Off the ship!!!

In the lounge.

Today is our last day onboard. I am excited to be heading home. It' been a tremendous adventure and I miss everyone! We took advantage of the walking track today, in between packing and figuring out how disembarkation works. We had a tour and airport drop off booked for tomorrow that got cancelled last minute. Now we're just heading to the airport. 
I spent this afternoon catching up on the blog, so all up to date.
I got a photo from the track this morning. Tonight we have our second meal in the Test Kitchen with our friends, Mary and Steve.
Tomorrow we fly from Barcelona to London Heathrow and on Monday we fly direct from Heathrow to Halifax.

Farewell Dinner - the Test Kitchen

Eggplant appetizer

Scallops with black garlic and smoked with apple wood

Quinoa and charcoal crust filled with three types of cheese, topped with mushrooms, and seeds served with a savory caramelized onion roll (like a cinnamon bun)

Zuchinni baked in a paper bag with caramelized onion

Chicken thigh and chicken sausage (square) with chicken roulade on top of mashed potato and spinach

Vegetarian main, soy gnocchi with squash and roasted pine nuts and sage

Coconut dessert - coconut ice cream, berries, chocolate crumbs and cream on top of a sugar tule

Yuzo cream with meringue on a short bread crust

Today we took the ship's excursion into Rome for a tour of the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel and some free time in Rome itself. Rome is over one and a half hours from the port where the ship docked, Civitavecchia. There are more than 7km of galleries in the Vatican, needless to say we saw a very small portion of the city today. It was incredibly crowded. Rome is always crowded and today was record breaking busy according to our guide, 28,000 visitors expected in the Vatican Museum. We had a great tour, if a bit exhausting. It's hard work watching where you're going, where the guide is in he crowd and also trying to admire the amazing art we were surrounded by.

You can't take photos in the Sistine Chapel, it's a Holy place. these posters show what you would get to see. Michael Angelo spent 4 years painting the season - he never left during those 5 years.

These statues are headless because the original heads had eyes made of gemstones and so the heads were taken by robbers.

Statue inside with eyes intact.

Below is one of the most interesting ceilings - this is a flat ceiling, painted to look like it's sculpted. Really hard to see that it's not three dimensional when you're there, absolutely stunning.

St Peter's Square

On our way to explore Rome - thunder storms and heavy rain begin

We did our best to stay positive and enjoy Rome and we left the ship at 8:30 am by 1pm when we left St Peter's Square we were hungry. We found an outdoor, thankfully covered by an awning, restaurant and had lunch. The heavens opened and it began to rain, and then to pour. By the time we spent a couple hours walking the many narrow and somewhat confusing streets in a torrential downpour - we were done. The sun game out just as w headed back to our meeting point. Unfortunately, some of our group were late getting back and we ended up leaving Rome a bit late, arriving back at our ship sometime after 7pm. Very long day, indeed!

We had a ships excursion today to Amalfi and Pompeii. The chip docked in Salerno and from here we took another smaller boat to Amalfi, to explore the town before returning to Salerno to get on our bus to Pompeii.

We enjoyed a lovely coastal boat ride to and from Salerno to the village of Amalfi. Amalfi is a beautiful small town on the coast and we had about an hour and a half to explore before returning to get our bus to Pompeii.

This area is known for its lemons and lemon based treats. This lemon cake lived up to their reputation, yummy.

Pompeii: Largely preserved under the ash, Pompeii offers a snapshot of Roman life, frozen at the moment it was buried, as well as insight into ancient urban planning. It was a wealthy town of 10,000 to 20,000 residents at the time it was destroyed. It hosted many fine public buildings and luxurious private houses with lavish decorations, furnishings and artworks, which were the main attractions for early excavators; subsequent excavations have found hundreds of private homes and businesses reflecting various architectural styles and social classes, as well as numerous public buildings. Organic remains, including wooden objects and human bodies, were interred in the ash; their decay allowed archaeologists to create moulds of figures in their final moments of life. The numerous graffiti carved on outside walls and inside rooms provide a wealth of examples of the largely lost Vulgar Latin spoken colloquially at the time, contrasting with the formal language of classical writers.
Pompeii remained largely undisturbed until its rediscovery in the late 16th century. Major excavations did not begin until the mid-18th century, which marked the emergence of modern archaeology. Initial efforts to unearth the city were haphazard or marred by looting, resulting in many items or sites being damaged or destroyed. By 1960, most of Pompeii had been uncovered but left in decay; further major excavations were banned or limited to targeted, prioritised areas. Since 2018, these efforts have led to new discoveries in some previously unexplored areas of the city.
Pompeii is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, owing to its status as "the only archaeological site in the world that provides a complete picture of an ancient Roman city". It is among the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with approximately 2.5 million visitors annually.

Below - You can see Mount Vesuvius in the background from Pompeii.

Sadly we didn't have great weather for our visit. It poured pretty much the whole time and while we had rain gear, we have learned it's more water resistant, than water proof. Pompeii is a huge site and we got to se a small fraction. Like Herculean the site was next to the see when the volcano erupted. It was buried in hot ash not lava. 

