We did the “Walking Tour of Regensburg with Sausage Tasting” excursion, and once again for some queer reason, most of the guys gravitated to one particular guide, Daniel Husband. He was a professional baseball player, and it showed.
Daniel and his massive biceps took us through the town:
There was a Dachshund Museum there, and Bob and I popped inside:
In Neupfarrplatz square, there were Stolpersteine or “stumbling stones,” which are memorial plaques embedded in the sidewalk to commemorate victims of the Nazis.
St. Stephens was in the center of town, and we stopped in it:
The last thing on the walking tour was a stop at The Sausage Kitchen, where we sat on the steps and Daniel collected our orders for a free sausage sandwich, which ranged from “all the way” (mustard & kraut), no mustard, no kraut, plain, and breadless.
Bob’s sandwich – “all the way”
John’s sandwich – plain
After the tour ended, Bob and I returned to a bakery that Daniel had said has his favorite pretzels in town, and we each got one.
Tonight’s entertainment on board was the Bavarian Brass Band, who played “oompah music” for us.
For at least three-fourths of the trip, we’d been ordering regular drinks, and then in an aha moment, it occurred to us to order doubles and save the bar staff 50% of their trips to our table!
This is the only port call that we hadn’t already arrived at when we woke up, so it made for a nice leisurely morning. Bob and I had been getting up at 6 or 6:30 every day, so this was nice.
Bob participated in the 10:00 Trivia with Paula activity, while I worked on my blog. Our friend Ken was the winner!
Spoiler alert: The outside
Paula, the activities director
Bob hard at work
Ken, the winner
I found this trivia question most interesting:
Who are the only 3 people in the world who can travel without a passport?
Click here to see the answer.
The emperor and empress of Japan & King Charles.
Neither of us participated in the Crazy Gold or the Bike Tour activities.
After lunch, I took the Walking Tour of Passau, while Bob stayed on the riverboat.
Might I remind you that we’re traveling with a group of about 40 gay men? For some queer reason, the majority of the guys in our group gravitated toward this tour guide, Ugur from Istanbul, out of the 6 guides available.
Two funny things with regards to Ugur:
In telling us how safe this city is, he told us that once he went away for two weeks and forgot to lock his bicycle. When he got back it was still there, and it had a note on it that said, “This bike is too cheap to steal.” (He suspects it was actually a friend of his that put it there.)
We’d just passed the courthouse, where he’d told us that they get 2 chances to pass the bar here, and if you fail the second time, you can’t retake it. A few minutes later, a lady holding a bouquet came running toward him, they seemed to be celebrating, speaking in German, and then he said, “This is my friend, and she just passed the bar! It was her second chance, so it was critical that she pass. It seems like she’s been studying for 10 years straight for this.” There were cheers and applause all around from our group.
Within the first 10 minutes of the tour, the bottom fell out of the sky, and all of us were under a tree trying to keep dry. It was a fierce downpour with loud thunder, and it lasted about 10 minutes. We had a pretty view from there, though.
City scenes:
Guess how many total Scrabble points the letters of this sign add up to!
Click here to see the answer.
118!
I was walking ahead of the rest of our BearCruise group, and when I saw this store I thought, “Oh boy. Y’all have no idea what’s about to hit you.” I knew every bear in our group would stop in it!
We checked out St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and like most of the ones we’ve seen, it was elaborate.
“And, yes, I’m talking about that big-bellied schmuck right there!”
Tencalla-Garten
We participated in the Jukebox Jury activity, which was kind of a brilliant way to get people geared up for the subsequent disco dancing.
They gave us a list of 10 disco songs — which weren’t all disco songs, but songs from the “disco era” — and we had to predict which 3 songs (in order) would get the most people up on the floor dancing.
The list
Our answers
The brilliant part, of course, was that everybody wanted to get out on the dance floor when one of the songs they’d voted for was played.
Our favorite pictures are of our favorite bartender, Yuliana, when she joined in on one of the songs. It looks like she’s dancing with wild abandon!
Our friend Kayo won by getting the top 3 in the right order!
The day after we had our fun, fun, fun dinner with Daniel and Michael, Michael sent a text asking if we’d noticed the quote on last night’s dinner menu.
We did the morning Göttweig Abbey tour: “A walk through history and now of the Monastery of Goettweig — a view into the life of the monks.” Full disclosure: We did not see any actual monks even though there are some that still live there.
Our guide’s name was Sophie, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard anyone talk faster than she did, not even friends of mine from New York.
Courtyard views of the abbey:
A couple of shots in the Göttweig Abbey church:
The altar
The bully pulpit
The big cheese’s chair
The organ
Bishop Altmann’s parts
A couple of quick things:
What’s better than a candelabra on your piano? Tulips on your organ.
In Bishop Altmann’s coffin, there’s only his skull, one arm, and a rib.
There was a scenic overlook here and we took pics for several other people here and someone returned the favor.
Beautiful! (And the scenery, too.)Bob still totally smitten with me after close to 10 years of marriage. 😂 😂 😂
We did not participate in the Durnstein Castle Ruins Hike or the Wachau Bike Tour excursions. Instead, we took advantage of the free time in Durstein, and walked around the cute little village.
Street scenes
Amusing sights
Rabbit shit!
Variety vending!
Wine sandwiches!
Dogs
A man and his dogs
Doggies!
Shopping
Christmas balls
Christmas tchotchkes
Bobbleheads
Flora
Grapevines
Grapes
Apricots
Such a cute little village. Time enjoyably spent.
Back at the riverboat, while the bikers biked along the Danube for 3 hours, the riverboat traveled through the Wachau Valley to Krems, where the bikers also ended up, and we stopped to pick them up.
Tonight’s dinner:
I had the recommendations, exchanging Bananas Foster for the Kaiserschmarren & Zwetschkenröster (easy for you to say!).
The entertainment this evening was The No-Budget Band, comprising housekeepers Heri and Agus.
And at one point they called up Al — our fearless BearCruise cruise director — to sing a song. Within a minute, Al had the room in his hands with John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads.
In his early years, Al sang and danced on cruise ships and for a while in shows at Carowinds or Kings Dominion.
We’ve had a couple of schedule changes because the Danube River water levels are precariously low.
At first, we were going to have to end in Passau instead of Regensburg, because it didn’t look like we’d be able to get to Regensburg before the water got too shallow.
Then we got word that we were going to be able to go all the way to Regensburg.
And just now (mid-day) on Friday, already in Regensburg, it was determined that the river is evaporating/draining so fast that if we stay here over night to disembark in the morning as planned, by morning the ship might be stranded here because of the low water level — fine for us because we’re disembarking; bad for the cruise line, which won’t be able to get out of here.
So at the end of tonight, we are going to sail to a place between here and Passau, called Straubing to disembark there.
We have “private” transportation arrangements, meaning a driver is coming to pick us up to take us to the Munich airport, and we’ve been in touch with the driver (who is great) via WhatsApp to stay on top of the changes.
