You could say we got a bit carried away…..well it was very good value for money…..it took us to some places we have never visited before, and we had the ultimate sea view from our room.  We spent most of the month soaking up some late summer sun on a very large cruise ship as it relocated from the Mediterranean to the Canaries.

We had a morning flight to Malta from Heathrow and as Neil likes being organised, the train tickets and overnight stay near the airport were booked well in advance.  While we were on the canal boat last month Cheryl’s cousin Roy from Oz announced that he was coming to Britain and that the only day we could meet due to both his and our itineraries was the day we had to get to Heathrow.  What happened next was quite odd to say the least.

Having booked the train with non-refundable tickets we took the decision to book more tickets on a much earlier train so that we could meet Cousin Roy and partner Heather. Non-refundable tickets are usually quite cheap and the original ones we booked were less than £10 each so losing them was hardly going to break the bank.  Now we had non-refundable tickets booked for two trains.  Guess what happened next?  Yes – an announcement of yet another bloody train strike! 

As our public transport options are very limited we were faced with a very expensive taxi ride and luckily we managed to book our favourite local firm but it did mean a really early start as he was committed to another job in Bristol later that day.  On the bright side as it was a strike we were entitled to claim a refund on the tickets we had bought but Cheryl made sure that the transactions were made over a couple of days, just in case.  So, all was not lost.

The Sunday before we were meant to leave, a Dutch lady went into Tourist Information looking for help to get to Heathrow on Wednesday to get a flight home to The Netherlands as she had just found out about the train strike.  Lailla from the TI Centre posted on Facebook to see if anyone could help.  Cheryl saw it and thought, hey that’s the day we are going.  Slight problem was that the contact number she left was wrong.  A few more posts followed trying to track her down and let her know that a solution was out there.  Eventually Neil’s phone rang and it was our driver Hisham asking if we would mind sharing our taxi – and if yes, could we go really early? So, a result all round, we got the lady to Heathrow in time for her flight and we got the taxi for half price!

We got to The Travelodge at Feltham much too early to check in so we dropped our bags and headed off for a quick lunch before catching the bus to Kew where we had agreed to meet Roy and Heather who used the boat service from Westminster to Kew Gardens for the day.  The afternoon was spent walking along The Thames towards Richmond, a beer in a riverside pub and then dinner in yet another pub before catching the bus back to Feltham.  It was great to see them and catch up even if it was only for a few hours as they had been so good to us on both our visits to Australia.

Next day we arrived in Malta where we were bussed to our home for the next 22 nights, the P&O Cruise liner The Azura.  Whilst it’s not the biggest ship in the P&O portfolio we were both blown away by the size of it, nearly 300m long and able to carry over 3000 passengers.  Neil was not sure that he was going to like cruising so 22 nights seemed like a bit of a monster to cut your teeth on sailing the seas.  It wasn’t just about getting a bargain, which it was at just over £100/night each including flights, full board, entertainment, the trips ashore plus around £280 each to spend on board in the bar.  The ship was to take us to Croatia, somewhere we’ve never been, Sicily, Sardinia and Majorca that we had never been to plus Lanzarote and Tenerife that Neil had never been to.  On top of that there were a few other places in between.  We then had a flight back from Tenerife with the opportunity to stop in London for a couple of nights to visit Alex, Freddy and baby Luke.

Our cabin on deck 11 with balcony was excellent and that evening we set sail for Split in Croatia.  The first day was ‘at sea’ which gave us the opportunity to check out where things were on the ship.  There were 3 waiter served restaurants, 3 speciality restaurants  plus 2 buffet style places to scoff as much as you wanted.  There were more bars than we could dream of.  The gym was well equipped, but the multiple pools were quite small, so we didn’t envisage using them much, if at all.  For our meals we went for flexible dining which meant that you could use any place to eat and that in the main restaurants we could opt to go on shared tables to meet fellow cruisers.  After our first dinner we quickly concluded that this trip was going to be more than just OK as the company and the food were very good.  After our first breakfast it was apparent that we were going to have to be very careful just how much we ate as the food was excellent, varied and plentiful, too plentiful!  Just as well we avoided the buffet restaurants!

