Month: September 2017

You will all know the history of Cadiz and won’t need me to repeat it. Jane and I have been here before, so if you need any more lectures on the topic, you could look back in my blogs and you will find an earlier report on Cadiz. But the problem reported back to me this morning from the UK is that earlier blogs draw an error message, so don’t try that for a day or two.

My blog guru, Sam is marrying niece Katie on Saturday north of Lucca. It’s our niece he’s marrying – not his niece. So I’m sure he won’t have time to look at this blog problem for quite some time.

So to help just a little with the history, Cadiz is the oldest inhabited town in the western world, with 3000 years of history. It is said that by 1770 as a result of peaceful trading with the American Colonies, Cadiz was wealthier than London. But 30 years later along came Horatio Nelson who bombarded the city and five years later Nelson defeated Villeneuve’s fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar.

We were advised to turn right out of the docks and walk round the town on an anti clockwise circuit. That worked really well and Kim manoeuvred us from park to park (both the ladies are keen gardeners and wanted to see the wide variety of trees and plants). As we walked the sea was always on our right.
While they studied the plants, I found a photo shoot. A beautiful young woman was surrounded by photographers, beauticians and dressers.  I volunteered to help, but in the end I had to get to the back of the queue and take a photo.

As we walked further we found parts of Cadiz that we had seen in a taxi last time. Old forts and castles. Plenty of men fishing from the ramparts and then, as we reached the half way point on our circuit of what is in effect an island, we found the towns beach. The tide was out but the sun was shining and it was hot. And plenty of locals were enjoying an early afternoon siesta on the beach.

We then turned inwards, away from the beach, past the cathedral and headed back towards the ship. After crossing a couple of beautiful squares we could see the ship in the distance. Kim had read the map beautifully.

As we neared the port, in a lovely narrow street of shops we met Captain Ian Macnaught and his wife Susan. Ian was the 31st Captain of the QE 2 and was one of. the youngest. He was also the last Captain of QE2.

Jane and I met him first when he invited us to sit at his table. In those days an invitation to sit at the Captain’s table meant that you sat at his table for every meal.” Why would I want to sit with the staff” say all those people who don’t get invited! We were only invited because my father had been No 2 on the list of QE2 Captains.

That cruise was to to the Norwegian Fiords. Often another officer would sit at the table in place of the Captain and when I asked Ian why that was, he told me that he had to be on the bridge most of the time negotiating the narrow fiords, because he didn’t want to be the first Captain to run QE2 aground!

We also sailed on QE2 with Ian on the final voyage to Dubai. On that 18 day voyage through the Med and Suez Canal the ship was packed with QE2 fanatics. It was sold out on line in 36 minutes. 

This was the view from our cabin as we were about to leave Southampton. A miserable rainy day.

Friday at sea. It alternated between sunny spells and rough Bay of Biscay lumpy seas. I bumped into Commodore Ron Warwick and his wife Kim. They were with Maureen Ryan who has been with Cunard since she was in her late teens. Initially she worked as a telephonist, then as a purser and eventually as a social hostess. She spent the whole of her working life at sea with Cunard She gave a hilarious presentation today in the Royal Court Theatre with some wonderful anecdotes.

The first lecture of the QE2 50th anniversary series was given by Chris Frame, a Maritime Historian and author of the latest QE2 book. He spoke about Cunard’s history and traced the development of Cunard from Sir Samuel Cunard’s first ship, Britannia onwards. A brilliant speaker who will feature again a number of times before this cruise ends.

Cunard have cracked the embarkation procedures. Within an hour of leaving home, we were in our cabin and all our luggage arrived within 30 minutes. We had been checked in, photos taken, passes issued and greeted by the bell boys as we entered the main lobby.

This cruise is a celebration of 50 years since the launch of QE2 on 20 September 1967. We are looking forward to meeting up with Commodore Ron Warwick (a former QE2 Captain, the first Captain of Queen Mary 2 and son of Bil Warwick, the first QE2 Captain) and his lovely wife Kim and also Captain Ian McNaught and his lovely wife. Ian was the last Captain of QE2. They are giving presentations about QE2 during the trip and there are to be a number of gatherings for QE2 fanatics (and there are plenty of them) and former members of the crew of QE2.

To put it all into context, you will recall that my late father, Captain George Smith, was the first Staff Captain of QE2 and the second Captain of that classic and much loved ocean liner.

Linda is yet again house sitting for us. I fear that because of time pressures I have not left the house as clean and as tidy as Linda leaves it for us. She has to be the champion house sitter of all time.

Kim is with us again on the ship, helping to look after Jane, and we are all looking forward to an unusual adventure this time.

Some of you will know that the 3 of us are leaving the ship for 4 days in the middle of the cruise to attend Katie Holt’s wedding. She is marrying my blog guru and advisor. I had booked the cruise long before the wedding invitation arrived.

On Thursday 14 September we leave the ship in Messina, Sicily, take a taxi to Catania airport, fly to Rome, change planes and fly to Pisa (all of which should prove interesting with Jane in a wheelchair) pick up a hire car and take photos of all the scratches and dents. Then drive to the Hotel Milano, some 20 minutes north of Lucca. We then have 3 days of wedding celebrations after which, on Monday the 18th, it’s back into the hire car for the 3+ hour drive north to Venice. More photos of the paintwork on the hire car and then a taxi to the port where QE should be waiting for us.

In an attempt to avoid being ripped off by the car hire outfit I have ensured that MasterCard have reduced the credit limit dramatically on an old credit card that I rarely use. There have been so many scare stories in the press in recent weeks about scams by Italian car hire firms that I wanted to reduce the amount they can extract from the card to a figure that’s so small that I won’t get agitated about it.

Louise and Red and grandsons Ethan and Charlie,  and Mike and his fiancée Gretchen will all be at the wedding so our family will have one of those rare get togethers.

We have now seen the schedule for the QE2 presentations and celebrations. Luckily none of them happen while we are off the ship, because those days are all port days.

Today it has been fairly bumpy but the sun has come out in the late afternoon. It is windy and the decks are still very clear. The sun worshippers have decided to stay inside.