Le Havre

May 6th

This morning was another beautiful day.  We met our driver (Radio Taxi Le Havre) and started on our way to Giverny to tour Claude Monet’s House & Gardens. The gardens were the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen.  The pictures really do not do them justice.

 

We then toured Rouen and it’s magnificent cathedral.  This is also the town where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.

Of course, we had to have lunch with French wine.  

I know my blogs are getting shorter…it is really hard to post when we are out all day with ports on consecutive days. Also…since, I have not been able to post them on the internet…don’t know if anyone will see them.

Dover

May 5th

This morning we were to join another couple in renting a mini-van to go to Chartwell (Winston Churchill’s home).  When we got off the ship, a representative for Enterprise was waiting for us and showed us to our mini-van.  It was laughable!!!!!  It might have sat 7 people if they were midgets!!!!!

We decided to send the other couple on their way and we spent the morning walking around Dover.  Not a very exciting place.  We were sorry to see the hotel we had stayed at a few years ago was now closed.  We had coffee at McDonalds…then fish & chips at a pub and walked back to the ship. 

View of Dover castle and the White Cliffs from our balcony….

Tomorrow is LeHarve. 

I have not been able to post to this blog for the last several days..I may try to take the computer with me tomorrow and find an internet cafe on shore.

Vigo, Spain

May 3rd

We had been scheduled to take a ship’s tour to Sanitago De Compostella but we were informed by the shore excursion office that because of the Jubilee year of the pilgrimages, the area will be very crowded and there was a very good chance we would not be allowed to enter the cathedral.  Based on that information, we decided to cancel our tour and just walk around town.

Vigo is just a fairly large city with not much to offer the tourist.

Charlie and I found the perfect sidewalk cafe…..

Good wine..good cheese…and a pretty park across the street!!!!  Can’t think of anything else we could ask for.

Tomorrow is a sea day and then the next day we stop in Dover.

Lisbon

May 2nd

Today started as another beautiful day.  We were met by Hugo (Insidelisbon.com) at the dock to start our walking tour of Lisbon.  We saw many of the main sites of central Lisbon…Rossio Square, Restauradores Square,Figueira Square, the Elevator of Santa Justa, Chiado, Bairro Alto, Alfama, Se Cathedral, Baixa district and ending at the Commercial Square.  We had a great day and enjoyed the tour very much….

Views from our balcony sailing up the Tagus River.  One of the most beautiful sail in/sailaway there is.

Hugo, our guide, explaining the history of Portugal.

 

Views from our walk thru central Lisbon……….An interesting old city with many interesting things to see….

   

 

After a very interesting walk in lower Lisbon, we all boarded the historic  Electric Tram #28 for a ride thru the narrow streets of Lisbon up to the top of the Moorish neighborhood of Alfama.  Of course, we stopped for a local beer (not as good as in Ponta Delgada)

 

Walking thru the Alfama was very interesting.  What really made an impression on me was how clean it was.  Can’t imagine carrying groceries home…even getting home after a night out!!!

Views of the Se Cathedral

Last stop on our tour was in the Comercio Square.  This square has been completely rebuilt and work was just completed in anticipation of the Pope’s visit scheduled in the next couple of weeks.

It was then back to the ship.  We arrived back at the ship at 5PM…the lines were soooooo long that we did not board the ship until 6:15PM.  I have never seen lines that long anywhere!  Fortunately everyone was in a good mood and the weather was cool.

Tomorrow is on to Vigo…..

Vigo, Spain

May 3rd

We had been scheduled to take a ship’s tour to Sanitago De Compostella but we were informed by the shore excursion office that because of the Jubilee year of the pilgrimages, the area will be very crowded and there was a very good chance we would not be allowed to enter the cathedral.  Based on that information, we decided to cancel our tour and just walk around town.

Vigo is just a fairly large city with not much to offer the tourist.

Charlie and I found the perfect sidewalk cafe…..

Good wine..good cheese…and a pretty park across the street!!!!  Can’t think of anything else we could ask for.

Tomorrow is a sea day and then the next day we stop in Dover.

Ponta Delgada

April 30th

This was our first port.  Getting off the ship was very confusing but our guide, Ricardo Amorin (Amazing Tours) was waiting for us and off we went for a tour of the island of Sao Miguel.  We had wanting to go to Crater Lake but Ricardo told us it was fogged in so we opted to tour the east side of the island. The day was somewhat overcast with some light rain.  Our first stop was at an outlook on the south side of the island.

 

Our next stop was at an area of hot springs

 

Then it was back tp Ponta Delgada for a perfect end to the day !!!!!!

Views from our balcony at sailaway……

This is a beautiful island and we really enjoyed our day.  Charlie was especially happy to be off the ship…don’t think he enjoys the sea days as much as the rest of us do.

Tomorrow is another sea day and our next port will be Lisbon on May 2nd.

More Sea Days

April 28th and April 29th

Two more sea days until we reach our first port, Ponta Delgada, in the Azores.  I love the sea days…enjoy going to the lectures and ,of course, playing Mah Jongg.   

I made a concealed hand…NNN EW SSS 111 111. 

Nothing much else to say about the sea days.  Tomorrow starts what will be the pretty port intensive part of the cruise.