What I failed to mention earlier, is that our visit to St. John’s was a “maiden call.” There seemed to be minimal emphasis on this event here in Newfoundland. Ron, in his latest e-mail reminded me of the huge difficulty accessing the downtown landing stage because of predominantly inclement sea conditions. A call there by QE2 was curtailed during one of my final voyages on her in 2008. Today, tranquil weather and calm seas allowed easy access to the centre of town.Probably because of the maiden arrival of QE, a strange work was composed, scored for the ships’ sirens of all those vessels in port. A brilliant idea. I do hope somebody had the foresight to record this magnificent “music.” I didn’t have the foresight to replace my battery!
This morning, I started to experience slight discomfort in my throat, and recognised this as a possible harbinger of a filthy cold. Annoyingly, this has come to fruition and I thus changed my mind about joining my table companions for dinner. I exiled myself to the Lido, but was joined by an Australian lady who described numerous exotic adventures she would take regularly. She and a friend had joined QE in New York, and will stay on after Southampton for Guernsey and then the Baltic, before heading back Downunder. I just hope she didn’t catch my cold; I did warn her.
I wish that I had been better organised and seen a little more today. But I do come away with a good idea of the city and feel better prepared should I visit St. John’s a second time.
(Above) Pictures taken whilst walking back to the ship from The Rooms. (Museum)
Tomorrow is the first of three sea days as we steam towards Isafjordur, our first port of call in Iceland. Time for some “catching up” hopefully.
That’s it for tonight.
Thanks for reading, David 22.23 hrs 28/7/19.
David's Cruise 