Narbonne and Beyond part two

 Narbonne and Beyond, Part Two

There are two kinds of museums - good ones, which are rare - and the rest!  I say this with full confidence of decades of visiting them and always hoping that the most recent will be the last. However, I was enthralled with a museum here in Narbonne called Narbo Via. It is a new building situated on the canal and a twenty minute walk from our apartment. The fact that it is winter meant that we were basically the only people in the museum and that made it even more special. The new exhibit features two fifteen-minute 270-degree animations on two different but related topics. The first features the early days of commerce in Narbonne with such realistic animations and sound effects that you really did believe you were in Narbonne two thousand years ago. Everything was so authentic right down to the rigging of the sailing ships that came up the channel from the Mediterranean to the thriving city of Narbonne. The other exhibit was a day in the life of Narbonne at the height of its Roman glory, again flawless in its presentation and I was just mesmerized.  The rest of the museum had lots of old stones, carvings, pillars and posts, but artfully arranged as you can see from the link above. 

We, being the Dumbees, decided to go to another museum called the Donjon without really understanding what it was. It was, quite simply put, a torture chamber! One hundred and sixty-two narrow stairs built out of limestone in a spiral column that was the most horrific experience  I’ve had in a long time. I swear the walls got more and more narrow as you got higher and higher and the end result was a blah empty room with two small windows that afforded no view due to the wire mesh to keep out pigeons. Oh how I so wanted to be a pigeon so I could fly out of there. For hours my thighs ached, last night I was out of bed twice with Charley horses and even today I’m sore. Oh, did I mention that we actually paid for this experience! (Incidentally,  Cindy wasn’t bothered by the stairs at all but then again she is twenty years younger!)

Speaking of claustrophobia, we went to another museum, the Horreum, that featured underground storage units used by the Romans for all manner of things. It was dark, damp, cold, deep underground and poorly lighted, what’s not to enjoy? Very interesting but a video would have been just as lovely for me.  Yes, we paid for that also.  (Cindy thought it was very interesting and wants you to know that Horreum is Latin for warehouse.)

The food and wine have been spectacular. We are in the middle of some of the most famous wine areas in Southern France, nothing like Bordeaux or Burgundy, but the Languedoc has some really good solid wines at reasonable prices. Those of you who enjoy French wines will no doubt have heard of and perhaps enjoyed some of the wines from the region listed here.  Seafood is the king here due to the proximity to the sea, and a quick walk around Les Halles will prove my point. There are two places that feature horse meat, three places that feature other meats and six stalls dedicated to seafood. This morning I saw a squid whose body was the size of a football. 

Yesterday for lunch we splurged and went to perhaps the best restaurant in town, Gaia, and it was just delightful and well worth the eighty euro tab, which included two glasses of blanquette - a local sparking wine - and one glass of red and two of white, as well as the best bread in all of France. The best dish was Cindy's starter which she is calling "bacon soup" and was actually a very creamy rich broth with chopped chives and little bits of smoked pork with a crispy delicious slice of bacon as a garnish and a poached egg floating in the creaminess.  Everything on the menu was very creative and innovative - impressive to say the least.

On Monday we took a drive to the coast of the Med to have lunch with the folks who own the apartment. We have become friends and enjoy our time together. On the way we stopped at several spots to view the flamingos, which are really quite amazing. There are lots of marshy areas with large shallow ponds that are used to harvest salt and which provide perfect breeding and feeding locations for these magnificent birds. The birds here are larger than their cousins in the states and the Caribbean, some as large as eight pounds, and when they fly you can really see the vidid red and black of their enormous wing span. 

We depart tomorrow for Barcelona where we’ll spend the night before our flights to Lisbon and Washington on Friday. Won’t get home until eleven pm or so but whatever the hour it will be a delightful homecoming. We have had an intense three weeks, all with perfect weather, fine food and wine, and interesting adventures.  A bientôt,  Cindy and William

Narbonne and Beyond, part one

 We returned to Narbonne (after a few days here last fall) for several reasons, not the least of which is their fabulous covered market Les Halles. I have spent more time there than I have in all the three hundred museums Cindy has dragged me to, but I digress! Narbonne is steeped in history, beauty and charm - and yet no one seems to know anything about it and it is really not a tourist city, which is great for a variety of reasons.  First - and foremost for Cindy - no one speaks English so it is imperative that we speak only French, which is so hard to do in tourist locations like Paris, Nice and Lyon. Every day Cindy’s skills improved and she became more confident, especially when she would receive either positive feedback - or better yet, no feedback - which meant they perhaps thought she was French. 

