On our way back to the ship we walked through the downtown area which had many hotels, restaurants, cafes, and stores and we stumbled upon a market that mainly had fruit and vegetables and flowers. The market was very large in size.
Salad that Keith had which is the Mushroom Salad.
Sashimi and Sushi.
The trio of appetizers that we had. This is one to eat from left to right to enjoy not only the fish but also the sauce.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
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Highlights From Yesterday and Today
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Crystal Cruises Enrichment Program
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Yesterday, we had a truly incredible day with not one or two or even three lectures but a total of four different lectures given on fascinating subjects. We wanted to just highlight a couple of the lecturers.
The first is Dara Torres who is an incredible Olympic Swimmer at age 41 became the oldest Olympic Swimmer to ever compete at the Olympics which she did at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where she finished with a Silver in the fifty meter freestyle race and she missed the Gold by 1/100's of a second. It is just incredible that she has won medals in five different Olympics beginning in 1984. She plans to compete in the 2012 Olympics. This was her second time on Crystal and her lecture was very inspiring along with the very well done question and answer session, which followed. She and Dorothy Hamill are on for this leg of the World Cruise as part of the World Cruise Games.
The second one is the lecture that Joe Kess gave about the Pacific War and the involvement of Australia and the United States in meeting and defeating Imperial Japan. In forty-minutes he can’t possibly go through the entire war but he carefully focused on a couple of areas and it was very educational and quite interesting to follow.
One of the many aspects that we enjoy on our Crystal Cruises is indeed the enrichment program, which also goes way beyond the lectures with so many other areas to enjoy. During this voyage we have learned so very much about a wide range of topics through the numerous lecturers that have been on board the ship. We also enjoy the fact that the lecturers make themselves available when they are not lecturing to speak with them at almost anytime which is another aspect of the program, which we have come to enjoy.
Cairns
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We had a nice visit to Cairns. While one of the highlights of the port is that it is a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, we still had a wonderful time walking all around the area and we enjoyed walking for several hours.
Yes, it was certainly hot, hot, hot due in port to the high humidity, which we learned from some of the locals, is typical for this time of the year. Speaking of the locals, we spoke with several of them, including some at the fruit and vegetable market that we visited along with others during our walk and we found them to be quite nice.
We enjoyed the nice walkways/paths that we took as we walked along the shoreline and many of the beautifully landscaped areas.
We had another wonderful day in Australia at the second to last Australian port we will visit during this adventure.
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While we did not dine at the Crystal Dining Room last evening we wanted to mention the menu.
Appetizers included Crisp Fried Soft Shell Crab, Roasted Beet Root Tower, and Barbecued Quail. Soups featured Chicken Mulligatawny Soup and a Consommé Double with Herb Celestine. Salads featured an Ice Berg Lettuce as we as a Mixed garden Greens salad. The Past Special was Spaghetti Pasta “Prince of Naples” with Fresh Tomato, Wild Mushroom and Bolognese Sauce. The Salad Entrée was a Roast Chicken Salad. Main Fares included Broiled Fillet of Australian Rock Ling, Pan Fried Lump Carb Cake, Wiener Schnitzel, and Grilled Black Angus T-Bone Steak and the Traditional Main Fares included Grilled Black Angus Filet Steak and a Broiled Salmon Fillet. Vegetarian Selections included a Vegetable Lasagna Entrée along with several other Vegetarian and Lighter Side menu items. Desert featured a Sweet Finale of two items, which were the “Almond and Chocolate” dessert with Savarin Shaped Chocolate Almond Cake with Sauce Anglaise, Almond Brittle and Vanilla Ice Cream and “Forest Berry Garden” which was Raspberry Panna Cotta, Blueberry Compote and Strawberry Ice Cream. Sugar Free desserts featured a Lemon Tart with Whipped Cream and a Chocolate Profiteroles. There were also lots of Classic Desserts to choose from and of course the wonderful Cheese Trolley.
We dined at the Silk Road Japanese Specialty restaurant and enjoyed another wonderful dinner. When we arrived, Headwaiter Sigi greeted us and escorted us to our table and the wonderful waiter, Alberto, who we adore, served us. We enjoyed a wonderful meal. We began the meal with a trio of Nobu Appetizers, which included the Nobu Yellow Tail Sashimi with Jalapeno, the White Fish and the Tuna Tataki with Ponzu Sauce. Keith then had a variety of sushi and sashimi and Anne Marie had the Lobster Spring Roll. We each had the Nobu Style Lobster with Truffle Yuzu Sauce and Keith enjoyed a side order of steamed vegetables while Anne Marie had a side order of steamed rice. Anne Marie had a small bowl of sherbet for her dessert while Keith had the fruit plate.
