For many years, I have written little journals about our travels. I have started this webpage to consolidate those trips so we can refer back and remember the wonderful and sometimes, not so wonderful, experiences. Also, our friends and relatives have suffered through reading my journals, and now they will be able to follow along by reading updates posted here.
India 12/7 – 12/15/2024
Sunday, December 15, 2024 – Our near perfect visit to India ran into a snag today. Mr. Subhesh picked us up at the hotel alone as Mukesh was not going to accompany us to the airport. The plan was to visit some Krishna temples in Vrindavan. A local guide was to meet us there to show us the temples. We get to the meeting spot and there are 4 guys standing there. A few minutes later, one introduces himself as our guide, and we stand a few more minutes. Then he motions for us to get into a tuktuk.
The three of us ride in the back of the tuktuk, and the guide tells us two or three things about Krishna’s. Most of the time we are riding in silence. We ride over some very rough roads for about 10-15 minutes and stop at what appears to be an intersection with no temples in sight. The guide gets out, and a bit later motions for us to get out. Then he asks Dave if he has 200 rupees (about $2.25) to give to the tuk tuk driver. As Dave questions him saying everything is suppose to be paid for, I emerge from the tuktuk and immediately feel wetness on my cheek. A woman has come up from behind me and stamped my face with a yellow substance. I am not happy and the lady looks like she has more paint to put on my face and Dave steps between us to protect me. Meanwhile our guide is doing nothing and says, “she’s uneducated” but does nothing. At that point I said I was done and to take us back to our driver and Dave forcibly concurs. So we all hop back in the tuktuk, and in 5 minutes we are back at the parking lot Mr. Subhesh got on the phone with Mukesh and Mukesh spoke to me and I assured him we were OK, as I was not injured, just very uncomfortable with the situation.
In my opinion, this local Vrindavan guide should have explained what we were doing, how far, how long, and how to avoid uneducated women. He just gave us a couple of orders (get in tuk tuk and get out of tuk tuk) and I felt he was keeping us in the dark. We were uncomfortable from the beginning.
The good news is we got back in the car with Mr, Subhesh and he brought us to the airport. He is a very kind man and even gave us hugs as we left.
I told Dave that if our guide upon arrival would have been like the Vrindavan guide, our trip would have been a whole lot different. We probably would have bailed on day 1.
So we arrived at the airport about 2:00PM and our flight is not until 11:55PM. We couldn’t check our bags until about 8:00PM, so we hung out in the outer part of the airport where there’s not much to choose from. We did get a sandwich from a coffee vendor.
We landed in Tampa at 11:10 AM and then drove home in our rental car. We were in airports for about 32 hours, and traveling for about 42 hours including our drive (and tuk tuk ride) from Agra to Delhi and Tampa to Englewood.
It was a near fabulous trip with the exception of our last day ☹️.
Saturday, December 14, 2024 – Today is the icing on the cake – we visited the Taj Mahal. It is a UNESCO site and one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.
It is indescribable. It is built out of white marble with inlays of precious stones to make flowers and designs. The stones are cut and polished, then inlaid into the marble. The intricate designs are so fine that not even a magnifying glass reveals the breaks between the stones, yet a single 1-inch flower can have 60 pieces. The finished product is so smooth you would think it is painted. But when the sun hits the temple, you can see the glitter and shine. The white marble is from India and is translucent. It is not porous, so it does not stain. To look at it is mesmerizing. I feel so fortunate that we were actually able to visit the grounds and go inside the building.
It was built by Shah Jahan for his third and favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, which means the Jewel of the Palace. It took 17 years to build the Taj Mahal, starting in 1632, and 5 more years to finish the surrounding grounds. The legend is she asked him to build a monument so beautiful that the world would never forget their love. She died after giving birth to their 13th child. Our guide said they were only married 17 years, and she had a few miscarriages.
You enter through a huge sandstone gate on the south side which beautifully frames the Taj Mahal. To the north is a gate which provided access from the Yamuna River that flows behind it. There are English gardens on each side and a waterway that leads up to the tomb.
Everything is symetrical. On the west side, facing east is a mosque (The Shah and his wife were Muslims), and on the east side is an identical building that our guide said was built for symmetry but later used to house to house foreign dignitaries.
Inside the mausoleum are the tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan. They are actually buried below ground in a crypt and above the crypt, at ground level, are two raised structures that look like tombs. Unfortunately no photos are allowed. Her tomb is exactly at the center and he is at her side, which is the only asymmetrical element in the whole complex. The tombs are surrounded by a screen made of marble cut to look like latticework.
We have heard that you have to go at 6:00AM and stand in line for hours. Our guide is from Agra, and suggested he pick us up from the hotel at 9:00AM. I’m not sure what time we arrived at the Taj Mahal. We had to take an extended golf cart people mover from the car park to the entrance. Mukesh got out tickets and covers for our shoes that we would have to wear inside. We walked the grounds, took some pictures and walked up to the Taj Mahal. We walked around the tombs and around outside, but never had to wait. We had a beautiful, sunny day with no clouds.
It was just a phenomenal visit.
We visited a business that makes marble items and insets stones like those marble at Taj Mahal. We saw samples of the stones that are ground down and they are unbelievably tiny. Supposedly all these workers are descendants of the artisans that did the marble work at the Taj Mahal.
But, we had two more sights to visit. Next we went to the Agra Fort. This is also a UNESCO site. The word fort is misleading. This huge complex is really a fortified palace with royal apartments. A massive was 1.5 miles long and 69 feet high surrounds the fort. It had a water moat with crocodiles and snakes and a dry moat with wild animals to protect the occupants inside.
It was originally a brick fort and used by earlier emporer including Humayun (we visited his tomb in Delhi), his son Akbar, Akbar’s son Jahangir, and Akbar’s grandson Shah Jahan (who built the Taj Mahal).
We saw the Royal bedroom, and on each side was smaller palaces built for two daughters. There were designs carved from red sandstone and marble, but nowhere near as intricate or beautiful as the Taj Mahal.
Shah Jahan’s son, Aurangzeb,who was the third son and not in line to succeed his father, killed his brothers and confined his father to house arrest until his father’s death. While confined, Shah Jahan had clear views of the Taj Mahal containing the tomb of his wife. When Shah Jahan died, he was buried next to his wife at the Taj Mahal.
The last site we visited was nicknamed the Baby Taj. It’s real name is “Itimad-ud-Daulah’s Tomb. Jahangir’s (Akbar’s son) favorite wife built this small tomb for her father, Mizraim Ghiyas Beg, who was later known as Itimad-ud-Daulah. Itimad-ud-Daulah was also the grandfather of Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of emporer Shah Jahan, for whom the Taj Mahal was built. This tomb was built before the Taj Mahal, but included intricate marble inlay. It was very likely the inspiration for the Taj Mahal.
The tombs of Itimad-ud-Daulah, and his wife are in the center. Other relations are entombed in corner rooms.
Mukesh always wants to take our picture. Occasionally we comply.
It is a beautiful building on well maintained grounds, but much smaller than the Taj Mahal.
It is late in the afternoon, I think about 3:30, and we go to lunch. Mukesh helps me order an Indian entree and gives me a sample of his chickpea dish. Dave played it safe with fried fish.
At my request we stopped at a souvenir shop to buy a couple of postcards and a book on Agra, Delhi, and Jaipur which Dave and I like to keep in our little library.
We are back at the hotel, reviewing our clothing for our travel to Delhi and long flight home. We are suppose to visit a temple complex on the way to Delhi, but we said goodbye to Mukesh.
Friday, December 13, 2024 – We left Ranthambhore to drive to Agra, which is a 6 hour drive. On the way, our guide, Mukesh said he stops at a cow pen to feed the cows. These are cows that have been let loose by their owners as they no longer produce milk. They have been rounded up and placed in this cow pen. There are ladies there who have bought cow feed from farmers, and then they sell the feed so people can feed the cows. At first, I was kinda like, I’ve lived on a farm, and then I thought why not. Mukesh had already bought the feed from an older lady and he shared some of the cow feed with me. So I fed the cows!
We continued on our drive and stopped at at Fatehpur Sikri, a city built in red sandstone by Emperor Akbar, and a UNESCO site. The story Mukesh told us was that Abkar did not have an heir. He had three wives, a Christian, a Muslim and a Hindu, and several concubines, but an heir had to be a son from one of his three wives. Akbar sought the advice of a religious man who predicted the birth of a son. Soon, his Hindu wife gave birth to a son and became his favorite wife. Akbar moved his capital from Agra and to Fatehpur Sikri in 1571 and built his compound there in 1574 to be closer to the religious man. Fatehpur Sikri is an enormous compound. The outer area is where he would hold public audiences.
Then you enter into the Royal area and saw where Akbar would meet with his advisors. He sat on top of a platform, and the advisors would meet him up there.
We saw the treasury where the valuables were kept inside concealed openings 8”x8”, and then very deep all around the room. The astronomer sat outside the treasury in his own area.
We saw the rooms for the wives. The Muslim wife’s room had a lot of intricate detail carved into the sandstone that made it look like wood.
We saw Akbar’s bedroom. The bed was elevated about 10 feet off the ground and was more than king size!
Outside his bedroom was a water feature with a platform in the middle where musicians would play for Akbar while he sat on his balcony.
Christian wife had paintings on the wall. This is an example of elephants.
The favorite wife that produced an heir basically had a castle of her own with a summer room and a winter room. Since she was Hindu, she had her own temple.
Mukesh showed us squares on the ground where the king would play a game he called Parchese with his concubines to see which one(s) he would sleep with that night.
Akbar abandoned the site in 1585, and the city was totally abandoned in 1610.
Leaving Fatehpur Sikri, we stopped for a quick bite to eat, and ate at their buffet. Mukesh said the food was bland for tourists and had them spice stuff up for him.
Then we proceeded to Agra where we are spending the night and tomorrow we go to the Taj Mahal.
Thursday, December 12, 2024 – We were scheduled to have a morning Safari, but we were so cold when we came back from our evening Safari, we cancelled the morning one. The morning one is colder than the evening one. We never expected it to be so cold (40°) in India and we just did not bring warm enough clothes.
We had a nice leisurely breakfast and relaxed for the morning.
For the afternoon Safari today, we layered on as many clothes as we could, and the hotel will provide blankets (we didn’t know that yesterday).
So we relaxed in the morning, grabbed a quick cheese sandwich with French fries for lunch. The French fries were really good! Then we met our guide and driver at 1:30pm who took us to meet our jeep. The jeep is called a gypsy. They also do tours in a 20 passenger bus called a canter. The jeeps/gypsy is different than other safari vehicles we’ve been in in that it is 2 rows of seats with 3 people in each row. Each jeep has a driver and a naturalist.
After we get in our jeep, on our way driving to the park, we see these kids running and then climbing on top of a bus. We figure it’s school kids hitching a free ride on a city bus. The bus does not stop for them…they run and grab the ladder while the bus is moving!
Unfortunately, we did not see any tigers yesterday or today. But we did see some animals.
The last animal we saw was a sloth bear which is pretty rare.
We also saw antelope but could not get a decent picture.
The jeep driver and naturalist at the end of our Safari claimed to see 3 leopards, but none of the six of us in the jeep could spot them ☹️.
The driver took us back to our hotel, and we enjoyed a hot cup of tea and some cookies in the pool area of our hotel when we returned.
After getting warmed up and rested, we went to dinner.
I enjoyed some vegetarian hot and sour soup, chicken with pepper entree and a lamb entree (it was served buffet style). I have been enjoying some Indian dishes, some not do much. But I like spicy food, so generally if it has chicken or lamb, I’ll try it. Dave is not as adventurous as me, but has found most of the restaurants serve fish and chips. So he will order that if there’s nothing on the buffet that interests him. We also have found a wine we like, so we enjoyed a bottle with dinner.
I thought I would lose weight in India, but I have been enjoying the food, so I’m sure I put on a few pounds.
Tomorrow we head to Agra.
Wednesday, December 11, 2024 – We have a 4 hour drive from Jaipur to Rathambore. We pass some sheep…
And some cows. We have seen many cows in town, on the road, everywhere.
Cows are a sacred animal, but their milk is used. When the cows no longer give milk, they are set loose, but never killed. It is the Hindu religion to feed the cows with the firstfruits, usually bread, every morning. I’m assuming cows and bulls. So even the non producing animals are cared for. We saw people outside the stores feeding the cows.
We arrive at our hotel, The Tigress, and it is very nice.
We were rushed a bit to be ready for our Safari at 1:30, and only had about 20 minutes for lunch. But the restaurant manager was accommodating and made us a cheese sandwich “to go” boxed very nicely with some water and fruit juice.
We did not see any tigers, or many animals. So a few animal photos, plants and views of the landscape. Not positive on plant identifications…
We almost had a better picture of the water buffaloes, but our naturalist guide told us to wait, because he thought he could maneuver them and instead chased them off.
At the end of the Safari, the jeep driver dropped us off at our hotel. Dave and I were frozen to the bone. We were not prepared for it to get so cold when the sun went down. We went to our room and did everything we could to get warm. I was going to take a hot shower, but the water was only “warm”. I guess they don’t have hot water because we asked. After dinner we just crashed under the covers to keep warm.
Tuesday, December 10, 2024 – Unfortunately, Dave and I are both sick! But we are trudging on. Today is a full day of sightseeing. We start out at 9:00AM. We drive through Jaipur, then old Jaipur. Dave spots some workers on the back of a truck sleeping as they travel to their job. We see three bodies, but the one on the left just has legs showing and the one on the right is totally covered and hard to pick out.
Buildings were originally colored yellow, which can be seen on the back of the buildings. The capital was painted pink (really more of a salmon color) when Prince Albert visited India in the middle of the 19th century. The idea stuck, and by law buildings in the old city must still be painted pink. As a result, Jaipur is commonly referred to as the Pink City. The shops are not chaotic like in new Jaipur or even Delhi. The first stop is a photo stop at the “Palace of Winds”, or Hawa Mahal. It is “Jaipur’s most iconic structure”. It is a five story structure built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Sing as a safe haven for royal women to observe the goings-on of the city. Its prominent feature is its 953 latticed windows that make the palace look like a honeycomb. It was named after the westerly winds that blow through the windows.
In front of the Palace of the winds was a decorative piece made totally our of flower petals, which will die and blow away in a couple of days. Our guide said it was probably for an event to be held here. We saw it just as it was finished.
We continue on into what our guide calls “Ancient Jaipu. We are here to see and tour the “Amber (Amer) Fort and Palace”.
It is a 4 story complex with a maze of halls and rooms, constructed with a mix of red sandstone and white marble, any of which are adorned with intricate mirror work and frescos.
It was began in 1592 by Raja Man Singh and Mira Raja Singh and Sawai Jai Singh continued the construction over 125 years. You can ride an elephant up to the front gate, but our driver drove us up a back way. The elephants are well cared for. They only make 3 trips a day, and then go back to their “elephant village”. The elephants were painted and decorated.
Some consider using the elephants as abusive. I felt better knowing they were limited to 3 trips, but we were driven to the moon entrance, so really, the elephants are not required.
Inside the palace are elaborate carved decorations, latticework to allow airflow but still provide viewing outside. One area was totally decorated with tiny mirrors imbedded into the walls and ceiling to reflect the light. It was beautiful.
It is impossible for me to remember all the details and all the rooms. We saw a “squattie pottie” and bathtub which the guide said was for the ladies.
Leaving the Amber Fort, we drove to the water palace for a photo stop. This palace is located in the middle of a lake with views of mountains in the distance. It must have been a wonderful place to go when it was hot outside, as it gets very hot in the summer.
Next we visited the City Museum which is attached to another palace.
One courtyard had four doors, each decorated for a different season.
Inside the city museum were suppose to be two large silver urns, except one was on loan to a museum in Houston, Texas. Somehow we did not get a picture, so this picture was downloaded from the internet.
The story behind these two urns was the king was invited to a coronation of a king in England, but because of his religion, he needed water from the Ganges River for his long journey. So the two large silver urns filled with Ganges River traveled with him for his use.
Also in the city museum area but different rooms was a textile museum and a weapons museum. Pictures were not allowed in these rooms.
The weapons room displays the Royal collection of arms and armor, including swords, shields, axes, bows and arrows, daggers, chain armor, fire, arms, and gunpowder containers.
The most interesting things I saw were the pajamas and robe for one of the maharajas. The pajamas were HUGE! The waistband had to be at least 12 feet around. The robe was like a tent. The man had to be massive! I wish I had a picture because it was unbelievable!
The Jantar Mantar is a collection of 19 astronomical instruments built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh, the founder of Jaipur, Rajasthan. The monument was completed in 1734. It features the world’s largest stone sundial, and is a UNESCO site. The instruments allow the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye.
Horoscopes are very important in India, using the time, date and location of birth. Our guide said in arranged marriages the astrological signs are used in making matches.
After visiting the observatory we went to a store that did printed fabrics. I had told Mukhest that I might need a sweatshirt for the Safaris on Wednesday and Thursday, but I don’t think he understood what I was looking for. It was an interesting visit though. A young woman illustrated different stamps in how to produce a finished product on fabric. We entered the store and sat through a demonstration of all the different things they produce and even saw a young man trying on a new suit jacket made for him. If you order something today, they deliver it tomorrow morning!
We were pretty exhausted and returned to the hotel. The hotel is very nice, and there is an Indian wedding going on.
But there were issues…
We went to dinner, and Dave ordered a fried fish dish which turned out to be very nice fried fish with French fries. I ordered hot and sour soup and a chicken entree. After about 30 minutes, I got my soup. After I finished my soup, 10 minutes or more later, Dave got his fish dish, and ate it while it was warm. My chicken entree never came!!! Then, the next morning, the coffee machine was broken and I could not get any coffee!
The issues were minor overall, and with the wedding going on, I’m sure the staff was very busy.
Tomorrow morning we have a 4 hour drive to Rathambore National Park for our tiger safaris.
Monday, December 9, 2024 – Not a very active day. We drove from Delhi to Jaipur, leaving at 9:00AM and arriving 3:00PM. We made one stop about mid-wat to use the bathroom and grab some snacks. There was a store, and we picked out some flavored popped lotus seeds, and noticed a rat in the store! Yikes!
The bags are sealed, so we felt they were safe. Then we went next door to the restaurant, which had very limited options. We ended up ordering grilled cheese sandwiches. While we were waiting, we saw a mouse run across the floor. Dave and I are eyeing each other…but we ate the grilled cheese. There were other Indian people in the restaurant, so we felt it couldn’t be that bad….
We arrived in Jaipur at 3:00PM. We had a visit to the Galta Ji Temple in our itinerary, which is a monkey temple. We have previously visited monkey temples, and experienced monkeys at Gibraltar. We opted out of visiting the monkey temple because the monkeys can jump on you and they can bite!
So we decided to check into our hotel, rest a little while and meet up with our guide at 4:15PM. We had quite a welcome! Apparently there is a wedding at the hotel and they thought we were wedding guests when we arrived.
We met our guide at 4:25PM and he took us to an all white marble Hindu temple. On the way, we passed an old, abandoned fort up on a hill.
He is Hindu and has been telling us a lot of information about the Hindu religion. The name of the temple is the BirlaTemple, dedicated to Lord Vishnu and Goddess Laxmi, two Hindu Gods. This temple, made entirely of white marble, showcases intricate carvings and Hindu scenes. Lord Vishnu and Goddess Laxmi are exquisitely dressed in the front of the temple. Unfortunately, photos are not allowed inside. There are some stained glass windows with Hindu Gods and Goddesses, too. Our guide says Hindu’s are respectful of all religions and shows us carved figures on the columns outside the temple. All these images are part of the Hindu temple.
The Birla Temple was built by a very wealthy Indian family named Birla. They have built several other temples in other cities as well.
Very close by are two other Hindu temples which are not as elaborate. Mukesh took us to one of the temples that is dedicated to Ganesha, and looks like an elephant. The elephant was dressed. Each God and Goddess has a conveyance (vehicle) they ride. Ganesha, the elephant, rides a mouse! This temple is much smaller than the Birla Temple.
After visiting the two temples, we returned to the hotel. We stopped in the bar for a glass of wine, but their options were very limited. We ended up sharing one glass of red wine.
We had dinner in the hotel – it seems our hotels are not close to other options, but we probably would rather eat and get some extra rest anyway.
Tomorrow we tour Jaipur.
Sunday, December 8, 2024: Lots of pictures today!
We are in Delhi and will meet our tour guide at 9:00 AM. Last night was exciting because we could not figure out how to turn the lights off in our room. We were both very tired and tried every switch we could find. Finally we had to call the front desk to ask for help. I was already in my pajamas, so I got in bed and covered up. After what seemed like a long wait – probably 15 minutes – someone came and showed us a panel that we thought was just the clock, and turned our lights out!
This morning we went to breakfast and was not sure what most of the options were. Dave found some cold cuts and cheese which seemed to be okay for him. I found some bacon, pastries and fruit. Then I tried to get coffee. I could not figure out the coffee machine, so I asked for help and thought I watched closely enough that I could get a second cup on my own. Long story short, I still had trouble and ended up dropping whatever was in my cup on the floor making a mess. A kind waitress told me not to worry, and asked what I wanted. She went somewhere (she didn’t use the machine either) and brought me a cup of coffee. Not a good start to the morning.
A little before 9:00, we went to the lobby to check out and meet our guide. He spotted me immediately – I guess I was the only American woman getting off the elevator. His name is Mukesh and I was immediately relieved because he spoke English very well and we could understand him! Our driver is Mr. Subhesh. Our car is a small SUV, but roomy enough for all four of us and our luggage.
As we start driving, Mukesh tells us a little about himself and that he has guided Obama, Nancy Pelosi, several US Senators and he is a tourist guide for the US Embassy. He was suppose to guide Trump, but they did not give him the exact date of Trump’s visit and it ended up he had a conflict. So with those high level clients, I’m feeling much more comfortable with our guide and driver. Mukesh is very personable, knowledgeable, easy to talk to and welcomes questions.
He tells us the original name of Delhi was Dilli, but the British changed it to Delhi.
Even though it’s Sunday, traffic is atrocious. Our guide says it is much lighter than normal because it’s Sunday.
We drove to Old Delhi, also known as Shahjahanabad. It was founded as a walled city by Shah Jahan in 1648 when he decided to move the capital from Agra to Mughal India. It remained the capital of Mughal India until 1857 when the British Empire took over. Google says Mughals is also spelled Mogul or Moghul, and is the Indo-Persian form of Mongol. Here we visited the Jama Masjid, one of the largest mosques in India. It was built by Shah Jahan between 1644 and 1656. It is still an active mosque and can hold 20,000 people.
Next we took a rickshaw ride. One guy on a bicycle hauled Dave and I around Old Delhi. We ride through narrow alleys which are lined with shops, called Chandni Chowk market. Most are closed because it’s Sunday, but a few are open. We spotted a couple of monkeys near the roofline of a couple of buildings. Vendors are selling street food and everything else.
We stop for a short walking tour and Mukesh points out a wholesale flower market, shops selling “popped lotus seeds” which looks like popcorn, nuts and spices. We stop in one shop selling spices and not only do they have every kind of spice, the make spice mixtures and they package it so tourists can buy it and bring it home. I bought a mixture that’s suppose to be good on potatoes.
We walked back to our rickshaws and were taken back to our starting point which was near the mosque.
Our next stop is the memorial to Mahatma Ghandi which is the spot where he was cremated. Mahatma Ghandi is called the father of the nation. So this is where we began to connect more with Mukesh. In the 1940’s, the Muslims demanded a separate homeland. In 1947, Britain granted independence with Hindus staying in India and Muslims moving to Pakistan. Apparently Ghandi allowed Muslims to stay in India instead of moving to Pakistani. This is probably what caused Ghandi to be assassinated. Mukesh said Muslims have many wives and therefore have multiplied more rapidly than the Hindus (Mukesh is Hindu) and now want to change the rules so everyone has to conform to the Islam religion because they are becoming the majority. More on this when we reach our last stop today. Whether you agree with Ghandi or not, it is interesting to me how one man can make such an impact on the world.
We had photo “drive-bys” to see the Parliament House, the President’s House, and the India Gate.
The India Gate is a war memorial to the Indian soldiers who died in WWI. Another memorial is nearby honoring soldiers who died in a later war.
Next we visited Humayun’s Tomb. It was the first garden tomb in India and declared a UNESCO site, commissioned by his wife in 1558. There are many other tombs at this site, I believe over 100. The surrounding gardens are very peaceful and it was interesting to look at the tombs. Tombs of women had one design or symbol and the men had what our guide called a pencil box. One tomb had no design because apparently it was an eunuch.
After visiting Humayun’s tomb, it was about 2:00, so we had a lunch break. It was a restaurant mainly for foreign tourists. Dave had chicken fingers that came with French fries. I had chicken and vegetable lasagna which was more like a chicken stew with some pasta, not resembling lasagna at all. But it was tasty, which was the important thing,
Our last stop was Qutub Minar, another UNESCO site. It is 239 feet tall, making it the tallest minaret in the world built of bricks. It has 5 distinct storey. The first storey was built by the viceroy Aibak as a victory tower in the late 1100’s. The next three stories were added by his son-in-law and successor but the tower was struck my lightening in 1368AD which knocked off the top storey. The last two stores were added by a Sultan of Delhi (1351-1388) and has some white marble and sandstone as opposed to the red sandstone in the earlier storey’s.
There are many other ruins on the site of Qutub Minar. Mukesh pointed out the original mosque built here used materials from destroying Hindu temples. He pointed out carved bells on some of the pillars which are representative of the bell rung in Hindu temples. The columns used in the mosque also have carved figures which would not be in a mosque because there can be no representations of human figures in a mosque. We saw this in Istanbul in the Haggai Sophia which used to be a church but was converted to a mosque. All the human figures has been covered with Islamic writings. The mosque was started in 1193 by the same viceroy Aibak.
In this same complex, is an unusual iron pillar. The pillar weighs over 14,300 lbs and was erected around 402AD. It is a curiosity because it is iron and never rusts. There is an inscription on the pillar in Sanskrit, which indicates it is a Hindu relic.
After visiting Qutub Minar, we were driven to our hotel, Lalit Hotel in Delhi.
We had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Dave had a salmon kabob and I had lamb rogan josh. We had the same bottle of wine that we had last night. Last night it cost $75, tonight it cost $35!
Saturday, December 7: Leaving the port was hair raising. Out transfer to the airport scheduled for 7:30AM and we have a 1:00PM flight.
Getting out of the port was frustrating. We had to go through the usual routine of showing our paper, meeting the immigration officer face to face, having our hand luggage screened, picking up our luggage (which has become pretty easy to spots with our houndstooth London Fog purchase from the humane society thrift store), finding our correct bus among a mass confusion of buses and finally getting seated. Then our bus could not leave because of the mass of buses in front of us. We probably sat for 20 minutes just waiting for other buses to get out of our way. Finally we are driving to the port exit where a man in a uniform boards the bus to check our stamped paper. Unfortunately, one woman left her paper in her luggage that was loaded under the bus 🤯. I did not have kind thoughts for her. The bus has to back up, park, and they have to unload luggage until they find her bag. She finds it and gets back on the bus. Now there are several cars and buses and taxis in front of us, and butting in front of us, and no one is moving. An hour later….we finally get to the front of the line, the man enters the bus to check our papers, and our bus attendant tells him all the papers are checked, and he believes her and we are finally off to the airport. I would hate to see what my blood pressure was as we sat there for an hour. Although we were told it would take two hours to get to the airport, which is why I was freaking out, it only took about 40 minutes once we were out of the gate.
On our drive to the airport, we see this water truck out the window. One man is sitting on top, and the other man on the ground is brushing his teeth!
The Mumbai airport seems pretty normal, our only issue is understanding the announcements. Indian English is different from American English. Just as it is getting close to boarding time, gate gets changed, and thankfully Allison brings it to our attention. Otherwise we probably wouldn’t have noticed.
We walk to the new gate, and they are making announcements we can’t understand. We can tell boarding has started, but I cant tell when it is our turn. Dave finally says that’s us, and we board.
Our seats are near the back of the plane – good for when we need to use the restroom! Of course we cannot take off right away, so we sit and wait on the plane. I think we finally left about 40 minutes late, but the pilot picked up a few minutes as we landed about 3:30 instead of 3:00.
We get our luggage and I emailed the Radisson Blu to see if they have a shuttle. They said they’d send a salon car for us. They did, but there was a lot of back and forth on WhatsApp trying to locate one another. I was having a hard time understanding Indian-English, and so was Dave. Finally I asked a guy sitting on a bench if he would translate for us, and he must have directed the driver because he came walking up the sidewalk. It was a good ride from the airport to the hotel, a lot further that what we thought. It is crazy how they drive! It is truly unbelievable. It is amazing there aren’t more accidents. Finally we arrive at the hotel about 5:00PM. They scanned our luggage before we entered the hotel, Dave and I had to walk through an airport like scanner, plus, a woman wanded me and a man wanded Dave! This was just to get into the hotel!!!
After we get our luggage and try to reorganize a bit, we decide to try to find some food. The first place we went to is called New York deli, and it was a huge buffet with everything except American food. We said we were looking for something lighter, so the hostess wanted to walk us to the Asian restaurant. Actually she insisted, but turned us over to another guide. She took us to the Asian restaurant, and it looked good, but we wanted to see if there were other options. So they walked us to the bar. The bar guy really tried to keep us there even though we didn’t like his menu. We told him we were going back to the Asian food, and he said we could order the Asian food in the bar and they’d bring it. We kept saying mom, so finally he turned us over to someone who walked us back to the Asian restaurant. We had a nice meal, but it was crazy like they didn’t want us walking around alone.
I had some won tons and lamb chops, Dave had Chicken Kung Pao, but aI didn’t get a picture of his food.
We also had a bottle of Indian wine that was very good!
There is a big Christmas tree in the lobby of the Radisson Blu.
After our long day traveling, we are ready for bed!
Itinerary
12/7/2024 – Fly from Mumbai (Bombay) to Delhi
12/8/2024 – Delhi Sightseeing
12/9/2024 – Delhi to Jaipur
12/10/2024 – Jaipur sightseeing
12/11/2024 – Jaipur to Ranthambhore National Park
12/12/2024 – Ranthambhore National Park
12/13/2024 – Ranthambhore National Park to Fatehpur Sikri to Agra
12/14/2024 – Agra sightseeing
12/15/2024 – Agra to Vrindavan to Delhi late flight home
12/16/2024 – Arrive Tampa
Hotels:
**Radisson Blu, Delhi Airport**
07-08 December 2024 (1 night)
** The Lalit, Delhi **
08–09 December 2024 (1 night)
Room Type: Deluxe Room
** The Lalit, Jaipur **
09–11 December 2024 (2 nights)
Room Type: Deluxe Room
** The Tigress, Ranthambore **
11–13 December 2024 (2 nights)
Room Type: Royal Luxury Suite
** Courtyard by Marriott, Agra **
13–15 December 2024 (2 nights)
Room Type: Deluxe Room
Singapore to Mumbai, 11/19 – 12/7/2024
Friday, December 6, 2024 – Last evening I went to the Production Show, “On Broadway”, which was very good. They sang many song from the famous musical shows, so I enjoyed it very much. Dave went to the casino to rescue some of our unrefundable onboard credits. But he is still coughing and did not go to dinner with me to spare fellow diners from his germs.
We are in Mumbai today and overnight, but we disembark very early Saturday morning. Dave is feeling better, but still coughing, so I was on my own again today. As we leave the ship, we have ladies in costume dining and dancing for us again today.
Then we go through the ridiculous immigration process, which I won’t repeat, but the same as yesterday.
We met our lady guide, and I believe there’s only 18 in our group today, which I think would be a more manageable size. We are going to have a lot of photo stops today.
Mumbai, Bombay, etc, etc…again, not only Mumbai, but streets, train stations, etc. have multiple names, and multiple reasons I guess. But it seems both names for many of these are still used and as a tourist, using an old name or new name will get you to your destination.
Our first stop is the Gateway of India, which is in a massive plaza filled with people. The Gateway of India is an arch-monument completed in 1924 on the waterfront. It was erected to commemorate the landing of George V his coronation as the Emperor of India in December 1911. He was the first British monarch to visit India. After its construction, the Gateway was used as a symbolic ceremonial entrance to India for important government personnel. The Gateway is also the monument from where the last British troops left in 1948, following Indian independence a year earlier.
The next stop was the Rajabai clock tower on the campus of Bombay University. A wealthy broker that founder the Bombay Stock Exchange contributed to the cost of building the tower with the condition it be named after his mother, Rajabai. She was blind and a staunch follower of the Jain religion, so she was suppose to consume her evening meal before evening. The bell on the clock tower allowed her to know when evening was approaching without anyone’s help. I like it when the guide tells these little stories about places we visit.
We made a photo stop at Victoria Station. I have not seen the movie “Slum Dog Millionaire”, but apparently one scene is filmed here. Victoria Station (also known as Victoria Terminus, VT), was renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (officially Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus …see his statue above) in 2017. Not sure why they chose the name Chhatrapati Shivaji, but he was a 17th century warrior king and Maharaj means great king, emporer. Confession – my photo is not very good.
Our next stop is to see Dabbawallas ( with white hats) responsible for lunchbox delivery. The lunchboxes are picked up from homes in the morning and then using trains or bicycles taken to a sorting place. Then they are put back on the train and dropped off at the appropriate station where another Dabbawallas meets the train and delivers the lunches. The empty boxes are picked up and returned in a similar manner to the homes. This system started in the late 1800’s where migrants were moving to Bombay. They were used to eating their own home cooked meals, but left early in the morning. So this meal delivery system was developed so they would have their own home cooked meal for lunch.
We walked to the Churchgate train station and boarded a train.
There are certain cars for ladies only.
We used a train car with no restrictions. It was interesting to get a little ride, but fortunately due to the time of day, and a holiday in Mumbai, the train was not very crowded. The doors on the train cars did not close, but at least we got a nice breeze.
We exited at Mahalaxmi station to see Dhabi Ghat.
Dhabi Ghat, the city’s 140 year old, open air laundromat. It is a chaotic scene as 100,000 articles of clothing are washed, sorted, ironed and hung out to dry each day by 7,000 workers. The guide told me it takes 3 or 4 days to get your clothes back, but you can pay for faster service.Hospitals and hotels use their services as well as people. It was recognized by Guinness Book of World Records in 2011 for most people washing clothes in a single location. Bollywood producers have used the location to make movies. I had to take multiple pictures of this – it is unbelievable!
While waiting for our bus, I spotted the lady cashing a box on her head.
And another lady with a basket on her head.
I did see a couple of cows, which really seems out of place in an urban location, but was not quick enough to snap a photo. Our guide said lots of times you see cows outside temples.
Traffic is unbelievable. There are no lines to designate lanes, and there are cars, buses and motorbikes cutting in and out of traffic. It is crazy to watch. Probably no a surprise that there’s a lot of honking going on. More surprising is the cars do not show signs of collisions or crashes. Pretty much all the cars had good bodies.
We drove by a golf course on the way to Mahatma Ghandi’s house.
A representation of his bedroom was in one room.
One room was filled with photographs, as well as photographs lining all the walls. One room was filmed with dioramas of Mahatma Ghandi’s life.
Several rooms were filled with books and it appears to be a place for research.
Our last stop was the requisite stop at a shop. The problem was all the merchandise was high end and I don’t think anyone is going to drop big bucks at a 10 minute stop. Other Celebrity tours stopped, too. It would make more sense to stop at a souvenir shop where it would be more likely for someone to buy something.
We had to get our packing done, but we managed to go to one lounge and listen to some music. Tomorrow we fly to Delhi, so this is the last post for the cruise portion of our trip.
Thursday, December 5, 2024 -We are in Goa, India today. Dave seems to have picked up a bug so I’m on my own. That means my photos won’t be as good as when he’s with me.
This is our view as we are docking.
Our group leaves the ship about 7:45AM and of course we need to go through immigration. First someone who looks like a soldier checks my stamped paper – I think this is kind of an arrival card. Then a face to face with an immigration officer in a booth, then documentation checked as we leave the building. Thinking we were done, but oh no… someone who looks like a soldier walked through the bus before we leave the terminal and checks that stamped paper – arrival card. Finally, we are on our way to our first stop.
We get off bus in kinda a sketchy area that looks like a homeless camp.
We continue walking, and fortunately Dave is not with me, because crossing streets is an adventure, and he is very cautious when he crosses a street. It felt like you just step out in front of traffic (mostly motor bikes but some cars and buses too) and they either stop, swerve around you at the last minute, or hit you. The good news is I didn’t get hit. We arrive at our first sight which is actually three churches. We are visiting during the 18th Exposition of the Sacred Relics of St. Francis Xavier (April 7, 1506 – December 3, 1552). He was elevated to the status of a saint, and one of the reasons was his body did not disintegrate after his death. Our guide said it remained “fresh”. Normally his body is kept in a silver casket in the “Basilica of the Born Jesus”, but when they have the Expositions, which are held every 10 years, St. Francis Xavier’s relics are put on display. The last Exposition was in November 2014 to January 2015. It seems the dates are in conjunction with his death on December 3, 1552. There are two other buildings that look attached in my photo, but one is a cathedral and the other is a church.
The Cathedral is Se Cathedral and the main altar is dedicated to Catherine of Alexandria. On the right side of the main altar is a Chapel of the Cross of Miracles, where a vision of Christ is said to have appeared in 1619. It also houses a baptismal font made in 1532 which was used by St. Francis Xavier in order to baptise several Goan converts. I would guess St. Francis Xavier’s relics are on display in the Cathedral. Our guide said the line to see the relics is at least 2 hours long, so we did not see the relics.
The church is The Church of St. Francis of Assisi, built in 1661 by the Portuguese Franciscan friars.
We could not go into either the church or the cathedral. But we could go into the Basilica of the Born Jesus. Unfortunately photos inside were not allowed. Our guide could not guide us inside, so we were all kind of on our own. It was built between 1594 and 1605. The altar is covered in gold and is very large.
Walking out of the church and into the courtyard is a Nativity Scene.
I realize it is December, and we have been seeing Christmas decorations everywhere, but I think I need to be home to really feel the Christmas Spirit.
After walking through the church, I walked down towards a market. Apparently the Catholics and Hindus are both celebrating, so it is a large market. It reminds me of a carnival. They are selling all kinds of things, including shoes! Lots of booths with edibles like nuts and sweet treats that are not familiar to me. I saw a Hindu temple, but did not get a picture.
Walking back to our bus, a bull was laying on a cement island in an intersection. I saw him blink, so I know he was alive.
We get back on the bus and drive to Panaji or Panjim. Goa is one of 28 states in India and was under Portuguese rule until 1961. Panaji or Panjim is the capital of Goa. Portuguese influences are still strong in architecture, colorful buildings and tiles. Exiting the bus, the first little square we enter is in an area known as Fountainhas, and we are face to face with St. Sebastian’s Chapel, built in 1818.
We keep walking through the area known as Fountainhas, which has a very European atmosphere, into the area known as Panaji or Panjim. I don’t know why there are two names….maybe I missed something the guide said. But Cochin is also known as Kochi. On the way we pass a lady carrying a basket on her head!
We stop at a main street area and our guide gives us free time to wander and shop. At one end of the street is the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church. In 1609, a small chapel was replaced by the present day large church. I tried to walk up to the church but they wouldn’t let me because I was wearing shorts.
I walked down the street in the other direction, and saw stores with a huge supply of cashew nuts – like 20 50lb bags of nuts! And a lady selling fruit from her blanket on the street. But they would not let me take pictures. I did see a few interesting things and I took a few pictures.
While waiting to reboard the bus back to the ship, I saw a cement marker. I just thought it was an interesting way to mark a gas line.
We passed a statue of Abbe Faria, a catholic priest who was a pioneer of hypnotism. He was born in Goa.
We also walked near Adil Shah’s Palace. The Palace is Panaji´s oldest surviving building, originally built by the Muslim ruler Yusuf Adil Shah of Bijapur around 1500. I think our guide said it was the oldest building in Goa.
I did not think our tour was very good today, so Dave didn’t miss much. Since he is under the weather, we will probably rest up in our stateroom, hoping he feels better for our Mumbai tour tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 4, 2024 – Sea Day today so we really did not do much! Late morning we had a wine tasting. Dave goes with me, but is not something he would choose.
There was a seafood buffet for lunch, and yes, I ate all of this!
This afternoon we were invited to a senior officers party called “mix and mixology”. We have never been to this type event before. They showed us how to prepare 3 different cocktails, and then served us samples. The first one was a Manhattan and the last one was a Mai Tai- but I didn’t catch the name of the second one. Met the people sitting next to us – Easton and Carla – from Jamacia but moved to Canada. Had a great conversation with Easton while Dave was busy on his phone.
After the Officers event, we went to listen to music in the lounges until dinner time. Tonight was lobster night.
Tomorrow we have a short port call in Goa, India. We have an early shore excursion, meeting at 7:30AM. The ship leaves Goa for Mumbai at 2:00PM.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024 – Today we have a private tour “Backwaters of Alapuzha onboard Houseboat” with Lijo of Muziris Heritage India Experiences. Allison, Geoffrey, Robert and Natalie will be on the same tour.
There has been an aircraft carrier docked in back of our ship, yesterday and this morning. Don’t know whose it is – maybe India? It was gone when we returned from our tour this afternoon.
We have to go through the ridiculous immigration routine again-show our stamped paper as we enter the immigration building, then face to face with immigration officers, the. Show our stamped paper to exit the immigration building.
We find our tour right away and he directs us to the bus. When everyone has boarded, our guide boards the bus and informs us it is a 2.5 hour bus ride to get to the riverboats. So it’s 2.5 hour bus ride, 2.5 hours on the houseboat and 2.5 hours back to the ship. If we knew that before we booked, we would not have booked this tour.
Arriving to where the riverboats are, we have to walk through mud to get to our boat. It is a 4 bedroom boat with en-suite bathrooms…without toilet paper or hand towels. The rooms look pretty nice, given the lack of important amenities in the bathrooms. People can spend the night, and sometimes people spend more than one night. However, the air conditioning is only turned on from 9:00PM until 6:00AM – and it is warm.
We board our boat about 10:30 AM. We are on a river and the guide said there are 2500 houseboats on this river, all used for tourism. I believe it is the Pamba River. No one lives full time on a riverboat. Going down the river is pleasant, but nothing exciting.
Dave saw a kid swimming across the river, but I missed him because I was checking out the kitchen and trying to find a cooler place on the boat. I was successful, because just in back of where the captain sits is some padded furniture, and a table with padded seats. The real plus is there is a fan which makes it much more comfortable. I went back to get Dave, but by the time we returned, the sofas were taken so we sat at the table with padded seats, and under the fan.
Lunch was served about 12:00 and of course there was rice, a chicken curry dish, river fish, and some vegetable dishes.
The food was OK, but the river fish had so many bones tgat it was hard to eat. We were offered coffee, tea and pineapple chunks after lunch. I thought the food was good, but Dave had more trouble finding stuff he could eat.
We disembarked about 1:00PM and headed back to the ship, arriving about 2:30PM.
I am putting in some random photos I took while we were driving to show why I used the word chaotic to describe my initial reaction to India.
So far, no one I know of has gotten sick from eating the food!
Same difficult immigration procedures, but fewer people had arrived with us, so it didn’t take too long to at least get in the building.
We went to the show in the theater, “Hollywood Cabaret”, which we enjoyed. Four vocalists from the entertainment cast sang hit songs from musicals and movies.
Then dinner and bed.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, is our last sea day and we are invited to a wine tasting in the morning (!) and an officers party in the afternoon.
Monday, December 2, 2024:
We have a ships tour today, but the immigration into India is unbelievable! We had a face to face interview with Indian officials on the ship. Today,we had to go thru immigration again. Not only face to face with officials in their booths, but after that, and before we left the building, we had to show all our documents again! India really has a intense immigration policy! Finally through immigration, we join our bus for our cultural tour of Kochi.
My initial impression of India, in one word, is chaos. Cochin, India is known by two names. Cochin or Kochi. It sounds like they are moving to call the town Kochi which is more Indian. Cochin is the more European spelling.
We get on our bus for our ships tour, and as we drive, it seems that they build a building, and then never paint it or clean it. So almost all the buildings are covered with streaks of dirt. Dave says it looks like no maintenance. We do not see any houses with manicured front lawns. If there is open space, it is dirt.
According to our guide, southern India, Kochi, has more freedom than some of the northern states. It sounds like everyone receives an education. Kochi is in the souther part of India. He says girls are not educated in the north and there are more arranged marriages. In the south, like Kochi, it is more welcoming. He said he is Hindu and his wife is Portuguese which is more accepted in Kochi than in the northern India states.
Our guide is Indian, and he speaks very fast. It is hard to follow what he is saying. It is raining, due to a cyclone a little north of where we are. He says the first people to visit this area were Arabs.
Originally the top three sources of income were Fishing, tourism and farming. But farming has been replaced by technology.
There are 28 states in India, and thousands (!) of different languages. In Kerala, where Kochi is located, 50% of the population is Christian. This surprised me, but we are seeing lots of Catholic Churches, more than any other kind of church, temple or synagogue.
Our first stop is the Mattancherry Palace, a former Dutch palace built in the 16th century. It was built around 1545 C.E. by the Portuguese and is currently a museum which houses a collection of decorative Hindu murals, royal palanquins, antique weapons and more. Royal palanquins are carriages which are carried on shoulders of men using poles, and maybe on elephants…but not sure.
Next we visited the16th-century Church of St. Francis, one of the oldest European churches in the country. Originally the burial place of Vasco da Gama. But after fourteen years, his remains were moved to Lisbon. Vasco da Gamma discovered the sea route from Europe to India. The church, originally built by the Portuguese, was a Catholic Church. When the Dutch came to Cochin, they converted the church to a Protestant Church. Then the British came and converted it to an Anglican church, according to our guide.
We visited the Chinese fishing nets which are still in use, and a big tourist attraction. The Chinese fishing nets – Cheenavala in Malayalam – is believed to have been introduced in Kochi by Chinese explorer Zheng He, from the court of the Kubla Khan. The fishing net established itself on the Kochi shores between 1350 and 1450 AD. The Chinese nets, made of teak wood and bamboo poles, work on the principle of balance. Each structure, about 10m high, is fixed on the beach and has a cantilever with an attached net that is spread over an area of about 20 meters. Counterweights, usually stones about 30 cm in diameter, tied to ropes of different lengths, facilitate the working of the nets. Often, lights are attached to the teak posts and are suspended above the net to attract fish.
Each fishing net is operated by more than four fishermen and is made in such a way that the weight of a man walking on the main plank is enough to cause the equipment to be pulled down into the sea. Fishing is usually done in the morning and early evening. The net is descended into the water for a short time and then raised delicately by pulling on the ropes. The slow rhythm and balancing of the net is spellbinding to a first-time viewer.
Then we went to the Paradesi Synagogue, the oldest active synagogue in what was the British Empire. It was built in 1568 for a flourishing Jewish community. The floor tiles are 18th century porcelain hand painted blue willow patterned tiles bought from Canton, China. Each tile is painted using vegetable dye (before the invention of commercial paints) so no tile is exactly identical to the other. There are 1,100 tiles in all.
