Ashore in Le Havre France

     We arrived in Le Havre at just after 7 this morning. So the Captain missed another docking time after his announcement yesterday and the tour desk changing all the departure times. It did not affect us as we just going ashore to wander around town. We had been here before but had never seen the town as we toured with Princess. We had a nice leisure breakfast in the dinning room, sitting with another couple we had met and after that proceeded into town..We had researched the city before we left so we did have some definite things that we wanted to do although it is not Berlin or Paris! The shuttle dropped us in he middle of the city and our first stop was the market. It is always interesting to see what types of food that they sell. Fruits and vegetables are pretty well the same but the fish shops are always interesting. Some items that appear strange for us but nothing like the market in Busan Korea. However we did pass a number of pastry shops!

Notre Dame

St Joseph

        We then headed to Saint Joseph's church an odd concrete structure that was old but has been rebuilt in modern times. It was quite interesting. The next stop was the MuMa Fine Arts Gallery. There was a long line up to get in which we thought was a tour from the German Cruise ship that was in town. Turns out that it was filled with locals as the first Saturday of the month admission is free. I guess we lucked out! It was filled with Impressionists painting and a few Monet's but many from that style. Another short walk took us to Notre Dame Cathedral (what else) which is very old and has the typical style of churches built centuries ago. A short walk to the waterfront found us at a large stone beach filled with people just enjoying the day. Of course we sat and just looked out at the theocean for awhile, watching the large container ships come into port. Le Havre is the

At The Beach

Selfie with eclaire

fifth  largest port in Europe. We walked back to the market area to get our chocolate eclairs that Judy had eyed earlier in the day. As it was getting on we took the shuttle back where we enjoyed some pizza and a beer.

      Of course packing took up part of the afternoon and the rest was spent resting up for the trip home. There were many all day tours to Paris, the beaches of Normandy, Rouen and Giveney the home of Monet so the ship was relatively empty until dinner hour. Then it was time to say goodbye to Mike and Marge our dinner partners after an excellent meal.   Out went the luggage, reset the watches an hour ahead (finally) and get set for our flight to Detroit.

Last Sea Day

       We left Hamburg sometime after midnight. We were delayed as we had to wait for the high tide. It seems that the Captain of the ship can't seem to get sailing and docking times right! Of course he has to contend with pilot and berth availability, ship repairs, passengers, etc. The Captain then announced that because we left late we would be in an hour late tomorrow. You would think that he could make up an hour over 30 hours. There is probably more going on here than we know. In any case it is only a 20 minute bus ride into Le Havre so we should have plenty of time to see the sights

      After the long day people seemed to be just hanging around. Actually the activities for the day are pretty scarce. The program always looks full but I think they make things up just to fill it out. If you skip the look younger, skin care, back ain,metabolism, good feet, restore your looks and such things you get down to things to do. They are all put on by the on board spa. You get the idea. Zumba this morning was not too good. Since we were in port yesterday overnight, it seems that cruise staff, waiters, etc. had a real chance to go ashore and have some fun. The result was that the Zumba class did not flow very well! We did go to the last “big” sale but nothing appealed to us. I did get my 2 tee shirts early in the cruise.   Breakfast was early this morning so we had lunch in the dining room. We sat with a couple from the Vancouver area and one from California. The American talked about how he was able to get his 2 - 38's across the border and had to pay tax on cases of beer. I got the impression that he had little regard for the Canadian border. The Vancouver couple told him that if he had been caught, he would have been in jail and he said that he knew that. Since the Vancouver man said something we did not need to say much more.

Formal Night

           We had missed line dance class (nothing new) and did the afternoon Zumba with Theo. He did another great job that lasted about 50 minutes and I think he would have gone on longer but the Bingo people were starting to push exercisers (including me) out of the way. I told the lady that dabbing was way to much exercise for me. I don't think she saw the humor in it. The classes today were not well attended. The rest of the afternoon was spent on deck enjoying the sunshine but cool (60F) weather. We did receive our departure instructions which said we were to leave at 7:35 for Heathrow for our flight that goes after 2 in the afternoon. Then we got a revised departure – 8:30. The terminal changed , now we have the correct one. It would have been a disaster going to the wrong terminal.    

