We’re back on mainland Greece, a new port to us, Kavala is a city which dates back to 7th century BC. It has many claims to fame, the two most noteworthy for us are the fortress which dates back to C15 and the beautiful aquaduct which is a C17 rebuild by the Ottomans after the Romans’ original C1 version.
Starting in the old city, just above where we are moored, we walk past the fascinating Imaret with Islamic scholarly origins, although now an hotel. Unfortunately it was difficult to photograph. Further up we pass Halil Bey Mosque and then eventually make it to the fortress.
The view from the inner tower is spectacular, the remaining buildings are quite minimal but it’s interesting nevertheless.
Moving on we visit the former house of Mohammed Ali, not the butterfly one, this was the man who was born here in 1769 and went on to reclaim Egypt from the French, arguably creating the country we now know. Unfortunately it closes on Tuesdays! Adjacent is the Holy Church of the Dormition of the Virgin, which is lovely inside but requested no internal photos. The many chandeliers are huge!
Returning to the plan, we find the aqueduct again this time from below, passing a few “renovation projects” and some nice old houses, which concludes our review of the antiquities.
Now we start our along the front, walking first past the very smelly fishing fleet and then a small beach, stopping twice to chat with Handré the company’s head of entertainment who is onboard at present, whom we know from several voyages.
We manage a respectable distance then return for lunch. We decide to go to Sushi again, adding crab rolls to our bento box this time, all wonderful.
The usual pattern of work, pool, cocktails consumes the afternoon, it’s just like being at home (although we are only allowed cocktails at the weekend!) There’s another ABBA sailaway and it’s soon time to return to our cabin, pour that G&T, then shower and dress for dinner.
We are in MDR today, we enjoy a lovely menu, starting with marinated scallops and smoked trout, and mustard crusted veal sweetbreads. Next we all have different soups – vegetable consommé, Cornish game hen consommé, sweet curry squash soup, and tomato soup. All great.
Mains are fabulous Dover sole meunière and gorgeous venison sirloin. For pudding we manage chocolate ganache cake and Calvados soufflé. The latter was wonderful the former would have been better a little less cooked but it was still good.
The turn is Harry Sideropolous who can only be described as the most astonishing bundle of fun, madness, enthusiasm and joy we have ever seen ever. Words fail to convey his show. The nearest likeness I have is when we saw Peter Ustinov at the Lyceum many years ago. Extraordinary!!
