Monday 2nd Sept - D-Day minus 2

Nearly all packed, easy one this time, no formal stuff and only a week. Passports checked, on line check in for the cruise all done. Oceania want a security photo uploaded - looks an awful one of me but you can only work with what you got!

Being a cattle class passenger and my loyalty grade has plummeted since I stopped work, we can't check in for the flights till tomorrow - actually we could but being a tight sod I refuse to pay for the privilege of choosing my seat.

Tuesday 3rd September - D-Day minus 1

Nearly ready .... packing has been very strange for this one and in some ways very confusing. As regular readers know, we are avid users of travel/luggage pods, those lightweight nylon zip up packing cases of various sizes. Normal trips we use the different sized ones for say socks and knickers, a mixture of casual and smart shirts, shorts etc. This time there is not enough to fill each one with individual items as we only need seven day's worth. 

What is also a first.... we don't need a cabin bag each..... shock horror! I actually put an extra pair of shoes to stop stuff rattling around! 

As we are travelling cattle class (only a short flight to Nice) we are waiting to check in on line at 9.15 this morning. Will be interesting to see if we get to sit together and how many have paid to pre book their seats.

Alarm will be set for 4am tomorrow - aiming to leave at 5am and park up at LHR Long Stay car park about 6am.

Wednesday 4th September - D-Day

Ok we are on our way. Long stay car park and transfer worked well once we found a space! Just have to find it when we get back. We paid £129 for a week and when you see the number of cars in just the T5 Long Stay you realise how much the airport makes from a bit of hard standing.

Bag drop is now self service - again works well once you realise which buttons to press. Security was the usual chaos - belts, iPads, phones, liquids, jackets .... all good fun. Breakfast now - full works bap for £10.50 .... bring it on!.

Amazingly busy for the time of day....

Flight looks to be on time, hopefully

Flight was on time if a little bumpy but nothing compared to the last flight from Tokyo. Sadly Oceania transfer from the airport to the ship was dreadful. Collected ok and boarded the coach very quickly. That's when it all went "pétanque ". We waited over an hour for two passengers who allegedly lost their bags. Yours truly leapt into "I'll sort this mess out" and summoned the guide, gave her both barrels, and then lol and behold they arrived without luggage and we headed for the ship.

We boarded and managed to do the most important thing.... upgrade our drinks package to include non meal drinks.

A pleasant steak panini with a couple of glasses of Pinot helped chill out the exertion of the day. A quick view of Monte Carlo before dark was called for then a short kip before the evening meal!

Thursday 5th September 

Woke early to the alarm at 6am ready for our room brekkie in readiness for our ridiculously early 8am start on our 10 hour plus all day tour of Florence. When we booked it - seemed like a good idea. What we hadn't built in was the long travelling day and coach delays of the day before (user error really on our part) or the thunderstorms and heavy rain on the day ( not taking the blame for that!)

Long coach ride nearly 2 hours with the customary rest room stop at a McDonalds! took us to Florence. First stop was the magnificent Museum of Fine Arts housing many works of Michelangelo and his students and other prolific artists of the time. Quite stunning. Our brilliant guide Gulia (apparently the Italians don't have a J or a K in their alphabet) really brought the explanation of David to life.

Michelangelo really was a clever bloke, one single block of marble and the ability to work in reverse.... to leave behind the bits you want is quite incredible.

Very impressed with the museum but his masterpiece of David is quite something else. The detail of veins is remarkable and for something as innate an object as a piece of marble - it really does come to life.

The next part of the day, a walking tour of Florence was disrupted first by the weather and secondly by yours truly suddenly having a 'turn'. A combination of rain and heat, I nearly passed out and had to head for the nearest cafe to use the facilities. Poor of Viv sees me heading one way and the guide and the rest of the group heading another! By the time I resurfaced - no sign of our group. 

A quick search revealed lots of other groups but not ours - not Lost in Seattle or Lost in Translation, just lost in Florence. Thankfully being the only Brits in a 32 strong group we had paid attention to the guide and the map and with the help of Google Maps we marched purposefully on to sights 3 and 4 and rejoined our group in time to get the bus home. We also dutifully phoned the emergency number to make sure our guide was aware we had become detached from the group in case she did a count up at some stage and was two short!! All good in the end.

