The last 10 days have been a bit of a blur as we wake up and find ourselves moored at a different Island each morning. Unlike River Cruises where all “excursions” are included in the Cruise package. With Seabourn all extensions are “extra” and to avoid disappointment, need to be booked and paid for in advance from quite a wide selection of options.

Anyway cut a long story short this means that one only gets a brief opportunity to explore each port of call. Most days the ship moors off the coast of each island which necessitates much faffing about with Tenders (read lifeboats) back and forth from ship to shore.

As will become apparent from my narrative, life onboard is 4-5 star. However this is an experiment that I probably wont repeat as for a number of reasons the ocean cruising crowd are a very different bunch to the more civilised and friendly river cruisers that I have become used to. I should have stuck to my “maximum capacity of 100ish” limit and will revert accordingly in future !!

Having said that, it has been great to get some sun on the old bones and to escape from the endless cold & dank English winter. Not to mention the ongoing management issues at Flete House that have dominated Max and My retirement for the past 3 years. More of that may appear as a rant in a future blog posting. You have been warned !!!!!

So back to the Cruise….

Tortola

It was 40 years ago when I spent (or rather misspent !) Xmas in Tortola with Roger & Nicky during a break in what was a three year Pink Floyd Tour and we rented a couple of Bungalows in Cane Garden Bay. Hurricanes and tourism have since taken their toll but it’s still not too shabby and was the first stop in our Cruising schedule.

St Kitts

Next stop St Kitts for a Day on the Beach, after a quick coach tour of the Island, including a very colourful Batik factory and shop. This was followed by a Barbecue on the beach with the entire ship’s company (all 500 ish) and the Seabourn “signature event” of Caviar in the Surf which fell somewhat short of expectations so I escaped back to the Ship before sand permitted every crevice!

A day at Sea and then Guadeloupe, Martinique & Bequia.

A rather tedious coach ride around Guadeloupe and a Botanical Garden

A visit to a large Rum Distillery with Tasting and Shop – There is one on every island !

Followed by a quick tour around Bequia.

This is where I started to loose track of which day – which Island and which Rum. So will publish this and resume later …..

I never got around to completing my Moroccan blog earlier this year. No excuse really but hopefully those of you that were following it got the gist of it ! Anyway I couldn’t face another English Winter without an escape plan so am embarking on a 4 week Caribbean and Mexican adventure.

Back in the day when RWP was still in action, some of you may remember that the 90s involved a seemingly endless stream of extravagant Cruise Ship Naming Ceremonies, in Southampton for Cunard, P&O, Princess and various other Carnival Cruise lines. One of which was Seabourn Sojourn which we brought up the Thames from Dover, past Greenwich and Twiggy was the bottle smashing “Godmother”. I had previously issued an edict to my long suffering team, that is I was ever seen setting foot on any of the massive behemoths, they had my permission to shoot me !!

Well sometimes such rules have to be ignored, and having exhausted the majority of the Winter river cruising destinations, I set my sights on Seabourn and a 20 night Caribbean Cruise from San Juan to Barbados taking in a plethora of Island on the way. Then a quick dip into the Yucatan in Mexico to see some Aztec ruins and hook up with an old mate before heading back to Blighty to wait for Spring to arrive.

As always when I try to resume blogging, I find out that WordPress have “updated the software and the “rules”. Now that AI has managed to infiltrate everything, hopefully you will be able to access and follow my exploits as they unravel.

I will hope to issue weekly postings. Apologies in advance if there are any glitches but am wrestling with a new iPad which seemed like a good idea at the time…..

Set off from Devon last Friday by train to London and onto Heathrow. A night in a hotel at the Airport before catching the Virgin flight to JFK and then onto San Juan for another night in a hotel before joining Seabourn Ovation – my home for the next 3 weeks. JFK was a total nightmare with what could have been a 5 hour queue at immigration and a missed connection, which I somehow managed to circumnavigate by joining the “disabled” queue and charming/pleading with the chap trying to order me back to the back of the queue. Still took a while to get into the USA and then straight into another 2 hour queue to get out again and onto my flight to Puerto Rico (which of course is still in the US !! Grrrrrr !! Finally got into my hotel at around 02:00 which my brain (what’s left of it) thought that it was 07:00. Up and off to the port and the safe haven of Seabourn Ovation..

