Tag Archives: Around the World with Corey Sandler

Corey Sandler is a bestselling author of more than 250 books on travel, cruises. sports, business, computers, and high technology. He travels about half the year as a Destination Consultant for Silversea Cruises, giving lectures about ports of call around the world. In his blog, “Around the World with Corey Sandler” includes photos and commentary.

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1 April 2014: Malaga, Spain

April 1, 2014 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Silversea Destination Consultant

Málaga: its very name brings to mind sweet repose, and sweet wine.

Both are conducive, I suppose, to great art, and it was here that Pablo Picasso was born and it is here that members of his family contributed pieces—some well-known and others quite obscure—to a museum.[whohit]-1APR2014 MALAGA-[/whohit]

Málaga is the capital of the Costa del Sol, the Sun Coast.

The modern terminal at Malaga frames the handsome city on the hill. Photos by Corey Sandler

Siesta time along the promenade in Malaga. Photo by Corey Sandler

That seems to be a well-deserved nickname: the coast averages about 324 days of sunshine each year, which means we have about a 90 percent chance of sol.

The Costa del Sol is more or less a linear town, stretching from Málaga to Cadiz.

A few blocks inland from the beach is Málaga’s bullring, La Malagueta, built in 1874. It’s a hexa-dec-agon, a building with sixteen sides.

The bull ring in Malaga, in preparation for a major contest during Holy Week. Photos by Corey Sandler

Some of Spain’s most famous bullfighters have appeared here, including El Cordobés and Manolete. Spanish-style bullfighting usually ends with the killing of the bull in the ring.

Above the bullring in Malaga is the Alcazaba, a Moorish fortification from the 8^th to the 11^th century. Alcazaba comes from the Arabic al-qasbah, meaning the citadel, and this is the best-preserved example in Spain.

The Alcazaba of Malaga. Photo by Corey Sandler

Next to the entrance to the Alcazaba are the partially restored ruins of a 2^nd century Roman theater. Some of the Roman materials were used in the construction of the Alcazaba. There are two walled enclosures, originally connected to the city’s ramparts, creating a third defensive wall.

The Roman amphitheatre of Malaga. Photo by Corey Sandler

I mentioned Málaga was the birthplace of Pablo Picasso in 1881, and he is much celebrated here, even though he left town at the age of ten.

The Museo Picasso Málaga is in the old quarter at the foot of Gibralfaro hill, near the Alcazaba and the Roman Theatre.

Picasso once said that he was the world’s greatest collector of Picassos. His family had a few, as well, forming the original core of the museum.

The collection ranges from early academic studies to cubism to his late re-workings of Old Masters.

The museum is in the Palacio de Buenavista, originally built in the 16th century incorporating the remains of a palace from the Nasrid dynasty, the last Arab and Muslim dynasty in Spain.

Silver Wind seen from above in Malaga. Photo by Corey Sandler

About an hour west of Málaga in the inland hills is Ronda. Ronda was first settled by the early Celts, but what you see today is the result of later Roman and Moorish rulers. Catholic Spain took control of the town in 1485, during the Reconquista.

Ronda is in a very mountainous area about 2,500 feet above sea level (750 meters) (2,500 feet).

The Guadalevín River bisects the city with the steep El Tajo gorge. Three bridges cross El Tajo: the Roman, the Old, and the New.

All of them are old.

The Arab baths at Ronda. Photo by Corey Sandler

The Puente Romano (the Roman Bridge, also known as the Puente San Miguel), dates from Roman times at least one thousand years ago. The Puente Viejo (“Old Bridge”, also known as the Puente Arabe or “Arab Bridge”) is a mere four centuries old, built in 1616. The Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) was begun in 1751 and took until 1793 to complete. This is the tallest of the bridges, towering 390 feet or 120 meters above the canyon floor.

A chamber beneath the central arch was used as a prison. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939, both sides were alleged to have used the chamber to torture prisoners, killing some by throwing them to the rocks below.

Ernest Hemingway spent many summers in Ronda’s old town quarter, La Ciudad. Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls describes the murder of Nationalist sympathizers early in the Spanish Civil War. Some say Hemingway based the account on killings that took place at the cliffs of El Tajo.

Another frequent visitor was actor and director Orson Welles. About Ronda, Welles said, “A man is not from where he is born, but where he chooses to die.” Welles’ ashes were scattered in the Ronda bull-ring in 1985.

One of Spain’s most spectacular and famous cities is Granada, just under two hours to the northeast of Málaga.

Granada sits at the base of Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers. The city has been inhabited for thousands of years. The original settlers were perhaps Ibero-Celtics. Then came Phoenicians, Carthagenians, and Greeks.

The heraldic symbol of Granada is the pomegranate: Granada in Spanish.

The city became the capital of a province of the Caliphate of Cordoba.

By the 16^th century, Granada took on a Christian and Castilian character, as immigrants came from other parts of the Iberian Peninsula.

Many of the city’s mosques, some of which had been established on the sites of former Christian churches, were converted to Christian uses.

Although many Muslim buildings were destroyed by the Catholics, those that remain represent the most complete group of Moorish domestic architecture in Europe.

The Alhambra in Granada. Photo by Corey Sandler

The Alhambra, Arabic for “the red one”, or the red fortress, was built in the mid-14^th century.

It originally was the residence of the Muslim rulers of Granada and their court.

With the reconquest by the Spaniards, it became a Christian palace. Within the Alhambra, a new palace was erected in 1527 by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor.

After falling into disrepair, the Alhambra was “rediscovered” in the 19th century. It is now one of Spain’s major tourist attractions.

It exhibits the country’s most famous Islamic architecture, together with Christian 16th-century and later improvements.

Like a house that has been built, rebuilt, and expanded dozens of times over centuries, the Alhambra is a bit of an architectural mess.

That’s actually one of its charms.

The overall design is chaotic, with some rooms at odd angles to each other and styles abruptly changing at every turn.

Because the Muslims in the original settlement were isolated, the Islamic art here is classical

It does not include more recent styles that arose in the middle east and Africa.

The Alhambra’s westernmost feature is the alcazaba (the citadel).

The rest of the plateau is enclosed by a fortified wall, with thirteen towers, some defensive and some providing vistas for the inhabitants.

After the Christian conquest of the city in 1492, some of the art was covered with whitewash.

The Palacio de Generalife gets its unusual name from the Arabic: Jannat al-’Arif‎, meaning Architect’s Garden.

This was the summer palace and country estate of the Nasrid sultans of Granada. The palace and gardens were built between 1302 and 1324.

Within is the famous Court of Myrtles and the Patio of the Lions, like something out of Ali Baba.

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31 March 2014: Gibraltar

March 31, 2014 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Silversea Destination Consultant

Gibraltar is one of the planet’s odd corners, also one of the most recognizable pieces of geology: The Rock.

Silver Wind approaches the dock at Gibraltar. Photo by Corey Sandler

It has a quirky mix of cultures: a British territory clinging to the bottom of the Iberian Peninsula of Spain. To some eyes, the last remaining colony in Europe.[whohit]-31MAR2014 GIBRALTAR-[/whohit]

There a few other places of this sort, including Spain’s exclaves of Melilla and Ceuta on the Moroccan coast not far away. We’re headed to Melilla soon.

The Rock, from the rock next door. Photo by Corey Sandler

The Strait of Gibraltar is the only natural gap between the Med and the world’s oceans. At its narrowest, the Strait of Gibraltar is only about 13 kilometers (8 miles) wide.

