Trans-Atlantic 2025
Pre-Cruise
When NCL called me and said that I had a future cruise credit I argued with them. He said I did, I said I didn't, and so on. Then I thought, why am I arguing? If they want to give me $500 off on a cruise, I should take it. It wasn't that easy. When the time for final payment rolled around, we canceled the cruise because we didn't have the time or money, at that time, to take it. We did that twice. I guess three times is the charm. We book the transatlantic as our third option. I felt more set in stone as it was our forty-fifth wedding anniversary the day before the ship set sail.
I told a good friend of mine, Brad, what we were doing. He phoned back about five minutes later and said, “I'm booked.” They were having a lot of stress at their place and they needed a break. Then they said, “You should invite the Herns too.” We three couples had done Panama Canal together a couple of years back. The gang was back together and the Herns were bringing two of their kids too. Not really kids. One just came home after two years of being gone and the other one is in high school. There will be eight for dinner.
The day before the cruise, Deb and I went out to dinner so we wouldn't have any dishes when we came home. The lady at the table across from us brightened when she saw Deb. “Oh, I just love your books. In fact, I'm going to see if there's one I haven't read when I get home.”
Deb beamed at that. She didn't recognizance the lady but said thank you anyway. It's fun that we are getting more and more recognized in the area.
We knew it was going to be a short night, to begin with, but then I'm getting texts and emails from the airline telling me I needed to get there early. Like I want to sit in an airport longer than I have to and on my forty-fifth wedding anniversary to boot.
We set our alarms for one-thirty and were out of the house by two-ten. Having only a few hours of sleep I was glad the airport was only half an hour away instead of the nearly two hours I used to drive. It did take longer than normal and I did have a bag check. It turns out that cheese has the same density as C4 explosives. I already knew that so the bag check didn't surprise me. I ate the cheese for breakfast.
The plane had to de-ice and took off late. It was only a short flight, but it was in the wrong direction. We had to go to Seattle.
With the plane running late, we thought we were going to have to hustle to the next gate. When we landed Deb asked the ticket agent on the way off the plane where the new gate was. Turns out, we could have stayed on the plane. Our new seats were one row back of the seats we had just vacated. Oh well. We were able to walk around and stretch our legs and then get back on the plane half an hour later.
This next flight was almost seven hours long and it went across the United States diagonally. I've been on longer flights, but I didn't love them. It was nice to have no one in the seat between us this time. We were so tired we crashed right away, but then were woken up by the safety drill, the pilot announcing how pleased he was that we chose his airline, the flight attendant announcing that the Jones family was headed to Orlando Disney World sponsored by Make a Wish, on then just when you settle down again, they come by with drink cart. So, for the first three hours, I napped on and off, but it wasn't real restful.
I watched as we passed over the Mississippi River. That was cool. At some point, the flight attendants stopped to talk to Deb who mentioned it was our anniversary. They brought us a chocolate bar and a can of sparkling wine. I've never even heard of sparkling wine before. Needless to say, we didn't drink it.
We landed in Miami and then took a cab to the hotel. The guy behind the check-in desk recommended a Cuban restaurant next door, so we went there. It was so authentic, the hostess didn't speak English at all. The customers weren't speaking English either but probably did in their everyday lives.
Embarkation Day
We got up for breakfast and headed down to the complimentary one in the lobby. The desk clerks quizzed us as we came in to make sure we were bonafide hotel guests. The breakfast consisted of toast, bagels, Fruit Loops, and four types of coffee. We walked over to the nearest McDonalds.
After booking an Uber, we rested some until he came.
I'm going to tell you a horror story of our embarkation. It was the worst we have ever experienced. The Uber driver was a little early, so we arrived ten minutes early, only they hadn't started letting people in the building yet. So all those who had earlier embarkation times were still there all jammed up in front of the building. They had a line in front of the building, and when they started letting people in they had another line downstairs. Then you arrived upstairs to find another line waiting for security. They only had two security lines open out of the five they had in the building. I didn't understand that. Then when you got through that line, there was the line to get your keycards.
That was when the trouble began. We knew in advance that England had made a visa requirement before the cruise and we both registered for it. When you received the email back from the British authorities it said you didn't have to keep the email. The email from England had said that the visa would be linked to the passport. Norwegian didn't tell us we had to have proof of the email. Luckily, I had kept my email showing I did it, but Deb couldn't find hers. We were taken over to the naughty line like we wanted to stand in yet another line. It took fourteen tries with Deb trying, I tried eight times and the lady behind the counter tried six times until the application went through.