Much larger that my River Cruising ships/boats and well in excess of my self prescribed 100 passenger limit but at least I managed to avoid one of the horrendous monster ships that seem to dominate the world of cruising these days !! All rather plush and managed to decant my 3 bags (yes 3 !!) and set up my base station. Wi-Fi was a somewhat costly exercise but needs must so that I can blog away as we embark on 3 weeks of island hopping.

Tortola

My previous visit to Tortola was a much needed break around 30 years ago in the middle of a 3 year Pink Floyd world tour. Since then much has changed and a couple of major hurricanes have taken their toll. However it seems to have recovered and has brought back some fond memories of my mispent youth and various exploits and adventures !!

A copious selection of soaps, washes and scrubs as well as reams of lists of “activities” that I will do my best to avoid. Fellow passengers (4-500 ish) are an eclectic and multinational bunch in a variety of interesting and sometimes bizarre combinations. Great people watching though and the Food is amazing and a tad OTT !! Trying not to succumb to the omnipresent alcohol but the Caribbean would not be the Caribbean without a tot or two of Rum !!

A quick tour around the Island followed by a couple of hours of snorkelling then back on board for and to our next stop – St Kitts.

I will post this now. Please let me know if i gets through OK

Due to the fact that we are pretty much constantly on the move and staying in different cities and hotels each night I seem to have almost reached the end of my tour I am going to do a couple of “posts” in an attempt to catch up. I can’t blame it all on Moroccan WiFi as so far it’s been pretty good!

We are fortunate that Dean (the kiwi in the group) is an excellent photographer and so have decided to keep my iPhone in my pocket and rely mainly on his photos

Needless to say his photos have got hopelessly muddled with mine as Google and Apple still seem be incompatible. I will therefore probably get the wrong photos in the wrong cities so bear with me and hopefully you will still get the idea !!

Mega mosque in Casablanca.

Rabat and Meknes

The Aussie girls – Julie & Caroline – in Rabat or Meknes:

On one of the few times when retail therapy or scarf shopping haven’t distracted them !!

A stop at Volubilis on the way to Chefchaouen where everything turns blue. Major Roman ruins

Then onto Chefchaouen for two nights surrounded by blue with lots of steps..

Bliss – two nights in the same hotel with a pool

Next stop Fes. Hopefully you can see what I mean about Deans photos !! Google won’t let me forget it. I will post this one now in an attempt to catch up….

Sod’s Law but am finally heading off for some real sunshine and a three week tour of Morocco and of course the weather in England has started to get decidedly springtime and is experiencing a heatwave.

Headed up to London to attend my old pal Juliette’s 80th birthday In London. A momentous occasion held in the Conservatory at the Barbican attended by many old mates and faces from the early Floydian era. A plethora of Wrights, Masons, O’Rourkes and various accomplices and surviving supporters.

A night at the Chelsea Arts Club before heading down to Gatwick for a Royal Marconi flight to Casablanca and 3 nights at the somewhat shambolic Hyatt Regency. Chilling out by the pool and a few sorties for dinner was about all that I could muster. Casablanca doesn’t have a lot going for it these days apart from a souk in the Casbah opposite the hotel selling all the usual tat.

A couple of the old art nouveau landmarks and a thriving fish market survive. Not exactly as Bogie and Bergman appeared in the movie !!

So on day four I crossed town to meet up with my fellow travellers for the next couple of weeks with the aptly named Intrepid Travel tour of Morocco. Quite a relief to discover that we are only a group of 5 – Myself, a male kiwi mountain biker, 2 female 70 ish Aussie school chums and our local tour guide Atman. An introductory dinner, an early night before we head out from Casablanca not a moment too soon !!

