Ken and I met up with Cheron and Mark in London and we drove down in a rent car to Winchester for a night on the way to the Voyager. We decided to stay at the Wykeham Arms a boutique local hotel. The rooms are over what is supposed to be the best bar in town with excellent food. Deightful small town, streets so narrow in places the cars drive on the sidewalk to pass. We visited Winchester Cathedral which is huge and was interesting.Then it started to rain and rain and rain. I asked this dear old lady in the information booth how to find Winchester castle. She said go to the close and turn where the bishop lives. I said I am not sure what a close is (I though it was a square but was not sure) and I do not know where the bishop lives. She said "everyone knows where the bishop lives". I asked if she could show me on the map - she said "sorry love I cant see a map". She was dear old thing but I did wonder why she was in the information booth. So there were three ladies wearing red sashes for information. The two young ones were busy so I talked to another older lady. Basically got directions totally opposite of what I had gathered from the first lady in the information booth. At this stage I am totally confused. One of the younger ladies stepped in and gave me clear directions that we could follow. Totally different from either of the first two sets of directions. Good thing since it was now pouring down rain wasted steps not a good thing in a down pour. It did give us a giggle and the older ladies were really sweet and trying to help.

We stopped in on the way to the castle at what is said to be the oldest pub in England over 1000 years old. We were hoping the rain would ease. I was starving for some meat and three of us ordered burgers. HUGE double meat must have been at a minimum 12 ounces of beef. It must have been lowfat as it was heavier than our beef but was great after my lack of meat for the last 12 days. I saw fish and chips - HUGE a full fish. Prices incredibly reasonable for England I thought at about six to eight pounds a plate. We had intended to go for dessert and coffee at one of the little local pastry shops but we were all too full. We stepped outside and it was still raining so we decided we would not drown and set off for the GREAT HALL of Winchester cathedral where King Arthur's ROUND TABLE is housed. This was really interesting I just need Andi to write up all the facts. The table is 18 feet in Diameter and is on a wall where it has been in place since the 15th century. The great hall is the only part of the old Winchester Castle that is still original and standing. The castle was first built by William the Conquerer and added on to over the centuries by other Kings. We found this to be very interesting and I bought some playing cards with all the various royals over the centuries.

We decided we were cold and wet and would return to the hotel and hoped our rooms would be ready. We were really dripping wet and Cheron and Mark's room was ready ours was not. We knew this would be an "adventure" to stay here but decided to go for it and see what happened. So we went up to the first floor to their room. It was chilly and we were wet so we turned on the water radiators to warm up the room. Then we looked at the bathroom and found it was warmer in there. Then we figured out here was a towel warmer rack and were laughing we would all stay together in the bathroom and huddle around the towel warmer and get stay warm. The room warmed up fairly quickly. Their room is covered with pictures of the Royals - most King George and Queen Mary and also a famous picture of Elizabeth and Margaret as young girls. Very high ceilings. Our room is up one more narrow staircase with low ceilings and many attic like angles particularly in the bathroom that is A frame I know some men who could not stand up in this bathroom. Ken and I decided not to drag suitcases up this narrow stairs and pulled dry clothes out of cases and just bought those and our electronics upstairs. We are now in a nice warm room in dry clothes after a nice warm bath and quite happy little campers. I still have to go get Ken some dry socks terrible wife that I am I forgot about getting him socks.

We really enjoyed seeing Winchester and it would have been spectacular on a nice day. Flowers everywhere. We hope tomorrow will not rain so we can enjoy the town a little more or perhaps visit another little local town on the way to the ship.

We are SO looking forward to my nice suite, great meals and seeing everyone on the ship.

As I recall, Jane Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Have a Wonderful cruise!

Bravo, Ngaire - let the WINES adventure begin! :app:

We will try to leave some lamb on the ship for you. But if you want whisky, forget about it. We've polished it all off.

Have a wonderful cruise!

Jane Austin's home is here and is now privately owned. We were going to walk by as it is just up the street but it was raining so hard we decided to give it up. We just watched the news and this area of England has flooding today with lots of rain. Bad timing on the weather!

We can relate to your food decision, Ngaire. Last night In Berlin I also had a huge RARE burger for dinner. Delicious!

I plan to have a rare t-bone tonight. Your trip sounds great. Leslie, can't wait to hear about your day too!

Ngaire, say hi to Mark and Cheron. Keep having a fun time...wish I were there for the history.

Ngaire, your adventure in Winchester sounds marvelous ... except for the rain! I do love England, with all its history. By now you're probably on the Voyager. Have a wonderful cruise.

By the way, I just got in from running some errands, and my car said the temperature was 108. So a cold rain might look good compared to Dallas!

Leslie, enjoy Berlin. We'll be waiting to read your report.

