At Sea - 4th - 6th April 2009

Three days at sea after Barcelona. These were days for us to catch up on rest after three hectic days ashore. Not only to catch up on rest, but to get the laundry done, finish reading some books, organise photos and write for the blog.
Saturday and Sunday nights were both formal dress, with Monday night being elegant casual, so we needed to decide where we would eat each night to determine what we would wear, and also decide on what entertainment we would attend.
The weather was much cooler than we expected, which meant finding something warmer to wear, which was difficult when it came to the formal clothes, but we managed.
During Saturday afternoon, around 5.30pm, we passed close to Gibralter, so we went up on deck to try to get some photos and watch the scenery. Like everywhere else in the vicinity of Africa – Gibralter was shrouded in a misty cloud of dust from the desert which made taking photos difficult. As we passed through the Strait of Gibralter we had a navy escort of 2 ships once again, not for protection this time – only because they were in the vicinity. After passing through the Strait, we followed the coast of Portugal in a north westerly direction – we were now in the Atlantic Ocean.
Sunday 5th April was pretty similar to Saturday. We went to a few trivia quizzes in the Golden Lion Pub, but didn’t do too well in these, the questions are really geared to the Europeans on board. Deb and I went to a Classical Guitar concert in the afternoon. The guitarist was Carlos Bonnel, who played absolutely magnificently.
There was also a fund raising Charity Fair in the Queens Room which had been organised by volunteers and staff. Deb and I had a browse but we didn’t buy anything or participate in any of the competitions as we are limited by the space in our suitcases.
There was an instrumentalist and a comedian scheduled for the show in the Royal Court Theatre at 8.45pm and 10.30pm so we skipped our late dinner in the Britannia Restaurant and ate in the Kings Court buffet so that we could hear them and the 8.45pm show. Once again the performers were fantastic and very entertaining, and Deb and I were in stitches with the comedian who was very funny.
Monday was another lazy day. It was raining and windy on deck so Deb and I went to the indoor pool on Deck 12 for exercises and some time in the hot tub before breakfast. Deb’s right shoulder has been bothering her a bit, so the exercise and hot tub helped a little.
After breakfast we went to the laundrette to do our washing prior to leaving the ship in Southampton. Lucky for us there were 2 machines available, so we got all our clothes washed and dried fairly quickly.
After that we read our books and lazed around. At 2.30pm there was a guest talent show “In the Limelight” in the Theatre. The concert was quite short as there were only four performers how volunteered to perform, and they were quite good.
After that we returned to the cabin, and started sorting the clothes and working out what we would need for the UK.
We managed to get everything back into the cases thank goodness, and after that went to the 7.00pm concert in the Theatre to hear a saxophonist – Craig Richard who was very good.
After the show it was time for dinner in the Britannia Restaurant. Our waiters, Renata and Rommel were on hand as usual, and before we left the restaurant gave us a stack of copies of all the menus from when the ship left Dubai. This was great, but we won’t be able to bring all of them home as they weigh too much.
After dinner it was back to the cabin to send an email to the taxi company that is sending a car for us in Southampton, in order to give them updated information about where and when the QM2 will be docking, because it is not the usual place.
We have been issued with out luggage labels for disembarkation, and there will be instructions on the TV from midday Tuesday about the procedure.