Santa Cruz De Palma

We arrived early in in the morning and quite a few guests went off on tours but we had decided to but just enjoy the sunshine and so spent a little time at the poolside and had a snack there before heading back to the suite and spending some time on the balcony. The port was much smaller than the previous two islands and so much quieter so that sitting on the balcony was very pleasant.

We left Port the previous afternoon around 4pm and we are now headed out in to the Atlantic Ocean to cross to the Caribbean Islands and so as there was not a lot to do unless you like card games

For a pre-dinner drink we went to the Dolce Vita lounge and listen to the music which was nice and then around 7.30 we went to the Japanese restaurant call Kaiseki which needed booking in advance and u need to pay a little extra for this but we thought we would give it go. The food was very nice but of course for me I was restricted and hoped they would get everything correct due to my dietary requirements. After dinner went for a brief walk around the ship and sat at the pool bar and chatted to an Australian couple living in  Brisbane who also enjoyed the outdoor life with a caravan and the man has taste by having a Toyota Land Cruiser 200 series.

And so to bed

Not really a quiet day in Palma

We arrived in the Palma Port around 0800 and yes its really is a big port and we were surrounded by containers, ships, container hoists and noisy cranes and in addition they are rebuilding the reception for the cruise ships reception and pile driving right outside our cabin window. However we went for our usual breakfast in the restaurant but sat outside in the warm, no hot, weather and considered our day and what to do. The choice was difficult in that it was a choice of doing nothing or even more nothing.

Noel caught up with some paperwork, emails etc and then we went to the Arts café on the back of the ship for a quiet cuppa but there is where the very noisy crane was working so after a while we decided this was not comfortable and we transferred to the pool area for several hours and Jennifer had a swim. We decided to have lunch ( sandwich) by the pool but then the noise of piledriver and cranes in addition to people returning from tours it was getting a little busy, empty by other cruise line standards and so we headed back to the suite and sat on the balcony until the men doing the pile driving  returned from their late lunch.

So in the mid afternoon we returned to the suite and Jennifer read and Me listened to music and then had a quick nap but then noticed the Man United game was on do watched that for while until time to go for dinner. Last night we sat next to an Australian couple and tonight a couple from York who seem to spend lots of time on cruising which suits him as he has difficulty walking, requiring a stick all the time and so on longer distances he can obtain immediate help from the staff. Its actually quite amazing how many people with severe walking difficulties take to to cruising as the staff are there at your beck and call from the the moment you arrive at the departure port until you get off at the end of the trip. They collect you from your cabin and take you anywhere on the ship  your want to visit. No wonder some people with cash like to live full times on board what with three good meals per day and plenty of food in between times.

Anyway, back to today. After dinner we went to see a comedian we have seen a couple of times before called Steve Stevens and his is quite brilliant and mostly does cruise ships. He was on for about an hour and took the micky at of most of the nationalise on board in a very fun  way and the yanks on boards thought he was fantastic.

After the show we returned to the suite for a good nights rest.

We arrived in Lanzarote- Canary Islands

We arrived in Lanzarote around 0900 hrs with the sun pouring down and temperature of around 18C a touch warmer than West Byfleet.  We had no intention of going on the Island having been there twice in the last couple of years and on the second time rented a car and pretty much toured the Island then and so no tours for us just a day relaxing.

So the breakfast room was rather empty as we arrived at about 0930 and we assume many guests were on the way to shoreside and to join the large choice of tours. All the the tours are actually free which is good but not if you don't want to see the Island. After breakfast we headed of the the Arts Café where you can coffee and tea and most booze and cakes etc and but sat outside on some comfortable chairs and above were some heathers just to make certain you don't get cold. Around lunchtime we enjoyed a baguette with cheese and ham , reminds you of France, and then spent some happy hours until it started getting a little cooler and retuned to the room where we donned sweaters and sat on the balcony listening to music.

As dinner time came around we agreed that a glass of Jack Daniels with ice in the room sitting on the sofa watching an American house rebuild program was quite good and so that's we did before going to dinner. We were sat next to a Australian couple who had joined the ship in Barcelona and had been on board for at least 16 days so far and when they reach Fort Lauderdale they join another ship to visit the Amazon, clearly have lots of cash. We had an interesting talk about travel, politics, family and it was a pleasant evening.

