We are travelling on Silver Seas ship the Silver Moon which was only launched in 2020 taking 14 days to visit
In France: Honfleur, St Marlo, St Nazaire, La Rochelle, Bordeaux (two days)
In Spain: Bilbao, Vigo
In Portugal: Porto and finally Lisbon where we disembark and fly back home.
We had previously travelled on the Silver Wind some years ago which is a smaller ship, this one was a couple of decks bigger. I am sure it was more than 100m to get from our cabin to the end where we could get coffee and a substantial snack.
The great thing was that everything was included, alcoholic drinks, wifi and a laundry near us although the ship would do laundry for a fee.
Two largeish dining rooms which you could eat without reserving a seat and three others which were smaller and one needed to reserve in advance.
There are two specialty restaurants one Japanese and one French which were US$40pp and US$60pp respectively and you had to reserve since they could only hold about 30 people.
Reservations could be done via Reception on Level 4 or in your cabin via the TV, This was very versatile in that it also had the daily Newsletter and also any on-shore activities you might have booked plus a good collection of movies not to mention the forward and backward camera views. One slight design flaw was that you couldn't cancel a restaurant booking using the system you had to go to Reception.
The great thing was that everything was included, alcoholic drinks, wifi and a laundry near us although the ship would do laundry for a fee.
Two largeish dining rooms which you could eat without reserving a seat and three others which were smaller and one needed to reserve in advance.
There are two specialty restaurants one Japanese and one French which were US$40pp and US$60pp respectively and you had to reserve since they could only hold about 30 people.
Reservations could be done via Reception on Level 4 or in your cabin via the TV, This was very versatile in that it also had the daily Newsletter and also any on-shore activities you might have booked plus a good collection of movies not to mention the forward and backward camera views. One slight design flaw was that you couldn't cancel a restaurant booking using the system you had to go to Reception.
Our first port of call was Honfleur next day, we took a shuttle bus into the town centre for the morning. Very hot ( for France) did a little walking and had the best croissant I have had for a long time.
Typical bus excursions (free) on offer were:
D-Day Normandy exploration
Deauville and Honfleur
Normandy Landings
Honfleur Walking tour
Silverseas organised such occasions, usually 1/2 a day, at each port.
D-Day Normandy exploration
Deauville and Honfleur
Normandy Landings
Honfleur Walking tour
Silverseas organised such occasions, usually 1/2 a day, at each port.
Dinner was in the SALT dining room which lived up to the title Sea And Land Taste ie had food from the local area. I started with an incredible ? French onion soup called "Ode to an Onion"
Next day was St Marlo, we were anchored in the harbour and went ashore by tender. I decided to stay on the ship but Leith had prebooked a shore excursion which was a walk around Cape Frehel not particularly strenuous despite that was called 'Hiking Cape Frehel'. Some nice cliff views.
Had dinner at the Silver Note restaurant which had a live singer unfortunately over amplified. The menu was different in that food was in categories like Raw and Cooked.
Each restaurant had a different theme.
Our first day 'at sea' calm weather about 20C outside.
The ship all the usual activities to keep us occupied including shuffleboard at 10:30am, we did a pod of dolphins which caused much excitement.
We had two guest lecturers on board and so had our first 'Enrichment Lecture' by Sir Michael Burton who was a retired English diplomat. He gave a very interesting talk on 'Highlights of a Diplomats Service 1960-97' About the Suez crisis amongst other things. A good speaker as you would expect.
Next port was St Nazaire sunny but cool.
We went ashore on the shuttle which dropped us at the Nazi submarine base which we explored but unfortunately it was a fair walk to the township so we caught the next shuttle back. However we found out that the port built a number of cruise ships ranging from 'France' to 'Queen Mary 2'
Dinner was at Le Grill restaurant. This turned out to be a hot rock place ie your food came raw and you put on the rock which was brought to you very hot. We first came across this in Lightning Ridge (NSW) but I haven't seen one in Sydney yet.
Just down the coast was La Rochelle where we spent about 9 hours. We went on the afternoon excursion to the Isle de Re. This turned out to a bit like Rottnest. It is connected by a bridge and is a favorite holiday place for the locals. We walked along a sea wall and then through a village back to the bus. A very pretty place, full of yachts and lots of tourists
Next was two full days in Bordeaux. The ship moored right in the city centre (like our Overseas Terminal Circular Quay) which was very handy. We had booked on the 'Refined Lalique & Sauterne Wine' tour which had an early start 9:30am, so we set the alarm.
