Homeward bound (boo!)

Well, it's almost over again for another year. In less than 7 hours we will be back in Southampton and back to reality. Neither of us can believe how quickly the last 2 weeks have gone, so with the help of a last ginger beer (and Tom Jones), here are our lasting memories of our voyage to the Med.

Favourite port: Ajaccio (Andrew, because it was such a surprise port) and Monaco (Victoria, because it was Monaco).
Least favourite port: Gibralter. This is unanimous.
Single favourite bit: waking up every morning to a sea view and walking round deck even in the wind and spray and seeing whales and dolphins.
Least favourite bit: being permanently told we're too young for cruising by rude old people that should know better.
Funniest moment: Andrew being called a geek in front of the whole ship!!!
Roughest sea: Force 8/9 in Atlantic off Portuguese coast on the way home, but not as bad as the sea on the Baltic cruise last year so we've been lucky.
Best meal: the Italian lunch in Rome since it was the same restaurant and meal we ate on our honeymoon. Aaah.
Books read: Wicked by (Victoria) The Story of the Von Trapp Family Singers by Maria von Trapp (Victoria) and Arabian Nights (Andrew).
Best thing on ship: plenty of places to sleep and read, lunchtime rollmops, ginger beer, sky deck sun loungers (!) and afternoon hot chocolate in the Piano bar.

A special mention should go to our table mates: David and Jeanette the butchers-come-property magnates from Poulton-le-Fylde, Jim and Wendy from Farnborough and Pam and Kath the wild Welsh women from Caerphilly. They were all fabulous company and it was a pleasure to dine with them, go to the show or watch the football.









Lloyd and Ariston our waiters, of course, looked after us very well!

It's just unfortunate that N Italy, S France and Corsica (and E Austria!) have since been hit by freak rain, flashfloods and landslides. Jeez-we're not even home yet. Disaster was quick this time.

17 months and 3 days until we set sail for our next cruise to the Canary Islands! We've bought a P&O piggybank to start saving our spending money. Since we still want to do Norway/Iceland cruise and now also want to do the Eastern Med cruises we might need more than 1 pig!

So, very shortly it'll be off to bed and when we wake up we'll be back in Southampton. Just like last year, this cruise has been so much fun and gone far too quickly.

Au revoir, adios, & arrivederci!


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Location:The English Channel

Rampant patriotism breaks out in Barcelona!

The Great British sail away, P&O style!



Not sure about the "Dad's Army" theme or Chas 'n' Dave!



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Bodies in the Sun

Today is our final port day, and we are in Barcelona. To be honest, after Ajaccio, Santa Margarita, Florence, Rome and (of course) Monaco, today has been a bit of a letdown. Barcelona is just too big and crowded to really get a feel for it in 8 hours, especially when the traffic is so awful! Our plans to do the hop on/hop off bus were rapidly altered.




We went along to the Joan Miro Foundation (somewhere Victoria has wanted to go to for some time) and despite an early scare (a sign saying "closed") we managed to get in just after 10am. This was a fantastic gallery full of Miro's work, together with some installations by Calder (he of mobiles fame). We wandered around for just over an hour before deciding to try and see the rest of Barcelona.

By this time, everyone else semed to have decided to use the city tour buses so there were no spaces on the upper deck. After passing Camp Nou, we evetually arrived at La Pedrera, Gaudi's famous apartment block. The queue to get in was huge (way past the sign denoting a 60min wait), so after a quick bite to eat, we tried to head towards Gaudi's other famous building, La Sagrada Famila.




Big mistake. Over 30min later we were sat on the bus no more than 500m from where we started, so
after several anxious glances at the time, we decided to cut our losses and head back to Arcadia for a spot of sun bathing. One waffle (with chocolate sauce) later, we were back on board and heading for the sun deck to top up the tans.

Right now, I am sat on the promenade deck cooling down while Victoria has dozed off next to me. The lack of breeze on the sun deck together with the roasting sunshine made it just a bit too hot for comfort. We may have had glorious weather on this holiday, but it can still get a bit too hot!
Hopefully we will be going to the final sail away party at 5:15, before we set sail for home (boo!), and of course the football later on (we are forsaking dinner for this match, so it had better be worth it!)
This has been a great trip which seems to have flown by. Although we are ready for a couple of sea days, it seems a bit sad that our next port of call will be home. I just hope we can bring some of the Mediteranean sun with us!


