Friday, May 3, 2024 Day 60

The seas are getting a bit rougher as we head back to Tilbury (London) and I am enjoying the rougher seas. Elee is displaying her Water Color Paintings this morning with her art group. There are a lot of talented people on this ship, Elee among them! I break away for morning trivia and our Team wins!

All of a sudden, there are announcements on the ship for a specific crew member to report to the engine room. In a short while, the announcement is repeated. Then a Red Alert is called. An incident apparently occurred around 7AM. At 11AM, the captain comes on and explained that a crew member seems to have fallen overboard around 7AM and we have turned around to go back and start a Search and Rescue Operation.

Meanwhile, the planned events continue on the ship. I have a ‘sound check’ for our Ukulele Concert at 12:30PM. Then I show up for the concert before 2:30PM. The concert goes from 2:30PM to 3:05PM and I manage to pull off most of the songs successfully. Then I make it to ‘Carpet Bowling’ and there is comraderie among the usual players.

On the way back to our room, we spot the second session of Water Color Art displayed and stop to check it out. I repeat myself, there are some very talented artists on board!

We arrive back in the vicinity of the last known sighting they ship has of the missing crew member at about 3PM. Now, if someone went in the water, it is over eight hours later. The water is cold. The ship zig zags back and forth in the area. There is a helicopter and a search plane also looking. Spain has search and rescue vessels involved and it is a sad afternoon for all involved. There are more than a few passengers aboard that complain that we are participating in this. For those people I say, “Get a life! I hope your loved one never goes ‘Overboard'”

The crew member is never found and it casts a somber note on everyone. Add to that the ship will now be 14 to 16 hours late getting back to Tilbury and we wonder what we will do as we had plane flights that will need to be changed.

Then it becomes a normal At Sea day with the exception that a lot of people exchange contact information to stay in touch with those people who have become friends. Later, in the Purple Turtle we are treated to a small performance by a few of the singers.

Saturday, May 4, 2024, Day 61

Today is a normal At Sea Day except there is no Ukulele class. That part is over. Trivia and games carry on as usual with more collecting of personal contacts to keep in touch with new friends. The whist group puts out paper and everyone puts their contact info on it. Photos are taken of the completed sheets for anyone wishing to stay in touch. A WhatsApp group is formed. In the Palladium, the crew bids us ‘adieu’.

After dinner, the entertainment crew puts on a final farewell show in the Palladium and it is fun.

Sunday, May 5, 2024, Day 62

For the most part, today is a regular At Sea Day with trivia and card games, carpet bowling and general mingling with new found friends. The Palladium shows a movie and there is Music Bingo in the Purple Turtle. The ship docks in Tilbury around 8:30PM. It should have docked at 7AM but due to the delay with the man overboard, we are late. The ship will allow us to stay on overnight and we will disembark tomorrow morning.

They look almost alien, but are actually a relic of Britain’s military past: the Maunsell Forts. Built in the Thames Estuary to defend the United Kingdom from air raids during the World War Two, the forts have been decommissioned for more than 50 years.

Our ship has traveled 35,851 NM (Nautical Miles) in its RTW (Round The World) journey! We joined it in Singapore and traveled 15,971 NM with it. Slightly less than halfway. We did a complete RTW trip in 2020 and I hope some of you followed that! This has been another Bucket List Trip! Stories to tell and experiences to remember!

We have arranged for a new flight out at noon tomorrow and cancelled our original flight for this afternoon.

Thursday, May 2, 2024, Lisboa, Portugal

So we are coming near to the end of our cruise. We arrive in Lisboa (Lisbon), Portugal today and the city looks attractive and promising. It is a short day in port today as we need to be back on board by 2:30PM. So we grab a quick breakfast and some shots of the city from the top deck before bundling up to go ashore. It is 11 degrees C today, or 51 degrees F. The high is predicted to be only 16-17C (60-62F) and we have tickets to ride the open top of the HO HO Bus. (Hop On, Hop Off Bus) We don heavy sweatshirts and are happy we did. There is another cruise ship here today also, the Silversea.

