Bromberg's Blogs (formerly Beth's Blogs)

Hi Folks,

What a wonderful stop; from the first moment we landed, we really liked this island.  We loved our hotel — it is in an old home, but just remodeled into a contemporary hotel inside…..lovely decor and a great manager.

 

After settling in, we went around the corner to a fun little place, 19 Raw.  We split a Caesar salad, lobster roll and crab fried rice — all yummy!  And John drank a local beer — Wash Ashore — and washed it all done with the obligatory ice cream cone:). John loved their uniform….

In the morning, we were off on a three hour tour around the island.  We used it as a guide for what to do the next day and a half while we had a car.  We had left the one we rented in Hyannis for the time we were on the islands.  (Don’t ask!). It was a very interesting tour; there are six towns on MV.  We went to all of them.  But a lot of the pictures are from when we went back.

We passed the entrance to Caroline Kennedy’s compound.  Yes, that’s all we could see!  And another lighthouse 🙂

We passed the burial site of John Belushi; I knew you would want to see it!

 

We were hungry; our guide had recommended Nancy’s for clam strips.  They were great, but the onion strings even better 🙂

We shopped around for awhile then picked up our rent car.  There is a neighborhood that is known for it’s gingerbread houses.  They are wonderful — intricate carvings and wonderful colors!

Pretty amazing, huh?

But we are just getting started…..John had set up an itinerary of where we were going.  He might have been sorry that he added the glass works; I found a piece I HAD to have :). Afterward we stopped for lunch…..but our buttery fingers clouded up the pic!  Then we went to look at an Indian reservation; they own a 6,000 square foot building that is going to be torn down and turned into a casino!  I took the street pic just because I thought the name was amazing!!!

 

Those are twinkling lights inside the ball — I tried to upload a video of it, but it didn’t work!

But the day isn’t close to over:  I swore that I was going to put my toes into the Atlantic on this trip, so I did.  John took the pic!  We were on the beach at the sight of the filming of Jaws; then we drove to the bridge that is famous for lots of the scenes from Jaws.

And then we had to go to Chappaquiddick!  It’s a short — very short — ferry ride there and then a drive to THE bridge.  We had to do it all :). I have NO idea who the mailbox belongs to; I just thought I should photograph it…..on Chappaquiddick!!!

We ended our day with our first “dress-up” meal at The Terrace at The Charlotte Inn. It was absolutely delicious!  And lovely!!

On our last day we wandered down from our hotel to the happening part of Edgartown.  There was a show of strange fish art in a park — we enjoyed it!  We stopped for lunch at The Seafood Shanty and we shopped around the area.  John LOVES The Black Dog; you will see him in their t-shirts and ball caps.  Then we wandered back to our hotel, picked up the car and were off to see more of MV before the ferry.

We did go back into the gingerbread house area and I took a few more pictures there.

And then we took the ferry back to Hyannis.  We had an early dinner of more fried clam strips at the same place we first stopped.  Then we decided we should go see Hyannis Port and the Kennedy Compound.  So we got as close as we could and took a picture 🙂

And then we did a genius thing.  You have to remember that we are still one day ahead of our schedule…..because we left Nantucket one day early.  We had been able to move our nights ahead in MV, but when I called our next stop in Newport, they wanted a BUNCH of money to change from Saturday, Sunday and Monday to Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  But we had rented a specific room there and I was willing to bet that it was still available for Friday night.  So I called about 7:00 p.m. on Friday from Hyannis and said we would like to move a day ahead, but that we did not want to pay any more.  She checked; it was available; and we could have it at our original rate.  Otherwise we were going to just spend one night in a motel on the way.

 So we arrived at our next stop — Newport — one night early.  And that’s the next and very busy chapter!

See you there,

Beth

What a surprise Nantucket has been.  First of all, the ferry ride from Hyannis could not have been easier.  We drove from Provincetown and realized we did not want to stop for lunch on the way; breakfast had been huge and not so long past.

(By the way, if you ever get to P-town, go to Yolkeria and order the Challah Cinnamon French Toast for breakfast — John and I both discovered it the day before we left….and ordered it again the next morning!!!). I WILL learn to make this :))

So, anyway, we arrived in time to take a ferry two hours earlier to Nantucket — no waiting at all; we checked our bags, John parked the car to stay there while we were away and then we boarded for about an hour ride.

We were picked up at the harbor by the driver for our hotel — The Wauwinet — and whisked to the other side of the island.  We walked into the resort and I faced a huge staircase to the upper floors.  NO, they did NOT have us down for a ground floor room and NO, there were none available.  Now John made the reservations for this trip, so I could not say from firsthand, but he did book a handicap accessible room in Provincetown and he did book handicap rooms at the next two stops.  What do you think the odds are that he didn’t in Nantucket????

After about 45 minutes of waiting nearby to the front desk, we were told that they were able to move us to a sister hotel in Nantucket town close to the ferry…..an historic hotel.  So we had to get loaded back into a car and driven back into town (another half hour).  I had to take a picture of John from the car before we left our wonderful Wauwinet experience!!!

When we arrived, our driver didn’t even drive us past the front of the hotel — lots of steps.  He drove us into the back of the hotel (read service entrance) and we entered from the back, through a bar, a side dining room and a sitting room to get to the front desk — not one’s preferred entrance.  (But that is being picky!). We checked in, were told we were in the annex (not even the main house) and ended up in a queen bedded room far from the “action” of the hotel.  John hated this place and wanted to leave the next morning but there were no ferries then — cancelled because of “gale winds”.  Oh, yes, and a hurricane is on the way to the east coast!

So we had to stay for two nights!  Here’s the good news:  it was so cold and rainy that a resort at the beach would have been totally boring.  We could walk around and shop in town.

The highlight of our stay was a visit to the Whaling Museum.  We learned so much about life in the 1800’s on Nantucket and aboard whaling ships.  It was very interesting.  One of the most amazing sights is the 46 foot long young sperm male skeleton; it showed up on the shores of Nantucket, obviously in distress — then was found further down the beach the next morning, having died during the night.  The residents of Nantucket worked hard to make sure the remains stayed on Nantucket.  These same residents dismantled the remains, then worked out what to do with the bones to get them clean (dumped them in the harbor for the fish to clean), then hired an expert to reassemble them).  The size is awesome!

