19-27 Nov 2018 At sea-San Juan-Nassau-Miami

While 8 sea days was the most continuous days at sea we've spent, we by no means get bored. If you happened to follow our Australian blog you might recall the wonderful experience we had in meeting and becoming friends with the WW II vet Fen Ludtke  and Hanoi Hilton POW Mel Pollack. On this leg we listened to a lecture by Captain Martin Maxwell-he was both a WW II vet and POW! My biggest regret was not getting to introduce myself to him. Here is a link https://vimeo.com/27248147 to one of the documentaries about him. Watch several. They are so moving.

Schweppes tonic

So why a photo of tonic? One part of traveling we both enjoy is learning about food products (and packaging) in other parts of the world. Many years ago during our travels we learned about Indian tonic, difficult if not impossible to find in the States. One of Cap's first requests after getting settled in the stateroom is to request Indian tonic-typically you get Schweppes. It contains quinine and is not the sugary/minerally stuff you get in the US. And think about 6 or 7 gins from which to choose, a Schweppes & Plymouth gin is a wonderful hot weather thrist quencher.

Ivo, Suzy & Cap

And thanks to Ivo, our butler from Mumbai, we never were wanting. We enjoy a larger stateroom where we like to entertain dinner guests, typically fellow travelers and enrichment lecturers.

Jemelie, Diman, Sandar

Equally important were our stateroom attendants. Almost all staff onboard are contract workers on 6 to 8 month contracts away from home. And many have spouses with children at home.

An interesting fact is Oceania staff has tremendous loyalty to Oceania for two reasons, Oceania treats their employees better than many other cruise lines and Oceania 'sails full.' What this means is that a significant portion of their income is gratuities and full ships equates to income. We can't recall any cruise where we've not met staff from previous cruises.

Our Brunch cooking class (scones pictured), before and after. Suzy baked some at WC and took them to our Scottish neighbors with some clotted cream and homemade jelly. BIG hit.

Production cast 'practicing' for the Country Faire

We wrote earlier about making friends with some of the Production Cast. When not performing you'll find them being Oceania Ambassadors. This runs the gamut from assisting with staff & guest receptions and more formal events to the casual and sometimes goofy. Here several are practicing knocking over partially filled plastic bottles with a weighted cord hanging from their belt. They were much more fun to watch attempt this event than us 60, 70 & 80 year-olds.




On any cruise you see many other cruise lines and sizes and shapes of ships. (Did you know you can put a boat on a ship, but not a ship on a boat?) So with several apps Cap has and Google it's fun to investigate and learn about what you're seeing.

Celebrity Edge 

The Celebrity Edge we saw anchored off Nassau was evidently undergoing sea trials; here she seems to be testing a rather unique tender elevator system where the tender is raised and lowered, perhaps to pick up excursion guests?You can board her soon with 2,900 of your closest friends. Go to the wiki link and notice her most unique bow.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_Edge

The World  

In Alicante we saw The World. If you're not familiar with her, some years back this ship was converted to private ownership residences. There's some interesting history should you have the time to Google her history. No, we're not in the market, but should you be, here's an intro; http://aboardtheworld.com/residences/




Our cruise ended with a night departure from Nassau and early morning arrival in Miami.

Nassau-Atlantis in background-evening departure

Miami morning arrival

The Barcelona-Miami leg completed our 15th cruise (206 days onboard) with Oceania, recognized by 2 'gold' pins. <One single lady had 1,100 days onboard Oceania!>The golf towel Suzy won participating in Country Faire events.

We've cruised many other lines with a few we'd still like to try. We learn a lot from talking with our circle of friends about their cruising experiences. For now and with health permitting we'll continue to return to Oceania with five more cruises booked beginning December 2019. Before then in October we'll do some inland sailing from St. Paul to New Orleans. We are really looking forward to visiting the WW II Museum.

Fr-Sa-Su 16,17,18 Nov 2018 at sea

It was the afternoon on the 15th at Malaga that we learned we would be departing later than scheduled, as Oceania was discussing the safest route for us to sail to the Canary Islands and San Juan. We were being told a huge low pressure had formed in the Atlantic which would significantly impact, if not make dangerous, any attempt to dock in the Canary Islands; there were two stops scheduled. Late that afternoon there was an announcement that we would not make those two planned stops but head SSW as rapidly as possible to get south of this storm. Swells were forecast to 21 meters. They also said we would have 8 days at sea with the next port being San Juan.

Below are the Before and After itineraries.

I didn't get any photos of Gibraltar as we passed by around midnight. Our initially revised route had us sailing between the Canary Islands (see 1st map)

Routing between Canary Islands

Revised routing between Canary Islands & Africa

By doing this the captain put the Canary Islands between us and the storm. The ride was smooth, as had been the whole trip.

