Closing the Blog - and Thoughts

Monday 16 April

This will probably be my last entry on this site, apart from some thoughts about the trip that I want to sit and cogitate about – what will I do without my blog to write? We are still struggling to come to terms with being home – or rather I am – but I must persevere. The weather is still warm here today, but apparently the temperatures are plummeting tomorrow – where else could we be but in the UK.

We decided to start at the front of the house and work our way backwards, so we tidied the front “garden” – ie removed all the weeds from the paved area - and worked our way indoors to the washing machine and finding where everything is kept – everything is still in the same place as when we left, but it’s amazing how you forget which drawer the cutlery is in, or where the plates are kept.

This afternoon we made a short visit to Sainsburys – Colin, in his wisdom, had made a short shopping list of ‘desirables’ which never crossed my mind – but neither of us took our Nectar cards, so we weren’t that organized (I can’t even find my handbag or purse yet!). When it came to cooking dinner later tonight I had to start another list of “essentials” that I found we were short of. It feels very strange – having to think about what to buy to cook for dinner (you just read a menu and order don’t you?!) We decided on an easy roast chicken meal for the first attempt, but timing it to be ready at the right time – something we haven’t thought about for months and which I was never good at before – I still failed by half an hour, but perhaps practice will make perfect. And clearing away after the meal, seemed to take nearly as long as cooking it – even with a dishwasher. I am definitely not made for domestic chores.

We are still trying to accustom ourselves – or is it just me – to being home, and trying to return to some normalcy. Tomorrow we plan to attempt to salvage my car with a good clean and polish, before sorting out a new battery – we later found out that the battery is a special, only available from Mazda – but a kind man at a local shop sold us something similar, and at least the car goes now. The amount of work to do at home is almost mind-blowing and de-motivating, but the way forward seems to be to think only about one day at a time. And there will be lots more journeys to plan and experience – I have found a great cruise to incorporate into our American journey – so will be contacting the “Fab Four” for some background.

Here are just a few initial thoughts about the trip:

Best Moment – standing on the Great Wall in China – the whole purpose of the trip when we started to plan. The day was clear and sunny – one of the few smogless days in Beijing – and I managed to walk along till we could go no further at that site. The views were stunning – across the Chinese mountains, into Mongolia and the Gobi Desert and out across the plain.

Runners Up: Rafting in the Thailand jungle when the rest of the experience was so very hard.
The pool attendant handing me my towel as I got out of the swimming pool at the Copacabana Palace – I felt like a princess.
Finding our carriage on the Trans Siberian Train – such a lovely surprise.

Best continent –South America - as we had no expectations of what we would see and find. It is so diverse the pleasures are endless and there’s still lots to go back and see.

Runners Up: Australia

Best country – Peru – probably for the same reasons as above – there are so many different landscapes, each with its own particular scenery to explore – from coastal plain to very high mountains, from the lush green of the jungle to the bare arid landscape of the desert.

Runners Up: Australia – we loved the sheer size of the country – the endless miles across the outback – one day we drove further than from home to Edinburgh, and Australians think nothing of that. Adelaide, Alice, Darwin, Cairns and Melbourne were all fabby, but the east coast stopped this country reaching my number 1 slot, as we felt it was very holiday-camp-ish. Again there is still much more to explore – all the western side of the country for a start – just a few thousand miles – and I am sure we will be back.

Best City: A tie between Berlin and Barcelona – both had so much to offer the visitor, that another visit to each is a definite.

Runners Up: Beijing – becoming so westernized now, the city is changing overnight, but it is full of wonderful sights and interesting culture and there is still lots more to see and do here too – also a new railway line now runs from Beijing to Lhasa – the longest tunnel and the highest railway – over 5,000 metres up – so maybe one day.

But would also have to include Bangkok – we love this city and have already visited it several times – a must to return.

Best Mode of Travel – A tie again, between the Trans-Siberian train and the cruise from Rio to Barcelona on the Insignia. Both 5* AA service, food and amenities.

Runner Up: Must mention the excellent coach we had for the Sydney to Darwin tour. It was extremely spacious and comfortable. We saw many new coaches whilst in Barcelona and if this is how they are developing, coach travel could become a major consideration for the future.

Best tour: Sydney to Darwin – we were very lucky to be with such a great crowd of people and the visits were all so varied and interesting, that the long distances between each stop were no problem.

Runners Up: China and Patagonia (Lapwing) Rio Negro

Best Hotel: – Copacabana Palace in Rio – the service was exemplary and the hotel magnificent, it was just a shame that Rio itself is so dangerous and not to be explored.

Runners Up: Explora at San Pedro – which combined excellent activities with great food and facilities, and the Convent in Salvador which was just 5*AA all the way.

Best Wildlife: Rio Negro – a small fazenda run like a family home – so welcoming – and although we mainly saw birds, visiting at another time of the year we would see a completely different range of animals. Being able to travel by boat, horse (we didn’t), truck and on foot, also made the experience more interesting.

Runners Up: Sandoval Lodge – trudging miles through thick mud to the Lake to see the family of Giant otters, monkeys and macaws so close at hand was amazing. Just didn’t like the “bugs” and spiders that lived alongside us.

New Activities: Horse riding – I really enjoyed the opportunities to ride and would definitely consider riding again.

Runners Up: Hang gliding – again a great experience to see the countryside wheeling below – but not something I will hanker to do again. And cycling – not experienced since I was a teenager – I really enjoyed biking around Aruthaya in Thailand. It’s a shame the traffic is so manic at home.

Special Places: Buzios – a great little seaside resort just two hours north of Rio – if only it was a little closer – it had everything – warm weather, great food and armfuls of atmosphere – another must visit again destination.

And Also: Smile in Bophut – we spend five glorious weeks here. With visits from family and friends, the time passed very quickly, and we were so relaxed when we left that getting back into “tour” mode was extremely difficult. I can still taste those cocktails at the Frog and Gecko, Happy Elephant and the Beatles bar – a good reason to return.

Could Not Do Without: Colin, of course. I could never have undertaken this trip without him. He was a "superstar" and always there for me.

Runner Up: The “Thai-shite” has been fabby throughout and enabled us to keep in contact with lots of people – one of the only problems we had during the whole adventure, was a cable that didn’t work once we were back at Juz’s on the Thursday morning and Dave was able to produce a new one immediately – so we could still use it – might have been more of a problem if that had happened in the Pantanal or somewhere else equally remote.

Long Lasting: Only two sets of batteries in my toothbrush the whole way round

Runner Up: Colin’s case – it was over the 20kg allowance all the way round, but is still in great condition nine months later.

Biggest Expense: Replacing cameras – one faulty and one waterlogged.

Runner Up: Treatments on the cruise – the Spa was horrendously expensive.


PS

We have had an absolutely fabby time on our adventure around the world, and would recommend to anyone to do it. The countries, culture and people we met were all so different and fascinating, and we were so lucky to have escaped with only a few hiccups – passports stolen in St Petersburg, credit card cloned in Rio and flights cancelled throughout Chile – which in the end were all quite easily overcome with the help of other people.

We have a lot of people to be grateful to that helped us book this trip – Roz, Alex and Sarah at Trailfinders were fantastic, nothing was too much trouble when I kept changing our plans; Margaret at Ffestiniog Travel, when the trains decided to strike just a week before our departure; and Euniz for getting us started with our tour around China. Without these and others it would have been very hard to have accomplished so much.

Then there’s the people at home who have read the blog to keep up with our travels and emailed, keeping us in touch with all their news – it was always great when we heard from anyone – like getting a present. And most particularly Juz and Dave who have kept us abreast of all the family news “as it happens”, and Nick for looking after our house so well.

We have been back in the UK over a week now, and at home for three days. It has been a busy time here, trying to catch up with everything - we only got to open the box of mountainous post accumulated over the nine months – and that’s without the junk mail that Nick has sifted. My car is now back on the road, and hopefully Colin will be mobile again next Monday. We are gradually getting back into some sort of routine, but its not like exploring new places, meeting new people, sitting on our balcony in Buzioz, or supping cocktails in the sun – although the weather here is still sunny it is not warm. I am still trying to sort out our next “adventure”, but it is unlikely that it will be anything so gigantic as this trip.

We haven’t started looking at the photos yet, so cannot bore everyone with our “album”, but I am going to try and print the blog with some associated piccys as a great reminder – to me - of nine wonderful months.

Welcome Home!

Sunday 15 April

Time to go home! I cannot believe we have been away for nine months, and all the places we have seen and experiences we have had still seem dream-like. Life here in Darlington, doesn’t seem to have changed hardly at all – except the house has been half-demolished on the ground floor – and I wonder what, if any, changes we are going to find at home.

The sun was shining warmly again – so much better for traveling than a dull or rainy morning, and we eventually set off just before midday, with Darren’s car packed to the gunnels with some of our luggage! My case must weight about 35 kgs now – mostly with Colin’s gear, of course!

The roads were fairly busy, but fast moving and the journey, even with a stop for an hour at a service station, only took us about five hours. Darren, bless him, drove all the way, so probably Dawn would take a turn going to Selsey. At the house, not only Nick and Hayley, but Andy and family were all there to greet us – Sandy and Alex had made us a card each saying “welcome home”. We introduced ourselves to Hayley as Nick was busy helping to unload all of our luggage, and we met Timothy, all red in a miniature “Arsenal” babygro. He was tiny and blue eyed, with lots of straight jet black hair – I do remember Andy having a similar hairstyle when he was that age. Everyone thinks he looks like Alex did at that age, and maybe that is true, as I think he is like Andy was as a baby. I had a long cuddle whilst catching up with everyone else’s news, as well as relaying a few of our own exploits – I had said we wouldn’t say too much about our “jaunt” and bore everyone, but it is difficult, as that is our “news”. The children meanwhile were playing quietly – that was a change – I think Adam’s toys must have been a bit of a novelty. They also seemed quite shy. We now have a huge, huge television in our lounge (42 inch screen) – which is much too big for the alcove where it is sitting – but seems to be a permanent fixture, at least till Nick decides to move out. The water feature in the garden which we had been ‘constructing’ for the past couple of years (!) was bubbling merrily away and there is also a new lamp post lighting our patio area. Nick – and Hayley - had obviously been busy mowing the grass and cleaning the house ready for our arrival as everywhere was clean and sparlkling. There were vases of flowers all over – each one in different shades – all very beautiful and wlecoming. Andy and Kerry stayed till after 20.00, when all three children were getting hungry (!) while we ordered a take-away – fast food till we get sorted.

