April 30 and May 3 - Portland, England (AKA the Jurassic Coast)

We’ve made two stops in just three days at this small place, the Isle of Portland on the southwest English coast.  It’s  the southernmost point in the county of Dorset.  Portland is what is called a “tied island” in that it is connected to the mainland by a barrier beach called Chesil Beach.  The island is about four miles long by not quite two miles wide and is part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site known for its geology and land formations.  Stone from this part of England was used to build St. Paul’s Cathedral and, strangely enough to me, the United Nations Headquarters on the other side of the Atlantic.

Not exciting to see, I know, but this is Chesil Beach which must be man- madeconnecting the island with the mainland

The first time we came here on the 30th of April I only took a round trip on the shuttle bus into the little town of Weymouth.  It was extremely windy and it was actually hard to walk. Since I knew we’d be back in just three days I opted to not go ashore.  I did see something very interesting as we sailed away on the 30th and I’ll just tweak your curiosity now and tell you more about it later.  It was something very unusual for this part of the world.

Anyway, on May 1st we docked in Portsmouth which I’d been to before and where I’d visited the Royal Navy Dockyard and seen the Tudor ship Mary Rose and the HMS Victory of Admiral Nelson’s fame.  I didn’t think they’d changed so I had a sea day in port.  After my lovely visit to Dover and Canterbury I found myself back in Portland.  The wind was calmer although we had more clouds than a few days ago, but thankfully it didn’t rain.

This weekend is a holiday weekend in the UK.  The first Monday in May is apparently always a bank holiday so on this Sunday May 3rd the little town of Weymouth on the isle of Portland was bustling.  The British do love their dogs and I saw all varieties walking around the promenade around the small boat harbor.  I even gave a few a nice head and chin rub.  I do miss having a dog, but if I want to keep on cruising, it  wouldn’t be fair to have a canine companion.  

The small boat harbor in Weymouth

There were lots of families around and many of them were baiting lines and fishing off the harbor walls.  I went over to a couple and found they were fishing for crabs.  The kids would catch them and put them in a bucket of water.  I asked if they eat them, but they told me they don’t.  After a few minutes they toss them back in.  They’re just caught for fun.  As you can see from the photo I took they look quite different from our Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs.  Everyone looked like they were having a good time and everyone seemed to be catching them.  Perhaps the crabs are smart enough to have figured out they get an easy meal with no penalty to pay for it

Same basic shape but doesn't look nearly as good as our crabs.

I walked around the harbor for a while and then decided I’d try lunch at one of the pubs and cafés around.  I found a table outside at the Quayside Pub and Café and sat waiting to be served.  It turned out this was one of those places where you go in and order, pay and they bring it out to you.  I found a nice young Englishman to table sit for me so my place didn’t get taken and went inside. My intention was to try some genuine English fish and chips, but on the menu I saw a crab salad and after seeing all the crabs being caught, I thought “why not?”  I’ve decided it’s a mistake for anyone familiar with our crabs to order them from elsewhere.  The salad was okay, but that’s all I can say for it. Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs are the best and I’ll challenge anyone who says otherwise. It was pleasant sitting there and I chatted with the people who guarded my table. After I’d finished, rubbed a few more dog heads (can you imagine what would happen in the US if people came in with a non-service dog to a restaurant?) and noticed that the clouds were looking darker I decided it was time to walk back around the harbor to the shuttle bus stop.  About that time a couple of sailboats came along and the drawbridge was raised so traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian was stopped as the boats glided through.

The Quayside Pub and Café

My crab salad

Back on the ship we had afternoon trivia and we had to reconstitute our team.  Only Lisa, a really fun Australian I know from several cruises (she likes to dance at the Club too BTW), were left from the last leg.  We found some Brits and Americans to join us and proceeded to finish in third for the day.  It’s cumulative so we’re okay. (If we don’t win that’s okay with me too but not everybody feels that way.)