A great, if soggy, start to Wines. Will look forward to all your reporting.

I am ready to stalk you tomorrow from the Oriana, I hope she is pointing at the Voyager!!

Orianas\'s webcam is out of range at the moment, I hope they get service back soon.

We are not ready to swap places with the WINEoS, but the time has come. Franck is ready for you, Ngaire..... Have a wonderful cruise.

Your adventure sounds fun in spite of the rain and being wet and cold Ngaire. Can't wait for more seamail from WINEs, this is still one of our favorite itineraries ever.

Bon Voyage. :bv:

Ngaire your adventure in Wichester sounds FUN!! I love it when you just kind of go with the flow and enjoy the day no mater what. (I remember when we visited Pompeii and it was pooring rain all day. We were absolutely soaked to the bone but I had wanted to see it for so long that it wasn't going to dampen my experience. Once you are wet you are wet!) I hope you all have a wonderful cruise. Remember we need lots of sea mail from the winos.

Could one of you WINEoS sip some Calvados for me tonight as your leave Normandy? Calvados is an apple brandy and the best thing to come out of Normandy! It's quite potent, so only a few sips.. straight up, please. If you enjoy cognac, you should love Calvados. Alice got a special bottle of it for my birthday a few years ago. There was actually an apple in the bottle!

The Calvados on the Mariner is not as good as this one. I haven't been on the Voyager, so can't say what they have. But, really, what a perfect setting for a few sips this evening! And you have a sea day tomorrow to recover before you begin the true WINEo-ing in Bordeaux!!

Have a great cruise!!!

Seadog, Calvados can be dangerous. It is deceptively flavorful. Hubby had some on an apple tart one night in Paris. We pretty much had to carry him up to the hotel room.

When we were living in Brussels, I discovered a fabulous dessert:

Crepes Normandie

It was a crepe covered with sliced apples, topped with Calvados, and flambe'd. The calvados and apples carmelized.

It was fantastic!



:lct:

I have not been able to find Calvados in Alabama; hopefully I can find while on CANADA so I can bring a couple of bottles home.

[/QUOTE]I have not been able to find Calvados in Alabama; hopefully I can find while on CANADA so I can bring a couple of bottles home. [/QB][/QUOTE]
Hi Marc,

You'll have no problems finding Calvados in either Montreal or Quebec. See: Calvados

See you on CANADA.

Hi everyone,

We made it without incident to the ship after a wet day (Friday) in London. Saturday, traffic down to Southampton via Stonehenge was extremely heavy and caused us to miss some of our other stops.  We made it to the ship with plenty of time for the 6 PM departure.

First night had excellent dinner at Prime 7 with the Simpsons.

We had a beautiful day in Honfleur yesterday walked the lovely town and in the afternoon took an excursion to a Normandy chateau where Calvados is made and the to the beach at Deauville.

After we didn't get picked for the free-cruise preliminary, we still managed to have a great dinner with the Byrnes, the Kneedys,, and Frank the ship's general manager last night. Then we crashed. We had had a rough night the first night.

Today is one of only two sea days so we are taking it easy.

More to come.

Gail and Eugene

A few photos:


Stonehenge



The beach in Deauville



The Carousel in Honfleur

How cool is that?!!! :D

Thanks for the post, Eugene. Sounds like a great start to the cruise. I was checking the webcam at Le Harve and it did look like a beautiful day. The webcam at the port was off-line, so no stalk.

All you WINEoS have a wonderful sea day!

OK, I'll try this again. As usual the internet is being flaky. After four days of awful weather in England, it was great to get on the ship on a sunny day -- I kind of took that as a sign ;) We had a great tour of the D-Day Beaches in Normandy yesterday. Our guide was fantastic--it was like being with someone who had been there. We had a fabulous lunch at a restored farm house and ended the day with an emotional visit to the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. To top off a great day we had dinner with the Captain last night. We had fun reminiscing about all the mishaps on the cruises we've been on with him (TUT and Kangaroo). He assured us there'd be no mishaps on this one. Tomorrow is Bordeaux and St. Emillion-- should be another good day.

Yea...let the fun begin! Thanks for reporting in Eugene & Peggy.

Peggy, I would love to visit Omaha Beach some day. On the BK Christmas Market cruise a couple of years ago, our visit to the American cemetary in Hamm, Luxembourg was most emotional for me, and it was, I guess, a small one.

Glad you are having a great time, I take it Mario is the captain! No mishaps is a great prescription!

Peggy, is Mariana aboard?



Say hi to Mario for us!

Captain and his wife are a charming couple!!!!!

Wait a minute, are the M&M's and Levins on this????

