Live from the Sojourn - 21 Days in the Med

[travel4b]

I love soft shell crabs and living on the Chesapeake Bay I’m a bit of a snob about them. Seabourn’s we’re surprisingly good. 

[JodiandFrank]

On 10/1/2022 at 8:44 AM, doglover214 said:

I will be boarding the Sojourn in November for the transatlantic. 
Are there American outlets in the cabins, or will I need to have a converter?

Are there USB ports?

 

Us, too!!!!

Can’t wait….

[SLSD]

Fletcher,  You missed the Megalithic Temples of Malta on Gozo.  They are probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I found them memorable.  We've never been on a Hop On Hop Off bus.  

Edited October 4, 2022 by SLSD

[Fletcher]

10 hours ago, SLSD said:

Fletcher,  You missed the Megalithic Temples of Malta on Gozo.  They are probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I found them memorable.  We've never been on a Hop On Hop Off bus.  

Yes, we missed them.  I have never been able to appreciate these Megalithic (and their ilk) sites.  Stonehenge for instance leaves me unmoved.  My fault.

[GreenFamily]

8 hours ago, Fletcher said:

Yes, we missed them.  I have never been able to appreciate these Megalithic (and their ilk) sites.  Stonehenge for instance leaves me unmoved.  My fault.

One of most fascinating tours is of Newgrange, a perfectly preserved prehistoric tomb near Dublin that dates back to 3200 B.C. It was the highlight of our trip to Ireland.

[Flamin_June]

Have been enjoying tremendously this travelogue, but find it rather sad to read your impressions of Gozo. I worked there for some months in the late 1990s, when it was still very much a backwater though with some tourism of course, and on the whole quite charming. Nicholas Monsarrat (The Cruel Sea) also settled there, in San Lawrenz, in the late 1960s. His friend  Professor C.N. Parkinson (of Parkinson's Law fame) , told him of Gozo which he liked but thought it was "much too quiet."

Edited October 5, 2022 by Flamin_June

[SLSD]

Gozo also has a nice citadel on a hill.  We enjoyed that as well as the town square where all kinds of things were available.  We availed ourselves of a local bread (sort of like focaccia) and tea towels.  I understand that Gozo is the "also ran" for Malta.  I was charmed by their earnestness.  We were given refrigerator magnets which still reside on our garage refrigerator.  While the stop at the main island with Valetta and Mdina was more exciting, I would return to Gozo.   But Fletcher, I totally understand how all. the building cranes could be very offputting.  

Edited October 5, 2022 by SLSD

[Fletcher]

18:  Why Am I Here?

 

I was sitting on a sun lounger on Deck 5, back deck, gazing out at the deep blue Mediterranean, wondering why I was there.  What is it about cruising?  Why do I do it?  Sometimes you have ask these deeply personal, deeply profound and philosophical questions.

 

Well, mate, the short answer is - I want to see stuff.  You know, foreign places, exotic ports and so on.  I don’t think I would ever take a cruise for the sake of taking a cruise.  I know a lot of people do that and just eat and drink, do the spa thing, see a few shows, mingle with like-minded people they would otherwise avoid in real life and exchange medical histories before the drinks arrive. Now hotels are great, I love them, and I have stayed in some fancy ones.  But hotels have one big drawback.  They always stay put.  You can’t check into a Barcelona Hotel for a night and wake up in Valencia as we did on this ship nearly three weeks ago.

 

I’ve always treated cruise ships like taxis.  A vessel to take me from A-B.  And now I am running out of As, Bs and even Zs.  I sometimes look at the itineraries for world cruises and think, yeah, been to all those places.  Well, almost all.  I calculate there are only half a dozen countries in the entire globular world visited regularly by cruise ships that I have not been to.  China, Japan, Korea are the main ones, a few scattered Pacific island states (Kiribati e.g.) and, a newcomer to the list, Saudi Arabia.  I’ve been to over 120 sovereign states plus around 80 possessions and territories such as French Polynesia, Falklands etc.  Finding somewhere new, especially on a ship, is proving difficult and I’m someone who seldom goes back to places.