After dinner, we attended the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle Party. We had less of a turnout than we have had as some people were unable to make the party, but nevertheless we had an wonderful time. We met one new couple for the very first time. A few of the officers came by including the Hotel Director. We also spoke with some of the Lido Deck stewards prior to the start of the party such as Ross and Ruel who were there to serve drinks and canapés. We thank Crystal Cruises for always putting on such as nice and classy party for all of us to enjoy and we also thank Cruise Critic .
Once again, we enjoyed another nice sleep as the ship gently rocked us to sleep. Keith was up early and back to the Fitness Center where he enjoyed a great ninety-minute workout on the Elliptical Machine followed by some stretching and some weight lifting. He was alone for most of his workout except for the last forty minutes when the first of a few passengers arrived. Afterwards, he stopped by the Lido Café to bring some coffee back to the room. The Lido Café was fairly busy as many passenger’s were up much earlier than normal for tours today such as the one taking them over to the Great Barrier Reef.
Anne Marie took her one-hour morning walk on the Promenade Deck. The weather was great and she really enjoyed walking outside.
At precisely 8:00 AM, there was a knock on the door and it was Alexander with our “little morning breakfast” as he refers to it. He set up the breakfast for us.
This is our second visit to Cairns, Australia as we were last here in 2008.
The city of Cairns is actually pronounced “Cans”. The town first became known during the gold rush. Overtime it became the railhead where produce and sugarcane from the coastal plains was transported to other parts of the country.
Today, because of the opening of an international airport and luxury hotels it has become a good tourist destination. The major attraction of Cairns is that in close proximity are over sixty national parks. It includes a variety of major parks and is a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, which can be reached in less than one hour by boat. Another popular area is Daintree National Park and Cape Tribulation, which is located about eighty miles to the north and is a good area to experience a tropical rainforest.
The city continues to grow rapidly and today it has close to 150,000 inhabitants. It is located almost 1,000 miles from Brisbane and about 1,500 miles from Sydney.
The ship docked at the Container Pier Wharf in Cairns, which is located just about ten minutes by foot from the downtown area. While a shuttle was provided, we walked into town and walked what is known as The Esplanade. This street mainly runs parallel to the Trinity Bay providing nice views of the bay and it also runs by the Explanade Lagoon and the Fogarty Park. We enjoyed a very nice walk along these paths.
As we walked from the ship along this route the water was on our right hand side. There was a beach area as well and Anne Marie found a few seashells. From time to time she has collected some of them during the trip. We walked by a war memorial that is dedicated to the brave men and women who served during World War II. We also stopped by a nice craft fair featuring many local items. We walked for several miles and then we turned around and at one point walked through the town and along streets that featured hotels, restaurants, cafes, stores and other establishments. We also stopped by the local museum. We stumbled upon a very large market that mainly featured fruit, vegetables and other local produce as well as flowers. We have been to many markets around the world and in terms of fruit and vegetables this one was fairly large. There were also some other items for sale such as eggs, coffee, and jewelry along with a few other products. The items sold featured some produce, fruit and eggs that were organic.
Once back on the ship we decided to do some laundry from having walked so long and it being so hot outside and then we had a very nice lunch up at the Lido Café where we each had a salad entrée.
In the afternoon, Anne Marie walked, read and wrote and Keith played paddle tennis and read and wrote and we both spoke with some fellow passengers.
This evening we will be dining in the Crystal Dining Room.
Today we wanted to share two thoughts of the day with you.
The first thought is quite funny but it also is a reminder that sometimes it is good to visit new places and certainly that is part of the enjoyment of travel.
The second thought of the day is something that we try to remind ourselves all the time and that is to focus on the good in people.
TODAY’S THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY……
“If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” - Yogi Berra
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.“ - Mother Teresa
Keith and Anne Marie
The dragon fruit intrigues me; it's beautiful. Does it taste like any other fruit that I might recognize? Has Crystal stopped serving it onboard for a particular reason?
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