Monday, 5 June 2017
Overnight @ Berth 127 in Bordeaux
Stats @ Ship’s Time 6:30p (CEST) … UTC 4:30p (5 June)
Temp: 73.8F (23.2C)
Position: 44.50.89N / 0.34.18W
Only one who wanders finds new paths.
~ A Norwegian Saying ~
Sometimes plans work out as expected … sometimes they don’t. This morning — with just a month left before “D” [Disembarkation] Day — fell into the latter category. Amazing how five months of our RTW voyage have gone by in the blink of an eye … at least it feels like that to us. This last month is bound to go by even faster as we countdown towards the end … sigh!
We were up at 7:00a to find the ship docked in Le Verdon-Sur-Le-Mer, located at the mouth of the Gironde Estuary where the Garonne River empties into the Bay of Biscay. The sun was shining … the sky was mostly blue … though wispy clouds did move in as the morning progressed. It looked like a great day to explore the nearby town of Soulac-Sur-Le-Mer … at least for a few hours while Insignia off-loaded the ship’s wine-themed excursions to the Medoc Region and waited for clearance to proceed upriver. But, no … no can do. Not that this situation came as much of a surprise. We knew from reading The Currents last night that there would be no shuttle provided and that the only way to do anything would be to have one’s own transportation pre-arranged or go on a ship’s tour. That’s quite OK actually. A morning of enforced rest after 11 straight days of sightseeing ... followed by a scenic cruise upriver to Bordeaux for our overnight stay … just what the doctor ordered to recharge our worn down batteries.
After breakfast at the Terrace Café with friends we returned to the cabin. It was nice on the veranda … not too hot … not too cold. The view wasn’t exciting, but that also meant it wasn’t distracting. So, I made myself comfortable and went to work on the laptop. My first goal was to get a post up on the blog for Abu Dhabi — going back in time more than a month. No hope of catching up entirely any time soon, but at least the post will let everyone know we are alive and kickin’.
I skipped lunch since we planned to dine off the ship tonight. Even though a light breeze came up just before sailaway, it was still comfortable enough to sit outside with the O-provided light cashmere throw covering my lap … excellent for an afternoon on the river.
The rest of the story of our day will follow in the next post …
© 2015-2017 — All rights reserved by Erin Erkun.
Thinking about the cruise coming to an end...wondering how it felt for you to be back home, for it to be over, after such a long time on a ship, and an even longer time dreaming of doing it.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see the Abu Dhabi post, to see if our impressions are similar. Hard to keep up posting when you're going-going-going ... on the move and doing. Always nice to see/read your blog, whenever you can catch up!
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