Woke up early, around 6.00am, and became aware that the Braemar was quiet and still.  Looking out of our portholes, we could see the famous White Cliffs of Dover, as we were already docked.  Went back to sleep for an hour, then got up, got washed and dressed, packed our few remaining things in our hand-luggage, then made our way to the Thistle Restaurant for breakfast.

We were joined by Pam and her daughter Kathryn, with whom we’d dined on our first night on board; both of them are excellent singers and had brought the house down with their amazing duet in the passenger talent show, Tell Him, by Celine Dion and Barbra Steisand.

Afterwards it was time to go back to our cabin and collect our bags, as they’d started to disembark the passengers already.  We picked up our coats and bags, took one last look around to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind, then went along to the crowded Morning Light pub to await our call to disembark.  We weren’t in any particular hurry, as our train from Dover Priory station was not until 10:44.

Around 8.00am we disembarked the Braemar, went to the luggage hall to collect our cases, then made our way to the taxi rank.  The weather was cool and damp, but at least it wasn’t actually raining.  It only took a few minutes before a taxi arrived, and off we went.

We had about an hour and a half to wait, so we sat in the Pumpkin café and I bought a magazine to read while enjoying a cup of coffee and catching up with all the emails on my phone.

The ride to London St. Pancras only took about an hour and 10 minutes, giving us a 40 minute wait.  As our daughter Kathryn lives and works in London and was in the area, she met us off the Dover train and we spent half an hour or so chatting before we made our way to King’s Cross, where our train was already in.

Then off we went on the three hour journey back to Durham, where our train pulled in on time at 15:30.  We were back in the house before four o’clock, after the end of another fabulous cruise.

Can’t wait for the next one!  🙂

Didn’t really sleep very well last night because of my cold.  So I was tired this morning and didn’t want to go up to breakfast, despite the fact that tonight will be the last formal night and the free fizz would be on offer.  🙂

Instead, I just took a leisurely shower and blow-dried my hair, and enjoyed a cup of coffee in our cabin while getting ready.  While I was there, a gentle knock on the door heralded the arrival of my freshly washed and ironed linen trousers, which I was pleased to see were back to their pristine white shade.  🙂

At 10 o’clock Trevor went to listen to a presentation about the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour, while I relaxed and did some of this blog, crocheted and read my Kindle.  I am reading Don’t Tell A Soul by M. William Phelps, a true story about the murder of Cherry Walker in 2010.

Afterwards we attended another talk, hosted by Elliot Taylor in which he interviewed members of the Braemar Show Company and allowed members of the audience to ask questions.

We decided to go up to the Observatory and enjoy a couple of pre-luncheon drinks up there while enjoying the panoramic views over the bow of the Braemar.  All we could see was sea, but you never knew, we might spot dolphins or whales, so it was always worth keeping our eyes peeled.  🙂

Then we went along to the Palms Café where I enjoyed a good lunch as I was quite hungry, having missed breakfast.

We just spent the afternoon in our usual relaxed and pleasant way before we had to start getting ready early for the  Farewell Cocktail Party at 5.45pm.  It didn’t seem five minutes since the welcome cocktail party and here we were at the last one of this voyage.  😦

I dressed in a long black evening gown with a mesh embroidered wrap in eau-de-nil and a necklace of perfectly matching hand-made glass beads.  Then off we went to the Neptune Lounge to join the inevitable queue.

Once inside, we greeted the Captain and the senior officers before enjoying a few glasses of the free fizz and some tasty canapés.  Then Captain Jozo Glavic gave another of his very amusing speeches before advocating everyone to “be happy”.

Then it was time, once again, for dinner.  When we reached table #101 our waiter advised us that we had a couple of guests joining us tonight; one of them was the chief engineer Steffan Ravneng whose company we’d enjoyed at the first formal evening, and the other was Melanie from the Future Cruises desk, with whom we’d booked our cruise the other day.  It was good company as ever, but once again it was difficult to converse across the huge table.

As tonight’s showtime, which was the Braemar Crew Show, was not on until 9.00pm we decided to go along to the Morning Light pub for a couple of drinks; we wouldn’t be able to get into the Neptune Lounge yet anyway, as the second sitting passengers were still having their cocktail party.

