Our first cruise to Norway, the land of fjords and ice and snow.

A cruise to the Eastern Med so Virginia and I could tick the Pyramids off as well as the Parthenon. The ruins of Ephesus were the best bit for me.

We do a cruise to the Baltics taking in palaces in St Petersburg and bogs in Estonia.

A cruise to the Azores on the P&O ship Oriana. We get seasick trying to see whales, on land saw a pineapple farm on Ponta Delgada and a banana plantation on Gran Canaria.

A cruise up and down the Rhine, by coach from England.

A cruise to the Western Med on the P&O "Azura", including a gondola ride in Venice.

We go with Fred Olsen to see ice hotels in north Norway, futuristic cathedrals, and were lucky enough to see a solar eclipse!

We counted down the months. We counted down the weeks. We counted down the days. At last the non-working day arrived, the day on which we had to ensure the spare bed room was sealed up so Amelia couldn't hide inside it, the day on which clothes were packed in cases cluttering up the lounge, the day of have we got everything together? Our poor cats, Tabitha and Amelia, were transported in their carriers to the "Grange Cattery" in Waterbeach and the kind care of Phyllis. The road had been improved in places, but still bumpy and undulating. It may be the last time they go there as Phyllis is in her 60s, and the landlord has planned building works which will shut the cattery. Disturbingly (but necessarily I guess) Phyllis asked what to do if Tabitha died while we were away - we settled for having her frozen at the vets so we could cremate her later. An easy drive down - Ginny drove to the Macdonalds at Royston where we had a drink each, convenient one can order at a touchscreen, then I drove to South Mimms where we favoured KFC. The Satnav to my concern didn't take us down the M3, but instead the A3 which was fine if not better as the M3 has always had roadworks on it when we've gone along it. We were glad as we arrived too early to check in to find a Harvester on the outskirts of Portsmouth at Great Salterns with good views of the sea. I had an apple 'bomb' which happily didn't contain sultanas. The Satnav lulled us into a false sense of security by navigating us safely to what I imagined was a B&B but proved to be the upmarket Number 4 Boutique Hotel. Just as well we were on the ground floor in room 1 as we had five cases to manhandle in from the car! A helpful receptionist "Daga" seemed miffed we didn't ask her to help with moving the cases. Instead of going back to the Harvester we used the free Wi-Fi to check out nearby restaurants, and settled on a tapas place Nicholsons which was an easy walk up the street. The baked mushroom starter was splendid, the shared main course of paella was a little stodgy to me. Room was hot as the heating was on, also heard noise from next room a bit. I survived the time by watching four episodes of a Korean TV drama "Ghost" until we left.

Virginia and I cruised to the Western Med on the P&O Arcadia. We saw Gaudi's creativity at Park Guell and Sagrada Familia, and the remains of Roman creativity at Herculaneum.

We do another Baltics cruise, taking in an Abba museum in Stockholm, Hamlet's castle in Denmark, and Catherine's palace in St Petersburg.

We do a cruise round the British Isles taking in Skye to see dear friends, prehistoric sites on the Orkneys, and the beautiful Tresco in the Scilly Isles. Oh and Monet's garden in France for good measure.

We cruised to Iceland by way of Norway and Ireland on the P&O ship Arcadia which we had been on before.

The Canaries: our first cruise in over two and a half years

A cruise around the Western Med, seeing Gaudi's art in Barcelona and Gibraltar again, taking a land train in Nice.