Marrakech, January 2023 (Part 2) by Chris Ackrill

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Welcome to Part 2 of my holiday journal. In Part 1, my wife and I started a Winter break to the sun. We’re in Marrakech in Morocco, and we’re planning a trip to the Atlantic coast at Essaouira.   Won’t Get Fooled Again… …though we probably will. Everyone gets scammed in the medina eventually. On Tuesday […]

Marrakech, January 2023 (Part 1) by Chris Ackrill

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A winter break with sunshine – brilliant! The only thing I was nervous about was getting from the airport to the accommodation, and then negotiating the dark alleys of the old town to find somewhere to eat on our arrival. There were taxis operating outside the arrivals hall, but there was no discernible ranking system. […]

Cruise Virgins – Checking in, by Harry Pope

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You are there at the port, looking up at your home for the next few days or so. As you are a cruise virgin, it’s unlikely you will have been so close to a cruise ship before. My, but it’s big. Especially if it’s one of the newer ones, such as P&O’s Arvia or Iona, […]

Cruise Virgins, by Harry Pope

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This is the first in a series of articles about what to do when you go on your first cruise. Just because you might be an experienced cruiser, carry on reading because it could be interesting in any case. As an English writer inevitably my articles are about European cruising, but a lot of the […]

World Cup Travel Bucket List by Chris Ackrill

I’m going to compile a holiday bucket list. The idea came when I was watching the World Cup and I began to wonder what goes on in some of those mysterious faraway places. I realised I’d already visited sixteen countries, whose teams started the World Cup: Wales, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, […]

Camera Obscura on Eastbourne pier

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Written in 2019 Walk onto Eastbourne’s 1870 pier, and you won’t be aware of a hidden history that hides behind locked doors. It’s called a Camera Obscura. The pier was originally built as a promenade out to sea, no buildings, but when it suffered extensive storm damage on January 1st 1877 capital was required to […]

Gibraltar celebrates Remembrance Day as Well

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It felt strange visiting Gibraltar on Remembrance Day recently, it was a weekday, but everything stopped while the canon went off, and prayers were said. Remembrance Day is celebrated around the world on 11th November, and 2021 found us ashore in Gibraltar from our cruise ship. It was quite interesting to see how it was […]

First new UK Cruise Line since 2010 by Harry Pope

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Ambassador is a new UK cruise line based in Tilbury, Essex. It launches the first cruise on 6th April 2022, with a ship called the Ambience, which was built in 1991. It has an interesting history, starting as the Regal Princess, with them for 17 years, then joining the P&O Australia fleet as Pacific Dawn […]

Cruising in Montenegro

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Before going on a cruise I knew roughly where Montenegro was, but not exactly. Maps are all well and good, but there’s nothing quite like visiting, even for a day. The southern coast of Montenegro in the Mediterranean Sea has a stunning vista, so when our cruise ship called for the day we were astounded […]

Cruising Squid Games

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Have you ever felt that you are in the middle of a real-life quiz game, where the prize is a cruise holiday that you have already paid for, but have to pass so many elimination tests before you can gain your ultimate prize – admission to the ship. Pass each test and there you are […]