EASTER SUNDAY
We were awake before the alarm at 7.00am, and I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed. Going out onto the balcony, we could see “land ahoy”; we were due to dock in the port of San Juan around 8.00am.
We got washed and dressed for the weather, which was happily warmer, brighter and much less windy than it had been so far. I wore a pair of white linen cropped trousers and a pink t-shirt, as well as my shandals. I was so pleased I had bought them; they are more stable on my feet than flip-flops, but less restricting then trainers, and they are very comfortable for walking miles.
We decided to go to the Wellness Café next to the Pavilion Pool, and I enjoyed an unusual bowl of quinoa porridge with dates, seeds and nut butter, accompanied by a plate of freshly cut fruit slices. Trevor had Greek yoghurt with nuts and seeds. The breakfast was delicious and made a nice change.
Afterwards, we walked up a deck so we could watch the progress of the Queen Elizabeth into San Juan. The sky was blue with fluffy cumulus clouds and the sun was very bright indeed. We could expect it to reach 29°C today, with intermittent light showers, so as well as my Factor 30 sun cream we made sure to pack our cagoules. 🙂
We then headed down to Deck A to the gangplank, and made our way ashore. There were plenty of Cunard staff dockside to direct us to the correct tour coaches. Our trip today was called “Old and New San Juan” and our tour guide introduced himself as Gary. As the bus wended its way through the light morning traffic, Gary told us a bit about Puerto Rico and its history. It is apparently an unincorporated part of the USA, but it isn’t a state and doesn’t belong to any state. It is self-governing although it still had the President of the United States as its leader.
Gary told us that the top three big businesses in Puerto Rico were tourism, rum and pharmaceuticals. The first two were unsurprising but the latter is something that most people would not have guessed. It made sense to me though, as I have recently re-read Robin Cook’s medical thriller Mindbend, part of which is set in Puerto Rico and features a sinister (fictional!) pharmaceutical company.
Gary pointed out the impressive Capitol Building to us, and also showed us a long row of statues of US presidents. I took a photo of Trevor standing in between Herbert Hoover and Theodore Roosevelt. 🙂
We continued through the streets, stopping for a short while to photograph a monument dedicated to the six million people who lost their lives in the Holocaust.
Next, we followed Gary along to the formidable Castillo San Cristóbal. Completed in 1784, it was built by the Spanish to strengthen it defences against land based attacks on the city. It is designed in such a way that it contains multiple levels, tunnels, dungeons, ramps and lookout points. It also has inner and outer walls, moats, and strategically placed sentry boxes called garitas. Over the centuries, the structure was modified to adapt to changing military technology, including the addition of artillery positions and reinforced walls.
Today, Castillo San Cristóbal is part of the San Juan National Historic Site. Visitors can explore the fort’s extensive grounds and walk through tunnels or, as we did, climb up to the ramparts which gave us fantastic views over the city of San Juan and its rugged coastline, where we could hear and see the exhilarating sight of the lively ocean waves crashing onto the shore.
Once we all had to be back at the meeting point, we boarded the coach once again which took us along to the bustling, modern part of the city. There were lots of high-rise buildings and upmarket, beach front hotels. We stopped for a while at one of the popular beaches, and walked along in the powder soft sand, watching the waves lapping the shore. Every so often signs were posted saying “GREAT DANGER” and asking visitors not to go swimming as there were strong rip currents. Despite this, we did see some people out swimming in front of their hotels.
Back on the coach, Gary told us we could either stay aboard and get a lift back to the Queen Elizabeth, or alight here and walk back to the ship, which was only about a ten minute walk away. We decided on the latter, as we had spotted an off-licence and wanted to purchase a couple of bottles of wine for consumption on our stateroom balcony, rather than pay Cunard’s extortionate prices of $11.50 a glass. 🙂
Afterwards, we decided to go and look for a Geocache then maybe go and have the mandatory glass of freezing cold beer.
Checking the Geocache app, we saw that there was a cache about 337 metres away, so we set off in the direction indicated by the app. You had to be careful walking because the roads and pavements were not finished off particularly well, and it would have been all too easy to trip over.
