So, dear reader, I owe you some updates. There have been some decent adventures since we last met! I still owe the three remaining days of our WNY / Finger Lakes adventure. Then we returned home and the following week (this most recent week) I went off to Baltimore for a conference (I’ll likely cover that in a single post). Finally, this recent Friday and Saturday I spent with my friends in their timeshare out in the Shenandoah Valley. But one more – we’re planning a camping trip with the dog in two weeks. This shall be an adventure as the dog has never camped before! But for now, we will start with the Martin House.
May 25 started just as many late-spring days in Buffalo – with clouds and gloom. Well, the gloom continued. It didn’t rain though; it was generally pleasant. We had breakfast at SPoT Coffee again with better service than the two prior days (did I mention how much I enjoy their espresso grind?) and then we checked out and went for a tour at The Martin House.
The Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo, New York, is a world-class architectural masterpiece designed by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1903 and 1905. It’s widely considered to be the best (well, in my opinion one of the best) examples of his prairie house era. Martin was a successful executive, the chief financial officer, I believe, of a large company headquartered in Buffalo at the time and very much appreciated by his employers. He eventually was in charge of building a new corporate headquarters, also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but as a lead up to this he commissioned his own house. Before building his own house he had other homes built on the same plot of land. The gardener’s house above, for instance, was commissioned, as was his sister’s house:
And here is the view of the Martin house from his sister’s house – probably the only place where you can take a photograph inside at the Martin House. You can see from the above there are large beds of peonies that are likely blooming now, two weeks later, but at the time they were just green. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the windows used throughout.
Including these on the main house. Again, you can take photographs from the outside but not inside. Below this line of windows there are glass windows allowing light in to the basement level as well.
Upon entry to the main house you have a view towards where I am standing in this perspective. The entry has a door to the steps on the street as well as a door back in this direction to the walkway to the conservatory. The entry itself is fairly compact for the era with an archway to the left on entering (to the right from here) into a receiving room and then to the right (to the left from here) into a formal family area. If you have ever been in a Wright House it follows his philosophy of “compress and release.” The doorway and movement between rooms is compressed and then the room spreads out away from you and higher than you – the release as it is, capturing you into the space.
The view through the entry and down the covered corridor to the conservatory yields this – intended to impress.
What I enjoyed the most in all of this space was the Steinway covered with white oak; most are black but his wife had one covered with white oak. It returned to the house many years ago and is played by volunteers for maintenance.
While we were at the Martin house we started getting text messages from the Inns of Aurora where we were checking in later that day – 140 miles away! Seems they accidentally did not change our spa appointment to the next day. Therefore, we did not dillydally. We moved on, but first stopping at the Walden Galleria to verify that Western New York is not entirely populated by Dead Malls. I had to buy some sponge candy and a pair of swim trunks! And lunch of course (which sucked – mall food court food).
At the Inns we checked into the Zabriskie House, our home away from home for two nights. We definitely could have stayed longer. We enjoyed a couple’s massage at the spa here this evening (more on that later – we returned to the spa for their outdoor thermal spa experience the next day). We would both rate their massage experience as superb, probably the best compared to other resorts where we’ve enjoyed the massage experience (Woodloch Resort for instance, and Wildflower Farms in Gardiner New York). Not that there was anything wrong at the other places… we both realized that some of the reason why we enjoyed this experience better may be because we both had a male masseuse! Bigger hands with pressure more spread out.
We had dinner at the 1833 Kitchen and Bar which is part of the Inns. It was their third night open for outdoor dining for the season.
There are a ton of wines on the list I would have enjoyed traveling but the slow service allowed me to get as far as two only. We did enjoy some good food like this tuna crudo –
And some really good lamb as well (along with salmon, without the lardons please for her). Pro tip – some members of the guest services staff will do nearly anything for you, including the guy who checked us in who said he was “like a dog with a frisbee” and would answer any question. He told us how to get down to the waterfront in the morning for instance:
“Absolutely! No bother at all! You’re throwing a frisbee at a dog! I love this stuff! You will kindly find your way to the right side of The Rowland House following the grass down to the dock just behind the house. The Rowland House is marked with a large R on your map and just across Main St. from your location at Zabriskie House.”
