9th November- Let’s do something different

On Tuesday Noel went on a photographic trip around the ship for fun. Not to take photos of the ship per say but to take some photos of the feeling of the ship and at one point he was asked to stop taking photos of the bank of photos taken by the ship’s photographer which were displayed outside his studio, anyway after a quick chat and showing some of the photos taken prior to that point he was let off.

Jennifer went to watch a talk about detox and weight loss but in the end this presentation finalised with offering the passengers this very special box of pills which ONLY cost a $100.00 per month and your worries are truly over. We had lunch up in the ‘The Great Outdoors’ as it was about 23 degrees centigrade which is quite surprising really, this must be due to the more southerly track taken by the ship.

We also keep bumping in to the big ‘New Yorker’ a guy who we previously met in an internet café in Ponta Delgado, who likes to talk in a loud voice; he is quite amusing really and is followed around by his long suffering wife. Each time you meet him he has wise words. He said last time, remember this, when you die your life ends and there nothing else to worry about’.

On Noel’ s earlier travels around the ship he overheard a group of ladies discussing somebody who had died on board, Noel hoped it was the female cruise director but no such luck. We have lost two hours this week and we have another three to go and so presume over the next four nights on board we will somehow loose those as well.

We did a great walk around the ship yesterday of about two miles at a fast pace and of course it’s a smooth surface and also quite exhilarating with the wind blowing down one side of the ship and occasionally holding on as the ship lurches un-expectantly.

Tonight’s show was a Czech Mandolin player who also played several wind instruments and he was quite good. The wind must be getting up or it may be the wave height as the stage curtain was moving back and forth and also the backdrop swinging wildly. Later we went to people watch rather than join the cruise director who was running a game for ‘adults only’ in one of the lounges, not for us we thought. Got back to the cabin and there was a note stating we should put our watches back again tonight.

Upon visiting the garden café there was a gay Filipino male, handing out water. He was singing quite loudly all the time and it appears that once he reaches New York he is flying home for two months leave after being away for nine months. Boy was he happy and looking forward to seeing his family and also his dog.

We also watched the ‘SKY’ news in the room and the report about ex Pres Bush and his new book with strong signals from a number of commentators that Bush could be arrested outside of the US for agreeing with what in the UK we call torture. No doubt Herr Blair knew all about this and now it’s in the open perhaps they may pursue him as well.

8th November - We are sailing, we are sailing etc

Well for the next five days we shall be sailing across the North Atlantic Ocean no doubt trying to dodge the various weather fronts.

It’s strange that when we are walking around the deck we like to go clockwise but everybody else goes the other way round, cannot fathom this out at all.

We missed the Doctors presentation about losing weight by hypnotherapy and also acupuncture as there were so many large people there we could not get in the room.

On Monday night we went to the evening show where a young lass, from Yorkshire, called Claire Maidin who, we understand, had appeared in the X-Factor and also Britain’s got some talent, or something like that, we both agreed she was very good indeed. She has a strong voice and was excellent at the piano and gave a very good performance indeed.

Monday night was also dress up night and so many ladies went to great trouble to look nice but the male of the species did not try so hard and in fact perhaps wore a better and new set of jeans and trainers. The wind has started getting a little stronger and the waves are about 3.5 metres high at the moment although against the size of this ship you hardly notice them at all whilst the ships speed is around 19 knots.

7th November- Arriving in Ponta Delgado, The Azores

A group of large Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and owned by Portugal and is also part of the EU. We arrived in the small harbour and tied up virtually in the centre of town as it would only be a short walk from the Ship to the main shopping areas and Churches etc.

Upon leaving the ship we were struck by the newness of the Harbour Facilities with new shops and open air cafes and the streets were clean. Even the pavements did not have the large Ian Lake holes in them. We noticed several of the cafes were offering free Wi-fi internet and if we can’t find a computer internet place we will pop back to the ship for our own notebook later in the day. We also didn’t want to be late as the Cruise Directoress had promised a big screen production of the Brazilian Formula One Grand prix starting at 3pm.