Following dinner we went to the show which was a South African singer who was reasonable but clearly a bit nervous and his opening song was ‘When a man loves a woman’ which would have been less funny as he was clearly gay as a nine bob note and of course perhaps not the best song to open with. His closing number was the well know ‘Jerusalama’  which has been turned in to a video which millions of people have done the dance.. He did get a few people dancing but frankly if he had opened his show with this number then overall he would have got a better reaction from the audience.

The back to the room for an early night.

One item of comparison was last year we did a Seabourn cruise which went to a number of islands where you had to use the tenders to land which is not easy for some but it means you get a nice view of the town. However in this cruise and we end up in a Port surrounded by container ships and other types of vessels and often lots of noise. However we did notice an vessel arrive carry several yachts and one was the ‘ Baltic 111’ named Raven which is a very brand new and different design sailing ship which they carefully offloaded and it sailed in to port. Its been taken to Lanzarote for sea trials having left Jakobstad in Finland and shipped to the Canaries. Time to finish.

All at sea today

Today was a day at sea as we had left Lisbon yesterday afternoon and headed off in the direction of Lanarote where we would arrive at 0900 on the 28th. So we enjoyed doing not much and spent some time at the café at the back of the ship where there are comfortable chairs but also heaters in the rood to keep you warm and blankets if you need them but it was very nice sitting. Jennifer went to do washing and ironing particularly for her outfit for this evening Black Tie function.

For lunch  we decided not to eat to much and so Noel had a couple of choccie biscuits and a cup of tea and Jennifer a small salad, just enough to feed the appetite and keep the wolf from the door, as they say. We returned to the cabin around 5.30 pm and prepared ourselves for evening and byt 6.30 were ready to go to the library bar at the front of the ship for a quiet glass before heading off to dinner. Noel had pre-ordered his dinner earlier in the day and we were expecting this to be organised upon our arrival. The main restaurant was very busy perhaps due to the black tie event and people not wanting to sit outside at the Grill or at the Pizza joint. Well the waitress arrived  and started to take our order but I had to remind her my food had been pre-ordered and she mumbled something about a steak which in fact is what I had ordered. But from here it went very wrong indeed.

After a long wait the starter course arrived and mine was completely wrong and so that had to be returned the kitchen and something similar was brought but at least it did not have any dressing.We then had to wait quite a while before the main course arrive and when it did mine again was wrong and so this time was Jennifer's?. For Jennifer there were more vegetables thn she had ordered and they had given exactly the same to me and so back to the kitchen it went and then their was a long wait when finally they brought out what I had pre-ordered. One of the senior staff them came to apologise and said it was the waitress had picked p the wrong plate.Considering we had arrived in the restaurant at 19.10 it was now about 2100 and we could start to look for deserts and then which I avoided an took the cheese plate. Then another Manager appeared with two staff to discuss what was happening and that there was a problem in being aware of my food requirements and I explained that I had met the Head Chef upon boarding and provided a complete list of food that I can and cannot eat. I had also provided same to the reception so I could not understand why so much of an issue as I had been on previous Silver sea ships with no trouble whatsoever. They all apologised and said it would not reoccur, we shall see.

On leaving the Atlantide restaurant we popped in to the Japanese one next door to find out if they would be able to cope with my requirement and so they looked up suite 818 and there was nothing there to indicate that I had special food requirements??? I have to say i was pretty pissed of by this time as it was now 22.15 and we had missed most of the show and so went back to the bedroom –ooops Suite.

Anyay for the next three days we will be visit this Islands in the Canary Islands, namely Lanzarote then Las Palmas and then finally Santa Cruz de Palma, see map

Lisbon City bus tour and boat ride in the mist

Its a big shame that the weather for the past few days had not continued in today when we are due to travel on a small tourist boat along the Tagus river only we were let down as we had a very misty and grey morning so not the best for taking photos. Nevertheless we left the ship at about 10.00 being warned by the crew, you must be back on board by 14.00 or you will miss the departure at 14.30.

