DAY 15 in CARTEGENA pronounced Cartehena in Spanish.

It was only a short walk from the ship into the middle of town.  Spanish cities and towns have the most wonderful architecture.  The shops don’t open until around 9.30 – 10.00am on a Saturday, then of course they close at 1.30pm to 2.00pm for Siesta time until 4.00pm then open again until around 9 or 10pm. They dress with style, even the children and it was so nice to see families out together enjoying a Saturday a morning shop.  The Mercado (Market) as always was most interesting we added some more anchovy stuffed olives to our collection to take home.

A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our son Chris today.  It was so lovely to chat on SKYPE with Chris and our daughter-in-law Donna this morning. Internet technology makes everything so easy.  When I was young it was communication via Postcard or letter only.  Now I’m showing my age…hahaha.

The weather changed mid- afternoon to 30 to 40 knot winds as a low pressure past through Cartegena. As a consequence our departure was delayed from the scheduled 4.30pm until 7.30pm. There were two other ships in port with us, the Sea Dream Yacht again and the Oceania.  The Oceania left before us and when the weather suddenly changed the Pilot couldn’t get off Oceania so she was hovering in the bay waiting for the front to pass so he could get back into his Pilot boat and then hop on to Voyager and take us out to sea. This delay will not change our arrival time into Valencia tomorrow morning. Looking at the chart on the TV we’re currently cruising at 13.7 knots and the wind is at 35miles per hour, 7 Beaufort, South Westerly, and the depth below us is 800metres which seems shallow after what we had across the Atlantic. Once again this ship handles so well and as I sit here in our cabin which is right at the very front of the ship on Deck 9 I can’t feel any movement.

The show tonight was one of the best we’ve seen ever; in fact it was more like a concert.  It was a Beatles Celebration and these guys were ‘The Beatles’.  They all had the Beatle moves, the hair, the talk and the sound.  If I closed my eyes I would have thought I was listening to the actual Beatles.  Everyone was singing and dancing in the aisles.  Having grown up in the Beatles era Roy and I could remember the words to every song. Of course they did an encore and got a standing ovation too. A great night. J

I must apologise if I have repeated anything along the way in my blog.  Sometimes I can’t remember if I mentioned something so I just tell you again anyway….  That’s what happens when you slip in ‘cruise mode’.  We don’t have a clue what’s going on in the rest of the world as we’ve not had time to watch FOX or CNN.  All that we know is the ships time and the ‘City of Voyager of the Seas’ is happy and rocking….not literally…lol  J

More tomorrow from Valencia….. Who would like and Orange?