So now to what I teased you with earlier.  The first time we stopped here the other day I learned from thebus driver that they have a group here called the Weymouth Ukeleleians(sp?).  They are a group of senior(seasoned) citizens who get together and play the ukulele.  I don’t know about you, but I associate ukes with Hawai’i, certainly not Dorset in England.  Well, be that as it may the group comes down to the dock just before sailing and serenades us.  They all look well-seasoned.  Some of them wear flowered shirts and they played for us.  While I listened they were playing Beatles tunes – Ticket to Ride and Eight Days a Week.  How fun is that?  As we finally sailed out a three-cannon salute was fired by the Nothe Fort Victorian Artillery Brigade.  I didn’t get a picture  of that but it was so nice.  I have read that this community is a pretty depressed area of the UK and they very clearly welcome tourists and cruise ships unlike some places.  It is an absolutely lovely place to come.

These are the Weymouth Ukeleleians.  If I can figure out again how to post a video I will, but right now I can't get it to work.

I had a nice evening at a small hosted table with some people I already knew.  The show tonight was  Scottish duo, brothers who sang Celtic songs.  They were very good, but I have to say that when they talked I probably only understood four out of ten words.  I need closed captions with Scots or Yorkshire accents.  But the music was toe-tapping and fun.  After I went to the Club and met my new friends Sonja and Ton from the Netherlands who are such fun!  We danced and at mid-night they had the band play, and everybody sang, Happy Birthday.  How great is that!  Tomorrow is a sea day so I can sleep in.  Hooray! 

May 2 - Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?

We docked in Dover today and many of my fellow voyagers left, their cruise at an end.  It’s a really good feeling walking down the passageway the night before and not seeing your suitcases outside your door because you get to stay a little longer.  Of course, my turn will come.

It’s a lovely day here in Dover despite not being too warm.  It’s in the mid 50’s here on the water.  There’s a little mist, or maybe it’s a marine layer, so we can’t see the French coast just 22 miles away.  Seabourn offered a half day tour to Canterbury so that’s what some of us decided to do.  On our way for the half hour ride to that city we stopped for a photo op at Dover Castle, perched on the white cliffs of Dover. When William the Conqueror prevailed at Hastings in 1066 there was a castle at this site. The present castle was built during the reign of Henry II in the 12th century. Beneath the visible castle there are evidently large tunnels which have continuously housed soldiers for hundreds of years.  It was also from headquarters in those tunnels that Admiral Ramsay directed what came to be known as the “miracle of Dunkirk.”  In May, 1940 the British Expeditionary Forces of 338,000 soldiers were stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France.  British naval vessels couldn’t rescue the men because of danger from the Luftwaffe and inability to get in close enough to rescue  the men.  Operation Dynamo was put to work enlisting thousands of small boats including private pleasure craft to rescue the stranded soldiers.

From the castle we drove on to the city of Canterbury. This small city in the county of Kent is the home to three universities and to the magnificent cathedral which is the home church of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Church. The city itself is a UNESCO world heritage site. Portions of the old city were bombed during WW II but much of it and the cathedral were spared. I’ll write more about the cathedral in a moment, but I think the story of how the cathedral was spared much damage is interesting.  The bombs Germany dropped on Canterbury were for the most part incendiary not explosive.  There were fire-watchers posted on the roof of the cathedral and its adjacent buildings and these brave souls would push the bombs of the buildings or douse the fires before they could spread.

In 596 AD Pope Gregory ordered a monk named Augustine to go to Britain to lead a mission to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.  The missionary gained permission from the Kentish king to refurbish some pre-existing churches.  In 1070 ground was broken and consecrated to begin to build the cathedral that I visited today.  The structure as it stands now wasn’t completed into its present form until 1834 when the last alteration was completed.  The cathedral is built of limestone brought from France and is in a Romanesque and Gothic style. The cathedral complex includes the church, monastic quarters and cloisters plus several outbuildings.

