We are now on our last two days at sea and our thoughts turn to packing and what we have to do for our arrival at Southampton. However, that is not what we really want to do, so we start to think and reflect on this fantastic and magnificent journey we have been so fortunate to experience. Many people may ask what has been your favourite country or part of the cruise?. We cannot give a simple straightforward answer, except to say the whole 107 days has been a l...

We entered the River Tagus and headed inland up river towards Lisbon and the "25 April Bridge". This bridge was built by the same company that built the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and has a nickname of 'The Buzzing Bridge' because of the noise of cars and trains passing over the steel gratings. It certainly was noisy, as we sailed underneath it, and docked just upstream from it with the monument of Christ The King (Cristo Rei) on our starboard side. This wa...

In the early hours we passed through the Straits of Messina on our unscheduled second day at sea to Civitavecchia, the port for Rome. Whilst enjoying breakfast, the volcanic island of Stromboli came into view, and the next thing we knew the Captain took us cruising all the way round the island. In the evening we passed by 'beautiful Napoli', I did wave and tell people on the tables next to ours that it was my Mother's home town, so that they did not think I was ...

We woke up on Wednesday expecting to be docked into the Port of Piraeus, but we were heading out of port leaning to one side at quite an acute angle. Then the Captain made an announcement that the wind was too strong to be able to get into port and that we would stay out until the wind subsided. We eventually docked at 11.00am but still had to use two tugs and our asipod motors to keep the ship against the side of the dock. In fact we found out later that one of ...

We can hardly believe, the day has finally come. Malcolm, our friendly chauffeur has arrived to take us to Southampton, to board the beautiful Cunard Ship, 'The Queen Elizabeth'. As I leave our beautiful little home, I must admit a slight feeling of apprehension came across me, the thought of sailing around the world for 107 days......being on a ship for that long, would I adjust to it or would I be wanting to come home sooner?? And oh! How much I am going to m...