Monday 20th
LONDON!!
We woke early, were ready at the
desk when they opened at 6am, caught a quick breakfast, threw everything
together, back to the desk where they confirmed they had not attacked our
credit card and we had 8c credit left. The announcement that the boat was
cleared came through bang on 7am and we were SOO out of there!!
A brisk walk to the station, where
we caught a train straight away, had to change (twice due to bad advice) and
then we settled down on the train out to the airport. It terminated right at
the terminal and we walked through to terminal 2, found the Easyjet checkins,
processed our own boarding cards, queued at the luggage drop and were ready to
go by 8.30, the time they wanted us to check in.
From there it was a doddle. We
walked out to the furthest node and sat in the lounge enjoying free wifi. They
didn’t call the flight until about 15 minutes before departure and then there
was a scramble to get on board because there are no assigned seats unless you
have paid for them. We ended up right at the back where we had the worst seats
but we managed to get 3 of them! Method in our madness.
It was about a 2 hour flight and
towards the end we had views of the patchwork of green fields below. No doubt
about it – it is a Green And Pleasant Land. I could easily have burst into
There’ll Always Be An England. Somehow the hostesses and the surrounding
passengers were just very English and it was a very welcoming feeling.
We got easily through the
Immigration at Gatwick although they were a tad suspicious of how long J had
been out of Australia and where all the money was coming from. I was in the
queue next door, where the fellow just seemed relieved that we were departing
again the following day.
We collected the luggage and
strolled through the customs area in between the little white partitions where
they keep the rubber gloves. Nobody seemed interested in us. We emerged into
the concourse and pretty much right in front of us was the private lift going
down to our Hotel! Yotel in fact. It sounds like the sort of place that should
be full of Harlem negroes but the concept is Japanese.
As expected, our room was compact!
We had to put up the shelf/table so we could lay our small packs on top and
slide one of the big ones underneath. The other one went in the shower. The bed
was in an enclosed alcove that reached half way up the wall. Obviously, our
neighbours had to climb up onto theirs, which would be above us. It sounds a
bit like Auschwitz but it was cosy, private, secure and very comfortable. There
was a large flat TV at the foot of the bed, we had full a/c and the entire unit
was seemingly cast out of one piece of plastic. All this for 52 pounds in
London.
Standing in the shower looking at the wc
Standing near the wc looking at the bed
Back up in the concourse, we
strolled through into the train station, where we found one of the machines
from which you collect prepaid tickets. Rather like the French one should have
worked, we just typed in our reference number and swiped the credit card and
out popped a collection of tickets. We have tickets down to Southampton
tomorrow and return tickets to London with full use of trains and buses for
today.
London is still awash with helpful
Poms decked out in pink and purple – they are volunteers assisting visitors
find their way around – particularly with the Olympics. The Special Olympics
are due to start in the next few days. We found them extremely helpful and
charming to chat to.
The trip up to London Victoria took
about 40 minutes. Here we are in LONDON!!! We left the station and were
immediately in Buckingham Palace Road – talk about getting straight into the
action. We strolled up there and round to the grand Palace entrance at the end
of The Mall. The main courtyard in front was closed and the soldiers in the red
coats and the huge black bearskin hats were about 50 yards from us. See how
smoothly “yards” slipped out J
I loved this. Twas all over London. Not only the words, but an arrow to make sure they get the message. Not sure if this is normal or just due to the Olympics.
Behind us was the Victoria monument
and to the north Green Park. It just happened to be the time for changing the
guard – not the full ceremony but just a small process of 2 fresh guards coming
out and relieving the others. We set off down The Mall towards Trafalgar Square
but the area was under maintenance relating to the Olympics so we veered left past
Clarence House and St James Palace, St James Square and up Regent St (300
pounds in Monopoly) to Piccadilly Circus.
Piccadilly Circus
Souvenir shop selling everything British
Down the Haymarket we found an
Indian shop where we bought huge samoosas, Pepsi Max and a 600ml can of
Fosters. And so on to Trafalgar Square, where Lord Nelson stood magnificently
atop his Column with a jaunty red white and blue cap courtesy of London mayor
Boris Johnson. South Africa House was off to one side, with flag at half mast
for the victims of the police shooting at the uranium mine near Johannesburg.
