Monday, October 26, 2015
We won at geography trivia last night. There were 20
questions and we got 17 right. I think the 2 other teams had 15 and less. There
were a lot of different photos than we had seen before. The prize was a bottle
of Sekt. Graham asked them to save it for later. I don’t know when he wants it.
The other 2 teams each participant got a glass of Sekt just for playing which meant we got
nothing! Since none of us even likes the Sekt, it hardly matters.
Start time today was 8:15am with breakfast still at 7am so
we had to be a bit quicker. We docked right before departure time in Viviers.
This was an amazing tiny historic town with a bishop’s castle and a cathedral.
But, first we took a long drive through the countryside to reach a truffle
farm. This was the longest part of the morning excursion. We met a 3rd
generation truffle farmer and his dog, Aimee. They were both loveable. Bob was snuffled by an Italian-born Labradoodle truffle dog! The
process was interesting and the truffle smelled disgusting. At the end of the
tour, lecture and demonstration, he served red, white and rose wine from local
vintners as well as a variety of truffle snacks. Terrine, tapenade, oil, etc.
with bread and butter. Clay ate them all and I just smelled them because that
was enough. We drove back to Viviers and walked through the old cathedral
district and had a tour of the cathedral. It reminded me of Curinga. We walked
back down the hill and through the town to the boat. We were about 10 minutes
late, but there was another boat docked against us since breakfast. They had a
full load and they had to cross our boat to leave. They used our bus plus 3
others to leave for a tour. Only then could we pull away from the dock after
they left. We had lunch aboard. We ordered burgers and fries since there was no
rush today. I think we are sailing aboard all afternoon. The original itinerary
had us on a morning and afternoon excursion but Susan just mentioned a “green”
stop this afternoon. It had the sound of a technical stop where passengers
can’t go ashore but I have no idea. I’ll let you know. We seemed to have
entered a canal during lunch and I am not sure if we’re still in it. As we sail
past a nuclear power plant, it appears to be a manmade canal with concrete
sides. We were told the tallest lock on the Rhone was coming up but we aren’t
there yet. There are about 20 locks on here. Graham reckons by the end of this
cruise we’ll have been through close to 200 locks in Europe. I don’t think that
sounds right. Maybe half that, certainly while we were onboard and awake.
After lunch we went through the tallest lock on the Rhone at
23 meters. Then we went back to the cabin to brush our teeth. I got my water,
needlepoint and jacket to go sit up front in the Panorama Lounge because it is
the only place you can see out the front especially since the sun deck was
alternately opened and closed all day. Clay had the window open and his feet up
in the only chair in the cabin with both the camera and the binoculars and said
he was staying since he had a nice quiet set up. I guess it must have been a really
quiet setup and I wish he’d told me he was going to sleep all afternoon because
he did not even see Mornas, a spectacular cliffside fortress gleaming white in the
afternoon sun. I could have used the binoculars and the camera if he had told
me he was going to sleep. Anyway. That was the largest medieval fortress in
France, but we saw some other cliff top ruined towers along the way. We docked
in Roquemaure about 30 minutes behind schedule. It looks like the village is a
bit of a distance from the dock. There are more ruined castles visible in the distance
on both sides of the river. We have nothing scheduled here for the rest of the
day except the 6:45pm port talk (about time!) and Pirate’s Dinner at 7pm. The
menu is a bit altered from the last 3 but not by a lot. The Celebrity concierge
who sat with us last cruise called that menu the cheese meal and it is heavy on
cheese. I think you could have cheese in 4 courses. But, I have to wonder if it
is pun-full. You know, cheesy pirate dinner. If so, it is clever, but I suspect
it is just a coincidence.
Since we have Internet now, I will go ahead and try to post
this.
