Wednesday, April 14, 2010
We enjoyed a very nice dinner at the Prego Italian Restaurant last evening. We invited a very nice couple to have dinner with us. We first met the gent when he was on a couple of legs of the 2007 World Cruise. In 2008 he was on the entire World Cruise and his girlfriend came on board for one of the legs of the cruise which was the leg that our daughter and son-in-law jointed us on board as well. He has been on the entire World Cruise with us this year and his girlfriend came on for this single leg of the World Cruise.
The four of us enjoyed just a spectacular conversation and dined for a couple of hours. We had wonderful waiter Costa as our server and we each had the salad that we always enjoy at Prego, followed by the seafood special of the day which was a local fish that was brought on board by the Prego Chef. Everyone was impressed with the side order of vegetables that Keith ordered. All of the vegetables looked great and everyone couldn’t get over the color and the size of the Asparagus. Keith enjoyed each and every bite.
We also enjoyed a nice fresh fruit plate for dessert. We can’t say enough about the ambience of this dining room and the wonderful service and cuisine. Everything was just perfect. We also watched a picture perfect sunset and enjoyed the beauty of this city as we dined.
The ship set sail at 10:00 PM for our next port of call in Catania, Sicily, Italy. One of the nice reasons for the late night departure was to allow guests to attend the evening concert at Ephesus. We took this shore excursion from Crystal Cruises in 2007 and greatly enjoyed it. We were the only group in Ephesus that evening and before the start of the concert we were served light snacks and wine by the wait staff and then we listened to a wonderful performance. One of the highlight was the sun setting over Ephesus while we took in the beauty all around us and listened to the wonderful musicians play for us. The history of this site is amazing and to think we were sitting at a spot where so many lived such a long time ago is truly amazing.
The good news is that we set the clocks back one hour before going to sleep last evening as we are now sailing into yet another new time zone.
We both slept very well last evening and as he always does Keith awoke early to begin another wonderful day up at the Fitness Center. He worked out on the Elliptical Machine. He was the second one up to the center and by the time he left there were more people than usual working out. This was a result of the time zone change.
While working out Keith noticed that the sea was quite calm and that it looked as if we were sailing on glass. After his workout, Keith stopped by the Lido Café for some coffee.
Anne Marie also worked out in the Fitness Center on the treadmill as she does on most days and she stopped by the Lido Café to bring back some coffee to the room.
We have mentioned this from time to time but wanted to comment about world events. During this world cruise what we have learned about other areas of the world has been fascinating. We realize that in the United States that sometimes the focus of the news is very United States centric. By that we mean that there is far more news available about the United States than the rest of the world. In fact, other than some news on Afghanistan, Iraq and to some extent Iran and some coverage of other areas when there is a catastrophic event such as an earthquake there is very little coverage about the other areas of the world.
During this World Cruise we have been privileged and humbled by not only our visits to so many countries and areas of the world but also all that we have learned from the wide array of lecturers that Crystal has brought onto the voyage. On top of this, while we do not spend too much time watching television on the ship we have tried to watch news coverage of stations that we would not normally get at home such as the BBC and some other stations who tend to focus a good deal of their programming on worldwide issues. This has all reminded us that there is so much more we can learn and that while there are times we think that everything revolves around our own home country this is not the case. We believe that the more informed and educated each of us is the better we can all deal with the changes that are taking place across the globe. We will discuss more of this towards the end of the voyage or possibly after we arrive back home.
In the meantime, back to today’s activities and other events.
We enjoyed breakfast in our room. We spoke with Alexander about our visit to tomorrow port of call. While we enjoyed breakfast, we watched the Crystal Cruise Daily Morning Show. The hosts Rick and Stacey talked about yesterdays visit to Turkey, last evenings activities and all of the activities planned for today. There was video shown from the International Cocktail Party and Keith was one of several passengers shown on the video in his Sheiks Outfit dancing with Anne Marie. One of the items they discussed was the dance hosts that are on board the ship as they were featured in today’s daily program. Dance hosts are featured on each and every Crystal sailing on board both ships and during the World Cruise recognizing that there are many women solo travelers eight dance hosts are on board on each and every leg which is one of the many nice touches offered on Crystal Cruises.
Keith also called into the show to correctly answer one of the trivia questions. J
During Captain Glenn’s morning talk from the bridge he mentioned that the outside temperature was already 63 degrees Fahrenheit and that as we sail further West the outside temperature would get quite a bit warmer. He said the forecast calls for excellent weather. Captain Glenn shared another excellent thought of the day, which goes as follows. “You don’t have to explain something you never said.”
Today has been another day full of many activities as we cruise to Catania, Sicily, Italy.
There were three lectures in the morning. James Maas whose presentation was on tips and strategies for a great night’s sleep gave the first lecture. Afterwards, we attended a presentation given by Special Interest Lecturer Robert Freedman. The topics of his presentation were “From Bust to Obama – hanging United States policy in the Middle East. An analysis of the changing Untied States policies toward the Arab-Israeli conflict, Iran and Syria.” After this presentation we attended another one given by Celebrity Lecturer Harm De Blij who spoke about China’s Grand Design for a Sino centric Globe. The major point of this presentation is that China is investing large sums of money in many countries around the World and our take away is that they do have a strategic plan to bring resources from other areas of the world to China where they are needed for consumption from food to oil to many other products. In turn, this will allow them to grow their economy and to meet their demands and, in turn, will fuel their exports.
After the presentation we had lunch on the Lido Deck. Today’s buffet was the American Classic Buffet. We each made ourselves a wonderful salad entrée.
The presentation in the afternoon featured Celebrity Lecturer General Perry Smith who presented World War II – A Seventy Year Perspective.
In the afternoon, Keith played Paddle Tennis with some of our fellow passengers and with some members of the crew. He also read, and wrote and spoke with some fellow passengers. Anne Marie took an hour-long walk on the Promenade Deck and then spoke with some fellow passengers and took care of a few errands.
The attire for this evening is Formal. Before dinner complimentary cocktails were offered in all lounges from 5:15 PM to 6:00 PM.
We will go to dinner at Silk Road and will post more about that tomorrow. After dinner, there is the Captain’s Farewell Reception.
TODAY’S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY…..
“There was never a person who did anything worth doing that he did not receive more than he gave.”
Keith and Anne Marie
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