Tag Archives: cruising

Cruise 2022

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In 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic struck our holiday plans were put on hold. We had a cruise booked which sadly was cancelled for us. However, rather than get our money back we decided to take a Future Cruise Credit with Oceania, the cruise line. We had to book a cruise by the end of 2021 to take by the end of 2022.

We choose a round trip from Southampton visiting several ports in France and two in northern Spain. It was a 10 night cruise leaving on 3 June and returning on 13 June. Overall it was worth getting away from home for more than 2 nights in a row. The weather was mixed but going early season was probably to be expected.

Our ship was Sirena, one of 8 ships originally built for the now defunct Renaissance Cruise Line. Oceania operate 4 of these ships while Azamara operate the other four. Having sailed with Azamara a number of times we are used to the size and layout these ships. We had an overnight stay in Bordeaux and as we sailed out Insignia one of Sirena’s sister ships was sailing up the Garonne river. We had sailed on Insignia on our previous Oceania cruise from Miami to New York in 2018.

Oceania Cruise’s MS Insignia makes her way up the Garonne River to berth in the French city of Bordeaux. Images taken from her sister ship MS Sirena as she leaves Bordeaux en route to Bilbao, Spain in June 2022

Dinner Companions

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The final “assignment” we had to write for the travel writing course was 250 words about “someone I met while travelling”. Juliet and I like to think we have caught the cruising bug and have undertaken several in recent years. You meet all sorts of interesting people on these trips and this is brief piece about one such encounter. I must admit a little bit of fiction has crept in – we did meet the people mentioned but my description of Sue is not 100% accurate in terms of her jewellery.

“Dev Patel is playing Saroo, while Nicole Kidman is playing me”. On a cruise you meet all sorts of people and this cruise was going to be no exception. 

Sue, from Tasmania was one of our table companions one night at dinner along with her husband and two other couples. Dressed casually in a short sleeved dress to reflect the Mediterranean summer her eyes sparkled as she spoke. Neck length hair complimented her choice of clothing. Her keen personality shone through as we chatted about life, families, the usual small talk when meeting people for the first time.

Dinner on a cruise is a chance for the ladies to dress up and wear lots of statement jewellery. However, Sue and indeed the other ladies on our table were minimalist in terms of adornments. Aside from the usual wedding band she wore a simple necklace, however, on her right wrist there was an unusual looking pearl bangle which glistened in the light from the chandeliers in the dining room. Carefully manicured nails with a shade of pale pink completed her look.

Intrigued we waited for Sue to continue. “John and I adopted 2 Indian boys back in the ‘80s. A few years ago Saroo decided to trace his roots in India and was reunited with his birth mother. Astonishingly she had never given up hope of seeing him again even after 25 years”.

“The bangle?”

 “It is from Madhya Pradesh where Saroo was born, a gift from his mother”.

In 2013 Saroo published his book “A Long Way Home” and the subsequent film “Lion” was released in 2016. It later transpired that his Hindi name was actually “Sheru”, which means “Lion”. Here is a link to a short film made by Saroo about how he used Google Maps to locate his birthplace – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXEvZ8B04bE