Our last day at sea turned up a bit grey and miserable, but it was warm enough and the sea was flat as a pancake. It was the calmest Biscay crossing that we’ve probably ever had, a markedly different experience from the sail out from Southampton. There were three of the Cunard Insights lectures this morning, Stuart St Paul was up first explaining the technicalities of location shooting. He was followed by Col Tim Collins who carried on from the previous day. Disappointingly we never did find out why he was accused of war crimes. The final and best lecture

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It was a glorious morning, we woke to clear skies and a calm sea. As it was a sea day I had three lectures to attend in the morning, so it was a bit of a rush to get ready and off to breakfast before my 10am start. The first lecture was the astronomer Paul Fellows. His talks have got better and more interesting with every day. Today’s lecture was about volcanic activity within the Solar system. He was followed by a new speaker Colonel Tim Collins, a motivational speaker recounting his experience with the Royal Irish Regiment and SAS.

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It is our final port day today, the beautiful city of Lisbon. It was another clear sunny day, a little bit of a fresh breeze, but very nice out in the sun. We had booked a shore excursion for today, Urban Adventurers walking tour of Lisbon. After breakfast we headed down to the shuttle bus as the start of the tour was at Restauradores Square, which was, handily, the drop off spot for the shuttle. We were there early, so we bought, wrote and posted some postcards. At 10:30 we met up with our guide and the ten other members

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It’s a grey old day in Gibraltar the peak is obscured by a swathe of cloud. We were missing a couple of diners last night, so there were only eight of us. The food was excellent yet again, sweet corn chowder and sirloin steak for me, spring rolls and roast guinea fowl for Jane. After breakfast it was time to go bargain hunting ashore. Gibraltar’s Main Street is a bit of a walk from the ship, but it was pleasant enough, dodging the slower walkers and we were in amongst all the duty free shops in about fifteen minutes. The

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Another glorious morning here in the Med. We’ve arrived in Cartagena and it looks like it’s going to be a good one. Breakfast was much more successful today, I had Eggs Benedict and Jane had a Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Bagel, very nice. After breakfast we disembarked to walk around the city. Yesterday’s Arctic wind had been replaced by a nice gentle breeze which made for a very pleasant walk. Postcards were bought along with stamps, we found a nice little cafe to write them and banish my churros cravings. After that he headed back in the general direction

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It’s a lovely start to the day. We arrived in Malaga to clear skies and bright sunshine. We had decided at dinner last night to have an early start, and pop into Malaga for a quick look around before returning to the Victoria for a bit more sunbathing. I turned out to be quite breezy in town, so felt chilly out of the sun which confirmed our decision to get back on board. I didn’t even have a look for churros, a breakfast mixup meant I had ended up with an extra breakfast and quadruple black pudding. All I had

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This is the third time we’ve visited Cadiz over the years on Cunard. It’s a beautiful city and as flat as a pancake, so really easy to get around on foot. We awoke to a bright blue sky with the sun just rising over the rooftops. After a leisurely breakfast we disembarked and went for a walk around the city, our intention was to have a coffee and churros but the coffeehouse we stopped in had never heard of churros, ah well we just had to make do with a coffee. Further walking lead us to the Market which has

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I’m getting very good at lying in in the morning and very poor at going to the gym, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it, it’s far too bumpy to use the one available treadmill. We had a bit of a rush to get to breakfast, even through it finished at 9:30, as I wanted to get to Paul Fellows lecture on meteors and comets. I enjoyed this one better than his introduction to the Solar System on the first sea day. Jane joined me for Stuart St Paul’s second presentation which was more of the same.

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We had decided to give Commodore O’clock a miss for the evening, but watch a film instead, so I watched Ant Man and the Wasp while Jane slept through it. We did end up in the Commodore Club through for a pre-dinner drink, I was looking forward to a pint of London Pride, but that was off, so I had make to do with a bottle of Doom Bar instead which was no real hardship. Jane fancied a long drink so opted for a Dark and Stormy. Both the wind and swell had picked up during the evening, so we

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It was a bumpy old night crossing the Bay of Biscay, I woke at 4am getting rattled from side to side and struggled to get back to sleep. I did though and was woken to the sound of rattling cups with Jane making a coffee, nice. After a breakfast of kippers and poached eggs it was time for a stroll around the town. We needed 3 things, tissues, water and tapas. The weather was a bit mixed, it was cloudy, sunny, with alternating drizzle and an almighty cloudburst. So we sheltered from the worst of it in a coffeeshop before

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