Vineyards and Castles on the Oceania Marina
9/17/19 to 9/29/19
Click on the above link buttons that will take you directly to a particular page or area of the review; or you can just click through to the next page at the bottom of each page.
Page 1 - Pre-Cruise in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Embarkation, Ship
Page 2 - Ship (Continued), Cabin, Dining, Entertainment, Activities
Page 3 - Ports of Call: Dover, England; LeHavre, France, St. Malo, France
Page 4 - Ports of Call: Brest, France; La Rochelle, France; Bordeaux, France - Day 1
Page 5 - Ports of Call: Bordeaux, France - Day 2; Bilbao, Spain
Page 6 - Ports of Call: Ferrol, Spain; Oporto, Portugal; Post-Cruise in Lisbon, Portugal - Day 1
Page 7 - Post-Cruise in Lisbon, Portugal - Days 2 & 3
Bordeaux, France – Day 2
We looked forward to hitting the streets early to see the churches and other sites we missed yesterday. The weather forecast was to be cloudy all day with a temp in the mid 70’s. I was glad that we had been able to get so many photos while the sun was shining yesterday. Since we had gotten familiar with some of the streets the previous day, we felt more comfortable finding what we were looking for. Bordeaux has lots of narrow streets, which are pretty, but it can be easy to get confused where you are unless you are on one of the main streets.
I had seen the two steeples of the Church of Saint-Louis-des-Chartrons from the ship in the distance. The previous day when we left the ship we turned to the left. We would be going to the right to find the church and anything else up that way. It is always fascinating to me how it is so easy to see the tall spires of a church from a distance, but the closer you get, the more difficult it is to find it. After a short walk, we finally found it. The narrow street and trees in front of the church made it difficult to get a clean photo of it; but I would get one later in the day.
The interior was just magnificent!
We then walked back the other way to find the 18th Century Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. We had seen it briefly during our previous day’s panoramic tour of the city. Unfortunately, while walking toward the theater, the rain started. It didn’t last for too long, but it did keep us worried about the rest of the day’s weather. Using my map app, we were able to find the theater. I liked the statues standing proudly above the building. I would have loved to be able to see the interior; but we just didn’t have the time for it.
Across the street from the theater is the beautiful Intercontinental Hotel. It is in a great location. Also, right next to the theater was an Apple store. With the new iPhone 11 being released while we were out of the country, I was anxious to see what the new model looked like. I ordered one the day after I returned home.
While looking for a different church, we came to the Basilica of Saint Severinus. Even though it wasn’t on our to do list we decided to check it out, and we were so glad we did. There was a marvelous relief above the entry. I found out while researching the church when I got home that it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it was the head of one of the Ways of St. James.
When we went inside it was a very dark church. It was interesting with very nice stained glass, but we weren’t going to stay long.
Then we saw a sign leading to the crypt. Now that sounded interesting, so down we went. It was amazing with several rooms of sculpted marble sarcophagi, arched columns and just a very cool ambience.
When we left, we were able to see the side entrance. This church had been a pleasant surprise.
On our way to our next destination, we passed by a house with a lovely statue built into the front of it. We also saw the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux with its high gilded gates and large garden area.
As we turned the corner, we could see the destination that we had been searching for, The Cathédrale St-André, a Unesco World Heritage Site. We had seen the gold statue on top of the belfry from the ship and had been searching for what was below it. The cathedral’s oldest section dates from 1096, but most of structure was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. Very old!
As we walked around the massive building to the front, we had to take photos from every angle, to capture all of its external beauty.
The 160-foot bell tower is what attracted us to the church, but the twin tower cathedral was also magnificent. I couldn’t take a photo that included all of the cathedral and bell tower, but this was the best I could get. I think you will get the idea that it is a big church.
Every part of the cathedral was just gorgeous. I loved the ornate flying buttresses, as well as the entry way and the two different rose windows on different sides of the building. Even in cloudy weather it was just gorgeous.
The interior was also gorgeous. I realize that I have put in a lot of church photos in this review, especially here in Bordeaux. I probably put in more than I should, but I want to remember the beauty that I have seen, and this is the best way for me to do it.
