Well, we booked it

As I said, I'm calling this my retirement cruise, although I still don't really have any definite plans about when I'll retire.
So, we'll make our way to London in mid-October 2018, and will spend a few days, maybe a week, in England.  Not sure exactly where - that can be decided later - but we'll definitely find our way to Southampton by 20 October.  Next day we hop aboard the Sapphire Princess for a 38 day cruise to Singapore, and from there we'll come home.  We might stay a few days in Singapore too, although if I still haven't retired I might be pushing the limits of my available leave by the time we get there  :-)
The cruise stops in only three places we have seen before, the rest are new to us.  Also there are a lot of lovely relaxing sea days. It's actually quite similar to a cruise we were going to do this year on the Emerald Princess, although with more ports in Europe and less in Asia than the Emerald Princess one.
So, these are the ports we stop at:

• Le Havre - from here you can go to Paris but I expect we might do a tour of the Normandy beaches
• Lisbon, Gibraltar, Barcelona and Toulon - no ideas yet about what we might do in these places, but no doubt there will be far more possibilities in every place than we could possibly get through in the one day we spend in each place!
• Livorno - I'll be going to Florence to see the Duomo, no idea what else we'll do though
• Rome - one of the few places we have seen before - we spent a few days in Rome earlier this year.  Still thousands of sights we haven't seen, but a shore excursion isn't really the best way to see Rome.  
• Naples - our cruise earlier this year stopped in Naples, but we went out of the city to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.  Plenty of things to see in Naples itself, and of course there's also the Amalfi Coast and Capri
• Valletta in Malta - I already have our sightseeing in Valletta worked out - we were meant to go there on our cruise earlier this year, but they disappointingly dropped Valletta from the itinerary after the cruise started.  Lots of things to see within walking distance of the port, and we'll almost certainly stick to those plans, just two years later!
• Athens - interesting one, we were underwhelmed with Athens and even though we know it was mostly the tour we took, it isn't a city that leaps out as somewhere we want to go back to.  
• Rhodes - more research needed here too
• Aqaba - the only place to go from here, for me anyway, is Petra.  Missing Petra was the real disappointment when we cancelled the Emerald Princess cruise, so I'm really pleased to get another chance so go there.
• Dubai - nothing particularly thrills me about Dubai except the chance to get to the top of the world's tallest building!
• Cochin, Colombo and Kuala Lumpur - three more places that I have no real idea about yet.

Anyone who talks to me about travel knows that I enjoy the researching and planning almost as much as the trip, and this one will involve heaps of enjoyment for me!

 

Retirement cruise!

Of course, this is a retirement cruise for Sandy, since Paul has already joined the forces of the happily retired.  I don't have any formal plans to retire yet, although I doubt that I'll manage more than two or three more years at my job, it's getting more and more frustrating - either that or I'm becoming more and more a crabby old lady :-)
In any case, I haven't had any trouble coming up with plans for a retirement cruise.  It's not on sale yet, but will be in a couple of days time.  It's similar to one we were going to do on the Emerald Princess this year - it's in October / November 2018, sailing from Southampton to Singapore via the Mediterranean and Suez Canal.   We'd spend a week or so in England before-hand of course.
The cruise itself ticks off a number of bucket list items - to be honest, more than the Emerald Princess one would have.  Among others there's Gibraltar which Paul is keen to see, Florence which I'm keen to see, Valletta which we were both really disappointed when it was dropped from our Mediterranean cruise back in September.
I'll no doubt rave some more about it if we really decide to book - apparently bookings open at 3am our time (!!) on Friday, so watch this space for news!
Oh, and just in case any of my workmates are reading this - I don't really plan to retire just because I'm taking a retirement cruise, I suspect I'll still work for a while after this one.  I just want to do this cruise while I'm still young enough to enjoy it!

UK and Med Cruise - a summary

Probably our least successful holiday in some ways, for a few reasons - I was sick to some extent for almost the entire time and Paul for some of it, and we didn't get to some of the places we were really looking forward to on the cruise (Turkey and Malta).
However, regardless of those things, we did enjoy ourselves.  Most things went mostly as planned, we saw lots of new places, and I met a long-lost cousin who turns out to be a lovely person!
So, overall we're still calling this one a success, and I'm now starting to think about the next one. Of course!

UK and Med Cruise - the long trek home - 11, 12, 13, 14 October

11 October
Finished the last bit of packing and checked out of the apartment.  Overall, it was a good place to stay, although I do plan to email the management (since they invited me to) with some suggestions about things that could be made to work a little better.
We walked around to the station and picked up the tickets - no trouble with the tickets or the train.  Same as last time, if you can pre-plan the exact train you want to travel on, it's really cheap - we travelled on an advance First Class fare for 34 pounds, but if you just rocked up that morning to travel on that train to London, even a standard class fare was significantly dearer than that.
Arrived at St Pancras station and got a taxi to Paddington - as usual the traffic was outrageous but I don't like taking suitcases on the tube and it is really too far to walk.
We booked our suitcases into the left luggage place.  We've used them before and I think they're even more expensive than they were last time, however we had a few hours to spend - this was about 2pm and our flight didn't leave until 10pm.  And no way did we want to spend that time dragging around suitcases and backpacks.  Once that we done we got onto the tube and went to the British Museum.  We knew that there were two things we had missed last time that we definitely wanted to see - the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles.  Found them, and spend a suitable amount of time admiring them.  Interesting to see the British Museum 'side' of the argument over the marbles, which of course is a little different from the perspective we heard in Greece.
We also looked around at a few other displays, then went back and rescued our luggage and got onto the Heathrow Express.
Once we got to Heathrow we did all the usual things - check in, drop off the bags, through security.  I must say I'm really turning into a cranky old lady; by the time we got through security I had mumbled under my breath at least 10 times about people who think that rules and processes are for other people - you know, the sort who wants to carry four heavy bags onto the plane, or who wants to check five suitcases for free when they're travelling economy.
Found a nice restaurant once we got into the terminal, and had some dinner.
Heathrow still has their process in place where they don't tell you what Gate you're leaving from until a few minutes before boarding is due.  However, Singapore Airlines told us which gate we were leaving from at the point where we checked in.  Very strange.
We boarded on time, although I have given up on any hope of Singapore Airlines actually following their own boarding processes.  Every flight so far, they have started boarding economy by calling one of the boarding groups (never ours) but have then simply allowed a free-for-all.
The take off was delayed because of problems with loading some of the cargo; a 4 ton cargo bin got stuck and they had to use a fork lift to move it.  Eventually though we got underway.
The A380 has a three-four-three seating pattern, and we were in the middle.  Fortunately the seat beside me was not occupied, so the man in the other seat and I used the spare to store jumpers, pillows etc.  Overall it was a fairly comfortable flight, at least as far as a 12+ hour economy flight can be!

