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Messina, Sicily

After leaving Vigo, we sailed south, running parallel with the coasts of Spain and Portugal. We rounded Cape St Vincent, hoping to see Roger and Jill Wilson waving, but there was no sign of them. Then we were through the Straits of Gibraltar and heading east some 35 miles from the coasts of Morroco, Algeria and Tunsia.

It was a three day voyage to our next port – Messina. Three sea days with some average weather and some sunny half days. I thought it would hot and sunny throughout, as it was 2 weeks ago, but we are promised much better temperatures in the days to come as we move east.
 The harbour at Messina.
Cunard failed to come up with any suitable transport in Messina. One day they will realise that some people cannot climb the steps into a coach and need coaches that have lifts or ramps. They exist in all the countries that we are visiting, but it would appear that making a profit on every tour they organise is more important than keeping people like us happy.
So we had to resort to a taxi. We want a driver who can speak English we said to the taxi gangmaster at the quayside. He gathered the drivers together and after some arguments pushed Sandy forward.
Blonde with very long legs and aged 25 (she said). I think that the gangmaster thought I would be swayed because of her looks, despite her English being virtually non existent. It worked!
The plan was to be taken to the pretty Taormina, some 30 miles south, spend an hour or two exploring the little town and then returning for a tour round Messina. Sandy made it all possible by driving fast but carefully for 35 minutes each way.
Taormina is 700 feet above sea level, overlooking a beautiful coastline.

Mount Etna sits in the background.

Taormina was full of tourists of all nationalities. It is the most popular tourist attraction in Sicily and its narrow streets have top of the range shops intermingled with tat.

There are some beautiful buildings – the Greco-Roman theatre, the Corvaja Palace and the Cathedral.

Sandy met us at the agreed time and place at the end of our allotted time and we blocked the traffic for a while as we poured Jane into the taxi and stored the wheelchair. Sandy didn’t appear to have seen a folding wheelchair before, which convinced me that in the Mafia riddled island, she was probably a gangsters moll rather than a cab driver!

After a fast dash back to Messina we toured the city, and took in a local wedding. Jane likes them.
 The church in the square.
 The Cathedral
I am sorry that I have not been live on the blog in recent days but there was a problem with Blogspot that I couldn’t  resolve without notes that I had stupidly left at home. Sam in London had set up the blog in the first place 2 years ago and a couple of emails from him today quickly resolved the problem. Thank you Sam. You are a star!
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Part 2

On our way to Oporto, the first port on our second leg, the Captain announced that the weather predicted for Thursday was such that we would be unable to berth at Oporto. The storms had built up after our departure from Southampton and the Bay of Biscay was living up to its rocky reputation.

The Captain had made arrangements for us to berth instead at Vigo, a very sheltered port in one of the world’s great natural harbours. For us, a second visit to Vigo in 2 weeks.


I had ruffled feathers last week about the lack of tours being offered with wheelchair ramps or lifts. The tour manager, Pierro, rang to say that he had organised a suitable vehicle for Vigo.  But he wanted to charge Jane and me more than the other 12 people in the coach! The cantankerous old blogger was incensed. Pierro later rang back to say that we would pay the same as everyone else.
And the tour was good. The guide, Kathy, was Irish but had lived in Galicia for 30 years. She arrived in Vigo to teach for a year, met her husband, had a family and turned herself into a brilliant guide. The tour took us up to a viewpoint where we looked down on the bay, littered with mussel farms.

We then spent time at Castrelos Park and the recently restored Palace. The gardens were of a French design and in one small pond stood a miniature version of the main house.

We were treated to tapas and wine in a beachside hotel on our way back to the ship. A lovely day.
And as we sailed out we passed the picturesque and rocky Cies Islands. Two of the islands are linked with a beach that has in the past been voted the most beautiful in Europe.

This is the beach linking two of the islands
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Southampton

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.

But my right knee meant a change of plan and Martin took Andy and Jane to the ship in the taxi and I went to the Nuffield Hospital. About a week before, I had emailed Mr Nick Hancock, the orthopaedic surgeon who I had seen 2 years ago. Luckily he had a Tuesday afternoon list, and it was arranged that I would have an X-ray at 1.00pm and then see him at 2.00pm.
Everything worked like clockwork. Brian Kelly kindly collected me and took me to the hospital. The X-ray was done quickly and Nick Hancock arrived early. To get me through the next 3 weeks, he decided to give me a cortisone injection in the knee in the hope that that would give me some relief. And it has. 
Long term it probably means a new knee, but we will worry about that after our return.
Brian was a star and picked me up from the Nuffield and took me back to the ship and Andy and Jane and Max and Anne Wassell had found Jane and had organised her. She had been on her own for 6 hours, but had survived as I knew she would!
We first met the Houghtons and the Wassells on a Black Sea cruise 2 years ago on the Queen Victoria and we all seemed to gel, so are sharing Table 314 in the Britannia Restaurant.
Mike and Joanna Harrison, great friends of my sister Liz and her husband Tim, are also aboard and I bumped into them on Wednesday. 
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Days at sea

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!)

Digby is a big personality. The audience were probably ‘Middle England’ in the main. What he had to say corresponded with their views and they gave him a rapturous applause throughout.  

As the Bay of Biscay was fairly frisky on Sunday, the singers and dancers final show was postponed that evening. It was still considered too dangerous for them on Monday, so the final show before they disbanded didn’t happen. Their 8 month contract had come to an end and they will be replaced by new singers and a new troupe of dancers on the next voyage.
On Monday evening Jo Haley, the Entertainment Director, announced that she was moving to Queen Mary 2. A great shame, as we felt that she was a breath of fresh air and was a very polished and accomplished performer.
Tomorrow Southampton.
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Cartagena

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.