It seems very strange to be back in this house – it is like somewhere we have spent time in the past, are now are re-visiting – not necessarily our home. I expect that this will change as we become used to being here again. We have decided that we will move – but first of all have a lot of work de-cluttering the entire house – especially the loft with its thirty seven years of tut. That, with more traveling, should keep us busy for a while. But it has been great seeing the family – just Colin’s Mum and Dad to go now before the assault of catching up with friends – but at present we are car-less (Colin’s needing an MOT and mine a new battery and a thorough clean) so it will be a few days yet. I am finding it difficult coming to terms of being at home, but it’s a feeling not entirely unexpected, and I suppose the longer we are here the easier it will become.

Barbeque Time!

Saturday 14 April

We have been waking much earlier than when we were away, as if our bodies know the “holiday” is coming to an end. The weather has been so warm that Dave decided today was the perfect time for a barbeque. Consequently we all trooped down to the town – Dawn was still looking for new shoes, and ended up buying another new outfit and two pairs of shoes (good on you!), as well as a visit to Sainsburys for Juz, Dave and Colin – he was only allowed to push the trolley – and the covered market for the rest of us, to purchase yummy supplies for tonight’s cook-in.

Dave and Juz continued their internet quest for marble floor tiles, now spreading their search to Italy direct, as nothing suitable could be found from suppliers in this country. I, meanwhile, was still looking a holidays and preparatory travels for America. It would appear that in order to see the marble samples, a trip to Italy might be needed, so maybe I will be off again sooner than expected to accompany Juz in her search for the “right” floor. The sun shone all day – temperatures were up in the 20’s C which - was more like the weather we had expected in Barcelona – it was still warm when Dave started cooking about 19.00. We played yet more games, with lots of loud enthusiastic encouragement for the rest of the afternoon.

We enjoyed a delicious selection of barbequed meats, fish and veggies as well as salads – Dave has perfected cooking in the garden - and we hadn’t been to a “proper” barbeque for ages – in South America they only cooked huge hanks of beef coated thickly in salt in a pizza style oven, so it was probably in Australia where we had our last “proper” barbeque – and that not so exquisitely cooked as here at Chez Williams. As always Juz had bought sufficient food for the five thousand, so we were all full to bursting, with lots left over, when the meal was over.

Darren and Natasha went off to the pub around 22.00 leaving the rest of us feeling exhausted and ready for bed. Colin and I still had to sort out our suitcases, as Darren, taking us home tomorrow, would only have room for one case – the pink “portmanteau”. We will have to return to collect the “blue trunk” some time soon – another excuse for a weekend away.

We have had a great time here with Juz, Dave, Natasha, Dawn and Darren helping to prepare us for our return to the south tomorrow. We are looking forward to meeting Hayley – Nick’s girlfriend since just after we left home - and, of course, young Timothy, who is now over six weeks old – it seems hardly any time since we were at the Copacabana Palace amxiously awaiting news of his birth. But it will still be with some trepidation that we approach London to return to a life of reality – for a while at least.

Birthday Celebrations

Friday 13 April

We came to Darlington to celebrate Juz’s birthday today – she was born on Friday 13th too – and to start her day “in style’ for breakfast she ate cold curry and rice (!) especially left from last night’s meal! – her favourite. After a lazy morning, sitting around chatting and exploring more on the internet about marble flooring and holidays, we set out for Northallerton, to have lunch at the famous “Betty’s” tea shop. We had to wait a while for a table for six, but were then soon tucking into the delicious foods the restaurant is famous for – muffins, cinnamon toasts and scones, all with chips! It is one of the most expensive establishments we have eaten in for snacky type food, but it is worth every penny, when the plates arrive. There is also a huge range of proper teas and coffee – so that there is always something new to try. Poor Dave had to return to work, but the rest of us wandered around the shops – some making purchases - before making our way back to ‘Darlo’. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing games – the “Youngsters” trying hard to get their revenge over the “Oldies” at ‘Trivvers’ and as well as trying to guess the right words for “Taboo” – a few glasses of wine seemed to cloud our minds.

We started the evening early with champagne as Juz opened presents and cards, and were all very “happy” by the time we set about putting on our glad rags to go out and celebrate in the town. Friday night is traditionally “boys night out” in the north, but we came across quite a lot of ladies in “22’s” – a bar where even standing room is always at a premium, and later on our way to the restaurant – “Oven” – where Colin and I had tried to eat on two previous occasions, but never quite made it.

The food was delicious with a definite thumbs up for the oysters and my huge steaming bowl of mussels. For main courses between the seven of us we sampled the slow roasted belly of pork (me and Juz), steaks, sword fish and lamb and all were very temptingly presented. Only a few hardy ones had room for dessert but they were equally delicious and looked extremely pretty on the plates.

It was quite a rowdy crowd who piled into the taxi – the poor driver needed a “rider’ to tell him the way, and Colin was selected to sit in front – so it was quite lucky we went to the right address. We sat in the kitchen and chatted for a while, before we all retired to bed – Dave and Natasha having to be up early for work tomorrow – even though it’s Saturday.

Getting Back To Reality

Thursday 12 April

It was great to wake this morning and catch up with Dawn and Darren. It definitely does not seem that we haven’t met up with them for the past nine months. But we didn’t have long for chatting. Today was to be a “pampering” day, as Juz had arranged for Dawn and I to have our hair cut and Dawn to have a massage and facial too (they were meant to be for Juz before Colin and I altered her plans by arriving at such short notice – I am not a facial person, so Dawn became the recipient of the pampering package). I emerged looking a bit like “Billy Bolisha” with very short, bright orangey hair (!!!!), while Dawn had red and cream highlights – much more sensible. But it had also given Juz and I some time together to chat and catch up, which was great.

We spent the rest of the day shopping which seemed almost a new experience for me – but I still have to tackle Sainsburys and food. We still had prezzies and cards to buy for the birthday girls (Juz and Natasha) and Dawn needed new shoes (to match a new outfit), although we were not successful on two out of three items – only buying birthday cards. Later we spent lots of time talking – there is just so much to catch up on – and playing “Trivial Pursuit” – the modern genus where ‘history’ starts about 1990! Tonight we decided on take away food and ended up with a selection of both Indian and Chinese, neither of which Colin and I had eaten for months. I think we have now just about drunk ‘Darlo’ dry of champagne, so will need to replenish the stocks tomorrow – for the birthday celebrations.

This interlude “up North” is easing us gently into “life back home”, before we have to get into the routine of shopping, cooking, cleaning and ironing. We have already been looking on the internet for other places to explore, even before our planned trip to America in the autumn. Although we are not in quite the same league as Millie - who we met on the Trans Siberian train last July and has been off somewhere new each month, since then – but traveling is now in our blood and I am sure we will have to be off again soon – even if only for a week or two.

Flying Home

Wednesday 11 April

The alarm rang loud and insistently this morning, although we soon realized we had plenty of time and did not need to rush up. We have not breakfasted at all in Barcelona as paying 16.50 euros (13 GBP approx) for a croissant and a cup of tea seemed exorbitant in the hotel, and then we discovered that the small breakfast café we liked the look of down the road, was full of smoking Barcelonians – not a healthy place to start the day. We decided therefore to finish packing and go to the airport in time to have a bite before boarding our flight – as Easyjet do not feed their passengers.

We left the hotel in good time around 11.15, our two suitcases just fitting into the boot of the taxi so that the three large hand luggage bags and the chocolate bunny from the boat had to accompany us inside. The journey to the airport took about half an hour – the driver sped along the dual carriageway, ignoring signs to change lanes for the airport and I wondered if he was absconding with us or taking us to the wrong destination. I needn’t have worried, as very strangely, the lane directions changed back and forth across the motorway, and soon we were turning into the airport and parking outside the departure lounge. Staggering inside we found we were right beside the Easyjet check-in desks. A young man was free almost immediately and we handed over our passports. Colin put his suitcase on the conveyor – 25 kgs – the said young man looked amazed that we had another huge piece of luggage to book in as well. We put my pink “portmanteau” on the scales and together the weight was within a whisker of 55 kgs! The young man asked quite innocently if we knew we were a “little” over the luggage allowance and proceeded to print us tickets to pay the charges. We explained we had been traveling for nine months and asked him if the plane served champagne so we could celebrate our last flight (knowing of course that they didn’t) and telling him what a wonderful time we had had, so that he tore up the original tickets and booked us through with two bags totaling 40 kgs! What a sweetie!

The next problem would be our hand luggage – we had heard Easyjet were quite strict about the size and weight - together ours probably weighed another 30 kgs! – as well as checking for disallowed substances and liquids. But first we needed sustenance to keep us going. Munching on sandwiches and crisps (our first packet of crisps for months – we suddenly realized that as well as lots of “lasts”, there were going to be as many “firsts since …”) we could see the gateway that would take us to the plane. The area became crowded with fellow travelers to Newcastle.

