Thursday September 19
Amazing how different the morning and the afternoon of this day was. Today we needed to be ready to leave at 8:30 am. For us it is a bit of the challenge. Our cabin is small, the bathroom is small and James' head from the MOHS' surgery still needs to be taken care off. But it can be done.
The drive with the bus must have been something like 40 minutes or so because I took the first picture at 9:26 am. The first thing after arrival we had to do is spray ourselves with mosquito repellent. Oh my gosh, none of us had ever seen an invation like that and we were told that it was the worst day in 10 (or 20?) years. The Rhone-delta is a marsh-land.
The owner Patrick, his son, and friends/volunteers are ready to show us what is unique about a bull ranch.
A tractor is pulling 2wagons with us.
The owners wife is explaining things to us. She speaks very clear English and its very interesting. The bulls have a great life free roaming and never need feeding.
Each family member has about 4 horses which only they ride. Nobody else ever rides them.
Yup, the mosquitos.
See them? There had been more just a second ago.
The helpers herded the bulls closer to us. You can tell that some are more spirited then others.
At the end the riders come close to greet us.
We enter a very large hall. I am sure people choose this place for weddings and other events. We sample some wines and appetizers like eggplant+tomato dip, sundried tomatoes, tapenade etc. A TV near the entry circles a video about bull fights. The "game" is explained. No bull is ever hurt or killed. The hurting seems more on the people.
The heads are from the best and most famous bulls ... when they die of old age and natural causes. They are being honored that way. I had to think of "Ferdinand" and grandson Owen and his First Grade project
(see LINK here).
Then Patrick, the owner, talked and explained all the many saddles around the room. They were from all over the world from different centuries even.
I thought this saddle was very special. It is a side-saddle but not for a woman. Guess!
This had belonged to a priest and is from the 1700s. Priests wear frogs which would make a regular saddle very difficult.
But you could open these buckles and could use it like a regular one.
Patrick is the 4th generation on this bull ranch. His wife was more of a city girl and studied law and met her husband and loves this life. Here she is with her father-in-law. She told us that her son surely will take over one day because he loves this life too.
Back at the ship at noon. We have to walk across two other ships to get to ours.
After lunch at 2 pm we go for a guided walking tour of Arles. This city is very charming ... and so surprising.
Yes, a Roman amphitheatre built in 90 AD. It could hold over 20,000 spectators for chariot races and bloody hand-to-hand battles. Wikipedia says that it holds nowadays smaller crowds for bullfighting during the Feria d'Arles, as well as plays and concerts in summer.
Another site around the corner with more Roman ruins.
Our local guide showed us a picture of how it would have looked like.
She also told us a lot about Vincent van Gogh who lived here for some time (Wikipedia said 18 months). Around the town are several places where a poster shows the famous painting at the place were he painted it.
Back at our ship we have the Captain's Farewell Drink in the lounge at 6:30 pm, followed with port talk as usual. The Captain's Farewell Dinner was again very special. Look! 11 pieces of flatware (which I usually call "weapons")!
Usually a birthday cake is brought like this with music to somebody in the room.
Here comes the "Baked Alaska".
No special entertainment this night. People have to pack their suitcases. But there is much more to come. Stay tuned!
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