Oldies On Tour

First few days as a “Boatman”

Posted on 07/05/2018 by Geoff

Friday 4^th May

After a major Tesco shop, we arrived back to Meg A Star early afternoon; now complete with washing machine. Whilst Christine stowed away all the food etc., I returned the hire car and now we were now ready for the “BIG” off tomorrow morning.

Saturday 5^th May

Stowhill Wharf to Stoke Bruerne 7 miles

After a comfortable night, we topped up the fuel, replaced an empty gas bottle, filled the water tank, had breakfast and we were off.

Unfortunately we were heading North and we wanted to go South,

Summer has arrived. Yeah!

still, fortunately there was a winding hole about 1/2 a mile up the canal.

Mission accomplished and we were now heading south.

So pretty, this is what I miss living in Spain.

Today’s run was very simple, no locks but a tunnel. We stopped for a lunch break before tackling the Blisworth tunnel, a little short of 2 miles and zero lighting. We had encountered a tunnel the last time we were on the canals, but that one was much shorter; fortunately we had a good spotlight as well as navigation lights to see and be seen.

We entered the tunnel, dark, gloomy and cold, so we quickly donned fleeces but unfortunately we hadn’t realised it would also be wet. As we passed the vertical air vents, we were drowned by so much water pouring down; there was no escaping these deluges, still once we were wet through, well what the heck, get on with it!!!!!

We had a boat about 50 meters astern of us, and going through tunnel we passed 4 boats coming the other way. Just as a matter of interest, narrow boats are 6ft 10 inches wide, two abreast, passing are a smidge under 14 ft., but the tunnel is 15 ft. wide, not a lot of space so dead slow is the order of the day. Anyway, about 1/2 an hour later we came out of

Stoke Bruerne, such a pretty place

Blisworth tunnel, unscathed and into brilliant sun; we had arrived safely at Stoke Bruerne, so moored at the first available space we could find. We were lucky; we were only about a 4-minute walk

View of curry house

from the Locks, pub and Museum.

Blisworth tunnel is the third longest on the inland waterway system and took 12-years to build, opening in1805, 5 years after the Grand Union Canal was operational. During the 5 intervening years, canal boats used to unload their cargo at the wharf in Blisworth, transport the goods over the hill and re-load other boats at Stoke Bruerne, rather hard work so when the tunnel opened this stopped but the hard work was still there. There is no towpath so boats had to employ “leggers”; Legging is a method of moving a boat through a canal tunnel containing water. This method of navigating through canal tunnels has been commonly used in canal tunnels during the 18th century.

After sorting ourselves out we wandered down to the locks where there were numerous gongoozlers watching the various boats travel up and down this lock whilst enjoying drinks from the Boatman. It was a beautiful hot day, most unlike usual UK weather, and seeing people relaxing with drinks, our guard dropped, we succumbed to drinks, oops!!!!, our first for two

Geoff enjoying a pint!

weeks and very welcome.

Back to “Meg” for dinner and a quiet night in, believe it or not we were knackered.

Sunday 6^th May

Stoke Bruerne

This morning, Mark Paula and Ashleigh arrived armed with bread and bacon, we had the butter so Christine made Bacon Butties; wonderful, especially as we had ignored bread for several weeks. Oh dear our diet has gone out of the window and worse is to come tonight.

The family left around midday and we did a few jobs, but no beer at the pub!!!

Stoke Bruerne is a typical Northamptonshire village; a hamlet of houses built in the local sand stone, and apart from a couple of Restaurants, 2 canal side pubs; not to mention the canal museum, nothing else. The two claims to fame are 1/. Stoke Bruerne was mentioned in the Doomsday book and 2/. The canal cuts the village in half.

Our friends, Jeff and Hillary arrived just before 1800 hrs. for aperitifs before we went to the Indian Restaurant at Stoke Bruerne lock. Our day has just got very much worse but we had a good evening with lots of laughter.

We waddled back to Meg quite late so straight to bed, we move on tomorrow.

