2022 Cruise - Part Two

 Day Seven - We arrived in Falmouth in the early morning,   This port town is on the very southwest corner of England and has been around for a very long time.  Went for a walk early in the morning to the old part of town. In the afternoon, we travelled by bus through thee Cornish countryside and charming towns before arriving at the ancient market town of Marion, set upon the picturesque shores of Mount Bay. This is the town Eisenhower and the allied troops planned and executed D-Day operations.  Nice to see the buildings and small towns where all this took place.  

Day Eight - We set sea over to Portsmouth.  This is another town in England with a lot of naval history; from the Mary Rose, which is a boat built by Henry the Eighth, to the boats captioned by Nelson in the defeat of the Spanish Armada.  We also took a drive around town and the sounding area.  We are here during Easter week so tourism is very high for the next couple days.

 

Day Nine - Set sail to Honfleur, France to explore the medieval town of Rouen or known as "The City of a Hundred Spires".  In the area of Normandy, this town has a large history of English and French ownership.  This is home to a second Notre Dame Cathedral and the burial place of Richard the Lionheart.  There are several other gothic churches which makes for quite a walking tour of this town,  Our port is at the Seine river which has it origins in the Alps and comes through Paris before getting here.  Many people took a bus over to Paris but we needed an excuse to come back some day and cruise up the Seine and then spend a couple days in Paris.

Day Ten - Belgium.  We arrived in Belgium on Easter.  We toured the town of Bruges.  This is another very-well preserved medieval town with a ton of history.  These medieval towns make different decisions about how to handle these historic parts of town.  Some prefer to keep it as historic as possible but others try to introduce some modern touches.  We walked through narrow, twisting cobblestone streets, passing by picturesque scenes of ancient buildings, tree-lined canals and gabled facades.  Since it was Easter Sunday, tourist were out in droves.  We had to keep a close watch for our tour guide or we would get swept up in the crowds of people. 

Day Eleven - Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  Our first excursion was a canal cruise and then a trip to the Dutch countryside.  This famous city is home to 165 canals that wind their way through the cityscape, spanning a total of 31 miles; 1,281 bridges cross over the canals.  We took a leisurely drive, stopping in the fishing village of Volendam to taste local delicacies (deep fried Cod fish and Herring). On the way, saw tulip farms in full bloom. These tulips are grown just for their bulbs.  The tulips we get for bouquets are grown in greenhouses. They have gone in big with wind power - there are new windmills everywhere.  You can still see the traditional windmills that used for regional water management.

Day Twelve  - Day 12 is day at sea - so a day of lectures and reading.  We had heavy fog all day so the first views of the North Sea did not pan out. We should have been able to see windmills and oil wells scattering the North Sea. 

Day Thirteen - Headed to Norway - Bergen was once the capital of Norway and is still it's second largest city. This is a beautiful city.  Out last day of the Trades Routes of the Middle Ages section of this cruise we took a panoramic tour of the city and then took a 4-mile hike into the mountainside overlooking the city.  It was quite a view and it felt nice to work out the knees a little bit.  Funny story - we went into town to walk around and stopped at ATM (they call them Mini Banks) to get some local cash.  Not knowing what amount we needed, we got 500 Norway Krone.  But after shopping for some bandages, which cost 54.95 Kroner for a box of 20 bandages,  we realized this will not go very far.  So we headed back to the ATM about 30 minutes later.  First thing I notice on the ground is my room key that has been on the ground at the ATM for those 30 minutes.  The Force was looking out for me ;). Norway is a very expensive country.   

Next Cruise: Eight days - Viking Shores and Fjords Cruise on the Viking Jupiter.  This was the same ship we just cruised on, but we did have to change rooms.