Formal Night

      Tonight was formal night which meant we got our in room canapes. We managed to finish our wine along with the eats. We headed down for a drink and to meet some people but we never connected. We did have a nice conversation with a couple. He was a former pilot with the U.S. Navy. We did catch the early show. The comedian was quite entertaining. Dinner included escargot, lobster tail and king prawns. By about 10 everything except the bands had finished. It was time for some rest. Le Havre the last port on the last full cruise day. We leave Sunday.

A Great Day In Berlin

        What a day of adventure. - Berlin. The day was warm and sunny.  We were up very early and finished breakfast quickly. We had an early meeting for our tour. During breakfast and when I went to get tea and coffee the lack of people milling about was noticeable. When I got back to our room, I check the tickets which we had ready the night before. We were not suppose to meet at 7:30 but rather at 6:45. The later time was from the tour we missed. We were 25 minutes late. We did the 100 or so steps down in record time. We got to the Princess theatre and the tour people said that we had missed it! Then they said 'just joking'. However we were the last 2 to enter the theatre! We waited for 10 minutes and then we all left. So no lines and no waiting for about 45 minutes! I guess it worked out. We were off to the bused for the short ride to the train station. It was a bit disorganized with 600 or more people all going to the same place. They had a “private” train just for the Princess people. The train ride took about 2 hrs 30 minutes. We arrived at the Zoo train station which is in the very centre of Berlin before 11.

The Church

Brandenberg Gate

              Bobby was our tour guide and he was excellent. He was German but sounded British but his language was very clear. You could understand everything he said. Our first stop was the Allied museum at the former American sector HQ. They had a nice display on the Berlin airlift along with a British plane actually used in the airlift. A French troop train was also on display. The museum highlighted the U.S. efforts in the divided Berlin immediately after the war. There was a short section of the Berlin Wall, a Soviet wall watch tower and a building that previously was at Checkpoint Charlie.

At The Gate

Reichstag

 After a drive through an exclusive big homes area of Berlin, the next stop was lunch at a downtown 5 star hotel. It was an excellent full meal that everyone at out table seemed to enjoy. We headed for the Brandenburg Gate at the very centre of the city passing the Kaiser Wilhelm church which is bombed out and has been left a memorial of the destruction from WW2. A photo visit to the Reichstag and then crossing into what was East Berlin followed. The area near the gate was in the Soviet sector and had many of the historical buildings of Berlin. The buildings are slowly being restored and should be completed by 2020. We visited the place where the Nazi book burning took place, the university and a war memorial. The buildings that the Soviets build were very 'Stalinist” in style. Finally we headed to the location of Checkpoint Charlie. Only 1 small building remains. Throughout the city there is a stone pathway that

Berlin Wall

marks the actual location of wall. We were constantly crossing from East to West Berlin. The portion of the wall has a wonderful history of the Nazi rule. Is is on the grounds of the ing and SS headquarters. Only 1 building remains from the Nazi government. You can still see the marks from bullets on many of the old buildings in this area. The wall is lower than the one in Dublin separating the 2 sides there but there was a wide no man's land on the East side and gun watch towers. In all it was everything you might think it would be. We saw where Hitler had his bunker but it was blown up by the Soviets, filled in and apartments built over the site. Nothing remains of that bunker.

Checkpoint Charlie

      Finally we drove around the centre of Berlin viewing other buildings and getting a sense of what a wonderful city we visited. By around 4:30 we headed back to the train station and by 5 pm we were on our way back to Hamburg. They did provide a small light snack on the way back. We arrived at 7:30 and had finally made our way back to the ship by after 8. We were just to tired from the long day to go to dinner. We ended up having something light and calling it a night. A light sea day tomorrow after leaving Hamburg after midnight. 

Alongside In Hamburg

At Tea

       We spent most of the day with a pilot sailing into Hamburg down the Elbe River. It was a very long transit and a good rate of speed. There was a German air force plane flyover early this morning checking us out!