But our true reward for the journey was sunset over Cayuga Lake.
And we continue with our January adventures…. As they rolled to a close! It’s time to catch up as now there have been more adventures.
So, Holland America has as an excursion option on disembarkation day the choice of having a private car and tour guide for eight hours – ending at the airport. For a solo person the car for two would be great. It’s likely a car the size of a Toyota Corolla I suspect. As we have six pieces of luggage with us (two checked each plus carry on) we realized we needed something bigger so we booked a “private minivan” which is supposedly large enough for three or four couples. I tell you, the van that picked us up this morning was big enough for about 12 people with 22 days of baggage but there was only ourselves in it.
Ours was listed as “Buenos Aires Private Touring – Full Day (Minivan) Ending at the Airport.” I suspect you’d want “Buenos Aires Private Touring – Full Day (Car) Ending at the Airport.” I’ll describe now how it worked for us. We think it was worth it and I’ll explain way, but also use this as an excuse to describe the experience.
The cruise port in Buenos Aires is pretty chaotic. So, from beginning to end.
As is the case for all disembarking passengers luggage goes out the night before by midnight. They haul your “checked bags” down, you bring down your carry-on. You have to carry your carry-on down in the morning to the cruise terminal shuttle and then carry it to the terminal. For these private touring transfers you are in the last group to disembark – at 8:30 for us. They give you enough tags for your bag and they call you when it’s time.
Upon arrival from the terminal you get off of the bus and go into the terminal and find your other luggage, which if like us would be Blue group C, a fairly small section towards the near end of the baggage claim area. Then you take your baggage (there are no carts) out through customs. At customs you must put everything through an X-ray machine (they will put it up for you but really didn’t help taking it down). In general there were not luggage trolleys available.
For us, this was a matter of maneuvering, between The Boss, myself, and my mother, one 76 pound rolling bag, one 65 pound rolling bag, one 40 pound rolling bag, a couple of fairly heavy duffel bags, a rolling carry on, a few shoulder bags and one backpack out through a fairly good sized building.
Then you spill out onto a wide covered apron near the street where a HAL person will direct you through a crowd to a corner of the building where there were numerous people carying signs with your name on them.
Pro tip – pack less than we did. Take advantage of the unlimited laundry offer.
So, we found our guide and he directed us across a dip in the concrete to a van that was luckily waiting on the best patch of curb available. The driver loaded our luggage and we were on our way.
Logistically, the way it works is on embarkation day the HAL excursion desk leaves you an envelope with a form for you to fill out regarding anything you may want to see on your private tour. In reality, our guide had a list of eight main areas he shows to everyone but if we had anything special we wanted to see it should go on the list. I was looking at something that wasn’t steak for lunch so I researched, and we wanted to see the Evita Peron Museum, so I researched that as well. Otherwise, he covered the five main areas we wanted to see including the cemetery and Plaza Mayo along with Recoleta and Palermo neighborhoods, We also added Ateneo Grand Splendid Bookstore which was also among our favorites.
So as I was saying, they picked us up and we were on our way. We spent the morning heading towards the central and then the more southern part of the close-in city and then after lunch we headed towards the northern part of the city. Finally, we went to the airport.
We stopped by Teatro Colon which unfortunately was closed except for the main hallway due to some electrical work being done. We could have done a tour here for forty five minutes in English but it would not have happened anyway.
One note – our guide, and most of the guides, are fully licensed and many of them have college degrees for being tour guides. With his badge our guide was able to visit most attractions without paying a fee, although we had to pay the international rate. he also seemed to know somebody on every single block. Martin was approached many times for the typical Argentinian kiss on the cheek greeting. Oh, but one other thing – even though he has free admission everywhere at attractions where they sell an electronic guide or otherwise he is often forbidden from providing his own commentary. More on this later.