This is the bell tower of one of the old churches here when Auguatine first came

My first glimpse of Canterbury Cathedral

The entry gate to the cathedral grounds

This is a war memorial with the names inscribed of those fallen in the "Great War." If you're a Downtown Abbey fan as I am you'll know that after WWI many towns built monuments to the men from their towns that died then.  This one stands in Butter Market Square near the cathedral

In the 12th century King Henry II  had a contentious relationship with Thomas Becket, the strong-willed Archbishop of Canterbury.  They had been friends but had differences of opinions on some matters of state and their relationship soured.  It is said that at some point Henry exclaimed “will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”  Four of Henry’s knights took that question to heart and rode to Canterbury where they confronted Becket and murdered him in his cathedral.  The spot is marked with crossed swords bathed in red and quite dramatic.  The cathedral is interesting but as one of my Australian friends (she’s actually a hoot!) has said it’s “ABC,” another bloody cathedral.  I had gotten one of those audio guide headsets and it was interesting sitting and listening to the narrative in each part of the building.  I wish the organ had been playing, but sadly it wasn’t during my time in the cathedral.

More pictures than you probably want or need to see of the cathedral

This is the spot where the over-zealous knights assassinated the archbishop

The cloister and next the Chapter House

When I left the church grounds I walked down the lane in the oldest part of Canterbury.  There were some of the usual tourist ticky-tacky shops, lots of pubs and some art galleries.  There was a lovely jewelry store with handmade things but I managed to maintain my sales resistance.  I passed an interesting looking building made of flint, which is the local stone, that is the home of the Chaucer playhouse.  Chaucer was not a native of the city but since he wrote the Canterbury Tales they are enacted as plays in the theater.  Nearby was the home of Christopher Marlowe, the playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare.  He was born here and there is a lane in the old city named for him.

A couple of the pretty streets in the old city

Our visit was short and then we headed back to Dover.  I’ll be back in Dover three more times before I finally get off and return home so I may go back to Canterbury.  I heard it’s easy to take a train there so I might try that because it seemed to be a lovely little place to spend more time.

The clearest view of the White Cligffs of Dover I got today was from the bus as we drove by because of the mist around

Back at the ship we had a whole new group of passengers wandering around and looking lost.  I went to the patio to have a salad and met some nice people from South Carolina on for just a week and some not as nice folks from Toronto on for longer.  The Toronto people began their conversation with me by telling me four or five things they didn’t like already.  They had only been on the ship for ten blinks of an eye so I couldn’t understand that.  I shall do my best to steer clear of them.

That’s it for now.  I have catching up to do on what I did between the wild tender ride on our day in Plymouth and today in Dover.  I’ll do that later.  Bye for now.

April 30 - Au Revoir France, Hello England

 Around 2 PM on the 28th we departed Rouen for our sail down the Seine to the English Channel.  The trip along this river is much prettier than the ride along the Garonne. The countryside of Normandy is lush and green and dotted with little villages and farms with half-timbered houses, pastures with happy looking cows, apple orchards where the apples to produce Calvados are grown, all divided by ancient looking stone walls and hedgerows.  As we sailed along I was struck by what a different scene there would have been here nearly 82 years ago as armies faced each other after D Day. Something that not all of us know is that while there are many people in France whom we consider to be disdainful of us, the people here in Normandy aren’t among them. While they are several generations removed from June 6, 1944, they still honor the young men who came to liberate them on that and the days that followed.

In the early evening we exited the river and we began to feel the effects of the English Channel which can be pretty rough.  I didn’t think it was bad, but some of my fellow travelers aren’t so lucky.  I dined with another solo lady who is from Santa Fe, New Mexico.  We went to the specialty restaurant Solis and had an okay meal.  I learned later that we made a mistake because up in the Colonnade there was a Bordeaux Market dinner.  The chef had evidently gone shopping and bought lots of local cheeses, pâtés, sausages and other local goodies.  I’ll have to do a little more research before deciding where to eat next time.