The Clock Tower was constructed in 1760 by a well known Jewish businessman Ezekiel Rahabi. The clock tower, about 45 feet high, has four faces with numerals in Latin, Hebrew, Malayalam and one side blank. The dial facing the Maharaja’s pace has Malayalam numerical, the one facing the Synagogue is Hebrew and the third one Roman. Thus it helps the Maharaja, the local people, the Jews and the traders to keep time.
Then our guide took us to a store that sold spices and souvenirs for some free time , giving us the opportunity to shop. In 2013, then Prince Charles and Camilla visited this shop.
We were disappointed in this tour. Besides not being able to understand the guide, I felt he did not cover all the places described in the description of the tour. I admit we got a late start because of all the immigration requirements, and because of the rain.
Arriving back at the port, the immigration rigmarole is obnoxious as earlier. We need to show our stamped paper as we enter the building. Then we have a face to face with the immigration officer in a booth. Then to exit the building we have to show our stamped paper again.
In the evening, the show did not look that interesting, so we listened to some music in one of the lounges.
Tomorrow we have a private tour on a riverboat, and our fellow cruisers from the safari, Allison, Geoffrey, Robert and Natalie will be on the same tour.
Sunday, December 1, 2024 – Our port is Colombo, Sri Lanka. It seems we are docked pretty far out from the city. I hope this panoramic picture will post.
We have a walking tour in the morning, and it is the first day we finally see the sun! Kinda hazy, but not lugging rain gear today.
As yesterday, the ship is not docked and not cleared according to the scheduled times. Since we are on a ships excursion, we wait for our number to be called, and we are group 1 today, so we should be called as soon as the ship is cleared. Finally we are called and we walk to the exit. Unfortunately, the gang plank is not open, and we have to wait in line with lots of other people tying to get off the ship. I hope India is not as bad about clearing the ship as Sri Lanka has been.
After about 15 minutes among a mass of people trying to get off the ship, we are allowed to exit. Since our ship is docked so far from the city, we took a bus out of the port area.
Our walk starts through the markets. The markets are open, even though it is Sunday, but our guide, Mark Forbes, says they are not as busy as they would be on a weekday. First we walk through the vegetable markets and there are all kinds of fresh vegetables. Since we are early, we can see how the vendors are setting up their stalls. We see a Tuk Tuk filled with papayas. Vendors are preparing their fruits and vegetables cutting away outer leaves of cabbage for example. Some are weighing onions and other vegetables by hand and by sight to price them accordingly. It is obvious these people have been doing this for a long time. The food seems cheap by US standards. For example, the pineapples were $1.
We walk down the street to the next group of stalls which are selling spices.
Then to the textiles markets, and bag (purse and backpacks) markets, etc. Each type of product is grouped together rather than having purses and textiles mixed in with the vegetables.
We pass temples – Hindu I think…
Mark called this temple the pomegranate temple, but it is a mosque.
We see a lot of couples getting their pictures taken, dressed in traditional clothing.
We come to a canal, and crossing the canal you enter where the fort used to be, but is no longer. No remnants of the fort, either. This is entering the colonial part of town.
Mark is very interested in the older, colonial part of town. At one point, all the buildings had been deserted and were in shambles, but the area is gentrifying and new, modern businesses are filling the old, remodeled buildings.
Mark takes us to the Grand Oriental Hotel. It was originally built with 20 rooms in 1837. The British were governing at the time, and budgeted £20,000 to build the hotel. The actual cost was only £1,868, because labor was so cheap. There was much trade going on at the time, and the hotel grew to 168 rooms. Before you could rent a room, you had to send your financial statement to the hotel manager. If your wealth was not sufficient, the manager would send a rejection letter that you could not rent a room. Today, the hotel has scaled back the number of available rooms, and the rest of the hotel has been boarded up. It is very nice inside and we are taken to the first floor for tea and cookies. Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, is well known for their tea.
Leaving the hotel, we walked by more buildings in various states of repair.
Mark spent a lot of time explaining this emblem, which apparently shows the history of the city. The translation is from my translator app, and is French.
The emblem was on a building that used to be the HSBC building. I have seen HSBC on so many buildings in our travels, knowing it was a banking institution, but Mark said the initials stand for “Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation”. Sounds good to me!
Mark takes us inside one restored colonial building, the Central Point Building, which contains the Economic History Museum (Currency Museum) features the development of currency in Sri Lanka. However Mark brought us here to see the longest chandelier in Asis, which hangs in the circular atrium, down seven floors. Mark said it hangs down 50 feet.
Mark points out the first Colombo lighthouse, which looks like it is built in the middle of the business district. Colombo is reclaiming land, and whike the shoreline was here at one time, there have been two more lighthouses build as the land is reclaimed and the shoreline moves out.
Our last stop is where the Dutch Hospital was located. The buildings have been repurposed and had a high end crab restaurant, Ministry of Crab, as well as some smaller restaurants and souvenir shop.
Inside the souvenir shop prices were very good with t-shirts about $9…but none that I liked in my size.
Mark gave us some free time here, and then we boarded a bus back to take us back to the ship. On the drive back, Mark notes the port area is big and active. It is owned by the Chinese.
Colombo is a city I could see revisiting, whereas yesterdays port of Hambantota was not appealing to revisit. Colombo has many of the government buildings with the city,
We were invited watch sail away from the helipad, which is always nice. The crew passes out champagne and it’s just a fun event. Anyway, I enjoy it – Dave not so much.
Interesting view from helipad…
After leaving the helipad, we picked up our passports as we need to carry them ashore in India. Very efficient distribution of passports! No lines!
We spent a quiet evening. The show in the theater was a violinist, and we were not interested, so we spent some time in a lounge listening to a woman playing an electric guitar. After dinner, she was playing at the bar on the back of the ship, which is right below our balcony. So we sat on our balcony and listened to her.
Tomorrow afternoon we arrive in our first port in India, Cochin, or Kochi.
Saturday November 30, 2024 – I am having trouble accessing the internet, but finally got on to my site. The ports we are visiting starting today are new for us. We have been to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Our port today is Hambantota, Sri Lanka and we booked a private tour to Yala National Park. Lots of pictures today! Yala is home to the leopard, but also many other species of wildlife. It is a strict nature preserve as well as a national park. It was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1900 and a national park in 1938. Its most famous residents are leopards, elephants, sloth bears, Sambals, jackals, spotted dear, peacocks and crocodiles.
We docked about 8:00AM and waited in line until 9:00AM for the ship to be cleared so we could disembark. Hambantota was struck by the 2004 tsunami which was devastating. So there are no buildings or facilities where the ship is docked. It was all wiped out by the tsunami and never rebuilt. We have to take a shuttle bus from the ship to the port gate.
We are dropped off at the gate and meet our jeep driver for our safari. He said his name which sounded like “E”. It is interesting because we will be with E in his jeep all day. I was expecting to be bused to the park and meet our jeep driver there. Safari jeeps generally seat 6 people in three rows of 2, and each row back is elevated, like theater seating. Dave and I took the back row. The other two couples are people we have hooked up with through our roll call on Cruise Critic. Allison and Geoffrey are from near London in the UK, and Natalie and Robert are from Kaiserslautern in Germany. Both couples were very nice and we enjoyed spending the day with them.
The drive from the port gate to Yala National Park took about 1 hour and 20 minutes. We drove past many rice fields and some small villages.
All the people were very friendly and would smile and wave to us as we drove by. The houses we saw were not nice homes – actually, we did not see any nice homes. The yards are mostly dirt, with no grass. Maybe some weeds. There are feral dogs all over the place. They lay in the roads and are not afraid of cars. I am amazed we did not see dead dogs everywhere. The jeep drivers just steer around them, but some slowly saunter out of the way. We also saw cows everywhere, including in the road, sometimes across the road blocking traffic.
Finally we arrived at the park and we have two drives – one in the morning, then a lunch break, and one in the afternoon.
As we disembark the ship, it is raining. When we get to the jeep, it has a top, and canvas roll downs on the sides, which E rolls down to protect us from the rain. We all put on our rain gear as we do get a few drops in our seats on our drive to Yala National Park.
First we stop for a bathroom break, and it stops raining! We are very excited, we roll up the canvas, and are fortunate that we have no more rain today! A little confused with this sign in the bathroom.
The park looks lush and green. The road are red dirt and VERY bumpy. Obviously muddy from the rain that just stopped.
We start our bumpy, bumpy drive (fortunately the seats are well padded) and see some animals as we drive.
We stopped for lunch at a facility that must be used by all the private tour guides. It was not fancy. The bathrooms were located in a nearby building and were mostly western toilets (not squatty potties). Clean, but BYOT (bring your own tissues). The place where we had lunch was also functional but not fancy. It was a buffet lunch, and apparently homemade food brought to this building.
The lunch buildings are right next to the Indian Ocean, so we could visit the beach. After my past experience with the Indian Ocean, I am cautious. There are very big, strong waves. This is one time I did not attempt to get my toes wet.
After lunch we drove around the park some more.
There are a lot of peacocks and peahens in the park and I was hoping we’d get a picture of the peacock with his tail feathers fanned out.
Unfortunately, we did not see any leopards ☹️.
We were all anxious to meet the boarding times for the ship, and E was very accommodating to make sure we were back at the port at a time that was comfortable for all of us.
After leaving E and the jeep behind, we took the shuttle from to port gate back to the ship, showered, and just finished in time for the show in the theater.
Not my favorite type of show…a vocalist. It was Monique Montez. She was OK. After the show we went to dinner, got an obnoxiously chocolate dessert to take to our room, and planned for an early morning in Colombo, Sri Lanka tomorrow.
Thursday November 28 to Friday November 29, 2024 Two sea days in a row, which we needed to get rested up from 4 port days in a row. Not much to blog about. No pictures!
The Elton John tribute band we listened to on Wednesday evening was called “This One’s For You”. What’s interesting is Thursday evening entertainment was titled “The Piano Men” and the performer, Deryn Trainer, also played Elton John. He also played Billy Joel songs. Some of the Elton John songs were the same on both nights. We enjoyed Deryn Trainer’s “The Piano Men” more than “This One’s For You”.
We have figured out we need to go to the early show at 7:00, as soon as the show lets out we go to out restaurant and get a pager to wait for our table. Then we are able to see the evening shows and have dinner!
We have gone to the presentations on the ports for Sri Lanka and India, which have been interesting and informative. We have not gone to any of the loyalty parties to meet the Captain and have a cocktail at 10:30AM for two reasons – we have been to them many times before, and who wants a cocktail at 10:30 AM?
We have been visiting some of the lounges to hear the music, and Dave has his favorite performers. Some are just not that great.
We spent over an hour in the computer room trying to print out an email with our detailed itinerary from our India tour company, but the printer just would not work (neither before or after Dave took it apart 😂😂😂). Dave went to Guest Relations and they said they’d print it for us. Yea!
We had to have a face to face meeting with Indian immigration as did everyone on the ship. This was a good thing actually because otherwise entering India would have been a nightmare if they had to process everyone once we got to the first port. The process was scheduled over two days on the ship with each deck having an assigned time to appear. So it’s obvious if it was done after we reached the first port in India, it would have taken all day. It took us 35 minutes waiting in line,and less than 5 minutes with the immigration officer. They were taking finger prints, but I was exempted and so was Dave. Dave said it’s because we have Global Entry which does speed up the immigration process when we re-enter the USA. I didn’t realize it would help us in India.
Friday evening we went to the production show in the theater. The title was Elysium, with a story about good and evil. Was not similar to the movie of the same name. Lots of singing, dancing and a little acrobatic activity (which I love to watch). Basic them was good wins out over evil.
Nice dinner – Dave had filet Mignon and I had lobster ravioli.
It has been very cloudy and some rain on these two sea days. The captain said there is some weather system that is over Sri Lanka and India which could mean rain and we should be prepared when we go off the ship. So far we have managed not to get drenched. We are hoping it rains in Delhi as they are having major smog issues right now. Maybe some rain would clear the air.
Saturday is our first port in Sri Lanka and we are going to Yala National Park. Hoping for decent weather!
Wednesday, November 27, 2024 – We have a ship tour today, which is supposed to be 7 hours long, called, “ The Best of Phuket”. We met in the theater to get our bus number at 7:30 AM. Phuket is a tender port which means we have to wait for a “tender”, or a boat, to transfer us from our ship which is anchored, to the shore. We get called, we get on the tender, and then walk a very long pier to get to the shore. Then we walk a long way along the shore to meet our tour guide, and follow him a couple of blocks to get to our bus. Our guide today speaks pretty good English, but does have an accent. One thing he has trouble with is swords with the letter “h”. So fish becomes “fiss” . But he is personable and trying to communicate with us. We get on the bus, and like most tour guides on long bus rides, he shares information about Thailand. One thing he tells us how to great people, and he is very particular about how we pronounce Thai words, while he mispronounces English words. Just kinda funny.
Our first stop is Promthep, which is Phuket’s southernmost point. We are brought here for the views, but while it is not rainy, it is very overcast. This spot is very popular for its sunsets, but we visit in the morning – so no sunset photos for us.
As soon as we arrive, Dave and I realize we were here in 2018. There’s a shrine dedicated to Brahma, the Hindu god of creation that is noted for its many carved elephants. The elephant is the symbol of longevity. Devotees leave figures as gifts for either requesting a wish or for being granted one. The number of gifts compared to 2018 has increased tremendously, and the size of the gifts are much bigger, too.
There is a lighthouse here, called the “Golden Jubilee Lighthouse”.
The next stop was Wat Chalong,Phuket’s most sacred Buddhist temple. There are several buildings, including a chapel which is restricted to monks.
While we were there, a huge explosion of firecrackers happened next to where we were standing. Our guide said the fireworks were supposed to to scare off the devil, and represented someone whose request was answered.
We walked to another building that had many Buddha statues. Supposedly the third floor of the building had relics of Buddha, but we ran out of time and didn’t make it there. The Buddhas in this building were made by monks.
Our next stop was old town Phuket which was a shopping area. There were many stores and our guide said this area was mixture of Chinese and European culture.
We cruised through a few stores, but did not see anything on which to spend our money. Our meeting spot was by a huge gold dragon!
Then we drove to a tourist trap. It was a huge store with all kinds of cheap souvenirs, t-shirts, some edibles, etc. At the end was a room called a Thai Museum. Dave and I are very focused on our weight limits for our flight from Mumbai to Delhi, so we literally just walked through the place to get to the exit. We reboarded the bus, waiting for the free time to end, and move to the next stop. Unfortunately, all of the sudden the A/C stopped, and the bus quit running. The bus had broken down. So we waited, sitting outside in the heat, 40 minutes for a new bus. Miscellaneous photos outside tourist trap taken to remember waiting for a replacement bus 😂.
By this time everyone was very hungry, so we were drivento our lunch spot. It was called Cafe 2, and was a beachfront restaurant. The food was served family style. We had white rice, fried rice, a vegetable dish, fish fillet in tamarind sauce, cashew chicken, a shrimp dish, and fried seaweed. I actually liked the fried seaweed the best! We had some fresh fruit for dessert. We were given water to drink, but Dave and I are cautious about drinking local water, so we got two beers.
Some of the tanks had horseshoe crabs. I had never heard of eating horseshoe crabs, but I googled it and they are edible.
Our last stop was a Cashew Nut Factory and Shop. We saw how the fruit is grown on trees. When ripe, it is separated from the fruit as what looked like a large seed. Then the seed is split and the cashew is pried it. Then the cashew is roasted before it is edible. Cashew nuts are a very labor intensive process and it is amazing they don’t cost a lot more.
They flavored the cashew nuts with every flavor from salt, which we are familiar with, to chocolate, coffee, garlic, etc. there were at least a dozen samples with all the different flavors.
Finally our tour was over and we boarded the bus to head back to the port. Our guide tried to teach us more of the Thai language, telling us about the alphabet and counting numbers. He also tried to teach us a few songs. He gets an A for effort to try to entertain us on the long driving portions. By the time we got back to the port, it was 5:00PM, and we had been gone over 9 hours.
We headed back to the room, rested a little, took showers and went tothe early show! This time we were going to make the show. It was a Elton John tribute trio of 3 guys. We like Elton John, so we enjoyed the show. We went to Blu for dinner about 8:00, but still had to take a pager. We finally were seated about 9:00. Dave had a shrimp cocktail, Ceasar salad and Red Snapper for his entree. I had a blue cheese soufflé and green Thai chicken curry for my entree. Yes, I’m still eating Thai/Asian food.
Out time goes back 1.5 hours tonight! Yes, a half hour correction! That puts us on Mumbai time, so no more time changes.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we have 2 sea days in a row. Good chance to rest up!
Tuesday, November 26, 2024 – Apparently we are going to the restaurant for dinner at the busiest time. Yesterday evening we went to dinner only to find out we had to take a pager to wait for a table. By the time we got our table and food, we missed the evening show again!
I should have posted this picture yesterday.
Today we had a ships excursion to Penang Hill. It is about 2,500 feet above sea level.
The excursion did not start out on a good note. Our guide is a Chinese lady who is difficult to understand, and she speaks very fast. We rode the bus for about 30 minutes to the entrance to Penang Hill, and she spoke non-stop. Dave and I had no idea what she was rambling about. Then we get to the entrance to Penang Hill, and we have to wait about an hour, much of the time standing and having no clue what she was saying, to take a 10 minute funicular ride to the plaza at the top.
While standing and waiting, we were able to read plaques on the wall with information on Penang Hill. The area is made up of a range of ten hills.
In 1786, the founder of Penang, Captain Francis Light, took possession of Penang Island for England. Georgetown started as the East India Company’s trading port. Since the East India company needed naval and military operations to protect its monopoly of the spice trade, Penang Hill provided a strategic lookout point to oversee the port and monitor vessels that approached the island.
One of the hills is called flagstaff hill because when the British governed the island, the British flag was raised on the flagstaff to signal an incoming mail vessel and to monitor approaching vessels.
Penang Hill is the oldest and only hill station with a funicular railway in Malaysia. It was completed on 1923 (over 100 years ago). The journey used to take 30 minutes but in 2010, newer and faster trains were installed, and the journey now takes only 5 minutes.
Finally we reach the top of Penang Hill. The plan is to do a guided nature walk along a one mile trail through the rain forest on top of Penang Hill. Because we were a fairly large group, our guide split us into two groups. One group would walk faster and go with a park guide, and she would walk with the slower people.
Dave and I chose to go with the park guide walking at a faster pace, mainly because we felt our guide was a disaster. Our park guide was very good and actually allowed us to enjoy the excursion.
Our guide pointed out various species of plants and bugs. The first thing we saw was a caterpillar.
Apparently this particular caterpillar turns into a poisonous butterfly called a “Wood Nymph”.
Next we saw a vampire crab – in real life and in a photo to see it in a larger size.
We saw a spider which is hard to pick out in the photo…I tried to point it out with an arrow. Our guide showed us a picture of the spider and said it was a “Spiny Orb-weaver”.
We walked on to what they called “The Habitat” which was a circular walkway several flights up that gave you great views. Unfortunately, it was very foggy, so our views were not as great as they would have been if there were clear skies.
Our good guide pointed out a fig tree full of little figs.
A Fig tree with a ton of little figs.
She also pointed out some specimen jars of creatures in the rain forest.
At this point we were able to take a golf cart ride back to the plaza which was the meeting point for our train ride down. Before the ride started, we spotted a huge squirrel. A gentleman told us they can be 32 inches long! The squirrel was a big dude!
I’ve posted some of the views from on top, but because of the clouds and fog, they are what they are ☹️.
The ride down was pretty quick. Interestingly, the driver was on the left side and drove on the left side. All the other vehicles we’ve seen the driver is on the right side but drives on the left. Back at the plaza meeting point, we had some time left so Dave and I decided to get a drink and sit down for awhile, which we did.
Everyone on our tour showed up on time and we headed to the train station. We spotted a monkey who was jumping through the trees. We did not get a picture from his front – I guess he was camera shy.
We did not have to wait quite as long for the train ride down – probably about 20 minutes. Of course our Chinese guide rambled on the whole way back to the ship. We were glad to get off the bus and back to our stateroom.
Actually we have pretty much lucked out with rain so far. After we did our city walk yesterday and got back to the ship, it started pouring rain. This morning when we first got to Penang Hill, it was misty, but not pouring rain. Our guide said the rain forest was living up to its name! But the mist cleared up. After we got back to the ship, it rained.
We got back to our stateroom, showered and went to the lounge for pre-dinner drinks and music. Then to Blu for dinner about 6:30, which is early for us. This time we were early enough we didn’t need to get pagers. Dave had a spring roll and I had panzelella salad for appetizers. We both had shrimp with Black squid ink pasta for the entree. We had wine for desert 😁.
Tomorrow we will be in Phuket, Thailand. We have been here before, but I cannot find my notes! Hopefully we will be seeing different things.
Monday, November 25, 2024 – We are docked in Georgetown which is a city on Penang Island in Malaysia. The ship will overnight here. We have been here before, so we opted for a walking tour this morning. What were we thinking? The good news is that it is not raining, but the “Feels like” temperature is 100°. Our guide is a third generation Malaysian, because his grandfather immigrated from India to work in Malaysia. He had a very long name but said we could call him Radu. A lot of the information he gave us was a repeat of what Chris told us yesterday. Malaysia is very mixed culturally with, native Malays, Chinese, Indian, and European, our guide said there are not a lot of mixed marriages, but when a Chinese person married an Indian person, their children are called “Chindian”!
Radu said their legal system and government is based on Englands because they were governed by the English before they became independent. So there are two kinds of laws – common laws which are for most people and Sharia law for the Islamic population. He said normally there isn’t any conflict because when a non-Islamic person marries an Islamic person, they have to convert. If they don’t convert, there are legal issues for example in child custody cases.
Francis Light, a British Royal Navy Officer, (1740-1794) was the founder of Georgetown and the colony of Penang in 1786. Georgetown was named after the English King, King George III. He died in 1794 from malaria.
The first sight was a clock tower in honor of queen Victoria who was longest reigning English queen at the time. It was built to commemorate the her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. It is 60 feet from the sidewalk to the clock representing one foot for each year of Queen Victoria’s reign. When this was built, people didn’t have watches, so it was very useful to people to let them know the time.
Next we walked past Fort Cornwallis. It is the largest standing fort in Malaysia, built for the British military. It was used for administration and not defense. Originally surrounded by a moat, it was filled in in the 1920’s because of Malaria. They are rebuilding the most, but the process is very slow as they keep finding artifacts.
The British built a cricket field next to the fort, but cricket never caught on as a sport in Malaysia. Today, the most popular sport is Soccer and although Malaysia does not have a national team, the residents pick a team from another country and root for them. Apparently a lot of people in Penang
root for Brazil.
Radu pointed out all the different churches. With all the different cultures residing side by side, they still have their own churches.
The first church we saw was St. George’s Church is a 19th-century Anglican church completed in 1818. It originally had a flat roof, but was changed to a gable roof due to the tropical climate (I assume all the rain).
We walked to the Town Hall, a British-built administrative building.
Completed in the 1880s, the Town Hall is the city’s oldest municipal building. The building was used for the 1999 remake of the film, “Anna and the King”.
More room was needed, so the City Hall was built next door in 1903.
We walked by several more churches…
The Kapitan Keling Mosque was built in the 19th century by Indian Muslim traders.
The Sri Mahamariamman Temple is Penang’s oldest Hindu temple and is filled with fascinating sculptures of gods and goddesses.
Temple of the Goddess of Mercy is a Mahayana Buddhist temple built in 1728, making it the oldest Buddhist temple in Penang. It is a focal point for Chinese festivals.
Radu said historically the policemen were also the firemen, it wasn’t two different occupations.
The Yap Temple is a Taoist temple – I believe.
Next to the temple is a more modern building where Chinese immigrants were housed until they could find a job and get settled.
We passed by, but did not enter the Snake Temple….thank goodness! The temple is well-known for being a refuge of resident snakes, said to be reincarnated disciples of a Monk. The temple was constructed in the 1805. When the temple was completed, snakes coming from pit viper species appeared by themselves. The temple is filled with the smoke of burning incense and a variety of pit vipers. The vipers are believed to be rendered harmless by the sacred smoke, but as a safety precaution, the snakes have been de-venomed while still retaining their fangs. Other species of snakes are also found in the temple. Visitors are warned against picking up the reptiles and placing them on their bodies to take pictures.
By this time we were very, very hot and ready to get back to the ship. The heat really wore us out. We are going to rest up and see what the rest of the day brings.
Sunday, November 24, 2024 – We docked at Port Kelang which is about an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur. Our tour is called “Destination Highlight: Historical Reminiscence” and we had the perfect guide, Chris, who said he was a historian. Much of what I’m writing has come from Chris, so not sure of accuracy, but he was very interesting and we enjoyed his tour. For example, Chris said we had to dock in the industrial area because a US Aircraft Carrier was in our spot at the passenger cruise port. Dave enjoys watching the big cranes to load cargo on the ships, so Dave was glad this is where the ship is docked.
The tour’s first stop was a photo op at the King’s Palace, Istana Negara.
It is billed as the Malaysian equivalent to Buckingham Palace. It is a beautiful building in a beautiful setting. The building itself has golden domes and Islamic-style architecture.
Members of the Royal Malaysian Regiment are stationed at the main entrance with two guard posts on each side of the arch entry way.Members of the cavalry are in full dress uniform.
We just missed the changing of the guard, but Dave managed to snap a picture of 3 horses as they were leaving.
Chris told us there are 14 states in Malaysia with 9 kings, each representing a state, and 5 governors, each representing the other 5 states.
The 9 kings meet and decide who will be the next king. The term is 5 years, and then the 9 kings meet again to choose who will be the next king. One king was a bachelor at the beginning of his term, and became involved with a Russian beauty Queen. The people were uncomfortable with the Russian wife, so his term was ended in less than 5 years. It sounded like the Russian woman was unhappy that she no longer had such a high position, and after one year of marriage they divorced. However, she was pregnant, and bore possibly a prince. Chris did not elaborate with any further details.
Our next stop was the National Museum. There are 4 galleries. The first gallery is the early history including the earths formation and the various stone tools used by early man.
The second gallery is about the formation of the Malay Kingdoms, but focuses on the “Malay Melaka Sultanate” which was the golden period in the history on the Malay-Islamic civilization in this region.
This Royal Throne has been used during the installation of His Royal Highness Sultan Iskandar Shah (the 30th Sultan of Perak) in 1918. Since then it was used during the installation of His Royal Highness Sultan Abdul Aziz Al-Mustasim Billah Shah in 1938, His Royal Highness Sultan Yussuff Izzudin Shah in 1948 and his Royal Highness Sultan Idris Iskandar Al-Mutawakkil Allalahi Shah II in 1963 in Iskandariah Palace, Kuala Kangsar, Perak. I must admit, it kinda looks. Like a bed, but it’s too short to be a bed.
The third gallery, where we spent most of our time, covers the Colonial Era, which Chris guided us through with his extensive knowledge. Malaysia was at different times colonized by Portuguese, Dutch, British and Japanese. The various countries were initially interested in Malaysia because of spices. Later, tin was mined. Rubber trees were stolen from Brazil and grew well in Malaysia resulting in large amounts of rubber being produced. At one time, 30% of the UK’s revenue came from Malaysian rubber. Malaysia also produces 660,000 barrels of petroleum a day, compared to Saudi Arabia who produces 11 million barrels a day.
The fourth gallery highlights the achievements of the country after independence.
Next we saw the British headquarters which was a series of buildings for when Malaysia was part of the British empire. One huge building was for all the official duties and was the tallest building in the world in 1897.
The British had other buildings including a church, and a cricket field. This location was the site where the British Flag was lowered for the last time on August 31, 1957 and the Malaysian Flag raised for the first time as Malaysia became an independent country.
Our last stop was the Petronas twin towers which were the world from 1998 to 2004.
They were designed by American architects and engineers because Americans were the only ones who knew how to build skyscrapers at the time. The reason Malaysian built the towers was for recognition. If I understood Chris correctly, one of the towers was financed and owned by the Japanese, and the second tower by the Koreans. Dave and I visited the Petronas towers when we were previously in Kuala Lumpur, but we have not gone up in the towers. The towers have a large shopping mall covering several floors, and a big food court which is why we were brought here. So we have eaten lunch in the Petronas Towers two different times.
After leaving the Petronas Towers we headed back to the ship. One last note about Chris…he sang to us! Fortunately for him, he has a good voice!
We showered and went to dinner with plans to go to the evening show. Unfortunately, we had to wait for a table, and by the time we got our food, it was too late for the show.
That’s OK. Tomorrow is Penang, Malaysia.
Saturday November 23, 2024 – Last evening we decided to eat dinner at Tim Ho Wan, an Asian restaurant that is in the Marina Bay Sands complex. We decided to order a couple of dishes and share. We ordered Baked BBQ Pork Buns, Abalone and Shrimp dumplings (with a dusting of caviar) and for the entree, Sweet and Sour Spanish Pork with Peach and Ginger, and white rice. The Baked BBQ Pork Buns were great! The Sweet and Sour Spanish Pork was OK, but the ginger was in chunks, which is not a flavor we enjoy. We missed soy sauce, and shame on us because we should have asked for it but didn’t. I really did not like the Abalone and shrimp dumplings at all. Another thing I’ve noticed in Singapore is that napkins are not provided. We were given bamboo wipes, and when checking out discovered we paid 40 cents for them, whether we used them or not! All the eating establishments we visited added a 10% service charge to the bill. From what I’ve read, this is not to be considered a tip.
The mall is decorated for Christmas, and while photos don’t do it Justice, I loved all the lights and decorations.
I still like Singapore a lot. It is an expensive city, but you can find less expensive food at the Hawker markets like Lau Pa Sat where we had lunch yesterday. The people were friendly and helpful. People on the elevators would greet you, people would offer directions, etc. It is a very clean city and we felt very safe, although we did not venture outside the Hotel complex after dark. The taxi’s were metered and reasonable, and taxi drivers would talk to you. Alcohol is expensive – not only the $31 USD Singapore Sling, but we had a glass of wine at Spago and it was about $27 USD for just a house wine.
After dinner, we went to another light show. This one was water and lights timed to music.
This morning we packed up everything to move to the ship. I loved our hotel room. When you entered the room, the drapes would automatically open. They must have automatically closed when we left the room, too! I took pictures of the tea service which I thought was elegant, even though we did not partake of the tea.
I loved the coffee machine and cartons of milk that were provided, so I could have my morning coffee with milk. Our balcony looked towards the Gardens on the Bay and we enjoyed the views. Since our room faced east, the morning colors from sunrise were beautiful.
The bathroom was interesting. When we first arrived, we had trouble finding the water closet, but discovered it behind a door next to the shower. Believe me, it was not obvious. When you opened the door to the water closet, the toilet lid would go up, and the seat would heat. When you were finished, the toilet would flush automatically. Then, as you left the room, the toilet lid would close. It was a Japanese toilet with a control panel that was too complicated for me, but would do all sorts of things. Enough said!
We checked out about 10:30AM, got a taxi and boarded our ship at the Marina Bay Cruise Terminal which we could see from our hotel room.
Spent the afternoon waiting for our luggage to be delivered and then unpacking.
We got a nice surprise from our travel agent, chocolate covered strawberries!
For dinner we went to Blu, which is the restaurant for Aqua Class staterooms. It is less crowded than the main dining room and has some healthier options. Generally we can also order items from the main dining room menu, but we didn’t try tonight, so we will see if that is still the case. Dave had a blue cheese soufflé and filet mignon, and I had vichyssoise and filet mignon for dinner. No dessert – watching those calories!
After dinner we went back to our stateroom to watch the sail away, which was about 30 minutes late.
Then we went to the show in the theatre to see Stephen Barry. He was a contestant on Irelands Got Talent. He has quite a range in his singing voice, and threw in some comedy which made his show entertaining. After the show, on the way back to our room, we saw the grand staircase had been decorated for Christmas!
That’s it for today…tomorrow we dock in Malaysia.
Friday, November 22, 2024 -Our second day in Singapore….Lots of pictures today! I like Singapore, even though we did not do a lot of touristy things. This morning we swam in the infinity pool on the 57th floor of the hotel. The pool is huge, but not deep – only about 4 foot deep. It was a little cool, but not icy cold thank goodness! It was just very refreshing. We spent some time in the loungers.
Trying to show how big the pool is – it is huge!
Loungers in the middle of the pool
On the opposite side from the pool are loungers and a couple of jacuzzi’s! Just a very relaxing area which is reserved for hotel guests only. We have to show our room key for access to everything except the restaurants. We walked to the sky observeration deck which has nice views over the city. There are signs describing the various buildings and sights.
This is a view from the observation deck looking back towards the pool….maybe you can make out some of the loungers.
We went back to our room and rested for a bit and then walked to Lau Pa Sat. It was about a 25 or 30 minute walk from the hotel – so not too bad of a walk. It is a Singapore landmark, also called Telok Ayer Market. It is a hawker center, which is basically like a food court. All the different stalls offer variations of Asian food…no burgers or hot dogs! We walked around and then decided to join the longest line figuring it was the best food. I got a plate of 2 vegetables (white rice and broccoli) and 2 meat (chicken prepared 2 ways…but looked pretty similar) for 6 Singapore dollars which is about $4.50USD. Not beautiful to look at, so no picture, but decent lunch. Needless to say, the place was packed with locals, workers and tourists. One odd thing we are finding is that most of these stalls do not serve beverages. You have to hunt around to find a place that sells beverages and they usually don’t sell food – only beverages. I have also noted that most of the Asians eating lunch don’t have a beverage. It may be because a lot of what they are eating is a form of noodle soup, and the soup may serve as their beverage. Just guessing on my part – I really don’t know why. Maybe just a cultural difference?
After our lunch, our plan was to go to the Raffles Hotel where the Singapore Sling was invented. Silly me, I thought Lau Pa Sat was close to the Raffles Hotel, but it wasn’t – totally opposite direction. So, another 25 or 30 minute walk.
When we got there, all us tourists looking for a Singapore Sling are directed around the outside of the hotel, and up some stairs where the infamous “Long Bar” has been relocated. They sell 600 -800 Singapore Slings a day, and for every 25 Singapore Slings served, they plant a tree in Indonesia. I know this because it is imprinted on the coaster that comes with the drink! We had to wait in line about 35 minutes before we were able to get a seat in the bar. Our Singapore Sling cost $41 Singapore dollars, which is about $31 USD. Pretty pricey, but when in Singapore, a touristy thing to do. But we also had a bag of free peanuts- which were hard and not appetizing at all.
We finished our drink with intentions of walking back to our hotel. The line waiting to get into the “Long Bar” for a Singapore Sling was much longer when we were leaving than when we arrived. As we headed to the street, we are hearing thunder and of course, then it started to rain. We waited about 30 minutes, but the rain never let up. So we were lucky to grab a taxi and get back to our hotel.
We walked in the mall a little, and then went back to our room to chill.
Got organized to check out of hotel tomorrow and embark the ship. We can see where it will dock from our balcony.
Not sure where we will eat dinner tonight…
Thursday, November 21, 2024 – Part 2: The Marina Bay Sands complex is huge! There are lots and lots of shops, all very high end. We will be window shopping. We made it up to the top floor, 57, where the infinity pool is located.
Unfortunately, the pool was closed because of lightening in the vicinity. There are restaurants on the top floor, and we chose Spago for lunch. The views were very nice! I forgot to get a picture before we started eating, so I snapped this one of Dave mid-meal that he doesn’t know about. Shhhh!
After lunch, we went back to the room and took a nap. We only had a few hours sleep on the plane with our 36 hours of travel. Then we watched the light show at the Gardens on the Bay from our room. There was accompanying music, but we could barely hear it. Here are some pictures, but of course pictures really can’t capture how pretty the lights were and their movement to the music.
New challenge – cannot get the descriptions of the pictures to post, and inserting the pictures has been a bit challenging. Hopefully I will get it all figured out before the end of the trip!
After watching the light show, we went to the food court in the mall for a light dinner. The food court is all Asian food, and while there’s some English descriptions, we didn’t recognize the names of the food. We ended up getting a dish with noodles and meat from a stall that looked similar to the Chinese food in our malls. Then we had to go to a different stall to get drinks. I will try to get a picture of the food court, but didn’t take one tonight.
Thursday, November 21, 2024 – Part 1: This is just a quick update, because we finally arrived in Singapore. After about 36 hours, we have finally arrived in Singapore. We had an 11 hour layover in San Francisco, which was awful because the temperature in the airport, and the United Lounge was so cold. I was drinking hot tea and had several bowls of hot soup trying to deal with the cold temperatures. Even Dave was cold, and he usually keeps the house “cool” to me. Anyway, we arrived in Singapore about 8:00AM which I think is 13 hours ahead of Englewood. Admittedly, my brain is a little fuzzy after our many hours traveling. We are staying at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which has 3 towers. We arrived around 9:00AM, and we knew our room would not be ready. But they said they would page us when our room was available, and by 11:00 AM, we got the message. We are very pleased with our room. There are several light shows each night, and we can watch 2 of them from our room.
I took a video, but couldn’t get it to load ☹️, but these are two views from our room. I will try to get some pictures of the light shows later.
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Itinerary –
11/19/2024 Fly Tampa to Singapore, leaving on Tuesday and arriving Thursday. Besides a long layover in San Francisco, we “lose” Wednesday.
11/21 -11/23/2923 Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore
11/23/2024 Embark Celebrity Millennium, Aqua Class stateroom 1140 Singapore – depart 8 PM
11/24/2024 Kuala Lumpur (Port Kelang) Malaysia – 10 AM – 5 PM
11/25/2024 Penang, Malaysia 8 AM (overnight)
11/26/2024 Penang, Malaysia depart 5 PM
11/27/2024 Phuket,Thailand 7 AM – 7PM
11/28/2024 Sea Day (Thanksgiving)
11/29/2024 Sea Day
11/30/2024 Hambantota, Sri Lanka 8 AM – 7 PM
12/1/2024 Columbo, Sri Lanka 7 AM – 4:30 PM
12/2/2024 Cochin, India 2 PM (overnight)
12/3/2024 Cochin, India depart 7 PM
12/4/2024 Sea Day
12/5/2024 Goa (Mormugao), India 7 AM – 2:30 PM
12/6/2024 Bombay (Mumbai), India 6:30 AM (overnight)
12/7/2024 Bombay (Mumbai), India – Disembark; 1 PM flight to Delhi
Bermuda July, 2024
Our itinerary:
July 28, 2024 – Sunday – Board Celebrity Eclipse, Aqua class stateroom 1509, Bayonne, New Jersey
Departing 4:00PM
4:45-5:50PM Cruise past Statue Of Liberty
July 29 – 30, 2024 – Monday – Tuesday – Sea Days
July 31, 2024 – Arrive Wednesday 8:30AM – Kings Wharf, Bermuda
August 1, 2024 – Thursday – Kings Wharf, Bermuda
August 2, 2024 – Friday – Kings Wharf, Bermuda, departing 4:00 PM
August 3, 2024 – Saturday – Sea Day
August 4, 2024 – Sunday Arrive Bayonne, NJ 7:00 AM and Disembark
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Tuesday, August 6, 2024 – Happy Birthday Dave!
This is “The Rest of the Story” and final post!Dave and I spent his Birthday together! Very together- like inches apart in the car! Our morning was spent creeping through Atlanta during rush hour. We finally arrived in Tampa at TPA about 5:20PM. We returned the rental car and found our luggage easier than we expected (Those ugly ribbons on the handle paid off!) although there were lots of unclaimed luggage. Our luggage had arrived Sunday without us. We retrieved our car from economy parking, and finally headed for Englewood about 6:25 PM. We drove 1,423 miles from Newark to Tampa, and another almost 100 miles from Tampa to Englewood, so over 1,500 miles.
Since it was Daves birthday, I kept bugging him about what he’d like for dinner. He decided on Thai, but our new favorite Thai place in Englewood would close before we could get there. So we ordered takeout to be picked upon our way home from our old favorite Thai restaurant in Venice. By the time we got home, it was almost 8:30PM.
The End.
Monday, August 5, 2024 – Uneventful pretty much. Dave was concerned about driving home if we drove down the coast on interstate 95, so we headed west to Chattanooga, TN and picked up Interstate 75 to head to TPA to drop off our rental car and hopefully pick up our luggage. We did run into some construction that slowed us down.
We drove just past Chattanooga and spent the night in Ringgold, Georgia. Apparently Dolly Pardon was married in Ringgold. Not much choice for dinner at 10:00PM, but we picked up a cheap bottle of wine at Circle K and some gourmet food from Wendy’s 😂😂😂.
Sunday, August 4, 2024 – I have to document our sad story…so here goes… We had a Celebrity transfer from the ship to the airport. The transfer was supposed to leave the ship at 9:30, but they booted us off early at 8:30, and we sat on the bus until almost 9:30 waiting for the bus to leave. So we were at the airport very early for our 2:10 flight. We watched the monitors, and there were lots of delays. The flight before ours was going to Chicago and it was oversold by 19 seats. They were offering hotel vouchers and $1,500 flight credit to take the flight the next day. We did not get such a sweet deal.
While waiting to board our flight, we got a text from United that our luggage arrived early in Tampa. Dave and I were thinking that’s great as we wouldn’t have to wait at the carousel for our luggage to come off the plane – it would be sitting there waiting for us. Because of delays of arriving flights due to weather coming into Newark, we boarded about an hour late, and then sat on the runway another hour waiting for weather to clear and a slot to open so our plane could leave. Finally about 4:10, 2 hours late, we were in the air. As we flew over Charlotte, the pilot made an announcement – it would be unsafe to land in Tampa, so he was taking us back to Newark. So looking around at 200 other people who wanted to get to Tampa, I’m wondering how this is going to work to get a flight change, and when. We got back to the around 7:00pm and there was no United people at the gate to help us. There’s a QR code to scan for travel assistance, which we did, two different times and waited for someone to come on the line to help us which never happened. Dave called a United number that he had but no one answered. A gentleman was able to connect with United and got placed on standby for the last flight out, he kindly gave me the number he called and I finally got someone. We told her our flight was canceled and we needed to rebook, and all our luggage was in Tampa…so she wants to connect me with the United baggage people! I said No! No! We need to rebook our flight and even gave her the flight number for that last flight. She said OK to give her a minute and then she would mail the change to us. 36 minutes later….she comes back on the line and says, Sorry, that flight has been cancelled. She lied to us! We walked over to the information board, and saw the flight was still listed. We decided to go to the gate that last flight was leaving from and see if we could get on a standby list. It was originally scheduled for 9:30PM, but was delayed until after 11:00PM. We keep trying to find a United person to talk to, but there are no agents anymore- everything is online. We finally find a United person who is arriving to work another flight, and she tries very hard to help us, but says she couldn’t help us until the gate opened for the Tampa flight. So we’re checking online and talking to other people – one guy was in a party of 6 and they would only put 3 of the 6 on the standby list. We saw there were 9 seats available, and lots of people already on standby, so we decided it was a lost cause.
Next, we decided to rent a car. We thought we had a pretty decent deal from Hertz until we found out they added like $400 or $500 for a one way rental. We went online and tried to find the best deal, and thought Avis looked good, renting a Toyota Camry. I kept the page on my iPad open while Dave saw an Enterprise desk with no line – Dave found out it was because they had no cars for one way rentals. So we booked the Camry and stood in a very long line at the Avis counter. There were probable 20 or 25 people in line and only one person working! After probably another hour, a few more people started working the counter. Finally they sent some of us over to the “preferred” customer counter, where there had been 3 or 4 people the whole time and very few customers. We finally get to the front of the line and find out the car we rented was a Budget rental, not Avis. The Budget line was really long, and before my heart dropped to the ground, I noticed these “preferred” customer representatives had Avis AND Budget on their shirts, so while it took two representatives to do our reservation, we finally got our car! Yea! But, it was not a Toyota Camry – but fortunately a full sized Chevy. We had declined purchasing the EZ pass for tolls option, but went we got to the first toll booth, a ticket did not come out of the dispenser….then the gate opened and it said “thank you for using EZ Pass”. So, we either lucked out or we will get a bill later. We think one of the roads was “Toll by Plate”, so we are kinda expecting another bill from Budget/Avis anyway.
By now it is probably 11:30PM, and we just want to get away from Newark and feel like we are making progress to get home. We drove about 75 miles and spend the night in Mt. Laurel, NJ. All our clothes are in Tampa, so we will be wearing the same outfits for 3 days 😳.
Saturday, August 3, 2024 – Our last day onboard. Not much happening. We did preliminary packing, listened to Robert Neary who did the Neil Diamond Show last night. He was doing a performance in the foyer of the ship. Checking on the status of the storm. We’ve already received notice from United of delays. We are packing with the assumption we may not get home tomorrow, so leaving an extra change of clothes at the top of the suitcase.
Friday, August 2, 2024 – Today is our last day in Bermuda and everything is still closed for the Cup match and celebration of Mary Prince Day. I found this description on Wikipedia:
“Mary Prince (c. 1 October 1788 – after 1833) was the first black woman to publish an autobiography of her experience as a slave, born in the colony of Bermuda to an enslaved family of African descent. After being sold a number of times and being moved around the Caribbean, she was brought to England as a servant in 1828, and later left her enslaver.
Prince was illiterate, but while she was living in London she dictated her life story to Susanna Strickland, a young lady living in the home of the secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, 1823–1838. Strickland wrote down Mary Princes’ slave narrative which was published as “The History of Mary Prince” in 1831, the first account of the life of a Black enslaved woman to be published in the United Kingdom. This first-hand description of the brutalities of enslavement, published at a time when slavery was still legal in Bermuda and British Caribbean and colonies, had a galvanizing effect on the British anti-slavery movement.”
We decided to visit the “National Museum of Bermuda” which is very close to where our ship is docked. We are not big fans of museums, but it was open when everything else was closed.
The museum is located in the Royal Navy Dockyard which is surrounded by stone walls like a fortress. It seems the dockyard was built as a result of the American Independence from Britain, and identified as a strategic location for a naval base. There were exhibits from the many shipwrecks around Bermuda, including the Sea Venture which resulted in the colonization of Bermuda.
There is an area called Dolphins Quest where Dolphins were in a pond area and it looked like the dolphins were being treated and/or cared for.
Sitting up above the other buildings was the Commissioner’s House which was once home to the civilian commissioner of the Dockyard. It is a pretty big house consisting of 3 stories with a nice veranda on each of the top two floors. It was built in the 1820’s and is the world’s first prefabricated cast-iron residential building.
It contained many exhibits regarding slavery as slaves were brought to Bermuda to work in agriculture and other occupations. According to the exhibits, besides slaves brought from Africa, many natives Indians were also brought to Bermuda as slaves, as well as natives from the Caribbean islands.
The exhibits also noted how Portuguese from the Azores came to Bermuda and they were discriminated against, too, as well as the discrimination slaves faced.
