Transatlantic Cruise (Oct 22-Nov 4) - Euro Adventure 2023
- Stephanie
- Nov 4, 2023
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 15, 2024
Our friends had married over the summer, and booked a transatlantic cruise as their honeymoon. As part of our original, travel across Europe for three months (see Adventure One Overview: Three Months in Europe) we were supposed to be in Portugal when their ship docked for the day and we had plans to meet up with them. As our adventure evolved, and our locations changed, so did our plans. As noted, in the aforementioned blog post, I had already purchased a ticket home from Amsterdam the day after their ship was to dock in Lisbon. But as we discovered, joining a repositioning transatlantic cruise is actually less expensive than a direct flight home. So...
We began researching the stops we would make along the way. With the exception of Lisbon, all of the other ports were new to us:
Southampton, UK
Le Havre, France
La Coruna, Spain
Vigo, Spain
Lisbon, Portugal
Ponta Delgada, Portugal
New York, USA
SOUTHAMPTON, UK (Oct 22, 2023)
We met up with our Denver friends at Waterloo Station and rode the train together to the port city of Southampton. This would be the last train ride in Europe after three months of fantastic public transportation. It’s hard to believe these options don’t routinely exist in the “greatest country on earth!?” Walking the mile and a half from the station to the cruise port, I was grateful this would be the end of carrying my backpack for a while. We boarded our home for the next 13 days, the Norwegian Cruise Line “Getaway”; unpacked, explored the ship, watched the sail away (the official departure of a vessel from an anchorage usually to music and great fanfare), and settled into our room after dinner in one of the shipboard restaurants.
FRANCE: LE HAVRE, NORMANDY, BAYEUX, HONFLEUR (Oct 23, 2023)
Our first morning on board, we awoke docked in the French port of Le Havre, on the other side of the English Channel. Having seen and experienced multiple sights and tours related to World War II from the perspective of the many countries we visited, it was only fitting we joined a tour of the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial as offered through Overlord Tours. We found our van, bound for Normandy with 6 other passengers and our extremely knowledgeable, passionate, English-speaking, former-French-military-officer, and driver.
During our pre-dawn drive to the beaches, he shared how Normandy was historically important, even before the amphibious assault of WWII. During the Viking Age (793-1066 CE), Norsemen who came from the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden invaded the shores of western and eastern Europe. The “northern men” of Norwegian descendent, the Vikings, who settled and assimilated in Northern France, were known as Normans, thus Normandy. It was the king of Normandy, William the Conqueror, who in 1066 invaded England and established himself as the first King of England. Every monarch of England, and later the United Kingdom is directly descended from William.
OVERLORD TOUR
Operation Overlord was decided at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. It occurred June 6, 1944, on five beaches, Omaha and Utah (American), Gold and Sword (British) and Juno (Canadian), beginning at 6:30am during low tide, on what would forever be known as D-Day.
It was a cold, damp, often misty, gray day with stops starting at the American Cemetery overlooking the bluff of Omaha Beach. It was surreal to be present on such hallowed ground, beautiful, sad and somber, similar to visiting Pearl Harbor.
As noted on the American Battle Monuments Commission website: The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is located in Colleville-sur-Mer, on the site of the first American cemetery on European soil, St. Laurent Cemetery, established in June 1944 by the US First Army.
It covers 173 acres and contains ~9,400 military dead, most from the D-Day landings and subsequent operations. The Walls of the Missing include another ~1,600 names, believed to have been lost during the war, with rosettes marking the names of those since recovered and identified.
A semi-circular colonnade with galleries on either end depicting large maps and narratives of miliary operations, surround the center bronze statue, “Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves”. Beyond is a reflecting pool and a circular chapel.
The next stop was Omaha Beach, where we learned about the planned invasion and then heard about what really happened. It’s incredible that the Allied Forces succeeded given so many unpredictable variables. The beaches are a wide-open swath of sand, fronted by deep water drop-offs, rigged with mines and explosives. Those who reached land were met with German gunfire from the top of the cliffs. Loss of life was highest at Omaha. In the center of Omaha Beach (aka Bloody Omaha), sits the Omaha Beach Memorial and Les Braves Memorial Monument, consisting of three elements: ‘The Wings of Hope', 'Rise, Freedom!’ and 'The Wings of Fraternity'. As we were departing, our guide pointed out the section of Omaha Beach known as “Dog Green”, the basis for the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.