Scientists say about 5 million years ago the two continents were connected here. The Mediterranean Sea was more like a huge lake, and had evaporated into a deep basin much lower than the oceans.

Gibraltar is a very small place: 2.6 square miles or 6.8 square kilometers. About two New York Central Parks, or three Monacos.

The base of the rock is home to about 30,000 people, one of the world’s most densely populated cities.

Streets and alleys at the base of the Rock in Gibraltar. Photos by Corey Sandler

The narrow isthmus ends at Spain. The Gibraltarians and the British call it a frontier; the Spanish call it a fence.

In Greek mythology, Hercules had to perform 12 labors to please the gods. The tenth labor—the westernmost assignment—took place here.

Hercules had to cross the massive Atlas mountain in North Africa, on his way to the Garden of the Hesperides. Instead of climbing Atlas, Hercules smashed through it by tearing down a pair of mountainous pillars.

The two points marked the limit to the known world. By his action, Hercules opened the Strait of Gibraltar, connecting the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.

The extraordinarily strange airport at Gibraltar. Windston Churchill Avenue crosses the runway, and cars and other vehicles are stopped at a barrier to allow planes to land or take off. Photo by Corey Sandler

One of the pillars was Gibraltar. The other, in various versions, could have been Monte Hacho which overlooks the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in Morocco.

The other suspect: Jabal Musa (Mount Moses) in Morocco.

Where was Hesperides? Some place it in what is now Libya.

Others say the Garden of Hesperides was on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, where our voyage began.

It was across this gap that the Moors—the Muslim tribes—came across to Europe in 711, surrendering al-Andalus in 1491.

In 1501 Gibraltar passed back to the Spanish Crown: Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.

We jump forward to 1704, when Spain’s great empire was crumbling.

An Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar during the War of the Spanish Succession.

And then it was made official—at least to the current satisfaction of the British. In 1713, Gibraltar was ceded to Britain by Spain under the Treaty of Utrecht.

Spain attempted to retake Gibraltar in 1727 and again in 1779, when it entered the American Revolutionary War on the American (or at least the anti-British) side as an ally of France.

Spain helped finance the American effort, and fought against the British in Spanish Louisiana and Central America.

But back in Europe, the Great Siege of Gibraltar was the first and longest Spanish action in the war, from June 24, 1779, to February 7, 1783.

The Franco-Spanish army was as large as 100,000, greatly outnumbering the British. But the British were able to hold out in the fortress. The Rock became an important base for the British Royal Navy.

Notable residents of The Rock. Photo by Corey Sandler

It played a role in the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson’s victory against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish in 1805.

Its strategic value increased with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 as it controlled the sea route between the UK and the British Empire east of Suez.

The Courts of Justice in Gibraltar. Photo by Corey Sandler

Spanish dictator Generalisimo Francisco Franco was no saint; not even close.

But he did not trust Hitler, a feeling that was mutual.

Franco’s reluctance to allow the German Army onto Spanish soil frustrated a German plan to capture The Rock.

The detailed plan for Operation Felix was ready to go, but on March 10, 1941 Hitler instead launched Operation Barbarossa—the invasion of its one-time ally the Soviet Union.

Operation Felix was delayed and ultimately abandoned.

Although it was bombed several times and suffered other privations, the Rock came through the War relatively unscathed.

Inside the Rock of Gibraltar, miles of tunnels were excavated from the limestone. By some measures, there are more miles of road within the Rock than outside.

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29 and 30 March, 2014: Casablanca and Rabat, Morocco

March 30, 2014 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Silversea Destination Consultant

After visits to the islands of Cape Verde, the Canaries, and Madeira, we move back now to mainland Africa: Casablanca in Morocco. And some of us went on a side trip to Rabat, the capital.

From our ship, or from any high point on land, it’s easy to see at a glance the geographic relationship between northern Morocco and Spain.[whohit]-29 and 30MAR2014 AGADIR and CASABLANCA-[/whohit]

The two continents were bridged by land as recently as 5.3 million years ago, a few moments in geological time.

Today only about 9 miles or 14 kilometers separate Africa from Europe.

A Gnawa musician inside the Kasbah at Rabat. Gnawa is a stirring form of music with a strong rhythm; its roots are in Ghana but nearly the only place it is played is in Morocco. Some believe it gave birth to jazz. Photo by Corey Sandler

Morocco has a population of about 35 million, about the same as Canada.

And you won’t hear this sentence all that often: Morocco and Canada are similar in another context.

The vast majority of the population of Morocco live within about one hundred miles of the coast; in Canada, nearly all of the population is that far from the border with the United States.

Morocco, though, is much smaller.

Only about 172,410 square miles; Canada is 22 times larger.

Casablanca is the largest city and principal port; Rabat is the national capital.

The King’s Palace in Rabat. Photo by Corey Sandler

When World War II began, North Africa quickly fell under control of Axis powers. Italy moved first, into Ethiopia.

Germany dispatched Field Marshal Erwin Rommel—the Desert Fox—and his Afrikacorps Panzers and they had initial victories in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia.

And Morocco—a French protectorate—came under the collaborationist Vichy French.

That was the environment under which Rick Blaine (or Humphrey Bogart, if you prefer) operated Rick’s Café Américain in Casablanca.

The Allies pushed back in late 1942.

It was decided it was too soon to launch a cross-channel attack from England to France. The British pushed for a second front: against Axis forces in Africa, in what was called Operation Torch.

In addition to forces from the United Kingdom, Operation Torch was the first major operation by Americans.

They sailed directly from the United States, the only instance in World War II where a significant force was loaded in American ports and landed directly on a hostile beach.

The Allies achieved strategic surprise, but the operation was delayed by French forces, who fought back in many locations including Morocco.

Why? French Vichy troops were told by the Germans there would be retribution in France if they failed to fight off the Allied invasion.

But French opposition ended in November. And some 275,000 Germans and Italians surrendered on the Cape Bon Peninsula in Tunisia on May 12, 1943.

The Mausoleum of Mohammed V in Rabat. Mohammed VI, his grandson, is now on the throne. Photos by Corey Sandler

Once Morocco was under Allied control, it became an important base for air raids on Sicily and France, and also crucial in controlling the choke point of the Strait of Gibraltar.

Before, during, and after World War II, Moroccans did not much like their French overseers. They were denied freedom of speech, assembly, and travel.

Just as happened in other colonies—including Algeria—a nationalist movement rose in Morocco.

On March 2, 1956, after forty-four years of occupation, the Kingdom of Morocco gained independence from France and Spain.

Inside the ancient Medina of Casablanca, which bears no resemblance to a Tesco or a Safeway or most any other place most of us shop. At right, the apparent losers of camel races, ready for roasting. Photos by Corey Sandler

Haute couture in the Medina of Casablanca. Photos by Corey Sandler

Spain held on to the Spanish Sahara, to the south and west, until the death of Francisco Franco in 1975. Today that territory is still uncertain.

What is now called the Western Sahara is considered by the United Nations to be a non-self-governing territory.

That is the same status given by the UN to Gibraltar.

Not-so-haute cuisine in Casablanca. Do they know his name is Colonel Sanders? Photos by Corey Sandler

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

Here’s where to order a copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

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26-27 March 2014: Funchal, Madeira

March 27, 2014 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Silversea Cruise Consultant

The Portuguese island of Madeira has beautiful beaches, spectacular mountains, abundant sun, a moderate climate, a toboggan ride with no need of ice or snow, and an airport that makes many pilots reconsider their occupation.

