Friday, October 16, 2015
We were up well before Clay’s alarm went off. I went to the
Amadeus Club for a coffee (Weiner Melange) from the machine because I tried
their brew at tea yesterday! Breakfast buffet was again similar but different
in some not positive ways. No one will starve but other than desserts (which
honestly weren’t that good on Silver II) I think we all preferred Silver II.
Oh, well.
We were on the buses by 8:45am or so for the about 1.5 hour
drive. It was about a 1 hour drive back. No idea why. It poured rain this
morning but gradually slacked off to a dry and chilly afternoon. The
Impressionists museum was a technology nightmare. It might have worked fine for
very small groups of French, but not so much for 20+ English speakers. The
rooms start the AV displays as you enter. The resident French announcements are
so loud that you couldn’t hear the English ones in your handheld device. Also,
mine was never in sync. It kept playing the same rooms and instructions to go
downstairs every time. I did not enjoy my time there or learn anything. When we
reached the room with a statue of Van Gogh the guide told us we were finished
and we busted through the French-speaking group we had been trailing and turned
in our audio guides and left. I think we had just run out of time. We rode the
bus about 1km and then walked that far again to see a church and field that Van
Gogh painted in the last 72 days of his life here. He painted 70 paintings in
those 72 days. He came to Auvers sur l’Oise to see a psychiatrist. It is not
absolutely clear if he killed himself or not but he is buried across the street
from the cornfield with crows where he painted his last and so is his brother.
They are in plain graves.
We drove back to the boat for a late lunch. We ate upstairs
at the Panorama Lounge buffet. The guide advised us to stop at the bakery on
our way to the boat for a chocolate éclair. It was a good suggestion. We took
ours to lunch buffet and found the boat was also serving chocolate eclairs.
Very different. I preferred the French one and Clay preferred the boat’s. Lunch
buffet was good. Tomato soup with beans on the side to add as you wanted. Pasta
made to order. On Silver II, you could control the portion size, here they only
cook and give out their determined size. We all prefer Silver II over Diamond
in that regard. During lunch they announced that instead of 7:45pm all aboard
it would be 5:45pm. So, we all hustled out to get to go ashore and see more of charming
Les Andelys. Clay and I made it up to the ruins of Chateau Gaillard which was
built by Richard the Lionhearted in the 1100s. It was a hike! The views were
spectacular.
We are sailing now and the views are still spectacular. The
safety briefing was at 6:15pm and our Captain was the life vest model. He
seemed to be really into this responsibility and strutted like in a fashion
show. He and Gunther the CD had a whole comedy routine down. He also did a port
briefing. We are sailing earlier than the program originally said. Of course
that meant that a couple missed the boat. They were Americans, I believe with
Celebrity Amras. They were close enough that the boat pulled back over and picked
them up. Lucky. Tonight we’ll be docked in Rouen. He said we could go ashore
but when we went to bed after 10pm, we were still sailing. At 9am we’ll have a
city walking tour for 2 hours and 15 minutes. Lunch onboard at noon. At 1:15pm to
6:30pm is a bus riding/walking tour of the Abbey Road. We are now back on
schedule. Dinner at 7pm with a world travel quiz/contest at 9:15pm. He said
there would be 25 questions. Last week we had 30 questions. We have plans to
dominate! The weather tomorrow is predicted to be 45 to 56F and rainy again. It
cleared off this afternoon so hopefully only half of tomorrow will be rainy as
well. A girl can hope.
I went and changed for dinner after because there were a lot
of suits and sequins in the lounge already for the Captain’s Welcome Cocktails.
There were more men in suits than not. Dinner was at 7:30pm. It was the Captain’s
Welcome Dinner. As far as I can tell those welcome and farewell dinners are
fixed with additional courses. We had the Celebrity Concierge escort sit at our
table tonight. We didn’t get served our main course until after 9pm. It was a
loooong meal!