Insult to injury, we had to pay the filing fee again.
Almost four hours in line. Our friends who arrived an hour after we did were only five minutes behind.
The bright spot was meeting with friends. We met up for lunch. Jack and his family had taken a red-eye flight and had gotten no sleep at all. We all had lunch together. It was fun to catch up. After lunch, we went to the stateroom, but it wasn't ready yet so we wandered the decks. The stateroom is supper narrow and cramped.
We found Jack and the three of us watched as we sailed past two other cruise ships on our way out into the ocean. The Carnival Horizon was the first to leave and then we left after her, passing the Icon of the Seas.
Four of us made the comedy show. The comedian was brutal to those who came in late, but he was funny all in all. I laughed a lot. I was tired when it was over. We went up to the stateroom. It was ready and our bags were there so we unpacked and then went to bed.
Sea Day One
One good thing I can say about this ship is that it glides through the water even in semi-rough seas. The TV was an issue during the night. We scoured the room to find the remote, but it was nowhere to be found. The TV was on and had music coming from it sounding like ancient Indian war chants. I finally unplugged the network cable as the power cable was behind the wall. That stopped the music but not the picture. It would change channels randomly. The room steward brought us a remote in the morning so we were able to finally turn it off.
We had breakfast with Brad and Miranda they headed off to go race cars but were unsuccessful. We then met up with them and played games. As they left, Jack and his son Josh came in and we played games with them. Then we went down to play trivia. Found a couple from Canada to play with us. Dan and Judy. Boy was he good. We ended up tying for first. It was then off to the buffet for lunch. I found a hot dog, so I was happy.
After lunch, Deb went up to her watercolor class. I cleaned up for our anniversary dinner at Teppanyaki. We had all eight of us there. The guy cooked in front of us, but I thought he overcooked most things. He sang and tapped out the rhythm with the spatula against the grill. Then the other cooks came out and it almost felt like they tried to outdo each other by being loud. Poor Brad had a headache and that wasn't helping.
Dinner was good. Tami kept telling people that it was our anniversary. They would ask how long we had been married and we would say forty-five years and their jaw would drop. It's a long time.
Deb and I went to the comedy show. We enjoyed it. It was a different comedian than yesterday. We and the Quintons were able to get into Jersey Boys. It's the story of the Four Seasons. It told their story. I only wish the language wasn't so rough or at least warned us about the language.
Sea Day Two
Ugh. Turn our clocks forward. I was already tired and losing an hour isn't helping. We called the others to meet us for breakfast but only two of the Herns showed up. Deb went to the front desk to fix her British immigration because they left a message on the phone. It turns out it wasn't her they were talking about, it was me. Argh. I showed them the email already. The person must have forgotten to take a picture of it when I checked in. I went down and fixed it. Then we went to trivia. Didn't do so good. Then we had a snack at the buffet before playing games with the gang. The captain came over the intercom and said that there was a storm in front of us. We are going to miss our first stop, the Azores. That's because we have to head around the storm. That makes nine days to get across the Atlantic. We decided to try out the Manhattan dining room in the back of the ship. It's classier. I think people liked it so much that we'll probably do that when we are not in specialty restaurants.
After dinner, we went to the Beatles cover band. They were from Argentina. I had a hard time figuring out what they were saying as they had heavy accents, but they sang great.
Sea Day Three
We get to change the time in the middle of the night again. The ship's phone says it's 7:15, my phone says it's 5:15 and the computer thinks it's 2:15. I guess I can pick the time I like best.
Getting the group together is getting harder and harder which is sad because I like all of them. I don't want to talk about progressive trivia because we are not doing good at it. Had breakfast in the buffet because our other options took too long. We played games, some of us, in the library and that was fun. Deb and I went to Pictionary after and even made it to the second round after finding a stranger to help us by the name of Jodi. She was a single traveler. There seems to be a lot of them on the ship.
I hate the NCL app on my phone. It doesn't do much. It gives you the daily activity list in microscopic formatting. When you enlarge it you still need to use a magnifying glass to read it.
Other cruise lines ships have texting available for those traveling together. Princess has a locator option so you know exactly where they are at all times. They have ship maps on the app so you can find places. The NCL one has only the daily schedule. I'm just a little more than frustrated. On this cruise where the time zone changes literally every day, if your app goes offline for the ship's internet, it gives you the wrong time until you turn off and then back on your connection.