The national gallery dominated the North side, flanked by St Martin in the
Fields, whence Perth got the set of bells that grace our bell tower.
Nelson with his new patriotic hat on
Trafalgar Square with St Martins
There we met two of the lady
volunteers in pink/purple who have been guiding visitors round the Olympic
areas. They gave us a larger and better map and pointed us to the number 15
bus. We duly boarded one such and sat back in the comfort of the upstairs front
row while we were driven away from the Admiralty Arch down the Strand, round
Aldwych and along Fleet St. This was all through the theatre district (Drury
Lane and the Theatre Royal) and great hotels like the Savoy and the Waldorf.
St Paul's ahead. On going through the photos it is very rare that any of them don't have a red double decker in view.
St Paul’s loomed ahead. We drove
around it and on down Cannon St to the Tower of London. We got out at Tower
Hill and walked all around the outside, past the gate where the beefeater in
red suit and flat cap was taking admission fees. Tower Bridge was right in
front and HMS Belfast (a big cruiser) was moored across the Thames.
Olypmic signage everywhere
Tower of London
Remnant of the old Roman walls
Moat. I think the round building is the City of London council building.
These lions are made of birdnetting wire. Fantastic. They symbolise the zoo of exotic animals(gifts) that once lived here at the Tower.
Tower Bridge
Saw several of these characters today.
This mirror image of the church was better than my clear shot of it. All Hallows by the tower. Oldest church in London.
Pub closest to the Tower. Great name.
We went through the church of All
Hallows By The Tower, the oldest church in Britain. It had some fascinating
exhibits that raised moral questions by displaying a lot of items about the
infamous Kray Brothers, a long-time hangman of the City and Adolf Hitler’s book
(Mein Kampf) – a very strange thing to find in a church. The idea was to
provoke balanced consideration of the commandment Thou Shalt Not Kill. It also
raised the question of what happens when the common beliefs and practices in a
community are wrong, such as the acceptance of Nazism in Germany and the
acceptance of slavery in Britain.
St Paul's
I think this was a maritime school. Great gates
The shard. Some interesting new architecture.
and another one.
The bus took us back to St Paul’s.
It had a 15 pound entrance fee but there was a service in progress and we just
walked in and had a look from the back. We had seen a bus with Abbey Road on
the side and that caught our fancy. So we took another 139 bus for most of an
hour through the peak hour traffic back through Piccadilly and up to the North
East. The bus drove right past the Abbey Road Studios and right over THAT
pedestrian crossing. We jumped out and joined the group of tourists trying to
snap one another crossing the road. This was quite difficult because there was
constant traffic and the cars were not driving through and getting out of the
way – they kept stopping and waiting for us to cross, while we were waiting for
them to get out of shot.
Abbey Road studios
The crosswalk from the 'wrong' angle
Chris doing 'the walk'
The scene when the traffic cleared...mayhem.
We caught the tube back, noticing
the very steep tunnels down to the platform and the powerful surge of wind
blowing into us as trains approached - for some reason far more so than on the
Paris Metro. The train took us to Westminster, where we went out onto the
bridge to get a closer look at the London Eye ferris wheel and the Houses of
parliament and Big Ben. Just behind is Westminster Abbey, location of the Royal
Coronations, weddings and funerals. Unfortunately the Abbey was locked up so we
couldn’t look inside. We walked back to Victoria, had teriyaki chicken for
dinner and bought fridge magnets before taking the train back to Gatwick for
the night. Our sub-compact cubicle was really very comfortable and we were well
tired so we slept very soundly.
We saw this as we came out of the tube station. Wow
The London eye
Houses of Parliament
Side entrance to Westminster Abbey
Isn't she lovely
Westminster Cathedral
The cruise dates had left us very
little time to explore London but we felt we had got a really good flavour for
the place, seen a heap of famous landmarks and enjoyed our lightning tour. We
would be very happy to explore again in greater leisure some other time.
