Abu Dhabi – The Pearl Of The World

    

            The desert has always been the perfect backdrop for romance-  think Lawrence of Arabia, The English Patient, all the way back to Valentino’s 1921 movie, The Sheik, in which “a charming Arabian sheik becomes infatuated with an adventurous, modern-thinking Englishwoman and abducts her to his home in the Saharan desert”. 

So it is not surprising that Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte should run away to Abu Dhabi and the deserts of the United Arab Emirates when their New York lives threaten to become mundane, in 2010’s Sex in The City 2.  Its nickname is ‘the pearl of the world’.

While Dubai is the emirate that you hear most about, it is Abu Dhabi, with its more subdued profile, which became the nominative setting for the adventures of the Sex and the City girls. The capital of the emirate, also called Abu Dhabi, has wide boulevards, larger than life architecture and immense wealth.  And right on the doorstep of the city is the immensity of the desert. Perfect backdrop for a blockbuster movie. 

            It is a city that confounds categorization.  On one hand there are gleaming shopping centres, exclusive luxury hotels and expensive yachts anchored in the harbours.  This is a very wealthy city and it celebrates its abundance in daring architecture, like the Emirates Telecommunications Company (Etisalat) Building with its gigantic golf ball at the top or the pointy topped National Bank of Abu Dhabi building.  I saw cars parked casually in front of hotels that would make a car lover’s heart sing – and that you seldom see in the real world.  Shops team with gold jewellery, and perfumeries prepare personal blends of signature aromas for their customers.

            Abu Dhabi is also home to the seven star Emirates Palace Hotel, the most expensive hotel ever built.  It is a fairy tale hotel, with marble halls, gilded domes, and splashing fountains.  Suites open to balconies that look out on the Persian Gulf.  A private butler greets you with chilled champagne and hands over his card with his cell phone number, to be used “whenever there is a need.” Later in the evening, the bath has been drawn, with fresh rose petals sprinkled on the towels, and more petals beside the bed.  There are 114 domes, 1002 chandeliers, 13 restaurants, and a vending machine that dispenses gold. The ATM-style kiosk monitors the daily gold price and offers small bars up to 10 grams or coins with customized designs. It’s an experience tailor made for a Carrie Bradshaw.

            This is a hotel that is a destination in itself, outrageously luxurious, and imbued throughout with the romantic style of the Arabic world.

            But the ancient world lives on in Abu Dhabi.  There is much reverence for the Bedouin life style that existed in these parts up until oil became the driving force of the economy in the early sixties.  So you can see ancient dhows still plying the waterways.  In the souks, piles of dates, heaps of carpets, handicrafts and spices are offered in shops along narrow ally ways and at makeshift stalls and tables.  The Iranian Souk is one of the most authentic souks in Abu Dhabi, while the Al Meena Souk is the place to bargain for carpets. Go to the Madinat Zayed Gold Souk for good buys on jewellery.    In the fish market, local fishermen display their catch like artwork.

If you leave your window open, you’ll hear the muezzin echo through the city, calling its citizens to prayer, five times during the day.  In my hotel room, inside one of the drawers is a prayer rug and a compass.

There is a concerted effort to preserve the Arabic style in architecture, furnishings, and cuisine.  While almost any international cuisine is available, every corner has cafes and restaurants that offer the special foods of the Middle East.  A traditional meal will usually start with mezzeh, a selection of tasty appetizers, often including tabbouleh, hummus and falafel. Main courses include lamb infused with cardamom, saffron, turmeric and thyme, and the meal will end with desserts made from dates, pistachios, and honey, or muhalabiya, a milk pudding served with rose water and pistachios.   Before the meal, diners are welcomed with dates and small cups of ghawah, the fragrant and sweet Arabic coffee .And after the meal, there’s usually  a hookah or ‘shisha’ to help you relax.  This exotic water pipe bubbles smoke through water, and can be spiced up with flavours like lavender, vanilla, cherry, cinnamon, or orange.

The Anar Restaurant in the Emirates Palace Hotel does elegant Persian food, while the Abdel Wahab, near the Grand Mosque serves a simpler take on Emirati and Lebanese dishes.

While most restaurants, particularly those in the large hotels, serve alcohol, many will not serve alcoholic drinks before sundown during Ramadan, the month long Islamic holiday that requires fasting from sun-up to sun down.   This year Ramadan runs from early August to early September

            One of the surprising facts about Abu Dhabi is that less than 20 percent of the population are UAE.  The bulk of the population is made up of expatriates.  That means that the atmosphere of the city is more cosmopolitan and more liberal than one would expect in a predominantly Muslim country.  While it is good manners to respect the conservative mode of dress of the city, most forms of dress are seen on the streets with no problem.  Within hotels and resorts, there are no dress restrictions. 

One of the startling contrasts I witnesses was on the beach in front of the Rotana Hotel.  On a lounge chair, a woman relaxed in the shade, dressed in a black abaya that covered her completely from head to toe.  On the adjacent lounge, another woman sunned in a tiny bikini.  Neither one seemed to be bothered by the other.