Another fascinating exhibit is the Scrimshaw Room. When whaling ships in the 1800’s were on their way back from the seas of the South Pacific, the captains would allow the crew time to make their own souvenirs from the whale bones or teeth.  It is difficult to believe that these objects were carved by whalers — they are truly beautiful!  I included the corset because they were originally shaped by whale bone. The tools after the corset are pie crimpers.

The rain continued; but the day was saved by that fabulous experience!  A few more photos from that stop.  The boat is an example of the early sailboats here…..as the industry changed from whaling to tourism; this was due to the sand bar in the harbor that would not go away.  Eventually the ships moved to other deeper water harbors.  The blue container below is what we put our luggage into during the trip on the ferry.  And the view is from the roof of the Whaling Museum and the light is from the original lighthouse; it’s huge!!!

Before we left we did pose for a few silly pictures in front of their green screen.

After dinner, we had to go try out the island’s best ice cream place — The Juice Bar.  It was fun watching the cones being made.

We did need to add some pictures of the Jared Coffin House.  It does have some history of its own.  He was one of the most successful shipowners in 1845 and built a three-story home in the center of Nantucket town; it was the first such mansion ever built on the island.  The sun came out on our last morning — a good time to take a picture of the front of the house and the front desk room.  John took these pictures while he went to get morning coffee.

On our last day our ferry was not until 2:30 p.m. so we hired a driver to take us around the island for awhile.  She was a hoot; her name is Sally O’Malley.  I did take lots of flowers, two light houses and two shots of John Kerry’s home.  There was a VERY old cemetery and a gate with an anchor that we liked!

 

And then we were off to the Vineyard!

See you there!

Beth

Hello Friends,

We are enjoying our trip; right now we are in Provincetown, Cape Cod.  This, if you don’t know is at the very tip of Cape Cod — all the way to the end!  It is also a very fun little town with lots to do!

We are staying at a small hotel, 8 Dyer Hotel — seven rooms, 5 up, 2 down.  It does have a shared living room, a pool, a spa and includes breakfast down the hill.  It’s owned by a couple of wonderful guys who go out of their way to make your stay just perfect.  Our room even includes a parking space — a real prize in Provincetown.

 

You know John, he has to include a map of where we are in all stops:

We stopped on our drive in from Boston at Hyannis for our first serving of fried clams — they were great!  We ate outside and we ALMOST cold :). It was heaven.

On our first day we just shopped our way half way down the Main Street, with breakfast and dinner on each end.

We found the t-shirt shop that Jim Musumeci had recommended — John found three t-shirts!  What a great shop!  The Cotton Company, I think.  We had a swim in the hotel pool.  It was still warm enough to get out — the last day perhaps!  Then dinner at the icon — The Lobster Pot — wonderful boiled lobster — and a silly John!!!

 

The flowers at the pool were beautiful and gigantic!

And then the skies turned ugly…..and it poured!

On day two we drove to the other end of Commercial Street, the main drag and eventually found a parking place a few blocks away.  Then we shopped the street from the other end.  Of course we had to stop and Ben and Jerry’s.

One of the interesting things about Provincetown is that it is the first place that the Pilgrims stopped when arriving in the new world…..but they couldn’t find fresh water and then proceeded to Plymouth.  But below is Pilgrims Tower.  One can climb to the top for a great view — we did not!

At the end of our second day we dined at Fanizzi’s.  Set on the water, we had another great table and more great food!

For our last day we made some plans to do things different from shopping.  We first went to the Provincetown Art Museum.  There was some great art with lots of impressionistic influence……and a nice sculpture garden.

Then we drove back to an art shop that we had visited yesterday.  John indulged me; I had fallen IN LOVE with two gigantic pieces of art!!!!  We did not get the 4′ x 6′ size, but the smaller 3′ x 4′ size (not so small).  They are signed, limited editions of 25 of the original and already sold originals…..at least one is already sold.  I’ll let them speak for themselves; the artist is Jo Hay.  She is lovely and the works are fabulous!!!!

It was something to celebrate — we are both excited to own these!

Then we drove to our next activity:  Art’s Dune Ride.  We drove over the biggest dunes I’ve ever seen…..the Texas coast being the ONLY ones I’ve ever seen.  There are a number of “shacks” on the dunes, buildings that have been there since before the property became a national park.  There were lots of great views.

That’s Pilgrims Tower in the background, above and below:

We drove to Truro…..alledgedly to the vineyard…..but we stopped at a chocolate shop on the way.  Then we went to the lighthouse, Cape Cod Highland Lighthouse.  It’s one of the oldest lighthouses in the country, commissioned by President Washington in 1796!!!

We drove back  and I stopped to take a pic of Provincetown from the road with the tide out, then a group of Adirondack chairs along the road:

We ended our Provincetown stay with a final lobster dinner at Mac’s:

This has been a great stop.  Neither John nor I have ever been to any of the places we are seeing on this trip.  Tomorrow we take the high speed ferry to Nantucket.  More later!

Beth

Hi Again!

On Thursday we opted for a trip to Tigre which is the delta area of rivers and islands near Buenos Aires. Marina had hired a private boat for us to tour down the waterways with a lunch stop. But first we stopped along the river for a look back at town; it was quite hazy so it’s not such a great shot.

I took a picture of the map that the captain of the boat furnished us with his highlighted route of our days’ journey — one direction to the restaurant — and then back another way to complete a circle:

I believe that we boarded at the bottom around 22 and had lunch about 16.  But do notice that it is all land that is surrounded by flooding waterways.  However, it is not reclaimed land, but the owners do shore up the land with concrete barriers or lots of trees (read roots) to hold the encroaching water at bay.

Then, just before we boarded the boat, I stopped at a waterfall picture/sculpture of the controversial Malvinas……or, as we call them, the Falkland Islands. It’s a pretty rendering of them, but what does it signify? Marina just laughs and says the Argentinians never get over something they never really had. The islands have always been British; they want to remain British today, but they are geographically very close to Argentina so that caused the Falklands War – Argentina decided they should own those islands. (Argentine history 101).