After leaving the cathedral, we continued our walk. We came to a beautiful ornate wall surrounding surrounding a building that looked like a palace. The sign said it was the Hotel de Ville. I was surprised that there was so much security around a hotel. As had been the case with the Hotel de Ville in La Rochelle, this was actually the city hall that was built in 1771. It is also called Palais Rohan. It was originally the archbishop’s residence. Pretty nice digs.
We decided that we walked around as much as our bodies could handle for the day, so we headed back toward the ship. On the way we passed by Fort du Hâ a former fortress. We then heard a commotion up ahead and there was a large police presence. A peaceful political protest going on.
It was such a treat to walk through the lovely streets of Bordeaux. There was always something to catch our attention. We walked into one pretty building and it turned out to be a mini mall.
Our trail took us back by the opera house and with the sun shining, I had to take more photos of it and the Intercontinental Hotel across the street.
There was a strange statue in the square that I hadn’t noticed when we passed it in the morning. The statue was part of a series of seven feminine figures that were going to be put around the city by artist Jaume Plensa. He was only able to cast two of them. Moving to the front of the statue, the face was very narrow. Quite an unusual piece.
We could tell that we were getting closer to the ship when we saw the Monument aux Girondins we had been to the previous day in the background. With the sun shining on it, I had to take some more photos of it.
When we got back on the ship, I had to take some photos of the beautiful churches that we had visited over the last couple days in the distance.
As we were leaving port, I was finally able to get a nice photo of the Church of Saint-Louis-des-Chartrons.
Further up the river, we came to a large bridge that had raised the middle road section so that we could pass under it. It was a very close fit. The ship had to lower one of its light poles so that we could fit.
On the other side of the bridge was the La Cité du Vin (City of Wine). It is quite a sight and the largest wine museum in the world.
We were so glad that we had two days in Bordeaux. It was such a beautiful city with so much to see. I had walked over 18,000 steps the first day and over 20,000 the second. My knee was hurting but I was so happy that I had been able to enjoy this amazing city. We would enjoy dinner at the last of our specialty dining reservations at Red Ginger. But we would first go to Jacques Pepin’s cooking class.
As we entered the Bay of Biscay, we could feel a lot of movement. The wind had picked up considerably. An announcement was made that due to the wind, we would not be able to visit our next stop Biarritz, France. We were supposed to tender at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, but it wouldn’t be possible. But since the stop after that, Bilbao, Spain was not far away, we would be arriving there at about the same time that we would have arrived at Biarritz and we would overnight there. As much as we hated to miss another French port, we were very pleased to be able to spend two days in Bilbao.
Bilbao, Spain – Day 1
We were docked in Bilbao by 8:00 AM. The terminal had a long multi-level ramp that would make it easy to disembark the ship. As the sun came up, it put a pretty glow on the port area. There was a cute lighthouse not far from the ship.
We had a tour booked for the next day; but since we didn’t know that we would be in Bilbao, we thought it would be best to just walk around town to see what there was to see. The ship provided a shuttle into town, which was about a 20-minute drive. There was a schedule on the bus door showing when the shuttle would leave for and from town. It didn’t look like they were very frequent, but we got on the first one and were on our way. The bus stopped close to a unique building that would be easy to find when we were ready to go back to the ship.
The main place we wanted to go to was the Guggenheim Museum to take some exterior photos. The next day’s tour would include a visit inside, and we didn’t know if we would have enough time to get the outside shots I wanted. Plus, the weather forecast said it would be a sunny day in the low 70’s. Absolute perfection!
Bilbao looked like a very attractive city with heavily wooded hills. Across the river from us was a large university building and some lovely private homes.
Close by we could get our first glimpse of the Guggenheim. It was rather a strange looking structure.
Walking closer we could see the front of the building and the main entrance. We were able to enter without a ticket to use their restrooms and buy a pastry at their café.
When we came out of the building, we took photos of the 41-foot-tall guard dog named Puppy. The cute flower statue of a West Highland terrier weighs 16 tons and has tens of thousands of flowers that are constantly changing.
