Silversea November 2013

At the end of almost all of the Star Trek movies Captain Kirk or Picard manages to get the Enterprise destroyed.  The next movie therefore usually has a scene where the crew is on a shuttle going to the newly rebuilt ship and as the dramatic music gets louder they begin to see the new ship ready for action.  Thus it was with the Silver Wind and me. My shuttle was a bus, but I had a front row seat and could see the vessel from several perspectives as we twisted and turned on the roads in the port area.  Our final approach had me looking at the Wind from the bow and it looked more like a mega personal yacht than a cruise ship.  The white hull and teak trim glistened in the late afternoon sunlight and I couldn’t wait to get aboard.

The check-in crew was expecting me, thanks to Cindy telling them to look for a crazy man in need of Champagne.  In less than two minutes I had been checked in, given my portfolio and key and was up the gangway heading to my cabin.  Cindy greeted me at the top of the gangway and white-gloved stewards distributed ice-cold Champagne; what a lovely way to start a cruise.  The ship is small, only 285 passengers, so it has an intimate feel without being claustrophobic. The ship is all suites and all-inclusive and we had a lovely cabin with a nice teak veranda that provided exceptional views during our cruise.  I was quickly out of my travel clothes and into my cruise wear and we were heading to one of the many lounges for a snack and more Champagne.

We met our friends who had decided to cruise with us and we all enjoyed the Pool Grill languishing in the sunlight.  After the safety drill we dressed for dinner and again met at the bar before deciding where to dine.  During the safety demo we were told that as a result of heavy seas, we would not be going to anchor in Sorrento but rather would dock in Naples in the morning.  Naples is not Sorrento, but since we were only interested in going to Pompeii, we really didn’t care. (We enjoyed our tour to Pompeii, which surprised me. We also enjoyed walking in our other ports of call, Trapani, Sicily, Valetta, Malta, Tunis, Tunisia, but we were really on this cruise to relax and not to be sightseers, so no trip reports on this lovely locations.)

Our first night at sea was really rough – since then we’ve been told that the cruise ship industry pushes the envelope on appropriate times to sail.  Who knew?  It had never occurred to us that weather could be an issue in the Mediterranean, but this was a small ship and it doesn't take much to feel those swells.  We had a lot of rocking and rolling again on Saturday night after we left Tunis.

That night our cabin steward took the liter bottles of liquor that were in our bar area and tucked them onto the couch with pillows. Better safe than sorry - during that first rough night those bottles went sliding along their shelf during the night and it sounded like one broke, but Cindy got up to check and they were fine so she tucked a towel around them to keep them safe.

The bad news is that the captain slowed the ship to make it a bit smoother and then decided we had to skip Cartagena altogether.  It seems to us he should have stopped SOMEWHERE between Tunis and Malaga - maybe Algeria - to get us on land for awhile.  There were a lot of queasy people on the ship (including me) during our extra day at sea, but we sailed right through to our last stop, Malaga, and arrived about 12 hours sooner than the original schedule.  We had already planned to spend 2 nights in Malaga so now we had three.

Malaga was a grand surprise for us:  It was beautiful, filled with history, has one of the greatest walking areas, has world-class museums (we did three) and the food is spectacular. I got my Spanish fix with strong coffee in the morning, sherry and tapas in the afternoon, and typically long and fantastic dinners including one with the best roasted lamb I’ve ever had.  I’m set for another two years.

In summary we had just a marvelous time cruising and spent most of the days doing the same things. We made sure that we did a lot of exercise several times a day to burn off the wonderful food and wine. Every night we would dance until well after midnight which is one of the reasons that we enjoy cruising so much. Our time before and after the cruise was as enjoyable as the cruise itself.  Our Thanksgiving involved breakfast in Malaga, lunch in Zurich and dinner in Brussels, a very long travel day but we had lots of reasons to give thanks.

Ciao, Cindy and Wm 

PS I brought a real book on the cruise thus this:

Today I read a great big book

Not on an iPad, a Kindle, nor a Nook

It was made with paper and lots of ink

Changing turning page fingers to black from pink

I could tell at a glance how much I had read

And how much more was left before bed

I’ve realized how much I have missed my old friend

And vow in the future to do this again.

Italy in November

Bologna, Italy November 14, 2013

We had decided to go to Italy a few days before our cruise, mostly to meet with our former neighbors who live in Milan.  Bob and Mary, we call them Roberto and Maria, agreed to meet us in Bologna, a city we all appreciate. It was a good decision and gave us a chance to adjust to Europe time before the cruise.

The Italians do a good number of things brilliantly.  For instance, in almost every bathroom in any hotel, you will find a spotless, gleaming facility. The tiles are glistening, the mirrors cleaned to perfection, the towels starched and bright white. There are little pull stings near the toilets and in the shower - in case you need help you just pull them and someone will be there to assist you.  The only thing that really doesn’t work in an Italian bathroom is the plumbing! There have been no innovations since Caesar Augustus introduced the open Roman Baths, which used thermal water and fresh water from the aqueduct system.  Our bathroom had no hot water pressure and despite the best efforts of two bellmen that I’m sure have never used a wrench before, the only thing that we had when they concluded their work was a dirty sink and no hot water. Yet, they proclaimed the operation a success, despite evidence to the contrary.  This is a small price to pay for being in a city that can rightfully claim to be the gastronomic capital of Italy.

