I never thought the day would arrive when my wife and I would ever dream of taking a holiday on a cruise ship, but it's amazing how times can change! The closest we ever came in our first 50 years of marriage was a trip on a canal barge from Cheshire to Llangollen in North Wales when our children were young - and that wasn't exactly luxurious!
But after hearing from more than a few friends about their travel adventures on cruise ships, we decided to give it a go and booked a cruise from Edinburgh to the Norwegian fiords in 2019 on the Fred Olsen Cruise Line, and yes, it was an unforgettable trip where we felt totally spoiled from start to finish. This sure is the ideal way to travel in our "mature" years, and travel to places I never dreamed of visiting,
I guess we caught the cruise bug because we followed that with a cruise from Dover to Barcelona visiting ports in France, Portugal, Gibraltar & Spain, and last year we took a cruise from Vancouver to Alaska, which was spectacular as we sailed up the Inner Passage (not too rough) where every stop was fascinating.
We were lucky enough to see a black bear with 3 cubs on our first stop - a rare sight indeed - together with loads of wildlife from sea lions, seals, otters and endless humpback whales, to bald eagles in abundance. A highlight of our trip was to row in a kayak to a glacier through ice flows – a really cool experience! We were also extremely fortunate to have great weather throughout – in stark contrast to the constant high winds and heavy rains encountered here in Bermuda during our trip.
Later this week we're heading off again, this time on a cruise from Athens in Greece through the Adriatic Sea as far north as Venice, and while in Athens we plan to walk up the Acropolis to the Parthenon to celebrate my 82nd birthday. We'll be on board a Seabourn cruise ship and we would highly recommend Seabourn to anyone thinking of taking a cruise.
I'm aware that there are others of our colleagues who have done far more cruises than we have, especially Dave and Sylvia Cart, and Dave and Jan O’Meara who I think it would be fair to describe as veteran cruisers. If you've taken a cruise please consider sending us your insights and a few photos which we could add to this article which might be very useful for those who are thinking of, or planning on taking a cruise. The easiest way of contacting us on our ExPo website would be through our email address at info@expobermuda.com
Unfortunately, I can't operate our ExPo website from my mobile phone so will be out of touch until our return on 7th May. In the meantime we'll try to keep you up-to-date on ExPo Happenings on our ExPo Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BDAExPolice/
CRUISE SHIP TRAVELLERS EXTRAORDINAIRE
No sooner had I drafted this article than I received the following email from our good friend Dave O'Meara who I had mentioned above, and who is now a proud veteran of 20 cruise ship voyages. Dave's email arrived just in the nick of time to be included in this article. It reads as follows:-
Dave and Jan on recent visit to Malaga
Jan and I are just back from our 20th cruise which was on P & O cruise ship Azura out of Valletta in Malta. We had a few days stay in Malta before the cruise and had a wonderful time exploring the island.
The Azura is a great ship, showing her age a bit but still has the style and comfort of days gone by. Anyway, the cruise included visits to Trieste in Northan Italy, Split, Zadar and Dubrovnik in Croatia and a return to Valletta. All wonderful places and well worth considering for a visit.
P&O Cruise ship Azura
On board we opted for the "freedom dining" which allowed us to show up for dinner at any time it suited us and as such we would then be placed at a different dinner table each evening. Great way to meet people.
The story of the Bermuda connections all started at such tables. On the second evening we got talking to a guy next to me and we seemed to hit it off right away. He was with his wife and when the conversation got around to where are you from, so I said now in Spain but was a Police Officer in Bermuda. Turns out he was a retired Police Officer from the Nottingham area, and his name was Steven (Jack ) Russell.
However, he then explained he nearly joined the Bermuda Police back in the 1980's when he and a friend signed up to join. With three weeks to go he had second thoughts about going having met his future wife some weeks earlier and then decided he would stay with her. His friend went on his own and it was Ian Ringrose who if I remember correctly come out in March 1985 and was stationed in St George's. We had a good chat over dinner and that was that, never bumped into him again.
Our second Bermuda connection at another table the following evening was a guy (never gave his name ) who, on a repositioning cruise from the Caribbean, took ill with a burst appendix when his ship was about to pass Bermuda and he had to be transferred ashore for a stay at King Edward hospital. He and his wife then stayed at Royal Palms guest house for a week or so and fell in love with the island. He now can't wait to go back so I wished him well after we chatted about the many places he remembered visiting during his stay.
Jan and I are busy as ever and still enjoying the Spanish way of life. We have a first for us, a river cruise out of Porto booked and another later in the year. Golf is still one of our pastimes as is eating out as often as we feel like. We both follow events in Bda via the Royal Gazette and messages from friends and we still miss the good times we had there. Say Hola to all.