Papeete – February 9, 2013

The Ocean Princess is in port today.Maxine is planning on doing nothing, just sit and recover and read.  I have a scuba trip booked since this is my only time to dive in Papeete. People have  said that the diving isn’t the best, but diving is diving.  I was told to wait at the Tahiti Information Center which is right down the wharf from where the ship is docked,  I was looking for a car or a van to pick me up and was getting a bit concerned when they were 10 minutes late.  I happened to look out into the harbor and there was the scuba boat.  They do pick ups right from the wharf to the boat.  It was only about a 10 minute ride from the harbor to the dive site.  The divemaster provided a nice safety and dive briefing, checked over the gear and we were into the water.  Our first dive was a drift dive on a site they called White Canyon.  The current was pretty fast and it was fun riding along looking at the fish.  One thing they are still doing is baiting the sharks.  They had dropped a basket full of fish heads before they dropped us up current.  By the time we got back, the area was swarming with fish and lots of sharks.  We found rocks to hide behind and hold on to and watched the fun.  We had blacktip reef sharks, gray sharks and lemon sharks as well as lots of tropical fish.  There was hardly any invertebrate life, but the fish were fine.  After the drift, the surface interval was at the dive shop where they changed tanks and divers.  Only two of us were doing both dives.  The second dive was close to the shop in an area they called the lagoon.  There were several students on board who were doing their basic certifications and the place was perfect.  To make it more interesting for experienced divers, they have sunk several boats and an airplane as reef bases.  It is working.  There were lots of interesting fish and this time there were also lots of inverts. The return to the ship was also by boat.  At 5pm, the ship left for our first leg, after of course, the mandatory muster drill.  They are sure paying a lot more attention to this drills since the Costa Concordia incident.  Weather has been perfect and seas are very calm.  Even so, Maxine is reacting to the motion of the ship.  Hopefully that will pass. 

Huahine – February 10, 2013

We anchored in a lovely lagoon at about 8am.  Huahine is actually composed of two islands connected by a short bridge.   It is very mountainous, lush, green, and sparsely inhabited.  We had signed up for a tour that focusedon the anthropological and archeological history of these islands.  Huahine, it seems, was the home to many of the royal families in this area of French Polynesia and therefore has the ruins of many temples and buildings, some of which have been carefully restored. 

Our tour guide, Paul, greeted us at the pier and led us to a very unusual vehicle.  It has a truck cab which is attached to a bus-like trailer with backless padded benches running along the sides. We and our fellow passengers climbed aboard and Paul began to tell us about himself and his qualifications, which include advanced degrees in Polynesian history and anthropology.  He has worked with some of the better known experts in his field, and by living here is fulfilling his boyhood dream.  Paul is American by birth and also a citizen of both the US and France. 

As our bus took us around the island, we learned about the government and economy of this island today before we reached the ancient ruins.  Huahine has 7000 residents, it is a French protectorate and as such receives financial support from France which allows for a high standard of living.  Prices, however can be high for certain things-for example, a nice size watermelon costs $20!  People can and do raise their own food.  Medical care and education are also subsidized by France, so they are excellent.  Tourism is another important source of income, but recently has declined.  The land is family owned, so no one is truly poor.

After about a half hour, we arrived at the site of an ancient temple that has been restored.  We learned about the gods the people worshipped, the offerings they made to these gods, including human sacrifice, and how the first Europeans were thought to be gods when they arrived because they brought things with them that were unimaginable to the natives.  Metals were a huge surprise, because they did not exist here.  People used coral, shells and stones for tools, but no metal.  As Paul put it, when the people were invited onto Captain James Cook’s ship, and into his quarters, what they saw there must have seemed like a hallucination.

We spent quite some time in this area, learning more about the plants, animals and people, and especially about how the first contact with Europeans altered both cultures forever.  Paul also drew a map in the sand to show how the first humans settled in the Polynesian, Micronesian and Melanesian islands and discussed the origins of the different peoples who populate this very large but scattered part of the world.  He repeatedly emphasized that, since the time of Captain Cook and the extreme culture shock of first contact, we are more connected and interdependent than ever as we move into this era of globalization.