Today we did our usual walk-a-bout in another beautiful Italian coastal city, enjoying a pomegranate spritz, or two, along the way.

Dinner in Gunbae, the ships Korean restaurant. It's Korean BBQ - cooked in front of you and unbeknownst to us features communal dining and has the reputation of being the loudest restaurant on the ship. The food was mediocre, dinner took over 2 hours and we had to play a drinking game in order to get fed. Adrian was very pleased he forgot is hearing aids - we all wished we had. 

We really like the walking track on board - 4 times around equals a km, two lanes for easy passing and a cool breeze at sea.

The walking track overlooks one of the pools and the private cabana's you can rent at very high prices - VIP $350 US 9am-6pm; Standard $200 9am-6pm - all sold out today!

The Galley - aka Food Court was where we had breakfast and lunch today - tables service is limited to the restaurants where you need a reservation. Last night we ate in The Wake Stakehouse. Didn't get any pictures, not great. Adrian and I both had steak and it was very chewy.

Champagne and popsicles made with champagne for an extra fee

Additional fee for any specialty coffees such as cappuccino and any special drinks alcoholic or mocktails.

Our sad Chicken and Shrimp Pad Thai lunch

Deck 6 is home to High Street - the high end shopping area onboard

You can get a new tat or piercing to commemorate your trip

Legacy is the new name for used, this ship offers pre-owned Rolexes our last ship offered preowned handbags

The everything Virgin branded store

Enjoying our balcony

Tonight we snagged the last reservation for the Test Kitchen. By far our best meal of the trip. They have 3 menus which rotate and we got Menu B. 

We didn't do the wine pairing

First appetizer - corn/truffle turned out to be a corn and cream based mousse in the shape of a corn cob, served with actual corn and bread.

Second appetizer I had the tofu and aAdrian had the salmon, both served under glass with smoke.

Third appetizer was shrimp and garlic. The pasta is actually shrimp and cod with egg white and cream. shaped like pasta and steamed, with shrimp, soft garlic and a lobster and shrimp jus sauce.

Main course - lamb chop - cooked sous vide (Sous vide is a culinary technique where food is sealed in an airtight pouch and cooked in a precisely controlled, low-temperature water bath to achieve absolute edge-to-edge consistency and moisture retention) served with eggplant, zuchinni and red pepper and a sauce.

Adrian had the strawberry pistachio dessert. jellied round of strawberry puree on the bottom with fresh berries, pistachio and cream.

I had the mango chia dessert which was included mango mousse, passion fruit mousse, some granola type grain and a chia seed type brittle and some fresh mango to finish it off.

We had some fun taking pictures of us mirrored in the stainless steel column across from the counter where we were seated.

Today we arrived in Mykonos.
We're still getting used to our new digs - 17 decks, 2770 passengers plus 1100 crew, it's a big honking ship, full of folks ready to party hard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_Lady
This morning we had breakfast at The Galley, on deck 15. Picture breakfast in the food court at Scotia Square. We're in a new world, not one crew member greeted me with good morning Lynn - haha.
We live on deck 10 - which has helps make getting our steps in easier. We're 2-7 decks from everything and while the elevators are fast, we prefer the stairs. the hallways seem to go on forever.
I have to give the ship it's due - it uses lots of tech and so far manages crowds quite well. This includes our door key which is part of our bracelet, which also doubles as a charge card and our ID to get on and off the ship. Everything else is on the ships app - so on your phone. Constant messages with promos and sales as well as useful info like - it's time to get on the tender - which you had to book a spot on. Everything to do with your day is on your phone, including dinner reservation info (most restaurants - those with table service - require reservations, any tours you've booked, and info on ship arrival, programming, things to do, entertainment and so on.
Thankfully there's a map of the ship too! I am directionally challenged at the best of times.
Tonight we're having dinner at The Wake - the ship's Steakhouse, this will be our first restaurant meal on board.
I have been to Mykonos before - wow is it busier than 23 years ago! Several big ships in port along with the smallest of Windstar's fleet. So many people - the small alleyways and almost hidden shops of Mykonos were more like a rats maze, everyone looking to get somewhere, many very, very slowly.
We had a great time exploring and headed back to the ship after about 3 hours - that's all of the crowds that I could stand. 
​That big ship with the red trim is ours!

Small Windstar ship - with the masts.

Old Mykonos Town

This is the Greece Adrian had been expecting, white buildings, blue doors and shutters...

Enjoying our deck 

Scarlet lady - our new home for the next week...

Our new cabin 

We have a real balcony

Around the ship 

Sail away - grabbing a free prosecco and heading back to our balcony, huge crowd on the pool deck

Adrian was sad as he enjoyed his final breakfast onboard. Then we were off to find our hotel and go into Athen's. Both of us were not feeling great so Athen's wasn't a big tour - the Acropolis and a promise to come back. My goodness it was crowded, even in October.

Happy Birthday to me - thanks everyone for the well wishes. I had a lovely last day onboard Star Legend. Great decorations and even a cake. 

Birthday dinner 

Caught saying sagapo to each other - I love you in Greek

Group shot of the 12 - 80 dayers - last drinks together.