Touring on our own - Cherbourg, France

Given that we'd had our fill of Normandy and D-Day on the Viking River cruise we'd just finished, we had no interest in the many Normandy themed tours offered for our port visit to Cherbourg. After doing some research, we learned that literally right next door to the cruise port is a great maritime museum called La Cite De La Mer. The museum has a small Titanic themed exhibit and a much more extensive self-led tour through Le Redoubtable, the first French nuclear ballistic missile submarine. The website for the museum lists a range for ticket prices from 13.50€ to 15.00€. We were given the tip onboard to mention being cruise passengers for a unique rate. 

The ship terminal Princess used when visiting Cherbourg was historically used as a baggage carousel for Titanic passengers. This is part of the museum but is closed off to any non cruise passenger visiting when a ship is docked. As you walk back and forth to your ship, there are many informative signs to read as well as videos and holograms displayed on the walls. One such display was even interactive allowing you to hold your hand up and direct a cursor while standing in front of the wall. Definitely worth the time to look around even if you spent the day elsewhere on a tour. 

The interactive wall:

The main entry to the museum features an exhibit on unique watercraft. 

This one reminded me of the submarine on Viking Octantis.

There can be a good bit of walking depending on what you wish to see as the museum covers multiple buildings. On the plus side, once you're tired of walking, the ship is a short walk around some security fencing away.

Our next stop was to satisfy my inner Titanic nerd by visiting the Titanic exhibit. The exhibit is a bit modest compared to others we've visited. If you can only visit one in your travels, I highly recommend the Titanic Museum in Belfast, Northern Ireland. You could fill several hours there visiting everything from a ride that takes you through a Titanic building simulation to a solemn dark painted room filled with pillars simply spelling out the communication from the advance iceberg warnings to the calls for help. Reading them in order as you move through the quiet space really made me feel like I was in that moment with them.

This Cherbourg exhibit also featured a sort of timeline setup along with mockups of cabin types, and interactive communications examples. Information was in both French and English.

The smooth floors made it fairly easy to move around for all abilities making only our directional skills a challenge. The venue was pretty busy with a lot of families and groups so it was tough to move through in any real order.

It was great to see little touches like this sign written in text and braille to explain the sextant tool.

Next stop was to visit the Le Redoubtable that Dad had been looking forward to checking out. We asked at the counter where you pick up the audio guide if it was doable for Dad and his cane. This part of the museum is the actual submarine so you need to be able to move around in narrow spaces, step through hatches, and climb metal stairs. The employees said they thought Dad could do it but also informed us of an option to sit just inside the vessel entrance and watch a video walkthrough for those with mobility issues. Dad chose to try the video and an employee escorted us inside the submarine to set him up at the video station. The employee had to step away but promised to come back and collect us. They keep strict count and whereabouts on whomever goes in to the submarine. Before she left, she gave us a brief explanation on how to walk through and pointed out some of the places we could reach before steps were required. 

After viewing the video, Dad said he wanted to try and make his way through the submarine after all. We both had to do some less than elegant body moves to maneuver through all the transitions but I'm proud to say that we both made it the entire length of the submarine! Once you start moving through, it's really easy to follow the directional path to the end. I wouldn't start the effort however unless you feel capable enough to see it through since there's not many spots to turn around and go back.

The video screen to watch the walkthrough if you aren't capable of doing the walking.

Scenic shots from throughout the journey through this submarine - not pictured is the steps and narrow doorways that you had to step up and over. Was too busy holding on to the railings!

Our sense of accomplishment was only briefly dimmed when we made it back to the counter to return our audio guides. The poor employee who'd escorted us to the video screen had finally come back to collect us only to find us gone since we were off walking through the submarine. She must have been a few turns behind us because she never saw us until we arrived at the counter. We apologized for the trouble but instead of being upset, she was more ecstatic that we'd been able to complete the walkthrough!

Lastly, we checked out the aquarium exhibit. There were also several interactive things to do here mostly geared toward children.