Northern Europe Cruise - April 2024
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| Bordeaux - Place de la Bourse |
Day 9 April 28
Day 9 was the first true day of the cruise, but the day was spent traveling from Lisbon, Portugal to Bilboa, Spain. While it seems close on land it was actually going to take the boat 2 days to get there, and thus we had a entire day to ourselves on the boat (along with the other 2500 people). We ended up missing breakfast at one of the restaurants because we slept in and again had to venture into the buffet. As I noticed on Day 8, the buffet seemed like an area were all the old people congregate, maybe it’s not just that the old people were congregating at the buffet and moreso that the average age on the boat is 65+. This isn’t really a bad thing, but when walking around you do notice old people blocking your way, everywhere. Sorry but you’re reading this blog, you get to hear my gripes as it’s heathy for me to vent.
The rest of the day was us hanging out and not doing much, we went to a family oriented contest in one of the lounges and meh, but then we saw a Argentinian magician/comedian and he put on a good show with a few laughs. The night was finished with a steak dinner, but for some reason the signage to get to the steak house was not clear. The steakhouse was on the 13th deck, so we went to 13 to find the restaurant, circled 13 but could not get in, truly walked a .25mile on the running track trying to find the restaurant only to end up back where we started. Had to go back down to the 12th floor, go to the middle of the the boat and then go up to 13 and apparently we weren’t the only people on the boat struggling to find this restaurant. Steak was good, wine was good, sides were good, dinner was good. Dinner was slow but all in all a good day.
Day 10 April 29
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Rebe's Dad's family's house
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First port of call was Bilboa, Spain and in the heart of Basque Country. The Basque are a group of people (don’t call them Spainairds) who inhabit the area of northern Spain, who speak a completely different language from Spanish. Rebe’s dad has family in the area so we took a tour to go and see them, we spent a little over an hour with them it was good for everyone to see each other. There were a few more stops further away from Bilboa to see Biscay and Bermeo before we headed back to Bilboa proper. |
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| Game of Thrones - "Dragonstone" in Biscay, Spain |
Our guided parked us in the heart of the city and then we stopped at Plaza Nueva for some lunch bites, apparently our guide is a food and wine tour guide too so he knew the perfect spot for us to have lunch at and he did pick a good spot. It was good enough that we are considering to come back to northern Spain just to hang out with him and do some tours. He’s from San Sebastian and apparently they have Michelin Star restaurants out the wazoo.
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| Walking through the old town of Bilboa |
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| Nervión River in Bilboa |
After lunch we did a walking tour through the old town and just enjoyed the sights, we finished up at the Guggenheim Museum of Bilboa which looks like the Disney Opera house in Los Angeles. Then it was back to the boat.
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| "The Puppy" in front of the museum |
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| Bilboa's Guggenheim |
We had dinner in the main lounge where we surprised Rebe’s mom with a birthday surprise.
Day 11 April 30
Port of call for today was the Bordeaux region of France and Bordeaux the actual city. Is it bad that I thought Bordeaux was just a region and not a city? Is Champange a city too!? Let me get back to you on that one. 😉
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| Vineyards at Chateau Cos Labory |
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| The actual Chateau |
We caught the shuttle bus after a very unorganized assembly in the main theater for the buses, the bus was taking us to a vineyard in the Verdoc region of France for a vineyard tour and then a wine tasting. It was the usual wine tour with an explanation of the wines, the fermentation process and the storing process (the barrels). The tour included a discussion on the chateau on site and the history of the place and of course a testing of the two wines that the vineyard produces.
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| Wines we tried |
Not that I’m now a qualified sommelier but I do know what type of wines I like and it’s definitely loud and powerful wines, and I think that’s the complete opposite of what the French prefer. I want a wine that says “POW” not a wine that hides in the background, not subtle hints I want to be slapped with flavor dammit. And the first wine we served could be described as grape water and the second while more complex and better still not to my liking of something I would purchase. Maybe I’m just an American heathen but dammit I like what I like.
