Messina Sicily – An horloge you can't refuse.

We pulled into Messina Sicily this morning. The port is right down town so we decided to see the sights. The one thing I wanted to see was the Cathedral and the clock tower. The tower is covered in animated statues that give a show as the bells chime. We were told to be there for noon.

We took a walk up the the bell tower just before noon. All the mechanism that runs the clock was exposed. Very interesting. Once on top of the tower there was a beautiful view of the city and port area. We were back down by noon to watch the clock put on it's show. It started by chiming the hours, then the lion at the top of the clock started waving his flag and tail around, bending back his head and letting out a roar! Then the rooster flapped his wings and crowed three times. The clock starting playing Ava Maria as the various statues and birds began rotating around the clock. It was pretty impressive. The whole sequence took about 12 minutes.

Bell Tower

The Coo-Coo in the clock

We've been very lucky with the weather so far on this trip. We've had warm sunny days all along. Today was about 85 degrees. Messina is between the sea and a mountain range so heavy clouds tend to form at the peak of the mountain, but it was actually quite sunny in the town.

We're now off to Palma Spain.

The captain announced that he plans to change course a bit because there is an active volcano on one of the islands near here Stromboli I think he said, so he is going to swing by for a closer look.

******* LATE BREAKING NEWS..... THIS JUST IN.... *******

Around 9 pm, our time, the captain came on the intercom and told us he was passing by the volcano. The full moon was illuminating the mountain, we had a great view. The ship came as close as it could to the volcano, I would say maybe a kilometer away. You could see smoke coming off the top and a dull red glow, then suddenly a plume of lava would shoot into the air tumbling back down the side of the volcano. What a show!

Tomorrow is a day at sea so there won't be much happening. I'm hoping to have enough internet time left on the ship to send a post from Spain. See you then!