Author Archives: bettesbatson

We are on our last sea day. Slept in, did some laundry, played bridge and went to tea.

Starting tomorrow we will have a port every day until we get off the ship. Glad we have been able to have some lazy days so far.

Today’s weather has been very windy with lots of waves and rocking and rolling. Had hoped that when we neared the Straits of Magellan near Gibraltar Rock it would be daytime. However the captain announced this morning it would be around midnight. Would have been interesting to see, but we will be sleeping, I hope.

We have had some very good evening entertainers. A wonderful pianist, very funny comedian, a duo – he played the violin amazingly and she was a dancer, mainly flamenco. Last night there was a magician who did his whole show in mime. Looking forward to what will be coming next.

After another sea day, we arrived in Funchal, Portugal on the island of Madeira. We arrived before sunrise and the hills of the town were lit in orange. The city of Funchal is surrounded by mountains in a semicircle and the sea. The city was founded in 1421 by João Gonçalves Zarco. Because of all the fennel found growing the place was called Funchal. Funchal is the capital with a population of 110,000. All the islands in the archipelago (4) have a total population of 250,000.

It was always a stopping point when explorers were going from Spain and Portugal to the new world. It has been famous for Madeiran sugar and wine.

Our first stop was at Pico dos Barcelos. It was an overlook with nice gardens. The famous soccer player Rinaldo is from this part of the island.

Our next stop was deep in the mountains to Eira do Serrado. We were on a very narrow twisty turny road. It was recently built to replace the very twisty turny steep road. Many of the villages have a road leading to them, but no road into the actual village. To get to a home you park and then walk. The view of the valley and small villages was interesting. We also had a wine tasting of a cherry cordial which was just ok. Someone asked our guide how the old people got around with all the steep walkway and streets. She said that they either stayed at home or if they could afford it go to an old folks home.

One thing we noticed was that the hillsides were terraced, both for homes and for the agriculture. Every where we looked they were growing bananas. The plots of land could be small, but full of bananas. They also had vineyards and sugar cane areas. Other than tourism, agriculture is the way the people earn a living here.

Our next stop was at Cabo Girão. This is a cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and up and down the coast. It is one of the highest cliffs in the world at 589 meters. The view was wonderful and looking through the glass observation platform gave you a real feeling about how high you actually were.

Our last stop was at a small fishing village where Winston Churchill used to come to vacation and paint. It was charming with lots of cafes lining the waterfront.

All in all a very interesting day.

We finally arrived across the Atlantic to Ponta Delgada in the Azores. We are still about 1,000 miles from the coast of Portugal. Although they have their own government, the 9 islands of the Azores (pronounced ah-zor-ess) are part of Portugal.

The islands are all volcanic and are clustered in 3 groups. The island we were on was the biggest and the town is the capital of the islands. The total population of the islands is about 250,000 with San Miguel, where we were having about 150,000. Because the islands are volcanic the beaches all have black sand.

Besides tourism, the islands grow pineapples, tea, bananas and passion fruit. They export most of these. There are huge herds of cattle and their dairy cows produce milk which is made into amazing cheeses. Our guide told us they have 2 cows for every person on the island.

Our tour was called Off the Beaten Path. We were in 4 wheel drive Land Rovers and we were on lots of back roads. We went to Lagoa du Congro, a small lake. To see it we had to hike down a path through a beautiful forest. After a stop for cake and the bathroom we went to a lookout where we could see all of the island and a small waterfall.

We returned to the ship, had lunch and then walked into town and saw some of the sights there. All the sidewalks were made of black and white mosaic tiles. The main buildings were white with black trim. We went to the main square and saw the 3 arched city gates and the main church. It was nice to get onto land and walk without swaying.

Since we missed Bermuda, we had six sea days. These are lazy kind of days. The ship has plenty of activities and we did some of them. I went to a needlepoint group and discovered that my eyes need some help to do the fine work. Bob exercised every day, I walked but not on the tread mill. Just on the way to and from activities.

One surprising thing is that we both have been sleeping in. I am usually up between 6 and 7 AM, have been sleeping until 9:30 daily. I guess the gentle roll of the ship has helped.

We have been playing bridge daily, some days even going to the bridge lessons. There are some pretty bad players, and a few really good ones. So far it has been fun.

The evenings are spent having fancy dinners and then attending the shows. They have had a really good pianist and comedian and those shows have been great. The ones with the ship’s company have been OK. I have also been playing the slot machines and I am even ahead!