Our first stop was Split in Croatia which was very pretty albeit very touristy and busy.  We could have booked excursions at extra cost but having been independent travellers since we started travelling it seemed just as easy to wander around the town ourselves and explore.  Maps were available which gave us the major points of interest and photo opportunities.  It was also much warmer than we thought and after a few hours walking around we were tired and headed back for a leisurely lunch.

We set sail that evening and next morning we were in Trieste in Italy ready for our next port of call.  We had been warned that it would be busy as the town was hosting the biggest regatta anywhere in the world and, boy, was it busy.  We chose the explore the area away from the harbour before joining the throngs again to find the shuttle bus back to the ship.

We were still struggling to get to grips with where things were on the boat so kept finding ourselves on the wrong deck or at the wrong end of the boat, ‘fore and aft’ according to Neil or ‘pointy or flat end’ according to Cheryl.  Sometimes it was both and on certain decks you couldn’t walk all the way through from one end to the other.  October we thought would be a great time to visit The Med, not too hot and probably still quite dry.  Well, the sea was like a mill pond, the weather in the late 20’sC and the forecast was for much of the same for as far as we could see.  Fab!

Next stop was Zadar in Croatia.  It had a lovely sea front promenade plus old city walls and pretty narrow streets containing lots of little restaurants, tourist tat shops and the usual overpriced clothes and gift shops.  It also had two very unusual attractions.  On the promenade they had built a ‘Sun Salutation’ which had several concentric circles of solar panels each about the size of half A4.  This is meant to be much more attractive at night when the panels emitted a light show which sadly we didn’t see.  The other quirky item is probably one of the most unusual things we have come across.  It was called The Sea Organ and it was a series of underground tubes which were positioned to allow the sea water to flow through.  The sound emanated from a series of holes in the promenade and the effect was a little like pan pipes, whale noises and a church organ.  We went straight to it when we arrived and loved it.  On our walk around the town we kept talking about it and Cheryl had the idea that before we got the shuttle bus back to the ship we should revisit and lie on the floor next to the holes where the sound came from.  It just blew our minds as it was so much louder, and you could really hear the different sounds being caused by the waves lapping against the pipes.  It wasn’t long before we had lots of other people laying around the promenade listening.  We should become tour guides!

We set sail that evening and the next morning we arrived in Dubrovnik, a place we have both really wanted to visit.  It is very touristy, but it is stunning beautiful with distinctive red roof tiles in the old town surrounded by old and high city walls.  It got badly bombed by the Serbs in the 1990’s but it has been restored to great effect.  At 35 Euro a ticket to walk around the walls it was something of a rip off but the chances of us returning are relatively low, so we went for it.  We obviously enjoyed it as we didn’t moan about the cost afterwards so maybe it wasn’t such bad value after all.

Our next day was at sea enroute back to Malta for some people to get off and for others to board for the remaining 2 weeks.  We discovered the gym which we used on sea days to help offset the amount of food and drink we were consuming.  Unlike most of the other ‘inmates’ we used the stairs rather than the lifts which also helped get the heart pumping especially if you were going to and from deck 4 to get ashore for trips and deck 11 where our cabin was.

By now we were also starting to get to grips with the layout of the ship plus the evening entertainment.  We had comedians which were very funny, especially the ‘adult’ shows late at night.  These were especially amusing, and naughty, but thankfully the use of the F and B words was very, very low which especially pleased both of us.  We had a comedian/ventriloquist who had been a finalist on one the TV talent shows, and he did have us laughing so much and then we had a magician/illusionist who mesmerised us with his wizardry which was mixed in with humour.  The top draw act was however The Headliners Theatre Company.  3 female singers, 3 male singers and a host of other performers.  The singing was outstanding, the sets just so professional and the choreography was absolutely top notch – just so unbelievably in step.  We saw them as often as we could doing a number of different shows and we were never disappointed.  The quality and variety of evening entertainment was proving to be the added bonus we hadn’t anticipated. 

