Back to Britain – February 2026 (Month 11)

This month was our cruise to the Canary Islands.

I had originally booked this cruise with friend Gwenllian but when Klaus was signed off sick I didn’t feel able to leave him home alone for two weeks. In the end we decided that Klaus would take Gwenllian’s place. He felt pretty awful about that but it was the only real solution. She has since booked a cruise with her husband and she and I may do a short one later this year too.

We were sailing from Southampton and I didn’t want to risk any problems with cars on the way so we travelled there the day before and booked a night in the Voco hotel which also included car parking for the whole cruise.

We set off from home at 9am as I had had the cunning idea to visit Beaulieu Motor Museum which is just 20 minutes from Southampton. I went once as a child and remembered I had liked it but nothing more.

We liked it! There were lots of cold cars and there was also a monorail that we rode around the estate.

We stopped for lunch and then later for cake and also took a double decker bus ride.

We headed to our hotel in the late afternoon, checked in and then enjoyed our evening meal there.

The next morning when we opened our curtains we could see Queen Victoria had arrived!

Boarding was efficient and friendly as usual and we were soon in our cabin.

Gwenllian and I had chosen the bargain basement option which was an Oceanview Obstructed View cabin. This means no balcony, just a window, and that the view from the window would be obstructed by lifeboat things. Which it was.

This was fine as we could still see the weather outside and whether it was light or dark. We could also see the corner of the balcony beside us and so we shut our curtains when we needed privacy.

The ship sailed at about 6pm and we had a good explore.

Queen Victoria is a lovely ship. She has lots of Art Deco design and I particularly liked the library with its spiral staircase.

We spent a lot of time in the Grand Lobby:

as we used it for photography for our evening outfits (you have to dress up on Cunard). Here is a selection!

As you can see, by the end I had to repeat a couple of dresses as I only had 8 dresses for 14 nights.

Klaus wore his dinner jacket on four nights and had two different suits for the other evenings.

As usual Cunard offered a daily afternoon tea in the Queens Room which we went to on several occasions. Other times we ate the same food (sandwiches, mini cakes and scones with jam and clotted cream) from the buffet and one time in the Britannia Restaurant.

As we headed south across the Bay of Biscay the weather got sunnier and warmer but we had some decent seas, about 4-5 metres at some points.

Queen Victoria has up to 2,070 passengers and I think she was pretty full when we were on her. The great thing is, though, that there was always somewhere to sit – the place just did not feel crowded.

I went to lots of the Insights Lectures in the theatre and Klaus attended a few, although he also spent a lot of time relaxing.

The theatre had boxes at the sides and I sometimes sat in these for a different view.

The one cruise Klaus had done before was transatlantic so no getting off the ship. This time we had stops. First at Madeira.

The second stop was La Palma in the Canary Islands where we walked up a hill to the Castello de la Virgin Mary for the views.

We went to the museum in Santa Cruz which was in a former monastery.

The sand was volcanic grey. You can see in the photo below that we were not the only cruise ship there – there was another massive MSC ship.

We were on the ship for Valentine’s Day and I had seen this enormous cake (with Grand Piano behind for scale) which I assumed we would eat but apparently it was icing on some cardboard as we would not be able to eat it as too many people were close to it – no good for hygiene.

One lunch we had a meal in the Golden Lion pub on board – I had pie and mash, Klaus had fish and chips. The portions were the sensible Cunard size, not colossal plateful like you get in pubs in Bury St Edmunds!

We stopped the next day in Tenerife and had a walk around there. The following day we stopped in Gran Canaria and took a Hop On Hop Off bus around the city which actually wasn’t that inspiring. After about 45 minutes we reached a bit of the city that looked much more interesting so hopped off and did some walking, as well as getting a coffee, a tea and two slices of cake for about 7€.

The prices on this holiday were always amazingly cheap!

Our fourth Canary Island was Lanzarote. I hadn’t visited it before but it was lovely. The ship was docked at the port but then we had shuttle buses to the central area and we really enjoyed looking around.

In the evenings Klaus enjoyed a cocktail before dinner. They supplied me with free tap water of course too.

We left the Canaries having enjoyed beautiful weather and really appreciated the sunshine. We had often sat out on deck reading and I had enjoyed a swim.

We then had some more sea days so it was back to the lectures which were often very good.

Our final port of call was Lisbon, which neither of us had visited before.

It was also our chance to finally get a real Pastel de Nata, which was really good.

We walked around Lisbon and made our way up to São Vicente.

From here we found the main shopping street with the side alleys and interesting buildings.

We found Praça Dom Pedro IV on our walk.

And Praça do Comércio too.

We returned to the ship for Afternoon Tea, of course, and enjoyed the sailaway along the river passing the city.

That evening Klaus tried the Cigar Box cocktail which was served in a cigar box! He said it was really nice and had another one on another evening.

We had played tabletennis a few times whilst in port but also had a go when leaving Lisbon and found it was not as difficult as we thought to play despite some waves.

We returned to Southampton early on the Sunday morning and got a taxi to our car at the hotel, drove home and were back in our house in Bury St Edmunds by lunchtime.

Overall it had been a lovely trip and we both enjoyed it and found it relaxing. We did miss having a balcony as the fairly small window made the room less open and inviting. We are cruising again in June (to New York and back) and have a balcony for that trip which we are looking forward to.

Klaus had finally settled into the medication he had been prescribed for his work stress but still had some fatigue from time to time. The cruise definitely helped him to relax though.

Once home it was back into our usual routine. During the holiday I had been dealing with a lot of emails about selling my Mum’s house and the readiness to Exchange of Contracts was within sight. I just had to get the chimneys swept and the boiler serviced, and this was arranged for the week after we got back from the cruise.

So on the Thursday morning I was at Mum’s house for the boiler service and the next day the chimney sweep was coming at 16:30. Anna decided to take a half day off work and come and visit the house with me for the chimney sweep and we had also invited the buyer to come and visit the house with us there.

He arrived and was a very pleasant chap. I showed him the thick lever arch folders with all the information about the house, and another folder that has the history of the house and the village. He was really interested in these items and will have his own chance to look at them very soon. After the successful chimney sweeping all the required things from the survey had been completed and the buyer was in a position to exchange contracts which happened early the next week – but that was in the month of March so is for next month’s blog.

So this has been both a busy month and a relaxing one. We met some lovely people on Queen Victoria and shared a table at our meals so chatted to lots of different people, including one lunch with German speakers (who were mostly Swiss as it happens). It’s good for Klaus to have a chance to meet other people as he is very gregarious – and I enjoyed all the food of course, eating with abandon. It was a good effort as I weighed 4.8kg more when I stepped on the scales when I got home, although 2kg of that is retained water from eating carbs. We are both now knuckling down to shift some of the excess as we have another two week cruise in four months’ time… and I want to still fit in my dresses!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the blog for this month. It’s two years since my Mother died so it is a real relief that we are finally able to sell her house. We remember her very fondly.