I’ve decided to order a drink now every time plans change.
My plus-sized Bloody Mary and Al having empathy drink with me.
“Affordances” in the discipline of user-centered design are the things about a product that make their usability “easy” or “intuitive.”
I’ve noted 2 things on this riverboat whose affordances do not advance their usability:
The icons on the water machine, and
The handles on the doors into the lounge and bar.
Water machine
Its affordances: The two icons that indicate sparkling water (on the left side) and still water (on the right side).
I watched person after person put their glass under the right icon when they wanted still water and under the left icon when they wanted sparkling water, which is the intuitive thing to do.
The problem is that both the sparkling and the still water are dispensed in the middle of the machine, so you need to put your glass there regardless of which kind of water you want.
A better affordance would be if those two icons were stacked (like a stoplight) in the middle of the machine above where the water actually comes out, which would make it intuitive to always put your glass there.
Door
Its affordances: The handles on these doors are the same on both sides, and they are the type of handles that one intuitively pulls.
The problem is that you need to push the door to enter the lounge, and you need to pull the door to exit the lounge.
Better affordances would be to have standard handles that people intuitively know how to use — so a flat handle on the side you push to enter and a handle like that one that’s already on them on the side you pull to exit.
Here he is with Yuliana, one of the bartenders extraordinaire on the riverboat!
Bob is someone who likes to try new things, while I prefer things I already know — especially with regards to food and drink. It’s mid-morning here, and we’re sitting in the lounge and bar where I’m catching up this blog.
Bob to Yuliana: I want to try a drink I’ve never had before.
Yuliana: What kind of liquor would you like in it?
Bob: Vodka.
Fast forward a few minutes, and she delivered my third Bloody Mary along with Bob’s “surprise drink.”
Her: Don’t ever ask me to do this again. It makes me very nervous when someone asks me to surprise them or to “be creative” with a drink.
Sunset over the Danube last night leaving Bratislava heading toward Vienna:
I enjoyed a cuppa cawfee (without the tawk) in our cabin this morning.
Today’s program:
We skipped the “Art Tour of Vienna” excursion, because we like neither art history nor museums. Discuss.
Bob and I took the 2:30 free shuttle bus from the riverboat to the City Center Schwedenplatz and walked around in the light drizzle. Bob was my umbrella aide-de-camp whenever I took a photo.
Other city walk pics:
Our ship provided a city map for our walk
When a male step likes another male step, they turn gay!
I’m sure I’d crash before I could decipher this street pavement sign.
Tonight’s dinner menus:
We forewent the evening classical music concert for several reasons:
Bob doesn’t care for classical music.
I attend the N.C. Symphony somewhat regularly, and I constantly listen to our classical music station — which Bob affectionately refers to as “the oldies station.”
I did the Viennese waltz in Vienna with my then-wife when I was here 45 years ago, which I view as an equivalent experience.
With all that said, the people who went reported that the concert was great! And it was a special concert just for the people on this riverboat cruise.
We flew from Raleigh to Paris to Budapest, spent 2 days on land there, and we’re now on a Danube riverboat cruise traversing Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, and Germany. The port calls include: Budapest (Hungary); Bratislava (Slovakia); Vienna, Krems, Dürnstein, and Engelhartszell (Austria); Passau and Regensburg (Germany). We’ll return from Munich.
No it’s not a Viking, but an Emerald cruise. Our Emerald Star riverboat holds 182 passengers, and Bob and I have a Panorama Balcony Suite, a favorite feature of which is its sliding balcony window. There’s a pool, theater, sunning and games areas, and several restaurants and bars on board.
We’re with a BearCruise group of ~40, comprising mostly gay men — and the one straight woman is my ex-grad-school professor, who’s traveling with her gay grandson. Bob and I have done several cruises with BearCruise, including Halloweenie Mexican Riviera, Dominican MayDaze, and Northern Europe, and they’re always a good time.
Bob and I were walking the streets of Vienna when we saw this business:
Struck by the lengths of these words and the frequency of less-used letters in English words that they contain, we thought they’d be killer Scrabble words. We weren’t wrong:
I told my once-grad-school professor and now friend, Susan, about this Danube riverboat cruise and she said she’d always wanted to go on one.
I knew she had a gay grandson, and since the group I’m going with is a gay group, I said, “I said, “You should come on this one, and you should ask Peyton to go with you.” And she did!
Susan and I are both avid readers, and we are each in a book club, but not the same one. I said, “We should both read a (fiction) book involving a Danube riverboat cruise and discuss it on the cruise!”
She thought it was a great idea, so we did. Turns out neither one of us was impressed with the book, and I said, “Sometimes in a book club, the worst books can have the best discussion.” We both said, “Yeah, yeah. Let’s go with that.”
We met today and discussed it.
Afterward, we added a note to the inside front cover and donated the book to the riverboat’s share-a-book collection.
When we’re home, we host happy hour on Mondays on our front porch, and we cheer on the runners of the Pelagic Run Club, which is associated with a bottle shop that’s less than a mile from our house.
Since we’re in Vienna, we didn’t have it today, but we did check our web cam that shows our front yard at the time they pass by and caught a few shots of them going by.
Update: Our friends Sam & Neal picked up the slack by putting signs out at their house, which is one street over from ours.
This morning, relax on board as we sail to Bratislava. An ancient landscape awaits, where remarkable towers add to a skyline that perfectly encapsulates the history of the city, and preserved medieval fortifications tell tales of a turbulent past.
Today’s program:
Excursions at this port:
Coffee and cake with the locals: You will be invited into the home of a local family to learn more about their traditions and culture over coffee and cake.
Bratislava city tour: Your local guide will take you through the heart of the city, as you soak in the sights of the lavish Episcopal Summer Palace and the neo-Renaissance façade of the Slovak National Theatre.
In what undoubtedly will be the most memorable part of this trip, we visited a Bratislava’s home and connected on a intimate, human level.
Matthew (hysterical) was our tour guide. Ondrus (extremely knowledgeable) was the local expert who told us about the country and what we were seeing on the 45-minute ride to the village where Andre (the homeowner) lived.
Andre was adorable which doesn’t really matter — (but, my goodness, doesn’t it help?) — and he welcomed seven of us (Kayo, Ken, Al, Daniel, Michael, Bob, and me) into his home.
He was an interesting and personable guy who told us about his life here and answered a bunch of questions from us. He likes to make homemade spirits, and even though this program is billed as “coffee and cake,” he offered us, and we took him up on, some of his homemade spirits with the cake.
Some pics of his house and hospitality:
And yes, that’s Bob playing the Steirische harmonika! After his third or fourth glass of spirits, the spirit moved him to ask Andre if he could try it.
We returned to the riverboat for lunch and enjoyed a salad bar and fish and chips!
After lunch, we set out for the city walking tour, and one of the guides was Matej from this morning’s home visit, so we got in his group, because we knew how good and funny he is!