            This is a city of beaches.  Abu Dhabi is actually a T-shaped island, connected by bridges to other islands and to the mainland.  There are over 400 kilometres of coastline.  The Corniche, the elegant walking path in the centre of the city, is a favourite place for walking, jogging or biking, and is lined with cafes and shops.  A white sand beach stretches for 2 kilometres along its length, and there are landscaped parks and picnic grounds.

            Day trips from the city into the desert give visitors the chance to experience the nomadic life of the Bedouins.  You can visit the large camel market at Al Ain, where white robed locals barter for the best camels, and you can see every size, from babies to full grown, of this ancient ‘ship of the desert’.  You can ride a camel through the dunes, sleep in a Bedouin tent and dine under the stars in an encampment. A popular activity is dune bashing, or wadi bashing, where practised drivers take you on hair-raising races through the desert, sliding down the sides of one dune and skidding up the next.  You can even surf the sand dunes, or play golf on sand links, with a portable circle of grass that you tee off from.

            If you tire of the sand, Al Ain, 150 kilometres from Abu Dhabi, is the ‘garden city of the Gulf’, an oasis in the sand and the home of the Royal family.  It is a much more rural city, with a National Museum, the Hili Archaeological Park and surprisingly, an Olympic sized ice skating rink.  me of the best scuba diving in the world is to be found in the clear waters of the Persian Gulf.

            This is one of the safest and most cosmopolitan cities in the UAE, and I felt very

comfortable here.  Most people speak English and there is a casual acceptance of western ways, while the life style and history of the desert region has been both preserved and celebrated. 

            Abu Dhabi is the perfect city to begin an exploration of the Middle East.

Travel Information

 The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven Arab emirates, with Abu Dhabi being the largest, and the capital.  It also has the largest oil reserves.

Canadians do not require a visa to visit Abu Dhabi.

Etihad Airways has three direct flights a week from Toronto to Abu Dhabi.

www.etihadairways.com

Where to Stay:

www.emiratespalace.com

www.rotana.com

General Information:

www.visitabudhabi.ae

www.abudhabitourism.ae

© Barbara Ramsay Orr

River Cruising: A Room with a (Constantly Changing ) View

 A Room With a View:  River Cruising on Avalon’s Panorama

The world’s most expensive book, in the Gutenburg Museum in Mainz, an historic mustard factory in Cochem, an underground disco in an abandoned subway station in Frankfurt, and a mechanical monkey that plays the violin in the Mechanical Instrument Museum in Rüdesheim,  – all are intriguing discoveries to be made on a Rhine and Moselle River cruise.

But even more attractive than that is the discovery that you can open the curtains in your new stateroom on board the Panorama and watch the castles drift by at 6:30 in the morning, still in your PJ’s if you like.  That’s the kind of sybaritic extension to the day that I can’t resist. 

It’s not that I’m lazy – the rest of my day will be active and full, but the possibility of starting the day like this, with the window open to the fresh river air, and a cup of coffee from the cappuccino machine in the club lounge is so appealing.

I’m not alone.  River cruising on ships like the Panorama is part of a growing demand from seasoned, and beginner, cruisers.

When Lisa Wilkinson, popular Australian media and television star, christened the Panorama, she was naming a boat that was already a success story.  Even before the ship’s official touring season began with its first passengers coming on board in the spring of 2011, the first season of the Panorama was 98% booked 

According to CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) the cruise industry is the fastest growing travel segment in the world, and river cruising has had a compounded increase of 10% a year since 2004. 

  So popular are the river cruises that Avalon's sister ships the Vista and the Visionary, have been added to the fleet.

The growth in river cruising is partly the result of a general increase in the number of people cruising, but is also due to the advances in design and upgraded amenities on the newer ships.  Instead of the dark and small cabins of early river boats, as on the first river cruise I took in the early 90’s, new river boats have adopted many of the features of their larger ocean-going sisters. 

The new Panorama boasts some of the largest cabins in the industry, at 200 square feet, with full length floor to ceiling windows that open to French balconies, marble clad bathrooms, L’Ocittaine amenities, wifi throughout the ship, a full fitness centre, larger viewing deck and elegant gourmet dining.  Wine and beer are included, as are excursions, guided walking tours and state-of-the-art digital earphones.  The Avalon fleet has some of the youngest ships in the industry.  Although the company only started in 2004, it has already retired two ships, and  expanded to eleven ships in 2012.

The charm of the river cruise, though, remains in its ability to give its passengers close and intimate connection with the countries they visit.  Shore excursions offer more time ashore, with a variety of excursions and an emphasis on the local culture. This all comes with the convenience of a cruise, one time unpacking, your own comfortable room, all inclusive meals and access to the ship-board amenities.

Avalon’s 2014 itineraries range from European river cruises to Yangtze and Nile sailings to Galapagos expeditions, and new itineraries on the Mekong River in Vietnam.

All good reasons to take to the river this cruising season.

