PORTS OF CALL

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Sad to say today is our last sea day. Tomorrow we begin exploring NE France. We are 127 nautical miles from St. Malo and arrive there early tomorrow morning. Today there will be the last Hold'em Tournaments, the final Trivia game the $100,000 bingo and a formal night. Yesterday, I came in second in one Hold'em game and was first out in the next.



My cold is breaking up but ML is now feeling a tinge of one. She is actively refusing delivery. Last night we retired to the Crow's Nest after dinner to plot and plan our London activities. Jan and Bev will try to get tickets to A Chorus Line and we plan to go to Hampton Court on Sunday, weather permitting. If not, we'll find something else to do. There is so much to see I know we won't be bored. The test will be to get in everything we want to see and not try to do too much. I would like to see St. Paul's but I WILL go to the British Museum. Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the changing of the guards

at Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London are must sees.



Bob the bear made an appearance in Jan's bed. Bob is a rescue bear from the Salvation Army Thrift Shop in Bermuda. His rescuers, Joe and Sherry, put a tag on him because they weren't sure how he would react to life at sea. Sure enough, he wandered from his cabin and somehow found his way into Jan's bed. We decided that he is coming to dinner with us tonight to share in Apple Crisp with Cinnamon Ice Cream. Then I will suggest that he join us in the Crow's Nest and we'll leave him there with the rest of the party animals.



Sherri and Joe do this on each cruise and they have left "Bob" in ports around the world. Most time he makes his way home or finds a home overseas. Cruisers are cool people.



As we get closer to land the swells have gotten bigger and there is a cold mist falling. The skies are a bleak gray. We saw a couple of sea birds, I think they were oyster catchers, looking for food.



Well Bob decided to spend the night with us. He and the rest of the kids partied through the night, very quietly, from their perch on the mini bar.



St. Malo



It is gray and murky at dawn. We're hoping the sun will burn off some of the clouds. The bay is calm and we can see the first land since we left Bermuda. We have four ports in four days and them we disembark in Tilbury. The R&R days are over. The tender operations were rocky, we have wind and currents to contend with and we were two hours late leaving for shore. When the tender docked the sun was shining but by the time we reached Mont St. Michael the drizzle returned. The taxi left us off outside the entrance and in a mud muddle where I dropped my umbrella. There was a loud discussion with a bus driver and it was apparent that this was as close as we could get to the shuttle bus. It seems that today taxis are not allowed to the shuttle stop so we walked about ten minutes to the bus and were dropped off about 300 yards from the entrance.



Built in 706ad the monastery rises from the mud flats on which it is built. It is an extraordinary site even more so today since it was misty.



Laura had given us advanced warning about the entrance to the Abbey and she was spot on, narrow lanes filled with souvenir shops and cafes and bars. Since it was still raining we stopped in a cafe for lunch. ML had ham and eggs crepes and I had mussels. While we were eating the sun appeared as well a dozens of school children on class trips.



I cannot imagine what this is like in tourist season but it between the wet cobbles and the swarming teenagers we stayed below the steps to the Abbey itself. Jacqui, our organizer, lost sight of her husband Jose and was frantic to find him. Like most of us wives she imagined the worst. They were reunited at the taxi stop and all is well.



The tides here are dramatic. When the tide is low, boats are beached until the tide rises. It is surrealistic to see so many beached boats, sitting there on the sand. We were anxious to get back on board so we didn't spend a lot of time in town. Neither of us are shoppers though if ML had found Archangel Michael he would have made it home with us.



We retired to the Crow's Nest for happy hour and watched the tide come in and the boats float. It's not the Bay of Fundy but it is dramatic. Met Jan and Bev for dinner and then it was off to bed. Tomorrow the Normandy Beaches.

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