SEABOURN ODYSSEY: Two Weeks into a 53-day Cruise

Today represents two weeks on the Seabourn Odyssey.  

• The itinerary was, well, kind of junk.  For those 13 days, a Sydney to Hobart to Perth to Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney trip would have been far better.

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  The management seems somewhat disorganized.  Maybe it's the "just out of pandemic process" matter that is causing most of this.  Whatever, let me tell you one incident that should have been better managed.
• Yesterday morning we got this sudden letter indicating that all passengers needed to bring their passport and guest pass to meet with immigration officials off the ship.
• I called and was told to go now, which was around 10AM.  We had not yet had breakfast, but went as told.
• There is this transition zone between the ship and customs.  Left the ship, but at the entrance to Australia, a guard said that we also needed a transit card.  Went back to the ship, and they had a pile of cards in no particular order.  Somehow they found our cards, which meant they had to go through this process for every person on the ship.
• Armed now with the Passport, Guest Pass and and Transit Card, we left the ship.  When we got to the other side, we were told that the Immigration Officials would not be available for another hour and probably more.
• Okay, big deal, so we can then go back to the ship to eat something.  Nope.  Once off, you can't get back on until you officially go through the immigration process.
• So what?  I'm hungry and my blood pressure is going up.  Well we went for a walk into Sydney,  maybe to eat something, plus I wanted to get an item from the Apple Store, and sort of knew where that was located, and perhaps pick up a bottle of a heavy-bodied Sparkling Shiraz we heard so much about.
• We returned around 11:40AM and passed through the immigration process.
• Not yet lunch, and my pedometer read 7172, which, if you've been keeping up, is spectacular.  I've been averaging only around 3500 steps/day.
• Went to a fine lunch.
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  The best part of all, some head something or another called and said sorry for all this humbug, and for their mistake would delete our special $195/person wine dinner bill we had for our troubles.  Maybe it was the high blood pressure issue that caught their attention.

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  There was a second matter that bugged me.  
• Anyone who has boarded a cruise ship know that they need to go through a muster session for safety purposes,  Life jackets and all that, except they have simplified things and no mass gathering on deck on this ship.  Meaning nothing like the scene to the right.
• Well, we went through this minimal process two weeks ago, but had to do this again.
• So I grumbled, for we will need to again go through this effort when we get to Fiji, and anywhere else when a lot people leave and others board.
• The reason why is that people forget where they should go in an emergency, and the cruise just wanted to remind us of a few things.  Old people forget, something they did not say, but no doubt have in mind.

That aside, and those above issues are really picayune, the cruise has been spectacular.  The best we have been on in our life.  The Happiness 1 condition I'm in continues.  All those above incidents didn't dent my state of near euphoria.  The food is mostly excellent, the drinks copious...and they haven't yet run out of Glenmorangie or anything else.

I left you yesterday truly upset because we could not return to the ship through corporate mismanagement.  Thankfully, the ship was berthed at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, only a ten minute walk to our previous Marriott hotel.  So we walked into Sydney all the way to the Apple Store for me to purchase an earphone for my iPhone.  Then we also picked up a bottle of fabulous Sparkling Shiraz.

So here are just a few reason why this cruise is so great.  Lunch was a special pleasure because we were so hungry, not a normal condition on this cruise.  All that walking led to a pedometer reading of 7172  BEFORE lunch.

The roast pork had a special umaminess that was at a maximum.  A close second was the short ribs we had last night.

Then, the one best experience we both have ever had on a cruise.  We ordered room service for two double orders of caviar, plus some salmon, which we had with chilled Belvedere Vodka and that extraordinary Sparkling Shiraz we had just bought earlier in the day.  To begin, our view from our veranda of the Sydney Opera House to watch the departure of the Odyssey.

I've been searching for a heavy-bodied red champagne, and this is even better than the one Phil Bossert and I tasted in Germany for our wine-importing company.  He ran the effort and I was a minor sponsor.

You would have thought that we would be totally satiated and ended the day on our veranda.  Instead, we went to The Patio for dinner, and a final theater show.

What a day....what a cruise.  Furthermore, walked 8580 steps yesterday.  Next, Moreton Island.