For more information on Avalon Waterways Cruises, visit www.avalonecruiseline,com

© Barbara Ramsay Orr

    

Cruising The Canals of Europe

Sail The Canals of Europe 

European Waterway's elegant barges, and the independently owned Nooit Volmaakt, sail through the authentic villages of Europe.

 

 

BARBARA RAMSAY ORR

Published Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012 06:00AM EST
Last updated Thursday, Sep. 06, 2012 11:48AM EDT
I spent the night in a room that was once full of sugar beets.
Drifting in through the small open window above my bed is the sound of ducks circling in search of breakfast. Soon, little white furry legs will scuttle past the window – Teddy, the barge dog, out for his constitutional – and the smell of fresh coffee will seep under the door from the galley. I know I can scramble up on deck with my camera and notebook, take some shots and a quick sketch of the mist on the river before the sun burns it off, but the bed is warm, and we were up late last night, lingering over a bottle of premier cu wine from nearby Chablis, lovely stinky local cheese and old stories from school days.
This is morning on the Nooit Volmaakt, a restored Dutch barge that once transported sugar beets along the waterways and is now owned by two Canadians from Victoria, Mary Koyl and Marc Pakenham, and their dog, Teddy. Over our first bottle of wine, we discovered that the skipper, my husband and I were undergrads at the same university at the same time long ago.
Together, we drifted along the canals and rivers southwest of Paris.
Touring on a barge is one of the most personal and intimate ways to explore Europe. The Nooit Voolmakt is only one of many barges that offer trips through the less populous areas of England, France, Germany, Italy and other countries. The small size allows passengers to indulge in their own personal interests while sailing through historic routes that are still navigable – canals that once served as the superhighways for commerce, opening trade routes that would become the foundation on which the Industrial Revolution would be built. Those canals and waterways still wind past villages, under stone bridges and straight through the bucolic farmlands of old Europe.

Barge cruises allow guests time to do what they love best. I am a food writer and an amateur artist, so the twin pleasures of time spent on deck with a mug of hot tea, continually replenished by Mary, and daily visits to markets, food shops and fine restaurants, were perfect for me.
In Moret, we moored just below the town bridge that French impressionist painter Alfred Sisley painted in the early 1890s, little changed today. I walked and cycled where Sisley and his friends did, ogled his house and sat in the main square in front of a pretty storefront that was signed, “Les Amis D'Alfred Sisley.” Perhaps he had no friends left as no one was ever there to open the shop. But no matter. This town, this itinerary, was ideally matched to my interests.
Other barge itineraries can inspire the photographer, the cyclist, the wine lover or the historian. Antiquarians can troll through a vide-grenier, French for empty attic, the Gallic version of a garage sale.
For the travelling gardener, this spring is perfect for a barge trip: to witness one of the more spectacular floral displays in the world. Holland will explode with tulips, hyacinths, irises, scillas, crocuses, muscari – it is visual fireworks that everyone must see at least once in a lifetime, and one of the best seats for this show is on a barge. The canals snake through fields that in spring are striated with bands of vivid colour created by thousands and thousands of flowers. The expanses of intense colour, in fields that unfold like well designed quilts, is a wonder unlike any other.
Many of the barge cruises include bike tours, as the terrain is flat and the scenery compact. If you bike along the paths through fields of flowers, expect to be ambushed by the perfumes of narcissus or hyacinth.
Some of the tulip barge tours stop at Aalsmeer for the flower auction and almost all of them, in April and May, include a visit to the Keukenhof, Holland's famous spring gardens in the town of Lisse, the centre of Holland's bollenstreek (bulb district). In this 32-hectare garden, bulb growers display their best and newest along pathways lined with acres of manicured gardens. There are more than seven million tulip bulbs planted here each year and the growers strive to outdo each other in the originality and impact of their displays. Blue muscari spill like rivers, daffodils grow in geometric designs, blue and white flowers mimic Delft pottery. I spent a happy afternoon drawing the antique tulips in one small historic garden, bulbs whose history stretched back to the early 1500s and whose story is the precursor to Europe's bourse (stock exchange) and North America's stock market.

 
While the Netherlands in spring is always a pleasure, last year was special: Floriade was on. It's the world's largest international floral show and gardening exposition, held once every 10 years. It's the Olympic Games of flowers for gardeners around the world and runs from April to October.
Ten years ago, I wandered Floriade for a whole day and didn't see it all. From landscaped display gardens to flower features to environmental innovations, there was something to beguile or inspire every few steps. You can even buy the latest hybrid bulbs for your garden. (I bought an amaryllis bulb the size of a large grapefruit, which produced eye-popping blooms that summer.)
For this sixth Floriade, held in Venlo, near the Belgian border, several barge cruisesscheduled shore excursions. Sure, visitors could do independent trips from several centres in Europe, but one of the best ways, leisurely and easily, is as a day trip from your barge. (Maybe you should be planning for your tulip barge trip in 2022!)

For, instead of design details, the emphasis on a barge cruise is on the quality of the experiences, the interaction between guests and crew, and the food, which is often larded with local specialties. It is, essentially, a slow meander down a lovely waterway with many seductive reasons to stop along the way.

