A Port Call to Weymouth, UK

Today we woke to find the ship docking at the cruise ship terminal in Portland Port, near the city of Weymouth, part of Dorchester County.

Holland America had organized shuttle buses, double-decker buses, for the passengers to get to Weymouth.  Portland Port is a commercial port you see, and you can't just wander about lost.  Kudos to HA, not only were there plenty of buses, but the wait at stops was less than 5 minutes.

Once dropped off near the Town Center, we meandered our way to the Promenade next to Weymouth Beach.  The city had volunteers handing out maps to guide us clueless tourists.

Some of the sites we saw as we wandered.  Martha delighted in finding crocheted figures on the way to the town center:

The following three crochet figures, along the Despicable Me motif, were mounted on street side barrier poles.

I found Weymouth more picturesque than Falmouth, perhaps it was the more "open" feel to the town, especially in the esplanade area.

Today's moto content: A Pretty Airhead

There was a short rest period for hydration at the William Henry Pub:

Just one "then and now" pair of pictures:

We also visited the Castle Town D-Day Center.  A small but well layed out interactive museum with many military artifacts and equipment.  A lot of it you can climb onto, pick up and get a feel for it (The German Army's MP40 Machine Gun was surprisingly heavy) and many signs detailing the bio and accomplishments of individual soldiers, sailors and airmen.  Of course, the contributions of women were also detailed.

There were several young men walking about in uniform, to give the exhibits a "live" feel...a nice touch.

I liked the museum, small as it was, because you could touch and examine stuff.  Unlike most museums which limit you to just looking at items.

Martha looks like a natural behind this M2 .50 Caliber MG eh?

Touristed out, we found our way to the shuttle bus stop and shortly returned to the cruise ship with no issues.

They were still cleaning the balconies and outside structures of the ship when we returned:

After a sumptuous lunch in the Lido Market, we wandered to the stern of the ship by the Seaview Pool.  We wanted to get a look at a couple of British Naval vessels.

We walked over 10,000 steps today...my feet feel a bit sore.

Tomorrow, a port call to LeHavre, near Paris, France.  We're taking a bus excursion to the D-Day Landing Beaches.  More to follow.

Update: Adding pics of the small band that showed up in the evening after I'd blogged.  They're apparently the Weymouth Brass Band and they were serenading us while the ship prepared to leave.  Pretty cool and a nice touch!

Our last view of the port, the Portland Fort: