Back to Britain – June 2026 (Month 15)

Hello everyone.

I’m writing this on the 2nd July so a bit later than normal! I shall try to abridge this post so it’s not as long as some of the others – quite a lot has happened in June but with this hot weather I haven’t got much energy to sit at the computer and type.

So what happened this month?

German Stammtisch

This month we had two German Stammtische.

The first wasn’t actually the normal Stammtisch. Instead there was a visit of the Kevelaer Cathedral Boys Choir to Bury St Edmunds, their twin town, and several other people were travelling with them.

One of the German ladies wrote on a BSE Facebook Group that they would like to meet up and so I suggested the pub (The Old Cannon Brewery) where we have the usual German Stammtisch, so this was agreed on. Klaus and I went by bike and found a lot of people there. about 12 from Kevelaer. We had a good chat with them.

A lady from the Bach Choir also came along as she had talked about wanting to resurrect her German that she studied decades ago. So Sally also came and it was nice to have a chance to chat with her.

The people from Kevelaer had brought along a gift for the German Stammtisch in Bury St Edmunds, some Honigkuchen and a chopping board.

Klaus and I took possession of these and did indeed share them out at the next normal Stammtisch

First time as Ramblers Walk Leader

Having done my Walk Leader training with the Ramblers I led my first walk from Blackthorpe Barn in Rougham.

This was just a three mile / 5 kilometre walk which I had done several times before with Aggie the dog. The weather was cool and it was threatening rain but we stayed dry.

After the walk we repaired to the café for lunch – there were ten of us altogether which was nice.

My sister Anna met us at the café as she was coming to visit me for the afternoon. She, Ching and I had a cake course after the others had gone.

Overall the walk went well and I will put myself down to lead some more walks soon, but I do have to find some interesting routes first. And with enough car parking as we often have up to 15 cars for the walks.

Cruising to New York

Long term readers of my blog will know that three years ago we flew to New York and then sailed back Cunard’s Queen Mary 2.

We enjoyed it so much that we decided to do it again – but this time sailing there and back rather than flying. I would celebrate my 55th birthday on board which was another bonus.

We booked a hotel for the night before so we didn’t have any traffic worries travelling to Southampton. On the way we stopped off at a National Trust property, The Vyne, near Basingstoke.

It had a lovely chapel with some colourful windows.

We then stopped for a Cream tea (of course) as our lunch, before driving on to our hotel where we would leave the car parked for two weeks (they have a special cruise parking deal). We ate our evening meal in the hotel restaurant and then chilled out ready for our cruise the next day.

The next day we were collected by the taxi at midday and dropped off at the Cruise Terminal where we had a fairly quick check in and were soon in our cabin looking out from our balcony.

We were cabin 11117 – on our previous cruise we had 11111 but that was already taken when I booked this time.

The thing about cruising with Cunard is that smart attire is expected in the evenings, so I had several evening gowns and cocktail dresses with me. Klaus had suits and a dinner jacket. Here we are before our first evening meal.

As usual on Cunard the food was excellent and we sat on a mixed table so we could get to meet new people.

As this cruise was 6 sea days each way they had various lectures for us spread over the week. Keynote speaker for the outward journey was Sir Tony Robinson. He was excellent.

As usual in the afternoons they served Cream Tea which is scones, jam and cream that they say is clotted but it doesn’t quite seem to be. In the photo below we had picked up the Afternoon Tea things in the buffet where they serve whipped cream instead.

We also went to the proper Afternoon Tea a few times in the Queens Room, see photos below.

Day 2’s dress and suit:

On the 12th June we had made it this far…

The weather varied during our crossing. We had some bright and clear days, although it wasn’t that warm (we needed at least a fleece if not a jacket when walking around the decks).

We had a Red & Gold Themed Gala Evening where the men wear dinner jackets and bowties.

And the ladies dresses.

The weather turned more North Atlantic but we didn’t have much in the way of waves in either direction.

Rain and greyness turned to bluer skies the next day.

We got into a habit of Klaus having a cocktail in the evening before we went to dinner.

And here a I in a cocktail dress and Klaus in another suit.

We did lots of good photography on Queen Mary 2 during our cruise in 2023 so we didn’t take so many photos this time. But a few obvious ones…

And here is another evening dress…

And Klaus sampling another cocktail.

It’s noteworthy that Klaus’s shoes are also interesting. Here am I in relatively boring black heels but he has twinkly black dress shoes.

And here my champagne silk heels and he has interesting blue Van Bommel shoes, with his wedding socks!

Another posh evening meal and an evening dress. This is the Joseph Ribkoff dress I bought last month in Battlesbridge for £16.

Same gold bolero, with a cocktail dress underneath it this time.

Sunset over the North Atlantic.

The next morning I woke up at 5am as I realised we were sailing into New York. I went out onto the balcony and saw my balcony neighbour also looking out. I suggested to her that we go up to the top of the boat together – so dressed in our bathrobes we walked. up to the next floor to get an outside view. Lots of other people had done the same but most were properly dressed. But the bathrobe was comfortable.

We finally berthed at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal again.