15 m. swells

Once we sailed SW of the Canary Islands is when we experienced some ship movement, but stabilizers (not often out to due to increased fuel consumption) reduced our discomfort. It was quite windy and cool so the pool was drained and netted as a safety precaution. Note the pool waves at right.

A couple of links to what the storm did to the Islands:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-107509/Five-die-floods-hit-Tenerife.html

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7774481/tenerife-weather-alert-tourists-warned-rain-waves

So some of our friends wonder what one does on sea days. We're as busy on sea days as days in port. Suzy will attend four 2-hour cooking classes, Cap two ( he was waitlisted for another). We went to four La Reserve Wine Dinners (6 to 7 courses with a special menu and wonderful paired wines). These are an extra-cost dinner and restricted to a maximum of 24 guests. We'd reserved 3 of these dinners on our first 2 legs and had to cancel out one of them, not enough time. We were in port on excursions almost every day so a late dinner with an early excursion left little time between. Wine tastings and enrichment lectures take up chunks of time. Reading and the occasional Cuban cigar and a beer (Cap) is really time intensive.

Mise en place all ready for the chocolate pots de creme.

Five dishes done in the Cooking with Jacques class--Pepin is the Culinary Director of Oceania.

. . . and Fillet of Sole Brillat Saverin (w/ black truffles.

Dorian with Veloute Reine-Margot at La Reserve . . .

We enjoy meeting new people and entertaining in our stateroom. It could be new guests, entertainers (in the Grand Dining Room) or enrichment lecturers. We recently entertained an enrichment lecturer and his wife. He was born in Ohio, lived in Colorado (Boulder & Montrose) for decades and now lives in Las Cruces, NM. His PhD is in Forensic Science and DNA. He and I knew folks in common from when we lived in Boulder. One whole lecture was on the Jon Benoit Ramsey murder (Boulder). He presented us the evidence for our determination of guilt--fascinating.

Camron, Cap, Kelsey & Suzy @ Grand Dining Room

It was maybe 6 or 7 years ago that Oceania improved their entertainment by hiring professional actors and production management. We got to know those original 4 (two knew of Lake Dillon Theatre and one had auditioned!) actors and always reach out to them when onboard. The LDT has given us such an appreciation for their career challenges.

Krista, Bill W., Cap, Suzy, Robert & Charlie W. @ Grand Dining Room

Now that NCL has purchased Oceania & Regent, entertainment continues to improve. The company on our cruise consists of 12 actors. Two singer/dancers, four singers and six dancers. Suzy and I have entertained only 4 so far (they can't come in the stateroom) but we are providing the women with some of the Bulgari toiletries Oceania provides us.

Interestingly Krista (singer/dancer) lives in Denver and graduated from Mesa. I'm taking her dad in Westminster a Cuban cigar. And Cameron (dancer) works for Ballet Vail in the summer and Kelsey will visit him this summer. We plan to host them at the Theatre.

Harijs (not pictured) is a wonderful dancer from Latvia. He was on an excursion with me and was most interested in the LDT summer season. What a tough career path he has in Latvia--there is no theater.

Thursday, 15 Nov 2018 -- Malaga, Spain

Malaga--we had been here a few years ago, and enjoyed both a ride and walk around town. This time Cap was trying to shake a cold coming on, so opted to stay aboard, while Suzy went with a guide for some history.

Malago has some lovely architetcture, and its City Hall is a nice example.

 Going back in time, the Malaga Cathedral was built incorporating the medieval Moorish mosque (you can see the difference in styles), and there wasn't enough money in the 18th century (it was started in 1528) to build the second tower, so it was left unfinished. Later money was raised for the second tower, but used for other purposes; the last attempted finish of the second tower was abandoned because the oddity had become so much a landmark of Malaga. I'm only sorry we didn't get a look inside at the two organs with 4000 pipes!

The Cathedral of Malaga.

And, really old history in the form of this ancient Roman theater built by Caesar Augustus was discovered in the 1950s as excavation was done for new buildings in central Malaga. Some of it has been restored, but even the old parts are in good condition. The Moorish  fortress of Alcazaba towers over the central city.

Malaga is the birthplace of Picasso--said to be the apartment with the two white-shaded windows above the white awnings. Alas, no time for the Picasso museum here.









The special end to the tour was at the Flamenco Museum of Art, with a history of this form of dance, and a special, up-close performance. The action was too fast for a good photo, but it was a very lovely performance.

 And yes, once again it rained a little.

