Around England and Wales.   For the past week our group of 10 have been enjoying points north.  We stayed 3 nights in Chester. The city is over 2000 years and luckily our B and B was not.   The Stone Villa provided a wonderful warm welcome including an excellent home made breakfast each morning and a glass of sherry each evening.   From here, we traveled by train to Liverpool for the day. We met our drivers for the Fab Four Tour.  These people know all the little tid bits about the Beatles.  We saw the places they grew up,  learned how they met, even learned about the secret marriage of John and Cynthia.  He wanted to do the honorable thing and 8 months later julien was born.  Named after John,s mother, Julia.   And thus the song " Do you want to know a secret?" Was also born.    

The following day was spent throughout Nothern Wales.  We visited the seaside town of Conwy. Where you can visit the smallest house in Great Britain.  Now a museum and for £1 each you can step in literally because that's about all the room there is.  A couple actually lived there for aver 20 years and the last resident was 6'. He lived there for 15 years until the building was condemned    Our stops also included Baunaris for a high speed boat ride to Puffin Island. And a drive through the picturesque snowdonian national park.

After Chester, we spent an overnight in Cardiff, the capital of Wales.  It was a very quick stop as the entire city is surrounded with security fencing, cameras at ever corner, and police walking 4 together. They are gearing up for NATO summit that starts Sept 4.   Good time to get out of town.   We enjoyed one more night in London before boarding Crystal Cruises Symphany.  Our home for the next 9 days. So now we say cheers as we leave England and Bon Jour as we head to France.  

London

We arrived London yesterday along with rain. Lots of rain. We're told it's been beautiful weather all summer and this is the first day of 3 days of rain.  Once checked into the Rubens Hotel, we decided to  venture out and walk while it was just a mist of rain.  Of course the skies opened up so Jeff bought a big umbrella for two.  Just like NY I thought.  Seemed every time I was in the city it would start to rain and I have a collection of street-bought umbrellas. Now it's becoming an international collection.  Our hotel is centrally located just a few blocks from Victoria Station.  We bought a day pass to use on all public transportation for 9£ each.  Found bus 11 and enjoyed our ride on the upper deck through the city to Trafalgar Square.   Changed to bus 15 and continued to the Tower of London.  20 minutes later we reversed our trip.  This time we boarded an older more traditional bus with just an open staircase in the back.  On a crowded day you'll see folks hanging on from this platform.  Getting on or off the bus requires speed and agility.  You must hop on and run up the stairs and sit before being jilted back as the driver takes off to his next stop. To get off the bus one begins the reverse sequence just before the designated stop thus avoiding being pushed back into the bus by the new comers.  Jeff and I got  up from our seats and worked our way down the steps.  We were the only ones getting off and no one got on so the conductor gave us 15 extra seconds for a photo op.  we thanked him and he sped off to the next stop.  Hmmm something's missing.   Oh. Dear.   I left the umbrella.  The big beautiful umbrellas for 2 is now on its own tour of London.  Onto Chester this afternoon for 3 nights. Maybe it's not raining there.

February 20, 2014

We’ve been sailing north for 2 days through the Chilean Fjords.  Our first day was picture perfect with the sun glistening on the 5 glaciers we passed.  The 2^nd day was just the opposite with grey skies, fog and rain.  Our destination was the 101,000-acre Parque Nacional Laguna San Rafael to see one of the 19 glaciers in the park - the San Valentin glacier.  At almost 200feet tall, it fronts Monte San Valentin (over 13,300 ft high) – the highest peak in the southern Andes.  Yesterday, our ship anchors in a lagoon and a catamaran comes along side to us to board. During the day there will be a total of 4 trips so everyone gets an opportunity to view the glacier.  We are assigned 11:30AM departure.  We’re warned that skies are nearly always overcast but today we have one of those rare sunny days and the cobalt blue colors from the pieces that have calved from the glacier twinkle with every shade of blue imagined.  As we approach the glacier, we begin to hear “thunder” – the birds start to fly in swarms and small bubbles come to the surface right in front of the glacier.  Cameras at the ready and all of a sudden – the thunder gets louder and pieces drop into the water.  We could stay all day but others are waiting for their turn so we return to the ship. 

We continued through the maze of fjords last night to arrive Puerto Chacabuco – usually the jumping point for campers and boating to visit Laguna San Rafael.  The port is only about 2000 people so 3 of us hire a cab to go 20 minutes into Port Aisen – population about 5000.  The scenery along the road with the snow-capped mountains as a back drop is stunning.  We have just enough time to take a few pictures before returning to our tender to get back on the ship. 

Tomorrow we arrive our last port – Port Montt – another day at sea – and before we know it – time to return home from Santiago. 