Madeira is part of an archipelago in the north Atlantic Ocean about 522 kilometers or 326 miles north of the Canary Islands.[whohit]-26MAR2014 FUNCHAL MADEIRA-[/whohit]

The archipelago comprises the major part of one of the two Autonomous regions of Portugal; the other is the Azores to the northwest.

Downtown Funchal, as flowers burst into color for the oncoming Spring. Photos by Corey Sandler

Today, Madeira is a popular year-round resort, drawing about one million tourists per year.

Madeira is currently ranked the second wealthiest region in Portugal, after Lisbon, with a GDP per capita of 104 percent of the European average.

The Cathedral of Funchal, and the main shopping and dining street. Photos by Corey Sandler

Even before the great expeditions began to use Madeira as a stopping-off point on their way to the New World, it was used in commerce to and from Europe.

Among the sailors who used it as a base was Christopher Columbus who lived for a while with his first wife and child on the lesser island of Porto Santo in Madeira.

As Portugal, and by extension, Madeira began to grow in wealth the island attracted attacks by pirates and privateers. And we’re not just talking about small freelancers.

Terraced farms high in the hills. Some of the farms grow grapes for sweet Madeira wine. Photo by Corey Sandler

In September of 1566 French corsairs under the command of Bertrand de Montluc departed from Bordeaux with a force of 1200 men, on three main ships and eight support craft. The corsairs landed on Madeira and marched toward Funchal and laid siege to the city, which eventually fell.

The following year, the Portuguese decided to install a better defense, including fortresses and other installations. Better protected, Funchal became an important stop-over for caravels travelling between the Indies and the New World.

Up in the hills above Funchal, a dramatic landscape with roads not for the faint-of-heart. Photos by Corey Sandler

Just as an aside, in February of 1815, one of the great naval battles of the War of 1812 took place just off the coast of Madeira. The War of 1812 was essentially a re-ignition of the Revolutionary War fought between the American colonies and Great Britain.

The USS Constitution, one of the first ships of the U.S. Navy and now better known by her nickname of Old Ironsides engaged two smaller British ships, the HMS Cyane and HMS Levant. The American vessel carried 52 guns and 451 men and crippled both British vessels.

None of the three captains had any way of knowing that the War of 1812 had ended three days earlier.

After his wartime service as Prime Minister and before returning to office in 1951, Winston Churchill discovered Madeira for himself. He favored a small fishing village called Câmara de Lobos—Wolf’s Den—about 5 kilometers or 3 miles from Funchal, as a place to paint.

Camara de Lobos, a favorite setting for painting by Britain’s Winston Churchill. Photo by Corey Sandler

The town has a lovely bay surrounded by banana plantations, vineyards, and other vegetation on the hills. And Churchill generally chose to stay at a hotel called Reid’s Palace. The atmosphere at Reid’s has changed little since the hotel opened in 1891, even though it is now part of the Orient-Express Hotels chain.

If you arrive by boat, as Churchill did for his visit in 1950, a lift carries you up from the hotel’s private bathing pier. In the hotel lobby you can see old photos of British and European elite who came to visit.

Sea cliffs east of Funchal on Madeira. Photo by Corey Sandler

Now, as I said, Madeira is a generally temperate place. You’re not going to find snow and ice on a groomed toboggan run.

In fact, you’re not even going to find a real toboggan run. Just some twisty-turny streets. With cars and trucks and potholes.

For more than a century, people have used toboggans for the quick way down the hill to Funchal. The Carro do Monte toboggans are made of wicker, with wooden runners.

They are guided—not really driven—by a pair of carreiros, dressed in white with straw hats. They’ve done this before, but you’ve got to marvel at their success rate.

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

Here’s where to order a copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

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25 March 2014: Arecife, Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain

March 25, 2014 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Silversea Destination Consultant

We’re on the first day of a voyage that will visit some of the more intriguing remnants of the great Colonial empires of modern times.

Here where the Mediterranean narrows to meet the Atlantic, nearly every island or port got caught up in war, intrigue, religion, and politics: an unfortunate quartet that often travel together.

Our scheduled itinerary from Las Palmas to Barcelona

Among the more interesting places on our schedule are a pair of political thumbs-in-the-eye established by and held on to former colonial powers: Gibraltar, a tiny finger of land on the mainland of Spain stubbornly held by Great Britain, and across the strait in Africa, Melilla one of two tiny exclaves of Spain that sit on the coast of Morocco.

The Greek writers and philosophers Herodotus, Plato, and Plutarch described the garden of the Hesperides, a mythic orchard at the far West of the world; that might refer to the Canaries.

Pliny the Elder later wrote of an expedition to the Canary Islands, including reference to an island called Canaria.

The Fire Mountains in Timanfaya Nationa Park on Lanzarote. Photo by Corey Sandler

The bus driver’s view climbing the volcanoes of Timanfaya. Photo by Corey Sandler

The taxi squad for guests seeking even more thrills in the mountains. Photo by Corey Sandler

My friend Blanco, before we headed into the hills. Photos by Corey Sandler

In 2007, a team from the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and a team from the Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain uncovered a prehistoric settlement at El Bebedero that included Roman pottery shards, some pieces of metal, and glass. The artifacts were dated between the first and 4th centuries.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Canary islands were ignored until 999 when Arab tribes came from Africa to an island they called al-Djezir al-Khalida. The Spanish took control of the Canaries in 1479, and very quickly it became a link in the chain from Europe to the New World settlements.

The modern city, with a population of about 142,000, gets its name from the black volcanic reefs near the port and beaches; Arrecife is Spanish for “reef.” Those reefs provided some shelter from rough seas, but equally important some hiding places from pirate attacks at the time the city was founded in the fifteenth century.

Perhaps the most notable Lanzarotean was artist and architect César Manrique, born in 1919 in Arrecife.

In addition to his sometimes playful and colorful modern art, Manrique also had a major influence on planning regulations in Lanzarote.

He worked to limit the size and especially the height of hotels on the island.

Manrique died in a car accident near his home in 1992. The César Manrique Foundation manages his home and raises funds for art on Lanzarote and promotes environmental and civic planning causes including ongoing efforts to block over-development of the island.

At the Manrique home is a collection of work by the artist as well as others, including original sketches by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. Manrique also designed a Cactus Garden on the island, integrating volcanic structures with plantings. The garden also includes an old whitewashed mill once used for the processing of “millo” flour, made from maize or wheat.

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24 March 2014 Another Voyage Begins: Canary Islands to Barcelona

March 23, 2014 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, SIlversea Destination Consultant

We wish safe travels to most of our guests, debarking in Las Palmas, Canary Islands after a trip up the western coast of Africa.

And we say hello to new friends, as we head to Barcelona by way of Gibraltar, Moroccco, Melilla, and the Balearic Islands of Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza.

The port at Las Palmas, with Silver Wind reflected in the glass. Photo by Corey Sandler

A typically quirky bit of Spanish architecture in Las Palmas, and a quixotic name for a coast guard rescue vessel in port. Photos by Corey Sandler

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23 March 2014: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands

March 23, 2014 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Silversea Destination Consultant

From Cape Verde, we headed north-northeast along the coast of Africa for two days.

Our destination: a service station outside the Pillars of Hercules.

Tenerife is in Las Canarias, the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain and the outermost region of the European Union.

The island is about 300 kilometers or 186 miles off the African coast, and about 1,000 kilometers or 621 miles from Spain’s Iberian Peninsula.

The Auditorio, a modern landmark of Tenerife. Photos by Corey Sandler

Tenerife made its fortune as a rest stop, a service station in the Atlantic for explorers, conquistadors, and traders headed to the bottom of Africa and around to Asia, or across the Atlantic to the New World.

