A Great Day at the Vienna Art History Museum

May 9 – Vienna, Austria  Today we are on our own until 6pm when we meet our group for orientation and dinner.  We’ve decided to go to the Kunsthistor Museum (Art History Museum) because they have a very good collection of paintings.  They were collected by Habsburg royalty and donated to start the museum.  They include van Eyck, Rubens, Raphael, Vermeer and best of all three canvases by Caravaggio, my personal favorite.  Those of you who have read my journal before know how carried away I can get over art and architecture.  I’ll try to restrain myself but there are no guarantees.  Art, especially religious art is often so full of symbolism and metaphor that you can peel the layers of meaning like an onion, one inside the other and completely invisible until the previous layer is pierced.  My problem is sometimes I keep looking for more layers when there are none.

There’s a taxi stand just outside the hotel and we caught a cab to the Museum Quarter.  It’s a wonderful collection of museums in beautiful buildings.  It’s like the Smithsonian in Washington DC, you could spend days seeing all of them.  We are going to attempt to see one, the Art History Museum. 

There are three collections here, four usually but one is closed for renovations.  There’s the Coin Collection on the 2^nd floor.  Because the coins were collected by the Habsburg royalty there’s an emphasis on coins from that that empire but there are coins from all over the world.  The oldest coin they have is a large stone from the island of Yap.  Some of the coins are little works of art, the engraving is absolutely fantastic.  In addition to coins they have a collection of European medals both military and civilian awards, as well as commemorative medals from the history of the Habsburgs.

I hate to admit it but one of the most impressive is a large coin from Canada.  It’s a modern coin, struck in 2007.  What makes it unique is its size, 100 Kg (220 pounds).  The face value is stated at 1 million dollars but anytime the price of gold goes over $284 per ounce it’s worth much more.  I don’t know exactly what that price is right now but it’s way over $284.  To picture the size of it, think of a 50 Kg weight plate for a barbell, since gold is heavier than steel (I can’t remember its atomic number or I could figure out how much heavier) it may actually only be a little bit larger.  They look pretty close to the same size to my eye.

My favorite medal was the wedding medal of Karl I and Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel from 1728.  Don’t you just love the names of royalty?  ‘Bawn’sshweyeg-Volf’ enbootell, now that’s a name worthy of an emperor’s wife.

The coins were very interesting but I was chomping at the bit to get to the paintings, especially the Caravaggios.  The visit did not disappoint.  They have some wonderful paintings here.  Quite a few great ones and that’s surprising because the collection is not that large.  The Caravaggios were titled ‘David with the head of Goliath’, ‘Madonna of the Rosary’ and The Crowning with Thorns’.  All three are wonderful in their own right but are not the best of his work.  He painted the David and Goliath theme about three times.  This one is the most straight forward.  David has a very melancholy look, not at all excited or exhilarated as one might expect after such a stunning and unexpected victory.  He is holding Goliath’s sword, which he used to sever his head.  He is dressed as a plain shepherd boy, which of course he was.  He’s still got his makeshift sack on his back.  Clearly he is not taking any credit for the victory but is acting like not much unusual has happened.  From his point of view it hadn’t.  He was acting in God’s will and trusted in Him for strength.  He was not at all surprised when God delivered.  David knew he would.  Scripture describes David as a ‘Man after God’s own heart’ and here he is demonstrating the truth in that statement.

The most surprising paintings for me were those by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.  His ‘Tower of Babel’ is a masterpiece, not only in its execution but also in its symbolism.  At first glance the building project seems to be doing very well.  The workers look like ants compared to the massiveness of the structure and the amount of activity is also appropriate to an anthill.  The building is on a high plateau with a large city to its left in the valley.  Upon closer examination several design and production flaws become apparent.  The building is being built in tiers like a wedding cake but one side of each tier is shorter than the other.  The building is curving in that direction and if it continues that way it will eventually reach its tipping point and wind up falling into the city below.  While the upper tiers are seemingly doing well, the very lowest tier is showing signs of stress and parts are beginning to crack and crumble.  In the lower left foreground you can see the King with his entourage, totally oblivious to the pending disaster his plans will cause.  This illustrates the Biblical point that unless you build on a firm foundation your building will not last.  The project is doomed to failure by the futility of man’s activity without God, the inadequacy of human wisdom and the folly of human pride.  You have to remember that Scripture tells us that the people started the tower to ‘make ourselves a name’.  Simply put, pride.  I promised I wouldn’t go on and on so I’ll stop at that layer of the onion.

After giving the picture gallery a good going over we went down to the first floor to view the ancient artifacts rooms.  Here they have two collections, Greek and Roman plus Egyptian and Near Eastern.  The most surprising was a room with a collection of gold and silver artifacts from the Dark Ages.  Some of the workmanship was remarkable.  One necklace of gold and silver was gorgeous. 

I’m intrigued by all things Egyptian and while the collection here is small there’s one item that really stands our.  It’s a very well crafted blue ceramic hippopotamus.  It’s decorated with black line drawings of lotus leaves and blooms in various stages of opening.  High on its back is a drawing of an ibis.  Remarkable!

When we left the museum we headed back to the hotel.  We have a 6pm meeting with our tour guide and the rest of our group with dinner to follow.  Our tour guide’s name is Mike Geisberg and he’s from Frankfurt, Germany.  Our driver is Fabritizio and he’s from Italy.  Most of the guests are from the USA with three ladies from Texas.  We also have one Australian couple and one French Canadian couple.  Seems like a good group, no one too weird.

Dinner was in the hotel and was fine but nothing special.  Then it was to bed because we have an early morning city tour of Vienna tomorrow AM with a free afternoon for independent studies.

