Two more days

Monday, May 13, 2013

We arrived in Harwich, England bright and early and set off for our shore excursion around 8:15 a.m. We had booked an excursion that Celebrity had arranged for back to back guests. We drove through the English countryside to a medieval wool town, Lavenham. We had an excellent guide who made sure the driver took the back roads so we would get to see as much of the countryside as possible. Her commentary was quite fascinating.

Turns out the stuff they told us was mustard in France is actually rapeseed, used to make canola oil. That's what I thought it was when I first saw it in France. Our guide there was actually from Sweden, so not really familiar with the local countryside. It's all over the countryside in England as well. Our guide said that the government subsidizes its growing. The bright yellow is very striking against the green countryside.

Lavenham has a lovely church with an ancient graveyard. We then headed down the hill into town. Interesting old buildings. My knees were bothering me, so I decided to head back up to the restaurant near where the bus had parked and see if I could get something to drink and use the internet. Had an interesting conversation with a gentleman outside cleaning up decorations from his restaurant. Turns out his daughter had just got married and she and her husband were off to the US for their honeymoon. He was interested to know how we came to be in Lavenham and remarked that we were a bit far from the ship. Turns out he had worked on the Norwegian fjords for a while. It was fun to chat with a local.

Unfortunately, the restaurant wasn't open yet, so I just sat at an outside table and enjoyed the sun. When Carolyn returned, she remarked that I hadn't missed much.

We returned to the ship to find out that the cabins were available, so perfect timing. We even beat Heidi, whose transfer from London left late. We had a quick lunch in the lido and then I came up to the cabin. Gene and Marta had efficiently transferred our stuff from the suite, so I got unpacked. Of course, now I am suffering from the syndrome I am so prone to: I can remember where things used to be in the suite. No clue where I put them in the cabin. Suspect I will spend much of this cruise searching for things. At least I know where my hanging clothes are as they left them on hangers and just transferred them to this closet! And we're moving again at the end of this cruise—fortunately to a larger cabin with a wonderful balcony for viewing the fjords.

We had a late dinner in Blu and then we all decided we were pretty much wiped out and we were losing an hour again, so headed to our cabins to get some sleep. I LOVE eating in Blu. It's smaller, very well staffed (including one of our favorite waiters from a previous cruise), and you can go to dinner whenever you feel like it instead of having a set time. Breakfast there is great as well, no contending with tons of clueless fellow passengers and you get waited on. Only thing missing is almond croissants. Plus, you get new and interesting table companions each time. Or some repeats. It's a great way to get to know one's fellow guests.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

We got up, had breakfast in Blu, and then headed out to get a cab to take us to our rental car. Unfortunately, none of us paid much attention to where the rental car place was located, which will figure in our story later on.

Picked up the car and headed off for Étretat, where Monet painted the cliffs. French highways tend to be sort of anonymous, preferring not to declare what number they are along the side of the highway. Makes for interesting travel. You really need to know what town(s) you're headed for so you know what to do at the multitude of roundabouts. So, with several interesting detours, we arrived at Étretat, found a parking place, and went to look at the sea and the cliffs and the formations painted so often by Monet. Found a souvenir store with not only good photographs of Étretat but also photos of Monet's paintings of same (on postcards). Wandered around a bit and then decided to head for Honfleur.

That's where it got really interesting. Not sure what roads we took, but they were definitely back roads, so we saw a lot of the Norman countryside. When we finally reached a main highway, then signage was better and we followed the signs to the Normandy bridge and then to Honfleur. The bridge itself is very interesting architecturally. It arches up very high to allow ships to pass underneath.

Enjoyed lunch in Honfleur once we found a place to park and then wandered around for a while. Very picturesque around the old harbor. If we had more time, it would have been interesting to go to the museum, but we decided to allow extra time to return to Le Havre in case we got lost. We needed to have the rental car back by 6:00 p.m.

Well, good thing we allowed extra time. We found the road leading to the port, we could see our ship, what we couldn't find was the road that Europcar was located on. Finally got some clues from the woman at the gas station where we bought gas and found we were nowhere near where we thought we were! Got it sorted and got the car returned and they called a cab to take us back to the ship. I stopped in the terminal to check my e-mail, because we hadn't had a chance to sign up for the ship's internet yet and the last cruise it was far from reliable. Found out that Eric has an offer from Lockheed to be a simulator instructor in Phoenix. Hope that works out for him.

Came back and got ready for dinner. Carolyn decided she'd had enough excitement for one day (she was the driver of the stick shift car we rented), so she decided to relax and have room service.

We gain an hour back tonight. We are out in heavy seas in the English Channel (as the English call it) or La Manche (as the French call it). The veranda furniture is blowing about—the winds are really high. If this keeps up, no way we will be able to tender into St. Peter Port in Guernsey tomorrow. Hope it blows itself out, as this is a place I'd really like to see. We have hired a car and a private driver, so no stress about finding our way around. We're keeping our fingers crossed.