Harters

The Best Western is in an excellent seafront location and convenient for the town - about halfway between the cruise port and the ferry port. About 1 mile from the cruise port, according to Google Maps. I've walked past it fairly often but have never stayed there (usually stay on the outskirts of town, where there's easy car parking and then drive straight to the ferry).

A variety of seafood doesnt much feature in too many British restaurants. Which is disappointing, bearing in mind we are a small island (none of us live more than 70 miles from the coast). You'll often see cod and seabass but rarely anything else, away from seafood specialist places. For example, I've just looked at the menus of three neighbourhood restaurants near me (where they change the menu monthly. There's seabass at one of them, halibut at another and cod & seabass at the third. There are parts of the country, where there is generally good seafood in coastal restaurants, but they are few and far between (and London and Dover would not figure on my list of good areas for it). In my experience, seafood restaurants are much better in New England than Old England. In fact, there's such a difference between a town like Dover (which I know well as I catch the ferry to France from there) and Calais, just 22 miles away on the other side of the Channel. Nothing really by way of local seafood here and lots of variety there.

I play on a food/restaurant forum where most contributors are American. The question crops up periodically and I'm absolutely sure, from comments made there, that you are correct. It's a cultural necessity for many. On the other side of that coin, I play on one of Tripadvisor's Spain forums where most contributors are Britons. Now, Spain is a low/no tip country (as my Spanish relatives regularly remind me) yet, when the subject has cropped up there, most contributors say they continue to tip at the UK "going rate" of 10% - 12.5%, again citing that they feel it's the right thing for them to do. Not me. I try and understand the tipping culture in a country and act accordingly.

Best restaurants? An impossible question to answer meaningfully, I'm afraid. I don't know what you like and you don't know what I like. There are many hundreds of restaurants in the city's central area, including five Michelin 3 star places which, I suppose, you could argue are the best. I only visit the central area of the capital as a tourist, often with the intention of a meal at one of better places on every trip. If it helps, in recent years, I've eaten at Rules, Core by Clare Smyth, Claude Bosi at Bibendum, Le Gavroche, Noura and Murano. But, obviously, such a large city has restaurants to suit all tastes and budgets and I don't look to eat at the sort of place I can easily visit at home.

My window cleaner gets paid by bank transfer. About the only time I use cash nowadays is when I buy a copy of the Big Issue from one of their homeless street sellers. And for some local car parks.

Do we guess that means there's just going to be Ultimate on offer?

Tips are included in the cruise fare (by way of being automatically added to your onboard account) so it wouldnt have occured to me to double tip.

We'd been unable to book anything earlier (medical issues prevented us from getting any travel insurance) but we'd been thinking about a different cruise. As soon as we were able to book that one, we found it had become "wait listed" overnight. We spotted this one in the recent " extraordinary savings" sale and went for it. See you on board. (I knew your username sounded familiar - must have spotted it on the roll call. )

19/6. We've booked a Penthouse so I presume reservations had already been open for a while. It was sea days where we found an issue with only very early/lates being available. Not really a hassle to shift to other days but wasnt first choice.

Even if we used our normal credit card, the amount would be tiny, simply because we're not withdrawing much. However, we have a different card which we only use overseas which reduces it further (less than 1%). Almost certainly, the greater cost is the usage charge in Spain, levied by most banks which operate ATMs. It can vary from about €1 to €5 per withdrawal. I think only one, Banca March, is still fee free.

But for the small amount involved in ,say, a three week holiday in Spain, I'm not really fussed. It's usually just taxis or a drink in a bar which doesnt take cards.

Di - we also have a June cruise on Nautica, which we only booked on 14/4. Having sorted out when we might want specialities, we looked on 17/4, also for a table for 2 at around 7.30. We had to change a couple of days, as the only availablity was either much too early or late, but we were able to get tables at reasonable times. Good luck with getting something suitable sorted

No worries. 👍 I think forums which have an "ignore" feature can be very helpful for contributors, although it's best if used sparingly - and preferably without telling the person that you are "ignoring" them. That way they don't know if they are being "ignored" (and you havent seen their remarks) or ignored (and you have). FWIW, there's no-one on CC that I would choose to "ignore" - it's a comparitively friendly, helpful forum - but, of course, each to their own. 😀

I didnt know they offered such a benefit. It must be a relatively recent thing as I know my FiL would have taken advantage of it had it been available. But my comments about discrimination would apply equally to them.

