Melsea's Adventures of first Part 6...

#1

Ravenna, Italy. 27th Oct.
Last day of our cruise. Woke up to a very foggy start to the day, now where did that come from!!! Well I do know but it's a bit technical. Cold air meets hot = fog etc etc.....

When we booked this trip we were originally going to be in Venice today and then stay overnight on board. At no time has this ever been acknowledged by Cunard or by the travel agent that we booked the trip with. I did my own research and found bizarrely that Venice was hold a Marathon. I guess it wasn't going to be ideal to be in Venice at this time.

So onto our final port, Ravenna apparently is famous for its Mosaic aspects of its architecture. In the daily programme the mention of shuttle buses told us that the transfer to the town itself would be 40 minutes. I didn't fancy doing that and so stayed local. I had seen from the ship that there was a beach close by and there were horses being ridden on the beach and right next to that was what looked like a small road going out to sea, you could not see the end of it so did not know where it was going. Not sure what time I left the ship but I asked a local how do I get to the beach area and he said I had to walk out a bit then turn right and back in again. There is absolutely nothing here to see but I continued to make my way to the beach which took about 20 minutes by the time I worked out how to get to the beach. It was a little bit cold but I was dressed in layers so as and when the sun comes out I could take things off. As I approached the beach I saw more horses being taken out onto the beach, it was an amazing sight and even more so when they went into the shallow water. I took lots of photos especially when I saw a lady coaching a very young foal to go into the water, obviously they train horses here too. It was a lovely sight also, and yes more photos taken. I then walked along the beach for a bit which went an awfully long way. From what I could see there seems to be more activity further along the beach but it was far too far to walk. Making my way back towards the ship I then set my sights on the piece of 'road' I could see from the ship and was at the side of the beach. I started to take a walk along it thinking I could just walk to end in no time. It became apparent while walking this path that it was a lot further than I had originally thought and that those men & women riding their bicycles with fishing gear were the wise one and it really is a long way out to see. The Queen Elizabeth was looking rather small in the distance and in fact the early mist & fog had all but gone and was replaced with shine. Being so far out to sea it was still a little chilly. Along this stretch there were a good number of people fishing, the fishing genre was not confined to just men but it seems it was a family affair, there were at least two families that consisted of two young children dressed warmly watch their father and with their own fishing rods, while mother provided the drinks and food. All very typical of an Italian family. On my way back I stopped a lady and asked her in my sketch Italian/Spanish, they are both similar to converse in, I asked her was it typical for people to come down here on a Sunday, she said but many come all week as well. Many of these people had caught a lot of fish and before going anywhere they would descale the fish, if you don't this before you go home the scale that comes of the fish will get everywhere and it's very difficult to get rid of. My return trip of my walk was an hour and boy it was a walk, when I was more than half way I thought do I really want to go on but then I became determined to get to the end, glad I did. On one side of this pier there were two bizarre structures which were perched over the sea, and attached to these structures were very large nets which were lowered down into the sea and then after a certain time they were raised again, weights were used to do this. It was quite amazing to watch. Have say though nothing was caught in the nets throughout my walk. I found out later that the nest are used to catch eels.
When I got back to the beach I saw more horse riders just about go on their trek up the beach. Once I got back to the ship I nearly got onto the shuttle bus and go into Ravenna itself as I still had time but my walk coupled with lots of sea air knocked me out. So I just made my way back on ship and anyway I had to find time to pack as I usually have at least a sea day to do this. So what does a girl do when she gets back on board, well in my case find my lovely husband and go for our last afternoon tea in the Queens Room. We don't usually have afternoon but on this cruise we made an exception and Bill just loved the experience. I cannot recall ever having had AT on P&O. I very much enjoyed the experience and for some reason the head waiter of the AT seemed to take a shine to us and we were always greeted with a big smile and made a fuss of us. We got to know a few of the waiters and one in particular who came from Dubrovnik and so when we saw him we asked how his shore leave went, he said very well, saw his family and managed to get some sleep uninterrupted in his own bed! what a thing to have to do on your day off sleep. I don't blame him because everyone works so hard and many of these crew work in more than one or two areas on the ship. In his case he works in the buffet, the Queens Room for AT and in the MDR in the evening!
I managed to finish my packing, Bill had done his while I was on shore. This night before we went to dinner we had a drink in one of the bars, haven't a clue which one it was but it was a fitting end to our fabulous cruise. It was at dinner that I learnt that the shuttle transfer was actually 20 minutes and not the 40 mins that was advertised so I checked the Daily programme later and it definitely said 40 mins transfer. Who knows what happened there. The last evening was lovely with our table companions and we exchanged all our highs of the cruise as there were no down ones.
I went to the last show in the theatre which was a Variety Show. It featured the Royal Cunard Singers & Dancers, the comedian on the piano 'Jon Courtenay' and another comedian Jeff Stevenson, both of whom I did not see before. I have to say the whole show was brilliant the Cunard Singers & Dancers were just great, they really looked as though they were thoroughly enjoying themselves as this showed in their performance. The two comedians, well where have they been hiding they were both extremely funny, I had tears down my face from laughing so much. Very enjoyable last show.
And so this fabulous cruise comes to end but not the end of our trip as a whole. There were two days in Venice to looking forward to and then finally the journey home on the iconic Venice Simplon Orient Express.

