Back in Italy, now on the Island of Sicily, our original HAL Excursion to explore a local town and its beach (with covered chairs for two) was cancelled by the tour operator so we were offered instead a tour to Cefalu, which is located east of Palermo, still on the north coast of Sicily. The winds had not ceased from the previous day and our trip back from Tunisia – in fact it took 2 tugs to get us into port plus all the technology that the ship has to maneuver (something to do with pods). Even the port, which is normally open 24 hours, was closed overnight due to the winds which were bearing down on it, so all the ferry traffic, plus our cruise ship had to “hang out” outside of the port until it was safe to enter, at about 6am. At 8am our trip to Cefalu began and we were off in a bus that despite the wind gusts, the driver did a very good job keeping the bus, acting like a sail, on the highway! We made it to this historic town and spent about 2 hours there. While walking around we saw a wedding happen in the town church along with I did some window shopping. It seemed to be a VERY popular tourist destination with about 6 busses of people there visiting while we were there too. Driving back there was no wind at all – in fact there was a small “forest fire” which was being water bombed with a beaver type looking plane. Unfortunately did not get a picture of the plane 🙁 but it was cool watching it dump the water! When we got back to Palermo, we just made it onto the ship before it started to rain very heavily! After some pizza and watching the rain storm, we went out and took some pictures of the city, before returning prior to All Aboard! Here are our pictures!
Picture leaving port of castle on top of hillPalemro traffic on way to highwayLocal parkRoad in local parkCool tunnelOld buildingsFinally on highwaySeaside town = villasMore seaside villasThe “rock” which Ceafu is behindView of church and townRow houses with restaurantsRestaurants with houses aboveTwo restaurant formats’Thirst restaurant looking over bayCaught you on camera!The walk to townSea front housesLooking back along the sea walkSun shining on town churchStairs up to church…Side view of chruchTown square in front of church – yet to be set upChurch officeAnother vew of town squareTown square set up!Street viewNarrow street viewMore street viewsMan with loud trolley in street!Inside of church (wedding going on)Street viewShrine in the wallCity mapUp the coastNext town to the east – public docksNext town to the east – lovely beach!Back of stone “mountain” which Cefula is in front ofFarming house on highway homeMore farm housesAnd some more – notice terrace gardensSmoke on highway from forest fireIsland pennisula north of PalermoIn Palermo – old building front on leftNew cruise ship terminal being builtVarious views of our ship….Various views of our ship….Various views of our ship….View of port from balconyView of rain coming towards us… on rightRain has passed now! Sun on new port building.Mixture of old and new buildingsMonument to settlers village in frontBuggy rides – horses keep up wth traffic!Old chruch near waterfrontExplanation of excavated villageExcavated village – no accessCondemned buildingInteresting windowsMany balconies had flowers on themTook Andrew lane walking – interesting buildings!And another interesting building…with wc parking!Thought a pizzeria/sushi concept different?More modern out of ruinsInteresting – 3 places our trip took/takes us to!Palermo after the rain…Our captain’s favourite way to leave – stern first!Breakwater for small fishing boatsLooking back at the townPanoramic view of the port of Palermo
