Tag Archives: Silversea

9 June 2017:
Cardiff, Wales:
A Doctor in the House

June 9, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Cardiff is in the southwest of Wales, a bit closer to England than Holyhead in both geography and culture.

If London is New York, then Wales is the American midwest.

The tourism bureau would have us believe Cardiff has the largest concentration of castles of any city in the world, a claim I cannot easily verify.

In addition to Cardiff Castle, there are numerous other grand homes scattered about.

Until the Roman conquest of Britain, Cardiff was part of the territory of the Silures, a Celtic British tribe that flourished in the Iron Age.

The Romans built a 3.2-hectare (8-acre) fort established by the Romans near the mouth of the River Taff in 75 AD (four years before the eruption of Vesuvius on the Italian peninsula.)

In 1081 William I, King of England, began work on the castle keep within the walls of the old Roman fort.

Cardiff Castle has been at the heart of the city ever since. The castle was substantially altered and extended during the Victorian era. Small portions of the original Roman work can still be distinguished in the wall facings.

I spent the day exploring the apartments built within the castle in the 18th and 19th century by the Bute family, which amassed a huge fortune in the coal export business.

The most spectacular enhancements were made by the third Marquess of Bute, John Crichton-Stuart.

Here is some of what I saw:

A wondrous goat of a downspout at the castle

The spectacular Arab Room in the living quarters

The children’s room, decorated with great tales and portraits (left to right) of Aesop, Sheherazade, and Chaucer.

The gentlemen’s smoking room, with a nod to the ladies: the inscription reads in Latin: “Love Conquers All, and We All Surrender to Love.”

But outside the gentlemen’s smoking room, a depiction of Typhon, the most awful of Greek monsters, intended perhaps to keep women away

Outside in Cardiff, a pub named after the officer keeper of the mascot of the Royal Welsh Regiment. The Goat Major tends to the needs of the goat, who has his own title, rank, and salary

A fishmonger at the Central Market

And finally, a one-stop shop where you can get a tattoo, have it removed, or give yourself over to taxidermy

MODERN CARDIFF

One of the most striking modern structures in Cardiff is the Millennium Centre, home to the Welsh National Opera, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and the Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre.

The finished building by architect Jonathan Adams was meant to express “Welshness.” Its construction uses local metal, wood, and glass, and 1,350 tons of local slate in purple, blue, green, gray, and black colors.

Inscribed on the front of the dome, above the main entrance, are two poetic lines, written by Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis in Welsh and English.

IN THESE STONES
HORIZONS
SING

Which somehow brings us to Doctor Who, which I’m sure means quite a lot to many of you and nothing whatsoever to others.

The Doctor, from a race called the Time Lords whose home planet is Gallifrey, travels through time and space in his ship the TARDIS (an acronym for Time and Relative Dimensions In Space) with various companions.

From time to time he regenerates into a new form (which is how the show has been running since 1963).

The show, in its current form, is produced and filmed by BBC Wales.

His time-traveling space ship, the Tardis, appears from the exterior to be a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Not so much anymore.

Much of the series is filmed in and around Cardiff—not because of a particular Welsh reason, but as a stand-in for London and other places.

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8 June 2017:
Holyhead, Wales:
Princes and Prisoners

June 8, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

We’ve arrived in the northwest of Wales, a lesser-known corner of the United Kingdom.

It’s a place of legends and mountains and kings and princes. The Prince of Wales, right? And Prisoners.

About an hour away, is Caernarfon, the source for more than 700 years—with a few gaps here and there—of the title for the heir apparent to the English or British monarchy.

The title of Prince of Wales was first granted to princes born in Wales in the 12th century onwards; at the time Prince was the top of the chain, not King.

One of the last Welsh princes, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, was killed in battle in 1282 by Edward I, King of England, whose son Edward, born in Caernarfon Castle, was invested as Prince of Wales and was the first English person to claim the title.

Since the 13th century, the title is granted to the heir apparent, although it is not a formal part of the royal succession but instead a personal honorific.

The title merges with or is replaced by King on accession to the throne.

In 1911, David Lloyd George, at the time Member of Parliament for Caernarfon boroughs, agreed to the British Royal Family’s idea of holding the investiture of Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David as the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle.

The ceremony took place on July 13, 1911, with the royal family paying a rare visit to Wales, and the future Edward VIII received his preliminary title there.

On July 1, 1969 the investiture ceremony for Charles was held at Caernarfon Castle.

HAIL, HAIL SNOWDONIA

On this visit I went with guests for a ride on the Welsh Highland Railway through a portion of the dramatic Snowdonia National Park. It was a gray and misty day, but that suited our journey well.

Here are some scenes from our railway voyage:

THE PRISONER

About 90 minutes away from Holyhead, across the Isle of Anglesey, lies Portmeirion.

It is an architectural folie, a version of an Italian coastal town—perhaps Portofino—purpose-built as a tourist attraction.

Most of the 50 or so buildings are slightly smaller than full-scale, which is exactly the approach that Walt Disney used in creating Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

And it is such an unusual sight that it was used as one of the centerpieces of a 1960s fantasy cult television series.

The Disney-esque visionary behind Portmeirion was Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, who devoted much of his time from 1925 to 1975 on its construction.

