Not Very Live on the Lizzie

October 21st

A text message from Vodafone ES woke me at around 4am telling me their prices for calls, we must have transited the Straits of Gibraltar because the ship was moving around quite a bit. No alarm clock this morning, I'm crocked with my Achilles tendon giving me gyp so we had a lie in not making breakfast until 08.45.

Once breakfast was over Jane popped along to the launderette to do a white wash while most people were off on their tours. Once that was done we went off the ship to have a stroll through Cadiz. We ended up at the market, where we had a snack and drink, before heading back for our Flamenco and Tapas tour at 13.20. We spent about 20 minutes getting all the old ones on the coach and set off to the Flamenco bar, we headed out of the dock gates, turned right and travelled about 100 yards down to a roundabout, came around that and back to stop opposite the dock gates where we all got off and walked 100 meters to El Cava! All in all we spent about 40 minutes to go what would have taken 10 minutes to walk directly.

The Flamenco dancing was very intense, lots of stamping and smoldering stares. It was very enjoyable, my hands were sore with the clapping.

A second part of the tour was a panoramic scenic tour of Cadiz, but we'd already done something similar so didn't bother with that, instead we headed back to the ship for afternoon tea.

It's Commodore o'clock, Red Apple Fizz for me and Jane's new favourite, Breakfast Martini. The Captain, Aseem Hashmi, came over the tannoy to tell us everyone was on-board and that things were going to get a bit lumpy heading home with 2 1/2 meter seas. He also informed us that today is Trafalgar Day and we were about to pass the site of his historic victory over the French.

We had one more drink, Jane having a Watermelon Martini, before heading down to the room to get ready for dinner. We'd arranged to meet up with Pat and Giana for a little light pre-dinner quizzing in the Golden Lion pub. It was a bit busier today, so we struggled to find a table for four, opting for a table for two and snaffling some stools for it from around the room. Well, we only went and won the quiz again, getting 9 from 12 and going all-in on the wipeout question. We won it on the tiebreak question, when was the bicycle invented?

Heady on the success we made our way to dinner, where I had chicken liver parfait followed by a prawn pasta and crêpes Suzette all washed down with a very palatable Riesling. The wines on the Commodore's package have been very good, there was only one I didn't like, which was, surprisingly the Malbec. I'm normally a big fan of Malbec but just didn't get on with this one. Jane had the same as me for dinner, except she had chicken soup to start.

After that it was time to go to bed, to try and get some sleep, the captain had said there were some lively seas ahead and Jane isn't very good when it's a bit lumpy out there.

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October 22nd

Jane had a particularly bad night last night. Being a lady of a certain age, she's been experiencing"power surges" which has been disrupting her sleep quite badly. This coupled with the lively seas means she's very tired this morning. I was late getting up, my knackered Achilles, means no running and there's no fencing today so I didn't stir until after 9am. After a shower, I headed up to the Lido for breakfast, with orders of bring me something nice, and a cup of tea following me out of the door. I had a freshly made Hame and mushroom omelette before making Jane a bacon bagel, with tea. Her breakfast looked a lot nicer than mine had been, and going by munching noises as she devoured it, it was.

The lecture trail started with John Sherlock's architecture lectures, this time entitled "Byzantine Skill, Romanesque Energy and Gothic Glory". This covered the medieval period. I am now an expert at spotting the difference between Roman and Gothic arches, you never know when it will come in handy.

I didn't hang around for Margaret Gilmore's lecture on the Litvanyenko murder by the Russian secret service as I'd seen this on the QM2 last December. I went and collected Jane to see if we could spend some of our remaining OBC and put down a future cruise deposit for next year's cruise.

The lunchtime lecture is David Mallinder's reprise on Sammy Davis Jr. This is the lecture from the Singers of the Great American Songbook series I was most looking forward to and it was excellent. After the lecture, lunch beckoned, pea soup and minute steak, lovely. After lunch we went back up to get the last of the sun on deck 9, where I left Jane in the capable hands of Giana and I headed back down to the Royal Court theatre where Star Trek: Beyond was showing. The projector is on it's last legs, with a yellow bleed across large parts of the screen. Apparently this will be fixed on return to Southampton, it didn't spoil the film, but it wasn't good.

It's now Commodore o'clock, so I'm going to have a pint of Pedigree and Jane wants a classic bloody Mary, she's all Martini'd out.

We only had the one drink in the Commodore Club before heading down to the stateroom to get ready for dinner. We were going to meet Pat and Giana in the Red Lion for the wipeout quiz at quarter to eight. We weren't successful in our endeavours, getting eight out of twelve questions correct, the same as the eventual winners, but failing miserably on the *wipeout question. Our winning streak had com to an end.

