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

A message for Yugo and Ayu

Sunday 26th- Its time to leave this nice town

Well it rained quite a bit overnight and there was also strong winds blowing but we were well protected by the trees behind us.

We both woke early and decided that we had better get moving unless we wanted to be finalising the caravan bits and pieces in the pouting rain.

At 1000 we pulled out of the camp-site as the heavens opened and the rain really came down and it was lucky that we had decided to pack up early.

The journey home took a little longer due to a major road accident on the A12 which required the police to close the Southbound carriageway for the air ambulance to land. We were diverted of the A12 and the police signposting was no existent and so Jennifer did her map reading stuff through small country lanes which is not great when towing a large caravan until we came to Dedham where there was a small marathon taking place so apart from the narow lanes we had to watch out for runners .

Anyway finally we made it back to the A 12 and carried on home where we arrived around 2.30 pm. We spent a short while clearing the caravan and then to the shower..

This was a lovely week in a nice town with a lovely site and no doubt we shall return again some time.

The next trip is a Cruise on the Norwegian Gem from Venice to New York so watch the pages for updates

Saturday 25th- It Looks like rain again

Well the weather is really changeable at the moment and there is quite a gail blowing at this time but not much rain and in dispersed with sunny patches . We sat outside for a while and then decided that as the weather forecast for the rest of the day was not good we had better get the awning down and put the bikes and chairs away. This did not take long and soon we started watching the qualifying for the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.

To watch the cars racing around the streets of a town that Noel know so well is amazing.

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around town and checking out the ice cream shop.

A pleasant and quiet day before we leave tomorrow morning. Just checked the weather forecast again and it looks like heavy rain is expected at around 1000 hrs

Friday 24th – Rain is promised

We both fancied a walk today and Noel wished to visit the Library for a final email check before we headed down town and along the beach. The sky was changing as we walked into town but it stayed dry and we sat watching the sea for a while. Whilst sitting on the seafront we spotted a lone seal bobbing up and down and working his way down the beach. Unfortunately Noel did not have his camera.

We headed over to Aldeburgh Fish and Chip shop for a bag of Cod and Chips and then sat on the seawall again enjoying the view and the food. The sky was beginning to darken and so we took refuge in the ice cream shop, how convenient as it started to rain. The rain did not last too long and so over to the Coop for a little shopping and then the fifteen minute walk back to the Caravan Site. As we walked along the beachfront we could see the really dark clouds heading our way, we had arrived at the caravan and two minutes later the heavens opened and it really chucked it down for about an hour. Time for a little zizz, there is nothing nicer than being tucked up and warm in the caravan when it is raining very hard.

The usual evening of TV and so to bed with the rain coming down still.

Thursday 23th- A tour of Suffolk and Norfolk

We had decided to look at some other caravan sites in the area whilst sightseeing and so we headed off North in the direction of Lowestoft and then on to Great Yarmouth. On the way we stopped and looked at three caravan sites and were not impressed and again we were glad of where we had booked in Aldeburgh. The journey continued and we visited Caister-on-Sea and then across the Norfolk Broads to Cromer where we stopped in a shabby cafe but which did excellent ‘toasties’ and soup, by which time it had started to rain. From Cromer we pretty much followed the coastline around Sherringham which looks like a nice place, unlike Cromer, and on to Wells by the Sea and we were astonished at the size of churches in this area compared to the population and put it down to the Lords of the Land trying to outdo their neighbours. The rain was now coming down much harder, the radio was talking about heavy rain all over Suffolk and Norfolk and localised flooding and so we decided to head on back. It’s not a journey either of us would repeat as it’s not that attractive but we are pleased we did it all the same.

We arrived back in Aldeburgh and indeed there must have been very heavy rain as the ground was saturated, with large puddles everywhere but our caravan was fine.

Dinner was a vegetable and pasta dish and we also finished off the rest of the wine we brought from home and then watched the second part of a program about looking for Tigers in Bhutan which was quite enthralling.

And so to bed after watching ‘Mock the Week’ which is a rather rude review of the week’s news by a bunch of comedians.

Tuesday 21nd September- Back to the legs again

It seems to be the story of my life that whenever we get to a nice caravan site we find there is no or limited mobile phone connection whilst there is also no internet to enable us to check the email etc.But today we had decided to take a much longer walk all along the beach to the ‘Martell/ Tower’ and also Noel could take some photos for the BLOG. So we left around 1030, it was getting rather warm today and soon we were stripping down in the heat. We stopped at the big Hotel on the sea front for a cup of coffee and then walked about a mile or so to the tower. We were really getting very hot now and so headed back to town to ‘Kathy’s Cafe’ for excellent toasted Bacon, Blue Cheese and sun dried tomato sandwich and a nice cuppa.

We asked several shop keepers about internet availability and apart from the Hotels the only other place was the Library which we located on the top of the hill and we were able to check for messages. We got back to the caravan and put out the sun chairs and had a little zizz in the sun before heading in for a light dinner.We walked around the complete Holiday Park and it is so quiet, not your usual side by side mobile homes which are for rent, these are for sale to owners and cannot be rented out and so mostly they are for weekends and summers we guess. Some of the Mobile homes are very large about 39 feet by 12 feet with two bedrooms and furnished extremely well.

After an early tea we took a trip to look at the Sizewell Nuclear Power station and also a couple of caravan sites that were close by, but both were not worth considering compared to where we are which is really nice.