Buddy's Blog

We sailed back to NYC on the Queen Mary II. If you’ve only cruised on one of the other lines you don’t know what you’re missing. The QMII was quite elegant compared to other ships that I’ve been on. On our trip over we were on a Princess. We had a little tiny room, and it wasn’t cheap. No place to sit except the desk chair and the beds. This was our stateroom on the QMII:

The food on the Princess was mediocre at best, and you can believe me when I say I know what good food tastes like. The meals on the QMII were excellent. There were two formal nights wherein the ladies got all dolled up and many of the gentlemen wore monkey suits. I was a little embarrassed in my coat and tie. The entertainment on the Princess was mediocre. There were seldom seats available in the theater unless you got there at least an half hour ahead of show time. For example the big extravaganza was dancers dancing to canned music, and, not all, but a lot of lip syncing. On the QMII there was always space in the beautiful theater:

The entertainers were fabulous. They danced and sang to a live orchestra. The solo performance by the violinist blew me away. I thought I was listening to Isaac Stern. Ditto the pianist was like Horowitz. There was a huge ballroom where the orchestra played grown-up music and so many people danced. I had tea there one afternoon. Check out the ship’s library:

This was just one row of the bookshelves. As I recall it held about 8000 books. No kiddie slides or goofy golf or basketball courts. But a very serviceable swimming pool. And they even had a planetarium.

Of course, The QMII is a Cunard vessel. They also sail the Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Anne and The Queen Victoria.

Finally back to New York after seven weeks away from home:

Buh-bia Buh-bia Buh-bia… That’s All Folks!

Leroy, the Cannibal ctd…

The Isle of Wight is a 25 minute ferry ride off Portsmouth Harbor. It’s often a vacation destination for the Brits. Remember “When I’m 64”?

There’s lots to see that we missed, like the goat rescue farm, but we did see two of the best spots. First was Queen Victoria’s summer cottage, The Osborne House:

The inside was nice too. Statues and artwork galore:

Nice furniture. No IKEA.

Another place that is worth a gander, the miniature village in Godshill. The little town itself has a few old thatched cottages:

And here is the miniature village:

The Royal Naval Museum is loaded with exhibits. I’ll just show you three more. First is the submarine, HMS Alliance,

The HMS Victory was the English fleet’s flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar. That battle defeated the combined Spanish and, under Napoleon, French battle fleets, and saved England from being invaded. Trafalgar is off the coast of Spain. The Victory is undergoing restoration. Most of the interior is intact.

The Mary Rose was King Henry VIII’s flagship. It sank in 1545 and was salvaged near the mouth of Portsmouth Harbor in 1985. There isn’t much of the ship left, but the wreckage was loaded with artifacts.

The Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth Harbor is a must see if you’re into history and navy stuff. I mentioned the HMS Warrior yesterday. It’s 420 feet long, iron clad, with both sail and steam. Under sail alone she could do 13kn, under steam 14kn, and under both 17kn. It carried 40 68 pounder guns and was manned by 50 officers and 656 crewmen.

This is the captain’s bunk.

His dinette:

Winches to raise the anchors..

This is the boiler room. It was a bad job. My father was a boilermaker on the USS Arkansas during WWI.

More on the museum tomorrow.

From Pisa we flew back to Gatwick and then on a train to Portsmouth Harbor. It’san active harbor, two aircraft carriers were docked there. This first photo is what we saw when we arrived. It’s the HMS Warrior. Built 1859-1861, it was the biggest, fastest and most powerful  ironclad battleship of its era. It never shot its guns in battle. That’s because France and its ally Spain knew they were totally outgunned, and they decided not to invade. It’s part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy. I’ll show photos from the museum tomorrow.

There’s a park that runs along the waterfront…

And about a mile down the harbor is an amusement park with all kinds of rides and arcades. In the picture above you can see it in the distance.

This is a really cool Anglican church on the way back to the inner harbor. We stopped across the street for a beer at a neighborhood pub.

This old church was missing part of its roof.

Yesterday I forgot to mention that near Pietrasanta, in Torre del Lago, was Puccini’s house. Puccini was a hunter and fisherman, hence when he got rich, he had his house built on the lake.

From Torre del Lago we drove to Pisa. We had been to the Leaning Tower and Cathedral years before, so we just drove around the city.  Her cousin attended Università di Pisa . He said that the only industry in Pisa these days was tourism and the University. I corrected him. Tourism, the university and pickpockets. 40 odd years ago when we were there I saved Frau G from a pickpocket at the entrance to the Baptistry. We didn’t go into the cathedral area, but we did drive in and around the university. It was founded in 1343.

Part of the old Roman wall which circled the ancient city…

The tiny Church of Santa Maria della Spina, built on the River Arno in the early 13th century…

On our last day in Italy Frau G’s cousin took us up the side of the mountain as I posted on Friday. Afterwards we went down to the city of Pietrasanta. There’s lots of history there, such as…

It’s called Bar Michelangelo because he lived in that building for a while.

This is the Church of Santo Antonio Abate:

It has the beautiful interior as do all the churches in Italy:

But what I really liked most were the frescos.

Lots of sculptures and statues.

A neat tower:

And how about this street…

We went to dinner in Viareggio on our last evening in Italy.

On our last day in Camaiore Frau G’s cousin took us up on the mountain overlooking Lido di Camaiore. Further into the mountains lies the main Italian Marble quarries. We didn’t get quite that far.

I’m having computer troubles. You’ll have to wait for more vacation slides until I get it straightened out. (What’s that cheering I hear in the background) And it might be a few days. I have a guest coming in tomorrow, and then at the beginning of the week I have a rather unpleasant medical episode to endure.

Related to that, did I ever tell you about a sigmoidoscopy I had about 15 years ago? My doctor, great guy, was an amateur banjo player. I saw him the week before, and I told him that I had a banjo. I brought it in with me the following week when I was to have my procedure. I was showing him my banjo in the waiting room when the nurse came out and told me it was time for my sigmoidoscopy. She left me in the exam room. I dropped my pants, turned around and assumed the position. When the doc came in I played Dueling Banjos. He told Frau G that he thought I was nutz.

  BTW, the guy who is coming in tomorrow is my old friend and terrific musician, Tom Saputo. I was out today renting a keyboard for a gig he has tomorrow night. After my episode with the doctor I gave Tom my banjo.

Frau G has relatives all over Italy. Her grandparents were from Sicily. Her cousin in Camaiore is a world renown surgeon, and after Lucca we stayed with him for four days. Camaiore is about 30 miles from Lucca. Frau G met her cousin when he was about 21 and she was 17. His house has been in the family for many years. It was built in 1475. It’s full of classical works of art hanging on all the walls. Beautiful antique furniture. Rooftop terrace. Just gorgeous. I’m sorry, I would show you the terrace, interior and paintings, but that would be an invasion of his privacy.  He showed us a wonderful time. Took us to his Camaiore Beach club. Perhaps you’ve heard of Viareggio. The beach starts there and then runs north for about 25 km. It’s very beautiful with cabanas up and down the entire length. I swam in the sea there. His club has a beautiful swimming pool as well. Swam there too. We went to the beach on  three days. It was really really nice.

While we were in Camaiore they were having their annual week long festival. Music, about 50 or 60 flea market booths, puppet show, a concert by an excellent Abba tribute band. And lots of food.