The Daily for Monday May 31, 2021

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

On another visit to Marseille, we wanted to take the boat out to tour the Chateau D'If, but unfortunately, it was closed for repairs.  Instead, we took the boat to Les Iles and wandered around for a while.

 

I thought the name of the boat was very appropriate, Edmond Dantes.

 

We got a close up view of the Chateau D'If on the way back to the Vieux Port.

 

And this stunning view of Notre-Dame de la Garde as we cruised into the Vieux Port.

 

Just a few pictures from our day in Marseille in 2019.  We took the Ho-Ho, and then walked in the area that was several blocks back from the Vieux Port.

 

The area in front of the Vieux Port that used to be an open area.

 

Different scenes of Marseille

 

Lenda

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by Quartzsite Cruiser

[rafinmd]

5 hours ago, Vict0riann said:

Thanks for the birthday greetings for Pat.  He has gone off to golf after I cooked him a big breakfast (not something I ordinarily do).  It will be his last meal for some time!  The jell-o is prepared and chicken and beef broth bought, along with apple juice and ginger ale.  So the liquid diet is ready for him...

Interesting how much variability there is in the protocols.  I had my first colonoscopy back in 2013.  After a very miserable prep I went in and was not clean enough and I had to go back a second time a couple weeks later.  Still not great but it worked and I put an episode I really hated behind me.

 

Fast forward many years and at my checkup December 2019 the Doctor started pressuring me to get another.  I really resisted but he countered "will you at least do a Colaguard?{stool based DNA test).  I agreed to that and it turned out positive.  When the results came back it was barely 2 weeks before my 2020 world cruise.  I couldn't get it done before leaving but scheduled it for right after I was due to return.  I was stunned when I got home and looked at the detailed instructions.  Not only no food the day before the test but I had to discontinue salads and nuts a full week before the test, a couple of days before I was supposed to disembark QM2. 

Of course I came home (not my choice) a month early but by then all elective procedures were on hold due to the pandemic.  The test was further deferred from early May to early July.  The week before the test was miserable but at least was negative.

The kicker was while the test was the result of a false positive, the prescription was for another Colaguard in 3 years.

 

Roy

[Seasick Sailor]

5 hours ago, DeeniEncinitas said:

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

Marseille is like home for us! As a child it was a place that was easy to go to on the train from Nice. I have some sun rises and sunsets from our last time there in 2018 on my phone. Also I wanted to show you where my away home is in Nice. We usually stay here prior to any cruises. 
Sunrise of Notre Dame  Marseille ❤️

🌺Sunset

🌺What is fun is taking the little train to the top and enjoy the church and the views.

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

Here is pictures of our place in Nice.

 

 

 

🌺🌺 Really cold late September!

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

Here’s my little kitchen BUT it is very functional! See my washer dryer combo👍

 

 

Our favorite market!

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAY🌴

Denise😊

 

Sweet sister, your pictures could have been our apartment in Budapest on Vaci Utca. I love our apartment! Just down from the For Sale Bar and the market place. We love Nice as well. Traveled for years by car and train thru France. It's our favorite country.  Deciding whether to rent a place for a few months in France, Croatia, Czech Republic, or Italy this year.. Going to trace the virus.

[highscar]

interesting.  I’m in the 80’s waiting. . 

1 hour ago, superoma said:

My daughter waited in the online queue for Windsor Essex health unit for my dad. They were not taking phone calls. My husband is going to a medical clinic on the east side.they were advertising moderna shots and he just called this am for his appointment. I will wait until june 14 when I will be able to call for my second shot. Right now the health unit is doing a waitlist for 70+ but it was full today. If you get on that you have to wait for them to call you because you don’t really have an appointment until they call you. 

 

On 5/23/2021 at 4:12 PM, ger_77 said:

If you're doing laundry by the bag, it's $20 per bag, not $10.  Still a bargain because it's a cloth bag, not a paper that will easily tear.

 

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

 

[kochleffel]

(1) The split-bamboo fencing has been sealed. I had about twice the length that I need, but I sealed only what I'm going to use now.

 

(2) For tomorrow: clear-coating a metal wall ornament for the fence outside the kitchen window.

(3) I finally made the glazed carrots that I was talking about last week -- the end of a bag of rainbow carrots, one white, one orange, two yellow. The impetus was planning to buy more in my next shopping trip.

[dfish]

3 hours ago, kazu said:

 

It really is a fabulous itinerary.  I’m not a cold weather person - we get enough of that - but I have to see it so.  Besides, it won’t be that different from the spring we’ve had this year.  Worst I can remember in decades.