A few pics of the tour:
Matej told two stories regarding these two sites:
About the “Man at Work” sculpture, he said the locals laugh at the tourists whenever they see them squat down next to it for photos and rub its head (which apparently many do “for good luck”), because what they know is that dogs relieve themselves on that statue all day long.
“Man at Work” street art
“Man at Work” side view
“Man at Work” close-up
And about the “creeper man,” he said that that guy was a real person, and in fact his grandmother knew him, but he got spurned by a woman and went a little crazy (as in with mental illness) over it. And after that, he started staring and making goo-goo eyes and comments at women and became “creepy,” which today would probably consider what he was doing as harassment.
“Creeper Man”
And tonight’s dinner:
Bob’s salmon
John’s chicken
Bob’s Jello
John’s bananas foster
Tonight’s activity was “An Evening with the Stars,” where video or audio clips of movies were played and we had to guess the name of the actors or movies. Our dinner companions from last night (who also do their weekly dinner menus) are in the front of the middle table: Daniel in the blue & black flowered shirt, with Michael to the right of him in the black polo shirt.
The crowd participating in the movie trivia game — the 2 front tables are members of our group.
Missing Title
1 – Pretty Woman
2 – Finding Nemo
3 – Rocky
4 – Green Mile
5 – Fight Club
6 – Shrek
7 – Shawshank
8 – Lion King
9 – The Matrix
10 – Titanic
Music From Movies
1 – The Breakfast Club
2 – Skyfall
3 – Mission Impossible
4 – The Naked Gun
5 – Rocky Horror Picture Show
6 – Star Wars
7 – Austin Powers
8 – Breakfast at Tiffany’s
9 – Ghostbusters
10 – The Blues Brothers
Excursion description: Architecture from across the centuries shines a light on the history of the Hungarian capital. Originally two separate cities, Buda to the west and Pest to the east offer incredibly different views on the culture of one of the liveliest cities in Eastern Europe. Today, you’ll have the opportunity to explore the city during a guided tour, including Heroes’ Square and the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Andrássy Avenue and Buda Castle District.
These brilliant devices were provided in our cabins, which you use during the walking tours to be able to hear your guides without everyone having to crowd around them.
We loved our tour guide — “You can call me Charlotte,” she said. She’s in the purple dress in the last picture in this set. A few of my favorite things of this outing:
The Hilton Budapest was built with the assistance of Zsa Zsa Gabor, who convinced the communist dictator to allow the Hilton company to build the first Hilton in the Eastern Bloc.
Our tour guide said she checked on where the most expensive bottle of champagne in Budapest can be bought, and it was in the restaurant of this Hilton – a $3,000 bottle.
Us with scary-customed man at the Buda Castle
Our tour guide called the lady who collects your payment to use these toilets “The Dragon Lady”
Late afternoon, we had a “Captain’s Reception” and then our “Port Talk,” which is when they tell you about the next port and everything going on there.
During the captain’s reception, we enjoyed champagne with an amuse bouche, and I treated myself with a change from bourbon and sodas to a treat from the Vodka Cocktail Collection. We had the most expensive, so all-inclusive drink package, so why not?
We had a most delightful dinner, sharing a table with new friends, Daniel & Michael. They’re from Seattle and they’re the first people we’ve met who create a list of dinner menus for the week like we do.
Each night for dinner, there is the full menu, along with a “chef’s recommendation” menu:
Bob and I both chose the chef’s recommendation this evening:
Mushroom & vegetable tartar
Lobster bisque
Passion fruit sorbet
Slow-roasted pork tenderloin & mushroom espuma
Glazed chocolate dome & amarena cherries
After dinner there was a “Name That Tune” game that I didn’t participate in, but Bob did. There were 3 parts to the game with the emcee playing a clip of music each time.
First round: You had to identify the song title and the artist (or band). Second round: You had to identify a song that was being played backward. Third round: You had to say if the song played sold more or fewer than 10 million records.
Bob’s team won, and they were presented a free bottle of spirits and some chocolate.
Today’s the day when our pre-cruise stay ended and we boarded the Emerald Star riverboat. We boarded just before 11
and had to wait until 12:30 for our embarkation lunch.
Our cabins were projected to be ready around 2, but were ready earlier. We have a Panoramic Balcony Suite whose highlight is a floor-to-ceiling window that slides down opening it up to the outside. Home sweet home for the next 7 days.
Our cabin (the top half of the window slides down)
Our cabin
Our cabin
After the captain’s welcome, we had dinner. Typically we get 2 menus, one is the full menu and the other one contains the “captain’s recommendation” from the full choices. I forgot to grab a copy of the full menu, but here’s the captain’s recommendation one, which both Bob and I had.
After dinner, we were treated to a Hungarian Folklore Music & Dancing show. Of course, for our group of about 40 gay men, most eyes were on the male dancers.
and we ended the evening with our riverboat staying in Budapest and cruising around the Danube, which was stunning at night.
On the way to checking out, we created this image as a visual pun.
What is it?
Click here for answer.
Shoofly! Webster’s definition is:
shoofly noun
shoo·fly ˈshü-ˌflī
1: a child’s rocker having the seat built on or usually between supports representing an animal figure
2: any of several plants held to repel flies
7 of us from Raleigh — Al, Ken, Susan, Peyton, Kayo, Bob and I — met for happy hour at a nearby pub called Belgian Brasseire,
which had an incredible (meaning pages and pages) of beer selections.
We had 3 or 4 (or 5 or 6) rounds of spirits. Bob and I drank Maker’s Mark on the rocks, and the rest of the group had beer.
We went our separate ways for dinner, and Bob and I ate at a place called Corvin Gastropub, which we thoroughly enjoyed
Corvin burger menu
Corvin bourbon menu
and we had the Corvin burger, which came with fries, and which was delicious.
Corvin burger and fries
If you’ve traveled in Europe you probably know how hard it is to get some ice in drinks without asking for it, and asking for a lot of it. So imagine our surprise when this cute little bucket of ice with giant-sized ice cubes was delivered with our high balls!
Bourbon and ice!
In my defense, I did say to our server (who was great) that, “We’re Americans so you know we like a lot of ice.” Bless her.
Corvin Coffee & Bistro
Corvin Heritage House
Corvin Square
As we ate, I noticed that the businesses around the gastropub all had Corvin in their names, and I asked our server if one person (named Corvin?) owned all of these businesses, to which she laughed and said, “No it’s the name of the square here and he was a king.”
At the Monastery Boutique Hotel in Budapest, where we’re staying for two nights before we board the Emerald Star for our Danube riverboat cruise, we grabbed an hour-or-so nap upon arrival, and then we had a most delicious dinner in Umo, one of the two restaurants associated with the hotel.
John, Al, Ken, & Bob at dinner
Carlos, who was just adorable, was our server, and when we asked him where he was from he said, “A small city near Mexico City.”
And when we asked him what brought him from Mexico to Budapest, he said, “I came over with a person.” Since any straight guy would have said something like, “I followed my girlfriend here,” we assumed he was on “our team.” And then he added, “But we’re no longer together,” which drew a collective, “Awww” from all of us.
