Our Views From The Wheelhouse

                                NOT THIS TIME !  

Nobody is going to stuff me in a mailing tube with toy food, bad movies, grumpy attendants followed by three days of jet-lag.  Nope, no way.  Life too short, much too old.  This year the bad economy and new airline rules have turned a problem into another solution. As always, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

Our barging friends, Larry and Joan from Arizona, whom we met a couple of years ago in Dijon, told us about “Repositioning Cruises” and how they spent a leisurely week or so crossing the Atlantic from Galveston, Texas to Europe by way of a cruise line moving their ship from its home port to the cruising grounds in preparation for the next cruise season.  These cruises are usually in March, for the most part, and they do the same around November to return to home base.  These cruises are usually not with a “full ship” (i.e. no entertainment, etc.) and consequently are much cheaper than usual.  This year they were cheaper than airfare.

I Googled “Repositioning Cruises”, searched awhile, and found one leaving Galveston on April 19.  It makes four stops:  Bermuda, the Azores, Ireland, France and ends up in England.  We’ll get off in Cherbourg, France. 14 wonderful days, cheaper than airfare, whoop-de-do. Getting there will be a lot more fun.

How we’ll get back is another problem, but we’ll cross that bridge….etc.

So, stay tuned.  We leave in less than 2 months and a whole new way of doing things.  This year Capri will be taking us North toward Paris, then East to Strasbourg, the Marne River, the Champagne Region, and a new place to moor for the winter.  We’ll be leaving Bourgogne Marine and St. Jean de Losne, not for good but for now.

Tuesday, March 31                               ABOUT TWO WEEKS TO GO

As of this morning there were 45 “to do” thingies on my piece of paper.  I’m afraid to look at Pattie’s list.

45 things to do in two weeks is not so bad, but it’s WHAT those things are that make the difference.  So far, we must completely move to the upstairs apartment, clean and make ready our old apartment for new tenants, ( That includes sanding and finishing the hardwood floors in both places).  I still must:

• Purchase plane tickets for our trip back to Dallas
• Renew the boat insurance for Capri
• Rent a car to get from Dallas to Galveston
• Notify Banks, Credit Card Companies of our trip
• Make arrangements to room and  board Popeye, our parrot.
• Purchase a French phone chip
• Purchase an internet device for WiFi
• Transfer bank funds to France
• Clean out the garage
• Take my annual physical
• Get prescriptions for 4 months of Lipitor and allergy stuff
• Make sure that Capri is ready to go when we get there.

It’s the move that will take the most time.  As usual for us events seem to come together in 3’s so as to make anything we have planned more complicated, and our departures are always crazy.  Makes life interesting. 

Nonetheless, it all seems to get done.  

IS GETTING THERE IS HALF THE FUN ?

     Well, everything started very nice.  On the evening of April 17 I picked up the Avis rent car in Dallas, drove home and began loading 6 pieces of luggage and three hand-held bags for an early morning departure. (We took advantage of ocean travel and its unlimited luggage…. we had a lot of stuff that we were going to leave on Capri this year). Early the next morning Patti and I said our final “goodbyes” to our daughters and off we went to Galveston where we were to board the “Voyager Of The Seas”, the star of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, for our first Transatlantic Crossing.  The day was nice and sunny; we were making good time all the way to Huntsville, Texas when it happened…..and it happened without much warning.

     This was not your ordinary Texas Spring Thunderstorm.  This was torrential, and with the rain falling sideways speed became a crawl on the Interstate.  The storm continued for another hour before we noticed that some people were getting off the Interstate and on to the service road.  I suppose they thought that better time could be made more safely, but that would not be the case.  The service road became a river, and cars were floating, cars were stalling and the people were stranded.  Even though it was mid-day there was a feeling of nighttime.  The sky was pitch black, no evidence of sunshine at all.  The crawling traffic became slower as the rain not only continued but also became heavier.  This continued all the way to Galveston.  The radio reports from Houston were disastrous.

Houston was flooded.  Downtown was like a marina.  We saw the rivers that were once streets as we passed through Houston on the high Interstate.  The traffic was even slower now.  The car in front of us disappeared as the rain became even worse.  We could barely see the front of the hood of our car.  Cars had their lights on, but we couldn’t see them.

We thought we were in another hurricane, as if Hurricane Ike hadn’t caused enough damage a few months earlier.

     In Galveston, the road to our hotel took us by the harbor where all the cruise lines dock……..no sign of the “Voyager Of The Seas”.  That worried us since we were supposed to board the next morning.  By this time the brunt of the storm had passed, the wind was not quite as strong and the rain had slowed to normal Texas Thunderstorm size.

