Around the World. Week 23 Wrap Up

Does everyone else feel like time is warping at a faster and faster speed or is that only for those of us on this ship?! We’re almost back to North America! But for now, I’ll tell you about the week as we passed through Europe.

Schedule

• Day 155 / June 10: Lisbon, Portugal

• Day 156 / June 11: At Sea

• Day 157 / June 12: At Sea

• Day 158 / June 13: La Havre, France

• Day 159 / June 14: Southampton, UK

• Day 160 / June 15: Falmouth, UK

• Day  161 / June 16: Dún Laughaire, Ireland

  
  

Day 155 / June 10: Lisbon, Portugal

Given that we’re still on the rerouted path and I didn’t do any research on Lisbon, I figured I’d take the Hop On Hop Off bus to get my bearings on the city before making any decisions on what I was going to do for the day. The only issue is, I never got off.

The first route took us all the way to Belém, the home of the original Pastel de Nata, which is a custard tart. As we drove by the bakery, I was able to see the line wrapping all the way down the block, forcing my decision to skip that stop. The next stop was a cathedral, which was also swarmed with tour guides leading their herds with the little flags on a stick. Again, not ready to be one of the masses, I stayed on. Eventually, that meant that I was back in downtown Lisbon.

Figuring I’d eventually see a restaurant to stop to eat at, I got on the next route, which was supposed to take me to the Modern Lisbon. From reviewing the map, there was a stop back by the Cruise Terminal, but after that, it went an hour or so out of town and the only way to return would be to take the full route out and back. As the driver navigated the tight turns and streets, I began to get a little nauseous, so when he arrived by the ship, I hopped off, never to return.

Given that it was mid-afternoon by this point, I was on a mission to eat. Someone had recommended the Bifana sandwich (steak on bread), grilled sardines, Pastel de Nata, and Super Bock beer. Upon finding a bunch of alleyway restaurants, I ran into another solo traveler, so we selected the place that said they had Bifana sandwiches. Well, I ended up ordering ALL of it. I also had to google how to eat grilled Sardines as they serve them whole. Basically, you have to chop of the head and tale, slice the belly open to expose the spine and guts, remove those and drizzle olive oil on the meaty stuff that you actually eat. I did pretty well at this, but there still were lots of bones to have to eat around. They definitely weren’t salty like I expected, but not going to be on my reorder list.

Following lunch, we headed towards the center of town again to explore as I had passed through very early that morning when not much was open. As we were walking about, I recognized someone! Now, many of you know that I have serious issues with recognizing faces out of context, so surprised is an understatement. He was one of our guest entertainers from much earlier on in the cruise - Patricio Roehrs. He was on the sister ship to the Vista that happened to also be in port that day.

Speaking of other guest entertainers, the Spanish Guitarist, who had just gotten off Vista a few days ago, was also in Lisbon today. Dimitris joined the Azermara ship that was also in port. We were able to grab a quick coffee before I had to get back on our own ship to head out to sea.

After a very long day, I still had reservations at Polo Grill. I forgot to reschedule all of my specialty reservations after the reroute, so many of them fell on port days. Since I got back to the ship just before the all-aboard time of 6:30pm and my reservation was at 6:30pm, I hurried to the restaurant to get a later dinner time. Thankfully, with the reduced capacity ship, they were able to give me an hour to go get showered and dressed for dinner. This also gave me a chance to watch was we passed by Portugal’s version of Christ the Redeemer statue that is situated right next to a clone of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Skipping the evening show, I went to bed.

Day 156 / June 11: At Sea

Glorious sea day! Yeah, I know we had lots of sea days, but Lisbon really was a very long day, so it was nice to take it easy in the morning. Since I went to sleep so early, I was up with the sun, so I caught up on different social media videos that I’d been behind on and got ahead on a few coming up - Segment 9 wrap up and sadly, the end of the cruise wrap up. Yes, I started on that now because I know it will be a bit of a project to figure out how to capture all the ports, entertainment, activities, people, etc. in one short video.

Thinking that I may be lucky today, I decided to go to BINGO. Turns out I was dreaming because I still have not won anything on this ship. No Bingo and no Country Fair swag.

