France, Belgium, Holland, & Portugal

Taking off - Saturday, Sept 15 & Sunday, Sept 16, 2018

The day after I turned 70, we took off and started our trip.

Our Delta flight was at 5:05pm. We left the house at 1 pm – glad we did that because the traffic on the pike was quite heavy even though it was a Saturday. Everything went smoothly and we were in the lounge around 3 and had the time to rest and relax before boarding.

The flight did not take off until after 5:30, but fortunately it was a short flight. I basically did not sleep, watched two movies. We landed in Amsterdam local time before 6am (home time before midnight) Sunday, 9/16. Avis car rental did not open until 6:30 so we waited and got our small Citron car when they opened. It took Bob a little time to get acclimated to the manual shift.

In the twilight, we started towards Rotterdam. We relied 100% on google map. I had to turn data roaming on for the map to work. Thankfully we purchased the Verizon TravelPass plan so for $10/day we can use the phone just like at home.

It was early Sunday morning so the highway and the cities were all still asleep. Perfect for Bob to get used to the driving! We drove into Rotterdam center, but really did not know where to go and the city itself did not seem that interesting – if I had done some research earlier, maybe we could have gone to the old town area, but that early in the morning there might not be too much to see. We lingered for a few minutes and decided to head straight to Kinderdjik, the windmill place that GG had told me about.

It was not far to get to Kinderdjik which is a UNESCO tourist attraction. A rural area with many old windmills, a river, and a tranquil country scene. But it was not particularly picturesque, in my opinion. Bob and I walked a short distance, took some pictures, then turned back just around 9am.

The scenes I really liked was the cows, horses and sheep, in the fields along the highway we drove on! Wish we were able to stop and take some photos, but …. The Netherlands were a really flat place, and very green. But in the early morning it was quite chilly. I wish I had brought our down sweaters! The other noticeable and very pleasant thing was seeing people riding bikes along the river bank, against the back drop of a pretty bridge. Sadly Bob was unable to stop the car for me to take a picture!

After Kinderdjik, Bob was thinking we could drive through Hague, but found out it was not exactly on our way to Brussels, so we decided to skip it and go to Antwerp instead. Unfortunately there was some sort of activities in Antwerp city center, so the road google map sent us was blocked in many places. We could not drive there, so we gave up. And headed directly to our hotel in Brussels.

Funny thing was that the Brussels also had some activity going on, and the route Google map sent us simply would not work – we drove two rounds and had the same results. Finally Bob looked at the map, then we had to drive to a long way away, before google map rerouted us a different way to our hotel.

Raddison Blu in Brussels was an OK hotel – adequate but nothing fancy or write home about. We will have 4 nights here. The parking fee was pretty exorbitant – 30UROs/day! Sigh ….

We checked in around 12:30pm. Both of us felt quite tired, especially Bob who had been driving all this time. But we must not sleep, and will go to bed early.

Bob took a short nap on the chair while I started writing the diary. Then we set out to look for some lunch before 2pm. This hotel was within easy distance to the old town and the famous palace plaza. But this was not only Sunday, but a special “no drive” day, and the entire place was crowded beyond my tolerance! OMG!! The crowds killed all the beauties and interests of any place! We walked by a couple of grocery places and we wanted to get some water and fruits, but thought we would do it on the way back to the hotel. Then we walked to the area that looked like a mini “China town” (with Chinese characters and a Chinese grocery store). We walked by a Chinese restaurant and Bob was really hungry, so we sat down to eat. And we had one the worst Chinese food – very expensive for the tiny amount they serve. We ordered a “peking duck”, a pig’s ear thing and some chicken feet, plus a bowl of porridge. It cost of around $60USD and was quite bad! Bob said his duck was ok, but it was a very small amount. Oh well ….

After lunch, we fought the crowds through the palace plaza, saw the very disappointing “peeing statue” which was so so small! Then we came back to the hotel, exhausted, without being able to get the water from the grocery store. We bought one bottle of water at the hotel for $8USD!

Maybe it’s because of the crowds, I am very disappointed in this city! I much prefer going to places like Africa, Antarctica, Arctic, and all the rural and free places!! Sigh ….

Charming Bruges - Monday, Sept 17, 2018

We had a decent night’s sleep – I fell asleep almost right away but woke up around 2am for at least an hour. I guess that must be my jet lag. But I did fall back to sleep eventually.

We did not step out of the hotel until after 9! First to find a coffee place for a simple breakfast (rather than paying at the hotel). There was a coffee breakfast place nearby and the food was quite decent. We only needed something simple – a warm something plus coffee.

We got on the road after breakfast, heading for Bruges. But not sure if google map went berserk or if I typed something wrong, it first sent us somewhere god-knows-what! Cost us an hour more. But it did allow us to see more of Belgium’s countryside, with fields and cows. Unfortunately I was not able to take good pictures. After googlemap said “your destination is on the right” and we were stunned at the place which was apparently NOT Bruges, we remapped and got there more than 1.5 hours later. Once we got into Bruges, we tried to look for the parking garage that Rick Steve’s book said – “‘t Zand”. It was nowhere to be found! After driving through the place a couple of rounds, we finally stopped to ask. The kind young man told us what to look for and told us how to get there, we finally found it! The “biekorf brugge”. Even though it said “full”, we followed another car and drove in any way. And found a space to park. Yea!!! And that was after 2pm already!

The parking garage was very close to the Market Square (Markt). The place was quite full of tourists, but not as bad as Brussels yesterday by far! And while driving through the place round and round, we already fell in love with the charming city! Many beautiful buildings – some really old but very well maintained, some perhaps not that old, but beautiful regardless. We saw horse drawn carts and took one – 50 uros for half an hour; which gave us some orientation of the place. After the buggy ride, we looked for places to have a simple lunch or snack. It turned out that most restaurants were closed for lunch, so we ended up having some Belgium waffles in a small place. The lady was quite pleasant, saying she had people from cruise ships eating at her place all the time. The waffles were ok, but she piled on nice fresh fruits, so we were happy.

We then wandered around. Hoping to follow Rich Steve’s walking map, but did not succeed. We walked part of the way and then decided it was time to head back. Before we left, we asked the hotel’s concierge to recommend a Michelin stared restaurant. He recommended one, quite close to the hotel. We asked him to make a reservation for 8pm. Since we were lost on the way to Bruges, we though it’s better to be conservative, so we started back shortly after 4pm.

The way back to Brussels was smooth until we were close to the city. Then it got really bad – I guess it was also because it was the rush hour? We were led into multiple tunnels where the GPS stopped working, and kept re-routing us and not being able to do it. We ended up very lost and drove into some sections of Brussels that were in the opposite direction of the hotel. That plus the one-way streets, we felt hopeless. Finally bob stopped to ask people in the store, and got us onto the right directions. We then drove through some seedy section, I assume, because I saw some half-naked women inside the glass door. Ugh!!

We finally got back to the hotel, at 8:30! But the hotel concierge said it was ok and she called the restaurant to delay the reservation. We got there probably around 8:45.

The restaurant was called Aux Armes de Bruxelles. It was an upper scale restaurant, but it was NOT a Michelin star restaurant! I think the concierge did not really understand me, and only recommended a restaurant they considered good. We both had steaks, and the famous Belgium fries which did not taste any different to me. The steaks were fine, but I don’t think it was the Belgium “blue” steak. And I don’t think the waiter understood what I asked or what Belgium blue was ….. Sigh ….

The food was fine and we had a pleasant dinner. But it was NOT Michelin starred for sure! Lin just told me that using the app viaMichelin (which I have on my phone), we can find out if a restaurant is starred or simply mentioned.

It was after 10pm when we came out of the restaurant. Back to the hotel was only a 5-minute walk. Now I am here writing my diary and let the food digest. Hate to eat so late.

Tomorrow the plan was to visit Luxemburg – I think it would be a check-off and the place would not have that much to see. Oh well….

Too much food too late, so we’re still up at midnight now! Need to call it a day and wash now.

Antwerp - Tuesday, Sept 18, 2018

I could not sleep last night don’t know why, just couldn’t, so I got up around 3am and watched Chinese soap on my iPad (with earphones) until probably 6am, then I went back to bed. When I woke up, it was 11:30am already! Geeweez!! Good thing Bob got a long good night’s sleep!

By the time we were ready for breakfast, it was already past noon time. I decided to have an apple, while bob went to the same café to have his breakfast. Then I joined him and we headed to the parking garage then took off for Antwerp. No Luxemburg today!

After an hour or so’s drive, we reached Antwerp. We found a parking garage, 12URO/24hrs. Pretty good. Then we could wander without any concerns about the car!

It was already after 2pm, we consulted Yelp and found a Vietnamese restaurant called Bun, which looked quite close to the garage. We used google map and walked there without any problems. The food, or pho, was not quite what we expected, but it was ok. We each had a bowl of pho, and shared a green papaya salad, which was not at all what we are used to in the States. A pleasant meal, better than a hamberger or anything else.