Monday 7^th May

Stoke Bruerne to Cosgrove 6½ miles

Funny trees seen in route

After breakfast we started, straight into the first of the 7 locks at Stoke Bruerne. Christine was on form, we whistled through the first 5; I took over the last two, and believe it or not, another boat caught us up so I had help, much to Christine’s annoyance, ha ha!!!!

Once out of the locks we cruised for 6 miles, passing numerous

Rape Fields, lovely scenery

fields of yellow Rape Seed, jersey cows with their calves who looked us up and down, families strolling along the towpath taking in the sun, all as we cruised past. We stopped for lunch around midday and a

Cows enjoying the canal

telephone call to Christine’s proposed builder, if she gets the house she wants!!! Later we arrived at Cosgrove and moored just passed a gothic designed

Beautiful gothic bridge

bridge. This most unusual bridge is unlike normal canal bridges, just built out of red brick. This bridge over the canal was built in the 1790’s at the insistence of a local landowner, the Biggins family, this canal was started at both ends; London and Braunston, and it met here at Cosgrove, hence the special bridge. Another unusual feature in Cosgrove is the “Horse Tunnel”. In the days of horse drawn boats, instead of building a bridge to change sides, here they built a tunnel and now this is a grade II listed structure.

We had a short walk to the next lock, as according to the Waterways guide book there is a small local shop; it was closed!

Walking along the towpath, the canal crosses over the Horse Tunnel, already mentioned.

The canal So back to the boat and relax in this hotter than hot afternoon and a cozy evening.

Posted in British Canals, UK | Comments Off

Geoff’s new toy Meg-A-Star

Posted on 26/04/2018 by Christine

Meg-A-Star our new home

Time seems to go so fast, we have been in the Uk for nearly a week. Geoff left on Thursday 19th April, and stayed with Mark, Paula and the girls, he also got to explore Mark’s factory Hendrickson’s, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

For the survey she was lifted out of the water

The survey on Meg-A-Star (Meg) was being done on Friday and he wanted to watch the surveyor (Ian) look over the new toy, and explain what everything did, by lunchtime she was given a clean bill of health, so we can now pay and get on with living on her.

Saturday I flew to Gatwick, where I was greeted by a grumpy old man! Apparently there was a hold up on M25 which made him late, but it didn’t take long for him to cheer up, and we drove to our favourite place to have bacon baguettes, and a flying visit to Petersfield to collect some jewellery, then onto to Dave and Jane’s where we were expected for dinner.

Sunday, back to Nether Heyford, to unpack our suitcases, fill

Looking more like home

the wardrobes, find out what we need on board, a home at-last, maybe not in Spain, but I am fed up with living out of suitcases, it’s five months now, and I have had enough! Back to Essex, where we had a lovely

Ship shape and ready to go

dinner, with lots of naughties, diet starts Monday.

Monday, we woke early, last minute packing and we were away by 9.30am, Geoff went to the bank, whilst I did the shopping, we had to buy everything, from coat hangers to everything you need to cater, exciting, but expensive! Geoff then had to take car back to hire company, taxi, three trains, back by 6.30pm, where we sat down and had our first meal on board, and slept in our 4′ bed, amazingly very well.

Tuesday, we were going to leave, but it rained and rained, what a miserable day, I forgot, we are back in England, still, gave us chance to explore the boat.

Wednesday, the sun is shining, so we are off, we have to be back by next Monday, to have some jobs done, so we are

A happy bunny with his new toy

pottering to Northampton and back. I forgot the last time we did this trip, we had Mark, Paula and the girls helping to do the seventeen locks, no such luck today, we were on our own. When we were on the tenth lock the heavens opened, and we got soaked, sadly we couldn’t just stop, no stopping places, the joys of owning a narrow boat! The weather at one point was really bad with hail stones, and high winds, reminded me of my sailing days! We eventually found a stopping place, secured for the night, the central heating had come on, we had two hot

Meandering through the countryside so pretty

showers, dinner, and a couple of ibuprofen, no booze on board, but we were both smiling, we must be mad.

