NOTE !: We just want to remind everyone that given the length of our daily posts that it is just not possible to reread much that we write. As such, we recognize that there are both typos and grammatical errors, including choppy sentences and words out of place. What we do write comes directly from our heart so hopefully much of what we say and the overall meaning of what we try to convey comes out in what we do post each and every day.
NOTE:
We’ve included pictures from last evening and some from today.
Pilot Boat leaving the ship.
Table Mountain.
Crew looking at Land as we approach Cape Town. For some, this is their first time here while others have visited here before.
New Soccer Stadium constructed for the upcoming World Cup.
Map which is used by Rex Ziak for his lectures.
Classical Concert Pianist Philip Wojciechowski.
One picture of the Crystal Trio that plays in the Main Dining Room and some other areas of the ship. Yes, last evening while we took the picture they were playing our favorite song The Prodigal Son.
Two similar pictures of us.
Crystal Cruises Cruise Director Rick Spath.
Land, land, we see land.
After seven consecutive days at sea, today we reached land arriving in the early afternoon to Cape Town, South Africa.
We want to first begin with last evening.
We enjoyed another wonderful time on the ship. Before dinner we attended a wonderful performance of Chopin performed by Virtuoso Pianist Philip Wojciechowski. This was the second concert that Philip Wojceichowski performed and once again he hit a grand slam home run with his performance. In some ways, saying it was outstanding was an understatement. We sat in the front row and if we had closed our eyes for just a few seconds we would have felt as though we were at Carnegie Hall. He played a total of eight songs from the works of Chopin. He was wonderful and we hope that we will see him perform again on another Crystal Cruise Voyage.
By the way, we also found Philip Wojecichowski to be a genuinely nice person. We spoke with him briefly before the evening show. He also came out about fifteen minutes before his performance to check things out one final time and he graciously posed by his piano so that a couple of us who were already there could take pictures of him.
We cannot say enough about the level of entertainment and enrichment programs that have been offered on this cruise thus far. This is one of the core strengths of Crystal and it truly shows day-in-and-day-out. In our humble opinion they are the best in the cruise industry in this area.
After the concert, we enjoyed a wonderful meal in the main dining room. We began the meal with a wonderful salad. We had the Broiled Sea Bass Filet for our entrée, which was accompanied by oven-roasted new potatoes and crisp vegetable salad and we enjoyed fresh fruit for our dessert. Once again, service was outstanding and the meal was equally outstanding.
We had a good laugh with our headwaiter, Augusto. We saw him preparing what we thought was a Caesar Salad. He had a large wooden bowl at a nearby table and was adding various items to it. We had already ordered our salads but he asked us if we wanted some of what he was preparing and we said that while we ordered our salads we would try some. We mentioned to him that Giuseppe made us and our family this item during the seven day cruise before the start of the world cruise and we thought his was quite good and compared evenly to what our head waiter in 2008 (Tall Peter) made for us. So, we kidded around whether his would be just as good or even better. But, we didn’t use the word salad. We asked him why he left the items in the bowl for quite some time and he said it was to absorb the ingredients. We said that was great but thought to ourselves how strange and wouldn’t that salad get too soggy. Now as background we have not ordered any red meat during the World Cruise in the Main Dining Room. Not one ounce of red meat. We have either had seafood or chicken or some other item. All of a sudden our Senior Waiter comes to the table with a funny look on his face and we look up and he has Steak Tar Tar on the plate and it is the size of a hamburger. We start to laugh. Here we thought we are getting a small portion of Caesar Salad and we discover we are getting Steak Tar Tar. As you can imagine we say thank you but no thank you. Or Senior Waiter feels better as he couldn’t believe we would ask for Steak Tar Tar since he had never seen us eat red meat. We have tears rolling down our faces and when the Head Waiter comes over to the table he starts to burst out in laughter. And, when Leo the Maitre d’ comes over to the table and here’s about this story he also has a few tears streaming down his face as he knows we try to eat very healthy thought out the cruise. So, this is our tale from this evening. By the way, we think red meat is fine but we just try not to have it often.
Since we are not arriving to port on time to Cape Town, Crystal provided complimentary wine at dinner last evening. They provided a very nice white wine along with a very nice red wine. We happen to like the red wine as many times we have the wine at home and we now have learned about a new white wine. Crystal always does right and last evening was another example of that.
After dinner we went to the show, which featured four performances. They were dancing by the dynamic dance duo of Curtis Collins and Beverly Durand, a performance on the Flute by Flautist Clare Langan, a sensational performance by Soprano Fiona Jessica Wilson and first a performance by Trumpet Virtuoso Gary Gurthman and then a duet performance by Gary Guthman and by Raphael Derkson who is the bandleader of the Crystal Galaxy Orchestra.
We did not stay up for the start of the Super Bowl, which began at 1:00 AM ships time with a kickoff at 1:25 AM ships time. We think most of you understand that for most passengers’ that is a bit too late.
This morning we woke early as we made our way to Cape Town. Keith enjoyed a brief workout in the Fitness Center and once again worked on his upper body since he still needs to keep off his left ankle.
We know it won’t be too long until he is back to his normal exercise.
The good news is that by the time that Keith arrived to the Fitness Center they were already showing the recorded version of the Super Bowl and the game was into the first quarter so when Keith got back to the room he was able to watch the game. We received an ESPN feed of the game.
Keith stopped by the Lido Café after he finished up his workout and brought coffee back to the room. Anne Marie worked out for an hour on the Treadmill and also stopped by the Lido Deck Café for coffee.
