Hunt for a Passport/Barcelona/Corsica
Arriving in Barcelona, there was a lot of tonnage in port. From Grimaldi Lines ferries, to cargo ships, and, of course, cruise ships. There was us, Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas, and MSC Meraviglia Many years ago, I met Brilliance when she was a young whipper-snapper. Campbell and I had just arrived at St Lucia on the old Victoria (ex-Kungsholm, Sea Princess), and we were playing the game of ‘see who can get their photo taken next to the life preservers on visiting ships’. Brilliance came in, pirouetted and slotted into the quayside. We were aghast. We’d never seen a ship do that. Victoria had to be pulled unceremoniously in by tugs as she wasn’t fitted with bow thrusters or azipods. We also thought she was enormous sitting next to the little Victoria and Holland America Line’s Noordam. (A funny story about Noordam… playing our game, I was getting my photo taken next to Noordam’s life preserver, when this lady from the ship calls Campbell over and says ‘hey you, take my photo’. Campbell says to her ‘you’ll never see it’, to which the lady indignantly says ‘don’t be so cheeky, I want my photo’. Campbell repeats ‘you’ll never see it’, and nastily again the lady hisses ‘why?’. ‘Because I’m not the ship’s photographer!!!’ Slam, dunk!!! She hastily beat a retreat and went in search of the ship’s photographer.
Anyway, back to Brilliance. I used to think
she was enormous, but sitting in between Britannia and Meraviglia, she was
tiny! A baby-ship. I remember the day we were docked beside her in Messina,
Scilly. The QE2 was looking tiny compared to her. The QE2’s Captain remarked
‘they may have flume rides and climbing walls [pointing to Brilliance], but we
have eight staircases’.
Before we could disembark from the ship, an
announcement was made that we should take our passports ashore with us.
Following this, we started a game of ‘hunt the passport’. Mother was through
every part of this cabin looking for hers. Eventually, I had to sit her down,
and make her think where she last saw it. She then said Reception. So I had to
phone Reception and ask if they had her passport. Long story, but they did. I
wish she’d stop loosing things. Remember she was lost herself in Southampton!
I’m going to have to put a collar and lead on her…
There was huge queues waiting for the
Shuttle Bus into town, but these went down quite quickly, and we were whisked
away to an area at the bottom of La Ramblas. Hopping on a City Tour bus, we
went round all the sites including the Olympic Park, Casa Mila, Museum of
Cultural Art. You know the Sergarda Familia? You know how big it is? It’s the
biggest focal point in Barcelona… I managed to miss it. Don’t ask me how or
why. I don’t know. I’d been waiting to take a photo of it, and am yet to see it.
I love Gaudi and his architecture. I was really disappointed.
My top three architects are:
1 Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson
2 Charles Rennie Mackintosh
3 Gaudi
Each are very different. Greek Thomson is
the Classical influence, Rennie Mackintosh… Hill House, say no more, Gaudi is
very organic and off the wall.
Back on the ship, and lunch in the
restaurant. I had to warn mum not to attempt to kill anyone if they are sitting
at our table. The first time someone else sat at our table, I thought she was
going to impale them with a bread knife! Daggers were shot at them every 5
minutes from her direction. I couldn’t have cared less.
As usual, it was back to the cabin for a
snooze. Cruising is sooooooo tiring. After we’d woke up, the ship started
sailing, so I thought it might be too late for the sailaway party, so we sat
and watched Britannia leave, and baby Royal Caribbean cruise ship was right
behind us. Seemingly, they had cancelled their trip to Cannes as well and I
reckon we’ll be snuggling up beside them in Corsica. There was going to be 4 ft
waves en-route to Cannes, and it was just too dangerous to take the tenders out
when gales were forecast for the afternoon. So we’re now on our way Ajaccio in
Corsica with an arrival time of 8am. Captain is having to put the foot down to
make it in time.
I returned mum to the cabin, and I made a
bid for freedom (under the excuse I was going up to the Horizon for some late
night nosh). But I went for a look around the shops. Nothing exciting really.
Tomorrow is Corsica, where we’ll probably
meet up with our old pal, Brilliance of the Seas!
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