Thursday, a bright but chilly day, so we set off again, towards Northampton, only four locks today, which is just as well, as we are a bit stiff, from our antics yesterday, breakfast consisted of cereals and ibuprofen, as we reached the last lock, we were warned that there was a supermarket trolley in the lock, and yes we found it, resting on the bottom, at one point we were stuck, but Geoff gave Meg a blast and we were free, why do people do these things, probably kids I guess. We moored up besides Morrison’s and did more shopping, I had forgotten the salt and pepper, fully stocked, back to Meg, and into the lock with the trolley in again, easier this time, as we had lots of water, but it could have caused some damage. Found a nice place to moor up, then walked to B&Q and

Some of the places we hope to go to

Curry’s for mats and a hoover, back to boat, for dinner and game of cards.

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Azores to Southampton

Posted on 23/03/2018 by Geoff

We left the Azores with a heavy heart, as the next stop was Southampton and the end of our holiday. Still we did have 3 more days with one formal night to look forward to.

The last time I sailed from the Azores was to Portugal in Anamcara when the sea was abominable, 5 metre waves and a very robust northerly blowing, but at least this time I am in a 90,000 ton cruise ship, hopefully more comfortable.

Once we left the Azores and headed back into the Atlantic, we were pleasantly surprised as the sea was calm, like a millpond; how long will that last, especially going through the Bay of Biscay; still we are grateful for what we have.

Life on board continued much as before though we were limited to staying inside, still we had several “wrap-up” lectures to attend and this passed the time. The show tonight was the Queen Victoria singers and dancers, singing and dancing their way around the world, and a very lively and entertaining evening it was.

We now arrived at our penultimate day, scurried around doing things that hadn’t been done earlier, and tonight, being the last formal night, there was a party atmosphere; perhaps as the majority of the cruisers had been on for 74 days they couldn’t wait to waddle off!!!!

After the evening show we wandered around the deck with Dave and Elaine, up to the Lido for a cuppa then bed. Tomorrow is going to be a late one!!

Last day, our 29^th on board the Queen Victoria but the 73^rd for many and it is time to pack, sort out gratuities, exchange names and addresses with new found friends, and look at our accounts; ouch.

We had crossed the Bay of Biscay by now and the sea was still like a millpond, knowing our luck we will pay the price when we take the ferry back across the bay when heading back to Spain.

We were all packed up before we went to dinner so could enjoy our “last supper” without worry. Many guests were anxious over dinner, as they hadn’t packed, not organised like us; that’s probably a first!!! We said our good byes to the dining staff and headed to the theatre for the last show, though we have a bonus tonight, there is an extra performance of the “Rewind Project”.

Good atmosphere for our last night.

Tonight’s Showtime was Darren Day, a Singer, cum comic, cum impressionist; he tried to be all things to all men, but “no”; in fact we walked out before the end, as he was quite embarrassing to watch.

We now headed to the Queens Ballroom along with most of the other guests to listen to the Rewind Project, the group made up of members of “Moody Blues” and “10 CC” and they certainly entertained us. Interestingly, Darren Day joined them for a couple of numbers and he was actually quite good,

Re-wind project, so good!

perhaps he should restrict his act to just straight forward singing.

The party ended well after midnight with a drop of several

Great night

hundred balloons across the dance floor. Now It was off to bed for the last time; early start tomorrow.

Balloons everywhere

We arrived in Southampton at dawn, cleared our cabin and went to our last breakfast. Disembarkation was a well-choreographed affair and we had to wait ‘till 1000hrs before we were allowed off.

Disembarkation was straight forward and our cases were waiting for us, colour coded, lined up like little soldiers then we joined the Taxi queue; we should have pre-booked a taxi me thinks.

Final thoughts

When we left Spain at the start of December we had 120 days of travel in front of us, the longest holiday we have ever had and we couldn’t really see it ending. Unfortunately there is an end, and we have arrived there; sad I know.

Our highlights have been covered in our web site and overall it was an excellent experience though some issues did arise. For example, as the trip was so long we had to have additional special insurance at exorbitant cost, and thank goodness we paid for it, as we all know, Christine certainly used it!!! Do we plan further extended trips and swallow the excessive 1-off premiums, or do we manage trips within our 35-day limits; who knows. We also had an issue with the car insurance. Before we drove over to the UK our insurance broker pointed out that our car insurance would not be valid after 90 days, there was a shortfall of 30 days, and Spanish insurance people won’t budge on this, even with additional premium. We had to park the car securely in the UK and cancel our policy and then take another policy out, just before we started to drive back.