The hotel, along with most of Galveston Island, had no power.  Nothing was working and was not expected to get any better until the next day.  All the doors in the hotel were electronically keyed, so the rooms were in permanent lockdown.  We decided to try to find something better.

     We had passed a beautiful luxury hotel down the road, so we went back to it.  The power was off there, also, but cars were being unloaded at the entrance with flashlight wielding porters, so I stopped and went inside while Patti manned the car.  Inside was like a party, people standing around the large lobby as the clerks behind the desks handed all the kids “light sticks”, those chemical activated sticks that you bend to make light.  The kids were having a great time.  Meanwhile, though, the hotel people could not get their computers to work, so every thing was being done by pen and paper.  My, my, imagine that.

     I was able to book a room about the time the elevators began working.  This hotel had emergency generators for necessary things like elevators and electronic door keys.  The porters took our luggage (one complete, very loaded cart), the parking attendants game me my “Get Out Of Jail” card and off we went to the 6^th floor accompanied by a hotel attendant with the freshly made electronic room key…..which didn’t work.  Back to the lobby she went and after a 20-minute wait, back she came.  This time the door clicked open and there we were in a beautiful room overlooking the Gulf and the beach.  We learned later that this room would bring in $750 a night during the season, but today…..$125.  (I talked the room clerk out of two of those light sticks). But this is where the fun began.

     Hurricane Ike had done tremendous damage some months ago, and Galveston looked pretty shabby.  It had wiped out all but one car rental company and, of course, it was the only company that did not allow one-way rentals.  So, I had to go with Avis, which had one-way rentals but no longer had an office in Galveston.  The nearest Avis was halfway back to Houston…approximately 35 miles.  So, once we were settled in the room, off I went to turn in the car.  It was 8:30 in the evening.  When I finally found the Avis place in a strip mall it was 10:00 o’clock.  Naturally, it was closed.  I found a sign with instructions on how to turn the car in if the office was closed, found the lock box in which to deposit the car keys along with the paper work.  I did all of those things before I even thought about the availability of a cab.  I saw a Hilton across the street, went over there and asked the desk clerk for the phone number of a cab.  I called the number on my cell phone, told them where I was and where I was going and hung up.  After 30 minutes I called again and was told that the cab company did not accept reservations made from a cell phone with no caller ID.  30 more minutes wasted.  10:45 by now.  The desk clerk at the Hilton was very courteous and made the next call to the cab company for me, told them where I would be and made sure the cab would be there.  Sure enough, in about 10 minutes a yellow cab pulled up, I hopped in and off we went back to Galveston.

     This cab driver was not just from the Middle East but also from Pakistan.  He had been in this country for several years, had raised his daughter and put her through college in the U.S. but even after 22 years he still had trouble from Homeland Security.  He had the stack of passports for his whole family constantly with him as he was checked at least twice a month, he said.  He moaned and lamented about the youth in the U.S., lack of family values, lack of respect, etc. and then I got a brief semi-lecture about Islamic values.  Then, he proceeded to tell me how unhappy he was about his…divorce (his second)…. and his new girl friend…. who is not Islamic.  So much for that.

     We pulled up in front of the hotel at 11:40, I thanked him, wished him better times, and made my way up to a starving wife.  The hotel kept their restaurants open late for late arrivals from the storm, so we were in luck.  We finally were able to catch our breath and relax, have a nice meal…..and look forward to tomorrow and boarding a luxury cruise ship …..which still had not shown up.

Sunday dawned clear, warm and beautiful.  We learned that we were not scheduled to board the ship until 1:00 in the afternoon.  The ship had sat offshore all night, unable to come into port in the storm, and was still unloading passengers, taking on supplies and crew and would be several hours late for boarding.  Their scheduled evening departure would, however, be the same.  We were pleased that we could take our time, have a good breakfast in the hotel restaurant and take the hotel shuttle over to the harbor.  We arrived at the harbor a little after 1:00 to be met by hoards of people, some getting off the ship, others waiting to board.  By 3:00 there had been no progress.  Inside the terminal members of the ships crew were handing out sandwiches, water, and snacks to 2,800 increasingly frustrated future passengers.  Finally, at 5:30 we were able to board the ship.  When we found our cabin on the 6^th floor our luggage was sitting outside the door, the electronic key worked and we entered our home for the next 14 days at last.