There are still mornings when I wake up and imagine I can hear Teddy and the ducks. I can almost see the reflections in the water, and I wonder where Mary is with my tea.

IF YOU GO
Dutch flower cruises
European Waterways runs barge tours in several countries. Spring flower tours in Holland aboard the 12-passenger Panache, above, will include trips to Floriade. Prices start at $4,690 a person and include all meals, wines, excursions and local transfers. 877-879-8808; gobarging.com
The Barge Company runs the Magna Carta, an eight-passenger barge that cruises the Thames, including Hampton Court and stops at the Chelsea Flower Show. From $3,000 a person for six nights. www.bargecompany.com
River cruise lines such as Avalon Waterways, Azamara Cruises, Scenic Tours and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises have added excursions to Floriade.
Bike and Barge
Bike & Barge Holland offers 13-night cruises with bike excursions, including tours to Keukenhof Garden and the tulip fields, for $3,195. bikebarge.com
Van Gogh tours include six days of barging and cycling from Amsterdam to Bruges, Belgium, from $1,14. vangoghtours.com

Tulip time
Timing is everything if you want to see the tulips at their best. A late winter or early spring can shift the blooming time. The most dependable time to see the flower display in full flush is mid to late April.
This year, with a late and cool spring, tulips are delayed and will probably last until mid May. Head to the Keukenhof Gardens from March 22 to May 20 for a concentrated floral hit. keukenhof.nl

For more information, visit Holland.com.

Special to The Globe and Mail

Aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam

Cruising in ‘a New York State of Mind’ on the Nieuw Amsterdam



On board the brand new Nieuw Amsterdam, there are New York touches everywhere - the Manhattan skyline reproduced in the chandeliers, on wall murals, even in the main dining salon, The Manhattan Room.
But the atmosphere is definitely not Big Apple - the servers are polite, the passengers are smiling and the temperature is hovering in the high seventies.
As the shiny new ship sails out of Fort Lauderdale, silhouetted against the sunset, I’m happy to be settling in to a seat at a table in this Manhattan right now. I have just watched footage of the other New York digging out from more snow.
I’ll take my New York with a bit of heat, thanks.


Half Moon Cay, The Bahamas

First stop is a relaxing sojourn on the little island that is leased by the cruise ship company. While it is decidedly commercial, the beach is a long white smile. The water is warm and blue, and there’s barbeque. No complaints here.
There’s a new bar that just opened on the island - the Captain Morgan’s On the Rocks Island Bar. It’s shaped like a pirate ship, complete with a Jolly Roger flag flying from the top deck. You can get a nice view of the beach as well as listen to live Caribbean music while you watch the gifted bartenders shake up brilliant combinations of rum, fruit and other potables.

Pinnacle Dining Room

Like many cruise ships, the Nieuw Amsterdam has a prestige dining room for which there is an extra charge -$29 pp in this case. Well worth the investment in my opinion. The room is beautiful, with lots of glass and crystal chandeliers, Bulgari china and a better level of cuisine, in the sense that there are more expensive dishes available. Things like a bone-in rib eye, or lobster mac and cheese are regularly on the menu, there are hand made chocolate truffles with the dessert course and the service is more personal somehow.

The Tamarind Restaurant

The Asian inspired restaurant on board is my favourite so far - elegantly relaxed but very pretty. The servers are all slim as pencils, the plates are gorgeously arranged and the food is light and flavourful. Seafood Pho was a bowl of a delicious broth and generous amounts of scallops, shrimp and lobster. Potstickers came neatly stacked on a rectangular plate, and the Asian hot pot was an explosion of layered flavours, with vegetables and seafood. Dessert was a trio of small scoops of sorbet, one Passion fruit basil, one lychee green tea and one wasabi flavour. Satisfying and delicious without being too rich.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me! - Nearing Land

Day Seventeen: A Formal Day at Sea

As the captain promised, sunny skies and nice temps in the high seventies. We were up at 6 am to see the sunrise and have an early breakfast.
The cruise is definitely coming to an end. Today the bridge handed out info about customs and disembarking, and delivered the bills for all the extras that guests ordered .
It is our last day at sea. Tomorrow morning at six we will dock in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas, and the morning after, we disembark in Fort Lauderdale. I thought I would be getting bored by this point in the voyage but I am not - both of us are relaxed and completely rested.
This evening is a formal one. We arranged to have dinner in the Pinnacle with Gaby and Matthew, and went to their stateroom ahead of time for canapés.

I ordered the lobster mac and cheese, to see if it was as good as the Gordon Ramsay version that my son makes. Ramsay‘s is better, but this one was good, and had a whole lobster tail on the top.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me! - Rough Seas

MS RotterdamDay Sixteen: Rough Seas
We seem to be in the middle of some rough weather. Ironically the movie playing on the television today is The Perfect Storm. Is the captain playing with us?
It is still warm , about 79 degrees, but the sky is overcast and there are force eight winds. So the ship is rocking and several people are looking green. Good thing Bob and I are hearty sailors. Running on the treadmill is challenging, though the view is fascinating.
There was a Grand Buffet at lunch, with ice sculptures , really good big shrimp, (No, Miss Al, I didn’t eat any!) roast beef, the whole nine yards, as well as rum babas and triple chocolate cakes.

