Bruges 2023 Guide

 Jean revisits Bruges, the capital of West Flanders in northwest Belgium near the cruise port of Zeebrugge. From there she takes the train on a two-for-one ticket! Arriving in Bruges 12 minutes later she cuts through the back doubles to Markt square. There she shows Historium, the view from the balcony, and climbs the 83m tower, a 13th-century belfry with a 47-bell carillon and shows the panoramic views. There is so much more from the Timescope, to the canal boat ride, to handmade shoes and the church of St Anna (Jesus's grandmother) which is worth seeing whatever your beliefs as the art is amazing.

Bruges City Hall is one of the oldest city halls in the whole of the Low Countries region. It is in Burg Square and dates back to the 1420s. The vaulted domes of the interiors and the murals painted by Albrecht De Vriendt are worth a look. The Church of the Spilled Blood is also known as the Basilica of the Holy Blood. It is in the corner of De Burg square, The Romanesque exteriors with filigreed windows and gold statues hide inside an ornate interior, ignored in favour of a cloth stained with the blood of Jesus Christ brought to Bruges after the Crusades in the 12th century. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote The Belfry of Bruges, “In the marketplace of Bruges stands the belfry old and brown; Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilt, still, it watches o'er the town.” That is because it burned down in 1280, 1491, and 1781. Three times.... so, forget that it was built in 1220, with additions in 1240.

The interior is not in our film, but the exterior of the Church of Our Lady Bruges is seen from the canal boat. Said to have the most striking architectural feature in Bruges, it also has the marble sculpture of Madonna and child by Michelangelo – the most prestigious piece of art in town. There are also paintings by Sir Anthony van Dyck and altarpiece triptychs. We will get to this next time. It goes to show how much there is to see in this small town. If you have time, Saint John’s Hospital (Hospitalmuseum) which was built in 1188 and pointed out from the canal tour, is now an art gallery. Originally a hospital for pilgrims run by nuns and monks from the 9th to 19th centuries, it now displays the works of Flemish artists.

The uCruise Podcast; join Jean and Stuart and see what they are up to in the world of cruising. See the cruise T-shirts in the onboard shop.

In Bruges it can appear that everything is made of chocolate.

Our fav choc shop is GOOGLE MAP TO CHOCOLATE AND HAPPINESS  

Gino says, "you can't buy happiness, but you can buy chocolate!" He should have been the 5th Beatle. Jean interviews Gino in his shop.

• 0:00 - Intro by Jean Heard
• 0:14 - Blankenberge
• 1:05 - Bruges tourist office
• 1:18 - Walk to Bruges
• 2:32 - Boat Tour Office
• 2:54 - Market Square
• 3:42 - Carillion in Belfry
• 4:30 - Dali Museum
• 4:59 - Historium
• 5:23 - Church of Spilled Blood
• 6:00 - Jan van Eyck
• 6:20 - Timescope
• 6:30 - Friet Museum
• 6:52 - Royal Municipal Theatre
• 7:02 - Chris Vos Handmade shoes
• 7:14 - Handbags
• 7:35 - St Anna's Church
• 8:25 - The Last Judgement
• 8:37 - Horsemen of the Apocalypse
• 8:48 - Church of Our Lady
• 9:10 - Canal Boat Tour 1
• 3:30 - Chocolate
• 14:25 - Chocolate & Happiness

SEE THE CRUISE BEFORE YOU CRUISE THE SEA.

Scary, ghostly, voodoo magic filled cruise ports

Trick or Treat or are the ghosts all year round? It appears the latter whether you aim at Boston or New Orleans. There was so much conflict creating America, that the ghosts still rumble on. Autumn is the time of year for spooky stories and Halloween cakes on the ships. The cinemas and television are filled with horror films and the nights this side of the globe get longer and darker. The podcast is here - https://play.acast.com/s/doris-visits/halloween