This place had fantastic food.
The menu:
Arepa menu
Starters
Entrees
Bob’s and my choices:
Arepita de chicharron
Shrimps, bananas: Layered bananas & parmesan cheese topped with shrimp
We flew from Raleigh to Paris (on July 2) and to Budapest (on July 3). They were Delta Flights, operated by Air France, and our friends Al & Ken were on the same flights. We were slightly delayed out of Raleigh due to bad weather, and we had a 2-hour delay for our Paris to Budapest flight.
We’ve been keeping an eye on the weather for our imminent Danube riverboat cruise, and the temperatures in our ports of call have been consistently comparable to the weather here in Raleigh.
We have booked a sleep-car bedroom for a ride on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, which leaves Chicago on Wednesday, September 3rd and arrives in Los Angeles on Friday, September 5th.
It’s an approximate 43-hour trip, covering roughly 2,265 miles with 31 stops. The Southwest Chief is known for its scenic views, including the Painted Desert, Red Cliffs of Sedona, and the Grand Canyon.
The trip is described as:
We’ll take you across the mighty Mississippi through 8 states — past wheat fields and ranches, missions and pueblos, mountains and deserts. Carving through curving canyon passages only a few feet wider than the train itself, you’ll see spectacular landscapes and pristine vistas not visible from interstate highways.
Bob and I both love a good omelet, so we’ll definitely be having one of these one day, if not both days! (Note: We will also be adding a hyphen between “three” and “egg” in our order.)
We’ll be flying to Chicago to catch the train, spend 3 days in the L.A. area once we get there — for a family event — and fly back from LAX to RDU.
Here’s a taste of the experience, which shows the bedroom and the dining experience. (Complete aside: Jeb is adorable, which isn’t important, but my goodness doesn’t it help?)
We woke up docked in Trieste, Italy and had breakfast comprising uneaten yogurt from yesterday and some of the fruit that’s always in the suite. The port of Trieste from our balcony: (Hover to enlarge photos.
After disembarking, we hopped on a bus for a 2.5-hour ride to Venice that turned into a 3-hour drive due to a horrific highway traffic jam in which we moved about 500 feet in 30 minutes, at which time the driver took an exit and we continued on some “back roads” for quite a while, only returning to the highway once he was sure we were past the jam.
In Venice, we boarded a water taxi along with a couple of members of our group who are really too old for that sort of transfer and are—for the most part—old, rich, white, people who don’t seem to have any coping skills when they find themselves in situations that don’t measure up to their privileged lives.
For a bit, we were in a wide-open area, but eventually entered the canals where this little idyllic scene took place:
We arrived at our hotel and exited the water taxi with only a couple of close calls of the aforementioned people falling into the water. (Hover over photos for captions.)
After settling in, Bob and I headed out with our friend, Dan, whom we knew from the previous Seth cruise we were on in 2019, to a nearby pharmacy to get COVID-19 tests, for which a negative result was required to re-enter the United States.
We had a heck of a time finding it among the narrow and twisted streets, and by the third time someone responded to my question about where the Farmacia Al Pellegrino was with, “You go to the end there, turn right, then left, and then ask someone else,” we were on to their game.
After walking through many small squares and plazas, and seeing many local shops and restaurants, we finally found it and got tested fairly uneventfully.
We ate some delicious pizza right across the street, since we had to return in 30 minutes to get the results of our tests—all of which came back negative, thankfully. The place was called Farini’s and the pizza was so, so good. I got ham on mine and Bob got pepperoni on his.
Back at our room, Bob watched a couple of episodes of TV shows that he’d already seen, but not in Italian like they were here. I fiddled with the air-conditioning, spending at least 30 minutes and never did figure out how to keep the temperature colder than it was originally set to and keep it running for more than 2 minutes.
Speaking of old, white, privileged people, here are 3 things that drive me nuts about Europe: 1) ice for drinks, 2) bathrooms that are rarely free, and often confounding, 3) irregular access to air-conditioning.
We may have drifted off to sleep for about an hour, and we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant rather than walking around looking for a place—and because it had begun to rain.
We both got La caprese classica, con capperi e olive taggiasche (Classic tomatoes and mozzarella salad, capers, and taggiasca olives) for our salads.
John’s entrée: Spaghetti alle vongole, pomodoro celiegino, & basillico (Clams spaghetti, cherry tomatoes, and basil) and Bob’s entrée: Lasagna classica alla bolognese (Classic lasagna bolognese style)
By then, it was 9:30 and since we had to be up at 4:30, we hit the sack.
We awoke docked in Zadar, Croatia, and we had a light breakfast since we’d had such a big one yesterday and we had an early morning, and several-hour, excursion today with an hour-long bus ride from the port to the Krka National Park.
Our ship from the pier, Croatia country sign and flag (click to enlarge photo)
Today’s excursion was a welcome change from touring old cities in that it was mostly walking in a beautiful national park and taking a short boat ride from the park to a nearby city to have lunch.
Our tour guide was Anita, and we just loved her. I loved listening to her narration, as her ESL word choices and turns of phrases made her all the more interesting.
And here’s a “sneak preview” of the beauty of this national park, a video of which I took toward the middle of the excursion:
Krka National Park & Cruise (6.5-hour excursion)
Delight in your inspiring visit to superb Krka National Park, a lush, protected area accented with spectacular waterfalls, and relax on a gentle cruise downstream to the quaint fishing village of Skradin. Krka National Park is a wonderland of dense forests, wild rivers and thundering waterfalls, such as Skradinski Buk, the last of seven waterfalls on the glittering Krka River. Discover that Skradinski Buk isn’t actually a single waterfall but rather a long series of gracefully arcing cascades that spill over countless travertine rock formations. Enjoy a guided tour that includes time to wander on your own, staying alert for sleek otters playing in the water, colorful Cleopatra butterflies flitting about and a variety of indigenous and migratory birds, including the regal golden eagle and lightning-fast peregrine falcon.
Hop on a touring boat and travel downstream to 6,000-year-old scenic Skradin, a beautifully preserved town on an inlet wrapped by hills. Admire gleaming yachts in the expansive marina and savor a casual lunch, bursting with authentic regional flavors. On this exploration of the Krka River’s highlights, Croatia’s bounty, both wild and refined, is sure to dazzle you.
Snakes and flowers found naturally in this park
After trekking through the park for a while, we had an hour of free time in a little resting and shopping (of course!) area, before boarding a boat to take us to the town of Skradin (“an overlooked Croatian gem”), where we were to enjoy lunch.
That ice cream looked cool in person in spite of looking like somewhat of a hot mess here. The stuffed Dalmations were an homage to this region of Croatia, which is known as Dalmatia.
We took the 20-minute boat ride to Skradin, and the water was so beautifully green en route. The name of the restaurant was Restoran “Visovac,” with these nearby businesses.
