Bruce and I decided to take a 14-day transatlantic cruise from the UK to Florida rather than fly back home. We took the train down to Southampton and spent the night in a really cool boutique hotel built into the medieval walls of the old seaport.
Our room was very modern, but there were lots of interesting historic features throughout the hotel like this old castle gate.
The cruise terminal was only a couple blocks away, so we were able to just walk over the following afternoon and check into the ship. I'll have to give Princess Cruises credit; their check-in process was totally seamless. However, had I known how long 14 days on a boat was going to be, I probably would have spent a little more time walking around the town.
Our ship did make 3 stops along the European coastline before heading across the Atlantic. Our first stop was Bruges, Belgium, an absolutely gorgeous city that I could have spent a week in (as long as all the tourists from the cruise ships weren't clogging the streets and cafes like they were the day we were there).
Bruges isn't technically a port city, so since we didn't know the language, we signed up for one of the tours offered by the ship. It was a toss-up between the chocolate factory or the brewery. We opted for the latter, though I managed to run into a chocolate shop on the way back to the bus and buy a box of Belgium chocolates.
The next day we stopped in Le Havre, France. Lots of people signed up for a tour into Paris, but it was a 3-1/2 hour bus ride each way. I've been to Paris, but I've never been to Le Havre, so we decided to just walk around the town. They were having a big bike festival (supposedly they do this once a month).
Lots of the bike riders were dressed up in crazy costumes - kind of like an early Halloween.
There was a big fairground for the kids with music and games. This giant arch reminded me of the St Louis Arch, only in color.
We stopped by St Joseph's Catholic Church and I lit a candle. We saw many churches while we were in the Cotswolds, but protestant churches don't seem to have candles, altars, or statues like they do in Catholic churches. This 350 ft steeple was really impressive seen from the inside. Most of the architecture in Le Havre is fairly new, because the town was almost destroyed during World War II. It doesn't really look historic like most European towns.
Our last stop was Lisbon, Portugal. This is a very pretty town with lots of tile work and wrought iron on the buildings.
But the streets are very, very steep. Everything was uphill from the dock.
After that it was several LONG days at sea without a lot to do. Bruce was in seventh heaven, because he spent each day writing chapters for his new book. I took a zumba class each morning, which turned out to be a bit tricky staying upright with the rolling of the ship. The biggest activity on a cruise ship is eating (and eating and eating). We managed to stick with just 3 meals a day, though every single meal seemed to have some kind of sugary dessert (even the breakfast buffet had tons of donuts and pastries).
We did make one final stop in Bermuda before reaching Florida, though they docked in the West End (the non-touristy side of Bermuda). There was only one narrow road on this side of the island and the sidewalks ran out after about a hundred yards. Many people were jumping on the ferry to go over to the other side of the island, but I did not want to get off one boat and onto another. It was so good to be on solid ground for a few hours. Some people devote large portions of their vacations to cruising (literally about two-thirds of the people on our ship), but I don't think long-distance cruising is really for me. I think I'll stick with something a little more active on my next vacation.
