kochleffel

One of my friends is an archivist at the regional history museum. No on the menu suggestion (shrimp). Irish coffee would be OK with me and I'll be ready for it in a little while, I think. I believe that I have an Irish coffee mug from a trivia game or something on NCL. For a sparkling red wine from the FL, Sparkling Rebel with a Cause from Red Tail Ridge, $39.97. "A serious dry red blend of 50% Teroldego, 25% Cabernet Franc & 25% Blaufränkish that was done Méthode Champenoise." (I've corrected their French. I often seem to do that with restaurant menus here. And their German.) The weather report says that it ought to stop raining about now, but it hasn't started and so maybe it won't.

Arborio rice.

I wasn't speaking only about excursions, but they were the most convenient example. The general principle -- book things that you think you will like and don't worry about whether each is absolutely THE BEST -- applies broadly, even to onboard activities. I gravitate to smaller private tours and sometimes to DIY, but I'll use a cruise line's tour if I have no particular inspiration about that port or nothing else is available. A few years ago at St. Petersburg, with an overnight, I joined a few others for a specialized private tour on our first day there; the others were ordinarily afraid to book anything except through the cruise line, but with an overnight, they felt that it was safe enough. On the second day, I found that I had to book through the cruise line, because no private tour agencies would take a booking for just the second day, and I couldn't DIY since I didn't have a visa and don't read Russian. DIY is stressful but sometimes unavoidable if one especially wants to visit a certain place. I did it with a rental car once in France, to visit the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, which even custom tours avoid because of the limited parking, and once recently in Spain, by train (the train in Spain stays mainly on the plain) when a tour operator didn't get enough people. For my next cruise, I plan to be on my own in two ports that I've visited before, not even go ashore at one, and book tours for another.

In the forum for another cruise line, someone asked why participation in roll calls for that line was poor. The reply was "We are all experienced cruisers who know what we like. We don't want to be hawked to join other people's tours and we don't want to meet strangers." It put me off booking on that cruise line for a couple of years. When I did, I found that a high percentage of the passengers were, indeed, experienced cruisers, and that most were friendly.

It's possible if you really want to. I haven't tried it in Alaska, but several years ago I spent some time in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in weather that was sometimes very wet (Germany was having record rain) for part of the time and sometimes cold (at 11,300 feet in Switzerland), with only a carry-on bag. Gear for the weather: an unlined packable rain parka from Patagonia, and a packable down-alternative vest (gilet if you're British) from LL Bean. I've used the same things in Alaska and the Faroes, specifically when on the water. Downside: washing some clothing in a bathroom sink almost every night. And for a cruise (none of the trips mentioned above was a cruise), it means re-wearing the same clothes while being around the same people. That doesn't bother me. For the Europe trip, I carried a blazer over my arm because it made my softsided bag slightly too thick for the plane.

That sounds very much like the fracture that I had right before Thanksgiving in 2017. The upside of a surgical repair is that the arm, within the limits of soreness and stiffness, is functional right away. For example, I was able to type on a computer keyboard with both hands. What I couldn't do for two months, because I couldn't reach far enough, was tie my shoes, and I had to get a pair with Velco fastening.

I think that I might prefer ordinary hollandaise with the salmon and asparagus, and I might like the cocktail better without the alcohol (this is the first time I have ever said that). For the wine, a Finger Lakes Cabernet Franc might be the most similar, but to stick with Pinot Noir I'd consider Dr. Frank's Old Vines Pinot Noir 2021. "Includes the original Pinot Noir vines planted in 1958 by our founder representing the 2nd oldest Pinot Noir vines in America. Radiant and luminous offering nuanced cranberries and red cherries woven with earthiness, leather, and subtle oak notes. Silken and light yet mineral evolving into a complex, long-lasting finish," $26.99.

Have you considered disguises?

Paradoxically, new cruisers who come to Cruise Critic for information could find that it increases their anxiety--not because of misinformation, but because there are many posts from people trying to optimize their cruises in every possible way. For example, they may want to find the BEST excursion, the BEST tour guide, and others may think that they should do that, too. But one person's best can be another person's mediocre or truly awful. (No way am I going swimming with pigs.) If I were asked, I would say, try to choose excursions that you think you will like and don't worry whether you made the best possible choice.

It will definitely be more convenient when the new Metro line reaches Oceankaj. I wonder what the person would have thought about Civitavecchia, which handles all kinds of ship traffic and is way more inconvenient for Rome.

My first choice would be a Misty Fjords flight with Island Wings. A Herring Cove bear tour would be next: on a boardwalk above the bears, and they use two guides, one to escort you and another to look for bears.

And, iirc, only two items from the old pasta section, including risotto. No more gnocchi, for example.

Shavuot decorations The decorations represent four loosely related themes of Shavuot. Chronologically, they are the festival of first fruits, a harvest festival defined in the Torah, seven weeks after Passover; the revelation at Sinai, calculated to coincide with that; the Book of Ruth, one of the readings for Shavuot, perhaps chosen because the denouement takes place during the barley harvest; and eating dairy foods, on the theory that the Hebrews, after receiving the commandments, realized that any meat they had wasn't kosher. From left to right: a giclee print of a painting of Ruth and Naomi; the Ten Commandments (bookends); a sheaf of wheat, since I haven't found the barley, but wheat is another of the Seven Species of biblical food crops; a box of Lactaid, representing the hardship that Shavuot imposes on those of us who are lactose-intolerant; pomegranates, figs, and grapes, three more of the Seven Species; a 19th-century French painting depicting Moses and Aaron at Mount Sinai; and olives, another of the Seven Species. I'm told that the fruits are supposed to be in a gold or silver basket, which I neither have nor want. This is a hammered-aluminum tray that was a wedding present to my parents.