Tuesday 21st Cunard again
We were up and out by 8am then sat
around in the airport using the hotel wifi. A couple of very serious looking
and extremely heavily armed and armoured police went past – incongruously with
a happy little cocker spaniel in matching black. There were a couple more
guards looking down from the balcony above.
The train arrived on time – we had
to get in the first 4 carriages going to Southampton because the back 4 got
shunted off later in the trip and went to Bognor Regis. After 2 hours we
reached Southampton and promptly took a taxi to the port. Those of you who are
paying attention will have been startled by that – why a taxi all of a sudden?
The dunnies at the station were out of action J
The checkin process was extremely
quick and in no time we were in our cabin. Inside L. The daily programme was
there waiting for us and it was immediately obvious that there will be no time
at all for lying around. There will be 5 or so trivias or quiz per day plus
movies, lectures, demonstrations, classes etc etc. Far far more than the other
boats. The Royal Academy have a group on board who will be conducting acting
lessons and performances, there are a series of lectures and demonstrations on
astronomy, and guest lecturers on maritime history, military matters, diplomacy
and a celebrity from BBC Foreign Correspondent.
We lunched (small buffet, not many
selections but they had slabs of chocolate ganache . . . . to die for!!). Back
to the room where Iryna our Ukrainian stewardess explained everything in the
room ( although she must know we are multiple Cunard passengers) and invited us
to ring her for this or that “or just to see me” which J did not find
particularly amusing.
4pm was the boat drill then I did
an hour in the gym. This ship is totally different from Victoria – the
frontmost face of the boat is taken up with the card room and the library
whereas every other boat has the gym up there. No view at all from ours. The
library was very well equipped but nowhere vaguely near as striking as the
double storey one in Victoria. The theatre has no private boxes . . sigh.
They claim that this boat is the
last of the genuine ocean liners designed for Atlantic crossings, with wider
beam and thicker hull as well as sleeker lines and better balance and
stability. Certainly it does look less top heavy than the muffin-topped
floating blocks of flats they build these days.
We had first session dinner as
usual – tonight was casual dress – jacket but no tie required . . . yaay.
Nothing notable on the menu except honey and ginger ice cream. We were at a
table for 10 with a motley crowd of people. J was next to a lady from Ireland
who was a lively conversationalist – beyond her was a boy about 10 and I was
next to a nice English couple. We chattered away so long we missed the start of
the evening show.
By then we knew that the
Entertainment Director was Keith from the Victoria – still telling the same
jokes. We went down and met him afterwards and he didn’t remember us (not
surprisingly) but Jess the scatty Irish quiz leader has come over as well. She
saw J from 10 metres away and squealed and rushed forwards for a hug. This is
the buxom girl who was lined up to be groped in the final sketch of the crew
show (note to self . . don’t miss crew show).
The first quiz was in the pub at
10pm. It was packed but a very kind man called us over and gave us his table
because he had had enough. Just as Jess was setting up to start, we roped in
another couple, who turned out to be English and they in turn had 2 more
friends so we made a team of 6. There would have been close to 20 teams. The 3rd
couple didn’t have much clue and were distracted by having recognised a British
TV personality in the pub – one of the tradesmen who do home renovations for
kind folk who do lots of good works in the community. But the other lady was
full of answers to the British questions and we had a few so as it turned out
we had the first 8 or 9 questions right.
It got harder after that but we
finished with 13 which was enough to tie with one other team, the rest having
10 or less. It went to a tiebreak which the English members worked out between
them and came up with a better guess for when the radio licence fee was
abolished (1971). Were they all delighted! Jess came over and gave us winners
cards which she stamped. It was just like old times.
And so to bed . . more accurately
back to the cabin to catch up on the blog. We gain an hour tonight and will
keep doing so almost every night during the trip. Then another 3 as we fly
across North America. That will total 12 hours within 12 days. We have ticked
the activity card for tomorrow and it is staggeringly busy.
