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!

Where's Jonny?

Berthed in Toulon by 7.30am, breakfast by 8.30am then onto the coach for a trip down the coast to Sanary Sur Mer. This is a small, but wealthy fishing village on the French Riviera, surrounded by olive trees and the vineyards of Bandol. Unfortunately it was a public holiday, Armistice Day, so everything closed except the food market, cafes and restaurants. Still, it was a pleasant drive then stroll around the village and market, a pity it was too early for lunch as the seafood restaurants looked stunning. Cheap oysters too, some at about £5 per dozen! Champa bought some garlic as usual and I persuaded a French lady to give me a taste of the green liqueur she was drinking in a cafe at 10.00 am.Yuk! Back on board by 12.30pm.

At this point we split our "forces", Champa went for lunch and the Dark Knight Rising movie, I decided to sit on our balcony and read a book. At 5.00pm I awoke with a bit of a jolt to find myself still alone, no Champa. The movie was supposed to finish by 4.00pm, had she fallen asleep?

Anyway, ignoring the possibility I started to get ready for the evening's black tie formal dinner! In she bursts at 5.05pm, the movie having started 30min late so resulting in a late finish.

Anyway, by 6.00pm we were sitting in the Planet Bar again watching satellite images of various sights in Africa such as Cape Town, Table Mountain, The Serengeti etc. At 6.30pm we joined our usual table group in the Peninsula Restaurant; naturally they all wanted to know where we had been since Tuesday, so we enlightened them on the delights of pub quizzes in Brodies Bar, drinking classed growth Burgundies in The Glasshouse, watching satellite images of a city each evening in the Planet Bar, and our new found friends Craig a corporate lawyer with RBS and Keith who is "into handbags in Harrods"; and "yes, they are a couple!" But great fun and very useful when there are soaps or movies questions in the daily quiz.

At last we had got ourselves organised in time for the evening show in the Manhattan Bar (Bit of a bar theme having developed) which was a Freddie Mercury tribute show. Absolutely brilliant, a very hard act to bring off, but he did it with all the classics from Under Pressure, to Bohemian Rhapsody and of course Radio Gaga. No photos but a long video.

Tomorrow we berth at Livorno in Florence from where we have a trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower. Or Pizza as Champa keeps calling it!

It's a Cumbrian cream tea!

Saturday has been the most "mixed" day so far, typical cruising I suppose. We awoke at 7.00am just as we were docking at Barcelona, a clear morning, deep blue sky, and a large port with 3 cruise liners already berthed.We had booked a coach-trip called Panoramic Barcelona, and we left the ship at 9.30am and joined our coach for the 3 hours ride around the centre and outskirts of this ancient city. It's a clean and beautiful place mixing the Roman, with Medieval, with Gothic and modern. Wide boulevards just like Paris and separated by the narrow lanes preserving older architecture. The work of Gaudi is everywhere especially in the houses he designed for the very wealthy. We visited the marinas and the beaches of the city (they created the beaches after the 1992 Olympics), the olympic village and two of the sites where the 1888 and 1929 World Exhibitions were held. Back on board for 12.45, a light lunch followed by som Wii 10 pin bowling and the usual quiz in Brodies Bar. Afternoon tea as usual was held in the Peninsula Room, a light Darjeeling accompanying the crab sandwiches, crumpets and scones. Thankfully today we didn't have the bloke from Exeter (Devon) telling us we were putting the jam and cream wrong way round on the scone. I suppose that one day a civil war will break out over this between Devon and Cornwall! He also seemed mortified that I put butter on the scone until I told him this was a Cumbrian Tea, so #**# off!

The ship set sail from Barcelona at 5.30pm and it's traditional to have a "sailaway party" as the Captain casts off and often has a series of tight turns and manoevres to perform to get out of dock. These parties are held on the upper outside decks and usually a lot of singing, dancing and general ##*ing around, often by members of the Entertainments Crew. Tonight was hilarious with a gang of 8 of them doing a dance that had to be performed in time to the music and the passengers clapping; so, the faster the clapping and music the faster they had to dance. It was called something like Americana or Americano, a bit like the old "Birdie song", (come on Shaz help me out here!). But, in the sunset the departure was very atmospheric.

After a cocktail or two in The Planet Bar we failed to get a seat for the Comedy-Magician, so had a few more cocktails before going to see the musical show "New York Swing", an excellent show based on a NY theme obviously with lots of songs and tunes from the 1940's to 1960's with a new York theme.

So, to bed, and looking forward to Toulon tomorrow and our coach trip down the French Riviera.

Barcelona!

A long but enjoyable day, all spent on board again! Sitting on deck, good food, music quiz, travel quiz, Kathmandu slide show (!), etc, but no on shore trip around Alicante.

Spent some time in the ship's art gallery viewing some really good paintings by Rolf Harris. Some examples below: It's Saturday so it must be ..... Barcelona! 

It's Alicante!

