A week in Cherbourg

Usually after a long day, we spend the net day taking things easy. However, in Cherbourg, Wednesday is free museum day so we had to make the most of that. By the time we got going it was nearly 11 am therefore nearly lunch time and the French do like their lunch times. Even museums close so we decided to have a little wander. We mooched round to the of Cruise ship terminal, which is where the Titanic set off from. Inside there was a free exhibition of various little subs. They were quite interesting and John knew a few of them as they were relating to diving. When we had finished it was still hot and as mad dogs and Englishmen we went back to the boat for lunch and a break.

By the time we got going again we knew we would only get to one museum so decided to go to the Liberation Museum. As we were near the Tourist Information Office we went for directions, you can see it from here she said pointing out of the window. It's where the French Flag is.

Take my word for it there is a French Flag at the top of that very large hill.

Can I just say it was a very large and steep hill and one of the hottest days yet. You know it's steep as you go up via hair pin bends. Let's just say I was glowing! Never mind said I when we get there we'll start off at the café said I. Guess what no café. not even a vending machine.  It was a very interesting museum with superb views from the outside.

There aren't many walks as such round Cherbourg, we had been really spoilt for choice at Yarmouth where we stepped out of the boat and could literally go in any direction. (Well apart from the sea bit.)
As is our want we did go for various walks on the coast, but you have to do a lot of road walking to get anywhere.

Cherbourg is a pleasant town and we enjoyed wandering down, however now we've done a week there I wouldn't need to stay as long next time. We enjoyed the marina and did a lot of relaxing, the weather was extremely hot all week.

Every week day morning groups of children went out on boats. I think it was part of the school curriculum, the boats varied according to age of the children. The youngest were in little sail boats with bright green sails. They were towed out and it was lovely to see and hear the excited chatter of the children. Once the lesson was over they came back under their own steam. There were two children in each of the fourteen boats and one would paddle back and the other steered. There was one power boat at the front and one at the back. We really enjoyed watching this each day apart from the last day. The children coming back coincided with some yachts coming in, most yachts were very sensible as the children had to pass by the entrance to the visitors pontoon. I'm sad to say the one yacht that wasn't sensible was a British Yacht. They very nearly hit two of the little boats, all they had to do was slow down and let them pass. The man at the back of the children was shouting to the yacht to watch out. He couldn't get near as he was at the back of the group behind another pontoon. As soon as he could he approached the British yacht, who by this time was coming down the pontoon area. Did you not see the boats he asked. They were in our way replied the lady. Are you mad asked the French man as he drove away. I was totally ashamed of their attitude and felt they let so many people down and gave all of us a bad name. (Excuse lack of punctuation on direct speech.)

On a happier note our French neighbours needed our help as they wanted to change their booking at Yarmouth, however they couldn't understand the answer machine and the options. They were able to explain to me what they wanted and I navigated the options on the answer machine and managed to explain to Yarmouth what was wanted. I just hope it all worked when they got to the Isle of Wight.

Washing the boat down.

We also had the opportunity to speak to people on other boats and discuss passage plans to the channel islands.

Our initial plan was to go to Alderney but it looked as if the weather was against us as the pilot book warned against going in a strong North Easterly and guess what was forecast.