The television series was The Prisoner, first broadcast in the United Kingdom from September 1967 to February 1968. Only 17 episodes were made, starring Patrick McGoohan.

Basically, it is the story of a spy who quits in anger, but as he prepares to run away is rendered unconscious by knockout gas. When he awakes he finds himself held captive in a strange seaside “village” that is isolated by mountains and the sea.

The series had bits of spy fiction, a heavy dose of science fiction, a dollop of allegory, and more than a soupçon of psychological drama.

By that I mean it is rather difficult to explain.

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7 June 2017:
Greenock and Glasgow, Scotland:
On the Clyde

June 7, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Early Wednesday morning, we crossed west to east in the North Channel, from Northern Ireland to Scotland.

We arrived at Greenock, the northernmost port of call on this cruise, at about the same latitude as Moscow.

It’s not Moscow, of course. For one thing, they don’t speak Russian in Greenock, or Glasgow.

That may or may not help you, though. Because here in the west-central Lowlands of Scotland they use a dialect that is not exactly the Queen’s English. They call it Glaswegian.

And the effect of the Gulf Stream on the River Clyde helps Greenock’s average temperature stay above that of similar towns in the region and much milder than that of Moscow.

Greenock’s location that far north also gives long hours of daylight in midsummer and short days in midwinter. On the longest day of the year, June 21, the sun rises at 4:31 in the morning and sets at 11:07 in the evening.

We have been under gray skies and in rain for much of the past few days.

But the sun made its reappearance this morning, in a place not known for bright days. We chose to explore Greenock.

Among the places we visited was Saint Mary’s Church, established by Irish Catholics who crossed over in search of jobs and food in the 19th century.

We also went to see the Old West Kirk, a small but noteworthy outpost of the Church of Scotland.

Here are some photos from today:

A GREENOCK ALBUM

Silver Wind at the Dock

Saint Mary’s Church

A wee bit of shopping at a local outlet

The grand town chambers of Greenock, with a steeple one meter taller than that of Glasgow up the River Clyde

Greenock from the top of Lyle Hill, overlooking the Clyde

The Old West Kirk

The Old West Kirk, Church of Scotland, was the first Presbyterian Church built in Scotland after the Reformation. Opened in 1591 and added to several times, it was later moved from its location along the water in 1917 when Harland and Wolff enlarged their shipyard.

The Church’s original graveyard held the tomb of Mary Campbell, or Highland Mary as she was known: the poet Robert Burns’ somewhat unrequited love.

Burns was forced to marry—at least on paper—another woman after that other woman somehow became pregnant. Mary Campbell was later said to have prepared to emigrate to Jamaica in 1786 to be with Robert Burns, but Mary died of typhus in Greenock before she could leave.

One other intriguing detail: Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of American president Abraham Lincoln, came to Greenock in 1869 to visit the grave of Mary Campbell and also that of Robert Burns (in Dumfries);

President Lincoln was said to have been an admirer of Burns and his widow, a very melancholic woman even before her husband’s assassination, continued that pursuit.

GLASGOW

Expanding from the medieval bishopric and royal burgh, and then the establishment of the University of Glasgow in the 15th century, Glasgow became a major center of the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century.

From the 18th century the city also grew as one of Great Britain’s main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America and the West Indies.

With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, Glasgow rapidly expanded to become one of the world’s leading centers of chemicals, textiles, and engineering; most notably in shipbuilding.

Glasgow was to many observers the “Second City of the British Empire” for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period.

By about 1900, Glasgow was producing more than half Britain’s tonnage of shipping and a quarter of all locomotives in the world.

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6 June 2017:
Belfast, Northern Ireland:
The Titanic City

June 6, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, which—like it or not for some residents—is part of the United Kingdom.

A tenuous peace has taken root in the past two decades, with some level of power-sharing between the two sides.

In modern times, Belfast was a center for two major industries: linen (which is the source of one of the city’s nicknames, Linenopolis), and shipbuilding.

The main yard, Harland and Wolff, built a ship you may have heard of: the RMS Titanic.

The Harland and Wolff shipyard is now the location of the world’s largest dry dock, where the giant cranes Samson and Goliath stand out against Belfast’s skyline.

Most of its work now involves support for offshore wind and oil platforms.

But in the early 20th century, this was the biggest and most productive shipyard in the world, and Belfast was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution.

Harland and Wolff became one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, employing as many as 35,000 workers.

Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the largest city in Ireland.

My view of history is that it is driven by economics.

And the relative success of Belfast as an industrial center was one reason why Unionists held on to the link to Great Britain, at least at first.

The flashiest modern attraction is Titanic Belfast, which opened in 2012 to coincide with the centenary of the incomplete maiden voyage of the luxury liner Titanic.

The angular metallic structure was intended, according to its designers, to evoke the image of ship.

It stands 126 feet (38 meters) high, the same height as Titanic’s hull.

Locals have already applied their own nickname: The Iceberg.

We went for a long walk across the river to the former shipyards and the Titanic Museum, which also includes in a nearby drydock the last remaining White Star Line vessel: the tender Nomadic, constructed alongside her much larger sister to be dispatched to Cherbourg to carry guests from shore to the ship at anchor. Nomadic performed that task just once…and then was reassigned after Titanic sank.