We spent a bit of time in the square behind the theater talking about the buildings in the neighborhood including the palace of justice. Then, back into the van.
I snapped this photo of The Obelisk on our way to our next stop, Plaza Mayo. Santiago and Punta Arenas both had Plaza de Armas; Buenos Aires has the same thing, Plaza Mayo. Most Spanish colonial cities have something similar.
This heavily-touched-up photo I took of the pink house – their presidential mansion. It sits on Plaza Mayo along with the national bank and the cathedral and a number of other buildings.
This is the inside of the cathedral on the square. As it was Pope Francis’ seat when he was in Buenos Aires there is now a small Pope Francis museum attached apparently but we did not visit it. There is actually a bit to see here including The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the Independence. If anybody is curious I’ll look it up when I get around to reviewing my notes.
Back in the van. Let me tell you, it’s nice to only wait for two others climbing into a van. Martin wanted to take us to the San Telmo neighborhood but as we visited it yesterday we suggested moving on. Instead, he took us straight to the La Boca neighborhoodwhere we drove past the very famous soccer (futbol) stadium. Every building in La Boca seems to be painted in its colors. Here we got out of the van and went for a coffee in what I would call a “coffee speakeasy.”
This was my cafe cortado. Mmmm. Anyway, the entrance to the coffee shop was through a souvenir shop behind a painted door and up some stairs in the back. You would not know it was there.
La Boca is a neighborhood that was settled first by Spanish immigrants and later by Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. Along the port there there is a walking street, Caminito, leading to the small port where today many artists sell their wares.
Caminito is actually a combination between an outdoor market, walking street, and outdoor gallery.
Our guide Martin highlighting one of the artworks.
The back of a meat-selling restaurant.
After this part of the tour it was time to say goodbye to the South and head north. Along the way we passed the new port district along the eastern side of the district, much better than the cruise port neighborhood. It reminded me of the newer parts of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor district or some of the developments along the Chicago River in Chicago.
Martin insisted we stop at this – it was not on our radar at all. Two years ago, long time Cruise Critic readers will remember, around the time of one of the January Antarctic sailings there was a tornado that hit this part of Buenos Aires collapsing part of the roof in the cruise terminal. In addition to collapsing the cruise terminal it did some damage to this, Floralis Genérica. This has only been reopened for the past two weeks. Prior to 2023, it opened in the daytime and closed at night; now it is just… open, but hopefully it will soon return to its opening and closing status.
After the flower we visited Recoleta Cemetary where Evita and her family are entombed. Of course, our guide told us the story about this as well. She was not actually entombed there until years after her death of course and there are many many mausoleums that are more grand than hers. If anybody is interested, please let me know and I will share more photos.
And then finally we visited Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore.
This bookstore is great, obviously. It’s like a large Barnes and Noble if you speak Spanish. If not, then it’s just pretty. The English language section is on the ground floor on the left. There is a gift and merchandise section in the lobby. On the third (top) tier for a fee you can see an exhibit regarding the history of the museum and they will serve you snacks. Or you can pay for a coffee and sit on the stage.
I bought a dual-language cookbook here, it was on sale in the lobby. We also somewhere along here stopped for lunch.
I’m not going to say lunch was a mistake, but it certainly was an adventure. I think our guide’s intention was to take us to one of the market restaurants or somewhere similar, but prior to the day of the tour when we provided our list I gave him the name of Niño Gordo – “Fat Baby” in English. This had the potential to be a legendary lunch except for two factors – one, we had eaten ourselves to death on the few days prior and two, halfway through the meal the power went out!
