Last night, we returned to The Beach House restaurant. The buffet’s theme was sea food, and as neither Claire or I eat fish, we thought it would be nice to go to a sit down meal. The meal was nice, although they saved the best course until the end. I ordered a fruit salad. However, this wasn’t any normal fruit salad. This was fruit being cooked on a steaming hot rock. The waiter poured some spirit onto the dish, which erupted into a huge pool of smoke – I’m surprised the fire alarms didn’t go off!

For the first time this cruise, we had a rough night with the weather. An alert appeared on our television, warning of gales. It wasn’t a case of the ship going out of control, with people spewing into sinks, but you could certainly feel the movement as you walked around, and it was very windy on our balcony. Luckily, this all happened during the night, and when I’m in bed, I tend to not notice the ship’s movement, so was able to sleep peacefully.

We awoke with the ship arriving into the Spanish town of Cadiz. After ordering a breakfast room service (both of us couldn’t face the buffet!), we got dressed and headed ashore. Instead of walking from the ship to the town centre, we were forced to jump onto a shutter bus, despite it only being a one minute journey. It appeared that the reason for us being unable to walk ourselves, was because another ship as also in the port, and had taken the primary “parking space”. It was that bloody Royal Caribbean lot again.

We much preferred Cadiz to our last port, Ajaccio. A bigger town with no markets to make me feel unwell or dogs roaming around. Like everywhere we have visited, Cadiz had lots of beautiful buildings and statues, providing some excellent photo opportunities. There are a wide range of shops, including one selling a sports equipment. Throughout our honeymoon, I have been hoping to buy a football shirt for a local team. I was in luck – Cadiz shirts, for just 9 Euros! I have no idea if they’re official, or even from this season. Quite frankly, I don’t care. I also bought a Span scarf. The lady behind the counter spoke as good English as I did Spanish – luckily, her male assistant was able to help me.

There were also stops for an ice lollie, as I was very hot and thirsty. I think this annoyed Claire, as we had not long since left the ship, and already I was asking for drinks and ice cream. I’m such a child. I was also able to buy some local key rings, feeling very proud as I dealt with two Spanish situations all by myself, without the need for the shop assistant having to speak English to me. Granted, the only words I used were “Si” and the Spanish word for “thank you”, which I believe to be “grassy arse” – don’t ask me how to spell it.

We both see felt a degree of sadness when returning to the ship – although we have a few more days remaining on our honeymoon, this was the last trip ashore. We made ourselves feel better by visiting the duty free. I paid just over 10 Euros for a huge bottle of Smirnoff vodka. At first I thought I was committing day light robbery, although thinking about it, it’s the British government ripping us off with their taxes. Those pesky Tories.

We are now back in our cabin, looking out across the harbour. The sail away party will start in a couple of hours, as we return to Southampton. Although I have a good life back in Bath, the return will be quite sombre, as I’ve had an amazing time and honeymoon with my new wife.

[Photos from the day]