China Photos

As you all know we had no access to our Travel Blog during our travels around China due to the government there blocking many Google sites. So as promised, here are a few photos I would have posted up to go with the news I wrote each day:

Champa gets her priorities set!

Xian, Emperors Bronze Chariot

Xian, Terracotta Army

Xian, Terracotta Army

Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple

Shanghai Jade Buddha

Shanghai Tea Tasting

Shanghai Yu Yuan Gardens Entrance

Bullet Train To Beijing

Beijing Temple of Heaven

Beijing Tiananman Square

Beijing Forbidden City

Beijing The Great Wall

Onwards to China!

Well here we go again, another holiday, this time to China taking in Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an. We have booked a Virgin Holidays package and for those of you who want to follow us here is our "artillery" as Champa calls it:

18.01 Fly to Shanghai
19.01 Arrive and free day in Shanghai
20.01 Shanghai, visit Yu Gardens, Old Town, Shanghai Museum, evening visit to Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe
21.01 Bullet Train to Beijing, afternoon visit to Summer Palace
22.01 Visit Great Wall of China, Mu Tian Yu section
23.01 Beijing, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City
24.01 Fly to Xian, visit Wild Goose Pagoda
25.01 Visit Terracotta Warriors
26.01 Fly to Shanghai, free day
27.01 Fly to London 

Captain's announcement ....

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will soon be entering the Bay of Biscay where you may incur some effects of turbulence. For your convenience we have placed a supply of Motion Discomfort Bags in all of the stairwells!" 

To translate this: "We are now entering the Bay of Sickbay, get your puke bags from the stairways if you are stupid enough to leave your cabin for the next few hours!"

Anyway it wasn't too bad, just the odd bit of falling over, bumping into walls, nausea and a mild headache. Nothing to write home about! Now at the north end of the Bay in bright sunshine, blue skies and a moderate sea swell. Just been told to look out for whales and dolphins.

It's our final cruising day before we arrive in Southampton at around 7.00am Monday, nothing too exciting planned today except packing all the dirty washing and all the bags and cosmetics Champa has bought. At least everything I spent money on won't take up luggage space!

It's ZZ Top!

Friday morning found us docked in Lisbon but when we looked out of our balcony window we weren't sure whether we were in Rio or San Francisco instead! Now, what does this mean? A little teaser for Michael and Eli!!

We decided not to have an organised trip and instead to take the shuttle bus into the city for a simple wander around. The problem was that it was absolutely hissing down and Lisbon seemed more like Seathwaite in Cumbria, the wettest place in England. We decided to get off the bus and to head up the hill on a funicular tram and visit the Institute of Port, as did another group of cruisers once they heard us talking about it. But ....... when we arrived we discovered they were only taking organised groups! Bloody great, back into the rain and down the hill. What to do? No choice, cross the square and into another Portugese cultural establishment ... Hard Rock Cafe. We actually DO like these places, the music is of a kind we like, the quality of their food is good, the environment is interesting, and the beer is good too, even Champa had a taste of the Sangres Bohemia! Best 10 min on the video? Undoubtedly this was  dear old ZZ Top.

After our return to the ship and a light lunch we spent the afternoon watching the movie Men In Black 3, very funny, and filled a couple of hours before Afternoon Tea in the Peninsula Restaurant. No room for dinner, so just mooched around for a while in Brodies Bar before an early night of a wobbly ship as it left Lisbon and set sail up a windy Atlantic towards home.

Sweaty saddles and Banana Splits!!

Yesterday (Wednesday) was definitely a "Rome lag" day, a bit like jet lag. We just didn't seem to have any energy or motivation to do anything. Noe quizzes attended, and not even putting in an appearance at the evening's black-tie formal dinner. Instead, we signed off a very lazy day with dinner in the Verona Restaurant, an Italian Trattoria on Deck 15. Excellent food which on my part was a fillet steak cooked at the table by myself on a "hot rock".

Today (Thursday), we have got back into the swing of things with a morning wine tasting session in the Glass House Bar/Restaurant. This is a specialist wine bar created by Olly Smith, a wonderful place with excellent wines from all around the world. The bar hold 32 bottles in a special eco-system in which any bottle can be opened if you only want a glass and then stored for 21 days effectively.

The tasting was of four wines with lots of discussion and information. They included a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, A Chenin Blanc from South Africa, A blended red wine from Sicily, and a Cote Rotie from the Rhone region in France. Each was served with a different canape to demonstrate how specific foods (red meat, cheese, fish, spiced food) can be matched perfectly with a wine.

After a light lunch of salad, cottage pie and steam pudding (!) we staggered along to Brodie's Bar on Deck 15 for the early afternoon quiz. Today's theme was TV Theme Music, not my strength really! However, it was fairly easy to identify intro. music from "All Creatures Great And Small, The Banana Splits, Cheers, The Avengers, Bless This House, High Chapparall, Blind Date". This evening's plans are for The Planet Bar at 6.00pm showing webcam scenes from Kathmandu (Patan Durbar Square) and a number of Indian cities, then dinner in Venezia Restaurant with a "Tandoori" theme.

Rome in an hour!

Can't be done, Rome in an hour that is. It was a 90 min coach ride from the port of Civitivecchia to the centre of Rome with roughly one hour driving around the city plus a 30 min stop at one of the major sights. But, it WAS possible in this short time to get a good taste of possibly the most beautiful city we have ever seen. The architecture across the two thousand years or so of it's history is quite fantastic, ancient walls and gates as well as modern buildings in local stone blend together to such an extent that it is really hard to determine the age of something. And the sheer scale of some of the buildings and palaces and stairways is just huge. Buildings in marble, statues in marble or bronze or wrought iron are everywhere, and I think the guide said there are over 500 churches in Rome, or was it over 700 churches and more than 500 basilicas? Major sights for us were The Forum, the area around Circus Maximus, the Palatine Hill and of course The Colosseum. We stopped at the Colosseum for about 30 min for photos (and a Gelato/ice cream of gigantic proportions). Unlike the Parthenon in Athens which we enjoyed visiting a few years ago, the Colosseum impresses you with it's size too, apparently it held around 55,000 spectators to watch the gladiators hack each other to bits.

After the short stop the coach moved on for another 20 min or so around various sights until we entered the Vatical City and into St Peter's Square. This is also a very impressive place which most of us will have seen from TV when the Pope is leading a mass etc. Beautifil buildings again, lots of marble, gold, painted walls, statues, and of course the St Peter Basilica itself, the largest church in the world. (Do you know which is the second largest?).

This was an afternoon trip so we had spent the morning doing nothing much, then returned at 6.00pm in the dark rushing around to get ready for dinner etc. I think we will only ever consider morning trips again like the previous three we have had.

It's now Wednesday morning and we have turned around and begun our journey back home, cruising between Sardinia and Sicily back towards Gibraltar, out into the Atlantic stopping at Lisbon for a day on Friday. No trips booked for Lisbon, we may just take a shuttle bus into the city and have one of those bus top tours or a "yellow tram" for the morning. So it's quizzes, movies and rock & roll on board for a couple of days. Oh dear!

Are we going to Pizza today?

Bonjourno and Konichi Wa!

This means "hello" in the language of all the people we saw in Pisa today.

"If the most remote origins of Pisa and of its name are inevitably lost in myth and legend, the most recent historic graphical aquisitions, abetted by archaeological finds, testify to the far distant Neolithic settlements and the certain presence of the Etruscans between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC." (Straight off the brochure handed over on the bus!)

Anyway, Pisa is a really beautiful place, and not just for the Tower, Cathedral and Basilica. The streets are full of fantastic examples of well preserved mediaeval buildings in many shades of ochre. The people obviously take great pride in their town (city?) and who wouldn't living in this place. Back on board for 1pm, a light lunch then into Brodies Bar for the afternoon quiz.

Not a lot going on this evening from an entertainment viewpoint so we have just slobbed it around the bars, Planet Bar and Brodies Bar drinking wine with some of our new found friends.

Tomorrow we land at the port of Civitavecchia which is the gateway to Rome. We have an afternoon tour booked so stand by for photos of the Colliseum etc on our return.

Ciaou!