6/12 -- Palermo

We slept til almost 8 and went to breakfast and had a nice chat with the host til almost 10am. Check out time was 11, but we were in no hurry to get to the next place because it was unlikely our room would be ready, so we dawdled til almost 11 and saw the group with the Green Bay hat guy checking out just ahead of us.

Our new hotel was only 2 minutes away on foot, so we hustled over there and met Isabella, our tour leader for the next two weeks. As we were talking to her,  the four folks in the Green Bay hat group walked in -- they are on the same tour! Talk about a small world. Just as we were getting ready for an orientation walk, another OAT traveler showed up. Our rooms were not ready, so we  left our bags and Isabella showed us where to find some of the things we discovered on our own, plus an ATM, stamp source, and a couple gelato shops where the gelato is served inside a warm sweet bun.

 A building on our walk.  I liked
the door (above), Jim preferred the
whole thing (below).

This looked to us like a single building that had been lopped
in half.

Back at the hotel, the rooms were ready, so we checked in and quickly crashed -- a two-hour nap helped rid us of the lingering jet lag. We went walking again, going further into the old city and stopped for a gelato, but opted for a waffle cup instead of a bun.Then we walked out to the harbor before coming back to the hotel to meet the rest of our group and getting an intro to our trip and dinner.

Presumably because of the  heat here,
this is how people protect their homes
from the sun. Note how delapidated
the door is.

Typical narrow street

Blue suede shoes available cheap.

Or maybe some sparkley sandals for me.

Church of San Francisco of Assisi

Huge cruise ship  leaving. We saw it go by as we walked|
on the street --  it looked like a giant bulding floating by,

A headland on the other side of the harbor that leads to mountains.

The other side of the divided builing. The front middle sections
were added later- different materials.  Maybe it was originally
connected as a gate.

The church around the corner from our original
hotel.