Through The Panama Canal And Other Travelogues

You might know already that we’re off on a cruise next week if you’ve read the previous blog/newsletter articles on this site or via email if you’re subscribed for some bizarre reason, so since that will require a summary of how that went immediately after we get back – that’s the way I do things here; it helps to get the fresh details down in print form before I write up the more detailed coverage later; much later – I thought I’d better quickly go through all the other travel-related articles that have been published recently, and there have actually been a fair few of them.

I’ll start with the cruising content which all comes from the trip we took from California to Florida via the Panama Canal a couple of years ago. In the last blog post I’d got as far as concluding our stop at Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. So, moving on…

We next had four sea days on Ruby Princess due to having a scheduled port stop cancelled prior to the cruise because it’s Central America, people, and that’s just what Central America does. I wouldn’t get your hopes up here of an interesting account of days of leisure at sea: it’s largely food photos with just a few pictures of events like the Captain’s Circle, food carving, that sort of thing. We were mostly on our balcony, reading. And drinking. Don’t forget the drinking. But if you’re keen to see the sort of food you might be served on a Princess ship then you’ll get a fair idea there.

We next docked at Costa Rica – a second time visiting this country for us – and headed off for an excursion to walk some trails and hanging bridges in a cloud forest. In addition to hummingbirds, this was particularly memorable for coming across a viper along the trail.

We had enough time for a short walk around Puntarenas where our cruise ship was docked after our excursion, something we’d not been able to do when we’d visited this country several years earlier. Next year we’ll be returning to this country and port and we haven’t got a clue what we might do there this time around.

The next day was Halloween (and our wedding anniversary) which gave us our first proper chance to experience this spooky festival on a cruise ship. Despite our introverted nature we made the effort and dressed up and our costumes were actually big hits with people. We’ll actually be aboard another Princess Cruises ship this year for Halloween and those costumes will be coming with us too.

We were supposed to anchor off Panama City, tender ashore, then head off on an excursion for which we’d had to arrange and pay for Yellow Fever vaccinations prior to going. But this is Central America. Have I mentioned that already? Anyway, no surprise then that localised, political events occurred that meant we spent the day on the ship anchored off Panama City instead. To make up for this we did get an impromptu deck party. Not quite the same thing, but it was entertaining enough.

And the last of the cruise content comes from our full transit of the Panama Canal on Ruby Princess which thankfully proceeded despite what was happening in the country at the time. There are photos (well, duh!) and a comparison with the Suez Canal transit we did many years before.

I don’t like to write about cruising all the time (I mean, I would if someone paid me to do that) so there are also a few posts from other trips taken over the years. Part of the reason for this is that I’ve added a new page to the site that lists our Travel History in a very similar way to the Cruise History page that has existed for some time, and in going through trips we’ve made over the years I kept finding things to add to the site and fill out some of the travelling write-ups. A few at random were selected from that long list to pad out recent publishing on this website, keep it fresh, keep it confusing, that sort of thing.

Back in 2022 we enjoyed a weekend break in Oxford and on the way back stopped in at Abingdon to visit a relative. It’s a very attractive town and I had my camera on me so, well, photographs occurred.

In 2015 I was in the right place to see some of the Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary Flypast so if you want to see pictures of the sky with World War II-era aircraft in it then click that link.

And finally, back to 2014 and one of our then-regular trips to Yorkshire to watch Wakefield play rugby (League, of course, the best code of rugby). Ahead of the game that year we stopped in for a look at the Hepworth Wakefield Art Museum and if you’re not a fan of contemporary art then it’s probably not worth you looking at any of what we saw there.

So, only a few posts to go until I finish the cruise travelogues from the Ruby Princess trip and when they’re done we can leap ahead to March 2024 for the next cruise write-ups to start. It’ll be exciting to be back to under eighteen months behind on travel articles. Not for you, but you don’t count.

As mentioned, we’re off on a cruise next week; just a week down to France and Spain, and it promises to be an interesting experience for us. The next of these blog/newsletter posts will cover how that goes. I’ve already got things I’d like to say about the cruise line’s website and app. Sweary things.

We’ve only got the one cruise booked for next year and the intention is to really scale back on any other trips outside that (by which I mean maybe try inside cabins) because we need to build up cash reserves after that as it’s a biggie and is eating up a chunk of money. But – you knew there’d be one – we have got our eyes on a 12-nighter down to the Canaries later in the year, taking my in-laws along as it’ll be their 55th wedding anniversary and we’d intended to do something for their 50th but certain global plague conditions had other ideas. It would be on Ventura, a ship we like and one we would have loved to get on next week (and had intended to get on) but the booking spirits and cabin allocation goblins and other commitments imps all conspired to push that aside. We’ve also got a couple of Princess Cruises future cruise deposits itching to be used on something but we’ve struggled to find anything interesting enough to commit to yet. Something will turn up.