12 October
The early part of the day was spent flying from London - we arrived in Singapore around 6pm.  Checked into the transit hotel, had some dinner, and crashed.  I had some trouble sleeping, but just the ability to lie down for hours was really welcome after that long flight.

13 October
Up out of bed a little before 5am, had some breakfast and went off to check in to the next flight.  Because of Singapore Airlines messing us around before the holiday, this wasn't an A380, it was a 777 and it was showing its age just a bit - for example, the screen for my entertainment system wasn't working properly.  I didn't make a fuss; they weren't going to be able to fix it and more importantly, I hadn't been able to find anything of real interest on the earlier flight so I spent most of the time reading / snoozing.
Arrived in Sydney pretty much on time at around 6pm.  There was a problem with the automated entry check machines, so we all had to be seen and have our passports checked by a human, which slowed things down somewhat.  However, we escaped eventually, got our luggage and then caught a train into the city.  We stayed overnight at the Metro Hotel Marlow which is quite close to Central Station.  Their restaurant provides room service but not your usual stuff, this was all Chinese and Thai food - really nice actually. Good hotel although not cheap, but very convenient if you're travelling on the train; I'd certainly stay there again.


14 October
Another early start as we were booked on the 7:05am train home to Canberra.  We had both reorganised our luggage to put more in our suitcases and then got completely caught out by the fact that checked luggage has a 20kg maximum weight and they don't allow any exceptions.  We could have just taken the luggage onto the train and put it into the luggage area in the carriage but we just wanted to be rid of them for a while.
Neither of us had travelled on this train before.  Overall it wasn't too bad - very slow compared to English trains, and certainly slower than flying or driving or getting the bus.  However, it was a relaxing easy way to travel and I'd certainly do it again if the timing was right.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 35 and 36 - 9 and 10 October - Nottingham

Two fairly quiet days - lots of lazing around and gathering strength for the long haul home.
We did take some time to do our usual "post some stuff home" - mostly souvenirs but also some books and other bits and pieces that we didn't want to have to deal with in our luggage.  This actually went quite well; the Post Office now has self service machines that you can use even for overseas parcels, and it was all quite easy (although no cheaper than before!).

UK and Med Cruise - Day 34 - 8 October - Newark and Lincoln

We weren't quite sure how far we wanted to go today, so we started by buying a return to Newark.  This is a place I had never heard of before a week or so ago, but the attraction here was the relatively recently built National Civil War Centre.  It's a really interesting place, built around an old Tudor building which was more recently used as a school.  One floor is still an old dormitory level from the school:

The Civil War display was just outstanding; we could have spent hours more there just looking through the displays.  There was also an adjunct display about medicine and surgery at the time of the Civil War, plus other displays about the history of the area including an ancient torc found in the area a little over 10 years ago.

We also had a look at the outside of Newark Castle, but didn't go inside.

I'd really like to go back to Newark, it's an attractive place - there was a street market happening while we were there, and lots of interesting little stores and buildings.  In fact, I spent some time looking in the windows at Real Estate agents, coming to the surprising conclusion that we'd actually be able to afford to buy an apartment and live here for a while.  I doubt that we'll be up to making such an extreme move at our ages, but the place really did reach out to me in a place that few others have.

We decided that we still had enough energy to go on to Lincoln, so, back to the train station again.  When we got to the High Street to make our way to the Cathedral and Castle, we discovered that many many other people had the same idea; it was really crowded.

We found a little restaurant to have a surprisingly nice lunch, then headed off to find the Castle and Cathedral.  Then we discovered to our horror that really the only way to get there from where we were was by walking up the Steep Hill

They're not lying - what you're seeing here is the not so steep part:

However, we finally made it to the top, and it was really impressive.  We decided not to go into the Cathedral, but we did pay to go into the castle.
First we saw the old Victorian prison, and then the Magna Carta copy.  The last thing we did though was to walk around the castle walls.  This is about half a kilometer around, with an unfortunate number of steps up and down - at this stage we were hoping not to have too many more stairs!.  However, the views were just astounding.
This is the Cathedral as seen from the castle walls:

You can see from this just how high up and amazingly imposing the castle and cathedral would have appeared to everyone for miles around:

Remains of the old Norman Motte:

The old and the new - if you click to see the big version of the picture you can see and old windmill but also multiple modern power stations:

And, finally, again, Paul and a gun,outside the castle walls:

Once we left the Castle - it was about to close for the day - we staggered back down the Steep Hill and got the train back to Nottingham.  We were so tired that we caught a tram one whole stop from Nottingham Station to save ourselves from having to walk up the hill to get to our apartment!

UK and Med Cruise - Day 33 - 7 October - Wellingborough

Today I caught the train to Wellingborough to meet my cousin Betty and her husband David.
I had a lovely time; we confirmed absolutely that we are cousins (although the formal documentation was clearly already showing this, Betty had copies of old family photos that confirmed it even more certainly).  We spent quite a few hours talking, both at Betty's place and over lunch at a lovely pub.
I had a bit of a drama on the way to Wellingborough - they cancelled my train.  However, the train back to Nottingham appeared as expected, so that's all good.
Paul came to the station to meet me, and on the way home we decided to have dinner.  I'd had a big lunch but we went to a pizza place and I had a really nice, light pizza, which I liked enough to actually post a picture on Facebook (which is quite unlike me).

UK and Med Cruise - Day 32 - 6 October - Nottingham

Today we stayed around Nottingham again.
We learned to use the local trams by taking a trip to the Goose Fair - think Sideshow Alley from the Ekka.  It was pretty quiet when we were there, it's a school day and we deliberately went before the crowds started to arrive.  I suspect that on the weekend it will be packed solid!
It has all the usual sideshow things - rides and places to win so-called prizes.  Many of the same old foodstuffs that you'd see at the Ekka too - burgers, hot dogs, fairy floss.  However, some things you'd never see at the Ekka - you can buy 'chips and curry' (chips with curry sauce instead of gravy), and also peas - just a container of mushy peas.  (I don't think I've had a meal here where peas weren't on offer!). And doughnuts, but none of this pre-cooked stuff- they cook them on the spot.  One of the doughnut places offered their doughnuts as 'with or without Nutella'.  I think Nutella and peas are actual food groups here:-)
We went for a ride on the Ferris Wheel:

Then, back to the city for lunch, at the Handmade Burger Co - again, really nice food.
That's all for today, just a quiet day mostly.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 31 - 5 October - Leicester

Day trip to Leicester today.  Half an hour on a nice comfortable train.
Not precisely warm outside though - the forecast was 15 degrees and no rain, but it was windy and always seemed to be on the verge of rain, so overall quite cool.
First stop was the King Richard III Visitor's Centre.  This is built right beside and over the place where they found his body again in 2012.  There are displays firstly about his life and his reign, and then about his death, and about the rediscovery of his body, and finally you can see the place where they found his body.  It's a fascinating story.  They have volunteers on site to answer questions and give talks, and one of them explained and showed us a fair bit of the detail.
There's a statue of Richard outside the visitor centre, with fresh white roses left at his feet just recently.