Juz had booked something called “speedy boarding” with our tickets, so when the flight was called we made our way to the front of the queue with several other couples, only to be told our tickets weren’t marked appropriately. We insisted that we had paid for this service and the lady let us through, with a large crowd pushing from behind – Easyjet do not have any designated seating, so it is ‘first come first served’ to find a seat. We chose seats near the front – a huge mistake – as we were soon surrounded by children aged from just a few months old up to about five! - all making lots of noise and kicking the seats in front and jumping up and down, while Mothers just closed their eyes for a bit of respite. But at least we had two seats together. The flight left a little late as they had not put enough fuel in on the first attempt, but made up the time with tail winds across France and the English Channel pushing us along. It was strange to see the Isle of Wight and the Solent panned out beneath us – if we had been sitting on the other side of the plane we might even have been able to see Selsey! (where Colin’s Mum, Dad and sister live). We flew on up the backbone of England across the Yorkshire Dales and over the city of Durham to land in just a couple of hours at Newcastle. We collected our luggage and made our way through some very inefficient revolving doors – they only let a couple of people with trolleys in at a time and then kept stopping once both openings were closed – very claustrophobic. And then suddenly there was Juz and Dave waiting to meet us. Not once had our luggage been checked for liquids and other unsuitable substances, and our passports were barely glanced at, so we could have brought our champagne home – but we did enjoy it in Barcelona, and maybe the weight would have been just too over the top. The sun had been shining all the way from France to Newcastle and the temperature on stepping off the plane was warmer than in Barcelona, so that the UK didn’t feel too alien.

There was lots of hugging and kissing before we made our way down the A1 to “Darlo”, catching up on lots of news on tue way. The house, when we left last summer was in the throes of having walls knocked down to make a larger en-suite bathroom for the master bedroom, now as we entered, everything downstairs, apart from the kitchen, had been stripped away, and concrete floors laid throughout – apparently there had been only earth foundations till a few days ago. Holly dog was there to greet us, wagging her tail and barking “hello”. We congregated in the kitchen and continued to hear their news and impart some of our stories, during which we learnt that Dawn and Darren (Colin’s sister and nephew) were also arriving, but much later tonight.

It did seem, very quickly, almost like we had never been away, and Russia and China were just a dream – I will be reading the early entries of the blog again very soon, just to ensure it was real. The next few days will seem like a “debriefing” time, or a period of reacclimatizing ourselves back to normal life. I am feeling very sad that the journey is almost over, but then I am always sad when going home from any holiday.

Juz cooked chilli con carne for tea, with mountains of chillis and garlic, which strangely hadn’t been very much in evidence in South America. It tasted delicious. (Colin won the bet – he had thought we would have chilli for tea, while I opted for a pasta dish or take away). We didn’t wait up for Dawn and Darren to arrive - although we did leave them some food -apparently it was only a short while after the rest of us retired. We must have put our heads on the pillows and zonked out.

Tour Of Barcelona - One Last Time

Tuesday 10 April

Our last full day out of the UK on our trip – it still seems unreal. Writing this sitting on my bed in Barcelona, I still cannot actually believe we are so close to going home. Writing the blogs has taken some considerable time while we have been away – and at times I have worried that I had got too far behind and might never catch up – but now I wonder what I am going to do once I do not have to write a daily diary – perhaps I will continue, just for me. Of course, we have more than ten thousand photos to process as well as over two hundred and fifty blog entries to re-read, to remind us of all our travels.

Today was another grey and overcast day, but the temperature was a little higher than yesterday – although it still necessitated warm clothing, something we are a little short of in our luggage. We decided to stop at the Barcelona cathedral, off the Via Laietana, before catching the bus to visit the Gaudi cathedral. There are hundreds of buildings under netting and scaffolding around the city and this cathedral is one of them – it seems to be a time of real spring-cleaning and repairs for many of the buildings in this city, which is great, as it means they won’t fall into disrepair, like some of their counterparts we have seen in Havana and Salvador.

This cathedral was started in 1298 and built around two aisles, covered by a huge dome, from which an elongated “crocheted spire” rises above. When walking towards the cathedral, the light shone through the spire, illuminating the lacy pattern of the stonework. The bell tower, soaring from the far end of the church was a tall solid brick cylinder with a massive iron bell enclosed by four semicircular intricate iron struts supporting an arrowed weather vane. The outside facade that we saw today was constructed in neo-gothic style in the 18th century. The cathedral, nestled between the ramparts of the roman watchtowers and walls, was nowhere near as crowded today as the last two days, so we were able to easily walk around in the quiet solemn gloom. Inside, all around the walls were small chapels and altars dedicated to different saints, dazzling red, gold and silver in the candlelight. From the top of the altars to the magnificent vaulted ceiling, large stained glass windows lined the walls. The huge dark wooden choir stalls, surrounded by an eight foot high, stone wall, carved with interlocking figures of saints sat in the middle of the cathedral between the two aisles, separating the main entrance doors from the altar area, so that those standing at the back of the church could only see the front altar by peering through a narrow wrought iron gateway within the stone wall. The main altar was in an area cordoned off to the public, which was being hoovered as we visited, but seemed much plainer with its red carpet and white altar cloth, and just a simple cross and a couple of icons – almost a sanctuary within the surrounding opulence. There was a crypt, accessed by stairs in front of the altar area, which was closed in by large iron gates. We wondered all the way round and couldn’t help comparing all this elaborate decoration with the simplicity of the new cathedral in Rio. We knew which we preferred.

From here we walked back to the main square at the top of La Rambla to catch another hop-on-hop-off bus to take us to the Gaudi cathedral of Sagrada Familia. Just the sheer height of the tall blackened spindly spires, and the towering yellow cranes made an awe-inspiring sight. Gaudi took over the completion works of the cathedral in 1891, and completely abandoned the original design in favour of one of his own. His plan included twelve very tall slender towers with tapering spires, each crowned with what looked like a bowl of fruit, to represent the twelve apostles. There was to be another two spires, one in the centre to represent the ‘Saviour’ and another to one side for the ‘Virgin Mary’. These would all culminate in a huge “fluted” building at the base, with intricate biblical carvings meandering across the brickwork in true Gaudi fashion. Like all cathedrals requiring such a high degree of specialized stonework, they take a century or more to build, and Gaudi, who died in 1926, only saw a small portion of his dream realized. Today the construction continues with the help of contributions from the public. The sculptures adorning the walls over the new entrance have been carved with modern simplistic lines, and the recently constructed spires are in a cleaner, paler stone, but all the work has been carried out in a sympathetic style to Gaudi’s plans and will be a real feat of engineering when complete – another twenty five years or more! Looking inside through some of the glassless windows we could see acres of scaffolding still in place – much seeming to be coated in rust as if it had been there for decades. The queues for ‘single’ tickets to enter the cathedral stretched halfway round the site, almost joining up with the ‘group’ queues, so we decided to feast on the outside fascia and wait for another, less busy time, to explore inside.

We then walked back to the main square, along the grid-like streets of this area of the city, finding a tapas bar for lunch. We enjoyed a wide selection of typical small dishes, each with its own particular flavour. It was just a short walk from here, back to the main square, where we decided to catch the hop-on bus to the marina – via the convoluted route around the northern and western parts of the city – listening once more to the commentary. The weather had become much colder during the morning, so we sat downstairs with the comfort of a heater at our feet. We saw once again, the Park Gueill, with its Gaudi residence high on the hill, the two football stadiums where many people with young boys alighted for a closer look, and the Grand Palace, built in 1929, looking like a mini-Versailles, but which now houses the National Art Gallery of Catalonia, giving an overview of cultural life in this region for the past thousand years. There is so much to see in Barcelona, that just a few days would never be enough, and Barcelona will definitely be on our list of ‘must visit’ again.

From the marina we wandered back to the hotel, trying to venture along streets we had not walked before, but that was becoming very difficult as we seemed to have covered most of the central area. For me this is a great venue for to visit – very flat for the most part, just hills surrounding the city, and lots to see, with a lively atmosphere, friendly people and great food. There was lots of traffic now the Spanish were back to work, but everyone obeys the traffic lights – stopping instantly at red lights, and pedestrians waiting to cross the road until the green man shows, even though there are no vehicles around. At zebra crossings cars stop almost immediately to let you cross the road. This wasn’t our recollection of English traffic.

Back at the hotel we indulged in our bottle of champagne from the ship – with the new stringent regulations at airports about carrying liquids, we would not be able to include it in our hand luggage, and as it weighs a good couple of kilos it would add considerably to our already overweight cases. It was very delicious although it felt a little decadent to be supping at 17.00.

Later in the evening, we made our way back to the Oyster Bar, still feeling a little light headed, to indulge in more of the delicious molluscs and even some more wine. Whilst we were there, Juz phoned again, and seemed to be very excited at the prospect of seeing us tomorrow – we are really looking forward to seeing her too, but also a bit sad, to be in sight of the end of our adventure. We rambled around the streets one last time, feasting on the atmosphere and lights. Our meandering route took us the long way back to the hotel, and by the time we arrived my legs were beginning to feel like I had run a marathon. I still had to sort out my case – Colin had done his this afternoon, whilst supping champagne, so he watched the highlights of the English teams playing football tonight, whilst I swapping chemisty things for clothes in my hand luggage – with the probable result that my case will be even heavier. But as this is the final time, we will just have to pay the overweight charges.

We set the alarm – one of the better “lasts” - as we still have a few things to do in the morning, and don’t want to be rushing around too much before setting off for the airport. Time for reminiscing is fast approaching and in the next few days, I will list our thoughts on ‘best’ and ‘worst’, ’likes’ and ‘dislikes’ in a summary of our journey – I feel that reflective period coming on. I can already say that two of the most interesting cities have seen, are the first and last we visited – Berlin and Barcelona - which in itself is quite surprising. I look forward to reviewing all the sights and experiences we have had, to find some more surprises.

