Sovereign 25th June 2011 Part 7 (the final one)

Friday 1st July 2011

This is a sea day, which is a great treat, and a late breakfast set the speed for the day – casual and comfortable. We sat on deck to write or read, and noticed the southern mountains of Sardinia. In the Lido we talked and admired the little circular paper discs in red or green, which could be placed on the tables to indicate that we had not finished our meal and did not yet want the plates cleared, thank you, perhaps as we went for coffee, or that we had indeed finished our meal and the plates could be cleared.



Such a simple and clever idea and so useful.

Anyone for rock-climbing?

We enjoyed the lingering hours of our last day on SOVEREIGN, before preparing for the evening’s Gala Dinner with the evitable singing waiters and parade in the Restaurant. We sensed the cooling of the temperatures as we headed overnight back towards Barcelona, but it was still lovely to be on holiday on a ship.

No ships seen today

Saturday 2nd July 2011
Here we are back in Barcelona again, under cloudy grey skies. Various ships were anchored outside the harbour, presumably waiting to be called in to unload their cargo; as we turned into our berth we could see LIBERTY OF THE SEAS and her penguins astern of us, and we could dimly see ARCADIA entering the harbour too.

Dukhan

A picture for Reuben

Wind Surf

Liberty of the Seas and the penguins

Agios Nikolas

Zurbaran

Arcadia

All passengers disembarked quickly and luggage was soon located down in the terminal building hall. We three walked into the city centre by the water and said fond farewells to the one flying home this morning; two of us went for tea/coffee at a favourite café near the water side, to enjoy a drink and watch the world go by. In fact that was not the only thing going by. I was sitting happily drinking my coffee, chatting with my companion who was sitting opposite me at the table. He had just removed his glasses and was cleaning them, when I looked over his shoulder and saw my rucksack being carried past in the arms of a nondescript-looking woman. Thank goodness I was alert, because I managed to shriek at high volume ‘my bag, my bag’ and lunged across a chair to grab my bag. The woman let go of it as I got hold of it, and gave me an impudent half smile-half shrug as she rushed away. Barcelona is certainly noted for its thieves, and I can now vouch for that. I needed another cup of coffee to recover.

After that we headed to the waterside for a harbour tour, and then had to make our respective ways home from Barcelona.

I took the airport bus and then flew home into Gatwick. On the way the pilot announced that we would be flying over the Isle of Wight and then Southampton, and when this happened I was able to stand up in the plane’s aisle and look down on Southampton Water. To my amazement I could see one large cruise ship doing the dog leg turn by the Isle of Wight (must have been about 5.30 p.m.) and another large cruise ship coming down Southampton Water somewhere near Fawley. It was the most incredible sight and I was so thrilled to have seen the ships from not too far above, as we headed in to land at Gatwick. It was only several minutes later that all passengers were asked to sit down and fasten seat belts, so it was excellent timing and I felt very lucky.

Ships seen: Liberty of the Seas, Arcadia, Zurbaran (Acciona), Wind Surf, Dukhan, Neptune Kefalonia, and two cruise ships coming down Southampton Water as seen from an easyJet flight from Barcelona to Gatwick!

The wake

So that was the memorable end to a week’s cruise on Pullmantur’s SOVEREIGN in June, to and from Barcelona in Spain, with an interesting itinerary.