St. Malo to Wismar

Since we'd already scoured St. Malo twice, we took a picturesque coach ride (coach...don't call it a bus) to Dinan, a small medieval town a few miles south. Pretty neat little place.

Onward to Dunquerque in France, the site of Operation Dynamo where the cornered British troops were evacuated in 1940. We visited Fort des Dunes which protected the area back then.

A lot of brave men gave their lives in World War II. Let's never forget them.

The neat thing about Operation Dynamo was that Britain asked anyone who had a boat that could make it across the channel to sail it to Dunquerque to help. And so they did. Fishing boats, excursion boats, family boats, ferries...and they evacuated more than 338,000 men safely. A lot of equipment was left at the bottom of the harbor, though.

Onward to Antwerp, Belgium. We took off for Ghent, another medieval place, where we visited Saint Bavo's Cathedral and had some free time.

Next stop, Rotterdam, Netherlands and we visited Gouda, home of cheese. Now, please, let's say it correctly. It is pronounced "How-da". We got to taste four different Gouda cheeses, served with a glass of wine, at what used to be the weighing house. Hint: the aged one is soooo much better.

The following day took us through the Kiel Canal and we were betting that the captain was having apoplexy. It seems that schedules mean nothing to the Germans who operate the locks. It's first come, first served, and we entered the canal three hours late. So why was this so important? Because on the following day we were docked in Wismar, Germany and come people had 12-1/2 hour tours to Berlin and we were only there for about 12 hours. The tours operated, and gratefully we weren't on one of those long ones. We wisely took a walking tour of the town.

The Pig Bridge, in detail:

And other local buildings:

The tour culminated with a beer tasting at the local brewery (the only one left of many, many of them back in the old days). Nice way to end the day.

Then the weather caught up with us again. We skipped Ronne, Denmark. Too windy to get into the bay through the narrow approach. We didn't tour on the following day in Visby, Sweden.