Voyage 7109

Most impressive to me was going under the Ponte 25 de Abril (25 April Bridge), which makes an incredible sound from the cars and trains crossing the grid iron supports of the bridge.

The Douro River flows through the city of Porto and enters the Atlantic, and it was from here that the great era of discovery began in the early 15th century.

You can’t go wrong with a visit to Santiago; it ticks almost every box in that it is one of the most remarkable Romanesque churches hidden behind a baroque façade and set in an elegant square.

On the Silver Explorer there is always a lot to do and learn, especially on sea days, and today was no exception.

Making use of the spiral galactic dislocative style, the building of the Guggenheim Museum, is clad in glass and titanium and was designed by the architect Frank Gehry, surely one of our finest pioneers of pushing building methods to their limits.

This memorable foray into the complex Bordeaux wine region concluded with a visit to the charming cobblestone town of Saint Emilion, where an 8th-century Breton hermit of the same name settled in reclusion.

We left Bordeaux at 9:30am after a magical day yesterday where we had lovely trips to wine chateaus and St Emilion, and had the opportunity to explore Bordeaux at night as we had to wait for the tides before leaving. 

At Angers the chief attraction was the Apocalypse Tapestry that was made between 1373 and 1381.

Today was the last sea day of this cruise and in usual Silver Explorer style the day was full of activities.

After our initial awe on the approach to Mont-St-Michel, we slowly began our thirty-minute ascent to the churches, where monks no longer reside.

The owner of Sausmarez came out to greet us before we enjoyed an intimate tour of his residence and individual walks in the amazing sculpture gardens filled with exotic and common flowering plants.

After lunch we all went to the military cemetery at Omaha where I conducted a short but moving ceremony.