Back in Valetta we had the chance to explore the pretty old town in the morning, and then take a bus in the afternoon to the gorgeous old walled town of Mdina and the neighbouring town of Rabat.  A full days sight seeing for 3 Euros each!

Now, one aspect of the cruise that Neil wasn’t happy with was the formal nights held about twice a week when there was a black tie dress code for eating in the waiter service restaurants and a couple of the bars.  Neil didn’t possess a dinner jacket and nor does he want one.  Not taking part limited the various restaurants that we could eat in, in fact, it was either the buffet or one of the specialist restaurants that you paid a little extra for.  On the first night we ate in the buffet which wasn’t exciting, next time we chose a speciality restaurant which did give us a spectacular widow view as we left harbour but food was not exciting.  We didn’t fancy the overpriced Indian restaurant so were left with the casual dining restaurant selling lots of different wines.  Sadly, the tapas we had was poor so Neil began to feel a little guilty as he knew that Cheryl really enjoyed glamming up.  We had met a couple, Geoff and Alison, at one of the drink tastings and Geoff offered to loan Neil a DJ as he had brought two!  Initially, Neil declined but then with a little thought and a lot of guilt he reluctantly accepted for the next formal night.  After that we met them both in Brodie’s Bar for a beer before dinner.

We think that the excursions in Catania weren’t selling well as the Captain came on the ships tannoy to say that Catania was a little down market, in fact shabby chic.  We thought different, we actually quite liked it and enjoyed wandering through the streets. 

In Palermo we took our first excursion, to the catacombs.  These were not your average catacombs where the bodies are laid horizontal on shelves or in caskets.  These were vertical and hanging from hooks on the wall.  If you had money you could get yourself a place on the wall so that you had, in effect, immortality.  Some of the corpses were very well preserved with hair and stubble.  There was even a set of conjoined twins just a few years old.  It was actually quite spooky and whilst we understood why we couldn’t take photos it was a pity we couldn’t get just one for the blog to demonstrate just how weird this place was. This was followed by a guided tour in the town which took us to the Benedictine convent and some spectacular churches. Our guide was brimming with information she was determined we should know. Regular readers are aware of Neil’s attention span and will not be surprised to hear that we did not make it to the end of the tour. We beat a hasty retreat back to the ship for a well earned beer and lunch.

Next stop was Cagliari in Sardinia.  Again, we just wandered around the city and visited the inevitable church or two plus a Roman amphitheatre where gladiators and Christians fought it out with each other and the array of exotic animals like lions.  Not quite as impressive as The Coliseum but you could imagine the noise from the crowds and the animals and picture the thumbs down as another poor soul was condemned to an early grave.

Quickly moving on we visited Palma in Majorca and it’s huge and impressive Cathedral.  We really liked Palma and it’s little winding streets lined with shops selling baguettes loaded with Palma ham.  They looked delicious but with so much food being consumed on the boat we resisted the temptation and chose instead to leave it for a future visit perhaps?

One of the competitions that we didn’t know about was the ‘build a boat on a boat’.  That meant building a boat that would float, then remain afloat with a cargo of 6 cans of coke on it and finally withstand a tsunami in the swimming pool.  The rules were quite straight forward, you could use anything you could find on the ship but you weren’t allowed to break anything to get a small part of it.  Geoff and Alison had started to build a boat but they needed a few more things to be sure that it would pass all the tests.  Cheryl had the idea of going into one of the overpriced fashion boutiques to see if they had anything that they could use.  They did manage to find a few items and then one of the ladies suggested that they might like to take part in a fashion show modelling some of their clothes in return.  Cheryl jumped at the chance, but Alison declined.  At this point the unsuspecting Neil wandered in and was immediately pounced upon to take part. 