Enough griping. The ship is pretty, so there is that. I finally took some time to familiarize myself with the decks inside the ship. Tomorrow I'll go up to the top. The funny thing, we are sailing so far south to get around the storm that we are in warm weather.
We did have everyone at dinner tonight. That was awesome. Most of us made the show with the mentalist. He was very good. He even guessed the phone number from a random page in the phone book that Miranda was looking at. I know she wasn't a plant.
After that, I stopped by to watch, minute to win it. I was so glad I wasn't a contestant.
NCL is really cutting back. Gone are the shrimp appetizers in the dining room. We used to get two plates of chocolate strawberries and a bottle of wine, but now we only get one plate of strawberries. I don't mind not getting the wine, but I hate to see cutbacks.
Sea Day Four
I swear our room steward puts the same exact notice to turn our clocks forward. I'm sure he's picking it up and making the bed then putting it back down for the next time change.
I had a terrible night. I woke up twice to go to the bathroom. The last time it burned. I walked out on the balcony and sat there for half an hour. I didn't help, my gut was hurting and getting worse. When I came back in I had a super-hot shower in hopes of settling everything down. It helped a little but not for long. I tried sleeping, but it was to no avail.
Deb suggested a shower. I guess my moaning and groaning had waken her up too. I took another one, but the effects were not as good as the first time. The pain was getting really bad. I was thinking appendicitis but it was on the wrong side. By then the medical center opened. Deb took me up there and I grabbed a barf bag from the top of the stairwell. It was lucky that I did because as soon as I sat down I started to throw up. I didn't make a mess, luckily. I guess lucky for them because I wouldn't have been the one cleaning it up. That got their attention, because four of them, even the receptionist came running into the waiting room. The next thing I knew, I was in the back on a bed getting an IV put in.
I learned later that the doctor had taken one look at him and thought heart attack. So now I'm getting an EKG on top of my blood pressure and pulse. They kept me there four hours after they figured out that it was either a kidney stone or a UTI. They treated me for both. I slept on and off, but it was hard because they took another person and put him in the same room as me, but in the other bed and he kept talking to his wife the whole time. Soon they left and I was able to sleep for about half an hour. They had shot me with painkillers and a whole bottle of IV drip. I was pretty fluffed up by then. Brad, Miranda, and Jack came in and gave me a blessing.
The doctor asked, “Why are they praying over him, my patient is not dying.” I guess he thought they were giving me last rites.
After I finished the drip bottle, they let me go. By this time, I was super tired. I had missed breakfast, but Deb had brought me an omelet. We had missed lunch so we found a bite to eat and then went down to the room. I slept until it was time to go to trivia. Dinner tonight was at Cagney's Steak House. The food was good, but the beef, well there was too much of it. I couldn't finish it all. It's not like I can do a doggy bag on a cruise ship.
We found a table and played games in the back of the buffet after dinner.
Sea Day Five
Yes, five sea days in a row, and the captain came on the intercom and announced we were just past halfway there. Sigh. I have a lot of bottles of medicine to take and it's hard keeping them straight. I took one on an empty stomach that I should have taken with food. Oops. It got me a little nauseous but I powered through.
Another time zone change. It doesn't matter to me because I'm up three times in the night. I'm forcing fluids per doctor’s orders and they are forcing their way out during the night. But not all at once, they are staggering it every few hours. The time change is getting to Deb though.
We met for breakfast this morning. Well, most of us anyway. I think there is a problem with watching movies all night with some of the younger ones.
Deb is taking a watercolor course and seems happy with it. She shows me some of her stuff. It's really nice.
Five of us ran into each other and then played games afterward. I barely look at the ship’s schedule. I try to read it on my phone but it's microscopic. I'm basically doing what everyone else wants to and that's all right.
Went to the Q Smokehouse tonight. They had a country band singing when we arrived, but then they took a break and that was all right by Deb. We ordered our meal. I had the platter with chicken, brisket ribs, and sausage on it. I thought the chicken was a little dry, but the rest was great. They gave you very small sides. It was the smallest baked potato I had ever seen. I could have held it in the palm of my hand and had room left over. The waiter frustrated me to no end. He ignored us after he took our order even when we tried three times to get his attention. The Hern kids are great and it's fun to be with them and their parents. We had fun.
We went to see the juggler tonight. I've seen a lot of jugglers in my day. I thought he did good.
I smashed my toe tonight. It bled everywhere. It wouldn't stop it for the longest time. The room steward is going to think someone was murdered when he comes to clean in the morning.
