DAY 17 & 18 at sea 19 & 20 … arriving in Bordeaux, France

Day 17 ……. At sea between Lisbon & the port city of Bordeaux, France.  We spent Friday basically just hanging about onboard, relaxing, reading, eating, chatting ……. Not much else ……

Day 18 was also at sea, we arrived at the mouth of the Garonne River which is about 60 miles from the docking area right in the front of the centre of Bordeaux.  Along the river we saw some smaller  castles and what appeared to be large homes or possibly guest houses.  We arrived in the city centre mooring spot at 9:30pm, it was pretty special as you right in town.  Many locals going for their evening walk came down to look at the ship as it is quite a spectical lit up at night by the dock.  We decided to go for a quick stroll through town, it looks like a really beautiful city. Tomorrow an early morning guided walking tour at 9:00am ………. We went through / under a recently built new bridge which has the entire centre lift up to allow large vessels pass below …Here is a few first sighting photos ……  

 DAY 19 …. BORDEAUX, FRANCE ….

       What a beautiful, well constructed city this is, I never really realised that the rural Bordeaux that I had imagined would be like this.  Unfortunately time does not allow us to go outside the city too far, but does not matter.  We went on a planned walk in the morning for 2 hours then just spent the rest of the day walking around this great place,  there was a local antique, trash & treasure market on, ( I think it is here all the time ) I have never seen so many French artefacts in one spot before, some fantastic, some just rubbish.    In the afternoon we walked up the river front which was pretty packed with Sunday walker, skate boarders, cyclists, in line skaters, kids on scooters, it was really great to see.  On the way we passed one of the Viking Long boat ships & asked if we could look around, we got a tour of inspection from the chief afficer & met the captain along the way, they are really modern & well appointed inside, we may think about a river cruise some time in the future, who knows.  

We arrived back at our ship about 5:00pm ready for the 7:00pm departure but received news that the dreaded Novo virus !!!!  was onboard, you would not think that could happen on a ship such as this, so clean fresh & modern, and as well as having hand washing stations everywhere, which has become mandatory on cruise ships now,  ( but you still see people using the toilets & walking out NOT washing hands & people with there shoes up on coffee tables after traipsing around city streets all day  ?? ). anyway our departure was delayed for 24 hours which will put everything behind, ?? ….   

Some photos of the city of Bordeaux …..

We then found an amazing chocolate shop, such detail in everything …

Then we went and found the markets, antiques , bric-a -brace and flowers, herbs trees …….

We woke up on Monday morning still in Bordeaux, ANZAC day, I was not feeling very great, I went up to the Anzac Day ceremony onboard the Viking Star, which as a bit of a disappointment as for some reason the sound system they had for the service & playing of the last post was not working, I stayed until one the end but breakfast of having a beer was out of the question, went back down to cabin & hibernated all day as we were by then both not at all well.  I really do not think we picked up the bug onboard but definitely had something as we had very bad stomach cramps for the next 24 hrs ……. There were many people onboard very sick as they bought an ambulance along side a couple of times.  The ship is now is total disinfect mode, pool & spas closed as are all self serve food & drink stations, going to get a bit boring now ……… Finally got over our illness & the ship sailed at 7:00pm on Anxac Day ….. 24 hrs late …. 

Next stop Paris …….