Day 51 Sea and day 52 Le Havre

Katie with Vincent and Leo with traditional last day Bombe Alaska

Bombe Alaska cut and served

For Glenn (my boss), this famous Perret was an architect who designed much of Le Havre after the war

Our 2nd breakfast and the coffee was actually black

Macaron shop

Nice park in town

Wine and our french menu

Lunch

Outside lunch venue

Our assorted macarons

Overcast and drizzling for the last 2 days, so we didn't get to top up
our tans and will return to Australia white and pasty after a week in
London! Yesterday being the last sea day we did the usual morning and
afternoon quiz where we said our goodbyes to Carmen & Neale and Barb &
Steve our quiz team :( Carmen & Neale are from NZ and are also getting
off in Dover while Barb and Steve are going all the way, lucky things.
We also had our cruise critic farewell lunch and then we went to the MDR
for dinner to say goodbye to our dinner companions and our fantastic
waiters. It's all very sad, but we have lots of email addresses and tons
of fabulous memories. Hard to believe we are fare welling our little
cabin after 53 days , our bags are packed and have been whisked away,
they couldn't hold enough so we are carrying some off by hand!! One of
our first London chores will be sorting things out, buying a new
suitcase and sending stuff home by sea. (and I actually have 40kgs of
luggage allowance on way home) .......not enough.
Today a lot of people made the 3hr trek into Paris but Katie and I
decided against it and got off the ship around 9am and went to the
visitor info centre on the dock to find that it being a Saturday we had
missed the train/bus to Honfleur. Not deterred we decided to walk into Le
Havre and check it out, sadly like a lot of other ports we had visited
much of it had been destroyed by bombs during the war and was quickly
rebuilt in the style of the 50's and 60's, square utilitarian stuff. Not
as pretty as some places but done quickly from necessity, there were
pockets of old buildings and they are gradually greening up the city but
none-the-less I think it had a charm all its own. Seeing it was raining
on and off and windy and overcast, even if we had got to Honfleur it
wouldn't have been at it's best either.
The walk to town took about 25 mins, and was signposted all the way (as
were other ports), and as the shops didn't open until 10 we decided to
do the French thing and have a croissant and espresso for breakfast
(despite having breakfast on ship about 90 mins previously). I don't
normally ever have black coffee but really enjoyed it, the croissant
probably helped......pastry mmmmmmmm. As you may have noticed from the
photos we ate a lot over the last few days, I even went to weigh myself
this afternoon in the gym but the scales had gone, which may have been a
good thing. Though 3 days ago I was still a fraction lighter than when I
got on, but think that may have changed in the last 2 days!
After our le breakfast we found an indoor shopping centre and spent time
there going from shop to shop trying to find Katie a pair of jeans. They
were all cheap at around 20 euro, and after about 14 pairs in 8
different shops we found a pair that fitted perfectly, yay! We then
wandered around for a bit in the drizzle, I had an umbrella and Katie
her hood before decided to head back to the ship and find a cafe on the
way back for lunch. As luck would have it we stumbled across a macaron
shop, we had been looking in all the bakeries for them so were really
happy to see a whole shop in a little town dedicated to them only.
After purchasing some we then found a little cafe and ventured in to
find we were the only ones there and were served by a lovely lady who
also cooked the food. The menu was in French and because we had been
practising all day in the shops we just about had it all sussed out when
she offered us the English version, she spoke little English and we
slaughtered our 6 french words, so all in all somehow it worked out
fine. We had a crepe each which from the photo doesn't look nearly as
yummy as it was. One had 3 cheeses, Roquefort, Camembert and goats
cheese and the other had Camembert, fried onion and walnut. We shared a
pitcher of Rose` and then spent the walk home practising our
French......................well we put le in front of most things in a
terrible accent but it kept us amused for a long time (sad but true).
Got back to the ship and Katie had a nap while I did a last laundry run,
and then we went to say goodbye to two lovely older ladies we met on the
first day who Katie has helped with emails. We finished the bag packing
and put them outside our door, then we went and had pizza for dinner
with Dale, Margaret and Dan.
Katie has now gone off to say one last goodbye to her friends and I am
about to use up the last of the email minutes I purchased. We have to
vacate our room by 8 o'clock tomorrow and are scheduled to disembark at
9.10am. We might even get to see the White Cliffs of Dover :)
Shall attempt to keep this going while in London so I at least have a
vague idea of what we do each day.