Southampton, England to Vienna, Austria via Cologne, Germany by Rail

May 6 – Disembarkation in Southampton & Trains to Brussels and Cologne  Today started early, we both got up at  6:30am.  Breakfast was busy in the Royal Court (buffet) today; everyone’s eating at the same time and most are not going to the dining room.  Still it was not overcrowded.

HAL Cruiser’s Note:  The Royal Court buffet still uses trays.  No Novo paranoia on RMS Queen Mary 2.  (Yes this big ocean liner is still designated as a Royal Mail Ship because she carries at least one sack of mail on each crossing.)  Wonder if HAL’s great tray ban will last?  To be honest I don’t really care as I seldom take more than one plate at a time anyway.  Tray or no tray, machs nichts, literally ‘means nothing’, as the Pennsylvania Deutch would say.  (Because the English are notoriously bad at pronouncing other languages you may know my people as the Pennsylvania Dutch.  We are actually Deutch (German)).

After breakfast we returned to our rooms because the QM2, while she may be very civilized in most of her procedures, is definitely in the stone age of disembarkation. 

HAL Cruiser’s Note – Part 2  In the spirit of fair play.  Cunard still makes you vacate your room by 8:30am and go to a public room designated by your departure.  HAL’s procedure of allowing you to stay in your room until you are called for disembarkation is far superior, not to mention, way more genteel.  Additionally, the muster area for the Saint Pancras Train Station, as well as all the airports and other rail stations) was the Royal Court Theater, Deck 3.  This is a totally unsuitable are for a disembarkation assembly.  It’s the balcony of the main showroom and, although it has many seats available, none are accessible without negotiating stairs and crawling down aisles of theater style chairs.  Picture several hundred people of all ages and conditions trying to get their carry on (in this case carry off) luggage to some location where they can keep an eye on it.  I saw several near disasters involving people with mobility challenges.  The alternative is to stand in the lobby with your luggage, another difficult situation for the same people.  Score big points for HAL on this one because compared to the tray issue, this is way more dangerous and inconvenient even for the able bodied.

Diana and I, being able bodied, just stood along the wall with our luggage until we were called.  On the plus side, we were called right on time as listed in our disembarkation letter.  Only 1,500 of the 2,400+ people are getting off in Southampton because the ship is going on to Homburg and there are lots of Germans on board.  Lots less troops to shuffle about.

We walked through the brand new pier area to the luggage collection area.  It’s a very well organized and easy facility to negotiate, something that was not so true of the previous facility.  Gently sloping and very wide ramps take you down to your luggage.  After claiming the luggage we headed to the security point.  We didn’t need a porter because we packed with being able to handle our own luggage in mind.  We’re taking too many trains and transfers to need assistance at every place. 

Since we had cleared immigration on the ship, we zipped through the terminal to our bus and began our first journey of the day up the M system to London.  This was accomplished in 2.5 hours, the last 5-8 miles in London taking almost an hour of that time.  Traffic in the city is terrible.  Far worse than any US city I’ve ever been in and I’ve been in most of the larger cities in all 50 states.  There’s a special fee to driver your vehicle in London and still the traffic is bad.  That last few miles would have taken even longer but some of the streets have special bus lanes that allowed us to bypass some of the congestion.

We arrived at St. Pancras station early enough to change our tickets to the 1pm train.  This is great because the next Eurostar to Brussels isn’t until almost 5pm.  And then we would only have 30 minutes to catch the train to Cologne and that’s the last one of the day.  Since we can go earlier that won’t be a problem.

The ride through the Chunnel is fast and smooth.  The train moves so fast it takes only 20 minutes to go completely under the English Channel to mainland Europe.  The scenery in France and Belgium was green farmland, small villages and woods.  Very pretty indeed.  On the way they served us drinks and lunch.  You could have wine, soda, coffee or tea for beverages.  Each comes with a bottle of water as well.  The main course was a stuffed chicken breast or pasta with cream sauce that they called a roulade.  I had the chicken, Diana had the pasta and both were very good.  It wasn’t haute cuisine but it wasn’t airline food either.  It was very comparable to a well-prepared meal at a mid-level restaurant, Chili’s or Applebee’s for example.  Altogether enjoyable, especially when you remember that you’re eating at almost 170-kph crossing Europe.

We arrived in Brussels on time and we went to the ticket counter to see if there was an earlier train to Cologne.  There were two, one left in 5 minutes and the other 1 hour.  Getting the ticket and hustling to a train in 5 minutes with all our luggage didn’t seem like a good idea so I opted for the one in an hour.  This will still get us there 2 hours before my original schedule.  I knew this was possible but I also have experienced significant disembarkation delays so I made the original reservation on the conservative side so we’d be sure to make them.  Then I had the option to change to an earlier train if I could.  This worked out in both cases.

We are riding the Thaly’s train to Brussels.  Like Eurostar and ICE, these trains are fast, smooth and comfortable.  This one was no exception.  They served drinks and a snack on the way.  When we arrived in Brussels it was raining.  Fortunately the Cologne Hilton is only about 200 feet from the train station and at least half of that was under the cover of a building.  We pulled our luggage to the hotel and checked in.  It’s a very nice hotel indeed.  We booked it as a B & B and I’m glad I did because what I paid to add breakfast for both of us on that plan was less than the cost of breakfast for one on the menu.

