Smithy's Cruise Blog

After leaving Trieste we sailed down the Adriatic Sea along the coast of Italy, round the heel of Italy, across the gulf of Taranto towards the Ionian Sea.

We then headed up towards Sicily. This was a return to the Straits of Messina that we had passed through in the opposite direction a week ago. It’s the narrow stretch water that divides Sicily from the toe of Italy. A week ago we were heading West to East from Cartagena to Corfu so sailed across the flat top of Sicily and the turned to starboard through the strait with the large port of Messina on our right and mainland Italy to our left.

This time were travelling back from Trieste to Sardinia and through the strait we were sailing in a northerly direction. It was lunchtime and we were dining in the Britannia Restaurant. I had asked for a table as near to the stern of the ship as possible because I was anxious to see and photograph the small volcanic island of Stromboli which I had missed earlier.

Before I talk about Stromboli, I want to mention Messina. It was in Messina that Jane, Kim and I left Queen Elizabeth 5 years ago for niece Katie’s wedding to my blog guru Sam near Lucca in central Italy.

We flew to Rome, then another flight to Pisa. We then drove to the wedding venue 20 minutes north of Lucca and after 3 days of wedding celebrations we drove north to Venice where Queen Elizabeth was conveniently waiting for us.

But back to Stromboli. It was misty and Stromboli wasn’t erupting for us so the best I could do was a photo taken by Kim which is much better than any I took

This is how I hoped it would have been performing

The canal is a very short one but it does have two bridges over it and one of the bridges has an impressive statue of James Joyce on it.

Another bridge has a statue of the seated figure of Gabrielle D’Annunzio and many tourists have made idiots of themselves being photographed with him.

Jane’s brother Nigel is giving the eulogy at Winchester Cathedral this evening. The service starts at 6.00 pm UK time. If you go to the Winchester Cathedral website there is a Live Screen button which should enable you to see and hear the whole service.

This should be headed VENICE because on the original itinerary that was where we were due to be on Wednesday 14 September. Out of the blue in the summer we were notified that Trieste was replacing Venice. I think they said there was no room for us in Venice which seemed a little odd. We all know that Venice wants to limit the number of cruise ships in the port because of the damage to the buildings.

Whether that was the reason or whether it was a financial decision we will probably never know. We’d do love Venice and particularly that 40 minute vaporretto ride from the ship to St Marks Square with all the working launches full of supplies darting in and out of the congested canals.

But Trieste was new for us. Queen Victoria was berthed right in the City. The terminal was a little tatty but we were quickly through and into the beautiful town. Jane and Kim have become experts in all things architectural after attending a lecture on this cruise by a remarkable lady. Now we study the windows and the doors, the colours and the statues. Well the ladies do.

We found a tourist information office and they produced a map and marked on it the route to the Old City (which, very helpfully, was at the top of a hill). The very helpful lady told me that there was a lift up to the Old City but told me that it was important that when we arrived at the kiosk for the lift that we pointed out Jane in her wheelchair (hard to miss!) as the lift man would need to active some special machinery which would be needed to get Jane’s chair out of the lift, when we arrived at the top. It took us some time to find the entrance to the lift which was hidden in an underground car park. The lift man looked out of his kiosk, saw Jane and shook his head. The gist of it was that the machinery had broken and Jane couldn’t go up.

Beautiful squares and lovely narrow side streets led us back to the shops and the coffee houses and it was agreed that the old man could sit and have a coffee while the ladies did some shopping.

And they left me there.

No. By then it was time for lunch and Jane’s afternoon nap and after Jane and Kim had had what was one of the best coffees of the trip we headed back to the ship. We had been told over and over before leaving the ship that we must have our passports with us as they would be checked by the Italian police before we could board. No one looked at anything! Why would they want to keep us there?

We had always known that Jane would not be able to get ashore in Hvar. When the ship has to anchor, the trip to shore is in the ship’s tenders and they are impossible for Jane. It made our treatment In Dubrovnik harder to take.

The plan was that I would go ashore in one of the tenders after breakfast and return at lunchtime so that Kim could get ashore too.

