Guadeloupe

What a lovely welcome in French speaking Guadeloupe! We left the ship and immediately heard a Caribbean band, then a hugely friendly lady at the information office gave us a free hat and map.
As we walked around the town we saw lots of ladies and children dressed in exactly the same material, so we felt right at home.
Daz also had a lovely time sampling and buying mango and passion fruit flavoured rum in the town centre market. The rum bottles also had little hats made of the bright tartan fabric.
Later we went out to sample the local rum in a bar, just as a band started playing. We stayed for a happy while and then headed back to the ship, past some brilliant murals.
Ps, apparently there are also great beaches in Guadeloupe but we didn't quite get around to finding them.

Barbados

We have at last arrived at our first stop in the Caribbean - Bridgetown, Barbados.
There really is a bridge after which the town is named, and Darren is posing for me underneath it. It is sort of a bridge to nowhere, and behind it is a bridge across the Constitution River, so I might possibly have photographed the wrong thing.
No mistakes though with the beach, and it is absolutely gorgeous. The sand is very soft and fine, the sea is an incredible blue, and some of the clouds are extremely black.
We made another error here as we didn't bring our bathers. All along the beach were guys offering trips to snorkel with the turtles, but we just weren't dressed for the occasion.
We had a lovely paddle and then took shelter as a shower passed through. Afterwards we took a stroll past the cricket ground, stopping to admire the statue of Sir Garfield Sobers.
Back on our ship and a more major shower has stopped play temporarily, but we are heading back out again soon to sample a rum punch or two.

Typical sea day - Saturday

Today is our ninth day at sea although we did get a break for a day in Tenerife. Picture one is me as predicted, enjoying a glass of wine, the sunset and even a bit of Rod Stewart.
Every evening a leaflet is delivered to your cabin with details of the next day's events. It is going to be so busy today that we will hardly even have time to eat!

We have:-
9.30 - Port lecture on Costa Rica
10.00 - Line dancing
11.00 - Foxtrot and quickstep class - beginners
12.00 - Pub stop to watch the football (we are three hours behind England)
1.00 - Film in the cinema
3.00 - Foxtrot and quickstep - improvers
4.00 - Talk by Eric Knowles from Antiques Roadshow
5.00 - Piano and violin receital
Etc, etc.

Phew, we won't even see the ice carving, the passenger choir or even the sun, which is already beating down on the decks.
The evenings gets even busier, and we sometimes rush straight from one theatre to the other. It's a good chance to get the DJ out though.
Sensibly, Darren doesn't do the line dancing. Pic three is an action shot of me stepping left while everyone else is facing the front. How come everybody else got it so wrong?  Pic four is the lassoo step. Very difficult to do while dosey doeing at the same time.

Though mountainous seas to Tenerife

Okay, I may have exaggerated a little bit, but we did have storm force 10, and over 50 miles per hour winds on one of our sea days.
I was going to highly recommend my seasick tablets as I didn't suffer at all during the journey, but the second time I took them I totally zonked out for hours, so maybe they aren't spot on after all.
Once the sea calmed down Daz and I tried to learn the tango, which wasn't too bad. Our attempt at the jive wasn't so successful, but after our second lesson Darren said that we had gone from appalling to cr*p. I think we are counting that as an improvement.
We had a good day out in Tenerife today, and both the ship and the weather were looking magnificent.
We enjoyed the reflecting pool and Opera House on the seafront, and are now back on board.
I am looking forward to a glass of wine at the sail away deck party, and possibly a bit of one of Rod Stewart's greatest hits playing in the background.

Welcome on board

Exciting day today and I was wide awake at 5.30am in anticipation.
However, due to a slight timing miscalculation we cut things very fine and ended up running down the street with our suitcases flailing along behind. We had to catch a bus to Southampton and got to the bus station with two minutes to spare.
All went well and we arrived at our ship, only to find out that neither of us had brought the tickets.
Fortunately, they let us on and we are just waiting for the life jacket safety briefing. The tannoys aren't working, it's getting very hot and the passengers are getting close to mutineering.
Good news - we are now ready to cast off, the sea looks calm and our adventure begins.
Ps, hopefully in a few days the sun will be shining and all of the sun loungers will be full of pasty looking pensioners!

Visit to the Walkie Talkie building

For the past two weeks all has been quiet on the blog. Not so in real life though, as we have spent the whole time socialising with friends and family.
We have not been to a single stately home - except for Darren's sister's new house - or any art galleries, mountain tops or new places.
It's business as usual today fortunately, as went to 20 Fenchurch Street, London, better known as the Walkie Talkie building. Standing underneath it you can understand why, as that is just what it looks like.
We caught a speedy lift to the 36th floor and looked out from the viewing platform. The views were spectacular and my sample photo shows St Paul's cathedral and the river Thames.
Inside there are lovely tropical gardens and seating area, so we enjoyed a glass of wine with Darren's mum.
If you are wondering, it is free to visit, but you must order tickets in advance online. However, the price of the wine makes up for this, and a small mortgage is needed, unless you offer to do the washing up.