A brief health update:

My latest PET scan in February did not show any sign of spread of my throat cancer.   However, it is still “lurking”.   I have a constantly fluctuating vile taste in the top left corner of my mouth (where the robots went in) which despite some pretty radical dental surgery refuses to go way.    All departments and specialists are baffled and the latest “scape goat” seems to be “nerve damage”.     We shall see…….

Silly Bugger Time:

Meanwhile a few weeks ago the sun came out and I decided to trim back some dead wisteria that had been bothering me for some time and took my very long ladder outside with some pruners and loppers.     Finished pruning and gave the dead bit one final tug, lost my balance and fell about 3 meters into a flower bed narrowly missing Paul, one of our gardening team” who I had asked to “foot the ladder” – a premonition perhaps….

Long story – but fractured my elbow and cracked a few other bones incurring mild concussion along the way.    Paramedics and an ambulance ride to Derriford to spend 6 hours being triaged and scanned in the corridors and admitted for surgery the following morning.    A 3-hour op and they wired my elbow back together – A general anaesthetic and a total numbing “block” from shoulder to fingertips.   However, as they were wheeling me back to my ward my mattress became deflated and wouldn’t reinflate.   They had omitted to put the “gates” up on the sides of the bed, so my arm flopped off like a very heavy cucumber, ripping out the wiring and compounding the fracture even more.   Sent me home, local anaesthetic wore off and mega ouch factor kicked in!!!    A week of opioids and then another 3-hour op while they reset the bones and installed plates and screws that should be enough to make airport metal detectors take note.   Home same day and pleased to report that a week later the sling has gone, bandage gone and am virtually pain free now.   Lots of exercises and physio stuff and just must remember not to try and lift anything heavier than a glass of water for 6-10 weeks while the bones heal.   Cutlery and buttons are somewhat of a challenge but and my left arm and hand are going through a steep learning curve !!

Memo to Self:   No more ladders – We don’t bounce anymore !!

Hopefully I will be travelling to somewhere sunny in the not-too-distant future so will resume blogging as and when…

Meanwhile at Flete springtime is almost here after my first English Winter without major travels for ages. Never Again !!!!!

Many Thanks to Char & Liz who have got me through the past few weeks of nightmare and continue to do so Love you both !!!

And Max who has held my paw throughout and is now sleeping it off !!

I have been back for almost two weeks now and realised that I still haven’t posted the final instalment of my Danube adventure. Since I got back I have been somewhat distracted with medical stuff and the shambolic situation of the management here at Flete House (home).

We docked on the outskirts of Vienna and were taken on a coach tour which deposited us in the City centre and some “free time” to explore.

The Christmas market was already surrounding the cathedral but I headed inside to explore its gobsmacking interior

Went down into the catacombs (no photos I’m afraid) – lots of bones, sarcophagus’s and urns jars full of organs and entrails. An essential component of the embalming process apparently.

Up to the gallery at the top of one of the spires with great views over the city

Then a long walk around the surrounding area – lots of spectacular buildings and baroque churches. I had forgotten what an amazing city Vienna was and even made a pilgrimage to the Sacher hotel (home of the famous Sachertorte) for the best and most expensive chocolate cake in the world.

A visit to Palace Lichtenstein for a private performance of Strauss & Mozart’s greatest hits.

Off to the Schönbrunner Palace the next morning for full baroque OTT immersion before heading back to the ship and setting off for Budapest

Budapest

Headed downstream to Budapest where we moored just next to the Chain Bridge. I opted to do the walking/hiking excursion which entailed us being dropped off at the square below Buda Hill. Large Cathedral which it being Sunday was not open for tourists. Many of the old ruined buildings were being rebuilt at huge expense. Not popular with the locals who think that the money could be better spent elsewhere !!

We then hiked up to the top of the hill and spectacular views down over the city. Down that hill and up the next with views down to the river and the Chain Bridge.