The staff at the hotel is very attentive and everyone speaks English very well.  We ate dinner in the Konrad Restaurant in the hotel and our waiter’s English had almost no German accent.  In fact he sounded a little Southern.  Turns out he had spent a year as an exchange student in Virginia.  The food was excellent.  Diana had a Caesar salad with bacon.  She pronounced the bacon as great.  She is not really a fan of Canadian or British style bacon and was glad that the hotel had adopted very good American style bacon.  I opted for something called a beef roast ‘Cologne style’.  It was a small piece of beef about 2 inches square and 6-7 inches long with a toping of mustard dressing that was roasted in place.  It was delicious!  The mustard topping wasn’t overpowering, adding just a bit of tanginess to the tender and juicy beef.  The sautéed fresh green beans and cabbage served with it were done just right as well.  An excellent meal.  I’ve never eaten in a Hilton Hotel restaurant before, I tend to avoid hotel restaurants, but if they’re all like this I should reconsider that position.  (See, and people say I’m stubborn and set in my ways.)

After dinner it was almost 10pm so we decided to turn in and get some sleep.  We had to call housekeeping to get the down filled duvet off the bed and substitute a top sheet and blanket. 

Hotel Accommodation Note: Who decided that good hotels and nice cruise ships have to have duvets on their beds?  I find that they are way too hot to sleep under and since many of them are down filled, Diana’s allergic to them.  She travels with an antiallergenic pillowcase so down pillows are not a problem but the duvet has to go!  On the ships and in the hotels a call to housekeeping usually results in the beds being converted to top sheets with a blanket.  We double up the blanket on Diana’s side and I sleep under just the top sheet.  That way the room can be kept warm enough for her and still cool enough for me.  Works great.  Not possible with the duvet as any of it is too warm for both of us and Diana certainly does not want me to fold my half onto her. 

On our last long cruise to the Med and Black Seas we took our own fitted bottom sheet for the bed.  It made the bed much more comfortable as it did not continually have to retucked in after I rip the blanket and top sheet off so my feet can stick out.  The only disadvantage to this is that you have to wash your own sheet.  Not really a problem as I do laundry in the ship’s facilities anyway.  We usually take our own non-allergenic soap with us as well.

May 7 – Cologne, Germany & Night Train to Vienna  It’s rainy and cool today.  It’s not raining steadily or hard, just drizzling off and on.  We went down to breakfast about 9:30am and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the buffet included with our meals.  They had all the things you’d expect to make an English breakfast.  The sausages, although completely different from those on Cunard were great as well.  They had cereals that must be European because I didn’t recognize most of them, but they had some American standbys too.

We were stalling around waiting for it to warm up a little before we ventured out.  At noon, check our time, we packed up and gave the luggage to the staff and headed out to tour the Cologne Cathedral because the building itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Sight.

The Cologne Bishopric has its roots in early Christianity.  The first known bishop, Maternus, is mentioned in documents from 313AD.  (Sorry I’m not switching to CE as political correctness is of little interest to me.)  Under the current cathedral they have found the foundations of a double choir structure dating from 870.  In 1164 the remains of the Three Magi were transferred to Cologne and a large, elaborate reliquary was constructed to contain them.  These relics made the Cologne Cathedral the most popular pilgrimage church in the world for Christians.

It was decided that a more magnificent structure was appropriate to properly honor the Magi and in 1248 the current building was begun.  Construction was halted for much of the Medieval Period and the entire structure was not finished until 1880.  It’s a Gothic structure and is typical of the style.  Huge columns supporting narrow naves produce a very dark interior.  Because the towers have such a large diameter they do not appear to be that tall.  In reality they are the second tallest church spires in the world.  The state of engineering math and construction techniques in the Gothic period was very rudimentary by today’s standards so everything was overbuilt to insure it would stand.  Not too far into the future columns were made much thinner and windows larger enabling exactly the same configuration to be much lighter and airier.

The layout is very typical but larger.  It has a 5-aisle floor plan.  The center nave is twice as wide as the four side aisles.  The inner two side aisles for a U-shaped ambulatory starting at the apse.  The outer two aisles stop at the transept as that space is broken up into seven chapels that make up the outer wall of the ambulatory.  The central nave terminates at the transept where the choir starts and beyond the choir is the Shrine of the Three Kings and then the high altar.  The central nave is one of the tallest every built in the Gothic period.  The Beauvais Cathedral in France is the same height and it has partially collapsed and required remedial engineering to remain standing.  No such trouble here in Germany.

The Shrine of the Three Kings is remarkable.  (I prefer Magi, but they use kings.  Most translations of Matthew use either Magi or Wise Men.)  It’s a large oak box, about the size of three caskets placed side-by-side but a little taller.  Around the edges gothic architectural details and figures carved from white Carrera marble have been attached.  The effect is somewhat like Wedgwood’s famous Jasper Ware.  The figures are all Biblical characters, except for the three magi themselves.  They are mentioned in the Scriptures but not named.  The names Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar have come down to us by tradition.  Also tradition sets their number at three because three gifts are mentioned, their number us never mentioned.

At the intersection of the leftmost aisle and the transept is a wonderful altar.  It was originally in the Convent of St. Clare but was moved here when that structure was deconsecrated and demolished.  It’s the oldest surviving altar with a permanent tabernacle attached.  It is more complicated than your usual triptych in that it has extra panels in the wings that allow it to be opened in three different configurations.  The wings exposed today show the 12 Apostles.  The central section of the middle section never changes.  It shows Jesus at the top and below the moment of transubstantiation during a Roman Catholic Mass.  In their theology this is the moment in the Mass when the wafer and wine actually become the blood of Jesus.  Some Protestant denominations have kept that idea but many have not.

The cathedral has 12 doors, three on each façade, probably a reference to the 12 gates of the New Jerusalem of Revelation.  The western façade is the main entrance (as it is in most Cathedrals) and the center door is huge.  Once again, it doesn’t look so big because of the massive overall size of the church but it is over 30 feet wide and over 92 feet high.  That’s nearly the height of a 9-story building.  The theme of this largest of all the doors is pre-redemption life.  Appropriately the very tip of the tympanum (the section between the top lintel of the doors and the peak of the arch) has two scenes from the Garden of Eden.  On the left Adam and Eve are enjoying the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  On the right they are hiding in shame from God as He visits the garden.  And as they say, ‘It’s been all downhill since then!’.

