Back to our life on the ocean wave
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As the Senior Bears on board, we had to host a lot of dinners. |
They were queuing up to have dinner with us |
This fellow was a retired admiral |
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The Expedition Leader |
We gave the ship's artist a few tips on better painting |
The Future Cruise Consultant |
With 6 Bipolars |
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Neil & Linda |
Deputy Expedition Leader |
Nancy |
We'll eat the lot if the lights go out |
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We went to the art class. Picasso is worried |
And this is our effort at a Puffin |
Marzipan sweets anyone ? |
..More Marzipan |
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..and do we see more Marzipan's |
They seem to have forgotten our drink |
We could do this every day. |
Old feller does not seem too happy, we ate his favourite bun |
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We were the stars of the stage show |
and this one as well |
We toasted the Captain .. |
..and we toasted the crew |
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Then we had to say goodbye to the crew .. |
..goodbye |
..goodbye |
..goodbye |
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Flight, Business Class of course, from Spain to Jeddah |
We hit a slight problem on Saudi Airlines, when we ordered .. |
our G&T's they said that Saudi and its airline were "dry" |
..Still when we got to the hotel in Jeddah, we got this tray |
Next day flew to Al Ula from Jeddah and stayed overnight
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Straight in to tourist mode, with this funny shaped rock in the .. |
..background. They said it looked like an Effalump. Pull the .. |
..other leg we said, its just a rock in the desert. |
Apparently this is where they put bad boys |
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They must have had lots of bad boys, there were a lot of holes |
At last, we found the buns. We could pig out on that lot. |
..outside it was getting hot. |
Then on to an evening BBQ. We can stuff a lot a BBQs |
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We kept seeing chaps wearing red tea towels on their heads |
. This fellow had a variant of the said tea towel. |
And next thing we knew, the padres were wearing one |
Breakfast without our customary G&T |
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A new day, new adventures. Here we show the old girl how . |
..to carve rock. A useful skill in these parts |
We took up position on the signs, to help any Silversea guests .. |
who might have go lost |
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Seems we have found a new fashion in this snack stop |
Now here is an interesting building, made entirely of mirrors .. |
Can you see where it is, Pembroke? |
Better be careful here, there are two madres |
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Still cannot see the building Somerville |
On to lunch. That building is clearly down there, Pembroke. |
She is too busy eating |
Its behind us |
Another day. another adventure. Tren to Medina
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Tren to Medina |
We wait patiently at the station |
Once in Medina, first stop lunch. Right priorities for us. |
The madre seems to be going off the rails in fancy dress |
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As close to the Medina Mosque as we were allowed |
Only a picture of the mosque |
Quality testing dates. Only 500 boxes still to check |
And back to the ship |
We meet camels at Yanbu
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He has a tea towel too. Blokes must do a lot of washing up. |
I think that is a camel, Pembroke |
Looks a bit dry round here |
Looks like the sort of place to serve G&T. but sadly "no" |
We left Saudi for the delights of the Egyptian Sinai. Although we did spot some camels, cunningly positioned by locals to sell rides, our jeep safari was rubbish
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Off we go in jeeps |
Some camels are interested to meet us |
Supervising the cooking of lunch |
Fancy a swim, anyone |
On through the Suez Canal
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Anyone for sand castles ? |
Not very interesting scenery ! |
I think we can cross the Suez Canal off our bucket list now. |
..Silly bear , we were here years ago on the Star Flyer |
We docked at Alexandria and went to Alamein
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We have been looking for him, but cannot find him, yet
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Don't think we would have liked to have been here in 1942. |
Some big guns around |
And men on motor bikes up to no good |
Today it has all been replaces by apartment blocks |
In Crete we got another Land Rover trip
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Getting sort of touristy now |
Happily we are back in a country with booze .. |
..and food. Lots of both |
We share our lunch with some Silversea guests |
On to the Greek Mainland at Mystras
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This chap looks a bit fierce |
Contemplating what to do next |
It looks a long way up there |
but luckily we hitched a ride |
Athens, and the crowds get worse. We were already feeling nostalgic for the lack of tourists in Saudi Arabia
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Most undignified following the group leader |
It was forboten to take photos of small bears . No idea why. |
The old man got attacked by a gauleiter for taking this photo. |
Guard insisted it was scrubbed from the memory stick. Done |
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A walk round the streets of Athens |
Then into a nice restaurant for a spot of lunch |
We admired the view, had a glass of wine. Then discovered |
the buses had left without 6 of us. Took us a while to get back |
Monemvasia was a pretty town on the Peloponnese
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Which way do we go, Pembroke ? Search me ! |
A pause in the town square |
We do like cannons, they make a big bang when fired |
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We cheered up this nice guide called Helen |
A nobel laureate was impressed to meet us. |
We were exhausted after walking round the town |
.and bought the old man a smoothie |
