Monday, 29 May 2023
London, England

I arrived in London last night after a short flight from Amsterdam. I am staying at a different hotel than the one I listed in my original itinerary--I will give more details when the blog catches up. But first I must return to my final days on the Zuiderdam with a visit to Le Havre and Dover.

Friday, 26 May 2023
Le Havre, France

The first time I visited this well-known port on northern France's Atlantic coast was on my very first transatlantic cruise on HAL's ms Eurodam (still one of my favorite HAL ships), in Spring 2009. My reaction then was that it was one of the ugliest cities in Europe. And although there have been some improvements, Le Havre still does not offer much to entice the tourist to visit--with one exception that I will describe later.

Since I went on the best shore excursion when I was here previously--a visit to the marvelous port town less than one hour south, Honfleur--there is no excursion I wish to join today. So I sleep late and enjoy a leisurely breakfast in the Dining Room. There is a shuttle bus from the port to the center of the city (for €s), but the waiting line is so long I decide to take a taxi. The taxi delivers me to the heart of the city, les Halles 

Centrale food market, adjacent to the Place General de Gaulle, with its war memorials and landmark brutalist architecture of Oscar Niemeyer (Brazilian, 1907-2012).

Les Halles Market

Place General de Gaulle

Oscar Niemeyer's "Les Volcano" Cultural Center

There is very little of historic interest left in Le Havre, since it was blanket-bombed by both the Nazis and the Allies during WWII. Unfortunately, when the city was rebuilt after the war, the  administrative powers chose the brutalist style that emerged from Germany and Italy. The result is block after block of uniform low-rise square and rectangular architecture without relief. Occasionally the uniformity will be broken by either a rectangular tower rising from a rectangular base (for example, the City Hall and the Protestant Cathedral), or the magnificent folly of Niemeyer's "les Volcano."

Protestant Cathedral Tower

Hotel d'Ville (City Hall)

There are some lovely flowers on display in front of the City Hall. As I continue my walk, I need to find a bathroom. I decide a local Burger King is my best bet (public toilets charge a fee)--and it has a very nice free bathroom indeed.

Now that I have taken care of one bodily need, I must satisfy another--hunger. And since this is France, I look for a good close-by local bistro. I find L'Eau Tarie, with interesting reviews on Google Maps (which works quite well on my iPhone, even without a wifi connection). And it's only a short walk from City Hall and Burger King. The restaurant is crowded with locals, but the helpful waiter, who speaks excellent English, finds me a solo table, where I fully enjoy salmon rillettes, very tender flank steak with frites, and a cold beer--all for a very reasonable price.

I continue my walk south toward the cruise port, which I can see in the distance, stopping at the Le Havre Cathedral (Roman Catholic), one of the few antique buildings to survive the devastation of the war. It was built during the 16th and 17th centuries; the bell tower dates from 1520. 

A little further on my walk ends at the one very special site that Le Havre offers:  MUMA, the Musée d'art moderne André Malraux, probably the finest museum of 19th- and 20th-century art outside of Paris. In addition to its permanent collection of the major Impressionist painters, the museum hosts important temporary exhibitions.

It's now time to return to the Zuiderdam. Although I can see the ship looming like a giant over the port, I know from experience that it's not an easy walk (I did the walk in 2009, when both my legs were the same length). I ask the museum receptionist to order a taxi for me, which is scheduled to pick me up in 15 minutes in front of the museum. Well . . .15 minutes go by, then 20, then 45--and still no taxi. So walk again I must the very uninteresting 45 minute walk back to the ship.