Cruisin' The Highway of Life -- And the Atlantic Ocean

We arrived in Portsmouth around 1.5 hours before we were scheduled to depart only to learn that our ship had been delayed by 4 hours due to rough sees off the coast of France. So we went to the local grocery store and bought some supplies for the trip while wasting as much time as possible. It didn’t occur to me at first but as I had a few hours to think about it I realized that this minor delay was going to be the crack in the dam that brought my plans for the entire rest of our trip to a spiraling demise. I will explain, on our mini-cruise to Bilbao, Spain we were only supposed to have 6 hours in Bilbao before hoping on the return trip. With the 4 hour delay in departure, the cruise line was not exactly going to reduce our time in Spain to 2 hours. So instead they scheduled our return for 4 hours later as well, thus delaying our arrival back in Portsmouth by those same 4 hours. The kicker was that we had a bus scheduled to take us from Portsmouth, England to Paris, France that was set to leave 55 minutes after our ship was originally supposed to be back in Portsmouth. With that bus being the last to leave on the evening of the 30th, our trip would have then been a day off from that point forward. So after stewing about this for a while we decided that there was nothing that could be done at the time and we were going to forget about it and enjoy our cruise.

And enjoy we did! This boat was fitted with 6 restaurants, 3 bars, 2 movie theaters, a theater stage, pool, gym and 8 floors to explore. Although the nights were a little rough on Lisa’s stomach, we both enjoyed relaxing and not have to lug our bags around for a few days. We played bingo and although Lisa came within one or two numbers in every game, we never won a dime. Played a little 3 card poker and lost whatever I had in my pockets, but made up for it on the roulette table. As I was explaining the various rules of all the other games to Lisa, I said “Roulette is two ridiculous to explain, just pick two numbers and I will throw these last two chips down.” Lisa – “8 and 14, yours and Colin’s hockey numbers.” No more bets, round and round the silver ball flies, where will it land, nobody knows… Except Lisa apparently, number 14! So we take our winnings, cash out and walk out. Over the 3 day cruise we took in the evening shows which included Grease, and the Best of Broadway musicals. They were very good and you can’t complain with anything free!

Bilbao was amazing – this incredible little Spanish city nestled right on the northern coast with a mixed backdrop of rolling green hills and rugged ocean side cliffs, and which is further divided by a river through town. We took in a walking tour of the city which highlighted the old town and the new town, Spain’s largest open market, the theater, and some of the cities remarkable history. We even had a Spanish coffee at a little Barista downtown. I can’t do the city justice so you will have to wait for the photos. But I would love to go back and it only heightened my desire to see more of Spain. But for now it was time to get back on board and head back to Portsmouth.

Now, I am sure you are wondering what happened with the timing of the ships return and us catching our bus to France. Well as it turns out, cruise ships run at slower speeds in the evening to make it more comfortable for their passengers. Unless of course, that cruise ship is 4 hours behind and is not concerned with the overnight comfort of its passengers. By the time we made it to Bilbao we had made up 3 hours because we had the wind at our backs and other than having a very rocky nights sleep I was feeling pretty pumped. It was not a night that Pops would have done well on and there were a few other green faced passengers the next day but for those of us with buses to catch, it was the best night we could have asked for. However, we lost another 40 minutes or so in Bilbao waiting for vehicles to board the ship and so on route back to Portsmouth had the wind coming at us and had 1 hour 40 minutes to make up. Things were not looking good, but like a Disney movie ending, the captain ran full steam through the night, the wind let up as we rounded the north coast France into the Channel and we floated into port 5 minutes ahead of schedule. “It always works out for the best.” We cruised through customs by avoiding the desks all together and just walked right out to the bus stop. We made such great time we had 35 minutes to spare, which was spent having a beer with an Englishman who was also waiting for the bus. He was plowed but seemed very interested in Canada – nice guy. Onward and upward - To Paris we go!