After lunch, we started wandering. We wanted to go to the Grote Markt which was by the old historical area (the old town). The landmark there was The cathedral – I took many pictures of it, from different angles. An interesting cathedral, which was supposed to have two steeples, But there was a fire during construction, so the 2nd steeple was never completed.

Many constructions were going on around the cathedral, and everywhere! Scaffolds everywhere! The weather was rather hot, shorts weather. We went to the information center and got some tips. The first was an old alley that was quite pretty. We got there and enjoyed it. That’s the kind of place we would enjoy! Then we walked along the river, hoping to find the old port which was supposed to have an observation place on top that would allow visitors to get a good birdseye view of the entire Entwerp. We walked for a while but did not find it. We were getting tired (I felt my stamina was far from before….), so we turned back towards the parking garage. By the time we got in the car and started driving back to Brussels, it was way past 5pm.

The drive back was a lot smoother than yesterday, probably because we did not have to go through many tunnels where the GPS signals were lot and very difficult to recover! But after we got back and parked in the Interparking garage, we got out of the door and could not recognize where we were or how to get back to the hotel! We had to go back in, moved the car, and found the door that we used before. A very confusing garage!

There was a Japanese noodle restaurant across from the hotel, called Samuri. We had our noodle dinner there before stepping back into the hotel. A good rather light dinner! We were back in the hotel room shortly after 8pm.

Tomorrow we will definitely make it to Luxemburg, even though we don’t have high hope for it. Hope to sleep well and get early tomorrow.

Luxemburg, Wednesday, Sept 19, 2018

Luxemburg turned out to be a lovely charming place!

We were up at 8am when the alarm rang, even though I woke up a few times and was up before 8. But I got an OK night’s sleep.

The drive to Luxemburg city took more than 3.5 hours. Most of the way was highway so we did not get to photograph any scenes by the side of the road, even though there were some lovely green fields and cattles. But we took a wrong turn (my fault for not typing in Luxemburg city instead of Luxemburg) so we had to take a detour to get back on the right road. And that stretch of one lane small road turned out to be through the fields and I was able to get out and took photos of the cows! Haha!

We got to Luxemburg city around shortly before 2pm. We drove into the city quite smoothly and got into the queue to get into the garage. Quite a nice system! The garage was full, and all the cars just lined up there and waited. Once a slot is available, a parking ticket slided out and the gate opened up. We did not wait too long to park.

The first thing we did after parking the car was to find the information center. While we were on the road, I googled and picked two places to visit – the Grund, and le Chemin de la Corniche. We got the information and map on how to get to the two places, both were within easy walking distance. But before heading to these places, we had to find a place to have a little lunch. There was a square next to the information center that was full of restaurants and eateries. Unfortunately the only Chinese food restaurant was closed, and nothing else really appealed to us. Finally we found a place that served burgers (but NOT McDonald’s) and had an OK lunch.

The Grund was actually the “old town”, so to speak. One can follow the path to walk down, or take the elevator down (and up). And le Chamin de la Corniche was actually part of the old town also. The beautiful scenes on some pictures of the Grund involved a river, which was unfortunately rather dirty and lack of water. I did not find any places too picturesque, so we wandered round a bit, then started walking back towards the garage. It was after 4pm already.

Bob had planned that we would take a different way back, via the town Liege, which was more than 2 hours from Luxemburg. I googled that town and found out it was supposed to be some sort of cultural center. But 2+ hours later, when we got there in the dusk, it looked like a pretty dumpy town. We had to find a place to eat, so I used Yelp and found a Thai restaurant. We found it. I had a feeling it might be disappointing so did not hold much hope. People there did not speak a word of English. From the menu, we could guess which was Pad thai, so we each ordered a pad thai, and shared an assortment of appetizer which turned out to be pretty bad. The noodles were OK. For the price it cost, it was hardly worth it, but better than some greasy meat, I guess.

From Liege to Brussels, it took us a bit more than one hour. Google map was OK on the main highways, but was totally unreliable inside cities, and often very confused. We took a few wrong turns but everything was fine once we got on the highway. We got back to the hotel shortly after 9:30pm. Bob dropped me off at the hotel and parked in the public garage, which cost half of what the hotel’s garage cost.

As I feared, whenever we are not at home, something goes wrong. This time it is the kitchen sink – the drain got totally clogged. I communicated with my sister, and they’re doing everything they can. Hopefully the Drano would work! Or we will have to call the plumber. Sigh ….

Tomorrow we will check out and leave Brussels, heading to Rouen, France! We will be up early and get started with the long drive.

Brussels to Rouen, France. Sept 20, 2018

We are in Rouen, France now!

We got up at 8am and had breakfast at the nearby café, then checked out of the hotel. Bob went to the garage to get the car while I stayed in the lobby with the luggage. Bob came back quickly (don’t know how he could navigate the streets without the GPS – that garage was extremely confusing, with many entrances and exits, on different streets). We were on the road towards Rouen around 10am.

The entire distance was about 175 miles. The GPS predicted almost 4 hours, mainly highway. There were some idyllic country sceneries along the way, but I was not able to take any decent pictures. We got to the hotel before 4pm.

This Marriott hotel was actually called Hotel de Bourgtheroulde, one of Marriott’s Autograph collection, 5 stars. It was in an old building, quite nice. There was a square outside the hotel, surrounded by nice old buildings. Unfortunately there was a big construction going next to the hotel, so parking was valet only, unless we could find spots on the street which of course we did not do.

We got a standard room, which was quite small. But the bathroom was adequate. We moved the chairs around a bit, so both could sit down and even watch the TV which was at the foot of the bed. It would do for the 4 nights we’re here.

After doing my usual cleaning of the room, we stepped out to explore the city. It really was an old small city, with 100 churches – cathedrals, temples, etc. etc. Unfortunately many constructions were going on and not one main church was without scaffolds! Sigh ….

I spent some time on the phone with my sister, dealing with the kitchen sink issue. Very worried …. Called the plumber and left msg. This really ruins my vacation. I could not sleep last night, so worried! Did not get to sleep until 4am or later …. Not sure what to do now …. Thankfull my sister was making do and helping to take care of things! I feel very bad ….

Talking with the nice porter of the hotel who recommended the French restaurant called La Petite Auberge and said it had great escargot, my favorite!! We walked there and scouted the location. And we walked around the small town, then came back to the hotel around 5:30.

We found a Chinese grocery store and the owner spoke Chinese! A young pregnant lady who came to study in 2003/2004. We wanted to get some drinking bottle water, she said it’s better to get them from the supermarket, and told us where it was.

The dinner was very good – even for someone like me who really prefers Asian food. I was very happy with it! I had the Escargot (12 of them!), then the haddock fish, then some green salad, followed by dessert – we shared one crème brulee and profiteroles. Full to my throat! Unfortunately they did not have frog’s legs today, or I would have been in heaven!

John the plumber called me back and referred me to someone who handles clogged drains – 1-866-280-1872 Paul, First American Sewer and Drain. I called Paul after dinner and spoke with him (NOT the answering machine!!). He will send someone there tomorrow 9-9:30am! Hurray!!!!

On the way walking back to the hotel, we saw the “light show” at the cathedral. Rather impressive! It was 10:30pm when we got back. Hope to be able to sleep well tonight, now that the drain issue has hope!!

Tomorrow we will drive to Versailles – already purchased the 1pm tickets. It will be the first time for Bob, and I saw the garden in 1995, when I first started at EMC, on business to Bull for the NT back client. Can’t believe it’s so long ago!!

Visiting Versailles – Sept. 21, 2018

We were up at 8am as the alarm woke us. I slept better than the night before, but could use some more sleep. Breakfast in the hotel was too expensive (10 euro for continental, 22 for full buffet), not worth it. So we went out looking for a café. There did not seem to be any by the hotel like the starbucks, we found a pastry store and got a couple of croissants, then at a differet coffee shop and got coffee. We were hoping to have a big breakfast and then only do dinner and skip lunch, but did not get to do so.

The drive to Versailles was less than 2 hours and we got there around noon time. Our tickets were for the 1pm entry but we were able to get in shortly after 12pm. It was certainly the right thing to do that we bought the tickets online before we came! We did not have to wait in any lines and got into the palace. First we visited the inside of the palace, and that’s where we actually waited in lines to get into each room. It was really NOT worth it! Bob and I were not really interested in looking at the rooms and furniture and the wall hangings – all the big palaces were more or less “the same”. Just cannot be too excited about them. We followed the line and finally got to the exit. Then we went to the garden, which was indeed very impressive!!

In 1995 or 1996 I was there once and only saw the garden, and did not even see much of it. This time the two of us followed the path indicated on the map and saw as much as we wanted. Impressive and pleasant! Compared to the Peterhoff palace, this palace seemed to be even bigger, but that one seemed to be more ostentatious!

We left the palace around 4, and sat in the car waiting to communicate with my sister and the drain plumber who was coming to unclog the drain. They did come and they did solved the issue!! I could sleep better and enjoy the trip better now!!