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5 June 2017:
Londonderry/Derry, Northern Ireland:
Stroke City

June 5, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Londonderry is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland, home to about 93,000; well behind the 483,000 in the capital city of Belfast.

The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Daire or Doire meaning “oak grove”.

In 1613, the city was granted a Royal Charter by King James I and as a reflection of the funding it received from the London guilds, it added London to Derry in its name.

Its official name remains Londonderry.

But like many, many things in this part of the world it depends on who you are talking to.

In general, Nationalists—those who would prefer a unified Ireland bringing together Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and who are predominantly Roman Catholic—drop the “London” and call the city “Derry.”

Many Unionists—those who want to maintain Northern Ireland as a part of the United Kingdom and who are predominantly but not exclusively Protestant—subtly, or not-so-subtly, keep the link to the UK out front by calling the place “Londonderry.”

A local broadcaster tried to popularize the nickname of Stroke City as in Derry-Stroke-Londonderry.

An older nickname is the Maiden City, a nod to the fact that its old walls were never breached in three separate sieges in the 17^th century, including the Siege of Derry of 1688 to 1689.

The Siege of Derry was the first major event in the Williamite War in Ireland, also called in Irish the War of the Two Kings.

It was a conflict between the Jacobites (supporters of the deposed Catholic King James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland) and the Williamites (supporters of the Dutch Protestant Prince William of Orange) over who would be monarch of the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of Ireland.

The siege is commemorated yearly in August by the Apprentice Boys of Derry, a Protestant fraternal society, founded in 1814.

During the troubles, marches by the Apprentice Boys were often the flashpoint for violent opposition by the city’s Irish nationalist majority.

The parades still take place, but in recent years most of the Troubles are more like well-rehearsed Kabuki theater. Let us hope they remain that way, or go away completely.

These days Derry or Londonderry is mostly peaceful, with conflict moved into the political realm. The British election is scheduled for less than a week from now, and Sinn Fein is now a recognized political party

Today we went for a walk within the walls of the old city to visit the Guildhall, paid for, constructed, and decorated by the London Guilds who aimed to make Derry British…and who added London as a prefix to its name. Here are some of the stunning glass windows of the Main Hall:

From the Guildhall we exited the old city walls and walked a short distance to Bogside, a mostly Catholic area that was involved in many of the major events of The Troubles, including Bloody Sunday.

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4 June 2017:
Killybegs, Ireland:
Little Cells

June 4, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

You would not be thought odd by me if you figured that Killybegs was the name of a Monty Python sketch.

But, no.

The Gaelic translation for Killybegs is ‘Na Cealla Beaga’ which means “little cells.” The name is derived from an ancient monastery in the area.

I am going to make an assumption that cells were nothing at all like our suites aboard ship.

We are in northwest of Ireland near the border with Northern Ireland.

Killybegs, population about 1,297 on a fair day, is on the south coast of County Donegal, near Donegal Town.

Inland is quite green and pastoral, the Ireland of most of our expectations.

But the coastline in this corner is very dramatic, with the highest sea cliffs of Europe, beaches, and wintertime snow. The Wild Atlantic Way (so dubbed by the local tourist boards) stretches 2,500 kilometers or 1,550 miles from County Donegal and Killybegs.

Today, Killybegs is a very quiet place. It is though, the home of Ireland’s largest fishing fleet and our ship fit in between and amongst trawlers at the dock.

Above town the restored Church features a major stained glass window dedicated to the fishermen of town.

And speaking of Monty Python, I went to make a pilgrimage to a place I spotted on the map: Fawlty’s Lounge. Alas, Basil was nowhere to be seen and I later learned that the nightclub had gone out of business recently.

Or perhaps they moved to a location closer to the sea…or in it.

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3 June 2017:
Foynes, Ireland:
Location, Location, Location

June 3, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Foynes, population about 600, is a pretty village in County Limerick in the midwest of Ireland. But there are many pretty places in Ireland.

Foynes has a deepwater port, inland from the open ocean and well-sheltered, on the southern bank of the Shannon Estuary, a 60-mile-long tidal waterway that runs from the City of Limerick to the Atlantic Ocean.

But there are other major ports in Ireland, too. Cobh and Cork, and Waterford for example. And in Northern Ireland there is Belfast. They are all quite old and established ports.

But in 1930 there was something special about Foynes that is not matched by those larger and better-known ports: location, location, location, at least when it comes to its line of latitude.

In the early 1930s, as plans were being made for the first commercial transatlantic flights between the United States and Europe, early aviators sought the shortage distance point-to-point and passage over land for as much of the trip as possible, adding a margin of safety.

In 1933, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, who was working for Pan American Airlines as a consultant, homed in on Foynes.

The idea was to use flying boats, huge aircraft that included the Flying Clipper design. Land-based commercial airplanes did not have the fuel capacity to cross the Atlantic with a full load of passenger and freight.

Flying out of New York, planes would hug the east coast of the United States, over Boston and Maine, and then pass over Nova Scotia in Canada and finally Newfoundland before making the over-water crossing to Ireland. The distance was about 3,050 miles.

Foynes had the added advantage of being in Ireland and not England; Ireland was already signaling its intention to remain neutral as the winds of war arose, and indeed it would hold that position throughout World War II.