Tenerife is the largest and most populous of the seven Canary Islands, with about 900,000 inhabitants.

That makes it the most populated island in all of Spain. To that, add about five million visitors per year.

And, though you might think otherwise, Tenerife also has the highest mountain in Spain.

El Teide is taller than any point in the Sierra Nevadas, about 3,718 meters or 12,198 feet above sea level.

Actually, considering that it stands on an island; El Teide is about 7,500 meters or 24,600 feet above the sea floor.

That makes it the third largest volcano in the world, measured from its base.

The only larger volcanoes are far away, on the island of Hawaii: Mauna Kea and the champion Mauna Loa.

Oh, and did I mention it is still active?

To be more precise, dormant. Not dead, just sleeping.

Teide is on the short list of 16 volcanoes that are under special scrutiny because of their history of large, destructive explosions and proximity to large populations.

Also on that list are well-known ticking time bombs like Mount Vesuvius, Etna, Santorini, Mauna Loa, and Rainier and ten others, mostly along the Pacific Rim.

Tenerife Espacio de Las Artes. Photo by Corey Sandler

Christopher Columbus reported seeing a “great fire in the Orotava Valley” as he sailed past Tenerife on his voyage to discover the New World in 1492.

Skipping past many other conflicts, in the late 18^th century Britain and Spain had been fighting each other all around the world as each country’s colonial possessions grew.

War reached the Canary Islands in July of 1797.

On July 25, 1797, Admiral Horatio Nelson launched an attack at Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

After a ferocious fight, the Spanish defenders repelled the invaders.

It was in this battle that Horatio Nelson lost his right arm to cannon fire as he was trying to disembark.

He had lost an eye the year before in a battle in Corsica at Calvi.

And in 1805, at the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson would lose his life.

Before his rise to power, Francisco Franco—who had begun to attract unappreciative notice from the Republican government back in Spain—was posted to Tenerife in March 1936.

It was while he was in the islands that Franco agreed to collaborate in the military coup that would result in the Spanish Civil War, and it was launched in the Canaries in July of 1936.

Everything but the fleas at a Sunday market. Photo by Corey Sandler

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19-20 March 2014. Out of Africa: Dakar, Senegal to Cape Verde

March 20, 2014 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Silversea Destination Consultant

We flew through the night from east to west, from America to the west shoulder of Africa.

(Just for fun, we endured a snowstorm at Dulles Airport in Washington which deposited about 10 inches or 250cm of snow on the roads, the runways, and our plane. Airplanes full of chatty travelers always go silent when the de-icing trucks arrive before takeoff.)

Once in the air, our high-flying jet was miles above the well-traveled path established five hundred years ago by European explorers and conquerors. Then came the traders: slaves from Africa, finished goods from Europe, gold and sugar and tobacco from the New World.[whohit]-19MAR2014 CAPE VERDE-[/whohit]

Our journey brought us to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, to meet up with Silversea Silver Wind, beginning a trip that will bring us through the Pillars of Hercules past Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean and beyond.

Dakar and Bezeguiche or Palma Island just off-shore was first developed by the Portuguese, but control went back and forth with United Netherlands which renamed the island after a place in The Netherlands, called Goeree-Overflakkee, which quite sensibly was shortened (and put through a French filter) to become Gorée.

Senegal came under the French in 1677, emerging in 1960. It is one of the relatively few, relatively stable governments and economies in Africa but life is still hard-scrabble.

Our itinerary on Silversea Silver Wind.

In Dakar, a Presidential guard outside the sprawling palace, a remnant of the French. Another reminder of Colonial times is the ornate railway station; the French and the trains are long gone, but a city of about three million people presses on. Photos by Corey Sandler

Goree Island, offshore of Dakar, was a major point of departure for slaves from West Africa bound for Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America. At right, the Door of No Return, an evocative reminder visited in modern times by world leaders including French President Hollande, America presidents Clinton and Obama, Pope John Paul II, and millions of tourists from both ends of the slavery chain. Photos by Corey Sandler

On the island of Goree. Photos by Corey Sandler

PRAIA, REPUBLIC OF CABO VERDE

From Dakar, Senegal we sailed nearly due west to Cape Verde, an archipelago about 570 kilometers or 350 miles off Western Africa.

If we had somehow missed Cape Verde and continued west along the same line of latitude, we would have come to Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba in the Caribbean.

A long journey: about 2,800 nautical miles, 3,200 land miles, or 5,200 kilometers.

That actually happened many times in the Age of Discovery—not the missing Cape Verde part, but heading west to the New World.

The islands were uninhabited when Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized them in the 15th century as they began to circle Africa and go as far as India.

In Sidade Velha, the Old City, the still-functioning Church of Our Lady of the Rosary is the oldest Colonial church outside of Europe. Photo by Corey Sandler

In 1462, three decades before Columbus, they established the first significant settlement in Cape Verde.

It was called Ribeira Grande, large river. The port was a stopping place for two great navigators:

Vasco da Gama, in 1497 on his way to India, and Christopher Columbus, in 1498 on his third voyage to the Americas.

After discovery of the Americas, the settlement became an important port for trading slaves from Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone.

Slavery made the port one of the richest cities in the Portuguese realm. And the wealth attracted lured privateers and pirates.

Among them, Sir Francis Drake, who operated under a Letter of Marque from the English crown and twice sacked Ribeira Grande in the 1580s.

Part of the fortress erected by the Portuguese above Sidade Velha. Photos by Corey Sandler

But while we’re on the subject of east-to-west movement, meteorologists keep a close eye on Cape Verde during the Atlantic hurricane season.

Storms that develop here are usually the largest and most intense because they have plenty of warm open ocean over which to develop before encountering land.

The Republic of Cape Verde is a horseshoe-shaped cluster of 10 volcanic islands, nine of them inhabited.

Geographers divide them into two groups: the Barlavento or Windward Islands (Santo Antão, São Vicente, Santa Luzia, São Nicolau, Sal, Boa Vista,) and the Sotavento or Leeward Islands, which includes Santiago and its port of Praia, as well as Maio, Fogo, and Brava.

Scientists believe the first volcanic activity was about 125 to 150 million years ago; the islands themselves are a bit younger, about 8 to 20 million years.

Similar to the Hawaiian islands, the Cape Verde islands owe their existence to their location over a hotspot in the earth’s crust: the Cape Verde Rise.

The most recent eruption in the archipelago was at Pico do Fogo in 1995.

On older and now volcanically quiet Santiago, arid slopes give way to sugarcane fields or banana plantations along the base of towering mountains.

The ocean cliffs were formed by catastrophic debris avalanches, from volcanic activity or landslides.

The Public Market in Praia, the capital of Santiago and the Republic of Cabo Verde. The white disks mixed in with the vegetables are a form of cheese, soaked in brine; think of them as a distant cousin of feta cheese. Photo by Corey Sandler

Santiago, Portuguese for Saint James, is the nation’s largest island and most populous, holding half of the nation’s people.

It is also home to the capital, Praia.

Praia means beach in both Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole.

Cape Verde has few natural resources.

A Flame Tree in Praia. The tree bears no edible fruit, but its pods are used as percussion instruments in the lively music of the islands. Photo by Corey Sandler

More than 90 percent of all food in Cape Verde is imported.

There is a small wine industry and some export of minerals including pozzolana, a volcanic rock used in cement, and limestone.

Today, much of the economy is based on service industries including tourism; about 20 percent of GDP comes from remittances sent home by expatriates.