Our guide was actually a young guy – in his mid-twenties, and perhaps when I assessed him as an adventurous recent college graduate in a cosmopolitan city I was wrong :-). We took him to an Asian – Argentine fusion spot. As you can see above, we were seated in a section that had low seats, near the floor, with light spilling in from the tabled area and from the bar area. We ordered several dishes to share including kimchi, an Argentine-Asian beef dish, and a fish dish. It was going great, but around the second course the power in the kitchen goes out and half the restaurant goes dark. Not long after that, the air conditioning above us starts dripping on us – because it was off and no longer blowing the condensation elsewhere. So, surprise.
We finished our lunch and then made our way to the airport. The airport is a bit crazy though. The key here that worked out well for us is with the private car or van our guide snagged us a luggage trolley, walked into the airport with us and showed us where our check-in counters are, and showed us where the security desk is.
One thing I’m going to note now –
EVEN WITH PRIORITY STATUS EZE IS A FOUR HOUR AIRPORT IN THE LATE AFTERNOON AND EVENING. UGH.
Delta’s check-in opens at five. American opens at six as does United (I think). Delta has fewer people staffing check-in but the same number of planes as American. American opened early. We arrived at 5pm and my mother got in line for check in right away whereas the two of us sat and had coffee for ninety minutes as we had several hours to wait. With priority our check-in was 20 minutes; my mother’s was 90 minutes. The security line was I think 50 minutes, passport control was 20 or 30 minutes. Okay, so maybe with priority it’s a three hour airport. However, as we arrived so early we had time to kill. We enjoyed a light meal at Le Pain Quiotidien along with some wine and beer prior to running the security and passport gauntlet. And then? The best thing ever. We visited the Admiral’s Club lounge where, after spending a hot summer day touring Buenos Aires, I was able to take a shower! We finally boarded for our 11:59pm flight and were happily able to sleep on the plane as well.
And all of the bags on the right (the four) made it on the plane to Miami. When we landed in Miami it was barely above freezing and there were gusty winds which slammed our plane to the ground twice. I figured we’d be in for the same at home but it was a more typical landing. Even so, brrrrr.
On approach the Potomac was full of ice. And then we spent the next week clearing snowcrete from our driveway and walks…. Back to normal.
So today was a good sea day if a bit busier than I would normally hope to be on a sea day. Things I learned today –
If we order room service for delivery at 6am they will actually show up close to 6am.
All of the treadmills are in use by 7am; only one of us was able to run this morning and she spent 2 1/2 hours on the treadmill. Not certain if anybody stuck around long enough to notice.
The fitness instructor doesn’t care if people doing yoga want to stay balanced on both sides.
HAL likes to focus on meal pacing. Tonight they asked us if they were pacing our meals properly or if we would like to go faster or slower.
Even with a beverage package they want you to sign – sporadically, part of the time.
The cable boxes (IPTV converters) freeze when the WiFi freezes, or when Elon Musk coughs, but they can be rebooted from the hallway.
All in all, we’re beginning to understand why Holland America cruisers are so loyal. Whenever you ask someone to do something, if it’s within their authority and they have time and energy, they do it. People have been so helpful. Tonight, we had a couple of additional chairs delivered to our cabin so now we can host parties. We bought a beverage beyond the limit of our package and they told us not to worry about it. They handled our query about fixed dining perfectly – and followed up, both from the concierge and the maître d’. In short, it sounds like they were trying to tell us to “just use Club Orange and dine whenever we want.” We decided “we’d rather depend on having the same waiter every night and having the same spot near the window.” And they’re smart enough to tell us the Club Orange menu now (they were before, we just had not asked).
Our new living room
We had a couples massage this morning. Swedish massage. We both fell asleep in the middle. The upsell was moderate to heavy, probably because they know we are suckers sometimes. We also enjoyed the large hot hydrotherapy pool mostly to ourselves – picture loungers in the water with jets and bubbles; this is where we will be when we get chilled from watching for penguins flying in boats.
