Live from Ventura

[SarahHben]

[grapau27]

2 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

Looks amazing Sarah.

Superb photos.

Thank you for sharing.

[P&O SUE]

Was the afternoon tea very sweet? That was the complaint I heard when they first did them.

[Beckett]

Lovely photos again Sarah. I get the feeling you are such a positive lady that you will always find the good in whatever you are doing. Your posts have been a delight to read and once again I thank you for taking us on this cruise with you. Enjoy lovely Cadiz today. Jane xx

[Son of Anarchy]

The Epicurean Afternoon Tea looks wonderful.

[Fionboard]

Cadiz is lovely. One of my favourite places to wander around and enjoy a drink at one of the bars in the town hall square, people watching. Enjoy! 

[Presto2]

4 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

Was the afternoon tea very sweet? That was the complaint I heard when they first did them.

Looks amazing but we found it too sweet for us. Having seen these photos may give it another go though!!!

[CarlaMarie]

The afternoon tea looks wonderful! Enjoy Cadiz! 

[SarahHben]

8 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

Was the afternoon tea very sweet? That was the complaint I heard when they first did them.

I suppose it was fairly sweet but i have a sweet tooth. I have had sweeter afternoon teas in London.

I overheard someone say that the pistachio fancies were quite dense but it was one of my favourites. 
I’ll try to add a photo of the menu

 

[SarahHben]

6 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Cadiz is lovely. One of my favourite places to wander around and enjoy a drink at one of the bars in the town hall square, people watching. Enjoy! 

We sat and had a drink in a bar in one of the gardens, very nice!

[Scots Couple]

8 hours ago, SarahHben said:

The afternoon tea looks fab think I will try and book that we are on Ventura in a few weeks, loved the photos of the retreat we have that booked for the whole trip. Thanks for sharing your photos.

[SarahHben]

Cadiz has been wonderful. We didn’t have an excursion booked but Mr B had found a walking map that took in the main points of interest. The map wasn’t very well drawn so we made it up as we went along 😊 

We walked quite a long way round the sea front and out along the jetty to Castillo de San Sebastián then through the botanical gardens and up to Iglesias del Carmen.

 

We walked through several pretty squares including the main cathedral square, lots of lovely little side streets and some lovely gardens. 
 

I wouldn’t say we got lost, but for a while we weren’t entirely sure where we were 😂 I resorted to google maps at one point!

 

We then had a well earned rest in the Retreat, it’s very nice having the Retreat staff fetch our drinks for us. Mr B said he’s going to miss afternoon tea being served at 3:30 -4ish everyday when he’s back at work 😂
 

 

[SarahHben]

[SarahHben]

20 minutes ago, Scots Couple said:

The afternoon tea looks fab think I will try and book that we are on Ventura in a few weeks, loved the photos of the retreat we have that booked for the whole trip. Thanks for sharing your photos.

Before we came I didn’t know if we were wasting our money paying for the retreat for the whole trip but it had been fantastic! I think there’s only been 1 day when we haven’t spent any time up there.

 

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, SarahHben said:

Super photos Sarah.

[SarahHben]

Morning 

We are approaching Lisbon now 😊

Mr B has booked us onto the Benfica FC stadium tour 🥴 so I’m not sure how much of Lisbon we’ll get to see afterwards but we’ll do our best.

We’re having room service breakfast today so that we don’t miss going under the bridge or seeing any views.

We went down to dinner at Cinnamon restaurant at 7:15 last night and didn’t have to wait for a pager, straight to a table for 2.

[lincslady]

I hope you were outside at he time, Sarah, to listen to the bridge as you went under.  And that you have time for more than just a visit to a soccer stadium, lots to see in Lisbon.

[Megabear2]

55 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

Morning 

We are approaching Lisbon now 😊

Mr B has booked us onto the Benfica FC stadium tour 🥴 so I’m not sure how much of Lisbon we’ll get to see afterwards but we’ll do our best.

We’re having room service breakfast today so that we don’t miss going under the bridge or seeing any views.

