River cruise

Whilst sailing along the north coast of France, Diva and TSH saw a spectacular night thunderstorm which continually lit up the sky with sheet lightning.

TSH knew from previous holidays that reaching Rouen involved sailing up the Seine for a number of hours, although this was a surprise to Diva and many other Silver Moon guests.  It was a very scenic voyage, just like a river cruise, as they passed many attractive towns and villages, greeted with a wave by many local people.

TSH was disappointed that he failed to identify the camp site on the banks of the river where,  in 1974, he spent his first night outside the UK. He thinks it passed whilst he had lunch and that that he will miss it on the way back because it will be dinner time. Getting the priorities right. He has also had one of his few day-time beers of this cruise – a sign that the weather is getting warmer.

Rouen is an industrial city with an historic centre which Diva and TSH could see by taking a short walk along the river. Naturally, TSH had to climb the steps to the bridge, walking across the river to get a better view for his camera.

In the Alantide restaurant, they made their choices from the menu and the waiter immediately rushed over to take the order. Apparently the sign that service is required is TSH removing and folding his glasses.

Diva has been busy with Wordle every morning whilst TSH shaves. It has always been a good sign if she has been able to complete it faster than TSH can shave. They know of one other guest who has also been doing Wordle, claims not to be very good and actually deduced the word in fewer tries than Diva on one occasion.

Diva had a discussion with another guest about the horror of the lack of face soap on the Silver Moon. Her husband said that the conversation fell into the category of ‘overheard in Waitrose’.

Diva and TSH are very aware that the end of the cruise is near. Luggage labels and instructions will shortly be appearing for the disembarkation and the journey home. Looking back on the cruise, they agree that they have visited many very interesting places and have enjoyed themselves. The problems were all at the start, with the bad experiences at Manchester Airport and the Athens pier and the twelve day delay in TSH receiving his clothes from FedEx.

 

 

Athens

 Once more, at the start of a Grand Voyage (See January 2017), TSH and Diva got lucky in the upgrade stakes. Their accommodation at The Astir Palace in Athens has  large sitting room and bedroom, a utility area with a sink and a bathroom with loo, basin and what turned out to be an excellent shower. Later they found the main bathroom with bath, twin washbasins, another loo and more towels than they were likely to need during their short stay. Turn-down service arrived before he had found the main bathroom, so TSH insisted they left more towels. Also a walk-in wardrobe and a huge balcony overlooking the sea. 

On arrival at the hotel at 18:15, they had decided that, after snacking all day, they would not bother with a meal. But they were informed that dinner was at 19:00. They exploded their suitcases across the sitting room, showered, and located clothes for the evening. The food was extremely plentiful - like a meze except that everyone was given a plate with huge portions of everything (perhaps a Covid thing?). Three generous courses. Wine from Santorini, where they will visit in a few days time. 

Fedex are now showing an interest in the whereabouts of TSH's luggage. The issue now appears to be properly escalated. Maybe results in a few days time?

TSH and Diva are very loyal to their local Manchester airport, which has served them both well for many years. They are reluctant to disparage it but have to say that their experience on Tuesday morning was appalling. The airport website suggested turning up at least three hours before a flight, but at that time, there were no open check-in desks. When they did open, there were not enough staff and everything seemed to take a long time. The long, closely packed, queues for security were a public health hazard. Whilst accepting that the small cannisters in inhalers must represent a potential risk on a flight, Diva has never before experienced them being taken out of their plastic bag and touched by security personnel wearing gloves which had also touched everybody else's luggage. A lot of remedial cleaning was required. By comparison, Heathrow was peaceful and by any standards Athens was efficient and welcoming.

Diva in total melt-down

Diva and TSH had the wrong kind of air ticket and were told at Manchester that the only option was to pay for one of their bags for the flight to London, collect all three pieces of their luggage at Heathrow, transfer it personally between 2 terminals and re-check it in. A supervisor was called but insisted that this was how it was and it was not possible for any correction to be made at that stage.

Manchester airport was crowded, noisy, dirty (Diva cleaned their table with a wipe) and no decaff coffee could be found.

The situation was mentioned to various BA staff along the way but all said 'this happens a lot now' and took no action.

So two pensioners transferred 64 kg of luggage across Heathrow, travelling by foot and train. They encountered a member of Heathrow staff who should never be allowed to have a customer-facing role (and possibly no role involving contact with any human beings) and will be the subject of a complaint to the airport. Two and a quarter hours from landing to sitting down with the first food of the day.

 Diva has given up BA forever, in spite of the second leg of the journey being much better. BA  have a business model that involves everyone flying to hub airports like Heathrow but they have forgotten to manage the internal flights properly.

TSH is trying to get the position sorted so that this does not happen in reverse when there is a relatively short transfer time between flights.

The mood was not helped by TSH breaking a nail during the transfer and having fizzy water sprayed over him at Heathrow. OK, technically it was Diva who opened the bottle but it was Pret's bottle and Pret's water. But their meatballs in a wrap are still excellent.

Sight of the day: Young(ish) woman with a full head of rollers sitting at Manchester drinking a large glass of white wine. Not even a headscarf to hide the shame!!

Three lots of luck at Manchester Airport

1.      1. Sausage butties for breakfast.

2. 2.      When Diva knocked the milk (which neither wanted) across the table and nearby floor, it missed both clothes and shoes.

3.      3. The flight left before two RAF jets escorted a passenger jet into the airport (bomb hoax), causing delayed and diverted flights for some time.

The Viking transfer to the Lisbon Tivoli went smoothly and the hotel room is smart and comfortable. Diva was not impressed at the ‘briefing’ when Miguel announced that the trip to the tile museum was cancelled because of too few bookings. TSH and Diva had agreed to book this but had not been given any opportunity to organise it. However, the following day, one guest was heard to announce that ‘it was the best briefing he had attended for some time’. Surely ironic. But everybody got a glass of sherry. Lots of nice friendly fellow travellers, including two from Cuddington met on the plane.

The shared pizza was so large that Diva just ate the topping from part of it and TSH left a slice of his share. Surely a first!!

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Oslo

TSH and Diva have arrived in Oslo to await the departure of their next Silversea cruise. Two large suitcases, one small(er) and two pieces of carry-on are essential for such an expedition. During the packing process, Diva had to swap an evening top.She had carefully rolled (to prevent creases) a batch of clothes together and then stood on it, breaking a delicate Mother of Pearl button. Bring back plastic! This is going to mean new buttons and a trip to the wonderful local lady who does alterations. Replacing buttons is definitely an alteration.

Bacon butties in the airport lounge in Manchester and an excellent chicken sandwich on the SAS flight.

The flight was enlivened by a large group of men from Cumbria who seemed to have indulged at the airport. Their ages were such that they should have known better than to be quite so noisy. TSH recognised the accents immediately, as he comes from there himself. But normally Cumbrians are known for not speaking much (except for Cumbrian grunts) and maybe this lot should have stayed true to type.  They were overheard asking one young Asian woman: 'Are you Chinese? Do you know Kung Fu?' Embarrassment all round.  Fortunately she was polite and seemed not to take his stereotyping to heart.

Airport to hotel was by airport bus, which stopped only 100 yards from the hotel.

Oslo is a grand but walkable city and an hour or so was enough to see the Royal Palace, University, National Theatre, Town Hall, Parliament, Cathedral and Central Station.

Dinner was pizza, no booze and cost over £40 at a street cafe. Only eclipsed by £8 on two small bottles of water from a kiosk. Roll-on the all-inclusive cruise!!