Day 13 - Saturday 6th May

When we woke up, it was another cool morning. They were plenty of dark clouds around and the ground was wet. I found out later that there had been a lot of rain overnight including a violent thunderstorm. I'd slept through it all.

This morning, Suzy and I were going on different excursions. I was doing a walking tour of Bordeaux while she was doing a culinary experience.

My walking tour started at 9:30am with the buses taking us to the centre of town. We walked from the town hall past other buildings, plazas and monuments. The highlight of the tour was the main cathedral.

While we were listening to our guide outside the cathedral, we heard a commotion from the other end of the plaza. There was a man working towards us yelling. He was only short but he could have been of middle eastern appearance.

Some in our group looked anxious but none of the locals seemed to be taking any notice. He walked past us yelling at who knows who and turned the corner and walked off still yelling into space.

I found out later that the other group had seen him in a different part of the city that morning too. Perhaps he is just the local nutter.

The tour guide left us to do our own thing before the bus took us back to the boat. I decided to join Beris and Ian for a coffee in an open-air coffee shop in a large plaza under large umbrellas - a very European setting. A man came and sat down at an adjacent table with his Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

I'd worn my spray jacket in case of rain but I needn't have worried because it didn't rain and it was sunny a lot of the time. By the middle of the day, the temperature was up to almost 20C.

There were no scheduled activities after lunch. Suzy went back into the centre of Bordeaux to the famous shopping street. This street is more than 1km long and is claimed to be the longest shopping street in France.

I decided to walk to the wine museum (La Cite du Vin) which is about 1km west of where the boat is moored.

It was a very pleasant walk along the bank of the river. The buildings are set back well away from the river. So there is plenty of room for pedestrians and cyclists as well as the tram and the road.

The museum is in a new ultra modern building on the banks of the river. It has an amazing array of exhibits over three levels. Its use of modern high-tech is incredible. I only spent about an hour there but it would be possible to spend many hours there taking it all in.

At 5:30pm, there was an oyster tasting event. I don't eat oysters but Suzy loves them.

Suzy had booked herself in for a therapeutic massage on the lower level at 12 noon and she'd made an appointment for me at 6pm. I got changed into undies and the supplied gown and headed downstairs. Paula the masseur did a great job of giving me a back and shoulder massage.

I got back upstairs in time for Tania's talk about tomorrow's activities followed by dinner. There was another singer after dinner. Great atmosphere to end another great day on board.

Before heading back to our room, I went up onto the top deck to take photos of the scenery along the river.