Month: September 2015

After a day at sea on Monday, crossing a benign Bay of Biscay, we awoke on Tuesday morning to find ourselves in the Canal Del Sur. We passed south of the island of San Martin and then followed the Ria De Vigo to our berth in Vigo.

I know that you don’t want to hear the ailments of a cantankerous old blogger, but as many have heard me say over the last 3 or 4 weeks, when I was 16  I had my lateral (or was it left?) discoid meniscus (cartilage) removed from my right knee. Too much of that game called Fives. In those days it meant two weeks in hospital – Lord Mayor Treloar in Alton – so not only did I miss a couple of weeks school, but additionally I was “looked after” by a bevy of 17/18 year old nurses. It was very hard for a young innocent boy like me.

Why am I digressing like this? Well, about 18 months ago my right knee gave way, but by the time I saw a consultant, the knee appeared to be back to normal. He said he thought it was remarkable that it had lasted 54 years! His advice was to do nothing with the knee and hope it settled down. Well it did until about 2 weeks ago. And now it is playing up, just at a time when I need to be pushing the folding wheelchair, with Mrs Smith aboard, up and down the hills of Europe’s finest ports.

We knew Vigo. It’s a big hill. But by choosing the roads that appeared to be the least steep, we were able to tack back and forth until we reached the place that we knew had the best coffee. We didn’t take Jane’s large motorised chair because of worries about kerbs and cobbles, but in fact Vigo is pretty organised and that would have been the answer.

Last year we were in Lisbon and it poured with rain. We had bought Hop on Hop off tickets on the ship because the adverts said the buses had ramps and were wheelchair friendly. They were not and we got our money back.

We left the ship with the intention of finding a taxi man who spoke decent English. As we walked out of  the Terminal building there he was. Smart dark suit. Excellent English. Not too pushy. And the major selling point – a brand new black Mercedes people mover!

No doubt Robert Gordon of Mercedes in Melborne will be able to tell us the model. As the driver (we failed to get his name) had been there all morning without a punter, the fee for 2 hours (which turned out to be 30 minutes less than that!) was very reasonable. It was a really great tour. He took us down some of the really narrow streets in the old town.

We were amazed by the large number of Tuk Tuks in the old town area. Our driver was very upset by them. He said they charged more than he did, paid little or no tax and yet were legitimate because the local statutes didn’t legislate for such vehicles. He said they had arrived in Lisbon because of the high level of unemployment and the fact that young people could earn a living by buying such a vehicle cheaply. They were in the main driven by youngish girls.

In the old town area you had to watch out for the trams. And if you are on a tram, you need to watch out for pickpockets and bag snatchers. As we crawled along in a traffic jam at one stage, the driver pointed out some undercover cops walking between the trams and seeking out known thieves.

From the old town we moved to the more modern areas further north and the magnificent squares leading to the Avenida da Liberdade and then further west on our way down to Belem (Bethlehem) and the Monument to the Discoveries commemorating Henry the Navigator.

As we sailed away later that day I managed to get a photo from the ship. The same with the Torre de Belem, the fortress built to guard the approach to the city by water.

It was a brilliant day. The best day we have ever had in Lisbon. It even surpassed the day I had in the city as a student in 1967 on a 14 day cruise on the Carmania (staff rates were £2 a day at the time – £28 for a fortnights cruise all found). That was in the days of Salazar’s dictatorship and Portuguese students were scared to talk to us about the regime in case they were overheard by the secret police.

Tomorrow Cadiz. Our first visit.

A new port for us. We had not been to Cadiz before.

But as usual I have digressed. We had decided that we would tour Cadiz by taxi if we could find a linguist. And we did – Carlos was his name.

He owned his car, had a beautiful wife and a four month old son. Before we set off on the tour, he had shown us a video of wife and son on his mobile. He clearly loved his home town of Cadiz and was keen that we should love it too.

We started with the 1812 Memorial

and ended with the the Cathedral

and in between we visited the beautiful parks with magnificent topiary and a wide variety of trees and bushes.

We drove out to the Castillo de San Sebastián, built to protect the northern side of the city, and from there the beaches seemed to stretch to the horizon.

After leaving Carlos we explored the side streets close to the harbour

and managed to avoid the bargains in the shoe shops. But Barcelona has a much wider choice tomorrow.

Aurora was in port with us, so Cadiz had more than its fair share of Brits for the day.

 Why P&O have chosen to paint their funnels blue, I know not. No doubt someone will enlighten me!

Very good they were too.

The original itinerary was for Queen Elizabeth to arrive in Monaco this morning (Sunday), staying overnight and leaving on Monday afternoon. The ship was to be on the berth today and was then to move to an anchorage, so that tenders would have been required to get us to and from the ship on Monday.

