Oldies On Tour

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.

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Cape Canaveral

Posted on 10/03/2018 by Geoff

After a leisurely breakfast, again out on deck, we headed off to pick up the shuttle to Cocoa Beach where the “Ron Jon Surf” shop is. The coach dropped us next to the shop and

Fantastic shop for surf gear

in we went. I had already said I wanted to visit this store when we get to Port Canaveral, as I wanted to get some floating glasses strap; so when I dive into the pool and they fall off, they float on top of the water. We found what I wanted but before we left the

Wow what a shop

store, we had filled two shopping bags with “stuff”, god bless our credit cards!!!!

Long, sandy beaches make up the North American “Space

Quite chilly today

Coast”, with names such as Satellite Beach, Apollo Beach and more famously, Cocoa Beach where Ron Jon’s surf centre is. Naturally this area is so named because of “The Kennedy Space Centre” an area of some 140,000 acres where the first rocket took off into space in 1950. In 1969 the Apollo project sent Neil Armstrong to the moon from here and later, the space shuttles. The space centre is open to the public, not only is it a museum but it is also a bit of a theme park. We didn’t visit the site this time as we had been there a few years ago and nothing significant in “Space terms” has changed since we last visited.

After leaving Ron Jon’s we wandered down to the beach, armed with our swimmers and though the weather was chilly and

Gosh it’s a bit chilly!

overcast, undeterred, Christine went for a paddle first, to check the water temperature; her face told the whole story; the sea was very cold. The beach was heaving, mainly with school children all playing volleyball on numerous courts marked out in the sand. We think there was an inter-schools competition. In the

Girls playing volleyball

adjacent “massive” car park there were numerous stalls and a water-boarding

These guys were amazing

demonstration with a big jump. Naturally I stood in the wrong place and got soaked.

So much going on, an exciting place

Time to leave, so we picked up the shuttle and returned to the Q V where we slowly got ready for dinner.

Tonight’s “Showtime” was a group called Ida, 4-girl sopranos who sang opera to pop, Hollywood shows to West End shows. They were certainly excellent singers but not really my scene though Christine certainly enjoyed them, so that is the main thing

Charleston tomorrow.

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Fort Lauderdale

Posted on 09/03/2018 by Geoff

During the night we crossed the tropic of Cancer, so it’s official, we are now out of the tropics and will be ‘till we go somewhere else in the future.

We arrived in Port Everglades, just outside Fort Lauderdale, in the wee hours of the morning but emptying the Q V out didn’t start until 0700hrs.

For the first time we had breakfast delivered to our cabin, not quite the same, but convenient as today we were meeting Dave and Elaine at 0830hrs to try and get ahead of the masses at US immigration. We all know by experience when up to 2,000 people leave the ship; the end of the queue takes well over an hour just to get to the desk, we were going to be up-front, and we were!!

On route to the Mall

We boarded the shuttle bus, which took us to the “Galleria Mall”. We arrived at 0945, 15minutes before it all opened; Even leaving early this morning I don’t think any of us envisaged getting to town so early, but, surprise surprise, we were through immigration in double quick time, that’s a first.

Elaine had done some investigation and suggested we boarded the hop-on hop-off water taxi, which had a stop at the hotel next

The water bus we travelled in

door. After a welcome cuppa in the Mall we bought our tickets, $5 per person discount for pensioners, and hopped onto the first boat that arrived. We went through many of the waterways and canals

35 million dollar Home!

passing homes that start around $2-million and heading north of $35-million and alongside most of the waterways were super yachts, the like off which, you

One of the small yachts 195 ft. [caption id="attachment_6633" align="alignleft" width="150"] Fantastic homes on the waterside

Amazing[/caption]wouldn’t see in such quantity in other place. The round trip took about 3 hours but we could swap boats and travel further north, Christine and I elected to do so while Dave and Elaine went back to the mall to warm up. Yes there was quite a chill in the wind on the waterway system.

There isn’t a lot of history to Fort Lauderdale other than the Seminale Indians, who were “forced” to live in this area early in the 18^th century together with a few white settlers. In 1835, a second Seminale war broke out as a result of a massacre of an army detail by the Indians. This was

Some of the smaller boats, lovely day on the river

followed a year later by a family also being massacred by the same Indians which, in 1837 prompted a Major William Lauderdale being sent with an army to build a fort here. This became known as “Fort Lauderdale”, named after the Major.