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A visit to an olive farm. One of the trees adopted Somerville. |
We do like buffets .. |
..and the madre does too. |
We gave them a few tips on bread making. |
Olympia. Home of the Olympic Games
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This is where it all happened at the original games |
Not a lot left here, except for a few rude bits of broken stone |
and a few helmets. We had lunch at another olive farm. |
The tractor was worth the visit, the olive farm was not |
Another first for us bears, Albania
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A real traffic jam, our bus won' fit and there's a car head on |
They have brought us to another pile of old stones, Somerville |
The madre seems quite happy with the stones though |
Another UNESCO site, another day |
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We skipped on a swim in the lake |
Paws over the ears, it may go "bang" |
Silverseas never showed us the famous bunkers |
Waiting for lunch |
There is only one reason that anyone would want to come to Trapani in Sicily - Cannoli and as many of them as you can stuff in
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Cannoli are Sicilian pastries consisting of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling containing ricotta
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Here we are having a go go at Cannoli |
Makes us look very small |
Another old fort |
We are plucking up courage to ask her for another Cannoli |
Algeria where we meet secret policemen
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Annaba - when you think people pay good money to look at |
this heap of stones. Then they must all be mad |
Not even "light refreshments" to cheer us up |
But there was a good game of spot the secret policeman |
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Happily there was a food stop before we got to the site itself |
..Unesco Roman Ruins Of “Beautiful” Djemila |
Looks a bit like the heap of stones we saw yesterday .. |
.. a bit more here but it is still a heap of stones |
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I will look after you Somerville |
I hope we do not fall off |
All together "cheese" |
This is undignified, all sitting on the communal loos |
Lisbon. This is what we call a city. Only place in the world for genuine Pasteis de Nata
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Somerville says that this is the quantity of Pasteis that Pembroke can eat at one sitting
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This is just for starters on pasteis.. |
The old feller looks as if he is enjoying the buns too |
Site of our pilgrimage - Fabrica de Nata |
Cooling down |
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Taking in the view |
We liked the cherry sangria |
Ahh.. |
The girls get our bottle ready to go |
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Another way to drink the Cherry Liqueur is in a chocolate cup |
Then they dragged us away to this old castle in Cintra |
We queued for hours to get into some freemasons.. |
..hole in the ground |
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More sights |
..and more |
bit busy in here |
...time for a pasteis break |
We head north to the Cies Islands in Spain
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We chunked out here in a ferry boat, and had enough time.. |
..for a short stroll round the island. |
..a pause on the beach to build sand castles .. |
..before we finished with an ice cream |
The a bumpy ride across the Bay of Biscay to Brittany. With stops at Concarneau
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Ponte Aven was a pretty little village known for a type of bun. |
This caught our eyes, and we persuaded the padres to buy |
a slab for later consumption . We then happily wandered .. |
..round Pont Aven knowing that we had emergency stocks |
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And on the way back to the ship we stayed at Concarneau .. |
..for a walk round the old town. We kept a lookout for a nice.. |
..lunch stop. And found this charming cafe with a garden that did.. |
.. buckets of Moules, and washed it down with local Cider |
Douarnenez. We meet the protesters and go on local TV
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The natives were not pleased to see us in Douarnenez .. |
.. and there were 100 fully armed French riot police ., |
.. on duty to protect us. Never know with rioting Frenchmen |
We found the local TV crew, and we had an interview on air |
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No problems at Locronan. Not a single protestor. |
Happily there was a bun shop for (another) local specialty |
We were so stressed by the riots that we polished the buns off |
Then returned to Douarnenez for a Crepe and Cider lunch |
Cherbourg and Utah Beach - big battle here on D-Day
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Back to Blighty - Tresco & Bryher in the Scilly Isles
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Lots of flowers here. |
And it is right by the sea |
Full of holiday cottages |
and this unusual resident - not many left in UK |
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They have a cannon :-) |
and a small bear sized boat. Lets go to sea. Or we might just |
d ecide to stay at the pub and help the old feller to polish off |
the lobster sandwiches that have just arrived |
And the Calf of Man for a zodiac ride
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A rock that really does look like a drinking dragon |
and birds that look like penguins, but are not. |
And sheep that well just do not look like sheep |
We would not like to bump into one of these in the dark |
Iona and Lunga
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Our walk round Iona ... |
..and a play on the beach.. |
..was only a warm up for Lunga later in the day.. |
..and PUFFINS, lots of Puffins, almost as good as buns |
A stop in the Old Country. The old man got quite nostalgic when we went ashore in Portrush
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Barry's Amusement Park of the old man's youth |
..at least this place has a roof |
..our new friend Malachy from the old RUC |
..and they did give us a cocoa stop on the way back |
And finally Dublin
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Waiting to hit Dublin |
Lunch with Marie |
Distant relative's church in Abbey Street |
RyanAir Not business class, but got us home |