Wednesday 22nd At Sea
Brekky, stretch in the Queen’s
Room, where we lingered afterwards to do some more exercises. I went to the gym
for half an hour and J had a look at the books we borrowed from the library
about Vancouver and Alaska. Down to the pub for the morning trivia and the
daily quiz corner. We did well but didn’t win with an English family. I took
all my shirts for a machine wash because they were all starting to smell of
cruiseship soap then we went for lunch while they were drying. Cunard are the
only line who have self service Laundromats (and free soap powder). Love Cunard.
We did have shuffleboard and deck
quoits on the plan but the wind across deck 12 was quite awesome so we had a
nap/read until afternoon trivia. There were a couple of Americans wandering
about looking for Brits to join them and they grudgingly accepted us as the
next best thing. Another younger American and an Aussie girl came along just at
the start. There was a posse of 10 who had come in together in a very
determined way and plonked themselves in a window alcove, refusing any
suggestion that teams could not exceed 6.
We weren’t a particularly promising
looking bunch but we managed to scratch up a few good answers, benefitting from
the South African quizmaster asking about Namibia and Okavango. The older
American couple didn’t have much input but the rest all chipped in. We finished
up with 17 and were thoroughly delighted that the gang of 10 dropped out when
the bidding got to 15. One other team got 17 and the tiebreak asked what year
the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The young American immediately wrote
1947, a couple of years earlier than I would have guessed. Sure enough that was
it so we won again. She started explaining why she knew such a strange date but
the story sort of wandered off and we never really found out.
We had the Captain’s cocktail party
then dinner, followed by evening trivia. 2 minutes before the start there were
only us and a woman with a 5 year old granddaughter. We suggested merging and
sharing the win and then suddenly swarms of people arrived, including 2 very
assured groups of 6 who were hailed as regulars and carried themselves as
resident champions.
The questions were spread evenly
between what we knew and what Susan knew (and Miranda even got one) with little
wasted knowledge duplicated between us. Mum arrived and provided another answer
and we thought we had got most of the answers but they were generally pretty
easy. This was confirmed when Jock McPorridge at the other table called out the
answer to every single question. We were resigned to them getting 100%.
So imagine our surprise when we won
by a couple of points! It seems Jock was marking our card and calling out our
answers J
So we have won three trivia already with three different teams. From there we
took in the evening show, which featured an instrumental performer. Then off to
the “name that tune” contest, which featured obscure English not-quite-hits of
the 60s. We teamed up with the family from this morning and scored 4.
We gain another hour tonight so the
8am start won’t be too hard.
Thursday 23rd Still at
sea
We had booked for the 8am cardio
session on the deck and the 9am stretch but the alarm service did not work and
I woke with a start at 8am.This surprised me because I went to bed with J last
night (boom boom). We tried to get dressed and go but we realised that the ship
was rolling a lot. We are very close to the front and the movement is
accentuated, as Courtney would remember from the Great Australian Bight. We
found our way up onto the boat deck for some fresh air and it was much better
there.
We had a small breakfast and then
plonked ourselves down in the winter garden – a big indoor space where there
are comfy chairs. We started chatting with an old fellow from Dorset who told
us about his life at sea, his renovations and his prostate surgery. All too
soon lol it was time for the morning quiz. We found a good booth type place
with a window to sit in and waited to see who turned up, hoping to see the
English lady from last night. In fact it was the American couple who arrived
and in the process of coralling in the other younger American (MaryAnn) we roped
them in as well. Emma the other Aussie turned up soon after so we had recreated
yesterday’s winning team.
It was the Sethefrican/Kiwi host
and we had an interesting time. MaryAnn was scribe again and she succumbed
easily enough when we corrected her on question 2 but later we were asked what
a flying fox was. We both said “bat” but the Americans were intent that it was
a squirrel. We said very firmly no it is a bat but then Emma said no it’s a possum.
We knew very well that it wasn’t but Lorraine said they had the same quiz last
week and they said “bat” and got it wrong. In the overall scheme of things we
chose to let it go.
Later we needed the last English
king to die in battle. Lorraine remembered from last week that it was Richard
III and we thought that sounded good. When they read the answers, we all
cheered but MaryAnn said no she had written something else?? Of course the flying fox is a bat and nobody
said anything but the point was taken.