The drive back to the hotel was relatively smooth and we got back shortly after 6pm. We were both tired. After resting for a while, we went out to have dinner. Yelp was again helpful, and we found a Thai restaurant called “Bun Thai” (same name as the one in Liege). It was only less than 10 minutes walk away and googlemap helped us find it easily. It turned out to be a very pleasant and clean restaurant! We had a nice Asian dinner!! As much as we enjoyed last night’s dinner, I really cannot take the rich food every night. Very glad we found this Thai restaurant!

After consulting “viaMichelin” and google map, we found a 1-star Michelin rated restaurant nearby called Rodolphe. We especially walked by there on the way back to the hotel. But it was full booked both tomorrow and Sunday nights. And we’re leaving Monday ….. I guess it’s not meant to be.

We might visit Honfleur on Sunday or tomorrow, perhaps we could get in a Michelin restaurant there! We will see….

Tomorrow we will head for the Normandy D-day beaches.

Normandy D-Day beaches & Honfleur – Sept. 22, 2018

We were up at 8 again. And again I did not sleep that well. We decided to have breakfast in the hotel, despite the fact that it was not worth the $. But it was hard to find a breakfast café around, especially if we wanted something other than pastry and coffee. And it turned out to be the wrong decision. The breakfast was quite bad – the fruits looked like they had been there since a long time ago; and we ordered eggs that were cold when they were served. Sigh …. Never again!

We took off for Normandy beaches before 10am. The weather was pretty bad – started drizzling when we left and became steady rain the entire day. Our first stop was Bayeau which was the starting point for all the 5 D-day beaches. That small town was rather lovely and we parked the car and wandered around a bit, in the rain, which was at times quite steady. I was not feeling quite myself when we left, and by the time we reached Bayeau, I needed to go to the bathroom badly. A restaurant was nice to let me use their toilet.

After Bayeau, we drove on to the Omaha beach, then onto the American cemetery. Weather was rainy and cold – we had all our layers on and were barely comfortable. The wetness made everything unpleasant. I am glad that we visited the beach and the cemetery, saw some of the memorials, but we did not get to visit the museums which I would have loved to see.

After the cemetery, we decided to take the small road to Honfleur. Even in the rain, it was pleasant to drive through the country roads. It took more than an hour, and we drove through the small town Arromanches where Bob had a cup of coffee and a crepe, while I watched. I could not put anything in my stomach.

We go to Honfleur after 5pm. It indeed was a lovely seaport small town, with many restaurants and eateries, and many tourists. We stopped at a small restaurant which seemed to be call something like “petite chine” (Chinese tea??) where bob had espresso and I had a pot of Wulong tea, and we got to use the toilet. The weather was getting quite miserable, so we did not stay too long and left. We will be back here a week from today, as one of the cruise stops.

We left Honfleur after 6pm, and got back to the hotel in Rouen shortly after 8pm. Glad to be back in the warm room, even though it was so small! No dinner for me today – better starve a bit than getting worse. How I wish I had some porridge now! Even some broth ….

Tomorrow we plan to make it a lazy day, to either drive to places around Rouen, or just wander around in Rouen, see its museums, etc.

Touring Rouen – Sunday, Sept. 23, 2018

Fell asleep rather quickly last night but again woke up in a couple of hours. Did not sleep that well afterwards, but did not get up until after 8:30. This was the first lazy morning on this trip so far and it felt good.

It was raining. We put on our rain coats and walked out, first to find some breakfast for Bob. We got some pastry from a bakery store, then to a café (which was also a bar), where Bob got his coffee. After that, we walked to scout out if the Chinese restaurant would be open today, Sunday, but it was not. Many or most of the stores were closed today. Only those chocolate stores and bakeries etc. were open. We then decided to visit a museum and got to the museum of fine arts in Rouen. It was free, except the special artist exhibit. Bob and I really were not museum people, especially for those European oil paintings of people. We quickly walked through all the rooms. We did see some paintings by Monet which we did like. I liked the museum because it was not that crowded and nicely managed.

We came out of the museum after 11am. On the way back to the hotel, we walked by a Japanese sushi place. Since there did not seem to have any other oriental restaurants open, I was glad we found this Japanese place. They opened at 12pm and we were a few minutes early, but they let us go in and sit. It turned out the owner was Chinese – they spoke Chinese with each other (and French), and did not speak much English. This restaurant served mainly sushi and they had a conveyer belt with ready-made sushi on it. The miso soup apparently was not made fresh. But since we could not find any other oriental restaurant, we had to make-do. Bob ordered a couple of rolls and I ordered a miso soup and 2 orders of dumplings which were fried. Sigh …. But I guess they were better than the heavily buttered French food or greasy food. And I did not feel bad afterwards.

We came back to the hotel after lunch and rested a while. Then again we went out, in the drizzling rain, to drive to the nearby “route of the ancient abbeys”, as mentioned in Rick Steve’s book. The drive there was through some narrow small roads, towards Duclair. We were supposed to see the sight of Abbey of St. Georges de Boscherville from afar, but missed it. And we continued to drive to the Abbey of Jumieges, which turned out to be a rather impressive ruin of an old old abbey. I wish the weather was not so miserable and we could have wandered around in the park some more. But the afternoon drive was a pleasant, relaxed experience.

We came back to the hotel before 5. After some rest, we went out to find dinner. Short of oriental food, I thought Italian food might be better for my stomach. But that was not to be – that Italian restaurant was closed on Sunday; what’s worse, almost all the restaurants were closed!!

The wind had started and it was quite chilly (mid 50s plus the wind), even though the rain had pretty much stopped. We walked and walked hoping to find a decent restaurant that’s open. We were just about to turn back to have dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, there appeared a restaurant we thought was Indonesian but turned out to be Indian! Not my favorite but better than any other choices! They had decent nan, but the daal dish had half red beans. I ordered a biryani rice with chicken which was not biryani rice I expected at all, but all edible. Bob had lamb korma which was ok. But we were both happy!

Back at the hotel around 8:30pm. Tomorrow we will be leaving Rouen, heading to Amsterdam. This leg of the trip is about to conclude. Today we decided that tomorrow we will drive by Etretat where there is the famous scene, chalky cliffs and interesting rock formation out of the calm ocean. Can’t wait!

Arrived in Amsterdam – Monday, Sept. 24, 2018

We were up at 7am and left the hotel shortly before 8. It was a LONG day’s drive, around 10 hours including the stops, and Bob did all the driving. He’s indeed quite amazing when it comes to driving – no drowsiness and able to handle all sorts of roads and traffic. Lucky me!

The only significant stop we did we at Etretat, at the beautiful chaulky cliffs. It truly was beautiful and impressive! If we were to visit this area gain, there can be some nice images, at the right times! As for today, only a few iphone and small sony shots.

After Etretat, we took a couple of stops on the highway rest stops, and got to Amsterdam. Once we approached the city center, driving to the hotel was a scary experience! Streets were so very narrow; so many people and so many bikes; unbelievable!! If we ever come here, we would never ever drive again!! We stopped the car at the door of the hotel, there was no porter or anything. Bob went in to checkin, then made two trips to move the luggage into the room while I sat in the car (because we were not really allowed to park there). Then we followed googlemap and found the rental car return place. Because it was after 6pm, there was nobody at the office, so we followed the instructions, parked and locked the car, then dropped the key at their specified slot. Then we got a taxi to get back to the hotel. The taxi driver was very nice and helped us to make a call to Avis (Avis told us to call them when we drop the car). We tried to make the call ourselves, but could not get through – always got to Verizon wireless! Really need to find out how to make a call to local country using my own phone! To call as if we’re in the States, or what??

After settling into the room, we set out to find dinner. I was really starved – did not feel it until then, having had only half an elephant ear and some cookies on the road. It turned out that the hotel was very close to the Chinatown here! No wonder I saw so many Chinese characters on the store front on the way here! We yelped and found the one called “New King” sounded decent, so we decided to go look for it. We found it! Maybe this was the place Lucy mentioned that had excellent roast duck. We ordered roast duck, a vege, a steamed dimsum appetizer, and a shrimp dumpling soup. Everything was good, except the appetizer which was really really awful!! I would love to go back there for dinner for the next two nights!!

Back at the hotel after 9pm. Hope tonight we could sleep well! Tomorrow we have a private guide that will meet the 6 of us at 9am. We will meet Ira and Fran, Lucy and Chris for breakfast.

Amsterdam Tour Day 1 – Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018

Two good tours today! Started to love Amsterdam for its uniqueness, after today’s two tours. Want to be back!!

We got up at 7am and went down to breakfast around 7:30. We thought we were early but the other two couples were already there! Happy reunion!

Our private guide that Ira arranged, Mark, the founder from That Dam Guide (www.thatdamguide.com) came to pick us up at 9am sharp. Mark was a good guide! Originally he came from South Africa, and has been more than 30 years. He took us to all the landmarks and told us the history and many other interesting things!

He took us to a coffee shop – the coffee shops that are famous for Amsterdam – where he showed us the menu that showed the various kinds of marijuana! And it’s the first time I smelt that stuff, and you can smell it everywhere on the street, some place stronger than others ….

