Southampton to Plymouth

Saturday 9^th August

Today we returned to Southampton…the end of the Cruise.  We had a great time seeing all the new Ports and the special places and the experiences this Cruise provided. Now, we go back to land based adventures and new places.  The weather was fine and sunny in Southampton, so we walked down to pick up the car we had rented for the remaining 2 weeks of our trip. ‘Parked the car in the Hotel parking lot and got settled into our room. We then went for a walk down towards the Port area to see the Old Town. This little village was a walled City at one stage, still has some nice old buildings. A lot of the houses are lived in again now and some have been slightly modernised, but still have character. Did a bit of shopping and generally got ‘the lay of the land’.

Sunday 10^th August

Today we had intended to go out to Stonehenge to have a look around there, but, we awoke to pouring rain, high winds and a yukky day.  Decided to wait and see what the weather held later in the day….still raining, so no Stonehenge today.  When the rain eased off a wee bit, we ventured out for a walk. We accidently found where we would have to book a bus to get us to Heathrow on the 24^th, so went in and booked our tickets, with the help of the information fellow there. After venturing out a couple more times for a walk, we ended up staying in and watching the Rugby League Final for the afternoon. We are hoping the weather is better tomorrow as we have to drive to Plymouth.

Monday 11^th August

Dave’s 71st Birthday!  The weather today was as least fine, but didn’t really look all that promising. We packed up and left for Plymouth around 9:30 am, hoping to miss most of the ‘work’ traffic. We had 151 miles to go (around 240 odd kms). We had hoped that the roads would be highways or motorways really, but, some were, but most roads weren’t. I can’t begin to say how many roundabouts we went through. To say dozens wouldn’t be an exaggeration, trust me. It rained on and off most of the way and this heavy rain combined with the very narrow roads, and heavy traffic meant it took us 5 hours to reach Plymouth in the end. We did get a little lost on reaching Plymouth, but finally found our Hotel and got settled in. We are on a bus route into the City, so we plan to go into the City tomorrow, on the bus, and have a look around that area, so hope the rain holds off.

Tuesday 12^th August

A fine day today, so around 9 we took off for the bus stop and caught a bus into the City Centre. After arriving there we walked up to ‘The Hoe’ to see the areas we had been with the kids 37 years ago. We were in for a bit of a shock there, as there, on the Hoe, were numerous Side Show vehicles getting set up for the yearly Fireworks Championships being held tonight and tomorrow night, so all hope of reliving the memories of what this place looked like 37 years ago were dashed.  We did manage to get photos of the ‘must see’ Statues, especially the Drake one, without the side shows in them. We then walked down to the Port area known as The Barbican. Here numerous ferries leave for destinations over the waters and it was pretty busy down there with all the tourists in town for tonight’s celebrations/competition. The lady in the Information place told us that there wasn’t a room to be had in the town for the next couple of days. Lucky we booked so long ago. Dave needed to have his INR’s checked, so we found a Doctor and got that attended to, then returned to the Hotel  later on in the afternoon. It’s raining again. We had thought we might go into the City to watch the fireworks, but not in this rain. We are planning to go to Port Isaac tomorrow. Hope the weather is nice.

Nearly back to Southampton

1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th August.

1^st…Today we did a tour of the City of Valencia and then went out to the San Jose Caves. The City itself is quite big and there are some lovely modern and attractive buildings, as well as some of the older ones. We stopped for photos at 3 impressive buildings, The Hemispheric Building, The Oceanographic Museum and another, the Opera Building. As we left there we came across the Umbracle (I think it was) where there were numerous porcelain ‘pods’ along the front of the structure.  Spain is famous for its porcelain and it is everywhere, on houses buildings and even the noise barriers on the highways.  We also visited the Central Market Square where all the fruit and vegie markets were in progress. The Porcelain decorations here were lovely. After a walk through the streets it was back to the bus for a ride about 40 minutes out of town to visit the San Jose Caves. Here we boarded smallish boats and travelled through these 15,000 year old caves, along the longest navigable underground river in all of Europe. There were some Stalactites and Stalagmites in these caves, but nothing like we have back in Oz. It was a nice trip though and it was lovely and cool in the caves. The days have been very warm to hot on this trip,so far…no rain, which is good.