Budapest has some fabulous buildings but still carries the shadow of having been under communist rule until 1989/90. The current Prime Minister – Victor Orban – who is not too popular and one of the main reasons that Hungary is still not in the EU is building himself a new palace complex.

Hiked down the hill and past one of the Thermal Baths that are numerous and extremely popular in Budapest. Some of my fellow travellers opted for baths rather than hike. Very sumptuous apparently!!

Back to the ship and lunch after which I went for a long walk across the bridge to Pest which is definitely the poor relative of Buda. A “last supper” then a night time cruise past the splendid parliament building and back to our mooring. I should mention that the temperature although sunny (at last!) had dropped to minus 3 by the time we huddled in duvets on the deck.

Turfed off the ship at dawn as is their wont. They have a whole new bunch other passengers arriving at noon for the trip back to Amsterdam. British Airways performed reasonably well until they landed at Heathrow and taxied across to Terminal 3 when I and my car were expecting Terminal 5!! Major sense of humour failure – best laid plans and all that…….

Made it back to Flete by about 8 pm. Collected Max the following afternoon. A very happy chap as was I. Complete managerial carnage here. But that’s a story for another day…….

Some people seem to have dropped off my follower list. So if any of you get to end of this adventure please send me a comment so that I know that you are still there.

Until the next one…… Nothing planned yet as I need to get my medical shit sorted out. However I intend to head south and sunshine in the new year.

Meanwhile the world is in a right old mess and seems hellbent on self destruction !!!

R xx

Melk Abbey and the Wachau Gorges

Moored below the very impressive Melk Abbey which is a very impressive Benedictine Abbey high on the hill overlooking the town and river.

More baroque extravagance and ceiling frescos. Only 8 monks still in residence but now home to some sort of school/college. Also a library containing one of Europes largest collection of ancient texts, book & manuscripts – no photos allowed.

Back on board as we cruise through the Wachau valley and gorges, a major wine growing area, with many castles and ruins on either side. A tad murky but you will get the idea..

Durnstein

Next stop Durstein – a small town most famous for its ruined castle perched high above it and where Richard 1st (Lionheart) was imprisoned on his way back from the crusades until, after several years, he was ransomed at vast expense and returned to England.

Having spent the whole day yesterday on board, I needed some exercise so set off for the climb up to the castle. Lots of steps and quite a lot of clambering but the views from the top were quite spectacular. A few other intrepid passengers along the made it to the top. Much huffing and puffing and by the time I made it back down the old legs were screaming!! A wander around the town on the way back to the ship. Past a history marker of flood levels. The brass plaque on the left was 2020 which must have been pretty disastrous especially for the village and community on the other bank!

Next stop will be Vienna for two days and then onto Budapest.

I have visited Nuremberg many times back in my touring days with several shows staged in the Zeppelin Field which is where Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer used to stage their infamous rally’s.

A huge amphitheater that can easily hold 150,000 people. The podium from which Adolf used to rant is still there though rather fittingly has now been converted into the public WCs!

The Stage is customarily built to face out from the tribune. However I have an enduring memory of supplying sound for Bob Dylan in the 70s where Herr Zimmerman insisted that (once we had everything set up of course!) he wanted to play towards the podium which of course we reluctantly obliged. Pink Floyd shows in the 80s & 90s and various others. So had never explored the town.

Some of my fellow cruisers chose the WW2 tour which included a visit to the infamous courtrooms. However I elected to walk around the old fortress, castle and Cathedral with lunch in the old Bratwurst restaurant and sitting in the sun.

Next stop was Rothenberg…

Rothenberg

Another old Medieval town dating way back to Roman days. Beer, Bratwurst on offer everywhere.

A very spectacular cathedral and some other Baroque churches.

We departed early evening, crossed the “continental divide” at which point we started cruising through a series of locks that take us down several hundred metres to the easterly flowing Danube.

