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Wow! What are the odds of something like that happening? If only we'd have planned ahead...

Relaxing in Ottawa tonight after arriving in Canada yesterday. It's been a great time so far! Last night we enjoyed a 7-course tasting menu at Black Tartan Kitchen, about 40 minutes from Ottawa. The menu was a mystery until each course was served. We had done our best with the crossword puzzle and had some guesses. The theme of the puzzle was old song titles. And the food was really well done! We went with the suggested wine pairings for each course. 1. "War Pigs" house made charcuterie and pickled veggies with Sourdough bread, paired with Vihno Verde. 2. "A'maize'ing Grace" corn and Chantilly cream soup, cilantro oil. Paired with Rose Hall Run Sparkling. 3. "The 'Salad' of Curtis Loew" tomato salad, with prosciutto crisp, bacon and bourbon Gelato, pecorino cream, fennel fronds, tomato water foam. Paired with Provençal rosé. 4. "Free bird" duck tartare, foie gras Chantilly, foie gras powder, duck skin cracker, house made brioche. Paired with a Niagara Pinot Noir. 5. "'Boarn' to be Wild" wild boar loin, carrot-cumin puree, mini vegetables, potatoes au gratin with Emmentaler and Gruyère. Paired with Roselle Run, Prince Edward County Cab-Merlot. 6. "M-M-M-My Corona" Corona beer sorbet, jalapeno-lime granita, jalepeno chips, corn chip rim. No wine pairing needed here. 7. 'American Pie" apple cheese turnover, apple Gelato, smoked cheddar Chantilly, lemon crumbs. Paired with maple whiskey. The food and the company were wonderful! We didn't get home from dinner until 11:30. Today after a relaxing morning with our generous hosts, we drove to Ottawa and met up with my sister. We went out for steak and I found a delicious Cabernet on the menu from a winery we had visited in Chile 3 years ago! It was enjoyed all around. Another busy day planned for tomorrow.

Sad news indeed. Sending our thoughts and condolences to our friends in the UK on this occasion.

Thanks for the translation, Jeff and Mr Luxury. I should have picked up on the significance of summoning her family. It is still early here and I have not finished my coffee.

Just saw that, Jeff. News was very general and didn't say much. Wishing her well.

Nobody puts Mysty in the corner!

Not sure. I've only been doing this for a short time. AFAIK, the churning process while freezing reduces the size of the ice crystals. My recipe book says that corn syrup and/or honey helps prevent that too. I've used agave syrup as well. In my brief experience, the high fat content of real ice cream also helps prevent crystals. I was surprised to read that Gelato is made with milk, not cream, so perhaps the lower fat content makes it more prone to developing crystals? Supposed it's churned more slowly and comes out more dense, thus it tastes richer. I have not yet tried making Gelato.

I haven't been there in probably 30 years. But I remember the Dali museum which I enjoyed very much.

Recently, I read a very interesting post about sewer odors in the bathroom of cruise ships. There's a poster on the River Cruise boards (chengkp75) who has a lot of knowledge about the mechanical systems of cruise ships. He shared a tip in posts #8 and 10 of this thread: I will definitely keep this in mind because it makes perfect sense to me. We have a guest bathroom in our house that doesn't get used for long periods of time and the same thing can happen when the water evaporates in the traps. *** Lirio - thanks for your review! If I remember correctly, you had planned a longer stay in Iceland post-cruise but your plans were derailed by Covid? I hope you have recovered and are feeling back to normal.

Not unexpectedly, on our cruise last year (Nice-Nice, circumnavigation of Corsica) there were fewer than 10 Anglophones. It was fun, almost like a private tour for a few of us. So we will see what it's like in Indonesia this March.

Speaking of which, I'm making a batch of grapefruit sorbet. It is freezing up with some larger crystals and looks a bit more like granita. But it smells delicious! For which I am grateful! 😉 Hope it's as tasty as it smells.

That's spectacular. My view from work next week will not compare. Wishing you continued good weather and sightings, both day and night.

