The Northern Isles Day 5
The Northern Isles
Day 05 - Monday, July 14, 2003 - ms Rotterdam - At Sea & St. Pierre, French Territory
Another hour lost overnight so we are now two hours ahead of New York and the Eastern Daylight Time. This makes for short nights. We usually go to bed around 11 so with the time change it makes it midnight. And we only have 23 hour days.
We were up at 7 AM and could not see any anything as we looked out the window. When we got to breakfast we saw that we were berthed on the other side of the ship. It is 55 degrees and 99.9% humidity!
St. Pierre is the capital of a small group of islands off the coast of Newfoundland that belong to France and are not part of Canada. It is the port for the French fishing fleet that comes across the Atlantic to fish on the Grand Banks.
We went to breakfast at the Lido and the Indonesian crew is so friendly and are now calling us by name. They have a special skill. After breakfast I got the computer and went to the center of the ship to check the e-mail. We had not received any notes so I am wondering if these emails are getting to people.
Holland America has had to change their schedule this morning as the fog was so thick. No tenders were running from the ship to town, all going ashore will need to go off through the gangway and take a shuttle or taxi to town (1 mile).
We may just walk. It is Bastille Day, for the people of St. Pierre it is a holiday. They do use the Euro so we will change some money before we go to town at 9:30.
We finally found the gangway through Deck 2 and by walking to the front part of the ship we found our way to the short pier. Surprising how the ship can go that close to shore. The bottom of the port must drop off steeply.
We exited the ship, got a map and were pointed in the general direction of “Towne”. We walked the mile+ to town, it was not difficult, fairly flat with paved streets and sidewalks. The first thing we noticed was that the island has no trees unless they have been planted by residents.
As today is Bastille Day there were people going to the city center, as we, for the big celebration at the Place du General de Gaulle. Red white and blue everywhere.
We first visited the Territorial Museum which had an exhibit of the architecture of the 150 year history of St. Pierre. Lots of old pictures of the city and they also had a display of photographs of everyone in the city.
Gennie got directions from the lady at the desk and giving us some ideas of where to visit. We walked up the hillside where the homes are built and we could see first hand their architecture, their shingled houses and their windows with intricate lace curtains. Very pretty town (in summer).
We took pictures of many of these, what a variety, the houses with their very DISTINCTIVE color schemes. Lots of bright yellows, greens, Dodger blues, REDS!, Rockies purple and all other colors. A true rainbow of colors (but brighter).
Most homes had gardens and beautiful flowers. We found the St. Pierre Catholic Church, saw the fishing fleets and local people celebrating their 4th of July.
At this point, in the center of town and among all the revelers, we lost Bob and Susan. We found a bakery, had a ham and cheese croissant and a lemon meringue tart. Across the street, in the city center, the “chamber of commerce” was serving wine and little baguette slices with sausage. I enjoyed the July 14th festivities.
We saw Susan and Bob as they were leaving for the ship so we spoke to them and they suggested we see the Heritage Museum that had just opened. It was very informative as it gave the tourist a view of the life in St. Pierre. From the Prohibition days when liquor was shipped here to be transported to the US, the nuns who arrived to care for the sick and provided education, and the fishing that has been the staple trade of the area.
We walked back to the ship at 2:30, checked the e-mail, and then went back to the room to finish a few things. We were out in the veranda when the ship pulled out at 5 PM and saw the harbor pilot leave the Rotterdam and jump over to the accompanying boat. Quite a feat.
We showered and met Bob and Susan at the Crow’s Nest for a glass of wine and appetizers. At 8:15 we went to dinner. Soups, salads, entrees and desserts were delicious again.
We returned to our room at 10 PM where the beds had been turned down, chocolates were found on the pillows, and our room had been totally freshened-up. The crew works hard to please us. We will get back 30 minutes tonight. One of the few places in the world where the area does not change time by the hour but by 30 minutes. So tomorrow we will have 24:30 in our day.
ms Rotterdam
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