After disembarking the ship, around 8:30AM, we walk about a mile into the city center and find the HO HO Bus and board the first one departing around 9AM. We are the only ones on the bus at this time on a Thursday. The wind blowing on us is brisk, making the sweatshirts a good call! This city has fantastic views of colorful buildings and streets. The loop of the HO HO Bus is almost 2 hours so we finish the loop about 11AM. Our tickets allow us to ride the old time Trolleys also and we find our way to the Trolley stop about a half mile away from the bus stop. Many picturesque buildings surround us and we find ourselves in a large square with statues and ornate buildings while we wait for the Trolley.

We board the next Trolley about 11:30AM and ride it through the streets, again making our cameras happy. After an hour or so, we wonder where we are. On top of a hill, I look out and down the hill and there is our ship. The Trolley route on the map shows us moving away from access to the port so we get off the Trolley at the top of the hill.

We never do find out who “Henry” is!

We are now on cobblestone streets with lots of staircases. So, being the troopers that we are, we start working our way down the hill. Stairs. Cobblestone alleys. Stairs. Repeat. Surprisingly, we handle the trip well. We are amazed at how many restaurants, hotels and AirBnB’s we see on the way down! We stop at one restaurant and enjoy some chorizo, cheese, olives and glasses of amazing wine!

We check our watches and head towards the ship. We walk into the terminal right at 2:30PM, the time slated to be on board. But it seems there are hundreds of passengers here and all is well and we get on the ship about 3PM. I take my cameras up on deck and watch our departure while a DJ plays Sail Away Tunes! More fun photos are taken of the Port of Lisboa as we leave.

Tonight on board, we go off to the Purple Turtle to play a game of Super Ship Trivia with questions relating to the entire world cruise. Elee and I score in the middle because we didn’t attend the first half of the cruise.

Then it’s off to bed for the evening. Good night All!

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 At Sea

We have yet to visit the Premiere restaurant on the ship, Sea & Grass. So today is the day! We go about our normal At Sea Day activities until it comes time for dinner. We thought to make reservations a couple days ago for tonight. We are treated to a SEVEN COURSE DINNER! The food is good and we are grateful for having the knowledge ahead of time that it is chilly inside the restaurant and Elee and I bring sweaters!

Then after dinner I finally get photos of the “Traveling Tilburys”

Goodnight All!

Tuesday, April 30, 2024, the Souq (Markets of Marakesh)

Soon we find ourselves back outside walking through the souq (market). This souq is even crazier than the souq in Cairo as while walking down the narrow alleys between shops, we had to vie for room to walk with bicycles and even motorcycles! But here you can buy food and trinkets. Would you like an Aladdin’s Lamp? You can get one here! Teapots and other cookware abounds! Running low on spices? How about some potpourri? Never fear, they are here! Maybe something gold and shiny?

We even tour a temple and wealthy homes. The grandeur in the middle of the poor Souq market is a dichotomy in the middle of the desert! But that doesn’t stop our hungry cameras!

Once back in the main marketplace, vendors were setting up the square for the evening with hundreds more vending tents! The shopping here is off the charts! Want some Potpourri? Need clothes? Dried dates? More colorful spices? Oh dear, you must need a basket! And some new bloomers! Maybe something golden again? Perhaps you need a hat to ward off the harsh sun! Oh my! Get me a broom so I can sweep it all away! It is all here, trust me! If only we had suitcases to fill, we could come home with massive treasures!

More shopping ensues and I find a table in a cafe to watch the crowds from afar. Unfortunately there was no beer or wine available. Whiskey was plentiful but I wasn’t ready for that yet. So a cup of mint tea and some crowd watching later and we were ready to walk back to our bus. A man with a monkey poses for a photo. Silly me, he wants money for that photo! I offer him a $5 US Bill and he refuses it! He wants something different. He wants Morrocan Dirhams! All he wanted was 50 Dirham. What he doesn’t realize is that I offered him 500 Dirhams! I walk away. He follows and demands something in Morrocan Arabic. He tries to block my path. I get in his face and tell him in English, “I offered to pay you, you refused! Now go away!” He starts to make a scene but there are too many tourists around. I hold my ground and tell him to go away. I walk rapidly away and he gets the message and leaves me alone! Whew! Had me scared for a minute there!