In the plaza outside the western entrance is a full size model of the finial used on the tops of the two spires.  It’s almost 25 feet tall yet it looks tiny on the top of the spires.  The cathedral has 11 bells 4 of which are from the Medieval Era.  The St. Peter’s bell weighs 24 tons and is the largest free-swinging bell in the world.  How’d you like to be the poor guy assigned to tug the rope on that one.

The church is very dark inside and all my attempts to capture the nave were unsuccessful.  If it had been a sunnier day I might have had some luck.

When we exited through the west what do you suppose we saw just across the plaza?  That’s right, the US Embassy, MacDonald’s.  We wanted to grab a quick bite and this is the place.  Here in Cologne they have a sandwich I’ve never seen before ‘der M’.  It an oval shaped patty, about a third of a pound, on a rectangular roll with cross hatch groves making about one inch diamond shapes in the crust.  It’s real bread, more like a Kaiser roll than a hamburger bun.  Yikes!!  It was the best thing I’ve ever eaten in a MacDonald’s.  Watch for it at a location near you.

One other European item that I don’t remember seeing in the states, a little Ford 2-seat runabout like a Mazda Miata only it looks a little larger.  Very stylish indeed.  No wonder Ford’s international sales have saved it from the problems of GM and Chrysler.

Oh yes, they still manufacture 4711 here, the product that’s responsible for most men’s scents being called cologne.  In the early 1700s, Johann Farina, an Italian expat, formulated a fragrance he called ‘Eau de Cologne’ (water of cologne).  The name was later changed to 4711, the house number of the new owner of the company.  Nevertheless, the original name coined the word be now use for men’s smelly stuff.

We returned to the hotel to collect our luggage and sat in the lobby for a while because it was too early to head for the train.  I worked on my laptop and Diana read the schedule for our tour to Oberammergau. 

At about 7:15pm we went to the station and found the track for the train to Vienna.  It arrived a few minutes late and we got on board with all our luggage.  Unfortunately, European trains, while very efficient and fast, do not make provision for luggage.  On cars with chairs there are limited racks at the doors and the overheads will accommodate carry on size bags.  On this train our luggage rides in the room with us.  This is not good news as the room is very small and our luggage is somewhat large.  We managed to get it and ourselves in but when the attendant got our tickets he said that with the current conditions he wouldn’t be able to fold our two beds.  Well, I’ve slept sitting up before I guess I can do it again.

A snack was waiting for us on our small table, a pear, bottle of water and a chocolate.  We also found an order form for breakfast.  When the attendant came back to collect our breakfast order he told me he had figured out the bed problem.  Luckily our room is a triple.  If we fold out the bottom bed and put our luggage on it, he can fold out the other two beds for sleeping.  That’s exactly what we did. 

Wouldn’t you know that the one train we want to sleep on would be the only one that does not have a silky smooth ride?  This is not one of the ‘Premier Trains’ like the Eurostar or Thalys, it’s run by the German train system and runs on regular tracks, not the special high-speed track.  It’s not as fast and not nearly as smooth.  We did sleep off and on but it was not a restful night.

In the morning our breakfast arrived at 8:00am.  We had ordered rolls, sliced meat and cheese, yogurt and coffee.  It was very good.  The bread over here is extra special for some reason.  I didn’t order it, but the attendant included a small tube of liverwurst.  I love the stuff and this one was excellent.

May 8 – Vienna, Austria  The train arrived on time and after our 20 minute cab ride across town we were checking in at the AM Konzerthaus Hotel.  I was afraid that we would have to wait for our room but amazingly check in time at this hotel is 10am.  After a short time of dealing with our luggage we both decided to take a nap.

We have to rearrange our luggage for the bus tour.  We’ll leave some of it here at the hotel because the bus limits us to one suitcase and their small bag.  We’re going to leave our rolling duffels and my backpack here at the hotel.

We had dinner at the hotel and then returned to the room.  Diana’s going to deal with her luggage repacking and I’m going to name my picture files and write.

Brooklyn, NY to Southampton England Aboard the QM2

April 29 – Brooklyn, Boarding the QM2  Happy birthday Diana!!  We’ll celebrate tomorrow, as this is a very busy day.  A fairly easy morning as all we had to do was eat breakfast at the hotel and take a taxi to Pier 12 and the QM2.  We arrived very early as check out time was 11am and the hotel lobby was very small.  Our luggage and us just about filled the place up.  So we decided to go and sit at the pier.  Our first cab, a large Lincoln Town Car, had so much junk in the trunk he couldn’t take us.  He called another cab and since it was a van we had room to spare. 

We arrived at the pier about Noon and were surprised to see quite a few people still standing in taxi lines waiting for rides.  We were allowed to check in, given a boarding pass and directed to a seating area to wait for our number to be called.  We were number 58.  Sounds like a big number but the first number called was 50 and a new number was called every 30 seconds or so because only about 8-10 people had each one.  In no time at all we were aboard and in our cabin, number 6213.  We had just unpacked our carry-on bags when there was a knock at the door and our steward, Joenil, had both of our suitcases.  By 1:30pm we were totally unpacked and ready to go.  The easiest, fastest, most efficient boarding we’ve ever had.

I signed up for an Internet account as they were giving 30 free minutes if you singed up today.  Perfect!!  Diana went up to Canyon Ranch and signed up for a discounted series of spa treatments.  It’s her one shipboard extravagance. 