After visiting the museum, we went back to the ship for lunch as we have an early departure from Bermuda. The Norwegian Joy leaves at 3:00 and we leave at 4:00, but all aboard is 3:30. So about 3:40, we hear an announcement that they are looking for one person. Again, about 3:50 another announcement is made looking for the same person. Soon afterwards we see a lady running towards the ship. I have to give her credit – she was running a long way! Just after she came onboard, we get another announcement that someone is sick and the ship is waiting for an ambulance. I’m thinking I hope the lady running for the ship didn’t have a heart attack. We were watching from the balcony and finally we hear the siren from the ambulance. It seems like it takes forever. We watch and they bring out a couple of suitcases and finally bring someone off the ship on a stretcher. It looked like a man, and a woman was following. As soon as the ambulance closed its doors, the ship backed away from the dock. As it turned out, we left only 17 minutes later than scheduled. Even more interesting, I could watch the ambulance leaving the port area, and it was not using its lights or siren…
We relaxed for awhile, then showered and went to our happy hour, then the performance in the theater. Tonight’s show was a Neil Diamond show and he sang many of Neil Diamond’s songs as well as telling some stories about him. After the show, we went to dinner in Blu. It is formal night, so we had lobster which was very good. I even had desert which was baked Alaska, but Dave abstained. Maybe he is starting his post cruise diet early!
We talked to some people we had met earlier, and they said Horseshoe Beach was a zoo! It was so busy people couldn’t even find a place to sit. People were going and then coming right back to the ship because there were so many people. I would have liked to have gone to see the pink sand, but it looks like we made the right decision – with the holidays and two ship in port, it was too busy. Next time…
We stopped in a lounge after dinner to hear some music, but did not care for it so we decided to go back to our room. There we found chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of champagne from Tuscan where we had the horrible dinner last night. Sorry guys, you are still getting a bad review!
Not much picture taking today, either.
Thursday, August 1, 2024 – we hustled to make the 10:00 ferry to Hamilton and were the last to board. Arriving in Hamilton, we wandered around and everything was closed – like everything! Today and tomorrow are National Holidays so everything is closed. August 1 is Emancipation Day and August 2 is Mary Prince Day. In conjunction with these two national holidays, they have a cricket cup match and the whole country is celebrating the Cup Match. This is the explanation I found:
“The Cup Match holiday is a time-honoured celebration of Bermuda’s unique culture and history. This memorable two-day holiday brings Bermuda together to commemorate their heritage and enjoy the company of loved ones centered around the historic match and friendly rivalry between Somerset and St. George’s in the Cup Match Classic.
The anticipation for the match can be felt from east to west, with residents and businesses showing their allegiance to one side or another through vibrant displays of red & blue or blue & blue.
The foundation on which this holiday was formed lies in the abolition of slavery in Bermuda and the beginning of a new era of freedom. you for all that you do so that we can enjoy this special time of year.”
So we picked the absolutely wrong time to visit Bermuda. We did visit a cathedral that was open, The Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity. Actually, all the other churches were closed!
On our way to catch the 11:45 ferry back to the ship, we did see one restaurant that was open. But it was near the ferry, and the only business we saw open. We were not hungry, so we took the ferry back to the ship which is docked in the Royal Dockyard.
With everything closed, there wasn’t much picture taking!
We got back on the ship, got my iPad, and our mission was to find a restaurant with Wi-Fi so I could upload my blog and have lunch. Being a bit fussy, we checked out several restaurants- some only had outdoor seating (and it is hot), some were too loud with music, and some were closed. Finally we found Cafe Amici, which is in the dockyard mall. Dave had a deep fried chicken Parmesan appetizer, and I had the fish sandwich with wahoo on raisin bread again. After eating we checked out the mall, which was open! It had all the usual souvenir stuff which we don’t buy. So we walked back to the ship, showered and went to our happy hour. Dave didn’t like the menu in Blu, so we moved up our reservation in Tuscan from Saturday night to tonight. So after our showers, we went to our happy hour and then to the show in the theater. The show was a cabaret with songs from various theater productions. We recognized many of the songs, so it was very entertaining. After the show, we went to Tuscan, a specialty restaurant. Unfortunately it was not a good experience. We felt they were rushing us – they brought our appetizer before we had our wine, they tried to bring our entree before we were done with our appetizers, which we refused. The wine sommelier could not find our saved bottle of wine from the night before. When we got our entrees, Daves lobster pasta didn’t have much lobster (very few slivers) and my medium rare steak was medium. We were just totally disappointed with the whole experience which we paid extra for!
After the dinner fiasco, we went to bed!
Wednesday, July 31, 2024 – We had an announcement from the captain that Thursday and Friday are National Holidays in Bermuda and there may be closings. Maybe we picked the wrong week to cruise to Bermuda.
We had a 10:30 reservation to do a walking tour with the Town Crier in Hamilton, Bermuda, but decided to stay in bed a little longer. I don’t think we could have made it to Hamilton by 10:30 anyway. There are two shipped docked where we are – ours and the Norwegian Joy. The Norwegian Joy looks bigger than ours. There were lots of people trying to catch the ferry and take the bus to get to Hamilton. Norwegian has a ferry to transport some of their passengers, which is a nice bonus for those passengers. So, we left the ship a little past 9:00, stopped at the tourist info center and bought a two-day transportation pass. We decided to take the bus to St. George, which is the other end of the island. We have to change buses in Hamilton, and it takes longer than the ferry, but we figured we would get a little tour of the island. Arriving in St. George, we realize there really isn’t a lot to see! St. George is not a big town.
The bus let us off outside a nice little park, Sommers Garden. There was a column commemorating the settlement of Bermuda, honoring Sir George Sommers. Although Bermuda was sighted by the Spaniard Juan de Bermudez in 1505, it was not settled until the chance wrecking of the English ship Sea Venture in 1609. This was the flagship of Sir George Somersault, leading an English relief fleet from Plymouth England to the new and struggling colony in Jamestown, Virginia. The survivors built two new ships on Bermuda and after 10 months continued to Jamestown, where they rescued the settlers from starvation. The Sea Venture wreck sparked fervent English interest in Bermuda and led to official colonization three years later.
Bermuda is the oldest colony still under British rule. It consists of 121 islands, the closest land is North Carolina, 650 miles away.
Next we saw the town hall, with two people dressed in period costumes outside…soon, we found out why!
Walking a little further, onto “Ordinance Island”, we saw the two people in period costumes that we had seen earlier, recreating punishing a woman for talking too much! The woman continued to chew out the man, and then the man would order her to be dunked! She continued mouthing off to him and was dunked 5 or 6 times!
On Ordinance Island was another statue of Sir George Sommers!
Leaving Ordinance Island, we saw a multicolored fish, but the picture isn’t the best….hopefully you can make him out!
We walked around the town which is only a couple of blocks. There were placards on many buildings which described when they were built and who owned them. One was apparently a museum showing period furnishings, but it was closed. So, we had lunch. I had a fish sandwich which is a typical island food. It is fried wahoo served on raisin bread! It was good.
We walked around some more, reading plaques on the buildings, and then headed to the ferry to catch the last ferry at 4:00 to the Royal Dockyard where our ship is docked.
Once onboard, we were done for the day. The heat wore us out. We got some cold drinks, took showers, missed our happy hour, but went for a glass of wine (Dave not me). Then a late dinner.
Tuesday, July 30, 2024 – We are watching the tropics with a possible storm brewing. Englewood is currently in the “cone”, but the storm is still several days away.
We had breakfast in Blu, booked our transfer from the ship to the airport, went to a morning wine tasting, Lunch, some relaxation in the relaxation lounge, some trivia (which we were only fair), some walking to build up those steps,Etc. Not very busy today – but it is a sea day! We showered and dressed and went to happy hour. After happy hour we visited Effy, but they did not have a fabulous price on my $35,000 necklace. Then we went to a lounge to listen to music…just as the music stopped! We went to dinner in Blu and had some really good filet mignon after Dave sent his back his once for being well done! Decided to skip the show which was the aerobatics couple….but by the time we finished dinner, it was almost 10:00. So…since we want to be up and ready for Bermuda tomorrow, we just returned to our stateroom and went to bed.
Monday, July 29, 2024 – We stayed in bed too long and missed breakfast! So we had an early lunch. After lunch we went to watch Scattagories. Because we had never played, we just watched to get the idea of how the game is played. It is similar to boggle except you are given categories, then have to think of a word based on a letter given by the moderator. We may try it next time it’s offered.
Next up was a trivia. There were 3 different trivia’s – the first was “True or False”, which I did pretty good at. It is a group event where everyone as a group moves to one side of the floor or the other, depending on whether you think the question is true or false. At one point I was down to the last 3 people – where I lost on the question whether Marilyn Monroe was born with 6 ties on one foot. I guessed true, but it was false ☹️. The second trivia was on music from the ‘00’s….we sat that one out. The last trivia was general knowledge. We didn’t win, but we were pretty satisfied with our final score.
We went to our happy hour and then to the show in the theater- “Rock!”. While it was entertaining, I was disappointed that I didn’t recognize more of the songs. After the show we had reservations in Murano, one of the specialty restaurants. Dave was disappointed with the choice of appetizers. He had a pear in puff pastry with Roquefort dressing, but felt the Roquefort overpowered everything else. He also tried pork belly as he never had it before. He said it tasted like pork (duh!). He had lobster for his entree, which was a table side preparation.
His desert was a chocolate cake with coffee ice cream (even though he asked to have the coffee ice cream replaced with vanilla, it didn’t happen). He thought the chocolate cake was more like a mousse. I had a scallop in puff pastry and a mushroom soup for my starters, and Mediterranean Sea bass for my entree. I had a medley of gelato for dessert – chocolate, pistachio, mango and strawberry.
After our 2.5 hour dinner, off to bed!
Sunday, July 28, 2024 – Paid for shuttle from hotel to cruise port about 10:30AM. We were able to checkin, but were then directed to seats to wait to actually get on the ship. Once on the ship, we could drop off our hand luggage in the room, but the rooms were not ready until 1:30. We could see a long view of the Statue of Liberty from our stateroom. We could also see a partial view of a sculpture titled the “Struggle Against World Terrorism”. This is a 10 story sculpture that was given to the United States as an official gift from the Russian government as a memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks in 2001, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It stands at the end of the former Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne, New Jersey. Ceremonial groundbreaking occurred on September 16, 2005, in a ceremony attended by Vladimir Putin!
We explored the ship, checked out the exercise room (doubtful we’ll ever see the inside of it again, but maybe), our restaurant “Blu” and the bars. We had some lunch and wandered some more. Just after all aboard at 3:00PM, the captain made an announcement welcoming everyone onboard and saying we would depart at 4:00. After wandering a bit more, and Dave getting a bon voyage margarita, we went back to our room and our welcoming bottle of champagne arrived as well as our luggage. It was about 3:50 and we noticed the ship was moving! So we left port early.
This cruise was billed as a sail by the Statue of Liberty. We could see the Statue of Liberty from our stateroom, but it was a long view. The captain did sail by the Statue of Liberty and did a 360° turn so everyone could get a good look. We sat on our balcony and drank our bottle of champagne as we got our view.
We stopped by Effy Jewelry store and I tried on a $35,000 necklace! Beautiful, but not in my budget! Dave said I’d have to sell my Porsche!
We went to the Celebrity happy hour for our free drink and then to dinner in “Blu”. Our waiter recommended a “Lobster Salad on Soba Noodles” as an appetizer which Dave and I both had. It was very good! Unfortunately, Dave lost part of the veneer on one tooth when he bit into a bread crisp. At least it’s not painful, just irritating. We both had beef short ribs for our entree which was very good, and we both had a chocolate dessert with mousse and cherries. Too much food! We are going to have to do better.
Saturday, July 27, 2024 – I do not anticipate much to post about until we reach Bermuda on Wednesday, July 31.
This morning we got up early and tried not to disturb Erin who was still sleeping. Unfortunately, I think I make more noise when I’m trying to be quiet. Our plan was to be out of the house by 7:10am and on the road by 7:15am, and we were right on schedule. We had a flight out of Tampa and are spending the night near the Newark, New Jersey airport. It is a Hampton Inn and Suites at Elizabeth, NJ.
The hotel has a shuttle from the airport, but it was a bit of a hassle. We weren’t sure where to catch the shuttle. Dave tried calling the hotel and was unable to connect with anyone for several tries. The phone number would ring a few times and then he’d get a busy signal. Finally, I think it was his fourth or fifth try, he finally reached someone and they said they would advise the driver that we were waiting. We got to the hotel about 3:00 and checked in. We had not had lunch, and “The Mills at Jersey Gardens” mall is about a five minute walk away. It is a huge mall, and I think it was bigger than Woodfield in Schaumburg, IL. This place was huge and it was packed with people, who had multiple shopping bags! As we walked to the entrance, we could not believe how many cars were in the parking lot! Dave had read there was an Applebees in the mall, so that was our plan for a late lunch and early dinner. I ordered a cocktail, which never came. But otherwise we felt the prices were higher than Florida and while the food was good, maybe not as good as our local Applebees.
After we ate, we walked back to the hotel and chilled for awhile. Then we decided to have a cocktail before hitting the sack early. We walked to a Ruby Tuesday’s which is next door to the hotel. We each had one drink and decided that was enough. On the way out, I missed a step down and took a huge fall ☹️. Fortunately no broken bones or serious injuries, but I’m sure it looked pretty bad. My forward motion was stopped by my head hitting a parked car, and a bystander said the car moved when my head hit it. Dave said I put a dent in the car. I just wanted to get away from there and nurse my (very) few scrapes.
It is now a couple hours later, and after a shower, I’m feeling pretty much back to normal, but thinking I may be sore tomorrow.
That was the end of our exciting first day. Tomorrow, Sunday, we paid for a shuttle to take us from the hotel to the ship. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are sea days, so not much to write about. Sunday evening when we leave port, we are suppose to cruise past the Statue of Liberty. Hopefully we will get a picture. I do not have internet on the ship, but I bought a data eSIM for Bermuda, so probably will not be able to post until Wednesday.
MSC Seascape 5/11-5/18/2024
Friday, May 17 – Our last day, and it is a sea day, so we won’t be doing much. We did go to trivia and had one of our best scores – we got 15 out of 20 right. The winner had 19 out of 20, but we felt pretty good with our score.
We packed in the afternoon. Then we went to listen to the steel drum player in the atrium for our pre-dinner drink. He is very good, but it is a bit loud so we try to sit as far away as we can.
Same brothers at dinner – at least they didn’t desert us! After dinner we went to the production show, “Dreamscapes”. We always enjoy the music, dancing and acrobatic acts in the production shows. These on MSC did not have much of a story line, and we enjoy the ones with a storyline more. A few pictures from the production show. The big screens on the back of the stage, which are on all the cruise ships we’ve been on lately, really add to the ambiance.
We will be up early and do the express disembarkation, which means we will carry our own luggage. Then the 223 Mile, 3+ hour drive home From the Miami port. So this is my last post!
Wednesday Evening, May 15 and Thursday May 16:
Wednesday evening – Before dinner we went to “Times Square” which is a large open area where they have trivia. But we went to see a piano player and she won me over when her first song was a Beach Boys hit, Kokomo. She also played Billy Joel, Uptown Girl. We couldn’t stay too long as we went to dinner. After dinner we went to “Le Cabaret Rouge” which is a lounge on the back of the ship. It was Cabaret style. The first act was a violinist and he was excellent. We only heard two of his songs, “We are the Champions” and “Fiddler on the Rood”. Then we had a lady singer, and she was very good and entertaining. The next act was a juggler, and then another singer. So lots of short acts, but I thought it was entertaining.
We got back to our room and I killed a roach on the dresser. Yikes!
Thursday, May 16 – Our room steward has assured us he looked everywhere in our room and did not find any more roaches. Unfortunately, our room steward is on his first contract and his inexperience shows. He has left us without towels and one morning Dave had to go looking for him to get towels so we could shower. He has left us without a bathmat. He took the toilet paper off the roller and left it empty. Not that any of these things are major, but it is driving Dave nuts.
MSC is going paperless and it took us a day or two to find out how to download the daily activities. The bars and restaurants are paperless and we have to scan the QR code to get the menus. However, at our table, the brothers usually get a paper menu so we just use theirs. (We still have only 4 people at our table for 8 – apparently MSC cannot find anyone to sit with us 😂😂😂).
This morning we went to “Masterchef at Sea”. We thought it was interesting! First there was a 10 question trivia contest and everyone interested in competing turned in their scoresheets for the crew to grade (We did not want to participate, so we kept our scorecard). 6 of the top scorers were chosen at random to prepare a dish, working in pairs. It was a mystery box challenge, and the mystery box contained crepes, fruit, various sprinkles, chocolate sauce, etc. Two men from New York, who were together on the cruise, were randomly chosen as a team, and ended up winning. I’m not sure how long MSC will run this event, but two of all the winners at the end are flown to a Masterchef winners home for a meal, and also entered into a chance to appear on the TV show. So that was a fun event to watch.
We went to see the piano lady before dinner and listened to her with our pre- dinner cocktail.
After dinner we went back to the Le Cabaret Rouge lounge and it was the same entertainers but doing different sets…A black lady singer, a blond lady singer from the UK, the juggler and the violinist. The singers were backed up by an band this evening. We did not enjoy the violinist as much as last evening. Dave does not like the juggler, but I find his act entertaining. There was one additional vocalist, a black guy, Sterling, who was really good. He could really belt out the tunes, and he really put on the moves with his feet.
Wednesday, May 15 – We are in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. We are docked at Havensight with the Disney Wonder backed in right behind us and a Norwegian ship in back of Disney.
We are doing our own walking tour which I downloaded from the internet. Dave has mapped it out on a map, which I also downloaded, but his map and my walking tour are not always in sync.
We headed out of the port and it is a bit of a walk to our starting point, Kings Wharf. This is the site of the Virgin Islands legislature. The two-story structure was first built in 1824 as military barracks for the Danish police. The current building dates from 1874. It was in the ceremony on this site in 1917 that ownership of the Virgin Islands was officially transferred from the Danish West Indies to the US at what was then a hefty price of $25 million.
Practically directly across the street is a huge red building dating from 1680, Fort Christian. It was named after the Danish king Christian V. It is the oldest building in the entire US Virgin Islands. It was a fort, a residence, a prison with a downstairs dungeon, a police station, and a court until it was named a national historic landmark in 1977. Unfortunately, it has been closed since 2005 for renovations.
We walked a little further to emanation park. This is where a proclamation, African slaves and indentured European servants was read on July 3, 1848.
There is also a gazebo in this park where Lady Bird Johnson addressed the people of St. Thomas and June 2, 1965.
There is an area near here where many vendors are set up, and we parted with a few US Dollars to aid the local economy 😂.
The next stop is called Grand Galleria, but it is not much. It originally opened as a hotel in 1837 and finally closed in 1875.
Diagonally from the Grand Galleria is the Central Post Office.
What is important about the Post Office building is it contains two murals by Stephen Dohanos, who became famous as an artist for the Saturday evening post.
The islands oldest church building, built between 1780 and 1793, is the Frederik Lutheran Church. it was financed by a free black parishioner, Jean Reeneaus. It was gutted by fire in 1826 and damaged by a hurricane in 1870, but the structure remains solid. It was closed so we could not see inside.
At this point, the map and my walking tour did not quite agree. We continued walking toward the Seven Arches Museum which is a two centuries old Danish house completely restored and furnished with antiques. We saw a sign directing us, and we climbed a couple of flights of stairs, but didn’t find it. Then we noticed on my walking guide that it was open by appointment only ☹️.
Walking towards our next point of interest, we walked through the Franklin D. Roosevelt Park and saw Mama Hen and her chicks!
We walked on to the Government House which is the administrative headquarters for the US Virgin Islands. My walking guide said the first two floors were open and contained vintage West Indian furniture, but it was well guarded and although I peeked in, all I saw was a reception desk. But it was in a nice setting, so I took a couple of pictures.
To the side of the Government House was a nice set of stairs heading up, which we thought was the “99 Stairs”. After climbing about 15 or 20 steps, we decided it was not “the” stairs, so we turned around.
Next to the Government House, on the other side of the wrong stairs, was the Frederik Church Parsonage. This building dates from 1725 and is one of the oldest houses on the island.
We walked on to the 1829 Hotel which has different backgrounds based on what you read. It was designed in 1829 by one of the leading merchants and was formally known as Lavalette House. My walking guide says it is a good place to take a break, but it was undergoing renovations when we walked by and we did not see anything open.
Then we found the “99 Steps” which is actually 103, but I only counted 102! The staircase was erected in the early 1700’s.
At the top of the steps is the “Crown House” which was the home of von Scholten, the Danish ruler who issued the proclamation of emancipation in 1848. The house is currently boarded up and in a state of disrepair.
We did not proceed further up the hill, but that is where Blackbeard’s Castle is located. It has been closed for every visit of ours to St. Thomas, and it is still closed, so we did not go up.
We headed down another set of stairs and found St. Thomas Reformed Church, which was also closed. The building is from 1844, but it holds one of the oldest congregations in the Virgin Islands, established by Dutch traders around 1660.
At this point we headed down to Main Street which is the most famous shopping street. We were looking for someplace to sit down, rest and have a drink, but all we could see were jewelry stores! We walked a bit and finally spotted a little place in an alley with tables. So we got a drink, rested and cooled off before our walk back to the ship.
We lose our good internet connection when we leave port today at 5:00PM. But our last two days will be sea days, so not much excitement. My plan is to post the end of our trip after we get off the ship Saturday.
Tuesday, May 14 – we are in San Juan. Slow start this morning because of a rough night last night, but didn’t seem to matter as the ship was late in getting the ship ready to let passengers off. Besides having a rough night, I got halfway to the elevator and realized I forgot my chapstick – which I need in this hot weather! Had to go back to stateroom and get it. Back to the elevator, down to the deck where we were exiting the ship and realized I had on the wrong shoes! Dave waited for me while I went back to the stateroom to change shoes. We exited the ship and Dave realized he had forgotten his credit cards and money! So I waited in the terminal for Dave to go back to the stateroom, but when he got back, we were finally ready to go exploring. Whew!
We were walking along the waterfront….
Continuing our walk along the water, we saw the defensive city wall.
Then we came upon the Chapel of Christ the Savior which is a small chapel, but not open to visitors. It was built between 1753 and 1780. The legend is a young man went over the cliff at the end of a horse race. Supposedly the young man was saved, and the Secretary of the Government at the time ordered the construction of this chapel to honor the miracle. It was later discovered that the young man had died, but the chapel remains.
Then we walked to the San Juan Gate. This gate was San Juan’s formal or symbolic entrance where Spanish dignitaries entered San Juan. Then the dignitaries would walk up the street to the San Juan Cathedral to thank God for the safe voyage. Guards would secure this gate at night and if you were outside when the gates were closed, you would have to stay outside until morning when the gates would be reopened.
We walked up the street to the Cathedral of San Juan, like the dignitaries before us. It was built in 1511, and the remains of Juan Ponce de Leon are interred in this cathedral. We made the requested donation of $3 per person and were able to sit in a pew, under a fan, and rest for a few moments.
We did see where Juan Ponce de Leon is interred in the Cathedral.
Our next stop was what we thought was the Governors mansion, but we had misread the map and it was actually a casino, which we were not interested in seeing. I think it was closed anyway. We remembered passing a lot of guards earlier in our walk – that had to have been the Governors mansion. There were so many guards around that we weren’t going to get close, anyway.
Diagonally across the street from the casino is the Teatro Tapia, the oldest theater in San Juan, but it is closed, too, undergoing renovations.
In this same area is Plaza de Colon, with a statue of Christopher Columbus, which we have photographed on a previous visit, but here it is again.
At this point it is mid-afternoon and we have seen all the sights we had planned to see, except for what used to be Umbrella Street. But we will see that on the way back to the ship.
So it is time for lunch and we went to the Raices Restaurant for a Kan Kan pork chop. They are really huge, and Dave and I share one. We also got rice and beans and a side of mofango (a dish made from plantains). The Kan Kan pork chop was dry, which is not unusual for pork when I cook it (☹️) but it is a dish that’s representative of Puerto Rico, so we had to have it. We actually had it on our first visit to San Juan, but felt it was a little better at Raices. The mofango was definitely better, and our waiter brought us a sauce made from mayonnaise, ketchup and garlic, which was tasty on the pork and the mofango.
We had some great local beers, too: Dave had SJU which is a lager and I had an Ocean Amber which is a dark beer.
After lunch, we wanted to go somewhere different for dessert, so we went to Barrachina which claims to be the birthplace of the Pina Colada. It is also a restaurant, but we sat at the bar for our dessert drink. They were not exactly what we expected, but they were good! No complaints!
Leaving Barrachina, we are very close to Umbrella Street. No umbrellas anymore, but some kind of banners. We walked up and down the street and peeked into a couple of stores and restaurants, but just having finished our “dessert” we were not into shopping or more food or drinks.
We walked back to the ship and our “Steps” app showed we had walked over 12,000 steps – similar to our walk yesterday.
We had dinner with the two brothers, so just four of us at a table of 8. We’ve definitely scared off everyone else that’s tried to sit with us.
Still tired from my reaction to the muscles from dinner last night, we just went back to our stateroom after dinner.
Monday, May 13 – Today our port is Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. We took our time getting off the ship. The port is a pain because instead of letting you walk directly into town, they make you walk by all kinds of shops. We finally walk by everything and head for the Puerto Plata cable car. Supposedly it is just over a 1 mile walk, but because of the port detour walking by all their shops, we are a little disoriented as to where to go. Dave has a great sense of our direction, and we have a map I downloaded, but the streets do not have names. We finally just turned on my phone, which usually is $10 per day when out of their service area, but I have some free travel days! That also let me post my blog for the last two days, so all is good! We had lots of offers from people to give us rides, two guys on motor bikes and one very persistent taxi driver, but we kept plugging along. When we got fairly close, it was all uphill ☹️. Fortunately, there was some shade, so we would stop and rest. Finally we made it, but decided to take a taxi back to town. It was $10 per person to take the cable car, and there are two cars that run up and back. We had to wait about 10 minutes, and then we went onto the boarding platform where we were entertained by a magician looking for tips until the cable car arrived.
They packed us into the cable car and up we went! The mountain is Isabel de Torres and it’s about 2,562 feet. There is a replica of the Rio de Janeiro statue, Christ the Redeemer, at the top.
There are some nice gardens and walking paths. Due to our walk from the cruise ship to the cable car, we took one of the shorter paths at the top. There were gardens, and the mountain was declared a Natural Monument due to the variety of flora and wildlife.
We had a nice walk, and when we returned to catch the cable car going down, we got water from a little refreshment stand. We had nice weather up there, but while we were waiting to go back down on the cable car, it seemed the clouds were rolling in. But they kept moving and it cleared up again. We agreed to take a taxi back down to Umbrella Street which is near the port and suppose to have lots of restaurants. So we got a taxi and he said it was going to be $25. CheapO me said no, that’s too much, and so the taxi driver asked what we’d pay and I said $15, and he said OK! While riding though, Dave said he was going to give him $20 because Dave is a nice guy, not cheap like me. He drops us off at Umbrella Street, and we are very disappoint with the restaurant and bar choices.
We really weren’t very hungry, but we were hot and thirsty. We decided to walk back through the shops on the port area because there were several places to get a beer and/or a bite to eat. So while we were walking, a lady at a little shop calls out “cold beer!” and we couldn’t refuse! We must of looked pretty hot and tired, and we were. They told us to try the local beer, Presidente, and the lady proprietor gave us two ice cold beers out of a cooler and the beers were ice cold! They tasted great!
Refreshed after our beers, we walked back to the ship.
When we opened the door to our stateroom, I had a towel animal and birthday card signed by the captain!
That was a nice touch from MSC. We showered and since we had not eaten lunch, about 4:30 we went up to the buffet and Dave got pizza and I got ice cream and cookies! Perfect lunch in my mind!
We rested and went to a bar for a pre-dinner drink until dinner time when we met our usual table mates, Ranger and BJ. The Hispanic couple truck driver and the two gay pals from Sarasota and Tampa failed to show up. I guess we are scaring them off! We have really been friendly and never said anything political, so not sure no one likes us unless it’s because we are more mature than they are.
So, this is when my birthday went south…I had muscles for an appetizer and Thai Chicken curry for my entree. Dave had shrimp cocktail and That Chicken curry. After dinner we planned to go to the show but decided to stop by the stateroom…..good plan because just as we got to the stateroom, my tummy told me there must have been something wrong with the muscles, and I was in bad shape until mid morning.
Sunday, May 12 – Today is Mother’s Day. There is a special Mothers Day Brunch, but we had our basic breakfast – French Toast for me and a Ham and Cheese omelet for Dave. Then we played some Trivia with a Mother’s Day theme. We checked out more of the ship, as it is a big ship. At the back there is a walkway bridge they call the “ Bridge of Sighs” which has nice views of the wake. It has been an amazing extremely smooth ride so far.
One unique feature is the elevators – I had read about these but never experienced them before. The elevator buttons are in the elevator lobby. You choose your floor, and a “voice” tells you which elevator, and the elevator button pad tells you how long before your elevator arrives. There are no buttons inside the elevator. While we are getting use to using them, the wait times indicated by the button pad does not seem very accurate. This ship, which holds 5,877 (😳) passengers has 18 elevators. It seems we spend a lot of time waiting for our elevator.
We tried to go another trivia in the afternoon, but it was standing room only, so we found some nice lounge chairs and sat instead.
Went to the Atrium to see the officers introduction and hear the Captains welcome.
Then dinner time. Interesting….the younger couple from Michigan have bailed from our table (I’m sure they did not enjoy sitting with old people!) and we have 4 new people! The brothers are still at our table and we are enjoying sitting with them. The new folks were two guys, I think they are a couple. One is from Sarasota and the other is from Tampa. And a couple from Miami. He is a long haul truck driver. The “new four” speak Spanish and conversed with each other. We will see who shows up tonight!
After dinner we went to the show in the theater- Premier. It had a little bit of a story line: A worker was looking at reels of old movies. Every time he picked up a reel, the performers would sing a song from an old movie – like West Side Story, Wizard of Oz, Dirty Dancing, etc.
After the show, we went back to our stateroom.
Saturday, May 11 – It was 227 miles an 4 hours from home to the Miami Cruise port. Hit some traffic and a few love bugs☹️. Bag drop, Parking, and embarkation was uneventful. We had a late embarkation time, so by the time we arrived most of the passengers were already onboard. Since this is the first time on MSC, we are confused with the ship layout. We are hungry and made it to the crowded buffet. Rather than scope out the place, we just grabbed burgers, which were surprisingly good! After we finished our burgers, Dave asked me if I was ready to go back to the car! That should make it obvious we are struggling a bit with the big ship.
We were able to switch from early dining at 5:15 pm to the later dining at 7:30 pm. There’s even a later dining – I think 9:30pm, but that is too late for us.
The room is small, but laid out ok for a 7-nighter. The closet would be too small for us for a longer cruise. But we saw people with lots of luggage, maybe they’re in suites. One thing we do is we always bring wire hangers from home. There’s never enough hangers provided, and they are usually big wooden hangers.
We met our room steward Windo (?) from Bali, and he brought our requested Kleenex and ice.
We were assigned a table of 8, but there were only 6 of us. Two brothers, one from Tennessee and one from Utah. They seem like a lot of fun. The other couple, much younger, from Michigan. They all ordered Salmon, which was a small entree. I ordered prime rib and it was huge!
We went to the production show. The theater is very modern with a huge screen along the back. They sang songs from the 70’s, so we recognized them. Acrobats performed, which I always enjoy. I liked the show. But Dave thought all the activity – singers, dancers, big screen and acrobats was just too much going on.
After the show we walked around but while there are lots of bars, we didn’t happen to find any with music we liked,so off to bed.
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
At the last minute, we decided to get away for my birthday week. We found a great deal on MSC, a cruiseline we have never been on. Their ships are much larger than what we’d prefer, but it was super cheap, so we will give it a try.
Saturday, May 11 | Miami, FL | 5:00pm | |
Sunday, May 12 | At Sea | ||
Monday, May 13 | Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic | 8:00am | 5:00pm |
Tuesday, May 14 | San Juan, Puerto Rico | 9:00am | 11:00pm |
Wednesday, May 15 | St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands | 7:00am | 7:00pm |
Thursday, May 16 | At Sea | ||
Friday, May 17 | At Sea | ||
Saturday, May 18 | Miami, FL | 7:00am |
Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon March, 2024
Please excuse the typos.
Monday, April 8, 2024 – We did our last walk from Rich Steve’s Portugal book, as tomorrow we head home.
This walk started in the plaza I remembered best from our first trip to Lisbon about 23 years ago. It is a huge plaza on the Tejo River, which is near to where the cruiseships dock. We can actually see a ship a short distance from where we stood along the river. The plaza is called Praça do Comércio and has a huge statue of King José I and Lisbon’s Arch of Triumph.
Another view of the Arch:
Leaving the plaza, we walked through the Arch to São Julião, a small church which was built to blend into the grid plan of streets after the 1755 earthquake.
We walk to another church, St. Nicholas. It faces a little square, but the entire street side is covered in tiles. The church made extra income by leasing their street facing side to businesses, and you can see the storefronts.
The next square we visited was Praça da Figueira which had been the site of a large hospital destroyed in the earthquake. In one corner is the Confeitaria Nacional which has a cafeteria on the second floor, recommended by Rick Steve’s in his book. So, we stopped for lunch!
After lunch, we continued our walk to the Church of São Domingos. This church was rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake and was the site of two royal weddings in the 1800’s. It was severely damaged again by a fire in 1959. There’s black soot still on the walls and you can see the damaged walls. The fire totally took the roof which has been replaced.
Rick Steves writes about “ginjinha” bars which is a favorite Lisbon drink. It is a liquor made from ginja berries (like a sour cherry), sugar and brandy. We pass by the oldest ginjinha bar, a hole in the wall, and Dave and I pop in thinking we would sample this liquor. However, we are watching the server washing the glasses with no soap – basically just rinsing them after the last customer – not very sanitary – and decide to pass….so no ginjinha for us!
The next square is the Rossio Square which is very near to our hotel, and the Rossio Train Station. It has an elongated shape and 2,000 years ago it was a Roman racetrack. There are lots of stores in this area as well as the National Theater and the Sardine Store we saw previously! More of the optical illusion Portugeuse tiles.
We are planning to go to a restaurant outside our hotel tonight. There are certainly plenty of choices! We checked out a few of the menus and think we found one that looks good 🤞. We have to be in bed early because our taxi to the airport is picking us up at 6:30AM, and with 2 stops, we expect to land in Tampa at 9:00PM. With a 5 hour time difference (9:00PM Tuesday night would be 2:00AM Wednesday in Lisbon), it will be a very long day.
This will be my last post this trip unless something exiting happens!
Saturday and Sunday, April 6-7, 2024:
Saturday – We disembarked the ship on Saturday morning and took a taxi to our hotel, Hotel Avenida Palace, which Dave picked because it is right next to the train station. Of course we could not check in right away, but they did let us check in about noon. They upgraded up to a junior suite (!), but it is an old hotel and while very nice, it is elegant in an old fashioned way. We have a view of a lion from one window.
From another window we have a long view of a monument.
We did one of Rick Steve’s shorter walks from his book on Portugal, which let us wander around Lisbon a bit. We started out and did not realize we were suppose to take this trolley uphill…so we walked☹️.
We visited a park , Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara, with nice views over Lisbon, but it was so packed with people that we could not get a good picture.
Next, we visited a church, São Roque.
Outside the church was a statue of a lottery ticket salesman. Supposedly rubbing the ticket in his hand is good luck.
The walk took us past several old eating establishments.
Other sights along our walk…
My guide on Friday said Santino’s gelato is the best, so when we passed a shop, we had to try some. It was very good. While sitting on a bench eating our gelato, we noticed a shop with all kinds of colored lights and what looked like circus decorations in the windows. I had to check it out…this shop sold tins of sardines! There were probably a thousand cans on the shelves, and that’s all they sold. You could buy a can with your birth year stamped on it or historical Lisbon sites or cans printed with various other things. I have to admit, to me it was a first to find this store in the middle of a bunch of upscale shops. Look at the people in this shop!
We returned to the hotel and had a light dinner in the hotel bar.
Sunday – Dave is still not 100%, but we wanted to be close to the train station so we could take the train to Sintra. It is about 40 minutes with lots of stops. The train was packed but we did get seats. Because we are fans of the TV show, “The Curse of Oak Island”, we wanted to visit “Quinta da Regaleira”.
This is an estate classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There’s a palace, a chapel, grottoes, and…an “Initiation Well” which is what we wanted to see.
The “Initiation Well” was shown on “The Curse of Oak Island” TV show because the construction of the well was supposedly done by the Knights Templar and shares construction similarities to things on Oak Island. We had to walk uphill to get to the well, and then you climb down its circular staircase to a tunnel. Following the tunnel leads to a waterfall, and then back outside.
This was our big adventure of the Day, and with Dave feeling under the weather, we headed back to Lisbon on the train.
We are slowing down and tomorrow is our last day in Lisbon and we hope to do some more sightseeing, but rain is in the forecast….
Friday, April 5, 2024 – Today we are in Lisbon, Portugal. My photographer is not touring with me today as he is not feeling his best.
As we begin our drive on our tour, we see aqueducts! These are from the mid-1700’s to bring fresh water into Lisbon, copying from the Roman aqua ducts.
Some Portugal tidbits from our guide:
-April 25 is a National Holiday celebrating the end of occupation.
-Just had an election. Government has been pretty much central for many years – Varies a little from central left to central right, but pretty much central.
-Portugal still has bullfights, but they are not allowed to kill the bull in the ring. The bull is killed, but it is out of public sight.
-Portugal had a monarchy from 1100 to 1900.
– Portuguese currently get free healthcare, welfare and education thru 12th grade. Private hospitals and education available for $$$.
Our first stop is the Palace of Queluz. The Palace of Queluz is an 18th-century palace located at Queluz, a city of the Sinetra Municipality, in the Lisbon District on the Portugeuse Rivera. Work on the palace began in 1747. Despite being far smaller, the palace is often referred to as the “Portuguese Versailles.” The palace was conceived as a summer retreat for King Jose’s I brother, Pedro, later to become husband and King Pedro III due to marrying his own niece, Queen Maria I (Pedro III and José I were brothers, so Pedro I’s daughter – Maria I – was next in line to inherit the throne). It eventually served as a discreet place of incarceration for Maria I, when she became afflicted by severe mental illness in the years following Pedro III’s death in 1786. Queluz Palace became the official residence of the Portuguese Prince João, (son of Pedro III) and his family, and remained so until the royal family fled to the Portuguese colony of Brazil in 1807, following the French invasion of Portugal. João was the second born and was not educated or prepared to be king, but when his older brother died, João became King. João is credited with saving Portugal as he moved the capital of Portugal to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Then the British saved the day by expelling Napoleon and the French. The royal family came back from Brazil in 1821.
This is the Music Room:
The room is all wood because of acoustics.
Apparently in the 1700’s, no room was designated as a “dining room”. Meals were eaten wherever the King wanted..outside, in the courtyard, in the bedroom, wherever….
But in later years, this room was assumed to be a dining room.
The ”heir apparent” and his wife had chairs opposite in this same room.
The area between the tiles were flooded so they could row boats in this artificial stream of water .
After the palace we drove to Cascais, which is basically a tourist town on the beach. We had some free time and there were many kiosks set up in the city garden and along the beach because it is still Easter Vacation until Monday. Our guide pronounces the name of the city as: “Cush kais “
After our free time, we headed back to the ship but drove through the town of Estoril.
Estoril became famous for spies. The movie Casino Royale was inspired by certain incidents that took place during Ian Fleming’s wartime career at the Naval Intelligence Division (NID). On a trip to Portugal, en route to the United States, Fleming and the NID Director, Admiral Godfrey, went to the Estoril Casino. During the Second World War, the region was a centre of spies and diplomatic secrecy, situations that provided the region with a cosmopolitan atmosphere and sophistication. Fleming’s visit to the Estoril Casino is considered the inspiration for “Casino Royale”.
“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” was the sixth installment of the James Bond saga and was predominantly filmed in Portugal. The cast resided at the Palácio Estoril Hotel throughout 1968, and the hotel provided a backdrop for the movie.
After a drive by through Estoril we continued back to the ship, only to be stuck in a huge traffic jam ☹️. We got back about 7:30PM and ended up ordering room service for dinner.
Thursday, April 4, 2024 – We are in Cadiz, Spain, but our Google maps say we are in “El Puerto de Santa Maria”, which is from where Christopher Columbus sailed. We have a full day tour in Seville, which is about 1 hour 45 minutes from where we are docked. Our first stop in Seville is at Plaza de España. It was built for an exposition (world’s fair) in 1929. The building is in a semi-circle and is 1/2 mile of tiled fountains, pavilions, walls, ponds, benches, etc. There are 4 bridges in front of the building with water running under the bridges, kind of like a moat. There is a very large open, central area and people are taking horse carriage rides around the open area. As we wandered around, we saw that much of the building now contains government offices. So although it is approaching 100 years old, the building has been put to use.
The next stop was the Jewish quarter. As we walked toward the Jewish quarter, we passed a statue to Christopher Columbus.
He is still a very revered and popular person in Spain. The Jewish quarter had very narrow walkways and no streets. A long time ago, Seville had the largest Jewish community in Spain. In the 15th century, the Jewish people were forced to leave or convert to Christianity.
The Alcazar Palace is located in the Jewish quarter, as wealthy Jews lived close to the king. Actually, the sign above the entrance says “Reales Alcazar” because it is composed of many palaces built over many years. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Royal Alcazar was founded in the middle ages, at the beginning of the tenth century. It has Moorish architecture which over the centuries has been added to or modified, but much of the original architecture can still be seen. There are many rooms, patios, gardens, and water fountains, and a sample of what we saw is in the following photos.
In the Hunting Courtyard, they held Equestrian events and even bullfights.
Our next stop was the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Sea, better known as Seville Cathedral, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the third largest churches in the world as well as the largest Gothic Church. It is not laid out in the traditional Latin Cross design. The style is Gothic, Moorish and Renaissance. The groundbreaking was in 1402, consecrated in 1507, and completed in 1519. According to our guide, there are many chapels owned by wealthy families that have owned them for centuries and are even buried in the chapels. The wealthy could have their own services on Sundays in their own chapel, by younger priests.
If I understood correctly, in the present day there are 3 services on Sundays at 9:00AM, 10:00AM and 11:00AM.
Here are some photos and descriptions:
Grave of Columbus’ son in floor of Seville Cathedral
I tried to translate the Latin, and while my Google translation did not make a lot of sense to me, it also seemed a little negative….
“SEE WHAT IS THE PROFIT TO SWEAT ALL THROUGH THE WORLD AND TRAVEL THREE THROUGH THE WORLD OF THE FATHER, THE NEW WHICH THE PLACE BEET RITE FORMED THE DECORATION OF WEALTH. THE GENIE HAS GOTTEN MYSELF TO LOCK YOU THE FOUNTAIN OF CASTLE
I WILL OFFER LIKE PTOLMOE WEALTH, IF IT IS THIN, AT LEAST RUNNING THROUGH THE MUMBLING ROCK
NEITHER HELLO TO THE FATHER, NEITHER DO YOU SAY AWAY TO ME”
Around the world chapel – on August 10, 1519 Magellan left with 5 ships and 234 men. He returned September 8, 1522 with 1 ship and 18 men. In an act of thanks, they prayed before this image of Santa Maria Antigua:
Christopher Columbus is also buried in the Seville Cathedral…or at least Seville claims it is him. Our guide alluded that when they got his remains, they wanted to make sure they got all of him and gathered up some surrounding remains, too….
The largest monstrance in the world, 1,047lb of silver, is known as “The Custody of Arfe”. A “monstrance” or “ostensory” is a vessel used in Roman Catholic Churches for exhibition of some object of piety. It seems they usually hold a piece of the actual body of a saint, but I do not know if that is true of this object. Maybe it holds a piece of the artist, Juan de Arfe. But it was a remarkable piece. It is prominately displayed in the Treaures Room of the Seville Cathedral. The artist, Juan de Arfe (1535-1603) was a Spanish engraver, goldsmith, artist and creator of woodcuts. He was the son and grandson of famous goldsmiths of German origin.
After the Cathedral, we had lunch at a restaurant named Placentines. I only took a picture of the dessert. We had dishes of potatoes with tuna, potato salad and pasta in tomato sauce with seafood.
After leaving the restaurant, we walked down to the river and passed the bullring before boarding our coaches back to the ship.
We were so exhausted we just ordered room service and crashed in our suite! We do gain an hour tonight which will be wonderful! We are tired!
Wednesday April 3, 2024 – Wednesday was a sea day and we rested up! After 2 full days of touring, we did not do much. Just started our preliminary packing.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024 – Today our port was Arrecife, Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and we have an all day tour. As we drive to our first stop, our guide tells us there are over 300 volcanos on the island. He also tells us there are a lot of camels on the island. We do see quite a number of camels, but they seem to be used for camel rides. We also saw several herds of goats.
Our first stop was Parque Nacional de Timanfaya, which is the only national park in the Spanish network that is of an eminently geological nature. It is the result of volcanic eruptions that took place between 1720 and 1736, and in 1824. The landscape is barren, and looks like what the moon must look like. In some places you can see many layers of lava and in others places is is extremely rough, and at the tops of many of the old volcanoes it is just black sand. There is a long line of cars waiting to get into the park, but the buses go in first, and we were the first bus.
Plants can’t grow in the lava but dust storms blowing soil from the Sahara allows a few plants to start to grow. We do see lichen.
At the park we saw four demonstrations of how hot it is below our feet, and how the farther below ground you go, the hotter it gets.
In the first demonstration, a lady dug down about one foot and then passed around pebbles. The pebbles were too hot to just hold onto – you had to transfer them from one hand to the other, or else throw them on the ground.
In the second demonstration, a man tossed some dried plant material into a hole about 6 feet deep, and after about 10 seconds, it caught fire and burned up.
In the third demonstration, a man poured water down a tube that was about 9 feet deep, and the water shot back our like a geyser.
Lastly, we were shown a hole about 12 feet deep. While you could see it was red hot, any paper thrown into the hole would not burn up because there was no oxygen at that depth.
I think our guide called this place the ring of fire and their symbol is a devilish looking characteristic. Our guide said if you touch the devil while taking a picture it will bring you good luck. So I am hoping for the best!
It was a very interesting bunch of demonstrations and obviously there is a lot of volcanic activity on the island, although nothing current.
Then we did a driving tour of the National Park from our bus. The park has tour buses, too, and must have given the pre-recorded tour to our bus. It was interesting and we learned even more stuff about volcanoes. We did see several pieces of equipment as we were driving that we assumed measured the seismic activity.
While driving to our next stop, our guide shows us an egg-size piece of lava with peridot stone. Peridot forms where certain types of lava cool slowly in the ground before they are erupted on to the surface. The crystals of gem peridot grow in the slowly cooling magma melt before it is erupted onto the surface. The type of volcanic rock that peridot grows in is called basalt.
