It all began in early December 2010 with the arrival of the mail from P & O Cruises..... now we receive dozens of these every month, along with cruise offers from Readers Offers, Bolsover Cruises, Saga and heaven knows how many others, we seem to be on the mailing list for every cruise operator going. This mailing was not much different but it seemed to be offering reduced prices for Portunus members and this was a club we were automatically enrolled in when we did the World Cruise so Sam decided to take a look inside the brochure rather than consigning it to the recycling bag as we normally do.
"Ooh look," Sam said to Hilary, "one of these cruises is going to the eastern part of the Mediterranean around the Greek Islands, you've always wanted to go there." "Umm," replied Hilary,"but I'm not doing a fly/cruise, I'm only going if it starts and finishes at Southampton." "Hang on a minute and I will check," said Sam, to be followed only moments later by, "you are in luck, that's just what it does, and it is pretty cheap - do you want to go?" A careful check of the available outside cabins showed that there was just one on C Deck, the same deck we knew and loved when we went around the world and before you knew it, just like the World Cruise of 2009, Sam was on the internet credit card in hand sending off the deposit.
So on March 30th, Sam's 72nd birthday, we will be heading off to Southampton to join good old Oriana for our second ever cruise. A night and a day of sailing down the English Channel and across the Bay of Biscay and we arrive on April Fool's Day at Vigo in Spain where for several hours we can enjoy the delights of Bayona La Real, have a Thermal Spa Experience in Mondariz or enjoy several of the cathedrals in Santiago de Compastela or "Enchanting" Pontavedra. None of which has yet grabbed our attention as "things we must do and see." This may be one of the tours where we wait and see the tour lecture first before we make up our minds.
An overnight sail take us to Lisbon in Portugal where we may head off to medieval Obidos to see the sights of this classical walled village - on the other hand we may just do a walking tour of Lisbon itself. Two more days at sea takes us around Gibraltar, into the Mediterranean and on to Messina in Sicily where we hope to avoid the local Mafia and equally hope that Etna fails to erupt.
From then on it is a constant barrage of one port after another as we wake up each morning at Zakinthos, then Piraeus, Kusadasi (Turkey) and Rhodes. We can relax with 2 days at sea before our final stop at Palma and a 3 day crossing back past Gibraltar until we reach Southampton on April 16th.
So that's the summary, don't expect such a detailed nightly update as we gave you last time around but we will try to keep you reasonably up to date with our comings and goings. Personally I am looking forward to being waited on hand and foot for a little over two weeks with nothing more to worry about than which starter, main course and dessert to choose each night.
