On the South Coast of England, Life Goes On

Here on the Minerva II, we got word of the bombings in London around noontime today, but so far everyone seems to be taking the news in stride -- even though we're scheduled to visit London starting on Saturday and fly out of there on Monday. The three travel directors on board from Alumni Holidays International, with whom many of us booked this cruise, are on top of the situation and trying to decide how to alter our itinerary (if at all) in light of the events in London. When we got back on the ship after the afternoon excursions, there was an information sheet in each of our rooms letting us know that they're monitoring the situation and that, at the moment, they intend to continue the tour as planned. Our hotel in London is near Scotland Yard and is in an area where security has always been high -- plus, in the aftermath of the bombings, we all figure that security in London will be especially high.

In the meantime, life goes on ... and today was a terrific day. I spent the morning poking around the town of Dartmouth, catching a ride on a small motorboat over to Dartmouth Castle and then coming back later to explore the streets and shops of the town. The motorboat driver had lots of questions for me about the cruise ship -- what is the itinerary, how many people are on board, where is the ship's port of registry, etc. Several other people I encountered in town and at the castle saw the Swan Hellenic cruise line tag on my camera bag and said, "Ooooh, you're from the cruise ship!" You would have thought Elvis had just docked in town or something. Apparently they get only about one cruise ship per month around here, and the Minerva II has never been here before.

A sign at Dartmouth Castle said that it was the inspiration for Chaucer's "A Shipman's Tale." You've all read lots of Chaucer, of course? (Right -- me neither.)

In town, I saw a church that was built in 1286, and a store called the Harbour Bookshop that had a sign in the window saying it had been opened in 1951 by Christopher Robin Milne -- son of A.A. Milne. "We carry a wide variety of Winnie the Pooh items," the sign advertised.

In the afternoon, a bunch of us went up to Dartmoor National Park for a walk across the moor. A British passenger on the ship this morning asked me if I had read "Hound of the Baskervilles," which is set at Dartmoor. "If the mist rolls in," she said, "watch out." I'm happy to report that the mist did *not* roll in during our walk. More about our walk in my next posting.

Oh, and by the way, those Pilgrims came over in 1620, not 1692 as I mentioned in a previous post. I *told* you that my facts can be shaky at times! :-)