So we sat at the bar and talked and laughed and watched the queue to get into the Neptune Lounge getting longer… and longer… and longer.  It stretched all the way back through the Morning Light and into the corridor beyond.  We knew we’d have no chance in getting a good seat tonight, so we gave up the idea of seeing the Crew Show and instead went to the Coral Club.

Presently we were joined by Jackie and Kathy for the quiz; we got 14/15 but three teams scored full points and had to go to the tie-breaker.

The late show in the Coral Club, “Rocking Out”, consisted of the guys from the Revolverlites band as well as comedian Lloyd Davies on the keyboards and the Morning Light guitarist Luke Palmer on the lead guitar.  The big surprise was Luke – he is such a bland and dreary singer in the pub but tonight he was great!  You’d have thought it was a different bloke.  🙂

Around midnight the disco started, and we stayed for one more nightcap before turning in for the night.

Friday, 17 March 2017

ST. PATRICK’S DAY

Got up about 8.30am, feeling sad that this was to be our last day.   Went up to the Thistle Restaurant for our breakfast, then decided to venture outside on deck.

On the lee side of the ship the weather was pleasantly warm and spring-like, and the presence of birds showed us we were near land; we must have been in the English Channel by now.  The Braemar was only moving very slowly, about 9-10 knots.  Scanning the horizon we could see the hazy outline of what we later found out was Guernsey.

We wandered around on the deck for a bit and went right to the bows of the Braemar, one of only two ships we’ve ever been able to do this on.  It was then quiz time, so along we went to the Coral Club for the morning’s quiz, but it was interrupted in a flurry of excitement when someone sitting near the window shouted “Whales!” so everyone rushed over for a look.  Sure enough I spotted the tell-tale spouts, three in total, so there must have been a pod out there.  Trevor was lucky enough to see a black tail emerge as one of them dived down.

Then we went to the Neptune Lounge to watch the ship’s version of “Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook” featuring (inevitably) comedian Lloyd Davies as well as our very own Captain Jozo Glavic, and hosted by the executive chef Siggi Weich.

As expected, it was absolutely hilarious, the captain and the comedian parrying jokes and innuendo off each other.  The recipe was for Caramelised Chilli Garlic Tiger Prawns and we were each given a copy to try to make at home.  In the meantime, we were invited up to taste it, and it was delicious.

As today is St. Patrick’s Day a hearty Irish Stew featured for lunch, and I enjoyed some with green beans, cauliflower and new potatoes, washed down with a (free!) glass of rosé wine.

After lunch it was time to go back, drag out one of the cases from under the bed, and start doing some of our packing.  We put in the items of clothing we knew we wouldn’t need again this holiday.

We decided we’d go up to the Observatory again this afternoon for a couple of drinks and also to see if we could see any more whales.  We didn’t see any more, just quite a few more birds as the Braemar glided her way up the English Channel.  As this is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, we spotted several cargo ships as well as one or two fishing vessels.

At 3.00pm we went to the Neptune Lounge to watch a passenger talent show.  Duncan (one of the entertainments hosts) had asked me earlier if I was going to participate, following my karaoke performances, but unfortunately my cold meant I was unable to sing at all.  😦

The show features some dancers and a lady who recited an amusing poem, but the majority of participants were singers, most of whom we’d seen in the karaokes earlier, but they were all of a very good standard.  The show finished with the Braemar Passenger Choir, people who had been going along to the “Singing for Fun” sessions with the singers in the show company.  It was excellent and left everyone feeling really uplifted.

Then it was time to go back and do more packing (boo-hoo) before getting ready for our final dinner on board.  Our cases don’t have to be out until 1.00am but it’s nicer to get the job over with than to have to do it when we’re tired (and have had a few drinkies!)

After dinner we went along to the Neptune to claim our seats for the show, which was entitled “Hollywood Revisited” and featured the Braemar Show Company’s usual singing and high-energy dancing.  Afterwards Elliot brought everyone back on stage, including the orchestra and the sound and light technicians, so the audience could show their appreciation for the absolutely superb entertainment we’d enjoyed this cruise.  🙂

Tonight’s quiz was Irish themed; once again we got 14/15 but didn’t win!!  So it looked as if our triumphs were limited to two this cruise, compared to four the last cruise.  Oh well, it’s all good fun and we learn something new every time!