So, since this river has tides and since it had rained a lot the night before, it was flooded. The houses are mostly built on stilts or over garages. If you look back at the map of the area you will see that there are major waterways and smaller creeks.  First, the water bus:

Lots of rowing clubs:

A casino (I think!):

Owned by a Dutch family:

The grocery store boat:

John driving me crazy with the pictures:

How to get from one island to another without a boat:

The captain took our photo (following John’s lead)…..

These homeowners built themselves an artificial beach…..but the most amazing thing is that their dock (second below) cost about $100,000 to build!!!!

Now it was time for a well deserved lunch break.  Marina had reserved us a table at Gato Blanco (white cat).  We sat outside at a corner table and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.  By the way, our entire time in Buenos Aires had been in the 70’s and low 80’s without much humidity — very, very pleasant and unusual for summertime in Buenos Aires.  Needless to say, we loved it!

And then we were off again:  another grocery boat, a tree that has been growing sideways for over 25 years and a construction boat.

The Sarmiento House is a National Historic Monument in the northern suburb of Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was the former residence from 1855 until his death in 1888 of Domingo Sarmiento, the 7th President of Argentina. It was declared a National Historic Monument in 1966 and is now a museum.  (Wikipedia….and Marina)

By the time we returned to the hotel we were exhausted — haha — by all that fresh air!  We skipped dinner — lunch was fabulous and huge — and opted for Freddo only!

On Friday, we had the day to ourselves; and it was out last full day.  We did designate the morning for “enforced culture” (as we say to our grandkids).  First we visited the Teatro Colon, the Buenos Aires Opera House.  National Geographic ranks it as the third best opera house in the world and it is acoustical considered to be among the five best concert venues in the world.  And it was lovely!

John had to take this pic with Nureyev’s name:

We got our tickets around 10:15 a.m. for the 11:00 a.m. English tour…..so some waiting:

Loved this:

And then we went inside.  It was pretty dark so the pictures reflect that.

I was intrigued to learn that there are places to stand in the ring around the center lights in the ceiling……and that sometimes during a performance, singers will just sing from there, causing surprise!  Apparently, that a normal “trick” of musical performances.

Here it is from the outside and a few pics from the neighborhood.  Then we walked to a one hundred year old bookstore that was originally a theater — another clever and attractive thing!

And now the bookstore, El Ateneo Grand Splendid.  The are really fabulous pictures of it on the internet if you’re interested.

We ended the day with a trip to our rooftop pool.  We went into the very warm indoor pool; it is actually entirely stainless steel — very unusual and very nice!  But we sat outside and enjoyed the sunset and the views and did look down and see a second outdoor pool one level down…….but it was cooling off enough that we were happy with our first indoor plunge!

Covering the wall was a vertical garden which you see often in Buenos Aires — smart way to improve the view.

We were pretty tired of eating a lot so had planned a trip to a nearby empanada place.  It was tiny and quite busy but we got a table and the food was great.  I had a cheese & ham and a cheese & onion; John had the former and a mozzarella and basil.

 

Of course we had to pass by Freddo’s one last time on our way back to the hotel:

The next morning was our “pack up and get ready to go home” day.  Our plane was not until 9:15 p.m. and we were being picked up by Marina at 1:30 p.m.  But there was a market going on next to Recoleta and the Church we showed you earlier.  So we did a little shopping there and then received a call from Marina; she had a client in the hospital and was going to have to be late.  Our driver from the first day picked us up and took us to the pre-arranged lunch sight.

John had told Marina earlier that he wanted to eat somewhere that the tourists didn’t go, but where the locals would go.  She chose this great sports restaurant and there was a game (soccer) that day so there were lots of people out and dressed in their colors — sound familiar?

Marina had said that she would meet us there and I knew that we were meeting a professional street art guide at 3:00 p.m., so John and I went ahead and ordered……after a few or more minutes of getting someone to come to us….sitting by ourselves at a table for six!  Anyway we ordered a ravioli with tomato sauce AND pesto sauce (sounded weird but was fabulous) and a chicken Milanese covered with ham, cheese and tomato sauce.  Both way too huge and wonderful.  When she arrived Marina made a full meal out of our leftovers.

And then we were off to see more street art with Anna.  As best as I can I will give a little background.  The first graffiti was gang art, but it has evolved in some cases into political messaging and a way of reclaiming the streets by the neighborhoods.  Wow, what an over-simplification!

Okay, first we were shown a couple of random pieces, then we were driven around a factory whose owner had commissioned a bicycle series around his entire building.

The paintings above were meant to inhibit graffiti artists from writing on his building; it seems to have worked. Then the first two below are about the animalistic nature of people.

A homeless boy sleeping with his dog:

Next we went to visit Pol.  He is an activist and artist and has written a beautiful book about the street art of his neighborhood.  First of all, I should mention that this area is next to the river — a very polluted river that can have a distinct and strong odor and that this is where the poorest immigrants were settled.  These people lived in horrible surroundings and had little hope for advancement so for artists to come into their neighborhood and make it more beautiful was quite welcome!  Pol was an interesting guy (and yes, quite easy on the eyes!).

Pol and Anna:

We then looked at a huge mural — not the largest, but certainly close.

You can’t see it in the picture above, but a man was sitting outside his door and in front of this wall who is in the mural; he is pictured below.  When the artist was painting this, children — and adults — came around and said to him, “put me on the wall”.  Apparently some of the kids will come outside and pose near their pictures when tourists like us come by — a nice sense of pride for those with little else!

Our last stop on this tour was at a factory that was abandoned “in the night” by the owner when times were difficult in Argentina.  The workers in the factory bonded together and kept the factory going and formed a co-operative to own it.  When times improved, the owner returned trying to regain his company, but the president of Argentina passed a law that made ownership pass to the workers.  The forty-one ice cream cones represent the forty-one worker/owners and the many hands the working together.  Great art!!!

As we were leaving there, I reached down to get something from my purse.  To my horror, there was no purse in the car-both our passports and my id and money were inside.  I had left it on the floor of the restaurant between my and John’s seats!!!!  Marina called and they had it.  She told me that I was really fortunate that it was there; that that was not such a hot neighborhood.  I am SO lucky.  Anyway, we went from there to the airport and then to home.