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MORE FILMS AND FOOD

I was just scrolling through Netflix to find more 100-rated series, and stumbled across one each from Germany and Iceland.  I've only watched the first episode of each, but will of course continue.

Biohackers, rated 100/82 by Rotten Tomatoes, into season 2, is a German techno-thriller about a freshman medical student at the University of Freiburg, there mostly to personally investigate the doings of a young female professor who, it turned out, was into illegal genetic experimentation.  Each of the seasons has six episodes of 45-minute duration.  If so inclined you can just about complete the cycle in two nights.  Wikipedia provides a fairly complete explanation of each episode.

Travel played a role in my identifying with this program, for it was a quarter century ago when I was on an around the world trip that I met Phil Bossert in Freiburg and visited this university, for, I think this is where he got his PhD.  However, we were there because he was starting a wine company to import German wines from a company in Freiburg and we tasted 50 wines in two days, including a RED champagne, which I thought would be a best seller in China.  France makes only a small amount of red champagne that you probably never had, and these are more like rose'.  This deep-red champagne was from Germany using Pinot Noir in a very special way.  That photo is actually from Ukraine.  My next stop was Edinburgh to golf at St. Andrews.

Katla is the first Netflix original series from Iceland.  The cinematography was exceptional, and everything else outstanding, but somewhat eerie.  Rotten Tomatoes rated it 100/78.  This season #1 has 8 episodes.

The backdrop was a small town in southern Iceland which was suffering from the subglacial volcanic eruption of Katla.  People who have died began appearing in the village.  Comments like "beguiling mystery about heartbreak," "ominous supernatural mystery," and slow moving and haunting against a beautiful landscape can be cited.

It then occurred to me that perhaps I had too much depended on Rotten Tomatoes on what to watch, so at random I recorded two films, Kalifornia and Eurotrip, saw them, and then went to  check RT.  

RT gave the 1993 Kalifornia pretty bad 59/64 scores.  Excellent cast, with Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis and David Duchovny.  Rated R, it was gory.  One reason for the ratings.  The acting by Pitt and Lewis, especially her, was outstanding.  This was also a travelogue, taking you to various parts of the USA, and you can guess the termination point.  Reviewers said pretentious, messy and horrifying.  Both they and the audience didn't like it because of the subject matter, serial killers.  I thought it was a very entertaining film, winning two awards at the Montreal World Film Festival.  But it bombed at the box office, grossing only $2.4 million.  However, Roger Ebert heralded the performances of Pitt and Lewis as among the best he had ever seen.  So much for Rotten Tomatoes as the gauge to watch or not.

The 2004 Eurotrip, an R-rated sex comedy and travel production, got 47/75 scores, which means reviewers did not like it, but audiences were at least somewhat satisfied.  You get to see London, Paris, Amsterdam, Bratislava, Berlin and Rome.  It was funny, truly, with an over the top Hollywood ending.  Good cameos by Fred Armisen, Jeffrey Tambor, Arthur Frommer (they use his book) and Matt Damon. Maybe I shouldn't all that closely adhere to Rotten Tomatoes reviewers.

The reason I'm blogging on this subject today is to educate two members of my Wednesday night table.  At one time we had seven, but are now at four, mostly because three of them are in various stages of incapacity, but hopefully will return.  So anyway, this past Wednesday  I brought these two bottles of South Korean shoju to share, mostly because I kept seeing them on the Netflix series, and was influenced to drink them.  Unfortunately someone had a bottle of Haleiwa soju (26% alcohol--15 Craigside went there on a outing) and another a Heitz Cellars Cabernet, one of my very favorite wines.  You can't find a HC Cab less than $50 a bottle, and anything even slightly more vintage is past $100.

During the discussion, we happened to focus on the various Netflix Korean series, and how they are the modern version of those that replaced Japanese soap operas that were popular on local television.  Two on the table never bothered to watch the new Korean ones even though they subscribe to Netflix.  A fourth person is an even bigger fan, and I've had several postings on this subject.  Here is one from last month.  