After, we did the audio guided art tour of the ship. There are paintings, sculptures, archaeological pieces, antique ships models - a couple of million dollars worth of art works. It makes the ship far more interesting than most.



I then went to a talk called Five Hundred Years of Art History - a real gallop through the ages, but well done. Bob opted for a talk about navigation in the Queen’s Room.

I have encountered such strong Anti American feelings on this trip, shocking and
nasty. The Brits and other Europeans have expressed real disgust, not only with the country but with the people. Even the Americans are anti- American and fear their country is falling too far behind the rest of the world to ever catch up. The general opinion seems to be that the country is doomed, that Obama will never overcome the goon mentality of the powerful right, and that the reforms that are essential will never happen. The best result would be that America would draw in its tentacles, build walls around itself and exist in isolation from the rest of the world.
There used to be admiration mixed with the complaints about America, but that doesn’t appear to exist any more.

The captain has promised sunny skies and quiet seas for tomorrow.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me! - Still Sailing along the Route of Columbus

MS RotterdamDay Fifteen: Steaming Towards the Bahamas
Woke up at six thirty this morning (actually seven thirty but we are turning our clocks back an hour each night to keep up with the time change) and went up to the promenade deck to watch a gorgeous sunrise and enjoy a cup of (not very good but at least hot) coffee. I was surprised at how many people were up and about. One couple was in the outdoor pool doing aquatics, a few staff were in the Lido pool doing lengths, and some early bird types were already tucking in to breakfast.
I brought espresso from the Explorer Café back to the room as a wake up for Bob, and then breakfast was delivered.
I only managed two miles on the treadmill because I had to shower and meet the executive chef Thomas Schumann for a tour of the galley kitchens. They bake thier own bread daily and most things are made fresh on board.

They are immaculate, and they are run with military precision.
Then we headed for the Lido pool, - it’s 82 degrees today - and managed to grab two deck chairs, where we dozed in the sun and read our books . I’ve finished The Angel’s Game, not very good but I felt I had to finish it, and have started another Ian Rankin. Bob is deep into David McCullough’s 1776.

Our cabin steward, Miftah, is thirty years old and comes from west Java. He has helped his younger brother get a job with the company and he will be joining the same ship as his older brother in Fort Lauderdale. Miftah is a very likeable young man with perfect manners and a good sense of humour.

I think he l0ooks live an Indonesian version of Brad Pitt.

Yesterday one of the passengers died unexpectedly on the ship. He was 75, and was apparently a very large man. It is rare that someone doesn’t die on a crossing - the average age of passengers is older for long voyages - and they have refrigerated cubicles for just such an occurrence. They keep the flowers there when it isn’t in use.
John Duffy used to say that a ship was in reality just a floating city, and anything that could happen on land could happen here - crime, death, insanity, love. So death is something for which they are prepared. But I was wondering how they would get that man’s body down the hall. He would be dead weight (pardon!) and would be very tricky to manoeuvre through the narrow cabin door and into the hallway. Maybe they would put him in a wheelchair and take him out that way.
I feel so sorry for his wife who must now continue the voyage, without the solace of friends and family, until she reaches Florida on Wednesday.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me! - Steaming for tne Bahamas

MS RotterdamDay Fourteen: The Midway Point

 
There’s approximately 1790 miles to Bermuda, and almost the same distance to the Canary Islands. We are very definitely at sea.
We had breakfast delivered to our stateroom and ate on the balcony. The temperatures are warm, but there are rain clouds. We saw a perfect rainbow that ended in the ocean way out on the horizon.
I did my 5 K in the gym, then Bob and I did a mile around the promenade deck. The day began with clouds, but the benefit of a ship is that it can steer away from clouds and into sunny skies, which our captain did, and by ten the blue skies were back.
One thing that has really impressed me on this cruise is the service. Stewards and servers are unfailingly pleasant and quick, and very well trained. There’s a feeling of teamwork and a sense that this is a happy ship. The dining room captains are observant and smart, moving guests to the right tables, pairing up suitable guests at larger tables, saving tables for two for old romantics like Bob and I. And since the first day, they have addressed us by our name.
There is only one little baby on board, one of the officer‘s wives is sailing with her husband, and has brought along their little 17 month old boy. He is so sweet - makes me long for a hug from Riley or Lulu - and his mother has a sort of harness and tether that she has on him to make sure he doesn’t get away from her.
We dined with our friends in the upper level of the dining room, and then returned to our stateroom,

which had been cleaned and tidied in our absence with the covers turned down and the daily programme for the morning, along with two chocolates and a new towel animal placed on the bed.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me! - 12,000 feet of water beneath us

MS RotterdamDay Thirteen: Still the Mid AtlanticLovely and warm today, high seventies and sunny.