It was a wonderful, magical trip for us.  Unfortunately, we got home and both of us got sick.  I have bronchitis and John has an old-fashioned cold.  Oh well, at least we are at home for this part!!!!

Thanks for coming along for the journey,

Beth

 

Hello Again,

On Tuesday we arrived back in BA.  Our room at the Alvear Palace is fabulous — we have a lot of space and a wonderful view!

 

 

 

We just settled in and then went to the lounge where we enjoyed tea……except we didn’t drink tea :).  It is a wonderful space from which to enjoy the views.

We then ventured out to an Italian — which was not wonderful, but it was close and it was highly touted…..just not our favorite!  By the way, most of the time I can leave on the scooter via the shopping galleria attached to the lobby — it has two ramps — but it’s closed at night so I get to use the “lift” at the entrance.

The next morning we took pictures out the window….testing the range of my camera.  We love the metal flower that was newish ten years ago and now the artist has died and it doesn’t work as well as earlier.  It used to open every morning and close every night.  A nice idea!  Look at the people in the picture for scale.

When we were in Buenos Aires ten years ago, we worked with a young woman, Marina Macchiavello (marina@lolargentina.com), who was so good and so enjoyable that we decided to see if we could contact her again.  I had kept her information and found her. She did remember us and we set it up to work with her again.  We can highly recommend her if you need assistance ever in Buenos Aires.  She now has her own agency and a number of employees and the company specializes in, among other things, fly fishing!  Apparently the fishing is excellent in Argentina and lots of people come here to fish.

Anyway she came to the hotel to pick us up and we were off to look at street art and shop in the north part of town in Palermo Hollywood and Palermo Soho (the real names — not nicknames).  The graffiti is so bad here that many people paint their home with street art; most of the time the destructive graffiti persons won’t paint over the street art….but not always.

First of all, the city has begun painting the walls under overpasses to try to discourage graffiti or tagging; the first two are about the tango, but we saw race horses near the race track and famous people elsewhere. Nice idea!

Then lots and lot of street art:

Along the way we found an optical shop; I needed to have a pair of my glsses fixed…..but there was a bonus, I got two new pairs and met the designer!

Notice the piece with the pope on a rocket ship – the Argentinians are miffed at him for coming to South America and not to Argentina. There is a lot of political art and lots that’s just funny!

There was more shopping; I loved the look of the converted old warehouses: great, high ceilings and skylights.

There is a building where the art has relief and forms the entry; we saw it with the door pulled up….but Marina furnished a picture of the whole façade when closed.

In the early evening we made our now daily walk to Freddo’s and then to a park next door. But it was afterward when the night started.

We were picked up and taken to El  Viejo Almacen, one of the oldest tango clubs in Buenos Aires, located in the San Telmo neighborhood in a building from the 1800’s.  It is considered the most traditional of all the tango shows. When we arrived our name was on our table along with a bottle of champagne and we were in the second row with the tables scattered, so we had perfect seats. 

John and I both love the tango and this was no exception. It was a really talented troupe. They were accompanied by a pianist, a bass player, a violinist and a man who plays a box similar to an accordion but with buttons……don’t know that name. They were also fabulous.

Both John and I loved the specialty act: four men who played Andean tribal music. I was particularly fascinated with the one who played the pipes – that looked difficult and sounded beautiful!

And a very short bonus:

I know that’s not a well edited clip…..but it is the only short thing I have.  

There is one last blog to come — another day and a half filled with fun….but I’ll end here for now!

Love,

 Beth

Hello again!

Once we left the security and calm waters of the South Shetland Islands, we began experiencing the turbulence of the Drake. The good news about our Drake experience was that, although we had waves cresting at 20 feet, we didn’t become seasick because our captain was able to steer us behind one storm and outrun a much larger looming storm (see the chart below). That enabled the ship to be able to move with greater speed and we were able to make it to the Beagle Channel in two full days and a few hours, arriving on Sunday night before dinner. There were no berths available as other ships either headed back early or didn’t depart, so we anchored off the harbor until 6:00 a.m. Monday. We ended up with a full day and night in Ushuaia.

Notice below that the Captain sent us further east, then cut back to the west once we were past the approaching weather!

Also a picture of John showing how tilted over the ship was — the whole background is sea!

When we departed Ushuaia, one of our naturalists pointed out a ship which had been thirty miles south of where we were when we left the Shetlands; it ended up leaving two hours later than we did and spent three and a half days in the Drake bobbing around, only arriving at 4:00 a.m. Tuesday morning – so glad our captain made the decision that she did!!! It was a lot more fun to knock around Ushuaia! Silversea did provide a group bus trip to Tierra del Fuego, but John and I had been there ten years ago and decided it would be anticlimatic. It’s pretty, but….

 

We did all run out on deck to watch some dolphins who were swimming with us at some point — fun to watch:

So the night before we docked, there was a Captain’s Farewell Party. I took a few pictures of people we enjoyed:  the crew, Peter Harrison and Shirley Metz, Kevin and Tim (cruise director) and Melanie and Franci, fellow travelers.

Shirley is most impressive in her own right.  She founded Hobie Sports (with her husband at the time), served as a consultant to The North Face and in 1988  was the first woman to ski over 800 miles to the South Pole!

The next day we ventured into Ushuaia. I took a shot of John in front of a large statue at the dock, then we climbed our way up a hill to the main shopping street. It was souvenir hunt time!  John collects ball caps, t-shirts and, over my objection, more and more coffee mugs. We had to search for good ones. Late morning we needed a rest stop and decided to have ice cream and coffee at Freddo’s – a discovery from our last time in Argentina……fabulous ice cream! Then more shopping.  Finally, after a long walk, we made it back to the ship, had a light lunch and began packing.

Views from the ship:

 

 

On our last evening, before dinner we watched the video that our ship’s photographer had created from our trip. We did buy it and would be happy to share it with anyone who would like to see it.  It is wonderful!  Afterward, they auctioned off the ship’s navigation chart that had been adorned with art by a member of the staff; it was bought eventually for $5,000 by a guest – all for a charitable cause….