February 17, 2014

Yesterday we arrived Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in Chile.  Some will challenge Ushuaia’s claim to be “end of the world” because it’s on an island while Punta Arenas is on the mainland of South America.  Either way – we’re close to nowhere.  Punta Arenas was founded a little more than 150 years ago and was Chile’s first permanent settlement of Patagonia.  It’s apparent the wind rules here – trees are only about 15ft high at most and every tree and brush leans over 30degrees due to the winds. 

We took the ship’s shuttle into town.  Because it’s Sunday, almost everything is closed.  We visited the tourist office and decided to take a cab to Nao Victoria Museum.  It’s suggested to look for cab #15 and as luck would have it, within seconds we see #15 and on our way.  Our driver speaks excellent English and seems nice enough.  However he had no idea where he’s going, and has to turn around passing the road to the museum.  Instead of going around the round-about, we continue straight the wrong way!  About ¼ mile later we finally got on the correct side of the road.  A few miles later, the road to the museum is on our left and our driver turns without signal and right in front of the on-coming traffic.  Screeching tires – brakes locked – Jeff hollering look out look out.  By the Grace of God, no one hit us.  And what we noticed was not one person got angry, used sign language, or hollered as they passed by.  Instead everyone waved and asked if we were OK.  Our driver offered to wait for us but we decided that was enough excitement with this driver.  This private museum is worth visiting.  Clearly a labor of love as the owner and crew have built replicas of 3 ships (Magellen’s Victoria – Shackleton’s life boat James Caird – and the first exploration boat sent by Chile, Ancud) with a 4^th (The Beagle) to be completed by summer 2015. You can climb into these boat and learn how they lived – how they survived – and the historic importance of each.

While in town, we booked a 4PM tour to the Magellanic Penguin colony at Seno Otway.  This was much later than any of the ship’s tours.  Locals know this is a better time to see more penguins with less people.  They were right!! We drive through Patagonian landscape over an hour of bumpy, dirt and dusty roads.   We continue walking almost a mile of paths, partly gravel and partly boardwalk to the beach.  Penguins – although curious – can be very shy. A lean-to has been built where we stand to peak through and view them on the beach.   Eventually the penguins begin to waddle from the beach along the path to their burrows.  Once off the beach, the only thing separating us and the penguins is a guide-rope along the path we must stay on.  We can tell the young who are still fluffy with light grey color rather than the bold black and white of the adults.  An hour of oooo-ing and aaaa-ing, we’re back in the van to return to the ship.  

This morning our program states “at sea” – however we continue sailing through the Straits of Magellen with mountains on both sides.  We watch sea lions follow our ship for a few minutes.  It’s so cloudy and foggy, there are times land disappears entirely.  Slowly pieces of the mountains come to view but quickly retreat to the fog – a little hide and seek. 

February 15, 2014

We arrived Ushuaia yesterday morning to a beautiful, bright sunny – warm day.  Known as the southernmost city in the world, it’s less than 2500 miles from the South Pole.  It’s also called “World’s End” or “the End of the World”.  The last of the snow peaked mountains of the Andeans (the newest range of mountains in the world, covering over 4200 miles of South America) surround our ship as we sail the Straits of Magellan.  Named for Ferdinand Magellan when he sailed in 1520 through the strait.  He was the first European who sighted the land and called it “Tierra de los Fuegos” (The land of fire) because of the smoke seen from local Indians’ fires all around the region.  These Indians lived here as fishermen – and didn’t wear clothes!  Everywhere they went, they had fire – in their small huts, outside their huts, even in their canoes.  The father stood in the front to spear the fish, the children sat in the middle keeping a fire going (set on large fireproof stones in the middle of the canoe) and the mother paddled. 

We arrive into this safe heaven harbor of what was once a small fishing village but has grown to almost 200,000 in population.  Ushuaia was founded as a penal colony when in 1896 the first group of 14 convicts arrived.  In 1902 a new prison was built by the prisoners where it housed political prisoners, orphans and many undesirables whose crimes justified their sentence here.  Today you can see the 2-person cells but the building is more popular for the Maritime Museum and Art Gallery. 

We didn’t have enough time to do both a city tour and a tour into the National Park of Tierra Del Fuego, so we decided to take a helicopter ride into the park.  Our afternoon 45 minute ride was absolutely beautiful.  The sky was clear with a few fluffy clouds.  We circled around the city and headed to Mount Olivia.  We turned inland and flew through the mountain passages.  Finally in view was Lake Esmeralda, created by the glaciers.  Bright green color lake nestled between two mountains – WOW.  All too soon we turned around and flew back to town but first our pilot circled around our ship for some great photos.  This was a GREAT Valentine’s Day.

And just when you don’t think it can get any better, today we are sailing through the Beagle Channel.  Everywhere you look – high, snow covered peaks, waterfalls.  We cruise along what’s known as Glacier Avenue.  Bright blue ice and snow coming right down into the channel and small bits of ice float by. The sun is out.  It’s so warm we only need a sweater!  It’s hard to imagine how unforgiving this region can be when you experience such beauty – a contrast of extremes. 