Before we left I think we had a slight worry that we may be bored, being away for so long but no, the time just flew by, possibly because we had different components to our trip. Many of the guests on the Queen Victoria did the round trip, Southampton to Southampton, 74 days in total, and speaking to many of them, they weren’t bored either. I have to say there were as many activities during the day and evening to entertain most folk and particularly the many different and varied Lectures; they were interesting, informative and entertaining, well done Cunard.

The main point of difference between Oceania and Cunard was the food and the size of the ships. Serena was small, 600 guests and specialised in the spectacular quality of food, but had limited entertainment. Cunard on the other hand had good food, 2,000 guests and better entertainment, so difficult to compare but we certainly enjoyed both.

We now have to plan our next adventure with the help of Harry O’ Hara, our excellent travel consultant who did a superlative job putting this 100 day trip together. With the various destinations, hotels, transfers and flights all working as planned, our holiday couldn’t be better. Thank you Harry O’ Hara, we’ll be in touch.

Our next adventure, watch this space……

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4 Sea days and the Azores

Posted on 14/03/2018 by Geoff

Life as usual went on during the four days at sea. Dave and I played Elaine and Christine at shuffleboard, the evening shows, both very good and not so good, happened each evening, the lectures on smuggling continued and the food establishments did a roaring trade. The only blot on the landscape was black Saturday, England lost to Ireland at Twickenham and were crowned 6 nations champions and to top it all, it was St Patrick’s day; perhaps this gave them more “Wiz”; Well done Ireland, I sought a bottle of Bushmills to drown my sorrows!!!!

There were 2-acts that do warrant mentioning, “Mark Shortland” again wowed the audience with his impossible illusions, and a newcomer to the ship, “Dave Howes”, a highly talented multi-instrumental entertainer. He was telling us how he got his inspiration by watching Roy Castle as a lad; this chap also got a tune out of a bathroom shower hose with its head still on, and blowing up the leg of a Zimmer frame; quite remarkable.

We arrived into Praia da Vitoria, the cruise port on Terceira. This was the 3^rd island to be discovered in the Azores, hence its name, “Third” in Portuguese. We arrived around 0930hrs and soon after people were disembarking, and we eventually got off around 1030hrs, jumped onto the shuttle and 20-minutes later were dropped off at the top of this very pretty old town. It’s funny, though I visited 3-islands in the Azores in 2010, I missed this one so it was nice

Part of the waterfront

that we both got to visit it together.

Settlers arrived to these Islands in 1450 and soon this place became the official stopover for ships plying their Atlantic routes; such as cargoes of spices from the East and Gold and Silver from the Americas etc. Charles Darwin even stopped over when returning back from Galapagos in his ship “The Beagle”.

The town of “Praia da Vitoria” takes its name from: the first

One of the churches

part after the battle of Praia Bay, when the Miguelists were defeated by the Portuguese loyalists troops in 1829; (this was all part of the Portuguese civil war known as the “Liberal War*”) and the second part of the name was an honour conferred on the town by Queen Maria II of Portugal in 1837 for its loyalty.

The old part of the town is very quaint and as you would expect there were a number of churches of which we visited 2. One was fairly austere and its shape was far from conventional whilst the second had a ceiling covered in gold leaf. The outside of the houses, churches etc., were generally painted white but

Inside of the blue and white church

they had either blue or yellow corners and window sills picked out, and

Another one of the many churches

the streets added to the ambience with the small cobble stones set out in patterns; very attractive.

Gold everywhere amazing

Firstly, we wandered down to the marina where there were several bars, restaurants and gift shops, all of which were full of guests from the Queen Victoria getting their Internet fix, us included!!! We had a wander about the marina and watched people climbing the 292 steps up to a religious statute, situated high up on the cliff; we declined. We walked through the back streets, getting the feel of the place but

Elaine walked to the top we decided to walk around the marina instead

unfortunately it was a dull and overcast day with rain threatening, which didn’t show the town off at its best. We decided we most probably wouldn’t take a holiday here though apparently the weather is usually better, as the weather normally comes up from the Caribbean with the Gulf Stream.

