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| Sunset in the mid-Atlantic |
I'm back from my vacation. Since, in my youth, I had crossed both the Pacific and Indian oceans I decided to add an Atlantic crossing before geezerhood did me in. So, I booked a cabin on a repositioning cruise from Barbados to Lisbon Portugal. I sailed aboard the Royal Clipper, which is a larger version of the Star Clipper I did my earlier Caribbean cruise aboard.
There were only ~140 passengers aboard, which was half capacity. That was nice. Most of the passengers were European and I ended up hanging around with a Canadian couple, a few British, and a cheerful Dutch fellow. Strangely, and in the 'it's a small world' category, I also met an American who had been aboard the carrier that relieved my carrier task force in our deployment to the Indian Ocean during the Yom Kippur War. We got to swap many a sea story.
As for my odd selection of pictures below... when I suggested the crossing to my wife she looked at me like I was crazy. I took that as a no. Instead, she flew to Portugal with her sister and brother-in-law and did some touring while I was bobbing around in the ocean for days on end. She asked me to send her pictures of my travels and so, swell guy that I am, I annoyed her by documenting my trip via pictures of the coffee pots, coffee shops, and cups of coffee I encountered in my transit. Always remember, it is the little things that are important in life.
To avoid the worries of flight delays and short connection times I built a lot of time into my schedule. As a result I spent one night in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a good thing; my flight was delayed and I eavesdropped on a couple of businessmen who were in a panic over making their connection. I felt their pain. Above is the coffee machine in my hotel room.
Above is the coffee shop at the Hilton Resort I stayed at. At one of the restaurants they had fish and chips on the menu for $68. That seemed a bit pricey to me, so I subsisted on over-priced ham and cheese sandwiches from the coffee shop instead.
Above is a pigeon who befriended me in the seating area outside of the coffee shop. He was always hopeful I would slobber some crumbs about. I confess to considering catching and eating him to spare myself from dropping $68 for fish and chips. However, since I figured the other guests would be aghast at that, I resisted the thought and the little fellow survived.
This is the coffee station on the ship. It was open 24 hours a day and the coffee was good enough. The only drawback to it was the number of tea choices cluttering the area. Plus, the tea drinkers, who had to fiddle with hot water and tea bags, took longer that the coffee drinkers to fill their cups. That can be a crisis when you're getting your first morning cup of joe.
These are the espresso machines behind that bar. They were a welcome addition to your coffee choices.
This is a cup of espresso in a cafe in Ponta Delgada, Azores. The Azores were the only stop on the crossing and Ponta Delgada was a pleasant, touristy little city. Being on dry land that wasn't rocking back and forth was a welcome change.
My hotel in Lisbon didn't have a coffee maker in the room. Instead, you had to go to the lobby and buy one out of this vending machine. All the labels were in Portuguese, so you had to guess and experiment to get something close to what you were looking for. When you did get it, it was some sort of instant coffee concoction. In Lisbon they gasbagged on endlessly about Portuguese coffee culture. This machine seemed to lack that bragged about culture, but it was serviceable.