Sail away was delayed because the strong winds kept us pinned to the pier.  Two tugs were engaged to make fast at each end of the ship and tug (pun definitely intended) us into open water where we could make headway.  This process took about 45 minutes and we were on our way.  The sail out from New York City is always great.  You pass the Statue of Liberty, always an awe-inspiring sight for me.  The pier is in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn so it’s on the east river just south of the Brooklyn Bridge.  We had plenty of security, a small Coast Guard boat and a NYPD boat & helicopter were on patrol on the river while we were at the pier.  The Coast Guard boat accompanied us to the Varizanno (sp?) Narrows Bridge.

We were assigned to a table of six for dinner.  One additional chair had been added to accommodate a single lady so we will be seven.  Five of us showed up for the first dinner, Sandy (the single lady from Scotland), George and Chitah ((pronounced like the world’s fastest cat) from Las Vegas) and your two intrepid travelers.  We won’t meet our other tablemates until Saturday because we are eating at the Todd English Restaurant in celebration of Diana’s birthday tomorrow night.  Dinner this evening was very good and well presented.  I had an unusual appetizer, chicken livers with onions and a poached egg.  Odd combo but everything was done just right.

This is our third Transatlantic crossing on the QM2 and we’ve never eaten dinner anywhere but the Britannia Restaurant at our assigned table.  The food is good on the QM2, at least the times we’ve been on.  We didn’t see any reason to eat elsewhere.  The King’s Court buffet becomes three separate restaurants in the evenings, Lotus (Oriental), La Piazza (Italian) and the Carvery (British & American).  We’ve never gone to any of them except for lunch.  They are the buffet restaurants on the ship.  At lunch there’s one additional choice, The Chef’s Galley, a deli.

The ship is not quite full, 2,400 passengers, the max is 2,800.  There was only one show this evening between the dinner sittings.  The singers and dancers performed a short number and the cruise director Ray Rouse introduced some of his staff.  Ray has been the cruise director on every crossing we’ve made.  He has developed into a very good one.  The first time we sailed with him he was very stuffy and seemed somewhat class conscious.  Every time we’ve seen him since he’s been great.  Maybe that first trip was an off week for him.

We decided to skip the evening’s activities after the show and head to the room to goof off.  Tomorrow’s the first of six days at sea.  Those of you who’ve been following us for any time at all know how much I love those.  The lecture program on the QM2 is second to none. 

April 30 – At Sea, Day 1  A very sunny day on the North Atlantic.  The ocean is moderately rough and the winds are strong but both sea and wind are moving eastward with us.  Consequently it is very smooth sailing with almost no wind on the deck.  In fact, since the QM2 is going 24.5 knots eastward and the wind is only blowing 24 knots out of the west the breeze appears to be very light but from the east.  If we were traveling west the wind across the deck would appear to be about 50 knots and sitting out would be a whole different experience.

I get up early because I need less sleep than Diana.  My breakfast is about 8am.  Diana gets up about 9-10am and grabs breakfast just before the buffets close.  This morning I purchased transfers from Southampton to St. Pancras Station in London, where we catch the Eurostar train to Brussels.  It should get us there in plenty of time for our train.  In fact, it may get us there in time to take an earlier train.  That would be nice as the last connecting train to Cologne, Germany is only 30 minutes from our arrival on the later train and it’s the last one of the evening.  If we miss it we will be stuck in Brussels overnight and I don’t have a hotel reservation there.

I met Diana for her breakfast and we went from there to the first lecture of the day.  Michael Pick is on board to lecture on design.  His lecture today followed the career of a designer who became the major dress designer for the current British Royal Family until his death in the 60s.  The dresses were gorgeous.  I wish I could remember his name but I don’t.

We scheduled dinner in the Todd English restaurant this evening to celebrate Diana’s birthday.  We had just gotten our appetizers when she started to feel a little sick so we excused ourselves and headed to the room.  She wanted to lie down for a while.  We had no sooner gotten to the room when the restaurant called to see if we wanted to have our meals delivered to the room.  Yikes, Todd English takeout, unheard of.  Diana just wanted to rest but I said they could bring mine up.  It arrived in about 3 minutes.  I had ordered porterhouse of lamb.  I’ve never seen that on a menu before, lamb chops or shanks but not porterhouse.  It had been trimmed from the bone but was the same cut as a porterhouse steak and it was the moistest, most tender, and flavorful lamb I’ve ever had.  I felt a little bad about enjoying it but Diana was already asleep.

I didn’t want to disturb her rest so I went to the evening’s movie, ‘The Last Station’.  It’s about the last days of the life of Leo Tolstoy.  Helen Mirren played the Countess Tolstoy and was excellent.  Movie Critic’s Note: Her ‘Best Actress’ win for her work in ‘The Queen’ was the most deserved Academy Award in the last 10 years.  It was so right I was actually surprised that she won.  I have very little respect for the Academy and the way they pander to left wing politics.  Michael Moore and Ozone Al Gore for  ‘Best Documentary’, who is kidding whom.  Just the fact that the movies they make are based on half-truths and outright lies should disqualify their work from that category.  They more properly belong in fiction.

After the movie I went to the Royal Court Theater to see the evenings main show, ‘apassionata’ (they didn’t capitalize the title so I didn’t either).  It was mainly a dance show but the singers did have some small appearances, often singing in accompaniment to the dancers.  There are 12 dancers, 6 of each gender and top to bottom they are the best dance ensemble I have ever seen on a ship.  Usually you have one or two standout dancers and the rest tail off to only ok.  The weakest dancer in this group is very good indeed.  When they were introduced individually at the end of the performance I discovered that most of them are from the Ukraine, and the rest are other Eastern European countries.

