European Circle Tour Part 8: Safe Harbour

Our second port of the cruise was at the large natural harbour of Toulon, in southern France. To be exact, we were docked across the harbour at the commercial port of La Seyne-sur-Mer, and access to Toulon proper was by a daylong shuttle boat. In a first for my cruise experiences, the use of the boat shuttle was not free. The fare, charged to your shipboard account, was US$35. However, passengers who had purchased tours in Toulon from Princess Cruises were excused from paying that fare. The little things they don't tell you ahead of time can sometimes add up to big added expenses. In this case, if you bought your own tour you could very well end up losing money unless your tour was at least $35 cheaper per person than the tour sold by Princess.

 

So why dock on the other side of the bay? There's no place in Toulon. There's a ferry terminal for the large oceangoing ferries sailing to Corsica or Sardinia, but almost all the rest of Toulon's waterfront is occupied by the Mediterranean headquarters of the French Navy. 

The tour I selected had 2 parts -- first, a scenic boat tour around the bay, and second, a walking tour in the old city centre of Toulon. The boat tour was the real prize here, not least because the weather was absolutely perfect for such a purpose.

 

This first main group of photos include pictures taken on the tour boat. To start with, I have to prove that I was there, of course -- but why was I grinning?

 

Maybe it was because I had spotted the sign in French identifying the bin full of life jackets?

 

 

 As we sailed out into the bay, we got a look at the rest of the commercial traffic docked here. As our guides explained, Marseilles is the main commercial cargo port on this coast. Toulon/La Seyne gets only a few smaller cargo ships.

 

 

We got a series of views of Emerald Princess as we slowly curved around the pier to head towards the naval dockyard across the bay. I'll let you decide what is her best angle.

 

By this time, we were approaching the row of piers docking the naval ships. First up was the flagship of the French fleet, the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.

 

 Other naval ships of various types followed in succession.

 

At the end of the naval dockyard, there's a narrow inlet which leads to the city's waterfront, with its waterfront promenade, cafes, shops, and the piers for the shuttle boats -- including ours. Beyond that inlet is the pier for the big seagoing ferries. These ships, almost like cruise liners in themselves, take 8 hours or more to make the crossing from Toulon to ports in Corsica, and in the Italian island of Sardinia. There are ample numbers of private cabins for the overnight voyages.

 

We then moved further south towards the entrance of the bay. Most of the entrance is blocked by a long breakwater, leaving only one deep-water channel. Ships entering this channel sail west past the end of the breakwater, and then have to turn sharply north -- and all under the stern gaze of several stone forts, one of which is shown here.

 

After that we headed back to the Toulon waterfront, and docked at the shuttle pier. Our three guides then divided us into 3 groups for the walking tour of the old town. The first intriguing sight was a building dating from the early twentieth century whose builder incorporated this ornamental doorway from the older building which preceded it.

 

This broad plaza facing the water marked the beginning of the markets. After these merchants of clothes and other assorted goods in the first block, the next three blocks going up the hill were devoted to all sorts of food products.

 

Beyond the markets, we walked through other streets where many of the buildings featured elegant, even artistic railings on their balconies.

 

Toulon has a number of famous fountains in the old town. These were the two which we saw.

 

On a large plaza well up the hill from the water, we saw this theatre now devoted to the opera company, and currently undergoing some repairs.

 

We then walked downhill, back to the main road along the waterfront, and there we saw the historic main gate of the naval dockyard. It is now the entrance to the Maritime Museum. 

 

 

Our tour was meant to include a visit to the museum, but this was closed because we were there on May 1, which is Labour Day in France. That also meant we had to take a detour at one point in our walking tour to avoid a parade going on along the boulevard which separates the old town from the more recent parts.

 

At this point, we were free to spend more time in town, but I chose to head back to the ship for lunch. There, I got some views from the upper decks of the harbour area, the city, the docks, and the mountains which loom up as backdrop to the entire scene.

 

 

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Spring Nostalgia Trip # 6: The Ever-Beautiful Bruges

Our final port call before the end of the cruise was at the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, a name which means basically "Brugge on the sea." Not far inland from this busy cargo and ferry port is the Flemish city of Brugge, more usually called in English by the French version of the name, Bruges. By the way, despite appearances, both versions of the name are pronounced with a soft "g" sound, like the French "j" in "jeudi," not a hard "g". The name is usually said to be derived from the old Dutch word for "bridge" although our guide also suggested a Norse derivation with a different meaning -- which I forgot. 

 

(I know! A blogger is never supposed to forget anything! I may get my licence to blog taken away!)

This one is a real nostalgia trip for me. I came here on my first independent trip to Europe, in 1975, and was so enchanted that I had to come back again in 1979. I haven't returned since, so I was having my little memories at every turn of the day.

 

 Like Amsterdam, Bruges had its "Golden Age" as a result of commercial wealth from trading, in a period when the city prospered mightily as an associate city of the famed "Hanseatic League." Unlike Amsterdam, Bruges declined in economic importance and dreamed the ages away until more modern times brought electronics industries -- and the modern Golden Age of tourism.

That Golden Age is, of course, a mixed blessing, and I was never more conscious of the fact during this trip. Even this early in the season, the streets were full of people, and the greatest miracle of the day was to find a place where you could sit down without buying anything. The next greatest miracle was to sit down without getting pigeon-pooped. For the record, I managed the first one a couple of times but then a pigeon got me. Sigh.

Without further ado, let's get right to it. Much of the centre of Bruges is closed to motor traffic except for deliveries and services. The city runs bus shuttles along two designated loops through the old town for those who don't hike. Our tour, though was a walking tour. As an intermission, we also had a 30-minute ride in an electrically-powered boat along some of the canals.