 

The first time I went in June.   Sometimes it was cold and sometimes it wasn't.   I wasn't as cold as I thought I would be at North Cape.   The coldest was on the aft deck when they did the polar plunge, but that was because the ship was moving and it was windy.   In the fjords it isn't as cold as you would expect because they are so protected.  It was kind of fun when the captain announced, "And tonight's sunset will be next Tuesday."   I did get up at midnight and went out on the deck to take pictures.  It wasn't cold at all.  The sun was shining brightly and it was so cool.  

[dfish]

@rafinmd Your colonoscopy woes are similar to mine.   Cologuard has a pretty high false positive rate.  But, better that than the opposite.  The directions for prep must change by location as well because mine didn't say anything about giving up salads and stuff the week before.   

 

@Vict0riann Happy Birthday to Pat!

 

@smitty34877 What wonderful news about Tana.  I hope she is getting help at home and doesn't overdo it.  Is her son back home with her or is he still with you?

 

@StLouisCruisers Yes, I do like the cool weather ports.  Maybe when I'm older I'll consider a Caribbean cruise so I can sit at the beach or by the pool all day.   I can do that for a day and then I'm done.  

 

 

[Happily@Sea]

Never been to Marseille, but have seen a lot of SW France. Prinsendam took us to Le Havre and Cherbourg on our 2016 TA.

 

I carry ear plugs with me at all times I am away from home, I already have tinnitus and don't need to be having to leave venues because the noise factor [when it can be controlled] is too loud. 

 

They keep promising rain, but it goes on all sides of us [and not much at that] our lawns are crackling due no rain and high winds drying them out. Tomorrow is June - maybe No FL will finally get rain. Promising rain for the whole week. We'll see. Not holding my breath waiting.

 

Memorial Day was Decoration Day when I was young, Clean up the old flowers and plant new ones at all our local relatives' graves. Only lost 1 uncle in the war, but never met him, he was killed in Germany when I was about 8 months old.

Edited May 31, 2021 by Happily@Sea

[kazu]

7 minutes ago, dfish said:

 

The first time I went in June.   Sometimes it was cold and sometimes it wasn't.   I wasn't as cold as I thought I would be at North Cape.   The coldest was on the aft deck when they did the polar plunge, but that was because the ship was moving and it was windy.   In the fjords it isn't as cold as you would expect because they are so protected.  It was kind of fun when the captain announced, "And tonight's sunset will be next Tuesday."   I did get up at midnight and went out on the deck to take pictures.  It wasn't cold at all.  The sun was shining brightly and it was so cool.  

 

Thanks 🙂 

 

I’m not too worried.  It gets pretty cold here and from what I have seen so far it will be above 0 (above freezing) so it’s not that cold for us 😉 

The sun will definitely be interesting.  

[Mr. Boston]

10 hours ago, StLouisCruisers said:

Next was a drive through Bonnieux.  I recall the narrow road along a cliff.  Lovely views from there.

Your photos are beautiful and are killing me. Our friends don’t live far from Bonnieux and we were supposed to be visiting them last June.  Thank you much for sharing!

[StLouisCruisers]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Boston said:

Your photos are beautiful and are killing me. Our friends don’t live far from Bonnieux and we were supposed to be visiting them last June.  Thank you much for sharing!

 

You're welcome!  I have a million photos so it's nice to share a few here several times a week.  😁

[StLouisCruisers]

16 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

Thanks 🙂 

 

I’m not too worried.  It gets pretty cold here and from what I have seen so far it will be above 0 (above freezing) so it’s not that cold for us 😉 

The sun will definitely be interesting.  

 

You're gonna have a great time!  Speaking of photos we took this one at 11:50 pm looking at North Cape.  Next day was Honningsvag.

 

A closer look.  You can see the tourists who camp at North Cape standing at the rail watching the Prinsendam go around in circles.  A good time was had by all!

[bennybear]

4 hours ago, kazu said:

 

It really is a fabulous itinerary.  I’m not a cold weather person - we get enough of that - but I have to see it so.  Besides, it won’t be that different from the spring we’ve had this year.  Worst I can remember in decades.

You may be pleasantly surprised!   We had decent weather in September in Norway,  even better in Alaska in July,  so one day give that a try!  We had 80 degree days! 

[bennybear]

5 hours ago, AncientWanderer said:

 

You've posted so many beautiful photos of Japan that will probably keep us working on it!

We have booked a big Japan trip now four times, including planned out all our port stops.  We had some unexpected grand babies in there and then the pandemic.  But still hopeful!! 😊

That’s like me and Tahiti!  Four times booked, le sigh!  
Fingers crossed for you! 

[kazu]

1 minute ago, bennybear said:

You may be pleasantly surprised!   We had decent weather in September in Norway,  even better in Alaska in July,  so one day give that a try!  We had 80 degree days! 

Wow.  Good to hear. 

We’ll prepare for the worst and revel if it’s better.  Layers and no Birks, I’m afraid.  Oh well.  The sacrifices one has to make 😉 😂 

[kazu]

15 minutes ago, StLouisCruisers said:

 

You're gonna have a great time!  Speaking of photos we took this one at 11:50 pm looking at North Cape.  Next day was Honningsvag.