Along The River

Close Quarters

       The only Zumba today was the morning session. I counted about 75 people there which has been consistent with the morning sessions. Again today everything was jammed into the morning with not much happening in the afternoon. We use to go to the art auctions but since they changed the art auction system a fer cruises ago they are not much fun even if we just sat there. I did go off to the earth science lecture which was on the formation of the earth and how the oceans came to be and he way in which our oxygen atmosphere developed. It was rather interesting. The lecture was quickly followed by the Le Havre port lecture. We decided long ago that we would be going into town. We have been to the area at least 4 times and since we are not going to Paris or the Normandy beaches (we have been there twice) we will take the shuttle into the city. We did research on it before we left so there was not much new. The only thing is that we can shuttle and nonot so good things to say about the way the cab into town.

Greetings!

       A nice lunch in the dining room. We sat with people from Buffalo NY. The conversation was mostly about killing pigs in Texas (the other couples) and Canadian customs. The Buffalo couple had nothing but good things to say about them. They had some harsher words for the way they get treated by US customs. After tea we watch the egg drop challenge. That contest involves dropping a raw egg from deck 7 to 5 without it breaking. We have done it a number of times. A few eggs actually broke but they gave a prize (pens?) to all the participants. Then of course the relaxing afternoon with a glass of wine followed. 

         We skipped the entertainment as it was a singer doing classics from the '30's and '40's. Instead we just sat, had a drink and watch the bank of the river go by. By the time we were close to Hamburg and then docking it was time for dinner. Some people went ashore as soon as we docked but because we are on tour at 7:30 tomorrow morning, we decided to get a good night's sleep. We will be touring Berlin. This tour is the primary reason why we selected this cruise.

Through the English Channel And Beyond

        We have already passed the Cliffs of Dover which we could clearly see early this afternoon. We have steaming along quite quickly all night and are well on our way to Hamburg. There was an announcement earlier today there will be there tomorrow night in the late afternoon. We will overnight there which should make it easier to do our 13 hour tour the next day. By this afternoon the wind died down and the weather sunny but still on the cool side (50F).

       We had to report to German immigration this morning but the officers have been on board since Liverpool so the whole process was quick and well run . Nothing like the Liverpool experience. Zumba followed and the we caught the end of the Earthquake and Archaeology presentation. We simple stayed in the theatre for the next event which was billed as “An Audience with Original Beatle Pete Best”. The cruise director asked a series of questions (probably supplied by Pete). He talked about the early days of the Beatles and the various clubs that they played at in both Liverpool and Hamburg. He filled in many details of what it was like, the name changes the band went through and their first recording sessions. He ended with the day he was let go from the bank and Ringo Starr became the drummer. He hinted that the reason given was he was not good enough although he said he was the best drummer in Liverpool. He suggested that Paul probably knows the reason. However In all a very interesting talk.

Ready for Formal Night

       A quick lunch with tea in the Atrium followed. The dance lesson today was on the Waltz and since we have done waltzes many times in line dancing, it was a lot easier to dance all the steps Theo demonstrated. That was followed by line dance class where we did Caribbean(?) style dances which seemed to be more zumba than dances. Then it was another Zumba class for 45 minutes. It was all a bit tiring. Finally we had a chance to rest.

       We did go to the Elite nibbles before dinner. It was formal night again, the third of the cruise. We have one more to go. We had seen the presentation of Bravo earlier in the cruise so we skipped the show. There was the full evening of trivia and dance bands but nothing extra special. Judy did manage to find some silver items that she liked. It took a bit of time but she finally settled on a necklace and earnings. I said that they were for our anniversary but I don't think she went for it. 

Not Ashore in Holyhead

Sleeping In

      Were were up early this morning as we needed to be ready to get on the tender to get ashore for our castle tour. At breakfast around 7 am (the anchorage time) we realized that we were still steaming merrily along. Soon after the Captain announced that due to weather conditions he was heading straight for Germany. The seas were rough and the visibility low. There would not have been a problem with the anchorage but the operation of the tenders would have been a safety issue. |The seas are a bit rough and it was not as cold as it looked. Weather improved greatly as the day went on.

     It was now 7:15 and no place to go with a limited activity programme. We decided to catch a bit more sleep but then an complete sea day program was announced. That meant Zumba at 9:30 with Theo. There were fewer people there. I think the 2 lecturers have left the ship as there was very little planned for the rest of the morning. Bean bag toss was not exactly a high interest item. The rest of the morning was at leisure.