The evening finished with a St. Patrick’s Day special with singer Ben Carpenter, the male lead singer in the show company.  I thought it was going to be boring Irish dirges but it was really good; Ben has an excellent voice and he alternated the slow ballads with more upbeat songs.  A lot of people stood up for him at the end.

We decided we wouldn’t stay too late tonight as we knew we’d have to be up early in the morning.  So I enjoyed one more of the excellent sangrias before we headed back to cabin # 3074 to finish our packing.

Once the cases were put outside the door we settled down for our final night on board.  Tomorrow we’d be back in Blighty.  😦

Woke up this morning to find I was getting a cold.  😦  Sniffly, sneezy and bunged up.  Not surprising really, when you think there are the best part of 900 passengers on the Braemar and the last few days have been a bit too windy to spend any time outside, so we’re all below decks breathing the recycled air-conditioning.

After getting up fairly late (after 9.00am), I left my white trousers (and the free laundry voucher) in the bag for the cabin stewardess to take away to be cleaned.  We then pottered about for a bit before going along to the Neptune Lounge to hear another of Elliot’s “An Audience With…”, this time it featured Captain Jozo Glavic as well as the Hotel Manager.  The Captain is very amusing and always ends his midday navigational speech with “Always remember, be happy”.  It was an interesting 45 minutes or so, as we knew it would be.

We followed this by taking part in “Name that Tune” at 12.15pm which once again we didn’t win.  The problem is that they are playing excepts from tunes which were popular in the 50s and 60s, whereas my music era is the 70s and 80s.  So a lot of the tunes were in the charts before I was even born.

This took us nicely to lunchtime (more eating!) which we enjoyed in the Palms Café, washed down with a chilled glass of rosé wine.  Then we ventured out on deck but it really did feel quite chilly the closer we’re getting to Blighty, so we didn’t stay out long.

At three o’clock we once again headed to the Neptune Lounge for another talk by Bob Wragg; this one was called “The Custom of the Sea – A Question of Survival or Morals?”  It told the story of the ship Mignonette which was shipwrecked leaving four survivors (including the captain) in the lifeboat for days on end.  One of them was very ill and didn’t have long to live, and the captain made the decision to hasten the lad’s death so the other three could live off his remains.  It sounded an interesting (albeit gruesome) story; I will have to find out more about it when I get home.

Straight after the talk we stayed in our seats because the excellent Braemar Orchestra were themselves in the spotlight today with their tribute to the Big Band greats.  They played a good selection of lively tunes and I could see many feet tapping along in time.  I really enjoyed their performance and I love the fact that all the productions on board featured a live band; on some ships the singers/dancers have performed to pre-recorded ‘canned’ music and it’s just not the same.

It was then time to get washed and changed and go to dinner; once again the galley team did us proud with their culinary delights and once again it did my waistline no good at all!  🙂

The performance tonight was a Grand Variety Show and featured all of the guest entertainers; that is Lloyd Davies the comedian, John Lenahan the magician, Lauren Charlotte the violinist and Jon Moses the singer.  It was a good show all round.

We then went along to the fast-filling Coral Lounge to take part in the quiz.  Jackie and Kathy were already waiting for us, and the theme tonight was ‘The Body’.  All the cryptic clues had an answer which was part of the human body, for example:  A tropical tree (answer:  palm).  We got 15/15 but two other teams also scored full marks so it went to the tie-breaker.  We won!!  Yes, we’ve finally won our second quiz, so we enjoyed a bottle of chilled cava on the house.  🙂

The evening finished with a second show; this one featured the Braemar Show Company and was called “The Big Wheels of Motown”.  Once again, it was a lively, original performance and the Motown theme continued afterwards with the Revolverlites, before the disco played to a packed dance floor.  It was late once again when we went to bed, and we tried hard not to think about the fact that we only had three more nights on board.  😦

We got up about 8.45am after a good night’s sleep.  The sea was reasonably calm with relatively little movement from the Braemar, but the sky was pretty grey.