 

Despite this, I do like the sheer relaxation a ship affords, especially ships like this one.   I love the simple things - having your room serviced twice a day when you want it done; blueberry or banana pancakes on the open deck for breakfast; staff who know your name; a barman who remembers your drinks; laundry back in a day; hanging out in Seabourn Square, inside and out, with a cappuccino and an ethereal club sandwich.

 

The food in the restaurants has its ups and downs (and this is all I will say about food in this blog) but you never go hungry or thirsty (and this is all I will say about wine in this blog). Today they did the Galley Lunch for the first time on Sojourn since C*v*d.  A heroic effort from the brigade. There have been a few service lapses but I can’t complain about anything on this trip.  There seems to be a big intake of staff from South Africa and Zimbabwe. Fellow cruisers who live on their smartphones in the restaurants disappoint me.  I’m not at all interested in dress codes but some guy showed up the other night for dinner in the Colonnade wearing swim shorts and flip flops.  Eyebrows were raised, even mine.  Another guy is perpetually dressed for a rodeo in Colorado.  I’m sorry I haven’t reported back on the the shows, the spa, the trivia, the casino, The Grill, the official shore excursions, because we haven’t done any of that.

 

But I do want to tell you one thing.  Pay attention at the back because  this what I like best about this ship.  In normal seas our cabin is supremely quiet.  Everything works, the air-con, even the TV and the internet.  We don’t hear our neighbours arguing or coughing. But that’s not the best thing.  The best things are the low-level night lights in the cabin which spring to life as soon as you put your foot on the floor at 3am, follow you around the bed and all the way to the bathroom door.  And back again.  Now that’s the epitome of luxury.  Worth getting back on a ship just for that.

  

[SLSD]

11 minutes ago, Fletcher said:

18:  Why Am I Here?

 

 

Well, mate, the short answer is - I want to see stuff.  You know, foreign places, exotic ports and so on.  I don’t think I would ever take a cruise for the sake of taking a cruise.  I know a lot of people do that and just eat and drink, do the spa thing, see a few shows, mingle with like-minded people they would otherwise avoid in real life and exchange medical histories before the drinks arrive. Now hotels are great, I love them, and I have stayed in some fancy ones.  But hotels have one big drawback.  They always stay put.  You can’t check into a Barcelona Hotel for a night and wake up in Valencia as we did on this ship nearly three weeks ago.

 

We cruise for the same reason you do--to see stuff.  Like you, we don't care a lot about  the food--or the wine. We do care about being surrounded by low key people who are not uncouth. 

 

 It's wonderful when it is delightful and the service is impeccable--but that is not what we cruise for.  We are not adventurers, but we want to see the subtle things--and those are the images that will remain with us.  Thank you for your writing.  I know you must have been a professional writer in your previous life. 

Edited October 5, 2022 by SLSD

[Fletcher]

19: Budelli’s over there

 

Most people live on a lonely island, lost in the middle of a foggy sea.  Most people long for another island, one where they know they would like be. What about this wanderlust thing, the desire to really go the extra mile rather than just simply flop down in Spain or Mexico once a year.

 

I can trace my wanderlust back to my early childhood when my grandfather gave me an atlas.  I remember being bewitched by the exotic, spidery shape of Celebes and by places with weird names like Tegucigalpa and Paramaribo.  I wanted to go everywhere.  England seemed so boring.

 

Then there were the movies that took me all over the world.  Movies like Lawrence of Arabia, the Bond films and perhaps most of all the 1962 version of Mutiny on the Bounty which showed me the surpassing beauty of the South Pacific in a way that no other movie, before or since, has come close to matching.  Another was Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1964 film Il Deserto Rosso which is basically one of his alienation things with Monica Vitti moping about looking lost.  But there was a dream sequence in that film, set on an impossibly beautiful and impossibly pink beach.  I learned later that this was Budelli Island in the Maddalena Archipelago off the northern shore of Sardinia.  The island was privately owned and uninhabited.  For 50 years I have longed go there but now I know I never will.   It will be forever out of reach, just like Bali Hai.

