Trip to France Sept. 28-Oct.14

[cpjones]

Just catching up on your adventure..... where do you get the energy...? Sounds like a good time.

[schexc]

Today we went to Utah Beach and museum first, then we were at Gold Beach for lunch(one of the British and Canadian beaches during the invasion) to have lunch. Next was the American Cemetery and then on to Omaha Beach. Words and pictures cannot describe the emotions you feel being there, no can they accurately document the enormity of what happened there. I have seen movies and read books, but being there is different. It's humbling. I learned a lot I did not know and was reminded of things I learned years ago. People who take our freedoms for granted or think we should be free to do whatever we want, really need to visit here to gain a greater understanding of what those freedoms mean and the sacrifices that our young men and their families went through for us and the rest of the world(not meant to be a political statement). So very tired still. Maybe I'll be able to get my pictures up tomorrow.

My father was in the military and was part of the amphibious landings. He never talked about the war. It must have been a dreadful experience.

[SusieLovesAruba]

What a wonderful trip Robin - emotional for sure - your photos are amazing, you are capturing history, beautiful scenery, architecture, etc. I am enjoying your trip report and photos so much. It has to take a lot of stamina for sure and you and Stu are awesome traveling along and absorbing all there is to see and sharing with us, thank you!

[Andrea J.]

loving your words and photos!!

ok, the woman the plane with all of the stuff on her lap?
there has got to be a story right?

Sleep is a wonderful thing. We were both out at 9:30 last night. We decided to have dinner alone so we were back in our room relatively early.

Today we went to Mont St. Michel Abbey which was a two hour bus ride. It was a windy, cool rainy day. We surely got a workout climbing steep ramps(one person in our group sometimes uses a wheelchair) and many, many, many wet stone stairs, but it was worth it. My app said I walked up 16 flights of stairs. It is a world UNESCO site. It sits on what seems like marshland during low tide, but once high tide comes in, it is an island. It would be impossible to go through it's very long history, so if you are interested, you can Google it and read about it. We ate lunch in the village that is part of the island and then headed back to the shuttle to take us to the parking lot for the ride back to Caen. Our wonderful guide for the past two days really had a workout today. One member of our group got lost sometime after leaving the very large abbey and while we were eating he went out to look for him in the rain. He helped move our group member in the wheelchair. Once we were back at the parking area, he received a call from the restaurant that a couple left their vaccination card on the table(yes, they do check everywhere for them). He took the shuttle back and walked the distance(it is a walk from the shuttle stop to Mont St. Michel), picked up the cards and reversed the travel. He was really awesome. Stu and I opted to have dinner alone tonight and headed in a different direction and stumbled on a Lebanese restaurant that was great. Lebanese Restaurant with English menus in France.

Tomorrow we leave at 7:45 for the all day bus ride to Bordeaux and embark on our Viking Riverboat Cruise. We do have an evening walking tour booked.

I did upload all my pictures-I'm still just very tired. Sorry there are so many.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/iSFrRxUhFtsJ4mJr7

[robin]

Yesterday we spent 8 hours getting to Bordeaux from Caen. We still had our coach bus with reclining seats. so I did sleep some. We also had a 15 min. stop a 45 min stop and 20 min. stop. We were one of the last aboard the ship. The couple from the day before that the husband got lost and the wife left the vaccination cards on the table of the restaurant forgot to remove their passsports from the safe in Caen and realized sometime on the ride to Bordeaux. SHM. I guess they are the problem children. We did a short walking tour after dinner and settled in for the night. The ship's passenger capacity is 196(180 during covid) and there are only 99 aboard. We are covid tested dail via salamis test. We are headed out for a bus tour of the city under rainy skies.

[Pegmeister]

I can’t imagine forgetting the passports!! Enjoy your tour today and I hope the weather clears.

[sgt11946]

This trip looks fantastic. I can see that you had an interesting time there. Thank you for including the book pages. I enjoyed reading them.

[robin]

Today we toured the city of Bordeaux in the rain for 1.5 hours. The first part was via bus and then a walking tour. After the walking tour, the guide said we had 1.5 hours until the bus would go back to the ship. Nothing in the city center would open for a half hour. We decided to walk back to the boat(20min walk) as did many of the the others on the tour. There was a farmers type market near the boat. It was great to look at-fresh veggies and fruit, meats(butcher), raw poultry, roasted ducks and chickens, bakeries, cheeses, wine-all of it fresh. One person was selling grilled shrimp from a boat being pulled by a vehicle. We looked, but did not buy. We went back to the ship and warmed up with tea and cookies with others from our group. We had lunch and realized as we walked into the dining room, how much lower in the river we were. The river is a tidal river. At breakfast the dining room was street level and at lunch we were probably 20 feet lower. We departed Bordeaux during lunch as the boat as to go under a bridge at low tide. Three hours later we docked in Cadillac. We then left to go to a winery that makes Sauternes wine, which is a sweet wine made from grapes that have been effected by "noble rot" which cause the grapes to become almost like raisins which gives it a sweet taste. It's an expensive wine because rather than harvesting the grapes by the bunch, each grape is individually harvested and the pickers go through the vineyard many times over weeks looking for just the right type of "rot". We came back and attended the normal Viking daily pre dinner events and daily port briefing before dinner. We are back in our room and I don't know if we are going to attend anything tonight. Just still really tired.

[robin]

Today we were in the town of Cadillac. We did a walking tour this morning. The weather was beautiful as is the town. We had time to shop, but only two little stores were open. The town is really nice. So if you are wondering if the name of the town and the car have anything in common the answer is yes. It is a long story, however; I will keep it short. The man who founded Detroit was from this town. He had some "issues" and left for America and reinvented himself in name only on the voyage over calling himself the Lord of Cadillac(it is a longer than that). So the car was named after him. Here the double ll is silent, so it is pronounced more like Cadiac. We were back on board by lunch and the ship headed for Libourne which we will explore tomorrow. This afternoon they had a macron making demonstration. We hung with our friends all afternoon watching the countryside as we floated by. Way too much wine, bread, cheese and deserts this trip. I'll upload more pictures tonight and go through the ones I uploaded yesterday if I can keep my eyes open.

[sgt11946]

Thank you for your trip reports. They sound fascinating. You will need a vacation after your vacation to get some rest....Is Aruba in the near future?