A lovely meal in Jacques Restaurant last night - lovely Dover Sole washed down with a glass or two of a very nice New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc - my 'turn' over and normal service resumed!

Some rather wet views of Florence follow:

The last one snapped by Viv in a moving coach!

I do love the Escargot as a starter. Sorry I only took the picture half way through. Bit of an afterthought!

Onwards to Rome tomorrow.......

Friday 6th September 

Slipped into Civitavecchia around 7.30am. Lovely morning and a nice view from our cabin.

We had decided last night that two 10 hour day shore excursions was a step too far so we had a lovely relaxing morning starting with breakfast in the Waves Grill having let the 8am excursion rush head off. 

A couple of hours sun bathing, a few chapters of Stephen Fry's autobiography (one of many I believe) and then a pleasant snack of a light salad with a shared panini - with the obligatory glass of Pinot.

Another lazy afternoon watching the fishing trawlers cast their unwanted bits of fish into the harbour - they are so noisy (the birds 🦅 not the fish). There is something rather decadent about canapés and a G&T on the balcony before dinner.

Tomorrow sees us in Ajaccio in Corsica - home of that little Frenchman, Jacques Cousteau, sorry I mean Napoleon Bonaparte. We plan a leisurely stroll into town recalling, we hope, that the ship moors right in the centre of town. 

Before all that, we have to endure another meal in the Grand Dining Room. I have to commend Oceania, so far their claim to have some the best cuisine on the high seas is fully justified.

Saturday 7th September 

Just crept into Ajaccio in Corsica - lovely view of the harbour in the early morning sunshine.

One of the great things about Ajaccio is the harbour in right in the middle of town. A short walk along the concrete pier takes you into the market square. Being a Saturday ( though it may happen on other days too), we were treated to the market, full of all sorts of local produce and local people, who despite being French were remarkably friendly.

Mrs R decided it would be nice to take a trip on what we first thought was a HOHO bus (for the uninitiated it is Hop On, Hop Off). The driver explained we needed a ticket and as he wasn't to be trusted to handle money, said tickets needed to be purchased from a local kiosk, ably manned by a very chirpy chappie who relieved us of €20.

We boarded the bus, securing our front seats on the upper deck, thankfully under some shade at which point we realised that the was a HOSO bus (for the uninitiated it is Hop On, Stay On). This was an hour long scenic tour of all that Ajaccio has to offer. Excellent value and a great way to see the town and surrounding area accompanied by a tour guide ( a recorded version anyway) who was bi-lexic in both French and English.

Lots of references to Napoleon's birth place and very interesting architecture as the Corsicans tried to bring the French Riviera away from St. Tropez to sunny Ajaccio.

Along the coast road there is a huge development of what looks like small closely grouped miniature houses which turned out to be family burial buildings. There are hundreds, all along the roadside between the beach road and the mountains. According to the guide, from the air, it so much resembled a town that the German Luftwaffe (I think that's the right spelling), mistakenly thought it was the town of Ajaccio and missed their intended target!

A beautiful coastline with several islands in what is described as the second largest bay in the world.

Back at the ship for lunch is always a bonus and we tried the Terrace Grill, normally referred to lovingly as 'The Canteen'. Our first venture in and to be honest whilst the food was good, if not a little bland, catering for the masses, the layout of tables and chairs were more like the layout of the Monaco GP. Zero chance of overtaking and most passengers having a wingspan of a Boeing Dreamliner than a Formula 1 racing car.

A lazy afternoon grabbing some sun but not for long - the temperature was 33deg (feels like 43deg) and very humid. Mrs R decided to watch a movie in the room, a very watchable film about Polish Jews hiding in a large house occupied by a German Major admirably played by Dougray Scott who has appeared recently in a series on TV but sadly we can't remember the name!

Last night was the second of our speciality restaurant offerings from Oceania, Red Ginger and fusion of Asian delights. A great menu which sadly didn't quite hit the mark. All rather rushed and definitely adversely affected by a table of loud Septics who despite sitting inches from each other, felt the need to let everyone else in the restaurant know the intimate details of their family medical ailments and problems. For those with good memories it sounded a bit like the old Bruce Forsyth game show, 'The Price is Right'. Describing ailments...... Higher...... Lower.....Higher.

