When we got up this morning at eight o’clock, we found that the Queen Victoria was already docked in Gibraltar. We had been to this British overseas territory twice before, in 1995 and 1999 so we looked forward to renewing our acquantance of this little piece of Britain abroad. We didn’t have an excursion booked…
It was another early start this morning, the alarm going off at 7.00am as the Queen Victoria headed towards the port of Málaga. It was a long time since we’d sailed into Málaga; in May 1995 in fact, on the Seawing. I should imagine the port will have changed beyond recognition. In any case, this…
Got up at 7.00am to find the Queen Victoria slowly manoevring her way through the buoyed channel and into her berth in Cádiz, Spain. We had last been to this historic Spanish city on the Queen Elizabeth in 2010, but today we would be travelling further afield to explore the Andalucian city of Seville or,…
Today saw us spending another long and leisurely day at sea. But what a difference from Wednesday! The Atlantic was still fairly lively (isn’t it always?) but at least we could walk around the Queen Victoria without feeling as if we were going to fall over. 🙂 After getting up about 8.15am and breakfasting in…
BILLY & CAROLE’S DIAMOND WEDDING Got up this morning about 8.00am to find the Queen Victoria docked in La Coruña, in the Galician region of northern Spain. We had been to Vigo before, but never to this port. The weather was cloudy but mild. We got washed and changed into our gym gear. Yes! We…
A life on the ocean wave,A home on the rolling deep,Where the scatter’d waters raveAnd the winds their revels keep. Henry Russell, 1838 Woke up several times in the night; if it wasn’t because I was rolling from side to side in bed it was because of the torrential rain that lashed our balcony, accompanied…
At 3.45 this morning, the alarm suddenly shattered the darkened silence with Alexa chirping a cheery “Rise and shine!” as the last vestiges of sleep left me and I swung my legs over the side of the bed and made my way to the bathroom. Ordinarily we would have taken no pleasure at being awoken…
Ask any well-cruised persons if they’ve ever been to Naples, and the chances are they’ll say that the ship docked in Naples, while they went on to visit Pompeii or Capri or the Herculaneum. Few will say that they explored Naples itself. For that reason, when we found ourselves docked in Napoli (to give it…
Got up this morning just after eight o’clock as usual, and went out on our balcony for a look around. As expected, we could see miles of blue sea, with one or two ships passing as distant entities on the horizon. The sea didn’t look as calm as it had been, there were tiny cresting…
While we were still asleep this morning, the Queen Victoria boarded her pilot and was navigated through the winding Bay of Kotor, before being manoeuvred alongside her berth. The Bay of Kotor is approximately 28 kilometres long and only 340 metres wide at its narrowest point. Many people who have sailed into the bay liken it…
