Cannes day's 5 and 6 of our cruise May - June 2011 from Southampton

Sailing to Cannes from Gibraltar after the explosion, we encountered some bad weather and the seas became  rough, for the folks who suffer travel sickness this was not a good night...The first 4 photos give some idea of the condition's however by morning it had all settled down as we approached Cannes famous for its film festival, and rain, umbrella sellers and sellers of shoddy goods while your trying to enjoy a coffee, needless to say I do not like Cannes and only photographed one building!! We also had to be ferried from the ship to land! 


I could not wait to leave, and was glad to hear the captain announce we are about to sail for Barcelona!! 

Gibraltar a hot retreat after a good day 31st May 2011

When we arrived in Gibraltar on the 31st May 2011 it was sunny and soon became hot, but not as hot as it did at 3:30 PM!! We were docked close to the centre (center) of town well so I was told, walking is not so easy for me and I have to use walking sticks, and this walk was just a little to far. Apart from the stature which is to commemorate during the war women and children were evacuated against their wishes but on the orders of the British Government. The men stayed behind to work in the dockyards. The other figure is of a street statue! All the other photos were taken from the vessel "Independence of the Seas" We returned to ship about 12:30 pm and just lazed about enjoying cold and refreshing drinks in our staterooms and on the balcony. Then at about 3:30 pm there was a loud explosion which the photos tell the story, I do have videos in HD which I have not post yet and from the moment of recording which was within seconds of this explosion it took about 4 to 5 minutes to get the vessel away, 10 were hurt on the upper decks but all treated by the ships doctor.. So you see we had a hot day in Gibraltar which made the main news stories on TV and in the national papers..

Cruise sailing day 2 and 3rd Morning Morocco and Gibraltar

We are now sailing across the Bay of Biscay on day two of our cruise this covers the first 5 photos.. The first photo is of the over hanging hydrotherapy pool, one on each side of the ship. Photos 2 and 3 are on the top outside deck 11 and as you can see it was quite cloudy looking very dark..The 4th photo was taken close to the vessels web cam looking at the bow.. The 5th photo needs to be looked at closely as it is a picture made up of thousands of cotton reels, hanging at top of a flight of stairs!! The 6th was due to a lot of luck and me having my camera ready at just the right moment. Photos 7 to 10 are of the coast of Morocco North Africa on the 3rd morning early as we entered the Straights of Gibraltar, we were on the starboard side and Morocco was on that side of the straights. As the ship turned photo 11 is of the Rock of Gibraltar this was the best one! As you can see it was murky.... The next set in a few days time will be of Gibraltar from the Independence of the Seas also while on shore ..And the explosion along side as we made to set sail...This did make the international news and papers!!

Cruise 2011 Western Med on the Independence of the Seas

This was the first day 28th May 2011 when we boarded the Independence of the Seas at Southampton UK. It was wet and cold; the photos are of deck 5 and the stateroom 7274 on deck 7. Deck 5 was a shopping mall and was quite something to see first time. The other photos were taken as we sailed towards the open sea.. I will be posting other photos in the days ahead. If you click on a photo it will be enlarged...We stopped at Gibraltar, Cannes, Barcelona, Palma De Mallorca, Alicante, Lisbon and Vigo... Please comment...