We finished the evening in one of the bars and gate crashed a Trivia Quiz which was hosted by an American for the benefit of a largely American audience who all failed miserably on one question...... 'In the Beatles song Penny Lane, what were the nurses selling?"

All other questions were a complete mystery to us Brits.

Oh yes...... the answer..... 'poppies'.

Sunday 8th September 

Marseille today and not the best of days. It rained steadily all day until around 6pm and I doubt many people ventured ashore.

To cap it all, I awoke during the night with a raging sore throat and heavy cold. It's normally Viv that suffers on holiday but my turn now.

Lots of tissues and Paracetamol and dinner in our cabin tonight.

The 🧑‍✈️ has also warned of strong winds overnight and a 2.5metre sea swell - the joys of cruising!!

Monday 9th September 

Just gone 8am and el Capitano has just confirmed what us regular cruisers already knew - too rough a sea and too windy to tender ashore at Port Vendres so we have a day at sea instead.

The clue was on the map on the TV!

Pretty obvious he took a look at the conditions and said "we are outta here!".

Judging by the BBC weather app- he is not wrong!!

A quiet day pottering along between the French and Spanish coastlines, at times barely moving forward at all.

Our last speciality restaurant, The Polo Grill, was ok.The food was typical of American cuisine and as such was bold and brash.

One of our quieter times on this trip.

Tuesday 10th September 

Crawled into Palma, which we had visited in 2021 with Saga. A different docking area, further away from the cathedral. Docking here now means a bus into town which is complimentary via the local authorities. We walked, in fact retraced our steps from three years ago, including visiting the same pharmacy, this time to get me some medicine for my chesty cough.

Talking of chesty coughs, I rand the Oceania Medical Centre on board Riviera. A very helpful gentleman advised me that an initial consultation with the ship's doctor would relieve me of $150. Then, I would be required to take a Covid test.... cost $500, yes $500. Can you believe that.... they cost £2 at Boots! And I will remind you, that doesn't even include the medicine you might need. Goodness knows what that costs. Plan B - the Pharmacy and for €13.95 I got some chest stuff - let's see if it works.

Our last evening meal in the Grand Main Restaurant was pretty good, a huge starter of Serrano Ham and a grilled salmon with veggies for Viv and a veggie lasagna for me. Yes.... veggie! 

All packed, cases outside the room and ready for bed by 10pm - what lightweights!

Barcelona tomorrow.

Wednesday 11th September 

Arrived in Barcelona in time to disembark at 8am. All very quick and painless. In fact we could have done with a delay as our flight wasn't till 1.05pm.

A short ride to the airport only to find we were too early for the bag drop. Having been told it would be a 90 minute wait, they did open after 45 minutes. Just as well as the security area was busy to say the least. In fact taking 20 minutes to get through wasn't that bad at all.

To help kill some time, we ventured into Giraffe Restaurant - whose streamline is Food From Around The World. A little strange as all you can get before 11am is a Full English! Very nice it was too.

Suddenly we felt we had been transported back to Japan .... a robotic waitress

All very strange indeed!

After our chat with our robotic waitress it was off to the departure gate for our flight to London Heathrow. As the flight was less than 2 hours we had decided not to fly business class and BA for some reason which defies any logic to board by Group Numbers which are 0-9. Numbers 0-3 are Business Class which is fair enough. Groups 4-9 are not linked to seat rows so when say group 4 is called forward, those in the group are seated in any seats in the plane!

Causes delays in boarding! What is even more strange but worked for us as we noticed that because the flight was quite full, the Spanish BA staff were asking people with cabin baggage to offer to put their bag in the hold by leaving it with the cabin crew as you board. We were in Group 9 but "jumped the queue" by offering to put our bag in the hold. We got through the check gate, were thanked by the staff for making the offer. When we got to the plane, I asked the cabin director where would he like me put put the bag so it could go in the hold. The reply..... oh don't worry about that just put it in the overhead locker!!!  Must remember that trick next time.

Last but not least... with grateful thanks to our good friend Don Harvey, a real connoisseur of flight and cruise data, he always loves to know where we are and where we are going. Knowing our flight details from Barcelona to LHR (note the lingo), Don captured our actual landing on You Tube using the Heathrow web cam. Nice one Don and thanks again.