2^nd… We were in Barcelona that day. Having been there before, we chose to go for a ride over the Port and part of the City in a Cable Car. Finding the right place to board the Cable Car was a challenge, but we finally made it. The ride was lovely and the scenery great. From up the top of the ride, Miramar Gardens, we could see all over the busy City below.  There were 4 Cruise ships in today so potentially around 12,000 extra tourists in the town, and it showed, particularly in the Las Rambles part of town. We enjoyed having another look at this lovely City.

3^rd…That day we were in Palma de Mallorca, Christopher Skase’s little hideaway. This place was bigger than we expected and it was full of Luxury Cruise craft in all the Marinas….plenty of money here.  We could see why Christopher chose here to hide away…it is lovely. Being a Sunday all the shops were shut in the main part of the City.  We drove through the City and out to a pearl and diamond factory, and what we liked best, a Bullring. Here we were able to go inside the bullring and walk all around on the ‘ring’, then climb up into the tiered seating which surrounds the ring. It certainly was high up there and the view of the centre ring, good. There are only a couple of bullfights a year these days as most places have banned bull fighting. They do hold concerts in the Bullring at times though, so it still gets used. We then moved on to the HUGE Cathedral which sits alongside the seaside area really. This structure is magnificent, and beside it was the Royal Almudaina Palace on one side and the Bishops residence the other, both these buildings were also grand. After a walk through the Palace gardens, we had some free time to shop at the few shops open in this part of town.

4^th…...We were in Ibiza (pronounced Eyebeetha) that day. Another lovely seaside town that was bigger than we expected. There are lots of Hotel’s and holiday units here as I suspect that they get a lot of UK visitors on holidays over there. Quite a few Marinas line the Harbour side and the boats are even bigger than in Mallorca. One Cruiser was so big that the deckhands had to have safety harnesses on to clean the top and sides of the boat. This boat apparently belonged to a Russian Millionaire (and we know there are 79 of them in Moscow alone) After a walk along the harbour foreshore, we embarked on the task of climbing/walking up to the top of the Old Town to the Cathedral of Santa Maria. It was a long steep climb and the heat of the day didn’t help at all either. The views from the top of this area, “Dalt Vila”, were really nice though, so the climb was worth the effort. We were sure tired after that day though.  A very nice place, Ibiza.

5^th… A day at Sea today. After a bit of a sleep in, we spent a bit of the day sorting through our many photos, getting started for doing our photo books for when we get back home. We did go to the Ice Skating Show again in the afternoon.  This show was different to the other one we saw, but they were both fantastic.  The costumes and the dances they have to learn, amazing. I could sit and watch all that all day, they are so talented.

6^th…We are in Port in Cadiz today. This town is a pretty place with lots of unusual buildings and some lovely monuments. We walked around the perimeter of the town visiting the parks and seeing the well known beach, ‘ Caleta Beach’, where everyone seems to want to go when in Port. There was a bit of a ‘sea mist’ in so visibility wasn’t the best for awhile there, but the beach looked very nice.  There were a few people already in the water, so it must have been okay in.  As we walked we came across various lovely buildings and of course, the usual Cathedral. But, this Cathedral was probably the biggest we have ever seen!  It was enormous and appeared to be made of marble. We did go inside and have a look and it was very nice, but not as ornate as we expected to be honest. We have come to expect lots of Statues and Stained glass windows, but this Cathedral had none, or very little  of those. It did have an unusual Pipe Organ though. We then walked through lots of long narrow streets full of shops and cafes before finding our way back to the Ship, after 4 hours walking, for a welcome rest.

We have 2 Sea days coming up before we get back to Southampton, when the Cruise will be over. At least one of those days will be spent packing of course. We have really enjoyed seeing the Ports we have been to on this Spanish Med Cruise. They have all been a bit different in their own way, but interesting. We are glad that we did Spain and Portugal by Sea instead of the planned bus trip, as this was much more relaxing, especially after the busy schedule we have had for the past 2 months.

At publishing we are on our last sea day. Will get off the ship at 09:15 tomorrow, pick up the car and start the UK part of our trip.

Back on the Air

26^th, 27^th, 28^th, 29^th, 30^th and 31^st of July.

