A Captain's Log

 Today we stopped of at Cartagena(not the one in Columbia), I say this because every time I Google things to do in Cartagena the Columbian Cartagena comes up first. We have been here before and wanted to try something new and as a special treat for Perdita ( I have been promising her one for weeks if she walked up the rock on Gibraltar)  which she did on Thursday with lots of puffing and panting, dirty looks and even a few choice words. She even said she hated me( remember how that feels Bare), and for a time I think she really meant it. I had booked us in to go to an equestrian centre, to go for a hack( I am a novice, though Perdita is quite proficient) I had researched for this and we had to catch the Alsa L14 bus at the bus terminus, so when we got off the ship we got a map and the lady giving them out marked on the map the route we should take.We set of and arrived there in good time to catch said bus. Unfortunately when it arrived at the stop it just drove straight past u...

 Neither of us fancied wandering around Marbella (we have always pictured it as being the Blackpool of Spain). We instead booked an excursion through the cruise line to a little Village  called Mijas about 3/4 of an hour drive from Marbella, famous for its donkey taxis. When we got there, it proved our theory about Marbella to be correct. Don't get me wrong it was a beautiful village but you could tell that it has been modernised to cater for coaches and  lots of cars. It was only a short excursion, with a 30 minute guided tour and a couple of hours to explore the village and its numerous tat shops, local leather goods being their speciality. There was also a tiny Bullring there which was open to public viewing, which only seated 300 people, the walls of the entrance was full of plaques displaying the names of all the bull fighters who had performed there since it was opened in 1900 by demand of the locals. Also a tiny chapel for the bullfighters to pray for a safe end to...

 No rush this morning, it's just a 30 minute walk to Cadiz central, on the face of it Cadiz, appeared to be a town with little to fill or time, however we were pleasantly surprised. First port of call was a cafe, to take on liquid refreshment. The cafe was in the Square at the front of the Cathedral, which was going to be our first destination  for the day. It was clearly in the middle of a major restoration project going off the scaffolding outside, and the netting stopping you being hit by any falling debris from the ceiling inside, but it still looked splendid even with the work being done. The cost was €7 and included a walk around the cathedral itself, entry to the bell tower and a little museum around the back, so not bad value. mo Once the cathedral was done the carousel, in the Square had begun trading, so Perdita, decided to give that a go. Friday must be market day, stalls laced the tiny streets and squares throughout the town centre selling anything you ever wanted ...

 We rolled out of our pit early this morning, as we had booked our breakfast in bed for between 7.00 and 7.30 am, as we wanted an early start on our day in Gibraltar and would be let loose to leave the ship at 8am. The first stage was to get from the port  to Casemates Square at the bottom of Main street, which we followed for a couple of hundred yards, before we turned left onto Engineer Lane, and then left again onto  Castle Street(not so much a street, more like a flight of steps) which took us up the hill until we hit Willis's Road and again heading up a steep hill until we reached the Moorish Castle. We had booked on line and bought a Gibraltar day pass, which for the cost of £50 promised  free entry in to all the main tourist attraction in Gibraltar, and either a return trip in the cable car or a coach trip to the top the rock, and free bus travel around the town. We presented our digital copy of our day passed to the bemused gent at the kiosk. Apparently we sh...

Well it's been 3 years since our last cruise and to say we can't wait, would be an understatement. Having both lost quite a bit of weight  over the last 6 months, Perdita and I have both spent the last couple of weekends updating our wardrobes (let's hope it wasn't a waste with all the food and drink to try whilst we are onboard).It's strange whenever we pack to go away we always find numerous part tubes of toothpaste, toothbrushes, and out of date suncream, which off course we always replace. One day we will learn and just throw it all away after our trip, or more likely, with Perdita being a bit tight, using it up when we get home. The only other trauma we avoided was spotting Perdita had packed 2 right foot walking sandals instead of a pair I'm not sure it was a accident or so  she could loose me when I was following her footprints in the sand. COVID has brought quite a few changes to the way the cruise line and airport now operate, meaning lots of extra pape...