En route to the shuttle we did a little necessary shopping, then stopped in some gardens, there was a café/bar and we enjoyed a couple of drinks and sheltered from the rain. Once it had stopped we joined the bus and returned to Q V. As we went overboard with breakfast we were happy to give the dining room a miss and instead headed to the Lido for a snack before the show.

Tonight’s entertainment is a group called “The Rewind Project”, the group is composed of members of the two 60’s/70’s pop groups, “The Moody Blues” and “10 cc”. There wasn’t an empty seat in the theatre, all the old rockers were there bouncing in their seats; it was a nostalgic performance for many and went down very well. They have a second, and a longer show on our last night; I think to get a seat we will have to get there very early.

Well that’s our last port of call before we arrive in Southampton on Friday, so we have 3-sea days left, including one more formal night to enjoy before picking up our bar bills; our internet bills; our alternative dining bills, and any other expenses we have incurred; there won’t be many dry eyes on board then!!!!!

Next stop UK, ugh!

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Wars

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Sea day and Bermuda

Posted on 14/03/2018 by Geoff

We left Charleston ok, but when we hit open sea we were in for a bit of a shock as the weather had “turned”, and not for the better, oh no. It was raining, windy and the sea state according to our new Captain was rough. To make things worse, he advised us that this would most probably continue ‘till we reach Bermuda, this was not in the plan; still life on board continues though our arrangements to play Shuttle board were scuppered. Instead we introduced Dave and Elaine to Rummy cup as this was a game they hadn’t played before. It was quite a social affair; we sat in the Golden lion pub and enjoyed a few beers and another pub lunch.

At 1400hrs we had another lecture by our retired Customs officer, again interesting, but not so funny, probably as his talk cantered around 3-real case studies.

Tonight is again formal, but first we had another invitation to the Captain’s cocktail party so had to be ready an hour earlier. This was our first chance to see the new “boss” and he certainly has a better sense of humour than the commodore who has just left, and we think we have seen the new captain more over the last couple of days than the Commodore during the previous 17 days. Christine says he is very good looking and “scrummy” and too young to drive such a big ship. During the course of his speech he did comment on the state of the sea but assured us the stabilisers were out; I would not have liked to be here had there not been any.

Dinner was normal though the waiters did have to walk at a funny angle at times. Our American fellow diners didn’t show, we think they were suffering and had taken to their beds.

Tonight’s show was due to be a “spectacular” with the Royal Court Singers and Dancers, but with the ship rocking ‘n rolling, it was unsafe. Fortunately we had another performer arrive on board in Charleston so he stepped into the breach. He was part of the West End show, “The Rat Pack”, he sang many Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Matt Monroe songs, to name but a few. He was good and did well as of course he had minimal opportunity to rehearse with the band.

Map of the Island of Bermuda

This morning we woke up to Q V navigating its way around the

Bermuda waterfront

rocks and coral that surround Bermuda. The Channel, though well marked with buoys, is still very tricky and it took a good hour to just get into the port area, then we had to turn and dock, still it all went well.

The cruise terminal is in the Old British Naval Dockyard. The

Part of the old Dockyard

dockyard was started in 1811, but all naval activities ceased in 1995, and it has now been re-generated into a cruise ship port with tourist attractions utilising the old naval dockyard buildings; I have to say they have made a good job of it.

We left the ship soon after docking around 10.30, bought ourselves a day bus-and-ferry pass and headed off to the “ferry” terminal, the first leg of our journey to “Town St. George”, the original capital of Bermuda.

Bermuda is a small jewel in the British Territorial Crown in the Atlantic; it consists of around 138 small Islands, many linked by bridges, in a fishhook shape and about 22 miles long and 1-mile wide. Bermuda is about 600-miles east of the southern USA.

