Britannia,16-23 July 2016, THE ITINERARY.

GUERNSEY,LA CORUNA,BILBAO,LA ROCHELLE. The only place to dock on Guernsey is St Peter Port.It rises quite steeply from the neatly laid out harbour. The island is an offshore financial centre,but you wouldn't think so when walking the streets. No shop is too ostentatious,no restaurant too grand. Everything in its place,a place for everything. People must either be too religious or too rich to open the shops on Sundays. There isn't a super duper patisserie anywhere,no exclusive boutiques. I didn't come across a supermarket,just a shop or two selling fruit and vegetables.I presume the natives are too healthy to need a doctor or a dentist,because I never saw a surgery either. Tender was used to get us all off the ship and back again,we waited to go until the rush had subsided and it was a wise decision, around 1pm the tender was half empty going ashore and very quick coming back. There was a kind of an exhibition of old cars and motorbikes. The children were enchanted when the owner of a superb little machine sat them one after another behind a wheel. People can be immeasurably kind. Lots of photos were taken,a motor-bike race watched,ice cream enjoyed. "There is no VAT on Guernsey,but local taxes are imposed on certain goods",said the ship's flier. There are big taxes on a lot of goods,say I. Nothing is cheap on this utterly spotless,charming,yet not quite breathtakingly beautiful little island. The life seems to have been vacuumed and polished out of it. The next stop was LA CORUNA also named the CRYSTAL CITY,because of the glass-enclosed balconies. Had I not read this somewhere I would have never noticed the hardly there glass balconies. And if it wasn't for the pilgrim's destination Santiago de Compostela, La Coruna wouldn't get a look in. It has the dirtiest,the smelliest,the most unpleasant and unwelcoming port I have ever been to. A dump. The residents have absolutely no pride in it.On my very first visit there,just after a downpour,the port was reeking with urine and surrounding streets strewn with condoms. I have written repeatedly to cruise ship owners why they do not insist this otherwise quite palatable little town is spruced up. The travellers bring in so much money day in, day out. Where does it all go? Why doesn't the city Council use some of it to clean up the dirt and wash at least once a week the stinking streets? The pavements are never swept when the restaurants close, in the morning when the restaurants open,the pavements are covered with the previous day's cigarette-butts. Yet there are quite a few lovely little shops and a multitude of restaurants,but I would never eat in any of them. If the locals do not care about the cleanliness and hygiene the world can see, what it is like in the kitchens where I have no access, I shudder to think.