We wanted to get a different view of the museum, so we headed up the elevated walkway that appeared to go to the other side. It also provided us a great view of the giant spider sculpture named Maman.
Since we hadn’t planned on exploring on our own, we looked at the map to see what was nearby. We went over to Doña Casilda Iturrizar park. There was a small lake there with lots of swans and other bird life.
There was also a nice area of the park on the hill above the lake.
We saw on the map that the Sacred Heart Monument was nearby. The 131 foot nearly 100-year-old monument was pretty easy to find.
We wanted to explore the old town area, but I just wasn’t up to walking almost 1.5 miles to get there. We looked on the map to find a hotel nearby where we could pick up a taxi. I would have used Uber or Lyft, but they aren't allowed in Spain. We found a great taxi driver that took us right through the pedestrian streets to the Santiago Cathedral. Santiago in Spanish means Saint James. This cathedral is also a point of transit for the pilgrims traveling to Santiago de Compostela.
Like many of the churches we had seen, it had an ornate entry.
The cathedral had a beautiful interior with so many gorgeous features.
It also had a lovely cloister area.
While walking around old town, we saw a beggar in an unusual get up. He would open and close the jaws of the creature making a loud noise to get attention. I wouldn’t think that he would attract that many charitable souls, but he was at the same place the next day too.
Our next stop was at the Church of San Antonio. This is supposedly the most popular place of worship in Bilbao. Its image is on the city’s emblem. I am also putting a photo of the church from a different angle that I took the following day.
It was a much smaller church with a less photogenic interior.
We were really enjoying walking through old town. It was a fascinating place and so much to look at.
We came to a large area with so many restaurants to choose from. It was called Plaza Nueva. Our guide would also bring us there the next day.
We continued walking around taking everything in and finally decided that it was time to stop for a light lunch and a beer. It felt good to sit down.
After lunch, we decided that we had enough exploring, and we were ready to head back to the ship. We found a taxi to take us back to the bus meeting place. On the way there, I was able to take photo of some great buildings.
We arrived at the meeting point about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure. There was a good size line of people waiting for the bus. Before the bus came the line got even longer. I heard that evening that apparently the line got very long and some people had to wait well over an hour to get on one. Some just took a taxi back to the ship when they saw the line. That is just not acceptable Oceania should have scheduled more busses. It was less critical that day, since we weren’t leaving port; but it did become an issue the next day and at another port.
We got back to the ship around 3:30 PM. It was nice to be able to just relax rather than constantly walking. We went up to the upper decks to look at the area. I was surprised at how white the cliffs were.
Bilbao, Spain – Day 2
We had booked a tour with Spain Day Tours (www.spaindaytours.com/spain-shore-excursions/bilbao-shore-excursion/). It can also be called Top Day Tours. I have used this company many times in the past for excursions and have always been very satisfied. They have high quality tours at very reasonable prices. Especially compared to the rates that Oceania charges for their excursions. Our tour guide for the day was Guy. He was a real pleasure. He was knowledgeable, patient, humorous and just very good at his job. We also had a nice van with a sound system that was easy to get into and out of.
We started off with a stop at the Vizcaya Bridge, which is a World Heritage site. It is the first transporter bridge ever built. It was designed by one of Gustave Eiffel’s disciples and built in 1893. When we first saw the bridge, we assumed that it would drop down to let the vehicles cross the bridge. I was wondering why we were waiting to see a bridge drop down. After all, that didn’t seem so special. Then I found out why we were there. It is quite an unusual bridge; in that it carries cars and people in a container that is suspended from the very tall bridge. When I first looked at the cars on the other side of the river, I thought they were waiting for the bridge to come down. Then as we were watching the cars started moving toward our side or the bridge. I ran up to one of the upper viewing platforms to get a better view of this unique operation.
Everyone enjoyed seeing this unique bridge. There was a sign on the side that showed the other transporter bridges that have been built. There were fewer than two dozen of these ever built and only ten still being used as transporter bridges.
We then drove to a scenic viewing area above the city, Mirador de Artxanda. As we were walking to see the view there was an unusual statue of a large fingerprint nearby.
The views were very nice, and I was glad that Guy brought us up here. While there I took a photo of Craig and our friends, whom I have cruised with before, Orv and Teresa.
As we headed to our next destination, I really enjoyed the Bilbao architecture along the way.
We parked the van and got out in front of what looked like a renovated old building. It was the Azkuna Zentroa, a venue, labeled as a "Culture and Leisure Centre", consisting of a cinema multiplex, a fitness center, a library, showrooms, an auditorium, shops, and a restaurant. As we walked in, we could see why Guy brought us there. It was quite a place. The decorated pillars were quite a sight on their own, but the fact that they totally gutted the historical building and turned it into this multi-use modern facility was quite a feat. The video image that looked like the sun was an unusual articstic touch.
Guy told us to look up, where we could see the legs of a person swimming in the pool at the top of the building.
Our next destination was to the old town that we had explored the previous day. Through the van windows I was able to get photos of more beautiful buildings. You might be getting tired of looking at beautiful building in this review by now, but I just loved them.
The van stopped close to the St. Nicholas Church. I thought that it was one we had previously visited; but we hadn't. I was not happy that I missed it; but we did see a lot of beautiful churches on this vacation. We began our walk and Guy showed us some of the places we had previously seen, but he also provided a lot of info we weren’t aware of. He also pointed out the markers pointing out the direction the pilgrims should go on the Camino de Santiago.
We also went back to the Plaza Nueva, where Guy told us what each of the various restaurants specialized in.
We were considering going back to the Plaza Nueva for lunch when Guy pointed out a couple other restaurants, one which specialized in local food, Bar Rio-Oja. That sold us. When Guy dismissed us, we headed right to it. It was a small place but the food on display looked mighty good. Craig ordered a type of stew and I ordered a type of stuffed pepper that was nothing like I am used to; but it was to die for. It was soooo good. I was wishing that we were spending another day in Bilbao so I could return there.
After lunch we walked around for a while. We passed by the old festive looking train station that had caught our eyes earlier during the tour.
We then went back to the main old town so Craig could look for some gifts for home. He had been having difficulty finding the right things. When it was getting close to our time to meet on the van, we headed back that way. We got there early, so Craig decided to go check out a few more shops. Everyone arrived at the bus on time and we were ready to leave, but Craig was still missing. Guy was concerned and didn’t want to leave till Craig got back. Then Craig called me. I could hear him, but he couldn’t hear me. He was telling me that he got lost in the streets; which was very easy to do. We had been turned around several times over the last two days. I was telling him to take a cab to the Guggenheim where we were heading to. Since he couldn’t hear me, he hung up. He then texted me telling me he would take a taxi and meet us there. It all worked out and he got there around the same time we arrived.
I was not happy that we couldn’t take photos inside the exhibit area but was satisfied with being able to take them in the beautiful lobby area and other areas where there weren’t any exhibits, which is probably the main places most people would want to take photos.
Before starting the tour of the exhibits, we walked outside to a landing where there was a colorful flower statue. We could also get nice views of the museum and the Maman statue.
I did take one illegal photo of an exhibit where there are walls that are leaning that we walked through. It was quite strange and disorienting where it made me feel like I was falling down. There were other ones that were cylindrical that took a pretty good amount of time to get into the center of the sculpture, especially with the walls making you have to take your time moving through it.
I was surprised that most of the exhibits were just modern art or sculptures. I had been expecting more unusual stuff, similar to the unique objects like the angled wall ones. But the real attraction to me was the building itself. I took photos wherever they were acceptable.
After Guy finished showing us the exhibits, we wanted to go outside to get a better view of the building’s exterior and of Maman. It is a magnificent building.
As we were leaving the museum for the ship, we could look up the long flight of steps toward the back of Puppy.
It had been a really great tour. We saw much more than I had expected. I took a photo of the new cruise ship terminal before boarding the Marina.
Bilbao has done an excellent job of converting what was an old industrial town in the early 90’s into what is now a tourist mecca through a major urbanization program. We really enjoyed our two days in Bilbao.
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