As we are about to finish another segment, the Sing Out Loud Choir put on their recital for this leg. It will continue to amaze me how so many people can sing so well and join together to enjoy sharing their music with the rest of us. They practice every sea day in order to learn the songs to support this show. It’s fantastic to watch!

And finally, the evening entertainer for the evening was Isabel Commandeur, another Opera vocalist. This being her second show, she focused more on Opera than on musical theater and stunned everyone with her abilities to hit those extremely high notes and hold them. Again, my version would definitely sound like a dying goat or Canadian goose.

Day 157 / June 12: At Sea

One of the solo travelers who had been on since Miami invited me to breakfast in the Grand Dining Room. She continues to impress me with how outgoing she is to continue to invite such a diverse group of people to meals. I mean it. She’s always at eating with passengers, officers, staff, entertainers, and really anyone. It’s inspiring as I tend to wait for invitations instead of taking the initiative to set anything up ahead of time.

The rest of the day was spent trying to figure out my life after 2026. I’m still thinking about different places to travel to in early 2027, but as I worked through some options, I realized that I’m about maxed out on the allotted days in Europe after my trip this fall, so while I really wanted to celebrate New Year’s Eve twice in Finland this year, that will have to wait until next year. Additionally, I finally took the leap and submitted my resume to an agency that manages Cruise Ship Enrichment Speakers. Within a few hours, I had a response - they are not interested in my topic. Ugh… Two negatives in my life planning in one day.

Luckily, the pre-dinner show was a singing comedian to cheer me up. He incorporates funny lyrics into well known songs and then tells funny stories between those songs. It was a lot of laughs for the evening.

Then, again, taking advantage of the empty ship, I jumped in with a group to join them at Jacques for dinner. The special for the night was muscles, which basically melted in your mouth!

Day 158 / June 13: La Havre, France

Continuing my leaching on to people, I joined the same dinner group on their adventure to Honfleur in the morning. With that said, I originally was planning to go there from a recommendation from one of the dancers onboard. The initial intent was to share an Uber and go separate ways, but once we got there, they couldn’t get rid of me!

Thankfully, we got to the town before most of the shops opened, which also meant before all the people were out and about. We found this really old church in a courtyard that reminded us all of the town from Beauty and the Beast. Naturally, this meant that I needed to find the Bonjour song, play it extra loud, and dance in the square. That is, until some other people showed up and gave me funny looks…

We continued to wander, finding a pop-up market that showcased crafts and food. Given that I hadn’t had breakfast yet, I started with sour gummy candies followed by meat sticks.

Eventually we did get espresso and croissants, but it was basically lunch by then.

The other group had lunch reservations back in La Havre, so we jumped in another Uber to head back towards the ship. Once there, we separated ways. I went to an Arcade while they went to the restaurant. Seemed natural.

On my way back from the Arcade, I found a tap room where the Around the World hosts were posted by the bar, so I joined them for a round or three, catching up on the trip and getting some recommendations for when I’m back in Europe this fall.

Then, because I obviously must have been starving by this point (sarcasm…), I dressed for dinner once back onboard because we had planned Solo Polo, which really was eight (8) solo travelers got the same reservation time at Polo Grill. The evening was full of laughter as we shared stories and consumed some wine.

On my way out, there were two tables of passengers who I stopped to chat with. One was the same group I had spent most of the day with. Obviously, since we hadn’t seen each other for over three hours, I had to sit for another glass of wine.

As we were leaving, there were two of the Travel Agents in the elevator. This is a group I had been trying to chat with to find out more about their business, so when they invited me to join them at Martini’s, I agreed. Another hour or two later, we finally said goodnight, but I headed up to Horizons, finding some of the entertainment team. Another hour or so later, it was finally time to go to bed because it was already the next day.