Construction of a terminal in Foynes was begun in 1935, and the first transatlantic proving flights were operated on July 5, 1937 with a Pan Am Sikorsky S-42 flight from Botwood, Newfoundland and Labrador. Service to New York, Southampton, Montreal, Poole and Lisbon followed.

Foynes would be one of the most important international terminuses of commercial flight from 1939 to 1945, through World War II.

The age of the flying boat was relatively short. Advances in technology—accelerated by World War II military demands—led to development of longer-range propeller-driven and then jet aircraft.

In 1942, Shannon Airport opened on flat boglands on the northern bank of the same estuary as Foynes. And in 1946, after the end of the war, the flying boat station in Foynes closed.

A DAY IN BUNRATTY

On this visit I went with a group of guests further up the River Shannon to Limerick to make a visit to Bunratty Castle. This structure was built about 1425 and went through a number of owners, beginning with wealthy landholders, then Kings and other Nobles in the region of North Munster.

The three story castle fell into near ruin but was lovingly restored and reopened in the 1950s. It includes some amazing period gurniture and decorations and very well conveys the claustrophobia of dwelling within a 600-year-old stone castle.

Inlaid into the wall of the Great Hall was an ancient fertility symbol, promising (or threatening) children to women who passed by.

Surrounding the castle is a Heritage Park that displays buildings from the 18th century including private houses, farm houses, a schoolhouse, doctor’s office, and other structures.

We capped off the somewhat chilly day with a stop at a bar for a cup glass of Irish coffee. I asked the bartender to hold the coffee and hold the cream and I enjoyed the rest.

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Foynes is generally a rather damp and sometimes chilly place, and perhaps not the most wonderful place to land after a 20-hour flight in a boat.

An oft-reported story–which does not necessarily mean it is true–is that Joe Sheridan, chef at the restaurant at the terminal in Foynes, greeted cold and wet passengers arriving on one of the Clippers with a cup of coffee greatly improved by the addition of Irish Whiskey and cream.

There are some people who say that in the process he ruined three perfectly good drinks: coffee, whiskey, and cream.

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2 June 2017:
Cobh, Ireland:
A Place of Beginnings and Endings

June 2, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Cobh is a place of epic beginnings and endings.

It is one of the closest ports of Europe to Canada and North America.

Cobh—or Queenstown as it was known then—was the place from which millions of Irish departed their homeland to seek a new start in the new world, the land of milk and honey, the place where the streets were paved with gold: America and Canada.

The population of Ireland was estimated at 8.2 million in 1841; half a century later, in 1891, the population was said to be 4.7 million.

As many as 4.5 million Irish arrived in America between 1820 and 1930, from Queenstown, other Irish ports, and British ports like Liverpool.

Today, in the United States, more than 10 percent of Americans trace their roots to Ireland.

Queenstown was the last piece of land touched by passengers on the doomed ship Titanic in 1912.

And Queenstown was just out of reach of the Lusitania, which came the other direction from New York before it was torpedoed and sunk off the Old Head of Kinsale in 1915.

A COBH ALBUM

A SIDE TRIP TO CORK

On this visit, we were off the ship early and onto a morning train up the estuary to the big city of Cork, about 15 miles away. In not-all-that-ancient times, the distance was enough to make the cities grow very differently.

Today, Cork is a lively town with a wealth of Georgian and Victorian buildings and a few pieces of idiosyncratic architecture as well.

Here are some photos from today:

Silver Wind at the dock, as seen from the train station on the other side of the quay.

An old mill in Cork, converted to apartments.

Inside and outside the English Market in the heart of Cork.

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1 June 2017:
Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom:
Pasties and Pirates

June 1, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Cornwall forms the southwestern tip of the mainland of Great Britain.

This is an interesting part of the United Kingdom with a great deal of history, and not all that much visited.

One of the local specialties is the Cornish Pastie, which was one of the original fast foods. It was developed as a way to provide a hot, sealed meal for the workers in the mines of Cornwall.

The ingredients for a proper pastie include “swede”, which some people call turnip but it is actually a yellow turnip or rutabaga.

A Pastie maker in Falmouth. Photos by Corey Sandler

The word is pronounced PASS-TEE, by the way.

Not PAYS-TEE, of course, which is something completely different.

In the Caribbean, on the French island of Les Saintes, native women still bake something similar: Les Tourments d’Amour, the torments of love which had their origin as a packaged meal given the fishermen heading off for a day’s work at sea.

Falmouth also had other moments of history including as the place where Charles Darwin returned from his great voyage of natural discovery on the ship Beagle.

And it was the place where the first word of the success of the British against the Spanish Armada and the death of Lord Nelson was received.

It was also from this little port that one of the most daring commando raids of the second World War World War II launched. The raid on Saint-Nazaire in 1942 successfully disabled an important dry dock in German-occupied France for the duration of the war and forced Germany to send major ships needing repairs through waters closer to the United Kingdom and within range of ships and aircraft of the Allies. The raid came at great cost, though, both in deaths and captured soldiers, and is not forgotten in Falmouth.

