Those who've been following my blog may remember that I said previously cruising isn't my cup of tea. I only went on my first cruise because it was a big family holiday for the 16 of use. Well, six months later I went on my second cruise holiday. Let me tell you why.

UNEXPECTED

It was a few months before Christmas. I had just been made redundant from my job as the company decided they no longer needed a London based team. To be honest, I wasn't too upset as the redundancy package wasn't that bad and I was confident of getting another job very soon. Anyway, we had no plans for Christmas that year, it was just going to be a quiet one at home.

One day, my sister called me. She loves doing two things in her spare time - cruising and entering numerous contests. She said she had won a 12 night cruise holiday for two to the Mediterranean over Christmas. However, she had already booked to go away over Christmas, and would I like to go on the cruise instead? Well, cruise may not be be cup of tea, but I wasn't going to say no to a free holiday!!! And that's why I went on my second cruise holiday. Thanks sis!!

THE ITINERARY

My second cruise holiday toured around the Mediterranean, or specifically a few Portugese and Spanish islands, and finally Lisbon before we headed back to UK. We stopped at 5 places during the 13 nights, none of which I had much expectation of to be honest.

The Brits love going to the Med for holiday as it has a lot of beaches and sunshine, not to mention cheap booze. Well, that's my impression of it, that's why it's never been high on my go to list. Since this was a free holiday, I wan't too fussed and would take whatever comes. Here's a summary of each, and I will be posting about each location separately later on.

1. FUNCHAL, MADERIA, PORTUGAL

   • It took us three days to get from UK to our first port of call in Portugal. I was over the moon to get to Maderia, I'll tell you why further below.
     

2. SANTA CRUZ, DE LA PALMA, SPAIN

   • I booked an excursion at La Palma, and it turned out to be a trip much beyond my expectation.
     

3. LAS PALMAS, GRAN CANARIA, SPAIN

   • My memory is a bit vague about the Gran Canaria. That's the downside of spending only a day at places when you cruise. From my photos, the weather was great, and there was a beach. I'll know more about where I went when I come to write about it.
     

4. SANTA CRUZ, TENERIFE, SPAIN

   • Tenerife is largest of the Canary Islands. It's probably the most popular with the Brits, thus the one that I had the least expactation of. Well, it turned out that it wasn't all the bad, maybe I stayed away from the bars and stuff, and caught its authenticity.
     

5. LISBON, PORTUGAL

   • Our last port of call. We arrrived on Christmas eve and could feel the atmosphere of people getting ready for the festival.
     

BAY OF BISCAY

The cruise started off three days sailing at sea from Southampton, UK down the Bay of Biscay. At the end of these three days,you have no idea how happy I was to finally set foot on land. If you're not aware, the Bay of Biscay is off the west coast of France and is notorious for rough storms. I actually posted this previously. To give you an idea, I'm standing on the top deck here and there are 15 floors above the sea level. I took this photo on day 1 and was still pretty perky, but not for much longer.

This is what we had to endure for three days. Let me show you a video that I took on board so you can see for yourself. Make sure to check out the biggie at around 20 seconds. And I hope you don't feel dizzy after watching the video.

And that's all for the time being. I will be back again to talk about the rest of my second cruise holiday. Stay tuned

 

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