Sea Day Six
At least we didn't have to change the clocks again tonight. I guess that will be tomorrow.
The room steward didn't comment on the blood and gore, but he didn't bring our laundry back either. It's now two days late. We got up just in time to make it to breakfast. This is my first time eating at Local for breakfast. It was good. I do like the cook-to-order breakfast omelet in the buffet the best though.
In trivia, we had the planets. Even though I write sci-fi I have a problem with where the planets are. Dan, another team member, knows a lot about everything. We did okay.
There is not much to report on except food and trivia. I'm making sure to take my pills. I'm a little worried about when the painkillers wear out. Am I going to be bad again?
All of us made dinner tonight and to the show. The show was so good that most of the group went to it again. I opted out. I was so tired.
Sea Day Seven
Today was the day we were supposed to be docking in the Azores, but right now, the Azores are way north of us. We all made it to breakfast, I think it was the first time ever. We played Unexploded Cows after. We had to change our clocks back I'm so tired. All the time changes are getting to me.
We missed half the questions in trivia today, but the best team, I think, had only sixteen right?
I need better categories. I think they had to add a day because of the canceled port. We have turned northwest now in our approach to Lisbon. We were on a straight-out from Miami route before so the day was warm even for January.
After dinner in the Manhattan dining room, we made it to the Beatles show. Deb and I were too tired to do much else after so we went back up to the stateroom.
The Beatles play different songs every so it's not the same show over and over again.
Sea Day Eight
This should be our last sea day! Yeah. We should be landing in Lisbon tomorrow. I feel like I might walk around like a drunk when I hit dry land. I've been on the high seas so long I’m going to have to adjust to being on land. My internet is now in French. I don't know why. It should be in Spanish or Portuguese. I have to click on the translate button every time I find a new web page. At least my regular pages I always use are in English.
The internet on the ship is getting harder and harder to log on to. It takes ten to fifteen tries to get on. If I can't get on right away I'll reset the computer. If that doesn't work, I'll stick my tongue to the right side of my mouth. Surprisingly, that method works when all else fails. When that doesn't work, I give up for a few hours and try again. Today, it didn't work no matter how many times I tried.
Feeling a little queasy today. I didn't have much of an appetite for lunch. Luckily, by dinner, I was feeling better. I'm blaming all these pills I'm taking.
Dinner went better and I was able to eat it all. The menus are getting less variety. I think that's because we have been eight days without being able to replenish. There were a lot of potato and rice dishes. It makes me wonder. Still, we are not entirely out of fresh vegetables, but still.
We all had dinner together today. A lot of us rushed up to the laser tag as they were closing it and going to rip it out for the rest of the cruise. They wouldn't let us play because the floor was wet. The guys running it then packed it up and left. I'm thinking they were looking for an excuse to get off work an hour early.
We went down and played games until it was time for bed. We have Portugal tomorrow and want to get an early start.
Lisbon, Portugal
Woke up and saw city lights in the distance. We were closing in on Lisbon. I decided to go up and grab breakfast at six because I was starving to death, something I thought wouldn't be possible on a cruise ship. I sat near the forward area where you can see out the front of the ship. There was a bridge we were coming toward so after breakfast I headed down to the balcony and snapped a few shots of the bridge as we went under it.
I saw the Christus on the shore for the first time. It was something I didn't know existed. We continued on. I thought we were going to make a left turn. What I was seeing was across the shore from the city. We stopped and a tug boat came up beside us and spun in a circle. I don't know why. I guess it was there if we needed it. I couldn't see from my stateroom balcony but we were docking on the other side of the ship. A lot of people stuck their heads over the railing of the balconies.
One lady said, “Are y'all as happy to see land as I am?” When we made it upstairs, the city of Lisbon spread out before us.
The entire group came downstairs together when they announced that we could get off the ship. We found a lot of taxi drivers holding signs for tours, but one stood out to me. He was older and had an eight-passenger van. That worked out of the eight of us. We told him that we had a walking tour later on and showed him where the walking tour went. He nodded and after agreeing on a price, we headed out.
The first thing he did was to drive us to a viewpoint of the city below us. There was a church on that hill that was the first church built after they overthrew the Moors. In fact, there was the remnant of a Moorish castle on the top of the hill overlooking the city. He then headed into town. At one point he was driving on a narrow road with trolley tracks on it. I had seen trolleys buzzing around town. I asked what would happen if a trolley came right now.
“That would be very bad.”