The show was a mixture of various dance styles from ballroom and ballet to folk.  The combination of slow graceful styles like waltz, exciting and sensual styles like Tango and Flamenco and energetic and acrobatic styles like Russian folk made for a very satisfying evening.  The couple that danced a pas de deux from one of the Berlioz ballets was truly excellent.  I guess with most of the dancers being from the Ukraine the fact that the Russian folk dances were the best should be no surprise.

We’re losing the first of our 5 hours tonight so by the time the show was over it was after 1am new time so I went to the room.  Diana was sleeping peacefully and it looks like whatever it was has passed.

May 1 – At Sea, Day 2  I awoke about 8:30am and by the time I was ready to leave the room it was 9.  I woke Diana and asked how she was feeling.  She said she was feeling fine and I offered to bring her some breakfast to the room.  She accepted my offer and 10 minutes later she was at our small table eating.  The emphasis is on small.  I returned to the King’s Court for mine.

I love English breakfast, except for the beans.  They have sautéed mushrooms, a broiled tomato half, eggs, beans and sausages.  The beans they eat for breakfast are almost identical to Campbell’s Pork and Beans.  Maybe it’s just what you’re used to but I prefer hash browns or home fries to the heavy starch of beans at breakfast.  On QM2 they have three types of sausages at the English station, Cumberland, beef and veal.  Usually I like the Cumberland the best but this time the veal sausages are outstanding.

We have to see the British Immigration officers today.  I like this system much better than the huge cattle call at the end of the cruise.  Very simple matter to take your passport and ship’s ID to the dining room and get your passport stamped.  Took less than 10 minutes and our passports were back in the safe.  It’s good that our passports expire next year because there are very few blank pages left despite the fact that we’ve has them add extra pages in 2005.

The master of the QM2 is Commodore Bernard Warner.  I always thought it was quaint that the QM2 always has a Commodore when we’re on her.  Very Cunard, don’t you know!  (In American English that would be a question but to the English it’s an exclamation.)  When we met him last night I found out that it’s more than just a title, the Commodore of Cunard is the senior captain in the fleet.  I notice that he has a captain aboard serving under him.  Must be a lot like when there’s an Admiral on a US Naval ship.  The captain’s still the captain but a wise one will know when to defer to the Admiral.  I’m not sure exactly how the chain-of-command works on Cunard but since his title seems to be ‘Master’ I guess he’s directly in charge.  Not quite the same relationship as Admiral/Captain.

This afternoon graduates of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) are presenting an adaptation of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ by Bill (William to his British fans) Shakespeare.  RADA members were on the ship and gave two performances, both very good, so we both decided to attend.  The adaptation shortened the play to about an hour and fifteen minutes.  Again the RADA staff is very talented and gave a good performance.

It’s another formal night on the QM2.  The definitions of the dress code differ from line to line.  On HAL casual means no jacket, on OM2 casual means jacket required but no tie.  Short version is that a jacket is always worn to dinner and in the evening.

We apparently only have five people at our table for 6 nevertheless they’ve crammed another chair around the small round table and two of the dance hosts have joined us for dinner.  I like them both but the table is designed for 6 and both of the tables next to ours only have six chairs.  It’s a little crowded.  On the negative side they do not show up on time for dinner and that throws everything off.  I like a leisurely meal as much as the next guy but 2 hours for three courses is too long.  The first night we had to leave before desert to make the show.  Seems like 1.5 hours should be plenty of time to get in three courses, that’s ½ hour for each course certainly ample.

On the plus side, our waiter John is a very personable individual and very hard working.  No telling how long this would take if he were not.  Also the food is very well prepared and nicely presented.

Antonio Salci preformed for us this evening.  He’s a high-energy pianist from Britain.  The show was excellent.  The band members had many solos in his arrangements and they are excellent as well.  It’s a pleasure to hear a band with brass (trumpet and trombone) for a change.  HAL has abandoned any pretence of having brass in their orchestras, an absolutely disastrous decision from a musical standpoint.  Many performers have key brass charts in their arrangements and HAL gives these over to the keyboard or a saxophonist.  The immediacy and fullness of the brass line is totally lost and the music suffers.  Three cheers for Cunard!

We’re going to skip any further activities this evening and head to the room.  We jump another hour forward tonight, the second of five.

May 2 – At Sea, Day 3  It’s still sunny today but the weather is cooler.  Winds and seas still hitting us aft so the ship is rock steady.  There are over 600 Germans on board but it seems like more and about an equal number of Americans.  The Brits out number us by about 200.  The Germans like to party so they are more obvious than either the British or Americans.  (And Europeans say we’re loud.)  We have about 30 nationalities onboard.  The reason there are so many Germans is that the ship goes to Hamburg from Southampton.  I thought about getting off there but it takes the ship too long to get there.  We’d never make it to Vienna on time.  There are about 2,400 passengers on board.  The three groups above make up about 2,100 leaving only 300 for the other 27 nations.  There are way less French aboard this time.

Being Sunday I went to the Commodore’s Interdenominational Church Service.  The Commodore did in fact deliver the homily and lead the service.  One of the staff nurses read the lesson.  It was a service in which any of the old, main line Protestant church members would have been right at home.  Traditional hymns, readings and very formalized prayers. 

Congregant’s Note:  I can appreciate a formal service but would find it unappealing as a steady diet.  I prefer a more exegetical approach to preaching and a less formal, but still reverent, style of prayer.  I’m not at all sure why church services in so many dominations have come to view the English of the 1500s as the language God understands.  Don’t get me wrong.  That style of English is beautiful.  Nothing beats the original King James (Authorized Version) of the Bible for beauty of expression.  It’s definitely the Shakespeare of translations.  But I find that churches that continue to use it as a mode of prayer tend to inhibit the common persons access to a rich prayer life.  I admit that the fault is mainly with the individual not the organization.  But the person’s inability to attain that level of articulation embarrasses them and inhibits their prayer life.  Remember, that since this is in italics, it is definitely my observation and opinion.  I will be the first to admit that I may be entirely wrong.  Nevertheless, it’s been my observation after spending more than 52 years attending a wide variety of churches.