Thinking of yesterday's discussion of Zuiderdam's having docked at Oceankaj in Copenhagen: there is a thread in the forum of aNother Cruise Line accusing that line of choosing cheap industrial ports instead of nice cruise ports, and calling it bait and switch. This season, Seabourn, Viking, and AIDA are the only cruise lines using Langelinie for day calls at Copenhagen. All others are using Oceankaj. It is true that Oceankaj is in a huge port complex, the rest of which handles cargo, including container ships, roros, and tankers, but the Oceankaj docks are used only by cruise ships.

When I was rolling a bag across Gamla Stan in Stockholm, walking from my hotel to a bus to the cruise terminal, I was very glad that it was a two-wheeled bag. The noise, on cobblestones, was still considerable, but at least it rolled. Both of my rolling bags--I use only one a time, to be clear--are two-wheeled. One, from eBags, is legal as a carry-on, should I want to. The other is a 28-inch rolling duffel from Eagle Creek, no longer made. I suppose that it might be possible to pack the latter too heavily to check, but I never have.

Where I most liked the four-course menu was La Cucina: antipasto, pasta, main, dessert, a typical menu in Italy. One time I had a new server who didn't understand this and served the pasta and the main together. I had him take the main back until I was ready for it.

NCL is using Oceankaj, the same as all cruise lines except Seabourn, Viking, and AIDA this season. Only cruise ships dock at Oceankaj; they're not docking right next to container ships, tankers, and the like. However, other docks in the massive Nordhavnen complex may be visible, especially on the road in and out.

A spinach wrap with hummus would be OK; the drink would not. There is less Traminette grown in the Finger Lakes that I would have predicted, given that it was developed here by Cornell at the NYS Agriculture Experiment Station in Geneva, NY. I'd be willing to try the 2021 from the tiny Deer Run Winery on Conesus Lake, $16.99. "[T]ropical fruit bouquet with citrus notes and a floral finish. A perfect wine to pair with Asian dishes or spicy foods!" I've taken two cruises to Bermuda but only set foot on the island once, for just one of the three scheduled days. The other two days of that cruise, and all of the second, were spent in the Bermuda Triangle.

The Dawn's May docking at Copenhagen was at Oceankaj, which is the main cruise terminal for embarkations (part of the Nordhavnen complex). Looking at the port schedules, there are few day calls at Langelinie--chiefly Viking, Seabourn, and AIDA ships. Holland America's Zuiderdam was also at Oceankaj yesterday and passengers complained in that forum about the distance, inconvenience, and cost of the shuttles. Oceankaj is served by bus to the Metro but day visitors tend not to know that.

I'd like a frittata with asparagus and leek, but would substitute something else for the ricotta, which is very high in lactose. A Negroni would be OK, too; I have gin but no Campari or red vermouth. A German pinot noir should be very like one grown in the Finger Lakes. For a sustainably grown one, I might look to Silver Thread Vineyard for its 2022: "Reminiscent of a Bourgogne Rouge but with a Finger Lakes stamp of origin, this terroir-driven Pinot Noir has aromas of plums, cherries, forest floor, wet stone and dried herbs. It is delicate in color, yet displays focused intensity and complexity on the palate. Its long finish shows vanilla, caramel, red fruit and minerals from the shale-heavy soil of our vineyard," $32. I visited Tracy Arm Inlet in 2021 as a day trip from Juneau with Adventure Bound. I embarked from Oceankaj in 2022. From there, if you have time, it's easy to take the 25 bus to Orientkaj and the Metro to Kongens Nytorv. If you want to get to Nyhavn from the Kongens Nytorv station, it's a 10-minute walk, but the most practical way to find the route and pay the fare is with the Danish DOT phone app, which a passenger on a day call probably wouldn't have. IIRC, you can install the phone app anywhere but you might have to be in Denmark to set up the payment method.

It's arriving here now.

In Los Angeles I had jury duty with a woman who was a substitute teacher for Los Angeles, Burbank, and Glendale. She gave preference to Los Angeles, because if she taught enough days per year she could participate in their health insurance, and almost always worked at the same school. In their system, your priority rose when you accepted sub calls and fell when you didn't. She disliked teaching the first or last week of the school year, so she marked herself as "on vacation" those weeks.

I'm from the middle of the first wave of the baby boom. I appreciated the explanation of the date for delusions day but I don't think that delusions need any encouragement. Deviled eggs would be OK and maybe I'll make some. I'd probably like the drink, once anyway. For the wine, we're back to Weis Vineyards, this time for the Winzer Select Riesling K 2002. "This delicate off dry style Kabinett Riesling is bright and vibrant with classic white peach, flinty minerality, and lively lemony acidity on the finish in addition to more ripe tropical notes of kiwi and guava. The fuller body and slightly acidic backbone means it will age well and pairs with many different foods," $26.99.

I thought you might suggest butternut squash.