Our next stop was Bodega La Geria for “A” wine tasting 😂😂😂. I say that because we got to taste “A” (one) wine – either a dry white or a sweet white. We took one of each so we could taste both. I tasted the sweet first, which was very sweet, and made the dry wine taste awful, too. But Dave tasted the dry white first and didn’t think it was too bad. However, with getting all our beverages on the ship, and having to fly home on a week, we weren’t going to buy any wine.
Grapevines are grown in indentations in the ground, with a wall partially surrounding them, to protect the vines from the winds. These semi-circular stone walls are called “zicos”.
After the wine tasting, we went to the visitors center for the National Park. Here they had built a walkway outside out over the lava fields so you could walk on top of the lava. Inside they had lots of displays, videos, pictures, etc. it was very interesting, especially one picture of a pickup truck in front of a lava cloud.
By now it was almost time for lunch, so we drove to a restaurant. There is a huge abstract monument by the restaurant which, according to our guide, is a monument to farmers. Our tour description called it “Monument of Peasant”. But, a sign called it a fertility monument!
This sculpture, dedicated to farmers from Lanzarote, is made with ancient water tanks taken from ships and various objects painted and assembled together, forming a set of geometric shapes combining concrete and iron of great visual impact. Following a design of César Manrique, It was done in 1968 by Jesús Soto. It is 15 metres tall.
The work rests on a mound of stones, a small islet that was not affected by the historical volcanic activity of the 18th century.
The location was not chosen by chance, and it hints at the wit of the author aiming to break with the canonical representation that would be expected at the time.
Manrique seeks through cubic forms to show a peasant from
Lanzarote on the back of a working animal, overcoming the difficulties of a challenging land.
And here is a picture of the monument:
I think the name of the restaurant was “Restaurante @ Casa-Museo del Campesino”. Our lunch was good – we had bottles of water, and red or white wine. We started with a bowl of thick soup (probably stew), and then the entree was chopped pork formed into a square with gelatin, a smear of sweet potatoes, and a few mixed vegetables. Not sure what the desert was – it looked like vanilla pudding but instead of vanilla, it was a local fruit that I’m not familiar with and it had a smear of some red fruit syrup or jelly. Then we got espresso. We liked the lunch yesterday better, but I did not go away hungry. A lot of the buildings and houses remind us of Santorini.
On the way to our next stop we passed the highest point on the island.
The next stop was Mirador Del Rio which had beautiful views. It is about 1,560 feet high and has a building with a cafe and souvenir shop integrated into the lava rock, so it is barely visible from the outside. As you e noted, there are two large glass windows which are suppose to resemble eyes giving you a panoramic view. There are viewing platforms outside, as well. The guide said the rock formations in the distance look like various animals, but the only one we could make out was a large rock that resembled a whale. In the past, guards would watch for approaching ships from this vantage point.
The last stop was James del Agua which was interesting. There are a series of volcanic grottoes here. It is a multi level building. After entering, you walk down a few steps into a restaurant that is open to the sky. You walk past the tables to a very dark area for a view of a grotto. Then you walk up some stairs to see a large pool of water with a bunch of tiny white specks on the bottom. The white specks are blind crabs (Munidopsis Polymorpha) which are in danger of extinction. This facility strictly protects their habitats. They are very small creature – I think our guide said they may be one centimeter in size. After viewing the crab habitats, you walk up another set of stairs where there is a swimming pool, in which you are not allowed to swim. Our guide said they use to allow swimming, but now there are too many people. Then you walk up another level to view out over the ocean and a little snack bar. Our guide suggested using the bathrooms on this level as they are the best ones! There was also a gift shop, and another volcanic museum which we did not visit.
After our last stop we drove back to the ship.
We thought this was a very interesting day. While we would not want to live here, the tour and all the information on volcanoes and the history of the Canary Islands was very interesting,
We had reservations at Prime 7, a specialty restaurant. Dave had a seafood platter which includes lobster, crab and a scallop. I had lamb chops.
We lose another hour of sleep tonight, and tomorrow is our last sea day.
Monday, April 1, 2024 – April Fools! We are in the Canary Islands on the Island of Tenerife. We have an all day tour, but it is mostly driving on a coach and visiting four towns. The first town we visited was La Laguna. It has wide, flat streets where they used to hold horse races.
It is also laid out in blocks, with parallel streets. Our guide said the US and other places later copied this plan for planning cities. There are some old houses here from the 16th century.
There are monasteries with cloisters built at the very top. The bottom part of the building would be from stone and the cloisters at the tops were wood. The Reason the cloisters were at the top were so the nuns could see out, but no one could see the nuns.
As we drove, we saw a huge volcano. We had to take the photo from inside the coach while we were moving, so not the best picture.
The next town was Garachico where we walked to a large plaza, and visited a farmers market and a church. I think the main reason we stopped here was public bathrooms in the farmers market.
As we drove, our guide told us that Tenerife grows 150,000 tons of bananas a year! In front of our coach was this truck!
The next town was Icod de Los Vinos where the main attraction is a 1000 year old Dragon Tree.
We stopped in a souvenir shop and I couldn’t resist taking this picture!
Then we drove to the San Pedro Monastery where we had lunch. We had bottles of red wine, water and a basket of rye bread on each table. First we were served chicken noodle soup. Then the entree was roasted chicken hind quarter and potatoes. Our dessert was vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Last, we were served espresso. It was a very nice meal in a very pleasant setting. The chickens these hind quarters came from were big chickens. There were live chickens walking around the tables in the outside area (we were seated inside). One rooster was very outspoken!
Our last town was Puerto de la Cruz which is very touristy. But not overcrowded, and actually very nice.
Our guide said the beaches in Tenerife are black sand. We saw a beach that was bigger and nicer than this one, but here is the black sand.
We would not mind returning to Tenerife – while our tour was an overview, we found it clean, lots of little shops and restaurants, and beautiful ocean views. We liked it much better than Cape Verde.
Sunday March 31, 2024 – Happy Easter!
Somehow we got a little confused with the time changes. We had planned to get up at 8:00AM, but because of the time mixup, it was actually only 7:00AM! Probably good because the next couple of mornings we have early morning tours.
This morning, for Easter, the Cruise Director led a non-denominational Easter Service. It was very nice.
After the Easter Service, Armando Sanchez gave his presentation, on cyberterriorism. His message was basically that it’s out there and worrying about it will not help. Do your best to protect yourself and then quit worrying and enjoy life.
Dr. Kramers talk was on superstitions, the world over!
I have developed a dry, hacking cough, which I am hearing from others around the ship. I think I am allergic to something, but other than the cough, I feel fine. So that’s good! Usually it’s Dave that picks up a bug.
We went to Easter Sunday Tea, as did many others on the ship! We enjoy going to tea – not every day, but every few days. Today was much busier than usual. I took a picture, but it only shows half the table of sweets because there were a bunch of people crowding around the other side. They also served ice cream, plain and chocolate chip scones, and a number to tea sandwiches. Today’s entertainment was a piano player. It is all so civilized and nice!
Dinner in Compass Rose, and then get ready for a long day tomorrow.
Saturday, March 30, 2024 – We had a relaxing sea day. We went to two of the speakers – Armando Sanchez and Dr. Gary Kramer. We have found all of Armondo Sanchez’s presentations interesting. Some of Dr. Kramers are sleep producing – like today – when he spoke about “Water”. Dr. Kramer has had good presentations, but kinda hit or miss for Dave and me. Dr. Kramer is a very smart man, he knows it, and wants to make sure you know he is smarter than probably anyone in his audience. We do go to listen to him as he has given some good presentations….we should have known better when we say the title today. We had a nice happy hour in the observation lounge and then went to dinner. We lose another hour tonight, but I think this is the last time change 😁. I always prefer sailing from east to west, but this cruise is west to east, so we will have had four 23 hour days. 🥱🥱🥱. Internet is not very good, but that has been the situation on all our transatlantics.
Thursday – Friday, March 28- 29, 2024 – Yesterday was the 4th sea day in a row. We did our usual Speakers Series – one was more spy stuff and the second one was about whales. For us, the temperature on the ship is very cold. By the time evening rolled around, I was frozen. One lady said it felt warm to her – she was from the UK! Lots of Brits on the ship. Supposedly we are sailing with 625 passengers. We have been able to get into any venue we want, which is nice. We do not lay out around the pool, but if we wanted to find a spot in the shade, that would be hard to do. We went to afternoon tea, which we usually do a couple times each cruise. Someone spotted a whale breaching out in the open water, so we got to see the whale! For all the cruises we’ve been on, that was a first.
We went to Chartruse for dinner Thursday evening, and this time I took some pictures!
I had the Bleu cheese soufflé, which was very good and very rich.
Dave had the smoked salmon.
For the second course, I had the mushroom soup which is very good.
Since Dave does not like soup, he had the steak tartare as a second course. He is getting so brave at trying things he has not had before. He actually enjoyed the steak tartare!
For our entrees, I had the lamb.
Dave had Dover Sole.
As a side, we both had chickpea fritters and neither of us liked them.
For desert, we were totally stuffed, so we shared a cheese plate, which I forgot to take a picture of ☹️.
Our port Friday is Mindelo, Cape Verde. The ship provides a shuttle into “town”, but since it is Good Friday, pretty much everything is closed. We took the shuttle and walked to the African Market. On the way we walked past some fishermen who were cleaning and selling fish. I don’t know what kind of fish they were, but mostly small. We did see one whole big fish that a man was carrying and I saw a big fish that had been cut up. The fish seem to be plentiful.
Along the street, and the plaza area, ladies are selling all kinds of produce.
The plaza area also has clothing, and other items -it reminded Dave and I of the church rummage sale. Really not much here, especially with it being Good Friday. Seems to be very poor; lots of dogs sleeping on the sidewalks which is always a sign to me of a poverty stricken area. We were only gone on our walking adventure about an hour.
Our afternoon tour was highlights of Cape Verde. Cape Verde is made up of 10 islands, and some are uninhabited. It is part of Africa. We were on São Vicenti, at the port city of Mindelo. Our tour is basically a drive around the island with a few photo stops. What we can see is a very desolate, desert like landscape. Our guide says it rains 3 months of the year – August to October. She takes us to the highest point on the island, Monte Verde, which is 2,440 feet in altitude. The road is horrendous- cobblestones and very bumpy. Lots of switchbacks, and narrow. Not much to look at as there is little to no vegetation. The houses are very basic, just cement blocks. Many buildings have been started but not finished. At the top of Monte Verde is a little building selling beverages, which we do not buy, especially since it is selling rum in shot glasses. This has the only bathroom on our tour, and Dave said it was stand up only, so not for ladies. It is very windy, which our guide says is normal.
Back on the bus, we head down the narrow, bumpy road and drive to a beach area. This is not a luxury beach by any means, but the water is very shallow and it looks like the kids love it.
Next we head to a turtle rehabilitation facility – very small. There are two large turtles in a pool, and two juvenile turtles in another pool. One of the large turtles had been attacked by a shark and lost a fin. The second turtle was blind in one eye. I’m not sure why the juvenile turtles were there.
Our guide showed us a booklet discussing the protection of the turtles, and I think their policies are similar to Florida, based on the pictures. The booklet was in Portuguese, so I could not read it.
I think the bottom line is there just isn’t much on this island. Our guide said almost every thing is imported. There is an agricultural area on the island, and some deep wells, which allows them to grow vegetables year around. But I wouldn’t think it is enough for the 60,000 inhabitants.
Back on the bumpy road, we headed back to the city, for another photo opportunity.
Our guide said their income comes mostly from public service, commerce, tourism and exportation of fish. The total tour covered about 37 miles.
Our guide showed us the Cape Verde flag. The blue at the top represents the sky, the first white line represents peace, the red line represents freedom, the second red line represents hope, the blue at the bottom represents the ocean, and the 10 stars are for the 10 islands that make up Cape Verde.
This was a beach we saw on the way back to the ship. One of the shuttle attendants told us this is the best beach. The water was a beautiful blue.
When we returned to the ship, we were looking for a snack and grabbed a couple of cookies from the “Coffee Connection”. Of course that kind of ruined our appetite for dinner, but after listening to music in the lounge, we went for a late dinner in Compass Rose. Dave tried the lobster again – it was much better. I had swordfish, which was good, but because of the olive tapenade, only olive lovers would enjoy it.
Cape Verde is not a place I would choose to return to…..
Two more sea days ahead of us.
Monday to Wednesday, March 25-27, 2024 – We have 4 sea days in a row, and I am attempting to post this after sea day #3. We are going to the Speakers Series with Armando Sanchez, who we have really enjoyed, and Dr. Gary Kramer, who is hit and miss with his presentations. Armando Sanchez is into technology and spying and artificial intelligence. A bit scary actually, maybe that’s why we like it 😁. Dr. Kramer’s presentations can be about stuff that we would never encounter. For example, how to figure out where you are if you’ve been kidnapped and taken to an unknown location by figuring out your latitude and longitude…of course you would have to have an atlas, too. But the last two days have been about the Titanic, which we find interesting. Another speaker has been doing presentations on photography, which we have not attended.
We participated in the “Block Party” which is a unique event on Regent. Everyone (almost) comes out of their suite into the hallway and crew comes through the hallways with wine and appetizers. Then the Captain and cruise director walk (very rapidly) through all the decks to greet all the passengers. One of our neighbors did not come out of their suite and we have been curious about them. Everyday they have a letter that seems to ask what they want to eat all day. I don’t know if they are quarantined or have food issues or what. One day I was out on the balcony and thought I heard them taking, but couldn’t understand what they were saying. Then this evening, they have a card saying they are going to Prime 7 tomorrow evening, so I don’t understand. The other neighbors we met at the block party were curious about them, too.
We went to Prime 7 Monday evening and had entrees that included lobster – we have not liked the lobster onboard! We requested melted butter for the lobster and they brought us unsalted melted butter which did not help. Dave had the famous Caramel Popcorn Sundae which he enjoyed but said he would not order it again. We’ve actually enjoyed the main dining room, Compass Rose, more than the specialties!
Tuesday morning at 6:30AM we crossed the equator, and the ship had a ceremony for those who crossed it for the first time….since we have crossed it a couple of times, we did not go. But it is a fun event because they have a big celebration and people crossing for the first time get wet….
Again, just attended speakers series, lounges with music, and production show.
Wednesday – found our our “neighbors” across the hall moved because they were having trouble with the bathroom plumbing ☹️. The sewage systems on ships do not handle “unusual “ stuff flushed down the toilet.
One of the Speakers Series talks today was a continuation of yesterday, about the Titanic. Yesterday was more about the ship, Titanic, today was more about the people. Weird, but Dave and I have attended lots of presentations on the Titanic while on ships.
This evening we’ve been invited to the “Seven Seas Society Cocktail Party”. Since this is our second cruise, we got the invite. I don’t think we have run into anybody that indicated this was their first cruise on Regent. It was really a nice event! They gave some rewards to the crew, and we had some entertainment from the production cast. They did a little program featuring songs from Mama Mia! It was great! Interestingly, after the show, a bunch of folks swooped down on the unserved caviar and helped themselves! 😂😂😂 And I was concerned with what I was wearing….
We went to Sette Mari for dinner tonight and my cioppino had the best lobster of the trip! It was a great dinner! Dave had a veal chop, which was pounded thin and flat, ending up being bigger than his plate! Good news – he liked it! We also had a Valpolicella wine, which was very good. We really enjoyed our dinner tonight. I will say my first course of lasagna was not as good as Mama’s, but we had more than enough good food to make up for it! We may try to go back.
Regent is great and we love everything about sailing with Regent. However, I am not a fan of the artwork 😁. I am not an artist or knowledgeable about art, but I do not like most abstract stuff.
In our stateroom:
Also in our hallway, but I like it better than most for some reason:
Laundry is great on Regent! We love their laundry. This is how our underwear was returned from laundry:
We are having a great time and decided this trip is too short! Since tomorrow is a sea day, there won’t be much to write about, except how tired we are from 23 hour days 😂😂😂.
Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024 – As our ship gets close to Recife, we are surprised at how big the city looks. There are many tall buildings, probably many are residential. Recife also has the very tall, skinny residential buildings. I can only imagine that the lots held houses at one time, then the houses were bought up by a developer who built a building with as many stories as he could on the small lot.
Recife was founded in 1537. There are many rivers and bridges meaning the city is made up of several islands (our guide said 7 rivers and Recife Centro is 3 islands). Once we are in port, it is very industrial, so we have to take a shuttle bus out of the port area to get to our tour bus. The port building has a “welcoming committee” for us, a band and a couple of native dancers.
We walked to our bus and our guide appears quite “mature” but looks are deceiving as he was very knowledgeable and spry. Sometimes it was hard to keep up with him because he kept moving! We are heading to Olinda for our first stop which is a Portuguese hillside town founded in 1530. It is a UNESCO listed historic center and the streets are narrow, windy and bumpy (cobblestones) so we have to get off the tour bus and take a minivan up to the top to reach the main square.
We were dropped at a little shopping area where we were given a coconut and straw so we could enjoy coconut water. They had a neat machine that punched a hole in the top of the coconut. I was surprised at how much coconut water there was inside the coconut!
Then we walked toward The Holy Savior of the World Cathedral. First we went to the the side of the Cathedral building to see an overlook with nice views.
Then we went inside the Cathedral and the Archbishop was conducting mass this morning when we visited. There is a statue of Jesus holding the World in his hand.
The Cathedral was first raised as a simple chapel between 1537 and 1540. It was dedicated to Jesus Christ as Savior of the World. It was elevated to a Cathedral in 1676.
The Cathedral is at one end of the main square, Alto da Sè, where there are vendors and very friendly tourist police.
After walking through the main square, we got back on our mini buses and headed back to Recife. We got off the bus at the Governor’s Palace.
Then we walked into Republic Square. Our guide pointed out a huge tree, which I believe our guide said was a Kapok tree.
He showed us a plant that the inside was very soft, but I missed the name.
He showed us a fruit that he said kids like and it has a lot of carotene, but apparently it is not sold commercially.
The park had walkways of what he called “Portuguese Tile” because of the pattern.
Then we walked to what our guide called the Golden Chapel. This church had incredible baroque detain, much of it covered in gold leaf. It was a Franciscan Church. Not being Catholic, I thought the confessional was different than others I have seen.It may have been an antique one.
This church depicted Jesus as dead, and our guide called Jesus’s death the “end”. Being Protestant, I don’t believe it was the end. I believe Jesus rose from the dead, and I worship a living God.
Our guide also mentioned there is a Catholic Church on every corner, and we definitely saw many church buildings.
Then we went to lunch. Our lunch was at a Brazilian barbecue, a churrascaria. I picked up their card and the name of the restaurant was “Ponteio”. Of course when the 3 busloads from the ship entered, it was busy. But when it was time to leave, it was busier! There were lines outside waiting to get in. The waiters came around with all kinds of meat and cut it from a rotisserie spit. First we went through a buffet with all kinds of choices of food. Then when you return to the table the waiters come with all the different meats.
After leaving the restaurant, we drove past the beach on our way to the “Ricardo Brennand Institute”.
Ricardo Brennand came from a very wealthy family and was a collector. He had unbelievable collections of art, statues, books, porcelain, armor and arms, watches, etc. Upon entering the estate, the first thing you see is a reproduction of the famous statue of “David”. Also a copy of Ronan’s “The Thinker”. There was some original statues, but I think there were a lot of reproductions. I am posting a few pictures – there was just too much stuff – sampling of what we saw.
Leaving the institute, we saw a (real) Capybara, which is a very large rodent. We also saw a duck.
Although it was a full day tour, we were not totally worn out. I think we walked about 2.5 miles, but it was spread out over the day. It was hot, but this will probably be our last hot day as we head across the Atlantic when we leave Recife.
After listening to music in the lounge, ww had dinner in the main dining room, Compass Rose. Dave had risotto with a few shrimp added in for an appetizer and he had Thai Seafood for his entree. I had escargot for my appetizer and Prime Rib for my entree. We were both happy with our choices.
Tomorrow is the first of 4 seadays, and we start losing hours due to the time difference between Brazil and Portugal. Our TV is already acting up this evening, and it looks like we are losing the internet. So not sure when this will be posted to my blog.
Saturday, March 24, 2024 – We’ve been gone a week already! How time flies when you don’t have to cook, clean or do laundry!
One more comment about my postal problems….I had checked with the ship because I have traveled on ships previously that would take care of mailing post cards, etc. The customer relations person told me they would be happy to mail the card for me…but it would not get mailed until we reached Lisbon!
Late afternoon yesterday we went to another Speaker Series talk with Armando Sanchez. His last talk was on spies, and this talk was about artificial intelligence. Basically his message was that we do not know “whose” intelligence we are getting. He also said social media is disrupting the family unit. Children, some as young as 8, are looking to social media and peers for advice and not their parents. He called the children up to age 12 the “alpha” generation. His talk was very interesting and thought provoking.
We had before dinner drinks in the lounge with “Power of Two Duo” which is an Asian couple, Rochelle and Dave, who actually play music we are familiar with. We have enjoyed listening to them.
We went to Compass Rose, the main dining room, for dinner. We both had Panko covered prawns for an appetizer. Then Dave got his “now usual” pasta and I had a soup. For our entrees Dave had Schezwan Beef Stirfry, and I had lamb chops. No dessert – gotta save a few calories!
After dinner we wandered the ship a little, went to the top deck to look at the stars (!), and then got a nightcap to take back to the room.
One problem we’ve had with our room is that the refrigerator didn’t work, and despite several calls and visits to customer service. Finally, after 3 days, they replaced the refrigerator and it works!
Today we are visiting Maceió, Brazil. We arrived about 11:00AM and depart at 8:00PM. It was very nice to not have to scramble early – the late morning arrival was nice.
We have a highlights tour, which is described as mostly panoramic- which means riding in a bus. But the other options didn’t appeal to us, so that’s why we signed up for a panoramic tour, highlights tour. It’s was only about 3 hours long, probably because there aren’t a lot of highlights!
Our guide went to school in Utah and lived in the US for about 10 years. A second guide, a lady, was with him, but she only spoke Portuguese. Not sure why we had two guides….The name of the city was originally Macayo, which means “what it covers the swamp”. It is located on the ocean, has about 15 miles of shoreline and our guide said the city experiences big tide variances. As we docked, there are piles of white stuff waiting to be loaded onto cargo ships. We later found out it is rock salt.
Maceió also exports sugar and natural gas.
We drove past a replica of the Statue of Liberty. It is a small scale metal replica which our guide said came from France.
Our first stop was in an area south of the city near the Mundaú Lagoon. A kind of mollusk, the sururu, is found in the lagoon and is used in many of the local dishes. We stopped in this area because it is a local market with local handicrafts.
We drove past the soccer stadium because Brazil is very proud they have won the World Cup 5 times, more than any other country. The stadium is named after the famous soccer player Pele, even though he is not from Maceio. There is an effort to rename the stadium after the best female soccer player in the world who is from Maceio. I believe our guide said her name is “Marta”, but may have misunderstood because of his accent.
We drove past a palace that is currently an art museum, but a building across from the museum caught my eye. It was covered in tile, and I love tile.
Next we stopped to visit Cathedral of Our Lady of Pleasures. Our guide translated from a guide speaking Portuguese…. So this is what I heard (!): This was originally a chapel named for a different saint, but a farmer’s sheep was sinking in the ground. The farmer prayed to the other saint, but the lamb kept sinking. So he prayed to a different saint asking that no one would die (not sure what happened to the sheep), and since no one died, the church became the Cathedral of Our Lady of Pleasures. It was originally built in 1859, and no renovations were done until 2014. Then there was a fire that burned the bell tower. They were able to petition the government and renovation work is ongoing.
We had a photo stop at a park with a nice view over the city, Mirante São Gonçalo. There were a few kiosks to get a drink, but mainly just a nice little park with a nice view. The first lighthouse was located close to this park.
We drove along the beach and some nice hotels, past Ponte Verde Beach to Pavilhão Do Artesanato, which is a handicraft market. We wandered around, and then crossed the street to look at the beach.
Some miscellaneous things the guide said (and I may have misunderstood)….the water is polluted in many areas so they do not swim in those beaches but the city built a new sewage plant and the water is improving. The water north of the city is calm and the water south of the city has more waves. In general, the water is always warm. It because of the tides, they do not swim at high tide, but at low tide.
We got back to the ship about 5:00PM, and took our showers, as it is very hot here – probably close to 90. The buses supposedly have air conditioning, and the air on the bus is cooler than outside, but definitely not like our air conditioning.
Tonight in La Veranda they are having a French buffet. Dave is not big on French food, so we went to the main dining room, Compass Rose. Dave had Shanghai-style dumplings for an appetizer and I had Mulligatawny soup.we were both very pleased with our appetizers. For entrees, Dave had lobster and I had scallops. This was the first time neither of us was pleased with the food. Dave’s lobster was dry, but he ate it because he was hungry and the waiters did not come back for awhile. My scallops were over cooked, but not as bad as Daves lobster. So, we decided to order dessert – Saint-Honoré Chou Pastry, Vanilla Custard Crème and Chocolate Sauce. Well…no chocolate sauce came with the delivered dessert, and the only reason Dave ordered this dessert was because of the chocolate sauce. So we did flag down a waiter, and he brought us chocolate sauce, but he said it was a misprint on the menu – it was not suppose to come either chocolate sauce! So, not the best meal tonight, but I’m sure I still gained some weight ☹️.
Tomorrow we are in Recife and we have an all day tour…yikes! So we will be in bed early.
Friday, March 22, 2023 – Our tour is called Highlights of Salvador. It is a 4 hour tour starting about 8:00AM. Score boarding our bus, we were handed a brochure advising you not to wear expensive jewelry, and keep your phone in your pocket, etc. The guide also reiterated to try to stay low key. Because we were in a group of 30 people, I think we were pretty safe. Our guide spoke very good English and talked practically non-stop – so it is hard to remember all the details. He said Brazil is the 5th largest country in land area with 40% of the land in the Amazon. Brazil is 6th in population and 75% of the population lives along the coast. Salvador was protected by 14 forts and our first stop is a fort, Forte de Santo Antonio da Barra. Within the walls of the fort is South America’s oldest lighthouse. We did not go inside, just a photo stop.
The city is on two levels and has elevators to carry people up and down the two city levels. This elevator was the first public elevator in the world.
Driving to the Pelourinho neighborhood, we passed parks that had an interesting fencing. Saw several examples of this fence.
We were dropped off for a walking tour of the Pelourinho neighborhood. As you can see from the photo, we wandered around a bit!
We saw a couple of statues. D. Pedro Fernandez Sardinia (1496-1556) was a Portuguese priest and the first bishop of Brazil. On July 16, 1556, he and his crew were shipwrecked and captured by native people. Bahia. Apparently he was bragging about how important he was, so the native people killed him and devoured him, hoping to gain some of his importance by eating him.
The next statue was of Zumbi (1655-1695). He was one of the pioneers of resistance to slavery of Africans. He was also the last of the kings of a settlement of Afro-Brazilian people who liberated themselves. He is revered in Afro-Brazilian culture as a symbol of African freedom.
The culture of those brought as slaves from Africa has been preserved in Salvador more than any other place in the world. Our guide frequently referred to their religion, Candomblé. Candomlé followers believe that every person has a particular deity watching over them – from birth to death.
We saw several ladies in native costumes, and our guide said you are suppose to pay them to take their picture. This one was taken some distance away, so it was free….
We visited several Catholic Churches. There are 372 Catholic Church’s in Salvador and while 85% of the population is Catholic, not all are practicing their religion. The amount of gold used in decorating the churches is unbelievable! See the pictures!
A lot of the stones used to build the Cathedral of Salvador were brought from Portugal.
The last church we visited was St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Francis of Assisi had lots of tile work and is the richest in gold plating and Portuguese tiles. The tiles had “titles”.
Much of the housing is apartments or condominiums. I saw several that would be 1 unit on each floor, and at least 20 stories tall. Of course I didn’t get a picture of the really tall ones, but this is an example.
The postal system in Brazil has been difficult for me to navigate. We were trying to find postage to mail a letter in Rio de Janeiro and the first post office we visited was closed. A bartender directed us to another post office where you take a number and wait in line. When it was finally our turn, the clerk said they don’t sell postage. But she directed us to a third post office. After waiting in line there, we finally purchased postage and mailed the letter. I have been looking for post cards to mail, and I saw a FEW in the port building today. However, we had already been directed to the post office to buy cards and post cards, which the didn’t have, and saw a very long line of people waiting to be waited on. So by the time I saw the post cards, and there were not a lot of them, I was not up to walking back to the post office and waiting forever to buy postage in this very hot climate. I think it has to be 90° today, at least! But, I will keep trying!
Thursday, March 21, 2024 – No pictures today – because it’s a sea day!
Last evening we ate at Chartreuse, one of the two specialty restaurants on Voyager. Dave had “Terrine de Foie Gras au Sauternes”
(Duck Foie Gras Terrine with Sauternes Jelly, Toasted Brioche, Caramelized Apricots) for his appetizer. It was very attractive with round crisps on top. He had “Bisque de Homard à l’Armagnac” (Lobster Bisque with Armagnac) for his soup course and “Tournedos de Boeuf Grillé Rossini, Brioche, Royale à La Truffe, Foie Gras Pôelé, Sauce Périgourdine”
(Beef Tenderloin Rossini, Brioche, Truffle Royale, Seared Foie Gras, Sauce Périgourdine) for his entree with green beans. He did not particularly care for his appetizer and was disappointed that his soup did not have any chunks of Lobster – it was puréed so very smooth. I had Chartreuse Garlic Escargots (Sautéed Snails with Garlic, Herb Purée, Braised Rutabaga, Anchovy & Pommery Mustard Cream) for my appetizer, Velouté de Champignons à la Truffe (Mushroom Veloute, Truffle, Garlic Confit) for my soup course and the same Beef Tenderloin Rossini for an entree as Dave. We shared asparagus and green beans for our vegetable. The escargot was good, but served in an unexpected way – they were covered in the sauce and the waiter jokingly said I would have to fish for them! They were very good, just not what I expected. I liked my mushroom soup, and we both liked the beef Tenderloin Rossini. I ordered a floating island desert that was way too sweet – so definitely would not have that again. To be honest, the food is so good in the main dining room that we only go to the sp vislty testaurants for a change as this is a long cruise.
We went to a Speakers Series presentation by Dr. Gary H. Kramer, a Canadian, on The Age of Discovery. Basically it was a history lesson on the early explorers covering the early 15th to 18th centuries – but it was interesting, and we enjoyed it.
Then we went to another Speakers Series presentation by
Armando Sanchez, who apparently worked as a spy for the CIA. That was very interesting and he named several people who knowingly worked as a spy, or assisted spy’s while not being one themselves..such as Cary Grant, Lucky Luciano, Frank Sinatra, Julia Child, Houdini, etc. He is doing several presentations and I hope we manage to catch them all – he was very interesting, too.
After lunch we peaked in on another Speaker Series presentation, which was about photography – but it did not hold our attention so we left and did a walking tour of the ship.
It’s a formal night and we went to the Captains Welcome where the officers are introduced.
Then we had a nice dinner in the main dining room. I tried something different for my appetizer – white sturgeon caviar profiteroles! They were good. Dave had lobster pasta for his appetizer and we both had Saki glazed salmon with wasabi mashed potatoes for our entree. We didn’t have dessert.
We went to the Voyager Lounge to hear a duo and we danced a bit!
We were shocked to find a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey whiskey in our room. Very puzzling that Regents knew that is Daves favorite nightcap….
Early tour tomorrow in Salvadore, Brazil.
Wednesday, March 20, 2024 – Today we are in Buzios, Brazil. It is a Peninsula about 107 miles east of Rio de Janeiro, with a population of about 35,000 and covers about 27 sq. (I converted the miles from km so hope I’m close – 173 km from Rio de Janeiro and 71 square km).
A lot of whale hunting took place near Buzios, and one of the beaches is named “Praia dos Ossos” which means Beach of Bones (whale bones ☹️). What brought fame and fortune to Buzios was Brigitte Bardot who visited in 1964 and stayed for 4 months while it was just a small village. There is a statue of Brigitte Bardot along the waterfront by sculptor Christina Motta, who also did statues of a former Brazilian president, Juscelino Kubitschek, who looks like he is waving to fishermen, and another statue of 3 fishermen hauling in their nets which is very lifelike.
We got up very early today to do 2 tours – in the morning we were in an open trolley and our tour was called “Beaches of Buzios”. Our afternoon tour was in an (somewhat) air conditioned bus and called “Highlights of Buzios”. The bad news is that the two tours were exactly the same, and we even had the same tour guide, who repeated the same spiel. The descriptions were different when we signed up, but reality was they were the same. So twice we traveled around the peninsula and saw12 beaches, afar, from the road. We did make 4 stops, mainly for scenic views.
The guide pointed out Criminal Rock, which caused shipwrecks for pirates coming to steal Brazilian Wood Trees for their prized red colored wood.
One stops was more interesting to me. It is claimed that 520 million years ago Buzios was part of a great mountain chain, like the Himalaya. It was created by the collision between continental blocks of South America and Africa when it was all connected, and created a larger continent called Gondwana. 130 Million years ago Africa and Brazil started separating, creating the Atlantic Ocean. Geologists say there is evidence of Gondwana at Marisco Point at Geriba Beach which we visited.
Between tours we had lunch at a local restaurant, along the beach with great views – but no pictures! We shared an order of mini-hamburgers, French fries and coquettes.
Tomorrow we have a sea day, so probably not much to share.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 – When we got up this morning there was a heavy fog. We are fortunate we went to Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf on Sunday.
Our transport to the ship arrived on time at 11:00AM. Nothing extraordinary about the drive to the ship, dropping our luggage or boarding. We were on the ship probably by noon, had a light lunch and waited for our stateroom to be ready. As it turned out, we got a two level upgrade. We booked an “H” guarantee and ended up with an “F” cabin which is a 2 level upgrade. Unfortunately, our cabin seems to be under some heavy duty fans which are noisy, and Dave’s not a happy camper. I said let’s wait and see if it is still noisy. Long story, but because we had the snafu with our flight, we were unable to mail a birthday card on our way out of Englewood. So our mission this afternoon was to find a post office in Rio Dec Janeiro. Well, that turned out to be more difficult than we expected. So Google sent us to one address, and all the buildings were boarded up! We asked a bartender and he directed us a few blicks away to another “post office”. We had to take a number and there were 17 numbers ahead of us, so we had a bit of a wait. When our number was called, they said they don’t sell postage at this location and sent us to another location. All this time we are walking! I was following Google maps to all these places. At the third location, we hit the jackpot! He took our money and said he would mail the card. However, we have mailed things from foreign countries that never arrive, so we have our fingers crossed. What was supposed to be to take about 45 minutes ended up over two hours just to get postage to mail a card!
After a shower, as it was really hot hoofing it around Rio Dec Janeiro this afternoon, we had a lovely dinner in Compass Rose, which is the main dining room. Dave had a appetizer potion of resotto for his appetizer and a beef five spice stir fry for his entree. I had an avocado and crab appetizer with Singapore noodles and grilled shrimp for my entree. We shared a cheese plate for desert. So we go back to our room and it is noisy. We got moved to a different stateroom and it is SO much quieter, but there is no safe! Hopefully we will get one tomorrow.
We have an early shore excursion tomorrow morning, so we will watch our 9:00PM sail away and hit the bed soon after.
I downloaded a picture of the long 8.5+ mile bridge because for some reason the bridge fascinated me. It is called the “Rio-Niterói Bridge” and links Rio de Janeiro with the city of Niterói, crossing Guanabara Bay. Until 1985, it was the second longest bridge in the world, second only to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.
Monday, March 18, 2024 – We do not generally eat a big breakfast, so we just had out breakfast bars in our hotel room and then met with Gus, our Tour guide, about 9:00AM. Please note that some of the facts are things Gus told us which may or may not be true (!).
For example, Gus said the first people to reach this part of the world arrived on January first, and since it was on a bay, called it Ria which means “bay” – so “Ria de January “ which meant Bay in January. But over time, it became Rio – which means “river”, but there is no river.
I really liked Rio de Janeiro – not that I’d want to live here, but for a big city,it seems pretty nice. Of course we are not night people, so we don’t know what happens after dark…
We drove to the downtown area and did a bit of a walking . First we visited an unusual Catholic Church, Rio de Janeiro Cathedral. It looks like an Aztec pyramid. It was finished in 1979, so this how it was planned to look. It holds about 20,000 people and has 4 huge stained glass windows. The church was dedicated to Saint Sebastian, the patron saint of Rio de Janeiro, and there is a carriage with a miniature St. Sabastian. Per Gus, St. Sebastian was a Christian Roman Soldier from around 250AD who was martyred. He was tied to a tree and shot with arrows, so all depictions of him show arrows. The cathedral grounds outside are unusual, too. The bell tower is a tall triangle shaped structure. There is a statue of Jesus laying on a park bench titled “Homeless Jesus”, and a statue of Mother Theresa.
Our next stop was the in the “Centro”, or center of the city. It is very obvious where the old city buildings end and the modern city starts. But the area we visited were older buildings which were well cared for. We went to the National Library and the building is totally symmetrical. Gus showed us a door that has a wall behind it, just so it matched the door on the other side of the big, open, atrium. Most of the books have been digitized. We saw stained glass on the ceiling in the atrium, beautiful tile work, brass doors and chandeliers.
We could not get inside the Opera House, but the outside was beautiful. There is a huge golden eagle on top.
Next we drove to Church of Saint Francis of Penance. On one side is a monastery, in the middle are chapels, and then a convent (Igreja Sao Francisco de Penitencia & Covento de Santo Antonio). We saw two chapels. In the first, Dave noticed they were observing communion. We walked to the second chapel and all the walls were gold. Unbelievable! There was a small museum with some artifacts. There was also portraits of the last Emporer and Empress. Their daughter was Princess Isabel, who was their eldest daughter, and there were no sons. There are lots of things named after Princess Isabel and I am sitting in the “Isabel” lounge at the Hilton, right now! She signed the law abolishing slavery in 1888, and in 1889, Brazil became a republic. Then all the royalty had to leave town!
Next we visited the Colombia Restaurant, which is a very popular restaurant in Rio. There was a huge line outside waiting for them to open at 11:00. I think Gus brought us here because it may be the most popular restaurant in Rio, and we could use their bathrooms. They had beautiful desserts in glass cases as well as some coquettes in other glass cases, trying to entice us!
After Columbia, we went to ride the tram. The tram runs from downtown Rio de Janeiro to the station for Two Brothers (the mountains), about a 20 minute ride. We rode from downtown Rio de Janeiro to Two Brothers, then stayed on while the tram backtracked. We got off in the Santa Teresa neighborhood.
There, Gus met us in the Santa Teresa tram stop and we got off the tram. We had lunch at Portella’s. Gus had ordered a local specialty, moqueca which is a fish dish, served in a broth with shrimp ( he said he thought the fish was shark). It is served with rice, and a side dish which includes yucca. Anyway, it was very good. I think the meal for the 3 of us, including 4 diet cokes and a beer was approximately $40.
After lunch, we drove to the “Escadaria Selaron” which is the work of a Chilean Artist, Jorge Selaron. It is 215 steps. The steps had became dilapidated and he revived them by putting tiles on the steps. He started just green, yellow and blue tiles to represent the Brazilian flag, but added red tiles on the sides which were his favorite color, and started incorporating tiles which were sent to him from people around the world. We chose to walk down and were surprised the decorative tiles are on the risers, not the tops of the steps. Selaron also bought a bunch of bathtubs from a junkyard, to fill in the gaps on the sides, filled them with sand, and then covered them in tiles. Lots of people there getting their pictures taken on the steps, but considering it is a free sight, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. After Seleron’s death, it became a protected sight, so no new tiles and the older tiles cannot be removed and replaced.
Our last stop was Monastary of Saint Benedict. It is a church, a Benedictine monetary, and a school for boys. The first foundations were laid in 1590. Then in 1671 it was expanded, and expanded again in 1880. The boys school was started in 1858. There are several chapels inside, again filled with gold.
Leaving the monastery, we stopped for a moment at the port and our ship was already docked!
We went back to our hotel to rest for a bit and then took a walk on the Copacabana Beach. There are lots of little restaurants right on the beach selling drinks and food. Some have music.
I took a picture of the Copacabana Palace hotel which Gus said was very expensive. Looks very nice from the outside!
Tomorrow we board the Regent Voyager and will probably spend our time getting familiar with the ship and unpacking.
Sunday, March 17, 2024 – Happy St. Patrick’s Day! After our overnight flight from Atlanta to Rio de Janeiro, we landed about 7:00AM. We went through passport control, then quickly got our luggage (both bags arrived!), then waited in a useless line for customs. I don’t know what was holding up the line, as we literally just had to walk out of the airport. Our guide, Gus, was waiting for us – always a relief – as we walked out of the airport about 8:00AM. He told us he is 58 years old, but he was an exchange student in the United States, living in Oregon as a high school senior. His English is very good and I understand about 95% of what he says ( he talks a little fast). Yes it is hot in Rio de Janeiro – the “feels like” temp is 102°.
The first stop today was the Christ the Redeemer Statue. Unfortunately, it is hazy today, so we did not get a clear, crisp view. The statue is impressive. It is 98 feet high and sits on a 26 foot pedestal. To get to the statue, we rode a train up the mountain for about 20 minutes, then an elevator, then 2 escalators to reach the top. The train was built before the statue because people use to enjoy going up this mountain for the views! It was very crowded at the top. The statue is solid, unlike the Statue of Liberty, so you cannot go inside. But there is a small chapel on the backside of the pedestal. We could not go into the chapel as they were performing baptisms. The statue was completed in 1931, consecrated in 2006, and named one of the New Seven Wonders of the world in 2007. I thought the statues’ face was very peaceful, and his outstretched arms were very welcoming. From the observation deck, we had expansive, 360° views of Rio de Janeiro. We could see the rowing venue used for the Olympics – and there were several boats in the water! We could see Sugarloaf mountain which is our next stop, horse racing track, equestrian jumping tracing area, two brothers mountains, Copacabana Beach, the Hilton hotel where we’re staying, the bay and harbor where our boat will dock Tuesday, and a bridge 8.5 miles long! Great views!
Leaving Christ the Redeemer, we drove to Sugarloaf mountain. While Gus was looking for a parking spot, we walked down to Red Beach which was wall to wall beach umbrellas! It is called red beach because of the color of the sand, but it reminded me of the sand I saw in Illinois, except it was much finer. The picture does not do the sand color justice.
Gus could not find a parking spot, so we were on our own to visit Sugarloaf. I had ordered our tickets online ahead of time, and since we are over 60 years of age, we got to use the priority lane. We will ride two cable cars to get up to the top of Sugarloaf. We took a cable car up to the first peak, Urca. There are lots of shops and places to eat on Urca, but we kept going to the top of Sugarloaf, so we took the second cable car. The total elevation per Wikipedia’s is 1,299 feet. There are shops and restaurants at the top of Sugarloaf, too. Dave and I got a slice of pizza and enjoyed the view for awhile. The crowds were much less at Sugarloaf, but the views from Christ the Redeemer were better.
Then Gus drove us past a flea market near Ipanema Beach, which started when the “Girl from Ipanema” song was popular. Then past Ipanema Beach where there is a statue of Antonio Carlos Jobim (He was called “Tom”) who wrote the song. Ipanema Beach is in the Ipanema neighborhood which is one of the most affluent and trendy neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro.
Next to Ipanema beach is Copacabana Beach, and our Hilton Hotel is across the street from Copacabana Beach. See photo above!
Saturday, March 16, 2024 – This is the day we leave for our trip. We are flying to Rio for a couple of days, and then we board Regent Seven Seas Voyager for a transatlantic cruise to Lisbon, Portugal. We had a nice leisurely morning, leaving home about noon for our flight from Sarasota to Atlanta, where we would catch our flight from Atlanta to Rio. That was the plan…..Soon after we left home, I got a text that our flight from Sarasota was delayed about an hour, which meant catching our flight from Atlanta to Rio was in jeopardy. We got on the phone and called Delta – the agent was worthless – he wanted to rebook our flight and was going to charge us! We asked for a supervisor, and he gave us a different number to call. Fortunately, we got a very helpful person. We were able to switch our flight from Sarasota to Tampa, but we had no time to spare! The traffic was atrocious and we were not sure we were going to make the Tampa flight. As it turned out, we parked the car, checked our bags, made it through security with a little hiccup: Dave beeped and also, he had packed his speaker which they had to take out of his carryon and X-ray it separately. Interesting the RDIF envelopes we have for our passports is what beeped on Dave. He put the passports in the tray to be scanned, but didn’t put the RDIF envelopes in because he thought they were just like paper. We got to the gate and the flight was boarding! But, the good news is that we made it. However, the nice leisurely lunch on the way to Sarasota that we missed meant we didn’t eat from breakfast until about 6:30PM when we grabbed a sandwich in the Atlanta airport. I told Dave it was part of our pre-cruise diet! Very nerve-racking start to our vacation.
We had Delta Premium seats, which is the old business class. Not as nice as United, and my TV monitor kept losing the sound….so no “in-flight entertainment” for me! They did bring me a glass of wine from first class to compensate for no monitor….We were served a dinner of chicken with potatoes and broccolini, and breakfast was an egg and cheese thing with yogurt. The best thing of all the food was the yogurt….looking forward to a better day when we get to Rio, where the temperature is forecast to be 92°.
Our trip from Rio de Janeiro to London map and itinerary:
We leave March 16, 2024 and are scheduled to fly from Sarasota to Rio de Janeiro by way of Atlanta. We will arrive in Rio very early Sunday morning and we have planned to tour for two days with “Gus”.
We plan to stay in Lisbon after the cruise, flying home on April 9.
Celebrity Ascent Infinite Balcony 6271, December, 2023
Sunday, December 17, 2023
Last night we went to the Tuscan restaurant. For an appetizer Dave had a shrimp cocktail.
I had French Onion Soup (which was better than it looks 😁).
You can see our butter choices in the photo above. Each night they change up the butters. Last night the one at the top that’s mostly gone had some lemon flavor, the middle one was just butter and the bottom one had Roquefort flavor.
Dave and I had the same entree, Pappardelle alle Veneziana, a pasta dish with roasted chicken, black olives, creamy Asiago cheese sauce and slow roasted Mariano tomatoes. Dave had it earlier in the cruise and really liked it, so we decided to have it as our final dinner onboard.
Since it was our last night, we had some dessert. Dave had chocolate cake and I had vanilla ice cream. Forgot to take pictures!
We didn’t go to the show because we were planning to get up early.
And we did get up early, before 6:00AM, as the ship was suppose to dock at 7:00AM and we were “walk-offs” meaning we would get off and take care of our own luggage. Unfortunately the ship did not dock until after 7:00AM. We went to the deck when we were suppose to get off and joined a long line of other people planning to walk off. They did not let us off until about 8:15AM, and didn’t get to our car until 8:30AM which means we could not get to church for the 11:00AM service as it’s a 3 hour drive. Fortunately we were able to watch the church service on my ipad. We really wanted to see the service as the choir was singing a cantata and there was a lot of music, an orchestra, a bell choir and the children’s choir! We would rather have seen it in person, but was glad we could watch on my ipad!