Mark told us that it is not legal to operate thee coffee shops, unless you have a license. That coffee shop had a license posted on its door saying it was good for 3 years.

Mark also answered our questions about the red light district. Prostitution is legal. The district is not far from our hotel. We actually walked by it. And there was one that was working even during the day – we saw the lady standing in the window. Mark said at night the place would be very different. Our tour for the red light district is tomorrow night.

Oh, another interesting thing: Mark said men somehow liked to pee into the canals (Amsterdam is like Venice in some ways, with so many canals, which had to do with how this city was built). Now there are strict rules for forbid this action - $160 uro if caught. And they established these half-circle thing by the canal where men can go pee. And the pee would also flow into the canal! Ugh!! What’s funny was that a company invented a device that would allow women to also be able to pee while standing – the “P-Mate” – www.p-mate.com. Mark brought a few to show us and demonstrated how a woman could use it. Very funny! I kept one. Haha!

The walking tour was 3 hours and we were back at the hotel at noon time. Good tour, but I still don’t know where is what …. Learned that Amsterdam is a very very liberal city, with a mix of many ethnic groups. There are so many bikes here and it was the first thing Mark told us to be careful when walking on the streets! Bikes have the most “privilege”, if a car hits a bike, even if it’s the bike’s fault, half the fault goes to the car!! It really is quite dangerous to walk on the street and one must be very careful, especially on these narrow streets!

We rested for a few minutes and then met in the lobby and went out for lunch. I really wanted oriental food, and everyone agreed. We ended up going to a Ramen place that served nice Ramen. I was very happy!

Ira had booked a private boat tour of Amsterdam for us at 2:30. It was operated by Captain Reinhard Spronk (info@privateboat.amsterdam). The captain wore a nice white uniform and was a well traveled knowledgeable guy! He served cheese and drinks and strawberries, and talked about the places we sailed by. But I was busy watching the scenes and did not hear all, unfortunately.

The boat tour was two hours. We came back to the hotel shortly after 4:30. Then Lucy and Chris, Ira and I met again, to go with Lucy to find the well known “Fens Haringhandel” – the herring food stand – where she wanted to have some smoked eel. It was a 10 minutes walk. She got her smoked eel and herring. I was tempted to try a bite but decided against the urge – better be careful with my stomach J

We walked back to the hotel by the flower market, and by the various cheese shops. The “Old Amsterdam” cheese which the captain served was really quite good! I wonder if we could bring some back to the US…..

We will meet again at 7pm to go to the Indonesian restaurant for dinner. Even though it would not be my first choice, I don’t want to be a party-pooper. And it’s Asian food after all, so I should be ok.

The Indonesian dinner was the first time for me (and Bob). How authentic it was, I cannot tell, but for the price we paid, $75 eruo per couple, it was not worth it for me. I did not enjoy it, and I would have been much happier if we went to New King. But, for the company, it is worth it.

Back to the hotel before 10am. Bob and I must be up early to be at the Rijks museum by 9am which is what I reserved. Then we’re meeting at 11:30am at the Rijks useum restaurant for lunch, with the other 4. Then at 2:30 I made reservation at the Van Gogh museum for Bob and me, Ira and Fran. Then the 6 of us will meet for dinner at New King. Then meet our guide Mark again for 8am red light district tour.

Googlemap said it would take walking 19 minutes from our hotel to Rijks museum. Bob and I need to be out of the hotel by 8:30. Hope for a good night’s sleep!

Amsterdam Tour Day 2 – Wednesday, Sept 26, 2018

Today we were up at 7 again – could not fall asleep last night for a long time, probably until after 3am, so I did not get much sleep. We were out of the hotel at 8:30. The walk to Rijksmuseum took about 20 minutes and we got to the museum smoothly.

The museum was nice but neither of us knew enough about art to really appreciate it. We did manage to find the paintings by Rambrunt and by Van Gogh. Enjoyed walking around for more than 2 hours. Lucy, Chris, then Ira and Fran joined us around 11:30 at the museum restaurant, had one of the most wonderful lunches.

I made the reservation at the restaurant a month ago – read from the web that the restaurant was very nice, if not Michelin starred, at least mentioned. A very fancy and elegant lunch, but it took a long time, more than 2 hours. We had to remind the servers that we had a 2:30 Van Gogh museum appointment, otherwise it would have taken more than 3 hours.

The Van Gogh museum as 3 minutes walk away. It not only had collection of Van Gogh paintings, but also art work of the people who most influenced Van Gogh. I can’t way I loved or understood Van Gogh art, but learned something about him! Did not know he had such a tough life, had mental problems, cut off his own left ear, and died by shooting himself at the age of 37!

We were back at the hotel around 4:30pm, badly needed a nap and some rest of our feet. We will meet the group again at 6, heading to dinner at New King then meet our guide Mark at 8 for the red light district tour.

We had a good dinner at New King. Then we had a very educational tour of the red light district by Mark. He was a marvelous guide! He first came to this country in early 1990s and stayed 4 years illegally. Then he went to England and came back here legally. During his first years here, because he did not have the papers, he stayed in the red light district, the only place he could have stayed without signing a contract. He got to know some sex workers there and had a good relationship with them, talked with them. Later he worked for the organization that was for the interest of the sex workers. He knew a lot about this area. He showed us the various places, including the area that was specifically for the transgender/transvestites. Prostitution is legal here and there are various laws and constitutions protecting them. I don’t even know how to describe what we witnessed and learned. I want to give a good review for Mark on tripadvisor!

Back to the hotel at 10pm. Tomorrow we wil get on the van that lucy arranged for the ship terminal at 11am. Before that, I will have enough time to pack up. Hope tonight I can sleep better.

Board the Ship – Thursday, Sept 27, 2018

We are on the ship now and just finished the mandatory (and most unliked) security drill. We got up at 8 this morning, the most relaxed morning of the whole trip so far! Then went down and had breakfast, then went back to the room to pack. We checked out around 10:30, then got in the van around 11. A short ride later we got to the cruise terminal which was not that far (if not for the narrow roads and traffic).

Getting on the ship was very smooth and unpainful! We were on the ship before 11:30. But our room was not ready until 1:30, so we all went to deck 12 and had a light lunch. At 1:30 shart we got into our room – 10062. We intentionally did not book the penthouse suite this time, to save the $3k. But I did miss that walk-in closet. This room is definitely smaller and I feel it! Oh well!

Our luggage was already by the room when we got in. I unpacked in an hour, then did our laundry. Ira booked our dinner at Red Ginger as soon as we got on the ship, 8pm.

The Warrens and Bob and I played Rumikub at the game room for a couple of hours before dinner, then we all met up at Red Ginger. The miso glazed seabass was as good as we expected, if not better! We had a great dinner and got out of the restaurant close to 10pm. We will meet at 7:30am tomorrow to tour our first port – Dover, England. Ira arranged the guide who will meet us at 7:30. Bob and I went to Dover more than 20 years ago, when we went to England for the first time, to see Shanyn. I only had vague memory of the white cliffs there …. Look forward to seeing the place again!

We have to turn our clock one hour back, while we’re in England.

Dover, England – Friday, Sept 28, 2018

We had a wonderful day touring Dover, Kent, England, with our private guide Gary Price!! Loved it!

We were up at 5:30am local time (France time 6:30am), so I got about 5 hours sleep. After breakfast, we all met on deck 5 at 7:30am and started heading out. We had to bring our passports and go through immigration – guess it’s because we’re no longer in EU ….

Gary met us right outside the terminal door. A tall guy, dressed in perfect English gentleman fashion – a wool blazer, casual corduroy (or, moleskin, as I later learned) slacks, plus a waterproof jacket. He looked like he was in his 50s. He drove a Mercedes van for 6 or 7 people. Our first stop was to walk on top of the white cliffs. By the time we got to the cliffs, it started raining – he called it “the liquid sunshine”. He had umbrellas for us. Thankfully Bob and I wore our rain coats and had enough layers on. The walk to the white cliffs was absolutely fantastic!! The Dover White Cliffs were just gorgeous – much more beautiful, raw, and impressive than the French Etretat white cliffs! I tried to take as many pictures as I could, without taking out the bigger Sony camera.

The next stop was the Dover Leed Castle. It took him more than 40 minutes to get there, and we were the first private group to visit it – very good arrangement by Gary! The place was gorgeous!! I did not know what to expect, and was stunned by the beauty of its ground and the castle itself! The water surrounding the castle had so many birds! White and black swans (the black swans were originally imported by the owner of the castle from Australia), all sorts of ducks, and other birds. Just beautiful!!

We got a castle guide, Jonathan, to take us through the castle and talk to us about its history. After the tour, we had a little more time to visit the outside ground, taking photos. Then we left the castle. Gary drove us through narrow country roads to a couple of villages, pointing out the sites and scenes and talking about history when appropriate. The English country scenes were absolutely beautiful!!! Unfortunately I was sitting in the back of the van and was not able to take any good photos. We stopped at a number of places and we were able to get out to take photos, but not enough for me! I’ve decided that if we ever come back to England again, I would definitely hire Gary and use his service!!! Remember! Gary Price – Horizon Private Hire, www.horizonprivatehire.co.uk.

