Our mini cruise, day two

We woke up to coffee being delivered to our cabin and we watched the ship go up the Tyne to its mooring in Newcastle. We had a hearty breakfast and got ready to disembark and get the courtesy bus into town.

The bus dropped us by the police station and we made our way down to the river where there was a Sunday market being set up.

Along the river Tyne

We had a lovely walk along the river looking at the various stalls... selling things from home made jewellery, some amazing glass mosaics to food products, like home made cakes, bread, jams and chutneys,  We didnt have too much time as we had to get back to the boat by 12 noon.  We walked along the river to the Millenium bridge and then made our way back to the bus.  By this time the sun had finally started to come out.

The Millenium Bridge in the background

The Millenium Bridge

The Tyne Bridge

We arrived back at the ship about 12 noon... managed to get a quick photo of the boat before boarding... our room was about 4th from the right.  Another shot of the boat is below.  It was hard to get good photo so close up to the ship!

Quest for Adventure

Quest for Adventure

Back on the ship we went to the Verandah "self service" restaurant for lunch where we both had steak and Newcastle ale pie which was absolutely delicious.  Everything we ate on board was fantastic.  Paul served up desert - so we had 2 large portions of plum sponge cake with custard - yum!

After eating all of that we needed to walk some of it off so we went out on deck and watched the ship sail out of the Tyne on its way to the North Sea.

DFDS Ferry to Ijmuiden

Thompson Cruise Ship

It became very noisy as we passed these two ships as our ship acknowleged them with several loud blasts on the ship's horn and they reciprocated!  Great fun!  As we continued down the river we came across the RNLA having and open day and the lifeboat was performing various manoeuvres - mainly going round in circles which was very impressive!

RNLI lifeboat

As we got closer to the North Sea, we said good bye to the pilot to more "hoots" on the ship's horn.  It was becoming more and more windy so after walking around on deck for a while we decided to head inside to a relaxing read in the library.

The pilot leaving our ship, next stop North Sea

I took a couple more pictures outside before we were blown off deck!!

The swimming pool from above

Deck above the pool

 So after reading and relaxing for a while in the library we decided to go and chill in our cabin before getting ready for cocktails before dinner.  I had a pina colada complete with fruit and umbrella and Paul had a BBC which was a Baileys Irish cream, creme de bananes and pina colada mix again with fruit and brollie... he said he felt like Del boy!

Dinner was another fabulous 5 course feast with fantastic service as always. There were always interesting people to chat to over dinner.  I was concerned about sitting with different people each evening at meal times but everyone we met was so friendly.

Our mini cruise, day one

We recently had the opportunity to try out cruising to see how we liked it.  We had an offer which we could not refuse for a 2 night cruise from Leith, Edinburgh down to Dover, calling in at Newcastle on the way.  The train fare from Dover to Edinburgh was included in the price.

So early, 5.45 am, on Saturday morning Paul and I left home to get the 6.09 train from Sandling up to Ashford, then transferred to Ashford International to take the High Speed train to St Pancras.  Then a quick cross over to Kings Cross to wait for the 08.30 train to Edinburgh.  I was so excited I thought I would burst!

The roof at Kings Cross station

Kings Cross has changed a lot since I was last here when I went to see my sister who was studying at college in Hull.... some 30 years ago!  It has a beautiful new roof which constantly changes colour... really lovely.

The journey from Kings Cross began fairly sedately and remained so until we arrived in Peterborough, when the carriage filled up with some "air scouts" and 6 ladies off to see Madonna.  After several bottles of wine the ladies became louder and louder and so it was a relief to arrive at our destination.  I thought it would be the scouts that would disturb us... how wrong could I have been?

Four and three quarter hours later we arrived at Edinburgh Waverley station to be met by the cruise organisers and directed on to a coach which took us with other fellow passengers to the cruise terminal where our bags were taken from us.  The next time we would see them would be in our cabin on board. 

We had to go through the normal security checks and we were through to start boarding our ship.  There was a photographer waiting to take our photo before we embarked.  Once on board we were given our security passes and our passports were taken from us.  We were then shown to our cabin.

Our cabin

This photo was taken after we had settled in!  It was much smarter before we arrived!  The cabin and beds were very comfortable and in the bathroom there were lots of lovely smellies!

By this time, mid afternoon, were were feeling quite hungry as our lunch, some sandwiches, were eaten hours ago on the train so we went in search of food which we found in the self service restaurant.  As usual the food was delicious but we were careful not to eat too much so we could enjoy the afternoon tea which would follow in an hour or so!!    After tea we had the life boat drill, and on return to our cabin we had a while to relax before changing and getting ready for dinner.

Royal Yacht Britannia

Interestingly our ship was moored across the way from the the royal yacht Britannia, but there was no time to visit, so a photograph would have to do!  Still, we were on our own "yacht" and it was time for a cocktail before dinner.  We met some really nice people at dinner and ended up doing a short quiz with them after dinner in the bar.  We were runners up!

The ship was due to sail from Leith at 22.00 hrs and so after dinner we went on deck to watch the tugs help us on our way and into the lock to leave the harbour.

Took a picture of Paul on deck before we watched the ship go through the lock.

It started to rain as we were leaving Leith and after our early start that morning, we were quite tired and so we decided to call it a day and retire to our cabin.