Dr Fred and Ruby Starrs get shipshape....

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 is out to enjoy this outing. There are a number of 'return' acts so it cant be too bad an experience. We sailed off into the sunset and now have 3 full days at sea - and internet is scarce (expensive) so I probably wont post this until we pitch up in a wifi coffee shop in Fungal which is our first port.... sunshine here we come.

The on board entertainment is very varied and some of it looks quite interesting - others bits I'm going embrace fully as I'm unlikely ever to come across a similar experience!!!

Meanwhile. I'm loving this cosy in bed slight ship motion - lets see what day 2 brings.....

.....A glorious sunny day with a definte swell in the sea. But we have our sea legs so its not a problem .. we slept incredibly well lulled and rocked by neptune...

Dr Fred had his speaker introduction and then we sat through a rather disjointed talk about the atlantic ocean - it didn't mesmorise me but I didnt fall asleep (others did)... we spent most of the day orientating around the ship - I've got it sussed... Dr Fred less so.. no hills or crags for landmarks! We did the obligatory 4 laps = 1mile - laps on the deck - although Dr Fred got told off for going the wrong way🤣🤣... but really we have do some exercise to justify eating breakfast everyday!! I tried to go to the art class but it was full so we just hung out checked out an interesting talk on Morocco and after watching the ISS go right over our heads across the ship we sat in the bar with a glass of wine.

It was a very lazy day but in between all this we have been working the room... loads of really friendly people wanting to talk stars - it feels very positive and welcoming. And in between that we have been eating!!!

We are currently having full days at sea and while there are a lot of activities most of them centre around playing bridge or board games? Pub quizzes or possibly fitness things in the spa and the gym So if you're not into that kind of thing other than the speakers theres not a lot to do apart from eat. Most bits of this trip are just as I imagined it would be- while there are seemingly loads of activities most of them are - not really our thing -especially with these long days at sea... one thing though - the general age demographic has left us feeling quite young and fit... There are moments when I feel positively thin!!!! we have fantasised about making adventures to pass the time .you know like stalking the piano player... stealing pieces ofthe jigsaws... trapping a rich husband... we've played chess - a first (and I suspect last). However it is an interesting experience and not to be sniffed at... looking foward to being in Port for some variation.

RubyStarrs in Paris...

Finally we have made it to Paris. It was a bit of a long travel day - we decided to come by train so we could experience the full glory of British Rail or whatever it's called now which actually delivered perfectly on time... and then the Eurostar which was incredibly disappointing! All that beautiful St. Pancreas Station and the Eurostar is sited in the dungeon... overcrowded, dark, lousy facilitated space... and then the train was an hour late it felt like a long time before we got any fresh air - but eventually we wound up in gay Paree... We navigated the metro and found our airbnb gaff. A mere 70 steps to the fourth floor on a rather lovely winding wooden staircase to a very nice roof top flat which is comfortable and gives a view across a lovely Courtyard with some obviously much posher flats. It's located really centrally about two minutes away from the Opera Garnier so a very good location for getting everywhere...

Funchal

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

Another Day in Norway where our Trusty Traveller finds Tromsø, Trolls and Totally misses Aurora....

Tromsø - the most northern city on the planet... Its quite a pretty little town with lots of wood fronted shops, but of course like everywhere like this, it is just one big tourist hive and every shop is selling 'indigenous' gifts- didthe Sami make aurora themed mugs and fridge magnets? Nearest I'll get a polar bear (i hope) Although I have to say I did like the big stuffed polar bear and black bear and I am presuming that these are either not real (unlikely) or culled as they sometimes have to be. But most of the stuff is just northern lights tat or Troll tat. Peer Gynt.. famous worldover To be fair the best bit of Tromsø for me was the Troll Museum! We went to the art gallery which was quite interesting (see instagram account) but not astounding, but I always like to look at the local art. We had a mooch around town in the snow and then we went to find the Trolls. This museum was absolutely crazy daft... it was totally dedi

Planet Ruby Starrs

Search This Blog