Getting Ready for the Next Adventure

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 take me he won't have anywhere to come home to.

However to be clear here, this is not just a jolly. Obviously Neill ( who doent even get to cruise) at https://gostargazing.co.uk/ has put an awful lot of work into this... a lot of planning...a lot of negotiation... hes collected a team of experienced profressional astronomers including Dr Fred who have now to deliver a cohesive series of lectures, lunches, and stargazing sessions while travelling the world... While these are mostly enjoyable they are actually work. However, I as the glamorous assistant don't really have to do anything - other than enjoy two weeks on board a luxury boat with endless food, swimming pools, Dance classes, art classes and some really interesting speakers alongside Dr Fred.

So as I usually pack for camping in the middle of nowhere and take the oldest tattiest clothes I have I am now slowly trying to sort out real clothes... clothes smart but casual or even casual but smart! It's at this point I realized I have more onesies (polar bears parrots Scotty dogs etc) and oodies (in several shapes colours and sizes) then I have real clothes... and I have had to go out and buy proper shoes i.e. not walking sandals not wellingtons .... this trip will be an education.

The picture illustrating this forthcoming trip it's a beautifully handmade card by a very kind friend of mine. It shows Dr Fred and myself having a Titanic moment (with telescope) it's absolutely beautiful and I will frame it as a momento of my foray into cruises - this trip is the first of several.... watch this space.🚢

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

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