The tour guide explained that on Sundays coaches are not allowed in the town and so we must go round the outside and make a big circle to where we need to be. This sounded a little strange as there were tourist Hop and Hop off buses everywhere but Hey Hoe,  go with the flow. After driving around the city past some very poor areas which were really depressing we arrived at the tour boat. T he boat took us for about 90 minutes up and own the Tagus river where you could see all the nice places and also the places when which been left to run down and return  to mother nature.  There was a difficulty with the boats microphone which luckily we had a nice quiet cruise without being bombarded with everything you need to know about Lisbon. I was able to take a quite a few photos which I will upload at a later date as the ships WIFI is limited and restricts access to certain sites and that included my SMUG MUG site.

There were lots of interesting statues and  monuments alongside the river which i have photographed and to many for this blog but they will be uploaded to smug mug at the end of the trip when in Florida.

On the way back to the ship we were running late but they still made a stop at a site of importance and then our your lady tour guide star ted letting her hair down b]about what was wrong with Portugal. So the Government is in a mess and they recently arrested senior politicians for fraud and several other charges and to make matters worse they arrested a senior politician incorrectly as he had the same name as the real offender. The roads are extremely bad because the Government does not  spend the money on the roads but on  flights of fancy exhibitions buildings etc. The National Health Service does not work anymore as the Doctors were all totally overworked and as a result have gone out on strike and so to get and appointment is near on impossible and you need to go private to be seen. Where have I heard that before. Also 12 years a go they drew up and plan to resolve drain issues in a large part of the city to avoid flooding and then they said well it doesn't rain very much in Lisbon so why bother and the of course the inevitable happened it rained and it rained , in fact almost a whole years rain in two days and so certain parts of Lisbon were badly flooded and so now they have started on the work, so to speak, after the horse has bolted.

We arrived back at the port at about 13.50 and gad to rush to get on board before they closed the doors. We then headed up the outdoor Pizza restaurant where there was confusion and delay in getting a pizza with out garlic and onion as apparently all the tomato sauce which as a base for the pizza is premade with garlic and onions and so I had a non tomato base cheese pizza which was nice. Either there was a computer system error but the their hand held did not show my food issues which I reported later.

We were both now a little tired and returned to the cabin for a rest when at 17.00 the phone rang and in it was the finance officer saying they had located by USA ESTA but it was shown as Noel Groves and  not Noel James Groves as per my passport and I need to apply for another ESTA as San Juan Immigration will fine me and the ship for this mistake, I did point out that I had used the same ESTA for my previous Silver Sea  trip via San Juan o Fort Lauderdale and also also a separate flight arrival for our long stay Florida trips but she said it has to be right and need to apply for another one. So I retrieved my passport from reception and the completed a new application which was passed very quickly ,in fact  in less than two hours since my application, amazing!. Of course they need to know lots of info, the basics plus the name of parents, who of course are longer here, and what social media I use so I provided the name of Blogger, Facebook and Linked-in .

For dinner we visited the Italian restaurant which actually has a restricted menu as far as Noel is concerned but was all ok and then feeling a little weary headed back to the room and early night.

We board the Silversea ‘Silver Dawn 'today

Following breakfast in the Hotel this morning we returned to the room to finish the last bit of packing our suitcases to get ready for the departure to the Cruise Port which was about 20 minutes away.

We sat in the lobby for about an hour and half watching the world go by waiting for our driver who was due at 13.50 but he actually turned up very early at about 13.30 and so we decided  we might as well go and if we have to wait at the Port so be it. We arrived at the port an we noticed that apart from our ship there was also the Celebrity Infinite in port and so the security was a bit busy. I must remember to get a full plastic belt as they make you take your off which can cause trousers to slide down but we go thro that bit ok and so on to check in.