At the end of the service, as we were leaving the Royal Court, everyone spontaneously stopped and greeted those around them and chatted.  There’s a certain undeniable bond that exists from sharing a basic common value system.  It was evident here.  No one cared what Protestant denomination you were, the fact that you believe was enough.  That is entirely as it should be.  (I didn’t put that observation in italics because the idea is unambiguously delineated in our Scriptures and is not an opinion but God’s given truth.  Nothing He says needs to be in italics!)

One thing I did today that was different was I attended Dr. Susan Humphries presentation on the effect of the ocean’s currents on climate.  She’s associated with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.  She gave an excellent presentation on currents with an emphasis on the North Atlantic, since that’s where we are.  She diminished the lecture by devolving into a purely speculative series of points on ‘Global Warming’ at the end of her time.  I won’t get into a discussion of all that here, but lets just say she conveniently cherry picked the data presented, ignoring the vast amount of data that does not support and sometimes even contradicts her theories and presenting pure, unsupported opinion in interpreting the data she did present.  Not a very scholarly effort at the end.

Rationalist’s Note:  I admire scientists that are willing to stand up and say the truth.  As it was so well put by the chief researcher at Anvers Station in Antarctica.  No one knows what is causing climate change.  There have been climate changes, some very abrupt, in pre-history when man could not have been a factor.  There is no direct evidence that human kind’s activities are in any way at fault for the climate change we are experiencing.  He wouldn’t even use the term ‘global warming’ because he thought it was a purely political term unsuitable for an empirical scientist.  That takes some guts in today’s Al Gore style junk science atmosphere.  Wait a minute; maybe I’m treating Ozone Al to harshly.  After all, the man who ‘invented the internet’ must be a real genius, right?  Maybe that or perhaps delusional or a monumental liar, you pick.

The Royal Court Singers presented the evening show.  It was great!!  Not only are they good singers but also they massed the ship’s musicians behind them.  You don’t often see a 30-piece orchestra anywhere anymore much less on a ship.  Strings (including a harp), brass, woodwinds, keyboards and several percussionists blended from the multitude of bands on the ship created a wonderful sound.  You could tell by the faces of the singers that they knew what a unique experience this was for them.  It’s a small group of performers that has the opportunity to be backed up by such an impressive assembly and I suspect most that do are opera singers.

Another great day at sea.

May 3 – At Sea, Day 4  Another day at sea.  The sun has deserted us and the winds have shifted to the south.  That means that the wind and waves are no longer running with us but are hitting us almost directly on the starboard beam.  The waves are causing a little motion on the ship; nothing really notable and the strong winds are causing the ship t list a few degrees to port.  Not really a problem, just a reminder that you are not on dry land.

I got up this morning at 7am to do some washing in the laundry down the hall.  It was deserted when I got there so I had four washers at my disposal.  I used one for the things I can was with soap and another for things that have to get by on just hot water.  Diana is sensitive to the residue from some types of soap around her neck and shoulders so her tops must be dry-cleaned or hot water washed when we travel.  At home we find that any of the ‘Free’ detergents are fine.  We usually travel with a supply of soap but this time on the bus tour and the river cruise no laundry facilities will be available.  By the time the next customer showed up I was folding the last of my shirts and bid him auf wiedersen, as he was German.

Not much on the schedule today really interested me so I spent the day reading and looking about.  I did take some pictures of the ship.  I really like the Art Deco and Machine Age elements they’ve built in to give the ship that traditional Ocean Liner feel missing in today’s cruise ships.  To me the architecture of the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings is much more interesting than almost any of the modern buildings around.

Prime examples are the murals on the Grand Concourse on decks 2 & 3.  On deck 2 there are 4 large Art Deco style murals showing elements taken from four continents.  They are in a bronze relief style.  On deck 3 the four Machine Age murals represent the seasons.  These are done more like constructions of various metals from aluminum, gold and silver.  They are wonderfully conceived and executed.

Another great examples are at the entrance to Illuminations, the ships movie and multi-media center there are two large statues of Mercury and Jupiter made to look like bronzes.  These are very Machine Age in style.  In the same area are two sculptures of women with glowing globes, one appears to be juggling them the other staring at one.  They are very Art Deco and are made to look like aluminum castings.  In this case they might actually be aluminum.

I joined the Groovy Choir in the early afternoon.  Cunard does have a marginally corny way of naming activities.  I mean, Groovy?  Really?  The three musicians in the jazz trio and one of the staff met with passengers in the Grand Atrium for a sing-along.  Normally I don’t really participate in this type activity but the song selection seemed interesting and I’d get to listen to the jazz trip if nothing else.  It was actually pretty nice.  We sang some show tunes (actually only one, thankfully), some classic ballads and a few newer ones.  About half way through a small crowd had gathered on the balconies surrounding the atrium to listen or join in.

It’s another formal night.  Our tablemates, George and Chitah from Las Vegas and Sandy from Scotland have brought their formal clothes so we are bringing the table down with my navy blue suit and Diana’s black pants suit.  No one seems to care at all.  It’s a very congenial table.  George and Chitah are political soul mates of Diana and I.  Sandy is a typical Brit, more liberal (anti-war).  I’ve had to resist telling her that that attitude necessitated our having to come over and bail them out twice in the last century because their proclivity to appease bad people is seldom successful in avoiding the ultimate confrontation.  We’d really like to avoid having to do that again.  If someone had jumped on the Kaiser or Hitler early on a lot of unnecessary death and suffering could have been avoided.  No telling what holocaust was avoided because we confronted Saddam Hussein early on.  Unfortunately we’ll never know and therefore those who believe in appeasement have a field day criticizing the conflict.

