The Last Days & London

I have 30 minutes to spare before my flight departs for Dubai. It seems so strange to spend 15 days at sea to get to London and then only 6 hours to return. I did post on the penultimate day of the cruise but it seems the post never made it to the blog.

One of the important things about shipboard life is preventing sickness. All around the ship there are pump-action jars of antimicrobial hand gel and we are expected to use it as often as possible. Each of the internet stations has a jar and its a good idea to use it before and after using the communal keyboards. All the dining rooms have them too, either at the door or beside plates and cutlery. Having been vigilant I still managed to get the flu in the last couple of days. My voice leaps from Greta Garbo to Mickey Mouse in a single sentence and I was in no shape to go ashore in France - a good thing I've been to Paris many times before.

We sailed from Le Havre to Southampton overnight and I was up at 5am to get ready for disembarkation. I felt sad to be leaving this magnificent ship and the new friends I've made. Fortunately Leonna had arranged a week in London so I hung out with her for a couple more days to help her get accustomed to the Underground, participate in my pilgrimmage to Harrods, and also to see the crown jewels at the Tower of London (my 3rd time - I never get tired of looking at them).

Last night we went to see "Billy Elliot", the new stage show scored by Elton John. I can see why it is getting rave reviews here. Some of the scenes leave you gob-smacked, especially one with the riot squad (pictured)and also a dream sequence in which Billy dances until he flies. At the end I couldn't believe how on earth they managed to find a kid so talented to play the lead role. He was awesome, dancing and singing his little heart out and throwing in some gymnastic tumbles also. I wonder how much longer he can keep the part though as a couple of times it sounded like his voice was about to break.

I'm sitting in Heathrow as I type this, and expect to start boarding in a few minutes. So I need to go powder my nose and stuff. When I get back to Dubai I'll add photographs of the things I've seen and done in the last couple of weeks.

Tootles.

Weeee....

We left Italy last night and have rough weather again today. I think this time it's at least a 5 metre swell and we had lightning and hail on deck around breakfast time this morning. Thankfully I have a cast iron gut when it comes to the rock and roll of a ship on rough seas. I'll chalk that up to holiday voyages on the Cook Strait Ferry as a young girl. The Cook Strait is the water between the North and South Islands of New Zealand and supposedly one of the roughest stretches of water in the world.

I think quite a few people have popped sea-sickness pills today and the halls are a bit emptier than normal so I suspect some are limiting themselves to their staterooms.

On Deck 2 it is possible to look out windows that are very close to the water line and its fun to watch the ship's wake smash against incoming waves and actually look upwards into the splash. Occasionally a sneak wave will splash up over the windows and make you want to jump back even though there's no way you'd get wet. From the look of the safety stamps, there are 4 layers of glass between us and the Mediterranean.

But Cunard are right. Queen Mary 2 is the greatest ocean liner in the world. The key distinction here is "ocean liner". She was not built as a cruise ship, but rather for the trans-Atlantic crossings. Even in rough weather like this she is far more stable than I expected.

We have sea days for the next 3 days before reaching Le Havre in France. There is still much to do on top of the customary Dinner+Show that we've had every night since leaving Dubai. We're going classical for the next couple of days; "Opera Babes" and a violinist whose name escapes me. I've just passed the theatre and seen the practice run - it seems we are in for Vivaldi's Winter set to lighting resembling this morning's storm.

So much to write about, so little time ...

Orvieto

Having been to Rome and the Vatican City before, I headed inland to Umbria to visit a town named Orvieto. It's an amazing place, fortified atop a limestone & tufo outcrop. Some of the houses are built right on the edge of the cliff faces so their walls beome almost a seamless continuation of the cliff.

In the centre of the town is an incredible cathedral of black and white marble, standing 6-7 storeys high. The front face is ornate being covered in gold and brightly coloured mosaics. There's lots of statuary too. Some of the windows are stained glass and some are glazed with thin slivers of alabaster that let in a honey-coloured light.

