Seabourn Pride London to Lisbon in pictures and video

[Emperor Norton]

 

 

 

 

Off the coast to the right of the town in this picture you can see what we came to see - the Mulberries. Man made giant harbors that the Allies used to supply the invasion into France/Europe. Between the weather and theives there's not much left.

 

Then it was time to board the bus and head down into town.

[Emperor Norton]

Down in town we were taken to a little museum (it seemed Normandy was littered with small museums, none of which stuck out as an/the "official" French Government run museum) that was dedicated to the Mulberries.

 

The museum had little models

 

Dioramas

 

And even bigger dioramas

 

Besides the models and dioramas the museum also had a film about the Mulberries as well as a lighted diorama/audio track on the subject.

 

 

[Emperor Norton]

Outside the museum you could see some of the components used to make a Mulberry.

 

 

 

You can see some of the Mulberry sticking out of the water.

 

 

The restaurant where we were taken for lunch. Even though it's named La Marine, is on the water and has a menu with a lot of seafood we were served dry chicken. Yum.

 

I'd rather we were given boxed lunches and used that extra hour either in bunkers or sampling the local ciders/brandies.

[Emperor Norton]

 

I wonder what would happen were this used for parking enforcement.

 

After leaving town we were driven to some gun emplacements but again this was another place we couldn't get off the bus due to time constraints.

 

After the gun emplacements we were taken to a bit of American soil where the residents had seen an end to war.

[Emperor Norton]

It turned out that our guide before becoming a tour guide had worked at the cemetery and had some sad and interesting stories.

 

The American cemetery in Normandy

 

 

 

 

 

[Emperor Norton]

 

 

The story that went with the next two images is this: When a family member pays a local florist to place flowers on the grave the florist will go down to Omaha beach and collect some sand. The florist then places the flowers over the grave and uses the sand to fill in the lettering giving the letters the appearance of having been filled with gold. The florist then takes a picture and sends it to the family.

 

 

 

[Emperor Norton]

The chapel

 

 

 

 

It was then time to visit Omaha beach.

 

 

 

[Emperor Norton]

 

 

 

 

 

[Emperor Norton]

 

 

 

 

Adieu Le Havre!

 

That night for dinner Leonie made the most amazing Crepes Suzette. I think it mustve been the way she slightly overcooked the sauce so some bits were carmelized.

(click the Yum for a video of the dish being made)

[gf]

Thanks so much for the magnificent pix and all your reports as well!

[Roxburgh]

Enjoying your pics and reports.

 

I have pictures of my grandfather taken in Le Havre (but not of Le Havre) in 1915 as he was on his way to the Western Front. I have never been there but that always arouses my curiosity.

[Chairsin]

Oh you lucky guy with Leonie -- she makes the best hot chocolate!!!

 

So glad you enjoyed your Normandy tour. As usual great pics. The American cemetary in a very special place. I am glad you were there a few weeks ago as it is now closed due to the government shut down.

[Emperor Norton]

Our next stop was Falmouth, a nice Cornish seaside tourist town that reminded me somewhat of Cabot Cove, only without the high murder rate. From what I've heard this port may be dropped from future itineraries due to the harbor not being dredged because environmentalists claim there is a seaweed unique to this place that could be endangered.

 

For the first few days, these were missing, for some reason this is the only image I have from this cruise of a towel animal.

 

Aside from a Maritime museum that has a lot about life saving there are two RNLI Lifeboats as well as Her Majesty's Coastguard.

 

There were two options to getting into town. You could either take the offered bus for a three to five minute ride into town or you could walk the three flat blocks. We weren't in port long enough to go for this walk.

 

When you first get into town or are dropped off you find yourself in a parking lot. Adjacent to the parking lot are a few shops and restaurants as well as the Maritime Museum.

 

Alcohol shop with Cornish Ales, lagers and cider (as well as most other hard liquor, wines and oddly a somewhat decent nook of American micro brews) is straight ahead, further ahead and to the left you can see part of the Maritime Museum.

