Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Two

Another option is ordering off the sandwich small bites menu in the panorama lounge.

If it's nice weather, the pool deck is lovely. The menu is pretty good.

Wherever you dine enjoy the cruise!

MDR is open for lunch on embarkation day. Enjoy![emoji568]

Hi Coolers!

Rainy day here in Blighty ...

Spins, JP is your man if you want to ple-plan something in BCN. People fall into two categories don't they? :D Bookers or Grazers.

We never book normally anywhere but would just graze. BCN is good for grazing because of the tapas bars. If I were to book, I'd book to eat something at this very moment I would murder for. Suckling Pig and for that in BCN El Yantar de la Ribera would be my choice.

http://elyantardelaribera.com/en/

Jeff

After 3 days in Havana and 3 days in Grand Cayman, we joined our ship, Serenissima, and are now chugging along the south coast of Cuba. A new experience for us is that every crew member and all 66 passengers must have their temperatures checked by men in white coats before anyone goes ashore. This means have some sort of laser ray pointed at your forehead. Oh the joys of communism. Here's a shot of our ship tied up at Cienfuegos yesterday.

some sort of laser ray

Good Grief Fletch! :eek:

As a kitchen person you should know all about laser thermometers! I have one for my kitchen and they use them all the time in places like Singapore when there is some sort of outbreak .... and of course they were used all over in the ebola thingy!

That ship does look really lovely ..... lots of character.

Hope you enjoy it and post lots of piccies! :)

Jeff

Singapore does a temp. Check also.

Hope you enjoy it and post lots of piccies! :) Jeff

TGBoss: Embarkation lunch Well' date=' my [b']first SS cruise is fast approaching[/b]. We leave this Friday from PR. Beyond excited! Quick question for all you experts: Is there more than one dining option on the Wind for embarkation lunch? Like to explore all options!

Yes, Yes!! Looking forward to lots and lots more Cuba pictures and details from Fletcher.

For TGBoss, there will be options for lunch as you board the Silver Wind. Ask the staff when you get on board. We always enjoy sitting on the open, back of the ship, enjoying some wine, etc. Good luck with your first cruise with Silversea.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 194,928 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

Thanks, Terry. I've enjoyed reading your posts from your trips and have gotten a lot of ideas from them. Plus your photos are fantastic!

Re the Referendum in the Uk, we are pensioners and know no one who is going to vote in. Our generation wanted a trading alliance not including all the rubbish that has come with it. If we vote out, and I hope we do, maybe there will be massive reorganisation of Europe and be the wake up call they need.

Re the Referendum in the Uk, we are pensioners and know no one who is going to vote in. Our generation wanted a trading alliance not including all the rubbish that has come with it. If we vote out, and I hope we do, maybe there will be massive reorganisation of Europe and be the wake up call they need.

I often find myself wodering what it might feel like if I were a gnarled old Greek man rather than a wrinkly scruffy British one. I identify closely with gnarled old Greek men because when I use to spend a lot of time in Cyprus I was mistaken for being a Greek Cypriot.

We mustn't generalise of course, but rightly or wrongly you can. There is something us Brits love about the Mediteranean disposition. They live for today and in the well worn and proven belief that tommorow will probably take care of itself. They like us Brits had an empire once. They also had a somewhat more robust culture. For example. so undecided were they about their Gods they were canny and hedged their bets and had many. So whilst they may have been during the good times a carefree nation, it all changed when it came to the second world war, and in the interests of protecting their sovereignty they laid down the lives of 160,000 Greek people. And yet less than a generation later they have effectively lost their sovereignty to the very same people that had cost all those lives.

How did this happen?

Easy cash is a drug and the Greeks being of a true Med disposition, imbibed deeply and the drug dealer having insured the drugee was hooked completely and in way over their heads, eventually called in the debt. And now Greece has become a department of Germany without a single shot being fired or a single life being lost. They are imprisoned.

I really want to go on but I mustn't. To me this is all about sovereignty. When did we all give our consent to be governed by Germany? When did we agree to give up the right to decide who will live here? And those that say it is shared how do they answer the question that 27 times we have objected to eu legislation and 27 times we lost. I know that if we pull out there will be some turbulence and uncertainty for a time. But when we get through those clouds there will be sunlight and freedom and I want my country back.

Jeff

Wow Jeff.

Just wow.

Hear hear again to Jeff and mjnvoyager.