Next we went to the Cathedral, just a look from the outside:

Close by is the Guildhall, an ancient building including lots of explanations of its history.

Then, on to the Jewry Wall and Museum which despite its name has nothing to do with the Jewish people - they think that despite the spelling, the original meaning was actually 'jury'.  Regardless of that, the wall is actually the remains of a Roman bath house - one of the tallest remaining pieces of Roman masonry in England.  Some of the other walls also remain, but only in the bases of them in the way that's more common for Roman ruins:

We then went into the associated museum which has lots of displays and artifacts from the Roman and Saxon times.  Unfortunately it also contained many, many school children doing planned lessons, so we didn't spend an awfully long time there.
Final stop was at the Newark House Museum - this is a nicely done museum about various aspects of Leicester history, but the main reason we went was to see the small but moving World War I display.
And of course, we took an opportunity here to take a photo of Paul with a gun:

This is actually one of two that were brought back from Sebastopol.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 30 - 4 October - Nottingham

Today we looked at some sights around the city.  We started off at the castle - which of course mostly isn't there any more - but the duke of the day some time in the 17th century built a huge house on the site.  This is mostly still there, and it now contains an interesting museum.  Lucky for us, as well as all the normal displays, they currently have a display of 10 drawings done by Leonardo da Vinci, including detailed explanations of when/ how / why they were done.  Overall we spent quite some time here.
Next we went to "Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem" for lunch.  This is a really old pub beside the castle - it claims to be the oldest inn in England, but so do quite a few others.
Finished off the afternoon with a walk down by the canal, and then back to the apartment for dinner.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 29 - 3 October - Nottingham

After the interesting times we have had with the Skybus, I thought about paying an exorbitant amount of money for a taxi into Nottingham, but we took the risk with the Skybus again.  Nowhere near as 'interesting' this time - the bus was again one where the luggage should be stored below and this time the driver actually agreed to put it there, and he didn't run into anyone - basically we had a completely acceptable bus trip.
We then waited around Nottingham until it was time to check into our home for the next week or so, annoying a taxi driver when we did so - the fare was only £3.20; I suspect that he had been waiting for a long time and was hoping for a slightly more impressive fare once he finally got a passenger!
The apartments at Premier Suites are really good for the price, just over $1,000 (Australian) for eight nights accommodation, and for this we get a large one bedroom apartment kitted out with all the amenities you'd want, within easy walking distance of the city including the railway and tram stations.  The kitchen is the main thing; it means we don't have to eat out for every meal.  Also, there's a washing machine and dryer, so we can (in theory) wash some clothes rather than taking them to a launderette.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 28 - 2 October - East Midlands Airport

Same as yesterday except the only time I left the hotel was for a short walk up to the airport.  Tomorrow it's back to Nottingham where we've decided to stay for the remainder of the trip.  We're getting too old for holidays this long and this far from home, I think!

UK and Med Cruise - Day 27 - 1 October - East Midlands Airport

Paul was off to his convention today.  I wanted a quiet day, but I did catch a bus into Nottingham just for a little while.  Apart from that, a nothing day, I really need the rest.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 26 - 30 September - travel to Nottingham

Three steps to this trip - South Eastern Trains service to London, then an East Midlands Trains service to Nottingham, followed by a Skybus Express trip to the hotel where we're staying near the airport.
I was a bit concerned about the first trip - last time we did a similar journey we had a bit of a drama, jam packed onto a train that was far too small for the number of people trying to use it. After that experience I decided it might be safer to go earlier this time, and to compete with the commuters instead of with the off-peak travellers, and it worked out far better, we even got a seat!
Unfortunately though, the trip to Nottingham was marred by having allocated seating opposite a young lady who kept on putting on more and more makeup; by the time we got to Nottingham both of us were ill from the smell.  And she walked past me three times!! while we were getting off the station, even though we tried to avoid her.
And, the bus trip out to the airport was just bizarre.  I have since worked out what the deal is, but at the time I could not tell which of the "Skylink" services that were leaving the depot at the same time was the one we wanted.  And, the driver was completely rude:

• he told us that the bus only stops at the hotels at the airport "on request" as though he had to go out of our way, which it turns out is completely not true
• he made us carry our suitcases onto the bus even though it was up three tall steps and was really difficult to manage because of the really narrow aisle (and even though we had seen that the previous driver had stored people's suitcases in the luggage bay)
• just up the road he stopped behind another bus, then tried to pull out and ran into it, so we then needed to wait for another bus
• because of the delay, he gave all the other customers on the bus a ticket for a free day's travel around Nottingham, but he only gave us one between the two of us
• when the other bus came, the driver of that bus - who was clearly his supervisor - said that our suitcases should have been in the luggage bay.  Our driver had the nerve to tell him while I was standing there that *we* had insisted on carrying our cases onto the bus - what a great big lie!  And I couldn't call him on it because he was still going to be our driver, and he already knew that we didn't really know where we were going - I could see him deliberately dropping us off miles from where we needed to be just for fun.....

Anyway, we finally made it to the hotel and settled in.  Although there aren't a lot of facilities nearby, there's enough and it's what I expected.  We ordered home delivery and settled down for another night still disturbed by coughing (from both of us)

UK and Med Cruise - Day 25 - 29 September - Margate

We needed to have a quiet day today, so we decided to just take a train somewhere, which turned out to be Margate.
This is a nice holiday town by the sea, a little desolate already because the summer is definitely over - so for example the huge Dreamland Amusement Park was completely closed - it opens on weekends only at this time of year.  The overcast weather added to this 'closed' sort of feeling.
However, we did have a nice walk and look around.  We saw the Shell Grotto which was quite interesting.  The Tudor House

was unfortunately not open but we didn't really mind; this was just about wandering around and having that nice quiet day.
Not long after we passed the Tudor House, a huge rain-shower hit, which was our hint for lunch!
After that, we caught the train back to Canterbury and then got ready for the next day's travels.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 24 - 28 September - Canterbury