In the restaurant, we sat at a table for 6, which included, in addition to us, one straight couple and a family of 4 comprising two moms and two sons.
The moms, Lauren and Jen, and their sons, Jack (14) & Nick (9), were from near Boston. Lauren worked for Google Research and Jen had her own leather goods business. The straight couple, whose names escape me, were from just outside Austin. All of these folks were on our cruise but not with Seth’s group.
We (Lauren, Jen, Bob, and I) talked about our getting-married experiences, about when we did it and some of the hoops we had to jump through to make it happen. Since they live in Massachusetts, Lauren and Jen had married way back in 2005 with same-sex marriage legal there way before the Supreme Court ruling on June 26, 2015—the very day on which I asked Bob to marry me.
The straight couple did not mention any hoops that they had to jump through to get married.
Our lunch comprised: A chicken-orzo soup, a slaw salad, pork chop and butter-herbed mashed potatoes for the entrée, and a dessert of chocolate cheesecake.
Tonight was our Farewell Cocktail Reception for Seth’s group.
On our way down to the Splendor Lounge for it, we passed one of the “community puzzles,” which had been completed.
In the lounge, there were a few stories, a little bit of singing (here’s Faith Prince doing a number), and a lot of trivia questions for prizes.
Seth and James gave away prizes for the correct answers to their broadway trivia questions, and all of us got a poster signed by them and the 4 stars with us this week. See it there right by my leg on that table? That’s the last we saw of it, too, realizing we accidentally left it there in the excitement of getting Seth and James to sign the Stars in the House card.
I won the card by answering the trivia question, “What were we celebrating on Stars in the House in the episode in which Andréa Burns joined us?” Answer: The 1-year anniversary of the show.
And Bob won this CD answering, “Who was the understudy for Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl?” Answer: Lainie Kazan. (And when Barbra began doing the show in London, she was replaced on Broadway by Mimi Hines. Hence, the CD.)
Restuarant entrance
We ate at the third of the 3 high-end restaurants tonight. This one’s called Pacific Rim and described as: Prepare to be delighted by a perfect balance of delicious flavors and Zen-like ambiance. Amid dimly lit architectural details and lotus-shaped windows, dine on Pan-Asian creations like Korean barbecue lamb chops and lobster tempura. (click photo to enlarge, hover over photo for description)
Tonight was the ship’s final show, which featured Seth and Andréa Burns.
It started off with our group being called up on stage to do our Broadway number, Ya Got Trouble from The Music Man, with Jason Graee performing the lead. (Note: I didn’t participate in the group number this trip.)
Bob and I ended the night with a shopping spree in a shipboard “boutique”—which is a synonym for “overpriced.” We each had $200 worth of shipboard credit that we hadn’t used. We were like those people that get to go on a store shopping spree, just throwing stuff in the cart.
We would never buy anything in a place like this with our own money, and it was actually hard to spend $400 in there. Bob bought a $125 shirt, which is inconceiveable to us in any other life situation.
When we were at about $375, I made a comment that we were going to need an extra suitcase to put all this in, and the cashier got all excited—and into our spree—saying, “I know just the thing, and it’s only $19!” and she ran and got a bag that said Regent on it, to which we said, “WHY NOT???”
Here’s our haul: (click to enlarge; you know you want to see it all up close)
(clockwise) A can of Pringles to help us finish up the bottle of Jim Beam in our cabin 🤣; that $19 Regent bag the clerk grabbed for us; a cap for Bob; a “fancy” t-shirt; that infamous $125 dress shirt; two wallets (totally random); 3 t-shirts advertising Regent and in various sizes to cover our buffet-eating this week; 2 key chains, also advertising Regent; a bag of Kleenex, which Bob likes to keep in pockets and which sometimes end up in the washer and dryer; Cadbury and Dove chocolate, and some pens and pencils, also advertising Regent.
We are cruising the Mediterranean Sea with no port call today.
Every day is a breakfast buffet, and here are some of the stations: (click photos to enlarge)
In addition to the buffet each day, some specials are added to the fare.
We were feeling a little festive today, so I treated myself to a mimosa and a donut for breakfast:
And Bob availed himself of caviar and Eggs Florentine:
This cruise included free valet laundry service described as: Complimentary valet laundry service is available, allowing your clothing to be picked up, safely laundered, carefully pressed, folded, then returned to your suite each day. Onboard self-service laundrettes, including irons and ironing boards, are located on select guest decks. Self-service laundry is free of charge, with detergent provided.
Since we had no port call, Bob did ours today in this cute little “laundrette” close to our suite:
There were 3 Seth activities spread across the day:
Broadway bingo (11:00 – noon)
We called out the names of Broadway plays for each letter of the alphabet, and then agreeing on one, placed it randomly on our blank cards.
Seth then asked trivia questions about each of the plays and when we figured out which one it was, we marked it on our card with the game number. We played a few regular bingos, one letter X game, and one 4 corners game.
We didn’t win any, but we had fun and we thought about Pauline while doing it.
Behind the scenes of Stars in the House (2:00 – 4:00 p.m.)
At the beginning of COVID, when everything shut down, including Broadway, Seth and his husband, producer James Wesley, created Stars in the House, a daily live-streamed series to support The Actors Fund and its services.
They’re still doing it and it had raised over $1.51M as of 04/24/22.
Seth and James talked about the fun of creating the shows and showed clips of various episodes of it that they particularly loved or found especially meaningful.
This was modeled after a weekly talk show called Seth’s Broadway Chatterbox that he did between 2003-2006. It featured sassy Broadway celebrities and happened every Thursday evening @ 6 PM at Don’t Tell Mama (343 West 46th St. in New York City, between 8th & 9th Avenues). Tickets were $10 (which was donated directly to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids) and required a 2 drink minimum.
Tonight, Seth chatted with Faith, Jason, Bonnie, and Andréa about their many trials, tribulations, and successes in becoming Broadway stars.
We had an early start this morning with our excursion starting at 8 o’clock, so we ordered breakfast in our cabin instead of going down to the buffet. They took a minute to put a tablecloth on our table before setting everything on it. Too fancy.
Here are 3 shots of the port of Sicily out our veranda doors: (click photos to enlarge)
We were in the Constellation Theater waiting for our group to be called for our excursion and an announcement came on from the captain: “Literally 5 minutes ago, we were informed that Italy is allowing only N95 masks now; please make sure you’re wearing one before disembarking the ship.”
We hadn’t brought N95 masks with us, but thankfully, the cruise line had provided everyone with one upon boarding. We ran back up to our cabin to switch ours out.
Complying with local law:
Our excursion in Sicily:
Highlights of Taormina and Greek Theater (5 hours)
Delve into dazzling Taormina on a guided walking tour of this ancient seaside city. You’ll appreciate a scenic drive along a winding road to Taormina, a town graced with an extraordinary natural setting and an evocative medieval character.