I am writing this to cover the above dates. We are on the Cruise around the Spanish Mediterranean, on board the Independence of the Seas. This ship is huge! It accommodates 4,300 passengers. This voyage there are 4,100, most of those passengers are families as this is the UK and the USA summer school holidays. There are lots of activities for the kids, wave riding, rock climbing, video arcades, basketball court, golf simulator and a couple of swimming pools with heaps of water games etc. There is also an Ice Rink where shows are held daily and we hear they are great. We’ve actually going to one this afternoon (31^st). The main deck, deck 5, is like a shopping street with cafes, eating places, bars and shops all the way along it. Unfortunately, the internet prices are VERY steep, $30 for 1 hour, $60 for 24 hours, so we are considering our best option for some access soon. Hence I’m writing this in a block.

We have been to the Port of Vigo, Spain, where we just did our own thing and walked all around the township. Had intended to catch a HOHO bus, but they weren’t running when we got off the ship, so we walked. We walked up the many narrow cobblestoned streets/lanes and eventually made it to the top of the town, The El Castro Castle/Fortress.  Views from up here were really good, all over the town and the Port. 

Next Port of call was Lisbon, Portugal.  Having been here before, we decided to take a trip out of the City to Sintra and Cascais this time. Sintra is a smallish village about a ½ hour drive out of Lisbon, and was at one time the Royal Village. The village is set about half way up a fairly steep hill and the Royal Palace stands out with its 2 tall white “Kitchen Chimneys” sitting majestically to the side of the building. After some time to explore this little village, we reboarded our coach and proceeded towards Cascais, via the Mountain Roads and a couple of small villages. We then came to the lovely seafront of Guincho. The beaches here weren’t unlike those in Oz and there were certainly a lot of people taking advantage of the lovely weather. One end of the beach was fairly windy so there were a few people enjoying the challenge of windsurfing and paragliding in that area. The coastline is fairly rugged and the waves put on a good show spraying up in the air off the rocky outcrops. We then entered the more populated area of Cascais itself. There are lots of holiday units here and a very pretty township. We had time here to explore the area called Kings Beach which had quite a crowd of people swimming and cooling off in the coldish waters. A lovely spot to spend a day or more here as there are many little beaches dotted along the coastline, all had lots of people on them. Travelling back into Lisbon we passed the Belem Tower, the War Memorial, The Monument to the Discoveries and the 25^th of April Bridge. We really enjoyed this outing today.

Yesterday we were in Gibraltar, United Kingdom. We took a tour up “The Rock” this time. We travelled by mini van to the Cable Car station where we caught the Cable Car up to the top of the Rock. Here we were met and entertained by the Famous Barbary Apes which live in these limestone rocky areas. These Apes either sat and posed, watched the tourists, groomed each other or frightened the tourists by climbing on their backpacks trying to get food. Some of these apes are quite aggressive and although well fed during the day, are always on the lookout for food. The views from up the top, some 420 metres high, were great. One could see all over the township, out to sea and over into Spain, which is just across the border from Gibraltar. On a clear day one should be able to see the landform of Africa from the top, but, today was a little hazy, so we couldn’t see that.  We then proceeded down a fairly steep narrow roadway, dodging taxi’s and Apes as we made our way to St Michaels Cave. This large cave was turned into a Hospital during the war years and a lot of the Stalactites and the Stalagmites had been sawn off to make room for the workings of the Hospital.  But, there were still lots of lovely formations of these limestone structures for us to observe and with the backlighting, they were quite spectacular. From here we boarded our minivan and drove down, and up, very narrow two way roads…that was interesting, until we came to The Great Siege Caves. These caves were a network of tunnels hollowed out, by hand, by the British Troops back in the 1700’s. This vantage point provided good views of the enemy approaching and proved to play an important part in ensuing battles. We were dropped off in the town centre and ended up walking back to the Ship for a well earned cold drink and an ice cream.

We suspect that we are the only Aussies on this cruise, most are English, all laying out in the sun for hours for every ray of sun they can get, or Americans, with a few other nationalities here and there as well. Everyone seems nice and friendly and we are enjoying ourselves, as usual. We have a Sea day today which is a welcome ‘rest’ day for us busy travellers. We have travelled 1520 nautical miles from Southampton at this stage as we head towards Valencia.