Halloween Cakes on the Azura

https://youtu.be/GwS1lOXUOPE

Podcast 3 is live and Stuart and Jean talk through what seems to be an endless list of ghost stories in Boston, which make up much of the tourist fodder. Stuart thinks that Boston is a spooky cruise port and with good reason. The ghost tours are normally at night, and cruisers have left, but as he joined the ship at Boston early (ships fly acts out a day early just in case) he considered a ghost tour, but he went to Cheers and then to Joe's instead.

https://youtu.be/AzySPeDMo88

The Boston bar that inspired the TV series “Cheers” was originally named the Bull and Finch Pub and was established in 1969. The Boston pub that inspired the fictional bar in the NBC sitcom, Cheers, is a bar in the Beacon Hill area. You go down below street level into the bar, then take the stairs up to a bar that looks more like the one in the TV series. Jean went there rather than complete all the spooky cemeteries on the trail available from the tourist office (mentioned in film).

Jean chose New Orleans as her spooky voodoo cruise stop. On the podcast, you will hear her and comedy magician Manuel Martinez going into the cigar factory. In the film, they saw far more. New Orleans has many stories from the Witch Queen to the contemporary Nicholas Cage who has bought his plot ready in cemetery number 1.

Who sang - The Witch Queen of New Orleans? Answer- Redbone.

https://youtu.be/ItrpcF1dJ14

For fireworks, Stuart chose Sydney Bridge as the one he thinks is the most spectacular. He and Jean climbed the tower to the top, had a spectacular view, and filmed those climbing over the bridge who are not allowed a camera and are alcohol tested before they climb. They were there on a leg of a world cruise which was weather struck and the ship sheltered in Sydney for three days. They have a few films made in Sydney from the beach to shops.

https://youtu.be/d-T9KhRd8oE

Finally, Stuart reads Chapter 3 from his cruise novel Cruise Ship Heist. For the audible trial click here

Christmas Markets and a look at some Pre-Christmas Cruise ideas.

 Strictly Come Dancing heralds a time of the year when the leaves fall, and the fuel bills defy gravity.

Boston. A historic and spooky city.

 Boston. A historic and spooky city.

Boston Massachusetts has a lot to offer. It is the subject of our Halloween podcast because it appears to have endless ghost stories.

Cruisers are likely to be dropped off at Quincy Market by the shuttle bus. Everything is nearby. The market is great for fast food, and there is a tribute bar to Cheers. The real one Jean takes you to later in the film.

Faneuil Hall, the Freedom Trail museum and lecture centre is through the market in the next building. The wharf is in the other direction. In our video guide, Jean eventually goes both ways, along the Wharf to the Tea Party Museum, and she starts the Freedom Trail before being distracted with finding the real Cheers bar.

0:00 Introduction by Jean

0:15 Quincey Market & Faneuil Hall

1:54 Paul Revere House

2:35 Clough House

2:46 Captain Jackson's Historic Chocolate shop

3:37 Edes & Gill Printing Office

5:33 Boston Common

5:40 Massachusetts State House

5:51 Cheers

6:32 Long Wharf

7:50 Boston Tea Party Museum

8:47 Joes

Jean takes you to the visitor's centre in Faneuil Hall run by The National Park Service. She then starts you on the Freedom Trail which is a 2.5-mile-long walk that passes by 16 locations. It is marked out largely with a winding brick line. It was the idea of local journalist William Schofield in 1951, and by 1953, 40,000 people were walking the trail annually. She dives off and finds Cheers then takes you along the Wharf for a very rounded film of Boston. Note, Boston is the subject of our Halloween Podcast (S1E03) because it is famous for its ghosts and ghoulies!

1. Boston Common
2. Massachusetts State House
3. Park Street Church
4. Granary Burying Ground
5. King's Chapel and Burying Ground
6. Benjamin Franklin statue and the former site of Boston Latin School
7. Old Corner Bookstore
8. Old South Meeting House
9. Old State House
10. Site of the Boston Massacre
11. Faneuil Hall
12. Paul Revere House
13. Old North Church and Clough House.
14. Copp's Hill Burying Ground
15. USS Constitution
16. Bunker Hill Monument