As it was a Sunday most of the shops, apart from the ones at the Port were pretty much closed but we walked from one side of the town to other and were pretty impressed how well kept this place is compared to Lisbon. Most of the houses had been recently painted and there were no obvious signs of graffiti and very little rubbish on the streets at all. We were unsuccessful in finding a computer internet place, everybody has their own notebook, netbook or I-pad today and so this type of shop is failing. Noel darted back to the cabin and picked up the notebook but we could not make a connection at the first place and

then we moved on to a mall where they also advertised free internet, we could find the signal but could not get access until a person at the next table said you need this code and from thereon it was ok but very, very slow connection indeed. This is not surprising as there must have been 30 odd people with notebooks etc trying to connect.

We did a final walk along the beachfront to the Old Fort at the end of the town then headed back and came across a local drum band with mostly teenagers and some people dressed up in cow outfits, not sure why.

On board we settled in to watch the Grand Prix and were getting nervous that it must have started and then it turned out they could not find a suitable satellite and so they would show the film ‘Mama Mia’, Noel does not like ABBA anyway and Jennifer has already seen the film so after ten minutes we decided there were better things in life than watching this.

We went topside for a cuppa and cake and I forgot to mention that since leaving Lisbon it is all silver service and you cannot even make your own cup of tea. During the first few days perhaps because we were close to a port you were allowed to help yourself to certain foods and make your tea or get iced water but now this is all done by the crew as they state they want everybody to be healthy and reduce the risk of on board illness.

Tonight we tried the Grand Main Dining Room which is at the back of the ship and seats about 900 people. The food was OK but not especially brilliant and we felt that the food in the garden café which is always served piping hot is perhaps better. It was worth the experience however.

During dinner we discussed the merits of cruising, Jennifer felt that it might be better to go on a more expensive ship where they don’t push extra items at you all the time, On Jen’s previous ships they have given talks about where your are going and the history of the place and nice places to visit by experts. On here it’s more like selling their own bus tours which are expensive and presented by people who read a script. Noel felt a little cramped and missed the freedom and also the opportunity to see more of the places we visited and having the complete freedom to do it our way. We are now not sure if we will do the Valparaiso to Buenos Aires cruise when we go to Latin America as we feel we will miss all the good bits that you can see from land and perhaps on a smaller ferry which does Island hopping. Food seems to be the main hobby of the largely American population on board and god knows where they put it all. Sometimes one plate at a time is not enough, quite off putting really.

We both agree that the opportunity to eat at the different restaurants is good rather than sit in the same seat at all meal times but somehow this will most likely be the last cruise for quite a while and we stick to our old routines.

After dinner we did a walk around the decks and put our heads in to the big Theatre where there was a group of youngish guys who may be failures from the X-Factor doing their best to sing Freddie Mercury and failing quite well really.

Shame Chelsea lost to Liverpool we did not see the game but know the result. This is quite depressing as I believe Chelsea may have been playing a weak team due to injuries and as I refuse to pay USD 5.00 for a minute to use the internet I will wait to find out when we reach New York next Saturday. Same applies to the Brazilian GP.

One final matter, as we pulled out of Ponta Delgado the Finnish Captain said that due to severe storms in certain parts of the Atlantic we would be taking a different route to that planned and that he would travel at a faster speed so that he had the opportunity to slow down if the weather got too bad. It’s quite encouraging really.

6th November- A day all at sea

We thought when waking this morning we would most likely have a quiet’ish day after walking a long way yesterday, only we was wrong.

The weather is still quite nice and although rain was forecast it did not appear and the sun was quite bright when we had breakfast this morning on the aft deck. The rest of the morning Noel spent going through his now several hundred photographs to make them ready for the web for when we can reach an internet connection and Jennifer was deep in her book.

