France and England

LeHavre and Honfleur, France




I am freezing! It's soooo cold here. Someone told us this is the coldest May in recent memory. Not for this warm weather baby. But we went out anyway. Walked miles from the ship to the center of town where we got a tram to the beach area. Lovely beach if you like rocks and stones. Just like most of the other French beaches. But pretty, with thousands of cabanas, places to eat, walking and bike trails. Very family-oriented. After another long walk we took the tram to the other end, a nice middle-class neighborhood where we stumbled upon a neat little local flea market. Lots of women in head scarves. Very unattractive. Maybe they should cover up their faces too. Back to the town center where we picked up the local bus to Honfleur, a gem of a tiny town where Monet painted regularly. One look at the place and you can see why. It has a beautiful harbor, buildings from the 1500's, sidewalk cafes and a dreamy atmosphere. This was our second visit and it just gets better and more beautiful. Of course, we had French fries with mayonnaise (that's how they it them in France) and a baguette. An all-carb lunch. Very healthy. After a few hours of dreamily wandering around we decided not to miss the ship after all so we headed back to gorge ourselves on a delicious dinner.



Did I mention that half the passengers on this ship are south Floridians? They are mostly lou. d and obnoxious. We even play tennis against some of them and they know half of our community. I keep trying to hide from them but they keep finding me and starting conversations.



Tonight we saw a Beatles tribute band and, tired as we were, Eileen and I danced a few of those calories off. Well, maybe 5 or 10. We have to go off early tomorrow for a short port stop. Not sure where we will go yet, depending on the train schedules and weather. This will be our last port stop (Dover) before Amsterdam.



Dover



Got off early and spent the day in Canterbury. Visited the cathedral and surrounding area. The entire city is a historical monument and we all loved it. We took a small boat ride on the small river and were instructed in English history by our wonderful guide, Vincent, who was a student teacher. We saw buildings steeped in history and learned all about them while pleasantly gliding down the river past magnificent scenery, mostly 12th to 15th century buildings.



After getting back to Dover downtown we walked around for a while and took a massively long walk to the ship. I figure about five miles. I am dead tired. Now we have the monumental task of packing for our sojourn in Amsterdam. Think I will take a nap instead. Oh, we just passed the white cliffs of Dover and yes, they really are white.



Now it's on to Amsterdam.