Apparently our time in Venice was the hottest day the city has had in 30 years. No wonder we were baking and washed out at the end of that trip. Yesterday's sea day gave me a chance to indulge in lots of water-colouring and have a private lesson with a personal trainer. So on in all it was a perfect day especially given that I managed to read a bit more of my cruise book. Today we were in Greece, and yet again without an alarm I was up and about at 6 a.m. which of course turned out to be a good move with all of that beautiful scenery to look at as the P&O Aurora sailed into port at Corfu. During our excursion up into the mountains to visit a monastery, we were told that towards the end of last Summer there was so much rain that 90% of the Olive Oil crop and 50% of the Wine crop was lost. That puts into context the fabulous weather we are enjoying while we both visit this part of the world for the first time. It has been a glorious albeit hot day, I fell asleep on deck this afternoon and then managed to complete the Venetian watercolour that I have been labouring with over the last four days. It's only slightly larger than postcard size, but nevertheless it turned out to be quite detailed. I can't imagine that I will do many of those, as I can't deal with the stress of things that go on and on. Maybe that's why I have started to like pastel drawing; it's simple and easy to complete in just a few hours. We are now hauling anchor and leaving Greece for Sicily. Somewhere where we were due to visit many years ago, that was until we broke down in Florence and had our holiday curtailed. In about 1.5 hours we should be off the coast and into the Ionian Sea. Around 0530 we are due to pick up the land off the toe of Italy. Maybe I will wake up early yet again and watch that sail-in as well.
The accompanying sunrise photograph is from our balcony on the Aurora looking at part of the Greek coastline during this mornings approach.