We got back on our bus, and went to visit a vanilla plantation,  where we saw the plants growing and learned how the beans are picked, dried and packaged.  After that, we stopped at a riverbank to see the blue eyed eels that live in the river. They are long  and graceful, and are almost like pets to the inhabitants who feed them but don’t eat them!  After that we drove back to the dock, and returned on the tender to the ship. Despite the heat and humidity, it was one of the most unusual and best tours we’ve ever experienced.

Friday and Saturday – May 4&5, 2012

One of the things on Maxine’s must do agenda for this trip was a visit to Lyme Regis.  She had read a novel that took place there and dealt with the finding and explanation of the extensive fossil beds in the coastal chalk cliffs.  Our original plan was to go there on Wednesday, but in looking at the driving directions on Google I found that the annual Fossil Fest was being held this weekend starting on Friday, so that made Friday our day to go. Of course, Sue came along as well.

Lyme Regis is a charming English seaside town built on a hillside with steep, narrow streets going down to the small harbor.  There is still a bit of fishing, but most of the economy is based on tourism with a focus on the fossils.  In fact, this part of the southern English coast is known as the Jurassic coast and many important fossils continue to be found here.

For Fossil Fest, the Natural History Museum and other similar organizations had set up a huge tent at the harbor.  Inside were many interactive displays about fossils, and lots of kids on field trips enjoying and learning from the hands-on activities.  There were also tables set up for vendors of fossils, many of which are very intriguing.  We bought a few local ones to add to our collection. We also picked up information about guided fossil walks, and Maxine wants to come back to Lyme Regis for a few days with the hope of finding a fossil or two.

While inside the tent, we saw a few people eating large roast pork sandwiches.  They told us that these yummy looking concoctions came from a shop just around the corner, called “The Whole Hog”. Since we were very hungry, we quickly found it by following our noses.  Inside the very small shop were two people behind a counter making the sandwiches. The man was cutting slices from a large hunk of roast pork, and the woman was cutting and buttering the giant square rolls used to contain the filling.  The man proceeded to pile on the meat, and the woman added homemade stuffing and homemade applesauce.  Gravy made from the drippings was ladled on top, the lid was put on, and the woman cut the sandwich in half before wrapping it in white paper. We bought some drinks, the only other thing they sell, and ate these delicacies on the spot!  Good thing we got there when we did, because shortly after being handed our sandwiches, they ran out of rolls and closed for the day.

We then walked around the town of Lyme Regis, did a little shopping at a great used book store, and found the museum which chronicles the history of the city and the fossils and fossil hunters that made it famous.  One of them is Mary Anning.  We walked up a hill to a small church where she is buried.  A poor, uneducated woman, she was an excellent fossil hunter. She found many important fossils in the 1830’s and 40’s.  Mary was ignored by the all-male Royal Geological Society, but eventually found some sponsors and is now honored for her discoveries in the Natural History Museum in London.  She couldn’t even get top billing on her grave, she is an “oh by the way” on her brother’s headstone. The Lyme Regis museum is located on the spot where Mary grew up.  For those interested in finding out more about the life of this amazing woman, her sponsors and her discoveries, read “Remarkable Creatures” by Tracy Chevalier.

We left Lyme Regis in the late afternoon, drove back to Emsworth, and stopped at a supermarket to get some items for dinner.  We had already bought some nice English lamb chops at Costco, which later became  the star of our delicious meal, accompanied by a starter of smoked mackerel, beautiful jacket potatoes, steamed broccoli, and strawberries (also from Costco-the same California strawberries we buy from them in San Jose!) with cream, piled on slices of pound cake.  Yum, yum!  Our friend Brian Smith joined us for dinner and it was great fun.

After dinner, we went upstairs to pack for our return trip to San Francisco.  We got up Saturday morning at 5:00 AM and left Sue’s house at 6;00 AM, headed for Heathrow airport.  Our uneventful but very long flights took us to New York and then to San Francisco, where we arrived at about 7:00 PM Pacific time. We went through passport control, got our bags, went through Customs and took the shuttle to our car.  We arrived home at about 8:30 PM, very tired and happy to be back. That translates into nearly 24 hours of travel!  All in all, it was quite a trip.

Thursday – May 3, 2012

In browsing through the National Trust guide book I came across a property called Scotney Castle.  It was a lovely looking picture with a round turret on a moat.  It caught my eye since I like the old castles that were built as true defensive structures, not the ones that were built as fancy houses to look like old castles.