When I say there are no tourists, I mean no real international tourists. On the weekends we observed lots of French tourists from other regions, and some from nearby Spain. The city is physically beautiful, laid out in classic dimensions with lots of tree-lined walking areas and the Canal de la Robine bisecting the entire city.  This was the first Roman outpost in what is now France, then called Gaul, established in 118 BC. There are ample bits of evidence of their long time here, including remnants of the road, Via Domitia, which ran from Rome to Narbonne and beyond. 

Cindy found a lovely apartment for our two-week visit and we fell into a comfortable pattern of daily activity quite quickly. Our day would start with runs along the canal, walks for me, and we would meet at a cafe/bar for coffee. A quick visit to a bakery for croissants, bread and treats and then home for either tea or coffee before dressing for the day ahead. Almost every day we went to a museum, church, Cathedral, historic landmark or some other cultural not-to-miss whatever. The weather was fantastic and we were able to eat outside for lunch or dinner almost every day. If we had lunch out, I would cook dinner and if we ate lunch in we would dine out; either way, I was a regular at the market and had so much fun shopping for whatever looked super fresh or different from what I usually prepare. 

One day we decided to go and visit Beziers and oh my goodness what a great idea that was. It is a hilltop town and from ten miles away you could see the cathedral seated at the highest point of the town. Again, a town not for tourists and we know this from the complete lack of signage as to how to get to the top of the village. Once we found the right road, after several comic attempts, we parked near Les Halles, a good sign! Exiting the parking garage on foot we were in a grand plaza surrounded by restaurants which circled Les Halles which lured me in like a culinary siren! It was built on the same model as "my" Les Halles in Narbonne, but really was a disappointment since there were lots of vacant stalls and what was there wasn’t as vibrant or as fresh as my Les Halles. 

We headed to the tourist office, which is strange in a town with few tourists, and got all the maps and suggestions for visits and were on our way to yet more museums, cathedrals, churches and monuments to people we didn’t know, but who seemed to be quite clever, as in designing the entire canal system of the Midi. What they did have that caught our imagination were lots of building with painted trompe l'oeil, scenes of great amusement and clever plays on light. Cindy took lots of pictures but I'm not sure I can get them in this blog.

We finally had enough culture and enough walking, although we thought it was a most beautiful  city, and headed back to Les Halles for lunch before heading home. We found a lovely seafood stall that served food in a small section with tables and chairs and enjoyed a light meal of fresh mussels and tuna. Heading out of town we wanted to stop and see the Fonseranes Locks, which is a modern-day miracle of engineering and yet completed a few hundred year ago! In our youth when we lived in Germany we once rented a canal boat and traversed the Canal Alsace for a week, going through lots of locks, so we had a real interest in these. These locks simply left me speechless! What a marvel of creativity blended with commercial necessity. So happy we made time for this, which in my mind was the best “museum” we visited.

More later, Cindy and Wm

Lisbon and Beyond

 Our return to Charles Town went well arriving at the house at 10:30pm! We normally like to unpack and unwind before bed but we were exhausted and simply left everything for the morning. 

We had seven days before our next flight and lots of catching up to do. When you are gone for seven weeks, little things add up. Cindy began the process of laundry while I began to sort though seven weeks of mail.  Needless to say, we were quite busy for the next several days. We had brought too much luggage on our trip to Southern California but that was because we were carrying a portable piano, violin, ukulele, music stand, several iPads and assorted electrical cables. We were more of a traveling sideshow than tourists. We vowed never to bring so much stuff on another trip so we took care when packing for this trip.  We only carried one suitcase that fit in the overhead and one carry-on, thus avoiding checked luggage. Big mistake!