Hop-On-Hop-Off Conundrum

Monday 9 April

Our room was quite dark, and looking out on our small patio in the early morning gloom, we found rain was falling steadily – we definitely haven’t seen the like of this for a long while. I had had difficulty in waking up, so it was quite late by the time we stepped out of the hotel, cloaked in kagools, to find a very cool grey morning as we wandered down the streets towards the marina to pick up a hop-on-hop-off bus to tour the city. The temperature sign showed just 16 degrees C, and there was a strong breeze coming off the sea, so maybe the adjusted temperature would have been much lower. We felt very pleased to have missed the freezing temperatures of an English winter. At the stroke of 11.00 – the church bells were chiming as we walked through one of the many squares – the rain stopped and the sun finally made an appearance making it warm enough to discard our wet weather gear.

At the marina we were faced with a choice, as there were two companies operating hop-on-hop-off buses, one with a single circular route around the city and the other with three separate routes. Colin – never good at making a final decision – hmmed and haaed for a while, before deciding on the single circular route – we could walk from the bus stops to any other sites of interest not covered by the bus. The whole journey would take nearly three hours. We clambered up the stairs, bending low under the awning to crawl on to the top floor – it had obviously been lowered when it was raining earlier to stop the water gushing down the stairs! There were still puddles of water on the seats, and despite trying to brush off the surplus, they were still wet when we sat down. We were the only people to brave the open top deck until we got to the main square, about twenty minutes into our journey.

We hadn’t gone very far when the sun went behind the encroaching clouds and it became distinctly cool again. As the bus drove along the breeze was cold and we had to put our kagools on once more to try and keep warm. We plugged in the bright orange headphones and finally managed to find the English channel, describing our route. We traveled along the coast to the Olympic swimming pool and village complex built for the 1992 games, now housing Barcelonans, while the swimming complex has been encroached by casinos, bars and shopping. We were told that further up the coast were some stunning beaches – for when the weather was warmer. Turning inland we passed the Picasso museum, cathedral and Catalonya Square, before passing into “Gaudi land” where there were some exquisite examples of his architecture – they all seemed like versions of fairytale castles with “climber” style carvings roaming over the outside fascias. Some of the walls were with “splashed” with iridescent pastel colours. The queues outside all the Gaudi museums trailed into the distance, so we didn’t even consider getting off the bus. We traveled from cathedral to cathedral, football stadium to football stadium and museum to museum around the city – there were so many monuments and icons to see that a return visit seemed essential. By the time we were up on the hills surrounding Barcelona, we were beginning to feel very cold, but persevered, as we wound our way back down to the port and the World Trade Centre, where the ship had docked just two days ago.

Having completed the full circle we got off the bus at the marina, and made straightaway for the warmth of the Maremagnum shopping centre across the bridge at the harbour, that we had visited yesterday – where we were assured of some warmth. We toured the coffee shops and bars but everywhere was seething with people on a likewise mission – I even had to queue for ten minutes to go to the loo – so we decided to return to La Rambla and find a bar there for lunch. As today was a holiday for all of Spain, I think most of the country had made their way to this city – at times it was hard to make any headway up the streets. Entertainers were performing at every small open space – acrobats and jugglers, musicians (includng a harpist giving a young girl a clarinet lesson) and dancers – the atmosphere was one of holiday light-heatedness and fun. We ended up at the Oysters bar we had seen yesterday and after waiting only a couple of minutes were shown to a white painted square wooden table with upside down “u” shaped stools - like small children use in kindergarten. There were lots of combinations of drinks with a couple of oysters, but we went for the whole hog and ordered a dozen with a bottle of rosé – something we haven’t drunk for months. We followed this by a shared quiche lorraine and salad. It was altogether a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, thawing out and relaxing. We wandered back to the hotel, where Colin instantly fell asleep (he later blamed the wine) while I caught up a bit on the blog.

We decided we would try and find a paella bar tonight, and Juz phoned just before we were setting out on our quest. Tonight wasn’t so cold as earlier in the day, and we were quite happy to stroll around the now familiar streets looking for the “right” location to eat. We eventually came across the “Café de Ferran” – just up the street from all the Irish bars - with green arched windows, another huge bar area with waiters working frantically upstairs in the gallery and down. Outside on large boards they advertised a wide range of paellas. All the tables full so we joined the short queue and within about fifteen minutes, two stools became available at the far end of the bar. We both ordered a “prepared” shellfish paella with beer, but the waiter returned to tell us our choice was finished for the night. So Colin chose a chicken and carob bean version, and I chose a different “marina” paella where the prawns and mussels were still in their shells. I am not a big fan of rice, but felt that being in Spain I should try this national dish. It was fine, but not as tasty as risotto for instance, and I struggled to eat half of my portion. Colin, on the other hand, loved the dish and declared his intention to eat it again. The atmosphere of the café was good, but sitting at the bar in a smoky atmosphere is not the best, so whereas I would put this as one of our poorer dining experiences, Colin loved it and gave it high marks.

We wandered back to the hotel, winding our way through the narrow streets and alleys, knowing that if we just kept turning right and then left, we would eventually find the Gran Via. Just as we reached the block before the hotel, it began to spit with rain, so we were lucky to have avoided getting too wet today.

Only one more day till we leave for the UK – it is as unbelievable as when we set out on our trip. We have become adept at living out of suitcases, being on the move, and I wonder how we will adapt to being in one place. We will soon find out.

A Change Of Plan

Sunday 8 April

It was still completely black when the alarm sounded this morning, made all the more difficult to get out of bed by being our last morning on this fabulous ship. We dragged ourselves to breakfast which was much less crowded than we had expected with everyone having to disembark by 09.00. The morning was very grey, and the balcony showed signs of a heavy drenching through the night, although the rain had stopped now. How much more dismal the port seemed this morning under the grey blanket of cloud than yesterday when we entered in brilliant sunshine. The sea had changed from a sparkling blue to a dull iron grey.

Colin decided to give the boiled eggs one last chance to rescue their reputation, but although not completely raw, they were hardly cooked at all, so had to go by the wayside as one of the only failings on the ship. We collected our ‘hand’ luggage, now swelled to an extra bag, to accommodate the chocolate bunny given to each state room – size according to status! Ours is about twelve inches tall, and large enough to present us with problems to get it home in one piece. We also had to accommodate the bottle of champers provided when we first came aboard – there just hadn’t been the right time to drink it – especially as white champagne often gives Colin a “virus” – so we would take it with us and perhaps crack it open when we eventually arrive home.

We met the “Fab Four” in the gallery area of Deck 5 and as we sat and chatted to delay disembarking – we wouldn’t be able to book into our room at the hotel until around 14.00, and many others had flights later in the afternoon – so the gathering soon swelled, as people reviewed their cruising experience. No one wanted to leave. Around 09.00 we decided we couldn’t delay leaving any longer and a whole gaggle of us made our way to the gangway and down to the dockside to collect our cases after passing through customs – which were almost non-existent. We joined the queue waiting for taxis with yet more “goodbyes” and promises to keep in contact. Our journey to the hotel took about twenty minutes and we began to fear that we would be staying some distance outside the central city. The Silken Gran Havana hotel was situated on the longest road in Barcelona - the Gran Via – and it seemed an endless ride. As we drove through the streets we were stunned by the architecture – lots of tall colonial buildings, with fantastic decorations and intricate balconies. At every turn we saw something different which made us gasp. Our hotel was typical of the buildings we had seen – six stories with large full length windows edged with wrought iron balconies. Apparently on the top floor there is a swimming pool.

We were able to drop off our luggage and semi book in before collecting a map and making our way towards the railway station to book our train tickets home. The receptionist had told us that most of Barcelona’s shops and museums would be closed both today and tomorrow for the Easter break – but we had no choice about when we arrived in port, so would just have to see as much of the city as we could. The sun had come out by the time we walked out of the hotel and it was now a very warm Sunday morning, with hardly any traffic or people around – only tourists like us, wandering around staring at a beautiful city. We made our way past the Arc de Triompf, through a park edged with museums, towards the Zoo to find the railway station situated on the next corner – a huge white brick edifice with no rail tracks in sight. On making enquiries of a ticket clerk, who spoke almost no English, we discovered that the cost of traveling home on the “Hotel Train and Eurostar” on Wednesday would cost much more than we had anticipated – more than 750 GBP - because of it being within the Easter holiday period the price was almost double. We decided to phone Juz and ask her to check the cost of flying home. After we had spoken to her, Colin guessed that we would also get the cost of flying to Newcastle – and – surprise, surprise – flying to Newcastle, where Juz could meet us – was the cheapest option. Colin and I discussed all the options – Gatwick, City and Heathrow, as well as Newcastle - and decided that seeing Juz for her birthday would be a great way to end our adventure, so phoned and asked her to book us a couple of tickets to Newcastle. Having avoided flying as much as possible all the way round the world, I cannot believe we are going to end our adventure by flying home.

We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon wandering around the marina, up and down La Rambla (the main tourist street of the city) and through the warren of side streets and squares, wondering at the architecture and sights of the city, till we could walk no more, and were in dire need of a cup of tea. We returned to our hotel – finding it was just three blocks along from the main square at the top of La Rambla, and about twenty minutes walk away from the waterfront. I think many friends may be surprised to hear that I still have not indulged in coffee since Cologne last July, and now drink a wide range of teas and fruit infusions. I rarely eat eggs, and never fancy bacon, sausages or hash browns at breakfast. I did eat quite a variety of sweet things in South America, but not whilst on the ship, so perhaps my savoury tastes are returning. My hair still curls in the damp – I had thought it had been the humidity that caused the frizz, but perhaps not.

We booked into the hotel, selecting a quiet “inside” room on the first floor as opposed to a “more noisy” one on the front – although thinking about it later, maybe we should have chosen one where we could hear the traffic, to get us used to the noise of the traffic. The room is quite large, with small patio area through French doors – although I doubt the sun reaches there – six floors down. It seems quite comfortable, as we found after some refreshment, when we sat on the bed and fell asleep – our early morning start catching up with us. When we woke, it was already time to think about finding a tapas bar for food and wine. At home, tapas is usually quite an expensive meal unless limiting the choice to a couple of dishes, but the menus always include an interesting range of dishes.