Congratulations on the upcoming free laundry milestone Lois! It sure makes packing easier. Sorry to hear that your cruise is ending already but as you mentioned, that is the problem with 7-day cruises. Enjoyed following along with you. Safe travels home!

Safe travels - Enjoy Iceland!

It certainly doesn't stumble due to insufficient luggage...

OK now I am officially insanely jealous! We have been to Reykjavik twice in the winter, with tons of darkness, to try and see the Northern Lights. Both times - dense clouds. Love your pictures. What a sight!

Thanks for confirming, @AnhaltER1960 - that matches with our experience a few years ago, picking up Audis in Ingolstadt, and driving them [really fast] around the area. We didn't need any highway toll vignette for the Autobahn system in Germany, but we did need to purchase toll vignettes when we crossed into Austria and Switzerland. The Audi factory gave us the appropriate environmental vignettes with each of the new cars but since we never went into the big inner cities we didn't ever need to use them. I think I still have them in my files for souvenirs, even though we don't have the Audis any more.

Enjoying the rain tonight. It's been stormy all afternoon and evening, with intermittent thunder, lightning and downpours. Good for the lawn, and the other crops I'm growing this year. The tomatoes haven't yielded as much as last year which is probably good. I planted fewer and trimmed them back a month ago so I wouldn't be inundated with tomatoes. That seems to have worked. On the other hand, the single pickling cucumber plant that I put in the garden has taken off like crazy. It's so dense that I sometimes don't find all of the cukes until they have grown too big and are barely suitable to eat. And we've been eating cucumber salad, and making dill pickles like crazy. So this weekend I found a huge cuke that weighed in at 18 ounces. This isn't your average pickling cuke! It was going to be too tough and seedy to eat in a salad. What else to do with it? I've heard that cucumbers can be cooked so I wondered if that would be a way to use an overgrown tough specimen. Since I was making spiced grilled short ribs with a vaguely Korean BBQ flavor, I found a recipe for sautéed cucumbers that is supposedly of Korean origin. But first, the star of the dinner. Love this recipe for flanken-style short ribs! So simple to make; just put a dry spice rub of brown sugar, chili powder, coriander, and salt on them, let them sit as long as you can bear, then grill for a minute or so per side. While the ribs rested, I scooped out the big seeds from the cucumber and sliced it thickly. Then I sautéed a bit of garlic in oil, and stir-fried the cucumber for about 2 minutes. To finish, I added scallions and sesame oil for flavor, along with a few sesame seeds. It was a nice accompaniment to the short ribs. And the leftovers were even better for lunch today!

So you ARE a mermaid? 🧜‍♀️ (Wow, CC actually has a mermaid emoji?) (just kidding, hope you know) 😉 Interesting! One of the branches of my family tree is from the Palatines who came to Upstate New York in the 1700s. Which University?

No worries, Lirio. We also drink other beverages at the Cooler!

I think I found a picture of your friend!

Must be true.

Good to hear from you - hope you have great weather and safe passage, with lots of wildlife sightings. Bummer that you can't get a haircut. Maybe you'll have to do what Chris did to me during the pandemic - just grab a pair of scissors and start snipping! What's Plan B for your OBC? If there are others in your situation, I suspect that there might be a run on the premium wine list. That would be my default plan, I'm sure.

We almost always disembark independently. Last November in Lisbon, we walked off Silver Spirit, grabbed our bags, and then walked 5 minutes to the nearest Metro stop. We proceeded to buy tickets and then took the Metro to our hotel. No issue whatsoever. Can't imagine how to be more independent than that. About halfway through the cruise, they will provide a disembarkation questionnaire. Simply indicate that you have made independent arrangements, and select a preferred time to disembark. Could not be easier. Enjoy your cruise!

Nice enjoyable blog, Jazz! The Carnavalet museum in Paris is on Chris's list but we haven't made it there yet. Glad you got to climb the Horloge tower in Rouen - it was closed for regular tours when we were there a few years ago. On the other hand, the crypt in the Rouen cathedral was open so we got to see that. Win some, lose some. Hope you get your camera back eventually... Good luck!