We ate dinner with the same group we had, both on our first night aboard and on my birthday – such fun people!  The couple in the front is from England; he was a solicitor and became general counsel of Barclay Bank. They are both retired and run an 8 room hotel near the English shore. The two women are from Michigan- both lawyers-one retired and one not (their husbands didn’t want to make the trip). Interesting people with very quick wits.

On Tuesday on the way to the airport, we stopped at a scenic overlook to enjoy a view of Ushuaia one last time……another lovely day!

 

And then, on to Buenos Aires.

Ten years ago we were in Buenos Aires and we enjoyed it so much that John wanted to stay there again. We remembered that we had a guide there whom we really liked and I had kept her contact information. In addition, I found her on Facebook; we reconnected and made arrangements for her to guide us parts of three days to various places. She now owns the agency but agreed to guide us.  I’m sure you will see her in some coming pictures.

I’m going to add some fun videos that I couldn’t include before because of insufficient bandwidth.  Hope you like them!

Love,

Beth

 

 

 

Hi, Folks,

The next day – another at sea – was interesting: lots of motion, but Bonine took care of any problem for me; wrist bands for John. We did have a penguin lecture at 9:30 a.m., but – much more interesting – I had a martini tasting at 11:30 a.m.  About 25 of us hardy individuals gathered both at the bar and at tables alongside while we tasted four martinis.  I forgot to take my phone, so no pix…..but I did take a picture of the placemat for our shot glasses.  The espresso martini is really good and decadent…..and a couple days later I tried the Silver Spirit but made with vodka (rather than gin)…much better!

There are no pictures from the next day at sea; we attended surprisingly interesting lectures from experienced naturalists, ate, ate again and ate again. Cruises are not for the faint of eating heart !

The following day we reached Elephant Island, an ice-covered mountainous island off the coast of Antarctica in the South Shetland Islands.

This was our first stop in Antarctica…..but it is an island and not on the continent……so it counts, but not as stepping on one’s seventh continent! Elephant Island is best known as the place where Ernest Shackleton left his men while he and five others took off in a rowboat to try to reach help.  You will remember from the prior blog that their ship had been destroyed by the ice; the entire crew had tried to row for help…..but they had made backwards progress because of rough seas.  So he left the remaining crew with lots of provisions to try to reach South Georgia to enlist help.  Just think: no means of communication, no modern day techniques for navigation and horrible, horrible seas and weather.  The fact that not one man was lost during this hideous time is so unbelievable; both he and his first officer Wild deserve so much credit!!!

I know, funny hair in the next picture:

 

Our first sightings on Elephant Island were the Chinstrap Penguins.  Here is the rookery:

Look at the chinstrap just beneath the beak:

And some seal pups:

John got off the zodiac at Elephant Island, but I chose not to get off and took two zodiac cruises back to back.  The reward was that I got to see a seal take down a penguin in the water.  I don’t have a great picture, but I have two that show the pink legs of the penguin sticking out of the water as he is being devoured!

It was pretty amazing and didn’t take long at all!

Finally, the next day, we stepped out of our zodiac at Brown Bluff on the continent of Antarctica, an “official continent landing” according to our naturalist, and our cameras seemed to never stop clicking or videoing!!!  As soon as we disembarked, one of the naturalists set up a box for me to sit on near the edge of the ice so I didn’t have to walk; however, almost immediately, I saw a penguin colony so I started walking, albeit carefully and slowly.  All of a sudden a huge group of Adelie Penguins started coming to me…. so I stopped. They are sooooo cute; I love their blue eyes and simple coloring.  And I love that they seem to move in huge groups…. “let’s go this way; no let’s turn around and go the other way” over and over again.  I couldn’t get enough!   Eventually, I returned to the box – it was like a chair – so much easier to get up and down.  And all morning long the penguins walked by me – one way, then the other.  Hysterical!

Look at those blue eyes!!!

When penguins swim it is called “porpoising.” They come up and down in the water in small arches and it is very cute to watch. I have had very limited success with videos in the blog, but I’ll give it a try.

 

In the afternoon on Wednesday we continued toward Hope Bay.  Along the way we saw some wonderful icebergs and penguins floating by.  Then we took a zodiac cruise to look around Hope Bay.

In this last image from Hope Bay you can see an Argentine settlement; they even have a swimming pool.

Thursday took us to Neko Harbour — more ice formations and lots of pengchicks!!!

And us:

We cruised onward south in Antarctica.  At one point a Weddell seal floated by our ship sleeping on an iceberg!

And then, later in the afternoon there was one more stop — the main attraction of which was a museum and gift shop.  John went and I stayed on board, but there were some interesting sights, including whale bones.  He also arranged for our passports to be stamped there.

Antarctic Shag and chicks:

Brown Skua attacking a snowy petrel:

We were warned that evening that the weather for the Drake Passage was NOT looking good for our crossing; in fact, there were two fronts almost back to back.  And that we might have to time our exit from Antarctica to sneak between these two weather systems.  This was, in fact, what we had to do.

The next morning we were having the final stop, on Fort Point and Hardy Cove.  John and I were assigned to the first zodiac and it was a very dicey landing — big waves and a beach of huge rocks.  In fact, we were the only zodiac off-loaded there; from then on they dropped passengers around the island at Hardy Cove — that is where we were welcome to do the Arctic Plunge.  There were two couples and one young crew member who did participate — crazy!  We just enjoyed our last moments on land of this amazing trip.  

I did happen to look out our balcony when they were lowering the zodiacs — it was not as I had imagined.

It looks beautiful…..but the seas were high and rocky.  Getting back into the zodiac was a little tricky.  In fact, he had to back the zodiac to the shore and a big wave covered it just as I was getting in.  I was pretty wet even through my “waterproof” pants!  

It is the next day now — Saturday.  We are having 50 mph wind (that is gale force) and the  really rocking seas cresting at 16 to 20 feet.  The scopolamine patch is working for us…..but getting around is very dicey.  We are likely going to get back to Ushuaia a day (or at least part of a day) early.  