 

Restaurant seating, the Maritime Museum, the harbor and a pizza place.

 

Something I haven't seen before, needing to order your common cut of steak 24 hours in advance.

[Emperor Norton]

I went up to the waterfront near the pizza restaurant.

 

One of these things is not like the others:

 

I bet these were as happy as a...

 

The local seaweed

 

 

 

[Emperor Norton]

If the food has all the quality the name suggests I'd skip this place.

 

On the other hand, I'm not sure this is the best way to advertise your establishment either...

 

The streets started off relatively free of people and vehicles.

However, later on you'd have to contend with crowded streets and vehicles that didn't quite fit between the people (I was grazed by a Royal Mail truck).

 

An appropriate name for an ale being served in a pub next to a church

 

I was out so early that not even the locals were ready. Cornish pasties, unlike Guinness, these were not necessarily better in their birthplace.

 

[Emperor Norton]

Sadly this was not the type of arcade I was looking for (nor would it match the one in Bordeaux).

 

Traffic starting to pick up - note the truck using a good chunk of the sidewalk to park.

 

The available sidewalk space was quickly disappearing

 

I walked down to the Prince of Wales pier and found an immature gull calling for its mother to feed it

 

There was also a memorial from WW2 on the pier (all of the VCs were on the ground)

 

[Emperor Norton]

See those cranes? That was the recycle dump we were moored next to.

 

They had some nice waterfront properties

 

 

I'm not sure if this boat had been blessed or cursed. Two hens had visited it carrying a stuffed toy duck, which they took a picture of before departing.

 

There seemed to be a large amount of shops for various charities in the town given its size

 

What passed for a dodgy alley

[Emperor Norton]

Further into town seemed to be less people

 

Does this mean that at one time (or currently) they also had pay libraries?

 

Definitely not as scenic as the earlier parts of town

 

None of the pubs were open to allow me to sample the local ale

 

Jokes are made about Americans weight, but I haven't seen this heart attack in a box - for the entire family; here, yet.

Edited October 5, 2013 by baychilla

[Emperor Norton]

A monument to members of the Postal-packet service

 

This place screamed "Pub in a box"

 

Places are starting to open up

 

Instead of wandering the town as I did you could take a ferry from the Prince of Wales pier

 

 

I wish i'd seen this earlier. I would've liked to compared their Victorian village to the Dickens faire that visits San Francisco for the holidays

[stamfordian]

You even make London look good! :eek:

 

Nigella - please explain. When does it not?

[Chairsin]

Another option for Falmouth(assuming they do not remove it from the cruise schedule) is taking the little boat up the river to Tressilick Gardens -- a lovely spot -- particularly in the spring time.And per Stamordian's instruction we also managed a quick lunch at Rick Stein's while we were there.

[Capri73]

Totally off topic.I see you are from Tuscon.We are originally from the East Coast, flying from New York.What route do you take to Europe??Sorry fellow friends we are looking for help.

Edited October 6, 2013 by Capri73

[Chairsin]

Having lived in DC for 30 years and being able to fly nonstop to many places I would say that is the only thing we missed about DC when we to movied to Tucson 8 years ago. We have tried many different routings to go to Europe and now pretty much go Tucson to Houston, Houston to Frankfort or London and from there to our final destination( Rome, Barcelona, Lisbon, Nice, etc.)On some trips we do fly back to DC first to visit my Dad and then fly overseas from Dulles. We frankly have has some very bad experiences with flying in or out of Newark so we now totally avoid that airport. On a few trips we drove up to Phoenix and flew east but most of the time it does not save us any stops or result in a lower fare so we don't do that any more. And last year coming back from Lisbon we flew to Heathrow and then nonstop to Los Angeles and then on a puddle jumper back to Tucson.

[Able Seaman H]

We took our boat to Falmouth recently. As has been said the upper reaches of the river Fal are quite beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Able Seaman H]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Falmouth it's self is a working town which happens to see a few tourists. There are more beautiful places in the West country but we enjoyed our time there.

 

Henry

Edited October 6, 2013 by Able Seaman H