Carry on cruising ( to the Mediterranean and back)

For obvious reasons this has been a very different cruise and in summing up a number of factors need to be borne in mind.. We’re travelling in a time where a pandemic has, and continues to shape our lives, (locals, crew, and passengers) both onboard the ship and in the places where we have stopped; Brexit and supply chain issues have undoubtedly affected some of the ship’s services; The ship has only recently been returned to service after a layoff of many months; The ship’s service staff have also only just returned to their jobs after months of unemployment; The entire crew are having to deal with procedures, guidelines, restrictions and protocols that they have never encountered before. Therefore what we have experienced on this trip is not likely to be a blueprint for future cruises as the pandemic will (hopefully) ease and restrictions will (hopefully) ease too.  On the whole the staff and crew have, as always, been courteous, helpful and friendly even when circumstances have ...

Before I start on Gibraltar it’s worth mentioning that we had dinner in Sabatini’s, the specialty Italian restaurant last night. Very good it was too and consisted of six courses (bread and oils for dipping, a starter- buffalo tomatoes and mozzarella, a salad, antipasto- fettuccine, main- veal masala and dessert- tiramisu). However once on a two week voyage is enough.  Gibraltar. Well, plan A was to go up to the top of the rock but as there was a layer of cloud obscuring the top, it wasn’t really worth going. There was no plan B so we just walked to the Main Street and started climbing the steps, following the signs towards the Nature Reserve. The first stop was the Moorish fort, then upwards to the first War tunnels for a look around and then lastly on to the second war/siege tunnels. That was as high as it was worth going given the cloud but we still got a great view of the entire Crown Dependency, the airport and Spain beyond. We even managed to get (fairly) up close and persona...

We have been to Cartegena once before, many years ago. Unless you are going out on an excursion a bit farther afield there is not a huge amount to do here unless you are a fan of archaeology or maritime history. It’s a nice enough town though and the main drag was full of tourists and locals alike meandering or putting the world to rights over coffee. We joined them for a short while. But once you venture off the city centre precinct the streets were almost empty with businesses boarded up until the start of the next summer season. Beforehand we had walked up to the top of the fort which overlooks the entire town. There is also an old amphitheater near the base of the hill fort which has been excavated and renovated (work was being done on this when we were here last) and it’s now used for up to date theatrical performances.  It was warm and humid here today too…lovely to be out and about in shorts and a tee shirt on 1 November!