Port Vendres France

 We had to tender in again today but what a lovely little town. We walked around the harbour and up to the old castle. There were lots of fisherman selling the fish they had caught the previous night out of metal shacks. This town was where the biggest import of bananas into Europe was in the past. We had a couple of hours just wandering the streets before we came back on board.

New trivia team as we decided to play with others…..we did win…but we would have done better on our own….which is quite funny!

Day at sea tomorrow .

Barcelona

 Changeover day only a hundred odd are staying on but the ship will be over full with 620 passengers.

We got the cruise bus into town  for 4.5 euros return, it was fine until we stopped by the MSC ship and it felt like hundreds got on. They were shouting and it fell like a tin of sardines.

The Columbus column is quite funny as he was supposed to be west and in fact he points east. The architecture in the city is incredible.

We then went on a walk around the town up La Ramblas and to the cathedral via all the little streets. There was alarge protest going on so there were lots of police.

We wandered for a couple of hours and it was truly so so hot….same as the Uk apparentlym 30 degrees.

Bus ride back was fine!

It was so hot but luckily in the retreat we have shade.

Some crew changes today all for the better.

Roses Spain

 Well we were tendering again  today into the small town of Roses. We got off with Sam Bailey as she wanted a walk.

We walked to the castle but it did not open until 11 so that ruined that plan so we went back into the town walked the promenade and looked at the shops. It was a Spain of a bygone era and was a lovely place.

Spent the morning wandering before getting tender back to the ship.

No photos as was nothing really to take a picture of.

La Ciotat

 Yesterday was a day at sea so we obviously did nothing. Well we seem to doze a lot. There was a lovely breeze whilst we were at sea. We got the most sailed passengers award and had dinner with the Captain Emilio Cygan, very nice man who fortunately we have met before.

Today we arrived in La Ciotat a small town on the French Riviera and I booked us on a trip to Marseilles. The drive was scenic on the way there through the wine region of. assis.

We went to the Notre Dame in Marseilles but unfortunately it was Sunday and there was a mass on so we could not go in the church. But the views were wonderful of the city. We then went to the old town of Marseilles by the port. There were four other huge cruise ships in today so it was busy.

We had an hour and three quarters so Keith and I went on our GPS my guide walk which was down backstreets. However it was nearly 40 degrees and very very hot to walk around.

Seemed a nice town with a lovely harbour area for the small yachts.

Coach back to the ship then we sat outside reading for an hour before trivia. came second again today most annoying.Will add photos when they have synchronised 

La Goulette

 Well this is the port for Tunis and we should have gone on a tour as the port had a ‘small village’ with souvenir shops and then you could not walk anywhere from there. So we just wandered a short while and then came back on board.

We had an extra hours sleep today but they take it away tonight which seems bonkers!

The good news today was we won trivia by a lot which was nice which probably means tomorrow will be a disaster.

We invited the assistant cruise director Caroline to dinner with us and had a lovely evening which ended with Chef Jes coming and having a couple of pints with us in the restaurant! Food again very good.

Tripani

 Tripani is on the island of Sicily. This morning we went shopping with the Chef and Jes had taken notice of what I said and limited it to only ten of us. We walked to the fish market about ten minutes away and he bought a huge swordfish together with red  shrimps octopus squid and loads of sardines.

After the visit to the market Keith and I went off to wander the town we went to the beach which was stony and there was a lot of seaweed by the edge but after that the water looked lovely.

Came back on board and read, played trivia came second again.

In the evening we had ribs in the Collonade before going to watch Sam Bailey in her show.

She does a super show, great voice and tells lots of dad jokes!

Valletta

 We went for a long walk round Valletta and we set off early which was a good job as we saw the gardens at their best as by the time we got back to our starting point it was absolutely heaving.

I am going to attempt to do this on Keith’s laptop as then see if we can download some photos. Failed which is most annoying. Ah i have solved the problem you have to use Google Chrome to upload so later will go back and update