CRUISING ITALY, 2009

Life aboard the “Insignia”

We have now been sailing for 4 days, currently we are having a day at sea as we travel around the “boot” of Italy. We will anchor in Naples/Sorrento tomorrow. Today, we spent time at the pool, games and other activities had been arranged for those who wanted to do something other than read in the shade. An eight piece band played our kind of music and several guests were doing line dancing o the deck.

In the meantime we enjoy being aboard this ship with its great crew. Our ship is smaller than all of the cruise lines we have come across in the last few days. It’s crew of 400+ and less than 700 passengers means excellent service. They are extremely attentive and we could not ask for better service. The food is great, and we have 4 options for dining.
That’s the good news, the bad news is that we are eating everything they offer! Chef Jacques Pepin has created several great menu choices.

So far have visited Dobrovnik, Croatia and Corfu, Greece. Both were interesting, our tours took us into Dubrovnik old town. We walked the streets and enjoyed the day, but it was very crowded and hot and we were pleased to get back to the ship for a shower and dinner.

The following day we were in Corfu, we toured the old city, some of which survived the bombings in WWII. We were a part of group with a bus and tour guide. We also visited an old Benedictine Monastery and enjoyed some wonderful views.

Now we are through the Straits of Messina heading for Naples, we should anchor at 8 am tomorrow morning. It was fascinating to see the pilot boat come along side of our ship and balance on the side of his boat until he was grabbed by some of our crew and taken on board. He exited the same by about 10 minutes ago, while all of us up on the decks cheered.

We are scheduled on a tour to Pompeii tomorrow at 9 AM that will last about 4 hours and then we hope to have some time to look around in Sorrento.

More later…..

Leaving London

Our last day was spent out of the city at Hampton Court Palace, once the home of Henry VIII. We arrived to see a reenactment of Henry’s wedding to his last wife, Katherine Parr. The tour includes visits to the kitchens, where actual cooking was ongoing. The weather was great, and we reluctantly left to get back to the city for dinner. This was at “MAZE” a Gordon Ramsey restaurant adjacent to the Marriott Hotel at Grosvenor Square. It was some of the best food we have ever experienced, very small plates but each with intense flavor. The place was hard to get into, so we opted to sit at the bar. Our waiter/bar tender was delightful and gave us a tour of the kitchen and gave us a copy of the menu to take home. No, Gordon Ramsey was not there!

The next morning we were up early to catch our plane to Venice. We flew BMI which is like our SWA but without the organization. Took us almost an hour to check in!

We arrive in Venice a half hour early and were taken by bus to the pier where we embarked for our 14 day cruise, on Oceania Lines “Insignia”.

Venice never disappoints, we spent the next day visiting St. Marks Square and the Rialto Bridge area. This time of the year is not the best time to visit, there were 4 cruise ships docked. Ours was the smallest only 650 passengers, and a crew of 396. The other ships were huge probably with 2000 passengers each, all of us visited the same places so it was very crowded, but we took lots of pictures and did a little shopping. We were glad that we had visited Venice in 2005 in May rather than late July. But, no matter when you go, please go because it is unlike anything else in the world.

We sailed from Venice at 5 pm and headed off in the Adriatic Sea. Next stop: Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Email is difficult and expensive so can’t write everyday.

More later on…..Joyce

Ancient History

We spent yesterday at two famous historical sites in London. First stop was on Horseguards and the Churchill Museum. It was terrific and we spent a interesting time looking and listening to all the exhibits. The Museum includes the rooms used in World War II for cabinet meetings when Churchill was Prime Minister. They lived down in these basement rooms day and night
to avoid the bombings.

Leaving there we headed for Parliament Square and lunch at a pub "Westminster Arms". The square is familiar to us all with the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben on one side, and Government offices on another, and of course Westminster Abbey. We toured the Abbey with an audio tour narrated by Jeremy Irons! Great voice to walk around with! We were lucky enough to get into a small prayer service which they have every hour; it was in a cordoned off area next to the tomb of Edward the Confessor.

Nearby was Poets Corner where the tomb of Chaucer is across from the grave of D.H. Lawrence. It is a spectacular building part of which dates back to Benedictine monks in c960 and was the place of William the Conqueror's coronation in 1066. The actual date of the church as it is was 1245. Loved it all as I am a history nut!

I thought of how well my pen and ink and watercolor artists' friends would and could record all these sights!

We exited back in Parliament Square to a heavy rain storm and were soaked by the time we got on the Tube back to our hotel.

Dinner was at The Ivy and delicious restaurant in the West End. It is a bustling place with some great English food and drink! Enjoyed our dinner and dessert - "Sticky Toffee" pudding. More later.......