He was telling us about a Portuguese Shakespeare. I forgot the name. There are Roman Catacombs in the city; we drove by entrances for them. Another fun thing was we were at the entrance to a cathedral where a picture is which is on the ten Euro note. Also on the cathedral was a Star of David carved into the stone of the foundation and another stone that had Roman numerals on it. He explained that the stones had been taken and repurposed from ancient Roman ruins. There were other examples of that around the city. At one point someone honked at us. Our driver said, “So what, you have a horn. I have a horn too. Do you want to hear my horn?”
They have a map near the river that shows all of the Portuguese explorers and the ships they were in when they colonized different parts of the world. The Portuguese Saint is Vincent because he is the patron saint of mariners. He drove us out to the statue of Christ I had seen on the way into the city and we walked around the bottom. Jack and family took the elevator up to the base of the statue. We then went back over the same bridge we had gone under in the morning.
He showed us a burnt-out church that had been rebuilt but they left the original columns to show the extent of the damage. We walked around the inside. A man comes up and points at my hat. Oops. I'm in a church I should have remembered to take it off. There was another church across town that had not been rebuilt but a museum had been constructed inside the walls of it. We finished up next to the river with a monument to the explorers.
He then dropped us off at the city square where to walking tour would start. We had time so we all went and bought some pork sandwiches. When we came back to the tour, they split us English speakers into two groups. Our leader, Pedro, mentioned the pork for the sandwiches was soaked in white wine overnight before they cooked it the next day. Oops.
We were on foot. He walked us through several neighborhoods. We walked by the oldest bookstore in the world. I don't think they have any of my books because they were mostly in Portuguese. There is a square where a bunch of Jews were massacred. Then we walked up a hill to the top of the elevator and had another good view of the city.
We then went uphill and downhill and uphill. There are a lot of streets that are too small for cars to drive on and a lot of steps and ramps. I was exhausted by the time we finished. Lisbon is built on seven hills and I think we climbed all of them. We walked by the ancient fort of the Moors and I touched the walls. There was a Moorish castle on top of the hill, but I was too walked out to go up. I have to get in better shape.
The adults had dinner together in one of the dining rooms. The kids hit the buffet. Brad and Miranda went to the show, but Deb and I went to our room and watched a movie.
Vigo Spain
I'll admit it. I never even heard of Vigo, Spain before this trip. We docked on our side of the ship this time so we had an early view of the city. Unlike Lisbon, they had a lot of modern buildings and small skyscrapers. We all met up after breakfast, but also unlike Lisbon, we docked at noon and not eight in the morning. We were hoping for a guy with a sign, but the port seems to be monopolized by a tour company. They wanted to stuff us on a bus with a lot of our new best friends and take us to a lot of places, some of which we didn't want to go. We did want to go up to the old castle, Concello de Vigo. That was the first place they stopped. We wondered if we should just get off the bus and walk down after we explored it. Instead, someone thought to ask a taxi driver how much it would cost to take us up there. Turns out it was seven Euros total instead of the twenty-five Euro each. So we took two taxis up the steep hill to the fort. We found some cannons. Jack likes cannons so we took pictures of him in front of them.
Wandering the fort was easier before the tour buses arrived. They kind of took over the hillside and it was nearly impossible to get a picture without other people in it.
After the castle, we headed down the hill. It would have been murder to climb up there, I'm so glad for the taxi ride.
We found a place for lunch. We wanted paella but couldn't find any. As we were standing there, the owner of the restaurant bid us to come in. The waitress didn't speak a word of English so we struggled to figure out everything. They put tables together to fit all eight of us and we sat down. The menu was in all Spanish too. Tami used an app on her phone that translated the menu into English. The spaghetti was a regional from Piedmont that I had never had before. I ordered it along with an appetizer. It was hard to order because of the language barrier. Miranda and Jack knew some Spanish. With what they knew and what the waitress could figure out everyone ordered. We clapped when we were finally able to figure it all out.
Everyone had their main dishes, but I only had my appetizer and I wondered if I had read the menu wrong and I only had the one item. When everyone else was nearly done she brought me my spaghetti. I loved it. Sad that I'll never be able to get back there. The owner took a picture with Brad and Miranda in front of the place.
We then went to the shopping area. It was upscale so we thought we wouldn't be able to afford anything. It turns out that they were all having after-Christmas sales and things were marked way down.
I was walked out again by the time we finished. We threw our backpacks in our room and went straight to the dinner reservations at Ocean Blue. Turns out they are about to tear it out on the next refit and put in a second Cagney's. We skipped the show. We shouldn't have. Brad and Miranda said it was amazing.