We enjoyed a lovely breakfast in the room. We spoke with the butler, Alexander, for a while about Cape Town. This will be our second time to this beautiful port of call.
Speaking of Cape Town, South Africa;
To us, Cape Town is the San Francisco of the United States of America with many unique characteristics for this charming city. It is the oldest city in South Africa. Most pictures of this city show the beauty of the mountains that are a backdrop to this city with the major mountain known as Table Mountain. This is one of the major tourist destinations.
Many people have moved to Cape Town over the years from a variety of places around the world. It is truly a cosmopolitan city with many people having moved her from places such a Europe. At the same time given the overall deterioration of the economies of nearby countries many people have also arrived here from countries such as Somalia, Angola and Mozambique. Unfortunately, this has added to some of the challenges, as there has been an increase in gang related crime in the poorer areas right outside this city.
Within about a ten-minute shuttle ride from the cruise ship terminal is a beautiful area featuring a vast number of shops and restaurants along with a beautiful setting adjacent to the harbor area. From this area one can also see the new Soccer Stadium that has been built for the upcoming World Cup. It is probably one of the most charming areas to walk around of any area near a cruise ship terminal around the world with very few exceptions.
There are many attractions to see for those visiting Cape Town in addition to Table Mountain.
This includes;
The A.S.A. National Gallery, which houses a very impressive collection of art;
Robben Island which includes the prison that as once home to former South African President Nelson Mandella.
District Six Museum, which is dedicated to the former mixed community of, freed slaves, merchants, artisans, laborers and immigrants.
Rust en Vreugh which is a mansion in Cape-Dutch built in 1778 with a magnificent façade.
Caste of Good Hope which is the oldest surviving building in all of South Africa.
Port Elizabeth
Port Elizabeth was founded as a town in 1820 and initially was home to various British settlers.
This port provides a gateway for visitors to visit one of the world malaria-free game reserves. It is located a little less than 500 miles east of Cape Town. It is considered a very important seaport and is also a manufacturing center for South Africa.
This city is also known as the “Windy City”. No, it should not be mistaken as Chicago. It is become noted for its beaches and enjoys more sunshine and far less rainy days than any other South Africa coastal city. The rainy and windy season tends to be in the June, July and August timeframe.
Since we were arriving to port four hours later than the planned arrival time additional activities were added to the ships daytime program.
The doctor had asked that Keith see him a week after his first visit so Keith went back this morning. When the nurse looked at his ankle and foots her first reaction was “Wow, your toes have all turned purple.” She was correct. The good news is that both the doctor and the nurse said that most of the swelling has gone down. The doctor said that it would just take time to heal as the bone on the side of the ankle still hurts a good deal. While the Elliptical Machine is still out, the doctor did say that walking would be OK, but not to walk up Table Mountain. J
During Captain Glenn’s morning talk from the bridge he noted that we were cruising at 20 Knots per hour. His daily thought of the day was “Youth is not a time in life, but it is a state of mind.”
At 10:00 AM we went to the lecture given by Special Interest Lecturer Rex Zisk who presented “Elizabeth Batts -The Tragic and Lonely Life of a sailing captain’s wife.”
The presentation focused on Captain James Cook’s wife; Elizabeth Bates and what life was like for her and their children. Although they were married for seventeen years and had six children they only spent less than four years together as Captain Cooks was away much of the time on his ship. They had six children but all of them died relatively young and in the end Elizabeth Batts buried all six children and also lost her husband when he was fifty years young. She ended up living until she was ninety-two but had no heirs.
While sailing today is quite different than it was in Captain Cook’s day it is interesting to note some similarities that exist today even on this ship and for the crew. For example, many of the crew who work on the Lido Deck are on board seven to ten months at a time and then off for around two to three months so they spend a good deal of time away from their families. At the same time others from the crew might be on board for six months and then home for two months.
After the presentation we told Rex Zisk how wonderful his presentation was. We learned that when he found out that yesterday that he would be giving another presentation that he had to pull this together as it was new. He showed us his extensive notes which he never used during the talk as he put all of the facts and figures to memory and that he was up until 3:00 AM not only having written it but also practicing it. He delivered it so well that we would have thought that he had given it for years and hundreds of times. He is truly an outstanding presenter and we have learned so very much from him.
With arrival to Cape Town scheduled for approximately 1:00 PM, the opening hours for lunch in several of the venues including the Crystal Dining Room, The Bistro and the Lido Café was pulled up to 11:30. For those desiring a late lunch Tastes, which offers table service around the indoor pool, was open from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
We had lunch at the Lido Café and we sat outside where we had very nice views of Table Mountain and the surrounding area including the newly constructed Soccer Stadium.
In the afternoon, we took the complimentary shuttle over to the wharf area where we took a very nice walk and took in all of the great scenery all around us. On our first visit to this area in 2007 we did not get a chance to visit the aquarium which we did this afternoon. It is a very nice aquarium and we walked around for about ninety minutes and we were also fortunate to be there when two divers went into the very large tank to feed some of the larger sea creatures including sharks, large turtle, stingrays and other sea life. Afterwards, we enjoyed another nice walk around the area.
Our day in port was wonderful. Unlike in 2007 when it was very crowded and we had overcasts skies with on and off rain, during our time in port we had full sun, very few clouds and sunshine. J
This evening open seating was available in the Main Dining Room between 6:30 PM and 9:00 PM recognizing that many passengers would be off the ship either on tours or on their own.
We decided that it would be nice to dine at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant to enjoy a nice quite meal.
TODAY’S THOUGHT OF THE DAY…..
“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”
Keith and Anne Marie
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