To the Black Sea - Sochi Page

Up at 07:15, as they allowed half an hour from the Neptune Lounge to the bus. Mistake! Sochi Immigration took a whole hour to check us through, despite having a lot of desks. This is totally unnecessary & it took us less time to get into the Soviet Union 31 years ago. We had a tour to Stalin’s Dacha, the choice of tours not being brilliant but this was an interesting green-painted building (for camouflage) not much bigger than “The Wick” (the house we once had in Pyrford). The view was great. The construction inside was all wooden panelling. There was a waxwork of Stalin at his desk & a remarkably small swimming pool. It was all quite delightful. Two extra wings had later been added (it was built in 1937) to turn it into a hotel. Otherwise, there had been two separate buildings.

After, I processed photos until Pip Computer’s battery went flat again, read a bit, showered, thus missing the chance to photo quite a sunset & did a few circuits of the deck with Maiko, who has to do a five minute gig in the variety show tomorrow. We went through a lot of possibilities but she might do La Campanella again. Bernard & Valerie had been up to Krasnya Polyana, the Olympic site, which was an all-day tour which I had not thought would be too exciting but as it was an absolutely lovely day, was. They scraped into dinner but Pam & David, on an afternoon trip, were late. Anthony had arranged a local group to play for us but bloody Theresa May has been squealing about more sanctions on Russia, so they banned the band from coming aboard. The ship’s orchestra played the usual big band hits quite well instead.

Sunday 23rd October 2016 At sea

The port talk on Piraeus was at 11, so I did some circuits of the deck first. It was another nice day but with some mist as well as Sun. After, I did laundry & edited the Sochi photos, which I continued after lunch. I archived all the work I had done on a USB stick in case ISIS thought it a lark to sink a cruise liner. In the evening, there was a variety show, with everyone doing something (Maiko did La Campanella again).