The Cotswolds

We started off early to travel out of London to the south west. My second cousin lives in the small town of Nailsworth. Again, we were impressed with the British transportation system. We started off in the Tube, we were going out but thousands of people were coming into the city early in the morning. The escalators go underground 4 or 5 stories and sometimes more! Caught the Tube to Paddington rail station and then took a train to Nailsworth. About 95 minutes later we were met at the station by Muriel and Harold. They took us to see their new home, an apartment rather than their old house which had large gardens. Their new flat is lovely with huge windows overlook the beautiful green countryside. Lunch was at an old house restaurant near Tetbury. Their was also time for some shopping! At 5:00pm were were headed back into London. A wonderful day, and no rain! Dinner tonight at our hotel.

GREETINGS FROM LONDON

We arrive on Sunday July 19 after a ten hour flight from San Francisco. Settled into our room at the Marriott Grosvenor Square and took a short nap before going out for dinner. "The Living Room" restaurant was in a group of places to eat in Heddon Street near Regent Street, it was just OK, or maybe we were just jet-lagged!
Next day feeling rested we headed out to do a little shopping and just enjoy being here. London is so cosmopolitan, much changed from when I grew up in England. Every nationality is represented with more turbans, veils and skin colors than can be imagined, at least on Oxford Street, where red double decker buses are lined up end to end on both sides of the street, picking up passengers and dropping them off from all the neighborhoods. London taxis filled up the side streets as we walk back to our hotel, on Duke Street near Grosvenor Square and the US Embassy (Impressive statue of Gen. Eisenhower is out in front).
Dinner last night was superb... at Pattersons on Mill Street in Mayfair. This was 0ur second visit and it is wonderful. Great service and the presentation of the dishes is beautiful.

Today we were off early by the London Underground transportation ... the Tube. A great system and it moves tens of thousands of people every day. This morning we were going to visit the University of Richmond, an international American institution. Our grand daughter has been accepted there starting in September. This was a 45 minute Tube ride and then we took a taxi. The University is perched on a hill overlooking the Thames. A charming senior student working through the summer gave us the tour. We were impressed! Small class sizes and nice amenities, we even looked at a dorm room, basic, but OK.

We walked back down the hill into Richmond, great scenery along the way. Had lunch overlooking a park at a place called Austins that said it was established in 1726! Though heavy rain was forecast we only had a couple of showers as we made our way back via the Tube into London and our hotel.

GREETINGS FROM LONDON

We arrive on Sunday July 19 after a ten hour flight from San Francisco. Settled into our room at the Marriott Grosvenor Square and took a short nap before going out for dinner. "The Living Room" restaurant was in a group of places to eat in Heddon Street near Regent Street, it was just OK, or maybe we were just jet-lagged!
Next day feeling rested we headed out to do a little shopping and just enjoy being here. London is so cosmopolitan, much changed from when I grew up in England. Every nationality is represented with more turbans, veils and skin colors than can be imagined, at least on Oxford Street, where red double decker buses are lined up end to end on both sides of the street, picking up passengers and dropping them off from all the neighborhoods. London taxis filled up the side streets as we walk back to our hotel, on Duke Street near Grosvenor Square and the US Embassy (Impressive statue of Gen. Eisenhower is out in front).
Dinner last night was superb... at Pattersons on Mill Street in Mayfair. This was 0ur second visit and it is wonderful. Great service and the presentation of the dishes is beautiful.

Today we were off early by the London Underground transportation ... the Tube. A great system and it moves tens of thousands of people every day. This morning we were going to visit the University of Richmond, an international American institution. Our grand daughter has been accepted there starting in September. This was a 45 minute Tube ride and then we took a taxi. The University is perched on a hill overlooking the Thames. A charming senior student working through the summer gave us the tour. We were impressed! Small class sizes and nice amenities, we even looked at a dorm room, basic, but OK.

We walked back down the hill into Richmond, great scenery along the way. Had lunch overlooking a park at a place called Austins that said it was established in 1726! Though heavy rain was forecast we only had a couple of showers as we made our way back via the Tube into London and our hotel.

The Saga Continues

Our home is still a construction zone as we await approval from the insurance company for the estimated $40,000 repairs. All from a leak in a GE refrigerator! Since we leave in a week for a month in Europe we hope the repairs can be completed while we are gone.

The Italian porcelain tile has been found in Las Vegas, but the mold has evidently been changed and it is 1/8 to 1/4" larger and since it is laid in straight lines to emulate a wood floor, most or all of it will have to be replaced, not just the area taken up for the mold problem. This will be a very messy process so we would have had to move out of the house anyway!

Hope to be able to "blog" as we travel.

Chicken Little

You've heard the phrase" The Sky is Falling", well that seems to be what is happening at our house in the last month. A leaking valve in our refrigerator caused water damage and mold. So we have been through decontamination and are now into the restoration phase. It will be another month befoe things are back to normal, we believe.

This rooster was painted from a photo I took in Hawaii, where chickens often run wild.. the ultimate "free range chicken".

Because of the flood, (see picture) my studio has been off limits for several weeks, so no new paintings to post.