Bilbao, Spain

Our trip continues,

Bilbao, has a beautiful cruise terminal, with nothing in it except a lot of security people, and the cruise line or city set up a shuttle service  to take you very close to the Guggenheim museum, which probably would have been a good thing, but we had a gastronomic tour in this city known for its very high 5 star restaurants.  Our tour included a by bus tour of the city, and a stop to see the market in old town, then on to our lunch, where our chef, would prepare our food and demonstrate, how to do it. 

First the city, this big red contraption is the Vizcaya bridge. 

The bridge, still in use, is 164 meters long, and its gondola can transport six cars and several dozen passengers in one and a half minutes.

It operates every 8 minutes during the day (every hour at night), all year round, with different fares for day and night services, and is integrated into Bilbao's Creditrans (now "Barik") ticket system. An estimated four million passengers and half a million vehicles use the bridge annually.^[1]

There are two new visitor lifts installed in the 50-metre-high pillars of the bridge that allow walking over the bridge's platform, from where there is a view of the port. 

The next highlight was a wonderful view of the Guggenheim, from across the river. 

It is indeed impressive, and I know you could spend many days in there. 

Then it was on to the market, and it is very modern three stories, and VERY clean, I would be happy to buy my food there, and the verity was outstanding.

Then on to lunch. 

You would never know unless you knew, this was a restaurant. 

This was our demo table. 

Ed fell in love with the hutch. 

The chef prepping the salmon, teaching how you have to take out the bones, and salt it and put citrus on it to pickle it like making  ceviche. 

This was the end of a very elaborate cooking of cod called,  Buccola it’s made from salt cod, and Very good, not salty at all. 

I hope I can find this wine at home, it is very good. 


So that brings us to today, a sea day, last night we had the roughest night yet and today is not much better, but hay it’s sunny. Tomorrow Lisbon and since we’ve been there a number of times we opted for another culinary tour. LOL

September 26, Bordeaux, 27, Bilbao, and 28th a sea day still unfolding....

BORDEAUX:

Our port was Le Verdon, it is about two hours from there to Bordeaux, and there is nothing by the ship. There was a shuttle into Le Verdon, I’m not sur what was there as we had an all day tour of wine tasting, and lunch and a bit of shopping at the high-end shops, so we didn’t do any of  that, we can do that at home cheaper, but we did enjoy the day, as it was cool in the morning and warmed by afternoon, and no rain. 

So we met at 7:45 o’clock and then on to the busses. First stop was drive-by a number of chateaus that produce wines. Many of these look like castles, which is the meaning of  Chateau: ( a large French country house or castle often giving its name to wine made in its neighborhood.)

The chateaux we visited was a bit less grand, but very nice, and the wine was grand. After a long history of more then 200 years Chateau Fourcas Hosten the Chateau was bought from an American family that owned it in 1974, by two French brothers. 

The day we were there, they were harvesting the grapes.  Then it was on to the tastings, we liked it, so bought four bottles. 

Now back in the bus, to drive through some beautiful countryside and our guid told us about the longest marathon. 

Medoc region of Bordeaux

Did you know the the home of the longest annual international marathon race? Yes, with over 8,000 participants it is nicknamed the longest marathon in the world. Why, because it is run through the vineyards of “Medoc” Bordeaux with 20 individual wine tastings events along the way, participants seldom run in a straight line as the finish line approaches, leading all to proclaim the race was too long,  LOL must be fun. 

We arrived about an hour later in the city of Bordeaux and it was time for lunch and it was a very good lunch of  Coq au vin salad and of coarse wine. For desert it was pineapple and ice cream. 

Then it was off for shopping, and I forgot to tell you about the cleaning of the wine,,,,, at a certain stage, they put egg whites into the wine to clear it, well when they separate the wine and the egg yoke later, they sell these yokes to bakers and make a confection from them, called Caneles. Well we bought some and are about to try them today. 