We only had a short distance to sail across the Channel to our next port Plymouth in Devon, England.  There are probably lots of other things for which Plymouth is famous, but there is one in particular which we Americans know.  This is the place from which the Pilgrims set sail for the New World to begin the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. (Regardless of what they claim up there, we Virginians know we celebrated the real first Thanksgiving at Berkeley Plantation on the James River before the Pilgrims had even set eyes on North America.)  The other thing I had read about that put Plymouth on the historical map is that the English fleet that beat the Spanish Armada in 1588 was based here.  By the 20th century the Royal Navy had moved its major base for operations to Scapa Flow which is in the far north of the British Islands making it less subject to air attacks because of the greater distance. Plymouth did serve as a jumping off place for troops going to the Continent though in both WWI and WWII.  At the entrance to the harbor I could still see a large fortress that had been built there.  Because it was used as a staging place for troops to cross to France, Plymouth was heavily bombed during the last world war.  It suffered close to 60 raids that became known as the “Plymouth Blitz.”

All of us had to go through UK Customs and Immigration because it’s our first UK port.  That meant I had to get up earlier than usual so I actually made it to breakfast.  This was a tender port and the wind was blowing between 20 and 40 knots which made for pretty iffy tender operations.  I didn’t have a tour planned so I thought I’d wait and tender ashore after lunch and perhaps walk around a little.  I waited down near the tender platform and as the people coming back unloaded and walked past me several looked pretty green around the gills and several told me they had waited for nearly an hour and a half for the tender because operations had to be suspended because it was so rough. I don’t mind rough seas but I do mind waiting so I decided to be a round-tripper.  I was the only person other than the three-man Filipino crew as we made our way to the shore landing.  They let me sit up next to one of the sliding doors and opened it at my request so I could take some pictures and feel the wind blowing.  It was an exhilarating ride.  When we got to land there was another crowd waiting to come back and the crew hustled them down the few steps to sit well away from the doors but they let me stay where I was so I had another wind-blown ride back.  Friends that I talked to later told me that I hadn’t missed much ashore so I was a happy camper because I had a good ride.  My idea of a fun time is different from other people but that’s what makes the world go round.

Oh, when the tender got back to the ship, I waited until everyone else got off and then had the three crewmen stand in the tender door so I could take their photo.  They were tickled pink that someone paid attention to them and I told them they were the best tender guys on the high seas.  As a matter of fact they did a spectacular job docking in really rough seas. That takes some pretty good small boat-handling skills.

The best tender crew on the seven seas!

I just have to include another photo of Vin, my adult milkshake maestro.  The one he's holding made with raspberry sorbet and a delicious mix of liqueurs was the best one yet.

April 27 - The Musée des Beaux-Artes in Rouen

The Ovation spent two nights docked in Rouen and on Monday the 27th after my long tour in Versailles the day before I decided to go easy on myself. I slept late (I shouldn’t say it, but I didn’t get up until 11 AM!).  After a salad for lunch – I’m trying to be good – I went ashore and took a taxi to the Musée des Beaux-Artes in downtown Rouen.  I had read that the museum had a nice collection and among its holdings are some Impressionists, who are my absolute favorites.

The museum is currently having a special exhibit which translates to “In the rain, paint, live and dream.” It was a collection of art in different mediums all depicting life on rainy days.  In the gallery rooms there were benches, each under a large umbrella where I could sit and listen to the sound of raindrops while looking at the works around me.  There were works from Japanese artists, photographs and even movie posters from films about rain.  It’s hard to describe, but it was very clever.  

After walking through the special exhibit I wandered through  the rest of the museum looking for what I had read was a great collection of Impressionist works.  There were lots of paintings from great Renaissance Italians, Dutch and French, but they weren’t what I wanted to see.  Rouen is, after all, close to Giverny and Monet’s home.  It took a while and a lot of wandering but I finally got to the galleries and it was absolutely marvelous!  The galleries where these works were exhibited are filled with light and so it was easy to look at and appreciate the masterpieces there.  Here are a couple of Monets, a Pissaro and Renoir.