There was  no waiting for check in and withing in 5 minutes our photos were taken and we were given our boarding cards and a swipe of my AMEX card and we were off until I heard the voice , Hi Mr Groves can you spare a minute as we cannot find your USA VISA ESTA on line. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. So I explained this is strange as I have been to the USA twice since my last ESTA was issued so not sure how this can be, anyway they said they would check again. So we boarded and dumped our hand luggage in the cabin and went to the pool deck for a light snack and beer. Then a brief walk around the ship and at 1700 Noel had a meeting with the CHEF and his side kick to discuss food , diets etc and gave them my list of do’s and don'ts and hoped would be ok.

In between all this Noel played to see what was on TV and then came across the second half of the Newcastle vs Chelsea game where it was 1-1 and then all hell let loose and suddenly it was 1-3 after two stupid defence mistakes at which point I turned it off. I later learned that the Chelsea Captain was shown a red card, so no the best days for the blues after their stunning games against The Spurs and and Man City.

At 1800 we had to attend the Muster where we were advised how to leave the ship should it be necessary due to an emergency , the usual cruise ship drill but at least now we don't need masks and also to put the life belt on and mess up your hair. We had booked prior to boarding our first night in the GRILL which is actually on an open pool deck but with  roof heaters blasting away and we enjoyed the ‘Hot Rock’ experience where they provide a lump of rock heated to over 250 C and you cook your own food and in our case we had the filet mignon and noel added some Madagascar prawns to the mix and washed down with a couple of glasses of Chardonnay.

Following dinner we went to see the show in the main theatre which would have been good apart from some drunken American female behind us clapping and shouting at every opportunity , we shall watch out for her in future.

And then back to the cabin as we were both a bit tired.

What a busy day

We enjoyed an early breakfast around 10 am in the hotel where they were charging on Euros 12.00 for a full breakfast which , in my book, is very cheap. From there we had a short time in our room finalising our plans for the day where we decided to head of to the centre of town and forget using the hop and hop off bus as at £ 35 each , its a bit steep.  So spending 4.8 euros we took a taxi down to the Sofitel Hotel on Avenida De Liberdade which is the main shopping drag with all the famous names charging a fortune.

We spent some time walking up the main street and then down and when seeing the tour buses racing by we were glad we were not going on the bus. We have experienced this before where the Hop on and hop off bus takes off like a rocket and nothing else matters apart from getting to the destination as fast as possible and maximise revenue. So our slow walk took a short break where we stopped for a cup of tea and then continued walking down the strip where it started to get busier and we soon discovered why was because there was a Christmas market in full swing with all the usual hot toddies, hot chocolate etc etc . On the side of the road there were numerous restaurants with waiting staff ready to pounce on you should you look interested in any way, no doubt at rip off prices. The town is very pleasant with lots of trees and walking area although there is a lot paths with a stone surface which is never level which caused Noel some walking issues. There were lots of really old attractive building and I think we were both impressed how nice the pace is with not to many down a and outs in the areas we visited but they must be somewhere??

By this time we were beginning to feel a a little tired and beginning to get a bit hungry. We discussed three choices and decided that we would visit the little café near the Hotel where we had our sandwich yesterday to have a pizza. So we arranged a taxi on the web and headed of back to the little square and discussed the menu with the owner who said the pizza has a lot of garlic in the tomato sauce but the burger is ok and so that's what we had and enjoyed.

In the meantime Noel has been trying to set up a video calling system for his sister in a care home and this took much longer than expected due to access restrictions on a third party account. The issue took up a couple of hours but by 1900 all was resolved thank heavens.

So then we had a quiet evening and relaxing ready for the boarding process on our cruise ship tomorrow just after lunch.

A day around Lisbon town

Following a slow breakfast in the hotel we returned to the room to prepare the camera batteries for the day and then walked along to road to check out a café in a local square. Our original idea was to just take a look but we then decided the food looked quite good and Noel order a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and Jennifer ordered a tomato and avocado sandwich but there was obviously a misunderstanding as she received a smoked salmon and avocado which she really enjoyed.

