The Ouseys in Victoria Page

We are back home for more than a week now.  It takes time to recover from Jet lag.  They were both great cruises, as should be clear from my previous blogs.  Now I can add some pictures.  Well two anyways.  The first is of our group of 10 stalwart sailors on the Baltic Cruise. and the second is the 3 couples on the Med Cruise.

The flight back was of course long, but we must commend Air Canada, much has improved since our last Trans Atlantic crossing a couple of years ago.  The leg room was generally better, the food and service has improved, even though we still had to pay
and extra $45.00 for one extra bag.  We had 3 to check in but you pay for any extra.

Doing an excursion on disembarkation was a good move.  It got us of the boat early, and we got  dropped off at the airport, in the mean time we had a tour of the country side and of Windsor Castle which was very good.

All in all and excellent trip.   Once I do some further work on an album, I'll post that too.

Ciao & Peace.

We have completed our last 3 ports of call. Both Cadiz and Vigo Spain
were excellent. Smaller cities with lots of character. Lisbon was
just too big to see properly in a short stop, but what we saw was that
it was just another big city. Surely we would have had a different
picture had we had more time to see other areas. Vigo was a surprise.
We were told it was a small city of 300,000, however, it is much
larger than that. Although it had the narrow local streets the many
major thoroughfares were wide, with wide sidewalks, and it seemed
modern and very clean. Good shops with reasonable prices. We didn't
get to the castle as we were on foot and it was a distant hike, much
of it uphill. In fact Vigo is more vertical than horizontal. We
really enjoyed it.

Our ships entertainment continues to be great. Mike, Gail, and us
went to another specialty restaurant the other night. Q-sine. What a
spectacular event that was. It was as much entertaining as it was
dining experience. You order from an Ipad, the food is from all over
the world. They all come in small quantities to share and taste, yet
after 3 and a half hours one comes away stuffed. The service is quite
different with detailed explanations (from each of the different
chefs) of what you are eating. The table settings and service sets
are quite unique. Really a different dining experience.

One more sea day tomorrow, to rest up, pack and get ready for the
return to home and reality. After 27 days we are ready. Though it
has been great it is time to go home. I'll post some picture (out of
the 1,000 I have taken), once I sort them out, which may be a while.
Lol.

We were most disappointed in the results of the Stanley cup, but more
disappointed in the aftermath riots in Vancouver. We have dispelled
all the good we showed during the Olympics all because of a few louts.
Very dismaying.

That's all folks.

Ciao and Peace.

Wow what a busy three days. Provence was a long, long day. We went
to the city of Aix en Provence on a bus tour. 50 souls with one tour
guide. The scenery along the way was beautiful and it took about an
hour and a half, with a piddle stop. The city itself was gorgeous,
but we didn't get much out of the guide. She was good but with no
headsets it was hard hearing her, especially with all the noise.
However, I was out and about shooting many pictures of the wonderful
architecture and statuary. We had 4 hours on our own to wander about
and shop, eat etc. Wonderful place but we are having second thoughts
about bus tours in general. We abandoned any thoughts of touring into
Rome as that would have been a even longer day than the 10 hours we
spent in Provence. So we stayed in the Port area of Civitavecchia and
actually had a very nice day. We were in for 3 hours on a walk about
that was in many ways as nice as Aix en Provence. Wonderful old
village streets, shops and the town squares and markets. Carolyn blew
out a pair of sandals so was forced (ha ha) to buy another pair.

Today was a new port for all of us Cagliari Sardinia. Now this is a
pretty place. Very clean and lots of shops and being Sunday most of
them were closed, we were blessed, at least the guys were. Alas,
however some of the touristy shops were open so the girls did get to
poke around. Again the water front and the narrow streets are quaint
and so clean for what is an old, old city. A very nice relaxing 3
hour walk about, with a coffee stop at outside cafe. Don't need to
stop for food, with amount we are getting on the ship. Diet time
once we get home, though we will have to taper off as to avoid
withdrawal. The entertainment on board continues to be good, though
in our case some repeat from the first cruise, so we pick the best of
those and skip some of the rest. The food remains fantastic, and
tonight is our second formal night and Mike and Gail will be at the
Captains table, so it will be just John, Suzanne, Carolyn and I at our
table. However, will be able to look down upon the Captains table and
maybe throw down a bun or two, LOL. Well take a picture or two of the
elite, at least.

Tomorrow is a welcome sea day, a day to rest up for the following 3
port days in a row, Cadiz, Lisbon, and Vigo Spain.

Mike told one of the waiters that he was going Whale watching on our
sea day. When asked where he was going to do that, he said by the
pool. The waiter is still laughing. Lol.

TTFN, Ciao
and Peace.

We got back to Southampton and 3 of our couples departed for home or
continued vacation. We bid them fond adieu, we had a great time with
them all. However, John and Suzanne joined us in Southampton and so
we are now 3 couples. We enjoyed a day in Southampton visiting an
IKEA store and the West Quay Mall which main attraction was a Marks
and Spencer.

On the same day we departed and proceeded to have two days at sea
prior to our first Port of call Gibraltar. We enjoyed the ships
entertainment and activities; and we have a different lectures series
featuring a professor of astronomy. We celebrated Mike and Gails
anniversary at the Murano specialty restaurant. What a spectacular
meal. The guys had Steak Dianne which was fabulous, and so the whole
evening was a success. Mike and Gail got lots of cards and flowers
and wine from the some of the crew, they were very pleased with the
evening.

In Gibraltar John and Suzanne took a tour of the caves while Mike,
Gail, Carolyn and I walked the town. They had had an explosion on the
dock that we were supposed to use, that and some heavy weather
necessitated the use of the tenders. Very interesting as the seas
were still heave and those tenders really bounce about.

Today is another sea day before getting into Toulon, France. We all
have shore excursion to Aix-en-Provence.

That's it for now.

Ciao and Peace.

Yesterday we were in Copenhagen. What a wonderfully clean city. It
was about a half hour walk in and we found the town square and the
start of the river cruises. We took the cruise through the harbour
and the canals under the very low bridges (I mean head ducking
heights). It was an excellent way to view the sights, castles,
churches and interesting architecture. The walk back was nice along
the water front. Some of the others took tours which they enjoyed.
For a lark at dinner last night the waiters dressed me up in a table
cloth, a napkin top and a torch to make me look like the statue of
liberty, much to everyone's delight. The entertainment last night was
a trumpet and piano player and he was excellent as well as humourous
and he could sing as well.

Today and tomorrow we are at sea going back to Southampton and tonight
was the last formal night. Wonderful meal, most everyone had lobster,
the entertainment was Broadway numbers by the singers and dancers with
an appearance of the a cappella group. Quite well done. Tomorrows sea
day will consist of getting ready to disembark on Saturday, though
there are still some activities and lectures.

3 of our couples will be disembarking, however, Carolyn and I, plus
Mike and Gail will stay with the ship for the Med cruise. John and
Suzanne will be joining us. Looking forward to that.

It was great fun for the 10 of us with many lasting memories.

Ciao and Peace.