Wednesday, 14 Nov 2018 -- Alicante, Spain

We didn't get off the ship the short time we were in Barcelona, and a lot of new (old) people boarded for the crossing. We think the average age of the passengers just went up 10 years.

Alicante, Spain was a new destination for us. The town itself didn't seem to offer too much except a castle we didn't climb up to, a renowned IVF clinic, and lots and lots of lemon trees.

Sagrada Familia-Barcelona

When Suzy or I think about Spanish architects the first names who come to mind are Gaudi (La Sagrada Familia) and Calatrava. In researching this next architect, still unknown, I learned the SG will be completed in 2026 and https://www.dezeen.com/2018/10/23/sagrada-familia-31-36-million-building-permit-architecture-news/
Barcelona wants a building permit after 100+ years?!

Cap's excursion took him 25 km west of Alicante to Novelda, the 'Spanish capital of marble.' There were stone fabricators everywhere. Cap had difficulty understanding his guide (guide spoke better English than Cap Spanish) and was assuming we're visiting just another church. His first impression was 'Oh, my gosh, a Gaudi.' Well, Cap was close, it was an apprentice of Gaudi.

Monastery of Santa Maria Magdalena, Novelda, Valencia, SP 

While inside they demonstrated the pipe organ. The pipes were made of marble.

pipe organ, pipes made of marble!

rear pipes

Cap's final stop was a tour of the Decanter award winning Bodega Heretat de Cesilia winery. None exported to the US. He brought back a bottle of a syrah blend. The evening of the 17th he and Suzy enjoyed it in their stateroom with a dinner from the onboard Italian themed restaurant, Toscana.

Suzy visited the fishing village of Villajoyosa (Happy Town!), where the narrow houses are painted different colors and the mail is delivered on a motorcycle. Famous Valor chocolate has been made there since 1881, and a cup of hot chocolate (that's melted chocolate, not cocoa) kept her attention on the great guide we had.

On to Albir, where the largest group of residents is Norweigian, and hundreds of RVs from more northern climes were parked in close proximity for the winter. Things were fairly quiet, which was nice from a crowd perspective, but there were quite a few signs like the one at right that reflected the end of the season.





 Then, in the town of Altea, a church with beautiful blue and white domes (Virgin del Consuelo cathedral) had a prayer candle setup I've never seen before. You drop a coin in the slot, and a candle lights up. No idea how long before it turns off again!

This is one reason Alicante doesn't win many architectural awards.

Tuesday 13 Nov 2018 Barcelona

Venice-Barcelona

 Venice to Barcelona. 2059 nm with wonderful ports and for the most part great tour guides. Excurions everyday made it a bit hectic to try to work in excursions (4-8 hours duration), enrichment lectures, cocktails, dinner, and a performance before bed. Early Get Go's (get up & go-Air Force term) made it challenging.

We're at 41°N in Barcelona. Stay tuned for news on that as we dive south to avoid a major storm.

It was on our Viking Sea cruise in Scandinavia and the Baltic in 2016 that we learned many ports have strict emissions standards and that it is fairly typical for ocean going vessels to bunker a low sulfur and a dirty, high sulfur, diesel. I found it of interest here in Barcelona there were two fuel lines of different diameters from the fuel barge to our ship.

Monday, November 12, 2018 -- Marseille (St. Remy de Provence)

On this somewhat grey day we ventured on an excursion out to the country, to get the feel for the Provence region, visiting the small town of St. Remy de Provence.

It was a tranquil Monday morning in St. Remy.

Another end-of-season announcement; at least this kind of bullfighting appears to be "grab the ribbon from the bull's horns" type.

Famous citizens: Nostradamus was born in St. Remy, and Van Gogh spent a year here, doing some painting, and then checked into the local mental hospital for a period of time.

From a handicrafts shop in St. Remy: To all our lady friends with November birthdays, this is for you. (Translation: "All young women are born equal, but the best are born in November"). Even better is the price tag, which says, "This piece is an original creation; to take a photograph is good, to make an offer is better."

This is the price for using the toilet in France; well worth it.

We stopped at a small salt and spice store. The couple who own it import salt from all over the world, but bring in lots of French salt from the Camargue region with which they mix lovely blends of herbs and spices. We had a nice visit there regarding their wares.

 These are really old shutters, typical of St. Remy's old town district.


















Turn the corner from this charming wall, and you find that Noir et Blanc is an antique shop.

St. Remy had other examples of whimsy as well. For example, stockings in one shop, fun socks in another, and windows with teddy bears nested among the topiary.

 The fields of Provence are highly ordered; very small plots of fruit trees and vinyards are protected from the wind by tall hedgerows of trees between them. All-in-all, a lovely visit in spite of shop closures and grey skies.