We then headed to a local eatery for lunch. It was just fantastic!! I wish I had more stomach to eat all the stuff on the menu, but …. So Bob ordered the “cod and chips” and I ordered the sausage, both were very good!! I still don’t know what the name of the restaurant was – The Granvil.le? Or Casl Ales?? ….

After a full lunch, Gary drove us to a few other places – the seashore area where we could see from below the white cliffs that we climbed this morning; the seaside resort area where there were these small “huts” that people built for the summer use; the village called “Ham”; and the one called “Sandwich”, etc. etc. Then our last stop before coming back to the ship was the Tesco supermarket, where we bought some wines. The wines on the ship were way too expensive! Last night Bob ordered a bottle of wine for the table and it cost close to $100! Oceania really hiked up their wine price!

We were back on the ship shortly after 6pm. A GOOD day!! Really enjoyed it!! Credits go to Ira who found Gary and organized it!

Tonight our dinner was at Jaques, 8pm. Good dinner. But the escargot was not as good as the ones in Rouen.

Tomorrow we will dock at Le Havre, France. And we will go to Honfleur again! This time hopefull we will see more than what we did a few days ago! We will meet on deck 5 at 8:50am. Lucy arranged the driver to pick us up and drive us to Honfleur.

Le Havre, Honfleur, France – Saturday, Sept 29,2018

Today was our second visit to Honfleur, France during this trip – the first time was Bob and I on our own, and today was with the ship. Lucy arranged the driver, after the guide she tried to book bailed out on her.

We were up at 7am and met up before 9am to get off the ship. The driver picked us up (with a Mercedez van) and drove us directly to Honfleur. We were there exactly one week ago Saturday, but we got there after the D-day beach visit, so when we got there last time, it was already close to 5pm. Today we got there early, when all the street markets were just opened up. Lucy was familiar with the town, so we walked around for a while, taking pictures of the colored row houses by the port, under the good morning light. Then shortly before noon, we sat down at a restaurant that Lucy and Chris had eaten there before, and had a pleasant lunch. Originally I did not want to order any of the seafood, but after tasting the mussels Chris ordered, Lucy and I shared an order. Apparently these mussels were the specialties of this place, small and sweet, very good indeed! I also ordered a crepe which was very good, even though more cheesy than I expected. Bob ordered a seafood soup and hardly had any – thank goodness I did not order it! At first I did, then I saw another table ordered the crepe, with a little salad, and a piece of ham, so I changed my order. Phew! Absolutely cannot deal with the fishiness!!

Lucy took us through the various markets – the flee market, the fish market, and the meat market. The meat market was so very good and made us drool!!!! Wish we could have stayed there a few days and eat them!!

The driver picked us up at 2pm. The battery of the car went dead, so we had to wait for a bit for his people to come and jump the car. Then we were going to visit a cow farm which produced cheese. It took us a while to find that place. The farmer finally came out (he was working) and let us taste their own cheese. Quite nice! Unfortunately they did not speak English, so communication was difficult. The driver spoke a little, but very limited. We did see many baby cows, in their own stalls and cages. We learned that some were only a day or two old! They looked at us with such kind and pitiful eyes!! We learned that these baby cows were only allowed drinking their mothers’ milk for the first day, then they were removed from their mothers, and were fed powder milk from then on. Made me very very sad……

After the farm visit, we went to another apple wine/brandy place where we could get a tour, and have a tasting, and buy bottles. We tasted one of their oldest apple brandy ($16 URO per 4oz). I could not tell if it was good or excellent, but it was smooth and smelt good. We did not buy any bottles.

We’re back at the ship before 5:30. Today we had no reservation at any specialty restaurant, so we will eat at the main dining room. We will meet at 7pm.

It turned out that we ate at Red Ginger after all! When we got to the main dining room, the maître d’ asked us if we would like to eat at Red Ginger, or Jacques, or Italiano (I guess they had openings there!), so we all agreed to go Red Ginger again, and that’s what we did! Another enjoyable dinner! We came back to the cabin before 10, and Bob went to “work” ….

Tomorrow the port will be St. Malo, France, where Bob arranged the driver/guide for us to go to Mt Saint Michele. But our ship won’t anchor until 11am and our tour does not start until noon. We can have a good sleep finally! No early morning getup!!

St. Malo/Mt Saint Michele, France – Sunday, Sept 30, 2018

Today we had a relaxed morning – got up after 8am, wandered around a bit on the ship and I bought a cardigan sweater from the store, paid horrendous price, because I just did not pack the right clothes! L Then Bob and I walked a mile on deck 15, until the ship started to pull into the harbor to anchor. It was a tender port, so we met up after 11am, got our tender tickets, and got on shore around 12:20pm. The driver/guide Bob arranged was there to pick us up. He told us that once he drove us to Mt St Michele, the guide would be there to guide us. The driver’s name was Matthew. The guide’s name was Gerard.

The drive to Mt St Michele took about 45 minutes. Once we got off the car, we waited for a complimentary shuttle bus that would take us to the foot of Mt St Michele. This was very different from my first two visits 25+ years ago when we did not have such kind of shuttle bus, but nor did we park this far.

The bus queue was not short. We waited a couple of buses before getting on one. We could have taken the buggie ride (not free), but our guide said that would be too slow and we were under a rather tight schedule.

In my memory, the walk from the shore to Mt St Michele “island” was a big wide causeway, but now there was a bridge! The bus dropped us all off somewhere on the causeway and we started walking. It was a gorgeous day, sunny, with beautiful blue sky and billowy white clouds. Very picturesque! Mt St Michele never disappointed people! Jutting out of the ocean, this great church was simply magnificent! Unfortunately I was not able to take any photos without many people! Sigh ….

Gerard guided us all the way up the top of the church, telling us some of its history. It was not an easy climb, but handleable. Unfotunately we did not have the time to taste the famous expensive omelet! We will have to come back again!

I can still remember the narrow winding way up to the church, but I did not have any memory of the church and its inside – not sure if we ever did the inside even though Bob said we did. But with the guide and his introductions, it was more interesting. I also learned that there were still a few monks and nuns living there, 7 nuns and 4 monks?

We left Mt St Michele after 3:30pm, and said goodbye to Gerard. Matthew picked us up and took us to a seaside town called Cancale (?) where Gerard made a dinner reservation for us, to have seafood – oysters, etc. We got there around 5. Had dinner and left for the ship shortly after 6.

It’s the first time I had raw oysters without seafood sauce! Very fresh, not bad, but I would have loved to have the US seafood sauce J I also had mussels! Bob had fish. Then we had butter and sugar crepe. Yum!!

The tender ride was smooth, but the sea got a little rough when we got to the ship. Nowhere to be compared with some tough experience we had before. All was good!

Back on the ship before 7. After resting for a bit, the 6 of us met again on deck 12 the cafeteria and had a 2nd dinner. I had mostly salad and hot tea, and some French butter cookies the driver left us – they were so good!

Back to the room around 9. Feeling tired, even though we did not do that much. Tomorrow we will dock at Brest, France. Our driver told us today that Brest pretty much had nothing, except chicken, which was supposed to be very famous. We don’t have any tour scheduled, and we will just get in town and have a relaxing day. We will meet at 10am.

Brest, France – Monday, October 1, 2018

We had a relaxing, pleasant (shopping) day in Brest today!

We did not get up until after 8am – very glad to have had a long night’s sleep and rest! When I pulled open the curtain, the first thing I saw was an ugly ship facing us, and an overcast sky, no sunshine. Did not have any expectations for this city, just wanted to have a relaxing day casually wandering around to see whatever we see.

After breakfast, we all met at 10am to get on shore. Today we were not allowed to walk the port ourselves – there was a shuttlebug that would take us to and from the city center from the ship. Glad that was the case, as the port was really a nondescript place and I would have hated to walk through there! Oh, that ugly black ship next to us was called “Methane Princess” – I was told it was for the use of shipping methane.

There were a few stands by the ship selling various items. One of them was a crepe stand – we decided we would definitely get some butter/sugar crepes when we came back. The bus took us to the city center. We walked down the main street – Rue de Siam – all the way to the waterfront. Along the way, we scouted our where we would come to have lunch (a Chinese/Vietnamese place for me and Bob), where to shop (The Memphisto shoe store), etc. Most of the shops would not open until 2pm, except a couple of maybe tourist shops? I bought a scarf regardless.

At the end of the Siam street, there was the famous chateau. We paid $7 euro each and took the tour. It turned out to be very good! It had a 1 michelin star! The self guided audio tour was excellent! We did not realize Brest was such an important city, from a long time back in history! Because of its location and position, the place was of key importance militarily! And still was a place for sailing activities. When we finished the museum tour, it was past noon time already. We thought the restaurants must be open, but we were wrong! Apparently Monday in Europe was perhaps just slightly better than Sunday, and many restaurants and shops were closed. Sigh ….