February 12, 2014

Yesterday’s day at sea began sunny, warm and smooth sailing.  However by afternoon, the sea became angry and the waves were splashing up to our deck 6 balcony.  We couldn’t see through the sliders from all the salt.  Many passengers (including us) chose to have our dinner in the cabin.  Silversea provides course by course dining in your stateroom from the same menu as the restaurant.  I asked for chicken broth and steamed rice and Jeff got his full dinner – everyone happy. 

Today we’re headed to Stanley on West Falkland.  Just 300 miles from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, the 2 main islands (East Falkland and West Falkland) along with about 770 smaller ones have a total land mass about the size of Connecticut. This is where all of us are anxious to see penguins all variations and sizes.  The King Penguin (usually only seen in Antarctica), Rockhoppers (with the spiked heads), Magellanic penguins and Gentoo penguins.  We got just outside Stanley Harbor and the wind started to pick up.  The ship couldn’t set the anchor to hold and after spinning around a few times, we were advised it was just too rough to tender into the harbor.  This was as close as we would get to visit the Falklands.  We took a few photos from the deck with the treeless, sloping hills in the background.  It’s very cold and very windy. I’m glad to be bundled with my new winter ski jacket, scarf, hat, gloves and hand-warmers inside the gloves.  We will be at sea another day before arriving Ushuaia also known as – “End of the World”. 

Enroute to the Falklands

February 7 we arrived Buenos Aires early in the morning – breezed through immigration and customs.  We met Marcia from Metro Tours, jumped in our vehicle and joined rush hour traffic into the city.   Torrential rain was pounding BA like nothing they had ever seen.  Our city tour was cut short to just meeting two hoteliers and later enjoying coffee at the oldest coffee house in all of Argentina.  As we walked through the doors of Café Tortoni, we stepped back in time.  Visited by artists, politicians, intellectuals, the history was all around us. 

We boarded Silversea Spirit midafternoon and began unpacking only interrupted by the necessary attendance of the emergency boat drill.  That evening we had dinner early as we realized we had been up over 24 hours. 

February 8-9 – These days at sea allowed us to organize our group’s activities, meet with ship’s staff and check that everyone was “on the same page”.  We also took inventory of everything we brought with us and some things we thought were packed.  Like Jeff’s black belt.  Or the pair of socks I have – one navy blue and one black.  I have another pair just like it at home.  Jeff is always looking for pants that are 28” inseam but usually has to settle for 29” or even 30”.  The ship has a tailor!! Jeff piled on the bed all 6 pairs of pants including the ones to his new dark suit for formal nights with a note requesting 28” hem.  A few hours later we saw our cabin “butler” and he said he gave the pants to the tailor.  When Jeff reminded 28” inseam the butler’s eyes got very big and he said I’ll be right back and ran!  They somehow thought Jeff wanted 28” CUT making all 6 into shorts (very short shorts at that).  All was saved and Jeff has his pants at the proper hem.  Service onboard has been wonderful.  The staff are very nice, attentive and extremely helpful.  We have had excellent lecturers.  The destination consultant has provided wonderful insight, history and shared personal travel experiences through this area.  Also onboard is Ambassador Gwen Clare.  She lived and served throughout South America for over 30 years.  She’s an excellent speaker providing insight on the history, politics, and the economy. 

February 10 – We woke to a gorgeous sunrise sailing in the well-protected bay of Golfo Nuevo to Puerto Madryn – our gateway to Patagonia! The geographic region encompasses more than 600,000 sq miles – you can double it when the Antarctic territory is included.  This vast area represents a third of Argentina but has less than 4% of the population. It extends from the costal cliffs of the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Andean foothills.  Welsh immigrants settled the area of Puerto Madryn in 1886.  From our ship we walked into town and hailed a taxi.  Although Joe spoke only Spanish, he knew to take us to Punta Loma.  Traveling seven miles on gravel road, passing pebbled beaches with men casting fishing nets on our left and a treeless plateau on our right, we can understand why they say “the wind rules”.  We arrive at outlook point to view below (and hear) the colonies of sea lions and cormorants.  This is just a small example of animals found in this region.  Depending on the season, you can see elephant seals, and the Orca Whales.  Inland there are Rheas (similar to an ostrich), foxes, maras, Guanacos (from the llama family), armadillos, pumas and bobcats. 

For the next week we will get to see a great deal of the coastal area of Patagonia.  Some of our group will make an 11 hour trip to the interior.  This place is worth another visit – it needs more time.  Patagonia invites you to contemplate on the remoteness, the solitude.  It can move a traveler to find the stillness from within while journeying across this immense region.  And when you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, you suddenly realize, “I’ve arrived”. 

Tomorrow is another day at sea as we head to the Falkland Islands.  The Argentines know it as Isle Malvinos.  The weather will get colder.  The wind will pick up and the seas will get a bit rough. We arrive Falkland Islands about noon on February 12.