The Bistro- Off topic and fun posts!

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from a 2008 Blount Cruise from Rhode Island to Chicago.  The afternoon of May 25 we arrived in Cleveland after leaving Buffalo and Niagara Falls on May 24:

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

A bonus shot, this from the Serenity webcam.  It looks like Crystal is opting for the Suez Canal tolls rather than the extra fuel to go around Cape Horn.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

In 2016 I took several Bermuda cruises, first on MS Veendam, then NCL Breakaway, and a few weeks later on Anthem of the Seas.  On May 26 the Breakaway was docked at Kings Wharf:

 

 

Roy

[KenzSailing]

Misadventures in Touring:  Our Visit to Buckingham Palace (or, How to set Anglo-US Relations back Ten Years)

 

So I was out innocently perusing the Covid thread(motto: THE  Home for Amateur Epidemiologists) when I noticed the board’s resident feisty Texan had observed that we former colonists had a different point of view on certain topics than subjects of the Crown(yes, that’s very complicated what with territories and protectorates and all. Clarify to your heart’s content.)

 

This got me to thinking about one of my first brushes with a different point of view vis-à-vis jolly old England.  We were vacationing in London (motto: New York not expensive enough for you? Try London!)  IIRC, this was 1995.  Buckingham palace had recently  opened to the general public, at least those willing to part with a few pounds (the currency, I wish the other kind was so easy to part with.)

 

Anyway, as you probably know, her Majesty did this to raise money to fix the roof at one of their more modest piles (yeah, Windsor, and there was a fire. I know.)

 

So we dropped a few quid (are they still called that?), crossed the threshold and Bob’s-your-uncle (not sure exactly what that means, but Simon Pegg said it in a Mission Impossible movie, and it sounds very Hackney.)

 

(BTW, remind me to tell you my Hackney story.  It involves Ralph (“it’s pronounced Rafe”)  Fiennes and Benihana.   Seriously.)

 

Back to the point (“you’ve got one?”) we toured these magnificent, like wow magnificent, digs and on the way out, there’s a gift shop. This warms my Yank heart, as every red-blooded (BTW, we all are) American understands the concept of the gift shop.  Soon after, my heart sank when I discovered there wasn’t a single t-shirt for sale. 

 

Forget just fixing a roof.  They missed an opportunity to retire the UK’s national debt, just from sales to Americans of a single t-shirt.  The one that read:

 

“I sat on the throne at Buckingham Palace”

 

(Any illustration left to the reader’s imagination.)

 

Coda:  after exiting the palace, OLoPP had wandered off to inspect the grounds, I’d parked my toured-out bones on a very nice bench.  One over is another bench where a group of four or so English ladies of a certain age are discussing their impressions of the palace.  Now, imagine that these ladies are speaking in that sort of voice that the Monty Python troupe used to represent English ladies of a certain age.  One says to the other, “did you see anything you might do at home?”  The other lady replies “oh, perhaps the fancy bits.”  I literally bit down on my cheeks so as not to laugh.  Not at them, not at all.  It was just the most English thing my American ears had ever heard. 

 

And Bob’s your uncle.

 

[Grandma of Lily]

The full phrase is "Bob's your uncle and Fanny's your aunt" and it means "there you go, sorted" to coin another phrase!

Sandie

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is another from my 2013 Blount cruise from New Orleans to St. Petersburg.  On March 27 we were in Carabelle, Florida:

 

 

Roy

[TER777]

Here's another regular Crystal guest entertainer: Kym Purling. Any Aussie's going to see him?

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from my 2016 string of Bermuda cruises. May 28 was NCL Breakaway's final sea day on the way back to New York:

 

 

A bonus today from the Serenity (their dawn came late last night:

 

AIS now shows Serenity arriving at the Suez Canal June 3.

 

Roy

 

[BWIVince]

In another sign things are returning to normal here, the morning commute was disrupted on one major artery this morning by a cow in the road.  ‘Nuff said.

 

Vince

[KenzSailing]

2 hours ago, BWIVince said:

In another sign things are returning to normal here, the morning commute was disrupted on one major artery this morning by a cow in the road.  ‘Nuff said.

