We
arrived in Toulon, France at 7 AM. It
wasn't quite light when I noticed the vibration difference aboard the
ship. From our side of the ship I could
see the city of Toulon across the bay.
Gerri had read that there was a fee for a boat ride to Toulon and I
wrongly thought we were moored, when actually we were along the side of a dock
on the starboard side. We called room
service for coffee and juice and enjoyed that while we got ready for the
day. The sky was overcast and the sun
was never out enough to cast shadows. We
knew that pictures were going to be of questionable quality today.
I
checked and there was a cache just .17 miles away. We went to the Horizon Court and had breakfast
just before the breakfast part of the buffet was closing down. I was disappointed with the quality of the
food. Gerri found some taco shells and
taco ingredients abut we were running out of time for our tour time. She nearly had to wolf down her food. We met in the Symphony Dining Room and were
divided into groups to accommodate the bus capacities. Our tour took us from the port to a small
town called Sanary. We had some time to
walk around but many of the shops and the fish market were closed. The streets and roads were narrow and the
buses had no place to park, instead they blocked streets when loading and unloading. After we were turned loose I located a cache
on my GPSR and went to find it. I was successful
and now have logged a geocache in France.
After
loading up in Sanary we traveled to another bay along a coast road, that town
of Bendol. In the harbors of both Sanary
and Bendol there were many colorful boats of various sizes and it was a shame
the lighting wouldn't do them Justice. I
tried to locate a cache in Bendol but couldn't find my way to the Quay where it
was hidden. There were a lot of shops open in Bendol, Gerri bought some souvenirs
before we re-boarded the buses. We took
a major highway back to the harbor and were back at the ship by 5 PM.
We
drove very near to the cache that was closest to the ship but it was outside
the secure entrance to the ship dock.
Since we were close to sailing time and there was a long line to get
back on the ship, I choose not to walk there and try to find it.
After
we got back to our cabin Gerri went to the Horizon Court and brought cheese and
crackers back to the room. We lounged
around for awhile and started getting ready for dinner. We choose to eat at traditional seating and
meet the others assigned to our table.
We had a great meal and then went to a late show in the Princess
Theater. The show featured a former
member of the Lettermen group, Mark Preston.
He put on a good show and we enjoyed the old songs.
When
we check e-mail and FaceBook, I had no further information on the circumstances
of my cousin Eddie's death Eddie was seriously injured in the late 60's while
in the Air Force and has suffered from complications from those injuries ever
since. He was also diabetic and had all
the problems attendant with that disease.
When we visited him a few weeks ago he was hospitalized overnight after
a routine colonoscopy and released with further tests scheduled. He was also scheduled for a hernia repair procedure.
We still don't know what the cause of his death was. Ed and I were raised by our mothers and lived
most of ort childhoods with them and our grandparents. We were raised more like
brothers than cousins. Even though he
was a little more than a year older than me, Ed and I were always in the same
grades in school. We were hunting and
fishing buddies and nearly constant companions.
He joined the Air Force shortly after we graduated from High School and
was married not long after that to his first wife. After a year in college in West Virginia I
moved with my mother and stepfather to southern California. Ed and I very little contact until after he
was injured and returned to Charleston in the late 60's. After moving to California, I didn't go back
to Charleston until 1979. After that Ed
and his current wife, Lottie, kept in pretty close touch. We became close again and we made serval
trips and visited them over the years, especially after I retired. The long and short of it is that I will miss
him very much.
I
Digress. We returned to our room at
about 11:30 and were in bed by 12:30. I
didn't book any shore excursions in Florence or Pisa. The port is Livorno and I hope I downloaded
caches near enough to the ship to walk to.
Tomorrow has a high chance of rain and we were told that there is a big
bicycle race in Pisa and traffic will be hectic.
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