New Year Cruise

We sailed from Southampton on Cunard's Queen Victoria in the afternoon. As it was winter it was dark as we left, rather windy and cold out on the deck, but fascinating watching the twinkling lights of the south coast drift away from us.

Our balcony cabin was nicely decorated. We had a two seater settee, plus a small television.

We wandered around the ship to find out where everything was before heading to the restaurant for dinner. We passed the Isle of Wight and appeared to be going the wrong way, heading west. This was in order to arrive in the correct shipping lane, as the Channel has so much traffic.

After we had dinner we went to the theatre to watch the show. I enjoyed it but there was far too much dancing for my husband! We went to the theatre every evening and the shows were all very good.

The next day was a day at sea. I wished to go to the water colour painting lecture being held in the morning. My husband agreed to come with me and got roped in to participating as well. He must have enjoyed it as we went back in the afternoon.

The ship docked very close to Amsterdam, within walking distance of the main railway station. We went on an excursion along the canals, just a few yards from the ship’s berth. Our guide asked if we would like to see the ship from the water. We agreed. We were taken along the canals that form the main part of the city, given details of the history and the present situation of the many barges moored alongside the banks of the canals. We decided we would return to the Queen Victoria for lunch and then walk into Amsterdam, taking our lives into our hands a little, as the main walk way was also a busy cycle way. Hardly anyone wore safety helmets which surprised me, especially as so many people tend to cycle very fast!

We bought a hop-on hop-off bus ticket. We joined the queue for the bus but it took over an hour to actually board. They said it was because it was a holiday time that the buses were so busy. We sat upstairs and had some good views around the area. When we came back we wandered around Amsterdam before heading back to the ship and being ‘very naughty’ went for cream tea!

The ship worked on Greenwich Mean Time or to be politically correct UTC, so we observed the same time as at home.

On New Year’s Eve we were given ‘silly hats’ to wear in the dining room, the men had a top hat and the ladies a sort of coronet, both with Happy New Year written on them.

We heard on the television in our cabin that both Paris and Brussels would not be having any firework displays, to celebrate the New Year, due to the previous terrorist actions in November. We did wonder if this would apply also to Amsterdam, it didn’t. We went up to the top of the ship and watched, from inside, the firework display held at 11pm according to the ship’s time.

We then went to the ship’s foyer and participated in Cunard’s New Year Celebrations at 12 midnight GMT, with red and black balloons being released on the stroke of midnight, landing on our celebration drinks, on the Christmas trees and everyone standing in the foyer. Auld Lang Syne was sung and the holding of hands wasn’t easy with a drink to hold on to as well, but good fun!

On New Year’s Day we went on an excursion outside Amsterdam, visiting a cheese factory and a windmill. The weather was very pleasant for the time of the year. We were glad we had decided to go on this excursion on New Year’s Day as Amsterdam was rather the worse for wear from the previous evening’s celebrations.

On the excursion we saw canals and windmills, everything you would expect of Holland! We also learnt that Holland is just a part of the Netherlands. When the merchant vessels used to arrive at Dutch ports many years ago, they would say they had been to Holland, as that is where the ports where! Similar to the confusion that happens when Britain is called ‘England’!

We then sailed to Zeebrugge. We were taken by coach to Blankenberge and caught a local train to Bruges. We took loads of photographs as it is such a pretty little town. We had lunch in a very busy café. We caught the train back to the ship and had another cream tea! Heading back to Southampton, and we felt we had had a lovely break.

This coming New Year we are going to Switzerland!