and berthed directly behind Celebrity Silhouette.

Caryll was off on an early tour In the Footsteps of the Godfather, so I stayed in bed till she had left and then had breakfast on deck, spotting RCI Rhapsody of the Seas crossing the Straits.

I wandered ashore about 9.30. Messina pavements are awful and laden with trip hazards so I walked slowly and very carefully! I set off in a different direction from previous visits and finally found the shopping centre! There was a big demonstration or something going on with dancers and music but I have no idea what about!!

Most of the shops were very high end designer boutiques so my credit card stayed firmly in my bag!! After a while I began to retrace my steps back towards the Cathedral, buying a small glass snowman and Christmas tree in a souvenir shop opposite the bell tower.

 

Rubber tree

 

It was now about 11.30 but I have seen the amazing automata clock twice before so didn’t hang around till noon and instead went back to the ship. The cabin had not yet been serviced so I quickly changed as I was hot and sticky, and went for fish and chips in the Belvedere and then onto deck.

 

 

The rain had stopped early on and the sun was breaking through. About 4pm I noticed Celebrity Silhouette had dropped her lines so grabbed my DSLR and headed up to deck 10 to watch her leave as she had to turn 180° right in front of us.

As Caryll joined me we left at 5pm. As we turned to cross the Straits we hit a heavy rain storm so went up to the East bar. Then it was time for dinner – the local speciality - Italian meatballs. We tied first in quiz but lost on the tiebreaker – which decade saw the introduction of skateboards! Bed as clocks forward an hour tonight.