 

Vince

 

You've been humming "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" all morning, haven't you?

[Roland4]

3 hours ago, BWIVince said:

In another sign things are returning to normal here, the morning commute was disrupted on one major artery this morning by a cow in the road.  ‘Nuff said.

 

Vince

Up here at this time of year it is usually families of geese, or sometimes ducks. There were at least three expressway partial closures last week for both geese and ducks!! 😄 

[BWIVince]

3 hours ago, KenzSailing said:

 

You've been humming "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" all morning, haven't you?

 

I'm from lower Montgomery County...  I don't know the words.  🙁

 

3 hours ago, Roland4 said:

Up here at this time of year it is usually families of geese, or sometimes ducks. There were at least three expressway partial closures last week for both geese and ducks!! 😄 

 

We get visits from your geese, but we do have a lot of our own ducks.  One of my friends already had to build a makeshift duckling-exit-ramp in her pool this month for all the new arrivals out doing their rounds.

 

Vince

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is another from my 2013 Blount cruise from New Orleans to St. Petersburg.  On May 29 we docked in Tampa:

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

I hadn't planned on posting successive photos from the same cruise but I have only one for May 30.  It's from my  2013 Blount Cruise from New Orleans to Saint Petersburg.  On May 30 we arrived in St. Pete:

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from another Blount cruise, this one from Chicago to New Orleans in 2009.  May 31 was a sea (river) day from Joliet, Illinois to Peoria:

 

I think it was a year later I learned about Mark Farris's dad performing at Jim's Steak House Peoria, but this was a Sunday anyway and Gene Farris performed on Fridays at the time.

 

Roy

 

 

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is the last from my 2013 Blount cruise New Orleans to St. Petersburg.  On June 1 I was on Amtrak's Silver Meteor in Northern Virginia, possibly crossing the Rhappahannock River.

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

I don't have a sunrise from June 2.  I will instead post something pretty close; this is sunset on June 1, 2015.  At the time I was on MS Prinsendam in Copenhagen.

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

I actually slack off in my cruising in June and July and will be offering a lot of repeats from the same cruise and slightly alternative dates.  Today's sunrise is from my 2015 Prinsendam back to back and June 3 was turnaround day in Ijmuiden:

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Well, yet another sunrise from my 2015 Prinsendam B2B.  June 4 was the first morning of the second segment, sailing West through the English Channel:

 

 

Roy

[ctjon]

Not sunrise or sunset but 2 years ago today in Dutch Harbor, Alaska we had several visitors on Symphony.  Sitting on railing not 6 feet from people.  I suspect they thought we were just a large fishing boat.  Loved traveling that far north in Alaska and wish more ships did it.

 

[rafinmd]

46 minutes ago, ctjon said:

Not sunrise or sunset but 2 years ago today in Dutch Harbor, Alaska we had several visitors on Symphony.  Sitting on railing not 6 feet from people.  I suspect they thought we were just a large fishing boat.  Loved traveling that far north in Alaska and wish more ships did it.

 

Was this on a trans-pacific?  Eagles are quite plentiful in Dutch Harbor but resting on the ship is really amazing.

 

Roy

[ctjon]

55 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

Was this on a trans-pacific?  Eagles are quite plentiful in Dutch Harbor but resting on the ship is really amazing.

 

Roy

Yes cruise started in Tokyo and ended in San Francisco.  There were actually a couple on the rail of the ship and more by the parking lot by the ship.  Yes see eagles everywhere there.  One of the really neat things about that port.

[PaulMCO]

Roy -- hope you are feeling better...

 

Not a cruise, but Sunrise from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at 5am on Memorial day...

Was not that serene too many people...

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by PaulMCO

[oakridger]

I love this Grand Canyon sunrise picture!  Thanks PaulMCO.  Last time I visited the canyon was 1979 and I hope to get back there this fall.  Next time I would like to go to the North Rim for a different perspective.  🙂

 

~Nancy

Edited June 4, 2021 by oakridger
Added info

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from my  2009 Blount cruise from Chicago to New Orleans.  On June 5 we were at Grand Rivers, Kentucky.

 

A bit of a bonus today, the first dawn from Serenity in the Med:

 

 

Roy