We did model some very expensive clothes and had to walk down 3 flights of open stairs in the atrium so that all could see.  This was on the arm of an Officer of the ship.  It was a laugh and when Neil handed back the clothes and accessories that he had modelled he worked out that his outfit, if you wanted to buy it in the shop, would cost around £500!!  The Lacoste polo shirt alone was almost £100 and the Ray Ban shades £135!  We both decided not to buy.

We had a day at sea when the fashion show took place before arriving in Malaga for yet more churches, cathedrals and sightseeing. 

The weather continued to bless us with beautiful weather and temperatures in the mid to late 20’sC.  After another day at sea we arrived in Cadiz where we had booked our second excursion.  A walking tour of the town followed by a dancing lesson, flamenco!  There were about a dozen of us and we did our best but we decided to stick with our day jobs, being retired!  We were also fed some very nice tapas, like we needed more food, and a glass of some very dodgy sherry.  Hey, when in Spain!

We had planned to leave the port that night to head towards The Canary Islands.  However, our first wet day in Cadiz was to be made all the worst by high winds and rough seas.  Thankfully, the Captain decided to play safe and delay our departure until the following morning much to Cheryl’s relief.  Our two days at sea were crammed with activities including watching the final of the ship’s Master Chef Competition.  We had missed the heats but the final was to be between our very humorous Captain and a rather arrogant Michelin star chef.  Why he was in it we don’t know but we enjoyed the Captain’s off the wall sense of humour and the fact that the Captain won…..yes, yes, yes!

The final of the ‘build a ship on a ship competition’ also took place and Alison and Geoff’s ship, Titanic 2, came a very creditable joint 1^st.  It should have won but the other joint winner was an entry by a boy of about 9 years old so we think the judges gave him a little extra credit.  It didn’t matter, it was all about the taking part and having fun building it and giving the audience a few laughs each of the boats were put through their paces in the swimming pool.

Now, here’s the strangest thing.  At the very first liquor tasing, we were treated to Cotswold Gin.  Neil started to chat to a couple and the conversation started to discuss the Cotswolds and where we all lived.  They lived in Ross-on-Wye, so Neil said I have a niece that lives there, and the conversation eventually came around to Gloucester and schools.  To cut a long story short Colin went to the same school as Neil and was in the same year.  Whilst Neil sought of remembered his name, Colin didn’t recognise Neil’s name, although they both knew various characters from the same year.  Colin’s wife Iris went out with one of Neil’s friends although she wasn’t proud of the fact.  What a small world.  We met them for lunch on a few occasions and Colin was able to add a few names to the school class photos that Neil had. 

By now were counting down the days with a stop in Arrecife in Lanzarote and Santa Cruz in Tenerife.  It was good to visit as Neil had never been but it confirmed that The Canaries was not too much to our liking although if we just wanted s short flight to winter sun it might do the job.

Cruise over, we had the 4hr flight home to spend the weekend with Alex, Freddy and Luke.  He’s now walking and runs around the house pushing his walking aid like a whirling dervish.  Apparently, he has the same walker at nursery and no other child has ever run around at such speed as Luke. We had a great time with the boys and look forward to seeing them again later in the year.

The train journey home was uneventful and so we got back into Seaton life very quickly.  That’s it, we know it’s a long blog entry, but it was worth recording as much information as we could.  We did enjoy our cruise, the cabin and balcony was perfect, entertainment outstanding, we met lots of lovely people, the food was excellent and we had a taster visit to places that we might, or might not, like to return to for a more in-depth visit.  Cheryl does suffer from motion sickness and took lots of medication with her but was pleased that it was left unused.  To cap it all, as it was a relocation cruise it was amazing value, an absolute bargain!

It’s a good thing we did like the cruise……but you will have to wait until next month to find out why.