I decided not to go up to breakfast but instead to make the most of the tea- and coffee-making facilities in our cabin, enjoying a cup of coffee after taking a leisurely shower and blow-drying my hair.

Afterwards we went along to the Coral Club to do the morning quiz; there was no sign of Jackie and Kathleen this time so there was just Trevor and me.  We did appallingly, only scoring 8/20.  We then had a little time to go back to our cabin and dress up fairly smartly, as today they were holding the Oceans Gold and Silver Members’ Cocktail Party in the Neptune Lounge at 11.15am.

The Oceans Club is the FOCL loyalty club where you are awarded points according to how many nights you have spent on board a Fred Olsen ship.  1-30 nights is Blue (who don’t get an invite to the party), 31-100 nights is Silver, and 101+ nights is Gold.  Trevor and I are in the top tier.  🙂

Along we went to the Neptune Lounge, where Captain Jozo Glavic and his officers were there to greet us on arrival, and waiting staff flitted about holding their trays of sherry, wine, gin and cava aloft.  Other white-clad staff came around with little canapés for us to savour while the brilliant ship’s orchestra played tasteful dance music in the background.

Most of the attending passengers had made the effort to dress up a little smarter, but here and there we spotted people who fell into category (e) in the next section, The Foibles of Fellow Passengers.  🙂

The Captain came onto the stage and gave a heartfelt little speech about how great it was that so many people chose to cruise with Fred Olsen again and again; indeed, 71% of the passengers on this cruise were repeat customers.  Then those cruisers with the highest number of Oceans points  (some had 700+ so Trevor and I have a way to go with our 134 points!) received an award and had their photos taken with the Captain and the Future Cruises staff for the Closer magazine.

The party finished in time for us to go and play “Name That Tune” (we didn’t win!) before our lunch.

The afternoon passed in its usual pleasant fashion; at 2.45pm we went along to the Neptune Lounge where cruise director Elliot Taylor was hosting “An Audience with Lloyd Davies”, a sort of “Piers Morgan’s Life Stories” event with the Welsh comedian.  As predicted, it was pretty funny; Lloyd is very quick with his repartee and is also a talented musician and keyboard player as well as a comedian.

Afterwards we went back to our cabin for an afternoon nap before getting ready for tonight’s Red, White and Blue (or British) themed night.  I wore a pair of white linen trousers, a blue t-shirt and a Union Jack jacket, while Trevor looked very smart in his white dress shirt, Union Jack waistcoat and bow tie.  A lot of people had made the effort to dress up, and we saw several other Union Jack waistcoats as well as three ladies wearing Union Jack dresses in the way made famous by Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls.

After dinner we shot along to the Neptune Lounge to try to get good seats for tonight’s Great British Sing-along.  Several people complimented us on our outfits on the way.  The event was very well attended and everybody sang songs like “There’ll Always Be An England” and “Land of Hope and Glory” with gusto and much flag-waving.  🙂

There followed a really fantastic performance by the Braemar Show Company.  It was called “From Europe to Britain” and was completely original.  It featured the songs and dances from other Eruopean countries such as Italy, Greece, France and Ireland, finishing with a superb rendition of Riverdance.  We thoroughly enjoyed the show.  At the risk of repeating myself, I have to say that the entertainment on board all Fred Olsen ships is excellent.

Then off we went to the Coral Club to finish the evening off in our usual fashion.  Quiz (no win!), listen to the Revolverlites, chat with our fellow passengers and enjoy a few more gratis drinks.  At one point one of the bar staff dropped a glass of red wine and lemonade, and the crimson drops splashed the bottoms of my white trousers as the glass hit the deck.  The waitress was very apologetic and gave me a chit which would entitle me to get my trousers laundered for free.