A light lunch was followed by more time reading and Ipod music then a good mile and half fast walk on the deck to get the blood moving to get ready for our dinner in the Orchid Chinese Restaurant. The dinner was pretty good and the style was mostly Northern Chinese style but being served by Indian and Philipino waiters and with Japanese chop sticks and no stick rests it wasn’t quite right and even the Jasmine tea was tea bag style, Oh for Hong Kong!!!

Following dinner we went up to the Spinnaker lounge at the front of the ship, we though, to have a quiet sit down, meditate and let the dinner go down only there was a ‘Newly Wed Show’ hosted by, you guessed it, Goodmorning Laideese and genelemen Cruise Director. It is supposed to be a quiz where you ask couples who are married the same question to see if they answer the same. So here is the twist, when they were looking for a very newly married couple a guy put his hand up and said they had been married for only 27 days and so the hostess asked them to come to the floor. It was then that everybody discovered that it was a male gay marriage. This seemed to temporarily throw Miss Cruise Director for a minute. They were pitched against another two couples with the questions getting more personal as time went on, Ummm, not sure about this.

When this was finished the Philippine band started up and they seemed a bit off key and so we left there intending to go to the Bliss lounge but the second house of the show was just starting in the amphitheatre and so we went to that instead. Twelve boys and girls dancing and singing along to old numbers from a past age and they were not bad, but the band was very good indeed and it’s a shame they don’t seem to perform anywhere else on the boat. So they perhaps do three hours every other night, tough life really.

Back to the cabin and pleased to find a note that they will be showing the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix on TV tomorrow at 3pm and so it looks like we may have a shortened visit to Ponta Delgado which is on a Portugese Island several hours off the coast of Portugal in the middle of nowhere, good place to leave the wife.

Let’s hope there is an internet café shop somewhere as we had no luck in Lisbon which in retrospect is not surprising.

PHOTOS WILL BE ADDED WHEN WE GET A FAST CONNECTION

5th November- This time it’s Lisbon Portugal

We were looking forward to visiting Lisbon, as according to reports, its one of the ‘greatest Cities in the World’. We are not sure who wrote that but they must have been on drugs or at least a bottle of good whisky every hour of the day.

As the passengers alighted from the ship they were greeted by, of all things, a red duck type bird played by a Christian Ronaldo look alike. When you have 2000 passengers arriving in a country which is known to have some minor financial difficulties you would think that the Mayor or somebody would come to entice the passengers to spend their US Dollars in his town, but no.

We decided not to take the hop on and off bus today for a change as we wanted to walk to the centre of town so as to get the feel of the place. And did we get the feel of the place, this City has serious problems of graffiti everywhere, dirty streets, very old unkempt housing and in the main areas too many beggars and people trying to sell you sun glasses and watches, to you cheap ay?.

There were so many police around you had to guess why as in the Starbucks Loo

is this large sign saying watch your bags etc,

Why Starbucks you say, quite frankly most of the cafes and so called restaurants looked dirty and they lined the street with cars and buses rushing past and kicking up dust. We thought that the pavements in Weybridge were bad but these were terrible and most of the time you had to walk looking down to avoid tripping over or falling down a big hole. Ian Lake would love this place.

Anyway we toured around for quite a while and both formed the opinion that it’s not a nice place to visit. It could be if the Government and the people had pride in their city and at least kept it clean. They are poor neighbours to Spain who have similar financial difficulties but it did not show in any of the cities visited so far. Both Malaga and Cadiz where very clean no sign of beggars or for that matter Police.

The sun was shining and the temperature was about 23 degrees and by 2pm we had seen enough and headed back to the Ship. This time along the waterfront where there does appear to be some new development and also there were a couple of nice restaurants where you feel you could eat but by this time it was to late. Our walk today must have been almost 7 miles and it was good to stretch the ‘old’ muscles.

We arrived back at the ship around 3.15 pm and went straight upstairs for some iced tea and eventually a beer before dinner.

At dinner they had a large roasted pig, which unfortunately took up quite a bit of space on our table but was very enjoyable indeed. We went up to the Star Bar to listen to the classical string quartet which we now think are Russian, possibly spies we also think, but they played well and with a varied repertoire of music.