I'm still feeling quite miserable with a cough I simply cannot shake; it has been there at various levels of nasty for the whole trip. I got a pharmacist on Elba to sell me some cough medicine which only vaguely helped.  I've tried again here in Canterbury so we'll have to see how it goes.  The worst thing is that it's worse when I'm in air conditioning, so for example on the flight yesterday I had a horrible attack of coughing, and same last night here in the hotel (and unlike many hotels in England, this is a new building with windows that don't open).  I really hope that this latest lot of medicine helps.  Part of the problem of course is that I'm now taking blood pressure medication which means I can't take any of the pseudo-ephedrine based medication.  Well, I could, but I shouldn't.
Anyway, today was our day for seeing the nearby sights of Canterbury.
First we went to the Cathedral, which is simply amazing.
Then, we went to the Roman Museum- a really interesting place set up around an old Roman mosaic that they found buried well below the current street level.  However, as well as the mosaic there are lots of other finds and some really interesting explanations.  We were part way through the museum when we saw a man talking to some people about the artifacts, and we both recognised him instantly - Mark Corney who has appeared on Time Team on quite a few occasions. Turns out he does a lot of tour guide work and it's somewhat disappointing that I didn't know this; the short tour he is currently running co-incides exactly with our stay in Canterbury and would have been really, really interesting.  And, once I started looking further into the tour web site I realised that there are a number of future ones that we would really really like to do.  So much for retirement!
Anyway, back to Canterbury today.
We had also hoped to see the Canterbury Heritage Centre, but it opens 'seasonally' and this isn't the season :-(
Then we wandered off to find the Norman Castle but became side-tracked by the Westgate.  This is the only remaining old gate into the city, all the others have been destroyed over time.  The view of Canterbury from the tower is quite interesting, and there is also a small display of militaria.  The tower was also used as a prison for a long time, and some of the old areas of the prison are set up with information about that part of its history.  For the admission price this was quite an interesting place and I was really sorry to hear from the guy looking after the museum that we were the first visitors there for the day.  I'm going to put a positive note on Tripadvisor, hopefully it might encourage other people to visit!
So, after a break for lunch we went and found the Norman Castle - mostly ruins of course but still interesting - and the city walls.
Then, back to the hotel for recovery, then catching up on blogs etc.  Paul is also researching where we might go tomorrow - maybe Margate and Sandwich.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 23 - 27 September - Return to England

First, some final comments about Rome - there's an amazing amount of history here; I think you could spend a lifetime investigating the history of just one street.  Everywhere you look there are ancient buildings with fascinating history - for example, our hotel is in a street called "Via di Santa Maria Maggiore".  This is because at the end of our street is the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore

and it "is agreed that the present church was built under Pope Sixtus III (432–440)"- although on the site of an even older building.  This is somewhat mind-boggling when you come from a place where - as someone said on our Ostia Antica tour the other day - if a building is more than 100 years old we're likely to stick a plaque on it.
Or, another example- on our walk to the Trevi Fountain the other day we realised we were standing on a corner where there were fountains in the corners of all four buildings.  This is the Quattro Fontane and they were installed between 1588 and 1593.  I had no idea that these fountains existed, and obviously with only three days in Rome we missed the vast majority of the visible history.
On the down side though, the city seems to be struggling somewhat when it comes to dealing with the sheer number of people who want to see these amazing old buildings and structures. Apart from the early hours of the morning, there are always people everywhere.  As a pedestrian you take your own life into your hands any time you leave a building; not just on the roads but on the footpaths too; people drive and park their cars and bikes anywhere!
I'm glad that we saw the little bit of Rome that we did- the ancient feeling of the old city is something special and even as a non-Catholic the cross border trip to the Vatican was a real highlight.  However, I doubt that we'll be back; overall between the heat and crowds I think that touring Rome is a young person's game!
Anyway, back to our travels.  We booked a transfer to the airport; the driver was due to arrive at 8:30am and I hoped we could be at the airport by 10am.  All those stories about outrageous amounts of traffic were true, but it didn't stop the driver from arriving early and getting us to the airport at 9:00.  So, we spent more time than we needed to sitting around, not helped by the fact that I completely misunderstood the signs about where to check in for British Airways, so we didn't go through check-in/ security/ customs until somewhat later than we could have.  Oops.
Had a somewhat uncomfortable trip back; we had aisle and middle seats but when we got there someone was already in the aisle seat.  He didn't want to believe that he had to move over to the window, not helped at all by the fact that I sat on his arm (quite unintentionally, but if I'd realised later how rude he was going to be I might have done it deliberately).  Once we landed at Gatwick everyone who could of course immediately jumped up and started to try to get their bags.  We waited for a few minutes and then he insisted that I must get out of my seat even though there was absolutely nowhere I could stand.  Someone in front of Paul took pity on me, but I don't know where the man thought he was going to go.  Anyway, we finally got off the plane and I have to say I was really pleased that it was over.
We had pre-booked a taxi to take us to Canterbury - it's well over an hour's drive and cost 87 pounds, but trains would have been almost as expensive and much slower.
Got to our hotel without too much drama - it's a Premier Inn which is a chain we have used before - at the low end cost and facility wise but with really comfortable beds and they always have a restaurant with completely predictable and acceptable food.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 22 - 26 September - Rome - Vatican

And another early start - this time for a tour called "Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums and St Peter's Basilica"
All I can say is, wow.
The tour company (the same one from yesterday's tour; different guide though) gets an early entry into the Vatican for this tour, and some special/quicker ways to move around.  I don't know quite how to explain how crowded it was - we at least didn't have to wait in line to enter (at one point we saw the lines and the guide said their waiting time would be in hours!), but it was amazingly busy.  However, our guide was really good, he managed to tell us a lot of detail without at all being boring or overwhelming, he had answers to every question he was asked, and he managed to manoeuvre a group of 20-odd people through the busiest crowds without losing us, all while explaining what we were seeing. I was just so impressed.
Everyone has seen many pictures of the Vatican and related places, so I'm not going to post any of them.  However, this one came as a surprise to me - in the Vatican Museums, an entire gallery done by one monk who drew maps of the entirety of Italy.  Amazing how he managed these birds eye views so many years before a birds eye view was something a human could do - this is just Sicily and Sardinia:

We had a different sort of Rome experience on the way back from the tour.  We went to catch the Metro, and it was obvious that there was a delay - there was a breakdown on the line, not in the section we were travelling on but further out.  However, it took quite some time for a train to arrive and when it did, it was already crowded.  By the time people got on at our station and the next, we were packed like sardines.  And, we kept being packed in further - I simply could not believe that so many people could fit into one Metro carriage.
Later in the day, after a rest and recuperate session, we decided to walk to the Trevi Fountain which is only about 1.3 kilometres from our hotel.  We could have cut down the distance by catching the Metro, but I didn't think I could face another sardine session.  We found it without too much trouble, although I have to say that without the smartphone and the Map app, we would have had some problems - modern technology is really helpful sometimes.  Of course, at the same time as we found it, approximately a million other tourists found it too, so there was no chance to get anywhere near enough to toss a coin.  However, we did get a really good look at it and I was amazed- I simply had no idea how huge it is.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 21 - 25 September - Rome - Ancient Ostia (Ostia Antica)