As usual it was after 1.00am when we went to bed but what the hell, we’re on holiday and can get up in the morning when we want.  🙂

It was with excitement that we heard the Captain’s voice coming over the tannoy at 8.30 this morning to say that we should be arriving in Ponta Delgada, Azores, between 9.30 – 10.00.  By this time I think all the passengers were looking forward to being able to get off the ship and walk around on dry land.  Eagerly looking out of our portholes we could spot the hazy outline of land in the distance.  🙂

After breakfast we went outside on deck and watched the Braemar sailing into her berth; it was quite a feat for the team on the bridge as the sea was quite choppy and the ship had to dock a few metres forward of where she should have been, as the swell at the stern was so lively.  We were pleased to see touches of blue sky here and there – we were advised that it was 19ºC which, although much cooler than the Caribbean, was certainly better than it would be at home this time of year.

Once the Braemar was berthed and the gang-plank made fast, we hurried back to cabin # 3074 to get our jackets, bags and whatever else we’d need to take ashore.  We weren’t booked on an excursion until this afternoon, so we had a couple of hours to ourselves.

Ponta Delgada is the capital of the Azores; this Portuguese archipelago consists of nine islands altogether and enjoys a moderate year-round climate.  It’a bit windy, but then you’ll find that is the case with most of the Atlantic islands.  We had visited this port once before, on the Arcadia back in 2005.  It is a clean and modern town with an airport right next to the shoreline and lots of attractive buildings, apartment complexes, shops and charming little pavement cafés.  The main source of income in the Azores is cattle farming; they export a lot of beef and leather goods all over the world.

We disembarked the Braemar and walked through the port terminal building onto the main street.  It was really pleasant walking along in the bright sunshine, but we did notice that phenomenon which is common after many days at sea; the feeling that you are still moving.  Going up or down any steps was particularly challenging; it felt as though the steps were either dropping away from beneath me or coming up to meet me.  🙂

We wandered around for a bit, looking in the shop windows and trying to find a café which had free wi-fi, as I had my laptop with me and we hadn’t been able to check our emails since leaving the Caribbean.  While you can get an internet connection on board ship, it tends to be very slow and very expensive, so we tend not to bother with it.

We went into a bar-café and ordered a hot strong coffee and a pastel de nata each.  These are the scrumptious egg custard tarts with the flaky pastry that are so popular in Portugal and its territories and they are very moreish.

The café did indeed have free wi-fi so we were able to check our emails as well as upload some of this blog.  I also Skyped my aunt to see how she was doing and to tell her all about our voyage so far.  We followed the coffee with a glass of the Portuguese beer Sagres each.  🙂

When we came out of the café time was getting on so we had to go back to the Braemar and get our tickets ready to go on this afternoon’s excursion.  Our bus (no.3) was called more or less immediately so we disembarked the ship once again and made our way to the row of waiting coaches for our 3½ hour tour.

Our first stop was at the Arruda Pineapple Plantation.  The guide explained how the pineapple fruits were started off from sprouting tubers which were planted in large greenhouses kept at a constant temperature of 38ºC.  It takes 18 months to two years for a pineapple to grow to maturity.  Each greenhouse housed rows of the plants at various stages of growth; some had not yet flowered while others carried fairly large fruits.  I don’t think I’d ever seen a pineapple growing before now, and it was all very fascinating.

After viewing the pineapples we went into the small souvenir shop where they were selling pineapple liqueurs that you could sample.  They tasted quite strong but as we’ve already bought enough booze to take home we had to resist this time.  😉

Then it was back on the bus for the main part of this tour – the visit to the Sete Cidades crater lakes.  The Azores is pretty volcanic and some lakes had formed in a couple of extinct volcano craters.

The bus wended its way up the winding roads, higher and higher through the leafy byways with here and there a glimpse of the Atlantic ocean through the trees.  It was a lovely ride.  When we got to the top we alighted from the vehicle and got our first glimpse of the lakes.  What a fantastic view!  One of the lakes was a bright green whilst the other was a darker blue – it was quite amazing to see them against the mountainous backdrop.  We took loads of photos and enjoyed an ice-cream was a little mobile stall that had set up and was doing a roaring trade from the cruise passengers.

Back on the bus we set off for our final stop; to a large park that was spread out over various levels.  It was gorgeous walking through the park looking at the various trees and flowers and just enjoying getting some exercise (albeit with our ‘sea legs’).  A friendly black and white cat emerged from some bushes and rubbed around our legs, purring with its tail in the air as we bent to stroke it.