 

From our anchorage in Golfo Aranci, Seabourn had an excursion to the Maddalena Islands but it didn’t go near Budelli and it didn’t cruise around the islands.  It was just a hop on a ferry to a souvenir shop.  So we shrugged and stayed in Golfo Aranci.  We took a tender, turned left at the dock, walked along the boardwalk and then took our Tevas off and tickled our toes on the sandy beach.  This is a fairly new resort area and it was clean and tidy.  We paddled and I wished I had my swimmers.  A dip in the Med in Oct would have been lovely, maybe followed by fritto misto di mare and a glass of Sardinia’s finest rose wine.

 

Some places are made for cruise ships.  Sardinia isn’t one of those places.  Sardinia is all about staying put at a resort hotel, enjoying some of Europe’s finest beaches and cleanest waters and taking drives into the mountains in a Maserati Grancabrio to discover ancient villages and salty cheese.  Seabourn needs to rethink this place.  The Captain hinted to us that watersports might be offered, we might have pulled out the marina deck because the sea was flat and the weather gorgeous.  But no, we just admired the pleasant view of the bay from the ship.

 

Tonight we had a dinner in the MDR which should have had stress pills on the chef’s menu.  We would have had a double portion.  On our right was a table for four, all yelling at each other in the friendliest terms yet raising the decibel level to extra high.  And on the left was a serving station which begins in relative calm and by the time the main courses are served it becomes chaos with eight or nine men in masks all yelling at each other and stacking new and soiled plates on open serving drawers.  We couldn’t take any more and walked out.  This was dining a la bedlam.

 

We now have two ports of call ahead of us, both in the South of France, and neither set the pulses racing.  I’m afraid to say, this cruise is now beginning to run out of steam and we have received our on board account and our luggage labels.

 

[Flamin_June]

No matter the length of a cruise,  7 days or 14 or 21 or more, they always seem to run out of steam with a day or two to go.... Well, they do for us, at any rate. While I wouldn't mind staying onboard a little longer, I am usually ready to get off and have a change of scene. I will make an exception in this case, where I would be more than happy to prolong the vicarious experience for a week or two. Thank you for your daily updates.

[SLSD]

1 hour ago, Fletcher said:

 

 

I can trace my wanderlust back to my early childhood when my grandfather gave me an atlas.  I remember being bewitched by the exotic, spidery shape of Celebes and by places with weird names like Tegucigalpa and Paramaribo.  I wanted to go everywhere.  England seemed so boring.

 

 

While you were fascinated by an atlas, I lost myself in Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels (https://completebookofmarvels.com/.  

 

I am going to miss your travelogue!  Hopefully, someone else with an interesting viewpoint will step up to the plate.  From my perspective, those of you who live in the UK have just a bit of an easier time traveling.  You don't always have to cross a huge ocean to be on your way.  

[Fletcher]

20: je nais se quois

 

Aren’t the French singularly blessed?  The food, the language and the land itself.  Today we were in Saint Raphael, one of many ports on the Côte d’Azur  that really have no equal in the UK.  Come on . . . Padstow?  Not in the same league, remotely.  Sorry Rick.  Of course the weather has a lot to do with it.  This day in October it was blue skies and about 75  degrees in old money.  Saint Raphael isn’t in the top rank of resorts along here and that’s probably a blessing.  The bling crowd probably ignore it.  It has a rather Moorish-looking church that unfortunately has an ugly apartment block right in front of it.  There is a Ferris wheel and a pretty harbour packed with yachts, some of them on the large side.

 

We did our usual thing and wandered around and tendered back to the ship for lunch.  We had planned something grander - we thought of taking the ferry to St-Tropez and having lunch at a fancy hotel, the Cheval Blanc on the Plage  de Bouillabaisse, which is fairly casual in the day and converts into a three-star joint in the evening.  In fact, months ago we thought we might take dinner there in all its Michelin flummery but two issues  put paid to that: getting back to the ship on time and the small matter of the menu costing 380 Euros each without so much as a glass of water.  Then we thought, what the heck, St-Tropez might have interested us 50 years ago when Brigitte could be seen pouting in any old cafe.  It’s just so passé these days, darlings.

 

In the afternoon there was a delightful scene.   Lots of sailing dinghies took to the water, each one containing a single child learning how to sail.  As I said earlier, how lucky are the French.  In the morning French kids study Descartes, write essays on EU law and then after lunch -  an omelette perhaps or salad Niçoise - they have their sailing lesson in the Mediterranean.