I figured I could survive a sixteen day trip without my pocket knife, chef’s knife and frying pan, all things that would have gone into a checked bag. I kept thinking if I really needed them I could buy them and give them away or leave them in the apartment. I felt a bit smug when I placed my bag on the TSA belt knowing I had nothing to fear and would be speeding towards our plane in no time. Imagine my surprise when my bag was routed on the side track and I was asked if they could open it. I was perplexed; what could be so dangerous looking? My offer to assist was greeted with a "please step away after you unlock the bag". I want you all to feel much, much safer knowing that TSA is on the job and found the offending item with only a twelve minute search. The item that provoked such concern?  My old faithful harmonica!  Now granted I could most likely force someone to commit suicide if they were to listen to me for any length of time, but I don’t think a harmonica by itself could do much harm. 

Our flight on TAP (Portugal Air) was very comfortable. Since it departed at 10:30 pm it did not take us very long to fall asleep and we enjoyed 4 hours of sleep before landing at 11:00 am. Again, we felt smug knowing we would be the first out of the plane and be able to rush through immigration while others waited for their luggage. It was not to be. We were assigned a bus gate and while we were the first to exit the plane we had to lug our luggage down the steep stairs to the big bus where, after an interminable twenty minutes, finally started the drive to the terminal. We were the last off the bus and had to wait for forty minutes to clear immigration.  As we made our way to our waiting taxi, we saw a few of our fellow passengers who had already collected their luggage and were ahead of us at the exit!

We arrived at our hotel in Estoril and were told our room would be ready at 3pm, so we stored our luggage and headed to the beach, a fifteen-minute walk down the hill. The weather was perfect, bright sun, cool breeze and glorious surf pounding on the rocks.  There is a long promenade and we began to walk and walk and shake off the effect of being stored in a tube for too long. We stopped at a cafe and had coffee and a local pasty, Pastel da Nada, which is custard in a flaky tart and simply delicious. We walked a bit more in the other direction and ended up returning to our coffee cafe where we split an omelette and some Vinho Verde, a low alcohol white wine that is slightly effervescent. I was looking at the prices of the wines and noted that they were about the same as California, which surprised me until I realized I was looking at the full bottle prince not the per glass price!! In Portugal a glass of ice cold wine was only about three dollars compared to twelve to fourteen in California, and it was much better! I immediately was over jet lag just knowing we were in for some great fun and great food and wine for the next three days.

Our long-time friends moved from Italy to Portugal last year and drove to Estoril to spend time with us. It was a marvelous adventure in culinary curiosity. The weather stayed perfect and we dined outside for each meal - almost always some variation of seafood and vegetables - except for one day when it rained and we drove to Sintra to see the wet sights while negotiating the wet streets and bobbing umbrellas. 

All too soon we had to be on our way to France and after a lovely farewell lunch we parted with promises to make sure we don’t wait so long to meet up again. Our driver was on time and we arrived in plenty of time to CHECK OUR LUGGAGE!  Once again we had a bus gate so we were truly happy to have checked our bags.  The flight to Barcelona was fast and comfortable and on time. Our luggage came quickly and we got our rental car and headed for France.

More on France later, best to all, Cindy and Wm  

Borrego and Beyond

 14 Feb 2023

February 2023

We left you, dear readers, on the curb as we departed for an overnight in Borrego Springs. We were remiss in not visiting this place while we lived in San Diego so we thought we go there while we were back in the area and had a car. 

It is a pleasant two hour drive, mostly back roads that are quite lovely now that we have had all the rain.  We passed several Indian Casinos, a few open air fruit markets and then headed uphill for about four thousand feet where there was nothing but open fields and cattle grazing. At about 4,500 ft we started our descent into the Anza-Borrego State Park, the largest in California and about the size of Rhode Island, 650,000 square miles! As we drove down the narrow, twisting road Cindy provided color commentary since the only color I could see was the whites of my knuckles as I kept both eyes on the road. It is truly an inspiring view with lots of color from lots of layers of different soils, all eroded over time by what must have been a lovely wide river. Our first stop was the Interpretive Center run by the park service. A lovely spot with friendly guides and lots of trails, paths and information, not to mention the best and cheapest bottled spring water we had on the trip.  After an hour of walking, reading signs about the plants that we were looking at, and admiring the open vistas, we hopped in the car to scout out the rest of the area.  The park is famous for the annual "desert bloom" which usually occurs in mid-February or March.  We were a few weeks early but this year the verbena was already blooming and it was really pretty the way it covered the ground around the sculptures.  