So this will be continued:

September 25, 2019 second sea day

First Merry Christmas three months from today!  Ok I know many of y’all won’t appreciate that, but my mom used to tell me that on every 25th, as to how many months it would be so I would be ready. LOL

Ok this is our second sea day as the weather canceled Portland. No big surprise in this cabin as my navigator had been watching the map on the internet and he said he didn’t think we would get in. That morning, about 6:45 o’clock to tell us we were not able to safely doc and when we looked out the window, we wouldn’t have wanted to get out in it anyway, as it was blowing at about 35, Gusting to 50 knots and 8 meter (24 feet) seas, according to the captain. And from that point to this it has been rough!! 

So our next port is Le Verdon, France that will take us on a wine all day wine tour to Bordeaux, we are really looking forward to this tour. And right now all looks good. 

Now, let me tell you about things happening around the ship. First we received an invitation to the Chefs Table, we were happy about that, but when we went to the pre-meeting this morning they informed us it would be tomorrow evening starting at 5:30 o’clock, we aren’t due back from our tour until five thirty! So we had to politely cancel, C’est la vie, we have done it before. 

Today we had a French Air Force medical helicopter airlift someone off the ship....  it was a VERY professional operation in BAD weather.  Interesting to note that all Princess Cruise Ships do NOT have helipads but air rescue stations on the side of the upper deck. There have been three people removed from the ship by ambulance in the past ports, but this had to be very tricky in this weather. 

The crew on this ship has been outstanding, from our room Stewart to the dinning room, even the shop girls, have been great, everyone seems to want to cater to your needs. The food also has been way over our expectations, even room service food, we had some of the best hamburgers we have had anywhere from room service. 

We have not seen any shows except the local shows in Ireland and Scotland, but we will now that we have nipped the colds. 

Tonight is Formal night and I hope the seas calm by then, as it is harder to get dressed when you have 8 to 12 foot seas, luckily we don’t get sea sick. LOL

These were taken from our room on the 9th deck, just to give you some prospective is 10 stores up! 

September 22, 2019 Southampton, UK

Well here we are back at the begging, but not really. Just the begging port, to start on our second leg of the cruise. And nothing like a old fashion cold to take you out of action, and this one has done it to me. NOT FUN!   The last few days have been a blur, we took a health day, but the cold was more then wee. And then of coarse I got it too, ugh. So we skipped Edinburgh, much to my chagrin, I didn’t want to miss all the stops in Scotland, but so it goes, sometimes. We did see a very interesting train bridge, as it was so busy at least 3 trains every 5 minutes. There were two passenger car bridges and one train bridge, then the bridge in the background was for cars. 

We did get the opportunity to see the scotch show, as I posted last.  And we managed to pull ourselves together and go on the tour to Normandy. The tour was a very long bus ride, but we were put in the back of the bus, the last seats in the back, and that was probably good as I slept before and after. 

We had a sea day before, and that was good as it helped Ed to get almost well, and me to stay in bed most of the day. We had to be in the wheelhouse bar at seven fifteen, and then of coarse wait, and then they put us on last!  So off we went on our long ride, and the guide was  very monotone so it was easy to fall asleep. And I don’t usually sleep in the day. 

First stop was the museum about D day, in Arromanches, Fr. the beach there was most impressive as the bunker wall was still somewhat in tact. And the tide was out so you could see lots of sand, later the tide was up, and that was not the case at Omaha or Utah beach’s. We then went to lunch in this town at a wonderful restaurant in Hotel De Normandy, this place put out the food that would make other restaurants be ashamed, as there had to be 80 people from the buses and there regular clientele, and it was wonderful food, we started with Nicosia salad, which I thought was the lunch, as it had prosciutto on top, and lots of wonderful veggies. One funny thing, when they brought around the bread it was in a big brown bag, and she pulled two rolls or what ever the table required and kind of through it on the basket at your table, it was funny. 

Then we got the main coarse, chicken, and veggies, the chicken was so tasty, I just wish I could have enjoyed it, but, we were seated by the kitchen, and it was hot, and I took a couple bites, and went outside to get fresh air. Ed worried about me, and skipped the dessert of French apple pie, bummer. 

Then it was on to the cemetery and Omaha beach, I was very moved by the shear numbers of men who gave up there lives so we could live free. And what many of them knew would be there last day