Day 159 / June 14: Southampton, UK

Before I went to sleep, I remembered to set my alarm because even though I didn’t have any scheduled activities the following day, I needed to get up to go through the UK Immigration process at a certain time. What I failed to remember to do was set my clock back…

I woke up sometime in the middle of the night and reset my alarm because my sleep deprived brain didn’t think about Immigration and was selfishly thinking about another hour of rest. This lead to me springing awake when I heard the bing bong bells come across the PA. Looking at the clock on my phone, I saw that it was 8:15am and I needed to be downstairs at 8:30am. Rushing to get changed and heading out the door, I turned to see my room stewards give me a funny look as I was dashing towards the theater. It was in that moment that I recalled the time change and that I still had an hour to go before it was my turn to be processed through. Head down, I went back in my room and took a nap.

Once the Custom’s process was complete, I had some time before the other LeAnne and I were planning to meet up to walk to town, so I continued to work on some of the wrap up videos. Given that today was the end of Segment 9, I got that one down first and posted it. The next one is still the full cruise wrap up one that is in draft, but I think I have a pretty good outline for it now.

Today had one mission - Find a proper pub and eat a meat pie with a pint. Someone recommended The Red Lion as a starting point as it’s one of the oldest pubs in Southampton. Off we went! It really wasn’t that far from the port and we arrived just as they were opening for the day. The Steak and Ale pie was massive! Literally chunks of meat covered with a thick crust. Neither of us finished the plate, but we did finish the pint!

As we were headed towards the center of town to walk off lunch, we passed by some other passengers who had found the German Restaurant. Looking at the menu, I saw they had soft pretzels! These are my absolute most favorite snacks, so we planned to return after some wandering. Across the street, a Potions and Puzzle bar that was decorated as witches and magic cauldrons. It piqued my curiosity, so that was added to the list as we realized the beginnings of a pub crawl were forming.

We made it as far as the main shopping area before we realized that neither of us really needed to buy anything at this point and turned back towards the Potions and Puzzle bar. After being seated, the menu explained that they sell puzzle boxes that you can do at your table as you imbibe on very creative cocktails or mocktails. Escape rooms were also available in the back of the bar for those who wanted to test their skills. Since we didn’t quite have a whole lot of time left before all-aboard and because the other LeAnne is not much of a puzzler, we decided that I should just add a flag to my Google Maps list to come back when I had more time and maybe different company since I’ll be passing through Southampton a few times this fall.

From there, it was time for soft pretzels and another pint! This time, German beer.

Finally, we stopped at the Dancing Man Brewery because it had been highly recommended by one of the port workers who gave us some directions earlier that day.

Getting back on the ship, I napped and then went to the evening show which was the Production Singers own creation called Stage Door Dreams, featuring songs from Broadway musicals.

Day 160 / June 15: Falmouth, UK

Many of you may already know this, but I did not until a few weeks ago. There are two places in the world that house monasteries on top of islands that get cut off from the mainland when the tides come in. One is off the coast of Normandy in France and the other is off the coast of Cornwall in the UK. Before embarking on the ship, I thought there was only one and that I was going to it when the ship docked in Falmouth, UK. Turns out, the “main” one is actually the one off the coast of France and I wasn’t planning to go there.

The main difference is the size with the French one being much bigger. It not only still houses an active monastery, but also has space for a full village at the base of the island. The UK one is now partially a private family home and partially a castle museum. The French one processes millions of visitors a year and the English one only hundreds of thousands. In the end, I’m convinced I went to the right one for me. I’m not much for packed places and halted tours, so the 15 minutes it took for me to push through the castle portion was enough. I more enjoyed taking photos from the exterior and around the island.

Just to give you a basic understanding of the visit, we were able to walk across the cobblestone causeway both to and from the island, but they do have boats ready for when the tides come in and visitors need to be ferried across to the mainland. Once on the island, you have one of two tokens; to the gardens or to the castle. Ours took us to the castle, so we had a bit of a climb ahead, both on uneven stairs and up cobblestone ramps. Shockingly not only did I stay standing the whole time, but I did not see anyone else fall as it was extremely uneven on the way up. At the top, the tour through the castle was a one way path. We got to see various rooms with the most impressive being the main dining room and the chapel. Once outside agin, we were free to tumble all the way back down. Kidding, most of us took very small steps as we descended to prevent us from becoming a bowling ball, potentially taking out others if we were to start rolling down the path.

