Site Title

CENTENARY WORLD VOYAGE, QM2 January-April.   Totally unplanned: QM2 CORONATION CRUISE, LIVERPOOL to SOUTHAMPTON (3 nights) May 2023. REUNION of FORMER RAIWAY WORK COLLEAGUES, some retired, and others waiting to! A FEW DAYS IN BOURNEMOUTH, 21 September 2023 STEAM TRAIN SPECIAL from PRESTON to BUXTON, 29th October 2023. THE EVE OF CHRISTMAS EVE That’s NOT…

It’s not quite Christmas Eve yet.  I am very surprised that my cruise blog still attracts small numbers of visitors and views despite my not having posted anything since September.  Nevertheless, davidscruise.blog will operate for at least another year, during which there will be some less ambitious travel, which should still be worth writing home…

Bournemouth and Buxton have at least one thing in common. Both are “resort towns” visited frequently by holiday makers and day-trippers.  Buxton is about as far away from the sea as it is possible to be in England, Bournemouth nestles very nicely on the South Coast, and is blessed with the ever-present English Channel and…

No illustrations Saturday evening, 16th September 2023 I have just returned from a choral and orchestral concert in St John’s Church, Buxton, Derbyshire, presumably inspired by the fairly recent coronation of King Charles III. I had been looking forward to this ever since it was announced early on in the year. All four of Handel’s…

This blog title is inspired by a car window sticker seen sometime in the 1990s I suppose the height of the Buxton International Festival, along with probably the busiest period for tourists, holiday makers, and visitors was an appropriate time to schedule major road works in the Centre of Buxton, necessitating temporary control of four…

To me, these days, the annual Buxton International (really?!) Festival is a bit like Christmas; it’s either a long way off or tomorrow! This annual event has run with only one interruption in 2020, and a partial curtailment the following year due to the Pandemic.   From year 1 in 1979, Buxton Festival has been highly…

Text started late April 2023, then revised and completed June 11th, 2023. There is a very good reason for embarking on a (for example) 102 night voyage in the middle of January, if one lives in Northern Europe….to escape!  One is assured of a gradual retreat from grey skies, cold icy winds, being stuck in…

Day 102 of 102. The last full day of this epic voyage has arrived. And at 5 o’clock tonight, the packing is not yet quite  complete.  Day 103, 00.36 hrs. We are already in Southampton, having arrived at around 10 o’clock tonight. I finished the dreaded packing before dinner.  I had enjoyed one last breakfast…

Day 101/102…and a small bit of Day 102 of 102 You couldn’t make it up!  Last night, presumably tongue-in-cheek, Jo said to me, “I hope it rains tomorrow – then I can spend the time packing….”   She got her wish!  This morning, the Promenade Deck is awash with precipitation from the heavens.  But there are…

Day 100 of 102 In 15 minutes’ time, I am due to be met at Stairway A, Deck 12, and escorted to the Bridge. I expect I shall be introduced to the Bridge Crew and eventually given the script of the Captain’s noonday Navigational Update to familiarise myself with, before actually reading it at 12…