It was not the best of weather as we made our way up river Tiber to our berth
But you could just make out dear old Henry
And of course the bridge
We had not booked any tours, so just went for a walk. Our plan was to go and see Henry close up, but it was a tad further than it looked, and the drizzle was still making progress a bit damp.
So we returned to the ship in time for lunch, but not before stopping for a coffee along the way.
Going back to last night, as I said in my previous blog it was the first formal night, so of course our cabin steward, showed off his towel art.
We had been allocated Freedom Dinning for the cruise, but had eaten in the select restaurants for the first two nights. I said to the good lady we should have an early drink before dinner and then go into dinner whilst the Captains welcome on board was taking place.
So just after 6pm, we left Magnums and headed to the atrium to go down the the restaurant.
And there it was, the longest queue you have ever seen. At this point we thought we would join the Captain's party whilst we waited for the queue to go down.
At the allotted time for the completion of the party, the queue had diminished, but was still evident so we abandoned and went to the buffet.
We may have to rethink this Freedom Dining lark 😜
We also went to see the Headliners for their first production show "Gotta Sing Gotta Dance" a show that we had not seen before.
The male vocals were not the strongest I have heard, but thought the dance troupe were excellent.
Another sea day tomorrow (Friday) before we reach Agadir, a port we have not been to before, but maybe will supply the best weather of the cruise ?
Watch this space.
Until then bye bye
I'm back, it's now Friday afternoon and we are sitting out on deck, a bit overcast but warm enough for my T shirt and shorts.
There was just a couple of things I wanted to add to the blog. This morning there was a MacMillan coffee morning, which is P&O's currently supported charity. We went along to support the cause for obvious reasons. There were only a handful of other passengers besides us that showed up, from a full ship of nearly 2,000 passengers. A bit of a poor show IMHO
For those of you that know me, you will know that I love my gadgets, and back in 2010 I can remember being on Artemis with my new IPad that had been recently released. In those days it was quite new and unusual.
But now on this cruise, there are "get to know your IPad classes" that are very well attended (Starlight lounge was full).
How times have moved on in only 5 years.
It really is bye bye now
Well here we are in Agadir, and my apologies for not posting my previous blog. I tried but failed to remortgage the house to enable me to purchase an Internet bolt on from T mobile for my phone ( bit expensive in this part of the world )
We had a bit of a scare last night, we were watching the Headliners show in Starlights, School Daze which was very good), when an announcement from reception paging a male passenger. Now you know it must be serious for a ship wide broadcast. Another 5 minutes passed and the same broadcast message, then 10 minutes later a broadcast from the bridge. After the show finished, another broadcast from the bridge. Seems we had a missing person. There were lots of security and medical staff evident looking for the gent. The crew were on stand by to lower the boats for a search in the water, when the gent was found safe and well. He was asleep in the casino and his hearing aids had got switched off.
It was overcast and misty as we sailed into port this morning, with a nifty 360 degree turn in the basin by the Captain when we arrived.
We had not been to Agadir before, so was not sure what to expect. Well I can report that's it's a commercial and fishing port, so not that pleasing to the eye, and you wonder what the rest of the country has in store for you.
This was the only port where we had booked a tour, the normal "panoramic tour", and it was not until you boarded the coach, that you realised how big the port is as its takes 10-15 minutes to leave the port , plus they have more fishing boats than you can shake a stick at. In fact it's the largest Sardine port in the world.
Firstly they took us up high in hills for the panoramic view of the area with a photo stop. Well if I thought the port was packed with fishing boats, well that was nothing compared to the number of "vendors" at the photo stop, trying to sell everything from a picture of the camel/ goat/ snake etc. to jewellery
Yes they were very persistent and did follow you around, but I found no eye contact, and a firm "no thanks" solved the problem. But those who engaged in conversation, were easy prey for them. I even heard one lady talking to her friend " he is going to do a special deal for me". Classic.
After a short tour of down town Agadir, we were taken to the beach for some free time. It was obvious this was the tourist area as it was very western in its approach. But had an enormous sandy beach, with a promenade to match and what a very pleasant time we had there. Even had time for a coffee at McDonalds and to use their WiFi ( I had left the IPad on board else I could have posted the blog ).
The weather has improved throughout the day to sunny and warm, with deck 12 on board very busy this afternoon as I sit typing the blog.
Another sea day tomorrow and it's our Peninsular lunch, then arrival in Cadiz on Monday, where I know they have a small terminal building with WiFi, so I should be able to post this double blog.
So until then
Bye bye
No comments:
Post a Comment