John and I have brought our good luck weather to this trip.  It is highly unusual to being able to make every single landing — we made them all!  We did have to skip a last day in Antarctica, but I am glad not to have any rougher seas than this.  At lunch today, one of the naturalists told me this crossing was rougher than most — oh, joy!  Lucky us!!  But I will take this as a trade for all of our good fortune earlier.

Notice that you don’t see the horizon…..we were rocking to this side when John took the picture:

Taken through the wet dining room windows:

We are going on to Buenos Aires for 4 days and will be home next Sunday. It has been a great trip so far. We have met a large number of very interesting people, all of whom, not surprisingly, are quite well traveled.  Until then,

See you,

Beth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Again,

On Tuesday, January 9^th – the next morning, we were in the South Ocean. In fact, we were in sort of rough water all night after my birthday. Well, at least John and I thought it was rough. We were, for the first time, out in the open ocean and, as I heard later – some notoriously rough water that, on this day, wasn’t really very rough!!! I guess it’s all relative. It was a sea day…..but do not think those are lazy days. The lectures are so good on this ship that it’s hard to miss any of them!

We ate lunch inside, but we went up to the Grill to check it out.  The weather was so beautiful that we made a reservation for dinner there that night…..but more of that later!

We are so amazingly lucky to have such great speakers – we go to these lectures that each last an hour…..and then each night there is a recap and preview of the next day that is for forty-five minutes before dinner. But it is NOT boring……plus there is bar service during all of them…..but if you are smart not too much alcohol until just before dinner. (I did have my first espresso martini during an afternoon lecture – chased with a diet coke!!!)

There is one lecturer in particular that I’d like to mention; his name is Peter Harrison. In the 1980’s he published his first book, Seabirds of the World. At that time, there only existed bird guides to particular destinations, as in North American Birds…..or birds of Europe. He was the first person to write a book about all of the seabirds of the world. Since that time there have been others to follow him. We also learned about the time he and another guide helped a then-elderly Jimmy Stewart up a mountain so that the actor could watch a particular species of albatross. I don’t know from personal experience, but I think he is quite famous. Anyway, he is quite funny and has great stories and lots and lots of knowledge to share.

This is his 188th trip to Antarctica and his next to last.  In addition, he said that if he had seven days to live, he would spend five of them on South Georgia Island…..and, when asked what he would do with the other two days — he would respond “Get there!”

So that evening we saw that it had become cloudy and overcast, but we decided that we should “tough it out” since there would probably not be another opportunity.  They do provide blankets.  After we zoomed through our blue cheese salads and hot dogs (our choice because quick), I told John he owed me an Irish coffee in the lounge — we were so cold because it was very damp!!!  You can’t tell in the pictures but we are wrapped up below in blankets.

We birded from the aft of the ship the next morning — lots of black-browed albatross following us and I did see another species, but couldn’t catch him in flight.

We passed an amazing rock outcrop in the middle of the day – Shag Rocks. Apparently, we were only seeing the top of a mountain range.

The rest of the day was filled with lectures preparing us for our next “big event” — three days around South Georgia Island.

Our first day we stopped at three different places.  At Salisbury Plain, most people walked up the mountain; I, on the other hand, was given a box (normally a box to step on to get in or out of the zodiac) a little way up the beach and I was very happy watching the wildlife — the seals and the King Penguins!  The first pictures are of the Elephant Seals — not beautiful creatures but incredibly large — this is a female.  Southern elephant seals are enormous—the largest of all seals. Males can be over 20 feet long and weigh up to 8,800 pounds or more. A species with extreme sexual dimorphism, males are typically five to six times larger than the females, who weigh 880–2,000 pounds.

There was an abundance of adorable fur seals and pups!

Also that day we some the amazing King Penguins — so far, everyone’s favorite!

It was just penguins everywhere for as far as you could see!!!!  What a sight!

After lunch we landed at Fortuna Bay — more great pictures there:

And a reward of a rainbow back on the ship:

Day Two on South Georgia began with a stop at Stromness. It is most famous as the place where Ernest Shackleton arrived after a 36-hour hike across South Georgia in a successful attempt to save his men stranded on Elephant Island. More on that later.  Some of our shipmates made part of this hike. We opted for the beach and more wonderful pictures. On the beach is an abandoned whaling station that you can see, but clearly marked to not get closer than a certain point. There is loose asbestos debris that could fly around if a wind gust occurred.

We enjoyed looking at more wildlife before we returned to the ship. It was such an amazingly beautiful and warm day – 65 degrees and brightly sunny.

The pups loved playing on the boot cleaning rack above — attracted by the red color!

In the afternoon we disembarked at Grytviken which was established in 1904 as another whaling outpost with a church and, now, a museum.……but the most interesting thing is that it is the burial sight of Ernest Shackleton. The cemetery was filled with all the passengers and crew from the ship and Peter Harrison gave a toast at Shackleton’s grave which was quite beautiful. We joined Peter in the toast with a shot of Irish Whiskey, eschewing the champagne.

Shackleton was an early English explorer, along with Amundsen and Scott, trying to be the first to reach the South Pole. Shackleton was, at one point in time, the explorer who got closest to reaching the South Pole (ahead of Amundsen and Scott), but determined if he pushed forward he would not have sufficient food to make the return trip. He opted to save his men and did not go forward. On the return he was iced in at Elephant Island; it took himself and 5 other men pushing a 24 foot boat over ice, then sailing 800 miles through rough seas (leaving 22 men on Elephant Island promising to return). After weeks at sea as they reached South Georgia Island; they braved a hurricane for 5 days huddled under their inverted boat; and determined they had landed on the wrong shore of South Georgia Island.  Then Shackleton and 2 of the other 5 hiked 36-hours nonstop across the mountains to the whaling outpost on the opposite shore of South Georgia Island. There he organized a rescue mission, picked up the 3 men left on the opposite shore, and on his fourth try successfully returned to Elephant Island and saved all remaining 22 members of his crew. Peter Harrison said his men affectionately referred to him as “the Boss.”