The rest of the drive home was uneventful and I’m busy doing laundry!
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Last night we went to the Eden Specialty Restaurant for dinner. First we were served an Amuse Bouche which was pressed honeydew in rose water and blue curaçao. Then Dave had the crab cake appetizer again. I had sheep’s milk gnocchi and ordered an extra appetizer because I thought Dave would share, but he only wanted his crab cake. The extra appetizer was Aegean Fish Ceviche. All the appetizers were good. We both ordered the lobster casserole for entrees, and we were both disappointed! We expected some kind of sauce, some veggies, maybe something crunchy like a crust. We had plenty of lobster, probably in a small amount of butter sauce, a couple of tiny cubed pieces of bacon and maybe two tiny potatoes. Just not what we were expecting.
We went to the show in the theater after dinner. The entertainment was a pianist, Roy Tan. His show was billed as “Soundtracks” and was suppose to be soundtracks from movies. Unfortunately, we just didn’t recognize most of the movies. He obviously was very talented, and if we knew more of the music, we would have enjoyed his show. What I did enjoy was the huge screen in back of the stage showed fantastic scenes that went along with his music while he played. The scenes and scenery were really cool.
Today is our last full day onboard. It is a sea day. We kinda blew it because we were signed up for a wine tasting, but then forgot! We went to the buffet for breakfast, but had our usual breakfast of scrambled eggs – unfortunately they were cold. Just yesterday, we discovered our favorite hangout, Eden, also serves breakfast and lunch! So we had sandwiches for lunch in Eden. Then we spent most of the afternoon in the stateroom. Dave packed and I did some of my reading for my Disciple 2 class.
We have enjoyed the ship and our stateroom. We are not happy with our room stewardess as she comes very late. We requested she bring ice, which rarely happens. We ran out of tissues, and had to request more. We ran out of shampoo and shower soap and had to bring it to her attention. But what has bothered me most is we have lots of noises in our stateroom. We reported it once and waited all afternoon for someone to come – but no one came. We reported it again and finally walked into our room one day to find four men working on our “infinite balcony” but the noises were not fixed. One of the noises is a drip, or popping sound which makes it difficult to sleep. Fortunately for me I have Bose earplugs, but I don’t like to use them unless I have to because they make my ears sore. Regardless, I have been using them. I don’t know how Dave is dealing with the noise, but I know it bothers him. I told our room stewardess today that the noises need to be fixed because the next people will be bothered, too. She acknowledged hearing the noise.
After packing, we went to Eden for some evening tunes and our happy hour drinks. This is our offering for free drinks from 5:00 until 7:00PM everyday:
Eden does not have regular Absolute vodka, so after I got tired of their Chardonnay, they substituted flavored absolute vodkas or Tito’s. Here are some more pictures of Eden:
I think Dave wants to go back to the Tuscan Restaurant tonight. We will not be going to the show in the theater tonight as we need to get up at 5:30AM tomorrow morning. We want to get off the ship as early as possible because we are hoping to make it to church for the 11:00 service, which is when the choir will be performing a Christmas cantata. Ray and Celeste are in the choir so we hope to hear them. It is a 3 hour drive from Ft. Lauderdale to Englewood, and we need to be on the road by 8:00AM.
Friday, December 15, 2023
We had dinner last night again in Cypress. For an appetizer I had the Greek Mezze Board which was actually a plate with Tzatziki, hummus, dolmas, taramasalata, olives, feta and little pita’s. Dave had his favorite, shrimp cocktail. My entree was a slow braised lamb shank and Dave had Rigatoni Boscaiola which was prosciutto, button mushrooms, peas, arugula, Pinot Grigio cream sauce and pecorino cheese. We both loved our dinner! So much so, we were stuffed and again, did not go to the show in the theater. We went back to our stateroom and watched TV!
Today we are in George Town Grand Cayman. We got off the ship about 11:00, avoiding the big rush to get off. The ship is using boats from the island to transport us from the ship to shore. Lots of times they use the lifeboats, but not this time!
This was our 3.4 mile walk today!
We saw some historical markers. The first one referred to Lookout Posts.
This is a reconstructed lookout post.
Another marker told about Fort George which was located here.
Then we noticed this site had been preserved by the Walkers!
We came across a large plaza which commemorated veterans. They had a pretty Christmas tree.
Another Historical marker!
We got caught in some light sprinkles and decided to stop for a drink and a snack.
Both were local beers. Dave had the White Tip Lager and a portion of each sale goes to a marine preservation organization! So Dave had two!
We headed back to where the tender boats would take us back to the ship and could see where we had stopped for our beers.
We have reservations at the specialty restaurant in Eden tonight. We will see if we manage to make it to the show. We have been going to happy hour in Eden before dinner as they have entertainment which we’ve been enjoying.
Tomorrow is our last full day on the ship – so that means time to pack!
Thursday, December 14, 2023
Our walk to town yesterday really tired us out! We are in the Normandy restaurant as planned. For appetizers I had Coquilles Saint-Jacques which was a scallop dish, and escargot. Dave had Baked Brie Cheese. For the entrees I had Marmite Dieposse which was like a Bouillabaise and Dave had Beef Sirloin en Croute which reminded him of beef Wellington. We were both very pleased with our food.
After dinner, we decided we would not go to the show – we were just too tired!
Today is a sea day and we did a lot of nothing today! We did watch others activities. One group was doing origami and later we watched some ten-pin bowling with bean bags. I think they called it corn bowling.
We did a lot of reading and not much else. Only one picture today…taken just outside our favorite hang out place, Eden.
Tomorrow we will be in George Town, Grand Cayman, which is a tender port – meaning we will ride in life boats over to the island.
Wednesday, December 13, 2023
The show in the theater last night was great! Three guys singing Motown music and performing at the same time! Lots of energy! The stage is almost “theater in the Round” and the screen on back where it says Motown, continually changes.
Today we are in Cozumel, with 6 other big cruise ships! We were docked next to the sister ship to ours, Apex.
We have been here before, at least once. Our ship is docked almost 3 miles from the city center. We walked, but kept getting a taxi back as our plan “B”. It was very warm and humid. We walked around and were hounded by vendors. We said “No thank you” a lot! One guy said, “Come in and let me rip you off!” 😂😂😂. We stopped for a drink. Dave had a Sol beer, a Mexican beer that we like. We first had it when we lived in the South Loop, downtown Chicago, in the late 80’s! I had a Margarita – and after I drank some, Dave reminded me that the reason he drank a beer was so he wouldn’t get Montezuma’s revenge. Too late for me, but so far I’m OK.
We decided we would try to walk back, and we made it! Good workout for us today. But our clothes were soaked from the heat and humidity!
We got burgers from the grill onboard when we got back, and then went back to our room to relax and shower until happy hour time!
Because of our loyalty with Celebrity, we have a two hour happy hour with free (selected) drinks at most bars. We really like “Eden” because they have good music, and we recognize the wine they pour for our happy hour (usually St. Francis Chardonnay). To get to Eden, we have to walk through a hallway of mirrors, which is interesting! The first time through it is a bit confusing. Not sure how someone who has been over-served!
We plan to try the Normandie Restaurant tonight, and then go to the theater for the production show, “Awaken”.
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Today was a sea day. Last night we went to the Cypress Restaurant, which focuses on Greek food. Dave had Mediterranean short ribs and I had lamb. After dinner we went to the production shoe, Bridges. While the show was just OK, I really enjoyed the acrobatics and aerial performers.
This morning we went to breakfast and then trivia. We do not join teams, so we thought we did pretty good! We got 13 out of 23 points! After trivia and lunch, we went back to the room for a few minutes and noticed a dripping noise.nI reported it, and we waited all afternoon for maintenance, who never came. I am not happy. We went to happy hour just after 5:00. We went to Eden, which has become our favorite spot, and where we can get free beverages because of our captain club status. Entertainment was a piano player who played some Caribbean tunes but also Elvis and Elton John. I got hungry, so we headed out about 6:30 pm for dinner. We decided to try the Tuscan restaurant. Dave had shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, and a pasta dish. I had bruschetta, shrimp soup and the pasta dish. The food was very good.
After dinner we went back to the room and the head of housekeeping met us to check out the noises we are hearing. Of course it was not as obvious, but we will see if it gets fixed.
Then we went to a game show, “Guess It”. It was kind of like categories. The room eas divided in half into two teams – our side lost again. ☹️
We are in the theater preparing to watch the evening show which is Motown music. The theater:
Monday, December 11:
Some pictures:
We were quite impressed with “Eden” which is a specialty restaurant where we ate last night. This is a picture of the back of the ship, and all this big windows just above where it says “Celebrity Ascent” is Eden. Besides the restaurant, there is a bar, some outside tables, and entertainment in the bar area.
There was a special event for our level of loyalty called “Create and Pour”. We had no clue what this was, but were told the “pour” part involved wine, so we signed up! The ship’s resident artist (I’ve never been on a ship with a resident artist before, either) gave us an art lesson and we did indeed have some wine to drink. Some of us learned to draw an elephant 😁.
After our sketching lesson, we got off the ship and wandered around Nassau. We’ve been here before, so we did not have anything planned. We decided to look for a large bottle of water to keep in our room, and eventually found one. Surprisingly, it was not easy to find!
This evening we plan to go to our “free happy hour”, then dinner in one of the four main (free) dining rooms, and the the production show in the theater.
Sunday, December 10, 2023: We had heard that parking may be a problem at the port, so we got an early start at 7:00am for the 3 hour drive to Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale. Arriving at Port Everglades about 10:00am, there are several big ships getting read to load thousands of passengers and head out to sea. Quite a bit of traffic, but having been here before helps as we kinda know where to go. We dropped our bag, headed to the parking garage, and found there were several spots available. Whew! Interesting that an attendant was at the entrance asking what ship we were on before letting us park. Haven’t seen that before.
We walked to the ship and were surprised they let us into the building right away. Of course we had to go through a scanner. Celebrity allows you to bring on 1 bottle of wine per person, and as much soda as you can carry (!). But it didn’t seem that the person scanning cared, and I think we could have brought much more wine onboard….but you never know. We had to sit and wait about 30 minutes until the ship was cleared, and then they let us on, probably by 11:00am.
I am not anticipating much action this cruise as we’ve been to all the ports. Our plan is mostly to relax and enjoy the ship.
We are on the Celebrity Ascent, which is their brand new ship. The “maiden voyage” was last week, but there were two short 3 day voyages before the maiden voyage. It is our first time on an “edge class” ship. I did not have very positive thoughts about the edge class ships, but after being on the ship for one day, I’m pretty impressed. It is a beautiful ship with lots of places to sit and enjoy entertainment or whatever. We had lunch in the ocean view cafe, and there were all kinds of choices. I had some roast beef, steamed vegetables and a few mussels. Dave had an assortment of things including a rice dish and green beans.
We do not have any of the beverage packages, so it will be pay as we go. In the afternoon we got our internet set up, made a couple of reservations for some events – a wine tasting and a “create and pour” event.
We had reservations for 8:00pm in a specialty restaurant and tried to get an earlier time. We had to change to 5:30pm which is very early for us. As it turned out, the time was fine. We had a great table on the back of the ship by a window, and we could watch the wake. The food was wonderful. We had a crab cake, a shrimp dish and a mushroom risotto for appetizers. Dave had grouper for his entree and I had a small filet mignon and small short rib wellington. After dinner we shared a chocolate pie dessert.
We went to the show in the theater, a comedian, Daniel Joyce. He was very good, and the comedy was clean.
Overall, a good first day. Being pretty tired from our early start this morning, we were in bed early.
Itinerary:
Sun, Dec 10 | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 3:30pm | |
Mon, Dec 11 | Nassau, Bahamas | 7:00am | 5:00pm |
Tue, Dec 12 | At Sea | ||
Wed, Dec 13 | Cozumel, Mexico | 8:00am | 7:00pm |
Thu, Dec 14 | At Sea | ||
Fri, Dec 15 | Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands | 7:00am | 5:00pm |
Sat, Dec 16 | At Sea | ||
Sun, Dec 17 | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 7:00am |
Norway on Sky Princess, 2023
Itinerary: (Daily blog is below itinerary…scroll down)
8/17 – 8/18/2023: Fly to Southampton, England
8/18-8/19/2023: Overnight at Hilton, Heathrow Airport
8/19/2023- Board Sky Princess, Reserve Class Mini-Suite M108
8/20/2023 – At Sea
8/21/2023 – Bergen, Norway 10:00AM – 7:00PM
8/22/2023 – Flam, Norway 7:00AM – 4:30PM
8/23/2023 – Andalsnes, Norway 10:00AM – 7:00PM
8/24/2023 – Trondheim, Norway 8:00AM – 4:00 PM
8/25/2023 – At Sea
8/26/2023 – Honningsvag, Norway 10:00 AM – 8:00PM
8/27/2023 – Tromso, Norway 9:00AM – 5:00PM
8/28/2023 – At Sea
8/29/2023 – Olden, Norway 8:00AM – 4:00PM
8/30/2023 – Skjolden, Norway 9:00AM – 5:00PM
8/31/2023 – At Sea
9/1/2023 – Zeebrugge, Belgium 10:00AM – 6:00PM
9/2/2023 – Disembark in Southampton, England and fly home
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9/1/2023 – Friday- Zeebruge: My last post this trip!
Our port today is Zeebruge, but we have a ships excursion to Ghent. This is also the port for Brugge, but we have been to Bruges twice before, but never to Ghent. Coming into port, we see lots of wind turbines. This is a big commercial port and our guide said over a million cars pass through here every year. Most of the cars we saw were Toyotas, but there were other brands.
The weather forecast for today was not good, and we drove through a lot of rain. We boarded a bus and the drive to Ghent took about an hour. The guide gave us some history of Ghent. He said: Ghent and Bruges were medieval cities. Before 500AD, this area was under Roman Rule. There were two abbeys built in Ghent in the Middle Ages, St. Peter and St. Bavo. The monks built dykes, grew wheat and brewed beer. Ghent was the largest city in Europe before 1500 because of their wool industry.
Upon arrival in Ghent, it was still raining lightly.
We walked to a canal boat for a tour by boat. The boat had covers that were similar to pool umbrellas.
It was interesting, and somewhat exciting, as the boat captain would lower the umbrellas as we went under bridges, which were very low. We had to lower our heads to keep from getting smacked in the head.
There are several canals in Ghent and we passed by Graslei which is a quay in the historic center of Ghent. The quay was a part of the medieval port, and is a part of the protected cityscape with its row of historic buildings. Many of the buildings have been turned into restaurants with their outside eating area overlooking the canal. We tourists love that stuff.
But, today, our time in Ghent is limited, so we really just got a brief overview.
We saw several historic buildings. Some of my favorites:
Along one section of the canal are what I assume to be condominiums. On one balcony was a statue of a woman that looked like she was going to dive into the canal.
On the other side of the canal was apparently her lover, also getting ready to dive into the canal to meet her.
A poem was along one wall.
After our boat ride we had about 1 hour to explore on our own, which was nowhere near what we needed. I was interested in St. Bavo, an abbey founded in the 7th century. The abbey is famous for what is considered a masterpiece by Van Eyck, “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb”, created in 1432, and is considered as one of the greatest artistic masterpieces of Belgium. So after our boat ride, due to our limited time, we headed directly to St. Bavo.
I am not an art aficionado, and neither is Dave, but this seemed to be an important piece that we should see. We found the church, wandered around, and finally found an entrance to see the masterpiece. But, you had to check your backpacks, and buy a ticket, and then walk to the back of the church. The tickets were 16.5 Euros per person, and with our limited time, we decided not to do it. If we would have had an hour to peruse the masterpiece and other artifacts, it would have made sense, but we just did not have enough time. ☹️The parts of the Cathedral that we did see were very interesting. They had a lot of beautiful stained glass and the pulpit was probably one of the most decorated we have ever seen.
Another interesting artifact they claim to have, but we did nor see (was probably with the masterpiece we didn’t see) is a reliquary of John the Baptist’s head. They also have artwork by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan van Cleef – as well as artists I’m not familiar with. So this cathedral had a lot of interesting (to us) stuff, but we just didn’t have the time to see everything.
We saw the old opera house and in front was a statue of Jan-Fran Willhelms, a famous Flemish poet, playwright and essayist. I assume his statue is in front of the opera house because he sought to promote Flemish culture and the Dutch language as well as seeking greater political autonomy for Flanders within Belgium.
On the way back to the meeting point, we grabbed a “sandwich” which we split, and it was our lunch. It was called a pizziola (?). Basically 1/2 a sub bun with some salami, cheese and sauce which they heated for us. Then we discovered we were a bit turned around and had to rely on our Google map to get us back to the meeting point, which we found with only a couple of minutes to spare!
The drive back to the port was quiet and uneventful. We did some more packing, went to a shopping raffle to see if we won a $1,000 shopping spree (we didn’t) and then we went to dinner. We said goodbye to some ladies from Scotland who were celebrating their 70th birthday. We sat next to them at dinner several nights. I told them the secret to staying young was to marry a younger man 😳! As usual, we went to a “game show”, then grabbed out last “free” glass of wine, and headed back to our stateroom to finish packing. We have an early morning tomorrow, and then many hours of traveling. We’ll leave the ship about 8:00am, and arrive home about 2:00am Sunday – but with the time difference, it will be 23 hours after leaving the ship.
We are at Heathrow airport as I write this, and just found out my boarding pass calls for secondary security screening!
8/31/2023 – Thursday – Sea Day: No pictures today! We peeked out at the beautiful full super moon last night. Fortunately the sky was clear – but no northern lights ☹️. This morning we slept in, and just grabbed a pastry and coffee from the International Cafe, which is kinda like a coffee shop. We were not too active today. We redeemed some of the cash due to us from on board cash credits given to us from the travel agent, and because Dave is a shareholder. If you own 100 shares of Carnival stock, which is the parent company of Princess, they give you money to spend on the cruise, which is called onboard credit. You can pay for shore excursions, clothes from the boutique, etc. However, Princess owes us $60 from an excursion they canceled sometime prior to June. We keep waiting for them to refund the $60, and have involved our travel agent, but almost 3 months after the fact, we still don’t have it. So we wasted some time standing in various lines to see if anyone onboard could help us get our refund.
Today is our last sea day and it is also formal night. This afternoon we packed up about half of our stuff – mostly dirty laundry. Tomorrow is our last day onboard, but we have a ships excursion to Ghent, so the rest of the packing will happen tomorrow evening. Generally you need to put your luggage out by 10:00PM the night before you disembark.
We had a nice dinner since it was our last formal night. I had escargot and Dave had cheese tortellini for appetizers. We both had lobster thermidor for our entree.
We have not been overly impressed with the evening entertainment on the ship, and generally just go to a game show or listen to music in one of the lounges. Tonight was a game show, “Majority Rules”. We never win anything, but generally the game shows are funny.
Afterwards we might get a drink and head back to our room, which is what we did tonight.
8/30/2023 – Wednesday – Skjolden: our port today is Skjolden. It is located at the end of the longest navigable fjord in the world, 125 miles from the North Atlantic. Today is kind of hard to write about because much of our day was riding on a bus. We have an all day ship’s tour to Lom, Norway, about 50 miles away, which is in the eastern part of the country. To get there, we have to cross the mountains, on the highest mountain road in Northern Europe, the Sognefjellet National Tourist Route. It was finished in 1938. The highest point on the road is 4,700 feet, and is Europes highest mountain pass. We have views of the Hurrungane Mountains and can see glaciers in the distance.
However, Dave and I both felt the scenery yesterday was better. Before the road was built, people would cross the mountain with horses. There was an old house where they would sometimes stop and spend the night. Our guide said there were lots of people crossing, and one year there were 1600 horses and 2000 people.
There are cairns built with stone, and many topped with a stick, to designate the trail for crossing the mountain in the snow, before the road was built.
There is a monument we stopped to see for 6 men who froze to death while crossing the mountain. There were also 6 individual stones to remember the men.
While we were stopped there, 4 sheep came running towards us!
We saw several sheep while driving, some were even laying on the road. In the summer, the sheep graze in the mountains, and then in the winter, the farmers gather up their sheep and bring them back to the farms. Apparently each farmer has an area where their sheep graze and they do not wander far from that area.
I thought the best part of our day was when we arrived in Lom. We visited the Norweigen Mountain museum and saw an exhibit on items that were found in melting or retreating glaciers. Some of these items are thousands of years old. By the number of pictures, you can tell I am fascinated by this stuff…and this is not all of my pictures….
They also had a full size replica of a wooly mammoth.
After visiting the museum, we had lunch at the Fossheim Hotel and restaurant. The hotel started as an inn in 1897 by the Garmo Family, who still runs the hotel. Our lunch consisted of salmon, mixed vegetables, potatoes, lava cake and a small scoop of berry gelato.
Next we visited the Lom Stave Church built in 1158, using the traditional post and beam construction. It is one of the largest stave churches still standing in Norway. It started as a Catholic Church but changed to Lutheran in 1608. In 1997, Norweigens who left Lom, Norway for America donated an organ to the church. Since the 1960’s, the church has had an electric organ, but the carved wooden front remains from the donated gift. The church has expanded twice, but the basic church was still there. According to the guide, there was some ancient graffiti carved into some of the wood. Near the roof someone had carved “I made it up here” and next to a bench, someone had carved “I am bored”. Outside the church was the cemetary and the guide said there were no ancient gravestones as the ground is recycled. So the stones are removed, but any bones that are found are left in the grave when the new coffin is put in place.
Leaving Lom, we headed back to the port and made a couple of photo stops.
We stopped to see a 131 foot column that had been carved to show the history of Norway.
Our last stop was the Asafossen Waterfall. During the rainy season, or in the spring when the snow is melting, a lot more water pours down.
We were suppose to be back to the ship by 4:30, but we were late, not getting back until 4:50. So we were a little late departing this port.
This evening’s entertainment was the “Marriage Game”. They ask 3 couples to volunteer and ask them embarrassing questions like the old Newlywed Game on TV. Always very funny!
8/29/2023- Tuesday- Olden ( actually Loen): According to our guide today, the population of Loen is about 200, and Olden’s population is about 400. Today there were 3 huge ships visiting the area. Sky Princess with 3,848; P & O Iona about 5,200, and an MSC ship, but not sure which MSC ship. So at least 10,000 people from cruise ships descending on this area. The P&O ship took the one port space in Olden, so our ship is anchored in Loen and had to tender people ashore. I give Princess credit that their tendering operation was pretty quick because they used two exits with two tenders always waiting. It was a pretty quick trip from the ship to the shore. The ship is anchored at the end of the Loen Fjord, which is a short distance from Olden. We are right next to the Loen Skylift which takes passengers to the top of Mt. Hoven, about 3600 feet, in just five minutes! It is one of the steepest cable cars in the world. People were waiting in line for 2 hours to go up. We did not go on the Skylift.
We are feeling very fortunate because it is a beautiful day with lots of sunshine. Rain had been forecast, but we did not experience any rain. Our tour was the “Briksdal Glacier Hike”. Dave and I always seem to have some type of adventure on our trips, and maybe today was the day, but our trip is not over yet. The drive to the Glacier takes maybe 25 or 30 minutes and the scenery was gorgeous. We saw more Troll Marshmallows. The farmers in this area call them “Tractor Eggs”.
We passed an old church in Olden.
There is a picturesque lake surrounded by mountains, with a few farms scattered here and there.
Our guide told us about our hike which he said takes an average of 45 minutes but 55 minutes for slower walkers. He said we would see a split in the path and he suggested we stay to the left and take the stairs because it was shorter. Supposedly it is about 700 feet gain in altitude, but my trusty compass app was showing over 900 feet. We started walking up the path, and reached a split. We stayed to the left, as he suggested, onto the Kaiser Wilhelm trail…this was our adventure. The guide did not mean this split, but one that was further along the path.
The Kaiser Wilhelm trail was shorter, but that means it was MUCH steeper, as you can see in above photo. We had to rest quite frequently. No one followed us up this path, but we did see people coming down.
They were all encouraging saying the Kaiser Wilhelm Trail was shorter. As we approached the point where the trails meet, people were astonished that we took the Kaiser Wilhelm trail. We were astonished, too. Our legs weren’t very happy either, but we made it in about 55 minutes. The glacier was interesting and the water coming down was not as cold as I expected, but maybe that’s because I was testing it close to the shore.
After spending some time at the viewing point for the glacier, we headed down, but this time we took the longer but more moderate path. About half way down we found the stairs our guide told us about. After our hike, our guide met us at the restaurant where our buses had dropped us off, and we were treated to coffee and cakes.
The glacier we visited is interesting as it is an arm of the Jostedalsbreen Glacier, which is the largest glacier in Norway. While the glacier has been retreating during most of the 20th century, it actually advanced in the 1990’s. It has retreated pretty dramatically since 2000. Increased winter precipitation caused the mass gain. Record high snow accumulation was measured during mild and wet winter seasons.
We visited the gift shop and I tried to buy something for Dave, but he wouldn’t let me.
On the way back to the ship we stopped for a photo op of some scenery.
Soon after we returned to the ship, it was sail away and we were heading out of the fjord.
8/28/2023 – Monday – Sea Day: A few nights ago, we went to the entertainment in the theater, a “mentalist”. Supposedly he can read minds, but I think it is more of a magic act. I find it entertaining, Dave finds it boring 😂😂.
When we were on our tour yesterday, each time we got back on the bus, the driver had to take an alcohol test or the bus wouldn’t start! Our guide explained it’s the law in Norway.
Last night we went to a specialty restaurant, The Catch by Rudi, and we had the same meal as the last time we went: crab cakes appetizer for Dave, smoked salmon under a cloche for me, and surf and turf for both of us. This time Dave took pictures of my salmon appetizer. This salmon is so good, I would have liked it as my entree.
After dinner, we went to a high deck with lots of other people for a northern lights watch … but they did not show up again ☹️. The sun never totally set on the horizon, and this is what the horizon looked like about midnight (while we were still watching for the no-show northern lights).
Our captain made an announcement that it may still be possible to see them tonight if the sky is clear. 🤞 But, it is not looking good.
We went to the Captains circle party where the people who have cruised the most on Princess are recognized. The 2nd and 3rd place people had cruised over 1,000 days with Princess and the 1st place people had cruised over 2,000 days – I forget the exact number, but it turned out to be over 7 years!
We also went to another quiz game. The most points you could get was 50, and we had a negative score. I enjoy these games, but we just don’t do well ☹️.
We are keeping an eye on the hurricane. Hoping everyone stays safe.
8/27/2023 – Sunday – Tromso: We docked about 9:00AM this morning, but we are a bit out of the town. There are shuttle buses, but we have a ships tour at 12:30PM, so we just relaxed this morning after breakfast. Tromso is located on Tromsoya island. Tromso is the largest urban area in Northern Norway and the 3rd largest north of the Arctic Circle. The Gulf Stream gives Tromso a milder climate than other places at the same latitude. We did see trees here!
At 12:30ish, we boarded the bus for our tour. Our first stop is the cable car, Fjellheisen, built in 1961. The cable car takes us 1300 feet to the top of Storsreinen Mountain. When we got up this morning it was very foggy, so we were concerned with what we’d actually be able to see. But the clouds were lifting and while not totally gone, we had some magnificent views from the mountain top. Besides the viewing platform at the top of the mountain, there was a little playground, a snack shop, and lots of places to sit and enjoy the view. This is billed as the best place to view the northern lights. I’m sure that’s true, but we are scheduled to sail away at 5:00PM. With the sun coming out, it was very warm up there and we did not need our jackets.
Leaving the mountain, we drove to the Arctic Cathedral, built in 1965, an Evangelical Lutheran church. Since it is Sunday, we were told we could only view it from the outside. But when we got there, they let us go inside. It is made of metal and concrete, coated in aluminum giving it a very modern appearance. The inside seats 600, and has a beautiful stained glass mosaic in the front. Looking towards the back you can see the organ pipes. On the lower level were pictures of the construction.
It is strategically located as it is at the end of a bridge that connects another island to Tromsoya island, so it is in front of you as you cross the bridge.
Our last stop was the Arctic University Museum of Norway. At the museum, our guide directed us to a small theater where we watched a movie for about 15 minutes of the northern lights over Tromso. Then we wandered around the museum. Of course we did not have time to see everything, but we saw a skeleton of a whale, and several other preserved species such as a huge turtle, a bear and rabbits. We moved on to an exhibit of the Sami people, showing how they lived. One surprise is their tents look like teepees.
Another exhibit was about how the Norweigen people were affected during WWII. Some of the local residents had no choice but to comply with the Germans, and were tried after the war for doing so. However it seemed they were not condemned, as they really had no choice. One story told about how one business owner helped build a railroad. But the Norweigen legislators had approved building the railway before the war, so even though he build it at the demand of the Germans, it was approved and needed anyway. One story told about a Jewish mother and her two year old daughter. Both were sent to the gas chambers. The Holocaust was a very terrible part of history and all the stories are just so sad.
After leaving the museum, our guide gave us a little tour of the city on the way back to the ship. We drove through the university area, and our guide is a student from Greece working on his Masters degree. Education is very inexpensive in Norway. Because our guide is European, he only pays about $60 a semester for his education. He has to pay for his own meals and lodging, which is expensive in Norway.
We got back to the ship and our departure was delayed about 30 minutes due to the ship having thruster issues.
Tonight we have reservations in the Catch by Rudi, specialty restaurant again. We also have hopes of seeing the northern lights again. Nothing but clouds last night, but the sky has cleared up considerably, and the captain also made an announcement that tonight may be our best chance to see the northern lights. 🤞🤞🤞
8/26/2023 – Saturday – Honningsvag: we are as far north as we are going in Norway. We have a private tour today, however, the two private tours I booked on this trip were actually big bus loads! I think the old philosophy was booking a private tour, as opposed to a ships tour, so you would have a smaller group and a more personalized experience. Not any more!
The tour was of the North Cape with Finnmark Tours. They had two big buses! We thought we were getting to the meeting point early, but both buses were pretty much full when we boarded. An audio guide played as we drove, and the narrator had some humorous comments. It is cold in this part of the world, with the high temp in the town being 50°. But we drove past a mountain lake and the audio guide called it their beach. It actually looked like a beach at one end. She said men walk into the water and come out as women 😂😂😂. We are seeing lots of reindeer in the wild.
All the reindeer belong to the Sami people, who are the indigenous people in this area. There are about 80,000 Sami people living in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. We had a photo stop in the northernmost fishing village, Skarsvag. Our audio guide said 70 people live here, but by the number of houses, I would think the number would be higher than that. The audio guide also said everything in this part of the world seems to be the “northernmost” something.
The next stop was advertised as a visit with a SAMI family with traditional SAMI outfits and reindeer. Actually, my map called it “Matkemuittut Somby SAMI Souvenir Shop”. It was a roadside souvenir shop with SAMI souvenirs, teepees showing how the SAMI people live, and there were reindeer. We did not see a family, just one man running the souvenir shop wearing a SAMI hat that has 4 points.
The next stop was at the North Cape, which is the northernmost point of Europe and Norway. Our bus driver gave us 2 1/4 hours for our visit, which was not guided – we were on our own. The North Cape location is designated as 71°10’21”. There is a very large building which has bathrooms, a movie theater, gift shop, restaurant, etc.
We were able to see the movie right away, but had to stand as the theater was packed. The movie showed the four seasons at the North Cape. Then we visited the gift shop where we purchased a little troll holding a replica of the globe. I also bought some Christmas napkins. That will probably be the extent of my souvenir purchases. Then I convinced Dave it was time to head outside into the cold to visit the “Globe”. The point is marked with a globe, erected in 1977, which has become the symbol of the North Cape. It was VERY cold and windy by the globe. Fortunately we were pretty well dressed for the weather. People were civilly standing in line, freezing, to get their pictures taken with the globe, including us. Of course there were a few “special” people who would come in from the side, but fortunately they were in the minority. We were fortunate that the weather cleared a little before we headed out to the globe. I don’t think they get many sunny days, and the audio guide indicated the North Cape was frequently blanketed with fog. We took one family’s picture and then they took our picture.
We walked around a few minutes and then decided we’d had enough of the cold and wind and headed back to the building. We were able to get a drink and we sat in a window seat in the warmth looking out at the globe for a short time. I was really glad we had as much time at the North Cape as we did because so often we feel rushed. This time I felt we had time to wander and enjoy the visit.
The bus took us back to Honningsvag and gave us a little tour of the town. The population is about 2300. Honningsvag, and the North Cape, are on an island, Magerøya, an area of 271 square miles. Gasoline is about $9.25 gallon. We saw lots of seagulls in the town! The driver told us the weather is impacted by the Gulf Stream and the harbors do not freeze over. The Arctic landscape we saw is interesting because there are no trees.
Our driver said this area is 80 miles north of the tree border. The no trees kind of surprised me because the elevation at the North Cape was only about 900’ above sea level (according to my compass app on my trusty iPhone). One interesting landmark in the town is the church, which was built in 1885.
During WWII, the whole town was destroyed except for the church. Our driver told us the people lived in the church for awhile as the town was rebuilt. We had the option of leaving the bus at this point and walking back to the ship, which we did. We passed a neat looking antique shop, unfortunately it was closed. None of the other shops looked that interesting. King crabs are a big revenue producer here, and we saw it on the menu at one restaurant for $160 – supposedly enough for 2 people though. We did not get any king crab.
We saw one other interesting landmark in town! They had turned a telephone booth into a library!
We walked back to the ship and grabbed a snack to hold us over for dinner. Tonight is suppose to be one of the better nights for viewing the northern lights, so we are hopeful. Dave stayed up last night until about 12:30am, but didn’t see anything. Unfortunately there is so much cloud cover, I’m afraid our chances are slim. But, we keep hoping.
8/25/2023 – Friday – Sea Day: Today is Lily’s birthday. Since Norway is 6 hours ahead of Florida, I was intently watching the clock. I think she gets up for school at 6:30AM, and my plan was to send her a message at 12:30PM Norway time. No matter what I did, I could not get a message through to her. No email, no text, nothing ☹️. I am bummed.
We crossed the Arctic Circle about 5:00AM, and we are continuing North to our next port Honningsvag for the North Cape. This will be as far North as we can go.
Last evening we had reservations at a new Specialty Restaurant onboard, The Catch at Rudi’s. It is primarily a seafood restaurant. Dave had crab cakes for an appetizer, shapewise, they looked like big, toasted marshmallows. My appetizer was interesting – seasoned salmon served under a smoke filled cloche. When the waiter lifted the cloche, the smell was amazing, and the salmon tasted good, too. For the entree, we both had surf and turf. The lobster tail was small, supposed to be 4”, but it was one of the best pieces of lobster I’ve had. The steak was good, too. We rarely order steak at any restaurant because Dave has a special seasoning he uses at home and restaurant steaks just can’t beat the flavor of Dave’s steaks. The steak we had last night was very tender, and had good flavor, but not as flavorful as Daves. For dessert, Dave had a cheese plate and I had Chantilly lace with chocolate sauce. My dessert was crème filled pastry ball shaped, with chocolate sauce poured over. It was a very good meal and we’ve made a reservation for another night.
Being a sea day, we slept in this morning. The captain said there is a possibility of seeing the northern lights tonight, so I don’t want to be too tired to stay up, just in case….
We went to a presentation on the Arctic, and the room was so cold we about froze!
Tonight was a formal night, so we got dressed up, but our interest in getting decked out is waning. Dave hates to wear ties and I can never find comfortable dressy shoes. We did dress for dinner then came back to our room and dressed down a little before going to the production show tonight, Spotlight Bar. The guys and girls in these production shows are really talented. Some great voices and energetic dancers.
Hope to see the northern lights tonight, but it is a bit overcast ☹️.
8/24/2023 – Thursday – Trondheim is the 3rd largest city in Norway with a population of about 205,300. It also has about 40,000 students. We have booked a short ships excursion “Nidaros Cathedral and Archbishops Palace”. I had to Google it, but Nidaros was the medieval name of Trondheim, as the city sits at the mouth of the River Nid. Thus the name, “Nidaros” Cathedral.
We board a bus and our guide gave us a tour of the city, pointing out the University, Octagonal Churches, Fortress, Shopping area, old part of town and new part of town. During the bus tour, we entered a tunnel that had a round-about! The bus driver went around a second time just so we could experience the round-about in a tunnel.
As seems to be common in Norway, Trondheim houses and buildings are mainly wood and Trondheim has experienced many fires, and then the city is reconstructed. The city was founded in 997 by King Olav and Trondheim was the capital of Norway until 1217. Our first stop was an overlook to see the city from above. Our guide pointed out the landmarks, and we could see our ship in the distance.
Our next stop was the old bridge, crossing the Nidelva River, constructed in 1681 after the 1681 fire.
On one side of the river was wooden warehouses built on stilts (pilings) as a fire preventative. But being along the river, the water could be used to extinguish fires, too. On the other side of the river was where the workers and laborers lived, and they would have to cross the bridge everyday to go to work.
We did not have time to wander in the area across the bridge, but our guide told us the houses have garages that are built into the hillside in what had been German bunkers during WWII. It is also the location of the Trampe bike lift. The bicycle rider puts their right foot on a footplate and leans forward, and is propelled uphill. Apparently it takes some getting used to because many people fall off. Our guide referred us to YouTube to see the bike lift in action.
After visiting the old bridge, we walked to Nidaros Cathedral, which is adjacent to the Archbishops Palace. Nidaros Cathedral was founded in 1152 and took 230 years to complete.
The front has sculptures depicting Norweigen kings and saints. One of the statures had a pilgrim type hat and the guide said it was to pay homage to (religious) pilgrims. Some pilgrims travel from Santiago de Compostela in Spain, to Nidaros Cathedral. One statue is of St. Denis who apparently was beheaded as he is holding his head in his hands.
Nidaros is the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world. It was the seat for the Catholic Archdiocese of Nidaros until 1537, when the Protestant reformation occurred it became the seat for the Lutheran Bishop. The interior is huge and seats about 1,850 people. I am not familiar with the mechanics of pipe organs, but there were many pipes under the beautiful rose window, and more in a transept.
St. Olaf is entombed in an unknown location below the cathedral. We visited the crypt, and saw where marble gravestones were smashed and then used in the walls in the 16th century.
Leaving the cathedral, we visited a side building on the way to the Archbishops palace to see the Crown Jewels. The medieval regalia have been lost and Carl Johan paid for the making of the essential items himself for his coronation in 1818. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed. We saw the coronation robes, the kings crown, the queens much smaller crown, and the prince’s similarly small crown. Also the kings and queens scepter and orb.
After seeing the Crown Jewels, we walked to the nearby Archbishops Palace. Silly me, I was expecting a Palace! Instead, this was a museum, with many artifacts from the construction and reconstruction of the cathedral and Archbishops Palace. There were displays of the many workshops belonging to the archbishop. Some of those pieces have been recovered and pieced together. During one excavation, the archbishops mint was found. It was displayed with a model so you could see what it looked like. The archbishop gained the right to strike coins for part of the 13th century and again in 1458. Signage indicated this mint was from about 1500 and is the oldest intact mint in Europe. In order to preserve the woodwork and tile, the entire workshop is kept moist. While we were there, misters came on to moisten the whole display.
We fished our visit to the cathedral and palace (?), and reboarded the bus. Our itinerary indicated we would visit the Kristiansted Fortress, but that didn’t happen.
Norway was invaded by Sweden in 1718 and the fortress played a crucial role in repelling the Swedish forces. Apparently Norwegians still hold a grudge against Sweden, as our guide said when they play soccer, they have to beat Sweden.
8/23/2023 – Wednesday – We booked an excursion in Andalsnes with a local company, Norway Excursions AS. One of the benefits is that it didn’t start until noon! We met at the visitors center and saw a short movie about the area. This area is important for extreme sports, and normal sports enthusiasts, too. The movie showed a couple snow skiing, some base jumpers which is no longer allowed, and mountain climbers on a rock on top of a peak. Also showed a little story about a troll: A camper was awakened by a large noise and went to explore. She saw little fairies flying around and then saw a huge troll. The troll lifted a whole tree to clear a path for her. Then the sun was rising, and the troll turned into stone because they only go out at night. If they are out in the daylight, they turn to stone, and that’s how all the mountains in this area was formed! It seems this area of Norway is “Troll crazy” and we see Troll statues and dolls everywhere.
After the movie we were loaded on two buses to be taken to the Troll Road (Trollstigen).
On the drive, our guide pointed out 3 mountain peaks and said their names were The King, The Queen and The Bishop. We had photo stop before heading up to admire the Stigfossen waterfall which has a vertical drop of 590 feet.
The Troll Road is one of the most visited roads in Norway. There are 11 hairpin bends, (each bend has its own name, which are long Norweigen names so I didn’t catch them) leading up to the summit which is 2,815 feet above sea level. The Troll Road is very narrow, built in 1936, and the bus drivers must have nerves of steel. As Dave said, the road was not made for the huge tour buses, but they go up and down all day long during the summer months. It is really exciting when the bus meets a camper, or an idiot driver. The bus drivers seem to know how to pass each other, but the other drivers have no clue. At the top there is a 10 minute walk to get to a platform at 2,625 feet that hangs over the side of the mountain, but has really nice views. It almost looks like an airplane.
A little frustrating as we only had 30 minutes at the top. We literally had only enough time to walk to the platform, take a few pictures, walk back to the parking lot, make a quick pit stop and get back on the bus. It would have been nice if we could have had a snack and visited the gift shop, but that didn’t happen.
The bus took us back down the Troll Road. Before the trip I was concerned I’d get car sick, because of the hairpin bends in the road, but I didn’t! When we got to the bottom of the Troll Road, the bus took us to see the Troll Wall (Trollveggen). The Troll Wall is the tallest vertical rock face in Europe, about 3,600 feet tall. At its steepest point, the summit ridge hangs over the base of the wall by 160 feet. This is where many base jumpers jumped, and many lost their lives, which is why it is now illegal.
Can you see the rocks along the side of the road in the picture above? Our guide told us there is a rock along the road to memorialize camper vans that crashed along the Troll Road (she was kidding of course).
We pretty much lucked out with the weather today. Apparently the Troll Road and Troll Wall are frequently covered in fog, or it is pouring down rain. We did have some misting, but no rain really until after the tour ended. There was some fog, but I was satisfied with what we could see.
8/22/2023 – Tuesday – Today our port call was Flam, Norway. It is a tiny village with a population of 450 people, but they have over 1 million visitors a year. It is down a fjord, seems remote to us, but it is a beautiful setting.
So far our weather has been very nice. In the mornings we start out with jackets, but by afternoon, jackets aren’t needed. We did have a few sprinkles of rain today, but more of a light mist than anything.
While the scenery is beautiful, we were disappointed in our tour today. We started out on a bus, driving through one of Norways longest traffic tunnels, and drove maybe 20 minutes to Gudvangen, which has a Viking village. We arrived about 9:00 am, but the Viking Village didn’t open until 10:00. Gudvangen is located at the end of the Nærøyfjord (fjord) which is 11 miles long and only 1600 feet wide in spots.
Many of the houses in Norway have sod roofs, which according to our guide, aids in the heating and cooling.
Nærøyfjord Is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is probably why we stopped here, and also as a bathroom break. We reboarded the bus and drove awhile longer and stopped at Tvindefossen Waterfall to take pictures. It is a pretty sight with the water falling 500 feet.
We continued to Voss, which is a bit larger town. On our drive the scenery was beautiful with many smaller waterfalls (or falling water streams?), sheer rock faces on mountains, green valleys with farm houses tucked here and there.
We saw lots of what our guide called Troll Marshmallows! Like Iceland, Trolls seem to be very popular in Norway, too.
Troll marshmallows are grasses, maybe similar to hay, that are encapsulated in white wrapping and then used as animal feed in the winter. I like the name Troll Marshmallows!
Both our guides yesterday and today mentioned how most of their cars were electric. Dave mentioned to me how odd it is that everything uses electric as opposed to gas or oil, yet one of their biggest exports is oil, and we’ve seen some oil platforms that are huge. We saw a gas station and I was calculating the price of gas. I asked our guide if the price was for a liter, and first she asked me to repeat the question, and then said she didn’t know (but someone else did). So the price of gas is about $7.75 per gallon!
We arrived in Voss and had about 1.5 hours free time. The population of Voss is around 16,000. Our guide said if you can’t find what you’re looking for in Voss, then you don’t need it! I guess this was planned to give us some shopping time and maybe to grab a snack. We did buy a snack here and mostly just walked around. Voss was bombed during WWII, and the only buildings left standing were the church, originally built in 1277, and the Fleischers Hotel.
The church was closed so we could not go inside, but we walked around the churchyard.
We met up with our group at the train station, and we are taking two trains back to the ship. The first train goes from Voss to Myrdal, and was a regularly scheduled train. The second train was the Flambama Scenic Railway and went from Myrdal to Flam where our ship was docked.
The train takes about 1 hour to travel 12.5 miles, passing through 20 tunnels totaling 3.75 miles. We were traveling downhill as Myrdal is at 2,840 feet above sea level and Flam is only 6 feet above sea level. Inside one of the tunnels, the train makes a 180° turn (inside a mountain!). We made a photo stop at the 280 foot Kjosfossen Waterfall and everyone on the train was able to get off the train to see the waterfall and take pictures. There was a woman with a portable boombox up on some ruins doing an artistic dance and playing music when we stopped at the waterfall. She was not doing it for donations, as she was some distance away from the stopped train. She was just expressing herself.
We arrived in Flam and exited the train to huge crowds of people who I assume were waiting to board the train.
Back in our stateroom, we were sitting on our HUGE balcony 😁, and I was writing this blog. The sun was so hot my iPad shut down and gave me a message that I had to wait to use my iPad until it cooled down!
We had dinner in the Reserve dining area again. They had a pork dish that they called smoked pork. I was thinking about ordering it, but decided on haddock. Since I asked about the pork, the waiter brought me a piece…it was ham!
After dinner instead of going to the Princess Theater, we went to the Vista Lounge to hear Foggie Flax again! The Vista lounge was packed and we had to find folks to let us share their table! He is really good! I’m wondering if anyone went to the Princess theater to see the magician tonight!
8/21/2023 – Monday -Bergen, Norway: We booked a Ship Excursion, as we have scheduled for most ports this trip. We especially liked the start time of 1:00PM 😁. Bergen is the second largest city in Norway, after Oslo, with a population of about 290,000. Our first stop was the Gamle Museum, which is an open air museum. It is a collection of 55 old houses which were threatened with being torn down, most of which originally were in the center of Bergen. It looks like a small town, and is built to resemble what Bergen looked like in the mid 1800’s. Bergen’s house were primarily made of wood and therefore susceptible to fires. The museum is normally closed on Mondays, but was opened for us. Of the 55 houses, 5 of the houses were open for us to enter and explore. We saw the Baker’s house, the Sea Captain’s house, the Barber’s house, The Dentists house (which also hosed the umbrella merchant, and the surgeon), and the House of Craft and Trade which was the printer, bookbinder and photographer. The property was originally owned from 1784 to 1993 by a family that built a shipyard, a summerhouse, and later a park in the form of an English garden. A few of the houses are still private residences! I tried to get more information from our guide about that, but she didn’t seem to know the circumstances.