Soon we arrived at the street where the Geocache was located, as the metres counted right down. Eventually the app indicated we were only two metres away, but it was pointing to a location in the wall outside a shop, which was closed and shuttered. As we carefully examined the wall we were unable to find anything. We moved further down the street, but the app said we were now five metres away. We kept trying to find the exact location, but it must either have been just inside the doorway to the shop or stashed in the wall somewhere out of reach.
Eventually, we gave up, and decided to walk back down the street where we remembered seeing a traditional pub-type bar. 🙂
There were no other customers, which was unusual because many of the other bars were doing a roaring trade. We took our places on a bar stool each and asked for a local beer. The smiling barman gave us each a bottle of Medalla, which is the Puerto Rico local beer, and we sat in the cool bar and enjoyed them. Soon some more customers came in, making the bar a little more lively. We decided to stay for one more beer.
When we were ready to leave, we asked the barman for the bill, which came to $28.00 for the four beers – seven bucks each! That was the same price as the beer on the ship! No wonder there weren’t many customers in the pub! We guessed it was probably more expensive here because it was a ‘touristy’ area.
Once we’d finished our beers and used the restrooms, we set off outside again. After the cool dimness of the pub, the heat and the bright sun seemed more intense. We tried to stay in the shade as much as possible on our way back to the ship.
We arrived back around 1.40pm, and decided to have a quick bite to eat in the Lido buffet. We hadn’t had anything since breakfast, but we didn’t want a lot because of our early dinner time. I therefore just had a plate of salad vegetables washed down with cold water.
We then returned to 8025 for an afternoon power nap; the hot sunshine and the beers had been very soporific. We then awoke refreshed, and pottered around in our cabin, opening one of the bottles of cava we’d bought to enjoy a glass sitting on our balcony. 🙂
At 4.30pm, the Queen Elizabeth gave a short, single blast of her foghorn and started to move away from the dockside. We were on our way once again.
It was then time to start getting ready for dinner. I wore a pair of black evening trousers that had sequins down the outside of each leg, which I teamed with a one-shouldered black top, the bodice of which was also sprinkled with sequins. A pair of strappy, sequinned sandals completed the outfit.
We arrived at the restaurant to see that we were the first (the only?) people at table #503 again. A few minutes later, a lady arrived and was shown to our table. She introduced herself as Alice, from Nassau, Bahamas, and said that her husband Mervyn was not feeling well and had decided to give dinner a miss tonight.
We chatted and learned that this was Alice’s first Cunard cruise; she had cruised a lot out of Nassau and Miami on NCL, Royal Caribbean and MSC. She said she had done about eight cruises and was utterly astonished when we told her this one was our 73rd! 🙂
After dinner, we did the usual. Went along to the Queen’s Room, where we watched the dancing and even got up to join in with the cha cha cha. Then we headed to the Royal Court Theatre and down to our usual front row seats for the show.
Tonight’s featured entertainer was a former West End singer Marty Thomas. He was excellent; we enjoyed his show a lot. Apparently he had been singing professionally since we was a 12-year old boy, and he showed us some TV footage of some children’s talent competition which starred an unknown little 10-year old girl called Britney Spears. Wow! He had performed with her, and now she was a global superstar.
Afterwards, we went along to the Golden Lion for the quiz. However, it was absolutely jammed when we got there, and the only seats were on bar stools which were outside the ‘main’ pub lounge. We therefore didn’t participate in the quiz, just watching and playing along for fun instead.
It was around 10.00pm when we left the pub. We pondered whether or not to go up to the Commodore Club and enjoy a drink in the relative peace and quiet of the lounge, or whether just to return to 8025 and finish off the bottle of rosé cava we’d opened earlier on. We decided on the latter, and sat outside in the darkness of our balcony, sipping our wine and listening to the gorgeous “sshhh sshhh sshhh” sounds of the Caribbean sea washing against the Queen Elizabeth nine decks below us. The sky was dotted with a million stars and the night air was warm and calm, a gentle sea breeze ruffling our hair. This is the life! 🙂
Once our drinks were finished, we got washed and changed into our ‘jamas, and read for a short while before settling down to sleep.
Tomorrow we were due to arrive in St. John’s, Antigua, a place we have visited several times before but one which is a typical, classic Caribbean island famous for its 365 beaches. We couldn’t wait to be back. 🙂