“Penguins Landing in Small Boats”
We also went to the Cruise Critic meet and greet, where people clapped when I said “this is the longest we’ve taken off work in three decades…”. I met one of the cruisers who was staying at the Sheraton Thursday night who was having fits with the excursion crew in Santiago Thursday night. He was actually at the winery at the same time we were at an earlier time (I wish he were in our crew because he’s an interesting guy).
We’re all settled in for another twenty days here.
So, because I couldn’t get on the treadmill this morning I walked several laps on the promenade instead this morning even though it was windy and cold. I met a man who lives on the same road as my parents – he grew up “back home.” Turns out he lived for 17 years about six blocks from where we live in Arlington. What a small world.
Because I couldn’t do the treadmill I decided I either need to get up tomorrow morning for treadmill time or I needed to do it this afternoon. I went this afternoon instead (it’s rare for me to get motivated for this on vacation). I watched The Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix while running a few miles. In this show whales act as a metaphor for Attorney Woo helping her analyze life as an autistic attorney. Whenever she has a brainstorm, or a deep thought which breaks the wall of autistic thought patterns, she sees whales or dolphins, usually splashing out of the ocean. Today, I had a pleasure of watching the whales with the ocean as a backdrop.
Reporting in on logistical matters –
People dress nice-ish on dressy nights on HAL scenic cruises. Nobody is messy but there are not too many dresses and we didn’t see too many tuxedos. The split between suits and just a dress shirt seemed to be about 60/40 towards a suit. Not too many people wore ties either (myself included; I’ll send photos sometime as I look perfectly presentable and professional without a tie).
Lamb chops
Dressy night got us a few extra menu options. Tonight’s steak options were a tenderloin and a NY Strip Steak. Orange menu got us a braised short rib. I had “rack of lamb” which consisted of two thick lamb chops. They were good and didn’t taste like they were sent from New Zealand so they may have actually been brought on the ship in Santiago. At lunch today I had crab Louie salad.
Crab Louie salad
We played blackjack for a bit this afternoon, losing more than winning but having a good time. We likely won’t play again for a few days as the next two are port days.
Tonight, after calling the cable guy, we’re watching football. We sent out laundry today and I called my kid to have a difficult conversation. It’s almost as if we’re at home. Well, we do our own laundry at home.
Weather this morning
Weather – cold and damp this morning, upper 50s (14C). Warm and sunny this afternoon, around 70 (21C) but with nice warm sun. I sat shirtless in the sun a bit and became a little pink. Tomorrow…. I frankly have no idea but it looks like upper 50s and “chance of a shower.” People report that weather can be highly variable in Puerto Montt and Puerto Chacabuco. we’ll see.
Weather tonight
17,947 steps today. Not enough sleep last night so we shall be sleeping soon.
Today we chose to wake up early and go for a run. The Sheraton is near the park along the river here so we decided to run on the trails along the river. If you’re a runner or a cyclist it’s actually quite nice. It’s a bit disjointed around the business district as there are a lot of street crossings but once you get nearly a mile north past South America’s tallest building it becomes a proper suburban trail with room for runners and cyclists. When we first hit the trail at 7am it was pretty quiet. By the time we returned near 8am it was busy with bicycle commuters as well as a moderate amount of joggers.
Running trail along the river
On our return to the neighborhood around the hotel we discovered a random Gandhi memorial.
Gandhi
One of the things I like to do when visiting major cities is to, well, go for a run. And after the run rather than enjoy the free or paid hotel coffee, I tend to find a local coffee or espresso bar. Today was no exception. After a shower we headed out into the Providencia neighborhood to find an espresso bar.
Morning latte
We found a great place called Bafel’s Coffee which opened at 9am (translation – they don’t do an early espresso here). Bafel’s provided me with a proper latte and “Mediterranean eggs” which I translated as “a proper shakshuka, albeit with American-style bacon.” After Bafel’s, thanks to the wonders of modern technology I spent ninety minutes on Zoom with my kid’s therapy group talking about supports needed back home, so, yeah, that used up some of the day, but nonetheless I am happy I wasn’t doing it from the ship.
