Saturday, October 17, 2015
Touring started at 9am today so we slept in until about
6:45am. We are going to need a vacation when we get home. We had breakfast
which was just a bit off again today. They had capers, cream cheese and lox but
no bagels for example.
For the first time since we started with Amras/Amadeus, we
were able to just walk off the boat and begin a tour. We had a walking tour of
the old town of Rouen. We saw a lot of really old half-timbered houses and we
toured the cathedral. We walked through the morning market where Clay was
tempted by fresh oysters and into the modern church built where Joan of Arc was
burned. We had about an hour to find our way back to the boat from there before
lunch. We ate in the lounge for the light buffet again. I know we had pasta
carbonara and croque monsieur for sure. I am getting a sore throat. I am sure I
caught whatever the sumo on the bus behind me one week ago was spewing all over
me. I hope I don’t make Clay sick in time to go home. After lunch, we set off
on a bus for the Abbeys tour. We went to the abandoned ruins of Jumieges. Then
we went to the working Benedictine monastery of Saint Wandrille. It was a nice
tour but I am afraid that other than the walking portions that I could not stay
awake on the bus!
The scheduled port talk ended up being an announcement over
the speakers and I can’t say what was said. We expect to visit Etretat and
Honfleur tomorrow on excursions. Dinner was all cheese for me. I don’t remember
if I said before that one of the differences between Amadeus Diamond and
Amadeus Silver II was that they always had chicken breast available. I have
asked here on Diamond and the answer was no. After dinner everyone at our table
went up to the Panorama Lounge to play Where are We? There were only 25
questions and some were different than last week’s on Silver II. Gunther’s
clues were not as good and in more than one case just incorrect and he never
admitted he was in error. In any event, we had 17 and won. It was another
bottle of Sekt. It was pretty awful. I think it is what they serve for toasts
and Captain’s cocktails. Last week they didn’t offer to open it or serve it on
board on request. When they asked tonight, I told them to open it now. Now it
is over. Even with 6 of us there was still some in the bottle. We had docked in
Caudebec en Caux while we were playing, so Clay and I excused ourselves to go
up top and look around. It had been raining. Luckily, we stayed mostly dry all
day today!