 

A few days ago I listed some of my favourite things on the Sojourn.  I forgot one.  These are the dog bowls used for your bags and cameras when you put them through the X-ray machine.   I really love those dog bowls.  I bet Silversea doesn’t have them.     

 

[lincslady]

I see you are off Bandol today, Fletcher.  Another nice little very French port to wander round, with possibilities of going further afield to visit winemakers.  Hope you are enjoying it.

 

Last time I was there - on a land based trip - we sat by the seafront with a big bag of frites for our lunch, and it seemed to be bliss.  We were staying in the hotel in La Cadiere  d'Azur.

[Dusko]

I’m assuming Fletcher will disembark tomorrow. I look forward to the final comments and I want to say Thank You. It has been fascinating to be on the same voyage and to compare experience. I found San Rafael a bit boring but Bandol , and a side trip to Cassis, today were great despite a rain shower. The deck party and the serenade this evening were first class. We’ve enjoyed a real Seabourn experience this last week. Has it been perfect? No. There have been a couple of minor inconvenience moments but no problems. Thanks Seabourn. 

[Fletcher]

21: Up summing

 

Twenty-one days and this is my twenty-first post.  I’m nothing if not regular.  It was my habit to write my stuff at 5.15pm, after taking a shower, and when my wife was performing her ablutions.  I would always finish by 6pm when it was drinks time at the Sky Bar.  After dinner I would revise what I had written, click Submit, and go to bed, fearing overnight flack which, thankfully, never came.

 

This final entry is being written from Barcelona Airport.  We will be flying back to the basket case known as the UK.  We face the prospect of a winter living like Troglodytes.  This will delight the Green activists who have always wanted to push us back to the age of candlelight.  Escaping the British winter - and probably Christmas too - is a major priority.

 

For the last week or so, while on board Sojourn, we have been wrestling with problems relating to our next cruise, on a S**ve**ea ship in December, sailing from Bombay to Singapore.  There are major issues with India and Sri Lanka where we had two stops.  Seabourn dropped India from its similar Encore trip and added Sri Lanka which it has now also dropped.  The problem with India is not only the current apparent ban on cruise ships but the problems UK citizens have in getting a visa.   So we bailed out on this cruise and are looking for another.

 

We will look back on this Sojourn trip with considerable fondness. It wasn’t exciting like an expedition cruise to a wild place like Antarctica or New Guinea.  It was simply a pleasure seeing a lot of the Old World from the deck of this lovely ship.  Apart from one bumpy night and a day and a half of drizzly rain in the Corsica region we had astonishingly good weather.  Skipper Tim kept on saying how lucky we were.  Finding shade on deck was often a struggle if, like us, you are averse to sitting on the pool deck.

 

We went to some interesting places and some remarkable ones.  The highlight for both of us was entirely fortuitous - unable to make landfall at Amalfi we went to Salerno and thus were able to organise our own trip down to Paestum to see the remarkable trio of Greek temples.  This hastily improvised trip, as well as our visit to the garden of Villa Lante near Viterbo, made the whole thing worthwhile.  We loved Melilla, so impressive and somehow preposterous. We missed not seeing Calvi in Corsica.

 

Just a few things in closing - I think the Sojourn came very close to achieving the level of food and service we cherish from before the pandemic.  There may have been a few cost-cutting things and some service lapses but the staff were unfailingly charming and anxious to please.  Hotel manager Luca Brazzi kept a firm hand on everything.  One night, in the MDR, we told our hostess that we thought our table near a service station made our dinner noisy and a bit stressful.  The next morning Luca came right up to us to discuss the issue and to assure us we would not be given a table like that again.  We were often asked how we were enjoying the cruise, and not just in a casual way.  It was almost a third degree.  I’m not sure if everyone had this sort of attention.   

 

The ship was full.  If you sat at an inside table at the Colonnade for breakfast and watched the passengers arrive you might have thought you were on a Saga cruise.  Now, UK passengers know what this implies.  American readers may not and it’s perhaps best they don’t know.  I think the time of year and the destination are the reasons for this.   The Med seems to be more of a party cruise than other locations and we found the ship to be rather noisier than any cruise we can remember.  CD Ryan obviously loves his pool deck events.