      We went to the foxtrot dance lesson. It was probably the poorest dance that we have done. The instructor needed to fill in time and did many steps but we never got to put them all together. By the end wee were really ready to leave. We also decide to go to Sabini;s for the special pizza lunch. We were the last people in there and it took a little longer to have the pizzas made. The result was that by the time we were finished it was too late to get to the added afternoon Zumba class. With the quickly put together programme for the day, there was very little other things to do. We decided to just take in a movie.

       By the afternoon, the weather cleared and the “rough” seas conditions improved. By late afternoon we were already in the English Channel. The ship also announced that had requested the Hamburg port authorities to let us dock earlier. We do not know what this will mean in terms of a port visit. They have already refunded the cost of the Holyhead tours. We think that the decision to skip the port was made soon after we left because the forecast was very ify. We also will need to do another face to face immigration inspection before we arrive in |Germany although they will do that at sea tomorrow. It should not be as chaotic as the one for England.

Table cloth

Crab Shack Dessert

  

We had a bit to eat at the afternoon elite party and then went to the early show, a classical guitarist. It was probably one of the better musical performances that we have seen on this trip. After that we went to the Crab Shack dinner. We had no idea what to expect except that it was a seafood “specialty” restaurant although it was held in the buffet area. We met the 2 other couples. It was a great sea food dinner. We both had the king crab legs and shrimp as the main course. For us it was better than going to the specialty steak or Italian restaurant. We had a leisurely 2 hour dinner. We stopped in at the International Crew show and standing room only by the time we arrived. It was half over by the time we got there.

Ashore in Liverpool

      When we got up early this morning and looked out there we tall buildings and we were in Liverpool. Our side of the ship is along side the dock facing the centre of the city. If it had not been for the cool rainy weather which was with us all day, it would have been a perfect way to end the 7 straight sea days. At least they did not have snow which apparently they had last week. We also realized that the cruise has less than a week to go.

       We had to go through the immigration process this morning and from a ship point of view it was poorly organized. When we arrived at the appointed time we encountered 2 long lines. Those on tour were going one way, we needed to go the other. The line snaked around the deck until we arrived at the Explorers Lounge where we were given a number in the 500's to see immigration. Then they started calling out groups of 100's to get in another long line for immigration. By the time our number was called, the lounge held too many people. We did manage to get out of there in about 30 minutes. The rest was easy.

The Tower

The Church

      After breakfast we headed ashore. We walked to the Metropolitan Catholic church which we missed the last time we were here. We had already toured the very large Anglican cathedral. There was a serve at 11. It took about 35 minutes to get there. We arrived just as some of the ship tours were going through the church. We waited for a short period of time before the service started. It was wonderful with a full children's choir that sang both in

The Interior

English and in Latin. There were parts of the service that used the Gregorian chant. In all just a wonderful experience. The church is relatively modern with seating in the round. There is an old crypt below the church but it is not open on Sundays. We think it is next to the underground parking lot. The church itself is in the middle of the city with no free space around it. After the service all were invited for tea and a biscuit (cookie). Of course we went! The tea was not strong and by now the cookie was appreciated. We did talk to the priest who did the service for a few minutes. In all it was a really good experience. By the time we finished there it was nearly 1.

      We wandered back down the centre pedestrian way which was filled with Sunday shoppers. We ended up at the Albert Dock area, a renovated section along the river where the old warehouses have been given over to museums, shops, the Beatles experience, etc. We had explored this area the last time we were here a few years ago so we skipped all of the Beatles things. We did stop at the |Maritime Museum, a place we had visited before. We only stayed a short period of time going through the Battle of the Atlantic floor. The rain moved in again and by late afternoon, we headed back to he Caribbean Princess. A quick soup and salad and a cup of tea was enough to eat and then a rest was in order until we sailed.

Albert Docks

      

Wandering

The evening went quickly with a variety showtime with Doug Funk, the comedian from Toronto and a singer. Dinner provided us a chance to catch up on the experiences of our dinner friends. There was another chocolate journey dessert! They just keep on coming! There was “70's night in the lounge – read disco. With a early cruise tour tomorrow, ( we need to start the tendering at 7:30) it was time to end the evening early...again! We are in Holyhead tomorrow which is only a few miles down the coast. We are looking forward to our tour of a castle.