Boston

Boston Common

Bunker Hill Monument

Cheers

Faneuil Hall

Freedom Trail

Granary Burying Ground

Long Wharf

Massachusetts

Paul Revere

St Kitts Guide

 ▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - St Kitts Port 1:24 - St Kitts Beach by Taxi 2:23 - St Kitts Shipwreck Shack 3:02 - St Kitts Town 4:15 - St Kitts Church Tower (view) 6:00 - Local Fishermen 6:36 - Brimstone Fortress 10:45 - Beach Boat Trip St Kitts is one of the most popular Caribbean islands to draw people seeking the sun. This St Kitts Guide covers the port, and the town with a view from the church tower, the beach by taxi, the fortress, and a boat trip out to shipwreck bay. The port has two jetties that can take four ships, and they also use the nearby container port and shuttle you in. That means it can be busy. The port area is colourful and charming, the people are amongst the nicest you will find in the Caribbean, and it is easy for your day to drift by without having gone anywhere. Busy! It can also be a tender port. However, the town square and a walk to the church with the viewing tower should not be missed. However, please watch this video, and share it before you go as the climb is narrow and the rook unusual. If walking is not easy for you, there is the electric street train. We see the local fishermen cleaning their catch. We have two trips to the beach, the first by taxi and we walk to Shipwreck Shack, and the other is a boat trip in the other direction to the very different Shipwreck Bay which has better sand. Just search Doris Visits, and please try our Podcast. It goes out every Sunday Morning. See the Doris Visits cruise T-shirt range https://doris-visits.teemill.com/collection/love-to-cruise/ DORIS VISITS chat groups on Facebook

The Royal Yacht Britannia. A much-loved favourite of HRH Queen Elizabeth II

HRH Queen Elizabeth was amazing. She worked right up to the end when it cannot have been easy, yet never let it show.

Despite all the television coverage, I have never felt so let into her life as walking around her much loved #RoyalYacht on her 90th birthday.

The access all areas tour was a special treat that showed her as a mother, very proud of her family. There are pictures all around as well as board games and the history of fun and pranks, yet her office was nearby. The decommissioned yacht was the number one attraction in the city before her sad passing, it is no doubt a lot busier now. From private stories to hers and Prince Philip's bedroom, all are open to the public. The feeling of pride oozes from the friendly staff and I can say, fewer tours have impressed me as much.

Despite all the coverage you have seen, I hope this personal walk-through is a little different. Please consider this visit to the Royal Yacht when in Edinburgh.

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Sisters

The real treat, if sailing from Edinburgh is to book a night and stay in .... her sister ship, which is Edinburghs number one hotel in many lists. Luxury Overnight stay in her sister Yacht FingalA luxury floating hotel permanently berthed on Edinburgh’s vibrant waterfront. A hotel with all the glamour and style of a superyacht but with an old-world elegance that is completely unique.

Royal Yacht Britannia

The Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned in 1997 and has become the number one attraction in Edinburgh. It will no doubt be a lot busier now.

The Queen herself launched this John Brown-built ship in April 1953, and it now tells a fabulous story of her working and private life with you standing in it and feeling a part of it. From the private stories to hers and Prince Philip's bedroom, it is all open to the public. The feeling of pride oozes from the friendly staff and I can say, fewer tours have impressed me as much.

Despite all the coverage you have seen, I hope this personal walk-through is a little different. Please consider this visit to the Royal Yacht when in Edinburgh.

It was launched in 1954 and amazingly was the 83rd Royal vessel since the first, a racing cutter in 1660. The then King Charles the second was himself quite a character and is mentioned in our New Gwynne film set in London. In her 43 years afloat the Royal Yacht Britannia sailed more than a million nautical miles around the world.

She is open to visit at the Ocean Terminal in Leith, in Edinburgh.

Now classed as a museum ship, the 5,769 GT, 126meter long yacht was build in just over a year after being ordered in 1952. She could hold 250 people, has three masts: a 133-foot (41 m) foremast, a 139-foot (42 m) mainmast, and a 118-foot (36 m) mizzenmast. The top 20 feet (6.1 m) of the mainmast was hinged to allow the ship to pass under bridges.