The more difficult DC and his minions make it for the 'outers' to get facts and figures the more inclined we will be to vote out when the time comes. As I posted earlier, I would prefer DC to remain PM whatever the outcome, but he and his cronies need to be fair minded and not vindictive in their treatment of those who disagree with them. The British have a strong sense of fair play - especially the older ones like us, who are the ones who will almost certainly vote.

Well said Jeff.

Greetings Coolers!

Today we were in Sandakan, Borneo Malaysia. We did a ship tour called The Great Apes of Borneo. It was about a 20 to 25 minute drive from the port to the Sepilok Orangutan Center located in the mangrove rain forest. We saw about 6 orangutans at the feeding station and then about 11 in the outdoor nursery. We spent about 2 hours there. Here is a picture of a very entertaining orangutan.

We then visited Sim Sim Water Village. These were homes built on stilts above the water. There were even a couple restaurants in this village. Here is a picture.

Tomorrow is a sea day.

Have a great day/evening all!

Nice piccies M, particularly that Trump piccy.

:)

Jeff

I see the Turkish PM has threatened to open the floodgates to even more unless the EU pays €2.4Bn to them.... And they want to join the EU!!!

And the French Mayor in Calais has said he will put them all on a ferry if we have a Brexit.

Rolls Royce workers in Germany have been told they face the sack if we vote out!

With friends like that......

And on a more pleasant note our Silver Box just turned up!!! I don't recall getting the plastic case tags with steel "string" before. Is that new?

Lovely piccies... oranutans are great.

Well, my first SS cruise is fast approaching. We leave this Friday from PR. Beyond excited! Quick question for all you experts: Is there more than one dining option on the Wind for embarkation lunch? Like to explore all options!

Which cruise are you on? Ours is 13th April from Barcelona.

I see the Turkish PM has threatened to open the floodgates to even more unless the EU pays €2.4Bn to them.... And they want to join the EU!!!

 

And the French Mayor in Calais has said he will put them all on a ferry if we have a Brexit.

 

Rolls Royce workers in Germany have been told they face the sack if we vote out!

 

With friends like that......

 

And on a more pleasant note our Silver Box just turned up!!! I don't recall getting the plastic case tags with steel "string" before. Is that new?

 

Lovely piccies... oranutans are great.

Good afternoon Les,

To be honest, whilst I cannot agree or disagree with the €2.4Bn figure I do believe in principle Turkey has a very fair point and the principle is in all our interests.

However compassionate one feels about Syrians fleeing Syria, it seems to me that the issue is that we extend immediate humanitarian help in facilitating their rights as refugees ie seeking refuge and safety. In my view this means accepting them in the closest place of safety to protect their lives in the hope that they might soon return and rebuild their lives in their home country and to rebuild their long-term communities.

In fact under the guise of compassion this international obligation has seemingly been allowed to morph into the concept of providing all with a permanenent new life elsewhere. This is certainly not necessarily good for the receiving countries and might not be good long term for the Syrians who should simply be seeking safe flight and a "temporary" safe haven. This should incentivise the community to try and sort things out. Those that do not feel that this level of support for refugees is enough but they should all be absorbed into the rest of the EU is accused of lacking compassion. If Syrians demand more than safety once they arrive in Turkey ie as close to Syria as possible then they are asking for something more than refugee status and to be frank there appears to be a lot of young single male refugees than there are families. This means to me that the international community has an obligation to provide Turkey with signifacnt assistance to ensure the welfare of the refugees as close to their homes that is safe. I see that in our best interests as well, and have always felt this to be so. Turkey should have cash and help. After all it was Germany who invited an unrestricted level of Syrians to make their way to Germmany and has therefore been particularly instrumental in increasing the numbers seeking passage only to find the borders from Turkey ie the borders from Turkey into the EU problematic and therefore leaving vast numbers of Syrians marooned in Turkey. I feel that the assistance to Turkey should be provided both by the EU and UN and we should contribute.

So far as the Calais situation is concerned, this treaty was the Touquet treaty and has nothing to do with EU membership and some of the French should shut their ill-informed Gallic gobs! :D

Today is Le Steak at Frites (not Fritz ... as that is a different member).

:)

Jeff

EDITED: ps .... god to hear your Silver box has arrived!

And on a more pleasant note our Silver Box just turned up!!! I don't recall getting the plastic case tags with steel "string" before. Is that new?