During the last few days we have noticed that people seem to spend an inordinate amount of time at the bar and we hate to think what their bar bills might be. A glass of wine is USD 6.25 plus 15% service and a reasonable bottle of red is somewhere between USD 26/28 plus 15% whilst the cost of whisky and brandy etc is not cheap at all. I am not sure if their liver suffers more than their wallet?

We are now on the open sea going to the Azores which is a group of islands owned by the Portuguese and tomorrow we just sail all day and arrive there on Sunday morning around 10.00 I think.

One last comment about Lisbon, I have just read the blurb about the City and it would appear that even the Portuguese Royal Family don’t like it here as they live some miles away in a town called Sintra. That tells you something doesn’t it.

4th November- Half a day in Cadiz and Chelsea win 4-1

“Gudmornin ladeese an genelmen”, whoops here we go again. We arrived in to the Port of Cadiz as the sun was shining down and we headed up to the open deck for a breakfast in the sun.

By 9.15 we left the boat and walked a few yards to where there was waiting another of the hop on, hop off bus tours and although they are not cheap when you only have half a day its perhaps the only way to see around this town.

There are some very interesting views from the bus including great shots of the Burgerking empire Cadiz franchise.

Cadiz, under the Phoenicians rule was called Gadir. The appearance of the city is old and quaint with many small cobbled stone streets with shops and occasional squares with street cafes.

Cadiz started out as a trading post in 1100 trading in silver and amber and later it was used by the Carthaginians who converted it to a busy port.

After being reigned by the Moorish people in the 16^th century Cadiz started to prosper due to its strategic location. Columbus sailed from here to America on two occasions and now by Noel and Jennifer. Sir Francis Drake attempted to capture the town.

After leaving the bus tour we walked around town and tested the Spanish language again only this time we tried ‘Senor, dos café con leche and dos cognac por favour, Gracias’ and by god it worked, my Spanish was so good that the waiter could not believe it and sent his younger son out to check to see if that is what we really ordered.

We finished our walking around at about 1215 and it was time to board the ship again as it was leaving just after 1300 hrs for Lisbon.

We had lunch on the upper deck and the temperature is around 24 degrees today and it was quite warm up top and so we headed down for the peace and quiet of our cabin.

We left Cadiz Port around 1.30 pm in the direction of Lisbon where we should arrived tomorrow morning

There is a lot of attention to eating on board and there are some, quite a few actually, of the passengers who are let’s say, weight challenged and when you see this bag of lard carrying massive platefuls of food its quite off-putting. A sight similar to that as just mentioned almost put Noel off his lunch. Noel also thinks that they should have different prices for not only the cabins but also for the size of the plate you take at meals. Perhaps you could have small, large and bloody large plate prices, as one dinner for some of these people would feed us for a week or two.

Ah well… must get an ice cream before going back to the cabin.

We have taken quite a few photos but can only put them on the web when we have sufficient time and with a much lower priced internet rate as to use the ship system would possibly bankrupt us.

Following dinner we went to see a show in the large theatre which seats around 1000 passengers. The show tonight was called ‘String Fever’ which turned out to be an English group of four closely related violin, and similar, players. We did understand that they may not be able to play as their instruments had gone missing having just arrived from England. Actually it was a pity they found them as although they were very clever musicians indeed they did not know where to pitch their act, to be serious musicians, comedians or an act that conducts audience participation. They tried all three and I can say quite clearly that it does not work. However we think our views were in the minority as many people stood up to acclaim their act causing yet another ten minutes delay before we could leave.

Desperately needing a drink we went to the Star Bar which had a German (we think) four piece group playing classical music and they were really excellent and we enjoyed the show so much that we drank all the wine whilst overlooking the fact we were going to save half a bottle for tomorrow. Oh well such is life.