Hvar is an island off Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast in the Adriatic. It is lovely. I was ashore by 9.00 and walked first to the west around the harbour. There were large numbers of yachts of all shapes and sizes. Their occupants were beginning to stir and some were diving it to the harbour to clear their heads.

Later, after exploring the town centre, which was just beginning to organise itself for the daily influx of tourists, I found an excellent bistro by the eastern harbour for a coffee and time for the daily Wordle.

And then it was back to ship by tender for lunch with Mrs Smith.

Di and Jim Pain are 2 of our table companions at Dinner. They live in Rutland but both originate from Leicester. During a conversation early in the cruise I mentioned the name of a friend of ours, Mike Yeomans. Di immediately said that as a teenager she had had a friend with that name. She asked if my friend came from Leicester. I was not sure but Di gave me the name of the school ‘her’ Mike Yeomans had attended.

I emailed Mike and he replied that he had indeed gone to that school and that he had lived with an aunt in Leicester at the time. His parents had gone to Wales as a result of a job move. So he was indeed the same Mike Yeomans who Di remembered.

The next night Jim Pain said the Pain family had lost contact with a cousin whose father had died at a young age many years ago. The boy’s mother decided, on her husbands premature death, to move with her children, back to Southampton, where her family still lived.

After that, the Pains in Leicester, lost all contact. Jim thought that the boy had probably become a lawyer. Jim couldn’t remember the boy’s name but his surname was Pain. ‘Grant Pain’ I said. I remembered a boy with that name when I was at prep school. Jim confirmed that that was his cousin’s name. I had not seen or heard of Grant Pain for 50+ years. I said I would do what I could to get contact details.

I thought that Max S-C was possibly a friend of Grant and emailed him. He replied instantly and confirmed Grant’s contact details.

So I knew Di’s friend from the 1960’s and Jim’s cousin from the 1960’s but to cap it all, when I told Mike Yeomans that I had located Grant Pain he told me that he and Grant had worked together as Solicitors for the Southampton Town Clerks department for about 5 years in the late sixties.

I have left it to Jim Pain to make contact with his long lost cousin.

Those of you who know me well are aware of the fact that I hate complaining, hate arguments and hate unpleasantness.

I will be careful what I say, but on Tuesday the port was Dubrovnik. A fair number of passengers go off the ship on guided tours, some ( probably only a few) remain on the ship and a large number do their own thing and walk round the port or local town.

If it is a long way to the dock gate or to the local town then a shuttle bus service is provided by Cunard. If the shuttle bus is not wheelchair friendly then Cunard provide adapted vehicles that will take people in wheelchairs to the dock gate or the local town.

All I will say, at this stage, is that when Jane in her wheelchair, Kim and I arrived on the quay from the ship we were told that there were no adapted vehicles to take the 3 of us to Dubrovnik. The day was spent on the quay. 3 unhappy bunnies.

Whenever we have been in our cabin on this voyage the TV has been showing Sky News and we have been following the dramatic scenes after the sad death of Queen Elizabeth II.

I was reminded that my father was the first person to greet Her Majesty aboard Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) on Clydebank after the ship had been completed. Here he is shaking her hand as she stepped off the gangway.

And father was also there to greet Prince Charles, as he then was, as he boarded QE2

God save the King.

Fifty years ago – almost to the day, Jane and I had our first holiday together here in Corfu.

Much earlier in 1972, Brendan Andrews, Ted Coulter and I had fixed up a 2 week Taverna holiday for late August/early September in the village of Benitses, a few miles south of Corfu town. In July 1972 Jane and I met. As she had to get back to her teaching job in Wantage halfway through holiday that us 3 lads had booked, Jane arranged to come with us for the first week.

A few years after we married we came back to Corfu and stayed in Paleokatrista and then when Louise was small and before Mike had arrived we had a holiday in Roda in the north of the island.

Then about 3 or 4 years ago we came to Corfu on a cruise and a taxi man took us to all our old haunts.

