Unlike a lot of the ship’s crew, we didn’t get off the ship last evening. I am not much for wandering around away from home in the evening and even less likely to do so while in a city that is not my own. Sound better than saying I don’t go out at night in strange cities, doesn’t it? Anyway – today presented a completely different challenge. There were three other ships in port which meant the number of tourists on the streets was significantly higher.
In fact, I am not sure that anyone who was local and not involved in the hospitality or tourist trade (to include a lot of so oriented shops) was out and about today. Neither the Seabourn Quest (458) or the Seven Seas Grandeur (748) are particularly huge ships nor actually is HAL’s Volendam (1432 – and by far the oldest of the four in port) but their presence certainly made our measly 312 passenger ship look tiny.
Anyway – we walked out and away, through the art district and I made the mistake of turning left at a corner …
Oh, well …. and turned to the opposite direction and found yet another cannon emplacement. That I could ignore, but there was this artist installation … (on the website you should be able to click on the photo and enlarge it enough to read it.0
I am sorry – I don’t find this art –
It is books, in many languages and most were obviously readable prior to her fastening then to an understructure. Especially in a city which has both antiquarian and used book stores.
I am not sure that it is balanced by this particularly lovely building –
with a bit of close up –
and so we decided to explore a bit more up the hill and along what appeared occasionally to be streets of shops for those who just might live there. But there were constant reminders of the long standing military strategic importance of the top of a hill overlooking a river (sound familiar to anyone living in Europe?)
and so –
and gates (obviously more recently repaired)
and, of course, more canon emplacements.
At that point, I felt it was more than reasonable time to hike back down toward the ship, avoid all the extra tourists and contemplate a nap, stitching, or another audio book.