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31 May 2017:
Southampton, United Kingdom:
Going Full Circle

May 31, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

During the night we crossed La Manche (the Sleeve), which is what the French call the English Channel. More precisely, we sailed out of Honfleur and arrived this morning at Southampton in the United Kingdom.

This marks the end of this cruise, which began two weeks ago in Monte Carlo.

To guests leaving us here, bon voyage. We look forward to sailing with you again somewhere, sometime.

And to new guests, welcome aboard.

Tonight, Silver Wind departs on a new cruise, heading west then north then south then east. That works out to a near-complete circle of the British Isles.

Here’s our plan:

We are due to call at Falmouth in the southwestern tip of Cornwall in England, then to the Republic of Ireland and Cobh, Foynes, and gotta-smile-because-of-the-name port of Killybegs.

Then we cross the border to Londonderry/Derry and Belfast in Northern Ireland. A quick dart across the water brings us to Greenock in Scotland, the port for Glasgow.

And then back southward to Holyhead and Cardiff in Wales, the Dartmouth in Devon.

On Sunday, June 11 we are due to make a grand procession up the River Thames, passing through the Tower Bridge in London in the afternoon.

I hope you’ll follow along in these pages.

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30 May 2017:
Honfleur, France:
Hidden in Plain Sight

May 30, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Honfleur is a medieval gem, hidden in plain sight, between the major French port of Le Havre across the Seine to the east, and the D-Day beaches of Normandy to the west.

It’s a lovely place, with a certain je ne sais quoi, not at all like much of the rest of coastal France.

And so it seems no surprise that this was one of the sources of impressionism in art and a musical genius of evocative impressions.

Honfleur was the birthplace of the artist Eugène Boudin and the composer and artist Erik Satie.

And it was a favored place to visit for French painters Claude Monet and Gustave Courbet, English landscape artist William Turner, and writer and critic Charles Baudelaire.

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While much of Normandy, about 50 miles or 32 kilometers way, was pounded by the Allies in the D-Day landing or by the Germans in defending it, Honfleur survived the war relatively untouched.

During German occupation, authorities in Honfleur allowed the River Seine to silt up the harbor, making it of little military value.

What remains is of great cultural value to us now.

A RETURN TO NORMANDY

Seventy-two years ago, Southampton was one of the ports of embarkation for the invasion forces of D-Day, along with Portsmouth and other places.

Today I went again to the beaches and the villages of Normandy, something that should be mandatory for historians, politicians, and anyone else of consequence.

Among the men and boys who landed at Normandy was my father, and I take advantage of every opportunity to visit there.

A Normandy Album

We begin at Omaha Beach, one of the two principal American landing sites, then went up on the bluff to the vast cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, the final resting place of about 13,000 Americans, two thirds of them given benefit of a gravestone with their name, the remainder–as the notation reads–known only to God.

At Arromanches the British constructed a massive artificial harbor that allows the full push to Germany to begin.

No one with a soul can visit these places and come away unmoved.

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29 May 2017:
Saint-Malo, France:
Time Travel

May 29, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

This little piece of Brittany has a story of its own as well as a firm hold on pieces of European, North American, and South American history.

It’s all about location: offshore islands at the mouth of an important river.

Before the arrival of the Romans, a promontory fort had been erected at Aleth, south of the Saint-Servan district, commanding the approaches to the Rance River.

A monastic settlement founded by Saint Aaron and Saint Brendan in the early sixth century included a follower of Brendan, Saint Malo or Maclou.

The settlement has a long history of setting itself apart.

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Walking through the cobblestone streets of Saint-Malo feels like time travel, little changed from the 1500s, when the explorer Jacques Cartier set out from here for the New World.

But, in full disclosure, almost everything you see has been rebuilt from the rubble of World War II.

This beautiful little place, a fortified town on what was once an island, was a German holdout after the Normandy landings to the north. Allied forces wanted to open up additional ports to bring ashore men and supplies, and Saint-Malo was one of the places chosen.

In late August and early September 1944, the historic walled city of Saint-Malo was almost totally destroyed by American shelling and bombing as well as British naval gunfire.

We anchored offshore today under gray skies and drizzle, which was displeasing to some but seemed very appropriate for the ancient (rebuilt) fortifications and cobbled streets.

I went through the walls into the Cathedral, lovingly reconstructed after World War II. To the right side of the altar, I paid a visit to the tomb of Jacques Cartier.

SAINT-MALO May 29, 2017

And outside the cathedral, a shop displayed a map of Saint-Malo and some modern furnishings, with the store windows reflecting the old city.

On previous visits, I went about an hour inland in Brittany to the beautiful, mostly untouched Medieval town of Dinan on the Rance River.

We inspected the half-timbered shops and the simply elegant Saint-Saveur church. I also made a visit to the Chateau of Dunan.

A DINAN ALBUM

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27 May 2017:
A Coruña, Spain:
Crystal City

May 27, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

La Coruña was the political capital of the Kingdom of Galicia from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Spain has 17 autonomous communities, a first-level political division that came out of the Constitution of 1978 which was intended to retain the autonomy of the nationalities and regions of the Spanish nation.

Today, La Coruña is in the autonomous community of Galicia. The place has other versions of its name, in Galician and British English: A Coruña and Corunna respectively.

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La Coruña is sometimes called “The Crystal City.” That nickname is derived from its many galerías, or glazed window balconies.