We went down to dinner at Cinnamon restaurant at 7:15 last night and didn’t have to wait for a pager, straight to a table for 2.

I hope you enjoy the stadium and get to meet the eagles.  Depending on timing they will fly one for you which is pretty amazing in itself, nothing quite as exciting in football as to being in a full crowd when one of these magnificent birds spreads its wings and soars across the pitch.  

 

Have a wonderful day.

[SarahHben]

7 hours ago, lincslady said:

I hope you were outside at he time, Sarah, to listen to the bridge as you went under.  And that you have time for more than just a visit to a soccer stadium, lots to see in Lisbon.

Yes we were on our balcony for going under the bridge this morning and we’ll be on the open part of the retreat when we go under later this afternoon. 
The coach driver stopped at the shuttle stop in town to drop off those of us who wanted.

We didn’t see everything that we wanted to see but will just have to come back again another day 😁

[SarahHben]

8 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I hope you enjoy the stadium and get to meet the eagles.  Depending on timing they will fly one for you which is pretty amazing in itself, nothing quite as exciting in football as to being in a full crowd when one of these magnificent birds spreads its wings and soars across the pitch.  

 

Have a wonderful day.

We did see two of the eagles but they weren’t being flown, they were sitting on their perches at the edge of the pitch.

 

Of all the trips we’ve done this cruise it was probably the most chaotic organisation wise. I’ll say more about that in a while but I’m going to enjoy a drink & a rest now 😊

Edited August 16, 2023 by SarahHben

[P&O SUE]

Lovely photos of Cadiz, yet another port I lost due to you know what!

 

Try and be on top deck for sail away, it really looks like you’re not going to get under 😃

[SarahHben]

Evening

It’s been a good last port day. We took the Benfica Stadium Tour, and it made Mr B happy. The tour was good, even I enjoyed it but it wasn’t particularly well organised.
 

There were 2 coaches from P&O and the other group went off to do the museum first while we were supposed to see the stadium and then we would swap.

We ended up just waiting around for ages outside. Our guide went off to see what was happening and she was away for quite a while. She then took us to the museum first with a tour guide from Benfica who said we could view the museum at our own pace. There was no arranged meet up time, when asked the guide just said we’ll all go into the stadium together once everyone had seen the museum 🙄. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing the tour guide said we could have 20 minutes in the museum which didn’t go down well. Somebody pointed out we’d waited outside for 40 minutes, I’m not sure that it was that long but it was certainly too long. The guide then said we could have more time after all and told us where to meet. Neither guide really seemed to know what to do.

 

Anyway once that had been cleared up and a meeting point and time set it was fine and the tour was very enjoyable.

 

We were originally due back at the ship at 1:45 but the trip was running late due to the delay at the start. The driver made s stop at the shuttle bus drop off point and some of us got off there to explore. I think it was around 2:30, by which time Mr B & I were starving so we had some lunch out including a delicious pasteis de nata each.

 

We then made our way down towards the port stopping at various squares and streets on the way. It was lovely but very busy and very hot and because we thought we’d be going back to the ship first neither of us had our hats and I didn’t have my big camera. We didn’t get a chance to go to the cathedral but we will just have to visit again one day. 
 

We were up on deck for sailing under the bridge, quite an experience. 
 

Neither of us were very hungry as the lovely Orson who works in the retreat had persuaded us to have afternoon tea quite late. We went down to look at the MDR menu around 7:30 and there was nothing that took our fancy, there was lots we liked but it felt a bit samey compared to other meals we’d had recently.

We decided to try the Glass House but the wait there was around an hour which didn’t appeal either. So we decided to go up to the buffet and we had a pretty good meal there, beef in black bean sauce and veg & noodles amongst other things. 
 

Sea day tomorrow, the Captain said that we may get some rain in the afternoon but seas should be calm 👍🏻

[SarahHben]

[SarahHben]

[grapau27]

8 hours ago, SarahHben said:

Excellent photos Sarah.