Last Saturday August 9th, I finally met Chris in Rome. We had a wonderful day exploring the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, The Roman Forum and Trevi Fountain.

Later that day after we had arrived back on board the ship my mobile rang. Sadly it was my brother calling to let me know my Nonna (my dad’s mother) had just passed away. What began a very happy day suddenly turned into a very sad one. The last week has been a huge mix of emotions for me. I have been devastated that I wasn’t home to be with all of my family. Friday was particularly a hard day as that was the day of her funeral. It hit me like a tonne of bricks one night the reality that I wasn’t going to be there to attend. What I had done in the days leading up to it was to sit and write a few words to be read out on the day and also sent a recording I had with me of me singing, that was then used to go with a photo montage of my Nonna on the day. Numerous phone calls to home have made me feel better and of course the fact that Chris is here with me has been wonderful. Many thanks for the emails of sympathy I received… they are greatly appreciated. I’ve included a couple of photos of me with Nonna at my 30th last year, at Christmas and one of me with her as a kid. I can’t believe she’s gone.

On a brighter note, Chris and I have done our best to enjoy the ports we have visited together so far. In Livorno, we went to Florence for the day and stopped off briefly at Pisa to see the leaning tower.

In Cannes we made a trip to Monte Carlo where I had planned to give him an early birthday present… he got to drive one lap around the Formula 1 Grand Prix track in a Ferrari. Very fun. I wanted to drive too but I was too scared about driving one of those cars on the wrong side of the road, so I just went as a passenger. Later we went to the Monte Carlo Casino where Chris bet 50 Euros on the Roulette table and managed to double his money. I made a deal with him to quit once or if he reached 100 Euros, and that’s exactly what we did. We kept a 5 Euro chip as a souvenir though.

After that we had two much needed days at sea. Chris’ jet lag was starting to wear him down and after two days of rest we arrived in Lisbon. We did a tour up to the mountains to Cascais and to Sintra before returning to Lisbon’s city centre in the afternoon for some shopping.

The weather has been very hot but has definitely changed now and is much cooler. Today we went into Paris and went part way up the Eiffel Tower for lunch and then onto the Louvre to see the Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa.

We are now sailing out of Le Havre and are on our way to Dover. Tomorrow we will catch the train into London where we are going to spend the day with Chris’ brother Gareth. We are really looking forward to seeing him.

Lots of love to everyone at home. Will write again soon.

Jess & Chris xx