LA CORUŇA MAY 27, 2017

Naval architects adopted the design of the windowed stern of a warship and applied them as balconies to many places in northern Spain, including Galicia and the Basque region.

The first settlement was believed to have been on the peninsula that extends out from the present city, probably established by the Artabrians, a Celtic tribe.

Then came the Romans in the 2^nd century BC.

They were attracted to the strategic position at the edge of Iberia, and they called the region Finis-terrae, the end of the world.

Its name in the Galician language evolved from that to Fisterra.

Under the Romans, the settlement they called Brigantium became important in maritime trade, and even drew the notice of Julius Caesar who visited in 62BC.

Commerce in metal and other materials grew, with connections what is now France, England, and Portugal.

Brigantium reached its peak in the 1^st and 2^nd centuries, but declined after the 4th century and especially with the incursions of the Normans, which forced the population to flee towards the interior of the Estuary of O Burgo.

It was in the 2^nd century that the Farum Brigantium was built.

Farum is the Latin version of the Greek work pharos, meaning lighthouse.

The other name for the farum was the Tower of Hercules.

That tower, restored and elaborated a bit over 1,900 years, still stands on the peninsula about 2.5 kilometers or 1.5 miles from the center of La Coruña.

It has been in more-or-less continuous use since first built, and may well be the oldest lighthouse still in existence.

According to some, it may have been modeled after the great Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

SANTIAGO DEL COMPOSTELA

About an hour south is the town of Santiago de Compostela, a place of pilgrimage for Christians for centuries.

We visited the cathedral on an earlier visit, watching vendors offering walking sticks topped by a carving of a scallop shell–proof to some of the accomplishment of their peregrino or pilgrimage, and topped it all of with tapas and a music and dance performance by a Galician folk troupe: Celtic bagpipes of northwest Spain.

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26 May 2017:
Oporto, Portugal:
Let Us Raise a Toast

May 26, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Porto, which may not the most famous of places in Portugal, unless you have a particular affinity for a particular form of liquefied grape.

Porto is, literally, the Second City of Portugal, its second-most-populous place with 1.8 million people in the metropolitan area.

Porto has always been a mercantile city, and this is evident in the style of the buildings lining the Avenida dos Aliados, the core of the downtown area.

Today we went for a walk through the old city of Porto (also called Oporto). Among the places we sought out: the old Igreja do Carmo, the Carmelite Church of 1756 and the spectacular Estação Ferroviária de Porto – São Bento, the 1896 train station which is decorated floor to ceiling with fabulous tiles telling the story of Portugal.

And we also stopped by the famous Livraria Lello Porto bookstore where J.K. Rowling, an impoverished teacher at the time, hand-wrote the first three chapters of the first book of the Harry Potter series.

PORTO MAY 26, 2017

Igreja do Carmo

Estação Ferroviária de Porto – São Bento

Livraria Lello Porto

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Porto, well, it’s a place of broad shoulders and hard work, in some ways the economic heart of the country.

They say:

“Porto works, Braga Prays, Coimbra, studies, and Lisbon gets the money.”

A TOAST TO PORTO

We’ll celebrate tonight with a glass of fine Port after dinner.

Port Wine is named for Porto, and in particular the caves of Vila Nova de Gaia.

The reaches of the valley of the Douro River have a microclimate that is optimal for cultivation of olives, almonds, and especially grapes.

Vinho do Porto is a fortified wine, typically a sweet red wine although there are also dry, semi-dry, and white varieties.

The wine is fortified by the addition of a neutral grape spirit known as aguardente in order to stop the fermentation, leaving residual sugar in the wine, and to boost the alcohol content, usually to about 19 to 23 percent.

The Douro valley where port wine is produced was defined and established as a protected region, or appellation in 1756, making it by some measures the oldest defined and protected wine region in the world.

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25 May 2017:
Lisbon, Portugal:
A Place to Explore

May 25, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Lisbon is one of the most interesting and intriguing of European cities. It’s a little bit Spanish, a little bit Arab, and a whole lot of only-in-Portugal.

Lisbon, the capital and largest city of Portugal, sits on the coast at the place where the river Tagus flows into the Atlantic Ocean, the westernmost capital of mainland Europe.

With its central location and port, Lisbon became the capital city of Portugal in 1255.

During the last centuries of the Middle Ages, the city expanded substantially and became an important trading post with northern Europe and Mediterranean cities.

And then, in the Age of Discovery from the 15^th to 17^th centuries, Lisbon was the port of departure for many of the great Portuguese expeditions, most notably Vasco da Gama’s trip to India in 1497.

On this visit, we went a bit out of town to the National Palace of Queluz, which was modestly modeled after the Palace of Versailles. It was constructed in 1747 for the Portuguese Royal Family. Today it is a glimpse into a time long gone, but not forgot

PALACE OF QUELUZ, May 25, 2017

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Lisbon is a rich stew of architectural designs: Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Baroque, modern and post-modern along with a few Moorish styles.

The Museu Calouste Gulbenkian is one of the lesser-known jewels of Europe, a rich collection of ancient and classical art along with some modern pieces.

It was assembled in the early 20^th century by Calouste Gulbenkian, a tremendously rich British businessman of Armenian extraction.