We drove through the town to the Chateau Lafaurie-Peyraguey which took about 45 mins. There we had a tour of the barrel room where we saw a glass barrel (made by the Laligue group) then into the Tasting room where there was more Lalique glass. We tasted three sauternes which were quite different to what I am used to, not so sweet. I must see what Dan Murphy's have in stock. We drank out of the most delicate Lalique glass.
Apparently the owner of Lalique owns or has an interest in this wine yard.
On our second day Leith & I spent the morning riding the B line of Bordeaux's trams, very easy to buy tickets (via credit card) We could hop on/off over a one hour period. We went to the end of the line and back through the University section so the tram was packed for most of the time. On our return we stopped off at Cathedral of St Andrew and just as we got the doors closed. It was 12noon and they were closing for lunch (come back at 2:30pm). Typically French not to mention Spanish. Leith went back to the Cathedral in the afternoon.
That evening we took the onshore bus tour 'Bordeaux by Night', this was a double decker, we had the earphones and a very good guide who explained the sights, including the Pont de Pierre which was designed under the orders of Napoleon I. All the street cafes were packed as it was lovely warm night.
We got back to the boat about 10:00pm, the only restaurant open was the Grill, I had an excellent vegetarian meal not cooked on the hot rock.
That evening we took the onshore bus tour 'Bordeaux by Night', this was a double decker, we had the earphones and a very good guide who explained the sights, including the Pont de Pierre which was designed under the orders of Napoleon I. All the street cafes were packed as it was lovely warm night.
We got back to the boat about 10:00pm, the only restaurant open was the Grill, I had an excellent vegetarian meal not cooked on the hot rock.
Next day was 'At Sea'. It did take us about four hours to sail back to the ocean since Bordeaux is a fair way inland, Bordeaux is on the River Garonne which from time to time has a tidal bore when the locals can surf up to ten minutes along the river. Bordeaux itself gets 5 metre tides.
The morning's entertainment was to see the pilot being taken off the ship by helicopter about 4 hours after we left, beats jumping into the pilot boat.
As it was a our wedding anniversary we took Owen & Takako to dinner at the Kaseki Japanese restaurant. very good it was too
Next was the day at Bilbao, most people went to the Guggenheim Museum however as we had been there we went on bus tour (Scenic Basque) along the east coast through the town of Guernica, the guide told us that the town would like the famous Picasso painting set in Guernica, to hang there rather than in Madrid. Pretty drive along the coastline. Further up the coast we stopped at the interpretative centre of the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve which had reasonable coffee and loo facilities.
Back to the ship for late lunch, Leith tried to go into town on the shuttle but sudden burst of rain caused her to return early. There is a 'hanging' bridge (Vizcaya) in Bilbao opened in 1893 has a gondola which can carry cars across the river. It is still in working order. There was a model of it at the terminal.
Another day at sea as we came around the bottom of the Bay of Biscay to come in. Only a slight sway!
I watched the film 'Chocolate' starring Juliette Binoche and Judi Dench. A bit of light hearted fun while it was set in France and filmed in English it was not popular in France.
Afternoon was the final lecture by Sir Michael Burton on 'British Monarchy" He has hopes that the younger generation will prove popular.
The Veniation Society (those who had travelled more than once on Silverseas) had a reception and one of our party received certificate commemorating the fact that they had spent 100 nights with Silverseas. This entitled them to free laundry!
I watched the film 'Chocolate' starring Juliette Binoche and Judi Dench. A bit of light hearted fun while it was set in France and filmed in English it was not popular in France.
Afternoon was the final lecture by Sir Michael Burton on 'British Monarchy" He has hopes that the younger generation will prove popular.
The Veniation Society (those who had travelled more than once on Silverseas) had a reception and one of our party received certificate commemorating the fact that they had spent 100 nights with Silverseas. This entitled them to free laundry!
A day in Vigo which is a big industrial city. We took the afternoon bus tour to Baiona which is an old town on the coast south of Vigo, another interesting town. It was the first town in Europe to hear about America, one can inspect a replica of La Pinta which was one Columbus's ships
Our last two days were in Porto which of course is in Portugal. Its corrects name is Porto not Oporto apparently the O is Spanish for 'the'.