I sat for a while in each of the rooms just enjoying the works there.  There were a few people that I assume are aspiring artists there as well sitting and sketching.  One young man sat next to me  and I could peek over his shoulder and see him sketching some of the façade of the cathedral here in Rouen.  Perhaps he’ll be the next French master.  I didn’t take his photo because I didn’t want to be a rude American but it was interesting to watch.

After taking in the beautiful serenity around me for a while, it was time to go back to my floating home.  I took a taxi back with a very engaging young man who was born and raised here in Rouen. He drives a taxi part time while going to school to study (what else!) information technology.

In the evening I had dinner with the Captain who is from Poland from the city of Wroclaw, which before WWII was called Breslau by the Germans and Austrians.  I was a little skeptical about dining with him because when he has made announcements I’ve had a hard time understanding him and I thought that might happen at dinner.  Instead I found him to be a very engaging, entertaining and quick-witted dinner companion.  It was a delightful evening.

I stayed up later than usual talking and dancing with a crazy group of people from San Diego, The Netherlands and, of all places, Thailand.  We had a good time laughing and we women did most of the dancing. (That’s always the way it is!)

So it wasn’t a really exciting day to read about, but it sure was fun to live through.

April 26 - Up the Seine to Rouen

After two lovely days at sea we’ve sailed up the river Seine in the early hours of this Sunday morning and I will shortly be on my way to visit Versailles.  I’ve never been there and it entails a long bus ride, but I’m told it’s worth going.

The ship was cleared and we boarded our bus for the one-and-a-half-hour ride to Versailles.  Strangely (at least I think so) our guide is a Japanese man named Shota Suzuki, who happens to have a very pronounced Japanese accent.  He came to France 25 years ago to study history and he knows his stuff, but he still sounds  like he just came from Tokyo.

As we rode along the countryside we passed through lots of fields of canola.  I remember seeing these when I’ve been here and driving through some of the English countryside too.  Since olive trees don’t grow in this part of the country, I guess canola oil is used instead.

It's boring I know, but that golden field in the back is canola and we passed hundreds just like it.

Versailles, as I’m sure everyone knows, is the former royal residence located a little more than 10 miles west of Paris.  During the reign of King Louis XIII in the first quarter of the 17th century it was built as a hunting lodge. It wasn’t until his son Louis XIV, the Sun King, that Versailles became the marvel that it is today.  Louis XIV became king of France at the age of 4.  His father Louis XIII had stipulated in his will that a regency council govern in his son’s stead until he reached the age of majority. XIV’s mother, Queen Anne (good name!) with whom he was very close, had the will annulled by the Parlément of France and she became the sole regent.  She appointed Cardinal Mazarin as Chief Minister to take care of day-to-day policy and it was he who was Louis XIV’s chief advisor and mentor on affairs of state until he reached the age of majority and until Mazarin died in 1661.  That is a very oversimplified and abbreviated history of one of the most important of France’s monarchs.

Louis XIV began the expansion of the hunting château to a palace in 1661.  It went through several phases of expansion between then and 1715.  In 1682 the King made Versailles his principal residence making it the de facto capital of France.  It remained as the seat of both the court and government through the reign of Louis XV. It wasn’t until the onset of the French Revolution in 1789 that the ill-fated King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette moved back to Paris.  The palace at Versailles was sacked and remained empty and abandoned for the remainder of the Revolution.  In fact, even now many of the rooms are devoid of furniture.    Napoleon considered making his residence the palace at Versailles, but he abandoned that idea because of the cost to renovate it. In the 1920’s John D. Rockefeller contributed the equivalent of about $40 million dollars to restore the palace. He was also the benefactor of Colonial Williamsburg in my hometown.

Versailles played a little part in our American history. In 1783 Versailles was the site of the signing of two of the three Treaties of Paris which ended our Revolutionary War. The American delegates signed one treaty in the city of Paris itself, but Spain and France signed separate treaties formally ending the war in September 1783 in Versailles. In June 1919 after six months of negotiations the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles was the site of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles ending the First World War.