After a quick breakfast we got off the ship for a few hours in New York.

We got the ferry to East 34th Street and then started to walk towards Central Park. This was a distance of 2.2 miles or 32 blocks, but it was much harder going that we expected as we had a red crossing man (well, and orange hand sign) at almost every road crossing. We had to wait until the green man (here the “Walk” sign) before crossing, although the local New Yorkers were weaving their way through the traffic jammed cars.

We saw a Cybertruck – what an ugly thing!

By the time we arrived at Central Park my feet were really killing me (plantar fasciitis doesn’t seem to like walking on pavements rather than grass) so we didn’t walk that much in the park. We took some photos though.

We had a cuppa and a muffin at Central Park Zoo and then took the subway back to the south of Manhattan, walked around a bit there and had a coffee and cookie before making our way back to the ship via the ferry again. We neither of us like New York that much and 4 hours was enough.

It was a relief to be back on board – Klaus allowed himself some fizzy white wine and some of the huge Toblerone block he had bought on board.

The photo below is Klaus’s of New York.

One thing we noticed straight away is that there were LOADS more loud Americans. On the way out we believe it was about 50/50 Brits and Americans, for the return journey we heard that there were 300 Brits so I presume 1700 Americans. And it showed. They seemed to talk really loudly the whole time and also most were new so didn’t know where they were going, what was in the buffet etc. We were quite irritated by them, me particularly.

This is probably partly to do with the fact I had come down with a cold the day before we arrived in NY. I was OK on the visit to NY but the next day I really felt it, and Klaus also started with it. We concluded later it was probably Covid. It meant that, on two evenings including my birthday, we didn’t feel up to dressing up in our finery and just had a quick evening meal in the buffet.

That was a bit disappointing but I got over it pretty quickly, for Klaus it persisted for about 10 days. Once we were home he did a Covid test that came up negative but I reckon he was past the stage where it would show up.

So we both spent more time in our cabin resting and watching the sea. And were treated to dolphins!

My birthday started with a card from my sister.

Followed by room service breakfast.

And looking at the sea.

Or looking at my phone…

Where I saw that Klaus was driving over the North Atlantic.

Cunard kindly gave me two identical birthday cards.

I treated myself to pie and mash for lunch in the pub – on my own as Klaus wasn’t well enough.

The next evening we were well enough to have the Gala Evening dinner. Spot the amazing headgear on the lady behind Klaus.

I was in black and white.

The next evening Klaus chose a cocktail he had enjoyed earlier – it has a chocolate praline in it!

And we watched the Germany World Cup match in the pub.

On another Gala Evening we were pleased to see this young girl dressing up wonderfully.

Unfortunately there was an American man who came into the cocktail lounge in shorts, trainers and a t-shirt, although the dress code on the door says smart attire (dinner jacket or evening dress). We were really annoyed as everyone else was dressed appropriately and he was ignoring it. We were on the verge of complaining (to whom, though?) when he left. He was one of those Americans who leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

We spent a lot of the day cruising through fog with the foghorn going. Here the view of the lifeboats and not much else from our balcony in the evening.

But the next morning all was cleared and the water was beautifully calm. We had a really calm crossing both ways.

What we particularly enjoy about the cruising is talking to different people each meal (we choose open dining on shared tables and you get put with different people all the time). We had some great conversations, met some really nice people, and were really surprised that five different sets of Americans apologised to us for what was going on in their country at the moment; they were ashamed of Trump and what was generally going on. This is not something we had ever experienced before. Of course these individuals don’t need to apologise, it’s not their fault, but it was very noteworthy that they did this.

We arrived back in Southampton and then we were getting off – along with what felt like 90% of the boat. It took about an hour to get off the boat but our taxi came very quickly and we were reunited with our car and drove home. We were back by midday.

It was yet another lovely cruise and we have already booked one for June next year, this time to Iceland and with a different (cheaper!) cruise line, Ambassador, which leaves from Tilbury which is much easier. We are looking forward to it.

Proper German cake – and several visits to eat it

After we returned from the cruise we arranged for friends Andrew and Christiane to visit us. As Christiane had made us a wonderful German cake when we visited them I thought it was only fair that I did the same – so I made a Käse Sahne torte. Which was a triumph.

It was great chatting to Andrew again as he used to be a musician on cruise ships so had lots of anecdotes to tell us. We enjoyed our time with them very much.

I had put the above photo of the cake on Facebook and chum Kate said it looked rather good and she would be happy to help us eat it so she and David her husband came round the next morning with their dog, Minnie. Minnie slept whilst we ate cake and chatted again.

And then the same afternoon chums Mark and Gwenllian came round and helped us finish the cake. They also brought their two dogs with them – who stayed with us when their owners went home. We had agreed to dog sit for five days.

Welcome to Molly (white) and Storm (black).

Molly is very cuddly and if you sit down somewhere she will get on your lap.

Anyway, that is a bit of a summary of June 2026. A good month, with a very enjoyable holiday and a chance to see lots of friends and share cake with them.

Next month will include me singing in Bath Abbey and a weekend in Bath, and much more…