I’ve lost track of what phase of this adventure we are on. I did the camper van. I did a jet plane. I remember something about New York, and I distinctly remember crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary.
Our last port before the run back to Southampton was the Spanish port of Vigo. I’m sure there is more exciting things to do there than just walk around and find the statue of Jules Vern and the octopus.
But that is what I did. This is the downside of cruising; you
pull into these ports and only have a few hours to taste the local experience.
At the port lecture the ships presenter talked mostly about other towns near here and of course the Camino de Santiago, (the way of Saint James) that ends near here, but the ship isn’t going to wait while we take a 14 day walk that would probably kill us, so it’s off to Southampton and the end of Phase 1 of cruising.
The options for being back in Southampton briefly were to stay on the ship or spend large to ride on a bus for at least a hour and see Windsor Castle. I chose to stay on the ship and my traveling compadre rode the bus to see the tomb of the queen.
Several of us through passengers stayed on the ship and
watched as the crew washed and polished everything that they normally wash and
polish every day, but today they did it exclusively, and several rousing pep talk
could be heard coming from various corners of deck five.
Probably the most exciting part of the turnaround was when
the fellow came down and commenced to tune the piano. When he was done a new
fellow with a guitar sat down and began to play. He was way better than the
piano tuner, and better than the other guitar player we had on the first leg of
this journey.
it wasn’t long before the new passengers began to board.
There isn’t as many of them as on the last leg as the ship is only at about 60%
capacity, and there does not seem to be any children. Our only mission now is
to figure out who will be the first Medi Vac.
We left Southampton for the last time on this journey, right on schedule. Our next stop is the French city of Cherbourg, that is right across the English Channel.
When we took the ferry from Le Havre a couple of years ago to Portsmouth the crossing only took only about 8 hours. Tonight, on the Sky it is taking about 15 hours. I guess our captain is going the long way or just going around in circles to burn more fuel.
Cherbourg is the jumping off point for shore excursions to
explore the battle fields of Normandy. This almost empties the ship, and I can just wonder how many supporters of republican fascists, rode out to see the
sites where fascism was defeated in the 1940’s?
Getting off the ship here you have to walk through one massive terminal, that has the most beautiful wooden baggage carousel I have ever seen.
I found my camper van people, and I suspect they are all living in the car park, and all seem to be dry camping. I wonder what happens to the black and brown water as there are not any facilities that I can see.
By the time I got back to the ship events in the other terminal buildings were in full swing. One had a massive fabric sale going on. That filled the space from end to end. I didn’t need any fabric, so I went to explore the other port building and found France's first nuclear powered submarine on static display.
It just so happens that Cherbourg is home to where the French have built nuclear submarines for decades, and the Redoubtable is the first one ever built here. It is now a integral part of the Submarine Museum that occupies one end of the former passenger terminals.
These Terminals and dock were also the last place the Titanic stopped before heading out to sea.
It was all quite interesting, and Cherbourg would be a good place to return to and do some more exploring, but I think I can hear the godfather theme song so it’s time to sail out of here, and head back to Portugal where we were the other day.
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