And so to bed and looking forward to seeing Lisbon outside our window tomorrow morning

3rd November- Malaga is just outside the cabin window

We awoke to the sounds of the Ship’s American Cruise Directress saying in a loud voice over the tannoy system, “Ladees an Genelmen welcome to Malgaaa and its 7.20 in this wonderful city and those booked on tours better get here in the next ten minutes.”

We were not going on any tours, apart from our own one later, and so rolled back in to bed after looking over the city of “Malgaaa” for a few minutes.

Noel wanted to check on our UK bank account and was unsure whether to use the expensive ship’s system or risk on-shore internet shops when who knows might be watching. So prudence prevailed and of course it’s not always as you would expect.

Noel signed up for the US 0.75 per minute and then discovered that there was an additional US 3.65 set up fee, damn!, anyway he carried on and finally got it working and went on to Lloyds bank website. Part of the way through the security systems up came the message saying that they were closing their online banking site as they are upgrading their systems. What! at 0745 in the morning, are they bloody mad?. So Noel went in the shower and cooled down and ten minutes later tried again with the same result and he has now spent US 7.00 and not got anywhere, not a good start to the day.

Anyway after a brief breakfast in the open garden room on the top deck overlooking the City we left and went ashore and 15 minutes later had a much needed cup of ‘Dos Café con leche pour favour- Gracias Senor ’ and much to our surprise we actually got the required coffees. Amazing what a linguist?.

We were aware of an open top bus tour with a hop on and off capability and eventually found the bus stop and approx £32.00 later, not cheap this thing, we headed off round the City and up in the hills, through tunnels, around road works and finally ended up back where we almost started from. We got off the bus and headed in to town and checked the Tourist information about Internet Shops and were pointed to a street five minutes away which had a number of shops and so we were able to check email, update the Blog and also check Lloyds bank which took almost 30 minutes altogether and the bill was US $ 0.75 , we got 30 minutes for US0.75 cents when earlier Noel had spent 5 minutes and spent $ 7.00, brilliant.

We came across the general food market where there was a great selection of fish (which looked really fresh), vegetables, fruit and also meat all housed in a lovely old building.

Lunchtime called and we found a nice street café and had a sandwich and drink and then ten minutes later an excellent ice cream which then proceeded to drip everywhere in the heat. Oh yes did I mention it was about 22 degrees centigrade.

We walked slowly back in the direction of Port through the park and under the palm trees and listened to the birds, very nice. Malaga has some wonderful old buildings and some of the streets are very wide and just like some streets in Paris.

The Port is being rebuilt thanks to the EU and Noel and Jennifer’s hard earned money and this is to get it ready as the City of Culture for 2016. My question is why the EU has to fund 65% of the cost of rebuilding a Port in Spain, absolutely ridiculous. I blame Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Back on board we had a nice cup of tea overlooking the bay and at 5pm on the dot, give or take ten minutes, come on this is Spain you know, we pulled out and set sail and headed down the East Coast of Southern Spain past Marbella and several other towns in the direction of Gibraltar where we will pass through the straight at about 10 pm tonight. Noel is busy getting the British Flag ready and practising with a Comb and toilet paper the National Anthem which must be played at the appropriate time. Hopefully he will also try for some photos at night of the old rock and roll.

We had a nice dinner in the garden café, although it’s a bit self- service you can at least control the plate size. Last nights international cheese plate caused a rumpus as it was difficult to find the bits of cheese under the grapes and four small biscuits, but in the garden café there is whole Brie and many other cheeses waiting to be challenged.

Whilst waiting for Gibralter to arrive we started chatting to the guy in the next cabin over the balcony and it would appear that he has been on over sixty cruises and you name a place then he has been there. Apart from his houses in New York, and San Francisco and Florida and he visited Vienna just for a birthday lunch. Sounds like my lifestyle and although not perhaps the nicest guy in the world he did offer Noel a Cognac which he had smuggled on board in his main luggage.

Tomorrow morning we arrive in Cadiz which I am sure is famous for something naval, perhaps it was CC or Sir FD or somebody like that but no doubt we will see a Maersk Container vessel instead.