We wandered out to find a cooler evening, but still dry, and made our way around the web of narrow “alleys” passing many bars where customers were already spilled out on to the pavements, eating and drinking with relish. We finally decided on one bar in a very thin, almost seedy street, but where the tapas were described in English. The doorman persuaded us the food would be good and smilingly ushered us past the massive long wooden bar, into a room filled with lots of people, all speaking Spanish and all tucking into a wide range of food. The furniture was rickety dark brown wood with dark red runners showing signs of the previous diners. Our table was yet again wobbly, and had to be supported by beer mats and serviettes – I think we have found such a table in almost every restaurant in every town and city we have been in around the world. We chose anchovies, olives, potatoes, tuna, deep fried calamari and salads, all accompanied by red wine. I really like “picky” food and we both enjoyed the range of flavours and textures.

When we left, we made our way back to La Rambla, and set out to find Le Grand Café, recommended to us by the “Fab Four”. We found the Maccy D’s landmark just as they had described and turned off down the side street. We soon found three Irish bars, full of British tourists, drinking Guinness and watching football – British holidaymakers don’t seem to have changed while we have been away. We had just thought that we must have missed the restaurant, when we espied it down another narrow lane, with only the illuminated restaurant sign lighting the “alley”. We perused the menu and found the options were similar to those we had been eating on the ship – posh with lots of sauces. People were queuing out of the door, waiting for a table, despite it being nearly 23.00.

We strolled through the maze that is Barcelona “Gothic city”, finding the cathedral, outer walls of the old roman city, buildings of Moorish influence with minarets and colourful mosaics and fountains that had been silent earlier, now splashing in a sparkling lighted display. At every corner we found something new to stop and stare at. But despite our nap earlier, we were beginning to feel tired, and soon made our way back to the hotel. We had been told that the hotel was full this weekend, but there was only one couple in the bar and it seemed very quiet – perhaps everyone was still out partying – we had been told that this city comes alive late at night. The only sound we heard as we fell asleep was the deep rumble of the metro passing far below us.

Final Destination

Saturday 7 April

We awoke to a very grey morning today – matching the sombre mood of many of the passengers about reaching the final destination of the cruise. Our first task was to investigate the laundry to find a free washing machine – there had been constant traffic from this area yesterday – and we were in luck. We filled the machine with our bags of dirty washing, before making our way to breakfast. As we were quite late this morning and due to the much cooler and uninviting weather, the Terrace Café was busy by the time we arrived, so finding a table was difficult. We ended up joining a couple related to Ethel and Denis, our bridge partners of yesterday, who were part of a contingent from Vancouver, but not dancers. They had traveled quite extensively throughout the world and gave us a few hints about traveling in America and Canada.

There was an intense fervour in the Martinis bar when all the Trivia teams gathered at 11.30 – brought forward by a few hours as the ship was due to dock around 17.00. A couple of new ladies joined our team (!), and Ella was still there, so the numbers had risen to twelve – not a good portent. But we set off at what we considered to be a ‘cracking’ pace – everyone sure we had the right answers – not always the case when we came to the scoring. Question: How is Barbara Millicent Roberts better known? We were helped in another question by remembering our time spent in the Thailand cocktail bars – our friends drinking Black Russians. We ended the championship by winning – tying with another team – for joint honours. In a separate knock-out competition, Colin (of Colin and Maureen partnership) won for his team in knowing that Les Dents de La Mer was the French for “Jaws”! We collected our last “O” points of the cruise, as immediately the after the quiz, it was time to “cash in” all the points – we had amassed just fifty one – some people had hundreds - but sufficient (40) to swap for a Tshirt. We gave our surplus to Alan and Kwan, who needed a few extra to exchange for their goodies.

It was then time once again to eat, before making our way to our last bridge class. Today was free play. Steve gave us a few hints about scoring – winning hands, rubbers and games – and then let us get on with playing as many hands as possible. We were again paired with Denis and Ethel. Both sides had some good calls today, and Colin and I finished with a mini slam – taking twelve of the thirteen tricks. I was the “dummy” hand and Colin played superbly to win the contract. Several people had gathered round to watch as we were the last table playing, and it was fitting that it was such a high scoring hand to end our lessons. Steve had proved an excellent teacher, as he had managed to get about thirty people playing bridge, who were new to the game. He told us many tales along the way, particularly about the experiences of his wife ‘Squeak’ who is a professional, and teaches advanced lessons not only on this ship, but also in California – she had been overseeing the Duplicate bridge games at the other end of Toscanas. We would like now to continue to play at home, and hope that we can learn the different rules and conventions used in the UK.

By the time class finished at 16.00 we were already entering the port at Barcelona – about an hour ahead of the already revised schedule (we had originally been expected at 19.00) - and we joined lots of the other passengers on Deck 10 to watch the captain manoevre the ship against the dock. We met and said “goodbye” again to many people who had become friends on board, including Colin and Maureen. We learned that a man had been found unconscious in the steam room earlier in the afternoon, and that accounted for the early arrival in Barcelona, as the pilot “had put his foot down on the gas” to get to port as quickly as possible. Ambulances were waiting at the quayside as we came to a standstill, although it was about an hour later before the casualty was taken off to hospital. We passed the time with Colin and Maureen at the Waves bar beside the pool. Lots of people were leaving the ship to explore Barcelona, but we had three days to wander the city, so finished our packing – as cases had to be outside the cabins by 22.00 tonight.

One our four original bookings for the restaurants had been for the Polo Grill tonight at 20.00, and when we arrived we were pleased to be joined by Stephen and John – Alan and Kwan had eaten earlier and disembarked to visit the Cathedral in the city – friendship was beginning to show signs of strain. We all had a splendid meal – starting with champagne and selecting the main course of jumbo prawns with vine tomatoes for starters, as well as lobster bisque with a dash of brandy. I had the New York strip for main course, while Colin reverted to the rack of lamb. Amazingly Colin still had room for carrot cake and cranberry chutney for dessert! Stephen and John went off to make a last tour of the ship, while we went to say yet another “goodbye” to Colin and Maureen and ended spending the next hour drinking liqueurs with them. By the time we returned to the cabin it was well after midnight – and we had to be up by 06.00 tomorrow if we were going to make breakfast before disembarking.

Our last night in our cabin, which has proved very comfortable, with probably the best sound-proofing we have had in any hotel – at equals the Convent at Salvador. We will be very sad to leave tomorrow, not just because it brings the end of our journey closer.

Into European Waters

Friday 6 April

Good Friday – this day seemed so far off when we set out last July – it’s very hard to realize it has arrived. We had set the alarm for 07.00 to ensure we were up in time to see the ship pass through the narrow Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. When I looked out from the balcony, I could already see small twinkling lights along sections of the Spanish coast, just a few miles away, across the black expanse of sea. We hurriedly dressed and made our way up to Deck 10 and the Horizons lounge where we could sit and peer out of the front windows of the ship, and watch the coasts of both Africa and Spain slowly pass by – the width of the straits at this point was just eight miles. Tangier, off to the right (starboard in boating terms!) was a blaze of lights as we rounded the point into the Mediterranean Sea, while ahead the sun began to show the first signs of light. We crept slowly along – although the Captain later said we were still doing 18 knots – and saw shoals of small grey dolphins leaping out of the water right in front of the ship! – I hope they could dive fast enough to get out of our way. In the dawn we could see that the shipping lanes were full of commercial vessels – tankers, container ships and fishing fleets – passing up and down the coastline, almost like rush hour traffic.

About 08.00 we had our first sighting of Gibraltar – a small rock peeking out from behind a bend in the coastline. It was much, much smaller that I had ever thought – I knew it was smaller than the Isle of Wight, but I think I expected it to be more the size of Guernsey or even the Isle of Man. It is hard to believe that such a tiny protrusion from the sea could have caused so much controversy since the 18th century when it was first claimed by the British, although I can understand why they would want to hold on to it. There seemed hardly enough room for a town, let alone an airport and military base. Apparently, as the barbary apes die, the British replenish the stocks so that the adage about them losing control when the apes have disappeared cannot come true. The island is triangular shaped and we sailed around two sides – the first side was craggy, with only stunted vegetation to see on the peaks at the top, and a few houses and roads along by the coast. The second side seemed to have a massive chunk of the rock, carved out of the hillside to become a flat slope covering at least half the length of the island, reaching almost to the top, and stopping nor far above the houses below – Colin thought it might be part of a rain-saving scheme. The main town appeared as a thin linear settlement stretching out on to the narrow isthmus where the port was situated – lots of boats were moored there. The third side faced the coast of Spain.

Breakfast was a little more crowded this morning as we steered a straight course up the east coast of Spain – although too far away now to see the mainland. The weather was a little bleary with the sun struggling to make an appearance, and the temperature had dropped considerably to the top teens C, so we had had to look out our warmer Tshirts and longer trousers for the first time in months. We attended another cookery demonstration later in the morning, this time making pasta – ravioli – which I am sure we will have a go at when we get home – and a foie gras dish – which I am sure we will not be attempting. Both dishes will appear on the menu tonight in Grand Dining – where we will not be eating. But the banter was great fun. From here it was time to eat, again, with an “Italian” theme today. Not being the greatest pasta fan, I chose an excellent cannelloni while Colin sampled a few of the different shapes on offer, the fresh tagliatelli being tops.

Bridge classes were about making “slams” or taking twelve or thirteen tricks – little hope with the hands I have been having. We played today with Ethel and Denis from British Columbia, Canada, who are staying on the ship to Athens. We played some interesting hands and felt we had got to grips with a lot more “messages” today and were beginning to understand the game a little more. It was another rush to get to Trivia to get a seat, but our team was depleted to nine today, so we were able to listen to each other’s answers and ended up tying for the lead with fifteen points. We had a disputed question over the number of breaths per minute in resuscitation, with some people quoting new regulations issued by the BMA last month, while others claimed to teach the process and had no idea about these new rules. In the end Rob had to step in and cancel the question completely. Question: what material is named from the French for velvet and a hook? We spent the next couple of hours still in the Martini bar, with Colin and Maureen and a few other guests dropping in on us. Before we knew it and a few martinis later, it was almost 20.00 – time to change for dinner – tonight John has promised us a table in the Polo Grill. Colin ate another delicious New York strip, while I chose a charred pork chop – which surprisingly I had not sampled before – it too was extremely tasty.

