Sail away

Breezing through the formalities at the Steinwerder Cruise Terminal, my dad and I boarded the Queen Mary 2 in the early afternoon. Entering the ship on deck 3, we at first missed some of its grandeur as we had to locate our muster station, but over the following hours we began to discover what would be our home for the coming two days.

At 3.30 p.m., we indulged in a very British afternoon tea in the Princess Lounge: finger sandwiches, warm scones, and lemon cake, all served with piping hot Earl Grey that would have made Jean-Luc Picard proud. Afterwards, my dad and I slipped into the pool on the aft deck, soaking up the late-summer sun over an Aperol Spritz mixed with Cunard’s own sparkling wine.

At 6 p.m., the ship’s horn finally sounded, and this majestic liner of 149,215 tonnes eased away from the quay, beginning its 400-mile journey to Southampton and the British Isles under the command of Irish captain Tomás Connery. Sitting on our balcony, we watched as the busy port traffic of Hamburg slowly gave way to the green fields of Niedersachsen and the unexpected serenity of slow river cruising along the Elbe.