We then took a Uber taxi to an area known as LX Factory which in the old part of  town and consists, restaurants and bars and shops in the old warehouses which have been decorated with graffiti and sometimes amazing designs and sculptures which the place quite interesting. It was not that busy but n doubt would be later that day although the tourist season is now over there are still a lot of visitors walking around enjoying the sites and occupying the restaurants of which there was a large choice. After wandering around for about 45 minutes we decided to stop and have a beer , or two and by this time Noel decided a light snack would be a good thing and so he ordered a plate of fries and some Calamari. The Calamari were ok but clearly of the frozen type whilst the fries were quite good and Jennifer really helped me out in eating the fries.

There was a football match from the Spanish league on TV and every time somebody fell over the acting sprung to life with rolling about, screaming and clutching various bits of their body whilst appealing to the ref who just looked away most of the time and ignored them, but it was fund to watch for a while. We departed the area around 5 pm and headed back to the Hotel for a quite evening and early night and we do enjoy eating early.

Tomorrow we will head to the centre of the town as although we had considered the ON-OFF bus its a bit expensive and probably our tour on Sunday organised by the cruise line would most likely cover the same ground of popular tourist spots so perhaps we shall take a tram or find the funicular railway and take a trip on that.

So looking forward to an early night and see you all tomorrow

We leave today

For some reason  neither of us slept very well probably anticipating the travel and possible delays of getting to Lisbon. We we re already packed and waited for the Taxi to arrive to conduct us to terminal 5 where we checked in the baggage, you do it yourself today, although the staff that used to do it now stand and watch offer you help if you don't understand the system.

We went to the lounge for about one hour after passing thro security and due to my metal knee had to undergo the fully body search and pat down which is a pain but then again its necessary. We went to the gate in time and then they called forward for boarding ,we thought, only then they kept us standing for about 15 minutes whilst they finished cleaning the aircraft etc before we could actually go down the stairs to the aircraft, quite ridiculous, only BA would do this .

BA is short of aircraft and crews and are leasing aircraft from other carriers and in this respect we went on a FINNAIR Airbus A320 staffed by some Finish ladies who full of smiles and being helpful unlike the last time we flew BA. Its a shame the food was not from Finland as I noticed that a number of people did not like the meal provided except for the salmon and prawn dish of which they ran out of after only a few minutes. The flight left about 30 minutes late but the Captain informed us of strong tail winds and that we would arrive ahead of schedule which we did, just about by 5 minutes. The flight was quite full and I am convinced that they group of Americans in front of us were most likely to be on our or another cruise they way they were taking.

Upon arrival at Lisbon airport we had to go down the stairs, not easy with elderly fold in front of us whilst struggling with bags, and on to a shuttle bus to the immigration hall which was a good 8 minutes ride away, The immigration was divided in to electronic passports, one section for EU and the other for others and the system works quite well except their were only two out of six machines working, brilliant, and then we had to go to another desk where they had to put a stamp in the passport, clearly a union issue here.

Our driver was waiting outside in the arrival hall and shortly afterwards we were caught up in the Lisbon traffic and it took about 35 minutes to reach our destination which was the Hilton Emerald House Curio Hotel where the reception staff were really nice and we checked in to our room. For dinner we had decided to stay in the Hotel and we had a beer and Noel a nice piece of fish and mashed potatoes prepared to avoid garlic, onion etc and Jennifer had a huge bowl of spaghetti Bolognaise which she could not finish.

We spent an hour or so watching television until the eyes gave out and so to bed. 

Nearly ready for our Transatlantic trip on Silver Dawn

Well the last few days we have been preparing not only the house but our pre packing for our departure to Lisbon on Wednesday afternoon ie tomorrow when we fly from London Heathrow terminal 5 to Lisbon Airport. We will initially be staying the first three nights at the Hilton Emerald House Lisbon which will enable to have a couple of day sightseeing on our own until we board the Silversea Silver Dawn on Saturday the 22nd of November.

Once we leave on our cruise we will travel via the Canary Islands for a couple of days and then Transatlantic to the Caribbean before heading to Fort Lauderdale and arriving on the 11th of December. But in the meantime the front spare bedroom is filled with suitcases and stuff which needs packing at the last moment. The last day before you leave is all ‘did I pack everything I need’ etc etc and also is transport booked but yes it all is.

Anyway we leave for the airport tomorrow lunchtime. More news to follow over the next few weeks.