Today spent on board while the majority went on lengthy full day excursions to Strasbourg or some quaint town in the Czech Republic. 6 hours with this lot on a bus not for me !

Awoke this morning to the news of Trump’s victory. FFS and God help us all !!!!!

After leaving Cologne we headed through the Rhine Gorge which is flanked by a multitude of Castles on either side and quite spectacular. The only problem was lousy weather and poor visibility. Managed to photograph a few

However there is a better selection from my 2021 Rhine cruise (scroll down a ways !) when the weather was considerably better.

Arrived in Rüdesheim where we headed off to Siegfried’s Mechanical Musical Instrument Museum which actually turned out to be a fascinating collection of fully restored and amazingly functional music boxes some of which were mini orchestras.

The dawn of computing with the paper and wax storage & recording systems. The first phonogram (record player) when, those of you of a certain age will remember, operated at 78 rpm .

Back to the ship via a “pit stop” for a Rudesheim coffee (rocket fuelled cappuccino) and some apfelstrudel. Headed downstream to Miltenberg, Wertheim and onto Würzburg.

We are now visiting various medieval cities along the Rhine that were almost all totally destroyed by the Allied bombing campaign at the end of WW2. Some raids that were ruthlessly carried out with clockwork precision and were comparable to what was done to Dresden. A staggering 95% of buildings were flattened with severe civilian casualties. An amazing programme of reconstruction and restoration has taken place with most now boasting the inevitable World Heritage status

All a bit of a Baroque blur but highlights include:

Wurzburg

At one point the HQ of the Holy Roman Empire whose bishops built their equivalent of Versailles. Baroque and stucco overkill ..

The obligatory Chinese couple getting married

A photo after the RAF paid them a visit in 1945….

After lunch a serious clamber up the hill to the Fortress where the Bishops were based before they built the palace.

A view down to the Palace and Scenic Crystal

Bamberg

Bamberg is another medieval town that miraculously avoided the WW2 bombing raids and survived pretty much intact.

A plaque commemorating General von Stauffenberg – executed by the Nazis for masterminding the plot to assassinate Hitler with bomb in the briefcase at the Wolf’s Lair in July 1944.

Next stop Nuremberg. Will post this now as we are just heading into some mega locks to lift us up to the Danube.

This was never going to the best time of year weather wise to cruise down the Rhine & Danube, having had to jump ship in Vienna due to COVID a couple of years back, when heading upstream from the Black Sea. Sure enough it’s pretty dismal out there and the sun deck is not getting much attention!!

The drive up to Heathrow from Devon was relatively problem free and the sun shone most of the way. British Airways came through for a change and I stayed overnight in Amsterdam before transferring to Scenic Crystal which will be “home” for the next couple of weeks.

I have decided to leave my clunky & trusty old Canon & lenses behind in attempt to “travel light”. After a spot of retail therapy last week I now have the latest iPhone and will be relying on that for photographic evidence of my adventures. Let’s see how we get on …. At least they now have a camera button on the side which should reduce the number of photos of my thumbs !

Set off from Amsterdam after a short & soggy canal cruise around the city centre. Back on board for lunch before setting off down the serious canals that will get us across country and through to the Rhine and onto the Danube and eventually to Budapest. We arrived in Cologne and disembarked for a walking tour of the city centre, the highlight of which was the Cathedral that I had admired from a distance for decades but never actually made it into.

One of largest gothic cathedrals in the world which managed to survive the virtually total destruction of Cologne during WW2. The allied bombing raids apparently used it as a landmark and managed to leave it standing, or it was a case of divine intervention depending on which version you believe !! Surprised to find that it is Catholic and I had always thought the Germans were protestants – so much for my knowledge of German history !!

A basement full of religious bling which was pretty awesome and totally priceless but then that’s Catholicism for you !!

Back to the ship. Most of the passengers were out for a fancy dinner in a palace somewhere – dressed up to the nines. I opted to stay on board for dinner with a handful of others. One excursion per day is my limit at the moment ! The Rhine gorge next ……..