We woke up to an announcement over the tannoy system explaining that several excursions have been cancelled because of an expected heavy swell, needless to say ours was one of those cancelled. That’s the third tour we’ve had cancelled on this trip so we were in a bit of a quandary, just go for a walk around Bridgetown or get a cab to the beach. A quick look at the map showed that we could do both of those things easily. So after breakfast we headed ashore on the Noddy train transfer that was provided to the cruise terminal. It
Category: Port Days
St. Lucia today and we are anchored out in Castries bay, so we will be tendering ashore today. We weren’t on any excursions and had decided to have a stroll around Castries. Getting off the ship was a bit of a chore, excursion travellers had priority so we had a bit of a wait and eventually got ashore about an hour and a half after leaving the room. We had a proper Caribbean welcome, with a steel band playing Christmas carols on the dockside. Castries was a big change from Bridgetown, no where near as clean, with broken and uneven
St Kitts today, it was a lovely morning approach into Basseterre where we had a 09:45 rendezvous arranged with our tour at the end of the pier. So after breakfast we made our way off the ship and onto the waiting coach then off for a quick tour of St Kitts, heading out to our first stop which was the Amazing Grace experience. This was in a church out past Sandy Lane, and was the story of the hymn Amazing Grace. The links between John Newton, the hymn’s author and St Kitts was pretty tenuous, but it was a good
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
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
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
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
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
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
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