We had been told that we had to see the hundred or so sculptures that dotted the desert within the town of Borrego Springs. As we were looking for them a dust storm kicked in - reminding us of Bahrain, which always makes us glad to be elsewhere.  We finally came upon the ‘animals’ that were sculpted out of metal and I must say they have to be seen to be believed.  These will wow you and it was so worth the effort. We spent an hour or so driving slowly in the car looking at these things and each time we would say that one is the best, but really, the best is the dragon going under the road!!  Quite wild!

We headed to our hotel for the night hoping to get a late lunch and a well deserved nap. After a quick check-in, we dropped our bags and headed for the resort restaurant where we were the only two folks there. No one seemed rushed since they are open from 7am to 10pm without a break so we ordered salads and wine. As we sat there looking out at the golf course, a large dog came trotting onto the course. We soon realized that it was a coyote, which brightened our day (being so close to nature). No sooner had he pranced out of sight but two more appeared and leisurely ambled in front of us wondering why we were having lunch so late. Ah, this is my idea of observing wildlife, cold wine in one hand, Cindy’s hand in my other and plate glass separating us from the wildebeests.

We took a long walk after our nap and by then the winds had died down so we had an undisturbed view forever without dust.  Really quite the spot, horseshoed in by three mountain ranges with a large dead lake at the open end.  After an hour of walking it started to get dark - and it gets dark quickly - so we wended our way across the golf course to the bar and had cocktails before being escorted to our very same table as that afternoon. Again, we were the only ones dining so we took it nice and easy and had a great time, even without wildlife sightings. 

By the time we were done it was dark, very, very, very dark. Borrego Springs is recognized by whatever organization does such things as an International Dark Sky Park. We walked out to the darkest spot on the grounds and there were stars everywhere from the edge of the desert to the edge of space.  I have been in the middle of oceans and saw lots of stars but nothing like this. Thank god there were no mosquitos or they would have filled my mouth! Cindy pointed out constellations that city boys never saw before and as I followed her commentary, there were shooting stars distracting my attention.  It was all quite marvelous and such a unique experience for us. 

The next day after a nice long walk we headed up the hill and back toward Oceanside but this time via Julian. Julian is a little ‘western’ village at about 4,000 feet noted for its apples and of course, apple pies. The town is nothing more than a mile of old time shops on either side of the road, each one promising you the very best, most authentic apple pie along with all manner of bric-a-brac and clothing and home decor depicting apples. We of course stopped to compare the pie offerings and settled on "Mom's Pies" where Cindy had a slice of blueberry and I chose mixed berry, both delicious!  We then purchased a sphere of goodness that was a traditional crust surrounding cooked apples - who knew a pie could look like a large softball?  Heading home with the aroma of a fresh apple pie in the car, we marveled at how diverse the geography is in this part of SoCal.  Within two hours we went from ocean to mountains, to skiing areas, to desert. Of course, once back in civilization we had to contend with lots of traffic, but the short trip had been well worth the effort and we were ever so pleased to have had the experience. 

We packed up and departed California four days later and had a blessed seven days at home getting ready for the next adventure in Portugal and France.  More on that later..  Best to all, Cindy and William

Arts Food and Culture

 January 2023

In the six weeks that we have been here, we have visited two museums, walked by another, visited the Mission San Luis Rey, listened to a band play half a song at the Sunset Market and endured numerous buskers playing under bridges - where we could not linger lest we get a contact high - and more singers on the Oceanside Pier.  We took pictures of the cottage that was featured in the first Top Gun, as well as a picture of me on Tom Cruise's motorcycle. The cottage was moved from Miramar and now houses a shop that makes really good fried fruit mini-pies. Okay, that covers Arts and Culture, now onto food.

But first, an hour’s diversion that combined culture and food. Cindy booked a tour at the Carlsbad Aqua-culture Farm.