Then our guide rounded us all up and we set off for our return journey to the port.  When we got back, around 4.45pm, we didn’t want to go back on board yet; this was our last port of call before we returned to Blighty and, in any case, the Braemar was in port until about 11.00pm, so there was no hurry.

We therefore found a little bowling alley and bar-café which we discovered was selling caipirinha, my favourite cocktail.  The bar was lively and noisy from the bowling and the cheers and encouragement of the participants, a lot of whom we recognised as entertainers from the ship, who had been given some shore leave and were making the most of it.  One of them told us that they would be disembarking Braemar in Dover and going their separate ways until their next assignment, so it was the last port where they’d be together.

The caipirinhas, when they arrived, were cold and strong and totally delicious.  It was just so brilliant sitting here in this friendly little bar, not a care in the world, and enjoying being on holiday.  There was no hurry to be back on the ship so we ordered another cocktail each.  Halfway down it, I looked out of the window and said to Trevor, “That must be a massive ship there; look at all those balcony cabins!”.  Trevor looked and shook his head, smiling widely.  It was an apartment block and it wasn’t even on the same side as the sea!  Those caipirinhas were good!!   🙂

We finished off by having a third cocktail before finally getting back on board about quarter to seven.  After a quick wash and brush up (what’s known in nautical terms as a submariner’s dhoby) we went to the Palms Café and had a bite to eat before making our way to the Neptune Lounge to see tonight’s cabaret, which once again featured the Welsh comedian Lloyd Davies.  We managed to get decent seats at the front and really enjoyed Lloyd’s show, which was hilarious.  🙂

Then it was the usual – the Coral Club for the quiz (we didn’t win!) and the second show, which featured a duet between host Duncan Johnston and his colleague Bethany Gore; their show was very good indeed.

Afterwards we sat around listening to the Revolverlites and enjoying a few (free!) drinks.  Around 10.45pm we became aware of the increased vibrations coming up through the floor as the Braemar put to sea once more.  Our next stop would be Dover, in five days’ time, but we weren’t going to think about that just yet – there was still much more of our voyage to enjoy.  We’d had a lovely day today.  🙂

Because of our late night last night (or should I say this morning) I struggled to get out of my pit, so it was after 9.00am when we got up this morning, and went up to the Grampian restaurant for our breakfast.  The sea was still fairly calm, but not as calm as the previous few days; there were a few peaky waves and a nippy breeze blowing, and I needed to go back to our cabin to get my denim jacket to wear outside; we noticed other people were wearing fleeces and thicker sweaters this time as well.

At 10 o’clock we went along to the Neptune Lounge to listen to a presentation called “The Secret Diary of a World War II Soldier”.  It was very interesting as well as poignant in a lot of places.

Immediately afterwards was a Chinese cookery demonstration by the gourmet chef Jim McGuire.  We were all given a copy of the recipe and Jim set up his wok and started his sizzling dish of ginger, garlic, spring onions, minced chicken, fresh chilli and other tempting ingredients.  The savoury smells which wafted across to us were making us feel hungry!

Afterwards we were invited up to try some, and it was delicious – flavoursome and spicy.  It took us nicely to lunchtime which we spent in the Palms Café; the salads are always fresh and crisp and there is a good selection of cold meats, cheeses and other delights.

The time always does seem to go very quickly; there is always so much to do that there is never the chance to get bored.  The beauty of a long voyage like this is that you can do as much or as little as you want; you can join in or do your own thing, you can participate in the activities or make your own amusement; most of the time I tend to do both, but either way the days fly by.

The evening entertainment started with the Braemar’s version of “Liars’ Club” (also known as Call My Bluff) in the Neptune Lounge, featuring Elliot the cruise director, Lloyd Davies the comedian and John Lenahan the magician, with Duncan acting as host.  As ever, the words for which they had to provide the definitions had slight double-entendre connotations about them, so much hilarity ensued.  🙂

Then the electric violinist, Lauren Charlotte, put in another performance.  As ever, she was excellent; I love classical crossover.

The evening winged by – the quiz, The Revolverlites, the disco – all passed in amusing and convivial company.  Around midnight we decided to turn in as we were due to reach terra firma tomorrow for the first time in a week.