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| Place de la Bourse |
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| Some corner in Bordeaux |
After the tour we were taken further inland to the city of Bordeaux and with hindsight being what it is, we would have just spent the entire day just wondering around Bordeaux. The main “old” area just reminded me a of a tiny Paris, we would have loved to spend more time here and I think that it gives us a good reason to come back to Bordeaux. We did have a disappointing lunch in Bordeaux due to our waiter dropping the ball. But the walking around we did was very cool. 2 hours back to the boat for drinks at Gatsby (bar on the boat) and dinner at the Chinese restaurant. Watched the Newlywed game before calling it a night.
Day 12 May 1
Port of Call was La Rochelle, France and just like every other day in France it was either a holiday or day of protest/strike. Luckily for us it was just a holiday, but it did mean very few shops were open in the city.
As a ploy to get travelers to buy tours from the boat, the cruise owners make it more difficult to get to town on your own and since the port is owned by the city and not open to the public you cannot to get a taxi from the port, you cannot even walk into town. You must either buy a tour or buy a shuttle ticket into town, it sure feels like a pure money grab from the cruise operator. After struggling to get a shuttle ticket at an appropriate time we were able to sneak on to a bus a little to meet our private tour operator in La Rochelle an hour late.
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| Arched overhangs lined the streets |
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| Old Towers still guard the city |
Our tour was just of the town and he informed us of the history of the town and how it was a major trading port long ago and a major port of wine and salt in between the Spanish, and northern Europeans. He showed us the cathedral which was boring on the outside due to the Protestant history of the area (Catholics got to La Rochelle late) but the inside was quite impressive. He showed us the arch lined streets which were designed to protect the goods that all the shop owners in town were selling. He showed us the surviving wooden houses from before the war times, remember large areas of France were bombed heavily during WWII and lots of cities lost lots of building during the bombings. The buildings that survived were just built around and life carried on, though for a while at a much slower pace.
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| Wall that used to guard the city |
Our tour ended at the town harbor, where our guide discussed the towers near the town gate and all the history associated with the area. After the tour we had time for a beer and a few a snacks at a pub, we walked back through town to see the German bunker museum and a street with a lot of nice houses. Then we headed back to catch the bus to the ship.
Day 13 May 2
Today was just a day at sea, no major developments except that Rebe and I participated in one of the games put on by the ship. It was a couples game where you had to perform timed physical activities and shortest time would win after 4 events.
Of course Rebe and I did amazing as expected and end up tied with another couple but somehow they won? Whatever, we still got a prize bag and now we’re officially cruise famous.
Day 14 May 3
Port of call for May 3rd was Le Harve, the rest of the group decided to take a 2 hour ride over to Omaha and Utah beach to see all the historical stuff associated with D-Day. Rebe and I opted for something a little closer to Le Harve and visited the town of Rouen and the port city itself Le Harve.
Rouen was bombed just like La Rochelle (and Le Harve but more on that later), but not as substantially and it still had plenty of old wooden buildings that were still standing. And while some had burned down during the war, plenty were still standing, but Rouen is really known for its association with Joan of Arc. This is the town where the English actually burned her at the stake, we got to see the big cathedral which also held the burial sites of a few other famous Frenchmen along with Rollo the Viking. The area, Normandy, which is a translation or variation of North-men referring to the area in which the Vikings held for a while.
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| Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen |
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| Streets of old buildings in Rouen |
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| 14th Century Astronomical Clock |
We ended our tour at the site on which Joan was burned and in that area there’s a church built in her honor, sadly it was closed so we didn’t get to go inside. After the tour we visited a local market, we did this in Le Rochelle too, to grab a few snacks for lunch or well just because we like snacks. We picked up some Comte, Gouda and something soft with truffle and with cheese one must have bread so we stopped by a bakery to get a baguette snack and of course some brioche. Good snacking food for the ride back to Le Harve, of course we didn’t have any silverware so we were just breaking off chunks of bread and cheese on the bus like the cavemen of old. Breadcrumbs EVERYWHERE lol.
