Life in 2024

Due to my failed eyesight all links to holidays from now on will be to David;s websights

We returned from Malta in mid February. Then we had a month in Moraira during which I ventured to the Javea bridge club a couple of times - armed with a powerful head torch to aid me in seeing the cards!. On the Sunday before January 24th Carol hosted a pre Burns Night lunch

We had a full day in Bogota and then caught a flight south west to Villa Vieja. Here we enjoyed walking in the red, Tatacoa desert and then onto the grey desert: wondrous cacti. Then a long drive to a superb hotel , Monasterio. Next day to the San Augustine Sculpture park. . . and then to Pereira, both of which had superb hotels.

Visited a coffee plantation before traveling on to to Cocora, a touristy site with wax palms, and to Salento. Then to Salamina before several days in Medellin , a really interesting place with such a colourful past: also a trip out to a flower town- magnificent . Finally we flew back to Bogota, from where we caught a flight to Quito





followed by a week courtesy of Silverseas in the Galapagos We had two nights in the Marriott hotel in Quito before our seven nights in Galapagos. The first day we wandered into the town centre by ourselves and David bought himself a hat and the boys did too and we enjoyed a drink in a nice café later on in the day, Silver Seas provided a tour to the outside of the cathedral then to a chocolate presentation in a colonial hotel, followed by being allowed into the deserted main square after dark (the army had roped off the city centre because of the civil unrest in the country). There was a charter flight to the Galapagos, San Christabel,. We were impressed by our cabin on the Silver Galapagos and had star treatment by the expedition leader, Paulina, after David commented that our time there was a bit like Disneyland!. The ship had a very pre-planned route so that it did not overlap with other ships. We were impressed by the land iguanas but not by what we saw of giant tortoise is: I think we were just there at the wrong time and we had seen such marvelous specimens in abundance in Aldabra. All in all we thoroughly enjoyed it but we would not have paid Silver Sea's asking price for it: this was a weeks free cruise for us on having reached 350 nights aboard Silver Sea ships.

Returning from this I had my first swim of the year on March 18th, 10 days earlier than my previous record!. But after 6 days, it became too cold again and I only resumed April April 5th

Also anothercouple of bridge afternoons at JBC alongside organising and playing with our Morning Bridgers group up to 5 mornings a week

preceded by 3 days in the Ben Ben Hotel, this was situated on an island between the 2 Aswan dams

Then 2 whole months in Moraira. Listened to audio books, podcasts, played Online bridge with Morning Bridgers and went to JBC once a week. Had lunch with Bill and Brenda at Mesena: with Carol and Paul at a Spanish restaurant in Benitachell and with Cilla and Ted in Maxim's

On June 17th we saw the Magic Flute in Valencia, staying overnight there. Although David had read out the plot before we left home, I had some difficulty following much of the adventurous performance, which was not helped by the double vision that appeared through the opera glasses!!. But once back in Moraira I watched a showing by the Royal College of Opera, aided by a complete printout of the words, so was then au faut. Enjoyed a pastry at mama's patisseria in the afternoon, then the wondrous tapas during the Interval, and then breakfast at the same cafe in the morning, After this we walked to the nearby shopping centre, where I bought 2 bikinis and a dress and summer trouser suit

We were really impressed by the towns and the icebergs around Greenland, where we spent about five days. Nook was the only town that I could pronounce . Afte our visit with them went across to Canada and the north west passage. After this we saw very little sea ice: we felt we were probably 5 years too late doing the voyage.

Our first port of call in Canada was Pond inlet. There was a guest lecturer, Leslie, on board who came from here and talking to her was very interesting. Another stop was done at Dundas Harbour where we walked round. It’s a wild Bay and we saw the remains of where the Inuit had once hunted. This was the old Canadian Hudson Bay police hut. The Hudson Bay company have been heavily involved in this region. The inuits were forcibly made to work here and there has recently been an apology by the Canadian government for the treatment of the Inuit.

We then stopped on Beachy Island which is where Sir John Franklin overwintered on his search to find the north-west passage in the 1840s. Three of his crew died and we saw their graves. We did have one lecture on Franklin and his ships, the Erebus and the Terror but we felt Silver Sea could have provided a lot more in this vein and when we we sailed past the site where the Terror has recently been discovered nothing was mentioned at all on our ship.

On David’s birthday we saw a polar bear walking along the shore at Gilliard’s Bay and also had a very nice birthday cake. Also stops at Cambridge Bay and Edinburgh Island and various encounters with Inuit communities which were interesting.

The last week of the 23 day voyage was comparatively uninteresting with only one outing onto land. We disembarked at Noom and took a flight to Anchorage where we had a days sightseeing before flying back via Frankfurt to Alicante.

We were glad we had done this trip but the full price was astronomical ( but we only paid for nine days having 14 days free for having travelled 500 nights with Silver Sea ), but it was still an expensive holiday. Basically the ice had long since melted and the trip would’ve been completely different five years ago. We did enjoy many aspects of it, including good wine tasting but the expedition staff left a lot to be desired and Chloe, the entertainment director being an absolute disaster with her egoism and insistence that everybody had to have a good noisy time.

After this we spent from 20 Oct to Dec 4 in Malta, and really enjoyed walking the Victoria Lines. Joanna came to stay for a few days

And finally to close our action packed 2024 we flew to Fort Lauderdale on 15 Dec, spending 3 nights here before boarding the brand new Silver Ray on its journey via Aruba, Curacao, Cartagena and the Panama Canal to Lima

We were tempted by a very cheap offer to take a holiday on one of Silversea's classic ships, the brand new Silver Ray, and it turned out that there was also bridge aboard for me. We flew to Miami and had a very ppleasant 3 night stay in an apartment in Fort Lauderdale. Then we boarded the oh so sleek, curvy Silver Ray . Here we were delighted to have been upgraded to the Owner's Suite; 3 times the normal size with an immense balcony and even its own Christmas tree. We were also treated to free meals in its speciality, highy surcharged, restaurants. Bound for Lima, the stopping places were Aruba, Curacao, Cartegena and Manta, Ecuador. I was also kept amused by bridge lessons and afternoon torneos on sea days, although I never found a reasonable partner, just the 2 hosts. We also enjoyed 2 wine tastings and the company of the cruise director, Ricky, who gave us a Silversea bear.