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Location:Promenade deck, Arcadia in Barcelona

More Monaco

Today was fabulous but it nearly wasn't. Villefranche is a tender port and the swell was very high so disembarkation took a long time. Our "Monaco on your own" bus was therefore running late and our time in Monaco reduced. To make matters worse, we were dropped off on Mont Monaco (by the royal palace) at 11am and told to be back on the bus at 1pm. Needless to say we were not pleased, especially when told it was to transfer us to Monte Carlo (casino); all of 1km away but 20min in traffic!

So, rather than set off into the heart of Monaco, we stayed in the area surrounding the cathedral (stunning in itself) and the (surprisingly ordinary) palace. The view across the harbour to Monte Carlo was fantastic, we liked it so much we stopped at an estate agents on the way back! Might be a while before we can move here though!



After a spot of souvenir shopping, it was time for our "transfer" across town. We drove along the start/finish straight for the GP, and after passing through "the tunnel" we reached our second drop off point. This was almost next door to the famous hairpin bend



From this point we carried on around the course, albeit going backwards. Victoria did express some concern at how narrow the streets were and wondered what happens if an F1 car crashed into the Gucci or Prada shops! We next reached Casino Square (where the rich &
famous go to lose money) and after a brief stop, descended the steep bank down towards the harbour & town.



After walking along the straight towards La Ratcasse, we continued round towards the Swimming Pool, stopping to admire the blue waters and expensive yachts moored in the harbour. We soon reached the tunnel again; having grabbed an ice cream (pit stop of sorts) we carried on back to our meeting point.


We are now back at picturesque Villefranche for the tender back to Arcadia. It's been a lovely day, but it could have been so much better if not for the over-protective (and fairly useless) 'tourguide'. Oh well, just have to console ourselves with a cocktail on deck followed by the World Cup!

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Location:Boulevard de l'Impératrice Alexandra Feodorovna,Villefranche-sur-Mer,France

Nice? No! C'est Monaco!

WOW! We've walked the F1 circuit! Monaco/Monte Carlo is fabulous! Not picturesque but an experience! We've got lots of photos to show Jon (lucky him) but you can't imagine what the circuit is like unless you visit. It's steep, narrow and expensive! You should see the cars here! Tutlewax must sell out fast!
On our way back to the ship now so we'll post this with a Monaco location for you to be jealous.





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Location:Boulevard du Larvotto,Monaco,Monaco

Hot

Just to confirm it was 31 degrees in Florence at 4pm. Just seen UK weather on Sky News.....wish you were here?


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Location:Back on board, cooling down

How the other half live

Today we have our first tender port so we've dropped anchor in the bay at Santa Margharita, northern Italy alongside some exclusive yachts. We took the tender (remember these are also our lifeboats) to the harbourside and jumped straight onto the waterbus to take us to Portofino.


One word can be used to describe Portofino - wow! Coming into the harbour on our water bus, you could see not only how beautiful the village is, but also that this is home to some seriously rich people!


We wandered up to the 2 churches either side of the village: St Martins and then St Georges (where Wayne Rooney supposedly got married). From S Georges, we carried on to the lighthouse and a great view over the Ligurian Sea. After a spot of souvenir shopping (and queuing) we returned by waterbus to Santa Margharita. It was also very beautiful but there wasn't very much to do, so after an hour we returned by tender to the ship in time for afternoon tea.


Note from Victoria: Portofino is very like my favourite welsh place Portmeirion. Makes sense since Portmeirion was modelled on this riviera. Therefore not sure why the Rooneys (Roonies?) didn't just have a welsh wedding!!

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Location:At anchor in Santa Margharita

Dodgy discos & awsome Ajaccio

(sorry for the delay, lost my network & only reconnected in Rome!)

Last night was another formal night, with the added bonus of an 80s & 90s disco at the onboard nightclub (Electra). However, this is the first disco we've ever been to where the dance floor cleared when Kylie was being played! We had some classic 80s cocktails and danced away (when the DJ wasn't playing non-dancing music). In the end, it was just us on the dancefloor and after one slow song too many, we decided to call it a night.

We woke up to find we had already arrived at our berth in Ajaccio. After breakfast we ventured out to discover more about the birthplace of Napoleon. Sadly, the house where 'Boney' was born was closed, so we decided to head to the Fesch museum (Corsica's main art gallery housing artwork collected by Napoleon's maternal uncle, Cardinal Fesch). However, that too was closed for renovation work and not due to reopen until late June. In the end, we decided to walk to the main statue of Napoleon at the far side of town.