No decent person would argue the end of slavery was a bad thing. That said, the decline in the slave trade in the 19^th century caused economic distress.

The same occurred at the other end of the line. The Caribbean and South America suffered after they lost essentially free labor.

On the Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, simmering resentment grew to become an independence movement.

Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral, an agricultural engineer born in Guinea-Bissau of Cape Verdean parents, was a leader of the anti-colonial movement in western Africa.

Cape Verde’s boom-and-bust economy led to waves of emigration during expansion to the New World, during decades of neglect that followed the end of the slave trade, and during the difficult early years of independence.

Today these émigrés and their descendants greatly outnumber the domestic population.

By one estimate, there are about 500,000 Cape Verdean immigrants and their descendants living in the United States.

The largest groups are in New England: Massachusetts coastal communities including New Bedford, Brockton, Dorchester, and Pawtucket and East Providence in Rhode Island.

Other significant Cape Verdean populations are about 150,000 in Portugal, plus tens of thousands in Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Senegal.

American whalers from Nantucket and New Bedford first called at the islands in the 1790s. Whaleship captains began hiring Cape Verdeans to augment their crew, and many came to New England with the ships.

So, we have a place that has only four decades as an independent nation.

A place where, as far as we know, humans did not live until about 600 years ago. A place whose residents are mostly mixes of African and European races and cultures.

A place far younger than Africa or Europe or the indigenous populations of the Americas, and just barely older than the European colonies that were established in the New World—many of them with ships, crews, and slaves that passed through Cape Verde.

And we have a place with many more émigrés than current residents.

But there’s something about the place that seems to ingrain itself deeply in Cape Verdeans—those still on the islands and those spread around the world.

There’s a Portuguese word, sodade, that has no direct equivalent in English.

Perhaps the best translation is: “The love that remains after someone is gone.”

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Here’s where to order a copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

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29 October 2013: New York, New York

November 1, 2013 Corey Sandler

Heading for Home

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

In the dark that precedes dawn’s first light, a distant glow merely hints at the great harbor and city that lays ahead of us.

We picked up a bar pilot at 5:30 in the morning off the coast of Long Island and headed west toward the mouth of the Hudson River.

Beneath the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge at dawn. Photo by Corey Sandler

Okay, about the job title: a bar pilot is not in charge of delivering the crew to a tavern. The bar pilot is aboard to guide the captain and helmsman across the bar at the mouth of the channel from the sea and through the harbor.

In constant communication with harbor authorities and other vessels, in New York he or she is aboard for about two hours.

Most pilot boats carry a bit of extra hardware in addition to navigation lights: a white round light atop a red one. (Fishing boats carry a red over white.) The old maritime saying is: “white cap, red nose” for pilot boats…with an intimation that in past times pilots might down a bit of booze while waiting for ships to come in. If that was ever true, I seriously doubt the master of a modern ship worth several hundred million dollars would accept a pilot with a wobble.[whohit]-New York 29Oct-[/whohit]

About 6 in the morning we could make out the old boardwalk and some of the landmarks of Coney Island: the parachute jump and the Wonder Wheel. And then we could see the lights of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, the unofficial demarcation of the Hudson River at New York.

Guests began to gather in the Observation Lounge up top and forward on Silver Whisper and on the outside decks. We passed beneath the bridge just after 6:30 a.m., and then ahead of us lay Lower Manhattan: the Hudson River branching off to the left and the East River to the right.

Lower Manhattan. The Hudson River continues to the left, the East River branches off to the right. Photos by Corey Sandler

Staten Island ferries steamed across the harbor, and faster commuter ferries darted back and forth.

As dawn arrived, we passed abeam of Lady Liberty on our port side. I gave the order from the bridge by telephone down to our ship’s broadcast center: “Now. Loud. Everywhere.” And Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” boomed throughout Silver Whisper.

It was not just the passengers lining the decks. From nearly every opening on the ship, crew leaned out for a glimpse and a photo to send back home.

The Statue of Liberty at dawn’s early light. Photo by Corey Sandler

We proceeded up the Hudson, alongside the former World Trade Center site. The superstructure of its replacement tower is complete while interior work continues.

About 8 a.m., a tug boat pulled alongside with a second pilot for a short but essential–and daunting–assignment of providing guidance on making a 90-degree turn from the river into the dock along Manhattan’s West Side. Like an airline pilot, the docking pilot is on the spot for a few minutes of high tension at landing.

The docking pilot comes aboard. Photo by Corey Sandler

Most of our guests and more than a few crew members were ready to debark. For Janice and me, it’s been a two-month odyssey that began in the Baltic and included stops in Sweden, Russia, Finland, Denmark, Germany, England, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, and Canada. All told, we’ve been out to sea on four different beautiful Silversea cruise ships for a total of seven months in 2013.

It’s time to head for home. See you in 2014…somewhere. Safe travels.

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27-28 October 2013: Shipping Out of Boston to Martha’s Vineyard

October 28, 2013 Corey Sandler

A Magical Night and a Fairytale Morning

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

The sailaway from Boston last night began with an appropriately splendorific sunset.

Sailaway at Sunset from Boston. Photos by Corey Sandler

A few hours later we made a careful passage through the Cape Cod Canal, a lesser-known but very important waterway south of Boston.[whohit]-CCC and MV28Oct-[/whohit]

The canal provides a shortcut—and a safe passage—between Cape Cod Bay on the East and Buzzards Bay toward Providence and New York on the West.

Using the canal saves ten to twelve hours of sailing; without it vessels would have to go way out east to avoid the hook of Cape Cod and then usually way down south below Nantucket to avoid shoals, obstructions, and other hazards.

The canal has been in existence since 1914, and is quite heavily used. However, not every cruise ship can pass through; it is deep enough and wide enough for most vessels, but the limitation is the three bridges that pass overhead.

The Sagamore and Bourne highway bridges and the Cape Cod Railroad Bridge provide the only surface link to the mainland.

And each of the bridges stands 135 feet above mean high water in the canal.

Our ship, Silver Whisper, had an air clearance of 129 feet. That means the highest point on the vessel is just six feet or two meters below the bridges.

Larger (and less stylish) vessels cannot use the canal.

I have gone through dozens of times. So, too, has our captain. And the local pilot makes back-and-forth transits like a bus route.

But that does not mean that we don’t all take a deep breath before crossing below.

And our passengers—many of whom I had prepared with my lecture about the canal—were even more doubtful.

The view from the pool deck of Silver Whisper as our ship’s funnel goes below the bridges is astounding. Our mind tells us there is six feet of clearance; our eyes tell us, “No way.”

Silver Whisper ducks below the Sagamore Bridge on the Cape Cod Canal. Photos by Corey Sandler

Off to the Campgrounds of Oak Bluffs

We made it through, and this morning arrived offshore of Oak Bluffs on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, the final port of call on this cruise.

Martha’s Vineyard is one of those places that is famous for being famous.

It’s a beautiful island in the North Atlantic, large enough to have hills and valleys and harbors and lakes.

Because of some peculiarities of location, economy, and religion Martha’s Vineyard has a somewhat unusual history.

It does not have the same back-story as Cape Cod, mainland ports of New England, or of the farther-away neighboring island of Nantucket, 30 miles out to sea.

Autumn colors, Campground gingerbread at Oak Bluffs. Photo by Corey Sandler

The Vineyard came to a bit of prominence as the global whaling industry began to grow.

Much of the financing and operations of the whaleships took place on Nantucket but some of the whaling captains and crew came from the Vineyard and the mainland.