The museum was interesting – full of artifacts from the ages. But what I enjoyed the most was the “touch me” section; I petted a seal coat (nice) and a King Penguin (interesting); I felt a flipper…..you get the idea. You might get somewhat close to a penguin, but definitely not to a seal, whether it’s a fur seal or an elephant seal. We saw pictures of vicious bites and even the big guys can move quickly!!

We passed some beautiful scenery on our way to our next stop:

 

On our last day at South Georgia Island, we began the day at Cooper Bay. There was a 6:00 a.m. group who climbed a steep hill to get up close and personal with our next thrilling sighting – the very adorable Macaroni Penguins. They look a lot like to Rock Hopper Penguins, but have much longer yellow fringe- the David Bowie of the Penguin world. We opted for the 8:30 a.m. departure on a zodiac cruise up close to their nesting sight on the island. Other than the difficultly of getting a still photo in a rocking vessel, it was a great trip!

A Macaroni Penguin and a Snowy Petrel:

Sitting on the nests and with chicks:

 

The kelp looks and feels like plastic — but slippery……very strange stuff:

I really liked watching this couple.  They were clearly a pair — he fell over on her into the water and afterward, he helped her back on the rock and patted her butt!!!  An awwww moment!

After an early lunch, we were back out on the beach – this time at Gold Harbour. But the bad news now – rain! On the beach were scattered at least 200 elephant seals and lots and lots of King Penguins. As massive as the Elephant Seals appeared to us, they are half the size of full grown Elephant Seals- the grown ones go to sea in November of each year.

Below is a young King Penguin and the one next is him molting to become his beautiful adult self:

John opted for a walk with Peter Harrison; the man has so much knowledge to share and I wandered around closer and watched these big creatures. I am hoping to include video of them lumbering around!

This is the end of a fantastic wildlife experience.  South Georgia truly is an amazing sight; we loved it all.  Just as we were starting to leave Gold Harbour, the skies lifted slightly and we were off.

We have two sea days of travel until we reach until we reach Elephant Island of the South Shetland Islands, then Antarctica…….stay tuned!

Beth

p.s.  I began vastly reducing the size of the pictures so that I could get them to load — I hope they look okay for you……just don’t try to print — the quality will be awful 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello to our friends and family,

The most amazing trip of our lives has begun; we are on our way to Antarctica!  The first part of the trip could not worked better. Even though there was a “cyclone bomb” going up the east coast, Atlanta was just fine and on time. Delta’s business class felt like first and we slept quite well and long!

 

We flew to Buenos Aires, leaving on 1/3. Buenos Aires was a blur. We arrived and were whisked to the Park Tower for our overnight. We arrived about 11:00 am and were told rooms would be ready about three. But, in our case, they were ready as soon as we had changed for the 97 F heat. I had brought my scooter to use only in BA. So we went to lunch in the area known as Puerto Madero – it has grown up a lot since we were here ten years ago! Then we popped into Freddo for ice cream — dulce de leche for me.  Then we went back to the room to rest for awhile, then out again to take the scooter to the hotel to which we are going to go upon our return – the Alvear Palace where we stayed last visit. While there we decided to split a hambuger in the bar – accompanied, of course, by a caiparinha! I don’t forget some things.

 

After a very short night (got up at 3:50 a.m.) we were on our way finally to Ushuaia (the southernmost city in South America) to get onto our cruise. None of this stay was without incident: our first taxi became frustrated with us since he was unable to fit the scooter into his trunk (even though he did have a giant water tank in his trunk)…..so we had to wait for a suv size. We did fit it into the same size taxi later, but without the extra equipment…..so, not us! Then I walked out of the Alvear Palace being chased by our waiter; I had left my new phone on my table! That would have irritated me.

The Silversea Explorer is a dream of a ship – totally remodeled in 2017 and with a capacity of 144 passengers and 12 zodiacs. This trip will be all about the beauty of our world and the amazing wildlife in this part of the world; it’s been a bucket list trip of mine for a long time!

When we landed in Ushuaia, we were transferred by bus to a hotel on the top of a mountain for lunch – really just a holding pattern to move our baggage to the ship and to clean the cabins…..but it was a lovely hotel and the day was pretty.

Our cabin is small but very functional – lots of storage and a small balcony for looking out (don’t think I would want to sit out there even if there were room!).

This picture is a panorama from our balcony before departing Ushuaia:

Our first day out was a day at sea, but don’t think relaxing: parka fittings (mine did not), boot fittings (mine did not), lectures about the Falkland Islands, and marine birds (yeah!).  But I took NO pictures that day.

We have a wonderful captain – Captain Maggi! And for our dinner that night, a fun table with a fabulous sunset view.  It was our first of two “informal” dress nights….but neither John nor I noticed the information about that.  We arrived at the cocktail party in our jeans, etc., turned around in a few minutes and changed into nicer clothes.  Most days, anything goes….  We just sat down in the dining room at a table for six…..and were joined by the people below, first the women, then the couple.  We liked them so much that we asked them a few days later to join us on my birthday

In The next morning we stopped at West Point Island, Falkland Islands. There we saw lots and lots of Black-browed Albatross and their chicks, as well as some Rock Hopper penguins.

Once we finished, we visited the home of the owners of the island – they once made their income from raising sheep (fine wool, if you’re interested), but have found that tourism is more lucrative. They served us tea and quite a beautiful spread of sweets. I couldn’t resist adding a picture of two of our staff – Oscar, a naturalist and Dom, our assistant expedition leader – really nice guys! Also a sample (not us) of one of our zodiacs returning to the ship.

We had lunch, then repositioned to Saunders Island, also in the Falklands. It has a beautiful harbor and beach and is home to thousands and thousands of Gentoo Penguins. I walked a short way from the beach, found a perch and watched and watched them. It was a warm day (very sunny and high 40’s), so the ones that you see lying down are just suffering from the heat…..so resting. You can see me in the Land Rover with Susan, one of the five or six owners of this island. When I heard that there were also King Penguins on Saunders, but they were over the hill (hence further than I thought I could walk), she offered to take me. She and her sister-in-law Bippo were running a concession out of the back of the other Land Rover – I very happily bought a ball cap – very nice people!

Below is the Magellanic penguin.  And below that is the Caracara that Susan was playing with.  I love the shot that John took of them walking together with their wings spread behind them!

