We enjoy cruising and it is interesting to see other ships and private yachts on our travels.
Elysian, the private yacht of John W Henry, the owner of Boston Red Sox and Liverpool FC, berthed by the cruise terminal on the Garonne River in the centre of the French city of Bordeaux
Whilst we were in Bordeaux recently this luxury private yacht was berthed close to our ship.
Needless to say Bordeaux in one of the main wine centres of France and whilst on a walk around the city I came across this display of wine bottle sizes in a shop in Passage Sarget.
Wine bottles on display in Passage Sarget in Bordeaux, France show the different sizes of bottles that can be purchased
In 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic struck our holiday plans were put on hold. We had a cruise booked which sadly was cancelled for us. However, rather than get our money back we decided to take a Future Cruise Credit with Oceania, the cruise line. We had to book a cruise by the end of 2021 to take by the end of 2022.
We choose a round trip from Southampton visiting several ports in France and two in northern Spain. It was a 10 night cruise leaving on 3 June and returning on 13 June. Overall it was worth getting away from home for more than 2 nights in a row. The weather was mixed but going early season was probably to be expected.
Our ship was Sirena, one of 8 ships originally built for the now defunct Renaissance Cruise Line. Oceania operate 4 of these ships while Azamara operate the other four. Having sailed with Azamara a number of times we are used to the size and layout these ships. We had an overnight stay in Bordeaux and as we sailed out Insignia one of Sirena’s sister ships was sailing up the Garonne river. We had sailed on Insignia on our previous Oceania cruise from Miami to New York in 2018.
Oceania Cruise’s MS Insignia makes her way up the Garonne River to berth in the French city of Bordeaux. Images taken from her sister ship MS Sirena as she leaves Bordeaux en route to Bilbao, Spain in June 2022