Day 9 - Sunday September 9 - Part 2

Uneventful trip back to the ship and then lunch. I decided not to chase around for the afternoon and just chill.

 You may not be able to tell from the pictures but in fact there are three ships dock side by side by side. This is common in ports where there is limited space to moor and the general rule is that the outside ship is the one who is leaving first. So in this case the outside ship took off in early afternoon.

 When moored like this to give access to people to get off they come off unto the other ship and make their way to the actual dock. It also means you at times have to shuffle the order of who is docked where.

 I got a chuckle or two watching the Viking guys dithering on what to do to move and our Captain was like, no problem, we just use our side thrusters to move both ships out and then back once the new ship came in. Viking was due to leave before us and we were not leaving until the next morning around 7 AM.

 So then you can see the ship had been moved out to give the newcomer more than enough room to dock. They backed into position, these guys are good at moving these ships backwards!

 

 Big staterooms along with double beds. Fancy, so I guess you could sit in bed, keep the curtains open and watch the world go by. Or get caught having fun!

Later in the afternoon we had a special guest on board to talk about her experience of being a war bride. The lady lives near Vernon, still drives and had celebrated her 92nd birthday the day before. 

It was interesting to hear what she had to say about the Allies coming through to liberate France and how she met her husband. After they married they moved to the US and raised their family. Her husband started off as a janitor, went to school and at the end of his career was a VP for IBM working in France. He passed way in 1975 and she moved back to France in 1995. 

She was invited to have dinner on the ship that evening and yes, there was birthday cake for her. Only fitting to celebrate.