Tonight’s entertainment in the Insignia lounge was “Saluté” – a grand final cabaret by the entertainment team and orchestra, with commentary throughout by Rob. They sang an interesting repertoire of songs relating to “goodbye”, as this was being treated like the last night on board - many of the passengers are expected to spend tomorrow night in Barcelona. The show included a series of songs written to celebrate World War II, particularly the success of the Americans, and the national anthem of Canada (as there are so many Canadians aboard), which several people afterwards commented was in poor taste and likely to cause some embarrassment or bad feeling for some of the passengers. At the end of the show the Rob brought on the whole ships crew, from cleaning and maintentance, through kitchen staff and the chefs, up to the pilot and captain, who made a short speech, and presented an award to the employee of the cruise – a small Indonesian man who was Chief Fireman in charge of safety. The staff we had encountered on the entire cruise had all been exceptionally helpful and friendly and this feeling was obviously felt by all the passengers aboard with the thundering applause they received – all the comments had been exceptionally positive – I think we have been very lucky to have had this experience as our first cruise – any future cruises will find it hard to match. The orchestra continued to play 70’s music for a while after the show and we stayed to dance, but gradually all the “amateur jiggers” left the floor (including ourselves) to the Canadian professionals, who ballroomed around the dance area in serious style – but then they had expected this to be a “Dance cruise”. We spent the next hour in the Martinis Bar chatting to Alan and Kwan - Alan had not enjoyed his dinner tonight because the tuna was served only “seared” and he didn’t like “raw fish. The Maitre D and the head chef, Malcolm, had apparently pleaded with him to let them cook it some more, but Alan had refused. (We later heard it had all been rather embarrassing for at least two of the other three, who went to great lengths to apologize to everyone the following evening). So it was well after midnight when we finally returned to the room to sleep.

Tomorrow will be our last full day onboard, as we reach Barcelona late in the afternoon – the Trivia session has been brought forward to late morning and we should still get one more gathering for bridge, before we dock. We really are having to face the fact that we will soon be home.

All The Fun Of The Fair

Thursday 5 April

We have noticed that as we have gotten further into the cruise more and more people are arriving after us for breakfast at the Terrace Café – we can even get a table by the window easily now. After we had both eaten our fill we made our way to the computer section to enquire about the strange message we had received last night. Georgina, author of the message, was confused, but assured us we were still in time – in fact she also returned the ten minutes we had used yesterday morning, when the system went down and we achieved nothing. Colin was not eager to take part in the “trivial pursuits” challenge this morning, so we returned to blog and read for half an hour before the main event of the day – the “Country Fair” at 11.00.

We made our way to the pool deck where all the loungers had been removed to make way for individual stalls of fairground games, each organized by a different service on the ship. Bottles from the bar were tempting targets for the hoopla, batting the rat with a long truncheon as it fell from a box and knocking over bottles with a football in the skittle alley proved to be great entertainment in which most of the cruising passengers participated – silly games to play in the sun for an hour. One of the “deadliest” stalls had men succumbing to an area of their leg hair being removed by waxing as their partners ripped the wax strip off with relish. It seemed very painful but as the prize for all these games was Oceania paper dollars - to be exchanged for “O” points later – and as some men will do anything to win a bit more -there were a few men that had areas of their backs waxed for double ‘money’! Ugh – it was bad enough that they were gorilla-like in the first place, but to have an area in the centre of their back balded by this method was horrible. More gentle pursuits included ping-pong balls bounced into glasses at the far end of a table-tennis table, tins containing spices and flavourings used in the kitchen to be sniffed and identified, and plastic ducks swimming in the jucuzzi to be caught in small tiddler nets. Everyone seemed to have fun. At midday, a halt was called to all the frolicing and six horses were set up on wooden stands at one end of the deck for a “horse race”. Lots of people bet the “hard earned dollars” they had collected, on one or more of the six horses, and the game proceeded by two people each throwing a dice, to determine the number of the horse and the number of moves it was to take up the track. The whole crowd was shouting and encouraging their horses, but in the end there could be just one winner – number three today, and a few lucky punters collected their prizes. It had been a really successful morning, and with all the fresh air and excitement, everyone had worked up an appetite for lunch!

Today’s theme in the Terrace Café at lunch time was “oriental”, and a wide range of Chinese, Indonesian and sushi foods were available – it was hard not to eat too much – this was after all, only lunch and we had to stay awake for “bridge”. Classes today talked about “conventions” – systems people use in specific circumstances to find out more about their partner’s hand. We now have so much information to remember about the bidding process, it has become a bit like ‘overload’, and when playing, we all keep referring back to our notes, so games take a long time! To think that when we get to England they play a different system, and we would have to relearn everything again if we want to continue playing is a bit mind-blowing.

The trivia team congregated once more in the Martini lounge – still ten of us, and still too many to be able to consider everyone’s answer (especially as the questions have to be repeated several times for Ella to understand!), so another day of performing poorly. We even got “which is the second longest river in the world?” wrong! With a paltry score of nine points we must have been somewhere near the bottom. We lazed around for the next couple of hours, before it was time for drinks and dinner. Having sampled many of the martinis on offer, I have decided the ‘citrus martini’ is best, especially if served with olives as well as a lemon twist. We had thought of trying to squeeze into the Polo Grill again tonight – even though we have had too many bookings so weren’t allowed to make a reservation. The restaurant would be very busy now the end of the cruise is approaching – so we decided it was probably better to sample the Grand Dining Room once more. It was less than half full when we arrived, and seemed like a vast cavern with about as much atmosphere – cool and not terribly inviting. We have heard people finding different foods on offer here – like roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and Dover sole - but it never happens when we are there. I decided to try a different starter and ended up with a strange concoction of a mashed potato nest filled with sweet corn kernels, surrounded by black beans, asparagus and shitake mushrooms – the flavours did not go together at all well, and it was a bit like sampling a vegetable basket. Colin chose tiny ravioli in a tomatoey creamy sauce to start which he enjoyed. My lamb chops were excellent – the bright pink meat was soft and succulent and melted in the mouth. Colin ate loin of venison with a fig compote and some grilled vegetables. Nice but … not exciting. For dessert he chose profiteroles, filled with ice cream – they were too cold to be tasty, and he says he is looking forward to me making more when we get home!

We made our way to the Insignia lounge and arrived just as the new entertainer – an impersonator – took to the stage. He had joined the boat in Tenerife, although has been on Oceania cruises before. Over the course of forty five minutes, he presented about thirty different characters, some, like George Burns, very funny, as well as a wide selection of entertainers like Dean Martin and Elvis. His routine was quite slick as he passed from person to person, but somehow lacked the sparkle of the Des and Cherry show.

For the last time on this cruise we were losing yet another hour tonight, and we had to be up early – around 07.00 – to see our entry into the Mediterranean through the narrow straits between the island of Gibraltar and Morocco. So it was straight to bed after the show, no lingering, or listening to jazz in the Martini lounge. Although the sea has been very calm all day, we seemed to be rolling around quite a lot during the night – apparently there is a strong eastward current in the straits, as evaporation is greater than the amount of water entering the Mediterranean by rivers and other water courses. The Atlantic Ocean pours in through this gap to maintain the level. The current was certainly speeding us along past the southern coasts of Portugal and Spain, on the final leg of our voyage.

Finding Our Land Legs!

Wednesday 4 April

Sure enough, the boat was stationary when we roused this morning – no engines and no gentle rocking – we had arrived at Santa Cruz de Tenerife. When we looked over the balcony, hoards were already disembarking and making their way to waiting coaches and taxis waiting on the pier to venture up Mount Teide, or visit the botanical gardens and pyramids. It was 08.30. The sun had only just risen and the sky still had some grey night clouds floating over a deep turquoise sea, and the flags along the quayside were flapping vigorously in the breeze.

After breakfast, we tried to use the computer, but just as we had logged on the system went down. The staff in the computer centre had explained before they left to go ashore that this sometimes happened at ports. There was nothing to do, but to wait until we were at sea again later today.

We decided to take a stroll into the town – there was a promise of more activity here than at Cape Verde (one of the ad lib jokes at last night’s show had been that if you were told you only had three days to live, go to Cape Verde, as at least it will seem like a long time – a lot of the audience clapped and cheered in agreement!). The skies now were completely blue and the sun shining very warmly as we stepped on to land for the first time in ten days. It seemed strange to walk up the road, without steadying yourself against the rock of the boat. Ten minutes later we were wandering along the esplanade, where major alterations were taking place to rebuild the gardens and gateways that had once graced this area in the 1870’s – drills were pounding the earth, brickies were climbing small towers to build what looked like ornamental arches, while others were securing netting around the whole area to keep the public out. And there was a lot of “public” in town today – holiday-makers brought in by local coaches and ferried from the other islands, as well as our cruise ship. We wandered up and down the main streets, window shopping – still no room in our cases for purchases – and met several of our traveling companions – some engaged in drinking and eating – how? Alan had an armful of white gladioli and Canterbury bell blooms to replace the Birds of Paradise flowers he had purchased in Rio, sadly now dying. We found the post office, and purchased postcards and stamps to send home to the grandchildren – these will be almost the last, with only Barcelona to go!!!! – a mere 1239 nautical miles away - which is very hard to contemplate. After a couple of hours we made our way back to ship, and lunch.

