Normandy

Well, we are ready to go home. We've seen what we came to see and the rest will be gravy. Normandy is a beautiful part of France. We traveled quaint country roads to get to the beaches.
And once we were there, we were in awe of it all. We saw Pont deHoc beach where the soldiers ad to scale a 100+ foot muddy cliff to attack the Germans. However, the Germans saw them coming and many were killed. We saw bomb craters and bunkers. We then went to the American Cemetary. Just standing in the midst of all those marble crosses (and stars of David) was a sobering time. I still get chills thinking of it. Next we went to Omaha Beach where we were able to walk on the beach and look at the monuments that were erected as a memorial. We had lunch on a farm - it was great. Then we went to a little village called Combano ( I hope I spelled that correctly). We visit the war museum and took many pictures of the remains of the artificial water breaks and bridge pieces. The entire event was just so minding numbing. This is something we have wanted to do for a long time and we are so happy we came here. We will return some day! The negative about the whole day was that our bus broke down while we were in Combano and we all had to find empty seats on one of the other 3 buses. Then when we started out there was an auto accident on the freeway so our bus driver decided to go a different way. Well - every Frenchman in France must have taken a holiday to this area b/c they were on their way home and jammed up the little country roads. We were late getting back to the ship, but luckily the captain decided to wait on us! How nice!

Our next stop is Dover England tomorrow. We get to set our clocks back an hour tonight! I'm telling ya, my body doesn't know what to do with all the time changing!

Another night at sea

The seas have calmed down significantly! It's about time! Tonight after our formal dinner we went to the Princess Theater. The show was The Backbeat Beatles, a group that did all Beatles numbers. They were awesome. Took us back quite a few years, though! I had to laugh at the fact that after it got started several of the "older" couples got up and left. I told Larry that the parents of old were still the parents of old. All us "younger" generation were standing, clapping and singing!

Another day at sea!

We left Vigo Spain yesterday around 6ish and immediately hit "rough"waters. It was the worst yet. They whole ship was swaying and creeking loudly. However, we weren't worried. All the crew and passengers say it would take something catostrophic to turn a ship over. We wre still able to walk about the ship, but we all looked like we were on a 7 day drunk! Today was about the same but fortunately we got used to it. It's not so bad. We didn't do much today. Went to an English Country Fair on the ship. It was lot's of fun. We played cards, went to an art auction, played bingo and now it is time to get ready for formal night. We will be in France tomorrow.

Day something or another!

Gee, I wish I had a calendar! I am totally lost. Anyway, I just found out it is May 8th. Today we toured the wine country near Vigo Spain. It is quite unlike Napa or Sonoma. A winery will have a few acres of vines, but most people have their entire (small) back yards full of vines. The wineries will buy their grapes from these "farmers" to make the table wines, but will use their own for the more expensive wines. We had a wine tasting and I must say I was less than impressed. Then we went to a small hotel in Combanos, Spain and had Tapas, which are small bites of this and that (mostly sweets). We returned to Vigo and to our ship around 4pm and went immediately to the pizza parlor to eat something we were familiar with! Then we went down to the International deli and had some straight-from-the-oven peanut butter cookies. We will skip dinner tonight to say the least. We sail at 6:00 and will have another wonderful day at sea. I hope we don't have to lose another hour. I think we are now 7 hrs ahead of home.

A half day in Lisbon

We arrived at Lisbon at noon today and went on a 3 1/2 hr tour around the city. We toured the new parts of the city as well as the old parts. It's amazing how hilly and narrow the streets are in the old part. Wish I could show you pictures of what we saw. One of these days I'll learn how to do that. We visited the maritime museum and Jeronimo's Monestary, the monument to Henry the Navigator who never navigated anything. He did form the school for navigation though. We saw the monument to the Discoveries and the 25th of April Bridge. Weird name, but it was built by Salizar, the dictator and when he was ousted, they changed the name of the bridge to commemorate the Revolution of the Red Carnations (which happened on April 25, 1974). All sounds so interesting, doesn't it?

We were back on board the ship in time for dinner. I must say that I haven't been all that impressed with the dinner menus this cruise. However, last night I had my best meal so far.
We set sail at 6pm for Vigo, Spain.

I've lost track!

We've been at sea for so long that I have completely lost track of time, days and dates. My watch can't even keep up with the date! Today is another sea day. Yipee, more water! It's been a rather lazy day. We got up early and went up to the buffet area where it was real quiet and did our BSF lessons. We get up there before anyone else gets out of bed! Larry took a couple of computer courses this morning, then we played bingo before lunch. Didn't win anything. We watched a movie and red this afternoon until it was time to go to dinner. Each night we get to sit with different people and tonight we sat with a couple that we've sat with before. They are a lovely Norwegian couple in their 80's. They live most of the year in Florida and have two homes in Oslo Norway where they spend about 5 months out of the year. They take this transition cruise every year and get off the ship when we get to Oslo. They are such a sweet couple and she was very informative about Norway, mostly Oslo. Their names are Tovie (her) and Arvid (him). Don't know their last names.



We played bingo again tonight to win a 7 day cruise but didn't win. Came close, though!

Tomorrow we will dock in Lisbon Portugal at noonish. We will go on an excursion that covers the highlights of Lisbon. Will blog more about that tomorrow.



Sure am missing home but looking forward to the rest of the cruise.

Land, Ho!

We finally made it across the pond and planted our feet on solid ground today. Of course, you wouldn't know we were on solid ground the way we were swaying to and fro when we got on shore. It was funny! We toured the island ,went to the top of the mountain to the big volcano crater that is the home of the Green and Blue lakes. It was a beautiful ride with lots of lush green scenery. Hills and valleys, farmland divided by low stone walls, lots of cattle. (Sara, they were black and white!). At the end of the 4 hr tour we had a wine and cheese tasting at a hotel across the street from the ship. Good thing we didn't have far to walk. Of course, we could always use the excuse that we were swaying from being on the ship so long.

Tomorrow is another day at sea! Yea! More bingo!