Santa Maria de Belém is about 4 miles west of the city. Its name comes from the Portuguese for Bethlehem.

Belém is the place from which many of the great Portuguese explorers set off on their voyages of discovery.

Perhaps Belém’s most famous feature is its tower, Torre de Belém.

The tower was built as a fortified lighthouse late in the reign of Dom Manuel (1515–1520) to guard the entrance to the port at Belém.

A more modern monument in Belém is the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, the Monument to the Discoveries.

The 171 foot (52 meter) concrete monument was erected in 1960 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator.

Shaped like a ship’s prow, it includes statues of Henry and important explorers.

Also in Belém is the fabulous Mosteiro dos Jerónimo, one of the reasons why the Torre de Belém was built.

The Jerónimos Monastery was begun in 1502 on instructions from Manuel I and took fifty years to complete.

Its role was as a monument to Vasco da Gama’s successful voyage to India; the great explorer’s tomb is inside.

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24 May 2017:
Portimão, Portugal:
Blue Tiles, White Storks

May 24, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

I went for a visit back in time to the hillside town of Silves, a relatively untouched piece of Moorish culture in Portugal’s stunning Algarve region.

We were greeted first by storks, who serve as the modern lookouts, perched atop chimneys and parapets and anywhere else they can plant a nest.

SILVES, May 24, 2017

And then we went up the hill to see first the small Catholic cathedral, from about the year 1050, and then behind it the Almohad Citadel, erected by the Moors in the 8th century.

The cathedral mixes a bit of Roman columns with Moorish arches.

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MILES OF TILES

The local art scene includes some fine paintings, carvings, and architecture.

But the specialties of this part of the world have to include azulejos, blue-and-white painted tiles, dishes, and other ceramics. They’re not all blue, either.

Many older examples illustrate scenes from the bibles or the stories of saints. There are also landscapes, geometric patterns, and floral designs.

You’ll find them almost anywhere you go. In Portugal, you can find azulejos inside and outside of churches, palaces, ordinary houses and even train stations.

The technique came from Spain, which learned it from the Persians in the early 15th century. The word azulejos comes from the Arabic al zulayj, meaning “polished stone”.

Portimão is a small city, about 45,000 inhabitants, located on the estuary of the Arade River.

Since pre-Roman times, Portimão has made its living from fishing.

Today it is a major center for the sardine-canning industry, and also luring its shares of tourists.

VISIONS OF PORTIMÃO

Azulejo tiles in Portimão

Ponta da Piedade, near Portimão

Lagos, Portugal

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23 May 2017:
Cadiz, Spain:
The Wild West

May 23, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Cadiz is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the Iberian Peninsula, and possibly the oldest in all of southwestern Europe.

Think of it as a frontier town, the Wild West of Europe.

Cádiz was part of the Muslim realm of Al-Andalus, now the Spanish region of Andalusia.

Its history and culture are built on a base of Moorish or Muslim cultures, and by earlier forces: the Iberians, the Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Roman Empire, the Vandals, and the Visigoths.

The Phoenicians built an outpost here about three thousand years ago and called it Gadir, which means walled stronghold. And for most of its existence, that was its role: a fortress and an armory.

CADIZ MAY 23, 2017

Inside the small Jesuit chapel, all but hidden by the massive Cathedral of Cadiz.

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A CADIZ ALBUM

Roman Theater of Cadiz

Alameda district of Cadiz

The Moors ruled between 711 and 1262, until they were finally ousted by Alphonso X of Castile. During the Age of Exploration, the city was re-energized.

Christopher Columbus sailed from Cádiz on his second and fourth voyages.

By the middle of 16^th century, when the Spanish Empire ruled or traded with much of the world, Cádiz was the receiving end of the treasure train from Asia and the New World.

Spanish Galleons would pick up gold, silver, and other treasure from Mexico, South America, Japan, China, the Philippines and other parts and try to get it past the real Pirates of the Caribbean and back to Europe.

ARCOS DE LA FRONTERA ALBUM

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22 May 2017:
Malaga, Spain:
Wrapped in a Mantle of Art

May 22, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

The rust-colored walls of the Alcazaba, the azure waters of the Mediterranean, the dramatic flair of Spanish and Moorish architecture.

All are conducive, I suppose, to great art, and it was here that Pablo Picasso was born.

For all of these reasons and more, Málaga has wrapped itself in a mantle of art.

This small city has developed a remarkable portfolion of world-class art collections, starting with a Picasso collection and a branch of Madrid’s Carmen Thyssen museum.

More recently, the Centre Pompidou Málaga and a branch of the Russian Museum of Saint Petersburg opened.

MALAGA MAY 22, 2017

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On one visit, I went up into the hills to visit the ancient city of Mijas, the “Balcony of the Costa del Sol.”

It was the morning after the night before, in Feria or fair season.

A MALAGA ALBUM

Granada, one of Spain’s most spectacular and famous cities lies just under two hours to the northeast of Málaga, at the base of Sierra Nevada mountains.

The city has been inhabited for thousands of years.

In the 8th century, the city became the capital of a province of the Caliphate of Cordoba.

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

In January 1492, the last Muslim sultan in Iberia surrendered control of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella, Los Reyes Católicos (“The Catholic Monarchs.”)

