Today’s Daily Programme Can Be Found Here
I’d forgotten to turn off my 06:45 work alarm so was woken early and after a couple of minutes deciding whether to go back to sleep I decided to get up and open the curtains out to the balcony, it was still dark, and I could see lights I assume from the Spanish coast off in the distance, we’s passed Gibraltar at 4 am so that was behind us. What was the plan for today, It was nice and sunny so the intention was to get some time in the sun up on the Grills deck, then I noticed that the first of the Insights lectures was a 10:00, so my plans changed but Jane’s remained the same. After a shower she put on her cozzie and sun dress ready for some time on the loungers and we headed for breakfast.
The service was slow again today, it wasn’t terrible but I had a 10:00 appointment in the Royal Court Theatre, so it was noticeable, more so for our tablemates, who had ordered well before us and were presented with their breakfast after us.
The first of my lectures was Keith Appleyard, the Spook, recanting his experiences as a RAF Signals Officer. This lecture was still rooted in the cold war, talking about his posting to RAF Digby and his dealing with GCHQ Cheltenham. A very interesting talk that passed very quickly. This was followed by a Q&A session with Olympic Gold Medallist and Team GB member Darren Campbell who kindly passed out his medals for the lucky attendees on the first few rows to have a look at and no doubt photograph with them around their necks. The final Insights Lecture was John Laverick who gave a presentation on Naval engagements in the Western Med focusing on our next port of call Cartagena.
I met Jane back in the stateroom when alll of these were over and went to hunt down lunch. The Wellness Cafe in the Pavillion Pool area on Deck 10 was one of Jane’s suggestions, but that had quite a queue of people waiting to put together their health lunch bowls, we discounted the Pavillion Grill and it’s dogs and burgers as we’re trying to be good, so it was back to the PG Restaurant where the being good went out of the window and a Philly Cheese Steak was consumed.
After lunch we headed up to the Grills Deck as the sun was out, there were plenty of loungers available and we grabbed a couple but it turned out to be just a bit too fresh for me with the wind travelling over the deck. Jane on the other hand is made of sterner stuff than me and she stayed, albeit wrapped in towels while i headed back into the Pavillion pool area to grab a table in the sun and chill for a while. I hadn’t had dessert at lunch so now was the time to try a Gelateria Ice Cream, it was a delicious 2 scoop monster consisting of vanilla and pistachio, lovely. Jane came in from the Grills deck, complaining about the convoluted route to get from the Grills Terrace to the Upper Pavillion pool level, she isn’t wrong. It was too warm in the indoor sun for Jane, it’s very warm in the Pavillion pool when the roof is closed so we decided to head back to the room and do some laundry. There are no laundrettes on deck six but deck seven has one with two washing machines and deck eight has four in its laundrette.
After all of the laundry was completed it was time for a cocktail. The cocktail menus around the ship are very specialised, Commodore Club is Martinis, Chart Room, Zodiac cocktails, the Casino bar, Negronis. There isn’t an all encompassing menu for all of the cocktails so requesting off the menu becomes difficult and this is a shame. So we ended up in the Casino bar for a hibiscus margarita, which was a bit too floral for Jane, so then we ended up in the Commodore Club where she requested a Breakfast Martini, a standard martini on the other Queens, but it wasn’t available. She ended up with a Cool as a Cucumber.
On the way back we attempted to go through the Pavillion Pool to get back to our stateroom, but our way was blocked because there was a private party, so we ended up being re-routed via deck eight past cabins. Jane was very miffed we hadn’t had an invite to whatever it was!
We took our time getting ready as our tablemates were starting early to catch the Pianist’s eight o’clock performance in the Royal Court Theatre. It was lamb cutlets on the menu, so that was Jane sorted and I opted for the Thai Prawn curry and asked the waiter for it to be spicy, it was spicy ish, but it could have done with a bit more heat.
They had “The Who, Live from Hyde Park” playing in the Pavillion on the big screen so we headed over there to catch a bit of that and have a nightcap. It’s an excellent venue as both the picture and sound are excellent. After that it was time for bed.
Was also views of the Sierra Nevada mountains to the left, on the Spanish coast, which was a nice view.
I would have liked to see the earlier sailing through the straits of Gibraltar, but was too early for me (and dark).
Ditto on the night time way back out the next week (although looked like I could see lights on the North African shoreline?)