(See it has culture in the title). https://carlsbadaquafarmersmarket.com/  

Oh what fun. They took a group of a dozen people and walked us through the entire process of growing oysters and mussels in their fifty foot lagoon, which is fed directly by the Pacific Ocean across the street.  It is a lovely tour led by a marine biologist who really knew her stuff. They can grow an oyster in only about five months and mussels in about eight. They sell all the mussels to Whole Foods and the oysters are all sold locally to folks who drop by to pick up a few dozen. After all the science we were escorted to a boardwalk overlooking the lagoon where barrels had been set up with napkins, plates of lemon wedges, hot sauces, gloves and a couple of shucking knives. Our guide gave us a quick lesson in how to open an oyster and then placed a dozen oysters on each barrel for two. Because of all the rain, these oysters came from Washington State; we were told it would take two weeks for the oysters to cleanse themselves once the rains stopped. The runoff from the rains contains lots of bad things from farm fields and sometimes from sewers, but the oysters can recover well. We had a swell time opening oysters and sliding them down our gullets.  We have had lots more oysters during our visit since many places have a happy hour where you can get oysters for a buck and a half, cheap nowadays. 

We discovered that there are really two areas in Oceanside where you can find a variety of restaurants at a variety of prices. There is the Marina which has seven restaurants and a coffee shop and is a ten minute walk from us, and there is downtown with dozens of restaurants that is a fifteen minute walk. Downtown prices are about 10% to 15% higher than the Marina but of course you have lots more choices. We have mostly eaten at the Marina and usually at the same two restaurants.  Highlights have been Ahi wonton tacos, which is a silly name for a marvelous appetizer consisting of deep fried wontons topped with bits of really fresh Ahi and drizzled with a slightly spicy wasabi sauce with shreds of fresh ginger. Where the taco comes in is something we never figured out. The same restaurant also has really good shredded chicken lettuce cups with sweet Thai chili sauce. You can sit outside and admire all the big boats in the harbor that never seem to be used, but then again it is January and the weather has been awful until just recently.

My favorite meal has been at the Lighthouse restaurant, the closest to the apartment. They have a Sand Dab dinner that is one of the best I’ve ever had. Sand Dabs are delicate white fish in the flounder family and they are lightly dipped in an egg bath, dusted with flour and quickly pan fried in butter. Served with grilled vegetables and wasabi potatoes, it is the most marvelous meal that I have had on the trip.  Cindy has enjoyed a delightful favorite, calamari taco, which is a real taco with grilled calami topped with shredded Napa cabbage and lemony sauce. Neither of us are fond of California wines and being in California our wine choices have been limited but we can usually find a nice New Zealand or Italian wine to savor with our meals.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention one of the best places we have visited. It is Osteria Romantica in La Jolla Shores, a quick ten minute ride from our timeshare where we stayed our first two weeks out here. We were there twice and we didn’t have a bad mouthful. It was the best pesto outside of Genoa, really that good. They have a pappardelle with lamb that makes you want to eat it at lunch and go back for it at dinner.  They also offer pan-seared baby artichokes served with the stem and covered with a butter, garlic and lemon sauce, crazy delicious crispy baby calamari, a spectacular duck salad, not to mention their home made bread and tiramisu for dessert and a great Italian wine served by the carafe. Worth a detour from where ever!

Our kitchen here in Oceanside is more than serviceable which has been a blessing with all the bad weather we had at first. I’ve roasted chickens, seared salmon, flipped omelettes and tossed lots of salads. We have a car so we try to do a week’s shopping at a time which so far has worked out well, enabling us to ignore the foul weather and stay warm and dry with good food and wine.

We have one more week here before heading home. We’ll drive to Borrego Springs in the desert about two hours from here. The place is famous for the "Desert Abloom,"  which is normally in mid Feb but with all the rain there are lots of blooms out now. We’ll spend the night and hope for clear skies for stargazing and perhaps a shot at seeing the Green Comet, which  I’m calling a cultural event!!

Best to all,  Cindy and Wm

Carlsbad Aquafarm

 

It Never Rains in Southern California

 December 2022

There  was a line from one of the Die Hard movies where Bruce Willis is in LA and in some tight situation reviewing how he got there he remembers his ex-wife telling him, “Come on out to LA, she said; we’ll have some laughs, she said." Just didn’t turn out that way.  Same for us!  We arrived in San Diego on the 8th of December and it was cold but not raining. It stayed cold for three weeks, finally warming up on the 24th of December when we had 3 days of glorious sunny weather. But by the 27th the rain had started and it has not stopped except for a few hours now and then.  The most rain in history, coldest weather in history, strongest winds in history, greyest days in history!  I don’t like that kind of history.  

Editor's note:  "cold" means low 50s overnight and 60° during the day.  Better than it could have been!