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| Market where cheese was found |
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| Oddly shaped Joan of Arc Church |
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| Square behind the church |
The tour then took us back to the boat where we dropped off our sweatshirts and had a quick lunch before our second tour, the second tour was actually of the port city Le Harve. Le Harve is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique rebuilding of the areas that were heavily bombed during World War II, over 90% of the city was decimated during the bombing campaign. It was the only way for the Allied Forces retake the city since the German forces had the sea blockaded and the surrounding areas fortified too. Unique to Europe the lead architect built the majority of the buildings using concrete and a pier and beam technique combined with a mass production process that allowed a majority of the buildings to use the same windows. This all for faster, cheaper designs and the majority of the city was rebuilt it less than 20 years whereas other European cities took closer to 40 years to recover from the bombing.
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| Town Hall of Le Harve |
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| The famous style of building in Le Harve from after the war |
Also in the city are two other architecture wonders, the first being the nuclear power plant looking towers in the center of the city. These buildings were needed as places of culture for the city and the smaller of the towers is actually a library and the other is a multipurpose facility to house dance and/or musical performances.
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| The volcano or maybe nuclear plant's cooling tower |
The crowning jewel of the city is the Church of Saint Joseph, it was also built using concrete and is a 107m (~350ft) tall tower that from the outside appears basic and almost looks like a lighthouse. The church also stands as a memorial to all those who died during the bombing campaign. Inside it is an engineering marvel with a cross shaped base leading to a vertical shaft 550 tons with no internal supports. The windows of the church are filled with over 10,000 hand blown glass panels and each side of the church has windows of certain colors each with a certain meaning.
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| Church of St. Joseph |
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| Interior of the church |
The church was the end of the tour, but we had some time to meander around, check out another church, pick up some French Abbey beer and see a few more sights including a monument that was erected after World War I and some how survived the bombing campaign untouched.
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| Statue that survived the war |
Back on the boat, Rebe volunteered herself for a speed trivia game show where she finished second in the first round and then went on to ELIMINATE the other top players for the win in some random circle color button pressing game.
Day 15 May 4
Today was an interesting day, unlike most days on a cruise our boat did not get into port until almost noon so it gave us an easy morning on the boat and even another chance to participate in a cruise game. This time it was “Heads Up” a game where one person is the guesser and the crowd then shouts clues to get the guesser to say a word shown on a screen behind them. No one wanted to go first so Rebe decided to help the host out and volunteer and of course crush it with a high score, others followed but could not match her score. Then the room got quiet in looking for the 4th volunteer so I had a go myself and of course tied Rebe, now we were doubly cruise famous (Rebe a 3 time participant) and we ended up co-champs.
Our excursion for the day was a ride through the Netherlands country side leaving from the port of Ijmeiden and then quick stop in Amsterdam to literally see the city cause there was no time to do anything else. AND it was another holiday! First Independence Day in Lisbon, Labor Day in France and now Memorial Day in Netherlands, so if you’re going to do a cruise like this, maybe pick another week.
The ride through the countryside was really nice, our guide (who was amazing, entertaining and very talkative) gave us a history of the Netherlands and how the early settlers reclaimed land from the ocean by draining the areas through lakes and canals and then pumping the water out of the low lying areas. It’s really preposterous how much land is below sea level, and I was telling Rebe how the Netherlands better be nice to everyone because another country could easily drown them (like the Nazi’s did in WWII).
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| Windmill at the museum |
Our first stop was at a windmill museum where they had an operating windmill and we were allowed to see the interworking bits to better understand its operation.
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| Tulips |
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| More tulips |
One reason Rebe picked this tour was that there was a chance to see FIELDS of tulips, but early in the tour our guide told us that the tulips that are grown in the fields are grown for the bulbs and not the flowers so after the flowers bloom the flowers are chopped so that the plant can focus energy on the bulb part of the plant. So we saw a few scant fields and then we hit the jackpot, the tour guide yelled at the bus driver to pull over and let us all hop out and take pictures of the tulips, we didn’t get the chance to see the tulips up close due to risk of spreading viruses to the plants (and private property).