We sat on our balcony watching the odd ship passing on the horizon, container ships putting to sea, and a flotilla of yachts off the end of the bay, small white triangles on the water, seemingly in a race, as about thirty boats, all in line, followed each other on a circular course. But as the sun moved round to leave us in the cooling shade, we retreated inside. I caught up on yesterday’s blog, while Colin was “galloping” through his latest book. The ship turned through 180 degrees to make its way out of the harbour at 16.00, the sun still shining brightly, but the breeze feeling distinctly cold. One of the odd factors about cruising from the South America to Europe, is that daylight began about 05.00 when we left Rio, and darkness fell by 18.30, on the Equator daylight was a straight twelve hours from 06.00 to 18.00, now nearing 30 degrees North, daylight starts later at 08.00 and sunset is around 20.30 – it’s still twilight when we go to dinner, with the last rays of the sun reflecting pinkly on any clouds in the sky. Because of it being a ‘port’ day, there was no trivia quiz today, so we went along to a presentation about other Oceania voyages. I found this very disappointing – Rob spoke volumes about the hundreds of variations of Mediterranean cruises they have on offer - including a couple that are already on their way! - some cruises lasting twenty eight days, with twenty five port calls, to an audience that had mostly chosen this cruise because of the large proportion of ‘sea’ days, and who enjoyed the activities on the ship and didn’t want to engage in lots of sight-seeing. But as he told us, information is always available on the website.

As always, one activity leads to another, this time a concert by Katy Lee, one of the entertainers singing old jazz favourites such as from the Ella Fitzgerald / Billie Holliday repertoires, in the more intimate Horizons venue. Forty five minutes passed very pleasantly, sipping cocktails and watching the sea roll by. On our way to change for dinner, we stopped off at the computer centre, and checked emails, etc. We managed to connect and log off successfully this time, and learned that we still had over twenty minutes left on our package – time to post a few more blogs before we disembark.

Dinner tonight was another visit to Toscana – two nights running – but this is likely to be our last, as obviously the Polo Grill and this restaurant will be busy for the last few nights at sea – we have a booking in the Polo Grill for the last night on Saturday when, apparently, those continuing on the cruise to Athens are likely to go into Barcelona to eat. I decided to choose my favourite dishes from Toscana – Caesar salad and the lobster with spicy tomato sauce and linguine – tonight it was especially hot and zingy. Colin also chose Caesar salad, but followed it with the “pasta of the day” dish – another concoction including Italian sausage, but this time with penne. Both meals were very good and the service exemplary. It is going to be very hard to get back to thinking about what to eat, shopping, cooking and washing up for an evening meal when we get home.

Tonight’s cabaret was an extravaganza by the staff of the ship – including the entertainment team and Des and Cherry, the illusionist duo, but also some of the waiters, cleaners and, surprise, surprise, Mark, the hairdresser from the Philippines – he sang both parts of a dueted love song, singing both high and low notes, to finish the show – made you wonder just how much his high pitched, slightly feminine speech was an act, as he reached some very deep tones. On our way back to our cabin at the end of the show, we stopped to watch a couple of the tables in the casino – both playing “black jack’ at this time. At one table the contestants were losing badly, but on the other they seemed to be on a winning streak. We left them to it, and made our way to bed, grateful that we didn’t have to lose another hour tonight. Once in bed we noticed the phone was flashing with a message – something about exceeding our minutes on the computer time – strange as we had seen we still had twenty plus minutes a few hours earlier, and the message had said we had logged off correctly. Too late now to sort it out, we will have to pay a further visit to the computer area tomorrow.

Let's Walk Not Cycle!

Tuesday 3 April

It was 09.15 before we woke this morning – losing all these hours is playing havoc with our body clocks. Colin was immediately up and showered, ready for breakfast, but I declined to join him and spent the next hour leisurely preparing myself for the day. When he returned, we went off to find “golf” – really just putting along the carpet into a green plastic “cup”, in the Horizons lounge on Deck 10. Out of three balls each – they had a left handed putter for Colin, which is very unusual – we both had one close shot and two wayward attempts, but earned ourselves an extra “O” point each.

From Horizons, the jogging track is just a few short strides, and being in “sports” mode (?!) – not really but it sounds good – we decided to take a few turns around the track – thirteen laps equal one mile. We set off at a good pace, lapping the deck at one minute intervals, and managed to keep up that rate for twenty six minutes – just. By the time we had then wandered round a couple of times to cool down, we had walked over two miles. Now was definitely a good time to sit down and blog. The seas were much calmer today, with only the occasional shudder, but we could feel it was getting cooler – after eight months in warm, sunny climates, we are not used to these lower temperatures. It was also quite breezy on the balcony, so we sat in the cabin until it was time to make our way to lunch! It really is all eating on this ship – several people have commented that they are having difficulty eating anything now, as there is just too much food on offer – on the other hand, there are lots of very large Americans still tucking into plates crammed with creamy cakes and pastries, that it is easy to understand why that nation full of overweight people. We ate sparingly, before making our way to bridge classes. Still more new people attended class today, but they had all played a little before. One such couple was Bruce and Anna from the US, who were partnered with us. My hands continued to be abysmal, although I did actually reach thirteen points once – for an opening bid – and then flunked the contract by playing poorly – my moment of glory quickly passed to defeat.

This afternoon at 16,00 was a tea dance, but as we couldn’t face any more food, we decided to skip this event. Later people showed us photos of the extravagant array of cream gateaux, profiterole towers and mini masterpieces in pastry cases that the chefs had slaved all morning to make – it would have been impossible to look at the display without putting on a few pounds. We arrived in good time for Trivia, only to be joined by Ella (she came and sat on one of the sofas we use, just as I had a week or so ago), a profoundly deaf lady, who wore some sort of headphones to enable her to hear more – we still had to mouth the questions slowly for her to understand, but she enjoyed taking part and writing down her answers with the rest of us. We did very poorly today - too much talking all at once – the team is getting a little unwieldy now at eleven so there isn’t time to consider each person’s answers. Question: which colour appears most often on national flags? Consequently we only earned ourselves eleven points and came well down in the league. We must try harder at the next attempt in a couple of days.

We had been invited to the cabin of Stephen and John, for pre-dinner drinks with the “Fab Four” at 19.00 this evening. We got dressed up and presented ourselves on Deck 8, where the butler met us and escorted us to the right room. This cabin was about half as big again as ours, with plenty of room for a party. The champagne was on ice, with strawberries in the flutes, and quiche and nibbles on a side table. The butler – Gavin – came in and opened the first bottle of champagne and served the drinks and food, while gentle music played in the background. Alan and Kwan arrived soon after and we spent a most enjoyable hour and a half, quaffing two bottles of Perrier Jouet and munching lightly on the snacks. Alan had some remarkable tales to tell, being a dancer with the Royal Ballet turned actor, recently appearing in series like “The Bill” as well as numerous adverts. The other three all had interesting occupations – Kwan, a barrister, Stephen, an engineer and John, an architect mainly designing large shopping malls. They already had their next five cruises booked, and that only took them to early 2008! All too soon it was time for dinner – they were eating in the Grand Dining Room while we were returning to Toscana.

I decided to try two dishes I had not yet eaten onboard and chose carpaccio of beef and veal saltimbocca – both dishes were fine, but destined not to become my favourites. Colin chose the calamari and ravioli pasta, a dish which looked extremely pretty on the plate, with its creamy pasta squares and small dice of tomatoes, green and yellow peppers and deep fried basil. He said the pasta was scrumptiously light and really enjoyed his selections. We decided the time had come to sample the desserts – both of us – so I chose a slice of baked New York cheesecake, which was quite lemony and fresh, while Colin selected a platter of five different small deserts, including cannelloni stuffed with a very rich fruity cream, tiramisu, and a mini fruit tartlet filled with fruits soaked in a liqueur and topped with kiwi sorbet. He tried valiantly, but couldn’t quite finish the helping – we had both probably overeaten tonight.

Following pots of green tea, we made our way to the Insignia lounge, five decks down to catch the last half of the Des and Cherry show – we had seen their first performance a few nights back. The theatre tonight was absolutely packed with no spare chairs at all – the first time we have seen this lounge so full - so we stood at the back and enjoyed the programme much more this time – the jokes were funnier and the illusions more impressive. At the end of the show, Rob invited us all to go to the Horizons lounge – on Deck 10 - for some 70’s music and dancing. We made our way back up five decks again – I hope all this walking up and down between decks is doing me good – where we found an almost empty lounge – just three couples dancing to some very old tunes (perhaps not quite as early as the 1870’s someone had suggested). Colin – of Colin and Maureen – thought he had heard Rob say that he had made a mistake and the “70’s Night” was tomorrow. We had a drink and were joined by several other couples we have come to know. A few more couples appeared on the dance floor - apparently the dancers were part of a group of over 30 people from Vancouver, Canada, who had been persuaded by their tour company to join this ship as it was a “Dance Cruise”. Imagine their dismay when they boarded and found no dancing at all on the itinerary - obviously something for them to take up when they get home. But the staff have rallied round and arranged a dance time for them every day in one or other of the lounges – most times only forty-five minutes to an hour, but at least they weren’t totally disappointed. We only stayed a while, but on the way down to our cabin, we met Rob, with Billy and Cecily, two of the entertainment team, who were on their way up to sing some 70’s songs. But we had decided we were ready for bed, so did not return. There were still less than a dozen couples in the lounge when we left, so whether the concert went ahead or not, we are not sure.

Tomorrow morning we dock at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, around 07.00, so no clock changing tonight. Many of the passengers have booked tours leaving around 08.00, but with our record for getting up, we probably won’t even be awake.