From here we dropped down to the beach and walked back towards the port. By this point the temperature was soaring and we had to take shelter under several palm trees! At this point, the beach & water looked really tempting!



We came back onboard for some lunch before heading to the one Napoleon museum open. This was in the town hall and as it housed several Napoleon portraits, it was well worth the €2.30 entrance fee! After a spot of souvenir shopping & a photo stop in the fishing harbour, we came back on board ready to set sail. Ajaccio is really pretty and we both really liked it; the contrast to Gibraltar was amazing.



We are now off the Corsican coast (watching the stunning mountains pass by) heading towards the Straits of Bonifacio and ultimately Civitavecchia (our port for Rome). Not sure what our plans are for tonight, but I doubt it'll include the disco (love songs & ballads? How do you dance to those?!?)

Update: just entering the Straits, we have Corsica to our north and Sardinia to our south! At this rate, well reach Civitavecchia by nightfall!

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Location:Sailing down the west coast of Corsica

We came, we saw, we ate pasta

Today we arrived on Civitaveccia, our port for Rome. We were up early and on the coach by 8 & it took 1.5hrs to get into Rome itself. It's hot today-very hot.

We were dropped at St Peters square but as we've been in the Vatican before, we just used this as a photo stop.


We then headed into the centre and revisited the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain.


By this point it was midday and the sun was getting hotter so we re-found our favourite restaurant in Rome - La Scaletta on the Piazzo della Maddelena. Victoria had her long awaited bucatini alla amatriciana. Yumm.


We've headed to the Roman Forum, but since we were last there they've introduced an entrance fee so we're not bothering. We walked the extra 200 yards to the Colesseum and the Arch of Constantine.


We've retreated to the shade again to cool down before a slow walk back to St Peters square to be picked up.

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Location:Piazza del Colosseo,Rome,Italy

Geek fest

We went to dinner tonight as normal and on the way back to our cabin we noticed a quiz in the Globe Theatre about TV theme tunes where 2 teams had to be first to identify the theme (like name that tune). It had already started but we took a seat as part of a team (50% of the room). Oh my god.
I answered the first one we got -knight rider- but from then on Andy answered ALL OF THEM! No one else got a look in. He even identified programmes I'd never heard of. It was so embarrassing and the bloke hosting it couldn't believe it, made jokes about him not getting out enough and called him a GEEK!!!
Andrew is very happy.

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Location:Ashamed in the Tyrrhenian Sea

Sun, sea and sleep

After setting sail from Gibraltar at 5:45 last night, we've made good progress towards our next port of call Ajaccio on Corsica. Last nights sea conditions were fantastic: not a ripple to be seen and glorious sunshine.
Today has been trully relaxing, a leisurely breakfast followed by a bit of sunbathing on the top deck. We're now sat in the Piano bar before heading for our respective afternoon activities: cricket and dancing. Tonight is another formal night, with the added bonus of an 80s & 90s themed disco which we are both looking forwards to!

Here are a couple of images I managed to take on leaving Gibraltar.






Next time we see thus will be on our way home, but we're not thinking about that yet!!

We're now passing Majorca, Victoria has waved but so far we haven't seen any sandcastle messages or stranded tutors/students!

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Gibraltar

Last night was the captains welcome reception - our first formal night. After an argument in the queue because I let a woman in a wheelchair to jump in front of us we made it in unscathed -yes some people are that rude. We got our free g n ts & the captain came to talk to us so we put in a request for a choppy return through the bay of biscay since the way out was so calm.
Dinner was lovely and it was one of our table-mates birthdays so we got cake! Afterwards we had a pina colada and went to the show which was a really excellent male singer who did opera/rat pack etc. Very michael buble.
Today we got up and headed for our 2km walk and gym before breakfast. We watched as we sailed into Girbraltar. It was clothed in cloud but the sun came put just as we dropped anchor. As I warned andrew, Gibraltar is a dump. In fact it's so hot it's like hell- lots of shops full of English people and nothing else. We walked a mile to the cable car only to find we didn't have enough money or a credit card so that was the end of seeing the rock or the monkeys. We had a 99 with monkeys blood though!
We headed back to the ship after less than 2 hours in gibraltar and since then we've been sat on deck sunbathing and drinking Ginger beer. It's v hot so factor 30 slapped on but I'm nearly cooked so will be heading in soon. Andrew is asleep though:


We leave Gibraltar at 6 then have another sea day before Ajaccio in Corsica. Long may the sunshine continue!