We have asked Miftah to help us plan a birthday cocktail party for our new friend Matthew, who will turn 65 today. He and Gaby are coming to our room for cocktails before we go to a special Indian dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. Miftah arranged to get some extra chairs, a wine bucket, more champagne glasses and ice, as well as some nibbles to be delivered to the room.
Room service outdid itself. ‘Nibbles’ turned out to be an elegant tray of cheeses, pistachios, sugared walnuts, dates, fresh grapes, French bread, and little crackers. We sat out on the veranda of our room and watched the sunset, enjoyed a glass of bubbly and toasted Matthew’s birthday.

Then we went to the Pinnacle Grill, the gourmet restaurant on board ($20 extra pp) and had a special Indian meal:
Here's the menu:
Appetizer
Aloo Bonda ( spiced potato quenelles, fried in chickpea batter and served with mint chutney
Soup
Tamatar Shorba ( slowly simmered tomato soup flavoured with coconut and coriander)
Entrees
Kozi Varta Currry (spiced chicken in black pepper gravy)
Or
Jinga Masala ( Goan style prawns prepared with coconut milk and Indian spices)
Or
Malai Kofta Korma
Cheese stuffed potato dumplings in a creamy tomato sauce

All served with saffron and geen pea pilaf rice, butter naan bread anda condiments

Dessert
Gajar Ka Halwa ( carrots cooked and sweetened with cream and nuts)

Washed down with cold Dutch beer - Grolsch’s - it was delicious. The dessert was a bit odd, kind of like a mushy carrot cake, but the spicing in all the dishes was aggressive and delicious.

But no dancing for us, although many on board do so. I’m afraid that the rocking of the boat combined with Bob’s problems with balance would put us overboard.

Not such a bad way to go, really, romantic and dramatic at the same time. Apparently it takes over half an hour to slow the ship and get it turned around to come back for you , and that’s only if some one notices and raises the alarm. There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, although John Duffy, the hotel manager on the QE 11 for many years swears it is true, of a couple in their eighties who dressed up in their best outfits for dinner, enjoyed a good meal and a bottle of champagne, and then disappeared off the back deck. No one saw them go over, but their stateroom was empty the next day. The wife, so the story goes, had a terminal illness and had only months to live, and they had been together for many years.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me! - the Atlantic Crossing

MS Rotterdam: The Mid Atlantic
Day Twelve: At SeaDining on a ship is always tricky. It isn’t as if you can switch to a different restaurant if you don’t like the ones on board. Your choices are decidedly limited.
For casual fare, the Rotterdam’s Lido is perfect. Situated on Deck 8, this is a busy, casual space, always full of light because of the glass roof in the pool area and the big windows.
While the food may not be exemplary, it is fresh and there is a great deal of choice. I have discovered the pasta bar, and anyone who knows me won’t be surprised to learn that I have developed a liking for their linguine with sauce bolognaise. There are Panini’s, oriental dishes, roast beef, fresh sushi, fruit, cheeses and, out by the pool, continual hamburgers, fajitas and pizza. Breakfasts here offer the usual things, omelettes, pancakes, waffles and French toast as well as an ‘Eggs Benedict’ station where you can order a different style each morning - smoked salmon, spinach, Canadian bacon, etc.
The big disappointment for me here, and actually this applies to the whole ship, is the coffee. It is undrinkable, made from liquid coffee stuff that doesn’t even smell like coffee. There is a coffee bar near the library that makes passable espresso and cappuccinos, but it is expensive. When you are coffee aficionados as Bob and I are, this is something that you really miss.
The formal dining room, “La Fontaine“, is a beautiful room with white table cloths and fresh flowers. The food is pretty consistently good , with a significant failure in their Lobster Thermidor which was inedible. Portions are on the small side, which is good, especially when you are consuming so much so often on a cruise, and the plating is very nice. I like the fact that there is always fresh fruit and a very good cheese board for dessert.
High tea is served in La Fontaine every day at three, and a light meal is available every night from eleven to midnight. Haven’t tried either of these yet.
Tonight we met friends in the Ocean Bar where there is a nice string quartet each evening. We had champagne, then went to dinner in La Fontaine, which was a celebration of French cuisine.
All of this is even more reason for me to make my daily visit to the gym for my five K’s on the treadmill.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me! -Day one of the Atlantic Crossing

Day Eleven: MS RotterdamCrossing the Atlantic 

 Today we are really at sea, with no land in sight, and the next stop the Bahamas. There are many activities on board, but few of them are our kind if thing - you can play bingo, learn to make marzipan, try your hand at the ring toss, do the Wii challenge, learn about wine, or attend some lectures about sea life or Christopher Columbus’ voyages to the new world.
But we are lazy and spend most of our day reading, lolling by the pool on the back deck or talking with people we have met.


I forced myself to work out for 40 minutes in the gym, but it is not such a difficult thing - the view of the sun and water from the treadmill makes it easy.
Dinner is at 7:45, and we joined some friends for coffee afterwards and then attended the show in the Queen’s Lounge at ten, a tribute group to Frankie Valli and The Four Season’s - Bob’s favourite music from his teenage years. They were surprisingly good.
Each night our steward, Mufti, leaves a towel sculpture on our bed. Tonight he outdid himself!