Upon our arrival in Versailles the first order of business was to feed us at a local restaurant almost next door to the palace.  Heaven knows on cruise ships they have to make sure we’re never hungry!  We had an interesting lunch that consisted of a first course that was like salmon sushi followed by a boeuf bourguignon, and finally a tart tatin.  It was all tasty, but an odd assortment.

The restaurant where we had our eclectic lunch

We proceeded to walk to the palace then.  I can attest to the fact that cobblestones are not good for knees that have been replaced.  It was a beautiful Sunday so there were throngs of visitors to see the place.  There were queues everywhere and it was hard making sure we were following the right person. We had a time slot to enter the building and we finally proceeded through metal detectors to enter the huge building.  Unfortunately Louis lived before Mr. Otis invented the elevator so I walked up and down more steps than I have in ages.  We passed through the royal chapel, reception rooms, waiting rooms, and others whose purpose I can’t remember. As I mentioned earlier most of those had little or no furniture in them.  Instead the walls were covered with paintings in many gilt frames and the ceilings were full of frescoes.  From what our guide told us many of the paintings involved Greek and Roman gods and often included portrayals of a member of the royal family as one of those gods.  I tried taking photos but there were so many people around that most of them include lots of people’s heads and I rarely could get a clean shot.

Thegate before the main gate.  Clearly Louis XIV liked gold because everything is covered with gilt or made of gold. 

This is part of the inner fence also all gilded

One room in the Petit Appartement du Roi (the little apartment of the king as opposed to the big one – everyone needs more than one!) is called the Salon de la Pendule.  It houses one of the more interesting items of furnishings in the palace, the Passemant Astronomical Clock.  This is a very ornate rococo style clock standing more than 6 feet tall.  It’s encased in what I assume must be a bulletproof case.  It was presented to Louis XV in the mid-18th century who clearly prized it enough that he placed it in its own room and named the room after the clock.

The famous clock

These are some of the rooms we walked through which were reception and waiting rooms, all splendidly decorated

Apparently Louis XIV was captivated by Caesar and Roman gods and this is a likeness of him decked out like one

We were unable to see the king’s apartments because some of the rooms were closed for renovation.  We did pass through the Hall of Mirrors which is quite spectacular. The room is about 240 feet long by 35 feet wide.  On one side are 17 large windows facing toward the gardens.   On the opposing wall are 17 equally large mirrors composed of more than 350 mirrored surfaces.  In front of the windows and mirrors are gilt torcheres, classical statues holding what are now crystal electrified candelabra and which would have of course been holding candles. The ceiling and walls are decorated with paintings depicting different events during the reign of Louis XIV.  We had a few minutes to walk through a room that would probably take days or weeks to appreciate, and we were accompanied by hordes of other visitors.  It was overwhelming. Upon leaving the Hall of Mirrors we walked through the Queen’s apartments.  Again these are richly appointed with lots of gilt and painting, but not too much furniture.  The one painting that stood out to me was a family portrait of Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette with their two children.  The family lived at Versailles and after the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 they were eventually in October forced to move to the Tuileries Palace in Paris.  Versailles was ransacked after that.

The Hall of Mirrors. Sorry the photos aren't better but there were just too many people there.

The Queen’s apartment was the last of the room s that we saw.  Our guide then gave us free time to visit the gardens.  I was tired and my one knee was killing me so I returned to the bus.  I had to walk across the large cobblestone courtyard and car park.  My travel companions who did go in the garden said it wasn’t really very spectacular because nothing was really blooming yet.  Once everyone returned we headed back to Rouen after a very long day.

The Queen's bedroom

The family portrait of the ill-fated monarchs

I have some impressions of what I saw.  While the scale of Versailles is definitely impressive, I think I’ve seen some palaces I liked better.  I thought the Winter Palace and Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg were more beautiful.  A couple of King Ludwig’s in Bavaria are more romantic.  Or maybe I was just tired and things in my memory always seem grander.  Anyway, I was glad I went and finally saw Versailles.

I’ll write about my second day in Rouen in my next post.