Sea Day
I seem to be healing. We are sailing up the coast now. There are a lot more ships in this area and it’s fun to watch them go by and guess what they are carrying. We mainly eat in the buffet and usually run into at least one of our friends when we do. We're spending more time with just Brad and Miranda. We went to dinner at La Cucina just Deb and I and met Brad and Miranda at the show. It was the Beatles this time. It's the third time we've seen them. It was in the theater this time so there was enough room for the crowds. Afterward, we played games in the buffet. We taught them a new game, but I think Brad was out of sorts a little. He finally said, “I hate this game.” I don't know if it was because he was losing or just plain tired because, usually, it's a fun game.
La Harve
Brad, Miranda, Deb, and I met for
breakfast and then were ready to disembark the ship when they let us off at La
Havre. The Herns had decided they wanted to go to Paris. I wanted to see the
D-day beaches but realized they were just too far. It was a long walk into town
before I was able to flag down a taxi. Our taxi driver, Marc, didn't speak a
lot of English. In fact very little. Then he says, “You are in France, you
should speak French.”
I shot back, “I was in Portugal and I didn't speak Portuguese. I was in Spain and I didn't speak Spanish. Now I'm in France.” I don't think he understood me, but I had a point. I didn't want to have to learn three different languages to go on this trip. I will stick to the two I know.
We are trying to figure out what we want to do. We tried to say to just take us to Honfleur, but he wanted to take us to Rouen also. He would say things like, “It's good for you.”
Finally, the google translate comes out. He insists on adding Rouen to our itinerary and shows us pictures of it. We agree. After driving for an hour, we finally arrived at the city. He parks by this amazingly large cathedral and lets us off. It was the Notre Dam de Rouen. Through Google translates he tells us that he will meet us back at three.
With no idea where we even were, we walked through the city. We started with the cathedral. Going in, we wander around. The place is being renovated in places and there are men with hard hats walking around. I think back to the church in Lisbon where a man points at my hat and motions for me to take it off. Okay, I should have realized that to begin with. I knew better but I had forgotten. In this cathedral, I remembered.
The streets are narrow and most of them are for walking only. They have delivery drivers that can press a button and the bollard blocking the road lowers. After one truck passes by, Miranda stands on it to see what will happen. It raised up with her on it.
There is an amazing clock on one of the streets so we go and explore. There seems to be two chocolate shops per block in this town and at least one bakery too. We try the beignet. It was amazing, so now we have a lot of chocolate and candy from different shops and the sweet taste of pasty in our mouths.
Just past the clock, we see a restaurant that serves chicken. They have a three-foot-high meat cylinder of chicken rotating around a roaster and when someone orders some chicken, he shaves off some. It was very good.
I didn't think we could find enough to do to keep busy for the three hours the taxi driver gave us to wander, but in the end, we did.
He drives us toward La Havre, I'm looking at his map. I announced to the group that we were going over the Grand Canal and after that, there was a bridge over the river Seine.
“Good,” our taxi driver Marc, said. I got another, “Good” when I said something about Paris, but then went back and pronounced it “Paree,” like the French do.
It looked to me that he was taking us back to La Havre and not to Honfleur and I wondered if we had lost something in translation. But then there is a fork in the road and we are headed toward Honfleur. He drove through town and someone commented, “I would like to see the town.”
He said the word “Panorama” and I took it to mean he was headed up to a viewpoint. He did. We could see the whole town and the ocean beyond. We could even see across the bay to La Have.
La Harve was destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt after so all of its old buildings were gone. Honfleur was spared destruction.
The was a little church up on the hill. We went through that. Brad headed over to some bells and as he walked up to them, they began ringing. “What did you do, Brad?” Miranda asked. He professed his innocence.
Then we drove down into the town and he let us off to explore. We headed up and down the streets, and passed by a group of parents waiting for the children to get off school. We found a bakery. Of course, we had to order the eclairs and beignets. As were eating, some of the same group of parents who were waiting for their kids, now with kids in tow came into the same bakery and bought their kids a treat.
Had dinner with Brad and Miranda and then later on in the evening, we went over to Hern's stateroom to swap stories with them.
Disembarkation – Southampton – London
They gave us luggage tags of different colors. By the time we got up and to breakfast, they had called all of the colors and wanted us off the ship. That didn’t phase us and we ate leisurely with Brad and Miranda. The Herns had scheduled flights through the cruise line. The flights NCL put them on were nearly nightmarish. It was a red eye coming in and they had to fly nearly all over the country going back. Jack had wanted to spend a few days in London post-cruise, but NCL wouldn’t let him change flights. It was to get off the ship and to the airport.
