Retired Afloat is at Malaga España.

16 hours ago

We departed Malaga with an iconic Mediterranean feel. Smooth seas, sunshine and blue skies. Matched with delicious local culinary delights of pallea, lobster and Sangria on pour. As we sailed out into the Med our acoustic entertainer serenaded us into the sunset.

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Retired Afloat is in Málaga, Andalucia, España.

16 hours ago

Geoff escorted a wonderful excursion to the beautiful towns of Marbella and the playground of the jet-setting and rich and famous, Puerto Banús. Any time Geoff gets to see beautiful boats he's happy.

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Retired Afloat

3 days ago

Vigo, Spain

We departed Tilbury with the news that we would be missing our first port of call Portsmouth and spending an extra day at sea to go directly to our second destination, Vigo, Spain. Post-tropical cyclone Imelda was in the North Atlantic and it was in our best interest to get beyond her sooner rather than later.

What a fabulous find!

We both escorted tours from Vigo to the major fishing town of Bayona. Here we walked around the beautiful 16th century Bayona Fortress, Parador Conde de Gondomar. We then wandered around the old streets and laneways before returning to the ship taking in amazing panoramic views of the coastline and ocean. The weather gods were in our favour, apparently the day before rained all day. We were treated to a magnificent day!

On returning to Vigo we wandered off to a recommended area for lunch in Constitution Square. When in Spain it has to be paella and Sangria. We had a new experience with "red rice" paella, matched the Sangria. 😆 We had reluctantly by-passed the oyster market on the way through, but suddenly found ourselves on the way back inside a restaurant with a serve of fresh local oysters and a bottle of wine. Oops 🥂. Vigo farms mussels, scallops and oysters and all the local restaurants have fresh seafood every day. Vigo provides 80% of mussels throughout Spain.

We would come back here in a heartbeat. ❤️

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Retired Afloat is at London International Cruise Terminal.

7 days ago

Sea Day, Portsmouth and Dover - UK

Our sea day cruising out of the Irish Sea and along the English Channel was as smooth as glass. We were treated throughout the day with sightings of pods of dolphins.

We arrived in Portsmouth more excited than usual with the arrival of our dear friends Diane Jones , Keith Jones , and Tony and Wendy Harbor. We met both couples on different past cruises (pre covid) and have remained friends. It was a very enjoyable day hosting them aboard Viking Saturn for Geoff's birthday. With our guests departed we had a fantastic sunset as we left Portsmouth enroute to Dover.

On arrival in Dover it was a coffee, Irish that is, with onboard friends who we also met on a previous Viking cruise, Richard and Wanda from Eugene, Oregan. Geoff gave his final presentation for this cruise leg, "The Penlee Lifeboat Disaster" which concluded with a standing ovation.

Arrived in Tilbury this morning, the current guests have disembarked and the next guests arrive shortly. The next itinerary begins tomorrow.

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Retired Afloat is in Dublin, Ireland.

1 week ago

Viking Saturn anchored in Dublin Bay and we tendered into Dun Loaghaire before taking a train into Dublin. The city was gripped with American football fever because the Pittsburgh Steele's were playing Minnesota Viking's. Thousands of Americans had flown in to see the game and the teams' colours were everywhere. Dublin has a portal which is a video screen set up in the city centre. You look through the portal, looking at their portal, in another city, in another country in real time (live). We waved to people in Poland and Lithuania and they waved back! 😲 Every city should have one.

We enjoyed lunch and a traditional Guiness at an Irish pub and explored the city before returning to Dun Loaghaire.

The local Sunday market was on in The People's Park, which presented itself with plenty of "puppy" opportunities.
Another great day.

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