WEATHER: 14C and overcast
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: The beautiful village of Honfluer
BUMMER OF THE DAY: If the weather was better I would have stayed longer
BUYS OF THE DAY: A few sets of silver earrings and a silver bangle
WORD OF THE DAY:
MOVIES WATCHED TODAY: Julie and Julia and Eat Pray Love
WHATS ON THE MENU:
Filled crepe with ham and mushroom in béchamel sauce and cheese
Vegetable broth farmers style with barley
Grilled pork tenderloin fillet mignon with Calvados sauce topped on sautéed apple, served with celery mash potatoes, carrots and snow peas
Thin caramelized apple tart with vanilla ice cream
Heading to breakfast this morning at 7.30am, it was funny to see all the red ‘do not disturb’ pillows on the door handles. Some of the oldies must be having troubles keeping up, but I can understand why. The weather looks a little dicey today and AJ is always all over the forecasts and lets us know whether we should be bringing our umbrella’s, windbreakers, or leave the jackets it will be a beautiful day. Well today was definitely not one of those days. Wet jackets and umbrella recommended. There are Uniworld umbrellas in each stateroom, you know the old fashioned ones with the wooden hook handle and when opened is massive. Maybe I am just used to my travel umbrella that is luck to keep my hair dry it is that small! So again need to bring out my Antarctica jacket. That was well worth the 25BP I paid last week.
We were off to a cute fishing village today. Departure was at 8.45, not forgetting your ship pass and picking a coach number we were on our way for the 1.5 hours to Honfluer located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from Le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie. Its inhabitants are called Honfleurais. I have been taking the back seat of all the coaches, as I don’t want to take up any of the ‘easier’ seats for the ducks as some of them just have trouble getting onto the step of the coach, let alone trying to get them to the back seat. The beauty of that is I am the only one on that back row, so I have plenty of room to spread out if I wanted to.
Driving through the countryside, it is pretty amazing to see all the different colours of the trees turn. There are beautiful colours of reds, yellows, oranges and all the colours in between. It really is stunning scenery to be driving past.
Arriving into Honfluer at 10am, the village is especially known for its old, beautiful picturesque port, characterized by its houses with slate-covered frontages, painted many times by artists, including in particular Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet and Johan Jongkind, forming the école de Honfleur (Honfleur school) which contributed to the appearance of the Impressionist movement.
So our morning tour of Honfluer included The Sainte-Catherine church, which has a bell-tower separate from the principal building, is the largest church made out of wood in France. The church is dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria as evidenced by a wooden sculpture above the porch of the bell-tower which separates the two naves. She is shown holding a wheel and a sword. The first nave is the oldest part of the building, dating to the second half of the 15th century, constructed right after the Hundred Years War. It was built on the model of a market hall, using naval construction techniques, which gives the impression of an upside-down ship's hull. Then the bell-tower was built a good distance away, so that parishioners would not be burnt in case of a fire. We also got to see a 300 year old salt building that has now been renovated and now used for functions and then it was just a general walk around this pretty town. We were given the option to take the 2nd bus back at 3.15pm if we wanted to stay, longer and not come back on the 12.15pm bus. But the weather was cold, overcast and it just would have been dull to stay there for another 3 hours. So the tour concluded at 11.15am, so I had an hour to power shop at the stores that we had passed on our way to the cathedral. I ended up buying 3 pairs of new silver earrings, and before I hear you say ‘more’ I have lost earrings from pairs so I only had one earring, which is useless, so these are ‘replacements’ and its nice to have an option for my ears now each morning. I also bought this pretty slave bangle that sits nicely between 2 Ethiopian ‘promise’ bangles I was given on my trip. It looks awesome. Walking around there were guests from Queen Elizabeth and we also saw a Viking ship sail past us this morning as we moored up, so it was a busy little place today!
So back on the bus for the 75 minute drive back to the ship. Being down the back you can see all the ducks getting some shut eye and it is also nice to see that no matter what age you are, to see old people together after 40+ years of marriage is just a concept that today’s generation will never achieve or comprehend. It is so sweet, and coming from a divorced (well soon to be) I hope that someday I will find my soul mate to be able to spend the rest of my days travelling with some-one you love. Mary Lee found her 2nd husband at 59 and was married for a wonderful 9 years before he passed away. So there is still hope out there that being 36 I am not too old to find a partner in the future!
The usual afternoon for me, internet and Facebook. I am trying to load my Ethiopia photos, but the Wi-Fi doesn’t like loading so many pictures, so I have given up and am STILL trying to complete my Ethiopia blog entries. I have 4 more days to go for that, then I need to catch up on the River Cruise entries. Geez a bloggers life is never up to date as the days pass!
Mary Lee and I decided to have a drink with AJ’s port talk tonight. The cost of the drinks at the bar all seem quite reasonable, with the wine by the glass bottle changing every day the prices varied but you would be looking at 6EUR for a healthy sized glass and the soft drinks were 3EUR. We then continued drinking out endless supply of wine over dinner and THEN we went back to the Monet Lounge to have one more before bed, which turned into 2 as we changed Mary Less FB profile picture and updated her status. I have become a bit of the computer nerd in the lounge when the ducks borrow the ships laptops, they need help to switch on (the button in their defence is hard to spot) and then hooking them up to the Wi-Fi network. So tonight Mary Lee and I got a little sozzled and we had a great night and heaps of talking. I definitely will be coming to visit you next year in Washington/Seattle and for the record the invite came before we had stated to drink…..
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