Hidden Gems Cruise - Tides Bar, Water's Edge and Palamos

A short one this time starting with our evening on Saturday , 21 September 2019.

We spent the night (as we always do when 2 Intense are onboard) in Tides Bar, listening to Tomas and Maris do their thing. They knock the socks off any other act I've ever seen on a ship.

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With a friendship going back nine years now, I usually get invited to do a couple of songs a night. I don't take this for granted and it's a privilege to be able to do it. Tonight my two numbers are an instrumental: Wonderful Land, originally by The Shadows and Roy Orbison's Penny Arcade

Sunday, 22 September 2019. We were due to be in Sète in France today, but Captain Steve has been keeping an eye on some bad weather and as it is hovering around Sète and added to the fact that there are limited tugs available in Sète in terms of both numbers and power, we are diverted to Palamos in Spain.

We have been to Palamos before and it has a small centre with shops and a great beach. But it is Sunday so most of the shops are closed except for those catering to the cruise and tourism trade. We have a long walk up the sea front and there are several of these old cannon set in a framework of curved white walls. We sat on a bench and I sketched as best I could, whilst people stood in front of the gun and kids climbed on it. From the state of them I'd hazard a guess that they have been lifted from the sea bed at some considerable time since they fell there! It's our sixth day out of seven on the cruise and we are both ready to fall asleep... We made our way back to the ship and spent the afternoon doing just that for a couple of hours! Going on holiday should be restful? What a strange thing to contemplate, ha ha!

Anyway we are back up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for another night in Tides. My two for tonight are another Shads tune Shindig and then Gerry Rafferty's Stuck In The Middle With You.

Tomas and Maris finish their set and we head for the Water's Edge bar where Tri-Vibe persuade Maris to do a number.

Tomas, meanwhile, is showing off his new handbag...

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Parked In Palamos

Friday 25 May 2018. Our final port for the week is Palamos in Spain. Excursion trips include Barcelona but, as most cruises on the western Mediterranean call there, we have been there five times so we are going out on foot to explore Palamos itself.

Our route from the ship takes us past the marina. According to the map there is another, the other side of the small headland we are moored against. There is a local chap standing watching us at the point where the path joined the road. His whole attitude suggested he was thinking "bloody tourists!" I nod and say "Hola!" and before he can stop himself he has half smiled, lifted a hand in greeting and said "Hola!" back.

We decide to have a look at the other marina. We have to get to the other side of this. Walking to the end of the pier and taking the road seems preferable to clambering over it, so we follow the road to our right and ... clamber up the steep road!

There are plenty of chandlers and boat build/repair companies about. There's a few Euros worth of stock in this particular warehouse!

A nice jumble of rocks too on the other side of the headland. There are steps up from the road to reach a small path on the top of the rocks, so where I am standing is a lot safer than this appears!

There's something hypnotising about the sea washing over rocks. I stand, fascinated and in my own little world, until Miss Franny slaps my face hard a few times and we carry on.

We reach the other marina. It looks as though we might have to make quite a long detour to get to the road leading back into the town and we decide it is probably quicker to re-trace our steps and go round that way.

We walk up into the town and through its shopping streets which are enjoyable without being spectacular. We spend a good hour or more wandering through it, then decide we will head back towards the seafront and have a sit for a bit.

We find a vacant bench and sit down. After a while this couple start waving and then wave in unison and then dance up and down the beach. It looks as though they are waving at us but we don't know them from Adam. (Hello, Adam, what are you doing here?) They could be waving at people on the benches to either side, or to any number of people in the bar which is the building to the left. Whatever... They keep it up for a good ten minutes then he leaves her and instead of walking straight towards us, he walks at an angle until he gets close enough to crane his neck to stare at us properly, then he turns back to his wife who is still doing semaphores and dancing from side to side and he starts making chopping gestures at his throat. They have obviously mistaken us for someone else!

The Marella Explorer cutting a bit of a dash at her mooring. She's certainly dwarfing the boats in the marina!

We have a wander up the promenade and bump into John and Vera. John was one of three Johns in just six seats on the plane as we flew over. It turned out he was on the ship and we saw them most nights and exchanged a few words and later this particular night we will spend an hour with them having a drink and chatting. A nice couple.

It is very warm. We sit on another bench for a while and decide to go back into the shopping are so Miss Franny can buy the inevitable fridge magnet and a few other bits to take home. There's a lot of whistling and shrieking going on as we walk along one street and Fran spots the culprit - a parrot in a cage outside a first floor window over a shop. It could have been saying "Bring me in - it's too hot out here!"

The view from our balcony that afternoon. Some packing must be done before we head for our evening meal unless we are going to forego all the pleasures of bars, lounges and shows for the night. And we are not... Tonight we sail back to Palma de Mallorca for our flights home tomorrow. Our cases must be packed, locked, labelled and left outside our cabin by 2:00am so that the crew can pick them up and crane them in cages off the ship so we can pick them up off the dockside in the morning.

Saturday 26 May 2018. The following morning it has obviously rained during the night! We hadn't heard anything at all but we are told that the ship had sailed through skies lit by sheet lightning. We had noticed our first bit of movement on the sea, but it just gently rocked us to sleep!

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