METAMORPHOSIS: From Liners to Cruise Ships (Part 2)

Saturday 30th September 2017 (continued)
We were finally taken back to the shipyard entrance, handed in our hard hats, and thanked our guides for a wonderful afternoon.

Maurizio drove us back to town where we parked and then walked along to the Metamorphosis Exhibition.

The Monfalcone Exhibition

The banner


There were lots of people around and many were going into the Galleria. We followed them into the venue.

Booklet

Another view

Inside the booklet

Where's Wallis? booklet


Immediately we could see model ships, pictures of ships, a video playing on a large screen at the other end of the hall, books for sale, leaflets about the Exhibition, and lots of exhibits that immediately attracted our attention. One of them was the good ship OCEANIC, which Home Lines (founded by the Cosulich family) had originally intended to be a liner, but later became the first modern passenger ship to be intended exclusively for cruising. She was launched in 1963.

Michelangelo

Photograph by Ted Scull

Michelangelo photographed by Ted Scull

Michelangelo again

Model of Michelangelo

Model of Oceanic

Oceanic being fitted out

Monfalcone site in 1963

The latest Italian Navy ship built at the yard

View into the Galleria


Over an hour later we said our goodbyes and left the wonderful Galleria. It had been a fascinating experience to visit the Exhibition and follow the explanations of the Metamorphosis of the Company and Shipyard from Liners to Cruise Ships.

Maurizio drove us back to our hotel for a chance to drop off various souvenirs and quickly prepare to go out again, this time to drive the short distance around the bay to Trieste for dinner. We parked and walked along part of the promenade, familiar to me from my first visit here in November 2014 before sailing on COSTA DIADEMA on her maiden voyage. (See blog piece with more details.) She was built by Fincantieri and now I have experienced their Monfalcone shipyard at very close quarters.

Trieste's old Fish Market


One of the brightly lit buildings was the old Fish Market and we made a quick detour inside; Maurizio is to lecture there in a few days time, and he wanted to show us the inside of this converted building. Inside we were introduced to a Mrs Cosulich, and then to her husband, and she mentioned that she was involved with the arrangements for the annual boat festival of Trieste - the Barcolana. This is an historic international sailing regatta taking place each year in the Gulf of Trieste, with the highlight being the event held on the second Sunday of October. It must be an extraordinary sight, to see so many little sailing vessels in the Gulf. I've read that about 25,000 sailors take part (www.barcolana.it) during the weeks of the Regatta.

There were huge advertising pictures showing on the screen in the vast hall, and then I was offered a Virtual Reality experience for 3 minutes! I sat and had a headpiece placed on me, and suddenly I was sitting on one of the racing boats with a 360⁰ view of everything going on around me on the water! It's one thing to know about new technology, but even more fun to experience it.

We left the Fish Market reluctantly but had to get to a local side street restaurant for a dinner booking. We all enjoyed a freshly cooked and presented meal, as we discussed the events of the day. We had done many interesting things and were so glad to have made arrangements to visit the Metamorphosis Exhibition - which turned into many more events.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Museo Cantieristica Monfalcone whilst it is open in the morning, take photographs of the MSC ships in the Fincantieri shipyard from local viewpoints in Monfalcone and then head to Venice to see what we can see.


To be continued...

FERRYING IN '15 21st June

Sunday 21st June 2015
We are due to arrive in Marseille at 8 a.m. on board JEAN NICOLI so there was ample time to start the day with the ship's enjoyable Buffet Breakfast Menu as we approached the port. On our way into our berth we passed two cruise ships: COSTA DIADEMA and RIVIERA, which had already arrived at their berths.

Sailing past Chateau d'If

Costa Diadema and Riviera were in port

Riviera

Zenith in the distance

Methania

Corse

Kalliste


Once off the ship we had to take the ferry shuttle bus (free of course) to the terminal building to decide our plans for the day. We decided to be proper tourists so strolled along the dual-carriageway boulevard on the sea-side to enjoy looking at the pictures on the fencing. The local authorities have been building things here for years, but it now seems that they may have nearly accomplished what they planned. The pictures showed things in 1995 (in black and white) and now in 2015 (in colour) and they were quite a contrast. It was amazing to look around and see no building sites or traffic chaos because of diversions - certainly down here at the port area - but of course it was different just a mile behind us, in the city.