We hired a cab to take us to the train station. When we told him where we were going he volunteered to take us there for a measly four hundred pounds. We paid twenty each for the train. The train was very smooth and a nice ride through the countryside. The train had very few stops too. When we arrived at the train station, we had an Uber take us to the rental. He was very helpful in telling us what we should see and what we shouldn’t bother with. He also gave us advice about getting around. Interesting thing about British accents is, that they differ like American accents. The problem was this guy was only saying half words. He was ending his words in the middle and leaving off the last part. He also used f instead of th in his words. I found him hard to understand. Other people in England didn’t do that.
We arrived at the place, the lady who said she would meet us didn’t arrive until a half hour later. We had the concierge of the building let us in. It was cold outside, but not as cold as it would be over the next two days. When I stepped in, the back wall was all window with the Thames River only a few feet away. Amazing. Miranda did a great job booking this.
We settled into our rooms and then went and found something to eat. There is a stadium within walking distance, long walking distance, to the rental. We walked towards it as it had a lot of restaurants in it. It’s the O2 arena. What happened with the idea of actually giving things names? Come to find out it is named after the sponsor, O2 Telecommunications. You should have named that one too. We found a group of small fast-food places, like a food court, before we made it to the arena. It’s good we did because the food in the arena was three to four times more. I had Mexican. Unlike the places in Boston and Hawaii, this Mexican was good.
We then explored the arena without a name. As we did we passed the Cloud station. It’s the Cloud Cable Car over the River Thames. I guess it would be called an aerial tram in the States. As dinner time approached we decided to go across the river and see what was over there. We found a pizza place. I thought I was back in Italy for a minute because the waitress didn’t speak English well. After ordering the people next to us had their pizza arrive. The one lady put ketchup and mayonnaise on hers. I was sitting so close to her I could smell it. It’s a good thing I had already ordered. Miranda pretended to show Deb some pictures on her phone while she took photos of it.
Afterward, we went back over the aerial tram and bought some breakfast stuff at a small market. I lost my ATM card there. We went running back when I found it was missing, but they claimed they hadn’t seen it. It was late on Friday, but since it was only eleven in the States I called and had it cancelled.
We planned the rest of the trip with maps and subway station (Tube) to figure out what all we wanted to do the next two days.
London Day One
We walked to the tube station the next morning only to find out it was closed. Not only was that station closed, but that whole line that fed the south part of London was also down for maintenance. They suggested that we take the bus. The problem there was, that the bus ride had to fight traffic and stops a lot. It took us two hours to get into town. It seemed ridiculous. The good thing is that a lady who was very familiar with the bus stops told us how to get around. She told us not to go to Windsor Castle unless we had a whole day to get there. We scratched that one off our list. The bus took us to London Bridge. I wanted the group to sing London Bridge is Falling Down as we crossed it, but no one else wanted to.
We walked from there toward the Tower Bridge after a quick snack from Starbucks. There is an issue with bathrooms in this city. They are few and far between. Starbucks had one, so we bought snacks and used the facility. In fact, all over Europe seems to have the same problem.
The Tower of London is actually a huge fortress with the White Tower in the middle. We paid for admission into the Tower of London and waited for the tour guide (Yeoman). We gathered at the filled-in moat for the tour to start. The yeoman was funny as he talked about all the beheadings on Tower Hill above the fortress. There were a lot. The important people were executed on the lawn in the middle of the grounds instead of up the hill. He would then say, let’s beheading over this way. The tower, for many years, was a jack of all trades. It served as the royal palace, a prison, the depository of the crown jewels, and a fortress. The crown jewels are still there but the royal family and prisoners are not.
After the fortress, we headed out on a tour bus to the parliament building which had Big Ben. We were running out of time by then so we found a different way home than the city bus. We took the tube to Tower Hill Station. (Try not to think of the beheadings) then walked up and down and then up the steps again. We took the light rail to Royal Victoria Station and then walked to the Cloud Cable Car to cross the river. From there it was just a hop skip and jump to the rental.
According to Miranda’s Fitbit, we did 19,311 steps, walked 8.42 miles, and climbed up the equivalent of seventeen stories of stairs.
London Day Two
It’s been seventeen days since I left home. It seems like a lot. It’s hard to run a business with no spreadsheets and spotty internet. I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed too. This bed is small to match a small room. The apartment has a great view though.