The next day we landed in Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands. It is very quaint and British……and overwhelmingly support staying British – by something like 80%, John and I eschewed the sightseeing bus tour in favor of a sleep in and were rewarded later in the day with people telling us what a wise decision we made. On our own we strolled to the church and interesting whale bone statue alongside. We admired the lupins – they are gigantic and so colorful. And we took in the political sign in a window.

It was also my birthday and when we returned to the ship I was overwhelmed with the decorations in our room. Our butler and housekeeper and totally decorated it for my birthday. We asked some friends to dine with us that night and after dinner I was serenaded by about ten members of the wait staff and a guitar.   And the chef (another woman) came over to wish me Happy Birthday. She had made a special (and delicious) cake for the event which I shared with the table. What a fine day!! One person said to me yesterday, “How many people in the world get to celebrate their birthday in the Falkland Islands?!!!” What a thought!

I’ll leave you with that.  I don’t know if this will reach you easily as our internet is so weak.  I have been uploading these pictures during the night as there are fewer people online then (I think).  If I can there will be another blog coming — at least at some point.  I’m sure that the signal from Antarctica will be really weak 🙂

Love to all,

Beth

On Thursday we continued our journey around the north part of Iceland. My daughter mentioned that she didn’t understand our route because my old blog had a map of where we were going and this one does not. So you understand, we began in Rejykavik which is in the southwest part of Iceland and we drove east, then north, then west, then south back to the beginning. We circled the entire island.

Google Iceland and connect it to the names in the travel if you would like a more precise idea where we were.  Next trip I’ll try to include a map!

So we had a way to go on Thursday. We stopped at an information center and discovered that there was a place on the way that had turf houses that were built in the 1800’s and earlier.  They were really quite well done – old furniture of the times inside. What impressed us the most was how warm the turf walls were and how warm it was inside.

That’s a little heater, above.  And the Master Bedroom below:

Some long socks!!!!  And a mill below:

The dorm above and the pantry below.

Next we had lunch in the town where we would be staying that night, Sauoadarkrokur – at the Hard Wok Café. No Chinese for us, just burgers and pizza. Speaking of pizza, it appears that that is the go-to meal for lots of people in Iceland. Michael obliged by having it nine times!!!!! That way he didn’t have to try anything weird! But John and I had five pizza meals, Kathryn four. Hahaha…… We passed by our hotel, described as quaint and romantic…….also pretty rustic.

Just a little charm:

The big adventure on Thursday was the Family Rafting trip. We were able to choose between 2+ and up……or 4+ and up. Thank you very much, but the Family Trip was adventure enough! It was in a beautiful canyon and was tons of fun….. we stopped several times along the way; first for hot chocolate, then to allow those that wished to jump off a tall rock, then later at a smooth place, where one could get out to swim in the cold water. We were all in dry suits and Kathryn and Michael were happy to take advantage of the fun.  John and I were happy to watch. The entire trip was fun for me…….until the end when we had to climb a gigantic mountain to get back to the bus to take us to base camp.  My wonderful guide Djeep helped me slowly, slowly, slowly make my way to the top. But I didn’t have a choice – I had to get there!

I didn’t want to climb over the rocks to where they were serving hot chocolate — I received special delivery!!!

Do notice how high the walls of the canyon are……and think about me going up them — even if there was so dirt; it was still quite high!

Michael was the first one to jump — next two pictures (mine then the professional).

Kathryn jumped second; this time his, then mine….

And swimming back….

 

And I upgraded so I could do video!

That wasn’t even exciting — just a nice little bouncy, bounce!!!

On Friday we also had a lot of driving to do……but we had a great stop midway through the day at Into The Glacier, a fascinating walk into a tunnel inside of a glacier. I am going to include the sign picture because the facts are quite interesting.

Putting on out crampons….

You can read the age, just like the rings on a tree.

Standing behind the altar in the old chapel.

Sitting in the new chapel….  There have been many weddings there!

By the way, when I went to get my drysuit, the woman asked me if I got cold easily — hahaha — NO!  So she said I could just wear my coat (that I had waterproofed) with that light but waterproof blue jacket over it.  Bad choice whenever I sat down I was freezing!!!!  Although I had sprayed Scotchguard on my jeans — they were cold and wet…..

I made it all the way, but I was really tired!!!

 

We ended the day with a drive back into Rejykavik to our same hotel and a nice dinner at Jaime’s Italian again.

 

On Saturday morning we slept in a bit, but there was some shopping to do before we headed to our last adventure on the way to the airport – the Blue Lagoon.  However, poor Michael had to make three trips to the car to get us all loaded!!!!

The Blue Lagoon is, arguably,  the most famous of all of the things we did; it’s a very, very nice thermal pool. Our entry included two kinds of masks (one silica mud and one algae) and a drink and a towel. We had very little time, but we did enjoy the experience and wished we had had more time!

Pops found the rain shower….

Our flights were really long and the connection was really late. We didn’t end up getting to Austin until 2:30 a.m. and then had to get our car from the airport hotel (slightly offsite) and drive almost an hour to the lake – that’s getting into Austin at 7:30 a.m. Iceland time…………LONG DAY!

But what a trip – Iceland wasn’t even on my radar when some friends of ours from England told us they were going, maybe about five years ago. I asked them why. And they told me that it was really beautiful. They were right. Mostly it is very interesting: the scenery changes instantly when you go around a mountain from green pastures to a moonscape covered with moss. The weather often changes every few minutes. One of our guides told me that tourism has increased by 30 to 40% each year. That’s huge!!!!

The opportunity to spend such good, quality time with Kathryn and Michael made this a cherished event. Here’s a fun fact: their sister Maddie was in the Newark airport at the same time we were at JFK on the way home. She was on her way to Edinburgh with other students from Texas A & M majoring in dance to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Wow! The world has gotten so much smaller since we were in school!!!! Wish I could have been in both Scotland and Iceland at the same time.

I hope you have enjoyed following us on such an exciting adventure — we had the time of our lives!!!!

Love,

Beth

p.s.  a bonus if you wish —  more videos from past times (courtesy of Kathryn):