We feel horrible for all the folks that have really had problems rather than just being inconvenienced. It has really been an apocalyptic event with non-stop storms pounding all of California; most of the damage has been north of LA but there has been a lot of erosion and wave damage around here also. Remember the song, "It Never Rains in Southern California"?  It was a lie.

It had been more than three years since we've been back to San Diego and much has changed. Covid eliminated many of the restaurants we used to love and the recession has made those that remain very expensive. California has always been an expensive place to live but now it is really silly. The price of groceries is about 20% higher here than in West Virginia - and don’t get me started on the wine prices.  I think everyone knows how expensive gas is here - at one point it was $6.50 per gallon of regular - but has now come down to $4.85 and continues to fall slightly every week or so. I know this because we rented a car for the seven weeks we are here and while we have not driven a lot, we have had to fill it twice and it made my knees weak.  Fun Fact: for some reason you can’t rent a car in California for more than thirty days. That meant that we had to drive 75 miles roundtrip to sign another piece of paper for the remaining time we have the car. Did I mention the price of gas?

We are in Oceanside for five weeks now, about thirty-five miles north of San Diego. Our rented condo is lovely with views of the ocean. This is a very large complex of condominiums situated in grounds that resemble a Hawaiian Village with large pools, towering palm trees, lush vegetation, Koi ponds, waterfalls and lots of lovely flowers, the latter thanks to all the rain. There are three major carbon-based mammals that inhabit the local waters: Seals, Sea Lions and Surfers, listed from most intelligent to least!!  The seals and sea lions know to move to other locations when the rains have poured pesticides, effluent and silt into the sea, but the Surfers don’t seem to notice or care. They are out there from dawn to dusk and there are usually a couple hundred along the long stretch of beach.  Oceanside claims 3 miles of wonderful sandy beach and we can easily see at least a mile of it, half a mile in either direction.  

If you still have a 1960’s idea of the blond, blue eyed surfer dudes with long boards and woodies, you would be quite surprised. At least one third of them are now gray-haired, most likely the same kids from the 60’s all grown up but still hanging onto the past. The other third represent the vast melting pot of California. I marvel at what must be the largest group of males with the most flexible working hours, given all the time they are in the surf!

The only thing that outnumbers the surfers are the dogs!  There are a zillion dogs here. I think you are issued a dog when you move here and then you are encouraged to get a few more just for fun. They are not the kind of dogs that nice people rescue from shelters; oh no, these are so-called designer dogs and as far as I can tell they are over-bred and over-fed. One-third of the baby carriages you see around here have a dog inside (no baby, just the dog). There are large signs everywhere near the beach telling you that dogs are not allowed on the beach - and yet at any given time of the day there are dozens of dogs running free on the beach. I suppose if no one enforces an ordinance, it must not exist!

That is all for now, stay tuned for reviews of restaurants, museums and cultural events.  Wm

Back to Barcelona

 November 19, 2022

The trip back to Barcelona was fast and easy except for the part where I had to drive in Barcelona! We did pretty well getting close to the hotel despite the traffic and lousy GPS. We stopped to fill the tank and ran into our first problem, how to pay. They did not have any auto pay at the pumps.  Cindy went in and they said to use a card but we couldn’t see anyplace to use a card except a little sign that indicated “tap to pay” which was down on the side of one of the pumps. So I tapped and just then the pump came alive and I filled the tank. We were starting to leave and the man and woman in the station were waving to us so we waved back. He then waved to come into the store and I thought it was to get a receipt. Turns out I tapped a picture of a "tap to pay" just at the same time he reset the pump so I hadn’t paid anything!  We had a good laugh about that as I gave him my credit card!!  Those Embees sure are experienced travelers!!

There was chaos at the Hyatt when we tried to pull in to drop off our luggage. Seems that several bus loads of guests had all arrived at the same time. Added to the confusion was construction taking place in the entry area of the driveway so cars and busses were just stymied. I managed to pull to the side while Cindy sorted the baggage issues and we then were on our way to the train station where we had rented the car. We had walked there to pick it up so we thought we knew how to get back; however, you can walk either way on a one-way street, but you can only drive one way.  It took longer for us to drive there than it did to walk back to the hotel!