Nantucket reached its peak about 1840, but then crashed: the economics of operating a whaling industry from an island so far out to sea without roads or railroads to bring the product to market was one problem.

And then the discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania and its use as a cheaper source of oil for lamps that ended whaling in this part of the world.

Nantucket went into a prolonged slump, something from which it did not begin to fully recover until the 1950s and 1960s.

But on the Vineyard, a new economy was developed earlier: tourism.

Oak Bluffs, population about 4,000…plus however many tens of thousands of summer people are hanging around—was the only one of the six towns on the island to be consciously planned, and the only one developed specifically with tourism in mind.

Some of the earliest visitors to the area that became Cottage City and later Oak Bluffs were Methodists, who gathered in the oak grove each summer for multi-day religious “camp meetings” held under large tents or in the open air.

The Campgrounds, and the association of cottages that surrounds the open-air Tabernacle, are time-travel back to the 1870s.

The Campgrounds. Photos by Corey Sandler

And today the early morning light illuminated the cottages and the trees and the water and shone a bright light at the end of a fine cruise.

Stained glass reflections on the autumn leaves within the Tabernacle, and Silver Whisper at anchor as we returned on the ship’s tender. Photos by Corey Sandler

Tomorrow: we sail into New York Harbor at dawn.

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27 October 2013: Boston, Massachusetts

October 27, 2013 Corey Sandler

Looking Up at Boston

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

I am in danger of running out of superlatives in this autumn of mostly spectacular, astounding, eye-popping, breathtaking…very pretty…weather and light.[whohit]-BOSTON27Oct-[/whohit]

When Fall Comes to New England, in the right temperament and temperature, it cannot be beat.

Silver Whisper at the dock in Boston. Nearby, an exhibit at the Children’s Museum and a portion of the modern skyline of Beantown. Photos by Corey Sandler

We spent the day prowling Boston, a place very familiar to us but always a treat. In the morning–in photographer’s light–I concentrated on looking up at the architecture and the history all around.

We are nearing the end of this cruise, which began in similar weather in Montreal and QuebecCity and Saguenay and continued through most of our ports of call.

Along the waterfront in Boston. Photos by Corey Sandler

Ahead of us is a passage through the Cape Cod Canal tonight, always a great thrill for me and most guests. We need to pass below three bridges, each of which stands 135 feet above the water; the highest point of our beautiful vessel is 129 feet above the water. We always make it…and it always appears as if we will not.

Saluting the colors at Quincy Market. Photos by Corey Sandler

Tomorrow we are due to call at Oak Bluffs on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, and on Tuesday make a triumphant passage up the Hudson River to our dock on Manhattan’s West Side.

Final photos and thoughts will arrive here soon thereafter.

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26 October 2013, Bar Harbor, Maine

October 26, 2013 Corey Sandler

Seasons Come and Seasons Go

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Winter is coming to the Maritimes and the New England coast. Yes, it’s just October 26, but the winds have become a bit stiffer and their direction has changed to come from the north.

In Bar Harbor today, some of the shops were preparing to close for the year after our ship departs tonight. It’s a great time to buy a lumberjack’s coat, although they do seem to grow them rather larger around here: I tried on a Triple-X jacket which fit me like a bearskin.

Silver Whisper’s tenders compete for space with lobster traps in Bar Harbor. Photo by Corey Sandler

The talk around town was of the first seasonal accident: a rural Mainer was rushed to the hospital after getting his fingers between the piston and the mechanism of a log splitter. He seemed to be all right, although quite concerned about how he would continue his stockpiling of wood for the winter.

The dock, above and below. Photos by Corey Sandler

The day dawned clear and cool, about 42 degrees. By afternoon, it was gray and windy.

By tomorrow, Bar harbor will be mostly empty of those of us who are not from around hey-ah.

All photos and text copyright by Corey Sandler. If you would like to purchase a photo, please contact me.

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25 October, 2013: Halifax, Nova Scotia

October 26, 2013 Corey Sandler

High Skies in Halifax

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

An incomparable autumn sky greeted us in Halifax.

The great port here—by some measures the second largest in the world, after Sydney (the one in Australia)—is lined with handsome architecture. Some of the buildings are great Victorian and Edwardian stone structures; more modern buildings are almost all lined with mirror glass to reflect the sky, the water, and the old buildings around them.

Sky, clouds, and water in Halifax. Photos by Corey Sandler

A bit further into the city, at The Narrows, the architecture is a bit more uniform and relatively grim. This was the area that was leveled by the Halifax Explosion of 1917: considered to be the largest manmade explosion from the dawn of time to the atomic bomb. It was the result of a collision between two ships that were part of the gathering convoys bound to and from World War I Europe. One ship, the Mont Blanc, was packed with a witch’s brew of TNT, benzol, and picric acid.

In the explosion, about 1,951 people were killed—most of them spectators gathered along the waterfront. More than a thousand were blinded by flying glass.

It is, for me, impossible to look at today’s Halifax without hearing an echo of one of the worst moments of that war, nearly three thousand miles away from the front lines.

All photos and text copyright by Corey Sandler. If you would like to purchase a photo, please contact me.

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24 October 2013: Sydney, Nova Scotia

October 26, 2013 Corey Sandler

Old Times Not Forgotten

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

To me, one of the appeals of Sydney, Nova Scotia is that it is mostly frozen in the 1950s, a simpler and more innocent time—at least in my memory.

It is one of the only places in North America where I could direct you to a cobbler to have your shoes resoled.

Or a seamstress or tailor..[whohit]-SYDNEY24Oct-[/whohit]

Or old Doc Archibald with his office in an old Victorian behind a white picket fence.

The fiddle at the Sydney Cruise Terminal. Photos by Corey Sandler

From 1784 to 1820, Sydney was the capital of the British colony of Cape Breton Island. The colony was merged with neighboring Nova Scotia when the British decided to develop the abundant coal fields surrounding Sydney Harbor.

By the early twentieth century Sydney was home to one of the world’s largest steel plants, fed by the coal mines of the Dominion Coal Company.

By the late 1960s both coal and steel industries were failing, and were taken over by federal and provincial governments. That lasted until late in 2001 when they could not be sustained any further.

Today the economy is not exactly booming, although the region benefits greatly from the lure of the Louisbourg Fortress nearby, a faithful reconstruction of the great French citadel erected to fend off the British. That didn’t quite work, and the Brits eventually captured and then knocked down the thick stone walls. But in the 1960s, federal and provincial governments, along with private money paid for the reconstruction of the fortress.

It is an astounding site; I wrote about it in an earlier blog posting.

In another direction is Baddeck on the Bras d’Or (the Golden Arm), which most of the Anglophone locals insist on pronouncing something like “brass door.” This lovely Lakeland was the summer home of Alexander Graham Bell, and the museum erected there is an amazing peek into the mind of a true genius. Bell worked on the phone, of course; we’ll forgive him for that but consider also his accomplishments in aeronautics, metal detectors, sound recording, photoelectric cells, solar heating, and even air conditioning produced by directing fans across ice harvested from Lake Bras d’Or and stored in the basement of his estate.

On this visit, we stayed in town. I was conducting a digital photography workshop and I set myself the assignment of finding as many possible ways to capture images of the oversized fiddle that stands outside the cruise terminal. The fiddle is the symbol of the Nova Scotia ceilidh, a foot-tapping barn dance.

