2012 Mediterranean Trailer

I was going to wait to post at the first Friday of the month but as I have had some time I have been able to prepare the trailer portion of our adventure as well almost ready with Part 1 of our trip - it is in post production as it were. Part 1 should be ready for upload in a couple days. As many know Jan was scheduled for her surgery on November 23rd - well we are excited to report that the operation went perfectly (this was the words of the Surgeon), Jan is currently at home recovering with today being the first day she was able to go outside for a walk, so her recovery is coming along very nicely. We haven't started talking about our next adventure as of yet but once we have the follow up scan done in about a month we will certainly be looking at the globe to mark off yet another area of this incredible planet we rotate on. First things first though, we wait until we get the all clear. In the meantime the trailer is ready for viewing, just click the link 2012 Mediterranean Trailer Part 1 should be posted by this weekend, we hope you enjoy.

At Home - November 12, 2012

Easy travel day home, Westjet is just great, simple but nice and comfortable with very friendly staff, highly recommended airline to use. Back home and just unpacked (both the suitcases and the house), one unfortunate casualty - on the last day I purchased a couple of the Nieuw Amsterdam coffee mugs, for my collection, well in my rush to just get things packed, I didn't do such a great job and they both got damaged, sad... I may try to perform surgery with some crazy glue. In summary, a very nice get away before Jan is to go in for her operation, a great distraction. Highlights include Venice, one of our favourite cities in the world (to date); The ship and the Holland America Staff, HAL have seemed to figured it out, they certainly know the business of both travel and people relationships. Although the ship was a bit too big for us, it was beautiful and well appointed and the staff were very friendly and attended to our every need. This of course includes the food, it is amazing how the kitchen puts out so many meals for so many and to have each meal to be exceptional. Special recognition given to the Pinnacle Restaurant and the Le Cirque Experience in the Pinnacle Restaurant. As far as highlighting and singling out any one port, they were all excellent and amazing ports (it helps when the weather was always on our side) - I will say the HAL Excursion with the self drive cars in Corfu was a highlight and the donkeys of Santorini were great fun, also special mention to our special day in Catania, Italy when everything just flowed and the changed port to Cagliari, Sardinia (due to weather problems not allowing us to get into Livorno), for us a pleasant and wonderful surprise. The crossing of the Atlantic was also very special, looking out at the vast ocean and thinking of all the immigrants that crossed this same ocean not so many years ago with not really knowing what to expect when they completed their at least 15 day crossing - that is a long time between land points. Here is a sampling of my favourite pictures from each of our ports... I will be updating the blog on the first Friday of each month on our future travels plans as well as linking you to video summary of this adventure which I hoping to have completed by the first update in December.

At Sea - November 10, 2012

A busy sea day, this last day had us just buzzing around starting with the disembarkation talk so we know what we need to do tomorrow to the trying to win a cruise bingo, to a end of the cruise brunch, to a cute little dancing with the stars kind of show called dancing with the strips, to another round of final bingo, to draws, packing, dinner, final variety show and then trying to getting the suitcases out the door in time. Phew, simply exhausting. Packing is simply not fun, getting the scale out and constantly weighing, juggling and reweighing, I think we will be okay but it will be very close... a few pictures from today and yes that is our cruise director in the tights, a fun way to end the cruise. will post a summary in a few days.

At Sea - November 09, 2012

Another wonderful sea day and our last formal night, which can only mean one thing - time for the Parade of Baked Alaska, a great tradition. Also tonight for the final formal night on this crossing of the Atlantic and the Farewell Cruise from the Mediterranean for this season a Black and White Officers Ball was held and this does result in my only real disappointment of the cruise. When holding an Officers Ball it would be expected that the top end officers show and be involved in the obligatory first dance, oh well they got just about everything else right... A few pictures of tonights events, the first with a wonderful couple, the future cruise consultants Michael and Joanne Gardener - a couple we met on last years Grand Voyage. Some information on Land and Nautical miles. The term “nautical miles” may have some mystification in its origin as terms relating to land and marine use. When the Normans conquered England, William I divided up the country, other than the crown-owned lands, amongst the nobles who supported his conquests. The common people living on these divided lands (or manors) were required to give their services for free for three or four days of work a week to the Lord of the manor in return for such privileges as having a cottage and garden, grazing rights on common ground and the right to collect as much firewood from the Lord’s forest as they were able. As time went on however, people began to commute their services by paying rent. The yeoman farmer developed and the manorial lands were slowly broken up. To establish ownership some unit of measure was required. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, an act of Parliament was introduced which stated that one “mile” should be 5,280 feet in length. At sea however, the term “miles” has a mathematical basis and the nautical mile is the length, in fact, of one angle of latitude. As the earth is not a perfect sphere, but flattened at the poles, this minute of area varies between 6,046 feet at the equator to 6,108 feet at the poles; therefore a mean of 6,076 is actually used. As a result, 1 nautical mile equals 1.15 statute miles or about 2 kilometers.

At Sea - November 08, 2012

Another fabulous day at sea, mostly sunny skies with a temperature hovering around 26 degrees, bonus days for us. Also the big highlight of the day was our incredible dinner at the Pinnacle’s night at “Le Cirque”. Special thanks for Carla and Ian for this wonderful birthday gift a few months ago, nice to be able to have a birthday go on and on. A bit on Sirio Maccionoi and the Le Cirque restaurant. Sirio is Manhattan’s most charismatic restaurateur, the brains as it were, the energy and the the passion behind this restaurant. Encouraged by William Zeckendorf, the proprietor of the Mayfair Hotel, Mr. Maccioni realized a dream when he opened his own restaurant in March of 1974. Located in Mayfair, Le Cirque was the first privately owned hotel restaurant in the city. It was there with his wife and three sons that Maccioni presented New York what quickly became a most favored restaurant frequented by politicians, entertainers, artists, the social set and royalty. In 2006 Le Cirque re-invented itself with the opening at its current location, One Beacon Court, next to the Bloomberg Tower in midtown. The 16,000 square foot restaurant is an eloquent display of architectural mastery: with polished Makassar ebony panels, a giant abstract “big top” light shade, an illusional all glass bar and a 27 foot steel and glass wine tower. The restaurant walls, adorned with bent wire framed art pieces inspired by Alexander Calder’s magical circus installations, capture the whimsical and playful spirit of the original Le Cirque. A few years ago Holland and America Line teamed up with Le Cirque to bring as much of this magical and whimsical restaurant theme to the high seas all complimented of course by the incredible menu and serving presentation. Luis the Pinnacle manager and his staff took wonderful care of us giving us the best of service as they presented each course to us with expert detailed explanations of all the absolutely delicious items. Here is a sample of our pictures from this wonderful dining experience, including Jan with the foie gras with a chutney, lobster salad, the incredibly presented butternut squash soup, the Seared Black Cod, Chateaubriand and then for desert the chocolate soufflé. Absolutely fabulous...