Les, great news on the silver box! You must be getting excited. Here are a few food shots from our last meal in Barcelona, on the night before we left. It was actually a bit of a challenge for the staff to find us someplace to eat on a Sunday night, Christmas weekend. Many places were closed but they found us a table at Pla, in the Gothic quarter. Here is a link to their website, with some more food pictures thrown in for good measure...

We had a nice table in their upstairs section, next to the railing, with a good view of the restaurant. It was cozy and service was not rushed - though we'd been told when the staff made the reservation that we only had the table for 2 hours.

Wine is always subjective but nothing like a glass of Cava to start while we perused the menus. They make both rosé and white versions. For our main meals, which are often all over the place in terms of what wine would go "best" with each dish, we've found that Garnacha is often a good all-purpose drink. Not too tannic and heavy, with decent acidity, and it can go reasonably well with dishes that require a lighter wine. And it will stand up to more meaty dishes. We chose this one for our meal, a blend of Garnacha and Tinta de Toro:

First courses were: a free range egg cooked to 65ºC (so, it still had a nice runny yolk), served with sautéed shimeji mushrooms, pork belly and garden herbs. Can't remember what the foam was but this dish was so good...

Chris went traditional, and had Iberian ham shavings with tomato rubbed flat bread (pan amb tomàquet; supposedly very traditional). It was a huge amount of ham!

Main courses were equally delicious. We seem to really like duck these days, so Chris ordered duck breast with ras al hanout, stewed green lentils and a soy reduction. I sampled enough to ensure that it was as tasty as it looked!

My dish was an Iberian pork pluma, served with beer and ginger sauce, cauliflower purée, and blood sausage. It was cooked at most to medium; some was probably medium-rare. Very tender, and tasty.

Since they did bring us the dessert menu, why not? It was our last night in Barcelona, and there were some interesting choices!

A little palate cleanser before dessert - strawberry juice, served in miniature glass soda bottles.

We ordered some dessert wines along with some goodies to try.

My dessert was called a "little hot banana" and it was described as caramelized baby banana, toffee, tonka bean, lemon granita and a touch of rum. I thought it would be somewhat like Bananas Foster, but it was less saucy than that particular dish. Good thing because that means less butter. Very tasty, and the lemon granite cut through the richness of the other ingredients.

Chris went more savory than sweet, with an olive oil sponge cake served with basil cream, and a raspberry and hazelnut sorbet. It was very nice, despite the odd-sounding combination for dessert. The sorbet added just a touch of sweetness which was enough.

So we left Barcelona with great memories of different styles of dining - we did our share of grazing, as Jeff loves, and we had a nice seafood meal at an outdoor place on the beach, but we had two outstanding dinners as well. Nice mix!

JP, lovely food piccies .... you had some great food although I don't think Les will approve of that sous vide egg ..... ;)

Today was steak and Breddon champagne. A nice picture of me after lunch.

:)

Jeff

Hi all.....having trouble again with posting so apologies. Spins....CD on board will be Moss Hills.... He joins the ship at the end of March . HD is Flavio. Not sure who will be in La T......

S [emoji5]

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Jeff - agree about Turkey... but not with the threats! And it seems that the French president has waded in suggesting that agreement is torn up. Living in Kent, its an easy route to Europe.. but fine with me if they close it if that's what they really want. All he has done for me is strengthen my view we should leave.

Cheers for the food pics JP - Jeff is right about the eggs! haha

Jeff - agree about Turkey... but not with the threats! And it seems that the French president has waded in suggesting that agreement is torn up. Living in Kent, its an easy route to Europe.. but fine with me if they close it if that's what they really want. All he has done for me is strengthen my view we should leave.

 

Cheers for the food pics JP - Jeff is right about the eggs! haha

I agree.

I think the more they threaten and pain gloom the more stubborn I think that the babyboomers onwards will be and get more irritated, angry and stubborn. The key themes that the "in" lot will do will be not just fear but that they will demand that the "outs" visualise and detail all the future treaties terms now whereas of course they cannot until they are negotiated. So the in side argument will focus on "you know what you get when you stay, and we can make it better but vote out and they cannot tell you how bad that leap in the dark will be". That won't wash with older people but will wash with younger people.

Certainly all the threats from EU governments will strengthen the resolve of older people and it is them that takes the trouble to vote. I hope it is enough.

Jeff

Nail on the head Jeff. My first thought on hearing the French threat was 'you can't bully me'. Think they are shooting themselves in the foot.