Decisions made, we took a number 60 local bus to the church of Notre Dame de la Garde, up on the hill above the city. The golden statue was eye-catching in the bright sunlight and we enjoyed looking around the ramparts and then inside the church. Outside the views were panoramic, looking towards the ferry port and cruise ship terminal, or towards the Isles du Frioul just outside the port.

Notre Dame de la Garde

Long view

The Church Cross

View over the port

Frioul Islands

Chateau d'If

Jesus dans la barque


Another air-conditioned number 60 local bus took us back down to the city and the Vieux Porte where we wanted to catch a pleasure craft to take us out to the Chateau d'If.

We were soon on our way out to the island, on board AIGLON 3, which is where the novel 'The Count of Monte Cristo' was set by French author Alexandre Dumas, and where many people were jailed in previous centuries. My friends enjoyed ice-creams in the cafe grounds whilst I enjoyed little shortbread-based sables aux dattes with vanilla ice-cream, specially created by the proprietor. The tour of the Chateau was interesting despite the heat and the many steps to climb but the views from the ramparts were worth it. I had happy memories of my first visit here when we saw a dinosaur's descendant - well, it was a tiny lizard, but my mind could imagine its ancestors...

Isles du Frioul

Aiglon 3

Lovely water

View back to the city

and again


We took an afternoon ferry back to the Vieux Porte, marvelling at a few people swimming in the entrance waters but also envying them I suppose.

Sailing back into the Vieux Porte

and seeing the swimmers


A nearby bar supplied Earl Grey tea or cool drinks, and then we were ready to take another local bus number 82 along the boulevard towards the ferry terminals. By this time the Mistral had died down so the sun and tiny breeze were very pleasant.

Tonight we are due to sail on the ro-ro passenger ship PASCAL PAOLI so we were keen to check in and get on board. She was built in 2003 in France, at 35,760 gross tons, so was much bigger than our previous ships. She sails regularly between Marseille and Bastia in Corsica and this is our itinerary. Instead of cabin keys, we had individual cabin cards with a 4 digit code printed on them, and these codes had to be used on the small keypad beside each cabin door handle to gain entry. One surprise in the bathroom was a hairdryer, which is a rarity on the older ferries.

Pascal Paoli

Main bar on Pascal Paoli

On deck

The ship's name


We sailed at 7 p.m. in hot sunshine from Marseille,

View out on deck

Roof-top party on one of the new buildings

Mediterranee

Mediterranee taking the air

El Djazair, Algerian Ferries


Again we passed the Chateau d'If, and also that amazing building on a neighbouring island that looks just like the bow of a ship. What a fun design. The Bar was open and we joined other passengers enjoying a pre-dinner drink, whilst we listened to a two-piece band playing some music.

What a delightful design for a home


The stern Restaurant was a lovely location for dinner, despite the stern ramp being rather noticeably in the view, and the service was rather casual but the food and wine were good value for money. We spent time on deck afterwards enjoying the last views of the mountains as the sun gradually went down. On our port side we could see two of the Sardinia-Corsica Ferries (MEGA SMERALDA and MEGA EXPRESS FOUR) heading into or from the port of Toulon.

Sardinia-Corsica Ferries in the far distance


MEGA SMERALDA will be following us all the way down to Bastia, although at a slightly slower speed, which is fortunate as she is our next sailing tomorrow morning from Bastia. Our arrival time tomorrow on board PASCAL PAOLI was originally to be 8 a.m. which made the connection with MEGA SMERALDA extremely tight, but there was an on board announcement that the arrival time in Bastia would be 7 a.m. That is a great relief! The sea was calm and the light beautiful as we watched sunset from the upper decks.


Ships seen: Riviera, Zenith (Bleu de France) of 1992, Costa Diadema, El Djazair II, Methania, Mediterranee, Pascal Paoli, Corse, Kalliste, Jean Nicoli, Girolata, Aiglon 3 - the little cruise boat for the Chateau d'If, Mega Smeralda, Mega Express Four.

To be continued...