RURAL NORMANDY
Prior to returning to the ship, we stopped for lunch on our own in Bayeux, home of the Bayeux Tapestry, and a cute French town. The 224 feet by 20-inch cloth, is really an embroidery stitched into linen, showing 58 scenes leading up to and depicting the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror. It is the largest and most well-preserved work from the Middle Ages, likely produced by embroiderers working in Canterbury at the request of the Bishop of Bayeux.
Our last stop was Honfleur, another charming little town that sits at the mouth of the Seine River. Claude Monet visited frequently and painted the enchanting village. It is one of the most popular places to visit in France, the birthplace of Samuel de Champlain, who founded the Canadian city of Quebec and home to the wooden St. Catherine’s Church, constructed in the 15th century by shipbuilders.
SPAIN: LA CORUNA & VIGO (Oct 25-26, 2023)
Our first stop in Spain, was La Coruna, and while the harbor was lovely, it was a cold, gray, rainy day. We opted to remain on board and started a jigsaw puzzle, which was disassembled overnight.
The following cold, rainy day, we arrived in Vigo, a huge fishing port, with ancient Roman ruins and an authentic Galician old town. During a brief break in the clouds, we made record time exiting the ship and ascending to the top of the mountain (hill to those of us from CO) and the Vigo Fortress. We were greeted by sunshine, blue skies, and panoramic views, for about 75 minutes. When a large cloud moved directly overhead, we bolted for the ship, and while we did get caught in the rain, it was good to be on land for a few hours.
PORTUGAL: LISBON, OBIDOIS & PONTA DELGADO (Oct 27-29, 2023)
Since we’d just visited Lisbon in May 2023, we took this opportunity to see some of the sights we missed, namely the villages outside Libson. We took a day trip to Obidos, recognized by UNESCO as City of Literature with 14 bookstores, in a town of just over 3,000 inhabitants, in a municipality of about 12,000. It sits on a hilltop, about an hour north of Lisbon by car, slightly inland from the Atlantic Ocean.
The area has been inhabited since the late Stone Ages and archeological excavations found Roman remains of a forum and baths. The area was officially chartered in 1195 and given to Queen Urraca, wife of King Afonso II, in 1210. Since then, it has been patronized by the Queens of Portugal, informally earning the title the Town of Queens, which may explain the high concentration of churches.
Obidos is known as a picturesque and well-preserved medieval town with a castle inside its walls, small squares and colorful window boxes. Annually it hosts an International Chocolate Festival, a Medieval Market and Christmas Village. While the process to disembark the ship was chaotic, reminding us of why we usually avoid excursions, our tour guide, an aspiring commercial airline pilot was great. For Chris, this was an opportunity to return to a cute village his family visited on his 9th birthday, 53-years prior.
Following our return bus ride to Lisbon, we enjoyed nice views of the city as we sailed back to sea. The temperature was slightly warmer than previous days. The next day we spent at sea, traversing the 900 miles to our next port, and my paternal grandmother’s ancestral home, the Azores. While I’d visited my mother’s ancestral home in Budapest early in our adventure, the Azore Islands were my father’s ancestral home so I was thrilled to be visiting both in one trip. The seas were rough, but the sky was blue and sunny. We enjoyed reading, puzzling, food, drinks and on-board entertainment.
PONTA DELGADA
We docked at Ponta Delgado (the capital) on Sao Miguel (“the Green Island”), the largest and most populous island of the Azores archipelago. The island boasts volcanic scenery, robust marine life, including whales and twin crater lakes, one green and one blue, which we did not see this trip. We would love to return and explore the natural wonders of these islands.
We visited multiple churches and museums (free on Sunday), wandered the streets, walked through gardens and saw the Presidential Palace (required 2 Euros, an ID and strict direction on where we could walk). The Carlos Machado Museum occupies multiple sites in town, including the Convent of Santo Andre, which was converted to a museum. We enjoyed coffee and dessert in an authentic Portuguese bakery before returning to the ship.
FIVE DAYS AT SEA AND ARRIVING IN NEW YORK CITY (Oct 30-Nov 4, 2023)
What does one do when confined to a ship for five days in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in early November when the seas are often rough and the temperature is less than bathing suit weather? It’s fair to say there is a lot of eating and drinking, sunsets, clubbing, unique on-board activities like memorization presentations and a few all-star Broadway productions adapted for cruise ships (Burning Down the House, Million Dollar Quartet). There was also a high ropes course, not for the faint of heart, but with spectacular views and great pride upon completion! And then in the wee morning hours of Nov 4, we awakened to see the Statue of Liberty, took pictures and went back to bed, until it was time to disembark. We had reached the end of our initial retirement adventure!
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