Hello hello! Welcome back to another arielaonthego travel/lifestyle post! It’s been a while since I posted one of these, not really because we haven’t been travelling, but because I’ve just been behind on posting. About a year behind, to be exact. What has finally kicked up my interest and love for blogging again is the reminder that I really do love writing, and that I have so much about my life that I want to write about. I love getting to share my experiences with others, and I’m really glad that I have this platform. I hope you enjoy today’s post! <3

So, this post is another one that was in the archives for a while that is finally getting to see the light of day. This trip to all of the European capitals actually happened back in September 22nd of 2023 via cruising. We boarded the Island Princess from Princess Cruises, and set sail. It was a cruise to celebrate my mothers birthday, and she really loved getting to explore new places! Here’s our destination lineup for this post:

The Port of Le Havre, France > Honfleur, France
Hamburg, Germany

As I posted previously, in my England in One Day post and my London and Brighton UK post, we started our trip in England. We boarded our ship at the Port of Southampton, which is also the port that the Titanic sailed out of in 1912. We didn’t do a whole lot of things in Southampton, but we did go and check out the Titanic museum. It was even more impactful to see how the Titanic affected this town. Most of the crew on the Titanic were from Southampton, so the town suffered a great loss. It was truly interesting to not only see visual pieces from the wreakage, but also audio recordings, news reports, eye witness accounts, and the backgrounds and history of both the crew and passengers. I would definitely recommend the museum to anyone who is captivated by the story of the Titanic and wants to feel immersed in that environment. I would also recommend this book, a solid five star read. It’s called Titanic: True Stories of Her Passengers, Crew, and Legacy from Nimbus Publishing. It is sort of supposed to be like a history book, and there are a lot of really good stories in there. Extremely well-researched and I valued it as a follow-up to my visit to the Port of Southampton.

The next morning we woke up, we went to the cruise port and checked in. That day was pretty chill, when I just get on a ship, personally I like to head straight for the buffet. Later on I also checked the kids programs to see if there were any other kids on the ship. And there were! On this cruise I actually met one of my best friends, she is interested in a lot of the same stuff that I am, she’s a writer, she likes music, she’s super funny, and overall she loves the Lord like I do, and I’m truly grateful that God put her in my life <3 We’ve been friends for about a year now! Truly the best travel buddy ever.

Le Havre, France was our very first stop on our tour. Looking out onto the port, I thought it seemed quite interesting, especially since there was a massive shipping container structure right at the cruise port. They were in the shape of archways, and were very colourful. Sometimes I wonder about art, whether or not it has some deeper meaning of if it’s just meant to look cool. We did not stay in Le Havre, instead we took a taxi to Honfleur. Honfleur was really nice, it was like this French fishing village, all of the buildings were really beautiful, it looked like a step back into time. The buildings were made of stone, some were tudor style, and some were brick. It was very lively, there was a farmers market going on, we just walked around a lot and took a lot of pictures.

In researching Honfleur to write this blog post, I learned that Honfleur is one of France’s most visited towns, drawing in approximately 5.2 million visitors annually. It’s also properly called a “Commune”, not a town or a city. So a commune is mostly only in Europe, from what I’ve found. Communes are essentially what their name suggests, a group of people who adopt a lifestyle of living together and share everything. In a more legal and laws-wise sense, communes can vote on their own budget, administer public land, and provide it’s own public services to its residents. I think this is pretty interesting because this is something I haven’t really heard of! Okay, enough about communes, let’s talk about Honfleur!

Honfleur was a good destination for the day, really good to just have that quietness and calm, where you can sit down at the patio of a French cafe with a pain au chocolat and tea, and sit by the water with the sun beaming down on you. I’m sure you can tell from this post that it does look like a step from back in time!

The very next destination was Hamburg, Germany.

Unlike France, I had never been to Germany before. I don’t really know what I was expecting, but I was expecting… how do I say this… Europe? I was just expecting your standard European tourist city, pretty buildings, nice streets, old statues, and of course, German food. I didn’t expect much from the German food, either, and honestly there was nothing much to expect. We stopped at what we thought was a more “local” place to have some sausages. This stand right by the subway exit/entrance called Mö Grill. We had sausages with this sort of brown sauce, served in a paper tray that we ate with a two pronged wooden fork. Also fries. Fries are cool. It was actually a yummy meal! I was pleasantly surprised.

Once we were fed, our next venture in Hamburg was the Hop On Hop Off Bus tour ’round the city. We didn’t do a whole lot for the hop on hop off bus tour, we sort of just used it as a mode of transportation around the city. Our main stops were the Hamburg City Hall and this shopping corridor/street for shopping. There was a lot to do in Hamburg, but we decided to mostly focus on shops and walking around the city. I loved all of the buildings, the architecture, and all of the sites. Hamburg is truly a beautiful city! I’ll let the pictures take over from here though.

View from the bus and at the Harbour

I rather enjoyed Hamburg, there was something about it that was really charming, I think I would go back to Germany, as well, there’s still much more to see! (Well, we did end up going back to Germany, but only the Frankfurt airport). Although Hamburg is a big city, we had quite a leisurely time there, we hung out in a cafe for like an hour or so, and then made our way through the city for most of the day. I love travelling to a new place, sometimes you know what’s there and you make a tight schedule to hit all of the stops. Sometimes you just go with the flow and see wherever the wind takes you! Both are fun, and at the end of the day, it’s your vacation, do what you want!

I’m sure you can imagine that I made a lot of jokes about how Hamburg and hamburgers sound similar, and how I wanted to eat a hamburger in Hamburg. Not too surprisingly, the first hamburger DID come from Hamburg Germany. And no, I did not eat a hamburger. Just German sausages. That’s honestly all that I found out about the history of Hamburg, and it’s the most important part because I love hamburgers.

Overall I really enjoyed going back to France for the third time, and then exploring a bit of Hamburg! I love the beauty of European countries like these because of the history that they hold (and what you can find out just by reading a few plaques), and experiencing the culture for a day! It’s really fun, and I love that cruising lets you experience these sorts of things.

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed, and the rest of the cruise will be published soon! Bye