EURO/UK TOUR 2025 | Part 1

SATURDAY, MAY 17

Ipswich Jets rugby league players are readying to board their flight to Rockhampton as Marie and I arrive at Brisbane airport for our flight to Sydney. We were supposed to leave on May 1, but a severe case of influenza A put me in hospital. So we missed out on our Albatross small group tour of Sardinia and Corsica, the part of the trip Marie was looking forward to the most.

Because we had to reschedule, we were required to fly to Sydney on Virgin domestic, before catching a Singapore Airlines flight to Rome, via Singapore. Two movies I watch make me feel particularly old – The Last Show Girl starring Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis, and Oh Canada starring Richard Gere. It didn’t seem that long ago they were all beautiful young people, but now – they are not trying to hide their age. Also watch ‘Unstoppable’, an inspirational true story about a one legged wrestler. Wrestling – in my view – is not a spectator sport, and to me it is a bit weird that it is so popular in the USA. To each his own.

In Singapore the beer in the lounge isn’t cold.

SUNDAY, MAY 18

Marie had ordered lobster for the Singapore – Rome leg of our trip but I couldn’t face it. I just had to go to sleep. Woke in time to watch one more movie – Companion, about a Robot companion. An Indian chap across the aisle from me is a real romantic, watching a love story about a guy in a wheel chair and then Love Actually. Marie and I  breeze through customs in Rome, but can’t for the life of us find the shuttle bus to take us to Hotel Tiber at the mouth of the Tiber Canal. Instead a chap from Naples, who works in Rome, directs us to what turned out to be a free shuttle to the Fiumicino Terminus, which meant we then had a 22 minute walk to our hotel. Lots of people are promenading along the banks of the canal, past fishing boats. We have a light lunch at Sergio’s by Rustichello, and then an ice cream from Sergio’s. There is a wedding at our hotel, and a host of male guests fancy themselves as singers.

Can’t believe the Broncos lost again – this time to St George Illawarra. The sports paper here in Rome is almost totally soccer with a couple of pages devoted to Formula 1; a few more to Sinner at the Italian Open Tennis, and one page to women’s basketball. The daily, general newspaper is dominated by the inauguration today of the new American Pope.

We watch the final of the Italian Tennis open in busy bar, with a rowdy table of blokes near us. They are full as state school hat racks, but are just having a good time, cheering for Sinner; singing along with a random chap who walks in off the street, and buying bangles from an African lady. They would be kicked out of an Australian pub, for having a good time. Our waitress is slow, and that’s being nice. I think she believes she is working her arse off. 

Forty three hours have elapsed since we got out of bed in Samford and the time we retire tonight.

MONDAY, MAY 19

The trawlers have all gone to sea, I mean every last one of them. They all start returning mid-afternoon, and the crew sell some of their catch on the wharves.

Marie and I spend the morning exploring the grounds of Villa Guglelmi, which is now a municipal library, the grounds of which include a canal full of turtles and the occasional otter. We enjoy calamari for lunch at waterside Terre Clementine, and for dinner, the best pasta ever, at Cielo, where the service is superb, and the clientele classy – including us, of course. My pasta dish – accompanied by a nice red from Lazio – includes the sweetest clams I have ever tasted. Marie’s dish includes the fish catch of the day. One of the patrons, a gent in his 60s I reckon, looks very important. He has a scarf around his neck, smokes continuously and drinks pints of lager quite quickly as his faithful dog sits by his side.

TUESDAY, MAY 20

The Queensland State of Origin Long lunch is held at Suncorp Stadium and it is great to see Allan Langer as part of the Queensland support staff, after essentially finishing his role at the Broncos.

Marie and I check out of our hotel and catch the shuttle bus to the airport, sharing it with Canadians, Marilyn and Roma, school friends from 60 years back, and a young lass from Colorado who has been to the Italian F1 with her dad. Marilyn and Roma are going on the same cruise as Marie and I but they are getting a private shuttle from the airport to Rome’s port. We get the train. It is raining and blowing a gale when we are arrive at the port town of Citavecchio and there is chaos over which shuttle bus to catch as thousands of people arrive to board six cruise ships. We decide to walk to the port, and get lost. When we eventually work out the boarding procedure we are exhausted and grumpy. Our mood is not helped by the fact the Azamara Journey (our ship) is not quite up to the standard we expected, although we are judging it by the standards set by Silversea, the company we have used for our previous two Euro cruises. A staffer, who is also the drummer for the resident band, shows us the way to the lifts. He is from Victoria, Canada, a place he says is noted for newly weds and nearly deads. Captain of the ship is Kresimir Korana from Croatia, while the hotel director is Elisabeth Vogel from Hamburg, a lady with a good sense of humour. There are 400 crew, 694 passengers. The ship is 30,277 tons and entered service in 2000. It is registered in Valetta, the capital of Malta.

Marie and I have dinner (a seafood buffet) with Billy and Marsha from Long Beach, California. Billy is a retired LAPD cop, and even shows us his police ID. He worked for many years in narcotics, sometimes as an under cover cop. Marsha worked in the education sector.

WEDNESDAY MAY 21

Ottawa couple, Claude and Sandra prove great company at breakfast. They are scared of all the things that can kill you in Australia, but are not worried about bears despite being keen bush walkers. Bears would worry me a lot more than snakes and spiders. Claude, who loves cooking, is a former tax department employee, while Sandra worked in the health sector. Claude is descended from a Frenchman who emigrated to Canada with his four sons in the 1600s and set up a boat building business. Sandra, who was raised on a dairy farm, is an equestrian judge and a former competitor.

Our ship is docked in Livorno, Italy, a city almost wiped off the map by Allied bombing in World War II. We explore New Venice and the excellent daily market, where we buy apricots.

Back on board we enjoy a French buffet before attending the captain’s welcome and then ‘A Night at the Opera’ featuring David Righeschi and Alessandra Tazi, who are both excellent.

THURSDAY, MAY 22

Memories flood back of our 2017 stay in Lucca as we explore the Tuscan town with our excellent female guide. Marie buys a silk scarf at a shop where a lady is working away on a loom. Next stop is a winery in the foothills of the Pisa Range. It is so busy and when a torrential thunderstorm hits as we are about to leave there are not enough places for people to shelter. Chat to a Scots lady from Livingstone, who thinks the Borders region is just beautiful, after I mention we have friends (Linda and Elliot Gibson) who live at Hawick.

Before dinner we attend a lecture about the Cinque de Terra, delivered by Australian born academic, Dr Craig Benjamin, who was born at Camp Hill in Brisbane and attended Bardon State School. His father was a prominent journalist and television presenter in Brisbane, who left the city in the mid-1960s because it was too boring. Dr Benjamin lived in the USA for 20 years, but never really warmed to American sports, and still loves his (Test) cricket, rugby league and Australian rules. He and his wife, Pamela (a Kiwi) live at Bateman’s Bay on the New South Wales South Coast. (We also had attended a lecture on the Renaissance delivered by Craig yesterday). There is a LGBTQIA+  get together in The Living Room on Floor 10. I wonder if it is a good thing holding such a social gathering, rather than just letting people mix as they see fit.

Marie and I watch excellent Papal movie ‘Enclave’, which, as indicated by my brother, Jeff, has quite a twist in the tale at the conclusion. One of the candidates for the Papacy (in the movie) is a Tedesco, same name as the fullback for my mighty Roosters.

FRIDAY, MAY 23

Portovenere proves a charming stop, and we walk to the cliffs near a church and fortress, before exploring the bayside and dining at excellent restaurant, where two female French tour guides occupy the table next to us, one of them vaping. Marie enjoys mussels while I tuck into fried local seafood. I start with a beer from the Dolomites and then join Marie in having a white wine from Cinque de Terra.

For the second night in a row we dine with English couple, Barry and Shirley from Holt in Norfolk. She is a former banker, who relates a story of a fellow from Pakistan or India coming into the bank some years back, and refusing to speak to her when he found out the manager was female. He asked to talk to a gentleman behind the counter, that he could see in the distance. That employee was a bank teller. Barry and Shirley volunteer for a mental health charty in Holt.

‘The Beat Goes On’ is the musical in the Cabaret Room tonight, featuring music from the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s. Barry Miller is starting his Billy Joel/Eton John show as we return to The Den, but leave after he gets a random out of the audience to sing ‘Piano Man’.

Back in Brisbane, our son, Lliam takes his youngest lad, Connor to his first rugby union match – the Reds v Hurricanes (NZ) at Suncorp Stadium. When the Queensland five eighth kicks from a scrum, Connor (who plays rugby league for Norths) is incredulous. “Why did he do that?’ He also comments on how quiet the crowd is compared with a Broncos’ rugby league home game. “It’s like being in the classroom”. Lliam is sitting near former ABC Sports commentator,, Gerry Collins, who lives in Newcastle, but has been back in Brisbane to call the annual Courtyard Race at the University of Queensland, something he has been doing for 39 years.

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