In the afternoon, I was entertained by a group of children being trained in racing techniques in their Optimist sailing dinghies. It was all happening within the marina just below our cabin. Some of them were very good and they were all clearly having a great time. It brought back so many memories of Christchurch harbour all those years ago!

We heard that our visit to Gibraltar on Saturday would be a short one, with us all having to be back on board by 12.30pm. That didn’t worry me, but of course Jane always wants to see the apes and M&S – in that order. I think the apes are dirty, smelly animals. They leap onto your shoulders and head. They steal your specs, cameras, mobiles and rifle through your pockets. If you are stupid enough to be holding an ice cream, they pinch that and eat it!
But don’t be influenced by me! Next time you are in Gibraltar, go and have a look and let me know what you think.
On the day we walked the mile to the main square and then up Main Street. It was packed with locals and tourists. As we always seem to do, we bumped into John and Alan who had been much more adventurous than us and had walked for many miles.  

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

In the evening, at dinner, Tracey took a different view of the apes. She thought they were wonderful.  She clearly fell in love with the babies.

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Livorno and Civitavecchia

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.

Livorno is in Tuscany and is Italy’s third largest seaport. It has had a troubled history. The city has been razed to the ground numerous times over the centuries and during the Second World War it suffered badly. There are now some dramatic newish piazzas
 

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

Civitavecchia ranks near the bottom of the list as well! Both of us had a recollection of a market and a modernised traffic free area, but we couldn’t find it. The shuttle had dropped us off at an area we did not recognise and our explorations failed to locate the promised land!
Tonight the ship will be full of very tired passengers who have been on tours to Rome. Our four dinner companions are on tours so will be able to regale us with stories of their activities. They are great fun. 
John and Alan are from Whitstable in Kent. John retired aged 53 some 19 years ago, after working as an engineer for the Electricity Generating Board (wrong description but I recall that it changed hands many times!). Alan was in the licensing trade for many years and ran Golf Club bars. He is a Scot, which means that I sometimes don’t understand him, but he has a wonderful sense of humour.
Ken and Tracey are from Preston. Ken is a policeman and for the last 5 years has been seconded to the Met, travelling down to London every week for some very important work, that I ought not talk about. The spell with the Met has just come to an end so he will be returning to the Preston force. I think Tracey and their two sons will be pleased to see more of him. Ken lets us in to all sorts of stories!
Two things I meant to mention. The celebrity speaker on board is Lord Digby Jones. He gave one talk last week on a sea day – about his life. I haven’t yet had a chance to speak to him, but I will. He is a brilliant orator and his life story parallels mine. Except that he made senior partner of a very large law firm, Edge Ellison in Birmingham at age 35 – I was somewhat older than that when I attained a similar position in Southampton! He was a Knight and then a Lord. I am still waiting to hear from the Lord Chamberlain. But you can see the parallels.
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.

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Toulon

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.

Toulon has a pretty waterfront looking out at a massive selection of yachts of all shapes and sizes. There were numerous bars and restaurants and all were full, not only with QE guests, but French holidaymakers as well. Perhaps it was a Saints day?

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Monaco

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.

Michael and Posie Yeomans joined us from their home in Cannes for a fine alfresco dinner in the hotel and the next morning we explored the Principality with Michael. The Seabourn Legend was moored on the breakwater amongst the magnificent gin palaces. She was not much larger than them. A 208 passenger, 6 star, all inclusive vessel. We boarded her in time for lunch and had a wonderful cruise which took in Portofina, Corsica, Sardinia and Elba.
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.

Yet again the weather was superb. Clear blue sky and a lovely temperature. We left our berth just before midnight and set off for the bonus port of Toulon.
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Change of plan

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.

Nothing particularly odd about using tenders, but the problem for us is that Jane, and anyone else who cannot walk onto a tender, has to remain on the ship. So that Jane would not have been able to go ashore at all on Monday.

I can only assume that Cunard decided that it was important that Jane was not inconvenienced, because suddenly the Captain announced that we would be leaving Monaco tonight at midnight. During the night we will sail to Toulon, where there is a berth available, which means Monday ashore in Toulon – a new port for us.
But I am getting ahead of myself. First I need to tell you about our day in Barcelona. It didn’t start very well because there was only one shuttle bus which took wheelchairs, and it had just left. So we took a taxi into the city. The plan was to explore the side streets on the right side of Las Ramblas. We did that and made the inevitable forays into pretty little shoe shops, but they did not present us with the right sort of pink shoe that Jane “needed”.

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. 


We also found a bride being driven to her wedding in a cream MGA. The driver appeared to be her father. He had some problems driving the car but we later saw it outside a church, so they must have made it to the ceremony eventually.

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

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Cadiz

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

What I do remember is that back in 1980 we were on holiday with the Holts in Estepona on the Costa del Sol. Our close friends Mike and Maggie O’Connell, who were then still living in England, were on holiday at the same time in a hotel in or near Cadiz. It was agreed that at some point we would meet for lunch halfway between the two places. I asked our Rep in Estepona for the name of a small town halfway and he said San Roque would be suitable.
Using a public call box I rang Mike and told him what the Rep had suggested. It was agreed that we would meet in the first bar he arrived at on his side of this place San Roque. So on the appointed day we set off in a hire car and after about 20 minutes I saw a sign marked San Roque. I anticipated half way would have been about 2 hours away. Indeed we were soon in San Roque and Mike and Maggie arrived at the little bar soon afterwards. They had had a 3 hour journey over the mountains and we had taken just 30 minutes. The O’Connells were not impressed! Perhaps that’s why they emigrated to the USA a few years later!
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!
In the evening, following dinner, we were entertained by the Spinettes. This was their second performance and featured songs from the fifties and sixties.

Very good they were too.

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