11/01/2014 – Written by LuAnn Lisell

Our final included excursion was a tour of the city of Bordeaux. Earlier in the week we had an evening “illuminations” bus tour of the city. Lovely!! Bordeaux is very metropolitan, in an old world setting. It is a clean, safe feeling city. However, we were encouraged to keep valuables close, to discourage pickpockets. 

The city is encouraging residents to clean the outside facades. This encouragement has an incentive of a monetary fine, if not completed. Notice the sign “earth friendly no air conditioning”. You can tell the lower merchant part of the building has been cleaned, however, the upper residential facade, has not.

Our guided tour lasted about 3 hours. It included tastings of cheese, cream puffs (unbelievably good!!) and chocolates. Who needs lunch after all that? 

We went to a local supermarket and our guide, Martin, showed us how the shopping carts are assembled. They take up very little space unassembled. You can use the basket alone, for small items, or you can create a cart. Starting with the base, you have the option to add one basket, or two. Interesting! 

There are many great squares with park areas, shops and restaurants. The tree was planted in one of the squares in the same place that the guillotine used to be. YIKES!! 

After our tour, we had the option to go back to the ship, or continue exploring on our own. We found the city fascinating, so we chose to stay another 2 1/2 hours. We visited the Grand Hotel, wandered through the streets and did a little shopping. 

There is a tram that easily transported us to the city centre and back to the ship. It’s certainly a walkable distance to the ship, but after 5 1/2 hours of walking around the city, we were happy to take the tram. 

Tonight we had our final wine tasting and Farewell dinner on the River Royale 🙁   I’m ready to plan my next Uniworld adventure. I loved having everything included. Airport transfers, all beverages, shore excursions and gratuities. And they called me by name and knew my room number the second day. My job was to relax and enjoy. Anyone interested in joining me for my next adventure??