We were invited to cocktails with the Commodore after dinner so we excused ourselves at 7:30 to head to the Queen’s Room.  I take the opportunity to get a free diet coke on these occasions.  (Another HAL-Cunard difference, there are no soda cans in sight on the QM2.  Sodas come in a glass with some fruit attached.  Either way is fine with me, it’s just a difference.  In keeping with Cunard’s traditions, I guess it’s more elegant to be canless.)

Emma Sinclair was our entertainer this evening.  She has a versatile soprano voice and performed songs from musicals, operas and some ballads.  It was a good show.

One hour ahead again tonight.

May 4 – At Sea, Day 5  The water has smoothed out nicely but it’s still very cloudy and windy.  No movement at all on the ship. 

Well the days are dwindling down to a precious few now.  I took a picture of my English breakfast minus beans this morning.  Thought you might like to see it.  On any other ship I get a ham and cheese omelet every morning but not on the QM2.  In the sausage area Cunard easily surpasses HAL.  I only mention these Cunard advantages because, for me, there aren’t that many.  Overall, I prefer HAL.

Again today the lecturers did not appeal to me.  That’s a little surprising, as Cunard has had great lecturers aboard in the past.  The best presenter is the Oceanographer but I really don’t want to sit through another pitch designed to get me excited about ‘global warming’.  What most people don’t realize is that IF, in fact, the earth is getting warmer, there’s precious little we can do about it.

We tried the buffet dinner in the Kings Court for the first time ever.  The four restaurants take turns hosting the buffet, a different one each night.  The other three restaurants in the Kings Court become ‘ala Carte’ venues meaning you have to make a reservation that morning to eat there.  If the restaurant is the buffet it opens at 5:30pm and stays open until 11pm.  The ala Carte restaurants open at 7pm and close at 10pm.  The food was very good.

This evening is the last performance by the Royal Cunard Singers & Dancers.  It’s called Viva Italia and it’s all things Italian.  The music, dance and songs were all either Italian in origin or themed.  The costumes were fabulous and ballet set was outstanding.  All ten dancers were involved in the ballet and they all did a credible job.  About half of them were excellent.  I’m pretty sure that it’s somewhat unusual to have so many good ballet dancers aboard a ship.  Every lady got a fan with the shows logo on it. 

I picked up a book by Kathy Reichs in the paperback section of the ship’s library.  She’s the anthropologist that’s the basis for the TV series ‘Bones’.  The books are very different from the TV show but I like them both.  Unfortunately the book I picked up is in the middle of the series she’s written.  Now I’ll have to dig up the old ones because when the same characters are involved, I like to read them in chronological order.

Tonight we lose our last hour of sleep on the ship.  We’ll be one hour ahead of GMT at that point so England must be on daylight savings time.  Not sure how many more we’ll lose before we get to Vienna, maybe only one.  I’ll have to look that up.

May 5 – At Sea, Day 6  Last day at sea before disembarkation and the mad train dash across Europe. 

This is the day I like the least, packing to leave the ship.  Although I have to day that it’s not so bad when you are still going to travel onward.

Yesterday I accompanied Diana to her bridge lesson.  They are offering beginner and intermediate bridge lessons on this crossing and Diana has been taking the intermediate track and I decided to join her.  The lady was a nice instructor and had a very accessible method of presentation.  As you may know, bridge language is rife with jargon, most of which makes no logical sense you have to know the definitions ahead of time.  Mostly this jargon can be avoided by using plain language but most bridge instructors will not do this.  They take great joy in using as much of the obtuse language as possible.  For example, in bridge jargon ‘ruff’ means that you take a trick by using a trump card.  What does saying ‘ruff’ rather than ‘trump’ save?  Nothing!!  They even have the same number of syllables.  This is just one example, there are many others. 

This instructor, Alice, uses the plain language whenever possible so I decided to come back today and take another lesson.  Her other teaching technique is minimal lecture and then practice hands to bid and play.  Most effective!  She and her husband at the bridge instructors on HAL’s annual bridge cruise booked through our travel agent, Cruise Specialists Inc.  I like bridge but am mostly only interested in party or rubber bridge.  Duplicate or tournament style bridge attracts too many overly aggressive, and emotional types and they take all the fun out of it.

After bridge it was down to the King’s Court for lunch.  Today Diana and I ate together for lunch because we were on the same track today.  Usually our agendas conflict and we eat lunch at different times.  Diana doesn’t eat breakfast until about 10am and is not ready for lunch at 11:30am.  I eat breakfast at about 8:15am and am ready at 11:30.  One advantage of this schedule is that the buffets are not busy at that time so everything is easier to arrange.

After lunch I packed my bags for tomorrow’s departure.  Nice thing about packing to get off the ship is that everything is already in the room with you, no searching the house for things you’ve stored so efficiently you can’t find them.  I was completely packed in 30 minutes.

After packing I walked around the ship taking pictures of some of the architectural features I like.  All the murals on decks 2 and 3 are wonderful.  I’ve sent some pictures of the deck 3 style.  The deck two murals look they are done in bronze relief, they represent North America, Europe, South America and Africa.  Further down the way there are murals painted on glass that the North Pole, South Pole, Australia and Asia.

The show in the Royal Court Theater was a variety show with the pianist and singer from earlier in the cruise.  While they were both excellent, Diana and I opted to see ‘It’s Complicated’ in the Illusions Theater.  It’s the nicest movie theater afloat that I’ve ever been in.  It doubles at the planetarium at sea and thus is very large with excellent sight lines.

After the show it was down to the room to get some sleep and finish a book that I can’t take off the ship.