Jan 30th 2010
Greetings from Queen Mary 2!
We are presently in the south Arabian Sea heading for Cochin, India where we are due to arrive early tomorrow morning. Today the sea is like glass, hardly a ripple, except for the flying fish, as we glide smoothly along. We now have bright hot sun making it almost too hot to enjoy our balconies!
What a contract to a month ago when we sailed out of New York in below freezing temperatures and snow flurries! Similar weather was to greet us in a cold, grey, ice and snow covered England after a surprisingly calm Transatlantic crossing.
Our next port of call – Lisbon, Portugal greeted us with torrential rain and driving wind after heavy seas in the Bay of Biscay. Of course we felt very little movemwent on the Magnificient Mary as she is fondly known by us many time Cunard World cruisers.
The first couple of weeks of cold wet weather was of little importance as we unpacked for our nearly 4 month voyage ahead, reaquainted ourselves with the layout of this large ocean going Liner but most importantly renewed friendships made over the many years we have cruised the world together with both guests and crew. Catching up with news of the past year – so very special especially for a “people person” like me.
Most enjoyed the excursions into Rome on a perfect sightseeing day – cool but sunny.
Excitement followed as we entered the Suez Canal and enjoyed our excursions to Cairo, Egypt to visit the Pyramids and other antiquities. Plus of course the fun of bartering in the bazaars!
Then to Safaga for excursions to Luxor (or for me a day on the beach) having visited Luxor and the Valley of the Kings whilst on the Queen Victoria world cruise last year.
We then negotiated the Yemen coast accompanied by the international task force “pirate patrol” with ships from US, Turkey, Japan and Saudi Arabia without incident. I think some were secretly hoping a Johnny Depp look- alike would arrive!
Muscat, Oman was an absolute delight. I had previously visited but only stayed around the port area. This time we toured inland to visit a medieaval fortress and enjoyed a delicious lunch at a beautiful hotel. We were especially lucky as our guide was a charming, polite and knowledgeable young gentleman. I highly recommend a visit to Oman – voted the second cleanest city in the world after Singapore!
Then it was Dubai with near perfect weather. I personally enjoyed a lunch invitation to the famous Burj Al Arab hotel. We were of course able to see the newly opened tallest building in the world and we berthed next to our beloved QE2. I understand it still has a compliment of 38 on board. The chief engineer visited the QM2 chief (a long time friend) so I was hoping to get some inside info of what will happen to our all time favourite ship but to no avail. I understand the decision to keep or scrap her will be made within the next month.
After our visit to India we start our travels around the Pacific Rim – come back soon for more updates.
Deirdre
On board hostess for Cruise Specialists..
