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| Park in Southampton, England |
Transatlantic Cruise. Southampton, England to Ft Lauderdale, Florida. Stops in Le Havre, France; Bilbao, Spain; Vigo, Spain; and Madeira, Portugal. Seven Sea Days in a Row. Celebrate our 42nd Wedding Anniversary October 14th. Celebrate my 61st birthday October 22nd. Travel with our youngest son Samuel who is spending his vacation with us!
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| Inside the Southampton Mall |
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| Darrell in O'Malley's on Emerald Princess Ship |
Nomad Notes: A couple years ago, our youngest son Samuel told us that he would go on a cruise with us sometime. About a year ago, he chose this transatlantic one. Mainly we had discussed doing this one or an Alaskan cruise. He picked this one for two-three main reasons: 1) it’s 2 weeks long with a lot of down time to relax and disconnect from work. 2) this cruise usually is about 50% guest capacity 3) per day price is always less expensive on repositioning cruises. It turned out that the cruise was almost booked to capacity. This would mean that some nights that the auditorium shows or the dining room or deck parties or other events would be full of people. Samuel doesn’t like crowds, but he did well enough. He learned quickly about going to locations on the ship where the crowd was not at certain times. There were times that I got good at finding a private and empty hot tub to myself.
Our trip with Samuel is a treasure to me. We visited England, France, Spain and Portugal together! That’s a big WOW for us all! We hung out on the ship day after day, eating well, watching the changing skies, playing trivia and even doing Bible classes. After the final 7 sea days we were all ready to get off the ship and be on land. We spent the day in Ft. Lauderdale with long time family and church friends before flying back to Huntsville, Alabama.
So we all booked this cruise about a year out and looked forward to it. Darrell and I had the issue this year of Darrell’s frequent eye treatments. We wondered how long we could make this trip between his treatments. It turned out that Darrell got a longer number of weeks between his shots announced to him two months ahead of this cruise. So, less than two months before this cruise, we added on the previous Norway cruise, and changed our plane ticket dates to London so we could spend a week in England before our month on the ship.
It was all pretty complicated.
On every sea day Darrell hosted the ‘unhosted’ Bible class that is given a place on Princess cruises. We read the book of Mark together and discussed the stories in this account without cross-referencing. This sort of Bible reading makes it much easier for beginners to get acquainted with reading and learning directly from the text. We had about 20-30 people on many days.
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| Talking to Son, Jeremy and Grandson, Quinn Gets Me Happy |
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| Son, Samuel and Me on Our Walk from the Ship to Le Havre, France |
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| Samuel at Port of Le Havre, France |
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| View of Le Havre |
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| Evening Horizon View from Our Stateroom Balcony |
Saturday. 11. Samuel arrives to Southampton, UK port. We did some shopping in town and the ship left the port for France in the afternoon. While Samuel needed some sleep after his overnight flight, we were still able to spend some time together.
Sunday. 12. Le Havre, France. Darrell was staying in and not feeling great. Samuel and I went off the ship and walked several miles around the port. The weather was sunny and clear.
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| Port Near Bilbao, Spain |
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| Walking in Bilbao |
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| View in Bilbao |
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| Our E-bike Guide in Bilbao |
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| E-bike Stop in Bilbao |
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| E-bike Tour Guide in Bilbao |
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| Incredible View of the Guggenheim in Bilbao |
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| Me on My E-bike in Front of the Sportsplex in Bilbao |
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| Our 42nd Wedding Anniversary in Front of the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain |
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| Another View of the Guggenheim in Bilbao |
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| Mural in Bilbao |
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| In Bilbao |
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| In Bilbao |
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| Relaxing on Our Balcony After an Amazing Day in Bilbao |
Monday. 13. Sea Day.
Tuesday. 14. Bilbao, Spain. Darrell and I took an e-bike tour. It’s our 42nd wedding anniversary, and this was a wonderful way to spend it. We had our tour guide and one other tourist on our viator tour. The bikes were lightweight for e-bikes and manageable. The weather was perfect and the guide was very good. Samuel went to a Maritime museum. We met back on the ship for our nightly dinner in the dining room.
