We're off...

...on the high seas. Well, not too high, I hope. I know how lucky we are, especially after years of rainy holidays in England with the children (we never once had a dry one. Not even in the baking summer of 1976, although we did have fun), and while I'm not really a cruise person, John isn't that steady on his feet, so it really suits us. I don't  have the right clothes, the right tan or the right (very white) teeth, but no matter. We're much looking forward to it.

 

 

Our "suite" (ha) and the ship we're going on. Last time we went steerage....

I shall miss Adrian's beetles and Graham's stuning views, and all the other updates from the blogs I follow, but I'll catch up on our return. I am not taking iPad or anything else electronic with me. I need to be weaned off...

We're off!

On this. Heathrow tomorrow, and then the ship on Wednesday for ten days. I hate all the hanging around at the airport and the early start, but can't wait to be on the ship. Sadly, we aren't allowed to swim off the boat, although it's not that big (health and safety, don't you know), but I hope to find a rocky cove or something (I've never been a lying-by-the-pool person*).

So if there are no comments from me for a while, it's not because I'm not interested: I'm just determined to leave the internet behind and read lots and lots of books. Heaven!

*I'm still not entirely sure I'm a cruise person, either. I haven't got the right clothes, or the sparkling white teeth. But I'm prepared to risk another try (in the interests of reasearch, of course).

Cruise - Part 2

Firstly, thanks everyone for all the good wishes, and I'm sorry I didn't have time to reply to (some of) you before I went.

Now. The cruise. Hmmm.

As you can see from the pic, John had a very happy time. We both did. The service was amazing, and everything on the boat incredibly posh. Croatia was beautiful, our room (sorry. Suite) was palatial, we were waited on hand and foot. But while I loved a lot of it, I kept feeling like an imposter; as though sooner or later, a small tug would approach from the shore with a loud hailer, telling us that it had all been a mistake and we must get off and come home NOW.

The good bits:
The food - marvellous. Special mention - the cream teas. Every day.
The drink - ditto. Special mention the bloody marys.
The weather - sun all the time.
The views - breathtaking.
The staff - delightful. Special mention Andre, who remembered both our names and our addiction to cream teas.

The not so good bits:
Being asked, very casually, whether we had a swimming pool at home ( no-one's ever asked me that before).
The HUGE woman in a thong bikini covered with tattoos (the woman, not the bikini). I wanted to take a pic of her, but couldn't without her seeing me.
Not having enough of the right kind of clothes. My old tee shirts - Tesco, circa 2005 - didn't look quite right on deck.
Not being allowed to swim off the boat.
Feeling fat and unhealthy now. We've just had beans on toast to bring us back to earth.

So - general conclusion: the jury's out. Watch this space.

But it's lovely to be home again.

PS (Aliya) no quoits, I'm afraid. But there was a kind of golf thing (we didn't do it).

A cruise kind of person?

We are going on a cruise. Tomorrow.

It's quite a posh cruise (we haven't had a holiday for 3 years, so there's holiday money to be spent. Or that's what we tell ourselves). The boat is a small one, and it's dauntingly impressive. We're going from Venice to Venice, which sounds like a waste of time, but we're calling in on bits of Croatia on the way. And bits of Italy.

But I feel like an imposter. I never had myself down as a cruise kind of person (this was John's idea), and I've no idea what to wear (I live in jeans. People don't cruise in jeans...do they?) or even how to behave. I've got stacks of tee shirts and stuff piled up on the bed, and I'm now in a state of paralytic panic.

But never mind. We have books, and the boat (ship?) has a library open 24 hours a day, so maybe it's my kind of thing after all. And we don't have the dinner-at-the-captain's-table thing, nor do we have to watch girls arm in arm doing that scissor thing with their legs to music in the evenings, which is what I thought always happened on cruises. And if the worst happens, I'm quite a strong swimmer.

I'll tell you all about it when I get back next week. If I get...no. Think positive.