We ate divine food and drank lovely light wines and we walked and walked and walked.  There is a church at the top of a 300-meter hill called San Luca that is accessed by a covered walkway with 660 pillars.  I thought my legs would simply buckle a third of the way up, but we persisted and made it to the top only to find that the church was closed and there wasn’t even a snack bar or café, so we turned around and headed back down the hill and reveled in a well deserved bowl of pasta with a few glasses of the sparkling wine of the region.  Never has food tasted so good or been so appreciated.  I know of very few places in the world where I’ve been and can say I’ve never had a bad meal, but Bologna is on the top of the list. Everything is fresh and locally sourced. The pastas are bright yellow from the fresh egg yolks and the sauces are light and filled with herbs and garlic. They are famous for their cured meats and thick steaks but we stayed with pastas and vegetables and were not disappointed.

Our dear friends Roberto and Maria, arranged a spectacular diner for their first night in town and we had a marvelous time talking, laughing and eating our way around the beautiful city for several days. They knew some special places where we dined like royalty, enjoying what appeared to be endless courses of little bites, each better than the last.  We never seem to tire of each other’s company and every reunion takes up where the last one ended.

We drove to Siena for two days of exploration and were simply amazed at the beauty of this Tuscan delight. Everything about it is imposing from its position on the top of a hill, the huge walls that surround and protect it, and the massive cathedral. It is another city that seems to have no flat surfaces, just up or down, but it seemed to be mostly up.  The famous Palio is run there twice a year and even that track is angled.  Cindy actually ran the track a few times and I’m sure she could have beaten some of those horses.

We hit the road on Tuesday and headed for Civitavecchia, the port that serves Rome.  We had rented from a company called Sixt, which claimed to have the only rental car service inside the port area so we thought it would be an easy drop-off and then we could head to the ship.  It was not to be!  There was simply no sign anywhere that indicated where the Sixt Company was. We entered and departed the port several times, always asking directions and always getting misinformation.  We finally found it, but of course it was now lunchtime so they would not be back for ninety minutes and there was no lock box to deposit the keys and documents.  I stayed with the car while Cindy took all the luggage onto a bus which deposited her at the ship.  When the agent finally came back from lunch he said they had only moved to this office a few weeks ago and that is why there was no sign!  Ah Italy, love it or leave it.

More later, Cindy and Wm

Last Days in Paris

Paris

On our last day in Honfleur we were presented with one of the most magnificent rainbows we had ever seen.  It was a misty/rainy morning and we had just walked to the Seine Estuary when lo and behold, there was one end of this very large rainbow smack in the middle of the river, not two hundred yards ahead of us.  The other end sank into the hills; we had never seen an entire rainbow and we were just gob smacked! Since the other end/beginning of the rainbow seemed to be heading in the direction of Paris, we hopped in the car and headed that way ourselves.

Our car was equipped with a GPS system, which Cindy mastered pretty well. The voice (we called her Yvette), in ever so soothing French, had been pretty good at getting us where we wanted to go.  Our plan was to sneak up on Paris from the southwest; it being a Saturday we thought there would be very little traffic.  Yvette wanted to take us directly in from the west side of town, which would mean paying a lot of money for tolls; Yvette obviously has expensive tastes.  We turned her off and Cindy took over; she also has soothing French.  Our plan had two major flaws, one was that it was THE shopping day in Paris where all the stores had enormous sales and the traffic was absolutely horrible. The other was a demonstration right near the location of our car rental agency and the police had the entire area cordoned off and told us to get out of there.  That meant having to find a place to park - rather far from the drop-off site - and wander around looking for the agency so we could return the car.  I’ll not bore you with details but is was not the most pleasant two hours I’ve ever spent.

Our hotel was a great disappointment!  We have been in many Parisian hotels that were so small that one person had to stay in bed while the other walked to the desk or bathroom; this was one of those rooms.  We had thought that by using an American chain, Holiday Inn, we would be swapping more money for a larger room, but it was not to be the case. It was the most poorly designed room we have ever seen. There was simply no place to store any clothes, no shelves, no drawers, no nothing. We literally had to live out of our suitcases. The bathroom was a disaster with ultra-modern plumbing that was impossible to use if your hands were wet.  Hmmm – wet hands in a bathroom?  What a rare scenario.  If we opened a window the room filled with smoke from the gaggle of teenage boys who always seemed to be present on the sidewalk below.  On one occasion I was in the shower while Cindy was getting dressed and in walks a couple with keys and luggage; it seems that the desk clerk tried to rent the same room twice. Anyway, the place had no real redeeming qualities other than location, which took a bit of the sting out of our stay.