See you tomorrow.

2nd November- Captains Log day

Sorry, it’s a long one today.

Over breakfast this morning was an announcement about having dinner with the Captain of the Ship, for a small fee that is. Perhaps I don’t understand the ropes but when I go on an aeroplane, train or cross channel ferry I have no wish to meet the Captain as he is only doing a paid job. Quite frankly had the Captain of the Titanic not been milling around having dinner with his passengers in upper class and had spent more time doing his job from the bridge perhaps it would not have hit an iceberg. How would we feel if the Captain of an Aircraft was having dinner with the passengers as it flew in to a mountain, Nah! not for me. One other comment from Noel, many years ago when he worked for a P & O subsidiary company he was sent on a ‘organisational’ training course for a week which culminated in a meeting at the London HQ of P & O. Unfortunately, this had been arranged at the time of the London Motor Show and so the organisational factor fell out the door as they had not booked the Hotel rooms correctly and they ended up by sharing a room. Noel’s roommate was a very large chap who was one of the Captains of the MV Canberra; He wasn’t, say, as large as his ship, but close. Anyway that night he snored so loudly, just like a ship’s foghorn and Noel did not sleep a wink for the awful noise. Noel has not forgotten this and so his views on ships Captains are perhaps different to most people. Oh well, such is life.

I am writing this blog in the cabin at around 10.30 and Jennifer has gone to the cookery demonstration at the front of the ship and looking out the balcony window its beginning to rain and the wind is getting up and there are some whitecaps on the water (sea).

It would appear that you can do a tour of the working parts of the boat, for another small fee, why would you want to pay to see something you have sort of paid for anyway?. Please don’t misunderstand my comments but perhaps this the norm on a ship like this?

Over breakfast this morning and sitting at the next table was an American lady who was complaining that on a trip to China recently, which promised 12 nights, that two of the nights were on an aircraft going there and coming back. Oh dear! always check the small print.

Just heard on the ship announcements that Picasso is alive and well and will talk about his paintings, just in case you want to impress the people back home.

A long walk followed by a sandwich lunch outside as the sun has come back and the weather is now very nice indeed. After lunch we had another walk and then back to the cabin for a quick zizz ( Note – only Noel went to sleep, poor old man). We had thought of using the ships internet connection for blogging and email but they charge about fifty pence per minute for a very slow connection. I know that they use a satellite connection as to run a cable might be a bit of a challenge but even so to charge so much is a bit off. The plan is to update the blog hopefully when reaching the various ports en-route.

We have been watching the screens which show how full the various restaurants are, this is a good idea, but what they don’t tell you is that some people are booking restaurants days in advance and no doubt blocking out the odd punter like us. It would appear that the main restaurants are booked up to 80% and the remaining is standby. It’s a shame they don’t tell you this information when you board, No doubt I will pass on our comments later in the voyage. Another small gripe is why the hell they play music in every bloody public room apart from the library all the time as it’s a pain in the neck.

Anyway, we arrived at the restaurant for our table for two only to find that they had no more tables for two and would we mind sharing on a table for four, only somebody could not count, as it was a table for six. Its not that we are unsociable but sometimes it’s nice to be alone.

We were joined by a Dutch couple and also an elderly American single guy. The first thing he said to the Dutch couple was where in Germany do you come from? Not a great start but what do you expect from US military personnel. So just to shake it up I said “what do you think of President Obama”, needless to say he did not like him and felt that Bush who fully supported the military was the best man. We then moved on to issues in Iraq and Afghanistan and it would appear that he had no idea who the real enemy was. He then said that the Iraq Government was bent and I said well if you will give so much cash to these people what do you expect. I mentioned that many governments like to give cash to foreign Governments for future treats but this was lost on him. The Dutch couple were fairly quiet and then he started talking about the Americans bombing in the second world war at which point I tried to change the subject.

Dinner was sort of alright and afterwards we went to the Disco and requested a few tunes that we like and then left there around 1030 as tomorrow we hope to leave the ship and walk around Malaga and perhaps find an internet café to upload this and perhaps a few photos.