A big industrial town, I spent the morning watching a container ship being unloaded, the operator would pick one out of ship and load it onto a waiting truck and then back again in around 90 seconds. These were 40' containers which can carry up 28 tonnes, occupied a couple of hours. Leith went into the town on the shuttle and amongst other things saw the famous Porto railway station.
In the afternoon we took the tour to one of the oldest wineries in the area for a port tasting.
Real Companhia Velha, A impressive number of barrels.
We were offered three, one of which I liked, and then onto a 45 minute river cruise on the Douro river under the famous three bridges.
There was a bit of delay getting on the river boat and then we had delay getting back on the bus to take us back to our ship. Lovely dinner with some St James Rail travelers who had extending their trip Iceland.
Next day Leith went back into town however I stayed on the ship she had to be back early afternoon since we left at 1400hrs.
One of the things about cruising is that one has to put ones luggage out the night before in our case 2300hrs the night before disembarkation. That meant toilet bag and pyjamas had to be in the hand luggage. We made it.
One of the things about cruising is that one has to put ones luggage out the night before in our case 2300hrs the night before disembarkation. That meant toilet bag and pyjamas had to be in the hand luggage. We made it.
At breakfast we saw the Cunard Queen Victoria go slowing past us and then go sideways to moor directly behind us. Quite a sight since she is a good deal bigger than us.
We disembarked at about 0800hrs picked up our luggage from the terminal and waited to join Owen's car which took us to a hotel to wait several hours before our Emirates car would take us to the airport for our 1415hrs flight back to Sydney (via Dubai).
Flight to Dubai was uneventful which was on a B777. I managed to see the movie Blackberry which told the the story of that little handheld device very popular in the 00's, I enjoyed it since I know about the technology.
A bit of a panic at Dubai since we were late arriving and only had 40 minutes to get to Dubai/Sydney flight. Luckily it was in the same terminal however I needn't of worried as we ended up having 10 minutes in the lounge before going to the plane.
Arrived into Sydney just after 10:00pm to find the terminal very deserted (I think we were the last plane for the night). Got home about 11:15pm.
We disembarked at about 0800hrs picked up our luggage from the terminal and waited to join Owen's car which took us to a hotel to wait several hours before our Emirates car would take us to the airport for our 1415hrs flight back to Sydney (via Dubai).
Flight to Dubai was uneventful which was on a B777. I managed to see the movie Blackberry which told the the story of that little handheld device very popular in the 00's, I enjoyed it since I know about the technology.
A bit of a panic at Dubai since we were late arriving and only had 40 minutes to get to Dubai/Sydney flight. Luckily it was in the same terminal however I needn't of worried as we ended up having 10 minutes in the lounge before going to the plane.
Arrived into Sydney just after 10:00pm to find the terminal very deserted (I think we were the last plane for the night). Got home about 11:15pm.
This was our second SilverSeas cruise and we can certainly recommend them. Once you are on board most things are then free, including a choice of 3-4 excursions at each port-of-call.
We only had light breakfasts and lunches but we had an excellent choice of different foods at night. Crew and accommodation were great. Leith did not attend the wrinkle prevention talks or on our final day at - teeth whitening treatment.
We only had light breakfasts and lunches but we had an excellent choice of different foods at night. Crew and accommodation were great. Leith did not attend the wrinkle prevention talks or on our final day at - teeth whitening treatment.
Jeanne
2023-10-16
Excellent! Glad you had such good time.
Oliver & Carolyn
2023-10-16
No thnaks, David & Leith. We have finished our overseas trips. Too much like hard work and worry! Glad you can still enjoy them, though.
roger
2023-10-16
Brilliant travelogue and great to seeing you so thoroughly enjoying y0ur adventures. Bravo!
JUDITH
2023-10-17
Sounds like a great trip
Deborah Ringe
2023-10-17
Wonderful trip. Great to see you both getting so much enjoyment from your travels.
Kwan
2023-10-18
very enjoyable read David, your descriptions make me feel I was there! what a wonderful trip and places you went and saw! never been on a Silverseas cruise; however, it sounds really lovely. thanks again!
Guy
2023-10-20
Very interesting
Louise
2023-10-31
Your travelogues are always entertaining, David. Where next, I wonder?