Every day we would head to the Luxembourg Gardens, simply one of the most beautiful places in the world, where Cindy would run and I would walk and refresh.  We would stop at a bakery on the way home and get some pastry or bread and then head to the room where Cindy would work awhile while I organized our breakfast.  Every day we walked for hours and enjoyed the lovely weather as much as we did Paris.  We ate well, but Paris has become even more expensive than we remember.  However, we didn’t care - for four days, we would just splurge.

Cindy in the Gardens

William in the Gardens

Our last night’s dinner was without question the very best.  We had noticed this little restaurant called the Restaurant du Luxembourg on our walks and the menus we read sounded creative and delicious.  The place didn’t open for dinner until 8 pm so we took a pre-dinner walk, stopped for some Champagne and arrived at about 8:15.  A husband/wife team runs the place with a darn good cook in the kitchen.  We had a Kir as we read the menu and we had a very difficult time making decisions since everything looked grand.  We could decide on the wines right away since they had two of our favorites by the carafe.  The white was a lovely Sauvignon from the Loire and the red was Chateau Moncaillou from Bordeaux, a wine that we haven’t seen in many years.  We finally decided on dinner and Cindy started with a classic Foie Gras, a simple bloc of duck liver with freshly toasted bread and a small bit of sea salt on the side.  It was melt-in-your-mouth fabulous.  I had a Carpaccio of beets with a poached egg on top and sprinkles of shallot and parsley.  Oh goodness.  Next came Cindy’s second appetizer, in lieu of a main course. It was a simple salad of fresh green beans and mushrooms, tossed with olive oil and lemon, the perfect foil to my shoulder of lamb, which was chopped and cooked in a terrine and then inverted over a circle of mashed celery root and potatoes with baked whole cloves of garlic (8 of them, but who’s counting?).  We shared roasted figs with almond ice cream for dessert and we were in heaven.  All night we had been chatting with our hosts who were delightful and allowed us to muck about in French until we ran out of words – and then they would jump in with perfect English and give us the correct word in French. 

When the bill arrived I noticed that he had failed to charge for the carafe of red so I brought it to his attention.  He was pleased and surprised and when he came back with the corrected bill he also had two lovely glasses of Calvados for us.  It pays to be honest!

And so we departed Paris and France, well fed, satiated with museum visits (6) and happy to have had our French fix for the year.

Cindy and William

Special Edition From Normandy

Skipping ahead a bit, we thought this was very interesting.  We hit the D-Day Beaches yesterday and had hoped to end our visit with a trip to the American Cemetery near Omaha Beach.  Here is what we found!!!  Cindy and Wm

Museums and More

Last Days in Honfleur

Now get ready for it:  I bought a museum pass for four museums, and we did all four of them in two days.  Got that?  FOUR museums in TWO days, all requiring an entrance fee.   We had aimed for the main museum but there was a line for tickets, which gave me tine to consider the pass - Cindy almost fell over when she saw I had purchased tickets for four museums.  But she was ever so pleased and we then began our tour of the Eugene Boudin art museum.  We thought we had never heard of this impressionist painter from Honfleur, but soon realized that we recognized his work.  The museum was on several floors and had many other impressionist artists represented who had lived and painted in Honfleur.  One painting was labeled; “The Old Streets of Honfleur” and it had been painted in the mid-1800s (and the streets were already considered old).  The amazing part was that those old streets and buildings STILL look the same – we saw many renditions of many Honfleur streets that have not changed in 150 years except perhaps for the awnings. It’s really special.

We went to the Maritime Museum later that day and to the Ethnographic Museum and the Erik Satie Museum the next day.  The Satie museum was by far my favorite – if all museums were like that I would queue to go in, no questions asked.  We were each given a pair of headphones with a sensor and then led through the various rooms of his home, each with a multimedia extravaganza of light, music, and art.  The narration was interesting and it was so cool the way the sensors worked, knowing where we were in the houses and tailoring the talk to what we were looking at.

One of the things you always know in Honfleur is the time.  There are three major churches in this little town and they all have large bell towers that strike every fifteen minutes with very loud bells on the hour.  I could hear them from every corner of the town, which was rather nice when I was lost in thought while walking along the Seine Estuary in the early mornings.  I would hear the bells and know I needed to beat feet to meet Cindy for coffee.

Our last side trip took us to Étretat where we were told there were great vistas of the famous rocks that have been carved by sea and wind. There was a great sculpture called the White Bird, which is in front of a museum dedicated to the pilots Nungesser and Coli who tried to cross the Atlantic in May of 1927. They didn’t make it and two weeks later Lindbergh did!  Naturally there are conspiracy theories galore.

We had a few more memorable meals and a lot more oysters before it was time to pack up and depart for Paris. All in all, it was a lovely stay in a beautiful town and I so enjoyed being surrounded by water and boats and the smells and sounds of the sea.  Best to all, Cindy and Wm

PS if you usually don’t bother with the links, you might want to make an exception for the Erik Satie museum link.  It’s whimsical, to say the least.