Ahoy from our cruise

I typed the below post in Spain, but the signal wasn't strong enough to actually upload anything to the Internet. We are now in Lisbon, Portugal, in a Starbucks. The post I typed was still in my computer, so I'm adding this preface before the post from two days ago.
Phillip and I are in Getxo, Spain, using my phone as a hotspot. I see the power just oozing from my phone as I connected! So, pardon any spelling errors as I will type and post without reviewing. Last Saturday, the 21st, Phillip and I flew from Nuremberg to Dusseldorff, changed planes, and went on to London Heathrow.
A two-hour bus ride took us to Southampton, England. We spent the night in a lovely bed and breakfast run by two older British women. The weather when we landed in England, and up until yesterday (Thursday) evening, was what we thing of as typical English weather, drizzly and overcast to stormy.
We checked out of our B&B at 10:30 am Sunday, but weren't scheduled to check-in for our cruise until 12:30 pm. Since it was raining, we just had the taxi take us to the cruise terminal and were prepared to wait. The staff, however, just moved us on thru the process. We were on-board by 11 am! It was the easiest cruise boarding we've ever done.
Our ship, the Crown Princess, left Southampton on time and headed northeast toward Belgium. When the ship docked and we saw and heard the procedures for going into the port, we decided to stay on the boat. We were at a commercial port and could not just walk to town. We would have had to take a shuttle bus with 2000+ of our friends just to get out of the port area, then walk twenty minutes to a town. Or take one of their expensive (>$200 per person because of the distances) excursions. Since we'd just spent five weeks walking and riding buses, we stayeed on the ship.
Although it was fairly chilly aand raining, we decided the hot tub would be relaxing. The pool area closest to our room was totally devoid of people, so it was like having our own private area!
On Tuesday, we were scheduled to dock in Portland, England, but the weather had turned stormy. The captain said the waves were over 3 meters (about 10 feet), so for safety reasons, we would not dock there, but continue on. From late Monday until Wednesday evening, the ship was rockin' and rollin'. It wasn't the most boat movement we've experienced (getting too close to Hurricane Rick on a Pacific cruise still wins that prize), but it was second. Phillip and I did not get queasy or sick, but a noticeable number of passengers did stay in their rooms. We did have to occasionally hold onto the railing as we walked and the captain advised passengers to avoid the open decks. It was raining, so no one wanted to be there anyway.
Wednesday was a scheduled sea day, so plenty of activities to keep us busy, even if we did have to bounce off the walls to get there.
Thursday, September 26, the storms were gone and the sun came out in the afternoon. The ship docked in another commercial port, Le Verdon, France. Although we had to ride a shuttle from the port, it dropped us off in the middle of Soulac Village. Phillip and I walked along the main pedestrian-only street, about five blocks long, to the beach and strolled a bit along the beach.
I bought two bottles of French wine to drink on the ship. The ship allows each passenger to bring a bottle on board at each port stop. I'm sure it had a toursit area mark-up, but it was still much cheaper than wine on board the ship. I travel with a small corkscrew and the water glass is good enough for me.
The above text is what I planned to send from Spain, in the morning before we left the ship and walked around Getxo. As I mentioned, we are in Lisbon today. I haven't downloaded my Getxo pictures from my camera, so a brief description... It was not a commercial port (thank goodness!), so we got off the ship and walked about a km along the seawall (think Galveston, except prettier water), then a couple of km along the malecon (sidewalk next to the bay). We saw statues, parks,and a cable car bridge, then headed back to the ship along a different route. I bought a bottle of Spanish wine at a fruit store then another one at a wine distributor. The lady didn't speak English, but my Spanish, albeit Mexican Spanish, was sufficient. That bottle will probably be my best one.
Today, we will get two bottles of Portugese wine. We have one more port stop, in the Azores, on Tuesday before we head across the Atlantic Ocean. Six sea days in a row. I'm not sure that any of the wine will make it to Fort Lauderdale! On the land portion of this adventure, I extolled the excellence of Slovakian beer. Now I get to compare some French, Spanish, and Portugese wine.
I previewed this post and realized that none of the pictures uploaded! Sorry, but at least y'all will know that we are enjoying ourselves and headed toward the USA!