Cruise Part I

It occurred to me as I was sitting on the sundeck of the Viking Vidar that it’s too bad all the passengers shared grey hair in common. This is an experience that younger people should enjoy as it’s the living history of another civilization that puts one’s own history into perspective. In America, we have 200 years of history; in Europe, there are literally thousands of years of history on display, including a series of castles that we either cruised by or stopped and toured. Walking where the footsteps of others had walked centuries before was at least thought-provoking.

The cruise began with a land tour, two days in Paris. The tour buses took us past the most prominent places, including the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the left bank of the river, and many, many more. It provided a quick snapshot of all the scenes people associate with Paris, but we did stop and tour Notre Dame. My reaction to the glass pyramid at the Louvre is ... why? It is so totally anachronistic and out of place that I now understand the reaction of the Parisians to this monstrosity.

As we toured this first day, we saw that there was a race/walk along the Seine. It is estimated that 30 thousand people participated – and I believe that number as we saw walls of people along the route as we toured the city. It was a “color” run/walk, so each kilometer was a different color of chalk that was thrown out onto the participants, who were covered in a rainbow of colors when they finished the event. In addition, there were bicycle riders, both adults and children, sharing the fun.

But what really stays in my memory is the dinner we had at a restaurant close to the hotel. The tables are arranged quite close to one another, so when we (Nadine and I) were shown our seats, it was as if we were sharing the table with another woman sitting right next to Nadine. The waiter brought her a cheese tray with wine, then some muscles with more wine, then bread and wine, then her dinner and wine, and, finally, her dessert. This was a woman of small stature, so I don’t know where she put all this food or why she isn’t the size of a small cruise ship herself!

I talk to anyone anywhere about anything, so I asked her if she was Parisian, to which she said yes. It turned out that she knew a little bit of English and Nadine remembered a little bit of French, so we “talked” about Paris a bit. It was interesting to find out about her life and to share a bit of ours.
This was the first, but certainly not the last time, of meeting people in places during the 10 days that served to show just how much we have in common, rather than how much we are different.