Stroll past the exquisite Palazzo Corvaja, a beautifully ornate building whose construction began in the 15th century and which bears Arabic, Norman and Gothic influences. Gaze at the Greco-Roman theater, an architectural treasure that dates back to the 3rd century BC, a reminder of how long Taormina has been a vibrant city. While roaming the fascinating remains of the auditorium, see that its placement on the slope of a steep promontory offers what some consider to be one of the best views in all of Italy, a breathtaking panorama of Taormina, the glittering Mediterranean and striking Mount Etna in the distance.
You’ll descend to lively Corso Umberto, the town’s main commercial street, and wander its quaint jumble of elegant homes and picture-perfect churches. During free time, you might wander to Taormina’s aromatic Public Garden or browse one-of-a-kind handicrafts in a shop tucked away in an inviting lane, perhaps finding a perfect memento of this resplendent town.
Excursion pictures:(click to enlarge smaller photos)
We headed out bright and early. We always get excited when we see “Bob o’clock” on a digital clock. The one on the bus did not disappoint.
That’s Mt. Etna (crossword puzzle answer extraordinaire) in the bottom right.
That’s our tour guide, Allesandra, in the bottom right.
We ate at the second of the 3 high-end restaurants tonight. This one’s called Chartreuse and described as: Classic French fare with a modern twist… and glorious ocean views. Chartreuse evokes the ambiance and romance of a chic, fine-dining restaurant on a Champs-Élysées side street with all of the refinements and exquisite flavors that come with the finest haute cuisine. (click on photos to enlarge)
Charger plate
Champagne toast
Baguettes and multigrain bread
Salade de Crabe d’Alaska: Alaskan King crabmeat with citrino olive oil wrapped in Daikon radish, chartreuse-infused melon juice (John)
Terrine de Foie Gras au Sauternes: Duck foie gras terrine with Sauternes jelly, toasted brioche, carmelized apricot (Bob)
Aperatif toast: Amaretto (John), Chambord (Bob)
Bisque de Homard a l’Argagnac: Lobster bisque with armagnac (John & Bob)
Coquilles Saint-Jacques Poêlées et Chorizo: Seared scallops topped with chorizo, butternut squash spaghetti, Champigny sauce (John)
Carré d’Agneau en Persillade: Roasted rack of lamb with rosemary persillade & chickpea fritters (Bob)
Last night, an announcement was made that we wouldn’t be able to call on Capri because of inclement weather and that we’d be sailing to Naples instead.
Approaching Naples this morning it was announced that there were dangerous swells and high winds that precluded us from being able to take tender boats to shore and that today’s port call was being canceled and we’d forge on with an unplanned day at sea.
The ship’s cruise director and his team scrambled to add extra activities to today’s schedule, and Seth’s team added activities for us today, too.
From 2:00-3:00, we participated in Seth’s recording of his Sirius XM On Broadway radio show, which consisted of him recording short stories between 8 songs about either the song that just finished or the one coming up next. Sometimes he plays a few measures of songs as part of his stories.
He wanted to tell one story about Andrea McArdle and asked who was on his last cruise on which Andrea performed. We raised our hands, and he called Bob up to ask him a question on the air. And Bob answered beautifully. We don’t have Sirius XM, so we’re not sure how it works, but he said it was airing on 04/22 from 3-9 p.m.
On each of Seth’s cruises, he chooses a huge Broadway production number that includes a chorus, and he teaches the parts to everyone in the group who wants to sing it. Then, on the last night of the cruise, one of the Broadway stars sings the song, and everyone joins them on the stage to be in the chorus.
And, in the Before Times, each person in the group could invite 4 people they met during the week on the ship, but who aren’t part of our group, to come to the final show, but they’re not doing that this time due to the COVID “situation.”
So at 3:00, we had our first rehearsal for this cruise’s number, which was (Ya Got) Trouble from The Music Man. One of the stars on this trip, Jason Graae, is going to sing it and our group will be the chorus.
After handing out the music, Seth asked everyone who wanted to sing to move into their desired sections—soprano, alto, tenor, or bass—and he taught each part, after which we rehearsed it all together.
Then, we did it once with Jason singing the lead part:
Such fun!
If you cruise, you’ll know this is very unusual. We called room service to have bourbon and club soda brought to the room and this is what was delivered:
This ship has 3 “high-end” restaurants that you can eat at once during the cruise, and we ate at the first of them tonight. It’s called Prime 7 and described as: From perfectly aged, prime New York strip, porterhouse, and succulent filet mignon to smoked salmon with a phenomenal tamarind-whiskey sauce, Prime 7 elevates classic American fare to new heights.
Our charger plate
Pretzel bread with sea salt butter
Other breads
A spicy tomato soup (compliments of the chef)
Apparently, I got so excited about the bread that I didn’t photograph our “Iceberg wedges”: Crisp applewood smoked bacon, hardboiled egg, fresh chives, buttermilk dressing.
We both had the “Surf & Turf” filet mignon and lobster tail with drawn butter
After our server removed the lobster tail from the shell for us, and with my twice-baked potato
Cherry-topped fudge brownies (literally) on the dessert menu
Caramel Popcorn Sundae (side view)
Caramel Popcorn Sundae (top view)
Bob had chocolate ice cream for dessert, but we apparently failed to photograph that, too. Did it really happen?
The ship’s show tonight in the Constellation Theater was Seth with Jason Graae and Faith Prince.
On our way to breakfast, we passed the ship’s “puzzle in progress”—open to anyone walking by who wants to take a minute (or an hour or however long) and contribute to the effort.
In the breakfast buffet area, Bob represented his hometown of Battle Creek by the cereal selections.
We set out for our 6-hour excursion, 2 hours of which were the round-trip from the port, Civitavecchia, to the city of Rome—about 55 miles each way.
Panoramic Rome (6-hour excursion)
Experience Rome’s enthralling historic beauty and architecture. After arriving in the Eternal City, you’ll pass the riverfront Lungotevere, the Vatican Walls, which delineate the Vatican City, and the Ara Pacis, a 1st-century BC altar dedicated to peace. Continue along the Roman Walls and the wonderful Villa Borghese gardens before entering the Old Town near the ancient Porta Pinciana. You’ll drive down lively Via Vittorio Venero, around which much of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita was filmed, and make your way to quintessential landmarks including the white marble Victor Emmanuel II Monument, the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, the Circus Maximus and Saint Peter’s Basilica.
After concluding your panoramic tour, you’ll alight from your coach and enjoy time on your own starting from the elegant Piazza del Popolo, which is a few minutes’ walk from memorable landmarks such as the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, as well as some of Italy’s finest shopping avenues, Via del Corso, Via Frattina and Via del Tritone. You’re certain to appreciate how this tour brings you up close to Rome’s marvels from the comfort of your coach.
Excursion pictures:
Returning to the ship, the buffet had Italian food to celebrate our arrival in Italy.
Starting with an amaretto aperitif, I followed it with a slice of grilled eggplant, a slice of grilled zucchini, some shrimp, and some Caprese salad, then, crackers and some cheese, a garlic bread roll, fresh green beans, and an alfredo sauce pasta.
