Please sign my guest book

I would love to hear from those who have read my blog so am creating this guest book post. Please sign it by sending me a comment.

About a week ago I put Google Analytics code into the blog so can see that for the last week there are about 80 people following each day. I can also see the countries and states everyone is from. I would love to hear your comments on the blog, where you are from and anything else you would like to say about yourself. I'm also happy to answer any questions.

I have the comments on 'moderate' mode which means I have to view them before they are published. As a result there will be a delay before they appear.

Cheers!
Michelle

Dover

We landed in Dover to the most spectacular spring weather.


Here are some pics of the famous white cliffs of Dover.

I had hoped to tour the Dover Castle (visible on the hill of the last picture) but lucked out and got a direct flight back to Denver. I was arriving 8 hours earlier than my original flight so had to forgo any sight seeing in England. One day I will get to see the sights but so far I have only transited through Heathrow and the cruise ports with no sight seeing.

Le Havre France

Many cruise ships dock in Le Havre as it is the port for Paris, Normandy, Mont St. Michel, Honfleur, Rouen, Giverny (Monet's home and gardens) etc. All popular destinations. I've been to them all except Normandy so decided to stay and tour Le Havre.

Pic. 1 is of our cruise ship.

Pic. 2 is of the tour options available from the pier. I'm hoping that those interested will be able to download it to see the tour options and prices.

Saint Joseph Church

St. Joseph Church is very impressive and unique. I don't think it comes across in pictures very well but it is well worth a look in town to see this church. It wasn't on our tour agenda (I'm not sure why not) but we stopped there first. I think this is the most impressive church that I've seen on this trip. The proportions, scale, color and shapes are similar in level of excellence to the design expertise that comes across at the Sydney Opera House.

1950s show flat

This was an interesting stop, not because I was impressed with the flat but because my tour mates were all amazed by it. It was a classic 1950s flat. We have many homes in Denver with this type of design style which I saw when I was looking to buy a house. In addition the furniture and decorations were standard 1950s garage sale fare. However everyone seemed to be curious about it and loved seeing it. So if you've never seen 1950s decor go for it.

The history behind these flats is that they were built for the town after WWII to house the homeless. They were very upscale because they had indoor plumbing and a large percentage (did the guide say 80%?) of the population did not have an indoor bathroom prior to the war.

Beautiful gardens!

We crossed a square to our next stop, a town tower to view the city. It contained beautiful gardens with lovely flowers and wonderful fountains.

There was some sort of protest going on. The guide indicated it was people demonstrating against the government in the handling of the economy.

Tower with views

We went up in a tower to view the city. Pic. 1 is of the entrance way. Pic. 2 is of the square where the gardens and fountains were. Pic. 3 is of the church we viewed first.

Ship owner's mansion

Our next stop was a reconstructed ship owners mansion (pic. 1). It was small for a mansion as it had a large interior atrium and thus very small rooms and hallways. Pic. 2 and 3 were of the two stairways in the mansion on the main floor.

Interior rooms

Pic. 1 is of the kitchen. It was made of stone so that it wouldn't catch fire and burn the house down. Pic. 2 is of a bedroom. Pic. 3 is of one of the living areas, I believe the dining room.

Back to the ship

On the way back to the ship we passed this old church (pic. 1). It was one of the few older buildings in the city which was mostly destroyed by bombing in WWII. The city was widely rebuilt in a 1950s style.

Pic. 2 is of boats at low tide.

The tour was only a half day and I intended to go back out after wards but it was cold and windy so I decided to take a nap in the afternoon instead.

Tomorrow I will be flying home. I will post a few times after I get back with some summary thoughts on the trip.