We had been there 50 years ago – Brendan, Ted, me, Jane and a fisherman Angelo who took us all the way from Benitses to Kassiopi

For the visit today I had managed to book online a 3 hour tour in an adapted vehicle with a wheelchair lift. Corfutaxis were the outfit and although Penelope was not great in responding to emails, eventually we put together a tour which would take us to new places but with a drinks stop in Kassiopi in the north of the island.

This time we were shore, expecting the adapted Taxi by the ship. Kim was sure taxis were not allowed through the dock gates and she was right, so we took the adapted shuttle to the gates. There we were met with chaos. Cars, buses and people everywhere. Someone told me that Corfutaxis had a stand in the building. I found it and asked the lady where the adapted taxi was. She asked what I meant. Another lady said she was in charge but didn’t know of any such booking. Luckily I had all the emails on my phone. It seems that Penelope had failed to tell anybody about the booking and was not working that day!

Anyway they rallied round, found a vehicle, found a driver, Spiros, took out the back seats and we were ready to go. They knocked 60 euros off the price which was a bonus and we set off on my suggested route round the coast up to Kassiopi.

I had imagined that the route would take us round the coast at sea level. It did occasionally, but in the main it twisted into the cliffs, round sharp corners, through little touristy villages on surfaces riddled with potholes. It was a bouncy hour hut eventually we arrived in Kassiopi. My recollection was that 50 years ago, there was one or maybe 2 tavernas and nothing else. Now there was little room to move, but I found the taverna we had lunched in 50 years ago.

We took a better route back through central Corfu and eventually arrived back at the ship some 3 hours after we had left. It was an exhausting day.

It is always an interesting part of the cruise experience. Pre pandemic we always asked for a table for 8 in the Britannia restaurant but in January we found that they we not available and tables for 2 (in our case 3) were the norm. This was a sensible exercise to keep passengers safe.

This time the majority of the tables were for 2 but there were a number for 6 and Jamie Firth (a former Maitre D’) had, as usual, assisted with this for us and we were allocated one of the tables for 6. On the first evening Valda from Odiham joined us and she is still with us.

Another couple, whose names none of us can recall, sat down with us. We all introduced ourselves and the conversation started. Mrs X wanted to know all about what I did for a living. I avoided the issue which made her more inquisitive. She gave up for a time and started telling us about the vast number of cruises she had been on. Her husband seemed a nice chap, but he kept his head down for most of the evening.

That was on Sunday, our first evening on the ship. On Monday evening Jim and Di turned up in place of the mystery couple, who had clearly decided that we were not their cup of tea. Strangely we have not seen the couple anywhere on the ship since that evening.

Jane reminded me later that when we used to go on Mark Warner holidays with the kids (we went on 13 over the years – dinghy sailing, water skiing, windsurfing) the first question at dinner was ‘where do you live‘ and the second was ‘what do you do’. For a time I used to say that I was an undertaker. No one ever asked anything more and they changed the subject. But I was eventually caught out.

Dennis Amiss, the former English Test batsman was with his family on the same Mark Warner holiday. What I didn’t know was that at that time he was doing promotions for a young man who was buying up small firms of undertakers in the Midlands. Dennis had been doing his research and when his wife asked me what I did and I replied that I was an undertaker, Dennis immediately joined in, named the undertakers in Southampton and wondered which one was mine. I had to come clean.

On a later Mark Warner holiday, when asked, I said that I was a gynaecologist. That worked well and no one asked anything more until one evening a lady came and sat next to me after dinner and said she had a problem and wondered if I could help. I had to make some excuses to get out of that.

Jim and Di joined Queen Victoria for this trip as part of an Imagine Cruising promotion. They are the travel company who have supplements in the middle of the weekend newspapers. They specialise in holidays that combine cruises with other activities. Jim and Di leave the ship in Trieste, then travel to Venice, stay there for a few nights before a train and coaches to the Swiss lakes and eventually the Orient Express for the last part of their journey home.

Jim and Di are great fun. They listen to all my stories and laugh at the correct time. Jim’s family business was in hosiery (socks!) and that seems to have kept generations of their family happy.

There may be 200/250 people leaving the ship with Jim and Di but I gather that a similar number will be doing the journey in reverse and replacing the leavers in Trieste. We will see.