The next stop was the Bergenhus Fortress. The oldest part dates from around 1270, it is built from stone, and in medieval times was the Royal residence. Part of the complex includes the Rosenkrantz Tower. The tower was named after governor Erik Rosenkrantz (1519-1575). The Governors quarters are at the top, but the structure also contains dungeons. It is connected to the Royal hall, known today as Haakon’s Hall. In the 12th and 13th centuries, it was the site of royal coronations and weddings. Haakon’s Hall was damaged during WWII but has been restored. Inside Haakon’s Hall is a tapestry that supposedly is also a calendar. Frankly, I found it very plain compared to other tapestry’s we have seen.
Our next stop was in the Hanseatic part of town, who were German merchants. Our guide said they weren’t allowed to go further north, so traders from the north would come down to Bergen and would trade with merchants from the south, making Bergen a very important port with a lot of trading. We visited the Schotstuene (a reconstruction), which were assembly rooms for the German merchants (1360-1761) and apprentices. Norway is very cold, and the German merchants and apprentices were able to get warm meals, hold parties, court proceedings, schooling, games and religious ceremonies. Our guide said if someone was being punished, they would have to pay a fine of a barrel of beer, and beer was very expensive. This complex also held apprentices, I believe they were learning about seafaring. Our guide said their lives were very difficult, and it sounded like a lot of hazing went on, which resulted in several of the boys losing their lives. These boys probably came from poverty and if they survived their apprenticeship, they could make a good living. We saw the kitchen, which was very rustic. A pit for a fire was in the middle and pots hung over the fire. The pots could be raised or lowered, depending on how much heat was required. There was very little ventilation, so this room would have been unbearably hot and smoky in the summer months.
Leaving the kitchen, we walked past a building that had a window in the floor showing a much earlier relic, maybe before 1000.
Our last stop were the wooden buildings along the waterfront which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We passed a couple of sites along the way…
These buildings are Hanseatic heritage commercial buildings, established around 1350. The original buildings were destroyed by fire, but there are some stone cellars remaining that date to the 15th century. These are a combination of old buildings and reconstructions.
Our tour was over and we returned to the ship. Spent a few minutes on our balcony enjoying the view.
We missed our lunch due to the timing of the tour, so we went to early dinner and the early show in the theater. The entertainer was Foggie Flax, and I was not expecting much. He was the lead singer for the Liverpool band Mercury, but he is very talented. He impersonates many famous vocalists, and entertained us tonight with covers of Roy Orbison, Joh Denver, Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson, Paul McCarthy, and more. He is also a comedian. We really enjoyed his show.
8/20/2023 – Sunday – Sea Day so not much today, and no pictures! It’s a nice day to chill out and relax. Dave and I actually like Sea Days. Tonight is our first of three formal nights, traditionally the captains welcome, with a champagne fountain. Our first port is tomorrow, so more action.
We had breakfast in the Reserve class dining room, and then went to a “Destination Presentation” on our first two ports: Bergen and Flam. Julio Delgado-Corredor was the presenter, and he was quite entertaining. His pointer didn’t work, so he used a mop handle to point to the screen. It was pretty obvious the pointer failure was planned as the mop was very handy. But he made the presentation fun to watch. Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with 290,000 people and Flam is very small with only 600 people! However, we keep hearing how beautiful the scenery will be.
Next we went to an Enrichment Lecture by Phil Demeulenaere on “Norway and Denmark – The World’s Happiest Places”. He started out OK, giving some facts on Norway and Denmark, compared to the United States. At about the 15 minute mark out of a 45 minute presentation, Phil said Norweigens do things that make themselves happy, and started talking about himself and his wife, showing slides of his family and then items in his own house which he had purchased from all over the world as this is his 99th cruise. We would have left, but there were people sitting on both sides of us we would have to have climbed over. We will not attend any more of his enrichment lectures.
We attended the Cruise Critic’s meet and greet and met some of the people we had been chatting with online. Several of the ship officers attended and discussed their responsibilities which was interesting.
We had a light lunch in the International Cafe – I had pea soup and lamb quiche and Dave had a tuna salad sandwich. Then we went to another “Destination Presentation” with Julio. He gave us an overview of Andalsnes and Trondheim, which are two more of the ports we will visit. Julio really is entertaining, and used the mop again as a pointer. At one point he could not reach what he wanted to point out, so one of the stage hands came out and lifted him up. Physically, he looks like he has the same physique as Danny DeVito, so not very tall. He definitely keeps your attention in the presentations, although he has an accent making him, maybe, a little difficult to understand.
Usually the “Destination Presentations” push the ship shore excursions and focus on what you see if you take a ship shore excursion. Julio has not recommended or even mentioned one ship shore excursion. He has really talked about where the ship will be docked and highlights on each port, and some information on how to reach various sights using taxis or public transportation.
We checked out a new restaurant on Princess, Rudi’s Fresh Catch, but could not get an answer at the reservation line. So we’ll need to try again tomorrow. I’m a little concerned all the specialty restaurants will be booked since there are so many people onboard.
We heard there are 4000 passengers onboard, where capacity is 3660. “Capacity” is when there are 2 people in every stateroom, but many staterooms have sofa beds, or overhead bunks. Since we have seen a lot of kids onboard, I’m sure there are more than 2 people in a lot of staterooms.
We also checked out “Vines” which is one of the bars onboard. They had a couple of Chardonnay wines on their menu that the restaurant didn’t have last night. Dave is feeling optimistic 😁.
It is formal night, so we got into our dressier clothes and headed down to dinner about 7:00. We thought we were being really smart and would avoid a lot of people because of the Captains welcoming and Champagne waterfall. We were wrong! Apparently lots of others had the same thought. Supposedly since we have “Reserve” dining, we’re not suppose to have to wait in line….we certainly didn’t have to wait as long as the non-Reserve people, but we did have a short wait. For dinner we both had a crab cake appetizer, and a seafood platter for the entree. The seafood platter had 2 pieces of fish (salmon and ?), shrimp, and scallops on mashed potatoes with carrots and broccoli. The scallops and shrimp were very good, but the fish was dry and overcooked. We had to wait a long time for the entree, and the waiter kept coming by apologizing.
The evening entertainment is a production show, which means lots of singers and dancers. The theater was packed! Like every seat was taken! We got there a little bit early, and still had to search for seats, and people poured in after us! The show was very good and we recognized most of the songs. Of course the costumes were beautiful, too.
Dave has started getting a Milky Way martini after the show for his bedtime beverage. But he did find some good Chardonnay, which is a good thing!
8/19/2023 – Saturday: Embarkation Day – not much today! We booked a transfer with Princess to travel from Heathrow to the ship. The Princess transfer is less expensive than hiring a car, and more expensive than the bus, National Express. We have taken the bus before, but last year when using the National Express bus to visit Windsor, the return bus from Windsor to Heathrow never showed up. So, we are a bit soured on National Express. It takes about two hours to get from Heathrow to Southampton, and lots of traffic even on a Saturday. Our driver took us to the wrong dock in Southampton and had to back track to get to the correct dock. So that was a bit exciting. We got to the ship about 12:30 and embarkation was pretty quick. Our stateroom is M108, and is a “ Reserve Class Mini-Suite”. Reserve class means we get a special dining room. Mini-Suite means a balcony and larger stateroom.
We have a huge balcony, and can look forward, backwards and to the side (port side). Our stateroom is on top of the bridge. The bridge sticks out on the sides of the ship…kinda like a hammerhead shark. So our balcony sticks out over the side, too. I don’t know why some of the pictures are blurry ☹️. They’re fine on my camera, but when I post to this blog, some of them look blurry.
We got settled in, unpacked, etc., and checked out a few places on the ship. By 6:00 we decided to go for a before dinner drink in the Elite Lounge, which is reserved for frequent cruisers. They serve appetizers. Dave wanted to order a Chardonnay, and was very disappointed in their selection. This is probably the straw that broke the camels back if he doesn’t like the wines. I had a glass of Prosecco, which was OK. Then we went to dinner in the Reserve Class dining room. Basically the difference is an additional entree and appetizer, and more attentive service. Dave had a pork dish with scallops, and ordered a rosé, which I think he thought was OK. I ended up drinking water 😳.
We went to two games after dinner. For the first game, they played a part of a song and then stopped. You had to guess the next line of the song. We did OK, but of course we didn’t win. The second game was like Jeopardy with categories of History, Music, Geography and Movies. We got 12 points out of 20 and felt pretty good. The winners had 17 points ☹️. But, there are usually teams that play these games, and Dave and I are a team of 2!
We went to the evening show which was “ A Tribute to Dusty Springfield” with Sammy Lomax. She did a good job and put on a good show.
8/17/2023 -8/18/2023 Thursday/Friday: We left home for our flight to Newark, then we get a connecting flight to Heathrow. We had a 2.5 hour layover scheduled in Newark, as we like to have plenty of time between flights, just in case of delays. Good thing! Due to thunderstorms and lightening in Tampa, our flight to Newark was delayed 2 hours! Needless to say, we were concerned with making our flight from Newark to Heathrow. Fortunately, the pilot made up some time, and we actually had an hour in Newark. Considering we had to change terminals by taking a bus, we were relieved to get to our gate for Heathrow as boarding started. Whew! We had premium economy seats, which are like the old business class. We got better food and drinks than economy (supposedly), but the food was pretty awful.
We arrived at Heathrow at 8:00AM, an on time arrival. But, the UK is 5 hours ahead of Florida, so it was 3:00AM “our time”. We arrived at terminal 2 and we are staying at the Hilton at terminal 4, which is the same Hilton we stayed when we were disembarked due to COVID in 2022. We kind of remember our way around. Saturday morning we are suppose to meet our transfer from Heathrow to the ship, also in terminal 4, so very convenient.
Back to our arrival, it is a very long walk from getting off the plane to going through customs. The good news is the customs process is very easy with certain passports, including the USA, but the lines are very long. So a long walk, and a long line ☹️. Going through customs, you put your passport on a reader and stare into a screen. If the computer thinks everything matches, the gate opens and lets you into the UK. Our luggage made it to the UK! Another Yea! We were able to grab a luggage trolley, which was a good thing, as we had another long walk to the “Tube” where you can catch an underground train from terminal 2 to terminal 4. Then another long walk to the Hilton which is attached to terminal 4 by way of a very long tunnel. So we landed at 8:00AM, and got to the hotel about 9:45AM. So even though it’s an airport hotel, it is a bit of a process.
Good news! They have a room ready and we checked right in! With out jet lag, we just chilled for awhile, and caught a little shut eye, but not too much.
Our plan is to go to lunch at one of the same places we ate last year. It is the Blackbird Pub located at the Earls Court stop on the Piccadilly tube line. This is the area where I had my nails done last year. There are lots of shops and restaurants at this stop, and I would think it would be a great area to stay in if you were visiting London. It is not the center of town, but transportation is close, and it’s probably cheaper than central London.
We went to Blackbird Pub and we both had mini-meat pies for lunch, served with red wine gravy and mashed potatoes. Dave had Chicken, Bacon and Leek. I had steak and mushrooms. While the restaurant was much busier than when we visited last year, we enjoyed the mini-meat pies again. I’m only posting one picture because they both looked exactly the same! Sorry that the gravy is the highlighted item and not the pie….Dave is usually my photographer, but I took this picture ☹️.
This evening we will eat at the restaurant in the Hilton, and probably crash early to try to catch up on some of that lost sleep.
Regent Seven Seas Navigator to the Amazon March 28 – April 21, 2023
April 20, 2023, Thursday: Last blog for this trip! Going home early tomorrow morning.
Late morning we anchored off of NCL’s private island, Great Stirrup Cay. It was like being at a beautiful beach resort. We were the only ship at the island, so our 490 passengers had plenty of room. NCL’s ships are 2,000 to about 4,500 passengers. We had no trouble finding a shady spot. We didn’t take our phones, so no pictures.
We attempted to go in the water, but Dave and I are wimps. After sticking our toes in, we decided it was too cold. We signed up for doing wave runners, and that was interesting. We had never been on jet skis before. It was a guided tour, so the idea was to follow the guy in the lead. I had trouble doing that because I felt it was hard to control. So I was not keeping up. One of the other tour guys came up and told me to follow him, which I did (Dave was behind me). So I followed him for a few minutes, but not at full throttle. So we stop and he tells me we have to go fast through this next area because the water is shallow and if you don’t go fast, you might get stuck. So, off we went, and now I was at full throttle! All of the sudden, the jet ski was much easier to control! I didn’t realize that it would be easier if I went faster! Initially, I was just too cautious. I really enjoyed the ride. At one point we caught up with the others, and they took our picture with a huge starfish, they had just plucked out of the water. I have not tried to go to their website to see the pictures yet, that will have to wait until we get home. I don’t think Dave is interested in riding a jet ski again, he was kind of been there done that. But now that I figured out how to drive one, I would definitely do it again.
The rest of the evening was packing, going to dinner, and listening to Tom play in the lounge.
We have really enjoyed this cruise and we are not looking forward to going home tomorrow…part of the reason is we are still living in our master bedroom. Hopefully we will get the house finished soon.
April 19, 2023, Wednesday: Today is our 38th anniversary, and it is a sea day. After 4 port days in a row, we did not set an alarm, and we slept late. We did not do much. We did do some packing, actually we did most of the packing.
We listened to two lecturers: The first was “The Disappearance of Donald Crowhurst” and the second was “ The Life and Times of an Experimental Test Pilot”.
Donald Crowhurst was in a race to circumvent the earth on a yacht, but was lying about his true position. The truth, and the loneliness got to him, and apparently he committed suicide.
My brother would have enjoyed the second lecture as it was all about this man’s flying experiences, including being in Viet Nam. This talk went on for about 1.5 hours, but this person obviously had a fabulous career with the military and flying. This talk was by a passenger, Kenny Grubs.
We got some of our packing done and I am sorry our cruise is coming to an end. It has been fabulous.
Before dinner, we could not find a bar with music, but we went to Galileo lounge and had a drink.
Then to dinner. This evening, for our anniversary, we went to Prime 7. Dave had his usual, a seafood platter and I had my favorite, surf and turf. After dinner we had a serenade by the wait staff and they presented us with a chocolate dessert.
Tomorrow we will be at a Bahamas island.
April 18, 2023, Tuesday: Today we were in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We had to go thru customs. It seems easier to get back in the USA from Mexico into Texas or Arizona that reentering on a luxury cruise ship. Anyway, they let us in. We were docked next to a Carnival ship and Dave asked why the Carnival ship didn’t have to go through immigration and the port official said it was because their cruise started and ends in the USA…duh? Our cruise is round trip from Miami. I guess it was because we visited Brazil.
The ship next to us, the Carnival Ship Mardi Gras makes our ship look like one of their tenders. So, some fun comparisons: Mardi Gras holds 6,630 passengers and has 1,745 crew. So 1 crew member for every 3.8 passengers. Navigator holds 490 passengers and has 345 crew. So 1 crew member for every 1.4 passengers. Mardi Gras is 1,130 feet long and 137 feet wide, and Navigator is 490 feet long and 345 feet wide. The picture illustrates the difference in size!
Our stop in San Juan is brief, as all aboard is 12:30PM. We have been to San Juan before, but booked a “tour of San Juan” as it seems to visit different things than we did the last time. There are 18 people on a 25 passenger bus, so there is some extra room. Our guide is very good, and speaks English that we can understand. He is young, but knows a lot about the history of San Juan. He tells us that Columbus was here in 1493, and the first European settlements were in 1506-1508. For fortification, a wall was built around the city that was 70 feet high and 20 feet wide. He says 70% of the wall still exists. Puerto Ricans became US Citizens in 1917. The three main economic resources, in order, are Pharmaceuticals, Rum and Tourism. Regular gasoline is about $3.60/gallon.
Our first stop was the capitol building which cost $3,000,000 to build in 1929. A lot of the marble came from Alabama and Georgia.
Across the street from the capitol is their war memorial and the names of all the men who died in the wars. There are 9 statues of US Presidents who visited Cuba…the last recent ones were Eisenhower, Kennedy, Gerald Ford and Obama. Interesting fact about Gerald Ford per our guide – he is the only person who served as Vice President (for one week) and President but was not elected to either office.
After visiting the Capitol, we visited one of their many forts, San Cristobal Fort. We walked up to the top level, where there were great views, and we could even see “Castillo San Felipe del Morro (El Morro)”, which is the fort we visited previously. San Cristobal was built after attacks by England in 1598 and Holland in 1625. One of the main features of this fortress was a water storage system. They collected rainwater and were able to store over 800,000 gallons in cisterns under the fort.
After our fort visit, our guide took us to one of the beaches. Tourism picked up in the 1950’s and many hotels were built. Not sure of the year, but Vanderbilt built a 100 room mansion on the beach. Our guide said Gloria Vanderbilt lived there the longest. It is now the “Vanderbilt Hotel”.
Our guide drove us back to Old San Juan, near where our ship was docked and gave us the opportunity to get off the bus in old town or he would drive us back to the ship. Dave and I got off the bus and wandered a bit. We found a statue to Christopher Columbus.
Dave remembered this old town area from our last visit. We got “can can” pork chops then, and some mofango. We kinda looked for the restaurant, but we agreed we just weren’t hungry. But, it was warm and we saw a place to buy a couple of expensive frozen drinks – but not as expensive as our beer in St. Barts – $20 for both, and they were very big. We ended up throwing more than 1/2 the frozen concoction into the trash….they were just too big. It started getting overcast and we felt a few drops of rain, so we went back to the ship.
In the afternoon, we attended a lecture on Alexander Selkirk, the real Robinson Crusoe. Alexander Selkirk was a real person marooned on an island for 4 years and 4 months. It is on his story that Robinson Crusoe is based. The speaker, James Grant-Peterkin has been very good and we have enjoyed all of his lectures.
We went to tea this afternoon and it was pie day. I had key lime, but Dave got one of his favorites- pecan. Dave has gotten to where he likes the little tea sandwiches. They are just enough to carry us over to a late dinner.
We had a “before dinner show” – Crew Capers – these folks are talented! We really enjoyed their show.
Then to dinner at Compass Rose. Dave had Beef Wellington and I had a lobster! Delicious!
After dinner we went to the production show, Tuxedo. Again, the dancers and singers did an excellent job. We passed on listening to Tom on the piano tonight. Tomorrow is a sea day, and we don’t plan on setting an alarm!
April 17, 2023, Monday: Today we are at anchor near Gustavia, St. Barthelemy, but called St. Barts or St. Barth. So we will need to take tenders to get to the town.
Per Regents “Passages”: St. Barts was originally inhabited by Arawak Indians; they were followed by the Caribbeans, who greeted Christopher Columbus when he arrived in 1493. He named the island for his brother, Bartolomeo. The French made initial unsuccessful attempts to settle it until some determined Huguenots from Normandy persevered. In 1784, France traded the island to Sweden and named after Swedish King Gustafson III. The Swedish king proclaimed Gustavia a duty free harbor and Gustavia was booming until 1830’s. The importance of being a free port declined and the inhabitants were living in poverty. In 1878, France offered to take the island back from Sweden. In the 1960’s, tourists found Gustavia and it has become a popular stop for private luxury yachts. Some streets still have Swedish names, but the town is very French, and French is the primary language, and Euros the primary currency.
It is hilly, and the island is about 8 square miles. It is very high end with all the designer stores.The big ships do not stop here because the infrastructure doesn’t support the mega ships. This is our first time in St. Barts and we have scheduled a semi submersible submarine tour. It is yellow!
It is only a one hour tour, and while the passengers are cramped sitting below deck, the captain is above the water. The windows were pretty clear and initially visibility was good, but deteriorated during the course of our journey. We saw lots of fish, and I know one species were Sgt. Majors.
The fish were close to a coral reef, which was the first point of interest.
We also saw turtles on the bottom and stingrays. There was a (human) diver we spotted in the coral reef, too!
The next point of interest were coral gardens where they are trying to expand the coral reefs. Our guide said coral is very slow growing, one millimeter per month. These corals growing in the coral garden are about 30 years old.
Our last point of interest was a sunken ship. This boat, was a shrimping boat named Marignan and was sunk in a hurricane in 1995.
The visibility was clouding up, so we all went topside and were served a (very small) rum punch. We did enjoy the submarine ride.
After returning to shore, Dave and I set out to explore the island. Everything is really expensive…we did not see any native crafts like on the other islands. But I did see a dress very similar to the one I bought, but I could not find the price to see whether I got a good deal or not.
We did a lot of walking and saw an Anglican Church. The foundation was laid in 1853. The pine pews are original, and the small decorative bell tower still has its original shingled roof. It is the only church in St. Barts that has services in English.
Across from the church was a huge anchor from the 18th century with “Liverpool Wood London” stamped on it. It was discovered on 1980 between St. Barts and St. Thomas.
We walked uphill to Fort Carl.
Fort Carl was built in 1789 to protect the town of Gustavia against attacks from the south. In the late 1800’s it progressively fell into a state of abandon. There is little left of the original fort, but if you can tough out the walk up, there are beautiful views from the top. We could see the beautiful turquoise water at Shell Beach below, where we would walk next. Unfortunately, we could see a lot of sargassum seaweed on Shell Beach, too. We’ve heard the sargassum seaweed is heading to Florida, too.
We walked down to Shell Beach, which has a lot of shells – many coquinas, so not terribly uncomfortable to walk on. If you kept walking, it eventually becomes a sand beach. I had to put my toes in the water and Dave was enjoying the view of two female sunbathers….one was topless and the other had a thong bathing suit that totally exposed her buttocks and the front was just very small triangles covering her private parts. I hope she didn’t pay much for that bathing suit because there sure wasn’t much material!
After leaving Shell Beach, we walked along the west side of the harbor to a statue garden in front of Hôtel de la Collectivité. These statues were whimsical and most had deeper meaning than I could determine. One was an ostrich as a biplane:
A rabbit on a pogo stick:
While there were several more, my favorite was a triceratops archaeologist, uncovering a Flintstones vehicle on a dig:
We were pretty hot and tired by this point and started walking back to out meeting spot to catch a tender back to the ship. We decided to stop and have one (expensive) beer at Bar De L’Oubli before boarding the ship where we could get free beers. 2 pint glasses = 26€ including tip. But the beer was cold, we got to sit down for awhile, so it was all good.
Getting back to the ship, we got a quick bite of lunch at the pool grill.
This evening was an Abba disco party on the pool deck. The in-house singers and dancers sang the Abba songs and led the dancing.
After the pool deck party, we showered and went to dinner at Compass Rose. I had a filet mignon and Dave had Lobster. Dave said he is becoming a lobster fan after this trip as he has been enjoying the lobster.
After dinner, we went to hear Tom in the Galileo Lounge.
Tomorrow we are in San Juan and the whole ship has to go through immigration-I’m thinking it is because it is first US (possession) port after Brazil. We are only in San Juan from 7:00AM until 12:30PM, so this will be interesting….but we are expecting a pain.
April 16, 2023, Sunday: today we are in Roseau, Dominica. Our guide said there are 70,000 inhabitants, the main language is English, and over 90% are Catholic.
We have been here before with my brother and sister-in-law, Ray and Celeste. We did river tubing on that trip with them, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But Dave is not a water person, so we chose “Dominica Panoramic Drive by Open Safari” as our shore excursion. There were two buses, but only one tour guide (!), so she was on our bus for 1/2 of the time and on the other bus the other 1/2. We drove to Scott’s Head which is a peninsula on the south end of the Island.
The story our guide told was that the French and British fought over the island, but both lived on the island. The French came up with a plan to take over the island. They conspired with the island next door, Martinique, which was controlled by the French. The French then invited the British to a party, and while everyone was partying, the French signaled their co-conspirators from Martinique who came to the island. They captured the British Colonel George Scott, and cut off his head. Thus, the name, Scott’s Head.
At this point of the island is where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean Sea. The Atlantic is very rough because of trade winds, and today at least, the Caribbean Sea was calm.
Our guide pointed out various trees and plants – most we were familiar with: coconut, sea grapes, pigmy palms, etc., and one I had not heard of, an Indian Almond. She said they pick the fruit, smash it and eat the insides.
Our next stop was Bubble Beach.
There is a vendor here that maintains the beach and sells rum drinks and food.
The beach is unique because there are bubbles, caused by volcanic activity!
The sand near the water is very hot. I tried to go in the water, but could not deal with the hot sand on my bare feet to get to the water. They did scoop up some water so we could touch it and see how warm it was. It was warm, but not as hot as the sand! I think our guide said there are 17 volcanos on the island, but only two are active.
Opposite Bubble Beach is the Soufriere Catholic Church of St. Mark, which was the first Catholic Church built on the island by 4 catholic priests, who are now buried in the church. We had a look inside as services were over.
Getting back on the bus we were given a cup of cut up Island fruits to enjoy: mango, papaya, melon and pineapple.
Then we were driven to Morne Bruce Garrison which was on a hill overlooking the bay where our ship was docked. While under British control in 1770, Captain James Bruce laid out plans for fortification of this site. Using enslaved African laborers and skilled craftsmen rented from planters to build the site. They installed 235 cannons pointing seawards waiting for the enemy. It was closed in July 1854 and most of the cannons were removed. Today is is a pleasant plateau with a nice view.
We drove to the Botanical Gardens, and one site pointed out was a school bus that was crushed by an African Baobab tree in 1979 by Hurricane David.
It was a short drive through the garden, and the other site pointed out was Jack’s Walk, a trail from the garden up to Morne Bruce Garrison. It is about .2 miles and takes about 20 minutes. Apparently lots of people hike this trail for the exercise, but not us!
We returned to the port and checked out the vendors. Dave wondered how they make any money because they all sell the same thing!
There was one other ship in port with us today, from Marella Cruise Line which I think is an English Company. In a prior life, this ship was “Splendor of the Seas” owned by Royal Caribbean, and was the first ship Dave and I cruised on, to the Mediterranean in 2000!
Tomorrow we will be in St. Barts and there are very few excursions offered. So we chose a semi immersible submarine.
April 15, 2023, Saturday: We were in Bridgetown, Barbados today, and had a shore excursion. Barbados is 21 miles long and 7 miles wide at its widest point. It was made from coral and limestone. Most of the Caribbean islands were formed from volcanic actuvity, but our guide said there is no lava on the island. She said the population is 260,000. Our guide also told us the temperature is about the same year around. Barbados is the most English of the Caribbean islands, with afternoon tea, cricket, and driving on the left.
We had a smaller bus with about 20 people, but all the seats were not full. We had three stops. The first stop was Gun Hill Signal Station. The first mention of Gun Hill was in 1697. This was a 700 foot high vantage point used as one of 6 lookouts. Using lanterns, soldiers stationed here could communicate about approaching ships, civil disorders, storms, or other emergencies. We had wonderful, long views of the island.
As we drove down from the signal station, we passed a huge lion carved by Captain Henry Wilkinson out of one coral rock. It is 7 feet tall and 10 feet long. With the lion staring out toward the sea, its upraised left front paw resting on a large round ball. It has been thought there is another meaning for the statue – that being the power and scope of the British Empire around the globe. Our guide said the large round ball represents the world. The sculptor was a lifelong military man having already served in at least four countries before his arrival in Barbados, so he probably had a strong loyalty to crown and empire.
The next stop was Tropical Gardens which was previously call Orchard World. Our guide walked us around the garden and pointed out many plants and trees growing there. Some were familiar to us as we have the same plants and trees in Florida, but different ones, too.
We saw a pond and Dave got a pictures of a Muscovy Duck and frogs.
At the end of our walk, we were given a rum punch drink and the opportunity to check out their gift shop. I guess I had enough rum because I bought a cute dress – probably not to wear in public – as it is a little more revealing than what I’d wear to Publix. I have “morning dresses” that I like to put on in the morning before I’m ready to get officially dressed for the day.
Our last stop was Sunbury Plantation House and museum.
A fire in 1995 destroyed everything except the thick flint and stone walls of this 350+ year old plantation house. Most of the furniture is from the period, but not original to the house. Before we toured the house, we went to a cocktail demonstration of Mount Gay Barbados Rum which was first made in 1703. They made two different cocktails with rum and gave samples out. The drinks were very good, but they did not give out printed copies of the recipes. I think one of the recipes was 1 cup of lime juice, 2 cups of simple syrup and 3 cups of rum….but he got very generous with adding the rum, and I don’t know what kind of rum he used. Don’t try this recipe…Dave thinks there was a fourth ingredient! After the rum, we were given a tour of the house. Our guide spoke very fast, so it was hard to get many details.
These are some of the things she told us: There was a gorgeous vase in the front entry brought by the current owner who has only owned the house for 5 years.
One owner of the house was an optician and camera fanatic, so there was one room dedicated to optical equipment and cameras. We saw a ladies bathtub that was very shallow. No running water, so it would be filled up to the hips with water and then emptied by hand. In the master bedroom, at the foot of the bed, were his and her “relief stations”.
Of course the plantation owners were wealthy, and the nanny had her own room. But the children would be sent back to England to boarding school to be educated when they were 5 years old, and may not see their parents again for 10 years. There was a mahogany dining room table from 1750 in the dining room that would seat 28 people.
Another view of first floor rooms.
After touring the house, we were given another rum punch and the opportunity to walk through their gift shop. There were 3 signs posted with more information on the house.
While driving back to the ship we saw several oil rigs! Our guide said there isn’t a refinery on the island, so the oil is shipped elsewhere to be refined.
We really enjoyed our visit to Barbados and could see coming back sometime. That was the end of our tour, so it was back to the ship. Usually there are shops or vendors in the port area, but everything was closed when we got back.
Tonight we have reservations in Prime 7. May try to catch up with Tom on the piano after dinner.
Tomorrow our port is Dominica.
April 14, 2023, Friday: Only food pictures today – sea day! Tomorrow Barbados.
We got an extra hour of sleep as our time reverted back to Florida time.
After breakfast we went to a lecture on the Titanic, RMS Titanic: An Engineering Wonder. The speaker, James Grant-Peterkin lives on Easter Island. The speaker gave interesting background information on White Star Line and it’s backing by JP Morgan. Another interesting tidbit was Jacob Aster was onboard. He was 54 years old, divorced and remarried to an 18 year old. High Society in the US was not accepting his new marriage very well, so he and his new wife decided to take an extended vacation in Europe. She became pregnant and they decided to return to the US, on the Titanic. He did not survive, but she did.
We have some waves, so we decided to use the treadmills after the lecture. We’re only allowed 30 minutes at a time, so after our 30 minutes we went to lunch on the pool deck where they were having a seafood festival.
Then in the afternoon, we went to another lecture, America’s Mystery History. The lecturer, Terry Breen, is a native of the state of Washington, but currently lives in Brazil and has for many years. She discussed the various theories of where the populating Central America originally came from. She presented some evidence they may have been Celtic. There was an ancient arch where people with red hair and blue eyes were represented, and there were some ancient carvings recently discovered that were Celtic in origin.
James Grant-Peterkin and Terry Breen have been excellent. We have really enjoyed all of their presentations.
After Terry’s presentation, we went back to the treadmills for another 30 minutes!
Yesterday we were slugs, so it felt good to get some exercise in today.
We went to listen to Tom before dinner, then to Compass Rose for dinner. We both had Chateaubriand, which was delicious. Dave had a shrimp cocktail for an appetizer and I had two appetizers…escargot and Alaskan King Crab with Avocado.
April 13, 2023, Thursday: Today was the second of three sea days in a row, so not as much going on. This morning after breakfast the crew had “A Country Fair” set up around, and in, the pool. Each department had a different “game” or activity and you could win tickets. Then they had a raffle and winning tickets would get a prize. While we did not actively participate, we walked around and checked out the games and watched for awhile. For example, the housekeeping department had a contest to see how fast you could put a pillowcase on a pillow. The beverage department had a ring toss with liquor bottles. The spa had a little contest to see how quickly and how neatly you could polish a fingernail. My favorite was the production show dancers were in the swimming pool doing a “ring toss” with hula hoops – trying to throw a hula hoop over their heads bobbing in the pool. I forgot to take pictures….
Later in the day we went to a lecture on the Mutiny on the Bounty. This speaker tells the rest of the story! So he told what happened to Captain Bligh…he stayed in the British Navy and eventually was made an admiral. But letting the mutineers take over his ship affected his reputation. Fletcher Christian ended up on the island Pitcairn with some natives from Tahiti, and the natives and mutineers ended up fighting and killing off each other except for two mutineers. The current population on Pitcairn are descended from the mutineers and Tahitians.
Only food pictures today….The food on Regent has been better than any other cruise ship we’ve been on…it is really phenomenal. We can have Steak, Lobster, Scallops, Lamb and fish any night! Plus more, but those are my favorites.
Tonight we had a nice dinner in Compass Rose, which is the main dining room. I had crab with caviar and Dave had a shrimp cocktail for appetizers. My entree was Sea Bass with miso, sticky rice and a side of asparagus. Dave had Caribbean seafood curry with rice. We rarely have desert, but they always serve petit fours, which we always enjoy.
After dinner we went to the Navigator Lounge to hear Tom Santori on the piano.
We change our time tonight and go back to Eastern Daylight Savings Time, just like home! So we get an extra hour of sleep!
April 12, 2023, Wednesday: I had a very difficult time posting my blog from yesterday. So I am including two photos from Alter Do Chao of trees that we saw. The first tree caught my eye because it had very large fruits, almost as big as bowling balls! According to Google, it is a Crescentia tree.
The second tree is a Laburnum or Golden Rain Tree. What’s interesting is that it is native to the mountains of southern Europe from France to the Balkans. Obviously brought to Brazil by somebody!
I am fascinated by trees, sometimes plants, that I’ve never seen before.
The morning we attended a lecture on Charles Darwin. While I do not ascribe to the theory that I have descended from an ape, the speaker also spoke about the captains of the Beagle. According to the speaker, the first captain committed suicide because he could not deal with the weather in the far southern hemisphere. The second Captain, a Fitzroy, also died rather young. However due to the native Indians confiscating one of his boats, he kidnapped 4 children hoping to make a trade. The native Indians weren’t interested, so he took the 4 children back to England. Upon arrival, one child died. He hoped he could educate the three remaining children, make them Christian’s, and then return them to South America to become missionaries to the tribes. After a year of education in England, the children were returned, but they quickly resumed their old ways as members of their Indian communities.
In the afternoon we attended a lecture on Theodore Roosevelt exhibition into the Amazon. It was very interesting and they discovered a river which is named after Theodore Roosevelt.
We walked a little over 2 miles on the jogging track. Early evening we went to a show highlighting our favorite piano lounge performer, Tom Santori. Tom has had an interesting life, and we have enjoyed going to the Navigator lounge to listen to him in the evenings.
After Tom’s show in the theater, we went to Setti Mari for an Italian dinner. Their lasagne is delicious. I am a big fan of “Mama’s” lasagne, but I think Setti Mari’s is better. However, as the Secondi course we had Mediterranean Branzino, and it was barely OK. I’m sure it was good for others, just not to us.
Now I am trying to stay awake for Tom’s late show in the Navigator lounge.
April 11, 2023, Tuesday: we are anchored at Alter Do Chao, Brazil. Dave is not excited about getting off the ship because the first announcement made about going to the island indicated we would have to walk through some water between getting off the tender and reaching shore. So we went to breakfast, and back to our suite for awhile. Then another announcement was made that they have put down some planking and we would no longer have to walk through water. I convinced Dave to take the tender over to the village. I will say that all the villages, and even Manaus, have been pretty run down places, with not much to see. Even yesterday after the Boi Bomba show, we wandered around the town but hardly anything was open.
Alter Do Chao is the best village we’ve visited in the Amazon, including Manaus. The problem with Manaus is safety, besides being run down. Alter Do Chao is a beach destination with nice, clean sand beaches which brings tourists to this remote village. With much of the beaches underwater due to it being rainy season, it is their off season. Our guide in Manaus said there would only be one more cruise ship coming through the Amazon River for this season.
The population is about 7,500, but this village seems larger and is much more interesting than the other villages where we have stopped with larger populations. It is cleaner and the buildings are in good repair for the most part. The Regent “Passages” says it is a cosmopolitan community that unites hippies, herbalists, healers, nature lovers, off duty entrepreneurs, and iguanas.
We stopped and looked into the Catholic Church and made a donation. In 1738 a mission was established in this small village of Boraris Indians. The current building, which is the third church built on this site was started in 1876 and completed in 1896.
We saw a nice grocery store and a few of the restaurants were open.
We stopped at one of the restaurants as rain was threatening and we stayed through two rain showers consuming two beers and an appetizer (about $18 including tip).
After our snack, we headed back to the ship, missing all the rain showers. We have an early departure at 3:30PM today. We have a couple of sea days heading out of the Amazon River, into the Atlantic Ocean, not reaching our next port of Barbados until Saturday.
Excellent dinner at Prime 7, then back to the suite.
We have not heard the water restriction announcement for a day or two, so the crew must think we have enough water to last until the ship can take on water from the Atlantic.
April 10, 2023, Monday: The rain gods paid us back today. We were in a downpour!
The ship is anchored in the middle of the Amazon river to allow us to visit Parintins, a city on the island of Tinambarama which is an island in the middle of the Amazon River.
Parintins hosts a festival each June which is only second to Carnivale in Rio de Janeiro. The 60,000 inhabitants spend all year preparing for the Boi Bumba Festival. Boi means bull, so it is a festival about a bull. During June, the big festival is performed. Tens of thousands spectators cheer wildly for two teams that present the story behind the festival. There are two teams, red with a white bull and blue with a black bull. Each team puts on a performance regarding the story about the bull, and the winner is crowned and carries the honor for a year until the next festival. In June, 2022, the blue team won, and the blue team will present their modified show to us today. It is modified because during the normal festival, the show would last 6 hours (each team would perform for 6 hours). Today we get a one hour summary, from an online source:
If a world record exists for the most remote festival on the planet, then Parintins should win hands down. This cow town of sorts sits on an island in the Amazon River, some 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) inland from the Atlantic. Its claim to fame: the spectacular Boi Bumba festival, held over three days in June. The town’s 60,000 inhabitants spend the year preparing for the festival, building fantastic floats that depict giant pink porpoises, fierce jaguars and the like. Two rival camps, the red-colored Garantido and the blue-colored Caprichoso, compete in song and dance performances staged in a massive stadium glowing like a UFO that landed in the Amazon jungle.
The festival is based on a long-told folk tale with indigenous, African and European elements: A cowboy kills a prized bull (boi in Portuguese) for his pregnant wife, who craves ox tongue; facing death by the landowner, he is ultimately saved when a shaman brings the bull back to life. As tens of thousands of spectators cheer wildly, “Indian” maidens sing while perched high on the floats, and huge dance troupes move to the rhythms of hundreds of samba drummers. The winning team grabs bragging rights for the year. During the rest of the year, visitors are treated to samples of the big shows to come in June.
As we leave the ship for the folkloric show, Boi Bumba, it is pouring rain. I have a rain poncho and Dave has an umbrella. It is raining so hard that we both got soaked anyway.
We arrive at the theater, which is air conditioned, which is good because it is hot and humid here. The show is non-stop energy for a full hour with amazing props and lots of young dancers. It is loud and the dancers are non-stop. It is hard to describe a folkloric show, so I will just post some pictures.
As you can see, my photographer (Dave) got pictures of all the good looking young women!
After the show, it had quit raining, and since almost the whole ship attended the folkloric show, there is a huge line for the tenders to get back to the ship. Dave and I walked around the town/village, but there really isn’t much here. Almost all the buildings need some TLC as was the situation in Manaus. We looked for a “nice” area, but did not find one. Maybe we did not walk far enough into the village. It is a larger village, not as large as Manaus, but it did have “hole-in-the-wall” stores. I would have gotten a drink somewhere, but we really didn’t see any place.
So, we joined the line to get a tender back to the ship. A long wait, as one tender got its propellers tangled in grass, and a strong current was causing trouble for the tenders.
Finally back on the ship, we showered and went to dinner in Compass Rose. I had “pepper pot soup” and Dave had a shrimp cocktail. For an entree, we both had a Brazilian Cod dish. After dinner, we went to hear Tom at the piano.
April 9, 2023, Easter Sunday: Happy Easter! A little disappointed that Regent only offers Catholic Mass and Jewish services. Other cruiselines do non-denominational services. Picture is of Easter decoration onboard.
We did have a good day, and I thoroughly enjoyed our shore excursion. It was billed as Swimming with Pink Dolphins. Since I had not seen them yet, this was a great opportunity. While many of Regents shore excursions are included in the fare, the Pink Dolphin excursion had a charge.
We rode in a riverboat which held 53 passengers, but there were only 30 of us. Another riverboat with about 30 people left just before us. Just as soon as we get started, our tour guide tells us it is about a 90 minute ride to the dolphin site. We were heading west in the Rio Negro and we pass under the 4th longest bridge in Brazil at 11,795 feet.
The water is pretty smooth and it seems we are running at full power. As we settled in for a long ride, the tour guide tells us information about Manaus, Rio Negro and the Amazon. He said there is no agriculture along the Rio Negro because the water is acidic. The water looks black, but there doesn’t appear to have any sediment in it. Our guide says it is rainy season and the water has already risen quite a lot, but it will probably raise a total of 17 meters.
So lots of houses are built on stilts. Apparently one year, I believe he said 2021, the water rose 21 meters, which caused severe flooding. He said there are no mosquitos because of the acidity of the water – the mosquitos larva can’t exist.
As we got close to the dolphin site, we stopped at a small village of about 500 people, Acajatura.
The boat that left before us was with the dolphins, so we needed to wait until they were finished with their dolphin visit. This village, while remote, seemed more modern than Boca Da Valeria. Acajatura has a school, a hospital, a couple of stores, etc. We peeked in a couple of shops, and walked down to their church.
After our allowed time of 30 minutes, the first boat arrived and now we could go to the dolphin site. Unfortunately, the boat wouldn’t start! We were really wondering what was going to happen. They kept working on the boat and finally after about 30 minutes, they got the boat running. Whew!
We rode another 10 minutes to the dolphin site and were given some instructions: don’t touch their blowhole, don’t touch near their mouth because they have teeth, we would have to wear life vests, we would enter the water in shifts of 10 because the number of people are limited, and it is a floating pier.
One of my concerns was treatment of the dolphins. I refuse to do any dolphin excursions in the Caribbean because the dolphins have been captured and kept in pens. These pink dolphins are totally wild. They come to the pier because the workers feed them fish. The dolphins can come and go as they wish. Of course the dolphins like the free meal, so they come to get their fish. The workers have names for all of the dolphins. According to Regent’s newsletter, Passages, the pink dolphins, “boto” may be pink due to blood capillaries near the surface of the skin. Passages also tells the legend about the “boto” being able to transform itself into a man, hypnotizing and seducing unsuspecting, young women.
Dave and I were very satisfied with the treatment of these dolphins. Besides limiting the number of people in the water at one time with the dolphins, they do not do this every day. Dave did not get in the water because he was concerned about the treatment of the dolphins. Dave was my photographer and his pictures are always great! But he was fine after seeing the limits on number of people and that the dolphins were not caged and free to leave. He still didn’t get in the water, but he said he was happy with his decision.
They did have some fish in an enclosed area. They demonstrated feeding these fish. The fish suck down the bait fish very aggressively. These are the largest fish in the Amazon, Piraracu. They dry their scales and the scales become very hard. Our tour guide gave us a couple of the dried fish scales to bring home. They are triangular, about 3” long and 2 “ wide.
The whole time we were with the dolphins, the boat captain left the engine running…and we were there a little over an hour. At least we knew the engine on the boat was running when it was time to head back to the ship. At first, the water was smooth and it was full speed ahead. But, it is rainy season, and about halfway back to the ship, we ran into rain. The water got very rough, and even though they rolled plastic down over the windows, the water would splash up and get me wet. It was a rough ride back to the ship, but we made it.
I am extremely happy I got to see the pink dolphins. Overall, I am happy with our visit to Manaus, but even the guide today cautioned us not to wear any jewelry walking around the town. I don’t think I’d want to do an independent visit, which is sad, because Dave and I love to explore places where we have never been.
After returning to the ship, we had some lunch in the pool grill, then relaxed for awhile. We left Manaus a little after 4:00PM. About 5:00PM, we saw the meeting of the waters again. When we were anchored at Manaus, we were on the Rio Negro. Leaving Manaus, the Rio Negro joined the Amazon River, and we were back on the Amazon. In the pictures, you can see the Rio Negro as black, and the Amazon River with a lot of sediment as brown. It takes a long distance toward the Atlantic for the water from these two river to actually merge into one.
We showered and went to dinner. Dave had a tortellini appetizer, and I had escargot. For our entrees Dave had Teriyaki Salmon and I had scallops. We rarely get desert, but they always serve petit fours which is usually enough for us. Tonight the Petit Fours was a special Easter edition.
We still have two more port stops on the Amazon, but so far we have not seen many bugs and have not had to deal with mosquitos. We have been amazed, but very happy with no bugs.
April 8, 2023, Saturday: Lots of pictures again, today.
The captain told us yesterday evening that we would be late getting to Manaus due to strong currents. We were expecting to arrive at 8:00AM, and we actually arrived about 9:30AM. As we sailed closer to Manaus this morning, we saw the meeting of the waters, where the black water of the Rio Negro met with the brown water of the Amazon River. The two waters do not mix for quite a distance due to differences in temperature, acidity, density and current.
We originally had a tour to the meeting of the waters, but after seeing this, we changed for another tour tomorrow.
Manaus is the capital of the Amazon state. There are 2,000,000 people in the middle of the rain forest, 1,000 miles from the ocean,
We signed up for a shore excursion, The Golden Era of Manaus. Our ship is anchored in the Amazon River, so we took a tender to the port on land where we boarded buses.
Driving into the city of Manaus, the buildings look like they are not taken care of. There is a lot of desolation. Buildings that have been left in disrepair. Buildings are badly in need of face lifting and buildings are dirty, streets are littered, signs of homelessness. Just not an attractive city. It seems to be a city that has not recovered after the collapse of the rubber market.
Our first stop was the opera house, Teatro Amazonas. It took 17 years to build and was finished in 1896. The theater was built in the height of the rubber boom, using European designers, decorators and even raw materials. The raw materials, including stone blocks, were brought from Europe on the rubber barons boats.
Our guide told us the wealthy rubber barons lived on boats in the Amazon river. They brought slaves from all over the world to gather the rubber and bring it to their ships. Then they would sail with the rubber back to their home country. This was before tires, and the rubber was used by shipbuilders to waterproof the boats.
Some group presented a model of the opera house in legos.
The slaves came from all over the world, not just Africa, because of the language issues.
The indigenous Indians would collect the rubber and make it into balls weighing 50 to 60 pounds. Then the slaves would carry the rubber balls to the port to be loaded on the rubber baron boats. The slaves could not drop the rubber balls, because the rubber barons wanted them clean. Then the slaves would carry the stone blocks from the rubber baron boats up the hill to where they were building Teatro Amazonas.
The driveway was made of Brazilian rubber so the carriages carrying the rubber barons would soften the clatter of the carriages.