31st October- It’s Halloween on an American ship

We both surprised ourselves by getting up sort of early and going to the gym which was helped by the fact that they put the clocks back overnight. The gym was quite busy when we arrived and we had to look for a machine to become available. Jennifer reckons from past experience that the first few days’ people go to the gym and then as the days go by, it all becomes too much trouble, and the gym become empty.

Anyway a good start for us followed by a shower and off to breakfast which meant trudging around the ship to find the best place. A cup of tea and scrambled eggs and bacon helped the body recover and then we walked around the upper decks, the strong winds almost blew you over. The ship is travelling at around 25 mph plus a headwind of similar speed and it was quite an effort really.

Today’s travels will take us down the East Coast of Italy and around the ‘heel’ and then sometime during the night we will pass Sicily the home of the Mafiosi.

Lunch time came around and we sat in the open air restaurant at the back of the ship and had a light snack and then headed back to the room for some ‘quiet time’ where Jennifer read her book and Noel started typing. The afternoon sped by and the call of food beckoned at around 6 pm and this time we tried the Garden room which is open plan seating and a mixture of prepared foods and fish and other meats cooked to order. Tonight is also Halloween night and so around the ship the crew had dressed up in weird outfits and patrolled the walkways. Its all very relaxed and no dressing up in your finest and then after a nice light dinner we ended up in the Bliss bar where the Filipino guitarist was playing and we listened to him until 9pm when he disappeared and DJ Watson the resident DJ took over and we listened to lots of old favourites from Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton and many others whilst watching the videos on the TV’s spread around the room. A little boogying on the floor for a while, wow this is getting a habit. And then back to the room about 1030 for some little “bo peep”.

1st November- The sun is shining

The sun was shining and we were well past Sicily and out of the Adriatic Sea and well in to the Mediterranean Sea having covered about 700 nautical miles since we left Venice. We decided that we would use the gym every other day and perhaps take a long walk later. We had breakfast outside on the rear deck café and as it was full and had to share a table with a Chinese couple from Montreal who were trying out this cruise line for the first time. They were finding the relaxed approach perhaps a little challenging as they were used to having their own table at a set time when they needed it and so they had been to the main Grand Pacific Restaurant at 7.30 pm the previous evening and it was full, “can you come back in two hours”, they did not realise that you must book a table at peak times.

Following some extra sitting in the sun we did six laps of the walking route around the ship equivalent to about 1.6 miles at a fast pace and by which time it was nearly 1pm. We checked out the duty free and the booze prices are not bad but you cannot of course drink it on board, what a bummer. We found a little bar serving mostly beer and hamburgers and that was our lunch for today. By this time the sun had gone behind the clouds and people had scampered away from the swimming pool as once the sun had gone the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees from the 23 degrees it had been. We headed back to the room for some peace and quiet and according to the map we are just North of Tunisia going West at 19.2 knots with waves for 3.5 metres high and we shall continue to track along the North African coast just off Algeria until we arrive in Malaga on Wednesday morning.

The ship is 98,000 tons so its quite large really and we understand it is full so that must be over two thousand two hundred passengers and it has over one thousand crew. Perhaps the only slightly annoying thing is the pushing of shore trips at what seems to be very expensive prices. One is a trip on the trams in Cadiz for USD 45.00 per person but when I checked on the Cadiz website it’s about 4 Euros a day??

The afternoon was spent relaxing in the room until late in the day when it came to decision time for dinner. As we don’t usually eat three meals a day at home, for us to have a hamburger and chips lunch time, meant that we were not too hungry tonight and so we went to the Garden café basically for a light meal and in this respect the ship is good as you can eat as little or as much as you like and not having to work your way through a four course meal.

We fancied a quiet evening tonight and headed for the Library to look at their selection of books and somehow became immersed and then it was 10.30pm and time for bed.

