Final Stop: Le Havre

It really is lovely to wake up and find yourself in another country!!  We were now in France.  Weather-wise it was a very foggy and quite chilly too, but there were glimmers that the sun was trying to break through. After the narrow escapes of yesterday, we decided to explore Le Havre … and it didn’t take long.

There was a very picturesque square in front of the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) with waterfalls and statues, then we walked down the “main” shopping street to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Outside, the church still had signs of its wartime history with bullet holes/marks to the stonework. Inside the restoration from WW2 had only been relatively recently been completed (in the mid-70’s) and was very plain but stunning never-the-less.  A few stained-glass windows remain but the rest were simply plain glass with a border pattern. There were no gold/gilt embellishments and the vaulted ceiling was elegantly carved from wood and its beauty shone through.

Le Havre does seem pretty concretey – weirdest building has to be the “Le Volcan” centre – it literally looks like a concrete volcano. Wouldn’t exactly call it a wok of art :).

We tried to grab a bite to eat in a small square just off the Hotel de Ville Square but the service was diabolical (we counted ourselves lucky to have been served drinks!). In the end we gave up trying to order food and headed back to the ship instead.  We tested out the Sidewalk Cafe, followed by Afternoon Tea sat out on Pennants Bar.

We met in the Crows Nest for pre-dinner drinks and to watch the sailaway from Le Havre.  However, we didn’t survive long with the smoke! Plus point for our next cruise – that whole bar will be a smoke-free zone!! 

Dinner once again was lovely, although felt very sorry for Aly. Three out of the five main courses either contained pork or bacon, then to add insult to injury, the potato accompaniment also included bacon! No wonder they ran out of bacon half way through breakfast service this morning – they needed it all for dinner!

Chrisley and Sumanto had done a great job of getting to know us over the last couple of days and had a great sense of humour. Chrisley presented his fruit platter each evening with the phrase; ”would anyone like some fruits from my garden” and Sumanto by the end was pre-empting any of those little requests that we had – like sugar for Aly’s fruit salad! Hope the guys we get in May are as nice as these two!

Callum had zonked out in Toy Box but he woke up before we could get him settled in Night Nursery. For some reason, he didn’t want to go to sleep in the night nursery - all he wanted to do was head back to our cabin.  I left Jon holding the fort at the Syndicate Quiz Night and retired back to the cabin to put Callum to bed and finish (well start) the packing!

The gang got 9 answers right in tonight's quiz. Nic and Jon brought me up a rather large glass of wine to keep me company so they checked out if I knew any of the answers they didn’t!  We would have got three more points if I’d made it down, but as the winning score was 15, we wouldn’t have won.

Sadly, we’re now packed and will be heading home tomorrow.

Next stop: Brugge

Peering through the curtains the next morning we discovered that Aurora had already docked in Zeebrugge and the early risers were disembarking for their tours.  By the time we got into Breakfast, it was pretty quiet and it wasn’t long before Callum was tucking into his sausage, bacon, tomato and toast!

We’d decided to get the train into Brugge – Callum was really excited when he saw it was a double-decker train. Brugge town centre was a 15 mins walk from the station as only cars, taxis and local buses can enter the city limits. It was very picturesque wandering around amongst the old buildings. St Salvator’s Cathedral was the first major landmark we stumbled across. We turned right here, and walked down the main shopping street into the Platz.

My Dad’s advice before we left was to have a beer and moules frites in the market place ... and since when have we ignored Dad’s advice!! Jon and Ray had the local beer (served in a mini “yard of ale” glass and I had a Leffe. We also shared a bowl of wonderful Musselen Frites, whilst Callum had a waffle and the rest baguettes. By the time we’d been served and paid the bill, there was barely enough time to buy some chocolates and head back for the penultimate train.

We were pushing it and it was a brisk quick march back to the train.  I grabbed Callum and we just made the train with literally seconds to spare. Alas, the rest of the gang weren’t quite so lucky and we left them behind in Brugge!! At least with Callum and I out of the way (Callum especially), I hoped it would be easier for the others to catch a taxi back or just be less hassle without Callum moaning and generally being bored.

All the way back on the train, Callum (bless him) was pretty concerned how Daddy and Gran/Granda were going to make it back to the ship ... I told him we were having a race and they were catching a taxi back and were seeing who would get back to the ship quickest. Callum thankfully was soon distracted with Toy Box (especially as they were playing in Jumping Jacks) whilst I was left wondering if I’d be dining alone that night!!

I headed up onto the Prom Deck above the embarkation ramp and watched the last handful of coaches arrive back. I needn’t have worried. In the end, as taxis were few and far between, they decided to catch a bus back to Blankenberg which arrived a couple of mins before the final train from Brugge did. It was a really shame we had to leave Brugge so early – another couple of hours in port would have been great.

Once everyone was safely back onboard, we headed up to The Orangery for Afternoon Tea, followed by drinks out on Pennants Bar. As the weather was so good, space was at a premium until people started to leave to get ready for dinner.

Callum had loads of fun in Toy Box. They’d made some very scrummy chocolate crispy cakes and when we arrived, the staff captain was there meeting all the kids.