Thursday was obviously another day spent on board ship because of bad weather preventing us landing at Gibraltar. We had come through a storm of level 9 on the Beaufort Scale, wind of around 60 mph, though this massive ship with it's automatic stabilisers just ploughed through it. The only time we really felt it badly was when we went up to The Planet Bar on deck 18 at the top and rear of the ship. You could hardly stand up moving between tables so we got out of there fast and went down 11 levels to deck 8 and spent the morning in Malabar, an Indian themed lounge, just lazing around and reading a book. At 11.30 am we went for a long walk around the outside decks of the ship in the wind and rain, very exhilerating, no photos but I did take a video. After lunch we we spent the afternoon in Brodies Bar downing a few glasses of Beaujolais as we took part in a general knowledge quiz and a music quiz. Very funny with the quizmaster having the whole bar clapping to Queen's Radio Ga-ga at one point. Afternoon tea followed at 4.00pm with sandwiches, crumpets, cream scones, toasted teacakes and Darjeeling tea all enjoyed in Peninsula Restaurant. By now we had decided we didn't need dinner(!), so spent the evening in the Playhouse Theatre watching a musical show The Sound of Swing before returning to Brodies Bar for a Boddingtons or two. (Photo is of Brodies Bar)

Today we are due to call in and spend a day at Alicante, but we have no trips booked so are just going to explore!

Where's Gibraltar?

It's Getting A Bit Rough!

Having endured a night of 60mph winds, a juddering ship, and 3ft waves in the swimming pool, the Captain decided not to call in at Gibraltar. Good decision, the waves and swell are enormous and lots of people are looking a bit pale this morning. However a full English breakfast remedied the overnight shakes soon enough.

Because of the cancelled day trips in Gibraltar the entertainments crew have been busy sorting out a new schedule for the day to keep us all busy, happy, and entertained. 

We had lunch yesterday in Sindhu, the Asian food brasserie and had 3 dishes each shown in the picture. The restaurant is next door to the cinema where we hoped to go and see The Iron Lady movie which we had abandoned after a large dinner the night before. So, being next to the cinema we thought we could finish lunch at 1.55pm and walk in for a 2.00pm film. Wrong decision! Completely packed and not a seat remaining. Oh well!

Definitely going to tonight's theatre show, "The Sound of Swing", a musical I guess. 

More photos uploaded to the slide show on the side for your entertainment.

Day 3 Begins

Into our second full day of cruising after a day of exploring the ship and finding our way around. This ship is enormous and I will start to post a photo or two each day from inside. This first one we took from the check-in terminal before we even boarded and it gives you an idea of the scale of it.

Last night was the Captain's formal reception and dinner, not that we saw him! But it WAS free champagne for 30 min so who cares? It was a black tie affair so thought you might like a sight of the pair of us formally dressed, doesn't happen as often as it used to though! We have an excellent group of people on our dinner table every evening, two from Wales, two from Leeds, two from Oxfordshire, one from Cumbria, one from outer space!

Today is another day's sailing before we land at Gibraltar for a day. We get a newspaper each morning telling us of events and things we can do during the day, some look interesting, some look bizarre. I leave you to decide which is which from some of the highlights below:

1. Secrets to a Flatter Stomach 11.00 am Health Club

2. Body Sculpt Boot Camp 10.00 am Health Club

3. Toulon Port-Talk 10.30 am The Playhouse

4. Morning Snowball Jackpot Bingo

5. Relieve Back Pain With Acupuncture

6. Afternoon Tea (Yes!!)

7. Sunset Stretch (No!!)

Do have a look at the slide show, we will build it up day by day subject to internet strength and availability. Any questions please ask and we will be pleased to discuss them with our new found friends over dinner!

Please post your comments too, it is good to hear from you and know your news too.

B&C

We're Off!

We're Off!
Boarded at 3.30 pm Monday, to be greeted by ............... two Nepalese staff!! Namaste, sanchay cha? Ectam ramrocha. Topaiko nam kay ho? Gurung, Magar, Thapa ...) Would you believe it, Nepalese staff all over the place!
This ship is just massive, 17 decks, 8 restaurants, theatre, cinema, casino, themed bars, library, cyber, shops pools etc etc. Easy to get lost though.
Currently cruising somewhere off the coast of France, Spain next for two days cruising before we land at Gibraltar for a day.
Big waiter service for dinner last night, friendly people on our table of 8, me and Champa the youngest!
Kippers and bacon for breakfast this morning before going to a cookery demonstration. Are you getting the focus and theme so far?
Tonight it's a black tie dinner at 6.30pm, then we're off to a movie, The Iron Lady, the story of Margaret Thatcher for those of you who are not British or commies and socialists!
More tomorrow.

Cruise Route

This is the route of our cruise starting tomorrow. Key landing points are:

• 5th November depart Southampton
• 8th November Gibraltar
• 9th November Alicante
• 10th November Barcelona
• 11th November Toulon
• 12th November Pisa
• 13th November Rome
• 16th November Lisbon
• 19th November Southampton

View Med. Cruise 2012 in a larger map

Another Cruise?

Almost 25 years since our last cruise so about time we had another! Our first cruise was in the Med. too, but involved a flight to Naples then cruising around Italy and up to Venice. Ports of call included Sardinia, Corfu, and Dubrovnik. It was all very luxurious (especially since it was free!) and something we promised ourselves we would repeat. So here we are, setting off with P&O Cruises from Southampton on November 5th calling in at Gibralter, Alicante, Toulon, Pisa, Rome and Barcelona before arriving back at Southampton on 19th November. Restricted internet availability will hopefully not prevent regular postings, and with any luck this could be a rehearsal for a larger cruise "around the world"!