The Living Journey

Nuuk, Greenland marked the start of our Ship’s 24-day expedition to cross the Canadian Arctic region from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the so-called “Northwest Passage” – a dream of European (and Russian) governments and adventuresome sailors for five centuries.

We left Belfast and spent 2 days at sea before arriving in the Faroe Islands. I know your first question is, “Where are the Faroe Islands”? The Faroes are remarkably isolated. They are about 220 miles northwest of Scotland between Norway and Iceland.

Dartmouth, England, is a lovely resort town on the western side of the south coast of the English Channel, at the mouth of the River Dart (which gave the town its name), in South Devon. We anchored offshore, just beyond where the River Dart flows past the old fortified Dartmouth Castle as the River meets the English Channel. 

After Porto, it was on to St. Malo for our final French port of the summer. The Brittany coast is one of my favorite parts of France. We were truly blessed on this visit to have three totally perfect days.

We arrived in Barcelona with just one day to explore, and so were delighted to have a bit of a driving tour and a visit to Sagrada Familia, the master work of Antoni Gaudi, who exemplifies the style of Catalan Modernism. 

After a stop in St. Tropez, we made a quick sail over to Cannes. The film festival was long over but the place was gearing up for the big marketing/media conference, Cannes Lion Festival of Creativity. Apparently, this has become a huge meeting for the marketing and creative communications industry and is now even bigger than the film festival for Cannes.

On our last day in Cochin we had a guide and went for a tour of the old city. It’s really a charming area of old shops, quaint streets, the Mattancherry Palace and the Paradesi Synagogue, the oldest in India dating from the 16th century.

We spent a day cruising the Kerala backwaters on a houseboat. This is always a very relaxing, pleasant experience. Cochin is in the province of Kerala which is actually quite large. The backwaters, known as the Venice of the East,

The first Indian port on our visit was Cochin. Cochin is interesting because it was an important trading city and you can see influences from Asia, Europe and the Middle East here.
One highlight of our time in Cochin was a cooking class we took.

On our Maharajas’ Express train ride through India, the staff was truly wonderful – although our butler had an uncanny – almost creepy – way of appearing each time we would leave our room. And the food! My favorite was Himalayan river sole prepared in a beurre blanc sauce –

We spent a brief few days in Sri Lanka, starting in Galle, where 90% of the world’s cinnamon is grown and the iconic scene is the stilt fishermen – those who have no money for a boat, and so set up precarious perches near the shore from which they pursue their daily catch.

For several weeks, we have been exploring the islands of the Indian Ocean, starting with two that were new to us. First was La Reunion, a department of (and favorite vacation place from) France. Even in rainy season, we could see the extraordinary beauty of the steep volcanic mountains (one is still active!),

The morning we arrived at Assumption Island late Saturday, we headed straight out to snorkel. We had nice conditions and spotted a sea turtle, which was a treat.
 Welcome to Assumption Island.
 
Getting a closeup.
 
When we got back I joined a short nature walk on the island.