Worse followed, one of the
questions had two parts and it was not immediately obvious whether we had got
credit for providing one answer correctly. So Lorraine started changing the
score on our sheet. I told her very clearly that you cannot do that. If you
disagree with the scoring you need to dispute it with the team that marked it.
Luckily it transpired that we were not in contention either way but it could
have been a humiliation to be challenged for falsifying the score.
Meanwhile, J had totalled the score
of the team we had marked and passed it to Sid to give back to them. He
couldn’t see the score and proceeded to start adding it up again, while they
waited and J desperately pleaded with him to just hand it to them. He is also
deaf and forgetful so he tends to peer at the answer we have written down and
then make comments or questions in a booming voice that reverberates around the
room, mentioning our answer.
15 minutes later we had the Quiz
Corner, which was simply 18 sports questions. He made the point that it was a
new quiz because very clearly there were a lot of Americans there (like ours)
who were cruising 2 or 3 legs and had heard all the questions before. This
happens.
Q1 was – which country won 12 of
the first 13 boomerang championships. We were the only team that did not put
Australia (it was the USA!!) This quiz comes in the form of a sheet that you
have to fill in within 8 minutes and we had agreed that the Americans would
answer the top half and we would do the bottom half and then just merge the
two. Of course they didn’t stick to that
but we finished early and got the whole job done. And we won – in fact there
was another tiebreak and again MaryAnn immediately grabbed the pencil and then
dithered for the longest time. However (again) we ended up with the better
guess so we won our 4th stamps.
I dropped a few clothes in the
laundry, in the process almost having to fight off an over-helpful German lady
who was determined that I should take the clothes out again until the water had
poured in!
It was another formal night – I had
Wensleydale cheese for the first time nearly 40 years after hearing it
mentioned repeatedly in the Monty Python sketch. Dinner took nearly 2 hours and
we learned that Martin is a retired research chemist who is studying for the
Ministry and Virginia is a voluntary court witness support person.
We dashed straight up to trivia,
which went very smoothly with J having the pencil. We thought we had good
answers but a few of the guesses were wrong and we were not in contention.
Trivia sessions are consistently filling the pub and the bar area. The evening
show was a good Cunard highbrow song and dance – we recognised two of the male
Ukrainian ballet dancers (J from the one’s bare abs *pant*) and also Keith’s
hoary old story about the gullible lady who wrote in her diary that the
previous night she had saved the lives of all aboard the ship (twice).
The boat seems to have eased off
the pitching and tossing – or maybe we are just better adjusted to it. We
repeat yet another hour tonight – that’s 3 in a row.
Friday 24th
We are now in mid-Atlantic. The
usual brekky gym morning trivias. An interesting development arose when some
slightly strange gay American dwarf took exception to Jess’ interpretation of
the yellow flag. He said that he had been in the Navy for 25 years and it meant
quarantine aboard. She said that’s not how she understood it so he replied “Do
you understand Go to Hell?” There was a momentary silence then a roar from all
round the (packed) pub. Jess dealt with it very well and was quite patient when
he lectured her (more temperately) after the session.
She had to hurry off to some line
dancing function and the Kiwi/Yarpie came in to do a very interesting cryptic
challenge. We didn’t win either. We bumped into Martin and Virginia in the
winter garden and suggested we would join them for a quiz if they were still
interested so we will try that tonight.
As it happened, Lorraine and Sid
were unavailable so that worked very well – we still had a team of 6. You won’t
believe it but tonight was the night they decided to ask where in a church you
would find the nave and who was the first person in the Bible to be murdered!
Martin scored another couple of points we would not have got and we won in the
face of a jampacked crowd.
The evening show was a
Russian/French balancing acrobatic couple – also from Cirque du Soleil. Then we
repaired to the casino where there was a Bond night. The quiz involved
altogether too much thinking so I retired to watch the televised reruns of the
lectures leaving J with the quiz girls.
Don’t think we did to well with the Bond Trivia. The girls only scored 1 correct point out of
4 for the Liar’s club game. They tell
you an obscure word and then the 4 panellists give an explanation of what the
word means and you have to guess the correct one.