Tonight was the formal night so our opportunity to get dolled up! People had gone to a lot of effort and everyone looked fabulous. The menu did not disappoint either - Jon and I were relieved to see Lobster Thermador on the menu as we’d raved about it.  Thankfully everyone really enjoyed it too.

We opted not to see Derren Brown (must be the only people on board not wanting to see the show) and we took part in the Syndicate Quiz. We finished mid-table on 10 points and it was actually a pretty good way to spend an hour or so in the evening though.

Back At Sea

We heading off on Aurora on a mini cruise break.  A real shame it was only for three days, but three days was better than nothing!

We hit the queues for check-in but at least they were moving quickly.  First moan logged after 5 minutes (you wouldn’t get this [the queuing] with Celebrity!) and by one o’clock we’d boarded via the staff security entrance so we avoided the photographers!! Before we knew it, we were on board and having lunch in the Orangery.

Once we’d finished lunch, the cabins were ready so headed down to check ours out. We’d booked a Deluxe Balcony Cabin on Britannia deck – Cabin B219. We were really impressed as it was probably more spacious than the mini suite we’d had on Oceana earlier this year (and more storage space too!). There was a large sofa bed for Callum, a decent size balcony with two chairs and a little table. Storage-wise, there was a very large wardrobe, a large chest of drawers plus other cupboards/draws in the cabin too. It really does feel very spacious.

The others had all booked outside cabins and these had a lovely big picture window and were really light. We had a bit of time on our hands before muster drill so took Callum down to Toy Box. It was just as we remembered it – very spacious and really light and airy. Callum also explored Jumping Jacks and loved the ball pit there. Mind you, Jon preferred the PS games and Aly & Nic, the colouring in!! Another couple and their daughter were also in Jumping Jacks – strange co-incidence that their daughter had come down with chicken pox on their last cruise on Ocean Village which confined her to cabin for 4 days – they were only on board for 1 week though!

Next stop was muster drill to learn what we need to do if anything goes wrong – our muster station was in The Playhouse (the cinema) and it was impressive – we never used this facility on the last cruise, but hopefully will on our next.   Our lifejackets duly fitted and straight after Muster drill, it was time for sail away and the obligatory glass of bubbly was quaffed as we sailed down the Solent towards the Isle of Wight.

From here, it was kids briefing. Callum got another little rucksack to add to his collection and won a magnetic noughts and crosses game in the raffle.  Then it was time for kids tea – Callum must have been hungry as he ate loads – fish finger, sausage, Yorkshire pud, carrots, peas, spaghetti hoops, a small handful of chips and a boiled potato. This was followed by a cake and a biscuit and a couple of spoonfuls of jelly.

Callum finally got to play in Toy Box at 6.15pm which left us just enough time to get showered, changed and meet up with the others in Raffles for a pre-dinner drink.

We were dining in The Medina Restaurant, table 76 which was next to a window (not that we could see an awful lot at by 8.30pm it was well and truly dark). The first meal was lovely. I had Carpaccio of Duck with an apple and walnut salad whilst all the others had risotto. It was a tough choice to make between mushroom soup or beef consommé, I choose the former, Jon the latter. For mains, Jon tried the Poachers Pie (partridge & venison) whilst I opted for salmon. The white choc and raspberry soufflé was far too tempting for Ray and I to resist whilst Jon and Nic opted for cheese & biscuits.

We had to pick Callum up from Toy Box at 10.30 and only just made it as dinner was overrunning and transferred him into the Night Nursery. This meant we got to see the Headliners perform their Queen Tribute act – “We are the Champions”. We were pleasantly surprised by the performance – especially from the Peter Andre look-a-like. We collected Callum from night nursery at 0.45am … although we also lost an hours sleep as the clocks were moved forward.

First stop Zeebrugge and the delights of Brugge await.

Pot Kiln Game and Cookery School

For my 40th, my parents, David and Nicky treated me to a class at the Pot Kiln Cookery School.  I chose to do the Essential Fish class – fish is one thing I can never cook properly – always overcook and I make a real hash of things when I’ve tried filletting before (more left on the bones than there is left to eat!!)

I went with the aim to learn how to fillet and cook fish … certainly have now got the hang of filleting … cooking, well hopefully I’ve got a bit more confidence now so fingers crossed.  Just need to keep practising the filleting else it will have been a waste!

An added bonus … I learnt how to make mayonnaise and can’t believe how easy it was to do!  One lot we turned into Tartare Sauce (tastes and looks so very different to the kind you buy in jars) and the other into Aoili (garlic mayo – and we had to chop and crush the garlic into a paste just armed with a knife!)

First thing we did was to fillet plaice and turn them into goujons, to be served with the Tartare Sauce.  Then we filleted Mackerel, add an Asian inspired paste, and served it with a zingy tomato and onion salad.  Then in was trout served with the Aoili.  Finally, a fantastic batch of Moules Mariniere.  The only trouble was you ate what you cooked, so by the time we’d polished off the trout, we were stuffed and could only manage a couple of mussels each.

A great day was had by all and the company was fab too.