Last Cruise news...

Hi Friends,

Well how are you all tonight ?  Hope that all is well with you and that you have had a good week. Our nice late summer has just about kept going this week only last two days has it really cooled down and we have tried to enjoy every minute of it...Last Monday we had our 2 Guild meeting in the aftrenoon this week we had a lady come to tell us all about the Salvation Army how it strated and where it was now etc. It was such a intersting afternoon, everyone enjoyed it very much.  Afterwards we had our Church Council Meeting, this is a wee bit like an AGM when members and friends get together and are informed of all that is going on and that has perhaps been done in their name by the Leadership team. It is held twice a year and for the first time we held it in the afternoon hoping that perhpas more members could attend.  It seemed to work well and we certainly had a few more attend than previously.

Tuesday was a very emotional day for me as I went up to New Malden which is near London to a dear friends funeral service. Revd. Dr. Angie Sheir Jones was our minister at Box nearly 4 years ago and was the most wonderful person anyone could ever hope to meet. She has had cancer for almost two years and died when I was away. She and I had a rather special affinity and it was particularily hard to hear whenever I got back about her death. Although I am happy that she is at last free from all the pain it is hard to believe I will never hear her laugh or see her infectious smile again. It is especially hard for dear Brian her husband, they had no children and at the funeral Brian looked so ...alone...it was so so sad. I am sure though he must have been overwhelmed to see over 300 in the church..... I was very grateful to Peter who took a day off work to come with me and do the driving.

Wednesday,Mary and I had some shopping to do before we were able to sit out for a while. As always on a Thursday my sister Margaret and Mitch her husband come to me and I make lunch for us..  Friday they said might be our last warm day so Mary and I went to the Courts Gardens that I have told you about before.  It was lovely there and very peaceful, a lot of the plants had been cut down ready fo winter but there was quite a lot of autumn colour in the borders. So thats been our week friends  and now on with the last few days of our wonderful cruise.

Cruise part 3  I think !!

Well our days on board the ship seem to pass so quickly it is our 11th whole day and this morning we docked in Portugal's Capital Lisbon. We had arranged to have a panorama coach tour of the city and as soon as we were allowed we were down the gangplank and joining our tour. It was explained that his was to be a no shopping trip ! But that stops would be made at various famous tourist places. As we had sailed up Tagus River into Lisbon we saw quite clearly on the far side the statue of “Christ the King” a monument built after the war to celebrate Portugal' s neutrality during World war 11...and this was the first stop we made once we had crossed the 25th.April Bridge built in the 1960s it is the third longest suspension bridge in the world. Once we were back over the bridge we were in a suburb called Balem. There was a tower there built between 1515-1521 was built to protect the river entrance from Pirates and later functioned as a prison...Quite near there was a wonderful monument called the "Monument to the Discoveries". It is a modern sculpture by the riverside of a caravel and comprises various historic figures who were involved in the discovery of “new Lands” Prince Henry the Navigator is at the prow. There is an elevator inside that give some wonderful panoramic views...however we were not allowed to have time to do this. Thankfully Henry got of the coach and was able to take lots of photo's at each of the”monument shots” ! It took around 4 hours to do the panorama of Lisbon and it was very very interesting.. I have a wonderful painting that a friend of mine Pat did for me of the rooftops of Lisbon and whilst there it was so easy to see just these same rooftops....

Next day our stop was in Spain in Vigo. It was a very hilly place and although we all disembarked it wasn't long before we had to admit defeat at getting the chair up the streets. Anyway we soon found the usual coffee shops and it was here that we had another laugh when we asked for tea for me and a coffee black for Mary. When they came I had a very large cup for my tea and Mary's coffee came in the tiniest wee cup you could imagine and boy oh boy was it strong..Mary never takes sugar but to try to drink it she emptied in about 3 packets of sugar!!! it was more like syrup by the time she finished ...we did laugh... We also met at the same cafe a couple of people from our ship who had with them another couple. They asked me to take their picture and explained that it was a sister and brother in law who had arrived by another cruise ship the Oceano and so they were able to meet up, wasn't that nice but odd at the same time to think they had had to come all that way to meet up !! All to soon it was ALL ABOARD...for our last day at sea. What an adventure it was. Certainly one to be done again and again. Mary and I are now we think quite addicted to cruising..we find it so very easy to get around, with enough to do to keep us both occupied and also plenty time just to laze around...

If you ever get a chance to have a cruise I would advise you to give it a try..Think how many more people that you could greet with a   " LOVE ONE ANOTHER."..