Blogs from Worcester, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom, Europe

A little adventure to warm the bones after a winter in the UK We fly to Dubai tomorrow to stay on the recently refurbished Queen Elizabeth 2, now a hotel. She was the first ship we ever cruised on and so we have fond memories of her, in 2014 when we visited Dubai she was a rusting hulk nestled between two tankers. Then after 3 days we transfer to Queen Mary 2 for our cruise home via Oman, Jordan, Suez, Cyprus, Italy, Spain & Portugal. Back in time for Easter Eggs... read more

Well after my last blog, we said we were looking for warmer climes The deal was Lin wanted to see the Northere Lights (ticked big time) and we would travel to the Caribbean for Jan/Feb. How disappointed were we, when we got back to our cabin last Tuesday (Phil day) to find the 50 night cruise on Oriana had been cancelled. Essential maintenance - propulsion we think - a bit key if your crossing the Atlantic!!! Our first full winter at home for a number of years Brr!!! Nothing in the diary Until spotted a couple of back to back cruises for July/August So back on board Arcadia to Scandinavia and Russia and then on to France, Spain and Italy. Highlights will be St Petersburg, a return to Helsinki (for me), to Copenhagen (for Lin) and ... read more

So the first part of our road trip is underway. We arrived in Birmingham and were collected by Richard who took us to Graham's home in Worcester where Dom and I were to stay. How beautiful is it that we come all the way to the uk to a conference and strangers (who are no longer strangers) host you and put you up. Very tired to bed at "Spanish time" nearly 2am! And then because I'm having a break from my oil treatment while here, I only managed to sleep for maybe 4 hours. ? Not fun! Graham had laid on a beautiful breakfast with strawberries, raspberries, melon, toast and cereals. Felt blessed indeed. We then went to Richards home where Kurt and Mel stayed and we had a nice lunch and then went to the ... read more

Travelling day from Edinburgh to York, called in at a shopping centre on our way south for some essentials before heading to Selkirk in search of some tartan for Rylies kilt. Selkirk seems to be a town that spins tartan and deals in fabrics of all sorts. We found the address we were looking for only for it to be a large tin shed all closed up in an industrial area of town. Tried ringing the phone number that we had been given but it just kept cancelling out, obviously there is an area code we arent using and we don't know it. On the way past we had spotted another fabric barn type place with a cafe so stopped in for lunch and a look around, they did have tartans but none with the colours ... read more

Our next trip 2016 It's starting to get a bit more real, tickets arrived last week for both cruises. We start and finish in Southampton, leaving on the Arcadia and coming home on the Queen Victoria. The first cruise taking us to Sydney via Cape Horn, after a week in Aus we embark the Queen Victoria for our cruise home via South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. The itinerary: Southampton, Tenerife, Cape Verde Islands, Salvado, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Falkland Islands, Cape Horn, Beagle Channel, Amalia & PIO X glaciers, Valparaiso, Easter Island, Papeete, Bora Bora, Tauranga, Auckland, Bay of Islands, Sydney, Brisbane, Airlie Beach, Darwin, Bali, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Penang, Colombo, Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion Islands, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Walvis Bay, St Helena, Ascension Island, Cape Verde, Tenerife, Madeira and then ... read more