I was convinced that we would eventually find the shop

that I loved last year – but we did not and that was my mistake (and my fault, of course). We ended up with no shoe purchase.

In our travels we did find the 4 Gats restaurant- a favourite of mine – but shoes were more important at that stage and I had to walk by.

We had a coffee in a small square and some young locals put on a brief gymnastic show in front of us. It was brilliant. They moved round the square performing and then passing round a hat. 

It was a great day. The weather was perfect – sunny but comfortable. The only downside was my failure on the shoe front.

Ten years ago, to celebrate my 60th, Jane and I boarded the Seabourn Legend in Monaco.

We arrived the day before and stayed in Monaco, at the boutique Columbus Hotel, part owned by David Coulthard.

This Sunday, our very much larger Queen Elizabeth edged into that same berth on the breakwater. It was a magnificent piece of seamanship by Captain Inger. At the time it didn’t appear possible to fit into the gap alongside two large yachts of the multi million pound variety, but she made it look easy.

Monaco was setting up for a Classic Yacht race week, and massive marquees were being constructed around the harbour. Some classic yachts had already arrived and appeared to be sneaking in a little early practice. 

In addition four super yacht builders had set up under the Yacht Club de Monaco for demonstrations throughout the day. There were a dozen massive vessels being taken in and out of the harbour with prospective purchasers aboard. Plenty to watch all day.

We enjoyed a day around the harbour and managed to get ourselves into the middle of the marina amongst a plethora of Ferraris and Bentleys sitting alongside the yachts. For some reason no one invited us aboard.

The Toulon harbour is home to the French Mediterranean Fleet and in particular the French Navy’s aircraft carrier Charles De Gualle and her battle group.

There were more than twenty warships to be seen plus a couple of rust buckets waiting to be scrapped.

The cruise ships berths are on the other side of the harbour from the military areas, which means that passengers have to be shuttled by ferry to the town. It takes time to get people on and off the ferries, so it seemed odd that a new cruise ship terminal is about to be constructed across the harbour, away from Toulon itself.

These are the ports for Pisa/Florence and Rome. As we have explored Pisa and Rome in the past, and more particularly as no wheel chair tours were in place (more about that later), we decided to investigate the ports further.

 

and a “New Market” constructed 70 years ago, but Livorno does not rank far from the bottom of the list of our favourite places.

The other thing I forgot to mention was that while on the waterfront in Toulon we spotted Captain Inger having lunch ashore with the Hotel Manager, David Stephenson and his wife. As they were all in civvies, few passengers recognised them, and when the Captain travelled back to the ship on the local shuttle boat, she sat amongst the passengers and queued up with them to leave the boat. No pulling rank there.

Today (Thursday) is a day at sea as we sail to the west from Italy to Spain. Last night we sailed through the Bonifacio Strait which divides Sardinia and our old holiday island of Corsica. We had five summer holidays in Corsica with Mark Warner and those spent at Club Marinca were, without doubt, some of the best summer holidays the Smith family had.

We were here 9 months ago and I reported on our visit in my November 2014 blog.

This time my knee was giving me some grief, so we decided not to return to the Roman Baths and the Roman Theatre which would have involved substantial walking. We did manage to cover a fair amount of ground, though, on the eastern side of the town.

There is some splendid architecture and the main street is immaculate.

A super flat surface and traffic free. And we finished our tour with a beer, while overlooking the marina and the ship. I may have said this in the past, but ABP and the City of Southampton could learn a great deal from Cartegena about the way in which the waterfront should be developed back home.

But Jane did get into M&S. I know how to treat a girl!

It was two and a half sea days in reality. Jane and I love sea days. There is plenty going on around the ship, but if you want to do nothing but relax and watch the world go by, that is fine. Watching fellow passengers is a good game too. They come in all shapes and sizes. 

The speakers finished their series of lectures in the Royal Court Theatre and, as there was a celebrity speaker aboard, a Q&A session hosted by the Entertainments Director took place. Lord Digby Jones fits into the celebrity category.

On Monday at 11.15 am the theatre was packed. Standing room only for the latecomers. 

Jo Haley was the host and Digby was in his element.

A few excellent questions from Jo to get the ball rolling and then it was opened to the audience. Questions on his views on everything from Europe to migrants to Corbyn to the lady Captain (those that were there will know what I mean!)

The original plan had been that I would go home, leaving Jane on the ship. I would collect the post, check the house was OK and then meet up with Andy and Jane Houghton who were joining us for the cruise. The intention was that we would go down to the ship in the taxi together.