We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant not far from the hotel. Great waiter who moved us from one table to another because a large group came and sat right next to us, nice gesture that shows good training. We must have tipped him well since he came back right away and poured two large glasses of the same white wine we had been drinking.  Two Euros goes a long way in Barcelona; it was a very sweet gesture on his part.

Taxi to the ship was fast and easy, which turned out to be the best part of getting on the ship. Registration was a disaster only because few of the people were trained at all and had to keep getting help from the supervisors. Not a good start, but we were on the ship by noon. 

The Regent Splendor is gorgeous, prettiest one we've ever been on.  Our suite is large and comfortable with a huge balcony with a proper table and chairs for dining and a comfy chaise lounge. 

The music is great - they did a Broadway-style show last night that was actually Broadway quality.  Usually on ships it appears they hired those who couldn't quite make the big-time, e.g., singers who can't dance and dancers who can't sing.  This whole crew could check all the boxes for dancing and singing and athleticism - we are most impressed, even though I am not generally a fan of big shows like that. 

The so-called orchestra (actually a band) is a NY-style jazz/ contemporary group with trumpet, saxophone, drums, bass guitar and piano and they are wonderful.  Nice guys and they play swell dance music.  Cindy call me Rubberlegs when I really let loose on the dance floor. 

The food is exquisite although the service is hit-and-miss - we have the impression that too many waiters just got on the ship and training is sorely lacking.  Maybe they'll be fast learners!  A first-world problem for sure.

For all its elegance the ship has one of the most relaxed dress codes we have seen on all-inclusive lines. No ties, no formal nights, and very few sport jackets. The crowd is much older that we expected with lots of mobility issues that hamper efficient off/on experiences on port days. Speaking of mobility, there is an amazing couple that I’ve gotten to know. Both are totally blind and have the most positive attitude you can imagine. They are experienced travelers who don’t seem to let anything prevent them from having a good time.  Very humbling!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and they were serving turkey dinners in all the restaurants.  We went to the steak house where the well meaning waiter - when asked what the fish special was, said “turkey!”  When asked about the clam chowder he proceeded to describe the Vidalia onion soup.  Did we mention training need to be improved?

Saw a magnificent double rainbow before cocktails that went from horizon to horizon and lasted for thirty minutes. It was the talk of the cocktail lounges.

So what do you do all day?

November 28, 2023

 Tomorrow is the last of our six sea days with a stop in San Juan and then two days to Miami. Friends often ask, what do you do for six days at sea? We do quite a bit but far less than most. We have met a few couples who are on the go from 8am to 10pm playing trivia, games and scavenger hunts, all for valuable prizes that you turn in for Regent stuff at the end of the cruise.  The walking/ jogging deck has every manner of outdoor games including miniature golf, shuffleboard, baggo(cornhoe), pickle ball, and bocce.  They have contests most afternoons but we don’t join, although we’ve challenged each other to the occasional mean game of shuffleboard.  Others go up to the pool deck at 10, claim their chairs and towels and stay until almost sunset. We are not that ambitious nor do we like to bake in the sun!

We normally are up and ready to go by 8am when we do our exercise routines in the room or on the balcony, after which I walk and Cindy either runs or goes to the gym aka torture center. After that it’s fruit and coffee snd then more walking until they finally have the bouillon ready for me!  After that it’s time to clean up for lunch. While in the room I will have a Campari and soda while sitting on the balcony watching the waves and whatever wildlife is out there while Cindy might work on French or write in her journal or otherwise be productive to counter my sloth. 

Back to our rigorous daily schedule:  As it starts to approach 1pm we find a bar and have a glass of Champagne. On other ships we’ve always had the Champagne at the table while perusing the menu but here the service is slow we risk having the kitchen closed before we order!  We then choose a restaurant for a leisurely lunch, after which we might walk down to the coffee bar for an espresso, and by 3pm we are napping for an hour. After waking up we walk for another hour, watch the sunset and hope to see a green flash and then return to the cabin to get cleaned up and dressed for dinner.  

By 7pm we are in a lounge ready to dance for a half hour before dinner. Dinner generally lasts an hour and a half, followed by dancing and music until about 11 or midnight when we toddle off to bed. 

There are of course things that come up that change our schedule, like an afternoon movie or a comedian or Broadway-style show in the evening. Other than those interruptions we follow the plan of walking and eating and walking and eating with libations as needed - it has worked for years and we see no reason to change it now!