Sunday 5 October 2014

Portland and a change of plan.

Saturday saw us in Portland, Maine.  A great fire in 1866 virtually levelled the city, and which is the reason why the old part of the city is now made up of restored Victorian communal buildings and warehouses.

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The city was clean but uninspiring, and with drizzle most of the time, we spent a couple of hours in a very welcoming bar using the free internet and chatting with Joseph, one of the ships waiters.

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Portland is famous for lobsters and the birthplace of poet Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow.  Here’s a photo of a bronze commemorating the lobster fishermen (and Doug).  We didn’t walk far enough to discover any connection with Longfellow!

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We’ve seen more attractive red brick Victorian buildings ……..

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……….but the old Custom House still stands quite proud.

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At lunchtime Doug treated himself to clam chowder  ……

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….. before we wandered back to the home comforts of “Arcadia”.

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Due to the inclement weather our traditional sail-away party was not very well attended but those of us that were there enjoyed ourselves.

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This is a panorama of our last look at Portland (with “Grandeur of the Seas”, which came in just after us, still in port).

On Sunday morning we were awoken by the captain with a report that we were unable to safely approach our next port of call, Bar Harbor, due to thick fog. Unfortunately we don’t have a picture of thick fog but, apart from the fact that Doug was looking forward to a lunch of lobster (they’re even fresher in Bar Harbor than Portland) AND we needed some more toothpaste, the unplanned sea day was a bit of a bonus.  We’ve had so many busy port days in succession this extra sea day gave us time to get our breath back.

We have had an enjoyable day on board entering a music quiz, enjoying a lecture on the heritage of P&O which was fascinating, continued by spending a few hours with Joe the ships pianist in the Rising Sun, and this afternoon Doug has been hosting an unscheduled whist drive.  A busy day in the end!!

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