{"id":139,"date":"2014-01-04T22:20:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-04T22:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/?p=139"},"modified":"2014-11-24T17:31:08","modified_gmt":"2014-11-24T17:31:08","slug":"saturday-le-havre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/saturday-le-havre\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday &#8211; Le Havre"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"itemHeader\">\n<p>Today, we landed in Le Havre, France. It was bloomin&#8217; cold out, with a bit of a keen wind blowing, but the 20-minute walk into town was, thankfully, reduced to a short shuttle bus drive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"itemContent\">\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">We didn&#8217;t find anything particularly remarkable about the place, but did endeavour to hunt down the highlights listed in the daily blurb, and places to visit courtesy of the Travel Advisor website.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">Our first stop, on foot, was what appeared to be the tallest building in Le Havre; looking distinctly like a very tall lighthouse, it was in fact a modern church. The windows set into the tall tower also gave it the vaguest impression of a tall office block, but it wasn&#8217;t until we stepped inside the place that it really came into its own. It was a church, of course, with seats surrounding a central, modern-looking altar area, but above it, the tall tower stretched away upwards; an empty space for sure, but with coloured glass in each of those windows, giving the whole thing a strangely futuristic, retro sci-fi look. It was absolutely marvellous!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">Our next stop was the Museum of Modern Art (or, MuMa). It&#8217;s normally 5 euros each to get in, but we were delighted to discover that it&#8217;s free on the first Saturday of every month&#8230; woo hoooo!!!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">MuMa is a modern, purpose-built gallery, housing a broad collection of, mostly, impressionist paintings; Gaugin, Monet, Pisarro featured strongly, but the largest part of the gallery appeared to be dedicated to the work of Baudin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">There were a couple of Renoirs there, and even a single offering from John Constable&#8230; an enjoyable cultural meander if ever there was one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">I have to say at this juncture that I haven&#8217;t been feeling well all day. I&#8217;ve been dogged by this gripy stomach &#8211; not sick, but more akin to trapped wind &#8211; since waking up this morning. By the time we were half-way round the gallery, I was starting to feel particularly rough, and all I could think of was being back on board ship and curled up on the bed&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">The Notre Dame Cathedral (not THAT Notre Dame Cathedral) was our last stop before arriving back at the bus stop, waiting for the shuttle bus to return. The cathedral wasn&#8217;t open, it was cold, and it was raining&#8230; I think it&#8217;s safe to say that, by that point, I&#8217;d had enough.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">Back at the ship, I did indeed spend the afternoon curled up and moaning on the bed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">It&#8217;s the last night for these passengers aboard the Marco Polo. Franky, the Cruise Director made an excellent speech at the end of the evening show, acknowledging the difficult times we&#8217;ve all suffered over the last couple of weeks, but finished on a very poignant high note&#8230; nice one Franky!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">Tomorrow, we arrive back in Tilbury, and I lose my partner in crime, temporarily at least. Sadly, Tracey has to return to work for a week, but all things well, plans to be re-joining the ship in Madeira (&#8230;or will she?&#8230; watch this space&#8230;).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\">Sunday is turnaround day; the Canary Islands Cruise Passengers depart and the Amazon Cruise Passengers embark, thus beginning a whole new adventure&#8230;.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, we landed in Le Havre, France. It was bloomin&#8217; cold out, with a bit of a keen wind blowing, but the 20-minute walk into town was, thankfully, reduced to a short shuttle bus drive. \u00a0 We didn&#8217;t find anything particularly remarkable about the place, but did endeavour to hunt down the highlights listed in the daily blurb, and places&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}