Shakshuka
Sometime yesterday we decided we were going to take the gondola up Santuario Cerro San Cristobal rather than try to walk or run up it; honestly, until The Boss said it sounded like fun I didn’t have a huge amount of interest. Nonetheless the view was amazing at the top and it was about a quarter of the price of similar attractions at home.
Gondola – or cable car as the locals call it
On our way there we bumped into a few members of my mother’s cruising group who recommended we visit a restaurant at the bottom of the mountain because “they served us a whole bowl of whipped cream when we asked for cream.” We did, but we did not ask for cream. Instead I asked for a Flat White. And beef.
Flat WhiteCarne
So, I’m going to write about this in more depth, likely when I return home. We visited the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos aka the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. It may become clear why I’m waiting to write about it. It’s a very interesting experience and quite thought provoking especially in the current environment, but it may leave you feeling melancholy. And it’s open a little later than we expected, until 6pm, which came in handy as we were running out of time. I had hoped to go to jazz tonight but for purposes of maintaining rest and readiness I decided we should hold off unless we had a proper siesta which we did not. Instead, we were re-packing this evening and settling down so we do not exhaust ourselves tomorrow.
Human Rights Museum
Dinner was outdoors at one of the hotel restaurants (there are four it seems). I had Chilean oysters and a rockfish crudo along with a Carmenere red wine. My mother and one of her friends joined us.
Oysters no longer sidewaysRockfish
Logistically –
– The restaurants at the Sheraton can get busy or even close when there are conventions. The poolside restaurant closes if there is a chance of rain as they grill outdoors.
– Uber works great here and is 100% legal. It is about a quarter of the price of home. I’ve been ordering Uber Black for half the price of UberX at home. If you’re curious, the two cars we ordered were both made in China – an SUV built by the company that is “Great Wall Automotive” and another one built by Chery.
– The Human Rights Museum is a 30 minute ride in busy traffic.
– Ask the server in restaurants if tip is included. It often is. In the hotel they told us to write “yes” if we want to tip the included amount. In one case elsewhere I provided the recommended tip and also gave a 2,000 peso (about $1.80) note. In cafes I have been rounding up the dollar amount – by about 15 to 20 cents.
– Around the Plaza des Armas, the Presidential Palace, in the grand parks, and other areas which look and feel safe and are otherwise guarded, don’t wear jewelry – anything that can be snatched, whether it’s earrings, a chain around your neck or otherwise. In these neighborhoods the streets are busy but there are a lot of tourists. Pickpockets are there. There is one scam going around where someone splashes something on you and then an old man tries to help you by holding your bags while you clean up. Watch out for stuff like this. In the local, nicer neighborhoods you will see the locals walking around with phones stuffed down the waistline of their pants sticking out where it seems safer and likely is (and there is no police presence, unlike the places referenced above). Three people on our cruise so far have reported being robbed or otherwise on various groups.
– At the airport if you need a taxi see the taxi counter IN THE AIRPORT and follow their instructions.
– Bring Chilean Pesos. It’s safer at local establishments than using a card. At non-tourist establishments, if you stop somewhere randomly, they do not have provisions for dollars.
Holland America 22-Day South America and Antarctica
Today’s Dad Joke –
I don’t like people who don’t cover their nose and mouth when they sneeze. They make me sick.
It’s 10:30 in the morning and we’re due to depart for the airport in a few hours. I am busily finishing off the remaining Christmas cookies, chocolates, and other candies. That, and heading off a minor crises at the office.
Yesterday I came downstairs just as The Boss brought her main luggage up from the basement. It’s HUGE and I didn’t realize how huge. Two years ago I had purchased a piece at the off-price section at Macy’s which I thought was the maximum limit for European carriers for our Queen Victoria Atlantic Coast Adventure. Well, she went to the same place and bought something bigger. So I pulled out the measuring tape and even with our upgrade on American Airlines it turns out we’re both in the $200 zone for oversize baggage. End result we’re heading to the airport a little earlier than planned in case something unexpected happens and we need to return home or over to the mall to acquire smaller baggage.