A monkey!

The Long Cruise: Follow Me! - Tenerife, Canary Islands

Day Ten: MS RotterdamSanta Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands We walked up the Calle Castillo, bought a few things, and had an espresso. We ran into Matthew and Gabriella and arranged to have dinner at their table tonight.
Then I tried to visit the new Museum of Modern Art. I walked around the building three times before I found the entrance, and then was told that the museum was closed, which I should have known since most museums are closed on Mondays.
So I wandered over to the fresh market, the Mercada de Nuestra Senora de Africa,

and bought jars of picante sauce, torrone, and a bottle of Tio Pepe sherry fino blanco.
We also somehow wandered onto a street that was obviously for “working women” - there were two or three young ladies, in short skirts and very high heels leaning against the doorways on every corner.
Dinner this evening was a long and leisurely one, with good conversation. Both Matthew and Gabriella have led interesting lives. It was the Master Chefs dinner, where the staff sing and dance as they deliver the courses, with the last course being the famous baked Alaska.



At about six pm, the ship left port and headed out into the Atlantic. We won’t see land again for seven days.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me! - Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Day Nine: MS RotterdamArrecefe, Lanzarote, Canary Islands.
I was last here twenty four years ago when the QE11 stopped here. This is where, at that time, we had lunch in a little café by the ocean that served icy beer and spicy potatoes that were unique to the Canaries. They are little potatoes boiled in their skins in a thick salt and water solution so that the potatoes have a crust of salt on the outside. They served a delicious red picante sauce, quite hot, and mayonnaise to dip the potatoes into. When I got home, I created an equivalent recipe that I called Lanzarote potatoes and everyone has loved them for years.
So of course one of the orders of business was to try the special potatoes again. We found the Café Central, which claimed to serve the best tapas in town.

We had a good strong espresso then tried the potatoes. These ones were a bit different , served with both a red and a green sauce. The red sauce was the hot one, as I remembered it, except that this one had tons of garlic in it. The green sauce was a cilantro sauce, not as spicy. So now I will have to tweak my recipe when I get home.
We walked along the pretty breakfront boulevard, and found a food fair in progress, despite the fact that today is Sunday. There was a man offering tastes of sausages and grilled ribs, with a loud Spanish patter that was lovely to listen to.

It was also nice to see the men, generally older, sitting in the cafes beside the ocean, drinking sherry fino and playing cards. They looked so relaxed.
That evening, as we left Lanzarote behind, we enjoyed the Sommelier’s dinner in the Pinnacle dining room. The food was lovely - I will post a separate sidebar with the menu and pairings for those of you who are into such things (as I am) - but the wine pairings were disappointing, by and large.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me! - Off The Coast of Morocco

Day Eight: MS Rotterdam
At Sea, Heading for the Canary Islands

Mid seventies and sunny today, and a nice day to catch up on emails, on reading, on getting a tan. One of the little luxuries on this cruise is the laundry. You send your dirty clothes away in a laundry bag and the next day it is returned, all clean and folded and neatly wrapped in tissue paper, like a present.
We were very lazy, enjoying a late lunch by the pool . I am reading Ian Rankin, lovely , complicated spy thriller, with lots of blood and murder and not too much concentration required. Bob is reading the life story of The Widow Cliquot and the history of her famous Champagne house. A real feminist icon at a time when such women were rare.
It’s easy to lose track of time when all there is to see is sea. The coast of Morocco is off to the left somewhere, but it is out of sight.
This evening we attended a special reception held by the captain for his important guests - we were invited only because we are Press - and it turned out to be an interesting event. We all ended up crowded into a narrow corridor in front of the elevator, with the doors to the reception room closed until the opening time of 7:30. Bob and I tried to move over to one side to get out of the crush and a rude old American man scolded us for “getting in front of us in line!”
“I’ve been waitin’ for twenny minutes to get in first!!” he growled (Add the accent in your imagination) I wonder if he thought there would not be enough champagne to go around, or if being the first to shake hands with the captain was a special prize - I think his wife was embarrassed by his rudeness. At least I hope so.
We moved back, and Bob being Bob, he made it known that he thought the fellow was an idiot, and a very nice Dutch couple behind us agreed. We made friends with them, Matthew and Gabriela, and sat with them during the reception. He’s a banker, she’s an artist, and they are completely charming and great conversationalists. We have arranged to dine with them n a few night’s time. So it is an ill wind that does not blow some good.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me: Casablanca, Morocco

Day Seven: MS Rotterdam Casablanca, Morocco

We had been warned so many times that Casablanca is a different port from any European port, - that we should be careful of our belongings, not wear any jewellery, not eat or drink anything while there - that we were a little on edge.
But while the city was not the romantic place I had imagined, neither was it threatening or apparently dangerous. The best part was visiting the suq - narrow alleyways full of stalls selling everything from shoes to live chickens, from dried figs to spices.

It was noisy, colourful and smelly, full of life and dirt and energy. I would have pent more time there, but our companions were a bit put off by the odours and noise so we toured the other parts of the city.

