Day One: Fashion, Fights and FUBAR. Oh the hazy, fondly remembered days of going on a holiday a year ago... Hang on I better take these rose tinted glasses off... Oh yeah! It was shit! However it was easier. Pop a mask on, quick scan with a thermometer and try to avoid coughing on anyone. Simples! Despite our government finally catching up with the rest of Europe (4 months too late) by simplifying the rules for the fully vaccinated they haven't really filtered down yet. At least not for our trip

Day Two: Toast, Tango and Tuxedo. It wouldn’t be a Lyn and Mark Average Holiday without some bad weather. On this occasion it started as we left Malaga and followed us across the Mediterranean as we cruised towards Valencia. We had some dinner which was served by ‘Wilfredo’ this is his real name which I love. I think I’ll request his section for dinner again as he was constantly trying to top up my wine glass. We then went straight to bed as we’d been up since 2am. Despite the weather or maybe b

Day Three: Burnt, Bath and Beyond. I started the day with a bath and it wasn’t even my birthday! A bath in any hotel seems a bit of an extravagance, especially on a cruise ship but as it came as part of our cabin I thought I’d give it a go. It was like sitting in a giant sink but it did the job. Lyn also found out why I got charged for my phone data. Since we were last on here they’ve introduced a ship mobile network which roaming doesn’t cover. This kicks in whenever you’re out of port which is

Day Four: Pain, Penis and Pocket Square The day started with breakfast in our cabin sat on the balcony as the sun came up. It was one of the freebies we got with the cabin upgrade. It’s a lovely, if lazy, way to start the day. I’d also placed an announcement in the cruise daily news letter for Lyn’s birthday and our anniversary. I thought this was going to be free but it cost £4 for about 10 words. I didn’t want to look cheap (even though I am) in front of the receptionist so continued anyway, b

Day Five: Tat, Tat and Tat. My naming convention has gone to pot today. It’s not as if it’s difficult to come up with 3 words that start with the same letter so to distract you here’s an interesting fact. I mentioned before that there seemed a lot less people on board. I asked at reception last night and it turns out there are only 580 guests! This is out of a potential 1800. It does make for a far more pleasant atmosphere and you’re never fighting for a seat or someone’s attention. Today we wer

Day Six: Caves, Charm’s and Captain’s Hat Today we’re at Gibraltar. We tried to book a particular tour for this before we arrived but it had sold out so as soon as we got onboard we went to destination services in the hope that they had kept some spaces back which was the case. There was a bit of confusion about the requirements to disembark. Gibraltar being a British overseas territory meant that it’s rules were needlessly complicated and unclear. Just to be on the safe side Marella tested ever

Day Seven: Sushi, Sherry and Sadness. For our last full day we were in Cadiz. Initially we hadn’t booked a tour but thought we might as well for our last day so we picked the sherry tour to Jerez. It was a fairly short coach ride and our guide was pointing out various points of interest which might be where the phrase comes from. She then started talking about Spanish opening and meal times. I have no idea if this had any relevance to anything because I saw a shop, presumably a restaurant, call