SPAIN 27th Sept 2016 – 4th Nov 2016 It was only a short 5 week break in Spain to touch base with neighbours and friends and go on the Senderista walking holiday (3 days to Pinos Genil, near Granada) and the Field Club Holiday (4 days to Cazalla de la Sierra in the National Park just north of Seville) We were greeted on our arrival by very worried Spanish neighbours who informed us that there had been a lot of burglaries in the area and people breaking into empty properties and squatting, so she had been cleaning our front door to make our house look lived in, but advised us to get metal security doors to replace our glass ones. A quick visit to Antonio, our metal fabrication expert from when the house was first renovated, ... read more

This picture, being quite colourful, is not that typical of our visit to Berlin – we had a wet, cold,grey, dreary couple of days, redeemed on the last day by a blue sky and sun! We were staying at the Ivbergs Premium Hotel, Kleistrass that was about a 5minute walk from the 100 bus stop (The 100 bus is an unofficial tour bus as it stops at all the ‘must see’ highlights and runs about every 10 minutes!). We flew into Berlin -Schonefeld, and visited the Information Centre at the Airport (located 20 metres right as you exit Customs) to buy our 3 day Berlin Welcome ABC Card (29 euros pp), and to check out the best way to the Hotel. One bus, two tubes and a 5 minute walk later we arrived at the Hotel ... read more

Suez Canal , Israel, Jordan, Oman Another couple of sea days, but the weather was definitely getting warmer with daytime temperatures reaching about 25C. Didn’t do very much except lounge about reading and watching the shows on the evening! (Hungarian girl violin trio and tenor excellent). Also, there has been some wonderful Italian opera singing – the highlight being an open air Italian production of Gilbert and Sullivans Aida – it didn’t make too much sense to me ( especially as we missed the first hour!!) but there was something very magical led on the sunloungers, wrapped in a blanket, looking at the stars and listening to the music……. The musical was produced to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal….. We were due to reach the Suez Canal on Sunday evening but as we had ... read more

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN Woke up to heavy rain! This is the first rain we have had but its still a disappointment and its difficult to really appreciate the beauty of Stockholm. However, off the ship by 09.30am and caught the free complimentary shuttle bus into Gamla Stan, the Old Town. As it was still hammering down, we thought we would visit the Vasa Museum and walked across to the ferry stop! Unfortunately, no ferries or timetable, so we decided to walk the 15minutes to the Museum, on Djurgarden Island! Arrived, duly soaked, paid the 260 kroners (£25) on card and entered! The Vasa Museum houses the world’ s oldest identifiable ship. It was intended for a major role in the Swedish Navy, but it sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 and only a few hundred yards ... read more

S ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA I didn’t think there was anything else that could really wow me, but I think St Petersburg deserves a huge wow!! I think the weather also helped because we had sun and blue sky, and as St Petersburg only gets about 40 days of sunshine a year, we were very lucky! We wanted to do everything in St Petersburg and as all the Ship’s tours were just not enough, we chose a Russian Tour Agency – SPB Tours and booked their 2 day deluxe tour. They had been recommended on Trip Advisor and I would say it is one of the best Day Trips I have ever had!! Very professional, were outside the Port to meet and greet us, and our Tour Guide, Elena was excellent! Her knowledge of history and everything ... read more