Off the cathedral there are cobblestone lanes and stone buildings adorned with ivy and wrought iron signage. Orvieto specialises in brightly coloured italian pottery. It is often on display on exterior shop walls, giving the place a cheerful feel even though it was brass monkey weather today (we passed snow-laden hills on the way there).

Tonight we were notified about formalities for disembarkation in Southampton. It isn't for a few days yet, and we have one more stop in France before the voyage is over. I'll be very sad when the trip is over as I've had such a lovely time and met some very interesting people along the way.

Sex Therapy & Eruptions

Got your attention?

This morning I went to see Dr. Ruth's presentation along with most of the other folks on the ship. She's 4'7", 79 years old and still works every day. One of the funniest parts of her presentation was in response to a question about Viagra. Dr. Ruth told a cautionary tale about what has happened in the USA since the drug was introduced. It seems women are beginning to tire of their partners' constant demands and they've seen a dramatic increase in "Not tonight, dear, I have a headache" sydnrome. She also says that testosterone levels are highest in the mornming so as you get older it is better to have sex in the morning rather than late at night. Another hot tip: every partnership needs to take a vacation together (without the kids) to rekindle the spark. She stressed 'without the kids'.

Earlier this evening we passed between Siciliy and the toe of Italy's boot. About an hour later, when it was dark, we passed Stromboli as it was erupting. It was pretty cool to see two rivers of bright orange lava streak down the mountain. The clicky link takes you to images of the same eruption, pretty much as I saw it. I've been fascinated with volcanoes since my teenage years and although this is not the first eruption I've seen up close, it was the first time I saw lava flows.

Tonight four of us went to Todd English restaurant which is on Deck 8 overlooking the pool. The food was divine and after eating a lobster bisque followed by a lobster main and a molten chocolate pudding for desert, I'm feeling a bit like Mr Creosote. One wafer thin after-dinner mint and Iam
likely to explode.

Early tomrrow mornig we reach Civitavecchia, the port closest to Rome. I've been to Rome before so I'm planning to head out to Orvieto, a picturesque village in the countryside.

Athens

They say you should try to learn something new every day and today I learned the Acropolis is the name of the hill, not the name of the ruins on top. That's the Parthenon, which I discovered I'd been confusing with Rome's Pantheon ever since I visited there in 1987. D'oh! *slap forehead*

I was determined to take a shot of a sign with greek and english on it. Excuse the glare/reflection; I had to take it from inside a moving bus.

The view from the top of the Acropolis is stunning, especially on days like today when the sky is brilliant blue and there's little haze.

We also went down to Cape Sounion - well worth doing if you are in this part of the world - to see Poseidon's Temple. The road winds south along the coast from Athens. Closer to the city there are elegant apartments facing onto inner-city marinas fit for their multi-million dollar yachts.

As with any place else, the highrise apartments give way to more suburban areas and then finally to the countryside. But no matter where you look along the way the water is crystal clear and the little coves and beaches look very inviting. Too bad we didn't have time to get off the bus for a picnic and a dip in the Aegean.

I got some close-ups of graffiti at Poseidon's Temple dating back to the 1890s. I'm sure there was older stuff but I couldn't get close enough to see or photograph it. You'll need to click on the pic and enlarge it to see the details. Bringing you proof that vandalism is nothing new...

Tomorrow we have a very interesting guest speaker: Dr Ruth, the world-famous psychosexual therapist. Her presentation is entitled "Sexually Speaking" so I guess anything is possible. I'm hoping it will not be about sex for the over 80s as the thought leaves me with disturbing mental images.

It is 10pm and I'm exhausted. Three hours from now we sail away to Rome and there's another sea day tomorrow. Might go get my nails done...