Today we had some excitement. They had to airlift a passenger off the ship due to a health emergency. It was interesting to watch.

Tomorrow is our first land since Nassau and I think everyone is ready for this.

About 2 hours after leaving Nassau, the captain made an announcement to the entire ship, we were not going to our next port of call, Bermuda. There was some bad weather in the Atlantic on the way to and around Bermuda, so we were going to start directly across the Atlantic to our next port of call, Punta Delgada in the Azores.

We will now have 6 sea days between ports. We have been busy: lectures, needlepoint, walking, reading and bridge. So far we have “lost” 2 hours in our travels. A little easier going to Europe this way, no big 6 hour time change all at once.

There was no big celebration on the ship for Easter, but there was a big display in the atrium of chocolate Easter eggs and we had a little chocolate bunny delivered to our suite.

The entertainment in the evenings have been quite good, a pianist and a comedian and also the usual shipboard entertainers.

Probably no more posts until we get to land. We have not seen any other ships for the past 2 days. Very weird feeling.

We sailed over night and woke up in Nassau. We actually slept in a little which surprised both of us. After breakfast, we left the ship. We had not booked any excursions since they were mostly beach things. I had found a self guided walking tour and so we were off.

We made it to the Queen’s Staircase, built in the 1700s and is 66 steps and climbed all the way to the top. Near the top was Fort Fincastle, shaped like paddle wheel steamer. We then headed towards some other sites, but we were walking in a shady area of town, lots of broken sidewalks and we decided to just head back into the main part of town. Because it was Good Friday, none of the nice stores were open. The straw market was open but we were not interested in shopping there.

After lunch on the ship we went to see if there were any bridge players. There were some, to include a director who will be running games on the sea days. We did not really play, just sat and talked to some of the players.

Tonight is the Captain’s Welcome party. We are meeting Donna and Jerry for a drink before dinner to catch up since our last cruise together. Tomorrow will be a sea day.

We had a car service bring us to the port of Miami on April 6. Check in to our ship, the Oceania Marina was quick and easy. Lunch in the Terrace Cafe and then our suite was ready. On the way to our suite someone was calling my name. It was a couple we had met on the last cruise we did on the Marina from Venice to Athens. Small world.

Our suitcases arrived one at a time, which was nice because I could unload them and put everything away and then the next one appeared. We walked around some to reacquaint ourselves with the ship. After a relaxed dinner we waited to sail away. I had been looking forward to sailing past some of the area in South Beach where I grew up. Unfortunately we were delayed and left well after dark so it was hard to see anything.

We went to the show in the lounge and then off to bed.

Our last port on this cruise. It has been a very busy cruise with very few sea days and port after port. Many others on the trip have commented that they could have used a day of rest somewhere in the last week. We are feeling exhausted and are looking forward to our day of rest tomorrow.

Bob did another hike today. He said it was more of a strenuous walk but enjoyed hiking and not riding on a bus.

My tour was not until the afternoon so I took the shuttle into town. Their library had an art exhibit and I went to see it. It was about a town near here (did not write down the name) that had been a famous artist’s retreat for over 100 years. The paintings were of the town. There was a school group in one of the rooms working on their own art. It was a nice diversion for the morning.

My tour in the afternoon took me to the Roseland Peninsula. We had to use a small bus because the roads were very narrow and we had to take a ferry to cross the river. The area of Cornwall, where Falmouth is located, was chartered in 1661. Falmouth is the second largest city in Cornwall with a population of 20,000. The harbor is the 3rd largest natural harbor in the world, behind Rio and Sydney.

Many of the pretty houses in Falmouth were built by the sea captains who transported the mail in packet ships. The climate is subtropical with many palms and other plants I am used to seeing in Florida. This is because the Gulf Stream runs near to the coast here.

The main river is the Fal. It is tidal and has many salt marshes. Some of the places we passed the river was only a few feet wide. Our ferry crossing was at Harry Ferry. It was a chain ferry and once we and the other vehicles were loaded it only took about 10 minutes to cross the river.

The Roseland Peninsula was settled in the Bronze Age. The roads were very narrow, made even more so by the Cornish hedges. Many of them were taller than our coach. Our first stop was at St. Just in Roseland Church. The litch gate ( where they brought the corpses into the cemetery) was from 1530. We walked through the cemetery which is called the most beautiful graveyard. It was nice. The church itself was nice. The best part for me was all the needlepointed kneelers. Each one was lovely with a variety of patterns and themes. The church and graveyard were on the banks of a pond.

