Grand Voyage Europe Part 1

 We got off to a good start on this one, having been rebooked onto a direct flight to Lisbon and finding that our luggage, which had been shipped two weeks earlier, was at the ship waiting for us.

 

First stop was Porto and we ran to the Pingo Doce for supplies: toothpaste, mouthwash, port wine. On walking tour in A Coruna, we discovered their sense of humor.

We missed Biarritz again because it was too rough to tender, but we did get to see the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

 

What a building. And outside, of course, The Puppy.

 

We took a walk around the marina in Lorient, France.

 

We anchored at Concorneau in France and lowered the tenders, but the first one in found the mouth of the harbor blocked by eco-protesters in kayaks. They didn't seem to want us there! We are polluters, apparently. Coulda fooled me, what with all the steps that cruise ships take to not pollute. We pulled up the tenders and left in a huff.

 

In Brest, France, we toured the countryside and the beautiful estuaries.

 

Onward to St. Peter Port, Guernsey. It was a tender port, so guess what? Right! Too rough to tender. Both Honfleur, France and Bruges, Belgium greeted us without incident. We went to historic Rouen, where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for not conforming to mob rule.

 

 

In Bruges, we bought chocolates. It was wall-to-wall tourists. Challenging. Last stop on the segment was an overnight in Antwerp. First day, we took an excellent tour that included the cathedral:

 The train station:

 

And the view from the top of the MAS (whatever that stands for) museum is neat, but the ground floor is:

 

Second day, it poured rain as we threw out all but 61 passengers and brought the newbies onboard. 

Occasionally, you get a sunset.

Cicada Safari

 The year: 2024

The month of May, ground temperature 64 degrees Fahrenheit. Here they came.

Brood XIII, with both 13 and 17 year cycles. Dogs, squirrels, and robins ate well.

Scads of them, all dying quickly.

But first, gorging on plants.

We didn't have even one in our complex--wrong kind of trees? Who knows.

There And Back Again

 We took a road trip! We went to Nashville, Chattanooga, Savannah, Port St. Lucie, Tallahassee, and Huntsville. Maybe, just maybe, we found a place to call our next home. It's one of the above.

Went to a cool museum with cars and antiques in Ft. Pierce. They were having a King Tut exhibit:

Pickings were slim, but Pati won the wiener dog contest, one dog to zero.

Dodging Hurricanes

 The trip started with a Business Class flight, direct to Barcelona. Regent Seven Seas Cruises dispatched a private driver and we were off to our hotel. OUR hotel, not theirs. RHIP with Regent. We spent a couple of days shopping, dining on Iberico ham and dinners from our favorite restaurant, El Mussol.

We hadn’t visited the Sagrada Familia for about three years, so we decided to wander up and count the cranes. Didn’t take many fingers this year: there was exactly one. It was, of course, right in the photos we wanted to take of the newest additions to the cathedral.

 

We treated ourselves to the upgraded suite life this trip and set up shop in a Penthouse Suite. Check it out:

This choice did result in extremely prompt housekeeping; however, we felt that there was a lot of wasted space and really--who needs a butler?

A day at sea brought us to Cadiz, Spain and we went straight to the Decathlon to see if they had what they didn’t have in Barcelona. They did. Here's Cadiz. It's really a nice place!

 

Onward to Casablanca, after watching the movie in our suite. No matter how many times we see it, we always forget something: to whit, he never said “play it again, Sam”. We visited the Hassan II Mosque.

We have no photos to verify this, but it's true. The market should be called the "Cats-a-blanca". Strays everywhere ranging from kittens to grande dames. They all looked pretty well fed but any one of them would have been happy to go home with us. After refreshments at a local resort, we stopped quickly at the town square, which should be called Pigeon Central Station.

Next stop, Santa Cruz de la Palma, Canary Islands. We went uphill to the town of Fuencaliente to see the Salt Pans lighthouse.

Then to the volcano San Antonio.

 This not-so-little guy was ready for his close-up, and after that we enjoyed a glass or two of wine at the Teneguia cellars.

 

Now, here’s where it gets good. There’s a hurricane out there called Lee, and we’re headed into it on our five-day passage to Bermuda. It was obvious to even those who caught the stupid that the ship was pointed not at Bermuda, but New York. Two days later, the Captain (who, by the way, spoke the worst English we’ve yet encountered and apparently kept many secrets from the Cruise Director) finally fessed up that we were going to New York. No shit, really?

 

On our way, we were entertained by Terry Bishop, the traveling troubadour and lecturer. He never fails to entertain, delivering a lecture on survivors at sea and giving reference to our unfortunate situation, he bemoaned the concerns we all shared: running out of champagne, lobster, and Regent Rewards Points.

 

Now, Terry, an excellent songwriter, covered once again his number one hit, “I Don’t Look Good Naked Anymore”. Yes indeed, he admits to being a deep-fried, double-dipped version of the man he was before. We can relate.

 

Ah, but upon arrival in New York there would be no room at the inn, so we would be anchored at the Verrazzano Narrows bridge for…wait for it…two days. We had company, though:

Actually, the views weren't bad.

 

The good news was that when we finally were allowed to move toward the dock, it was dark and the lights of the city were something to see.

 

A quick political comment: hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal immigrants cross our border each day, but it took hours upon hours for Immigration in New York to process less than 700 people, most of whom were American Citizens.

 

So we move on. Our port call at Newport, Rhode Island was canceled due to weather and that was fine because we had nothing to do there anyhoo. Next stop, Boston and a walk in the historic districts.

Another walking tour in Bar Harbor, Maine:

In Saint John, New Brunswick we revisited the “Foodie Tour” to enjoy cupcakes, pizza (with maple and pecans!), coffee, and Beaver Tails (yummy pastry). Our booze stop was at the famous Five & Dime nightclub. Look it up online…it’s not to be missed if you’re there overnight.

 In Halifax, Nova Scotia, we drove out to Famous Peggy’s Cove. Beautiful, but dangerous!

 

Sydney, Nova Scotia found us hitting the bars again on a pub tour.

 

Corner Brook, Canada is a place we’ve hiked twice, so we went to see the Insectrium & Butterfly House. This place was really neat…look! Here’s the Death’s Head Moth!

And a creepy-crawley:

We hiked in Saguenay:

And toured Quebec City and Montmorency Falls. Quebec City is neat, but not quite as neat as we expected. One highlight was what sounded like a bomb going off just after we returned to the ship. Still don’t know what that was all about, but it got everyone’s attention.

 

In the end, Pati won the Wiener Dog contest, three dogs to one.