Sail away on another cargo ship adventure with Homer, this time to Europe – steaming in and out of exotic ports in Spain, Malta, Italy and France, with plenty of land-based excitement in between. Destination: the joie de vivre – from the heavenly taste of a seafood ravioli on the Ligurian coast to the silky perfection of Michelangelo sculptures; from a tiny Swiss Alpine village where nobody ever goes, to the heart-piercing strains of an 18th-century cello in Paris; from the barren, blood-soaked sands of Omaha Beach on D-Day to a house party in a Norman Château. This is a travel memoir with a purpose and loaded with the surprise of the unexpected and the delight in the people and places met that make for a richly colorful armchair travel read.