Christmastime in England!

One week ago Nick and I said our goodbyes and signed off the Queen Elizabeth.  Signing off does actually entail a literal signing of one's name on the ship's Articles (rules, codes of conduct, contracts etc).  We got off the ship around 11am in Civitavecchia, Italy, en route to Rome's airport.  It was a very rainy, windy day, and just getting to the coaches with our luggage proved an ordeal.  Our flight was delayed 2 hours leaving the airport, which was no surprise to the flight attendants on our British Airways plane.  Apparently Rome has a reputation for never getting flights through on time, and the bad weather compounded the issues.  To help keep us entertained, they opened up the cockpit for visitors.  We eventually joined the queue, and when we got there one of the pilots had to step out.  The other decided to invite us to actually sit in the pilot seats!! He even offered to take a photo for us and answered all our questions.  It turns out our plane was over 25 years old, and still had analogue displays.  Very interesting to look at.

Nick's "mum" Lynn met us at the airport with warm coffees in hand for us.  It felt so nice to be "home"! I've been settled into Nick's room, while he's been booted out to his tiny old room, now a study. Since arriving we've been on a bit of a whirlwind of sightseeing. On Friday, we went to the Christmas market in Winchester, where I tried my first mulled wine - sort of like what we know as hot apple cider, but with hot red wine and spices.  It isn't very strong, just really warms you up and feels festive.  I've also discovered mince pies, which are absolutely everywhere.  Starbucks even gave them out for free with every festive drink purchase in one location.  They are tiny little pies filled with sweet raisin mince.  Saturday we headed down to Portsmouth, where we visited the HMS Victory - the ship captained by Lord Nelson when the Battle of Trafalgar was won: a real turning point in English history.    We toured the ship, but were also really lucky to be there when a Dickens Victorian Festival of Christmas was one - characters from Charles Dickens books were dressed up and wandering around engaging the guests, they had set up sets from that era and even had a street covered in snow.  Nick was even accosted by some "loose women" which was hilarious. For Sunday, we got to attend church with Jason and Jen, Nick's sister.  It was a really neat experience, they have a fantastic church.  The day we went, about a dozen babies were dedicated!! So many young families there give the church a lot of life.  After the service, we went for a very traditional afternoon tea in Lyndhurst with Lynn.  Lyndhurst is a really beautiful little town in the new forest.  They are known for putting little Christmas trees in what seemed to me to be flagpole holders.  But apparently they wait all year for just this use! I'm loving the feeling of Christmas in the air everywhere here!

The Best Laid Plans.....

This voyage is entitled "Holy Land Explorer", with the intended highlight being two days in Israel, for guests to tour Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Galilee.  A few days before we were due to arrive, violence ignited between Israel and the Gaza strip.  Thousands of rockets began to be fired across the border.  Personally, we were planning to take the train to visit Tel Aviv. Then we saw on the news that a missile had landed right outside of town.  We decided we definitely wouldn't venture there after all, but would either stay in the port of Haifa or head north to Acre or thereabouts.  Then a few hours later, when we saw that Jerusalem had been targeted, we knew the ship definitely wouldn't be going to Israel at all, long before the official decision was announced to the guests.  Our overnight in Haifa was replaced with calls to Rhodes, Greece, and Antalya, Turkey.  Antalya was a completely new port for me, and I was astounded to discover that it holds the ranking of 3rd most visited city by international visitors in the world, after Paris and London, and before New York! Incredible.  It is Turkey's premier sea resort.  We got off the ship as soon as possible, and took the 20 minute shuttle bus ride into town.  We stayed in the Kaleici area - the old center surrounded by old city castle walls, with narrow cobbled streets of historical Ottoman-style houses.  We visited the Yivli Minare, a fluted minaret which has become the city's symbol, Hadrian's Gate, the old clocktower, and the Yat Limani, the harbour dating from Roman times.  What a nice unexpected treat to see an interesting new place.

Onward from Turkey, we continued our voyage and began heading toward the port of Alexandria, where we were meant to dock on the 24th of November.  As we sailed towards it, lo and behold, the news erupts about the President of Egypt causing mass demonstrations and riots in Alexandria and Cairo by declaring sweeping extra powers for himself.  (You can tell we have nothing much to do on board but watch the news) Oh no, here we go....we thought.  And we were right.....about 6pm we felt the ship slow down to a crawl, and slowly turn around.  An hour later the official announcement was made: we are not calling into Alexandria.  Now the guests are VERY upset.  Not only have they missed the Holy Land, but now the pyramids as well.  Hundreds of people speculated and grumbled among themselves about what decisions the captain ought to have made, many pressuring him to go back to see Israel again since the violence had calmed slightly.  I do understand their intense disappointment missing the very ports that made them choose this particular voyage, but at the same time it's hard to believe their willingness to risk their own safety and that of others and the ship in order to see what they had signed up for.  I feel sympathy for the poor people manning the front desk during this crisis of cruising.  They are getting pummeled.

Once Alexandria was cancelled, the company had to once again shift itinerary, and find the best possible alternative to placate our irate guests.  We all sat in the crew mess speculating what would be done, which port would be chosen.  I had my money on Messina, Sicily on our way up to Italy, but was wrong - they've managed to secure a berth on the lovely island of Malta. And what's more, we'll be staying overnight! We are in Santorini today, one day earlier than planned, to facilitate this, and will arrive in Malta tomorrow at 6pm.  Miraculously, I will have the night off.  The guest entertainer decided to do a show that uses only piano (he has one for the whole band, but wants to try out a new one that he hasn't had orchestrated yet....great!!).  The jazz set we will be doing instead only requires 2 horns, and I was on jazz the last time, so its the other two horn's turn.  Nick is also free because he is in the midst of a handover - training his replacement to take over.  At this point Rob is running everything and Nick is only backup, support and advice.  He has even handed over the cursed phone, which I swear rings every 15 minutes with someone needing the stage manager's help.  So Nick and I are very much looking forward to a whole evening in port and dinner ashore.  Once again, any change of plans usually tends to benefit the crew.  Most of us were planning to stay on board in Egypt anyway, and couldn't be more pleased with the change in itinerary.  I do feel bad for the guests, but it does usually work out that their loss is the crew's gain.  The captain made a very cheeky thank-you announcement to those logical and calm guests who had written him personally to commend him on making the decisions he did, to keep everyone on board safe, despite enormous pressure from hundreds of protesting guests.  We could all read between the lines there regarding those guests who had tantrums.

We are really on the countdown now, 4 days to go! We are both so ready to sign off and get this Christmas holiday started!