Life's a Stitch

September 19 and 20, 2023 (once again, catching up).

If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium. That was the name of a 1969 movie about a whirlwind 18-day sightseeing tour of Europe. Apparently I’m living the plot of that film, as it’s Tuesday and we are in Belgium for the day.

Not a fan of large cruise ships, we disembarked in Zeebrugge on a grey windy day with about 4000 others. There are two types of people on a cruise ship: those who don’t care how much they spend on organized excursions and those more adventurous, determined to spend less and see what they want to. Today the group was split maybe 50/50 and I’m sure you can predict which side we’d be on. 

Our half went to the tiny grocery store to buy a day’s transit pass that would take us into Bruges. What the clerk failed to mention was that there was only one bus per hour, which held 50 passengers. That combined with the short amount of time at this port, would have given us 90 minutes max in Bruges. Combined with the fact that it was a dark and stormy day, we elected to stay put and explore the seaside town of Zeebrugge, where there was a geocache situated on the pier.

We arrived back at the port with enough time to visit the Belgian chocolate factory store located near the ship.

On Wednesday it was LaHavre, France. I was so looking forward to this port, our only stop in France, for one, albeit strange reason. France has a version of Nescafé decaf that is as good as decent brewed coffee. I have tried the Nescafé decaf in a number of countries and none are as good, so it was my opportunity to stock up. Dear friends, if you ever find yourself in France, with space in your luggage, I would appreciate any that you can carry home. 

A group of five of us walked the city of LaHavre, which was nearly totally destroyed in the war, and rebuilt with designs by architect, Auguste Perret. We met a local, who truly loved her city and gave us a private history lesson. We took the funicular for a city view 

then back down to board the Bee Bus to the village of Honfleur on the other side of the intimidating Normandy Bridge.

Rosemary and I had the required French meal – Moules Frites, mussels and fries, mine with chenin blanc, hers with rose. Chuck went off to find a bar with what he describes as the best hard cider of his life.

C discovered my rain jacket had fallen through a hole in his backpack, so a trip to Decathlon, our favourite sporting goods store of our Camino days, was required on the way back to the ship. Storms are in the forecast.