There was an LGBTQIA+ Get Together at 6:30 tonight and has been our experience in the past, none of the gays ever show up to these things. There were very few people and we didn’t mingle with any of them, but instead had a cocktail and ate our 6 pretzels.
There was a couple entertaining in the lounge, Boogie & Kasia, he on the keyboard and she on vocals. Bob and I slow-danced as she sang Could I Have This Dance? and during it, Kasia pointed out that it was a waltz.
They played another waltz after that and she danced the waltz around the dance floor by herself. I got up and did, what I call “chase dancing,” where I dance “to” her instead of “with her,” facing and following her around the dance floor.
There were no Seth shows or activities tonight, so we attended the general entertainment of the ship, which was a show called Bohemian Soul that explored an “eclectic array of music ranging from the ‘Habanera’ from Carmen to hits from Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Lady Goga. It was good enough, but it wasn’t Broadway level. 😃
We stopped back by the Splendor Lounge afterward and Boogie and Kasia were still there, and I actually waltzed with Kasia this time.
I know my legs aren’t supposed to cross like that, but it was great fun and I saved thousands of dollars in Arthur Murry dance lessons.
The port at Monte Carlo was closed due to high winds, so the captain was able to “pivot” the boat and the crew scrambled to pull together an excursion that we could take in Corsica.
We were up at 6:30 this morning and went down to breakfast at about 7:30, where we were some of the first people there and easily grabbed a table by the window.
I had today’s raisin French toast special:
At about 11 a.m., we left the cabin to allow Lester, our suite attendant, to service it, and we walked around the track on deck 12, which is “the sports deck,” which includes:
A miniature golf course
A tennis court
A grassy area for bocce ball or croquet (back) and one for cornhole
And the cruise-ship-cliché shuffleboard
There are several of these “lounge chairs for (at least) two” around the perimeter of the deck
A view of the pool and jacuzzis one deck below
We stopped at the library on the way back to our room, where I found a large-print edition of a The Accidentals, a book that’s actually on my “Want to read” Goodreads list, so I grabbed it.
We hung out on our veranda until lunch up at the Pool Grill restaurant and bar, and witnessed this incident:
Asshole who created the drink drama back at the hotel…
Server stops by his table to tell him his order is almost ready, to which he replied, “Oh you mean the order we put in 30 minutes ago?”
His and his wife’s food orders arrive shortly after that and she complains that her hamburger isn’t hot enough and sends it back. Asshole mansplains to the server taking it back that “they cooked hers first and then put it aside while they cooked mine and hers got cold.”
At this point the manager has come over to their table, and 3 ship personnel are involved in these people’s maddening drama.
Today’s excursion in Corsica:
Ajaccio City Sightseeing Tour (55 minutes)
Welcome to Ajaccio, the cultural and political capital of the island of Corsica—and the city where Napoleon Bonaparte was born. With the privatized open-top bus, which will pick you up at the pier, get a panoramic visit of all the unmissable sites commented on in English. Pass by the old town; Cours Napoleon, the main street Ajaccio; Austerlitz Square with a statue of Napoleon; Casone; English Quarter; Greek Chapel; Sanguinaires roads, a cemetery; and all the wild beaches, La Parata. On the way back to the ship, see the cathedral where Napoleon was baptized and the citadel of Ajaccio.
Excursion pictures:
Seth’s activities
We had a fun dinner tonight with 4 other members of our group‐Susan (from Medford, Massachusetts), Rich & June (from San Francisco), and Marie (from Farmington, Michigan).
Janice said at one point, “Let’s go around and each tell how we ended up on this cruise.” The answers involved a lot of “how I first discovered Seth” and “previous of his cruises I’ve been on.” And, we talked about a million other things during our 1.5 hours together.
I had a mixed green salad, a lobster and avocado appetizer, and a lobster tagliolini pasta dish, followed by a chocolate-caramel-mocha torte dessert, all of which were delicious.
Lobster and avocado appetizer
Dessert
Seth’s show tonight was the ship’s general entertainment. Usually, the ship has its own entertainment for the people who aren’t in his group, but on this cruise, his shows with each of the stars were the ship’s general shows.
Tonight was with Bonnie Milligan, whome we’d never heard of Bonnie, but who was phenomenal.
Seth is convinced she’s going to win the Tony for her upcoming show Kimberly Akimbo, and if what we heard tonight is any indication, the buzz certainly seems warranted.
A “belter,” she’s definitely got a set of pipes on her. Seth loves belters, and I think he tries to have at least one on each of his cruises. On our last one, to the Southern Caribbean in 2019, he had on Andrea McArdle, a lifelong belter who started her Broadway career as the original (child) Annie in 1977.
Photos weren’t allowed during the show, but as he usually does, Seth let us record one number. I can’t upload the video here, so this is a (washed out) frame of Bonnie singing the song, Beautiful, which she sang in the Broadway musical, Head Over Heels, and which Seth allowed us to record.
We were up early, enjoyed the complimentary hotel breakfast, and decided to try to fit in a 2-hour city tour before leaving the hotel at noon to head to the pier.
We chose the “HOP ON • HOP OFF” bus tour we’d heard about, and although we wanted to do the “blue route,” it wouldn’t get us back in time, so we chose the “red route” instead.
It was a guided tour (with headphones and the ability to choose from a multitude of languages) in a double-decker bus.” We took a seat on the open, upper deck in spite of it being a little chilly. We didn’t hop off at all, because we didn’t have time to do that. We really just wanted to see some highlights of the city. Here are some of those highlights:
Excited to see our ship in the port while the tour passed the ports
Bob and I were one of only a few people in our group who hadn’t been COVID tested within the last 72 hours, so at the pier, we stepped aside to have that done, for which Regent (our cruise line) picked up the tab. We had a 15-minute wait for our results:
Awaiting our COVID test results at the pier before we can board
And we both passed! A gold sticker for being fully vaccinated and double-boosted, and a blue “wrist ribbon” for negative tests at the pier.
Note for posterity: If you tested positive, you could not board the ship, and unless you had trip insurance or something, you were on your own to figure out quarantining requirements and change your plans to get back home.
We were then able to check in, and since it was only about 2:00, the cabins weren’t yet ready, so we had lunch at the Pool Grill, where we both enjoyed a Reuben. I scraped off my sauerkraut and replaced it with coleslaw. I had some most delicious pistachio, while Bob chose the chocolate, ice cream for dessert.
Just as we finished lunch, they announced that our cabins were ready and we headed up to ours.
Here’s a little tour of cabin 868, our home for the next 7 days:
The king-sized “love nest”
Our welcome bottle of champagne in our sitting area
Our bar and entertainment area, complete with cabinets for actual glassware
Our writing/office area
Our walk-in closet
Said closet filled after Bob unpacked for us
Our bathroom, complete with double sinks, which we don’t even have at home (albeit by choice)
And we have both a shower and a bath tub
And finally our veranda with two chairs and a recliner
We set sail at 5:00, and we went to the Observation Lounge for the departure, where we had a cocktail and some salty snacks—potato chips and nuts.
