Big post to cover a few days

Friday – 4th September

Cadiz

Well, not Cadiz, so 2008 that place, instead we went to Seville on an organised trip. As already posted we forgot our Euros and it was too late to get back on board to get them before the coach left. Bugger. So off we set with no money!

Quite a long drive, 2 hours including a pit stop for the old fogies (quite a lot on this cruise, it’s bordering on an old folks home to be honest).  We drove around Seville a bit were the women repeatedly pointed out their Expos of 1929 and 1992, if you can only remember one juts swap the last two numbers around! Naff all left to show for 92 but some old buildings for the 29 one, some quite hideous.

We then stopped the square, half of which was being renovated. Then to a church which was a big building made of stone with some stain glass windows. You have probably been in one at some point. Quite big, the guy tried to make it sound impressive but alas we have been to Rome (and will be there again in a few days!) so to be impressive it would have to have been a LOT bigger. Then we went around Santa Cruz which is basically the old town with the narrow streets and tapas bars. After that it was free time which for us was basically wandering around for an hour till we could get back on the coach!!

4 coaches took P&O passengers, one of them had broken air con on the way back. At which point it was 41c in Seville. The coach temp allegedly hit 60c. So a few squeezed on our coach and another coach had to be brought in. This meant a 30 min delay to sail off time, not that we cared because we were back on board drinking.

The night was spent in one of the pool areas getting wasted on a variety of cocktails. We even had entertainment as the kids club had the pool for an hour or so to play games, which we found out as we were drinking our second cocktail and they all appeared from nowhere. Well, I say games, it was barely organised chaos, but funny to watch while getting drunk. Bizarely we felt as though we belonged in the same age bracket. Which gives an idea of the average age on board...

As we spent the night, to our port side was Europe and to our starboard side was Africa. Name the place.

Saturday – 5th September

Sea day today as we head for Corsica. Very windy but sea was smooth ish. Spent a few hours on the sun deck but eventually the wind became too much. So we went in the pool and then a Jacuzzi for a bit. Which was nice. Spoke to an old lady, married for 50 years. Sweet Mary Baby Jesus. Then had some lunch and retired to the balcony for a bit. Then to the shops to buy perfume (women!) then a few drinks. 2nd formal night tonight, suppose it’s nice to get dressed up, just means Michelle takes longer to get ready.

Had some tapas for tea and then a few drinks. Alas most of the night was spoiled by some quite ridiculous sea conditions. As far as I could see the swell didn’t look bad and there wasn’t much wind but christ was it rocking all over. Didn’t get much sleep, bit hard when the ship was being thudded over and over by what seemed like tidal waves in the middle of the night.

Sunday – 6th September – Corsica

After eventually dozing off early this morning we awoke at around 9ish as we docked in Ajaccio. We got some breakfast and slowly got ready, our tour started at 12. We hopped on the coach for the 90 minute winding journey to the Les Calanques, i.e. big fook off red rocky hill/mountain with some breathtaking views. Hopefully my real camera pictures do it justice. My Nan would have loved the ride. Lots of twisty roads with vertical drops on either side, didn’t bother us as the views along the way were wonderful. Corsica really is a beautiful island and we thought about coming back. Until the tour guide gave us some history and said the nationalist party still bomb building that are part of the French government. Hmm. Still, they try and make sure they don’t kill anyone, which is nice. I suppose.