Brest

We docked this morning at 09:00 at Brest France. After anchoring last night off the coast, we met the pilot, entered the harbor and pulled in at at the French Navy base. It took an extraordinary amount of time before we could get off due to the fact we couldn't use our own gangway The tides are too high here so the Navy had to move their gangway in with a crane.

We finally got off the ship at 12:30 and headed to town. It was a long walk to get off the base and almostthe same distance to town. It wasn't too bad because the weather was cool and cloudy. Certainly a change from Malta.

The town is pleasant enough. I expected worse. A nice complex of medieval buildings at the town entrance and the new constrution not as bad as I was led to expect. The only problem was they are ripping up the entire main street of the city to make a new boulevard with a light rail running down the center.

Captain Stephens and I had a great dinner at a French restaurant with the cooperation of a very patient waiter who spoke some English. After dinner we hit some of the local shops before they closed. Everything in Europe closes so darn early.

The tour to the coastal towns, that I was supposed to take today, was cancelled due to lack of interest. Too bad, it looked good. The Normandy trips for Saturday and Sunday are both still on. They were very popular. Both are full. I decided to go Sunday. Since it won't be back until late, I probably won't be able to post any pics until I get home 2 weeks from tomorrow. I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. I may head 60 miles south to Quimper where there is a Celtic festival going on. It looks cool. We will see. Au Revoir for now.