28th Oct Venice, Italy Disembarkation Day
A little misty and dry thank goodness

We got up early as we had to be out of our cabins and prepared to disembark. We went to the buffet restaurant where we had a good breakfast. Our disembarkation ticket was for 9am. We nearly missed our slot but we managed to get off very quickly and then it was time to find our luggage and the usual great organisational skills of the Italian it was a mini chaos and useless direction of where your luggage would be. We did find it but not where it should be. As our trip was organised by a travel company that specialised in this type of holiday we had to find the rep to tell us what to do next. Just outside the terminal we find the rep who said look for the trolley car that had the name of the hotel we were staying, put your bags on it and wait until you are called to be taken there. Think we waited for about half an hour when suddenly by chance we heard someone to follow them, this we did in fact quite a group of us followed. We were walked to where you catch the water taxi boats. As there were more than two ships in town the area of getting onto a taxi boat meant it wasn't going to be quick. Eventually we got on our way on a small taxi and we had good journey to our hotel. Our hotel was on the island that faces St Marks Square, the Bauer Hotel. There are three branches of this hotel one where we staying and the other two are not far from the main square facing the canal. Like many buildings in Venice they don't look very glam but when we entered into the hotel it was very old Italian of the Venetian style. All you may expect of a place in Venice. We have both been to Venice before but not together so this was another first for us.
I have got to say arriving at ones own hotel jetty is quite something to do. When we were settled in and went to our room which was a lovely ornate one and looked over the gardens of the hotel. We went to the gardens where we had tea and the sun was shining lively warm rays on us. We then went for a little walk nearby to the hotel we found on the other side of this island the open sea expanse and it was absolutely still but it was still misty whereas where we had just come from it was sunny. From our hotel front we had the most amazing view, looking across to St.Marks square, it doesn't get any better than that. We went back to the hotel to freshen up after a little nap we were actually really tired. All nice and refreshed we headed out for the evening to explore this beautiful city. Using the free hotel taxi to get across to the main area we headed out just as a massive ship was leaving town, we got across just in time even though the ship was looming a little too big in our frame, phew.. The atmosphere in Venice was really good and very busy. In St.Marks three cafés had an Orchestra playing, needless to say we did not stop for a drink. Instead we walked along the front and ambled down on of the many alley ways and found a lovely little cafe where we ate for next to nothing. The very long day was coming to an end and we were flagging so back to the Bauer Hotel on this side to catch the hotel taxi back to our Hotel.

Well done for getting to the end, I got carried away, apologises.

#2

I have finally found the time to read your Part 6 melsea. Thank you entertaining as always.

#3

Thank you melsea. Well worth reading. Will you be telling us about your journey on the Orient Express...................? (please!!)

#4

Thanks melsea, I always enjoy reading your blog posts

#5

Thank you very much.

OBF, I shall be reporting my Orient Express soon. It's been a busy couple of weeks so I am a bit delayed in that one.

Happy New Year to you all.

#6

I've at last read all your reports Mel and thoroughly enjoyed them all - like Foxy I'm looking forward to hearing about your Orient Express excursion

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