Our next stop was in the harbor town of St. Mawes. This area of Cornwall is called millionaires paradise. The houses looked lovely from the road and were perched on cliffs overlooking the harbor. One of the old homes has stones with the seals of Henry VIII and Anne Bolyne because they spent their honeymoon there.

Because of the harbor and location on the coast, the area was big in smuggling. The main things smuggled were brandy, gin and tea.

We then saw the famous round houses. These were built in the early 1800s by a religious group. They thought that if the houses were round, there would be no corners for the devil to hide in. They had thatched roofs.

When I got back to the ship, Bob said that he had a call from security to see if I was on board. He told them I was on one of their tours and apparently we were late. We got back about 10 minutes after the “all aboard” time.

It was a lovely day. Bright and sunny and interesting things to see.

We had a nice sunny day for our time here. We did have to tender in and again our ship was pretty far out and the water was rough. It was not as rough as on our prior tender port. The country of Wales has a population of about 3 million. About 20% speak Welch, but there is a big push in the schools to increase Welch speakers to about 40% in the next 10 years.

We were met on the pier by Jemimah and ladies passing out traditional Welch cookies, which are a cross between shortbread and a scone. So Jemimah was the leader of the women who in 1797 aborted the efforts of the French to land on British soil. When the French landed on February 14, 1797 they were met on the cliffs by what looked like a huge army. It was actually Jemimah with her pitchfork and the other women of Fishguard. They captured 8 of the French soldiers and that was the last invasion of British land.

Bob went on a hike. He said it was semi-difficult. There were several people who did not complete it. He said the views were beautiful of the coastline and small villages.

Bette went to Pembrook Castle. I learned that the stones for Stonehenge came from here. Historians are not sure how the large stones were transported from here to Stonehenge but the mineralogy is exactly the same. The Normans invaded this part of the UK around the year 1000.

I learned about the Lansker Line. This is an imaginary line that divides Wales in 2. On one side the citizens speak Welch and on the other side the citizens speak English. In old times the Lansker Line was protected by a series of castles. The purpose was to keep the Welch in the north and the English to the south.

Coal was the primary industry for many hundreds of years. Our guide told the story of a mine collapse in which both of his great-great-grandfathers had been killed.

Pembrook is a walled town with many of the original walls still standing. Pembrook Castle was started in 1093 as a wooden fort. Over the years, it was enlarged and the walls were made of stone. In 1457, Henry Tudor, Henry VII was born there. We had about an hour to walk around the castle grounds where were in pretty good shape. The upper floors of the buildings were not there but signage and explanation boards showed what it would have looked like 750 years ago. The main keep was still available to climb. I did not do it, because it was very steep with narrow steps.

We next went to Tenby, which was another medieval town. It has the distinction of having 4 beaches at high tide but only 2 at low tide. Part of the harbor was dry, with boats sitting on the ground, waiting for the tide to come in and float them again. It was a very pretty town and it was nice to walk around and see the interesting buildings.

Bob and I ended up returning about the same time and had another rocky ride back to the ship.

Dublin is a newly revitalized city. There was a great deal of development around the port area. The city sits on the banks of the Leffy River. It is the European headquarters of many multinational corporations. The reason is that their tax rate is low, there are a great number of young workers and Ireland is close to the European mainland. The total population of Ireland is 6 million. Ireland joined the EU in 1973.

Trinity College was chartered in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I. The famous Book of Kells is housed there. We had seen them on a prior trip. The oldest church is Christ Church Cathedral. Handel’s Messiah was first performed there.

The Vikings settled the area in 820 AD. The area has been continuously lived in since those times.

One of the biggest employers is Guinness. The company started in 1759 and cleverly arranged to lease their land for 999 years. The production site is huge. We learned that the company has always been a very good employer, providing cheap housing and medical benefits.

Our tour took us to Phoenix Park. It was established in the 1700s and is the largest park in Europe. It is bigger than Central Park in New York. We got to walk around some and saw a beautiful flower garden and an organic vegetable garden.

We had some free time in the city and went to the National Art Museum. We saw some Rembrandts, Vermeers and Monets. The building itself was quite pretty.

We had a lazy afternoon back on the ship.