Cruise to the Mediterranean

25^th September - 9^th October 2021

Itinerary: Southampton - Vigo - Málaga - Alicante - Barcelona - Valencia - Cádiz - Lisbon - Southampton

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My first cruise since February 2020!

25 September. Southampton, England. My boarding time was 12:00, but it was a bit of a misnomer as that was actually my testing time at a different terminal. As Britannia was also testing there, it took me just about an hour to get through it and drive to the proper terminal. It took about another half hour to get on board. You now have to book things like the shows on an 'app' (a web page really). So I sat in the Glasshouse, where Olly Smith was eating, and managed to book the three restaurants I wanted. Then I explored the ship. After dinner watched the sail away and then went to Brodies for the quiz. Didn't do too well. They don't do the syndicate quiz on Iona. This was Iona's maiden international voyage.

28 September. Vigo, Spain. A short trip today and my first shore excursion in 19 months. First stop was to see a small church called Nuestra Señora de la Guia (Our Lady of the Guide), perched high on a hill overlooking Vigo Bay. I could see Iona overshadowing Tui Explorer alongside. Then we drove to Bayona, where we had a quick look at the Fortaleza Monterreal and had a coffee and snacks at the Parador built inside the fort. It's a working harbour and some small fishing boats were coming back with their catches for the local fish market. A lot of the produce will be in the restaurants this evening. In the harbour was a replica on La Pinta, one of Columbus' ships and the first to arrive in Europe with the news of America. She's really tiny. A quick walk round the town and back on the bus and home. The town was reminiscent of Cádiz, narrow, winding streets and no views of the sea, to protect the town from the Atlantic waves and winds. When we left Vigo, we had one of the little boats spraying water.

30 September. Málaga, Spain. A new port for me. Mein Schiff 3 was also in port. Today's trip was to the Alhambra in Granada. It's a near 2 hour drive to Granada. In the Alhambra, we first visited the Generalife gardens. Lots of water features, tall hedges with arches cut into them and many sweet smelling plants, roses, jasmine etc. Then we went into the Generalife Palace. Lots of ornate carvings and fancy geometric tiles on the walls. The only other remaining palace of 8 original ones is the Mohammed V Palace. This was very similar but with a fountain surrounded by lions in the central courtyard. There was also a ceiling painting with human figures. Both are very rare as Islam now forbids depictions of people and animals. Lunch was salad, paella, pork, chips and vegetables and ice cream. I missed the latter as I went outside to WhatsApp Javon. We were then delayed as a woman had managed to detach herself from our party and our guide had to find her. She (and he) both missed lunch. We finally left the Alhambra at 15:10 instead of 14:30. We were the last tour back and the ship left half an late. An enjoyable day.

01 October. Alicante, Spain. According to our tour guide, we're the largest cruise ship to visit the port. My trip today was to Guadalest, a small village in the foothills close(ish) to Benidorm. It's a tiny, hilly place and the get to the old village from the new, you have to walk through a small tunnel that was cut by hand through the rocks. Inside are a few houses, a church and a ruined fort with spectacular views. To get to the castle, you have to go through a house called Casa Orduña or the House of the Nobles. It's full of little rooms and lots of stairs. Then there are a whole load more stairs to get to the castle. After that we had some time to wander round the village before returning to the ship.

02 October. Barcelona, Spain. MSC Grandiosa and a Costa ship were also in. A slightly disappointing trip to Tarragona today. On the way to the town, we stopped at a Roman aqueduct. Centuries after it was built, no one knew who constructed it, so they called it El Pont Del Diablo, the Devil's Bridge, because they thought he'd built it! When we got to Tarragona, the oldest Roman city in Spain, we walked past some of the old walls to Tarragona Basilica Cathedral. We spent a long time inside, then ended up in the main square and were given free time for a hour. So I wandered down to look at the ruins of the Roman Circus and then further down to have a peep at the amphitheatre before returning to the main square for a sandwich and coffee and a quick WhatsApp call to Javon. I was expecting to see way more Roman stuff.

03 October. Valencia, Spain. I'd originally had a tour booked today, but decided to cancel and do it on my own. According to the ship's newsletter, it was a 70 minute shuttle bus rise into town. It was actually around 20! Today was the day of the Valencia marathon, so things were all over the place and we were dropped off seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It was a 10/15 minute walk to the main plaza. There was an awful lot of road construction going on. I walked past Església de Sant Joan del Mercat (the Central Market) and La Lonja de la Seda to the main square, Plaça de l'Ajuntament. Then to the cathedral past more roadworks. As it was a Sunday, a service was in progress. I then just strolled about a bit, past a large, noisy demonstration outside the bullring,and past various shops on various streets. I had lunch in the Hard Rock Cafe, my number 46 and then I ambled back to the shuttle stop and was back on board around 15:00.

04 October. At Sea. We'd been informed that to leave the ship in Lisbon we needed a negative COVID test and that we weren't allowed to get off unless on an organised tour. P&O organised the test and kindly charged me £18 for the privilege! (But I did get the Peninsular Club discount!

05 October. Cádiz, Spain. I'd cancelled today's tour, so I just got off the ship, completed my Passenger Locator form to get back in to the UK, then I wandered around the narrow streets getting lost. I stumbled across the indoor market. Fruits and vegetables, but mostly fish and seafood. I had a cup of coffee in the Cathedral Square and made my way back to the ship. Sat on my bed was my negative COVID test from yesterday. While I'd been out three other ships had arrived, Celebrity Sillhouette, AidaStella and Europa 2. Across the way from my cabin was Carnival Radiance and another Carnival ship and also Radiance of the Seas and another Royal Caribbean ship. As Cádiz is also a shipyard I think they were probably in for maintenance or upgrades.

06 October. Lisbon, Portugal. MSC Virtuosa was docked next to us. You can only leave the ship in Portugal on a ship's tour and luckily, the first tour I booked for this cruise was Water Trails. This was a visit to the Aqua Livre aqueduct, which was built over 200 years ago to provide water for Lisbon. Both it's inhabitants and fountains were supplied. We walked along the north side of the aqueduct, 65 metres above the valley floor with great views over Lisbon. Then we crossed over to the south side. Inside were two shallow, narrow channels separated by a wide(ish) walkway. They're now dry. Some of the aqueduct's arches are rounded and others pointed. The pointed ones are stronger. Then we went to the cistern where the water arrived in Lisbon, before walking 400 metres underground, where the pipes and channels run, back outside, past the funicular and home.