LIVE FROM WORLD CRUISE 2014 WITH KEITH & ANNE MARIE: DAY 113 - DAY ONE HUNDRED SIX ON THE CRYSTAL SERENITY

Sunday, April 20, 2014

DAY 113 - DAY ONE HUNDRED SIX ON THE CRYSTAL SERENITY

Before dinner last evening we stopped by the Crystal Cove to listen to pianist John Mentis perform.

We then returned to the Crystal Dining Room for dinner. As we had mentioned, we had reservations at the Silk Road Specialty restaurant but cancelled them so that we could continue to try some of the items on the new menu. In the past last night would have been classified as a themed menu such as the Captain's menu but with the rollout of the new menus the menus now are not labeled say Captain's menu or French Night but will still include items that would have been part of those themed menus.

These were the dinner menus.

We began the meal with appetizers. Anne Marie had a Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail and Keith had the Modern Cuisine White Sturgeon Caviar and thought it was presented very well and very tasty.

We each had our standing order salads as our next course and then for our entree we both had the Modern Cuisine Maine Lobster. We though it was very tasty as well and with the items that accompanied it we saw no need to ask for butter.

After dinner we attended the Serenity Pops performance. This performance is normally shown only on the World Cruise but, they were able to keep on board the entertainers from that performance by just a couple of additional days so that they could do two more performances for everyone on this voyage. For us, it was special to be able to have one more opportunity to see this performance which was created on the ship for that one night, one more time. We loved it. We sat in the front row and there were times that we started to clap to the beat of the music and others followed our lead. Sometimes early seating can be more low key than the late seating show but we helped to make this one lively for the first seaters. It was a terrific show and we loved it so much the second time around that we thought of staying for the next show.

We slept well as we have throughout the cruise and as usual Keith was up first and enjoyed a good workout at the fitness center and also read and wrote and had coffee before he brought some coffee back to the room for Anne Marie. We then went on a morning walk. We then got ready for our visit to Bordeaux. We last visited Bordeaux six years ago.

There were reminders of Easter on board the Serenity. Easter Baskets were placed on all of the tables of the Lido Cafe and we received an Easter Basket in our room that Rao brought with our breakfast. There was a beautiful display of Easter Candy outside the Crystal Dining Room and a display on top of the bar at the Crystal Cove.

We arrived to Bordeaux at around 10:30 AM and had arranged for a private tour for visits and tastings at two different St Emilion Grand Cru Classe Wine Chateaus. Our private guide was Alain Roux. He has owned his own tour company for over 20 years and his knowledge was extensive.

The first visit was to chateeau Soutard , which included a private visit and tasting. This Chateau has gone through a 30 Million plus restoration and it shows.

On the left was Eric, the representative from the Chateau who gave us a private tour and on the right was our private guide for the day Alain.

Afterwards, we went for lunch at a casual restaurant wine bar. This was a place where locals go and we each enjoyed the special of the day which was veal type of stew with vegetables such as turnips, carrots and potatoes. Keith had a glass of wine. We invited Alain to join us and spoke about our families, the changes from generation to generation, Bordeaux, travel and a wide range of other topics.

In the afternoon, we then visited chateau Villemaurine for another visit and tasting. We also had a private tour there. A special treat was seeing the underground quarries. As background many of the Chateaus in this area have limestone below them which absorb the water. There is no supplemental watering of the grape vines. Our guide took us on an underground journey to see the amazing network of quarries. This was on top of getting a full tour of the Chateau.

One of two private tour guides who took us around for the tour of the Chateau.