We went to finish up our list of places to visit but our efforts were once again thwarted. Our plan to use the Cloud to get across the river was out. It didn’t open until ten in the morning and we wanted to get out by eight. We cheated and hired an Uber. Our first stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was an amazing building with kings and war heroes buried in it. We toured quietly as they were trying to start mass. After that, we hopped on a tour bus and rode it down to Parliament. We took better pictures of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. They weren’t allowing people to tour the abbey as church was about to start so we went in as parishioners. That didn’t work out as some of us didn’t want to stay the whole hour. We left. It was also amazing. The abbey also has dead queens and kings buried under it.
Borough Market was on the other side of the River Thames from us so we walked over the London Bridge for the third time. In fact, it’s almost under the bridge. What an insanely busy market. We passed by the lunch places hoping to find somewhere not so busy. It was all shoulder to shoulder at that point, but we gave up and looped back around to the ones we had seen coming in. Miranda asked at the counter for a table. The guy said, “Miraaandah, spoken like an American.” He was nice and soon we were seated at one of the smaller tables I have ever sat at. I ended up tangled between the table and the seat. That didn’t matter until it was time to leave. The food was good. We were told not to get the fish and chips by everyone we talked to, so we didn’t. This place had hamburgers and chicken sandwiches, which were good.
Around the corner was Buckingham Palace. It was amazing, with lots of gold and large gates. I thought the building itself was a little muted after seeing the cathedrals and parliament. But it was still nice. We then walked out to Trafalgar Square. It was a hike but we found a place for lunch. Italian this time. I figured they were a lot closer to Italy than America was. We couldn’t find a nearby bus stop for the tour bus, so we hiked several more blocks until we found one. We asked a man in a street shop where it was.
“Hello, how are you?” he said. I guess the American way of just asking a question without a greeting wasn’t okay over there. Deb had run into the same thing.
We then said, “We’re fine, how are you?” Then we could ask our questions. We took the tour bus to the British Museum. There isn’t anything British, per se, at the British Museum. It was full of stuff that the British stole from around the globe and put in a collection. We had gone to Greece to see the Acropolis. The Greeks complained that the rest of it was in the British Museum so to bring it full circle we found the parts of the Acropolis we couldn’t see in Greece.
With that, we finished our list. I crossed the last place off the list that we had created when we first arrived in London.
We had another problem going home. The tour bus had altered its route for the weekend. We were all walked out by that point anyway, so we hired another Uber to get us home. 18,000 steps, over 8 miles, and 6 flights of stairs for the day.
The Flight Home
We woke up at five to get down to the Uber on time. This time it was a white van that fit all of our luggage in it just fine. They gave us the wrong apartment when they rented us the room and the one we had wasn’t as nice, but it did have a washing machine so we packed clean clothes on the way home.
The driver wasn’t pleased at having to make two extra stops in our two-and-a-half-hour trip to the airport so he charged us an extra 136 Pounds which was more than the original fare. When we arrived at the airport we managed to find each other as some of us had to go to the bathroom. We ate breakfast at the airport after we went through security. I was surprised as the prices were halfway decent, not like American airports. In England, they don’t assign a gate until the airplane lands. By the time we finished breakfast, we had a gate and an airplane waiting for us.
The flight to Reykjavik is only three hours from London with time enough to buy a hot dog before our next flight. Brad had one. I passed. We did get the excellent Icelandic chocolate though.
The next plane boarded right at sunset. It was the weirdest thing. We followed the sun the whole day so the sun didn’t finish setting the whole trip. It was an eight-hour sunset because we were crossing time zones fast enough to see the sun still in the sky. When we landed in Seattle, it finally set.
Passport Control was a nightmare. It was out of control. You have to claim your luggage, then walk it through the customs officer who doesn’t even look at it, then you have to recheck it in. We had fifteen minutes to do all that before our next flight. Passport Control was out of control because of a computer glitz. They had it fixed by the time we were in the second line, but it was very backed up by that point. We missed our flight because of it. Our suitcases didn’t, however. When Deb went to pick them up, they were in the lost luggage office. We managed to get booked on the next flight which was only an hour and a half later than the one we missed.
I went to get the car. The temperature had been in the teens and the car had been sitting for eighteen days. I didn’t think it was going to start, but it did. We made it home after being up for the last 26 hours and went straight to bed.
Panama Canal During Corona Virus
Reykjavik-Paris-Rome-Cinque Terre
Deb's Cruise Books
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