 

A closer look.  You can see the tourists who camp at North Cape standing at the rail watching the Prinsendam go around in circles.  A good time was had by all!

 

You can picture us there.  We’re going to North Cape when we get to Honningsvag.

[bennybear]

4 hours ago, kazu said:

 

OH the D Day beaches of Normandy.  That was one of the most moving experiences of my life, I think.  Of course we went to the Canadian beaches.  My dad was there for D day.  

The sight of all of the Canadian flags flying in Normandy, the way the cemeteries were kept so immaculately, Canada House that led the D Day troops to the beaches which somehow remained standing, the horror of what our soldiers went through.  It was so moving.

Georgina (gigianne) who is a true card artist made us gorgeous poppies to wear for the day and many of us left one at Canada House, on a grave, etc in remembrance.  We wore them proudly on that day. 

 

 

 

 

 

Such a moving place,  I cried the whole day, and our daughter who had just graduated high school was stunned by the ages of the young Canadians.      It brought her Social Studies alive.  
 

I’m not sure what Canada House is, is that the new museum?  When we were there ages ago,  there was just the Caen war museum.  

[rafinmd]

39 minutes ago, dfish said:

@rafinmd Your colonoscopy woes are similar to mine.   Cologuard has a pretty high false positive rate.  But, better that than the opposite.  The directions for prep must change by location as well because mine didn't say anything about giving up salads and stuff the week before.  

I wonder if each practice has it's own rules.

 

Roy

[bdrcole]

6 minutes ago, bennybear said:

I’m not sure what Canada House is,

 

 

 

https://www.veterans.gc.ca/pdf/remembrance/information-for/educators/d-day/canada-house-handout-ENG.pdf

 

For over 90 years, a grand two-storey home has sat alone on a beach in the village of Bernières-sur-Mer, in Normandy, France, looking toward England across the English Channel.

It wasn’t built by Canadians, and Canadians don’t own it. But on June 6, 1944, it became a part of Canadian military history. On that day, it was the first house to be liberated during Operation Overlord, the Allied military operation to try to liberate France.

Determined to end four years of war, on that stormy morning in June, Canadians—along with British and American troops—invaded the coast of France that had been occupied by German army. The Canadians came to France on airplanes and then parachuted in, or they came ashore on boats at a beach that had been code named “Juno.” Within 20 minutes of landing on the beach, the soldiers of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada (a regiment from Toronto, Ontario) had opened fire, pushing out the German soldiers who had claimed the house as their own. A French-Canadian unit, Le Régiment de la Chaudière, soon joined the fight to assist

The house became a landmark for the troops because almost every Canadian that landed on Juno Beach at that time saw the large, timber home as they came onto the beach from their boats. Miraculously, the home survived the war.

 

Sadly, more than 100 Canadians were killed on the beach in front of the home during the first few minutes of the battle.

One month after the soldiers had landed on Juno Beach, several Canadian men from the Queen’s Own Rifles went back to Juno Beach to pay tribute to their friends who had died. The soldiers spent time remembering the friends they had lost at the beach. They went to lay flowers on the graves of friends who had died and were buried there. Here, they are pictured at the crosses in front of house on the beach.

Because of the house’s historic role, thousands of people still visit it each year. Now known as La Maison des Canadiens (in French) or Canada House (in English), it is a landmark that stands for the Canadian sacrifice in Normandy. It’s a place where people can remember the Canadians who helped liberate the people of France.

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by bdrcole

[bennybear]

2 hours ago, rafinmd said:

Interesting how much variability there is in the protocols.  I had my first colonoscopy back in 2013.  After a very miserable prep I went in and was not clean enough and I had to go back a second time a couple weeks later.  Still not great but it worked and I put an episode I really hated behind me.

 

Fast forward many years and at my checkup December 2019 the Doctor started pressuring me to get another.  I really resisted but he countered "will you at least do a Colaguard?{stool based DNA test).  I agreed to that and it turned out positive.  When the results came back it was barely 2 weeks before my 2020 world cruise.  I couldn't get it done before leaving but scheduled it for right after I was due to return.  I was stunned when I got home and looked at the detailed instructions.  Not only no food the day before the test but I had to discontinue salads and nuts a full week before the test, a couple of days before I was supposed to disembark QM2. 

Of course I came home (not my choice) a month early but by then all elective procedures were on hold due to the pandemic.  The test was further deferred from early May to early July.  The week before the test was miserable but at least was negative.

The kicker was while the test was the result of a false positive, the prescription was for another Colaguard in 3 years.

 

Roy

Ok, can’t resist,  just hope you can put this behind you!  