Scotney is a compromise.  Yes, there is an old defensive castle built to protect against the French in the 100 Years War, but that castle had fallen into ruin in the 1400s.  In the 1830s a modern home (of that vintage) was built and the old castle became a feature in the garden.

We started out on a gray but not rainy morning to drive the two hours to Scotney.  Maxine did a great job of navigating until I took a wrong turn as we were getting quite close.  This led us down tiny lanes and was great fun and allowed us to remember our days out when we would travel down lanes that were barely wide enough for a small car, bordered by high hedges on both sides so you couldn’t see beyond the next wiggle in the road and then, of course, you would come head to head with a large truck.  One had to back to the nearest wide space and somehow allow the two vehicles to pass.

We managed to find our way back on to a main road.  In England you are never lost, just occasionally misplaced.  By this time it was approaching lunch and there were serious requests to find a toilet, so we turned in to the next village, hoping to find something.  What a great find.  The village of Mayfield was billed as an “historic village” and deserved the title.  We stopped at the Middle House, which is right in the middle of the village.  It is a hotel, restaurant and pub all in one, and yes, it had a toilet!

The building was probably 16th century and had been a coaching inn, so it was probably the middle of some longer journey.  Inside was a low ceilinged, half timbered pub with a very extensive menu. The food was all excellent.

After lunch, it was a very short ride to Scotney Castle.  It was built in 1837 in the most modern style while still attempting to look a bit like a castle.  The owner hired an architect to design the house, and then to also design all the furniture to go in it.  In those days you didn’t go to the furniture store, you had it all custom made to fit your house. 

After touring the  house we went into the gardens where the original Scotney Castle, at least the ruins, were located.  By the 1800s neither the 11th century castle nor the 14th century house that had been built over it were worth saving so the stones were used in the construction of the new house and the remains were taken down to the point where they formed a romantic center point for the new gardens.

After the castle, we took Sue on a cultural adventure to a place where she had never been before.  It is a place that is sacred to many Americans and is perhaps indicative of the American life style.  It has been migrated to the UK, modified slightly to meet local requirements but still retains it uniquely American feel.  I speak, of course, of a Costco.  Sue was quite amazed at the size of the building, the range of products and the size of the packaging.  We found that the multi-packs were about half the size of the ones here in California, 8 bars of soap rather than 16 and much smaller packs than the 36 rolls of toilet tissue we find here.

By the time we were back to Emsworth, we found we had visited all five counties in south-east England.  We had been to Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Surrey and Greater London.  

Wednesday – May 2, 2012

Happy Birthday, Maxine!!

After a week of running around and with Maxine slowly getting better, it was decided to have a quiet day at home at Sue’s.  Brian came over for lunch and we all just sat around and caught up on our lives for the afternoon.

In the evening, we went out to a celebratory dinner at a local restaurant.  Who would have expected to find a Michelin starred restaurant in a small village like Emsworth?  The lobby was decorated with various awards from several sources for both their food, wine and for the small hotel they run.

The food measured up to their awards and we all had a great time.

Tuesday – May 1, 2012

Tuesday was our day to return to England on Eurostar.  We had driven into Brussels enough times to have a pretty good idea how long it would take, and since May 1 is a holiday, we didn’t expect too much traffic so we decided on a leisurely morning.  We had a late wake up alarm, did some packing and a breakfast without rushing.  After breakfast, we finished packing, brought the bags down stairs and paid the bill.  We left the bags in the hotel lounge to do some final touring of Brugge.

The weather had warmed and cleared – of course, we were leaving.  Our prime objective was the Church of Our Lady where there is a Michelangelo sculpture of Mary and Child.  According to the history, it was commissioned for the church in Sienna, but purchased by the Count of Flanders before it made it to Sienna. We learned that the church is an interesting mix of church and state.  One side is open without charge to the public, supposedly so that the faithful can pray.  The other side is run by the Brugge City Museum and there is a charge for entry.  The only thing that separates the two sides is a simple rope hung from the pillars, but people seem very good about respecting the boundary.

It was worth the 3 Euro charge as there are some very interesting paintings and old sarcophaguses both in a side chapel and under the main altar floor.  It wasn’t clear where the remains that had previously occupied the chambers have gone, but the display was interesting.  Beautiful paintings on 12th century tombs.

There is so much art in the church, that in one chapel I noticed a sign for a Van Dyck but there was no painting.  When I inquired, the guide pointed to it rather carelessly leaning against a back wall.  I guess when you have so many masters, who cares about one.