I indicated that in all those modern Korean shows, whenever drinking occurs, these two soju bottles literally capture the scene.  Of course the company pays to advertise their project, but after a while it works, and one gets obsessed with these bottles.  So the homework for the neophytes is to watch at least one series this week, for I will be bringing them back to the table this week.  Here is a behind-the-scenes look at Crash Landing on You for them to get a flavor of what to expect.

This is one compilation of the best Korean series, with a warning:  THEY ARE HIGHLY BINGEABLE AND DANGEROUSLY ADDICTING!  Also sappy.  Vincenzo and CLoY are included.  Most of the others are not yet rated by Rotten Tomatoes.  A good one to start with is Something in the Rain, where I can guarantee that Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man will become your favorite song of the year.  Except that this song is being sung by Carla Bruni.

Dekanta provides you an opportunity to spend your money on Japanese whiskies.  

Yes, the price starts at $3700 and goes up to $130,000.  Per bottle.  It gets higher with Karuizawa:

I last night had more of the ahi gift, this time with Japanese wagyu beef from Miyazaki.  It looks small, but the reason is that the onion is really large:

Finally, here is what I am seeing from my computer.  A scintillating day in Honolulu.  Note that the shower trees and now in bloom.

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GAWA Day #37B: Frankfurt

I was somewhat surprised to see all that snow on mountains just outside of Venice on the way to Frankfurt, as this is still October:

The approach to Frankfurt Airport showed that the fall colors were already here:

The Sheraton at the airport now seems spiffier, I went up to the Club Lounge for a drink and ended up deciding to have my dinner here:

If I paid $75 for salad, soup and beer at the Westin in Venice, this meal above would have cost $150 there.  Here, free. That bottom right drink is a red champagne, evocative of a time two decades ago when I was one of the investors for Phil Bossert's wine company, and accompanied him to Freiborg, when we drank 50 wines in two days, one a red champagne.  I thought that would be a big seller in China.

Frankfurt is the fifth largest city in Germany with a little more than 700,000 people, but its metropolitan region has 5.5 million.  The geographic center of the European Union is maybe 20 miles east of where I presently am.

The city is the largest financial center in Continental Europe.  The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is one of the world's largest by market capitalization.

This is Hub City, for all major air, rail and highway links virtually pass through my hotel room.  Lufthansa is headquartered here.

The largest book fair on Planet Earth just ended here.  7,000 exhibitors and 286,000 visitors.

In September, Frankfurt hosted the world's largest motor show.  They share this venue every other year with Hannover.  Anyway, you get an idea what Frankfurt does.

So to summarize, Mercer ranked Frankfurt as #7 in its Quality of Living survey.  #1 has been Vienna since 2010, while San Francisco is the highest ranked U.S. city at #27, with Boston at #34 and Honolulu #36

There are no Michelin 3-Star nor Pellegrino Best 50 restaurants in Frankfurt, so I decided to go up to the Main Tower Restaurant.  However, they were booked for the next two days.  After a couple more checks, I decided, heck, I haven't had a good steak in weeks, so I asked for, and got a lunch reservation at M-Steakhouse, said to be the best in Frankfurt.  Not sure why this bird is at the entrance.

I had a one pound rib-eye from the USA and glasses of California Cabernet and German beer:

These are what came at the end.

The walk to Palmengarten took less than ten minutes.  I kind of got lost and ended up on the wrong side of the park, but saw a coffee shop, so I walked in and noticed the park was right there when you walk out.  I think I committed a sin by not paying the 7 Euro fee, but there was nowhere to do this.  Interestingly enough, a few minutes into the park I saw something on the ground, which was the entrance card noting the 7 Euro fee..  Must be the will of God.

So here are a few photos:

Dahlias were in bloom:

The rest of the park:

The obligatory swan:

Then, on the way back to the airport I walked around the Zeil, which was not anything special:

This was my most relaxing day of the journey.

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The so-called strongest hurricane in the history the Western Hemisphere, made landfall between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta:

Scarily, Patricia took only a day and a half to strengthen from a tropical storm to a Category 5.  Unofficially, Typhoon Nancy in the East Pacific reached a 1-minute maximum sustained wind speed of 215 MPH.  Patricia hit 200 MPH.  Iniki in 1992 was a Category 4 at 145 MPH when making landfall on Kauai.

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