Quirky Honfleur and Quirkier Eric Satie's House

Monday – 10 June 2013 – Honfleur, France

Yesterday, we took a cab from the Premier Inn, West Quay—Premier means mid-priced and West Quay is a shopping center near the cruise terminal—to the Silver Cloud at 11am. The "no early boarding" policy appeared relaxed for us as Barbara and I were on the double secret "Early Boarding List" at Security at the cruise terminal, Security inside the cruise terminal, and at the ship's gangway. Better to be on the secret non-existent list if it's to your advantage, I say. We also found that our suite was ready for us at this early hour, and we enjoyed a very nice lunch in the dining room of the ship.

I should mention that since we were last on Silver Cloud, the almost 20 year old original ship of Silversea Cruise Line, has undergone a "soft renovation". That means that all the carpets, bedding, actually the whole beds, upholstery of all the public and suite furnishing, and especially the guest bathrooms, have been replaced, and a many of the public areas have been completely redecorated. Particularly stunning is the rebuild main bar and the showroom. Very nice work indeed, and most of all the WiFi coverage in the room is provided by an ensuite access point. No need to open the door to use the Wifi. They have even provided free streaming TV channels on iPhones and personal laptops or tablets (which works quite well) and free subscriptions to many world newspapers (which works not at all). Nice touches, kinda. Best of all for many, the air conditioning system which had failed on the ship for a number of cruises before dry dock was said to be replaced. (We later found out on the one or two warm evenings of this cruise that the a/c work was not quite completed.)

We met a few folks who were on the "World Cruise" longer than our mere 50 days in January and February, gluttons for punishment that we all are, and like us are back on this ship for this one. Nice to see them, of course. I realized that despite the gluton free/lactose free screw-ups of our Caribbean cruise on this ship of a few years ago, the Silver Cloud has now gotten that as well as most of the other service issues resolved and instantly reminded me that Cloud was  really my favorite ship on the line. More on that later.

We sailed up the Bouche de la Seine this morning and tied up alongside in the town of Honfleur, a lovely old (and oddly enough intact) town in Normandy. Today is the southernmost point of our 27 day cruise at just under 50 degrees North Latitude. 

Honfleur—not a French word but a corruption of Norse meaning "mouth of a big river", the Norse not missing a trick—is a very touristy 900 year old town that escaped the bombardments of WWII. There are lots of very old buildings, pretty winding streets, a lovely waterfront, and narrow sidewalks full of merde du chien, a French national tradition. A carousel plays Bolero. That sort of place. 

After my first day's bespoke lactose-free pastries, Barbara and I took the 9:30am ship's shuttle bus the mile or so ride to the center of town and walked a couple of miles exploring this nice low-key first stop of the cruise. Having successfully dodged the sidewalk excrement, we made our way to the Eric Satie House, where the quirky composer lived for much of his life. That is, when he wasn't begging free meals and hanging out with the likes of Picasso, John Cage, and the other turn of the century drunks and stoners. The Maison Satie is as quirky as the composer/painter/poet and a must see for those of us who love quirky, obscure museums. 

We came back to Silver Cloud for lunch and a nap. A great first day on the cruise.

Tomorrow the ship spends the day at Oostende, Belgium. We plan to, of course, see nearby Bruges and probably continue on the train to Ghent.

The Unfriendly and Friendly Skies of United Airlines and West Sussex, Respectively

Thursday to Friday mid-day  - 6 ,7 June 2013 - Boulder to London

My friend and cruise agent extraordinaire Jim has mentioned that he is finding that it's the air travel that has become the strongest negative to luxury cruise marketing. Cost saving efforts by the cruise lines make booking the flight arrangements through them difficult due to awkward routing and forced last minute arrivals to the port of embarkation. But one way open jaw itineraries, especially to distant end points, require that the special fares available to the cruise lines are often necessary. The airlines have added to the difficulties because their increased load factors make flexibility because of weather or maintenance delays impossible. 

Barbara and I have increased our "luck" traveling overseas by being defensive. (That means expensive.) We book multi-hour layovers to change planes and usually leave one or two days at the destination before our ships sail. Of course, such luck is expensive and usually boring. When it comes to flying commercially, luck isn't what it used to be.

Neither is United Airlines. The friendly skies have been replaced with the sullen skies and the gloomy delay congested gate areas. The Economy Plus seats are now filled with paid upgrades as only the highest status flyers get automatic seating in the better seas. And all aircraft seem to be "every full" (sometimes as bad as "extremely full") as the flight attendant say numerous times when you are lucky enough to finally board.

As reported in my Facebook posts in great frustrated detail, our ten hour, twenty-five minute flight times from Denver to London was closer to eighteen hours, for a record twenty-six hours total home to our Southampton hotel. United's crack maintenance delays were the cause, with the overseas flight's almost five hour delay coming in 10 minute increments with threats to cancel the flight with each new "decision time". 

They didn't cancel the flight as it happened, but United Airlines somehow did destroy our booking from Copenhagen to Denver at the end of the cruise to add injury to insult. All was fixed due to my almost fifty years of flight experience and a bunch of iPhone apps and purchasing Internet access at the Southampton hotel and having the couple of hours to spare on the phone with United and SAS to re-establish the lost flight details. Thanks be to Skype Out.

Friday afternoon through Saturday -7, 8 June 2013 – Southampton, UK

After an almost four month "shore excursion" back in Colorado, preparation for another cruise proceeded apace. Despite the lengthy and stress ridden flights to London, we were most happy to see that English weather, at least in West Sussex, had changed from cold and wet to cloudless skies and 70 degree plus temperatures. I mentioned this to the Brits at our hotel in Southampton, and they agreed that we should come frequently to the UK and not bring any rain protection, certainly not ever needing to pack an umbrella again.  They even smiled when they gave this advice. Most unusual for English folks.

We actually enjoyed our planned 2½ day stay in Southampton quite a bit, the weather certainly contributing to our getting the most of the reduced time and enhanced jet lag due to the stress of modern travel afforded by United Airlines most gracious efforts to ruin the trip. Southampton is a large modern city but with a marvelous history going back hundreds of years. There are many remnants of the city walls, each carefully documented with neat (highly over documented to tell the truth) signs, and the sea-faring past hangs over the city. The old White Star Headquarters building radiates anxiety to this day as the site where relatives of the rich and famous lost on the Titantic waited for word of the fate of their inheritances—I mean relatives. 

We took a ferry ride to make a short visit to nearby Cowes on the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. The brand spanking new Royal Princess cruise ship was docked awaiting the Duchess of York to officially christen this floating emporium of climbing walls and inside atrium balcony facing rooms, and the Queen Mary 2, the new but last ocean liner called during our stay. As did about a half dozen other cruise ships. Elderly, shopping bagged couples wandered the streets and the shopping centers and came and went throughout the day. But Southampton is really a glorified but pleasant cruise port. To tell the truth, we liked Southampton quite a bit and some day hope to spend less time there.