The Observation Lounge
The piano that turns the Observation Lounge into a piano lounge at night
Sailing away at minutes past our scheduled 5:00 departure time
Our Seth’s Big Fat Broadway Cruise Vacation group met at 5:30 in the Constellation Theater for a welcome gathering at which we had cocktails and appetizers (I loved the bacon-wrapped scallops and the cocktail weenies in crescent rolls), and Seth & James (Seth’s husband) went over the schedule and then introduced each of the 4 Broadway stars who are here with us this week—Jason Graae (gay), Faith Prince, Andréa Burns, and Bonnie Milligan.
Afterward, the group moved to the Compass Rose room, where we’ll sit for dinner as a group each night—if you want to. On 3 nights, Bob and I have dinner reservations in the 3 specialty dining rooms (The Prime 7—a steak house, the Pacific Rim—Pan-Asian dining, and the Chartreuse—French cuisine) during which we’ll have a break from the group dining.
Tonight we were seated at a table-for-four with Marilyn and Connie, who are the mother and “aunt” of Judy Perl, who is the owner of the travel agency Seth uses to manage his Broadway Vacations. Aunt is in quotation marks because Connie isn’t actually a relative, but rather a lifelong friend of the family.
They both must be in their 80s and both were an absolute delight. Judy is obviously proud of her daughter. The conversation flowed pretty easily—at times funny, at times serious, but always interesting.
That’s Judy’s mother Marilyn in front of me and “Aunt” Connie next to Bob
Bob and I had the mahi-mahi, his with mussels and mine with a salad, and we split some mushroom risotto. For dessert, Bob had chocolate ice cream and I had a Kahlúa caramel soufflé.
Back at our cabin, we learned that our port call for tomorrow had been changed from Monte Carlo to Corsica because the Monaco port was closed due to high wind conditions.
We had to request an excursion at this new port, and after filling out our form, I brought it down to the Destinations Services desk.
While I was out, I stopped by the Observation Lounge where it was “Late Night Piano Bar” (10:15-11:30) and a guy was playing that grand piano seen in our departure pictures, but where there were very few people, one of whom was an intoxicated woman who was on the dance floor by herself and acting like some kind of emcee, yelling out to everyone, “Get out here on the dance floor. Give the piano player a hand. Don’t leave me up here hanging. Give the piano player another round of applause.”
“Sit down and shut the f*ck up,” was what I was saying—in my head.
I had one bourbon and soda there and then stopped by the Splendor Lounge where it was “Blame it on the Boogie! (10:30-11:30) and that place was hoppin’ with about 15 people on the tiny dance floor, all seemingly having a very festive time. I just observed for a minute and then returned to our cabin for the night.
our room wasn’t ready, so we walked around the area for a while before sitting in the lobby later waiting to be able to check in and trying not to fall asleep.
Once in our room, we napped for a couple of hours, and then we met the people in our Seth’s Big Fat Broadway Vacation group in a reception at the hotel bar, where we reconnected with Dan who was also on the 2019 Seth cruise, we met a couple of new people we liked, and we identified a couple of people we already know we want to avoid during this trip.
One totally obnoxious guy was at the bar requesting some drink that the bartenders ended up having to get some books out and scour the internet to figure out how to make. He also stuck his head behind the bar to look at the booze on the shelves from that angle. It literally took them 10 minutes to makes this guy’s drink. He definitely put the “dick” in “being a dick.” Avoid at all costs.
Even way before this trip, Bob and I have always joked when we eat late: “What are we in, Barcelona???”—particularly when it’s approaching 8 p.m. So, it was particularly funny to us when, at around 6:30 p.m., we asked the concierge to direct us to a nearby restaurant that we had chosen for dinner, and he said, “It’s just down the street and around the corner, but it doesn’t open for dinner until 8 o’clock.”
Then he added, pointing to a place right by the hotel, “That place has tapas and cocktails, and the food is very good there. You can go there while you wait for dinner.” It was your classic, hole-in-the-wall-looking place that we probably wouldn’t have looked twice at had it not been recommended—and the food was very good.
We ended up making that our dinner, because to be honest, we still weren’t very hungry after eating our way up the east coast and across the Atlantic and then having both dinner and breakfast on the plane.
The place was called Taps and this is a portion of the English version of their menu:
Bob had some red wine, and I ordered bourbon and soda, which turned out to be scotch (yuck!) and soda, but I drank it anyway. Our dinner:
Spanish (d’oh) olives
Bread
Patatas Bravas tapa
Small sausages tapa That sauce on it looks a little nasty in this picture, but it was so good!
Mushrooms tapa
We walked around a bit after leaving there, looking for a bakery-type place, plenty of which we’d seen during our morning walk, but didn’t find anything that struck us, so we just headed back to the hotel and in for the evening.
Being the rule followers that we are, we arrived for check-in 3 hours before takeoff time. There was a small check-in snafu requiring us to step out of line and complete our Spain Travel Health forms that I thought were complete! I’m grateful to have had my laptop available to complete them and that the process went off without a hitch. When the gate agent scanned our QR codes, she exclaimed with a smile, “They’re in there like swimwear!”
Because it’s an international flight on American Airlines, and we have business class seats on an international flight, we have access to the Admiral Club Lounges for this trip.
We spent the 2.5-hour wait for takeoff in the Charlotte Airport club, where it’s “better waiting with complimentary food and drinks.” And no blasting TVs like at the gate.
We departed Charlotte just after 1 p.m. on AA 327 to JFK in first class, because we booked business class seats for this trip and there’s no business class section on the plane for this leg.
We had a 2-hour layover at JFK, which we spent in the “Flagship” Admiral’s Club (a step even further up as if the regular club wasn’t enough).
It had both a food buffet and a wine and champagne “buffet.”
We settled into our luxurious business class seats on American Airlines flight 66 from JFK to Barcelona on a Boeing 737-200ER, which were obscene! I don’t know why we thought we needed to bring earbuds when Bang and Olufsen headphones were supplied as part of the seat. And we had a quilt and a pillow for our fully reclining seats, which reclined all the way to flat as a bed. The 20-inch screen was about 2 feet from us but god forbid we should have to reach for it, when we could just use the remote off to the right. Our “Shinola” bag has a sleep mask, Ted hose socks for circulation, a pen, and a toothbrush and toothpaste.
Once settled into my “pod,” I ordered a cocktail, listened to some instrumental music, and read my current book.
Dinner was served toward the beginning of the trip, and Bob and I had chosen the “Created and inspired by our partnership with the J Beard Foundation and Chef Sarah Grueneberg: Spinach and ricotta rotola pasta served with pomodoro sauce, basil pesto, and pine nuts,” which started with some shrimp cocktail and a salad and was followed by a butterscotch sundae.
That sauce on it looks a little nasty in this picture, but it was so good!