It was time for dinner and as is traditional on the final formal night, there was the parade of the chef's, where all the catering staff are paraded through the restaurant to the applause of the guests. The maître de then went on to embarrass us with our gluttony over the past 16 nights. We've eaten 20000 eggs, drunk 3 swimming pools worth of champagne, etc. I made those numbers up, but you get the idea. Dinner was excellent yet again, Fois*Gras, followed by Beef Wellington and Baked Alaska. Jane started with escargot, Wellington and ended with Macadamia Creme Brulé.

We've had a very good table this voyage, our companions for dinner have been brilliant. We are a table of 10, and because the size doesn't allow for everyone to easily talk to each other across the table, we've been switching places every night, which means no one has to put up with me every night, apart from poor Jane.*

After dinner we headed straight to bed to try and get a better nights sleep for Jane. The Captain has sped the ship up to try and get us across the Bay of Biscay ahead of a storm coming in from the West. Jane has invested in some wrist band snake oil to stave off the effects of motion sickness, let's see if that works!

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October 23rd

The skipper's rush to beat the storm across the Bay of Biscay seems to have failed. We're bouncing along merrily in the teeth of a gale. Winds of 60+ miles per hour, and 3 1/2 metre waves. All very exciting if you don't suffer from motion sickness. Unfortunately Jane is not feeling top tippy, the wrist bands from yesterday's shopping trip don't seem to be having the desired effect.

I was sent to breakfast alone in the Lido, with orders for a cup of tea and a toasted bacon bagel. I got up to deck 9 to find my route to the Lido blocked by the bad weather. The doors to the Garden room locked, so a diversion to stairwell B via deck 8 was required. I had kedgeree before returning to the room with Jane's order. It's funny how with sea sickness you can be too ill to do any thing except eat!

After breakfast the Captain was taking part in a Q&A down in the Royal Court theatre. Jane had to have a mad dash to get showered and ready, but we made it with plenty of time to spare and more importantly, with free seats still available. These Q&A sessions are a bit contrived, but the Captain is very good value and it was a thoroughly enjoyable 45 minutes. This was followed by a chart auction which raised 400 USD for the Prince's Trust.

A walk to the Purser's desk followed to check our bill and to post the survey. We've still a bit of OBC to use, but not as much as I'd feared. We then had a quick drink in the Lido, the Kwells, Jane is using to supplement her wearing of seasick wristbands, dry her out. I left Jane there wile I headed back to the Royal Court theatre for John Sherlock's final lecture on Renaissance and Revival. I now know my Nashes from my Inigo Joneses.

Suitably educated, it was now time to start the sad process of packing. It's a miserable task at the best of times, but after having such a wonderful time it's very depressing. We got most of it out the way before, ringing Jane's dad for a bit of 'Mac and Moo' time. We now have our disembarkation time, so we let John know and Jane made her daily enquiry on Minty's health and eating habits.

Lunch in the Lido beckoned, where we both had Pizza, freshly made by the chefs up there. That coupled with a nice cup of tea meant I was suitably refreshed. We walked down to the Grand Lobby where the guests choir were about to perform. Strangely I hadn't been invited to join *them !!!*

After the choir, we headed back to the room for a rest, Jane was still feeling a bit rough, in keeping with the sea state. It was looking like our final visit to the Commodore Club wasn't going to happen. That Captain had promised that once in the English Channel, the sea would calm down. It didn't seem to. So we rested until it was time to get ready for dinner. When I was all clean and shiney we went to meet Pat and Giana for one last trivia quiz in the Red Lion pub, stopping only to place all the cases, bar one, outside the stateroom door.

It wasn't to be our night again, we got our usual 9 out of twelve, but the winning team had 11. Jane was well enough to try a Bloody Mary

We got to dinner to find we were missing Linda, Peter had given her his cold, so she wasn't feeling up to dinner and didn't want to pass it on. I had a Crab Thermidor as a starter followed by Turkey Sallopini and Blueberry Cream Pie. We had some OBC left, so got a bottle of Fizz to toast our companions on a very successful cruise.

After dinner it was back to the room to pack the final bag with our dinner attire, use up the last of the internet minutes and nod off ready for tomorrow's arrival in Southampton

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Welcome home Rakkor........

:(

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We're back at Jane's dad's - I'm very sad to leave the ship, Jane is happier as she's pleased to see the dog. Disembarkation was painless, we were off about 30 minutes early, but as we were waiting for a pickup by John, we collected our luggage and found a seat to wait.

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Welcome home! A fabulous blog, I really enjoyed reading your adventures. [emoji16]

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Thank you for sharing your voyage with us, it's been very enjoyable "travelling" with you.

Thanks for sharing! Our postcards to the family from the previous cruise are still arriving!

Her's to the next time!

Just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing your experiences. I've never cruised before and recently booked my first cruise on the QV for next summer. I've learned lots and was particularly inspired by all of the running. Hope the injury heals soon .

I've scanned and posted the daily programmes from our cruise onto my blog if anyone is interested

https://blog.rakkor.uk

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