Once at the bottom, I followed the guide’s advice and tried an authentic Cornish Pasty, which is a pie crust filled with steak, potatoes, and carrots. She explained that this was the meal for miners who had such dirty hands that they grasped the pie around the braided edges, at the main part and threw the crust away. That was sad to hear because the crust is often times the best part!

Now for the part which started a new reputation of me with this new group of passengers. The guide had also mentioned that if we finished the tour early, we should know there was a proper English pub on the mainland side that we could check out. Once my pasty was finished, a few passengers and I headed back across the causeway in search of a pint. Here, I was able to introduce Cask beer to a few folks who had never heard of it before. Basically, it’s not as carbonated as typical keg beers, but you have to pump it out from the keg instead of just pulling a tap.

Knowing that we had to get back to the buses by 1pm, we finished up and hurried to get back to the parking lot, arriving around 12:55pm. Technically, still on time! However, I was the last one back to my bus as the others I was with were on another bus. The guide had apparently mentioned to my other bus riders that I may be later as she saw me heading to the pub… As I got on the bus, they all knew where I had been. Oh well, technically, I was on time!

Getting back on the ship, I wasn’t quite hungry for dinner, so I headed to Horizons to read for a bit. There I met up with Jacquline, who hosts dance classes on the ship. Then off to the evening entertainment, Jonathan Johnston, who is an Irish flutist, or flautist, depending on where you are from.

Day  161 / June 16: Dún Laughaire, Ireland

I fell out of bed this morning. Yeah, I wish I was joking too. Luckily, bed to floor is only a few feet, but I landed right on my injured knee. Somewhere in my dreams I was quickly pivoting around to talk to someone and apparently, in real life, that resulted in a quick roll off over the side of the bed. I cannot make this stuff up... Anyway, it's the last day of Week 23… and it’s a tendering port. For this location, I had already been warned that it was a long tendering destination (up to 40 minutes each way) and about another 45 minutes via train to Dublin. As such, I was not quite sure how far I was really going to venture as I had been to Dublin before and hit many of the sights at the time. Reinjuring my knee with impacting the floor did not help encourage my wandering spirit either.

In the morning, I was rudely awaken by the bing bong bells in my cabin that announced because of the dense fog surrounding the ship, tendering operations were delayed until visibility improved. With that, I reset my alarm and went back to sleep, deciding it would be a very nice day to stay on the ship and have the place mostly to myself.

Eventually, I did get up to get moving, which included laundry and getting my hair cut. Did you know that there is a full salon onboard where you can get cuts, colors, styles, and all the things in between? Well, I just got it cut since it had been almost 6 months since my last appointment. Not expecting anyone to be able to tell since it’s still just long and straight, but about an inch shorter.

The next few hours, I worked on my application to become an Enrichment Speaker. There is still a bit more to go since I’m brand new and need to create a few versions of my bio, come up with a demo presentation, figure out how to take a professional looking photo, and a few other things to pull together. It took most of the afternoon, so by the time I was ready for a break, it was time to get ready for the evening.

First up was the Captain’s Welcome Party. I can’t believe it’s our tenth and final party on this voyage! There’s going to be lots of “lasts” this leg which is very sad. I’ve said before that goodbyes typically start a day or two before the end of the segment, but this time around, it feels like the goodbyes will last the entire leg. I’m definitely not complaining as it has been an amazing adventure, but a bit depressing to realize that it’s coming to an end so soon!

To finish the week, I went to the evening entertainment, which is a group of Irish folk singers called the Trawlermen. Not only did they sing traditional Irish songs, but they added in quite a few Sea Shanties as well. This may have been one of the best shows I personally enjoyed this entire cruise because I actually have quite a few of the songs they sang in my typical iMusic library. They have a second show coming up and they said the songs would be from the past 50 years! I’m very excited to be able to see them again AND they told me I can record their next show… (but don’t tell anyone since officially Currents tells us not to.)

And just like that, we’re off to Week 24. Only 3 more weeks to go….

#2026aroundtheworldcruise