Oversize Baggage
Nonetheless, we are excited. Meraz the Greyhound has been taken to her friend’s house. I made my last minute trip to the bank (walked halfway there once and turned around because I forgot my wallet and returned to get cash). Last night we checked in for our flights. This morning I filled out Chile’s SAG form online for agricultural declaration. In the interest of science I’m declaring my factory-packaged ginger chews and will report back here hopefully with them asking why I declared them; they aren’t plant or animal products!
I also received the good news yesterday that as my employment anniversary is this year I now have an extra week of leave each year!
Curious, who else tries to cram into one bag? I know there are people out there who would travel with carry-on only for a 22 day cruise. That’s not us. And this time we’re packing for three seasons.
I’ll share some of my own strategies for reducing clothing packed –
Get the laundry package. We plan to send out laundry for the first time either on embarkation day or the day following to beat the rush. We expect weather will transition from “summer” to “spring” by the first port day (third day of the cruise).
Use yoga shirts as under shirts and then work out in them the next day. Same with plain, dark t-shirts, for my chosen button down evening shirts they can be worn casually through the day but under a shirt to be dressier in the evening.
I have an LL Bean coat lined wind breaker which is rated for 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Liner removal means it gets used with a layer and a hoodie underneath at a handful of port stops, in addition to with liner and scarf and hat and three layers when doing the Antarctic drive-by. Will report back on success of this approach.
I’m packing three pairs of shoes. One, beach sandals to go to the pool and/or spa; two, dressy sneakers for most evenings; three, dressy boots which are good when polished for dressy nights (you may debate me on this). As the boots are wearing and may be retired this spring, I’ll wear them for Volunteer Point in the Falklands as they are still waterproof (again, you may debate me on this as well and point out the error of my ways).
I’m wearing my running shoes to the airport.
Prior to Polishing
I think we’re both now of the opinion that for most adventures we need to downsize our standard luggage a little. These monsters are going to be unwieldy if we need to move them anywhere further from curb to cab, and even though we’re both relatively fit it’s painful for us to carry them loaded down a flight of stairs.
So we’re leaving for Santiago in a few days to join a cruise to Antarctica returning via Buenos Aires. This is a big deal – it’s something we started to dream about a few years ago and started to book 16 months ago. We’re in our mid-fifties; we started planning this when we were younger. This is our third cruise together. The shortest was 12 nights so we have certainly discovered that we are a younger demographic on longer duration cruise!
Questions I want to ask others are as follows. How did you decide to go to Antarctica? Why did you book on Holland America? When did you decide to go? Was this a long held dream or was it recent? If you have done it before, does the Drake Passage compare to other seas-of-drama? I’ve cruised the Bay of Biscay a couple of times and have touched a Cat 1 hurricane off the coast of North Carolina so I’m confident I will be fine – can it be that much worse?
For us, the story begins with a walk.
Walking in Valencia
When traveling and away from home we spend more time talking about things we enjoy. Often this happens when we’re sitting on a balcony watching the sea go by or when we’re on a long walk, or sometimes on a long run, because we do run. We talk about where we want to retire, how we want to live, or what we want to do next.
In 2023, we were in port in Valencia on a Cunard Queen Victoria cruise. We didn’t book an excursion because we felt we could explore Valencia on our own. Although Valencia port isn’t necessarily walkable, Cunard was nice enough to provide a shuttle to the City of Arts and Sciences. Valencia has a greenbelt built on the diverted Turia River bed that begins at the City of the Arts and Sciences and passes by the old town core so we used it as a conduit. It’s a two mile walk each way. We should have worn our running clothes and run instead.