The tour then continued on through the countryside and we then had a nice stop and stroll through the village of Broek in Waterland, while there we visited a church but the church had a counter with pastries and even served beer. So we popped a squat had a bite and enjoyed the scenery and obviously annoyed the locals who looked appalled that a tour bus of tourist just attacked their little quiet paradise.
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| Lake in Broek in Waterland |
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| Same lake, different view |
The bus then headed for the “zoo” of Amsterdam as our guide called it and it was definitely much busier, but less so than usual as most of the streets were closed in the inner city due to the holiday. It was easier to cross streets as long as you checked for the speeding cyclists moving down the bike lanes. We only had an enough time to buy some fries with some patatje oorlog (peanut satay sauce, mayo and onions), some Dutch cheese to bring home, a stroopwaffle for the road and a beer before a mad dash back to the bus in the rain. Two others on our tour didn’t make it back to the bus… hope they made it on the boat.
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| Cyclist Galore |
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| The Amstel |
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| Rembrandt Statue |
Since our day started so late, we didn’t get back to the boat until 815 and then it was dinner and bedtime.
Day 16 May 5
Our boat arrived in Hamburg at 5pm but most of the day was at sea and not much happened during the day. When we finally arrived we got off the boat and Uber’ed to Saint Pauli area of Hamberg only to find out that his is probably the seediest part of town.. you know the red light district. We ate at a snitzel at German place that had some good beer, we walked through the club area (red-light) and caught the bus back to the boat for a night cap.
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| Famous police station |
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| The Reeperbahn |
Day 17 May 6
This is what a European cruise day should be like, you wake up and the boat is already at the pier you walk off the boat and you catch a cab/uber or bus into town and do whatever the hell you feel like. Cruises often dock in inconvenient places for tourist to actually explore the town they are near. The two ports before, “Amsterdam” and “Paris” were more than an hour away from where the boat docked and we obviously knew that before the cruise started but it just makes it a hassle to enjoy the big place that you’re close to. In Hamburg the boat parked literally in town and just outside the cruise terminal you catch a bus less that 50m/yds from the front door.
We hopped on a bus to take us to the hop on hop off bus as a quick highlight tour of the city and give us a general idea of the city, last night I was worried Hamburg would be a let down but after the bus ride and seeing how pretty the city is I could see being here for a few days and just hanging out. The city is famous for its port and warehouse district but it also a haven for tall churches, with the record of 5 church steeples over 99m. After the bus made a full loop we decided to do a river boat tour of the warehouse district in addition to some of the port container area, we floated by the container yard which is just silly the amount of containers that are sitting in Hamburg in addition to the ships that carry all these boxes. What you can see from the outside is just half of what is on the ship.
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| Old warehouse district |
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| Concert Hall above the warehouse district |
After the cruise is was time for a Hamburger in Hamburg, now the meat section of the sandwich probably came from Hamburg but whoever decided to slap it between to slices of bread is really unknown. Either way we found a place near the Rathaus (town hall) for burgers and then toured through the Rathaus and over to St Nichols which is the 5th tallest church in the world. Well it kinda is as it was bombed during WWII and never rebuilt but it’s still a sight to see in the city and it now has a museum that tells the history of WWII and the victims of the war/bombing.
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| Hamburg City Hall |
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| St. Peter's Church |
In the middle of Hamburg is a lake around which all the rich people live, big houses and pretty views, you get it. We took a boat ride around the lake.
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| Hamburg from the Lake |
Lastly we took a stroll through the Old Botanical Gardens of Hamburg, just a stunning park in the city and next to the gardens is a Japanese Garden which was even more stunning since everything seems to be in bloom right now.
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| Wisteria in the Gardens |
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| Rocks in the Garden |
Day 18 May 7 / Day 19 May 8
Day 18 was just a day at sea consisting of us chilling and relaxing on the boat, before waking up on Day 19 in Southampton, UK for our flight home.
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