We decided to come back to the ship for lunch. After a quick bite, Lucy, Chris, and I headed back out to get a few things I wanted and to wander around the city a bit more. I got my Memphisto shoes, and a few can of the spicy sardins – tasted them and they’re very good! Then we walked some more, before getting back on the shuttle to return to the ship. Before we boarded, we had our favorite sugar/butter/lemon crepes! Haha! Then, after I came back to the room, I went out again with Bob for him to have a crepe! It’s really good!

Back to the ship shortly after 5. We have a dinner reservation at the Italiano restaurant for 7:30pm.

We had a pleasant dinner. I liked everything except my entrée, the osso buco which had way too much sauce. We did not get back to the room until around 10pm. Tomorrow we will dock at La Rochelle, France. We will meet at 9:30am and wander into the old town by ourselves. No organized tours.

La Rochelle, France – Tuesday, Sept 2, 2018

Today was another day that we did not have any organized activity. La Rochelle was not a famous town even though it had its own rich history and importance. Compared to Brest, I guess it might be a bit bigger. The ship docked at 8am. We got up at 7 and had plenty of time for breakfast and relax, before meeting everybody at 9:30 to de-embark. The port was 6+ kilometers from the town and the road was not walkable. Fortunately there was a shuttlebus that took us to and from the old town, every 20 minutes.

We got into town around 10am. Spent quite some time visiting the old port, then walked around the old town center area, ending up at the market. The European market was just so much more interesting than what we have in the States, especially in the meat department! We admired and drooled over the fresh meat and vegetable, then had lunch at a very charming small crepery by the market. The restaurant was very quaintly decorated, very cute! We had some great crepes and a good time. After lunch, it was already past 1pm. We decided to buy some ham, pate, barquette etc. to have our own dinner. Then we walked back to the bus stop. Wow! The line for the shuttle bus was very long! I guess because it was the only means, short of getting a taxi on your own, to get back to the ship; and because today the ship would sail at 4pm, all on board 3:30pm, last shuttle at 3pm. We waited and waited, and got on the 3rd bus! Back on the ship before 3!

I did a load of laundry. The 6 of us would meet at 6pm on deck 12 the cafeteria, to eat our own goodies, plus whatever we want from the buffet. We had a wonderful “picnic” dinner, with the stuff we bought from the market, and some stuff from the buffet. The pates Lucy got were very very good! And the butter Fran got was divine! The fresh French barguette was as good as it’s reputated to be!

After dinner we dissipated to our own rooms. Bob and I went down to watch the comedian/magic show, which was funny, but Bob slept through it. Around 10:30, I was back to the room and Bob went to “work”. He was down some dollars last night, hope he would have better luck tonight.

Tomorrow we will be Bordeaux and will be there for 1.5 days. Lucy arranged our tour and tomorrow will be a long day. We will meet at 10am.

Day 1 at Bordeaux, France - Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018

It’s 10:15 pm now – we had a wonderful first day in Bordeaux!

Lucy arranged our tour in Bordeaux. Our guide, Laura, picked us up at 10:15am, right by our ship. Our ship was docked right by the river Garonne – it was funny that when I first woke up before 6am and looked outside, I found out I was looking at the streets of the city and buildings right in front of my eyes! Just like on the river cruise ship! Wow!! So this big ocean liner was in the river now! We’re fortunate that the water in the river was deep enough for this ship – it was not guaranteed that we could come to Bordeaux because it was not possible to predict the river water situation.

Laura was a young girl, only 28 years old, who spoke perfect English! She had a good sense of humor, easy going, and was quite knowledgeable about wine, and certainly about Bordeaux!

She first told us some basic information about Bordeaux, the right bank vs the left bank (as we face north where the Garonne river flows into the ocean, to our left is the left bank, to the right is the right bank. Our ship was docked on the left bank, and today she took us to the right bank and toured the vineyards on the right bank, mainly the famous St-Emilion.

She also explained the basic things about the grapes and wines in Bordeaux - 6 kinds of grapes, and I cannot remember all the other details. Most of the wines were blends, merlot being the most part.

After an hour’s drive, she first took us to one vineyard/Chateau called Chateau de Sales. I learned that the word Chateau here meant the it produced wine from grapes to bottle, the complete production. This Chateau dated back from the 15th century. The family now still has more than 50 people. The older generation included one lady who was 93 years old, who was the step mother of 4 sons and 3 daughters of her husband, and she did not have any children of her own; her step children, their children and grandchildren. Today we met the 93 year old lady, and one of her sons who introduced himself. Very nice people. We got a tour of the property, the wine production room, etc. Then we tasted 4 or 5 different red wines. Personally I did not like any. Not they’re not good, simply I did not know much to appreciate them.

After the first chateau visit, Laura took us to a lunch place which was also a vineyard. An elegant lunch. After lunch, we went to St-Emilion. We first stopped at the ancient little town center, and visited a wine merchant. The owner had a vineyard of his own that produced their own brand of wines, but he also sold wines by other chateaus. We tasted 5 or 6 different kinds. Bob and I liked only one of them, and we bought 6 bottles, some to bring home, some to drink with the group. Not cheap - $39euros/bottle.

After tasting the wine, Laura guided us to tour the small ancient town, which was very charming! We took lots of photos; visited the ancient church; walked the streets. The weather today was very cooperative! When we first left the ship, it was quite gloomy. But soon the sky cleared up, the sun came out. Most of the time it was just gorgeous! It was the first day of the entire trip so far that I did not feel cold!!

After visiting St-Emilion, Laura took us to the 2nd chateau which name I could not remember. The most interesting thing about that chateau was the wine cave where they stored all the wine barrels – it was an old quarry, underground, where they used to mine the limestone!! Amazing place!!! It was cool and moist down there, some places water formed dew drops on the ceiling. But ventilation was so well done so it was not stuffy at all! A really perfect place for the wine barrels! The Chateau guide (a very nice black girl) told us that each of their wine barrels was used only for one year. Each cost about $8k euros. After its one use, it’s sold for about $50euros, to make the lesser wines….

We tasted two kinds of red wines after the tour. I actually liked the 100% merlot, but Bob did not want to buy any more. Others did not seem to like it. I felt bad that we did not buy any …. But the girl did not mind at all, and was very pleasant all the way!

We’re back at the ship around 7pm. She had helped us to make reservation for us at a dinner restaurant that Lucy had recommendation for. But Fran did not want to go because she did not feel well, and Bob had stomach problems so he did not want to go either. The dinner reservation was at 7:45, so Lucy, Chris, Ira and I left again at 7:25, walking to that restaurant. It was a restaurant that prepared meat dishes, grilled with nice spices, not exactly French style. They shared a beef, I had a hake fish dish. It was fine. We’re back at the ship shortly after 10pm.

The ship stays in Bordeaux overnight tonight, won’t sail again until 2:30pm tomorrow. We will have a relaxed day on our own, touring Bordeaux the city.

Day 2 at Bordeaux, France – Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018

Day 2 at Bordeaux was not that interesting, but we did tour part of the old town.

We were up around 8am and left the ship at 10am, with the Nees. We asked the local information lady about where the shopping streets were, and she marked them on our map. We walked there and did not find anything too interesting or practical to purchase. By around noon time, we wanted to find the Thai restaurant we saw last night, to have some Pad Thai. Found the place, and it was very crowded. Lucy and Chris decided to go back to the ship, but Bob and I waited and ordered the take-out. Back on the ship shortly before 2pm – waited in the long line to board the ship, because a big tour bus just unloaded all its people, plus all the others trying to return at the last minute.

Had our pad thai lunch in the cafeteria plus some salad, and we’re done by 3pm.

It was such a warm day – first day that we could wear short sleeves! Very sunny! Bob played the blackjack tournament at 3:30. I did a load of laundry, went to the casino and watched a little bit of what people were doing (watched someone playing poker and I thought that was blackjack and got very confused J). The ship had a bunch of activities but none seemed particularly interesting.

Got email from Roy announcing openings for their Nov. 2018 South Georgia expedition. I really really would LOVE to go again! But that would be hard on our budget …. Sigh ….

We had dinner at the buffet cafeteria at 6:30 – quite good! I was not hungry really but still had lobster and salad, etc. I think I would always prefer the buffet than the main dining room – much more freedom to choose what I want and how much how little I want for something.

We chatted after dinner and did not leave until after 8pm. Then Bob and I played pingpong until 9pm, when a ship staff told us we had to stop at 9pm because underneath was a stateroom. Oh well ….

Tomorrow we will anchor at Hendaye. We went to deck 5 to find out more info. I hope to be up at 7am then find out when we can get the tender tickets to get on shore. There is a shuttlebus that would take us to the information office at Hendaye, then to Jean-de-luz. I would like to first go to Jean-de-luz, wander around then decide if we should ride the shuttle bus back to Hendaye, and take the ferry over to the Spanish town. That would be my choice. But we’ll see what others want to do ….

Hendaye, France – Friday, Oct. 5, 2018

It’s 4:30pm now and we’re back on the ship, after spending a lovely day at Hondarribia, the Spanish basque town a short ferry ride from Hendaye.

