Silversea Western European Cruise 2025

 Because my flight back to Vancouver wasn't until 5pm, I booked a Silversea combination tour and transfer. Once we disembarked the ship and collected our luggage, we boarded the bus for the approximately 30 drive to Winchester. We had an excellent guide, giving us the history of both Southampton and Winchester which was originally the English capital. Then we had a walking tour around Winchester seeing many of the famous building like Winchester Cathedral and College. The river Itchen runs through the town, and there is a lovely walkway along it, and very grand houses. The town has so many beautiful old buildings and so much history. I hadn't realized that Jane Austen had lived here near the end of her life and died here. I'd like to come back and spend more time here! From there it was about a one hour drive through the lovely Hampshire countryside to Heathrow. I was still quite early for my flight, but I had a pleasant surprise when I checked in. I had been upgraded to Bu...

  The weather certainly changed once we left Bordeaux and headed north. The wind picked up and the first morning it rained quite hard. Colleen and I took another cooking class, this one on Crepes and Galettes. Lots of fun and delicious! We weren't too hungry after that, so just had coffee and then went to a English History lecture. The speaker is excellent  , entertaining but giving a lot of great information. I then I headed back to the room to do some work. About that time the Captain made an announcement that due to weather we would not be going to St Malo the next day. I wasn't surprised, as I had been seeing weather warnings for that area. A disappointment of course, but the Captain certainly made the right decision. He was able to steer a comfortable course at a comfortable speed. There were some that felt the effects of the motion, but the majority of the passengers seemed to be fine. Although the skies cleared, the wind and the seas kept building. So we did experience ...

  This morning I did my first paid Shore Excursion with Silversea, to St Emilion. It was an earlier start, 8:15am, but we were rewarded with the most beautiful sunrise. It was about an hour drive through the different wine areas between the Garond and Dordogne Rivers, and the right bank of the Dordogne. The winery we visited was on the outskirts of St Emilion, Chateau Fleur de Lisse. They are organic and use biodynamic cultivation. This seems to becoming more prevalent in France, as it's more eco friendly. The harvest finished a few weeks ago, but the vines are beautiful with the leaves changing color. We had a tour round, and tasted 2 reds. I find the Bordeaux reds a bit too tannic, so I bought a white recommend by our guide at the winery after describing what I like (dry but with some fruit) 32 Euro, so about 55 CAD After our winery tour we drove into the very charming village of St Emilion. The village has 200 permanent citizens, and 1 million visitors a year. There are beautifu...

 Our included tour of Bordeaux and the Wine Museum started at 9:15am, so we had time for omelettes in the buffet before heading ashore. Another beautiful day, but chilly in the morning, about 10C. The first part of the tour was a bus tour of Bordeaux. We had a great guide, originally from England, but living in Bordeaux for a long time. This area was part of England for about 300 years, so it's a very popular place for Brits to come and live in. Not that long ago Bordeaux was not a popular city. But about 30 years ago the Mayor decided to improve the city. The old warehouses along the river that were empty were knocked down, parks and promenades were built along the river. Tram lines put in to improve transportation, and the beautiful limestone buildings cleaned. Now it's a very dynamic city with many young people and a thriving economy. And a very desirable place to live. Apparently there are a lot of "Bo-bos" which is a combination of Bourgeoise and Bohemian. It...

  We were able to have a relaxed morning, as we're not getting into Bordeaux until late afternoon. It's another sunny day, cool on deck but warming up as the day progresses. Breakfast at the Buffet, then coffee in the Arts Cafe. I then went to a fantastic lecture on the French Revolution, going through the background, the main people and the time-line. At noon we're approaching the French Coast, and entering the Gironde Estuary.  So now it's like we're on a River Cruise. The mouth of the estuary is quite wide, and there are sandy beaches on the Atlantic coast. There is an NCL cruise ship ahead of us, and various small craft around. It's breezy on deck, but very pleasant walking around as long as you have on a windbreaker. The NCL ship docked at La Rochelle near the mouth of the estuary. The large cruise ships have to dock there as they're too big to get into Bordeaux. The advantage of being on a smaller ship, no 2 hour drive into Bordeaux! I went to the gym ...

 We arrived at Getxo, the port for Bilbao about 8am. It's a wealthy suburb with stately homes, and there is a beautiful beach.  Because out included tour wasn't until afternoon, Colleen and I decided to take the shuttle into town and go to the Guggenheim Museum. It was about a 30 minute drive, then a 15 minute walk along the river. Another beautiful day, not too hot in the morning, and not too many people around. The Guggenheim is certainly an interesting museum. I'm not really sure how to describe it, thought provoking for sure! Lots of different spaces on 3 floors, and using many different types of medium. One example is the Infinity mirror room with mirrors and lights. You'll just have to experience for yourself.  We walked back to take the shuttle, and then learned that Bilbao was experiencing a national strike and demonstrations for Palestine. Because of the traffic jams with the demonstrations' one shuttle was cancelled and another was late. We ended up gettin...