Update on life on board

In the meantime, the captain has thrown a cocktail party for the guests who are making the entire world trip. These are 600 people on the QE2: 109 Germans and almost 400 Brits, the rest are spread across other nationalities (France, Switzerland, Scandinavian countries, Italy). On the Queen Mary, which is currently also on a world trip, there are just over 200 people making the entire trip from/to Southampton. This is certainly due to the route, because I had actually wanted to book the Queen Mary, but then decided on Queen Elizabeth because of the more interesting journey and Hamburg as the starting and ending port.

In any case, it was quite crowded in the ballroom with so many people, as there was also a buffet set up, decorated with large ice sculptures. Particularly successful, of course, was the Tower Bridge in ice and below it the large cake with the route and destinations of the world trip that will be reached.

In addition to the 600 world travelers, the composition of the passengers has changed a lot since San Francisco, now there are many Australians or "Kiwis" as they are called on board and also numerous Americans, a total of probably 1000 passengers. This was especially noticeable wherever there was something to eat: a typical syndrome of cruise guests in the first few days, that the eyes want to eat more and the temptation is great. But that quickly changes, hardly anyone eats all three meals plus afternoon tea with sandwiches, scones and cake after 4 weeks.

But otherwise the exchange of nationalities is really interesting, because here on the ship you can quickly get into good conversations. There is also often a great political interest and now I am being asked by Australians about German refugee policy and Angela Merkel, or people are talking about the future under Trump and the prospects for Europe. I found the wording of an American about Trump amusing: "He is like a child in a candy store".

The lectures in the morning are still well attended, especially when a scientist from Imperial College, London, Lord Robert Winston, spoke about genetic research and the latest developments with all ethical concerns, but also opportunities. These were exciting lectures, where even the last seat in the theater was occupied.

So besides the good and varied food, there is also "mental nourishment" - as the cruise director always calls it. So overall, there is a lot of variety, so the days on board pass very quickly and you don't manage to do everything, which sounds strange on a long vacation trip.

Take care! Best regards, Eva