We were up at 7am and were all done and ready to get on shore by 8am, but we waited for Chris and Lucy and Ira to all be ready, then we took the tender and got on shore before 10am. Ira did some research and suggested that we go directly to Hondarribia, instead of Jean de Luz, and that’s what we did.

From our tender port to the ferry was an easy 10 minutes walk. There were only the 5 of us plus a couple more people on the ferry, $1.90euro each person each way. Less than 10 minutes ride, we got on shore at the lovely old Spanish town Hondarribia.

It was a lovely lovely little old town, very pleasant walk, without too many tourists. We walked around the older part of the old town first, through its winding streets and cobble stone walks, taking pictures, and enjoying the nice old buildings and narrow streets. By around noon time, we started looking for a nice place to eat Basque food. The restaurants did not open until 1pm, and we walked to the newer part of the old town, and waited at a restaurant called La Hermandad de Pescadores. Lucy spoke some Spanish and a restaurant guy we ran into recommended this one, all seafood. Bob and I both ordered the same dish – Basque style hake, thinking it might be the fish stew Bob had 20+ years ago. And we all shared some appitizers – fried green pepper with Spanish ham; some tuna with roasted red peppers; clams; and grilled octopus. All of them were great! I must say our hake dish perhaps was not as what we expected, but the fish was very fresh and tender. Ira and Lucy ordered the calamari in squid ink sauce which was fantastic! We were stuffed!!

By the time we finished lunch it was after 2pm. We then walked to another part of the old town, by the ocean. Very pretty! And the weather today was very hot! All the others wore shorts and I regretfully did not. The hottest day of this trip! So many people were on the beach and in the ocean!

This was indeed a very lovely town and I would love to stay here for some time if possible!

We walked back to the tender port then back on the ship around 4:15pm. Time to take a rest and a shower. We will meet at Red Ginger for dinner at 8pm.

It turned out that we met with the Warrens on deck 6 around 7pm, and had a little drink while listening to the string quartet music (very nice). Then we all had dinner at Reg Ginger. Did not finish until 10:30pm, way too much good food!!

Tomorrow our TourByLocal guide Iker will meet us at 9am (one I arranged). We will need to be up at 6:30am.

Bilbao, Spain – Saturday, Oct, 6, 2018

Bob and I were up at 6:30am and we met our guide Iker at 9am. The ship docked at Bilbao and the cruise terminal was a big one, with escalators, etc. From the ship, we could tell Bilbao was a rather big city.

Our first stop was the very impressive Guggenheim museum! It was indeed very very impressive! The outside of the museum was made entirely with titanium! And it exceeded its original budget of $60million euros by more than doubled - $150million euros! And it took 4 years to build. But it became probably the most impressive Guggenheim museum in the world (the others being the one in Venice which we walked by but did not go in; the one in NYC; and the one being built somewhere). The outside of the museum resembled different things from different angles and its colors changed with the light.

Bilbao used to be a steel producing city. When the metal was exhausted, the Basque government decided to invest into this unique museum and the city became one important tourist attraction, thus revitalized its economy. Very smart people!!

Iker got us tickets to go into the museum and we spent less than one hour inside, mainly visited its master exhibits – Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, etc. Nice museum if we had a bit more time. I got a souvenir t-shirt; Lucy got a nice scarf. It was a nice gift shop, better than the ones we visited before on this trip.

The 2nd part of our tour was of its old town. We walked through some streets, markets, cathedrals/churches. I bought 150gm of janbom. Then we sat down at a square and had a good lunch. Iker ordered for us. Fish cheeks; beef cheeks; fois gras; etc. Very reasonable price!

After lunch, we walked back to the car and Iker drove us back to the ship. It was shortly after 3pm. The tour was supposed to be 4.5 hours and he extended it. Nice of him! If we ever come back to this part of the world, we would definitely find Iker! He has his own company. He has traveled many places of the world including many countries in Asia! He does wine tours, cooking tours, etc. etc.

Learned from Iker that the Basque country has its own language which is differet from Spanish or French! Need to read more about why there is French Basque and Spanish Basque ….

Our dinner tonight was at the Polo Grill steak house at 7:30pm. Nice dinner, but I did not have beef, had shrimp instead, better for my digestion at night. Did not come back to the room until 10pm.

The ship was really rocking as the ocean was quite violent! It did not bother us except Fran who did not even come to dinner.

Tomorrow we will be at Ferrol, our last port in Spain before we get into Portugal. Ira arranged the tour and we will head to Santiago, the place SS went to a few years ago with Brian and his family. We will meet at 9am.

Ferrol, Spain – Sunday, Oct 7, 2018

Almost 6 pm now – we came back to the ship around 5:30.

After a turbulent night, our ship docked at Ferrol shortly after 9am. The weather looked quite gloomy at that time, but it did clear up later on, even though it remained quite chilly.

The guide Ira arranged was waiting for us when we got on shore. His name is Vincente, speaking English fluently but with a very heavy accent. He actually married a Canadian wife and spent quite some years in Canada and the US! He spoke very fast and I had a hard time fully understand him.

Our destination today was Santiago de Compostela, the place SS walked to a few years ago. I still don’t know all its historical importance, but I know it’s the destination of some pilgrimage. It had a BIG cathedral and the entire place was a UNESCO site. Very impressive! We walked the many streets, visited a few churches, monasteries, etc. Had some wine and appetizer around noon, then lunch around 1:30 when the restaurant opened. Lunch was actually included in the tour. I really would have loved to get a t-shirt or sweat shirt for Caleb, but did not get the time to pick one. One regret! I wanted to buy a walking stick which was especially for the people on the pilgrimage, but was concerned about bringing it back on the plane, so I gave up.

We left Santiago around 4pm and got back before 5:30. Ira wanted to be back by 5 because he was concerned about missing the ship, which was scheduled to sail at 7pm. Oh well ….

Time flies! Tomorrow will be our last port before we reach Lisbon! Bob arranged tomorrow’s tour guide at Oporto. I will have to pack tomorrow evening! Not something I look forward to!

We had dinner at the cafeteria tonight then chatted until 10pm. Tonight we will gain another hour – very confusing. So now it’s 10:45pm and it’s actually the new time 9:45pm…. We will meet tomorrow at (new time) 9:50am. Our guide will meet us at 10am. Bob’s responsibility at this port.

Oporto, Portugal – Monday, Oct. 8, 2018

It’s almost 6pm now. I’ve finished packing and we’re waiting or the ship to start sailing off Oporto.

We had a great day here today. Our guide Anna was wonderful – a very pleasant young lady who will be married this coming Saturday to her German fiancé and then they will move to Viena and she will start a new job! We are her last tour!! She spoke great English and we had a great time with her!

We met her outside of the cruise terminal at 10am local time, which was 1 hour later than Spanish time. She first asked us about our preference for lunch; then explained the itinerary. She drove us along the Atlantic coast which was right by the city. Then she drove us to the city center. She then parked the car and took us on a short city walking tour. It turned out Porto was quite a popular tourist city. Aside from the typical Portugal foods, old cathedral/churches, Porto was just a big city. If we had the time, we could have walked along the ocean which had a nice ocean-side walkway, and toured the UNESCO protected old streets. But we did not have the time. I learned a few things that were interesting to me:

There were some strange trees near the city center – they had a big thick root trunk, but not much on the top. This was because of some disease. The city originally wanted to cut them but people were against it so they were kept. They were unique looking and I liked them!

The egg custards that I used to have in Shanghai were probably originated from Portugal – actually I vaguely remember that! The story goes like: the nuns in the monastery used to use the egg whites to starch their habits, so people had to find use for the egg yokes, so they invented these rich creamy tarts!

The McDonald in the city was reputated to be the most beautiful one in the world. That building used to be a café, later McDonald took over. We went in there to take a look. It was indeed quite classy!

There was a famous bookstore, where people lined up in long queues waiting to pay a price to go in. The author of Harry Potter used to live in Porto, with her Portugal husband. Somehow rumor had it that she used some of the bookstore scenes for her story, which was not true. But the bookstore became very famous regardless.

After touring the city center, our next stop was lunch. We wanted to go where the locals go, not the tourists place. She took us to the town across the river, Gaia, and took us to a very good seafood place where the seafood was very very fresh and it was grilled. It was so good! We had squid, shrimp, sardines, seabass, etc. etc. All was very good even bob and I did not quite care for the sardines. I wish we could come back again!! We saw people having some sort of a seafood “porridge” that looked so yummy! Really hope we will have a next time!

After lunch, we had a port wine tasting and visit. We tasted three kinds of port wines and I loved them! I never knew port wines were so good! And they were not all sweet like dessert wines! Wish we could buy some home, but we simply had no room or ability to carry them! Shipping was just too expensive! The port wine maker we visited was call Churchill’s. Got to go back to look for the wines!! We visited the wine maker’s wine storage rooms and saw the big and small wine barrels. I was too sleepy to remember all she said ….