Another early start today - we had a tour booked to see Ostia Antica
This is an amazing place, and the guide (Rebecca from City Wonders) did a great job of explaining what we were seeing.
This is Rebecca showing us the map of the site:

This site was covered up quite differently from the way Pompeii was - it was just covered up gradually by river silt.  It was also uncovered quite differently as well - much of the uncovered stuff was dug out on orders from Mussolini with no care for proper archaeological process, so no-one will ever know how much evidence and information was lost in the process.
There is a bit of competition between the sites; there's very little money available for archaeology so any money that's spent on one site the other one feels they've lost.  In reality both sites are so huge that you could spend outrageous amounts of money investigating and researching them properly, but sadly in the case of Ostia Antica there doesn't even seem to be enough money to properly protect the parts of the site that have already been opened up.  Honestly though, if you only have time to go to Pompeii or Ostia Antica and not both, I'd go to Ostia Antica.
Just a couple of photos of this huge and interesting place:

UK and Med Cruise - Day 20 - 24 September - Rome

Terrible night's sleep last night unfortunately, because we needed to get up quite early today - we needed to up and ready to leave and get to our assigned onboard meeting place by 7:10am.  I had booked a shuttle ride for 9am to go back to Rome.  Princess is so very definite that you won't be allowed off the ship until it's your turn, and of course we also had to pick up our suitcases once we got off the ship, and go through customs.  I had no idea how long all of this might take, which is why I asked for a 7am to 8am departure.
Anyway, we got to the meeting place at around 7am only to be told that we could leave straight away if we wanted to.  No chance of that; we sat around in the lounge until closer to 8am.  Turns out that the disembarkation was going really quickly; while we were there they started calling for people who were still on board to come to their departure areas 30 minutes earlier than planned.  Once we got off the ship we realised at least part of the reason that it was going so well - the customs check involved walking out past a sign that said that if you had anything to declare, you should declare it.  And, no immigration check at all.
Bye-bye Royal Princess:

So we wandered out thinking that we were going to be really early, but the shuttle driver arrived quite early and all eight passengers showed up early too (and just to keep the numbers up, at least half the passengers in the shuttle were Australian; I still have no idea why there would have been so many Aussies - and Kiwis for that matter - on this cruise). This was a far less dramatic drive than the shuttle transfer to the port at the start of the trip - for a start, this guy used hands-free for his phone.  It ended up taking quite a long time to get to the hotel; one of the people wanted to be dropped off at the airport, and of course we were all being dropped at different hotels.  The big delay was caused by a fire though; some of the main streets in the centre of the city were temporarily closed off by the police and fire brigade.
We got to our hotel hours early - at around 10:30am - and by a miracle our room was ready and they let us check in straight away!
So, we got ourselves sorted out and then went out to have a look at the Colosseum:

and had a quick, early lunch at a cafe.
We have also managed to buy our three day Metro passes - which let you use most of the trains, trams and busses - and went on a couple of Metro rides just to make sure that we know how it all works.  This might sound a bit anal, but we actually need to take the Metro to the starting point of our tour tomorrow, and I didn't want to have to deal with working this all out early on a Sunday morning.
I'm very happy with both hotels we have stayed in; the prices were quite reasonable by Rome standards and the rooms have all we need, including far more space than you'd get in a similar hotel in London for example, and air-conditioning (although that was deliberate; air conditioning was a non-negotiable part of my search for these hotels!

UK and Med Cruise - Day 19 - 23 September - Portoferraio, Elba

We found out today that this is the first time any Princess ship has come to Portoferraio.  It's a nice little city; we wandered around to the Archaeological Museum where we could also see the remains of a Roman Villa and one of the many fortifications around the island.
They don't really seem to be set up for cruise passengers - classic example being the public toilets in the main 'touristy' area around the bay.  They gave us a really nice tourist guide which included these toilets, but when we went there we discovered that the toilets are locked for siesta(!!)  from about 1pm to 5pm.  Fine if you're staying in a hotel in the area, not so good otherwise.  There are lots of restaurants and cafes but most of them don't have facilities either :-(
On the other hand, I finally managed to track down a pharmacy which was open and where I could get some medication for my sore throat and cough which are still bugging me.  I got some lozenges and cough medicine, both of which are helping a little.  Not sure why but they are only sold from behind the counter here - just one of those interesting differences between places.
Back on board in time to waste some time for the rest of the day.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 18 - 22 September - Messina

One of the disappointments of our trip.  All of the really interesting places around Messina need more than a half day by the time you get there and back, but a half day was all we had once they finished tinkering with the itinerary.
In the end we just walked around the parts of the city that are close to the port, then came back on board.  We did stop at a cafe to get a fruit juice, and on looking at the menu we decided to have a very early lunch.  We shared a delicious mushroom pizza and Paul had a lemon gelato which he voted to be excellent.  While we were there a rainstorm hit - we were outside under the cafe's umbrellas and managed to stay pretty much dry.  Fascinating to notice that the street vendors are really well organised - we had umbrellas but a number of people around us didn't, and the street vendors who until that moment had been selling cheap selfie sticks and junk jewellery all of a sudden appeared with umbrellas for sale!
Only one more full day on the cruise now, and then this part of the holiday will all be over.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 17 - 21 September - Corfu

We decided not to go ashore today; the weather forecast wasn't promising and we didn't have anything in particular that we wanted to see or do.  Unfortunately I was feeling off colour most of the night and it didn't go away in the morning; and I finally realised that I was a bit seasick.  While we were docked.  Unbelievable.
However a seasickness tablet seemed to do the trick.
In any case, the biggest effort today was to catch up on some laundry - we probably won't get another chance now until we're back in England.....

UK and Med Cruise - Day 16 - 20 September - Kotor

Back to Kotor today. We decided to just walk around the old city.  When we got off the tender we started walking in the wrong direction, but we realised there were signs pointing to a shopping centre that way, so we continued on.  I needed to buy some conditioner, which I found without too much trouble.  While waiting to be served an American lady in front of me was stopped because the security system beeped when she tried to walk out, and she ended up being escorted to the back of the shop with her daughter; they obviously were quite convinced she had stolen something.  I was a bit worried that it might have been her cruise card that set off the system, because of course I had my card with me too.  However, I got out of the shop with no problems, and a little while later I saw the lady again, so it must have all been sorted out, but I have no doubt that it was a scary experience for her.
We had a 'map' of the old city provided by Princess, but we knew it would be hopeless; they go out of their way to make sure that you decide that it's all too complicated and go on one of their tours.  However, there was a tourist information centre just outside the old city gates - they were also handing out maps and we hoped theirs would be more useful. Not so; it also seemed to have been designed to encourage you to book a tour with a guide.
However, we went ahead by ourselves and managed to see lots of the old city.   We eventually found the Cat Museum but our main target was the Maritime Museum which we found twice - the first time it was jam packed with people on tours, so we didn't go in.  It took us a while to find it again, but we eventually did, and it was truly worthwhile (although we still had to stay out of the way of multiple tour groups!)
As obligatory now - another photo of Paul and a gun - not a big one this time!