A FLOATING SKYSCRAPER

     “Voyager Of The Seas”, the newest star in the Royal Caribbean heavens, had a passenger capacity of 3,114, a crew of 1,180, a cruising speed of 22 knots, is 1020 feet long and 157.5 feet wide.  The ship weighs 142,000 tons.  Inside, the décor, color schemes, and art works are stunning and the entire ship looks as if it had been built just last night.  The ship is 14 stories tall with 6 glass elevators at each end.  In the center of the ship there is a mall, 5 stories high which houses all the shops, stores, three pubs, two bars, pizza joints, etc.  It was modeled after an Italian street in a small village.  Sitting in the middle of the street was a vintage Morgan automobile.  Check out the photos in the 2009 photo site.  The shops included jewelry stores, clothing stores, and a general merchandise store with a small pharmacy.  All the glass elevators served each end of the mall.  We later discovered that our window in our cabin overlooked the mall and the Morgan automobile.  This way, even the inside cabins have a vista.

     Our dinner seating in the dining room was “second seating”, 8:00 p.m.  When we first entered the dining room we couldn’t believe our eyes.  The room was on three levels of the ship with the middle of all three floors cut out to house a huge crystal chandelier. We were on the third level and could look down to the 1^st and 2^nd level diners.   Very elegant.  Made me want to change out of my T-shirt.  The wait-staff were all in typical Italian and French black and white uniforms.  Our waiter was from Argentina and would keep us entertained with his humorous comments throughout the cruise. (“I have no idea what you said, so I will bring you ice-cream.”).  The table seated 6, so we had two other couples with us at dinner, a Mother-Daughter couple from Switzerland and an older couple from England. (He was from Scotland).  The English couple was quite charming, but the Swiss ladies were rather cold and stilted and a few days later decided to change dining rooms.  Musta’ been something I said.

     We always had dinner in the dining room each evening except for the three “formal” nights that were scheduled.  I chose not to do that even though I could have rented a tuxedo for a million dollars.  We would have dinner on those evenings in one of the 5 other restaurants/cafes on the ship.  Breakfast and lunch were served in the two larger cafeterias. These were all open from 6:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night with continuous serving.  There were soft-serve ice cream machines all over the place, also….even near the spas and swimming pools.  The food, which was everywhere and all the time, was excellent.  I did not eat a single thing I did not thoroughly enjoy.

ENTERTAINMENT

     It was my understanding that repositioning cruises had no entertainment due to the nature of the cruise and the low cost of the trip.  This cruise, however, had entertainment over most of the ship from piano bars, Reggae bands, and comedy clubs to a full ice-rink with a Russian Ice Show similar to Ice Capades and an absolutely beautiful theatre modeled after La Scala in Italy.  Very plush and la tee da.  The troupe in the theatre performed three full shows including an excellent “Broadway Revue”.  Other nights featured musical entertainment with the show band, guest violinist, singers and dancers.

It was a very nice surprise and the entertainment, for the most part, was quite good.

PORTS ‘O CALL

     On the evening of April 19 we went out on deck to watch the lights of Galveston float away.  4 sea days later we entered the harbor of Hamilton in Bermuda.  We made it a point to get up early (6:00 a.m.) to watch the pilot boat come out to drop off the pilot who would guide the ship into the harbor.  We had not planned any excursions in Bermuda, so we just left the ship and wandered around town until lunch, reboarded for lunch and then left again to continue our walk around the city. At 8:00 pm the ship left the harbor.  Next stop…the Azores.

     The Azores Islands belong to Portugal, and the larger island, Sao Miguel, is a volcano. (“It is not inactive, it is just asleep.”)  The island is breathtaking with its beauty.  The local government allows no expansion or development outside of the city limits of the towns and villages in order to preserve the precious farm and dairy lands. We had made arrangements to go to a small village of Cete Cidades at the top of the crater mainly to see how the villagers lived, but also to see the two lakes at the bottom of the volcano.  The strange thing about the lakes is, even though only a small, narrow bridge of land side by side separates them, one lake is green and the other a deep blue.  We passed by hundreds of dairy cattle on the hillsides (great for cow-tipping).  The dairy farmers do not milk their own herd.  A truck appears from the dairy and the cows are milked by the dairy employee and sent directly to the dairy.  We watched the truck pull up and the milking machines being readied. 

Later, we went into Ponta Delgada for a wine and cheese tasting with local cheeses (from the dairy cattle on Sao Miguel) and local wines from the grapes grown on another island in the chain.  Again, at 8:00 p.m., the ship left for its next call…..Cork, Ireland.

