Day 8

Well, we've left the cabin and we're now existing in the cafeteria, taking our time to think about what we might eat or drink next so as to spin out our stay here!

We've less than an hour to while away here now and there's time to reflect on what a lovely cruise this has been.  Yes, the activities on board are a bit thin, but it is - as they profess to try to provide - a modern context for their classy ocean liner style as the White Star Line.

The staff are impeccably dressed and ultra courteous and polite and the lack of constant hard sell, so much a feature on other cruise lines, is very refreshing.

We will be back.  When, we're not sure, but it really is classy Britain abroad.

One thing really struck us, especially about the audience during Ann Widdecombe's talks - if the Anglican Church is said to be the Tory party at prayer, then Cunard would seem to be the Tory party at sea!

There are clearly a lot of Brexiters on board as well as a good deal of 'third runway at Heathrow' supporters.

The sun is shining as we leave Barcelona, and we're feeling just a touch envious about our New Zealand dinner table neighbours as they start their second week on board ....

Day 7 Barcelona

We had our last shore day today.  We arrived at the dock in Barcelona around 8.30am, passing Holland America’s Eurodam on the way in.  Later on an MSC and a Costa ship also joined us at the quay so we were 4 in all.

Cunard were once again running shuttle buses to and from the city and we set off about 10am.  We had two aims in mind – to see Gaudi’s Sagrada Famila church/cathedral and to go to the Olympic Park on Mont Juic.

Having been dropped off, we set off up one of Barcelona’s most famous shopping and commercial streets, Las Ramblas and were greeted by an overpowering and abiding aroma of sewers – and we thought Spain had gone beyond that phase of its development many years ago!

We made it to the top without breathing apparatus and had a run round El Corte Ingles but bought nothing!  We then took a deep breath and decided to try out the Barcelona Metro to get us to our two destinations of the day.  Now we’ve ridden quite a few underground systems in foreign cities over the years, but this was by far the most challenging as we struggled to work out our route and which tickets to buy.

Suddenly, from nowhere, a smartly dressed man appeared who sorted our queries and who got us our tickets and route sorted, ending by telling us: “I no work here”.  So that cost us €5, but he had saved us at least that as we were going to buy a ticket each until he pointed out we could share one ticket between us.  It was all a sign that the Metro provided no staff to help travellers and, on the way back, we saw one of the security staff at a station helping out bewildered tourists!

We set off, but on the platform were still not sure if we were on the right route or about to go in the right direction.  It turned out that we were sort of OK and a kind student on the train who spoke English and realised we were struggling, helped us further on our way, this time for no expected payment!

En route we saw buskers, both in the metro subways and on board the trains.  There have also been a lot of beggars everywhere, both here and in Valencia, either on street corners or they come to your table when you’re having a beer or a coffee.  The finest moment in this regard was when we were in the funicular going up to the Olympic Park on Mont Juic.  I realised afterwards that I’ve allowed myself to lower my guard in recent times.  In the past I’ve been very wary of anyone I see with a rucksack on public transport and this guy had one.  No, he wasn’t hiding a bomb, but an accordion and, as soon as the doors closed and the train set off, he whipped it out and started to play at loud volume almost next to us, stopping only as we arrived but giving himself time to go round everyone with his cap held out!

And what about our two target destinations?  Well, we’d worried as to whether Elizabeth would get into the church as her arms weren’t covered.  We needn’t have worried.  When we got to the ticket office there was a notice telling us that all today’s tickets to go in had been sold and to book online for another day! We have to be philosophical.  They’ve been building the place for 134 years with still no estimated completion date in sight, so I suppose there’s always another day.

We moved on to the Olympic Park.  That was more successful, although the top station of the funicular turned out to be quite a walk away from the Olympic Stadium.  We didn’t go in as it’s being used as a summer camp of some kind, but we could peep through metal shutters with small holes in to see the stadium where Sally Gunnell and others had their finest hour.