Jardi del Turia
Anyway, I don’t know what exactly we discussed that particular day, but sometime around then we started talking about future travels and I suspect on the long walk we discussed much of what we wanted to see in the world. Patagonia and Africa came up as being fairly high on the list. To be honest, we didn’t talk about Antarctica.
Flash forward and we eventually started reviewing options and talking about planning. We discussed the merits of Africa over Patagonia, and I was sneaky enough to slide Antarctica in there. The Holland America itinerary is actually one I planned for January 2014 back in 2012 when I was still married. It’s a great itinerary starting in Chile and taking in parts of Patagonia, the Drake Passage and Antarctic Peninsula, and the Argentine and Uruguayan coasts along with the Falkland Islands. But obviously I’m not married anymore so I ended up canceling – my mother went instead, and we’ll see how this works out because literally two days after we booked this winter’s expedition she joined her local travel group to do the same. She swears it was merely a coincidence, but we shall see!
Compared to expedition cruises it’s very cost effective, and compared to other main-line options it’s longer and takes in a wider variety of ports, countries, and cultures. I was also looking at an Azamara cruise that covered roughly the same territory but we agreed upon Holland America. If we’re going to be on a ship for 22 days, we want relaxation and recovery in a larger cabin with more options.
So here we are preparing to embark in six days, and preparing to travel a few days beforehand.
This post is entitled why we go on cruises. It’s about the obvious. I’m the type of person – we’re the type of people – who actually enjoy doing things when we travel. We’re active. We run. We run in port. We walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to Kings County Distillery in the Navy Yard. We go on an architecture boat tour in Chicago. When we visit a city, we stay somewhere comfortable and wander around and try to be like locals. Well, we try. We walked to the top of Cadillac Mountain instead of driving. But we go on cruises. Why?
The view from the top
We go on cruises so we don’t drive each other nuts. We like to do certain things in the morning and we also appreciate a fair amount of downtime. Sometimes one relaxes while the other goes to the casino. We don’t like to haul our luggage back and forth constantly; instead, we want to pretend we’re home. We don’t want to sit in a place for a week or two or three weeks, at least not most of the time. We want to experience a place but also relax.
Feet up in awkward relaxation
So let me start out by telling you how I started cruising.
Walking amongst the fish, Atlantis
In 2016, I took my daughters on a cruise. I drove to the cruise port with them and we sailed south for a week. Planned ports included Port Canaveral in Florida (a success, we visited Disney for the first time ever), Nassau in the Bahamas, and Freeport (fail, due to planned hurricane). Did I mention the hurricane? My worst experience at sea was my first one, the one where the ship was listing sideways as we skirted a Cat 1 hurricane off Cape Hatteras.
In 2017, I took them on a cruise with my mother. Or rather, we went on a transatlantic passage on Queen Mary 2. Again, the main reason I did this is because it allowed a degree of relaxation while also entertaining my family. It was to some degree tiring though – travel with family is often not about relaxation. We did go to Scotland though.
On the train to Mallaig
I went on one solo cruise on a ship called the Royal Clipper, and then I went on two more – one, another Transatlantic, on Celebrity Silhouette as a “first vacation since COVID,” and one on Queen Victoria at the edge of winter to Spain and Portugal. That last one was in many ways the best – we, meaning we and not my daughters, visited a number of different interesting ports and towns in Spain and Portugal. This is really where we established our cruising habits and learned some lessons.
Always dine in port
Always dine in port, because the food in port is one of the strongest identifiers of a culture.
Always give yourself downtime. Don’t attempt to try every event on the ship. Remember, if you’re on a ship for more than a week, just as you do with work at home you also need a day off to sleep in, rest, and relax. Also, don’t drink heavily before a day where the captain is telling you that you will have rough seas.
Sunset
And move into your cabin. Act as if you own it. Find that one spot on the ship you find relaxing and keep coming back to it. Watch the sunset, watch the waves change day after day. Look for whales and dolphins. And enjoy yourself.