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22 October 2013: Saguenay, Quebec

October 23, 2013 Corey Sandler

22 October 2013: Saguenay River and La Baie, Quebec

Ha! Ha! Indeed

The Rivière Saguenay – the Saguenay River – is one of the major waterways of Quebec, and the largest fjord in the province.

A fjord is a long, narrow inlet of the sea between steep cliffs.

The Saguenay drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands; that lake is filled by thousands of streams and rivers in the watery north of Quebec.

Quebec extends nearly 1,200 miles north from the Saint Lawrence to the top of the Ungava Peninsula at Ivujuvik.

The Saguenay flows just slightly south of east meeting the Saint Lawrence River at Tadoussac. As a fjord, its waters are tidal as far upriver as Chicoutimi, about 100 kilometers or 62 miles.

The fjord cuts through the Canadian Shield, the huge rocky plateau that makes up nearly half of all of the Canada, extending from the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Valley northward to the Arctic Ocean.

The metamorphic base rocks are mostly from the Precambrian Era (between 4.5 billion and 540 million years ago), and have been repeatedly uplifted and eroded.

Saguenay National Park, south of La Baie. Photos by Corey Sandler

The Canadian Shield was the first part of North America to be permanently elevated above sea level and has remained almost wholly untouched by successive encroachments of the sea upon the continent.

The walls of the fjord reach to as much as 500 meters or 1,600 feet in many places; in many places the cliffs descend at least that much below the waterline.

La Baie, Quebec

La Baie is part of the city of Saguenay, Quebec, located where the Rivière à Mars flows into the Baie des Ha! Ha!

It is a beautiful place and the locals are trying very hard to develop the port as a cruise destination; I wish them well–but hope it is never spoiled by too much success.

Performers on the pier at La Baie, welcoming to town. Photos by Corey Sandler

Ha! Ha! does not refer to a place of great merriment; it is a native word that means dead end or cul-de-sac.

No roads go north from the area into the wilderness; the last roads north end just a short distance from the city—still within the Lac St-Jean area. There are no human settlements due north of Saguenay all the way to the Canadian Arctic islands, except for a few isolated Cree and Inuit villages.

Our Lady of the Saguenay

Charles Napoleon Robitaille was one of the first salesmen to travel the roads of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.

He worked for a Garneau Brothers, a shop in Quebec, and traveled between the small villages of the Saint Lawrence and the Saguenay selling household goods.

One of his winter routes required him to cross the frozen Saguenay between Chicoutimi and the parish of Sainte-Anne at Lac-Saint-Jean.

In the winter of 1878, the ice broke and Robitaille fell into the water with his sleigh and his horse.

Fearing he was about to die, he implored the help of the Virgin Mary. He got to shore, and he decided to commemorate his survival with a statue.

In 1880, Robitaille managed to engage the great Canadian sculptor and wood carver Louis Jobin to make a statue to be installed on one of the headlands overlooking the fjord at the mouth of the River Eternity.

Notre Dame du Saguenay. Photo by Corey Sandler

For more than a century, visitors have made pilgrimages to see Our Lady of the Saguenay. At some point, it became traditional to sing or play Ave Maria.

Regardless of religious faith, most of us found our thoughts directed at friends and family and former shipmates as we made a graceful 360-degree circle in front of the cliff before proceeding further up the river to La Baie.

Personally, my thoughts turned to the first time I made this voyage up the Saguenay, accompanied by the gracious cruise director Judie Abbott.

Judie Abbott on the bridge this past July. Photo by Corey Sandler

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20 October 2013: Quebec City, Canada

October 21, 2013 Corey Sandler

Don’t Hate Her Because She’s Beautiful

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We’ve been to Quebec City dozens upon dozens of times in winter, spring, summer, and fall. This season on Silver Whisper four times. The girl can’t help it; she’s prettier and more fashionable than Paris or Montreal or just about any other city I can think of.

Quebec City as winter takes a peek at Autumn. Photos by Corey Sandler

We were here two days ago, and autumn was in full color. We returned today, and there was a hint of the coming winter in the air: a cold wind and a continually changing sky. Gray in the morning, drizzly at noon, a touch of sun in early afternoon punctuated by a perfect rainbow from a passing sky, and wintry clouds at sunset.

In the morning I traveled with guests to the Old Town, aiming my camera at pumpkins and goblins.

Colors of Quebec City. Photos by Corey Sandler

Then we went to Montmorency Falls and I leaned out over the rail to photograph the torrent of water tumbling over the edge of the Canadian Shield into the Saint Lawrence.

Montmorency Falls, Quebec. Photos by Corey Sandler

And then as sun set and the temperature dropped toward freezing, I set up my tripod on the upper deck and recorded the night lights as Silver Whisper set sail east toward the Atlantic Ocean.

After sunset, the Chateau Frontenac. Photos by Corey Sandler

Tomorrow we sail up the Saguenay River through one of the most spectacular fjords in the world, paying a port call at La Baie.

We’re preparing to head south down the coast of New England and eventually south to the warmth of the Caribbean…but my thoughts will often return to the chilly beauty of Quebec City. The girl can’t help it.

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19 October 2013: Montreal, Quebec

October 19, 2013 Corey Sandler

Bon Journée, et Bon Voyage

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Silver Whisper sailed into silver-gray Quebec City on Friday.

Quebec is one of the most glorious cities in the world, a mix of the heritage of New France of the 18^th century with modern French arts, couture, and cuisine…put through the blender of the Quebecois culture.[whohit]-MONTEAL2 TURNAROUND-[/whohit]

Silver pumpkins in Quebec City. Photo by Corey Sandler

It rained a bit in the morning, then turned clear and cool in the afternoon. No one seemed to mind getting a bit wet or a bit cold: Quebec City fills us all with warmth.

Between (Canadian) Thanksgiving and Halloween in Quebec City. Photo by Corey Sandler

Today, we say goodbye to many new and old friends who are disembarking in Montreal. And we say welcome aboard to a new group as we prepare to head back out of the Saint Lawrence.

With this call in Montreal, Silver Whisper begins the final leg of 2013 fall colors tours in New England and the Canadian Maritimes. We are headed back to Quebec City, then up the Saguenay River to La Baie, and on to Charlottetown, Sydney, Halifax, Bar Harbor, Boston, and Martha’s Vineyard. We’ll finish up with a grand procession on the Hudson River to the New York Cruise Terminal.

Our voyage begins again from Montreal, headed to New York. Photo by Corey Sandler

Food in Montreal is always a treat, although not all cuisine is haute. At left, the line forms in front of Chez Schwartz for smoked brisket on rye. At right, the peculiar Quebec favorite of poutine: french fries, cheese curds, and unidentified brown sauce. I’ll take Schwartz’s anytime. Photos by Corey Sandler

I hope you’ll join me here in the pages of my blog.

Bon Journée , et Bon Voyage: Good Day and Safe Travels.

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17 October 2013: the Saguenay River and La Baie, Quebec

October 18, 2013 Corey Sandler

The Fabulous Story of the Kingdom of the Saguenay

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

The Rivière Saguenay – the Saguenay River – is one of the major rivers of Quebec, the largest fjord in the province.

Quebec extends nearly 1,200 miles north from the Saint Lawrence to the top of the Ungava Peninsula. I’ve been there: it looks nothing at all like Quebec City or Montreal.[whohit]-FABULEUSE SAGUENAY-[/whohit]

Silver Whisper at the dock in La Baie, and as seen through a window of the cruise terminal. Photos by Corey Sandler.

The Saguenay drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands; that lake is filled by thousands of streams and rivers in the watery north of Quebec. The nation of Canada possesses about 8 percent of the world’s fresh water. Quebec alone has 3 percent of the water reserves.