Piraeus & Athens

I will never need to give the Commodore lessons on reverse parking or 3-point turns. We arrived in Piraeus around lunchtime today and watched with awe as he reversed Queen Mary 2 though a narrow gap in the breakwater and then nosed her into the berth with only a few feet of water between the dock and bow. Notice the two lights, one on each side of the breakwater? Wait until you see how close we get to them! Check the Red Light / Green Light photos in the right hand column of this blog.

While the Commodore was busy reversing QM2, several hundred passengers stood along the stern railing (i.e. the blunt end, not the pointy end) of decks 7-13, enjoying a wee drinkie and live music at what's known as a "Sail In Party". It's all terribly civilized.

A good day's hunting and gathering for the tribe too. Me and a couple of Autralian ladies I've befriended - Leonna and Elaine - decided to just take it easy and walk around Athens in the afternoon. We were dropped by bus at Hadrian's Arch and spent a good 6 hours trolling he shops beneath the Acropolis. The shops are fabulous and I bought several pieces of hand-blown glass, costume jewellry, and the mandatory t-shirts.

The shopping/café district, Plaka, is very scenic; narrow streets and many old buildings with shuttered windows and traditional clay-tiled rooves. There are also plenty of picturesque chapels or historic columns thrown in for good measure and, of course, it is all in the shadow of the Acropolis perched high above on a hill of its own. [Editor's note: I've since learned the Acropolis is actually the name of the hill itself. More about that tomorrow.]

We found a wonderful indoor-outdoor café named Diogenes and had a Fawlty Towers moment when the waiters realised we didn't mean to eat a full meal, just cake and coffee. Who knew the complementary bread, olives and dip were only for those diners who planned to spend significant amounts of money? Try reading the website and you'll get a sense of the communication barrier.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to head down to Cape Sounion, the southern most point of the European continent, to see the beautiful coastline and Poseidon's Temple.

Pyramid Day

We exited the Suez Canal just on dusk yesterday and made our way across 200-ish kms of the muddied Nile delta in preparation for Queen Mary 2's final Maiden Call for the cruise, Alexandria. Many of us had booked 12-hour tours into Cairo to see the Pyramids etc. and had risen early to get breakfast and be ready for the bus transfers first thing.

Upon waking, the ship had a bit more movement than we'd experienced for the previous 5 days. I was surprised as she is normally solid as a rock and it hardly felt like we were at sea all the way here.

While I was tucking into a plate of the sweetest watermelon in history, I could see the skyline of Alexandria on the horizon and felt my excitement for the day rise in expectation. Ten minutes later I noticed the Alexandria skyline pass by again ... and again ten minutes after that. I'd been up since 5am; clearly the lights were on but nobody was home as it took me a few minutes to realise we were going in circles in rough water.

"Good morning everyone. This is the Commodore," began the announcement. It didn't bode well. We learned the authorities in Alexandria had closed the port due to gale force winds. This is bad for large ships because basically they are a wall against which the wind will blow, making declicate berthing manoeuvres far more risky than usual.

We circled for two more hours hoping for the weather to pass but no luck. By 10am we had to say farewell to Egypt and make an early start for Greece without ever saying hello to the Pyramids. To quote Mick Jagger: "You can't always get what you want..." and sadly that was true today. The image at the top of this post is a fraud but I'm sure I would have taken a shot just like it if we'd gone ashore.

This must have been a real blow to the Egyptians. To put things in perspective I heard that more than 50 buses had been waiting for us on shore. QM2 carries more passengers than 2x average sized cruise ships. That's a lot of lost revenue for both Cunard and the locals. So it was lose-lose-lose all the way around.

I was disappointed, of course, but there's no point yelling at the wind. And besides, now we will have an extra day in Athens - a place I haven't been to yet. And to quote Mick again: "But if you try sometimes, you might get what you need".

So, Stephen Wong, it seems our bet is still on. You may yet get to see the pyramids before me. I believe our original bet was made in 1997 so let's hope it won't take us another 10 years to get sorted!