[cat shepard]

3 hours ago, durangoscots said:

I took a group of my college students to the American cemetery .... I will never forget their stunned silence. They were a subdued group of teenagers for quite awhile after.

 

Susan

 

It is so poignant. And there is no way to avoid the cost of that war when looking at that sea of crosses.
 

Military Cemetaries in the USA are the resting place of our heroes from many different wars. The cemeteries in Normandy are from one war. The closest feeling I experienced to Normandy - the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor and the 9-11 memorial in NYC.  Edited to add: the Viet Nam Memorial in DC.

 

Edited June 1, 2021 by cat shepard

[bennybear]

5 minutes ago, bdrcole said:

 

 

 

https://www.veterans.gc.ca/pdf/remembrance/information-for/educators/d-day/canada-house-handout-ENG.pdf

 

For over 90 years, a grand two-storey home has sat alone on a beach in the village of Bernières-sur-Mer, in Normandy, France, looking toward England across the English Channel.

It wasn’t built by Canadians, and Canadians don’t own it. But on June 6, 1944, it became a part of Canadian military history. On that day, it was the first house to be liberated during Operation Overlord, the Allied military operation to try to liberate France.

Determined to end four years of war, on that stormy morning in June, Canadians—along with British and American troops—invaded the coast of France that had been occupied by German army. The Canadians came to France on airplanes and then parachuted in, or they came ashore on boats at a beach that had been code named “Juno.” Within 20 minutes of landing on the beach, the soldiers of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada (a regiment from Toronto, Ontario) had opened fire, pushing out the German soldiers who had claimed the house as their own. A French-Canadian unit, Le Régiment de la Chaudière, soon joined the fight to assist

The house became a landmark for the troops because almost every Canadian that landed on Juno Beach at that time saw the large, timber home as they came onto the beach from their boats. Miraculously, the home survived the war.

 

Sadly, more than 100 Canadians were killed on the beach in front of the home during the first few minutes of the battle.

One month after the soldiers had landed on Juno Beach, several Canadian men from the Queen’s Own Rifles went back to Juno Beach to pay tribute to their friends who had died. The soldiers spent time remembering the friends they had lost at the beach. They went to lay flowers on the graves of friends who had died and were buried there. Here, they are pictured at the crosses in front of house on the beach.

Because of the house’s historic role, thousands of people still visit it each year. Now known as La Maison des Canadiens (in French) or Canada House (in English), it is a landmark that stands for the Canadian sacrifice in Normandy. It’s a place where people can remember the Canadians who helped liberate the people of France.

Thank you!   I now have a Slightly hazy memory! 

[smitty34877]

@dfish,Tana is home with her son and DD  and I  just got home from bringing them a full BBQ dinner. And dessert. She is letting  us help  which is not her usual way to be.

[kazu]

21 minutes ago, bennybear said:

Such a moving place,  I cried the whole day, and our daughter who had just graduated high school was stunned by the ages of the young Canadians.      It brought her Social Studies alive.  
 

I’m not sure what Canada House is, is that the new museum?  When we were there ages ago,  there was just the Caen war museum.  

 

Canada House is on the bank of the ocean in Normandy.   If you walk down a little street in Normandy you will find it on the bank (and a ton of Canadian flags everywhere) It’s not a museum but a house that was there and is part of Canadian military history.  The Allies used it to spot the landing site for D Day our guide told us.

 

Everything in that location was bombed or destroyed - except Canada House which stood as the beacon.  No one knows how or why it was missed.

 

To the best of my knowledge it is not open to anyone (or wasn’t when we were there) but there is a lovely memorial in front of it for it’s role and it is literally strewn with poppies all the time.  It is still standing to this day and treasured by the people of Normandy.  Here’s better info than I can provide:

 

https://www.veterans.gc.ca/pdf/remembrance/information-for/educators/d-day/canada-house-handout-ENG.pdf

 

Oops, should have read down not backwards.  I didn’t realize bdrcole had answered.  Apologies.

 

 

 

 

[bennybear]

5 minutes ago, cat shepard said:

It is so poignant. And there is no way to avoid the cost of that war when looking at that sea of crosses.
 

Military Cemetaries in the USA are the resting place of our heroes from many different wars. The cemeteries in Normandy are from one war. The closest feeling I experienced to Normandy - the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor and the 9-11 memorial in NYC. 

I was blown away by WW1 cemeteries in France as well,  there are German ones in France that have soldiers who were Jewish which surprised me.    I was in awe how well kept they were.   
We also visited Vimy Memorial and Verdun with a huge ossuary.   Just gives me such a sad feeling!    There is also a Huge American WW1 St Mihiel cemetery closer to Metz that was stunning.  
 

I agree about Pearl harbour and 9/11 museum.   We had been to the family memorial prior to the opening with a friend who lost a daughter that day,  and it was the saddest place!  But we need to remember no matter how difficult!