Today this area is known as the Gold Coast and the Venice of the USA because of its many waterways and long sandy beaches.

Lots of jet ski’s on the waterways

Port Everglades is the second busiest cruise port in the world after Miami.

After completing the round tour on the water we headed back towards the Mall but en-route decided we would visit “Publix” (a large supermarket chain) to buy tonics and wine. Walking towards the entrance we came across a hairdressers so I popped in for a quick haircut, $20 instead of $100 on the ship. It turns out this shop had already had about 20 men from the ship for haircuts today.

A quick snack was followed by a visit to a men’s shop where I bought yet another jacket, before boarding the shuttle back to Q V.

Tonight we met our new dinner companions, a couple from Florida: too early to know them yet!!!!

Tonight’s show was the comic juggler, Pete Mathews; apart from the usual balls and clubs, he juggled 3 axes and as his finale he sat on a very tall monocycle and juggled 3 big sharp looking knives. He was very entertaining but again he stretched his 30-minute performance into the 45-minute slot he had. He padded out his performance by thanking the band on numerous occasions and joking with the audience.

We circumnavigated the ship after the show and followed this with a cuppa with David and Elaine before retiring.

Cape Canaveral tomorrow.

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Full day at Sea

Posted on 08/03/2018 by Geoff

Today is the last full day of this leg of the cruise; when we get into Fort Lauderdale around 900 guests will be leaving, including our friends, Paul and Debbie Southwell. We understand another circa 600 guests will join for this final leg to Southampton, so the ship will feel a little empty.

A very light breakfast was called for today as the six of us will be having an early farewell luncheon in the “Verandah”, a specialist restaurant on board. For the first time this morning we sat on deck for breakfast, this was so that we didn’t see all the food and be tempted!!!

After breakfast we went to the purser’s office to see what happens tomorrow, though we are staying on the Q V for the next leg of the cruise like so many others, we are actually doing back-to-back cruises. It turns out every single guest, whether leaving the ship or travelling onward, has to disembark the ship and go through US immigration and customs; we can “then” go back on board.

We all met up in the Golden Lion pub for a pre-dinner drink before heading to our table. We had been given to understand that the food was the same as the Britannia Restaurant but with better service; wrong, they had their own menu and yes, the service was superior.

We had a very enjoyable lunch with much banter and laughter, and this caused me to spill my port on my shirt, my trousers and the tablecloth; can’t take me anywhere!!! Naturally I didn’t hear the end of this. We were the first to arrive in the restaurant and guess what, we were one of the last to leave. To enjoy a meal in this restaurant we had to pay $20 each for the privilege; the speciality restaurants were free on Oceania.

We had a short walk after lunch before going back to the cabin, firstly so that Christine could put my shirt and trousers straight into the washing machine and secondly to play on the Internet. Paul & Debbie who are leaving, and being high up the loyalty pecking order, get a “very” large allowance of free Internet minutes and not having used them, they will lose them. They very kindly gave us their codes and we can use up their balance, well until tomorrow morning I expect!

Thank you Paul so generous

Though we had enjoyed a farewell lunch earlier, we all went down to dinner. Paul had to do his “bungs” and “farewells” to the wine waiter and our waitress, who is also leaving this dining room tomorrow, but not the ship, moving upstairs to one of the “posh” restaurants in First Class. Yes Cunard still have a section of the ship reserved for First Class

So much fun, such a good group

passengers.

Dave showing off his new hat and tie

Tonight’s show was the second appearance of the Barricade Boys and though I wasn’t that keen on them at their first performance, tonight was a different kettle-of-fish, they were very entertaining and their songs varied from ballads to rock ‘n roll, we both thoroughly enjoyed their performance.

After leaving the theatre 4 of us strolled around the promenade deck, Paul & Debbie had to go and pack; we wish them Bon Voyage, and a safe trip back to Darwin, Australia.

Fort Lauderdale tomorrow.

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4 Sea days and the Azores

Sea day and Bermuda

Overnight in Charleston

Cape Canaveral

Fort Lauderdale

Full day at Sea

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