Planet Ruby Starrs

Being in Lisbon It's a bit like being back home in the Northeast.  First of all we went to the contemporary art gallery that had been a biscuit factory -  it had kept and renovated as part of the decor a very beautiful old wall with the big old ovens built in. And then we came across Roman Theatre remains which was very reminiscent of Binchester... The weather was rather more clement and there were more tuktuks than you get around home. We had a good day wandering round the backstreets finding interesting nooks and crannies although its all very touristy pretty much everywhere.  The Art Gallery was okay... not particulary anything but its all relative. The most exciting thing was I got stuck in the loo!  Fortunatly Dr Fred was just outside but he couldn't open the door either.  It was a bit shocking how quickly I felt close to panicking 🤣🤣 Rationally I knew I would get out but for a few minutes I wasnt very happy!  The gallery

Tangier Tangier a place always protrayed as as a town of iniquity and intrigue... and possibly still is but we found it all rather splendid and a delightful place to end our trip to Morocco.  Sadly it was a short stay but worth getting up and out early for as the Medina was very pleasant... mostly not open as it was so early but we had a coffee in the Petit Soco cafe - famous for being the haunt of lots of famous people like William Borroughs and spies and secret agents.. in its time it was the place to be seen... or maybe not if you were a spy!   We met some people from the ship who got caught out with no cash so we bailed them out...  As the shops started to open we just wandered around the medina which was a very different experience to the one in Casablanca.  This was much more westernised but still had a very clear Moroccan style.  The little shops were all much of a muchness but the shop keepers were friendly and mostly not pushy. We went in a

Casablanca... just a reminder the internet on the ship is dire so I'm sorry if I'm not acknowledging comments and emails... we are just posting whenever we get wifi... shopping malls.... coffee shops ashore .  Anyway back to Casablanca...  huge busy city... dirty noisy and not at all like Marakech but nicer than Agadir.... we couldnt find a beer though🤔.   While 'sightseeing' we are averaging about 10 miles a day we are cream crackered and after a day out today to be honest we are feeling a bit citied out.  Casablanca is very big and its hard to get your bearings.  We looked fruitlessly for tourist info - which was marked on the map but not evident on the street and decided to just make do and head for the medina. This is a very different but real aspect of Morocco. Not so much casa blanca as casa demolition. The medina is the oldest bit of town and its small narrow streets are in various states of decay and the main throughfares have small sho

We moved into a new time zone overnight... making Dr Freds morning the complete graveyard shift point of the trip... we were completely cream crackered by our day out yesterday and the lost hour didnt help... In spite of all this the lecture hall was pretty busy probably almost 200 bodies some looking quite dishevelled obvious making an effort to be there 🤣🤣 and a lot of guests are now much more knowledgable about the Moon. The rest of the was spent on house keeping stuff... I cant believe how much mess we can make in 3 days across such a small space... we had an afternoon nap and then went fot afternoon tea... its so easy just to none stop eat... the food is ok but not amazing so its more about sustinence and filling time.  We are becoming familiar faces on board and lots of guests stop to chat with us or choose to sit with us at meal times.   Drinks on the lido bar rerrace and a relativly early night as we hit Agadir first thing in the morning. I forgot to say that ever

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira.  An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed.  First of all the weather is really splendid.  Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds..  Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm.    Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs.   In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill.  It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town -  completely over everybody's house...  So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty backyards.... We got off th

Day 3 Arrived and we are now well over the Bay of Biscay and the temperature is considerably warmer. We did our usual laps of the boat In order to stay fit and earn our breakfast. We continued to chat with a lot of the guests.. they are mostly a friendly lot.. In the afternoon Dr Fred had his first talk in the big theatre...there were upwards of 200 people in attendance and it seemed to be very well received. The boy did good and lots of people came up with questions.. Afterwards we went in the coffee bar and more people actually stopped him to compliment him on his talk. One person said it was the best talk they'd heard so far!! It's good to get that feedback so early on...  I decided I would go learn how to Cha Cha Chaa. It was hilarious fun I don't think I will ever make Strictly but it certainly meant I got my steps in today... And it was a fun crowd and actually I do have the basics of the steps for the Cha Cha Cha. Tomorrow It's a walt

So this is day one of ''Dr Fred and RubyStarrs go cruising la la land'' style on our way to Morocco.... I have to say its a potentially surreal experience but before I go further I also need to explain we are here because Dr Fred is working for Go Stargazing And for this cruise he is the ships astronomer and I'm his incredibly glamorous assisant. Any way back to reality... our cabin is great - I personally am very thrilled we have actual port holes for windows - very authentic but the best thing is we are so so near the sea line...its right outside out window... scudding by at a huge rate of knots - we just need a friendly sea creature or two to pop up and it would be perfect.  The rest of the ship is a glorified floating hotel with lots of bars and places to eat - we look forward to trying them all. Dr Fred as the stargazer is part of the 'enrichment' team and we went to a welcome meeting - its a friendly crowd and I think everyone i

This is a warm-up post... I'm slowly but surely packing for a very different kind of experience to anything I have had before.  Next week Dr Fred and I are going on a two-week cruise across the Bay of Biscay and down to Morocco and back.. all this is courtesy of Dr Fred - well sort of - Dr Fred's up and coming exploits are soon to include being the stargazer extraordinaire for some of the Fred Olsen cruises.  This is all down to being part of the Go Stargazing team https://gostargazing.co.uk/ who have recently made a comittment to providing on board astronomers for a large number of cruises over the next year.  Dr Fred is doing the inaugural Go Stargazing cruise leaving Southampton next week and heading for Morocco via Madeira and home via Portugal. What's rather fabulous for me is that he's allowed to take a companion with him and although he has been threatening that unless I behave myself he'll find somebody else he does realize that if he doesn't