By now we’d been going for around 4 hours so we set off back to the ship where we arrived just in time for afternoon tea followed by a snack at the Pool Bar on the back of the ship.  We’ve now largely packed up and next stop will be dinner.  We don’t have to leave our cabin till 11am tomorrow, so we can have a leisurely get up and go.  The downside is that we’ll get back home later than we’d like or are used to.

Always work to be done!

Sailing off into the sunset

Day 6 – A Taste of Valencia

We weren’t expecting to be overwhelmed by Valencia and we weren’t!  It was OK and we walked round for about 3 hours and finished with a beer and a coffee on one of the main squares.

The shuttle bus each way worked well and it wasn’t a 30-minute ride as indicated but rather 15-20 minutes, most of which seemed to involve waiting at red lights!

There’s a good deal of pedestrianisation, but nevertheless and, as you might expect, cars and mopeds/motorbikes insist on roaring along them scattering pedestrians in their wake.

We did find some free wifi in the slightly cramped terminal building so I'm hoping to put this update on to the blog without eating unduly into my ship’s Internet minutes.

We got back round 2pm, just the right time for a chicken escalope, chips and side salad meal on the open area at the back of the ship.  Everyone is now making the most of the sunshine and the nicely warm afternoon and sun beds are now at a premium and the towels in the outdoor towel cupboard have run out!

Tonight is a ‘normal’ night, so there probably won’t be much to report later today and then tomorrow it’s Barcelona.

We’ve had our disembarkation papers and were amazed to read that we don’t have to leave the ship until about 11am on Saturday.  That must be the latest we’ve ever been allowed to stay on the last day and we’ve certainly had some early starts over the years.

Day 6

Today we’re in Valencia.  We docked just after 8am and it was still pitch black.  It is now light and the weather promises to be sunny – at last – this has so far been ‘the cloudy cruise’ and the temperature is predicted to be mid-20s Celsius / mid-70s Fahrenheit.

There’s a shuttle bus into town – the ship are telling us it’s a 30-minute ride! – and it’s free for many passengers, although they’ll charge $6 each way if you booked on an Early Saver or Saver fare – which t my amazement we didn’t so we should get ours for nothing!

More later ....

Food

I thought it was about time I started showing you some menus.  This was last night’s.  I had the escargots and the grilled fillet of beef with cherries jubilee to follow.  The menu said ‘Cherry Jubilee’ so I did have to clarify with the waiter that there would be more than one cherry!

Day 5

Day 5 was a sea day so a chance to catch up with the blog a little and a chance to eat even more than usual!  We enjoyed the second of Ann Widdecombe’s talks, this time ‘A Life in Politics’ and that lasted the best part of 90 minutes until 12.30pm.

Lunch was in the Golden Lion pub once again and in mid-afternoon we dared to take part in our first quiz on this cruise.  Now we might have had stunning quiz success while afloat earlier this year but we know that Cunard cruises attract a different intellectual clientele, so this could be an embarrassing experience.

We were our usual team of two surrounded by teams of 4, 5 and more? – the limit is supposed to be 6 to a team but that does seem to get blurred at the edges sometimes!  We got 12/20, while our 4-strong neighbours got 8 so we didn’t feel too gutted.  The winners got 18 – team size unclear!

One question was “Who was the paranoid android in ‘The Hitchhikers Gide to the Galaxy’?”.  Another was “Who wrote the Dune series of science fiction novels?”, so we were quite happy to get 12 overall.

The evening was a formal night “Roaring Twenties”.  We got off to a false start when we were posing for the cabin steward to take our photo and yet it was only after we’d arrived at the Captain’s Loyalty Cocktail Reception that Graeme realised he had forgotten to put his black and white patents on!

There was once again pretty much a 100% level of dress code adherence and a much higher proportion had gone dressed for the 20s theme than had been the case with the Victoriana Ball.

We had an enjoyable evening and seem to spend ever longer each evening chatting to the New Zealand couple on the table next to us.  They’re from Dunedin in New Zealand’s deep south, which Jim describes as ‘cold’!

We had another good dance session to the resident band and their vocalist and, once again, we weren’t back in the cabin till much before midnight.

Sheryl and Jim, who were on the table next to ours for evening meals