After going back and picking up our bags we got the car out of the underground car park and drove to Brussels.  The trip was fast as expected and it only took a little while to find the correct train station.  Hertz was closed so we just dropped the car key in a slot in a door and found some sandwiches and got on the train.

The trip was smooth and quick.  Brussels to London in two hours is really amazing.  We knew that there wasn’t going to be a car rental office at St. Pancras and we had been told to take a cab to Euston Station and that Avis would pay the fare,  The cabbie didn’t know exactly where the office was and so dropped us at the station taxi rank.  It turned out that the Avis office was a couple of blocks away so I left the ladies at the station and got the car.  Once I had the car, to took almost 40 minutes to get back the two blocks between one way streets and avoiding the London Congestion Charging System.  The trip down to Emsworth wasn’t too bad, considering we were travelling in rush hour.

Monday – April 30, 2012

Today we decided to go out of Brugge and see some of the surrounding towns.  First stop was Zeebrugge, literally the sea of Brugge, since at one time Brugge had direct access to the ocean.  Today Zeebrugge is a beach resort and a small commercial harbor.  Even though to us it was quite cold and windy, I guess if you are Flemish and it isn’t raining, it’s a day for the beach.  It wasn’t very crowded, but there were plenty of people out.  We didn’t bother to stop or get out since for us it was too cold, and just continued on to Antwerp.  While on the way there, Maxine started to study the guide book and found several museums and historic buildings that sounded very interesting.  It was only by reading further that she discovered most to the really good ones were closed on Mondays.  Oh well. 

She did locate a small church that was reported to have been designed by Reubens and to contain several of his paintings.  It took a while to find it but once we were in the area, we stumbled on a perfect parking place.  A short walk got us to a lovely square with the trees just starting to bud and what must have been the neighborhood parish church.  Yes, it was open and inside there were lovely paintings and particularly a especially nice carved choir (or perhaps a confessional).  After asking the building guide to point out the Ruebens paintings, we found that they didn’t really have any, just several in that style.

From Antwerp, the next stop was Gent (or Ghent).  We didn’t do enough serious study in advance and expected Gent to be about the size of Brugge.  In reality it is about 20 times larger and is a major business center with high rise offices and major hotel chains (Brugge seems to have only small private hotels like where we stayed).  The center of the city has been pedestrianized with trams and large walking plazas.  There are three main churches in a row with shops and cafes all around.  It was lunch time and in going through the guide book Maxine came across a place called “Max” which featured waffles.  Since waffles had been on her agenda since we got to Belgium, this was a must.  Fortunately, they are located right by the churches and would have been easy to reach if they weren’t on the opposite side of a major construction area.  We managed to negotiate the poorly marked detour (on foot, car had been parking in another very fortunate spot, the parking fairy was clearly on our side today).  We arrived and went to place our order at about three minutes past two, to be told that the kitchen was closed and that no more savory was available, only pancakes and waffles.  That wasn’t an issue for either Sue or Maxine, but I passed on dessert without lunch first.

After lunch, Maxine decided to sit in the sun in the square while Sue and I went to the castle.  It is a genuine 8th century castle that was the home to the Dukes of Flanders while Flanders was French territory.  I’m sure the castle has been significantly restored, but the self guided tour is excellent.  In the early 1900s, when the main prison in town was closed, the ancient artifacts were given to the castle to be used a a basis for a museum.  Today, there is a nice display of old weapons and from the prison, tools of torture (if a torture exhibit can be called “nice”).

Since Flanders  was French, the guillotine made it was there not long after its implementation in Paris.  In fact, about 30 years after the French Revolution, the Flemish had their fight for independence from France and the guillotine was used in Gent.  The timbers  are reconstructed from original plans but the blade is the one actually used in that period.  In the castle crown room Sue got to experience the power of the Duke (Duchess?) by spending time in the throne.

As an aside, the chocolate in Belgium clearly lives up to it’s reputation!  It doesn’t seem to matter which shop, and there are hundreds, they are all good.

From Gent, a short ride back to Brugge for another nice dinner.  The restaurant suggestions from Laurence, our hotel owner have all been excellent and this time we went back to a restaurant just a few yards from the hotel that was the favorite of the women.  My favorite was different, but I was out voted two to one.