After the wine visit, Anna drove us back to the ship and we arrived around 4:15pm. Back to the room and started packing. Tonight we will meet at 8pm at the Polo Grill for dinner. Last dinner of this cruise and we will conclude our cruise tomorrow morning, and start our 2.5 days’ visit of Lisbon!

Cruise Ended in Lisbon, Portugal – Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018

Ah, we’re in Lisbon, Portugal now – last stop of this trip! And it’s nice to be in a place where the wifi is adequate!

We were up at 6:30am and by 8am we were out of the room. The Nee’s and we first went to the executive lounge on the 9th floor to wait for our turn to deimbark. Then when it was close to our time, we went own to deck 5 and deimbarked shortly before 9am. We stood in the taxi line and waited for a while, then we shared a taxi (for $25 euro) to get to our hotel Pousada in the middle of the town, Liberty square.

Nice boutique hotel! Extremely convenient location, good for walking everywhere in the city. We were lucky that our room soon was ready, even though we had again one of those rooms that had a 10 step stairs inside the room! It’s on the 4th floor, no view, but we did not care. I would have preferred a room without the funny stairs, but at least this time the bathroom was on the same level as the bed! We took the room, and the Nee’s room was not ready so they left their luggage in our room until theirs was ready.

I started setting up the room, cleansing all the places. Then Lucy called and they were both waiting downstairs, so we went down, and we started our own walking tour of our surroundings.

Our first stop was the “Timeout” market, which was not far from our hotel. It had all sorts of meat, fish, vegetable, fruit, drinks, and various eateries. We wandered around every isle. Then Bob and I picked a place and sat down, ordered our lunch – some sort of spring rolls and a mini burger, with pork, etc. Very very good! The spring rolls even came with marinated wood ears!! Very nice! It cost more than $26 euros, with all sorts of charges, even though the two dishes were only less than $9 each.

The Nees ordered something else at another eatery, also a pork sandwich. I had a taste, pretty good! What really appealed to me was the crispy pork belly! I must go back and have it in the next two days!

After eating, we continued our walk, up and down the streets. The weather was quite hot, definitely shorts weather! Too hot for me. We then stopped by another small eating place where Lucy really raved about, and had another pork sandwich. It was more to the taste of orientals, I think and we enjoyed it.

Lisbon was quite a tourists city. But it had some nice picturesque spots! We walked till after 2:30, then stopped at a beer brewery by our hotel and each had a glass of beer. It really hit the spot! Then we came back to the room. I want to go out again to explore, to the ocean front facing the hotel and take some pictures.

Lucy and I took a walk around 4pm. Still quite hot. We walked to the Timeout market again and to the ocean front. It turned out that our ship was really quite close to our hotel, definitely within walking distance if without the luggage!

We were back at the hotel around 5:30, then the Nees and we met again at 6pm. We went to the timeout market again, for dinner. Bob and I had this delicious crispy skin suckling pig, with sweet potato puree. Absolutely LOVED it! Lucy and Chris had a 4-pound lobster that was different from our Maine lobster. It’s the kind without the two big claws, perhaps called spiny lobster. Like the kind we saw in Galapagos. They love seafood so it’s worth spending that kind of $. We were very happy with our pork! I want to go back there again for dinner!! I wonder why the US does not have this kind of a “food court”?! It’s like a highend food court, with so many absolutely delicious food and restaurants! It was full of people!

By the time we walked back to our hotel, it was after 9pm already. Tomorrow we will go to a place outside of Lisbon. Lucy hired a guide who will guide us for the next two days. The place we’re going used to be the house of a very wealthy person. We’ll see ….

We will be up at 7, then meet them at 9:25am.

Day 2 Lisbon, Portugal – Wednesday, Oct 10, 2018

We had a great day touring around Lisbon today! The guide Lucy found, Suzanna, was very good!

Bob and I were up around 7am. The included breakfast at the hotel which was very good – well, for the price we pay, it ought to be good. After breakfast Bob and I took a short walk outside the hotel, to the ocean, and around the square. Then we all met at 9:25, and Suzana picked us up at 9:30am sharp. And off we went.

The first place we went was outside of Lisbon, Sintra, where there were a number of palaces. The one we visited today was Quinta da Regaleira. It was a palace originated in the 14th century, went through a few hands, then in the early 1900 bought by a wealthy Portugese who actually grew up in ….. The palace was architecturally beautiful, not just the palace itself, but the entire surroundings. Very picturesque! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so all my photos were taken using the phone. We walked quite a bit. One of the most interesting things was the “Grotto of the Virgin” and the “initiation Well”, where we walked down a deep spiral staircase, to the bottom, where the owner built to be cool in the summer. Very interesting place! And the Sintra town itself was very charming. It’s definitely a place I would love to come back and spend more time at!! After we visited the palace, it was already after noon time, so we stopped at the town center, grabbed a sandwich and some unique dessert that was only available at that specific bakery.

Shortly after 1pm, we continued our tour. She drove us through a number of scenic areas, most of them are along the Atlantic ocean front – some beaches, some fantastic seaside resorts. One was called Cascais, and its nearby Estoril. A couple of beautiful red-top lighthouses. Just beautiful!! We took lots of pictures! Then we’re back in Lisbon, back at the hotel after 4pm.

After a few minutes rest, we all walked to the nearby icecream/frozen yogurt store and had some. I had again the passion fruit yogurt. Delicious!

The Nee’s and we met again at 6pm. Lucy wanted us to go to a local Fado music show. So we walked to this local Fado music restaurant. The music was ok – I do like the Portugal music! Very soulful. But this specific one was not the best. It turned out the restaurant across the street was the really good one, but it was all booked out. We had a decent local dinner – duck rice, seafood rice, grilled octopus, and chorizo. And sangria. All good, but not much. Lucy walked across the street and made a reservation for the 4 of us tomorrow.

We then walked to the Timeout market again. We ordered another crispy pork like yesterday’s for the 4 of us to share. And I got really stuffed!

Tomorrow Suzana will pick us up again at 9:30am, and take us to tour Lisbon.

Day 3 Lisbon, Portugal – Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018

Last day of this trip.

Today we had a tour of Lisbon the city itself. We met at 9:30. The first stop was the famous Monastery of St. Jerome’s. It was quite impressive. But again I cannot quite remember all the details of the history of the monastery, but I took pictures of mainly the architectural stuff.

Across from the monastery, was the monument which was built perhaps 20 some years ago, that recorded the main history figures of Portugal history, sort of like the Chinese heroes monument in TianAnMen Square. It stood right by the Tejo river, very heroically.

After the monument, we visited THE egg tart restaurant/bakery which has the secret recipe of this famous Portugese egg tarts. They were indeed delicious. The main difference that I can tell was the pastry itself, very flaky, not greasy, and the custard was not that sweet. Very good! I had two, and a cappuccino which would keep me awake at night J

It was already after noon time. We then headed to the other famous monument – the Christ the King statue. Wow! A BIG TALL statue right by the river. Standing by the shore, the scenery of the other side of the river was very beautiful! And the bridge, a little bit like the golden bridge in San Francisco. For $6 euros, one could take the elevator to the top of the statue. None of the others wanted to do it, except me. And I did it! The view from the top was not that much better than on the shore, but I got a little further.

Afterwards, we headed to the other side of the bridge, where Susana lives, to have lunch at a restaurant she usually goes to. It’s by the river ferry, mainly seafood. I ordered a seafood rice and some chorizo; Bob ordered grilled seabass; Ira ordered grilled cod fish; Lucy and Chris ordered Octopus rice and grilled cod. Susana did not order anything and said she would just have some of ours. She was right! No way we could have finished all we ordered! My seafood rice had so much seafood in it – fish, shrimp, crab, etc. We all shared each other’s dish but could not finished all. Then we found out we each person only paid $19 euros! Very reasonable!

We had a scary incident: Chris passed out all of a sudden! Thank goodness he sat down first before falling back on Ira! And fortunately there was a nice Portugese man who was probably a doctor of some sort – he rushed over and pried open Chris’ mouth to make sure he could breathe ….. After a few minutes, Chris came to. The restaurant called the ambulance who came and took Chris to the ambulance to check his vital signs. By that time he was all ok. Lucy said that the reason was because Chris had some of the very very very spict sauce. Even though he was ok after he ate it, but his body went into shock somehow. Also he always had low blood pressure. OMG! Lesson learned was that we will NEVER EVER attempt those very spicy sauce!!!

After lunch, Susana took us to another very popular spot where one can get a good view of the city. Then we headed back to the hotel, before 5pm.

Lucy, Bob and Ira then got together and settled each couple’s bill. We all met again at 6:30pm to walk to the timeout market to have dinner. It’s a great place to have whatever we each wanted and there were so many choices! Bob ordered the crispy skin pork again, and I ordered Pad Thai, from two different vendors. Enjoyed our last dinner together with the 6 of us!

Back to the hotel before 9pm. Bob and I will be up tomorrow around 6am, have breakfast at 7am, then take the taxi to the airport at 8:30. Then we will be home Friday night, around 7pm EST!