     Early in the morning three days later we arrived in Cork.  Cork was the last port that the Titanic sailed from.  On the dockside is a very moving museum of that visit, and also one with an immigration theme, a statue stands outside the building, a bronze of a family huddled together and pointing toward the west and to America.  A duplicate of the statue stands at Ellis Island, New York.

     Ireland and the City of Cork were the stopping places we wanted to see the most, and we had made arrangements to go out to Blarney Castle where Patti and I could kiss the Blarney Stone, thus making us very talkative and eloquent.  On the way, our guide pointed out the vessels of the Irish Navy in the harbor.  There are 7 of them.  They go out at 9:00 and come in at 5:00.  Since Ireland is a neutral country, the navy mostly patrols the coast for lost or stranded fishermen.  The countryside is beautiful and, of course, very green.  There is something in Ireland that makes the green different from any other landscapes I have seen.  It is very vivid.  We were given information about local plants while on the way to the castle.  Getting off near the castle, I noticed a quaint Irish Pub nearby and made a vow to visit.  But, off we went to the Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone.   It’s a very old castle built in the 9^th century originally, still standing and bringing in the bucks.  The long line didn’t last long as some people decided that the long narrow stone spiral staircase was just too much for them.  Patti and I arrived at the top of the castle, was held upside-down in order to kiss the stone, had our picture taken and they were 16 Euros richer.  And I asked myself why did I climb those 150 or so steps to kiss a rock that millions of people before me had kissed.  Is that how the Plague started in Europe?  The DNA of the world must be on that rock.  Meanwhile, my thoughts turned to the pub I had noticed earlier.  We walked around the castle grounds awhile before Patti noticed that I was leading her directly to the stone building that housed the pup.  It was a wonderful pub and so traditionally Irish.  Families, including the children, were having lunch while the men folks were having a bit of the brew at the bar.  In Ireland the Pub is the hub of social activity as a restaurant or a mall might be at home.  We joined them.

The building next-door was once an Irish Woolen Mill but has since turned into an Irish Woolen store, so we shopped around a bit before returning to the bus.  On the way back to the ship the bus driver, with a beautiful Irish Tenor voice, sang Irish lullabies to us.  The city of Cork itself hasn’t changed much.  The architecture has stayed traditional for the most part.  As the ship slipped out of the harbor, Patti and I realized that we were seeing the same bits of land, the old homes on the point, and finally the beautiful white lighthouse that passengers on the Titanic saw for the last time.

     The next stop was the final stop for us:  Cherbourg, France.   The next morning we docked in the harbor at Cherbourg, checked with the French officials, had our passports stamped, and took our multitude of luggage to the hallway where a young crew member wheeled it all out for us and even took it to the car, which I had walked into town at the railway station and rented.  Each year I rent a car from Eurocar.  They have constantly given me the best service with the least paperwork of any of the companies…and you can rent them one-way; no problem.  I had made my reservation on line a month before, and when I walked in I was greeted with, “Ahhh, Mr. Hardman. Good to have you back.”

My amazed look must have prompted her explanation.  She explained that I was the only American renting today and she knew I had just come from the ship.  “Look at this”, she said.  I leaned over to look at the computer and there was my picture from the first year I had rented from them along with a review of my previous rentals over the years.  Damn clever and a good marketing tool.  My car was ready and I was out of there in less than 5 minutes.  I drove back to the harbor car park, then back on the ship.

     Anyway, the crewmember loaded the luggage in the car for us and we were off.  We had decided to stay a day in Cherbourg because it was the only part of Normandy that we had not seen. 30 miles or so down the road is the village of St. Mere Iglese where the first American paratroopers landed the night before D-Day and the invasion in 1944, and made famous in the movie, “The Longest Day”.  I had made reservations at the Campanille hotel, a chain in France that is not expensive and very clean.  We checked in and then walked around town, had our first glass of wine in France for 2009 (believe me, there would be many, many more), and tried to attune ourselves to French again.

     The next morning we had the usual free breakfast at the hotel, then headed for Dijon, St. Symphorien port and Capri.

     Reading back over some of the years since I have started this, it seems that the ordeal to get to St. Symphorien and Capri is sometimes the craziest and most interesting of times. I guess you can judge that for yourself as you read this stuff.

     Maybe getting there is more than half the fun ?                      Naaaaaaaah

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     I was asked by the publication “Living In France” to write a small article about barges, the French canals, and a bit about our experiences.  It will be published in July 2009 if it is accepted.