 

Actually, there aren't that many canals in Bruges, at least not major ones, but since they bend and turn all over the place you can easily cross six canal bridges before realizing that they are all across the same canal. That being so, it's quite natural that you hardly set foot in the old city before you find yourself crossing a canal -- and watching a couple of swans.

 

 

 

Another thing that's hard to avoid is the many horse-drawn carriages, another way for visitors to get themselves shuttled around town. 

 

And as a tribute to the days when horses handled all sorts of transportation needs, there's this drinking fountain for horses.

 

 

This was the canal dock where we later lined up to get our boat ride. 

The towering spire of the Church of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in Flemish) caught our attention next. It's visible from many points in the city.

In this view, it looks as if the apartments are built into the nave of the church. Actually, though, the church stretches from left (visible) to right (hidden) across the photo.

 

We walked around the church, across a couple of narrow old bridges, and into the cobbled square called De Burg, which holds the town hall and a court of justice, housed in medieval buildings. Here are two different portions of the town hall. 

 

 

The heart of the city is found in the Markt, the large market square in the centre of town which holds one of the three tallest towers in the city -- the bell tower on the Markt Hallen.

 

 

This clock doesn't just chime the hours, it plays a little tune on them. Since it houses a full carillon of bells, it can also be used to give bell concerts. I heard one for half an hour one day when I first came here in 1975.

This next picture is purely of interest to me. Immediately to the right of the tower is this restaurant, white with steep-pitched red roof, now called De Vier Winden. 

 

 In the 1970s it was a combination hotel and restaurant, called (if memory serves me correctly) De Sneeuwberg. I stayed here on both of my two earlier visits to the city. 

 

One of the rooms I used was tucked into a weird angle on a landing of a winding staircase to the top floor -- you had to climb the first three steps, push open what looked like the door of a closet, and climb three steps back down into the room! The best of that hotel was having a clear sound from the bells through the window, right up until ten o'clock at night when they chimed for the last time each day.

The other sides of the Markt feature a number of cafes, shops, and restaurants housed in colourful old houses.

 

The east side is occupied by the Provinciaal Hof, or "Provincial Palace" which houses the high court for the Province of West Flanders (of which Bruges is the capital).

From the Markt, we proceeded back to the canal side, and began our canal boat tour. One of the first things we were taught was to watch out for low bridges and definitely never to stand up in the boat. As this video clip proves, as soon as we went around the first bend in the canal, we found out that they weren't kidding.

After that little thrill, the first main sight we passed was the gate of the Begijnhof, the Beguinage. 

 

 

Don't be thinking of Cole Porter here. The beguines were an association of medieval women who chose to live in a religious community in the company of other women. While they might have been very religious, a Begijnhof was not a religious institution which required the taking of vows or withdrawing from the world like an abbey. 

 

At one time, it was believed that many of the women would have been widows -- there were quite a few of those after every Crusade. However, scholars now lean more to the theory that there was a large percentage of unmarried women in medieval cities like Bruges. Marriages in any case tended to happen later in life, if they happened at all. Unmarried women moving into the cities to find work could also find a home and community of interest with the other beguines -- while still having independence to come and go, to work, and so on. Entering a Begijnhof would also have been a good way to avoid pressure from families to marry. The Begijnhof was a significant social institution in the Low Countries, and can be found in many towns and cities in Belgium and the Netherlands.

 

This is a deceptive picture. 

 

 

Looks like we were about to sail under a building. Wrong. We were about to sail under two buildings and a road, each of them built on a separate bridge from a different century, but all joined together into a single continuous tunnel of fifteenth century, then fourteenth century, and finally thirteenth century brick and stone work.

Then there was this bridge, where we had to wait our turn (this happened a few times).

We encountered a number of fascinating views which you would never see from street level, since so many of the canals lie right up against the walls of houses, with the street on the other side.

This was also the best view all day of the spire of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk.

 

This little family won my heart.

And then there was this spectacular cascade of greenery and blossoms, topped off with the city flag of Bruges.

After the boat tour ended, we got ninety minutes of free time. I did some quiet wandering around during that time, and some sitting in shady spots as the sun was getting decidedly warm. That's when I got pooped on by a marauding pigeon. I also found a couple more quiet little surprises.

That little garden temple, of course, was built far later than most of the sights in Bruges. Actually, I think someone should build a little temple like that with my statue in it. I think it would suit me.

Eventually, we all walked back out to the coach park and hopped back onto the bus for the short ride of twenty minutes back to the ship. Shortly after five o'clock we sailed for our final destination. Much later that night, I came back to my room after dinner and some music and some refreshments, to find that the sun hadn't set yet. So my final night of the cruise was marked by a beautiful sunset over an incredibly placid North Sea. The pale light made it look like these ships were floating in the air above the ocean.

A ship going the other way passed right in front of the sun just as the sun was about to vanish, giving the appearance of the sunlight momentarily cutting the ship in half.

The last moment. Sadly, there was no green flash. Seemed to me like a perfect night for it. Pity.

And a final spread of colours across the sky after the sun was gone. By now it was after 10:00 pm.

The next morning was the least favourite moment of every cruise -- the early morning up and at 'em. The sooner they can throw you off the ship, the happier they will be, especially the cabin stewards who have to give every cabin a top-to-bottom clean and refurbishment for the new tenants who will be arriving that same afternoon beginning at 1:00 pm!

 

Here's the final instalment of the cruise map, showing the legs from Cherbourg to Zeebrugge to Ijmuiden.

 

 

The adventures resume on land in the next post. This trip still has over a week to go after the cruise ends!