One of the world’s longest, the Fjord du Saguenay cuts through the Canadian Shield. The huge rocky plateau occupies nearly half of all of the Canada, extending from the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Valley northward to the Arctic Ocean.

The river was an important trade route into the interior for the First Nations people of the area. During the French colonization of the Americas, the Saguenay was a major route for the fur trade.

Few roads connect with the area from the south and east, and only one road connects from the northwest. No roads go north from the area into the wilderness; the last roads north end just a short distance from the city—still within the Lac St-Jean area.

Cartier arrives in New France. From La Fabuleuse. Photos by Corey Sandler

There are no human settlements due north of Saguenay all the way to the Canadian Arctic islands, except for a few isolated Cree and Inuit villages.

The Kingdom of the Saguenay

Another name for the region, one which was latched upon by the early French explorers . . . looking for riches . . . is the Royaume du Saguenay or the “Kingdom of the Saguenay.”

The grandiose name is either the result of a misunderstanding . . . or a bit of a jest or even a calculated trick put upon the French by the locals.

When the French arrived to colonize New France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they learned from the Algonquins of a legendary kingdom to the north.

The loggers and the famers arrive in the Kingdom of the Saguenay. From La Fabuleuse. Photos by Corey Sandler

When French explorer Jacques Cartier arrived at Stadacona in 1534, he did not come with a bouquet of flowers and a box of candy.

The key to the Kingdom may lie with Chief Donnacona, the leader of the Iroquois village of Stadacona, at the place now occupied by Quebec City.

Cartier kidnapped two of Donnaconna’s sons and brought them back with him to France. They told Cartier of a place they called Saguenay, populated with blond men who were rich with gold and furs.

We have no reason to assume that Cartier or Donnaconna and his sons believed there really was such a place. But the story served as a golden ticket: it gave Cartier something to sell to the king so that he could make another trip to the New World, and it assured Donnaconna’s sons of a trip back home.

La Fabuleuse Histoire d’un Royaume

Since 1988, a cast of more than a hundred locals presents an astonishing pageant that tells some of the story of the Saguenay region. It is presented in a massive amphitheatre constructed by the town. They’ve also built a handsome dock for cruise ships, and each season the number of ships increases.

The pageant includes some astounding special effects. Photos by Corey Sandler

On this cruise to La Baie, a rare full-day visit, we were able to attend a performance of La Fabuleuse.

There’s Jacques Cartier, Chief Donnaconna, the Generals Montcalm and Wolfe to stage the battle of the Plains of Abraham, loggers, farmers, capitalists, horses, chickens, geese, a trained pig, barn dancers, flappers, twisters, and hippies.

Modern times to a grande finale. Photos by Corey Sandler.

It’s not Shakespeare, but the Bard of Avon never put on a show that included explosions, lasers, floodwaters, and a field of grass the sprouts on stage.

It was a fabulous pageant, un grand spectacle.

All text and photos copyright Corey Sandler 2013. If you would to purchase a copy of a photograph, please contact me.

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14-15 October 2013: Sydney, Nova Scotia and Charlottetown, PEI

October 18, 2013 Corey Sandler

Time Travel in the Canadian Maritimes

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

To me, one of the appeals of Sydney, Nova Scotia is that it allows me to time travel back to a time I once knew: the 1950s.

It is one of the only places in North America where I could direct you to a cobbler to have your shoes resoled.Or a seamstress or tailor.[whohit]-SYDNEY-CHARLOTTE-2-[/whohit]

Or old Doc Archibald with his office in an old Victorian behind a white picket fence.

Sydney, Nova Scotia. The colors of autumn in a place frozen in time. Photo by Corey Sandler

By the early twentieth century Sydney was home to one of the world’s largest steel plants, fed by the coal mines of the Dominion Coal Company. By the late 1960s both coal and steel industries were failing, and were taken over by federal and provincial governments. That lasted until late in 2001 when they could not be sustained any further.

The cruise terminal in Sydney with Silver Whisper at the dock and a super-sized fiddle along the water. Sydney is one of the centers of Ceilidh, the Celtic-based barn dance centered around that instrument…in a hand-sized version. Photo by Corey Sandler

With apologies to some of my Anglophone Canadian friends, when I speak of this region I use French pronunciations for places like Bras d’Or (the Golden Arm) and Louisbourg.

I do this knowing that for the locals, the same places are often called LEWIS-BURGH and something close to BRASS DOOR.

See my Blog entry of 3 October 2013 for a recent visit to Sydney and Louisbourg as well as some details about Baddeck and Alexander Graham Bell.

Queen Charlotte, the Orphan Anne, and Prince Edward Island

When you think of Stratford-upon-Avon, you think of a certain poet and playwright by the name of William Shakespeare.

We are talking apples and oranges …or jellyfish and lobsters here… but in certain circles around the world…in some of the most unlikely places…Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island is not known for Queen Charlotte, not remembered for the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 that led the way to Canadian Confederation, and not thought of at all for almost anything else…except for the work of a relatively minor author named Lucy Maud Montgomery and a series of novels that begin in 1908 with “Anne of Green Gables.”

More colors, in a house near the waterfront of Charlottetown, PEI. Photo by Corey Sandler

Anne of Green Gables began as a Canadian bestseller, became an American success, and went on to become an international phenomenon.

For reasons no one hasfully figured out, you are quite likely to find a tour group from Japan…looking for Anne. I think it has to do with the fact that Anne is a girl who is for some about as un-Japanese as possible: feisty, independent, and decked with freckles and braided red hair. They love her in Japan, and come to PEI by the planeload.

I last wrote about Charlottetown in a Blog entry on 2 October 2013.

A study in angles and colors in Charlotteown. Photo by Corey Sandler

Charlottetown is the capital of Canada’s least-populated province, Prince Edward Island. The city is the country’s smallest provincial capital, with a population of about 35,000. (Canada’s three territories: Nunavut, Yukon, and Northwest Territories have smaller populations, but they are not provinces.)

The town was named in honor of Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III from 1744 to 1818.

Like Sydney, it is a place where time seems frozen.

I spent the day walking Charlottetown with a group of guests as we conducted a photo safari, hunting the colors of Prince Edward Island.

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13 October 2013: Halifax, Nova Scotia

October 14, 2013 Corey Sandler

Halifax, Nova Scotia: Up from the Ashes

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Halifax has had a tumultuous history. The British built a great citadel here as part of its claim to New England, and it still stands guard over the city.

Every day at 12pm they fire the noon gun; no matter how many times we have visited, it still startles.

But there are echoes of other events: the arrival of Loyalists who fled the upstart American colonies during the revolution. The departure of raiding parties from here to burn Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812. The both-sides-against-the-middle trade with the South and North during the American Civil War.

Ducks on the Pond at the Victorian Garden. Photo by Corey Sandler

Then came the Halifax Explosion near the end of World War I, a time when the harbor was filled with convoys gathering to cross over the Europe. And the convoys were back during World War II when this place was one of the most important links in the resupply chain for the United Kingdom and later Russia.

Today, the city shines with some handsome buildings–many of them with mirrored glass reflecting the harbor and the old Victorians and Georgians.

Around town in Halifax on a beautiful fall day. Photos by Corey Sandler

And the superlative weather still follows us. Shh…don’t tell anyone that it’s not supposed to be like this in mid-October.

Silver Whisper reflected in the windows of a building as we departed near sunset. Photo by Corey Sandler

Cruise Photos and Stories by Corey Sandler