Late Risers

Monday 2 April

As expected by the ship’s company, we woke late after losing yet another hour – actually around 08.30 - just in time for me to watch the film “The Queen”, which everyone had told us was excellent. Colin went to breakfast – he needed his morning shot of porridge, but decided he could wait on the eggs till we could go together for brunch. I thoroughly enjoyed the film – it will make a good ironing DVD when I get home – and it was therefore almost midday before we entered the Grand Dining Room to eat. The brunch here was very formal – usually brunch is a transition moving from breakfast food to lunch, and this often easiest as an informal buffet. Colin chose a fruit platter to start that was served on a platter almost the size of a carving plate – full of melon, pineapple, mango and other exotic fruits with a date and biscuity cube. It looked enormous but he waded his way through it while I supped a bowl of creamy potato soup laced with leeks. Colin continued to consider this was still time for morning food, so went for the whole big breakfast dish of fried eggs and all the trimmings with toast and honey to follow, while I chose a superbly grilled salmon fillet with vegetables. I suppose this was a sort of brunch with Colin eating breakfast and me eating lunch.

Bridge classes were back on today and we learnt about “overcalling” – apparently a few people had played yesterday while we were sunning ourselves. There are so many calls denoting so many messages to remember, and it becomes quite confusing when the cards are dealt and you have to consider real hands. We played with Don and Sarah again – Sarah is quite an adventurous caller, but the boys overcalled us all the time. I am not sure we don’t learn more when we lay the cards down on the table to bid.

Squeezing in one extra hand, we had to hurry to the Trivia quiz – our team was anxiously awaiting our support. A new lady, Lynn, joined us today, but we were left scratching our heads over several questions at the end and had to hastily fill in some gaps. Question: what is the plural of opus? By some luck, or the supreme intelligence of a few of our team, we managed to scrape 13 points and tied for second place again – more “O: points (although Jane, John and Carl had amassed over 40 already – we will never aspire to that many points).

We sat in the bar, drinking (me with another martini and Colin with more Laphoig) chatting first to Colin and Maureen, and later to Stephen and John (one half of the “Fab Four”). There had been a “captain’s cocktail party” for those who had cruised on Oceania before – and it seemed at least half the ship attended. Most people were dressed up in suits and posh frocks with lots of sparkly jewellery, but it didn’t appear to be a whole lot of fun, other than the free drinks! It wasn’t until nearly 20.00 that we returned to the room to change for dinner – earlier in the day Colin had made a reservation for us at the Polo Grill for 20.30. When we arrived at the restaurant Colin and Maureen were sitting in the bar area, having just ordered some drinks – and explained that they had “muscled” in on our booking as there were no other free tables. My Colin had decided to stick to sparkling water tonight, after already indulging in yet more malt, but I am much weaker and started off again with a “Tio Pepé (I haven’t had one of those since we left home, but I could quickly get the taste back), followed by both white and red wines. We knew the menu fairly well by now, and had almost decided on what to eat before we arrived. Both Colin and I both chose Caesar salad to start – individually tossed so I could have lots of dressing and loads of anchovies - followed by favourite pink lamb chops for Colin and a different version of lobster for me – gratinéed with garlic olive oil – no so successful as the Toscana version with tomatoes and linguine, but still very tasty. I especially liked the spinach in this restaurant, in a creamy sauce, and have ordered it on every visit so far. Both Colins decided they had room for dessert tonight and both chose the Apple Crumb Pie that my Colin had fancied last night. It turned out to be a sort of apple crumble in a pastry case, and satisfied their desire for something sweet.

We stayed at the table long after we had finished eating, chatting and putting the world to rights, and the restaurant was almost prepared for tomorrow night by the time we left – all the crockery, cutlery and condiment containers securely wrapped in acres of cling film and the tables covered in crisp white linen. We were both feeling quite tired by now , so returned to the room – anyway we were too late for the clarinetist’s concert and didn’t fancy the Karioke session – I did suggest that should go along and Colin could perform another rendition of “Love Me Tender” but he positively refused – perhaps another time.

We lost yet another hour tonight, so that we are now only about an hour adrift from the time at home. In the twenty-four hours to midday today, we had only traveled 231 miles – we had spent several of those hours in port - but are now on course for Tenerife, where we will land on Wednesday morning. The sea was still fairly rocky with waves in the 5 – 7 feet range, enough to continue the gentle shuddering as the ship meets the swell – lulling us to sleep. The temperature is cooling down rapidly – now it is only in the low 20’s C – and the breezes are much cooler – we will have to seek out some warmer clothes soon. It is surprising that the sea temperature is still a few degrees higher than the air.

Land Ahoy!

Land Ahoy!

Sunday 1 April

At breakfast this morning we had our first view of land for almost a week. Cape Verde proved to be a series of dry craggy islands, with little or no vegetation, cliffs that reminded us of Dover, and a sprawl of terracotta that represented the living element of these islands - as they slowly passed by our windows. Weirdly, some of the land masses were shrouded in an ethereal mist and I wasn’t sure at first whether they were clouds reaching down to the ocean in a pinky swathe, or terra firma. We meandered between these volcanic outcrops all the while looking out for birds or even some porofillas – we were told that sightings might be possible as it is the breeding season for these small dolphin-like creatures that live in the waters off Cape Verde. But we hardly saw any wildlife at all – just a couple of gulls winging their way across the sea in search of their next meal. The harbour vessel that came to escort us into port was a comparatively large white rusting vessel with no friendly hands waving in welcome. Reversing a ship of this size into a parking space was quite amazing. From our verandah it looked as if we were heading for a collision with a couple of ancient cargo carriers, but from the jogging track on deck 10, we could see a long concrete arm stretching into the sea, that the captain manoevred the ship safely alongside, with just about twelve inches separating dock and boat. Parking a car in a parking space must be a doddle for him.

The port – Porto Grande – contained several large rusting hulks that didn’t look as if they had seen action for years, as well as a few fishing boats. But the sun was shining and the whole scene sparkled. The gangplank was positioned with a blue carpet at the foot and Rob, the Cruise Director, was soon announcing that passengers could disembark and explore the island till 20.30 tonight – several of the morning activities had been cancelled as we had arrived in port a full two hours early at 11.00. We watched the first few passengers stepping on to the quay and start their trudge towards the awaiting buses and taxis – it took about fifteen minutes to reach proper land. Soon after midday, three large refrigerated trucks rolled up, presumably to replenish our depleted stocks of food.

For us it was time to find a sun-bed near the pool. Usually this area is filled up by the time we go to breakfast – although there aren’t many Germans on board, people the world over have obviously been taking lessons and the towels are unrolled, and books, sun tan lotions and hats are left to claim possession of each lounger – to be fair probably less than half the “staterooms” have the advantage of verandahs, so have no other place to sit outside and enjoy the fresh air. We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon stretched in the sunshine, reading, puzzling, and I had my first dip in the pool – a small square shape with a jucuzzi on either side protruding into the centre of the bright blue oasis. When the ship is moving, the water sloshes around like waves, back and forth. The water was warmer than our plunge pool at Buzios - only just – but very refreshing in the heat of the day.

For lunch we found the poolside café served burgers and chips which we couldn’t resist as we hadn’t tasted “junk” food in months – even though these were made with 100% Black Angus beef. They tasted mighty good along with the chips and coleslaw and made a welcome change to some of the rich food we have been enjoying. Around 17.00, as we were considering returning to our room – the sun was moving over, a few clouds arriving and the temperature in the shade was dropping from the warm top 20’s we had had all day even in the freshening breeze – when we met the “Fab Four” from our trivia team – aka John, Stephen, Kwan and Alan. The had explored the island in a taxi, away from the town which they said was depressingly poor and offered next to nothing to see. They found long curves of yellow sand around the coast, one with a large lagoon for swimming, and the scenery in the hills was interestingly barren, but basically there was nothing much on the island.

We showered and changed, and felt our sun tan “glowing” as we made our way to the Martini bar for drinks before dinner. I chose a citrus martini, with lemon vodka, cointreau and a lemon twist that tasted very zingy, while Colin decided on Laphroig, a malt whiskey – not having tasted a whiskey since Australia and this being a favourite brand. Asked if he wanted a single or a double, I piped up with “double” and when it came it was a large whiskey glass full of the amber nectar – admittedly there were a couple of ice cubes dancing in the bottom of the glass, but it was still like a “double, double” at home. Luckily we had an hour to sit and sip our drinks, listening to Aleks playing soothing tunes at the piano, before our reservation time of 20.30 in the Polo Grill.

Making our way into the restaurant we were greeted like long-lost friends. The staff on the ship came from about sixty different countries, and many were still learning English, and lliked nothing better than to pass a few minutes practicing their pronunciation and vocabulary. Many of the floor staff originate from Eastern European nations, but the Captain is Greek, the Head Chef is Austrian and the executive chefs are from Sardinia and France. There is also a large group from Asian countries and a few from South America. Everyone is always very polite and friendly with broad smiling faces, ready to help. We still had half a bottle of wine from last night which miraculously appeared on our table, as we chose escargot vov-au-vont and veal chop for Colin and crab cake with grainy mustard sauce and a rib-eye steak for me. Our appetites are getting smaller the longer we are on this voyage and it is very difficult to do justice to this scrumptious food.

We had promised the “Fab Four” we would attend the ‘Broadway’ trivia quiz tonight, naming the shows from the music we heard. An American couple joined us to make eight, and we set off at a cracking pace – the four guys definitely knew their musicals – I had never even heard of the “the Bells are Ringing”, but in fact, five teams out of seven got that answer right. When music from 42nd Street played Alan (now about 60 years old) got up and did a short tap dance – he had great panache and earned himself extra “O” points. We got a little mixed up between The Greatest Little Whorehouse in Texas, Little Shop of Horrors and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, but ended with a commendable score of 16, coming second only to a score of 18 – so more “O” points for all of us. The quiz had been timed for 22.45 but by the time everyone was settled it started a little late - so by the time the questions were finished and we had chatted some, it was almost midnight – but we had to lose another hour tonight – so it suddenly became 01.00. No wonder brunch was being served tomorrow morning – or should that be this morning – in the Grand Dining Room, as well as breakfast on the Terrace. They are obviously expecting a lot of late risers.