The mosques are impressive, but the city itself has an air of decadence and decay. I’m glad to have seen it, but I don’t think I would make a special trip to go back.

The suq was full of cats! - they were everywhere. One little creature in particular broke my heart. I found this little kitten cowering on a ledge, trembling. It was so little, and one of its eyes was either missing or badly infected. It was obviously doomed.

I wanted to sneak it back to the ship and nurse it back to life, but that was impossible. I thought about hiding it in a bag under my sweater, but you have to go through a scanner, and I assume they would find it, and a kitten probably wouldn’t stay quiet either. It would undoubtedly be full of fleas and bugs, too.


So I left it to its fate …. But I can’t stop thinking about the poor thing.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me! - Cadiz, Spain

Day Six: MS Rotterdam Cadiz, Spain

Another day of perfect weather, and another lovely Spanish city. But this was one of those days when all of our choices turned out to be unwise. Maybe we had just grown over confident.
Because we like to travel independently we decided that we would bypass the cruise line tours and do our own trip to Jerez, the sherry capital about 60 kilometres outside of the city.

 All began well - we found the tourism offices, got the info we needed, and walked to the train station in time to catch a train at 11 for Jerez. Great train, must have been brand new, and an interesting trip that took about forty minutes.

But things began to go awry when we decided that we would tour the Harvey’s Bodega, which seemed to be a short walk from the train station. Not so short a walk, it turned out, and we had trouble finding the entrance. We slipped into an open gate and wandered around the property - nice gardens, great caves full of sherry barrels, but not a soul in sight. Finally found someone who said there were no tours today. Hmm.
We decided to walk to the Tio Pepe Bodega, which appeared to be a short walk on the other side of the city centre. In the meantime we tried to get some money from a bank - we didn’t have enough euros for our return trip to Cadiz. The bank refused to give us any money - something about regulations that had been in place since the time of Franco! And now it was one o’clock and in order to get back to the ship in time for the four o’clock boarding, we had to catch a train at two. Finally found a bank whose machine would spit out money for us, and got enough cash for our return
But, always the optimists, we thought we could still manage a visit to Tio Pepe within the time limits.

So we walked some more, lost our way, and arrived at the bodega to discover that there would not be another tour for an hour. And now our time was really short - we sprinted all the way back to the station, fumbled with the ticket machine which wouldn’t take our euros, and finally got it to produce two tickets. We slid into our seats just at the train doors closed.
But that wasn‘t the end of our woes. I take full responsibility for our next error. I looked up at the monitor on the train, and thought that we were at the final stop at Cadiz, and we jumped off. Wrong stop. Not only that , it was miles from the port, and it was now three.
We were in some industrial suburb of the city, with no buses or taxis in sight. The next train wasn‘t leaving for over an hour, too late for our purposes.
I may have had a little meltdown. Perhaps I raised my voice. Panic and guilt will do that. But just as we were beginning to think about how much it would cost us to fly to meet the boat at the next port, a taxi appeared miraculously out of nowhere.
He got us to the ship and I would have to guess that we were the last guests to board.
So, happy ending, but I am sorry to have missed Cadiz. It looked like a very pretty city and I have promised myself that I will come back sometime to do it justice. And Jerez too.
The day ended on a happy note - a glass of wine in the Crow’s Nest with good conversation with new friends, and a view of Cadiz by sunset.

The Long Cruise: Follow Me

Day Five: Malaga, Spain
We arrived in Malaga just after dawn and the harbour, though very industrial, was beautiful.

Malaga sits comfortably between the Mediterranean and the Sierra Nevadas. It’s a very pretty city, with an elegant promenade and many historic buildings. We walked up the Molina Lario to the Malaga Cathedral, then headed for the historic district. We visited the small house where Pablo Picasso was born, now a museum and gallery, and had an excellent coffee and churros in the Café de Picasso. We spent some time photographing the narrow streets and plazas, toured the shopping district, and were back at the ship by 3.
We had an early dinner and then watched the movie “Julie and Julia”.

Day Three : The Long Cruise

Day Three: The Long Cruise


MS Rotterdam, Barcelona

Another perfect day of weather, and a chance to visit one of our favourite cities. Because we have been here a few times and are familiar with the territory, we merely did a leisurely walk-about, spending some time getting photos in the gorgeous Boqueria ( fresh market). I‘m a foodie so I was interested in all the varieties of fruit, stalls with piles of different mushrooms, jambon that sells for 150 euros a kilo, salt cod pilfered from Newfoundland, and candy stalls with nougat and marzipan.



Then we continued up the Ramblas, enjoying the crowds, photographing the street performers. We did some shopping at El Corte Ingles, mostly food, and mostly special treats to put in my grown children’s Christmas stockings. This city is a paradise for anyone who loves food. We walked through the lovely Gothic Quarter, and had coffee in a little corner café with deep leather chairs. While we were there, a woman had her purse stolen from her table. It happened in a brief second - and it made us be a bit more aware of our belongings, We walked back to the ship in time for dinner.