England, A New Phase of the Journey Begins

We left the ship at about 8:30 am on Sunday morning and made our way to the rental car place at the airport. Now the fun began...Jim driving and me navigating. Fortunately, I had the help of GPS. We survived what seemed like thousands of roundabouts. Our destination was Winchester, which is about 30 miles from

Southampton. The city is ancient and our hotel is a pub right in the heart with a view of the cathedral and university out our attic room window. This place is everything an English pub should be. The structure has been a pub since before our Revolutionary War.

Love Winchester. It reminded us of how much we have enjoy this country and the countryside. Yesterday was the 60th Anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. We were able to tour the cathedral while they were setting up for a special service. Heard the incredible organ and saw the ladies and gentlemen lining up dressed in their finest hats and the men wearing their army medals.

Jane Austin's House

Today was another day to remember. I am a HUGE Jane Austin fan. We visited the village of Chawton and her home where she wrote so many of her novels. We also drove to Highclere Castle where they film Downton Abbey. We made it through the gate and got a glimpse of the towers of the castle before a guard turned us away. Oh we'll, we tried.

Highclere Castle

Tomorrow we move to Horsted Place, a country house hotel in East Sussex.

Normandy...A Moving Experience

Our last day was a nine hour tour to the beaches of Normandy. We were weary, but it was so worth it.  The Normandy countryside is beautiful. We visited Gold Beach, the British Beach where the pontoon bridges and docks were put in place to download Allied troops, tanks, supplies to support the taking of France. The American Cemetery was the highlight. To see this beautiful serene place where our heroes rest is almost a religious experience. To cap the visit, we were there for the lowering of the flag with taps lingering in the air. Omaha Beach seems so ordinary. We saw families with children playing on the beach. To think on June 6, 69 years ago, the invasion took place and the beach was the scene of such carnage. A truly memorable day.

Bordeaux

The sail in was unusual. We traveled up the Gironde/Garonne Rivers to moor right in the heart of the city. It felt like river cruising. We had two full days and nights in this incredible area. The major wine producing area of the world, Bordeaux takes its wine very seriously. We were surprised at the price of wine, quite cheap.

The first day was spent wandering the city. There has been a lot money spent here in reclaiming the riverfront area and cleaning the beautiful buildings. Our second day, we had a car and driver to take us into the Bordeaux countryside. Wine tasting is by appt. only in the major wineries, but they have cooperatives featuring many producers that are open to the public and free. We enjoyed our lessons in  Bordeaux wine. The land on the left bank of the river is very gravelly and produces a very different wine from the right bank, which has much better soil. We had a very good lunch, three courses beautifully presented. The French really know how to eat and drink.

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

A beautiful structure with the outside walls made of Titanium. The primary exhibition was called France at War. It showed art that was produced during WW II in France, as well as art  produced in the concentration camps.This was particularly moving. We had also seen some concentration camp art in the Holocaust Museum in Israel.

There was also a Picasso room, but sadly we don't like his art so I can't really say if was good or not.

Bilbao

An unexpected turn of events. The captain announced yesterday morning that the weather in the port  to follow Bilbao was too bad for us to  venture into and that we would stay over night  in Bilbao and tour here for two days.

The port is 9 miles from town, so it requires a shuttle. We were on an early bus and walked the city for about two hours. It is quite prosperous, clean and modern. The old city is also very well taken care of. They have cleaned their buildings of many years of pollution and grime and the stonework inside the churches has been cleaned so you can really se what the original creation is like.

Today we go to the Guggenheim Museum. Tomorrow we visit Bordeaux.

More of Spain

We are in northwestern Spain. We crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in the dead of night several days ago. Jim got up at one AM to see if he could see the Rock or all the naval vessels that patrol the waters, but all he could see was the black of night.

Yesterday we were in a small town called La Coruna. It had a lovely old city center, which we walked for about two hours with a guide. Of course, every town has many churches, so we got our quota of  old churches and old rocks in for the day. As we have traveled west, the rocks have gotten younger, as we are now dealing with the 10th & 11th centuries, A.D.

One of the highlights of this stop was eating tapas in two different restaurants. One served an egg/potato omelet, calamari, cheese croquettes and a pork dish. While the other was obviously a purveyor of  smoked meats and cheeses. The entire ceiling was hung with huge hams,

We visit Bilbao today. This is a major center of the Basque region of Spain and home to a famous Guggenheim Museum. We plan to walk the city without a tour. We have toured out. The last stop in Spain and the day and a half in Bordeaux will be spent on our on. The last tour is Normandy, which will be one day and a brief snapshot.

Portugal in Two Stops

We have spent the last two days in Portugal. We got very different impressions in the two cities we visited. From the water as you sail in, Lisbon looks beautiful and promises to be a great stop. They compare it to San Francisco because it is built on hills and has an orange expansion bridge. But we couldn't see the resemblance.

We were disappointed in the city. Lots of graffiti, but everywhere we have throughout the trip has been loaded with grafitti. We did have the tour guide from hell here. A guide that either was new to the business or was just not good. Probably our least favorite port.

On to Porto, which we really enjoyed. We ditched our tour today because we were afraid of a repeat experience. We took the shuttle into the city and loved it. Jim drank port wine in the city that gives the wine its name. We walked the old city and found it charming.

Tomorrow we are back in Spain. More cathedrals, castles and old rocks. Every Eurpopean city that we have visited seems to have their fair share of these. Still enjoying every minute of the cruise.