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Location:Gibraltar on a sunbed

Rest & relaxation

I don't know what rest & relaxation Andrew is on about. We walked 2 miles while whale watching!! I went to a beginners tap class this afternoon which was very basic but there were plenty if tap springs to get the blood pumping. In all honesty I could have taught that lesson and although there are other lessons over the cruise she said they are all the same. Boo. So we went try try ballroom again.....lasted 5 mins into the tango, so I didn't ever get to learn the jive - v dissapponted but not unexpected.
When Andrew went to play cricket I sat on deck reading then sneaked to afternoon tea for scone/jam/cream. I discovered the "party dance" class so watched a bunch of 60yr olds do ghe timewalk. Very funny.
Andrew played cricket and said he did well. Based on his previous performances this is doubtful! LOL!
We've just been to the gym and cooled down with another walk round deck. The sun has really come out and its baking on deck.


Now I'm knackered so we're relaxing before our first formal evening and the captain's welcome reception.
Btw we don't have any reception in the Atlantic so we're building up these posts!

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Plain sailing

It's our first full day onboard and we are making good progress across the notorious Bay of Biscay towards northern Spain. So far it's been fairly smooth with only the occasional pitch or roll. Despite a fairly strong breeze, the sun has been shining and the sea is blue. What more could we ask for!
Being a sea day, we've taken things easy. Our plan was to get up moderately early, have a walk round the deck, go to the gym and then head for a leisurely breakfast. All it needed was for the alarm clock to be on the correct time zone (mentioning no names, Andrew!)
So after waking up at 6am, we ventured out onto the Promenade deck and walked 6 laps (equivalent to 2 miles). Then it was up to the gym where we stayed for about half an hour before heading back to our stateroom/cabin (further to yesterday, we may be heading for the Spanish main, but no cannons are needed on this voyage!)
Since then, we've taken it very easy, including a hot stones massage in the onboard spa! We're now getting ready for dinner and thinking what to do tomorrow! Hopefully the sun will keep shing, the breeze will drop and we can spend some time on deck!
Btw - our cabin TV has Tyne Tees regional television! We've just seen an ad for furniture village in Sunderland!



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Location:Bay of Biscay

Having a whale of a time

Wow! Our second sea day has really started off on a high note. After a brief lie in, we ventured out on deck for our morning walk and were surprised to see two pods of minke (we think) whales passing to starboard. Being already on deck, we didn't get caught in the mad rush as people came out from breakfast to see them.

And the marine life didn't stop there. 10minutes later, a school of dolphins came leaping towards us - neither of us has ever seen whales or dolphins at sea before, so this was a real treat, and all before breakfast!

Since then it's been a case of reading and relaxation, although this afternoon the energy levels really step up. Victoria is about to take part in a tap lesson, while I'm planning on seeing exactly how bad I am at cricket (very bad if my last experience is anything to go by). Later, it's the Welcome Aboard party, our first formal event of the trip so it's our opportunity to get dressed up. Oh, and the drinks are on the Captain!

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Location:Off Cape Roca, Portuguese coast

And we're off!

We left MK about 10.30 and got to the dock 2hrs later. It was much busier so there was some waiting around in the departure lounge. 5 mins though for check in & sercurity instead of 1.5 hours at Heathrow can't be beaten!

On board we could get into our stateroom (canon immediately and the luggage turned up piecemeal over the next hour. We had lunch in the Belvedere restaurant and headed to muster for our practice drill. There Andy bumped into someone he knew from work. Typical!
We set sail at 4.30 following the Oriana out of port and followed by the Aurora - p&o flotilla! We had our obligatory champagne and watched the scenery start to change.


We headed to try our luck at the spa giveaway again- last yr Victoria won a free G-form treatment. This year she won a free teeth whitening worth £200! Good start! We also got a discount for a hot stone massage which we're both having tomorrow!

We're sailing by the Isle of Wight now- we remembered binoculars this time & Andy claims to see Osbourne House. Weather is beautiful & we hope it continues!! We have 2 sea days now until we reach Gibraltar on Saturday lunchtime.

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Location:Leafy Ln,Wickham,United Kingdom