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.

GRANADA ALBUM

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21 May 2017:
Cartagena, Spain:
The Warm Coast

May 21, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

Cartagena is on the Costa Cálida, the Warm Coast of Spain’s Murcia region. Cartagena is one of Spain’s more historically significant places because of its superb and easily defended naval port.

But Cartagena is less-known than many other coastal cities of Spain,

In fact, its distant namesake, Cartagena de Indias, in Colombia, may be much better known.

Cartagena, Colombia grew as one of the principal Spanish fortresses to hold the treasure taken from South America, the Caribbean, and Asia.

Cartagena, Spain has long been a crossroads of civilizations and navies. It has a fine collection of early 20^th century Art Nouveau buildings, intermixed with a spectacular Roman Theatre and remains of Phoenician, Byzantine and Moorish structures.

SUNDAY IN CARTAGENA

Continue reading 21 May 2017:
Cartagena, Spain:
The Warm Coast →

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20 May 2017:
Valencia, Spain:
Arts, Sciences, and Paella

May 20, 2017 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler

València is Spain’s third largest city, after Madrid and Barcelona, which is pretty impressive company.

But València can stand on its own as a wondrous old city, the former capital of the Old Kingdom of València.

The birthplace of paella.

The deathplace of the fallas.

And the modern resurgence of an ancient settlement around the spectacular Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, the City of Arts and Sciences, completed in 2008 in the old bed of the river Turia.

It was a spectacular day, weatherwise, in this spectacular city today.

And so I chose to conduct a photo safari in which I focused on the parts rather than the whole of Valencia. Here is some of what I saw.

VALENCIA

Its highlights include structures by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, among them the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia opera house and performing arts center which is topped by a swooping wave which overhangs the structure.

L’Hemisfèric, an IMAX Cinema and planetarium is the centerpiece of the project. Its eyelid is reflected in a water pool, creating the illusion of a giant eye.

El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe is an interactive museum of science that resembles the skeleton of a whale.

L’Umbracle is a landscaped walk with plant species indigenous to Valencia including rockrose, lentisca, rosemary, lavender, honeysuckle, bougainvillea, and palm trees.

L’Oceanogràfic is the largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe. Built in the shape of a water lily, it is the work of another architect, Félix Candela.

CITY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

We eat oh so well aboard ship, but that is no excuse not to indulge in local specialties when given the chance. Few places are more worthy than this region of Spain, the birthplace of paella.

The dish is named after the pan used to prepare it. You can, if you wish, think of it as a Spanish version of a wok.

In many ways it brings together the Roman and Arab and indigenous flavors of the region.

In Moorish Spain, farmers improved the old Roman irrigation systems along the Mediterranean coast, leading to greater yields in rice production. And from this came casseroles of rice, meat, fish, and spices.

Paella Valenciana includes meat (usually chicken or rabbit). Paella de Marisco, with fish or seafood, or even Paella Mixta, with meat and fish. Not with sausage, ham, or meat broth; those are for tourists.

Paella is typically eaten at midday, so many restaurants do not serve it at dinner, which in Spain can be deep into the night. In its classical version, paella is cooked over a wood fire. Not gas. And if you see a microwave in the kitchen, run away.

MERCAT CENTRAL

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Around the World with Corey Sandler

Tag Archives: Silversea

9 June 2017:
Cardiff, Wales:
A Doctor in the House

By Corey Sandler

8 June 2017:
Holyhead, Wales:
Princes and Prisoners

By Corey Sandler

7 June 2017:
Greenock and Glasgow, Scotland:
On the Clyde

By Corey Sandler

6 June 2017:
Belfast, Northern Ireland:
The Titanic City

By Corey Sandler

5 June 2017:
Londonderry/Derry, Northern Ireland:
Stroke City

By Corey Sandler

4 June 2017:
Killybegs, Ireland:
Little Cells

3 June 2017:
Foynes, Ireland:
Location, Location, Location

2 June 2017:
Cobh, Ireland:
A Place of Beginnings and Endings

1 June 2017:
Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom:
Pasties and Pirates

31 May 2017:
Southampton, United Kingdom:
Going Full Circle

By Corey Sandler

30 May 2017:
Honfleur, France:
Hidden in Plain Sight

By Corey Sandler

29 May 2017:
Saint-Malo, France:
Time Travel

By Corey Sandler

27 May 2017:
A Coruña, Spain:
Crystal City

By Corey Sandler

LA CORUŇA MAY 27, 2017

26 May 2017:
Oporto, Portugal:
Let Us Raise a Toast

By Corey Sandler

25 May 2017:
Lisbon, Portugal:
A Place to Explore

By Corey Sandler

24 May 2017:
Portimão, Portugal:
Blue Tiles, White Storks

By Corey Sandler

23 May 2017:
Cadiz, Spain:
The Wild West

By Corey Sandler

22 May 2017:
Malaga, Spain:
Wrapped in a Mantle of Art

By Corey Sandler

21 May 2017:
Cartagena, Spain:
The Warm Coast

By Corey Sandler

20 May 2017:
Valencia, Spain:
Arts, Sciences, and Paella

By Corey Sandler

Cruise Photos and Stories by Corey Sandler