 

Mr Covid was inevitably a stowaway and there were a few tell-tale stools, plates and pink plastic bags visible on all decks.   A few, not many.  As we never came down with it, and never have, I felt the ship was handling all this pretty well, though hardly any passengers wore masks (ourselves included) even on crowded tenders.  Because of this I felt really sorry for the crew who were wearing masks all the time in indoor venues.  I thought this created a regrettable ‘us and them’ atmosphere and it was sad not to see the smiling faces of everyone.  I really hope this policy is relaxed soon.  The staff really deserve it.

 

There were about a half dozen smokers on board and they didn’t create a problem for us, though I see that smoking has become a major issue on the Venture which was supposed to be entirely non-smoking.  Seabourn is in a bit of a fog about this and I am going off the Venture quite quickly as I don’t think Seabourn have completely embraced the expedition ethic.   

 

And finally the always thwart issue of the dress code which was incredibly relaxed on this trip.   For instance, there was an interesting scene last night in the Observation Bar.  Seated at one table was a couple who I think had been confined to their cabin for most of the cruise because of Covid.  They were so beautifully turned out, so elegant.  She looked like a slimline version of our Queen Consort.  Next to them was a woman who used a zimmer frame which came in handy during the Galley Lunch as it turned into a supermarket trolley.  She was in jeans and a woolly.   And next to her was this man who looked like Santa Claus on his summer holiday, corpulent, jolly, wearing a grubby t-shirt and shorts,  chomping caviar and swigging beer from the bottle.  The whole cruise was like this - as the song says, Anything Goes.

 

So that’s a wrap.   Thanks everyone for reading this and I look forward to cruising vicariously for the next few months.   Below is the last photo I took  - of the Sojourn from a tender at our last port of call, Bandol.   I’ll be putting my photos up on my Flickr account and I’ll post a link in due course.

 

 

 

[cadburysmom]

Thank you for this. Sojourn has always been my favorite ship for many reasons and the enjoyment of reading your daily posts has made it even more so.  Please know I shall miss your wonderful writing along with your lovely sense of humor...both have been greatly appreciated.  And now I find myself in a conundrum.  What to read while enjoying my morning coffee?  I fear nothing will come close...

 

Cheers to you and safe travels home!

[margbem]

Thank you, Fletcher. I have really enjoyed reading your reports. Hope you got home safely and have been shopping for lots of candles!

[rkacruiser]

Excellent reports that make for entertaining reading.  Thank you Fletcher.  Hopefully, your Winter in the UK won't be as bleak as you fear.  

[SLSD]

48 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

Excellent reports that make for entertaining reading.  Thank you Fletcher.  Hopefully, your Winter in the UK won't be as bleak as you fear.  

 I hope it will not be as bleak as feared as well.  We all have a stake in everyone worldwide having adequate energy to stay warm through the winter.  We in Texas are also struggling with grid issues--so I feel your pain Fletcher.  

[shyla100]

I would like to second all of the above thank you Fletcher

 

[mieu]

We earlier spent 21 days in the Mediterranean this summer on the Sojourn. Enjoyed your posts, as they reminded me of our wonderful cruise, and why we love Seabourn.

[maryogreen]

@Fletcher Many thanks for your delightful and insightful postings from the Mediterranean. I especially enjoyed your thoughts on the value of cruising – we're in the "see stuff" camp as well – and your philosophical takes on travel. I hope you'll be sharing stories from your next adventure, wherever it may take you, and I also hope that one day you will find yourself on a boat to Budelli Island. 🙂

 

Mary

Travel Blog: www.themodernpostcard.com

[GreenFamily]

4 hours ago, maryogreen said:

@Fletcher Many thanks for your delightful and insightful postings from the Mediterranean. I especially enjoyed your thoughts on the value of cruising – we're in the "see stuff" camp as well – and your philosophical takes on travel. I hope you'll be sharing stories from your next adventure, wherever it may take you, and I also hope that one day you will find yourself on a boat to Budelli Island. 🙂

 

Mary

Travel Blog: www.themodernpostcard.com

Mary, I love your blog!

[maryogreen]

1 hour ago, GreenFamily said:

Mary, I love your blog!

@GreenFamilyThat's so kind of you...thanks so much!