There was no air conditioning at the time, and fans in the theater were too noisy. So they put the fans under the floor and cut circular holes under the seats so the air would blow up into the theater.
There is grillwork on the windows with an A overlapping T, which is for Teatro Amazonas.
Across from the theater is the Justice Building, which our guide called “injustice”. The statue of lady justice does not have a blindfold, and her scales are uneven.
The homes that were originally built in Manaus were about 3 feet above street level. Between the floors and the street were small windows. Underneath the buildings was a drainage system that allowed water from rain or floods to enter the small windows of the buildings and then flow into the river.
Our next stop was Museu Da Cidade De Manaus. The museum was originally a mansion. The first room we saw was like a large conference room with portraits of all the mayors of Manaus.
Another room displayed a collection of plants which our guide explained to us. There were lily pads. Brazil nut pods, açaí, etc. Then he showed us a “Marketplace Display” with products made from all those plants in the Amazon. This museum also had an exhibit of the drainage system under the buildings.
We got back on the bus and drove to Palacio Rio Negro, originally known as Scholz Palace. Karl Waldemar Scholz, a German exported of rubber, built this house for himself and his wife. The house is huge, and they had 22 servants, but none of the servants lived with them in the house.
Scholz built a tower in the house so he could go up in the tower and watch birds. Due to the decay of the rubber business and World War I, the Scholz’s returned to Germany, bankrupt. His house became the Palace of Government and official residence of many governors from 1918 to 1995, when it became a Cultural Center.
Our last stop was the market. Unfortunately we only had 20 minutes to wander the aisles. There were huge piles of shrimp, bags of Brazil nuts, and all kinds of products.
I love these markets – unfortunately I rarely buy anything because I don’t need anything. The brown item is dried a fish tongue, used like sand paper! The white items on the right are fish scales from the same very large fish. They dry the scales and they become very hard.
But I still find the markets fascinating with all the products they offer. We did contribute $8 to the local economy because I bought a t-shirt. It is red, it will probably fade badly and shrink dramatically!
While exiting the bus to go back to the ship on the tenders, one lady spotted pink dolphins on the water. I was only quick enough to see a bit of tail. Supposedly the pink dolphins are everywhere, but they are elusive to me.
We had originally planned to go back into Manaus since the ship is spending the night here. But I asked the guide about walking around and he discouraged us. He said if we did, we should leave all our jewelry and our cell phones on the ship. Also, since it is Easter weekend, everything will close by 3:00PM. We decided the ship would be a much more comfortable place to be, and returned to the ship. We do have a shore excursion tomorrow morning before we leave Manaus.
Our friends Irvin and Evelyn are going caimen watching tonight….we told him we have alligators in our backyard and don’t need to see the caimen relatives.
Back on the ship, about 3:30, we grabbed a quick bite at the coffee connection and then went to tea at 4:00. Dave has found a way to enjoy the tea service – he gets a glass of Champaign! We just had a couple of little sandwiches to hold us over until dinner. Tonight there was an Amazon Buffet which was interesting. Then we went to the theater to hear an Amazonian band. Jo Panas would find them interesting. The man responsible for percussion was using various beads, a very small boat like structure, and other items for the music. We are not allowed to take pictures. The music was very soothing and we enjoyed their presentation.
Tomorrow Manaus Part II.
April 7, 2023, Good Friday: Lots of pictures today…..
We have crossed over into the Brazilian state of Amazon. And we saw a bug this morning.
We really have not been bothered with bugs or mosquitoes….yet. But I did see one other bug on the ship – a dead black beetle.
The ship dropped anchor this morning near a small Brazilian village of less than 100 inhabitants, Boca Da Valeria.
The ship advertises it as an opportunity to glimpse the authentic, simple river life. Dave was really not interested in going ashore as we knew the locals would pose for tips and the children grab for your hands to walk you through their village. We are always a little overwhelmed by these encounters, and try to avoid them. We were planning to stay on the ship and hopefully see the pink dolphins, but with no sightings by late morning, I convinced him to take a tender over to the village. It is rainy season, which means wet and muddy, and neither of us likes to walk in the mud. This village has no tourism infrastructure, so we knew it would just be grassy paths. I suggested we go over but stay on the tender and then we’d ride back (The tenders are the lifeboats but I think they are always called tenders because they tender people from one location to another). After riding over, we saw the dock area was covered, so I convinced Dave to get off the tender and we made our way onto the grassy path. As soon as you get off the tender and out of the immediate port area, the children were lined up to grab your hands, and were insistent. But we walked past them. We saw a church and walked inside, and left a donation as they are trying to build a new church.
There were children all over the place with various animals – sloths (lots), parrots, parakeets, and baby caimen.
One guy had a capybara (large rodent) on a leash. This is not him, but this is a picture from online.
If you take their picture, they expect a tip. Many people were advertising 30 minute boat rides for $5 per person. Somehow I convinced Dave to take the boat ride, which goes to the giant lily pads. The boat we chose happened to already have our friend Irvin on the boat, so it was just the three of us.
We saw more houses along the river, and one house had a horse. Our little boat captain took us right into the lily pads and we could see them up close.
The lily pads had big thorns around edge.
Some had big, beautiful pink flowers.
Then we cruised back to the little village.
One building had a sign, “cool beer” (not cold!). Obviously they know how to appeal to tourists.
The boat was a long boat and the captain used a stick as an oar to maneuver in shallow water.
The boat had an engine with the propeller on a long shaft, similar to the boats in Thailand.
Once back in the little village, Dave took a picture of a cute little girl with parakeets.
Then we headed to the port to go back on the tender. Fortunately we were under cover because it started to pour rain! Well, it is the rainy season. While on the tender, someone noticed Dave’s Tampa Bay Ray’s hat. It turned out they live in Venice and are neighbors of fellow rowers, Denise and Phil Mannino. Getting back on the ship, the crew sat us down and put shoe covers on our shoes so we wouldn’t get the ship carpets dirty.
At the end of our visit, Dave was glad we decided to go to the village.
I will say the crew has been great, and seem to take care of the passengers much better than any other cruise we have been on. I am amazed by how many of the crew have been calling us by name for several days already. I feel like the crew actually cares about the passengers!
We managed to walk on the jogging track for two miles, and then went to tea. Dave was willing to go because Tom was playing background music on the piano.
This evening we went to the Italian restaurant, Sette Mari for the first time. It is very popular and does not take reservations. First we were served some appetizers.
No pictures, but for our pasta course I had gnocchi and Dave had lasagne. For our our secondi or second course Dave had veal scaloppini and I had cioppino.
For desert, I had profiteroles, and Dave had wine.
After dinner, we went to hear Tom for awhile before bedtime. Our captain has announced we will be late getting to Manaus as the current in the river is stronger than anticipated, so we will be about 2 hours late.
One other thing that has been happening is that ever since we left St. Lucia, we have been asked to conserve water. Every day there is an announcement to conserve water. The ship is usually able to take the ocean water and filtrate it but because the Amazon river has a lot of sediment in it, they are unable to filtrate it to make it usable onboard. We were planning to let the ship do our laundry, but that is not going to happen until we are back in the Atlantic!
April 6, 2023, Thursday. Today we are visiting Santarem, Brazil, which is town of 306,500, along the Amazon River. Our speaker onboard said the Brazilian Government only considers a population a city if there are more than 3,000,000 people. We are not docked in town, but anchored in the river. So we have to take a tender, or a smaller boat, to get to shore. This is actually one of the river boats they were using to transport passengers. Dave and I rode in one of the ships tenders which are smaller than this boat.
Santarem is in the Brazil state of Para. So, while we are on the Amazon River, we are not yet in the Brazilian state of Amazon. Santarem was founded in 1661 as a Jesuit mission to the Tapajo Indians. Our tour guide today guide said the name Santarem came from Portuguese explorers, named after a city in Portugal. Their main language is Portuguese. Santarem is where the Tapajos River joins the Amazon River. The Tapajos river is very clear and clean, accounting for over 65 miles of river beaches which is a good draw for tourism.
Our speaker on the boat a few days ago mentioned that a group of Confederates settled in Santarem after the Civil War. Most of them or their families eventually returned to the US, but she said some have mixed with the population. Santarem is also the closest town to Fordlandia, Henry Ford’s failed experiment to get a good reliable source of rubber.
Santarem is one of the oldest towns in the northern region of Brazil and has historical building and monuments.
We opted for a shore excursion to Tapajos National Forest. After our tender ride from the ship to shore, we took a bus used for public transportation to the forest. The bus did not have air conditioning, but was bearable. It was an hour ride and the highways were in pretty good shape. Only once did the bus driver have to come to a quick stop when a horse decided to cross in front on the bus. The horse had a saddle and a lead, so I think he wandered off from his rider.
Our tour guide said you are only allowed in the forest with government permission. The forest has more than 1.3 million acres.
Arriving at the entrance, a guide from the Tapajos National Forest joined us with a chain saw and a machete. We had about 3.5 more miles to drive before we reached where we were going to do a hike. The chainsaw was to clear the road in the event it was blocked by a fallen tree. He did not need to use to chain saw, but the road was blocked by a log at one point that had to be moved. The machete was used for various things on our walk.
When the bus stopped, there was a restroom…A restroom….the men were on their own. Then we started our walk. It is not a Virgin Forest, but does have some very old trees.
Unfortunately, the guide called the trees by their Portuguese names, so most of the things we saw, I have no idea what they were. But some of the trees were obvious…like the first one. They used the machete to make a scar in the bark of the first tree, and a white substance oozed out. This was a rubber tree. I touched the white stuff that oozed out. At first it seemed very liquidy, but quickly turned into a sticky substance.
We walked to another tree. Our guides bent down and it looked like they blew into the roots. This disturbed the ants living there, who came out of the bottom of the tree. These ants were huge! At least 1 inch long.
Actually we saw a lot of ants in the forest, but none were this big.
The next tree was a Kapok tree about 300 to 400 years old. The guide said there was another one deep in the forest that we would not see that was about 1000 years old.
The machete guy cut a log and banged it against the trunk of the kapok tree, and said this is how they would communicate in the forest. It was a loud, hollow sound.
We left that trail and walked to another trail that was a little distance back down the road where the bus had driven. The only way you would know this trail was there would be if you were a guide. It was here that we saw a beautiful, big, blue morpho butterfly. He was too quick for us to get a picture, but he was beautiful. His wingspan was probably 8” across.
We could hear birds and frogs, but this walk was mostly about the trees. The trees are very tall and have various ant nests built into the trees, including termites. I asked our guide if the ant nests would kill the trees, and he said no.
The next tree was a Brazil nut tree. The nuts come in a pod that looks like a softball. When you break it open, inside are maybe a dozen of the Brazil nuts shells that we would recognize. The guides gave us a sample of the nuts, which was before they were roasted, but they were very good.
One thing we saw on the floor of the Forrest was cicada tunnels or tubes. I have never seen these before, but this is what they look like in the Tapajos National Forest.
One tree had bark that could be braided and assist in climbing a tree. Our guides succeeded in braiding the bark, but the braid failed and fell apart when they tried to demonstrate climbing trees.
At another tree we’re vines that our guide demonstrated how you could swing on the vine. This tree also produced a sap that was very pleasant smelling, and little branches that could be smoked like cigarettes.
The bark of another tree was used to sooth sore throats. The machete was used to cut off small pieces of bark, and one lady said it reminded her like fisherman’s friend hand lotion.
The last tree had a big ant nest on it, and the guides let the ants crawl on them, then killed the ants, and said it was a natural mosquito repellant. It had a pleasant smell, but we had not been bothered by ants the whole walk, so don’t know if it was true.
We boarded our buses to go back to the ship. I was hoping to see wildlife and birds, but that didn’t materialize. We did see farms alongside the road to and from the ship. They grew soybeans, and then after picking the soybeans, they would plant corn. The only animals we saw were Brahma cattle that had been brought from India because their hooves were resistant to moisture.
We arrive back at the shore to at catch our tender back to the ship. When we arrived back at the ship, Dave and I were hungry as we didn’t have lunch…neither did the other 20 people on the tour with us. So before going to our room, we stopped at the coffee connection and got some lunch meat, cheese, and in Daves case, a couple of cookies.
After showering, we tried to go to Sette Mari, which is the Italian restaurant, but there would have been a long wait. So we went to Compass Rose. Dave had a shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, and Wahoo for his entree. I had a crab and avocado appetizer which was delicious, a fruit salad, and a spicy shrimp entree.
After dinner we went to “The Liar’s Club” in the theater. There are four crew and they give their definitions to words you’ve never heard of. One is telling the truth and the other three are giving made up definitions. The audience is suppose to guess who is telling the truth. We have watched this on other cruises, and the definitions they come up with can be pretty funny.
Dave went to hear Tom, and I retired to finish my blog.
Tomorrow we will be in Boca Da Valeria, which is just a small village, and no shore excursions are offered. It is here that we hope to see the pink dolphins.
April 5, 2023, Wednesday: This morning we have entered the mouth of the Amazon River. The ship stopped at a small town to pick up the pilot who will captain the boat to Manaus. In Manaus, we will pick up another pilot to captain us back to the Atlantic Ocean. The stop was at Macapa.
It was suppose to be at 9:00 AM, but we were stopped and the anchor was down at 8:00AM.
We went to breakfast and after breakfast we went to hear a speaker talk about the Amazon, but more in cultural, economical and political terms. These are recollections from her talk. Deforestation is a large concern, but the current president is taking steps to control the deforestation. There have been several ventures in the Amazon, some succeed and some fail. Henry Ford bought a tract of land and named the area Fordlandia. He wanted a reliable source of rubber. Unfortunately he planted the rubber trees too close and then the land flooded, so Ford’s venture failed. Another guy came in and planted trees for pulp, used the wetlands to grow rice to feed his workers, and was successful. Brazils government came in and told him he created a enterprise that was similar to those in the USA, and told him he had to pay USA wages to his workers. He could not do that, so the Brazilian government bought his enterprise for penny’s on the dollar, and this venture is still successful (to me sounded like the Brazilian government stole this company, but the speaker did not say this). Her talk was interesting, but I do question a couple of her statements. She told us about a parasitic catfish that was drawn to ammonia, so you should not urinate in the water. I googled it, and according to Wikipedia, another unreliable source, the fish exists but is not drawn to humans urinating in the water.
After the talk we went to the exercise room and used the treadmills! I realized I should be bringing my earbuds so I could listen to the TV. After exercising we ate lunch at the pool grill. Did not make it to tea today…. I thought Dave might be interested because it was called a brownie tea. Instead, we watched a presentation on Easter Island, which was discovered 301 years ago today, on April 5, 1722. It was Easter Sunday, thus the name.
It was raining in the afternoon so we went back to the treadmills and I remembered my earbuds. Today is the first day I got in my 10,000 steps!
Somehow we scored another reservation in Prime 7. We are not going to complain! The only unfortunate problem is our reservation is at 8:30, so we will miss all of the evening entertainment. We are really not complaining. The food in Compass Rose, the main dining room is excellent – much better than other cruises we have been on. Compass Rose is fine dining, and Prime 7 is more excellent dining. We can get good steaks, lamb and seafood in either. Prime 7 is just a cut above, with more attentive service. So tonight I had a crab cake for an appetizer and double cut lamb chops. Dave had a crab cake appetizer and the seafood platter again (lobster, king crab legs and a scallop). We are not scheduled to go back to Prime 7 for a few days from now.
We are still traveling on the Amazon River. We will be on the river for 7 days. We have not experienced bugs yet. We have seen clumps of vegetation floating on the river, which are results of vegetation breaking off due to strong current.
The only wildlife we have seen were a group of snowy egrets. There are many islands in the Amazon. Tomorrow we will stop in Santarem and we have a walk scheduled in the Tapajos National Forest. More on that after we do our walk!
Almost sunset!
April 4, 2023, Tuesday: At the Amazon talk yesterday, the speaker talked about the volume of water that the Amazon dumps into the Atlantic Ocean. This morning when we got up and looked out, the water was no longer the beautiful blue, but brown, because of the water coming into the Atlantic from the Amazon River. And, we were about 450 to 500 miles from the mouth of the Amazon!
It is overcast and rainy in the morning and early afternoon.
After breakfast, we went to another presentation on the Amazon. This one was about the creatures we will see from the ship, on the shore, and the walks we may take into the rain forest.
From the ship we may see farms with Brahma cattle. These cattle were imported from India because their hooves are resistant to moisture. We will also see river boats, which sound like public transportation. People will wave down the river boat and take them to their destination – market, shopping, medical appointments, etc.
There are millions of insects! The insects will be on the ship. One of these is a moth with a 6” to 12” wingspan! There are many species of birds including Egrets, Terns, Gulls, Kingfishers, Parrots, Parakeets, Toucan, Macaw.
Along the banks we may see tapirs and caiman.
In the river we may see floating vegetation as a result of the strong current eroding the river banks, giant water lilies that people can even stand on, river otters, many species of fish (3000 – 5000), manatees, porpoises. In one area there are pink porpoises! I am definitely hoping to see the pink porpoises. There is a lot of folklore surrounding the pink porpoises including they can disguise themselves as humans. Apparently unsuspecting pregnancies(!) are blamed on the pink porpoises.
Along the (muddy – it’s rainy season) trails are flora and fauna. There are over 1200 species of orchids, bromeliads, philodendron, etc. Also, ants, termites, ant eater, sloth, and 23 species of primates; over 300 species of hummingbirds, spotted cats (ocelots and jaguars).
Of course there are also piranhas, boa constrictors and anacondas.
Obviously, lots to see! We won’t see everything, but I hope we see the pink dolphins!
After the presentation, we went to the fitness room (!) and spent 30 minutes on the treadmill. Daves knee is bothering him, but he did OK on the treadmill.
Then we went to a presentation on Thor Heyerdahl and Kon Tiki. Apparently his theories were wrong, but the books he wrote were interesting adventure stories.
Dave and I went to Tea Time today. It was the first time on all of our cruises that we went to Tea, as I figured Dave would not like it. But he did OK! It was perfect timing because we had a late breakfast and missed lunch. We had little bite size salmon sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches and almond scones with our tea.
There was a whole table of sweets which we did not take advantage of. Our little sandwiches and scones were filling.
King Neptune and Queen Nep’tuna’ made an appearance for the equator crossing ceremony. Lots of people have not crossed the equator (polywogs) … seemed like 1/2 the ship. We are ‘shellbacks’, having crossed the equator previously. On previous crossings, the pollywogs were thrown into the swimming pool, but on Regent, they dropped a fake rat down a tube and the pollywogs were suppose to swat the rat when it cam out of the tube. As you can see from the photo, there are two young boys on the ship. They are the sons of the General Manager. We have seen them all over the ship, but they seem to be pretty well behaved.
We went to dinner in Compass Rose. Dave had filet mignon and I had Thai barbecue pork rack. Both were very good. We have been enjoying the wines that are included. If we don’t like the wines of the evening, the sommelier is happy to find something else.
After dinner we went to hear Tom play the piano and then we went to the evening show. It was billed as an instrumentalist, Craig Richard. I had seen him around the ship and he stood out to me because he was younger than most of the passengers and he was with a woman older than him. At the show he revealed he was traveling with his mom. Ahhhhh…it all makes sense now.
Sometime during the night we will really cross the equator and tomorrow morning when we awake, we will be at a technical stop just inside the mouth of the Amazon River. The technical stop is at Macapa, Brazil where we will pick up a river pilot who is familiar with this river that is always changing.
We will be cruising the Amazon River all day tomorrow.
Two maps which probably won’t show up very well ☹️:
April 3, 2023, Monday: one more item for yesterday…we listened to the Speaker Series which was about Paul Gauguin. Interesting that he was a contemporary of Van Gogh. One of his sons, Emile, is buried in the Lemon Bay Cemetery in Englewood. He seemed to be a tortured soul, however he spread his seed very liberally including the marriage to a West Indies indigenous Indian who was 13 years old! Apparently he had several children with young girls in the West Indies. The speaker insinuated this was not unusual for the times or the geographical area.
Today the water much calmer, but still not “smooth” sailing. We went to breakfast in Compass Rose, and I had the best French toast I have ever had. I may end up ordering it every day! After breakfast we went to the library and after sitting there a few minutes, I realized the couple across from me were very sick. Dave had gone to check on something so I didn’t want to leave because he wouldn’t know where I was. After a few minutes of them coughing, they got up and left, but I’m sure they left their germs behind. The woman looked awful! Finally Dave returned and we got out of there! We decided to try to walk, and we were able to get in 2 miles.
The walking track is above the swimming pool and I noticed the pool was closed, with a net across the top, and workmen in the pool. The water had been drained out….just looked funny!
I wanted to do more, but Daves knee was bothering him. So after our walk we had a lite lunch in the pool area.
We listened to another of the speaker series about the Amazon, and since this is a cruise to the Amazon, we found this talk very interesting. The Amazon River is 200 miles wide at the mouth, and averages 30 miles wide. There are islands in the Amazon River so despite its width, land is visible. There is a very strong current, and the topography of the river changes frequently. The Amazon is not a jungle, but is considered a rain forest. It is the largest rain forest in the world. The Amazon River is located in Brazil and the Amazon territory is larger than the continental USA. The Amazon River is the longest river in the world by 50 miles. It stars 18,363 feet above sea level in the Andes. The speaker said many rivers flow into the Amazon River. The Amazon is considered white water, but there are a lot of solids in the water so it looks brown. But if you let it settle, the solids will fall to the bottom and the water at the top will be clear. Water from the Rio Negro flows into the Amazon, and it is considered black water. Xingu river flows into the Amazon and is a clear water river. 20% of the fresh water that flows into the Atlantic Ocean is from the Amazon River. The Amazon River was found by Amerigo Vespucci in 1501. The Amazon is a dynamic river with a very strong current. 80% of our pharmaceuticals come from the Amazon, but only 20% of the plants have been identified, so there are many more possibilities. The people we will encounter are not Indians, but are called Caboclo. They are a mix of Portuguese, African and Indigenous Indian. Whew! Now you know!
Dave had requested reservations in Prime 7, but we were on a wait list. We didn’t hear anything, so we went to Compass Rose about 8:00. The restaurant manager approached us and asked if we’d like to go to Prime 7 at 8:15PM? Of course we said yes! We got almost the same meals: Dave had a crab cake appetizer and the seafood sampler plate (lobster tail, king crab legs and a scallop). I went for the surf and turf again, except I had a goat cheese tart,which wasn’t what I expected! It seemed to be chopped mushrooms, covered with poblano peppers and goat cheese. Nothing resembled a tart. The surf and turf was very good though.
We have been getting excellent attention and service from the wine stewards and sommeliers due to an unfortunate event on Day 2. Our wine server never returned during dinner to refill my empty wine glass. On top of that, our dessert never came. We received many apologies, and as a result….it seems everyone knows our name, especially the wine servers. Our wine glasses never go empty anymore.
By the time we finished dinner, it was late, and we lose an hour tonight. So we retreated to our suite.
April 2, 2023, Sunday: We didn’t do anything today! We woke up to a ship that was rocking and rolling! Fortunately, we are located mid-ship horizontally and vertically, which is suppose to be the best spot to be in rough waters. We went to breakfast at La Veranda, which is near the top of the ship….it was really rocking up there. I got a little queasy, ate a light breakfast, and went back to our suite. Dave also got a little queasy and a headache. We have been on many, many cruises, and this is the first time either of us felt the effects of rocking and rolling. We laid low all morning, and felt much better. We went to lunch at Compass Rose, which is on deck 5. As we sat eating lunch, we had waves splashing up on the windows. We tried to take a picture, but of course it doesn’t really reflect how rough the water was. We did pick up some seasickness pills….just in case. The captain said the waves were 8 feet, but I’m sure the ones hitting the windows on deck 5 were more than 8 feet. We decided to stay in our suite for the afternoon, just to keep from falling or getting queasy again.
We were suppose to have dinner with Irvin and Evelyn, but we did not hear from them, so perhaps they were laying low today, too.
Dinner was at Compass Rose. Dave had Lobster Bisque and a salmon filet. I had chicken broth and scallops. Then back to our suite. No evening entertainment tonight.
I am having a little trouble logging into the internet – maybe the weather is affecting the ships internet.
April 1, 2023, Saturday: This morning we were encouraged to meet Ray, the cruise director at 8:00AM on the pool deck to watch for Porofilla, which were described as sea animals that can grow to 20 feet and look like manatees. Of course we are not early risers so we did not go up to the pool deck. Upon arriving in St. Lucia, Ray made the announcement that the ship was cleared and that they got great photos of the Porofilla earlier, but there was still a pod in the bay next to the ship, port side. Dave and I were at breakfast, and looked out the windows but did not see anything. Later, after googling Porofilla, I discovered it was an April Fool’s joke, and I fell for it.
We have not been to St. Lucia before. The islanders have two languages, English and French Creole. The island changed hands between the French and English 14 times. It was controlled by the French 7 times and by the English 7 times. Our guide said England wanted to control the whole island, and gave France part of Canada in return – and that’s why there is a French speaking province in Canada. Don’t know if it’s true, but is interesting.
We signed up to go to the rain forest and take the Aerial Tram tour. Our tour gathered at 11:25AM and left the port in a small bus about noon. There were 3 little buses, so about 60 people. It was a bit of a drive, about 30 minutes. The roads are not the best, bumpy, potholes, and some were one lane so you had to squeeze by oncoming traffic.
Arriving at the rainforest we were divided up in groups of 8, and awaited our turn for a tram. The vendor at the rainforest also runs a zip line, so some of the trams were used to transport people planning to zip line or returning from doing zip lines. Each tram holds 8 people and a guide.
It travels very slowly up the mountain in the rainforest, with frequent stops which allows viewing of birds and plants in the rain forest.
Our guide was disappointed because we did not see many birds. He was trying to spot the national bird, the St. Lucia parrot. We did not see one, but they are hard to see because while they’re very colorful, their back is green. Trying to spot a green bird among the green trees is pretty difficult. At the top, the tram turns around and you head down the mountain. The views from the top were very nice, and you could see the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the other side. On clear days it is possible to see the island of Martinique, but today was overcast so we couldn’t see that far.
I think the tram ride was an hour long, and even though we didn’t see many birds, I enjoyed it and would do it again. At the end, our guide took us on a short walk through a hummingbird garden and we saw several.
We also saw a lizard that looked like our anoles, and several ginger plants.
We were given a complimentary drink of lemonade or tamarind juice before boarding our little bus back to the port.
There was an interesting “All In” sculpture that caught my eye.
This is what I read about it:
“The “All-In” sculpture was dedicated on October 3, 2019. The sculpture commemorate the 40th anniversary of the independence of Saint Lucia. The 40′ long bronze sculpture is 12.5′ tall and 19′ wide. It was created by Saint Lucian sculptor Jallim Eudovic.
All-In has four seated figures in a line. They each hold a set of large oars are in the act of rowing. There is no boat so the figures are in full view. The blades of the oars support the sculpture. The sculpture represents Saint Lucia’s ethnic composition: The Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and East Indians all of whom arrived by boat.
According to Jallim Eudovic: “Time has unified us all. We are no longer slaves or colonizers or indentured laborers, we are one nation and one people. We now sail back into the world in collective stride, the cargo – our culture, heritage and the mighty people who now work from the helm.”
After returning to the port, we walked through the shops and back on the boat. We were pretty hungry, so we went up to the pool deck to get some food for a late lunch. Evelyn found us and pulled up a chair…we may have become their best friends….we did commit to dinner with them tomorrow evening.
We rested and showered, and went to the Galileo Lounge to listen to some music by the Navigator orchestra until time for dinner. When we went to the Compass Rose dining room, we had to get on a wait list for a table. So we waited about 20 minutes before they came for us. There were 4 other couples waiting, too. Dinner was good, as usual. Dave had a shrimp cocktail and grouper. I had a tuna and salmon appetizer and the grouper for an entree. We both thought the grouper was delicious. After dinner, we went to a production show in the theatre. The singers and dancers performed songs and dances from around the world. We always enjoy the production shows and thought this one was very good, too, which surprised me because of it being a small ship. After the show we went to the Navigator lounge to hear Tom the piano player. Ray, the cruise director, stopped by and sang “My Way” with Tom on the piano. Tom is building up quite a following and it is getting harder to find a seat in the lounge where he is playing. Tomorrow we were suppose to go to Trinidad, but the port was cancelled, so tomorrow is the first of 3 sea days and 1 more day cruising on the Amazon River. So 4 days without setting foot on land!
March 31, 2023, Friday: Today our port of call is St. Kitts. St. Kitts was founded in 1627 but came under English control in 1727. The capital city is Basseterre and has been destroyed many times by colonial wars, fire, earthquakes, floods, riots and hurricanes.
We have been in St. Kitts twice before, and have seen most of the island. The first time we took a guided tour, which was great. The second time I had downloaded a walking tour. Both those visits were on Sundays and most of the stores and restaurants were closed. We could tell the difference in traffic today, a Friday, and everything appears to be open. We had not traveled on the St. Kitts Scenic Railway, and since it was one of the excursions offered by Regent, we thought that would be a good excursion. Our ship didn’t arrive until11:00AM, and our ship excursion did not meet until 12:15PM. At our meeting place ashore, it seemed about half the ship opted for the scenic railway tour. The tour around the island is 30 miles, 18 miles by train and the last 12 miles by bus. The train is advertised as the last railway in the West Indies. It is a narrow gauge railway built between 1912 and 1926 for hauling sugar cane.
We boarded a small bus at the port and traveled about 1/2 hour to the train station. The train had five cars, and each car was enclosed on the first level but open air on the second level although there was a canvas cover to provide some shade. Of course we sat on the second level. The train ride was about 2 hours long, with a running commentary that was difficult to understand coming over the speakers. We were served our choice of rum drinks – pina colada, rum and Coke, rum over ice, as well as water, cokes and sprite. Our server came by several times asking if we wanted something else, so we could have drank as much as we wanted. We were also given a cookie made with sugar cane, coconut, and ginger which was interesting. The actual train ride was very bumpy and rocking. At one point Dave asked me if you could get car sick on a train. We ran into a rain shower, and while we didn’t get soaked, we did get sprinkled on. We debated trying to get down to the enclosed level, but there was no way we felt comfortable walking to the stairs and then down the stairs with the train cars rocking and rolling. However, there were 2 guys, dressed in what I assume were native costumes, that traveled to each car and danced, looking for tips. Obviously they were used to the instability.
I was surprised at the size of the island and as we rode, the narrator would name all the villages we were passing through, and when we crossed from the Atlantic Ocean side to the Caribbean Sea side. She also pointed out this church where an ancestor of Thomas Jefferson is buried.
The Atlantic is always much rougher. We saw lots of animals: goats, pigs, cows, and a green monkey, originally brought to the island by the French.
We wondered about the track maintenance, especially as we crossed 4 bridges!
There was a little maintenance vehicle that stayed a distance in front of the train which I assume was to check the tracks and make sure there were no issues. We made it to the ending train station safely. Not sure I would recommend doing this train ride – it was pretty rough.
When we returned to the port area, we wandered around a little. But recognizing the places we saw in March, 2022 on our self guided walking tour, we decided to go back to the ship about 4:00PM. We’ve decided if we ever come back to St. Kitts, we will try to visit it’s sister island, Nevis.
We went to Prime 7 for dinner, which is the only restaurant onboard that requires a reservation. Dave had a crab cake appetizer and the seafood platter (lobster, scallop, crab claw) for his entree. I had a scallop with pork belly for my appetizer and surf and turf for my entree. We shared a popcorn sundae for dessert. People raved about the popcorn sundae on the cruise critic message board, so I had to try it. The meal was excellent. We really think the food onboard is the best we’ve had on any cruise.
After dinner we were entertained in the theatre by a comedian, Darrel Joyce, then back to our suite.
March 30, 2023, Thursday: Another sea day. Dave and I have been in the Caribbean on cruises many times, but the water on this cruise has been the most beautiful blue I have ever seen. It is a dark blue, maybe cobalt blue. I tried to take a picture, but the picture just doesn’t reflect the beautiful color that I see in person.
This morning we attended a lecture on the Caribbean beginnings. The islands were originally formed by volcanos and inhabited by people from central and South America. When the Portuguese and Spanish explorers found the islands, they determined that they could raise various crops and began bringing slaves from Africa to do the work.
We had lunch in La Veranda and then went to a documentary movie about the Amazon, “Mythical Roads – The Amazon”. I had good intentions to walk for some exercise, but by the time the movie was over, my good intentions had faded away. Dave has been having some knee issues, and said he was going to rest his knee today to be ready for out first port of call tomorrow, St. Kitts.
Regent does a “Block Party” where everyone grabs a glass and comes out of their suite and meets their neighbors. Crew is in the hallway with wine and hors d’oeuvres, and the captain and cruise director walks by to say hello. Tom, the piano player, came by with his guitar and sang “Red Red Wine”. We met some of our neighbors and it was a fun event. Afterwards we went to the Stars Lounge to listen to Tom play the piano before dinner. A couple from New Jersey that we met on the first day, Irvin and Evelyn, joined us. They are a bit of a hoot, but very nice and friendly.
We had a great dinner in Compass Rose. Dave had schezuan beef stir fry and I had scallops with a pumpkin purée. The evening show was the violin virtuoso again, and Dave had no interest in the violin virtuoso, so we went back to our suite.
We had a letter in our suite that the ship is skipping a port due to timing of the tides in the Amazon River. So we will not be going to Trinidad, but will have another sea day. Dave and I like sea days, but we’re a little disappointed because we have not been to Trinidad.
March 29, 2023, Wednesday: Today is a sea day, so we participated in activities onboard. We went to a film on the Caribbean ports we will be visiting, which included some ports we won’t be visiting! We also went to hear a speaker talk about Christopher Columbus and his four trips to include Caribbean islands, Cuba and Central America….but never North America. He thought he has reached Asia not realizing the American continent was blocking his way.
We found time in the afternoon to do a 2 mile walk on the pool deck.
We went to the Captains Welcome event. (Selfie below of us dressed for Captains Welcome) After introducing the department heads, the cruise director, Ray Solaire, gave a performance. Ray said his first cruise ship gig was on the QEII in 1969…so we figure he has to be 70+. His voice is amazing and he gave a great performance. One of his talents is being a ventriloquist, and he would throw his voice to dummies. He was quite good. Dinner was rib eye steak for Dave and lobster for me. After dinner we went to the Navigator lounge to hear the piano player Tom Sartorial. We have been enjoying his music. We skipped the late show which was billed as a violin virtuoso, and headed to bed.
March 28, 2023 – Tuesday: We rented a car to drive to Miami. We took our luggage to the ship and then returned the car at the Miami airport. We got a taxi at the airport to take us to the ship. It was a bit interesting because Dave thought the taxi missed a turn and misdirected the driver. We ended up going city streets to the port instead of the highway. We arrived at the port, they checked our documents, embarkation was quick and we boarded the ship about 1:30PM.
It is the smallest ship we have been on. The ship had an interesting beginning as it was built in what was Leningrad, Russia as a research vessel in 1991. Due to the collapse of the Soviet Block it was never totally fitted with satellite equipment. The ship was sold and eventually christened as the Seven Seas Navigator in 1999 in Ft. Lauderdale. It has been beautifully renovated, with its latest renovation in 2016. It has 13 decks, 560 feet long and 81 feet wide, a crew of 360 and 490 passengers.
After going to our muster station, we were able to go to our “suite”. All the staterooms on this ships are suites. Our suite has a nice size bathroom with a bathtub and a separate shower, we have a walk-in closet, and a seating area with a full size sofa.
There are three restaurants, but only one requires reservations, Prime 7. Before the cruise, we were only allowed to make one reservation at Prime 7, but once onboard, we were able to make a second reservation for our anniversary.
We had lunch in their “buffet”, La Veranda. You serve yourself, but are seated at white tablecloth tables and have attentive servers getting your beverages. We explored the ship after lunch and even “visited” the exercise room. By that time our luggage had been delivered and so we spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and getting settled in our suite.
Dinner was in Compass Rose, and we were impressed with how extensive the menu was. I had a red beet carpaccio for an appetizer; and lamb chops, spinach and asparagus for my entree. Dave had a Caesar Salad, Swordfish and we shared the vegetables. We generally skip dessert. The meal was very good and based on this first evening, we will be very happy dining in the main dining room, Compass Rose.
After dinner we stopped in a lounge to hear a piano player and then went to the theatre to see a movie on the Amazon. The movie was okay, but a bit too long and several people fell asleep including a man on my right, and Dave who was on my left.
The next two days are sea days, so we will be enjoying the activities onboard.
Our Itinerary:
Tuesday, March 28 | Miami, FL | 5:00pm | |
Wednesday, March 29 | At Sea | ||
Thursday, March 30 | At Sea | ||
Friday, March 31 | St. Kitts | 10:00am | 6:00pm |
Saturday, April 1 | St. Lucia | 8:00am | 5:00pm |
Sunday, April 2 | Trinidad | 8:00am | 4:00pm |
Monday, April 3 | At Sea | ||
Tuesday, April 4 | At Sea | ||
Wednesday, April 5 | Amazon River (Cruising) | ||
Thursday, April 6 | Santarem, Brazil | 10:00am | 6:00pm |
Friday, April 7 | Boca da Valeria, Brazil | 7:00am | 2:00pm |
Saturday, April 8 | Manaus, Brazil | 8:00am | |
Sunday, April 9 | Manaus, Brazil | 4:00pm | |
Monday, April 10 | Parintins, Brazil | 11:00am | 7:00pm |
Tuesday, April 11 | Alter do Chao, Brazil | 8:00am | 4:00pm |
Wednesday, April 12 | Amazon River (Cruising) | ||
Thursday, April 13 | At Sea | ||
Friday, April 14 | At Sea | ||
Saturday, April 15 | Barbados | 10:00am | 7:00pm |
Sunday, April 16 | Dominica | 8:00am | 6:00pm |
Monday, April 17 | St. Barts | 8:00am | 6:00pm |
Tuesday, April 18 | San Juan, Puerto Rico | 7:00am | 2:00pm |
Wednesday, April 19 | At Sea | ||
Thursday, April 20 | Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas | 11:00am | 7:00pm |
Friday, April 21 | Miami, FL | 6:00am |
Christmas Markets Cruise 2022
We leave for our Christmas Markets cruise on November 30, 2022 and arrive in Basel, Switzerland on 12/1/2022. We will be in Basel for 2 nights, visiting their city and Christmas markets. We will board our river cruise on 12/3/2022 and this is our itinerary:
12/3/2022 Embark Avalon Imagery II in Basel, Switzerland.
12/4/2022 Breisach, Germany (Black Forest with Cuckoo Clock workshop)
12/5/2022 Strasbourg, France (visit LaPetite France district and excursion into Alsace Countryside with wine tasting)
12/6/2022 Speyer, Germany (excursion to Heidelberg, Germany, visit Heidelberg Castle)
12/7/2022 Frankfurt, Germany (excursion to Rudesheim, Germany
12/8/2022 Main River Village (Wertheim guided walk and tasting)
12/9/2022 Wurzburg, Germany (Wonders of Wurzburg and Rothen urg, Jewel of the Middle Ages)
12/10/2022 Bamberg, Germany (Wonders of Bamberg)
12/11/2022 Nuremberg, Germany (Splendors of Nuremberg)
12/12/2022 Fly home from Nuremburg, Germany
December 11, 2022: This is our last stop for the Christmas markets. We are in Nuremberg, Germany. When we got up this morning and opened the curtains, we saw SNOW!
This morning we had a choice of included tours visiting the Nazi Rally Grounds or a panoramic drive, with a short walking tour, ending at the Christmas market. We have been to Nuremberg before, and toured the Nazi sights, so we opted for the tour ending at the Christmas markets.
On our drive, the guide noted more than 75% of Nuremburg was destroyed in WWII by allied bombing. In the following 20 years or so, much of the old city is rebuilt.
Nuremburg was first mentioned in 1050, although a fortress had been started about 50 years earlier. We visited the castle grounds and saw the first tower built.
The castle is considered one of Europes most formidable medieval fortifications.
On one of the castle terraces was an overlook, giving us a view of the city as well as one half-timbered house that survived the bombing.
Napoleon had this deep well dug and it still supplies fresh water.
Napoleon also established using one currency for Germany. Previously each little German state had their own currency, and there were many.
A 13th century city gate with a large tower. Our guide pointed out this area as they were protesting the World Cup.
The city of Nuremburg packed up all their treasures and stored them in this bunker during the war. Supposedly George Clooney made a reference to this bunker in the movie The Monuments Men.
We did not enter any buildings or churches on our walk, but we walked past St. Sebaldus Church, a medieval church. Established in 1225, it is named after an 8th century hermit and missionary. St. Sebaldus is the patron Saint of Nuremberg. It has been a Lutheran Church since the Reformation. In 1525, the city accepted the teachings of Martin Luther and became Protestant. Today, Nuremburg is about 1/3 Protestant, 1/3 Catholic, and 1/3 other religions or agnostic.
The beginning of the Christmas market! Remember, we are here on a Sunday morning about 10:15 am (one of the reasons I didn’t feel comfortable entering any of the churches, although none of them that we saw had the appearance of a service going on. Our guide told us the Nuremburg Christmas market does not have any music playing. Occasionally, a school or church group will come and sing a few carols.
We entered the market right by the “Schoner Brunnen” which is a 14th century fountain. It was built in 1385, about 62 feet high, and very attractive.
At the other end of the plaza was The Church of Our Lady. It was built between 1352 and 1362. I thought it was a glockenspiel, but could not get a clear answer. I think maybe the figures below the clock are out all the time.
Couple more pictures of the Christmas market.
We got a Nuremburg sausage sandwich. It is 3 smaller sausages on a bun, with mustard. We were warned that putting ketchup on them was a no-no. And, of course we got our gluhwein.
We had the option of coming back to the boat, having lunch, and going back out to the Christmas market. But, we felt we saw what we wanted to see, and we got our gluhwein, so we went back to the boat for lunch, and spent the afternoon packing and resting up.
This will be my last post for our Christmas Market cruise, or “gluhwein journey tasting trip”. We will get up very early Monday morning (will still be Sunday in Englewood), and start our long journey home. If all goes as planned, we will fly from Nuremberg to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Chicago (!), and Chicago to Tampa, then drive 100 miles to Englewood.
December 10, 2022: We had a restful morning. We have found it is hard to get up, eat breakfast and be ready for a tour by 8:30am or even 9:00am every morning. We are happy that Avalon gave us two morning this cruise where we could sleep a little longer. We bought pastries – a chocolate covered doughnut and an Apple strudel pastry in Rothenburg- so we didn’t even have to go to the restaurant for breakfast this morning! There is a lounge with a coffee machine (great machine, makes regular coffee, decaf, cappuccino, decaf cappuccino, latte macchiato, hot water, hot milk , and hot chocolate). The coffee is really good. Must be like a Keurig, but I just have to push a button for what I want and out comes the beverage! So I got my coffee and we had our pastries in our room. We like our room…it is bigger than other river cruises we have been on at 200 sq.ft. This summer, on Viking, our room was 150 sq. ft., and it felt really small. We don’t have a balcony, but one full wall of windows with a door that slides open. Our room has a beautiful live orchid in bloom 😁. Haven’t seen that before!
We were supposed to have a talk on Christmas traditions at 10:00am, and so we were in the lounge by 10:00, only to find out that we were slow going through a lock or something, so the talk would be at 11:00 (we could have slept an extra hour!). As we sat sat in the lounge waiting for the presentation, it started to snow! This is the first snow we have seen in years!
The talk was very interesting and some of the information was surprising. These are some details the speaker shared – don’t know if they’re true or not. For example, Santa’s suit did not become red and white until his image was picked up by Coke in the 1930’s as part of an advertising campaign. Also, the legend behind the pickle ornament was actually started in the states by Woolworth. Woolworth had imported a bunch of glass ornaments of all kinds of fruit. All the fruit ornaments sold except the pickle. So Woolworth marketing started the legend about the pickle ornament being hidden on Christmas trees in Germany. Then tourists came to Germany looking for pickle ornaments, and the Germans didn’t know why they were in such demand by the tourists. However, as any true merchant, they started making pickle ornaments! The beautiful woman with blond hair and a white dress that we frequently see was started by Hitler because he wanted to take religion out of the holiday.
This afternoon, we were in Bamberg. Bamberg is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We were very disappointed in our guide. Upon arriving in Bamberg, we had a walking tour. Bamberg is known for it’s nativity scenes, and supposedly there are 34 nativity scenes. The guide said she was first taking us to the most beautiful nativity scene at St Stephens, a Protestant church. When we walked in, there were children performing on musical instruments – one at a time. But we felt like we were intruding. The guide said it was a baptism…maybe, but I think it was more like a childrens recital. The first child we heard was playing a violin (Mary had a little lamb, I think). Next was a little boy playing an accordion. It was not formal at all, and the children went up, one at a time, to play their piece. The children were precious. The nativity was OK, but certainly not the most beautiful I’d ever seen. I think the connection was a special artist had made the figures in the nativity.
Our guide proceeded to tell us her interpretation of the nativity, and actually religion: Mary represented the earth and Joseph represented God and all of creation. She went on and on…I tuned her out. Obviously, not my view of religion, and inappropriate for a guide.
Then she took us to the “Upper Parish” church, or Parish Church of Our Lady.
Apparently, they move the figurines around as Christmas approaches, and today the scene represented Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay. The whole plateau represented a full scene with some ladies working on linens and men sitting around and a beggar, etc. I thought this nativity was much better than the first.
The third church we went to was the Bamberg Cathedral.
Our guide showed us the Cathedral rose garden and what she called the residence area which was a large courtyard. When we entered the cathedral, an orchestra was playing and a soloist was singing. Apparently the bishop is leaving and the music was a rehearsal for the bishops good bye service which will be held tomorrow. This was a huge Church, and contained the tombs of an emperor and a pope. This church also had a nativity set up.
Interestingly, all the nativity scenes were indoors, where ours in the states are outdoors. These all had small figurines, where the ones in the states usually have life size figures and sometimes real people.
After the churches, she finally led us to the Christmas market. Being a Saturday, and apparently a college town, it was packed. So much so that it was hard to walk. The did have cute booths and a merry-go-round for the kids. We literally were squeezing our way through the crowds of people – something Dave and I hate. We did find a place to get our gluhwein and we asked for their mugs. The lady told us they were in very short supply because all the tourists want them and don’t turn them back in (guilty!). We told her that’s why we wanted them and she sold us our 2 mugs of gluhwein in the red mugs! We did not see anyone else with red mugs! The other mugs, blue ones and clear ones, just say gluhwein and maybe “Christmas market” in German. Ours also have “Bamberger” imprinted on them so we will remember where we got them. We had enough time so we got a refill before we left.
As we were leaving and walking toward our bus, we saw this hotel from 1380!
December 9, 2022: This trip has been much better than what I was expecting. It has been COLD, but we have pretty much prepared and endured the cold…low to mid 30’s. I have really enjoyed going to all the Christmas markets. We buy little to nothing, because we have so much stuff. Maybe I should say we have been on the Gluhwein tour. 😂😂😂
We have two tours today, so it has been a very long day. I am skipping trivia in the boat lounge in order to write my blog, and I’m more than OK with that because I am a bit tired, and I have a nice glass of wine.