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| Me and Samuel on the Ship |
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| Darrell and Samuel with Sculpture in Vigo, Spain |
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| Following Darrell and Samuel through a Beautiful Park in Vigo, Spain |
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| We are Climbing a Significant Incline in Vigo. This 'Street' is Narrow and Two Way and a Pedestrian Way Also. |
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| On Our Way Higher to the Old Fort in Vigo |
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| View of Our Ship as We Climb Higher in Vigo |
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| I'm Loving the Trees. Steep Climb. Vigo |
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| On Our Way Down the Hill. Looking into the Shopping District. Vigo |
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| Samuel With a Local. Vigo |
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| Old Door. Vigo. |
Wednesday. 15. Sea Day.
Thursday. 16. Vigo, Spain. The three of us walked around town. We walked up the hill to the old fort and museum. Then we walked back down through the shopping district and back to the ship. A beautiful day with great views of the area.
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| Owen's Cute Smile on Our Call. |
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| Esther in the Foreground. Owen in the Background. |
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| Another Gorgeous Sunset from Ship. |
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| View Looking Down on Culinary Demonstration in the Piazza on Ship. |
Friday. 17. Sea Day.
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| Night Lights from Ship |
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| Madeira, Portugal from Ship |
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| Sunrise at Madeira, Portugal from Ship |
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| Walking with Our Son, Samuel through Madeira, Portugal. |
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| Us in Madeira. Christmas Light Strings are Getting Put Up Today. |
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| View Toward the Sea at Madeira. |
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| Portugual's Decorative Mosaic Side Walk is Different in Each Town |
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| Colorful Market Stand in Madeira |
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| Darrell and Samuel on Our Walk Through Madeira |
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| View in Madeira |
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| Madeira Statue |
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| Taking a Break in Madeira. Fresh Juices for Me and Samuel. A Coffee with Whip Cream Claimed to be a Cappucino. |
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| Exploring Madeira |
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| Amazing Maderia Views |
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| Public Garden in Madeira |
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| Early Explorer Statue in Madeira |
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| Steep Downhill in Madeira |
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| In Madeira |
Saturday. 18. Madeira, Portugal. We walked to town from the ship. We walked through a market and a botanical garden. We bought some dried fruit and cookies. We stopped at a cafe and had a snack. Darrell and I got the local custard tarts. Samuel had a steak sandwich that had a lot of hot garlic on it!
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| My Sweethearts in Brazil. Grandson Quinn, age 5, with Our Son, Jeremy. |
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| On Sea Days We Had a Good Lecture Series on Spanish History |
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| Us Posing |
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| Gorgeous Sea View from Ship |
Sunday. 19.- Saturday. 25. (7) Sea Days Crossing the Atlantic. Some times of choppy water, but mostly smooth. A couple of short storms. The weather was getting warmer and warmer. In the 70’s-80’s. Progressive trivia games, daily Bible class and friend-making there, lectures on Spanish history, daily exercising, always taking the stairs, eating extremely well!, daily cappuccinos, dinners with people from all over and their stories, hot tub time, naps, live music, and more. October 22nd was my 61st birthday!
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| Another Gorgeous Sea View from Ship |
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| Early Morning On Deck in Mild Weather |
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| Storm Cloud over the Sea seen from Ship |
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| Fun Call with Our Son, Eric and Grands, Owen, 4 and Esther 2. |
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| Ship View |
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| Sea Day Show that was Very Enjoyable Live Music with Fabulous Singer |
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| View from Our Balcony |
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| Sea Day Farewell by Staff. A Waiter is Singing a Frank Sinatra Hit Very Well! lol. |
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| Another Show on the Ship |
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| Cruise is Over and We are Waiting for Our Friend James to Pick Us Up in Ft. Lauderdale |
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| Lunch after Church with People I have Known Most of My Life, or Have Know Me through my Grandparents! Wow! Still Hanging Out with Them and Keeping Up Through Our Visits to Church in Ft. Lauderdale! |
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| Back in Huntsville on Sunday Night. Got Our Truck Thanks to Our Friend Jackie! |
Sunday. 26. Arrive Ft. Lauderdale. Time with local church and life-long friends. James came and got us at the port, took us to church, lunch, my family graveyard (here is buried my great grandmother, my maternal grandparents, and my parents), and then to the airport. Flight to Huntsville, Alabama. Our friend Jackie, in Madison, kept our truck in her barn all the weeks we were away. Just before we arrived, she drove it to the airport parking lot for us to walk out, find and drive to our airbnb.
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