Moored next to the Royal Yacht is the 1936 racing yacht Bloodhound, one of the most successful ocean-racing yachts ever built and was the yacht on which the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal learned to sail.

Why was she decommissioned?

The yacht last underwent a major refit in 1987. A further refit at an estimated cost of some £17 million would be necessary in 1996–97 but would only prolong her life for a further five years. In view of her age, even after the refit she would be difficult to maintain and expensive to run. It has therefore been decided to decommission "Britannia" in 1997. The Government will now consider the question of whether to replace "Britannia".

— Viscount Cranborne, House of Lords Hansard: Written Answers 23 June 1994

Read more and follow us on Doris Visits   https://www.dorisvisits.com/royal-yacht-britannia/ 

 

Palermo Cathedral and other religious buildings

We have added our walking tour of Palermo to the videos on Doris Visits. Although we touched on the No Mafia Museum and the Cathedral, we have given them their own videos. 

The Cathedral and Diocesan Museum make quite a long film, so is of interest to those who love religious buildings. 

Our religious playlist is a list of 24 films which includes the mosaic-covered spilt blood church in St Petersburg - the only way you will get to see that now. It also includes Canterbury Cathedral which could be a UK excursion from Dover and Laycock Abbey where some of Downton and other classic films were shot. Palermo Cathedral kicks the list off, and the reason it is so elaborate, apart from its history which means it has Arab influence and Koran engravings inside, is because it was built in competition with the one on Monreale. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH6ch7Eg3DY&list=PL7-hz4M-3Ec3-KM1E3BD8Q51lrImIpkv3 

The Cathedral of Palermo is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. It is located in the historical centre of Palermo and along with other churches was added as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015 being part of Arab- Norman Palermo. Its history goes back much further than when the Pope ordered the Norman Roger 2nd to take Arab Sicily in exchange for a Godly crown as King on 1072. That was after the Norman invasion of Italy in 1038 and the UK in 1066. It was built in 1184 by the Normans on the site of a Muslim Mosque that had been built over a Christian Basilica. It is a wonderful mix of styles and there is a passage from the Koran engraved on one of the columns. It was important to make this cathedral so impressive because it had to be better than William II's incredibly beautiful Cathedral of Monreale. As exaggerated as the beauty and architecture are the other cathedral still manages to be one of the 10 most visited sites in the world. That is the subject of a future film. Here, what was probably the first church that was built on this site or nearby is mentioned in a papal bull of Pope Leo the Great in 444 and in a letter to the Sicilian clergy of 447. In 592, Bishop Vittore had the church demolished to build a new Byzantine-type church on the ruins. During the Arab domination of Palermo, between 831 and 1072, the church was a mosque. The Gods can’t have been happy; an earthquake damaged the building on February 4, 1169. The bell tower and parts of the façade were affected badly. The divine punishment was blamed on the corruption in the city. The cathedral was re-built by Walter Ophamil, the Anglo-Norman archbishop of Palermo, during the reign of William II of Sicily, and it was consecrated on April 6, 1185. Improvements during the 14th and 15th centuries saw the four corner towers erected, the western portal and the altar of St. Peter… in the 16th century, the marble tribune in the central apse, the Northern portal and a clock was added to the south-eastern tower... in the 17th century, the Chapel of Santa Rosalia was completed, which houses an urn containing her mortal remains: the Patron Saint of Palermo who lived as a hermit in a cave on Mount Pellegrino but appeared to a sick woman in Palermo during the plague of 1624, then to a Hunter who she told to climb a mountain, get her bones from the cave and bring them to the city… the rest is … in the 18th century, the interior was radically remodelled during restructuring. in the 19th century, other work was done after the 1823 earthquake. Go on a Sunday if you wish to attend mass, do not go on a Sunday if you wish to see restricted areas that are closed for services. Admission to the church area is free, but there is a charge for the Tombs, Roof, Treasury, and Crypts. There is a menu to the pricing to only buy what you want to see. It is not expensive. It is open Monday to Saturday from 9.00- 17.30. Sunday the Royal Tombs are only open from 9.00-13.00