Travel Blog

Our first stop was the island of St Croix which is actually the largest of the US Virgin Islands at a whopping 82 square miles which is almost three times the size of St Thomas, often considered to be the main USVI. It has a similar population to St Thomas…

So on to a new ship and the routine of making friends commenced once more. I’d only been on board 10 minutes when the battle for my money began. I spent $500 in the first hour although I have secured one of only 14 places in the Persian Garden with…

I opted to walk off the ship with my bags at 7am rather than meet my luggage at the allotted time of 9:45. I'd actually driven across the state to Naples by 9:45 so it was a good move. The Mustang convertible is not blessed with boot space. My home…

Can I count Haiti as a country visited if I’ve only visited the private resort peninsula of Labadee owned by Royal Caribbean? My guess is that is might be a little different from the real Haiti but geographically speaking, I have now visited Haiti, the poorest country in the Western…

Ranking my cruises in order of enjoyment this one would be last with Britannia in August second last. Both were large ships and sailed out of Southampton with lots of English people aboard. Regulars on this route have commented that this is the chaviest crossing they’ve been on and they’re…

I’ve managed to keep up my early morning walking regime on the top deck where I’m normally the first to appear while it’s still dark. I’m then joined by a woman in a yellow t-shirt who walks the opposite way which as you know doesn’t irritate me at all. I’ve…

So I’ve now crossed the Atlantic on a ship. Tick. The remaining four sea days before reaching our first port of call in St Maarten were more enjoyable largely because the weather improved as we ventured further south. Some of the more hardy Brits disrobed on the top deck as…

After being dropped at Waterloo by Bangladeshi taxi driver, Kabir, I boarded the train and immediately struck up a conversation with Tony (58) from Sydney who happened to be on the same cruise. 30+ years working with Qantas, he retired four years ago and cruises more than me. He’s done…

We had a much needed sea day before the next stop in Cartagena, Spain. I spent my time in the retreat and got speaking to Ron (78) from Stoke on Trent. He’s on the ship with his ex-wife who he divorced 28 years ago. Their respective partners had both died…

For Pisa and/or Florence the ships dock in Livorno, or Leghorn in English, an Italian coastal city in the Ligurian Sea (the leghorn chicken originates from Tuscany). The choice was Pisa or Florence and I chose Pisa (12 miles away) because Florence (71 miles away) warrants more than a day…

It think country number 76 deserves a blog of its own because it was quite fabulous. The second smallest country in the world to the Vatican, with a bulging population of 38,000 (Goodson Park could hold them all) comprising about 20% Monegasque and the rest foreigners (who like paying zero…

Our first port of call was the lovely city of Alicante. I was due to go on an excursion to Guadalest but three hours on a coach was less appealing than a colonic taster session so I went freestyle and found Georgia and Hope by accident. We went to the…

The three sea days sailing toward the Mediterranean provided an opportunity to acquaint myself with Britannia and the P&O way of doing things. This was also the first time I’d cruised from a UK port and the first time I’d sailed with 700 kids. My last cruise had only two…

I awoke alarmingly early on the final day and was still perplexed by the lack of tartar sauce served with my fish and chips in the hotel restaurant last night. I mean this is France. They’re supposed to know about things like that. Anyway, rather sporadic service so once again…

I left the hotel with a heavy bag around my shoulder and schlepped to the car park a few hundred metres away. There was no helpful man to assist me in my moment of need. I knew the car park would be problematic and it was. For ten minutes I…

I spent time in four different countries on Tuesday - Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Germany and France and didn’t pay one toll. But it did take me seven hours and the little Mazda is great fun but not for long journeys. It wasn’t long this morning before I was out of Liechtenstein…

I left at 11 from another garage with a car lift in it. Never experienced one before then have two in a row! So bizarre I needed a lie down. At first I’d decided to give Neuchwanstein Castle a miss as the forecast wasn’t very good however as I got…

I left at 11am after searching for ten minutes for my car in a small underground car park. Apparently I was on the wrong floor. Prior to that I’d spent a few hours walking around the outskirts of a retail park which I can assure you was more exciting than…

At 8am the chaps left to catch their flight back home and I skedaddled about 30 minutes later with a long drive ahead - 285 miles on non-motorways to Ljubljana, Slovenia. I decided to hug the coast as much as possible and boy was it scenic. Some of the most…

I was greatly relieved to arrive in Marina Agana after such a long drive and see the chaps. We got some supplies from the supermarket and went to dinner. Sunday was our first day of sailing and I’d hired a skipper for the day because we’d forgotten everything from last…