Gotta have a day at sea

The day started out with the sunrise that never was. I woke up at about 5:30 am, body and mind both still seriously jet-lagged. The faint glow on the horizon tricked me into thinking a glorious sunrise was coming. A brilliant orange slit appeared and before it had a chance to grow, dark clouds smothered it. Oh well, maybe (thou highly unlikely) I will wake up early enough again before this cruise is over.

First order of the day: try to shake off the jet lag. We did three miles around the Promenade deck; Blake jogging bravely, me just walking and simply drinking in the sights, sounds and pure smells of the ocean. It is the best way to clear the mind and get some exercise.

Next a well deserved breakfast; we meet Jun, one of the Lido guys who not only remembers our name but also that Blake likes two glasses of freshly squeezed OJ. 

It was a day to rest but also to take advantage of the many enrichment activities offered; we went to a lecture by a well known American journalist who talked about the challenges faced by traditional news media in this age of transition from the printed word to the digital world.

Later on we caught another lecture, this one about Brisbane which we would visit on Friday. Very well done, covering its history, architecture and various other aspects, primed us for our next port stop.

Lastly, we went to the first in a series of talks by the producer of The Crocodile Hunter, who launched Steve Irwin's career and was his close friend until Irwin's death a few years ago.

Since breakfast had been plentiful and kind of late, We skipped lunch and had ice cream instead :)

I attended a memoire writing lesson which I loved. There will be quite a few lessons and by the time the cruise is over I should have the seedling of my memoir, at least I hope so.

Dinner was as a fun affair, we finally met our four table mates, a couple form Wisconsin and another one from Portland, all of us around the same age. I chose a caviar appetizer and a halibut entrée, both from the Modern Cuisine side of the menu, both delicious. Ended the meal with a chocolate grand marnier soufflé which was good but didn't blow me away. We were having such a good time we had to hurry to make the show.

The show tonight was a manic Australian musician who was nonetheless pretty funny and performed great songs in a quasi impersonating style.

All in all, a great day at sea.


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At Sea, At Last - Sydney

Today is Thursday and we are enjoying our first of a total of four days at sea. It is a nice itinerary that mixes port days with sea days so that it's not a frantic go go go for days on end.

But first, rewind to yesterday. Embarkation was a breeze, although different than most in that Serenity was at anchor in Sydney Harbour and rather than using Crystal's tenders, local ferries were used to transport us on a 20 minute scenic ride from the White Bay terminal, under the Harbour Bridge, past the famed Sydney Opera House. Ant it truly is a beautiful harbour. The weather was perfect, the landscape is lush and vivid and the myriad of vessels of all kinds, shapes and sizes make this a very dynamic waterway.

 

We got on board and immediately fell in love with Crystal all over again. No sooner had we stepped on board that we had flutes of Jacquard handed to us. We chose to have lunch in the dining room -this has become a bit of a tradition for us on embarkation day- the food (I always pick the salmon with risotto, Blake always the burger) was outstanding, including a pureed vegetable soup Blake had and immediately proclaimed to be possibly the best soup he'd ever had. We were seated by the window, a view of the Harbour made it a perfect meal.

 

 

 

After lunch we went ashore and spent the rest of the day walking around town; it is a charming city, it has loads of character and a good vibe. The old and the new blend well, it is super clean and we saw many more people enjoying a cold brew in outdoor patios than sipping lattes as we see in Vancouver. We regret not having planned a longer visit to Sydney but look forward to coming back one day soon.

  Back on board we readied ourselves for dinner but jet-lag was really catching up with us. We opted for Tastes, the tapas style restaurant, where we were warmly received and had the most amazing meal. We started out with Gambas a la Plancha, followed by Street Tacos, Curried Singapore Noodles and Chimichurri Steak. Each delicious, the setting quite magical.

We ended up striking a conversation with a couple seated a few tables away -I heard them speaking Spanish with the maitre'd and had to ask where they were from. It ended up that one of them is Australian and is a musician doing a couple of shows in the next few days. His partner was born in Costa Rica, hence the Spanish speaking. Chatted for a good long time and then we were done, so done. Called it a night.

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11,237 km traveled, 1639 km to go

It's been a long, very long flight, and it ain't over yet.

This 15 hour, 40 minutes flight over the Pacific is unreal, nothing but water and a few islands with exotic names below. It's been weird crossing over so many timezones; there are only so many movies one can watch, only so much sleep one can get with a crying baby nearby and not a lot of room to get comfy.

We're arriving in Sydney in approximately two hours and will make our way to the cruise terminal in a taxi. Can't wait to board the ship; a glass of champagne will make me feel human again pretty fast. I hope.

Wednesday, 10:30 am local time. Landed!! now we have to wait to be sprayed before deplaning. Lovely views of the city as we came in for landing, could see the Serenity at anchor in the harbour.

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From the Tasman Sea to the Timor Sea, fighting dragons along the way

Yes, it's me again.  This time we leave behind a mild, wet Vancouver winter and venture down under, home of the vegemite, roos and the mighty Great Barrier Reef.

We're cruising -no surprise here- the Crystal Serenity will be our home away from home for 12 nights; we love this ship, we know it well.  We look forward to seeing familiar faces and discovering Tastes, the (almost) new tapas style, casual dining venue.  We can't wait to see all these places, all new to us, an entirely new corner of the world for us to explore.

An overnight, non-stop flight to Sydney on Air Canada will mark the beginning of this adventure which will take us up the eastern coast of Australia and end in Bali, where we'll spend a couple of days post-cruise.

Stay tuned!