Finally the weather today has been almost fine, not always sunny but reasonably warm of around 24 degrees Cent and in the afternoon down to 18 degrees Cent as the clouds came over.

30 October- We can board after midday.

In the morning we took a walk around the local Auchan Hypermarket, basically to kill some time, before we head off to the port to join our SHIP called the Norwegian GEM. Its not Norwegian really, it’s an American ship based out of New York, but resisted in the Bahamas no doubt for tax and other reasons, and it is returning from it’s summer cruising in the Med to enable it to start it’s Caribbean cruising season.

We arrived at the Port at about 1245 and there must have been about eight large cruise liners and a couple of large ferries all tied up alongside the various quays. We checked in and had to wait about an hour before we could board and so purchased a very expensive coke and panini sandwich to keep the hunger at bay and then we noticed a little table where your could already book a table for dinner and so we booked the steak restaurant called Cagney’s.

At about 2pm we were finally allowed to board and headed off to our cabin, actually they call them state rooms although I am not sure why.

This is the first cruise Noel has been on although Jennifer has been several times before with her father. Noel’s experience of a cruise is largely confined to the Dover-Calais route and sometimes the Portsmouth - Le Havre or Isle of Wight ferry so he was surprised when they would not let him bring the car on board - Ha.

The cabin (oops, sorry state room) is on the 11^th Floor (deck)(level) of the boat (ship) and it is a reasonable size and looks slightly bigger than our caravan, with a nice balcony where there is a great view of the old Docks. Before leaving we were called to muster to find out what to do when the ship hits an iceberg or similar and how to don our life belts, Noel could not find the bottle of brandy on his which was quite disappointing. The Captain is Finnish, the rest of the crew a bit like United Nations but mostly Filipino and they were all very friendly.

The ship (boat) is run on what they call a freestyle basis which means you do not have to use the same restaurants all the time and you can eat when and where you like and 24 hours a day we understand, not for us but looking at some our co-passengers it reminded me of the Monty Python sketch of, ”just a little wafer-thin mint sir” ??.

As we left port the Pope came to bless the ship and the bands played (well actually it was the on board music really) as we slid past the old town of Venice with its St Marks Square and other visible Church towers and there are some lovely views over the old town.

Cagneys restaurant was pretty much empty for the time we were there and the steaks were very good and so was the bottle of Argentinean Malbec wine which accompanied the meal. For some of the specialist restaurants there is an extra cover charge which is between USD 10 and USD 25 per person but the other restaurants which are included in the fare were quite full.

After dinner we found a bar, surprise, surprise! And listened to a Filipino, playing a guitar, playing songs from James Taylor and Cat Steven etc and he was excellent. He then stopped singing around 9 pm and so off we toddled and ended up in the large bar where there was a Filipino band playing and so we did a little bit of dancing but we were put to shame by another couple who had obviously practised the tango for the last couple of years but we didn’t mind.

At 10 pm the band took a break and we went to the cabin to catch up on some well earned rest.

We are promising to go to the gym tomorrow before breakfast, gosh that could be a big mistake..

29 October- Up and away to Venice

A slow start to the day as the taxi is only coming at around 1015 to take us to Gatwick Airport and our BA flight to Venice. The flight was un-eventful and the terminal upon arrival was very quiet indeed. We took a taxi to our Hotel which is in Mestre, Venice Hotels are nice but you have to cart your luggage on ferries and sometimes long walks but for one night this is not the right thing to do.

The Hotel is fine, right by a large shopping area but anyway we took a taxi down to the Porta Roma from where you can either walk in to the Venice streets or take a boat ride. We chose to walk and although darkness was slowly drawing in it was nice to walk around the ancient if not different town. The canals were a little smelly in places but it is the end of the season. There were not too many tourist around either and in fact there were a number of restaurants closed, we think for the winter.

We found a nice little pizzeria where we had a good meal with a bottle of Chianti and then took a slow walk back to the bus terminal where we found a taxi back to the Hotel for a good nights sleep, we hope.

This is worth Watching