UK and Med Cruise - Day 15 - 19 September - Sea Day

Much of nothing done today!

UK and Med Cruise - Day 14 - 18 September - Santorini

And after yesterday, today was an example of a ship's excursion that went really well.  I started off the day feeling less than stellar, and I really felt that it was a bad idea to leave the ship, particularly seeing how hot and humid it was.  However, Santorini was on my bucket list, so I dragged myself along and didn't regret it for a minute.
Our tour started with a trip to 'Ancient Akrotiri' - they don't know what the town was called, so they name it after the current name of the area.  This is just astounding - it's a town from 4000 years ago, that was buried under around 30 metres of ash and pumice during the volcanic eruption that turned Santorini into the island(s) it is today.  The town showed some astonishingly modern capabilities - for example they had buildings up to 5 stories high but in the rest of the world 2 or 3 stories was the maximum for many, many more years.  About one hectare of it has been excavated, which is what we went to see.  Fortunately UNESCO decided that this was a place worthy of some significant expenditure, and they spent 40 million euros putting a roof (the largest area roof in the world apparently) over the whole of the current excavation area.  This made it almost comfortable to walk around and listen to our guide - who is an archaeologist.  Unfortunately there is nowhere near enough money to continue the excavations properly (the money you pay to see the site goes to the Government, not to the university); which is really sad because this history could be completely lost.  What we did see was amazing though.  Here's just one example:

After Akrotiri we went to the highest point on the island for a photo stop, and then back to the shopping area (of course) and from there we got the cable car back down to the dock, and then a tender to the ship.
Overall, our guide was informative without providing the overwhelming amount of information that we got in Athens, and I really enjoyed the whole excursion.
In the evening we went to dinner, and found that we actually have a full table of eight people for this part of the cruise - two of the regular couples didn't show up (not surprising since the day on Santorini didn't end until after 9pm) but another couple joined us.  They unfortunately had no idea about the itinerary changes so it was quite disappointing for them to discover that we aren't going to Turkey and nor are we going to Naples.  At our table we now have two New Zealanders, two Australians, three citizens of the USA, and one Mexican, and all seem like really nice people, which is always a good thing!

UK and Med Cruise - Day 13 - 17 September - Athens

We arrived in Athens quite early - it's a fairly long day here as lots of people are leaving the ship, and new ones joining of course.
We had a shore excursion today and it was an unfortunate demonstration of why doing ship's excursions is a risk.  It sounded really good - drive around Athens being shown the sights, go to the Acropolis, go to the Archaeological Museum, some traditional Greek food for lunch and then finish with some shopping at Plaka and then back to the ship.

And really, there's nothing you could complain to Princess about; the excursion delivered exactly what they said it would.  Unfortunately there were two big issues with it as far as I was concerned.  Firstly, the tour guide seemed to subscribe to what I think of as the "American Baseball" form of entertainment / information - never let a single second go by without saying something.  I love to learn about new things and places, but I was completely in information overload by the end of the tour.  Secondly, I didn't think a tour guide could manage to destroy a visit to any Archaeological Museum for me, but this one did.  She gave the impression that she was just going to show us a few things in the museum and that we would then have some free time.  However, that wasn't what happened.  First she dragged us past a dozen or more displays in the 'pre-historic' section (I think) going into huge detail about the use of gold and other stuff that has since escaped me.  Then, she dragged us through at least 10 different rooms showing us the differences in statue making and funerary displays over time.  Now, these are not the things I'd have necessarily wanted to see, and we didn't get any free time. Of course this is a problem with these large tours, you simply have to follow the tour guide's lead. But, I think if I had known that's how the Archaeological Museum visit would be handled then I'd probably have booked a different tour.  The rest of the tour wasn't too bad - although the meal was at the distinctively "not traditionally Greek" Radisson Blu hotel, the food did seem to be at least somewhat traditionally Greek and was quite nice.  We did get to see quite a lot of places, and as I said we heard a lot of words, but unfortunately most of it didn't sink in...
When we got back to the ship we finally had a chance to take a photo to show where our cabin is; mostly so far the ship has parked starboard side to the dock but this time it was finally the other way around.  If you click on the picture you can see a little red arrow showing where our cabin is:

UK and Med Cruise - Day 12 - 16 September - Mykonos

Paul and I went our own separate ways today.  I did a walking tour of Mykonos while Paul came into town later via the shuttle.
The walking tour was interesting and we learned a fair bit about the history of Mykonos.  One of the places we visited was the Maritime Museum - they have moved the old lighthouse here:

All the houses have white walls; it's practical (as it helps protect against the heat) but it's also a legal obligation - the window frames and doors can be other colours, but the walls must be white:

I didn't take any photos of the streets in the old town, but they're very narrow and very maze-like - the guide said that this was deliberate in order to make things difficult for pirates.  However, motor-bikes and even small vans still drive down these streets; getting out of their way was an interesting experience!
We need to have an early night tonight; tomorrow is a long tour of Athens - we meet at 7:15am and the tour lasts until 3:15.  And, it's going to be 32 degrees C tomorrow, we had hoped to miss the worst of the heat but this is going to be a challenge....

UK and Med Cruise - Day 11 - 15 September - Heraklion, Crete

Our tour today was called 'Heraklion on your own'.  Basically they drove us into town, gave us a map, took us for a short walk around the streets of the old town and then said they'd meet us in the same place in four hours.
I had done some research into what we could see, so we went straight back to the Archaeological Museum.  Spent a fair bit of time there actually, there were a lot of displays and they were set out and explained really well.
We then found our way down to the docks and wandered out to look at the Venetian fort.  Unfortunately you can only look at it from the outside, but it's a seriously impressive piece of architecture:

We then had a walk along the shoreline before going back into the town to escape the heat.  Had an early dinner in a nice restaurant, back to the ship and then crashed.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 10 - 14 September - Corfu

Only a half day in Corfu today.  Paul and I decided not to do a tour but to just get a shuttle and then go and look at the "Old Fortress":

The obligatory photo of Paul with gun:

And this time, an explanation of what the gun actually is:

There is by the way a New Fortress quite close by, but it doesn't really look all that much newer:

I wasn't completely comfortable about where we were at the start of our walk; our SIM cards weren't supposed to work in Greece and the maps they give you on the cruise ship are deliberately vague - they don't want you to go out on your own, they want you to pay to go on their excursions!  There is no real pattern to the streets nearby- lots of old alleyways now full of stores (and tourists!).  And, although there are a fair few tourist map signs around the area we were walking in, they were mostly only in Greek.
However, I got a surprise.  At one point we sat down at a bistro for a cold drink, and while trying to connect to their WiFi I discovered that I do have data access via the SIM card.  I have given up trying to understand; Greece was not on the list of eligible countries when we left England, but it seems to be there now.  Anyway, it's pre-paid data and they don't have our credit card details, so I'm going to keep using it until it runs out.
We're back in Corfu again next week, this time for a whole day. In the meantime, we'll decide whether to book a shore excursion or maybe we'll just catch a HOHO bus and let them show us some more sights.  Hopefully there might be not quite as many cruise ship passengers in the streets; today there were four cruise ships here - this shows our ship, the Costa Mediterranea (with the yellow funnel), and the Mein Schiff2 (with the dark hull); the Queen Victoria arrived a little later:

Formal night again tonight.  This is a bit aggravating, 2 formal nights on a 7 day cruise is one more than I'd expect and two more than I want.  However, on the bright side, our dining room is almost completely un-populated most nights and they don't seem to be making the slightest attempt to enforce formal wear - one of our table-mates showed up in a tshirt on the first formal night.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 9 - 13 September - Kotor

Our excursion went from Kotor up into the mountains to a town called Njegusi where we got to try some local food.  We then went further through the mountains to Cetinje which was previously the capital of Montenegro.  Some wonderful scenery and a lot of stories and information from our guide.  However, the big discovery for the day was that the narrow winding road up the side of Vesuvius a couple of days ago was just a preparation for today:

Down below in the photo you can see a piece of winding road.  The vast majority of the road to Cetinje was like that except that mostly it was far narrower than the piece you can see - most of it was no more than one lane and in some cases there were roadworks that I seriously didn't think were wide enough for the coach.  However, we made it in one piece.
Not a lot of pictures today, although this is the view of our ship from part-way up the mountain:

The dark blue ship at the dock is the Queen Victoria; there's only one dock so we ended up anchored just behind her.
When we returned to Kotor our tour was supposed to finish with a walk around the old city. However, we had been badly delayed by traffic, we were both hot and tired, and we'll be back here again next week, so we ducked out of that part of the tour and went back to the ship.
Quiet evening tonight, none of our table-mates showed up at dinner.  Not a surprise really, this 'excursion every day' thing is really quite tiring.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 8 - 12 September - Sea Day

One of only two days at sea for this cruise.
Have planned nothing apart from attending a wine tasting in the afternoon.  I didn't like any of the red wines on offer (including the $115 per bottle one) but there was a very nice NZ white wine that I'll be drinking with dinner later in the cruise!
Very pleased and surprised to discover that for most of the morning we could still use our 3UK sim cards - we were sailing fairly close to the Italian shore but in Australia there's no way that Optus would be accessible from that distance.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 7 - 11 September - Naples (Vesuvius and Pompeii)

Today's shore excursion was marked down as 'strenuous', and it was!
First stop was Mt Vesuvius.  They drive you a fair way up the mountain, and I have to say I was astounded by the skill of our driver.  We were in a full-sized coach, on a twisting, winding road where to be honest I'd have thought twice about trying to drive a car as big as the Falcon.  And, it's not like we were alone; it was a Sunday so there were many large coaches, smaller busses and of course people in cars and on motorbikes as well.
Lots of people were trying the climb:

The mountain itself was killer.  Paul - and a number of other people - decided not to try to walk the whole way.
I made it up to the guided areas and got a look at the crater before staggering back down :-)

I have wondered why people would knowingly live in Naples and even closer to the volcano.  Our tour guide (Rosaria) talked about this; she lives in one of the cities that is between Naples and Vesuvius.  They know that the next eruption will be bad; the most recent one was in 1944 and it closed the crater; it's well overdue for an eruption and the closure of the crater last time also apparently makes it quite likely that the next one will be violent.  Rosaria said that everyone who lives in and around Naples understands this risk but simply prefers not to think about it; they basically just hope that they will have enough warning to evacuate from the area before the next one.  I suppose it's the same as people who knowingly live on the San Andreas fault or in any of the other high risk areas of the world.
Anyway, after Vesuvius we got back onto the bus for a drive to Pompeii.  I'm not going to say too much about Pompeii; it was just astounding.  I had no idea it was so large, or that there are really significant areas still not excavated.  I'm also only going to post this one picture - there was just so much to look at and listen to that we didn't take many photos at all. This is an original ceiling, with the design and colours protected for all these centuries due to being buried in the ash:

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Overall, a really tiring day but well worth the exhaustion.  My phone tells me that I walked 10,505 steps for the day, including its interpretation of my walk up Mt Vesuvius as climbing 34 flights of stairs!

UK and Med Cruise - Day 6 - 10 September - join the cruise

Happy start to the day - the hotel provides a continental breakfast including proper coffee!  After that we had a short walk around the general area of the hotel and then checked out to wait for our shuttle to the port.
We got 3UK SIM cards for our phones and our tablets, and they're supposed to work in Italy in the same way as in the UK (ie no extra roaming fees or data costs).  Very disappointed at first to discover that this didn't seem to be the case - for example my phone couldn't connect to the internet although my iPad could.  However once we got away from Rome it all seemed to be ok.
The shuttle arrived a little late but in plenty of time to get to the port; we were originally going to be early but instead we arrived just as boarding started.  I had heard stories about these shuttle drivers and I have to say that they weren't exaggerated.  It's about 50km from Rome to the port, varying from crowded busy streets to motorway.  The driver spent the entire trip either using his calculator to work out some details on a piece of paper he was looking at, or texting, or both!   There is also a tendency to treat lane markings as just a vague hint; we overtook people in places where I'd have thought the risk was a bit high.  Anyway, we arrived at the port in Civitavecchia in one piece (and only mildly travel-sick in my case!) so it's all good.  I think the driver was hoping for a tip but sadly for him the shuttle company website says tips aren't necessary, and none of the people onboard were Americans - so, no tip for him for that trip.
We arrived just after 1pm.  Our boarding documents said that we were to arrive at 2pm, not to arrive early because we wouldn't be allowed to board, etc.  However, they almost always say this, and our experience is that they don't always stick to their own rules.  As it happened, almost no-one had arrived  and they basically let us straight onboard.
Our cabin is a typical cruise ship cabin, although I was very pleased to discover that the refrigerator is actually functional (often they're not powerful enough to actually cool anything, but this one works fine) and also that the air conditioning works (sometimes the air-conditioning is shall we say disappointing).
Five full sized cruise ships in port today, plus a few smaller ones.  One of the five is an old friend - Celebrity Eclipse - this was the ship that took us on our Baltic Cruise in 2014:

UK and Med Cruise - Day 5 - 9 September - London to Rome

Had a lazy morning then checked out of the hotel and found our way back to Heathrow.  On the Heathrow Express again - it really is a good way to travel between Heathrow to London - not the cheapest but really convenient.
At Heathrow we were reminded again of the funny way they deal with gates - they won't tell you which gate your flight leaves from until quite close to departure time.  Turns out this time we had to use the transit to get to the 'B' gates.
We finally got onto the plane, only to sit there.  For ages.  It ended up being two hours; they couldn't start the left engine.  
Of course this meant we arrived in Rome quite late.  We had booked a transfer into Rome and fortunately they're well accustomed to dealing with late flights, we had no trouble finding our driver.  The real surprise was the airport itself.  We have heard that the airport (FCO) is just chaotic and were expecting lots of messing around and delays.  But, immigration let us in without asking anything - stamp the passport and get out of here!   Our suitcases arrived quite quickly too - as I said, not at all what I had expected.
Unfortunately though we missed our night tour of the Colosseum because of the flight delay.  So, in keeping with last night's "inappropriate restaurants" theme, we ate at Chows Chinese Restaurant!
The hotel for the night was amazingly good - huge room with a large table and a comfortable bed, plenty of power points and air conditioning that really worked.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 4 - 8 September - London

Got up early and checked with reception who promised to provide a fan for our room for tonight (and they did).
We were then going to catch the Tube around to the Three store and then a couple of stations further around to the museums.  However, it was such a nice morning that we walked through Kensington Park instead.  The man at the Three store sorted us out and then it was off to the V&A.  I realised quite quickly that I couldn't possibly look at the whole place in a day, so we spent the morning there and left once we realised our brains would explode if we tried to take in much more.   Would definitely be good to go back though.
We also discovered that our Oyster cards hadn't expired - more than 2 years since we used them but they both still had 7 or 8 pounds credit.
After lunch we went to the Science Museum and walked around and around - it was amazingly interesting.
Then because we hadn't walked far enough, we walked back to the hotel.  And then, we walked around to a (very disappointing) shopping area a mile or so away - we were hoping to look around the shops and see a movie but the vast majority of the shops were closed; not just closed for the day but empty.  So, we walked back again.  My iPhone told me by this stage that I had done over 23,000 steps for the day!
Since we're in London and we're going to Rome tomorrow and will have every chance to eat Italian food, we finished off the day by having a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant.
A couple of sights from today:
The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens - what an outrageous thing it is!

And the Goat Tavern - apparently the oldest hotel in Kensington:

UK and Med Cruise - Day 3 - 7 September - Singapore to London

Even after a good night's rest, the flight from Singapore to London is really long.  We were surprised by the boarding process - in particular we were all made to go through a security check in order to get to the boarding gates even though we had remained air-side the whole time.
The A380 is a comfortable plane but economy is still definitely 'cattle class' - it would be nice to be able to afford business class just once.
Finally arrived in London, and as we were getting off the plane there was a call for Paul to contact a staff member on leaving the plane.  There was a man waiting with a printout that said that Paul's suitcase had been left behind in Sydney.  He was very apologetic and said that sometimes these things are wrong, but that he needed to explain what we'd have to do about the missing suitcase.  
Anyway, first we had to get through immigration - the queue was really long and we got the third degree - the man spent about 5 minutes asking how long we'd be in the country, what the address was that we had put on the landing pass, where we were going, what we were doing after we left and when we were coming back; it was definitely an interrogation.  However, we were finally allowed into the country.  Then we went to the baggage carousels only to discover that Paul's bag was there after all.  I suspect that it probably did miss our flight but that it was put on the next flight out of Sydney and caught up with us in Singapore.  Anyway, all good.
Once we got through all of that we found our way to the Heathrow Express - only about a 20 mile walk (I exaggerate, but it was a long way!)   Then 15 minutes or so on the train and we were at Paddington.  Found the hotel without any real drama.  Unfortunately it wasn't air conditioned and with the combination of jet lag (from sleeping too much on the plane) I didn't get a really good night's sleep.
Overall comment about Singapore Airlines - they're supposed to be among the best in the world and I have to say that apart from the boarding fiasco in Sydney, our experience with them was pretty good.  The food was quite acceptable although a bit surprising - for example one of the entrees included bay scallops which you wouldn't normally expect because of the number of people with seafood allergies.  Paul couldn't eat it of course, but I swapped my dessert for his entree.  Yum.

UK and Med Cruise - Day 2 - 6 September - Sydney to Singapore

Breakfast at the hotel - really hard to see the value for money but as I said, this is about convenience.
Singapore Airlines check-in was quick and easy, then we just waited for boarding time.  I do get aggravated when airlines say that they'll board by rows and then don't; the economy boarding was pretty much a free-for-all.  Obviously I know I'm not going to miss out on a seat but I actually wanted to use an overhead locker for a change, and you can miss out if you're late boarding.  Anyway, not a huge drama in the end.
Eight hour flight to Singapore which was interrupted by my own personal medical drama. I bought some earplugs because both my ears were somewhat infected / blocked because of the horrible lurgy I had for a couple of weeks before the holiday; I have gone through the pain that you can get with blocked up ears on a flight and I didn't want to go through that again. And, it seemed to work, but then one of the earplugs got stuck in my ear.  They couldn't help me on board, but they did arrange to take me to the clinic once we arrived in Singapore.  I was expecting to be charged an arm and a leg, and I was.  However, I didn't want to risk hurting my ear, so it really was the only choice.  Once that was dealt with, we went to the Transit Hotel where we had always planned to stay.  This turned out to be a fine plan; we got a good rest before the next (much longer) leg of the flight.
We had dinner at the airport  - Paul likes spicy food but the broth in the noodle dish he ordered reduced him to red-faced, teary-eyed, desperate choking. Pity I didn't have a camera - although at the time I was thinking about calling for medical help!!

UK and Med Cruise - Day 1 - 5 September - Canberra to Sydney

Monday morning - the taxi arrived right on time. We had an inauspicious start in Canberra when the Greyhound bus left late because of a flat battery. However, once we got underway it was all good- trip to Sydney was comfortable and we were dropped off at the airport pretty much on time.
Because of all the earlier changes to our flights we stayed overnight at the Rydges Airport Hotel which is right at the international airport. As I've said before, you get your best picture of how well a hotel operates when things are going wrong for them, and Rydges did a good job here - their computer system was down when we arrived but fortunately we had already automatically checked in and they managed to do all the other bits and pieces without an issue.
The room was pretty much what you'd expect for what's effectively a business hotel, clean and comfortable with a good sized desk, nice comfortable lounge chair and a good sized bathroom.  This hotel of course is all about the location - very convenient for leaving the next day - they advertise the distance to the international terminal in steps!