England

5/7/2023 - Dover & Canterbury
The trip over from Le Havre isn’t too far, so we were pleased that the captain slowed the trip down and that we were able to see the stunning white cliffs of Dover in the early morning light. We found the white cliffs of Étretat to be just as stunning, but don’t know a song about them. Sailing into the port of Dover, we shared a last early morning port entry visit & chat with our next-door neighbors on our respective verandahs, as we gazed at the beautiful cliffs and the Dover Castle. Overlooking the Strait of Dover, the shortest sea crossing between England and Europe, Dover Castle’s present iteration was begun in 1180 by King Henry II. Because we had the morning free, we had our first and last breakfast in The Restaurant, the sit-down table service venue where we ate dinner most nights (but never breakfast & only lunch once), and then hopped on the shuttle bus and drove once around the loop – into Dover and up to the Castle and back to the ship. In the afternoon, we joined some fellow Vikings for one last excursion, this time to the town of Canterbury. Since our visit

was during the Coronation Weekend for King Charles III, we got to see lots of decorations and many people out celebrating – with families picnicking on the grounds of the Canterbury Cathedral. The Bishop of Canterbury is the head of the Church of England and conducted the coronation ceremony. He also spends most of his time in London, not Canterbury. Canterbury is located on the beautiful River Stour and there is so much rich history within the old city walls. We enjoyed walking around the old town and, on the Cathedral grounds, especially liked the beautiful spring flowers as well as the “statue” dedicated to the World War I combat horses. Before the day ended, we sat outside in the sunshine and enjoyed some great beer from The Old Buttermarket -- Guinness for Mike and Butty Bach for me.

5/8/2023 - Greenwich
While we slept, the Viking Neptune made its way up the east coast of England and into the River Thames. The engines were cut at 2:38 am. I know because the absence of the noise woke me up. I looked out to see that we were moored in the middle of the river with bright lights all around. In the morning, we rode the tender to shore and walked to the Greenwich train station, to make sure we could find it and to determine if we would walk or take a cab the next day when we disembarked from the ship and made our way into London. Once

we were comfortable with the next day’s plans, we walked through beautiful Greenwich Park and up to the Royal Observatory, home of Greenwich Mean Time. As much as we would have liked to spend more time exploring Greenwich, we had to finish packing, so headed back to the ship and spent the afternoon on that challenging task. After a nice “last supper” in The Restaurant, gelato from The World Cafe, and an emotional good-bye to many of our favorite crew and staff members, we tweaked our luggage one more time and got our four bags to be tendered ashore (two 29" bags to be shipped home; two 25" bags to be picked up by us shoreside in the morning) set outside the room just before the 10 pm deadline. Whew.

5/9 - London Day 1
Up early today, we sat in The World Cafe for breakfast - something we rarely ever did as Mike always fetched coffee and breakfast and

brought it to our room - and said some more emotional good-byes before heading down to the Atrium Lobby to wait our turn to leave the ship. We boarded the tender one last time around 9 am, located our bags on the shore, said yet more emotional good-byes, and then started walking the .6 miles to the train station, as there wasn’t a taxi or Uber to be found. After riding the train into London’s Victoria Station, we walked another .6 miles to our hotel, located in the City of Westminster. Of course (!), our room was on the 2nd floor (as in 3rd floor with no lifts and 4 sets of stairs), but the staff helped us get our

seven bags (2 check-in size bags, 2 carry-on bags with no wheels, a backpack, a Viking World Cruise tote bag, and one paper shopping bag for “everything else”) up to our room. After a short recovery, we set out to explore – visiting the Catholic Westminster Cathedral, home of the Catholic Church in England, and not to be confused with Westminster Abbey. But what we really wanted to do was figure out a better way to manage our belongings, so we went in search of a carry-on wheeled bag, and decided to head over to King’s Cross St. Pancras, where we knew there would likely be a luggage store. After finding the perfect bag at the Samsonite store, we wandered around the international train station as well as the Underground station. We even found Harry Potter’s Platform 9 ¾. At the end of this fun, but oh-so-stressful day, we headed back to our hotel (a Rick Steves recommendation), dropped the new luggage, and then found the perfect neighborhood pub, followed by the perfect fish ‘n’ chips a little further down the road. The fish we shared, but not the beer. And then we slept for 10 hours.

5/10/2023 - London Day 2
Today was a typical tourist day for us – walking about 10 miles – and riding the Underground here and there. Most of our day was spent within the City of Westminster – seeing Big Ben & Parliament; Westminster Abbey; demonstrators; statues; 10 Downing Street; the Horse Guards; the National Gallery (and some amazing art); walking back and forth across several bridges; viewing some great public art and flowers; and walking along the River Thames. While I had visited London last June with grandson, Landon, Mike & I had not visited London together for almost 20 years, so we had a great time rediscovering the city. After a 9-hour sightseeing day, we headed back to re-pack with our new bag – and got our load down from seven to five bags. Then our hotel proprietor recommended we visit Cask Pub & Kitchen, London’s Iconic First Craft Beer Pub (established 2009). It was just around the corner, and their craft beer was

awesome, as was the burger & fries. A great end to a great day. About the art in the National Gallery -- I'm not one to take many photos of paintings, but these two struck both of us. The painting "Congnoscenti in a Room Hung With Pictures" by an Unknown Flemish Artist in 1620 blew us away by its detail. And the painting "The Ambassadors", painted in 1533 by Hans Holbein the Younger, depicts Mortality (among other things) by situating a distorted skull, which I originally thought was a stick, on the floor. Look at it from the right side and you can see the skull. You should see it "live and in person".