Back on the bus, we drive a circle around the local mosque for photos. We also see the famous Seven Towers of Marakesh!

Then it’s back off to Casablanca, a three plus hour drive back. Some sleeping is had, some photos of the waning sun over the countryside. My camera even spots a Morrocan Stop sign! Sure glad for international sign shapes and colors! We arrive back in Casablanca for sunset and a quick stop for photos of the Casablanca mosque and photos of “Rick’s Cafe’, a famous landmark in Casablanca. Then it’s back to the ship (I’ve been told to stop calling it a boat, LOL)

We make it up to the buffet restaurant with time to spare for a bite to eat. Then it is back to our cabin for the night after a very long day.

Goodnight all!

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

So where do we find our intrepid travelers today? We look out our window and watch as the ship comes into Casablanca, Morocco! A place I have only dreamed about since childhood. We have an early tour scheduled so we find ourselves in the buffet restaurant by 7;15AM.

Back in our room, we load up with the essentials, such as sunscreen, money, passports, cameras, phones and extra batteries. Our pockets laden with our daily necessities and nothing in our back pockets, we head for our meeting point outside of the Paladium Theatre to collect our bus tickets.

What? We’re not on the list? There must be some mistake! We booked this excursion back in February! But no, we are seemingly not on the list. You must be able to find room for us?! Have a seat and wait over there, we are told. Well, over there is out of sight of the organizers and that doesn’t sit well with us. So we hang out just off to the side to keep sight of the goings on.

There are 3 busses scheduled for the tour. We watch, dejected as the first two bus loads head off ship. Then the last straw drops as the third bus load heads off ship. Talk about disappointment? This excursion means more to me than most as it is a bucket list item since childhood! There is some commotion among the organizers and suddenly we are approached and offered two seats on bus three! Yippee! We made it after all!

We hurry off the ship and we have to walk almost 800 yards to the busses. That’s eight football fields away! But we get to the bus and surprisingly, the third row of seats are open. So we take our seats and soon the bus drives away on the excursion of a lifetime! We are off to see the Souq at Marakesh, otherwise known as the Markets of Marakesh! We are giving up the chance to visit the Casbah of Casablanca in order to see Marakesh! The first 20 minutes we at least get to see some sights in Casablanca as our bus leaves town!

Now, for reference, we have a three to three and a half hour drive each way today. Marakesh is inland. We get to see Morocco and the farms of the Western Sahara Desert. Very interesting places indeed! Seems impossible that anything grows here but where they apply water, plants grow! The road is a toll road and in excellent condition. The bus is a modern luxury bus and is very comfortable. Sure glad we don’t have to read the road signs!

We stop for a WC break (that would be Water Closet or Toilet) called a Winston Churchill by our guide, LOL. At the WC stop, there is a Mexican Food Truck, ‘Carmen’s’. Who’d have expected that here? Then it is only two more hours to Marakesh. More farms and desert scenery and then we arrive at buildings and more buildings. Soon, the hustle and bustle of throngs of people slow our bus to a crawl. We disembark the bus and are told to make sure we have what we need for several hours because we won’t see the bus again until it’s time to return to Casablanca.

It is now close to 1PM and it is time for lunch. Our guide leads us through narrow alleys and by many shops to a doorway where we enter and it opens into a very large restaurant room. We sit at tables around the sides and Moroccan breads are served along with plates full of spreads for the bread. Spreads of Aubergine (Also called Zaalouk (eggplant)) and many other spreads are served to us. There is wine on the tables that we partake of.

Then, large tagines of chicken and lamb arrive with sauces both spicy and mild. The food is fabulous and our table soon polishes off the food. Then a large woman comes out dancing to the Moroccan music and she is balancing a large plate on her head that is about a yard (meter) across and on it are lit candles in a chandelier formation. She dances and the candles flicker but not once does the chandelier falter or fall.

Next, a belly dancer comes out and dances with a cloak of blue lights resembling wings. After a bit, she takes off the cloak of blue lights and dances as any belly dancer does for tips and a few patrons dance with her. I even approach her and dance, fitting a couple dollars into her garment to the cheers of the crowd.

I will leave you here until tomorrow when we will finish this day!