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Well we had a lovely day in Port Mahon (Minorca) it was a really nice town and because Adonia is a small ship she was able to berth in the small harbour, most cruise ships have to anchor out to see and use there lifeboats to tender the passengers to the shore. It was really nice to wander the streets and yet again the weather was kind a warm and sunny 25 degrees. The island was also celebrating St George’s day which was nice as it made the town very busy with a party feel. All too soon it was time to set sail for Lisbon which will entail two sea days. Although the breeze is decidedly cool the sun is still shinning and the seas remain calm, we have been lucky with the weather. After Lisbon today it’s two more sea days to Southampton and the end of a wonderful 5 weeks spent aboad Adonia.The trip back to Southampton was a little tedious the weather was decidedly cooler and the sea had a heavy swell making Adonia rock and roll but once clear of the Bay of Biscay the seas calmed and we had a smooth ride into Southampton docking around 7am and disembarking around 9am. it was a wonderful cruise and Adonia although smaller than most cruise ships was delightful.

It was a nice warm day when we docked in La Goulette in Tunisia we had no planned tour so we just went ashore for a look around. It was very nice walking in the sun and looking round the local shops. Sheila had a photograph with a local band (they didn’t offer her a job). We found the local bar and sat in the sun and caught up with E-Mails and the like on the free Wi-Fi. We sailed around 17:30 and set off for Minorca we had one sea day which was spent doing various activities as the weather on deck was a bit chilly. We are now arriving in Minorca and it looks like it’s going to be another nice day.

We arrived in Athens on what was a cool morning the temperature has been dropping as we make our way through the Med. Athens was wonderful we went to the Acropolis and other ancient sites before spending a wonderful afternoon exploring the Plaka a maze of small streets selling all manner of things. We were warned about pick pockets we didn’t have any problems but some from the ship did have there pockets picked!!!! . We sailed at around 17:00 for Tunisia the weather had warmed up and it was pleasant as we made our way out of the port. The next day was a sea day and it was dull overcast chilly with some showers so not a day for lying round the pool. As I type this we are arriving in Tunis and the weather has brightened up we look forward to an enjoyable day ashore with hopefully some sunshine.

Interesting is the best way to describe Mumbai,we went on a tour that took in the Gate of India, a museum and Ghandi’s house before going shopping, in this particular case the shopping experience was not good, pestered at every turn by people selling trinkets, beggars and small children demanding a Dollar!!!!!! Not good we were glad to get back on board ship. Overall I must say we have no desire to return to India, but in its defence others loved it so it’s just a personnel opinion. The weather remains hot with temperatures in the high twenties and low thirties and the seas remain calm. Our next port of call was Oman and the port of Salalah. We took in a tour which ended up at a spa and beach resort, it was first class and I must say we really liked Oman. We now have six sea days as both ports of call in Egypt have been cancelled on safety grounds, so no visit to the valley of the Kings for us. We have been on reduced lighting at night because of the threat of pirates from Somalia. We have on board members of the Royal Navy to ensure our safe passage through the Gulf of Aden and into the Red Sea, we should come off Pirate restrictions on April 12th. It’s our fifth sea day and we enter the Suez Canal for a passage which should take around 12 hours to complete we had to stop in the middle to await ships coming from the opposite direction. It is quite different from one side to the other on the one hand built up with lots of green and on the other desert. The weather remains very good with calm seas although a couple of days ago it got very foggy and we sailed through a sand storm which was interesting!!!. We continue to enjoy ourselves and by the time you read this we will be in Haifa (Israel).

WOW what a hectic but fantastic few days we have had. Let’s start with the flight we had a good flight on Qatar airlines to Doha but it arrived almost 45 minutes late leaving us 10mins to catch our connecting flight to Singapore. But being the Parkers we made just!!!!!!! On arrival in Singapore we had been travelling around 20 hours. Our transfer to Adonia went well and once on board we settled in to our very nice cabin on A deck mid ships yes we got upgraded. Jet lag was catching up with us as we arrived in Port Kelang for Kuala Lumpur. Our tour took in all the sites including the Petronas towers. But hey no time to stop we were soon sailing to Penang no organised tour this time just a bit of retail therapy for Sheila. No time to lose we were off again this time to Langkawi our final port in Malaysia. Another organised tour this time to an Eco park it was wonderful and included a boat trip through the Mangrove swamp. On the way back we stopped at a duty free shop Bacardi £8 a bottle well it would have been rude to ignore that offer. The weather so far has been lovely average temp 34 degrees with high humidity thank goodness for the air con in the cabin. Time now starts to slow down as we now have three days at sea as we head For Sri Lanka. We have also had a change to our itinerary the two ports of call in Egypt have been cancelled (they must have heard about the Parkers).