The ferry took us from the Naval dockyard for a 20-minute trip

Part of the old Dockyard

across the very blue lagoon to Hamilton. Hamilton is in the centre of the Islands and was established in 1793; named after the Governor of Bermuda, “Henry Hamilton” and it has been the capital since 1815 as it is in the perfect place.

Upon arrival we headed straight for the bus terminal as we were going to visit St Georges, the original Capital, founded in 1612 and today a world UNESCO heritage site. The trip took around 40-minutes but we got to see most of the Island, the very blue waters, sandy beaches and lush vegetation as well as the international airport, built across the island.

The bus dropped us off and we walked down a quaint street, lined with old terraced buildings dating back to the 17^th

The stocks in the square

– 19^th century and into King’s Square. Here we popped into the White horse for a coffee and a drink, this was a place we spent quiet a bit of time in when we sailed here back in 2010 and 2012. The square is the centre of this small, but pretty place, with the White

The state house

horse and gift shop on one side and the old state house, built in 1620, and other buildings on the opposite side with the pier, customs house and waterfront on the third side. The town was built on St Georges harbour, a large lagoon with a narrow, but deep entrance. There are also replica

Inside the state house

stocks, and a ducking stool where a few local volunteers

Replica of “deliverance”

demonstrate their use. Here there is also a replica of the ship “Deliverance”. In 1609, Admiral, “Sir George Somers” was heading for Jamestown in his ship “Sea Venture” when a storm sent him onto the rocks here. All the 150 colonists and crew survived, and under the Admiral’s guidance set about building a replacement ship. This new ship, “The Deliverance”’ sailed for Jamestown 10-months later. Apparently this story inspired William Shakespeare to write “The Tempest”, which was published a few years later.

Having had a good walk around, we caught the bus back to Hamilton where we thought we would have a bite to eat, which we did; we found a “KFC”!!!!!

Views from the ferry

We caught the ferry back to the Dockyard, had a good look around then boarded the ship just before the gangway was hauled aboard.

As a final comment, I was surprised just how much history such a small island has; first seen and named by a Spanish Captain

Lovely waterfront

“Juan de Bermudez” in 1503 but not claimed by Spain. There was the Admiral Somers incident in 1609/10. Settlers arrived and established the capital in 1612; this was followed several years later when slaves were brought to the island, and it wasn’t ‘till 1684 that the Brits administered the Colony. Bermuda also played a part in the English Civil war: The American war of independence: The American Civil war: The Boer war, and not forgetting WWII, when the US set up a

Another view of waterfront

base there.

Dinner as usual was followed by the show; a British comic, Jeff Stevenson, who tried to encompass jokes that all nationalities could understand, but though he was funny in places he certainly wasn’t the best comic we have seen, lets say we wouldn’t go out of our way to see him again.

We now have several sea days before we arrive In “Prai da Vitoria” in the Azores.

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Overnight in Charleston

Posted on 12/03/2018 by Geoff

We had a leisurely morning at sea en-route to Charleston. I went to a lecture in the morning while Christine read, and did some laundry. The lecture I attended was given by a retired customs officer under the title; “40 years of catching smugglers”. The speaker, Malcolm Nelson, certainly opened our eyes to what trouble smugglers go to, and what tricks Customs and Excise employ to catch them, not only was this lecture a real eye-opener, the speaker was very witty and had the biggest audience I have seen at a lecture on board, we were mesmerised. After an early “light” lunch, we played “Shuffleboard” with Elaine and Dave and had a good laugh, mainly due to our poor play.

We are overnighting here in Charleston so we can enjoy the

Pretty streets, dry English in places

nightlife today and take in some cultural and historic places tomorrow before leaving around 1400hrs.

The four of us left the ship around 1600hrs to wander, and look around Charleston. We knew it was an interesting, historical, and pretty place so were keen to get going and especially to see the “Rainbow Cottages”, a row of terraced

Rainbow houses

properties all painted in different pastel colours.

Walking past the security at the end of the pier, we noticed a

Can you imagine being chased by this!

novel and unusual of bit of kit, a “police Golf Cart” complete with a blue flashing light mounted on the roof; they’ll struggle to catch speeding motorists with that!!!!!

