Month: May 2015

.,We screamed across Southampton Water today at speeds in excess of 40 knots. No, not aboard one of the Queens, but on David Saph’s massive RIB.

Anthem of the Seas, the latest massive Royal Caribbean cruise ship, left the scene first.

She has been in and out of the port over the last 2 weeks. It was clear that she realised that she was an unwelcome guest today. Then Fred Olsen’s Balmoral scuttled away to leave the stage for the Cunarders.

Queen Elizabeth was berthed at the QEII terminal and she pulled out first.

Queen Victoria was on her own at the Mayflower Terminal and after Queen Mary 2 started to leave Ocean Terminal, QV was moving to join her sisters. QM2 moved to port and sailed past QE and the sailaway down Southampton Water began. QV joined the procession, bringing up the rear.

Earlier at a lunch on board Queen Mary 2 the Captains of the 3 Queens posed for photos. Commodore Christopher Rynd, Captain Inger Klein Thorhauge and Captain Chris Wells.

It was a great day. Many thanks to David Saph for making it possible.

ICaptain David Saph had two photographers aboard his unnamed RIB. Your blogger and one Cark Maunsell.

Cark has Dropboxed his photos to me and I have added some of them here.

They indicate to me that either (a) he has a better camera than me or, (b) that he is a better photographer than me.

Not much sleep last night. Amazing how the exit poll painted a very accurate picture of the likely end result (70 seats still to be declared as I write). All that talk of coalitions by the pollsters showed how inaccurate they can be. Not surprised to see the Lib Dems doing so badly after turning on their coalition partners. Will David Miliband be flying back from the US to take over from his brother?!

We are in the middle of the packing process before boarding Queen Elizabeth on Monday for a Baltic cruise. We take in Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallinn, St Petersburg overnight, Warnemunde, Kirkwall in Orkney and Liverpool on Monday 25 May for further 175 year celebrations with the other 2 Queens. Then one day to get round Lands End and back to Southampton.

That’s what the cruise is called and we are on our way. Bright and early start with no mishaps apart from the missing jacket. Everything done. House left clean and tidy (by my standards) for Linda, our house sitter. I even remembered where the Hoover was kept and how to use it. I remember getting the jacket off the hanger, but just as we were about to leave, the jacket had gone. The conclusion reached by the others was that I must have packed it. Searched everywhere, no joy. Linda will no doubt spot it as soon as she arrives.

It was very foggy here!

The approach to Oslo is stunning. After crossing the Skagerrak, we entered the Oslofjord, which at times is fairly narrow, but for the most part, tree lined. Wooden homes of all shapes, sizes and colours are dotted about amongst the trees. Some are holiday homes, but others are permanently occupied.

Oslo is a great place, with a multitude of museums and palaces. This time we walked in an easterly direction initially and then drifted to the west in search of the Ibsen museum where Ibsen lived for the last 11 years of his life. We eventually found it close to the Royal Palace.

The Palace guards were happy to be photographed.

On Thursday we are in Copenhagen. Another great city.

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen.

And on Thursday we had to have a yet another look at The Little Mermaid sitting on her rock only a few hundred yards from the ship. She is still small, still little, but somehow she looked more mature and more serene than she was. That, despite being surrounded by a large group of Japanese tourists, all desperate to get selfies with her.

In fact we found that there were massive crowds wherever we went, and it was only after we returned to the ship that we found out that it was a public holiday – Ascension Day.

Copenhagen is beautiful. The architecture is stunning, whether the buildings are old or new, and the whole city is wonderfully clean and tidy.

Jane and I had a hop on/hop off day which proved very successful except for the fact that it was impossible for Jane to get down to the jetty to board the canal boat, for the canal tour included in our ticket (Don’t worry, I managed to get a refund!) and, no, I didn’t do the canal tour on my own!

At that stage we had a coffee and a beer in a lovely square and watched the world go by. The sun shone and the tourists were happy. We returned to the Langelinie Promenade and hopped off the bus by the Queens Royal Yacht

and then strolled back along the promenade.

Back at the ship we found that the lady Captain Inger had departed on leave. Although she grew up in the Faroe Islands, she and her husband live in Denmark. The new master of the ship is Captain Alistair Clark and we hope to meet him this evening at his cocktail party.

This was the view as we left Copenhagen in the early evening.

Did I tell you about Saturday 16 May 2015? We were due to arrive at our berth in Stockholm at 9.00 am. At 6.45 am I heard the Captain’s voice. If broadcasts have to be made when people are asleep they are made into public areas but not into cabins. 

I opened the door to hear him say that we could not go into Stockholm and I think there was a reference to corporate regulations being breached. I had the impression that when the pilot came aboard he wanted the Captain to carry out a procedure or procedures that the Captain was not happy to do and that as a result we were told we could not go in. It seemed very strange.

So we had a day at sea and we sailed on to Tallinn in Estonia where a berth was made available for us.

We arrived at about 6.00pm and some went ashore. We had been due to arrive here on Sunday morning, so we decided to wait until then before exploring Tallinn.

OThey said there were cobblestones everywhere. That was four years ago and we did not explore Tallinn as comprehensively as we might have done.

It was a lovely day. Sunny but cold. Jane was wrapped up well.

The shuttle with a ramp soon arrived. There was very little Sunday morning traffic and we were soon at the Lower Town. 

It was between the 13th and 15th centuries, during Danish rule, that Talłinn was a renowned international and mercantile centre – a major member of the Hanseatic League. The merchants based themselves in the Lower Town. The Upper Town developed separately, ruled by German aristocrats.

We began to wend our way through the narrow cobbled streets, and found that comparatively easy, as pavements could usually be found on one side of the street and the hill was fairly gentle. We came across the Town Hall Square, which was lined with cafes and we settled down to excellent coffees before starting the more arduous climb to the Upper Town centered on Toompea Hill.

Again there was a flattish pavement and the steep part was probably no more than 100 meters long. Suddenly we were there and the Castle and Pikk Hermann Tower were magnificent.

Tallinn is sensational. The atmosphere in the Old Town was exciting and if you have not been here it is a must.

Next is St Petersburg for 2 days. We are looking forward to that.

My latest image of Queen Elizabeth!

Some years ago, before our first visit to St Petersburg, friends from the US, Pam and Peggy Zirkle advised us to book a private guide. We did so and Mira Bogachkova was assigned to us by Insider Tours. She was brilliant. So I booked her again for this visit.

We started with the Church on Spilled Blood?

Truly amazing with gold and more gold and murals everywhere. Vast ornate floor areas and hardly a chair to be seen. The congregation stand throughout the services.

From there we travelled at speed across the city to the Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral. At speed because that was the way the driver liked to travel. I couldn’t work out what the speed limits were but we were in heavy traffic and the roads were standard city roads. 40mph at most would have been the limit in London. We were being driven at 60mph or more at times.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral is to be found within the fortress.

It was time for a bite to eat. Mira took us to a small cafe. There was a problem with steps to get in and out. Mira quickly sorted that out. She found a young man and charmed him into helping me to lift Jane and her wheelchair up and down the steps.

Then it was back into the Merc and another race across to St Isaac’s Cathedral. Another vast, beautiful building.

And then it was back to the ship for an evening in port. Many went to the ballet, but there were no facilities for wheelchairs so we had to forget that option.