One of you will love, and the other hate the Canning Museum at Stavanger. I thought it very quirky and worth visiting, while we were wandering round "Old Stavanger". I've not been to Bruges but I know the general area quite well. You could spend a nice day exploring the coastal area from Zeebrugge using the "Coastal Tram" (Kusttram in Dutch/Flemish). It runs from just north of the town, south through Niewpoort to De Panne (near the border with France). You can buy a day ticket so, effectively, you can use the tram as a "hop on, hop off" service. https://www.belgiancoast.co.uk/en/inspiration/coastal-tram The Belgian coastal towns are good for seafood. Depending on when you're going, it may be mussel season. There's usually a variety of preparations, generally served in a big bowl, with fries, seafood sauce and mayo.

There's a very helpful Mallorca "sticky" at the top of the list. I always stay in the north of the island but think the cruise port is about a 45 stroll to the Cathedral (or you'd be able to take a taxi for the short ride). Lovely small city - very walkable. I may be back on the island for a couple of weeks in the autumn if things go well.

Fascinating, indeed. When you look at the painting, you can just about make out that there's cloves of garlic, not the smooth surface of an onion. FWIW, we had a nice long weekend in Amsterdam in 2019. Three days - three museums - Van Gogh, Rijks & the modern art one.

That's a handy bit of info, G. We're visiting Gib on our upcoming cruise and would have assumed that it'd be OK just to use our normal Natwest card. Must remember to use our Halifax Clarity and pay in Gib currency.

I've stayed here two or three times when I was doing research at the Imperial War Museum. Good location, with lots of touristy stuff within a few minutes walk, on both sides of the river. As ever with Premier Inns, decent quality and reasonable prices (always my first choice of hotel chain when I'm travelling round the country).

When we visited Gerainger in 2017, we pre-booked a small boat trip. That's a small boat with maybe 25 passengers, not a RIB boat. It was absolutely worth doing and I'd thoroughly recommend it. You get a much heightened sense of drama looking up at the waterfalls and talll mountains from a small boat, than from the top deck of a massive cruise ship. And it is a really dramatic land/seascape.

The advice to choose the local currency applies also to withdrawals from ATMs, as well as purchases. As mentioned the conversion will be at the agreed interbank rate, rather than a rate dreamt up by the merchant to suit their own profits.

My post #8 or post #11? Former wasnt intended to be rude to you at all but was an accurate reflection of my take on that subject. The latter towards the the other poster was certainly intentional

DC - many thanks for posting such an interesting review. With our Nautica cruise coming up in a few weeks, it's been a useful scene-setter. best wishes from an oldster (72) John

He would have loved that. He was always an internationalist and enjoyed meeting and working with folk from different countries during his time in uniform. The Harters family has a fair history of military service, although not necesarily voluntarily. My older cousin was amongst the last ones to be conscripted (conscription was scrapped in the early 1960s). Dad served in India throughout WW2. And I know of several family members who served in the Great War - two great uncles were killed in action. I've visited both graves - one in France, the other in Belgium. Grandad served from January 1915 till 1919. The nearest I've come to anything military is that, in real life, my second career was as a military history researcher and author (four published books on aspects of the Great War).

The FiL only ever cruised with P & O, but he'd have loved such an event. On one cruise there was confusion with another passenger over signing for a bar bill - they shared the same surname. Turned out he was a Royal Air Force veteran. They became firm friends and, from then on, generally booked the same cruises. Lee was very proud of the years he spent in the army and, although never a member of the British Legion, it offered to parade for him at his funeral. So, a small party accompanied his coffin from the chapel to the graveside and lowered banners for a minute's silence. They also arranged for a bugler to play Last Post. It was incredibly moving.