Charleston, in South Carolina was founded in 1670 as Charles Towne, honouring the English King, Charles ll. Its initial

Lovely fountain again

location at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley River now known as “Charles Towne Landing”, was abandoned in 1680 to its present site, and this became the fifth-largest city in North America within ten years. All this happened in spite of suffering an outbreak of yellow fever, smallpox, a major fire that devastated a large area and finally an earthquake; not to mention hurricanes. And even though the pirate “Blackbeard” held Charleston to ransom in 1718, the city had a growing reputation as a cultural centre and for the “the good life”.

Lovely tree lined streets

Many of the tree lined streets with their cobbled road and terraced houses looked quite English. There were many cobbled streets in the old town and they were built from the stones used as ballast in the old wooden sailing ships and they don’t look worn at all after 300-years. When we found the Rainbow Cottages we were rather disappointed, yes they all looked very nice, but we were given the impression there was a whole street of them, not just about 8, in a row, on just one side of the street.

After a couple of hours of mooching around, we came upon

Every city we go to, there is always an Irish bar!

“Tommy Condons”, the only Irish Pub, so naturally the Guinness called and to add to the ambience, it was all decorated ready for St Patrick’s day festivities later in the week. This brought back fond memories for Christine and I, as last year we were in Dublin over the St Patrick’s weekend; what a good time we had!!!!!! After the first round of drinks had slipped down so easily we decided “Pub Grub” was the order of the day so the 4-of us dined there as well.

View from rooftop

It was dark when we eventually left the bar and Dave and Elaine decided to return to the ship whilst Christine and I continued wandering about. We were minding our own business when we suddenly clocked a number of sun umbrellas, all decorated with fairy lights, high above us on the roof of a building. Naturally we went to investigate, and walked into the appropriate building that turned out to be a rather posh hotel with an expensive looking restaurant, still, undeterred and looking confident, walked in as if we were regulars, straight into a lift and pressed the top button. We stepped out onto a rooftop terrace with a bar and swimming pool, and of course those lighted sun umbrellas and we were overlooking the Queen Victoria. What a pleasant place to have a few “more” drinks before walking back to the ship.

Christine and I went ashore around 0900hrs this morning and

Down in the dungeons

headed towards the historic Old “Exchange and Provost Dungeon”, historically one of the most important buildings in Charleston, it was the Exchange and Customhouse built by the British in 1703 and is the oldest building in the town. It served as a prison for American

Fascinating tour

Patriots in their war of independence; today this is a museum and we were going to visit.

It was a good, albeit short visit where there was so much history about the British, the war of independence, the

Outside the museum

American constitution, the civil war; too much to absorb in the short time we were there; perhaps some time in the future, who knows.

Charles Towne changed its name to “Charleston” in 1783, after the war of independence.

Fort Sumter built on a man made island in the entrance to Charleston Bay, (somewhere I wanted to visit but time was against me) was where the first shots of the American Civil War were fired on the 12^th April 1861.

Lovely horses, great trip

After our museum visit we headed back to the old market area and bought tickets to tour round parts of the town we hadn’t been to. Our mode of transport was a horse and cart, though this cart had seats and took 10 passengers. It was an hour well spent and we had an excellent guide. The only downside was it rained, hard at times and though there was a roof above us all, the rain came in the sides.

Back to the ship now with little time to spare, and it wasn’t long before she started to let go her lines. Back to the cabin for a shower to warm up followed by a snack up in the Lido.

We went down to dinner tonight to be sociable rather than to eat and this was followed by the evening theatre show, a chap called Mark Shortland. Apparently he was a magical “champion”, whatever that is but he engaged the audience with un-believable magic, comedy and audience participation. I could not do justice to him by trying to describe his tricks, so I thoroughly recommend everybody, if they see him on anywhere, to go.

After a superb overnight in Charleston we were quite tired so retired.

Day at sea tomorrow.

Posted in South Carolina | Comments Off

First few days as a “Boatman”

Geoff’s new toy Meg-A-Star

Azores to Southampton

4 Sea days and the Azores

Sea day and Bermuda

Overnight in Charleston

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