Cruises with a difference

Cruising is not just for pampered passengers sailing to exotic destinations on a vessel packed with every luxury. I’ve just come across a one-day cruise with a twist – a special day out to celebrate National Marmalade Week.
Surprisingly, it’s not to Seville, where marmalade oranges come from. This voyage doesn’t even put to sea; it’s on board a steam boat on Ullswater in the Lake District.
This food-focused cruise will leave Pooley Bridge, at the northern end of the lake, at 11.00am on Thursday February 4. Passengers will sample some of the best marmalades in the country, washing these down with tea or coffee while enjoying the winter scenery and wildlife.
Lunch will be served at the historic Dalemain House and naturally features marmalade in a number of guises, as a prelude to the National Marmalade Week competition taking place on February 13 and 14.
Tickets for this one-off cruise cost £22.50. Call 017684 82229 to book. More information about Ullswater Steamers is available at www.ullswater-steamers.co.uk and details of The World’s Original Marmalade Festival can be found at www.marmaladefestival.co.uk .
Another cruise with a difference, on a rather different scale, takes place in the Black Sea during September. Passengers on the Silver Wind will be travelling in the company of former Spciet president Mikhail Gorbachev, ex-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the always-fascinating internet guru Vint Cerf.
The World Leaders Symposium, on the rather grand, and somewhat dated topic of “Global Challenges in a Post-Perestroika World” kicks off with three nights in Moscow before flying to Istanbul to board the 296-passenger ship to visit Georgia, Sochi (venue for the Winter Olympics in four years’ time), Yalta, Sevastopol and Odessa.
The calls at the Ukrainian ports might be particularly poignant for Mr Gorbachev – when he was president, the country was part of the Soviet Union. It has been independent since the early ’90s, and is now hoping to become a member of the European Union.
Passengers wanting to rub shoulders with these once-powerful politicians, who also include former US Secretary of Defence, William J Perry, and astrophysicist Michael Shara, will have to be well-heeled themselves. They start at $23,990 per person.
For more information, visit www.worldleaderstravel.com.