Our morning tour was at 8:30am, and we are In Wurzburg. From our stateroom, we could see a huge church up on the hill, and a fortress – but we did not go to either of them.
The big attraction, and where we are going is the baroque Bishop’s Residenz, the home to the largest known ceiling fresco.
Unfortunately, photos are not allowed inside. We had to wear masks, but the funny thing is the mask mandate ends tomorrow. Our guide said they opened early specially for our tours (and a couple other companies we saw). The normal opening time was 10:00 and we were there at 9:00. Obviously, much less crowded for us to be able to enjoy this UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built between 1720 and 1744, and the interiors were completed in 1780. Unfortunately, it suffered much destruction from the bombing in WWII, but the main entry and fresco were not destroyed. Our guide told us there are some apartments today in the complex, used primarily by employees. She added that it is very difficult to heat these old apartments, which seems true by the temperatures inside that we are experiencing. After entering the Residenz, the huge ceiling fresco represents the four continents known at the time: Europe, Africa, Asia and Americas. It was painted by an Italian painter in the late 1700’s. Looking closely, it is obvious the Italian painter was not familiar with the continents other than Europe as he drew an ostrich with oversized human looking legs, an elephant’s trunk looked more like a vacuum cleaner, and people riding on alligators and crocodiles in the new world. The Residenz was called the largest parsonage in Europe by Napoleon. It is pretty phenomenal, and as you walk inside, you wonder how people could have occupied such a huge space. We walked through a few rooms, and they contained some of the original furniture. As I look at these rooms, with huge ceilings, it seems one of these opulent rooms could contain my whole house! Other than one up-man-ship, why in the world did they build these huge castles? Interesting to see, but the practical side of me comes out these days. Don’t be mislead, I could deal with the marble and silk fabrics….
After leaving the Residenz, we walked to the main plaza and the Christmas market. It is similar to the other Christmas markets, but one difference was they had a little Ferris wheel for tots. We saw a couple of little boys riding.
The merry-go-round had a carriage and vehicles in addition to the usual horses.
We peeked inside one of the churches, which was from the 13th Century, I believe.
Our boat is docked near what is called the old bridge.
We did get our gluhwein at the Wurzburg Christmas market 😀.
After lunch, we were on an optional tour to Rothenburg, Jewel of the Middle Ages. I believe our guide told us this whole city is a UNESCO Worle Heritage site. It is a medieval city surrounded with a wall and five medieval gates.
There were lots of cobblestones, red roofed buildings, half-timbered homes and the home of Kathe Wohlfahrt. If you are not familiar with Kathe Wohlfahrt, I will just say the stores are very well known for their Christmas decorations. Since Rothenburg was the first store, now there are five in Rothenburg, but there have also been stores in every city we have visited so far. Avalon have even given us a 3% discount coupon (whoopee!). Kathe Wohlfahrt even has a Christmas museum we did not go even though Avalon gave us a free entry coupon).
Our guide gives us a brief overview of the town, took us to an amazing overlook, and then we had about 2 hours of free time.
This is not much free time for Dave and me! We had certain things that we have been looking for, and Dave is quite the shopper! Nothing new, he always has been. We saw things at Kathe Wohlfahrt in Basel that we did not want to haul around our whole trip, so now that we are close to the end of our trip, we are looking for them more seriously!
Unfortunately , we did not have enough time to walk on the city wall. We walked to one of the city gates and saw an interesting face.
Apparently the watchmen would pour hot oil on unwelcome visitors through the openings in this face.
We stopped at an overlook for a beautiful view, with a little chapel.
Walking back into town, we saw a museum for criminals. This cage like apparatus was used for bakers who baked bread too light. For each 1/2 ounce missing in the bread’s weight, the cage and the baker were dipped into the water. Other craftsmen who did not carry out their business correctly were subjected to the same dunking.
The town is just so cute and decorated for Christmas. Obviously, Germans take Christmas very seriously.
Rothenburg has a glockenspiel, but it is very “subdued” At the top of each hour, the windows open to reveal two characters….and that’s it.
We got out gluhwein, but that was a unique experience (and I forgot to get a photo). We bought our gluhwein, but it was served in cups from a prior year. To get a current year cup, we had to trade the old cups in for a new cup after we drank the wine. We played the game, we got our Rothenburg 2022 mugs, but too complicated to get a picture this time.
I was also on a mission to find some apple strudel, and to try these pastry things we’ve seen around Germany that look like baseballs. Fortunately, in Rothenburg we found some “mini” baseball things, but I haven’t tried mine yet. It looks like strips of pie crust wound into a ball shape like a ball of yarn. I’ll let you know when I eat it….tune in tomorrow!
We stayed in Rothenburg until after dark, and took a couple of pictures. It is just beautiful and I love these Christmas markets.
We got back to the ship shortly before dinner time. After dinner, they were having a Christmas trivia contest. Dave and I decided to pass on the trivia.
December 8, 2022: Today was pretty low key. We sailed along the Main (pronounced Mine) river this morning. There was a cookie baking demonstration which we did not attend. We were happy to get a little extra rest this morning. The boat docked in Wertheim and we had a walking tour that was included. The Christmas Markets were not open today, as it is a small town and the Christmas markets are only in operation on the weekends. I believe the guide said there are 6,500 inhabitants in the town proper and 24,000 in the surrounding area. There is a castle high up on the top of a hill, but it is just the ruins.
We did not walk up to the castle. It was built in the 1100’s and only occupied about two centuries. Wertheim is at the confluence of two rivers, the Main and the Tauber.
This was the city gate we entered through. Not sure if the red truck was for the Christmas markets or not. The city gate looks short because the city has had a lot of trouble with flooding. The rivers flood twice in Spring and twice in Fall. I believe the guide said the ground had been filled in about 6 feet, but it has only helped some with the flooding.
This leaning tower was built as a watch tower. After being built, it started to lean, so they added to the top to try to counteract the leaning. It has served May purposes over the years including a gathering place for women, a student prison, and more recently it’s been used for wine tastings. Our guide said this area produces mostly red wine, which is different from all the other regions we’ve been visiting that mostly produce Riesling.
Many houses have markings on the door frames showing the depth of the water and the year of the folding. This is the first one the guide showed us. The markings are a little hard to make out, but they’re on the left door frame. I think the highest mark at the top is from 1882.
This was another building with the flood markings, close to the Tauber River on the right side of the picture. The top shows a flood of about 28 feet in 1784.
This is a pretty small town, and this picture is a street scene.
During world war II, the town encouraged its Jewish population to leave the country. All the Jews except 18 left. Those 18 were taken to concentration camps and died. The current owner of this house honored those Jews by decorating his facade with 18 stars. A mother and her children who lived in this house were among the Jews that died.
This is a 13th generation baker who gave us a sample of pretzels he made, he said they were “the best pretzels we’ve ever tasted!”. They were good.
Our guide showed us the smallest house in Wertheim. It is more narrow at the bottom than at the top because he was taxed on the size at the bottom.
We visited the Collegiate church of Wertheim which started out as a Catholic Church in the 1300’s. Martin Luther came to town and converted the prince that lived in Wertheim, and the church is now a Lutheran church. Because it’s beginnings were Catholic, Christ is shown on the cross.
The ceilings above the Chancel were decorated.
Fountain on the Main Street.
Oldest hotel in town, The Golden Eagle, which seemed to also be a restaurant.
The gate tower lit up for Christmas.
We got the most expensive cups of gluhwein, and I didn’t even take a picture. We walked around trying to find a vendor with the fancy cups each town seems to have (I’m collecting them much to Daves chagrin). We finally spotted a place, but had to go into the adjoining restaurant to get served. It was quite a process as the waitress took the cups back in the kitchen I presume to heat them up. Finally, she came back, but only charged us for the wine. I told her we wanted the cups, and a gentleman, whom I presume was the proprietor, said they didn’t sell them. I asked if we could please buy the two we had, and he charged us 20 euros for the gluhwein and cups….this is about 6 euros more than we paid anywhere else, but I got the cups!
The entertainment tonight was a woman and 2 men. They played and sang some very upbeat music…Satisfaction, YMCA, Dancing Queen…etc. I thought they did a good job and we danced a little. One interesting tidbit – they got on the boat as we went through one set of locks and got off at another set of locks!
December 7, 2022: Today we were in Rudesheim. It is a small city in Germany, but Dave said it’s Christmas Market ranked #2 of all the Christmas markets.
We took a bus from out port near Frankfurt to Rudesheim. We were told we were going to take a chop cho train the short distance into town, but it was actually a truck line engine pulling about 6 cars.
We had an included tour this morning, to Siegfried’s Mechanical Musical Instrument Museum. It is advertised as 350 self- playing mechanical music instruments spanning 3 centuries. It was more interesting than I anticipated. The machines play many instruments automatically, and most of them would have replaced orchestras in theaters or dance halls. Many of them played music from pin holes on a roll, but others used things like pins in a drum and wax cylinders. The smallest one was like a little music box, and the proprietors are the only ones making them today. They were sold in the gift shop starting at 1,950 euros. No, we did not buy any. These are some of the mechanical instruments we heard.
We had a short time to visit the markets before our included lunch, so we wandered around a bit. The markets sold mostly food and gluhwein, but a few handicrafts and ornaments. We met up for lunch with our group. The restaurant had a band playing all kinds of music – from Christmas Caroles to Jimmy Buffett .
The lunch was potato soup, pork, mashed potatoes, creamed cabbage and apple strudel. We cut out before the Apple strudel so we could more of the Christmas markets.
Here are some views of the Christmas markets in Rudesheim:
We saw a pen with some cute animals.
The gluhwein place where we stopped had red and white gluhwine, and two colors of cups. We tried the white gluhwein, but decided we liked the red better. So, now we know!
We left Rudesheim about 2:00PM, and we were back to the boat about 3:30PM. We felt we could have easily spent another hour (or more), as the boat does not sail until 5:45pm. Don’t know why Avalon could not have given us a little more time in Rudesheim.
Rudesheim is really a neat little town, about 1 hour away from Frankfurt. There are lots of shops and restaurants, and was a very active place when we had dinner here on our river cruise last July.
It is really weird, but Daves iphone and my iPad think we are in Thailand! We had to reset our date and time off “automatic” and designated “Berlin” so we’d have the correct date and time! My iphone seems to be picking up the location correctly.
December 6, 2022: Last night, our cruise director told us the legend of Sinta Claus. We were to leave our shoes outside our door with notes indicating what we were sorry for, and a wish for the future. This morning, we had a bag of cookies and candies in our shoes. It was a nice nod to an European tradition.
We are docked just outside of Speyer, which we visited in July. Speyer has a phenomenal aeronautical museum, which we have not been able to visit, Maybe a future visit to Germany.
Today we have an all day tour to Heidelberg. It is about an hour on the bus from Speyer to Heidelberg. Our first stop is the Heidelberg Castle. Our guide was fixated on Prince Frederick and Elizabeth Stuart of London (Frederick and Elizabeth). So she spoke a lot about them.
While the castle is almost as old as the city, parts of the castle were constructed around 1300. It wasn’t until Prince Ruprecht III (1398 – 1410) that the castle was used as a regal residence. There are lots of different buildings, each of which represents a different period of German architecture. In 1764, the castle was hit by lightening leaving it uninhabitable. The citizens of Heidelberg used the castle stones to build or repair their houses.
In 1613, Prince Friedrich married Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I. This was a big win for Protestantism, but while it was a political marriage, it grew into a marriage of love. Frederick and Elizabeth were only 16 years old. While on London, Frederick saw the extravagance of the English crown. Because he loved Elizabeth, he wanted to give her in Germany as much as she left in England. On her 19th. Birthday, he gave her the Elizabethan Gate. Supposedly it was constructed overnight. It was plain on one side, but elaborately decorated on the other. He also built an English building for her and an English garden. They had 13 children and Frederick died young, at 36 years of age. Our guide said the 13th child almost became queen of England, and the current monarchy traces its roots from this 13th child of Frederick and Elizabeth.
We did not visit rooms inside the castle, but we saw the largest wine barrel in the world. It was built in 1751 by Prince Karl Theodor and holds 220,000 liters or 58,124 gallons of wine, there is a dance floor built on top of the wine barrel. The court jester who guarded the cask during the reign of Prince Elector Carl Philip, a Tyrolean dwarf nick-named Perkeo, was supposedly known for his ability to drink large quantities of wine. Legend has it that he died when he mistakenly drank a glass of water.
On the terrace of the castle is the indentation of a foot. If you put your shoe in it, it means you will return to Heidelberg.
We had some great views of Heidelberg from the terrace.
After the castle we got a brief tour of the town, and then left to explore on our own. Avalon had given us a voucher for a free glass of gluhwein, but the line was so long, we decided to explore first and come back later for our gluhwein. First, we went to Kathe Wohlfahrt’s store, which is a famous German store selling Christmas, and other items. Some really cute things….they also have a store in Nuremberg, so we are going to wait until then to make any purchases.
We walked to Vetters, a restaurant which brews their own beer, and supposedly has the most alcoholic beer in the world.
Our guide suggested we get a flight of beers, which is what we did. There were 4 beers on the flight. The first one was a lager, and it was very pale. The second one was a wheat beer, which was pretty good, and had a more yellow color. The third beer was their Christmas beer, and Dave and I both liked this one the best. We did not recognize any spices, it was just a good, mild flavored beer. The fourth one was their Vetters 33, which was their strongest beer. It had a very sweet flavor, and I thought it was heavy with a molasses flavor.. I like dark beers, but the molasses turned me off. So after we drank our flight of beers, Dave and I both ordered a glass of the Christmas beer. For lunch, I had sausages which came with a pretzel and mustard. I thought it was very good. Dave had pork snitzel which came with roasted potatoes and a salad. We asked if we could substitute sauerkraut for the salad, which they did. Of course, Dave didn’t want the sauerkraut, but I did, and it was good.
After lunch, we walked back and got our free gluhwein. This was in the last Christmas market in Heidelberg. There were four Christmas markets that we saw in Heidelberg. Who knows, there may have been more. Most of the markets focused on food and drink. We visited all four as we walked back to our bus. We actually had about 3 hours of free time, but that goes very quick when you are walking through the markets.
After the last market, there was a store selling all kinds of sweets and breads. Dave and I bought some cookies and chocolates. We really are not in the market to buy much, but we enjoy looking.
Back on the ship, we had a farewell toast to those leaving our cruise, and a gala dinner. The food is very good.
December 5, 2022: This morning Avalon offered an included tour to Strasbourg. When we read through the description, it was the same tour we did in July. So we decided to sleep in.
After lunch, we had an optional tour “Into the Alsace Countryside with Wine Tasting”. First we visited a small town, Barr, France and the “Lepp Leininger” winery. This location has been producing wine since 1760, as the Lepp winery. In 1911, the Leininger family bought the winery and has been producing wines since 1911. Our guide at the winery was the grandson. He was very good describing the process. They only use their own grapes for their wines and primarily produce white wine. They do make a Pinot Noir, as the only red wine. They started producing natural wines when COVID hit, and that part of their market is growing. They produce 60,000 bottles a year.
We were given 4 wines to taste. The first was a natural wine, called “Prologue” produced in 2021. It was a dry wine, but very mild. The second wine was a Riesling produced in 2020, which was dry, but good. The third wine was a Pinot Gris produced in 2020. It was good but tasted much sweeter than the previous wines. The fourth wine was a Gewurztraminer, produced in 2018. This wine was very sweet and would be what Dave would call a dessert wine.
The town was very cute, but small. I think he told us the population was about 8500.
Leaving Barr, we drove to Obernai, France. This is another very cute medieval town with town walls from the 13th century. It is a picturesque town with half-timbered homes, 20 towers and 4 gates. Obernai has a small Christmas market, too, mostly with food and drink. Our guide gave us a short tour, pointing out the 13th century walls and towers, the Jewish synagogue, the tower that is left from the 13th century church, the new church, and the “Six Buckets Well”. A fountain in the center of town has a girl statue at the top, Sainte-Odile (662-720). She is the patron Saint of Alsace, France. She was born blind, but gained her sight when she was baptized at the age of 13. Our guide said the gluhwein would be white since most of the wine in France is white. However, when we walked through the market, we only saw red gluhwein. We were given a sample of gingerbread, which had a very strong ginger taste. Dave found a chocolate shop and was able to get himself some chocolate.
After returning to the ship, and after dinner, we had a bit of entertainment on the ship. We were all suppose to fill out a form indicating which of 10 songs would result in the most people dancing. I had #1 and #2 right, but blew it on #3. Who would have thought “The Chicken Dance” would draw the 3rd most dancers? Anyway, it was a lot of fun and drew a lot of laughs.
December 4, 2022: This morning we opted out of the full day trip to the Black Forest because we were just there in July. Instead, we did a wine tasting. Our guide was a wine maker. He talked a lot about the different soils, and much of the land has volcanic rocks and ash from eons ago. He took us to a wine museum, the Kaiserstuhl Wine Museum, as this is a big wine region.
The museum belonged to a Church from 1315 to 1806. The area farmers brought their tithe to this building, which was one tenth of their crop. According to our guide, the people revolted because they were tithing 1/10 of their crops, but they were starving.
We tasted 4 wines, 3 white and 1 red. I did not like any of the white wines, although our guide said the 3rd white one was one of his wines, and it had won awards. The third one was the best of the 3, but still not something I would choose. The fourth wine was a red one, which he said was a Pinot Noir. Dave and I both liked this one, and Dave bought a bottle.
We went back to the boat and had lunch. It was raining and we were debating going out in the rain. Finally we decided we’d brave the rain and we walked into Breisach. The boat is docked right outside of town, so it is a short walk.
There is a huge church up on one of the hills, so we decided to walk up to the church (ugh! Lots of stairs!).
There were lots of placards with descriptions of the church, town hall, and several of the houses. The town was originally a Roman town, and was mentioned several times on ancient maps as a stopover point. One prominent guest was Roman Emperor Valentinian who visited on August 30, 369. The date is recorded because he signed a law while in Breisach. Not sure what happened between 369 and 1200, but there are lots of buildings with written history from the 1200’s on.
After climbing to the top of the hill, first we visited St. Stephan’s Minster, or the church. It was built between the 12th and 15th centuries, but then almost completely destroyed during WWII in 1945. Actually, many of the buildings were destroyed in WWII, and then rebuilt after the war.
There was an interesting sculpture of a bull coming up out of the ground with a female warrior (Joan of Arc?) riding the bull. Did not see what this sculpture actually represented.
We had good views from the plateau where the church is located. We could see in the distance another hill with a fortress of some sort, but did not go there, as we would have had to walk down the present hill and climb up the hill where the fortress was located.
Once on top of the hill where St. Stephan’s was located, there was actually an “upper town” where in centuries past the villagers lived. So we could wander around. Several of the houses had plaques which told who lived there. One funny thing was the information was in German, French and English. The German and French descriptions were several sentences long, but the English translation was shortened to one or two sentences.
One house belonged to a Catholic theologian, can’t remember where he was from, but was forced into retirement and moved to Breisach in the late 1930’s. He was imprisoned many times for speaking out against nazism, and subsequently put to death in a concentration camp. His house caught my eye because it reminded me that it was not only Jews that died in concentration camps.
Another plaque told how Christians and Jews lived together in the 1300’s. But when the plague came, the Jews were accused of poisoning the wells thus causing the plague, and the Jews were murdered.
We came across another tower which provided water to the ancient town, using a water wheel.
We spotted the Christmas Market in the lower part of town and walked down to check it out. We agreed that it is a cute town and we were glad we braved the rain.
One of the streets leading to the Christmas Market.
The Breisach Christmas Market was much, much smaller than the Christmas Markets in Basel, but had its own atmosphere. According to our cruise director, the original European Christmas Markets were all about food and drink. But when tourists started coming, they added the booths with handicrafts and other items for sale. The Christmas Market in Breisach was mostly food and drink, but they also had a curling court (is curling done in a court? That’s what I’m calling it!) set up and were curling! Dave and I got a gluhwein and watched! We wished we knew the rules, because it seemed a little different than the curling we watch in the Olympics. We did not keep our gluhwein cup…it was just a plain glass cup whereas the Basel ones have the year imprinted on them.
After the gluhwein and curling, we’d had enough rain and headed back to the boat. It was “tea time” and they were serving more gluhwein!
We had some evening entertainment – a lady singer and gentleman piano player. We enjoyed the performance. She sang songs from Caberet, West Side Story and some Christmas Caroles.
December 3, 2022:
Today was a “slow” day. We checked out of our hotel and took a cab to the river oar, Avalon Imagery II. The good news is that we are much happier with our stateroom on Avalon than we were with our stateroom on Viking last summer. Admittedly, we booked a higher level stateroom on this trip, but we just feel that the layout of the boat is much better than Viking.
We did not sign up for the “optional” Basel tour, since we had already spent 2 days in Basel. From others we have met onboard, they went to two of the Christmas markets in Basel that we already visited….so it was a good decision. We stayed onboard and had what they referred to as a light lunch, but I thought it was pretty filling. It was served buffet style, and they had sandwiches, vegetarian lasagne and beef lasagne. Also soup, various salads and some small dessert cakes. Plenty to eat! There are also cookie, coffee and tea stations all over the ship.
This afternoon, we took a little walk along the stream into whatever town was close to where the boat was docked. We are near the 3 country area of Switzerland, Germany and France. Our walk was still in Switzerland. The big sights were the water fowl.
We walked a little over 2 miles, and then we were back on the boat.
Shortly after 4:30 PM, the boat was moving. We had a safety briefing, met the officers, and had a toast. So, we are off on the Christmas Market cruise!
December 2, 2022: since we went about 33 hours without a good sleep, we did not get an early start. Due to some text notifications on my phone, we were awakened at 8:00am Basil time. We did not jump out of bed and get going then, but just kind of relaxed for awhile, watching the news, showering, etc. By the time we were really ready, it was almost lunchtime, so we headed out looking for lunch! We walked across the river and along the riverbank. We saw the “Middle bridge”.
The area along the riverbank had some interesting houses. One had a snail plaque on the outside. It is the red snail house and supposedly was the smallest house in Basel. The legend is that the inhabitants should furnish the living room in the red snail.
Across from the area Snail House is this fountain. It is a Baselisk fountain, and it has a bowl at the bottom so dogs can get a drink, too.
We kept walking and saw a bunch of food trucks ready for the evening rush. One place mentioned to us was Klara. It was described as a food court, like in a mall. We did find it, and cruised through. They had Asian, Italian, African, ane even burgers, but it did not look appealing to us. We found a restaurant that looked nice to us and ended up having an European pizza which we shared. I say European because it reminded us of the ones we had in Italy. Very thin, crispy crust and we added ham and salami. It was very good. After lunch we wandered around some more. One source I saw said Basel had about 200,000 inhabitants. Maybe that does not include the college students? It seems bigger than that. After a brief rest in our hotel room, we headed out again. We walked to the area in front of our hotel. There are food trucks set up, and a pop up musical group singing. Some of the food trucks are selling market foods like vegetables, salamis, flowers, etc…things you’d take home. But we were on a mission to find another Christmas market Dave had read about. We saw a beautiful tree outside a church.
There was a Santa entertaining children by making massive bubbles.
After watching him and the children, we headed to a church in back of him…an Evangelical Reformed church.
We went inside, and they had some beautiful stained glass windows, and chandeliers with red lights. It was dark inside, though. But vents on the floor were giving off some nice heat!
Just outside the church was another market.
This one was much smaller than the one we visited last night, but it had a really cool area for kids. You had to buy a ticket, and then the kids could make candles, decorate cookies, do wood burning, visit a circus, ride a train, or cook something (bread?) over a fire. This market seemed to be more kid oriented. For kids,this was really a cool area.
We walked across the river to see what was going on there. We passed a bar that had keg handles at the table!
We started looking for someplace to have dinner, and we saw this really cool place. The tables were in ski lifts!
Unfortunately, they were all reserved, so we could not eat here ☹️.
We found an Italian restaurant and the maitre d’ said he could seat us but he had a reservation for the table in 90 minutes. Dave said, If you can serve us, we’ll be done in 90 minutes! So, we ate there. I had risotto with shrimp:
And Dave had Chicken Cordon Bleu:
Of course we had a bottle of wine, a Pinot Grigio, which we are beginning to like! The meal was very good.
At night, many of Basel streets are lit up with these lights overhead making it feel very festive.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and visited the terrace.
We were surprised to see the food trucks and musicians gone! This was taken about 8:00PM on a Friday night! Will be interesting if they are all back tomorrow, but we will be gone – on our river cruise.
We went to the restaurant in our hotel and got a couple of glasses of red wine, and they also gave us a bowl of nibbles to take back to the room.
Time to kick back and rest! It was a good day in Basel!
November 30 – December 1, 2022: I look at this as one long day. We left early for our flight out of Tampa, just because we were ready to go….it turned out to be a good thing. We were flying Tampa to Newark to Frankfurt to Basel, two stops, which we try to avoid. As we were walking into the airport, Dave noticed the two flights to Newark before our were delayed. We knew there was a storm in that general region, but thought it would pass through before our flight. When we went to check our bags, Dave told the United lady we were concerned our flight would be delayed causing a domino effect of missed flights for us. She agreed and put us on an earlier flight. It was still delayed, but should get us to Newark in time for our flight. Whew! We got to Newark about 90 minutes before our second leg, to Frankfurt, left. That was perfect as it was a long walk through the terminal, a pit stop, and boarding started! If we had taken our original flight, it did not arrive in Newark until 15 minutes before our Frankfurt flight, and we would have missed it. The rest of the trip to Basel was uneventful, but we did enjoy watching the sunrise over Frankfurt from the airplane.
The Basel airport is interesting as it sits in both France and Switzerland. When you go to exit, you can either exit into France or into Switzerland. Customs was very easy…you choose a line to declare items or a line with nothing to declare. We had nothing to declare, so we walked straight out to the taxi stand – did not have to talk to customs official at all.
We are staying at Hotel Marthof in Basel, which in right at the beginning of the old city.
We were able to check in when we arrived at 1:30pm, but rooms were not available until 3:00PM. Even though we had a couple of “naps” on our flight, we were still sleep deprived. Switzerland is 6 hours ahead of Englewood, so we have been up for 24 hours at this point. Dave was hungry, so we set out to explore and find some food. Conveniently, a McDonalds was very close to our hotel, so we got a burger to hold us over until dinner time. Sitting in a window seat eating our burger, we could see the city hall.
We walked over to the city hall and it had a huge, beautiful decorated tree.
Basel is all decorated for Christmas and it is a cute city. It is pretty cool – cold to us – and with all the decorations, it really feels like Christmas! There are many fountains and we actually saw kids playing in them, squirting water at each other. Don’t they know how cold it is!
We wandered a little more. We found one of the city gates which was part of the city wall at one time.
There are lots of little plazas, and we saw this tree with notes all over it. Two young girls came up and we asked them what the purpose of the tree was (first we asked if they spoke English! Of course they did – we Americans are spoiled in that so many of us only know one language!). The tree was a wishing tree. There were two stands with note papers, and anyone could write a wish and hang it on the tree. We didn’t write a wish then, but if we pass the tree again, I will definitely add a wish.
We walked by a building with a doorway and 3 long pull cords. I have to assume that each pull cord was the “doorbell” for each of the residences. Unique!
Since it was after 3:00pm, we walked back to the hotel, got our room key, and went to our room. Unfortunately, our view is of…construction! We scattered our belongings, searching for our heavier, warmer clothes, but trying not to totally disrupt all our carefully packed clothes – ha! (We are in this hotel for 2 nights before we move to the river cruise ship.) We dug out our bathroom items, found our heavier clothes, and headed out to find a Christmas Market. We wandered the old town some more, and every store is decorated and very “Christmassy”. Did a lot of window shopping! As we got close to the Christmas market, there was a museum/restaurant that has really cute window that reminded me of the windows in Marshall Field’s, downtown Chicago, from YEARS ago! At least one window was animated!
We could see the Christmas Market and walked towards it. There were tons of people! Lots and lots of little booths with vendors selling everything. The first place we stopped had a very long line to purchase “Gluh wine”, which tasted more like apple cider. But it was hot and delicious! The wine was 5 € and you pay an extra 3€ for the ceramic cup, which I think you can turn in and get your 3€ back, but we kept them as souvenirs. Since this was our first Christmas market, I know Dave is hoping we don’t return home with a suitcase fill of Gluh wine cups! We wandered around the market and saw all kinds of decorations, including this huge one! Should remind you of the small merry-go-rounds that
you lighted candles to make them turn.
We decided to walk back to the hotel and find a restaurant. We ended up eating at the restaurant in our hotel “Bohemia”. I had “Moules and Frites” and Dave had Salmon, with a bottle of Pinot Grigio. It was very good and was a relaxing way to finish our day.
Celebrity Solstice 10/8 to 10/15/2022
October 15, 2022: my last post fir this trip! We purchased transfers to the airport from Celebrity. It was probably a good choice, because when we exited the cruise terminal, there was a huge line waiting for taxi’s and Ubers. We were up early, off the ship, on the bus and arrived at LAX by 9:30AM. Our flight is at 12:05PM, but LAX is a big airport and lots of people told us it can take a long time to check your bag and get through security. Fortunately for us, we got through pretty quick and we’re at our gate by 10:00AM.
I must be a magnet for toddlers. Dave and I had aisle seats across from each other. On first leg of flight, a toddler sat with his parents in the middle and window seats. He was very active for the first half hour or so, but settled down and slept. Whew! On the second leg, A toddler was right behind me and proceeded to kick the back of my seat for the first half hour. I think the mom saw me tell Dave I was concerned about spending 2 more hours with the child kicking my seat. Dave said she turned the child around, and fortunately, the rest of the flight was fine.
We got to Tampa about 9:45 pm, but there was some kind of an issue with the luggage as we were told it was going to be on carousel #2, and we waited. Then they changed it to carousel #4 and we waited. Then a message came on carousel #4 saying all the bags were on the belt, when not even one bag came. Then we got a PA announcement that the bags were on carousel #2. Fortunately, this time the luggage did come out on the belt and we got our bag about 10:30pm. We made it home at the stroke of midnight.
October 14, 2022: Today we are in Ensenada, Mexico. We have a private tour going to two winery’s. While we did not see downtown Ensenada, I will say we had a very enjoyable day, and the best tour of the cruise. Based see on what we saw today, I would not mind coming back and spending more time in Ensenada.
We heard from the sommelier at our wine tasting that Ensenada was up and coming in the wine industry. How many Mexican wines have you tasted? We’ll, Dave and I have tasted several after our shore excursion today.
We got off the ship a little before 9:00 and had to walk about 1/4 mile to the meeting point. We were a few minutes early, and our guide Fernando said there were 14 people. Our driver was Pancho. On our ride, Fernando talked about the area and pointed out various landmarks. It was about 45 minutes to the first winery, Cetto. At the winery, everything was clean and well landscaped. They had been in the business since 1928, and it is still in the same family. Our guide at the winery was Adrian and he showed us the wine making process. We actually saw the grape skins coming down the conveyor.
Adrian said they were Cabernet Sauvignon grape skins. The first pressing had taken place and these skins were on their way to a second pressing to extract more juice. Adrian took us to their storage room where wine is kept in barrels and the building is kept at 58 to 64 degrees. There were 3 sizes of barrels – big barrels for young wine , medium size barrels and then smaller barrels for the reserve wine.
After our tour we were taken into their sales room to taste wine. We had 4 wine samples, 2 whites and 2 reds. Our guide also gave us bread, cheese, and olives to sample with the wines. All the wines were very good, but we could not buy any because they do not ship and we could not carry them back on the plane.
Leaving the Cetto winery, we drove a short distance to a second winery, La Casa de Dona Lupe. This grape grower used to produce and sell grapes to Cetto, the first winery we stopped at. But then Cetto was able to grow enough grapes to meet their production quotas and stopped buying grapes from La Casa de Dona Lupe. So La Casa de Dona Lupe started producing their own wines.
In order to have a different product, they also sell food, hot sauces, jams, etc. We got to pick 4 wines from their offerings. Their wine was not as good, but again we were provided with bread, oil, olives…and sauces and flavored olive oils to try. As we were tasting the wines, someone from a different tour saw Dave’s Buc’s hat and gave him their ticket for 4 wines because he wasn’t a wine drinker. So Dave got to try 8 different wines. Unfortunately, La Casa de Dona Lupe’s wines were just not as good as Cetto’s. After we left La Casa de Dona Lupe, our driver mentioned an authentic taco place and asked if we were interested. Of course we were! I think this is one of Poncho’s favorite places. In case you are in Ensenada, the name of the place is El Trailero. This place had taco preparers set up at different stations and each prepared tacos with a different meat.
We tried the fish tacos, but Dave thinks we got shrimp tacos…anyway, they were very good.
I also tried a bottle of water with chia seeds. It was surprisingly sweet.
Stopping at the taco place was a nice bonus. As we got close to the ship, Fernando offered to drop us off downtown or at a bar where Margaritas were invented, “Bar Andaluz”.
Of course I opted to go to the Margarita bar. I had a frozen mango margarita and Dave had a Cadillac Margarita on the rocks.
I have to admit, Daves margaritas at home taste better as they have more flavor. After the margaritas, we walked back to the ship. But it was a fun day and I really enjoyed it.
After returning to the ship, we packed and gathered our stuff in preparation for disembarking tomorrow.
We went to the theater to see a magician perform. Of course it’s not really magic, but slight of hand and trickery. Dave does not enjoy magicians, but I found hum entertaining. I think his name was Andrew Kim. After the show, we went to dinner and then to bed as we have to get up early tomorrow. We will be off the ship by 8:00AM.
October 13, 2022: Today is a sea day, so our last chance at relaxing. After breakfast, we went to the internet lounge. Dave was trying to send an email, and for some reason it would not go through. I have an upgraded internet package where Dave just has the basic. Even using my login, the email wouldn’t go through. The internet lounge guy thought the problem was an attachment on the original email. So we deleted the attachment and finally got his response sent.
Late morning we had a complimentary wine tasting because of our loyalty with Celebrity. Dave really does not like these, because he knows what wines he likes. But, I talked him into going because it was something to do on a sea day.
We lounged for awhile in the stateroom, had a late lunch, and went to a matinee with Kristina Wells. She was the vocalist we heard last night in the theater. This afternoon she was singing 70’s music by “Diva’s”. It was a good show. She has a lot of energy and makes the show entertaining.
We spent some time relaxing in our stateroom. I have daily assignments from my Bible study class which includes reading each day and Dave has a book and watches some TV….like ‘Da Bears!
We finished our day by going to the theater before dinner. The show was Broadway Cabaret. The six onboard vocalists sang song from hit plays like Cats. We were a little disappointed because we only recognized a few of the songs and wished they would have sang more familiar pieces from these plays. But, it was entertaining and after the show we went to dinner. Lots more people in our restaurant and they were LOUD ☹️
October 12, 2022: We have a port call in Cabo San Lucas today, and we have booked a shore excursion “Cabo Sightseeing Tour”. We were in Cabo San Lucas in 2009, but I don’t remember any of it. Of course, in 13 years I’m sure a lot changed anyway.
To get to our meeting point we have to take a ships tender. The ship is not able to dock, because Cabo San Lucas does not hove docking facilities. So they use the lifeboats to bring people from the ship to the shore. We have done this many times, but today is the first time we had a lady tender driver! She did a great job!
Arriving on land we joined our tour. Lots of people taking this tour – two big buses full! So first we drive to the center of Cabo San Lucas and pause at the main square. Cabo San Lucas was founded in 1541. There is a marker at this city square for KM O, which is supposedly the start of the highway that heads north into California, but it should actually be a mile or so away on the beach. The government put it here for tourism purposes.
The guide pointed out the church in Cabo San Lucas and told us the difference between a church and a mission is that the mission may be used for many purposes. This is the church in Cabo San Lucas.
As we drive, the guide points to an area in the hills and said this is veered very wealthy people live as just the lot without a building on it costs over $2 million USdollars. Supposedly Michael Jordan and John Travolta are two of the wealthy people with homes here, and they may not visit them even once a year. We drive along the water and we are heading to the neighboring town of San Jose del Cabo. Our guide tells us about the humpback whales that are in these waters as well as various species of shark. He tells us about the different color of flags that fly on the beaches. Green flag means it is ok to swim, yellow flag means be careful as there may be hazards, a red flag means don’t think about swimming here, a black flag means somebody didn’t pay attention to the flags and passed away, a white flag indicates jelly fish and a blue flag means there are services.
As we pass one beach area, the guide pointed out a surfing beach used by experts, mediocre surfers, and rookies – each in their own area.
The guide also talked about the US invasion of Mexico in 1846 to 1848. The war ended with a treaty giving the U.S. undisputed control of Texas, established the U.S.-Mexican border along the Rio Grande, and ceded to the United States the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, and parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming. in return, Mexico got some money. General Grant was involved in this war and some think this war was the precursor to the civil war. As our guide previously told us, a mission has multiple uses where a church only has one purpose. The mission in San Jose del Cabo was used as a shelter, an elementary school and even a post office for awhile. We are going to visit the mission in San Jose del Cabo, and our bus ride is taking us to San Jose del Cabo.
We arrived in San Jose del Cabo in front of the city hall.
It is close to the town square and the mission building is at one end of the square. But first we go and taste some chocolate and tequila, always a fun activity. After the tastings an a chocolate purchase….Dave and I left and wandered around the square a little bit. There are lots of stores, but the only people here seem to be the ones from the two tour buses. Dave and I bought a scoop of ice cream, and wandered over to the mission.
The mission was originally founded in 1730 and originally built in some swampy land close to the water, but was destroyed and moved to this location. Missions customarily were built using natural materials.
This mission was not without drama as there were disagreements with the indigenous people. In 1734, the natives drug the priest out of the church and brutally murdered him. In remembrance of the event, there is are tiles depicting the event on the front of the church.
Fortunately, things were very peaceful today.
We met our guide at the appointed time and got back on the bus. Our guide noticed he was missing 2 people…20 minutes late the missing people boarded the bus. Very frustrating when people can’t follow instructions.
On the ride away from San Jose del Cabo, our guide spoke of Mary Leonora Carrington, originally born in England. She was an artist that recognized the potential of San Jose del Cabo and fought her ideals of feminism and equality to the region. A piece of her work is located at the intersection of two highways near San Jose del Cabo. Not a very good picture as it was through the bus window.
We were a little disappointed in this tour, as it wasn’t what we expected. I think we thought we would be getting more of a tour of Cabo San Lucas. But our guide was very knowledgeable and gave us all sorts of information.
We saw a huge pelican while waiting for our ride back to the ship.
Back on the ship, we went to get something to eat, and then to our room to rest up before going to dinner this evening.
Dave got a picture of the Cabo San Lucas arch from our balcony as the ship was leaving Cabo San Lucas. This spot is a popular gathering area for sea lions and is frequented by tourists.
We went to the theater tonight and the performer was a vocalist from Las Vegas, Kristina Wells. She sang many favorites that we knew, including songs from Celine Dion, Four Seasons, Frank Sinatra and Adele…so a wide variety! We have been going to the early show and eating dinner a little later. It seems there are fewer people in the early show, but we heard from Guest Services there are only about 1400 people onboard, so that’s 50% capacity….no lines, no waiting!
October 11, 2022: Today we had a port of call in Puerto Vallarta , Mexico. It is a city that Dave and I have wanted to visit. We did a ship excursion, because it is a good way to get a feel of the city and not get into trouble. Our ship was backed into the dock, and our stateroom on the back of the ship, so we had a good view….but it was of the newer part of the city. I think we were docked in Nuevo Vallarta. There was a Walmart and shopping mall across the street from where we docked – not what we were hoping to see.
Unfortunately, the picture got blurry when I posted it, but it is clear on my phone ☹️.
We left on our excursion on a bus, and drove quite a distance to the older part of the city. First we went to the Malecon, which is a walk along the waterfront. There are many statues or pieces of art.
We were entertained by two “Aztec” men who danced for us.
Then we walked to The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, built between 1930 and 1940. The steeple is crowned with angles and is unusual because of the open design.
The interior was beautiful, but not extravagant like many of the churches in Europe. The church is based on a parish priests ideas and the rustic townscape of the past.
The guide pointed out houses higher up on a hill. This area is called Gringo Gulch. Part of the reason it is called that is because our guide said this is where Liz Taylor and Richard Burton stayed while filming “ The Night of the Iguana”.
We reboarded the bus for a short drive to the Romantic Zone. In the Romantic Zone, we visited a park with mosaic tile artwork. Artists have covered what used to be bare cement with mosaic tiles. The benches are covered with mosaics, all different designs.
We enjoyed walking through this park. The park is just up the street from a beach called “skeleton beach” or “deadman’s beach”. It is so named for the bones of indigenous people found buried in the sand after legendary pirate raids on a nearby village.
The park also had a cute statue of a stubborn mule.
We reboarded our bus and drove to another park. To reach the park we had to walk across a suspension bridge.
Then we were on Cuale Island or Childrens island. Our guide told us that as a child he played in the river we just crossed and the ladies would be washing their laundry in the river. From there we walked to a shopping area and stopped at a shop where the owner was making candied nuts. We were offered several samples and also samples of tequila. This was our last stop and we were given about 45 minutes to wander in this area. It was touristy, but not overwhelmed with tourists.
Back at the ship, we had lunch, and then rested for awhile. We were invited to go to the helipad on the front of the ship for the sail away.
This invite is issued “as a reward” to those who have sailed a lot with celebrity, and also to people staying in suites. It’s kinda fun – they serve Champaign and mimosas. We thought it was going to be hot, but we actually had a nice breeze.
After the sail away, we went back to our stateroom and showered as it had been a very warm day. We went to the evening show, which was a modern take on music from Mozart to the present. The best part was the aerialists and acrobats took part. They are really fun to watch. After the show, we went to dinner and then to bed. We set our clocks back an hour tonight, so we get an extra hour of sleep!
October 10, 2022: Today was another sea day and we did not do much! We can really get into this relaxing thing…. After breakfast we got the daily sudoku and crossword puzzles. Dave went to the library and I went to the internet cafe to try to post yesterdays blog. I thought there would be a stronger signal there …. Nope! So posting my blog is a bit of an effort. After finally getting it uploaded, I met Dave in the library where we solved the sudoku and crossword puzzle. I admit, we used Google a little on some of the weird clues. This afternoon we relaxed on our balcony until the sun became too hot. I forgot to mention that yesterday we saw a large pod (?), school (?), of dolphins. I would guess 50 but Dave would probably guess 20. They were all racing towards the ship, I assume to play in the wake. It was an bunch of dolphins anyway. We had a great dinner tonight – at least I did. It was a vegetarian lasagne with a chicken breast on top for the non-vegetarian, me. After dinner, we watched a “whisper” game show. It was kind of like charades. We went to the casino for awhile. We have quite a bit of on board credit, and if we don’t use it, we lose it. So the way to take it out of our account, is to get a voucher from the casino which they charge to your account, play a slot machine a little, then cash out and turn in your cashed out ticket for real US$. Dave was lucky and is actually up about $12. We still have over $100 to cash out this way. We are not sure why we ended up with so much on board credit, but we are not going to complain! Tomorrow we are in Puerto Vallarta, so we have ordered room service for breakfast. That save us having to get up early just to go to breakfast!
October 9, 2022: Hard to do my update due to poor internet connectivity. Today is a sea day, so while there are many activities going on on the ship, Dave and I are taking the opportunity to relax. We spent a lot of time on our balcony, watching the wake, sometimes through our closed eyelids (!).
The time changes are tough. We gained 3 hours flying to LA, and we lost 1 hour today. We will lose 1 more hour tomorrow. On the way back to LA, we will regain those two hours, but then we’ll lose 3 hours on the flight to Tampa. Tonight was the first of two “dress up” nights.
After dinner, we went to the production show, Rock. We were disappointed in that we did not recognize many of the songs, but all in all it was very entertaining and I enjoyed it. The show incorporated 3 acrobats, which was probably my favorite part of the show. After the show we stopped by the martini bar for a nightcap, then back to our stateroom, setting our clocks forward one hour, and then to bed.
October 8, 2022: Our flight to LA was uneventful. We caught the shuttle to ”H Hotel by Hilton, Curio collection”. We had a nice room with double sinks (!), and had dinner in the hotels restaurant. Since we have a 3 hour time change, our internal clocks are a little screwed up. We went to bed early and got up early.The hotel has a coffee shop with Krispy Kreme donuts, so that was our breakfast this morning.
I guess our big excitement was using Uber for the first time. I had the Uber app on my phone because we tried to use Uber when we spent 16 days in London earlier this year, but the London Uber would not accept me because the phone number associated with my sim card was already in their system with another user. So I was trying to schedule an Uber for our trip from the hotel to the port and was having trouble. I would enter all the info but was not getting a confirmation. Finally I looked at my account and realized the phone number was from the London sim card and not my mobile phone. Once I got that fixed, I got the Uber reserved and received the confirmation. So we go outside to look for the Uber, and the driver texts us that he was here, but his car was nowhere in sight. Finally I figured out he was on the wrong side of the building where there is a Subway restaurant, but not the entrance to the hotel. It was a 21.5 mile ride and the charge was $38. The driver was obviously not familiar with the cruise port. There were two ships loading, and we kept telling him Celebrity, but he insisted the drop off was in front of a Princess ship. Since we thought he was better informed than us, we got out at the Princess drop off and had to walk a couple of blocks to the Celebrity ship drop off.
We were on the ship by 11:00AM, dropped our bags and explored the ship. It is the same class, Solstice class, as the Equinox which we cruised on in August, 2021. So it was pretty familiar. After much discussion, we decided to upgrade from the classic beverage package to the premium package. We have shipboard credit and our excursions are already paid. We don’t think we will go to a specialty restaurant and since the remaining onboard credit is not refunable, we decided we’d use it drinking better booze. So we went to the martini bar to upgrade and I discovered I had lost my seapass card….already! We backtracked all the places we had been, but couldnt find it. We had to go to guest relations and get a new one issued.
October 6, 2022: We are getting ready to leave tomorrow, Friday, October 7, 2022 for our short 7 day West Coast cruise. We were hit with Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022. Our roof, pool cage and ceilings were damaged. But this short trip was already booked and paid for, so we are planning to go. There is so much devastation in the area, but particularly south of us, that we think it will be awhile before contractors can fix our damages. Our thinking is that being gone for a week won’t make a difference. That’s our plan and time will tell if we are wrong.
Itinerary:
*10/7/22: We fly direct Tampa to Los Angeles, CA (LAX)
*10/8/2022: Board Celebrity Solstice, Aqua class stateroom 1672
*10/9/2022: At Sea
*10/10/2022: At Sea
*10/11/2022: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – 8:00AM to 4:30 PM
*10/12/2022: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico – 9:00AM to 6:00PM
*10/13/2022: At Sea
*10/14/2022: Ensenada, Mexico – 9:00AM to 6:00PM
*10/15/2022: Disembark in Los Angeles and fly to Tampa