JoAnn - I am just home in PVB doing laundry and cooking the Prince dinner - laundry is true dinner false - :) :) :) we met Capt and his wife on ROO and we'd met him/them on another trip - wonderful!!!!

No, no, we are ALL at home from what I know, but that sure was a great dinner, we had so much fun!

Hi,

Just a quick hello and I'm pleased to report that everything has been wonderful so far. The people we have met from the B& K group are very congenial and , of course, its great to be crusing with Peggy and Jerry again.

The day at Honfleur we did a shorter tour to Rouen where we saw the Cathedral that Monet loved to paint. We later took the shuttle to town and was difficult to leave , there were end of summer sales in all the little shops.

Later today we'll dock in Bordeaux, they tell us that it will be right in town.

Yesterday I made a fool of myself at Kareoke. Lesson learned: Do not volunteer to "sing" a song of which you don't know the lyrics (especially after a few glasses of wine and limoncello!!).

Marc, Mariana is not onboard.

Oh gosh -- I did mean to add LOL and :eek: at the end as I knew you'all weren't onboard!

Oh well, laughing at myself now. :rolleyes:

Sounds like a fun time and Honfleur looks so pretty. Wish we were there.

Great to hear from you WINE'os - Peggy, that Normandy visit must have been an emotional one. And Greg & I have been such bad luck for Capt. Sanguineti, he is probably glad we are not on board!

We're docked in beautiful Bordeaux this morning, right in the town center. We actually arrived yesterday afternoon and had an overnight here. Hopefully Eugene will be able to post some pictures later. Yesterday we took a tour to St. Emillion village and a Chateau winery nearby. There's definitely lots of grapes around here and we're doing our share to consume them in liquid form. The food has been wonderful so far and so has the company. The weather has finally turned warmer (some would say too warm, but not for us hardy Texans). We head to the Basque country tomorrow.

Peggy, Docking right in Bordeaux is the best. It is so easy just to walk off the ship and be right in the city. Glad you are enjoying the food, wine and weather.

We had great weather (rain, drizzle and cool temps) in the UK on our two weeks there. Loved it.

If any of you WINEoS visit Constantine in the Observation Lounge, ask him to play Puttin' On the Ritz for us!!!

I am enjoying all the posts. LOVE this itinerary which we did a few years ago. Honfleur is beautiful--thinking about our mussels in white wine for lunch makes my mouth water. We did St Emilion on our own (pre included tours) and it is fabulous, expect for the part where a guy tried to sell my younger son heroin in the train station at Bordeaux. We loved being right down town in Bordeaux.

OH it was a wonderful cruise! spring of 2004 11 nights I think??? - Marcie and Olivia will remember they are younger :) :) :lct: :lct:

We too did a tour to St. Emilion Peggy and a winery, it was so incredible and maybe we were just jaw dropping impressed because it was our very first time in Europe other than London, and everything we did was just amazing. I remember smelling the grapes and thinking Wow, we are in France!! We too did our share of consuming them in liquid form, glad to know they have grown back since our visit. LOL.

Ha Ha Ha JoAnn! But it probably took a couple of years, eh? ;)

I think you are right Arlene!! :D

We're in Bilboa this morning heading to the museum. Yesterday we went to Biarritz and San Sebastien. We especially liked the former. We didn't have the greatest weather. Relatively cool and light rain on and off. Unfortunately, we hit horrendous traffic coming back. A half hour ride took two hours.

Maybe I'll be able to post a few photos this afternoon when we get back. Food has been very good. Haven't made it to one show yet.

Couldn't post this before we left for Bilboa, so I am continuing. We had a great excursion. The city was a short drive from the port. We had a very good guide who was originally from Munich. First we drove around a little and she pointed out the sites and then we walked around the old city. We hadn't realized how large Bilboa was or what an important steel city it had been. I think like most people we knew of it because of the museum. During the walk she took us to a jai lai court as it is such an important sport in the Basque region.

From the old city, we headed up a mountain for some fantastic views of the city. Then we headed for the museum.
I think the building is spectacular. The artwork inside is somewhat bizarre for the most part, in my opinion. I liked the abstract paintings much more than the various "installations" such as a hundred jars with the innards from nine cows.

And the weather was gorgeous today--around 80.
--------------

Eugene

A couple of photos from Bilbao. The first is from Artxanda, the hill overlooking the city. The Guggenheim museum is in the lower left.




The second is the flower puppy in front of the museum.

Just had a great meal in CR. Ngaire and Ken joined the Simpsons, Byrnes, and us. Some had lamb--guess who? Others had black cod in a miso sauce and it was out of this world. And we told the executive chef when he came by.

Gotta get to sleep. We have a long day tomorrow going to Santiago de Compostela and the weather forecast is not great.

-----------------

Eugene and Gail

I am loving the flower puppy!