Planet Ruby Starrs

Honfleur was an additional port stop. The ship raced across the Bay of Biscay to try and keep ahead of a storm.   This meant timings  were a little bit earlier and we were able to dock in the town of Honfleur for a day.   This turned out to be a really pleasant addition to the cruise and a very nice place to end on. It's a very pretty little port town with lots of interesting buildings - a lot of timber framed, timber fronted,  and a variation of different stone and brick walls all making for a very higgledy piggledy jiggledy up and down skyline.  Everywhere you looked there was an interesting building and even tucked away in little parks and up by the viewpoint they were some really pretty cute houses. Even the shops were quite interesting there was, of course, the usual tourist souvenir type places and there were quite a lot of clothes shops but there were also a lot of art gallery and antique type shops.  ...

Two last sea days. Speeding along over the bay of biscay to try and stay in front of the storm . The ship was a bit rock and roll but not the worst we've had. To be honest its mid november and we were we sat out on deck (in a summer dress) having a night cap.... the wind was behind the ship and we were in a sheltered spot - the sea was quite choppy and consquently noisy - no-one else was on deck and it was really very splendid.   Dr Fred gave his last talk to quite a busy audience. It was, as usual, well received. It was his stars and sand talk Which is always quiet amusing, and just gives a different slant on the whole topic of Astronomy. In the afternoon, as it was the last sea day all our 'collegues' were holding events to showcase the work they had been with guests on board over the last few weeks. We helped out the drama group by filming their performance - bit nerve wracking but we think it will be okay😀 and then went to have...

We sailed to to Lisbon under the iconic Ponte 25 de Abril suspension bridge.  We docked about 2km out of the town centre.   Dr Fred and I looked at each other and decided as this was our 4th visit to Lisbon we just werent bothered.... Our original plan for the overnight stop was to go on the train to Sintra - we did it last time but didn't do much there as Dr Freds knee was gammy.  There wasn't time to do the trip so we decided to stay on board and instead of pointless wandering we had a lovely afternoon sat on deck reading in the sunshine while drinking tea...  So basically this was Lisbon Its a beautiful city but not for us today.  The ghostlyxseagulls followingctge ship later that night were in a strange way quite eerily beautiful.

On finally retiring to our cabin as we left Malaga behind, we found a letter awaiting us. It explained that the itinerary for the rest of the journey home was subject to change due to some serious stormy weather forcast. We would now leave Gibraltar earlier so our port call in Lisbon would be an early arrival and no longer an overnight stop. The intention is to get in front pf the worst of the storm over the Bay of Biscay and spend a day in Honfleur beforing arrival in Southhampton as originally planned. Looks like it might be a bumpy ride... We woke up to Rock of Gibraltar outside our window...  We had planned a walk in Gibraltar but with only a few hours on land we decided not to bother. It was a 3 hour round trip just the walk and if you added time on for a little bit of playing in between it would have been a rush.  Shame really as other than cheap booze I dont think Gibraltar offers much else.. not in the town bit.  That was why we were ke...

Our 'alarm' the next morning rang with endless ships announcements as a lot of guests were leaving the boat at Malaga. There were repeated calls for people's coach to flight arrangments This is all part of Fred.Olsens fly/ cruise initiative. Its not popular with those who booked the whole 57 day cruise. Thers a lot of disgruntlement about the guests changing so often - no continuity - I suspect a little bit of entitlement going on there. Mostly the guest are very pleasant but as in every place one or two are less amenable and make sure everyone knows...  For us it just made staying asleep pretty impossible - not a problem so we were up breakfasted and out...  We took the shuttle bus into town a boring convoluted journey and crossed town to find the lift that would save us the climb to the Alcazaba Castle. We were lucky - our friends on board had located it for us and sent us directions. It was funny really, because you go down this long tunnel an...