7 Days and The Top of The Rock!

A very quick cruise indeed we squeezed seven shows into six days as we headed back to Lisbon, Portugal. This cruise, apart from the shows of course, allowed me to catch up on my sleep and refresh for the month left of my contract. I didn’t do too much…

Debarking from Barcelona, we headed to Palma de Mallorca, which was a lovely little city in the harbor of a beautiful island off the coast of eastern Spain. I wondered around the tiny little cobblestone streets packed with history and culture. I walked into a few little corridors one of which turned out to be a beautiful Public Gardens. I wandered around the outside of the gorgeous cathedral that sits centrally atop the hill of the city. When I was completely exhausted from walking and had pulled a muscle in my toe, which still is aggravating me a week later, I headed back for the ship.

Palma alleyways:

We headed onto Malaga, but I was on IPM that day so, I did my duties and rested on the ship catching up of my movie watching (translation catching up on finally watching Pirates of the Caribbean 4).

Our next port was Gibraltar, which was amazing and one of my favorite spots so far. It is sort of like a little England with a suntan. Perhaps better described as Spain trying to do England trying to do a summer holiday city. It had all the English foods and stores, and had the charm of a Spanish town, and I really quite enjoyed that. Mark, a new friend and addition to the clan (he is the Shore concierge manager), Victoria, Nina, Kelly, Olivia and I took a cable car ride to the top of the rock of Gibraltar. (Did I mention that Mark got us the free tickets?…but don’t worry, that’s not the only reason we’ve added him to the group, he’s also a awesome guy.) Once at the top of the rock, we looked out over the straight of Gibraltar and saw Africa! Standing in the UK, looking out at Spain and Africa was a sight to see. It was an amazing thing that I would recommend to everyone. There were also these crazy monkeys that live all over the rock, and they are not scared of humans at all. When we got out of the cable car one jumped on the back of the guy in front of me. While we were looking at the view I asked Oli to take a picture of me next to a giant one and I must have gotten a bit to close as he batted me away. He hit my leg with his arm; it frightened the daylight out of me, but didn’t hurt. Mark, Vicki and I went to go get some fish & chips, (why not?) and they were delicious! It started to rain, so I headed back for the ship.

the group of us on top of the rock:

the monkey that attacked me:

That evening we sailed through the straight while there was still light out and it was astonishing to see Spain starboard and to see Africa on our Port. I really enjoyed walking around our top deck just looking at the night lights of Morocco! We next came to Cadiz and Vicki, Kelly, and I set out for the beautiful beach I had spotted while on tour the week earlier. We soaked up some sun and paddled about in the water and then headed into town for a late lunch where Victoria was exchanged for Olivia and Antonio (one of the waiters who was about to leave us in Lisbon.) I headed back to the ship for a late siesta after roaming the streets a bit, and then without even suspecting it, we were off to Portugal.

We came into Portimao, Portugal and I headed out with Kelly and Vicki to town. It, however, was a Sunday, so literally everything was closed; so instead I came back to the ship for lunch and picked up Gemma and Joanne, from the spa; who by the way cut my hair to the original length of my contract, which was very nice to be cleaned up. So Gem and Jo and I went to the beautiful beach Playa de Russia, and laid out next to some very good looking Spaniards. I looked white. I mean seriously white next to these tan young women and men. But what was I gonna do, the only way to get a little color was to be there in all my whiteness, so that’s what I did.

We pulled into Lisbon and I headed into town for some wifi at the Starbucks I had found with Lara and Rob, a few days earlier, and it was at this point that I caught up on my birthdays. I had missed some very important ones, what with no internet and no track of days. I literally as I am writing this have no idea what day it is. Is that bad? I know it’s somewhere near the end of September. I apologize to all those people who’s birthdays I missed celebrating. Post the starbucks, I headed back to the ship for embarkation and a nap. Which brings us up to the next voyage, which we just started heading to Civitavecchia (Rome).

Me at the top of gibraltar with africa on the left and Spain on the right:

Love heals,
Rhett

My sister and Brother-in-law came to the Ship!

WOW!

What a cruise we have had!

Hello all, thanks for joining in on my adventures. I hope you are enjoying reading along as much as I enjoy filling you in!

So as you may have read, Lara & Rob, my sister and her husband, my brother-in-law, joined us in Southampton and stayed through the end of the cruise in Barcelona. We took off heading to St. Malo, France and on the way I showed them both around this ship and they became familiar with all the amazing levels of pampering that Silversea has to offer. We arrived in St. Malo, and unfortunately I had IPM, so I couldn’t get off the ship with them, because I wanted to get my IPM out of the way in a place I had been to before. It turned out to be a great thing.

Upon leaving St. Malo, we had a day at sea, and then we headed for Bordeaux, France. Bordeaux is a beautiful city, with some amazing Parisian looking buildings. In fact, it looks almost exactly like a little Paris. This is mostly because the architects in the 17th and 18th centuries worked on designs for both cities. Rob, Lara and I went on our first tour the moment we arrived to the Graves area, which produces some wonderful white wines. Our tour unfortunately left a bit to be desired as the wines we tasted were not the best. Oh well, you win some you loose some I guess. It’s been worse. After the tour we went out to explore the beautiful city during the evening and then found a wonderful bistro that had some amazing escargots, moules frites, and of course a crepe for dessert all for 15 euro! Rob and Lara also got a Charcuterie plate and a fromage plate, which are meat and cheese plates. We stumbled around the city with the cast looking for somewhere to dance, and it turned out that the city didn’t really get buzzing until 2am! So we decided to head back to the area around the ship. While we were on the train, some gangster type Frenchmen started to annoy some of the girls and Marlin was born. I stepped in, but suddenly in an Australian accent, a very bold and courageous character came out. Marlin, from Sydney, who wouldn’t stop talking to the Frenchmen, in a very polite and friendly manner I might add, made the Frenchmen back off as it wasn’t worth the trouble. HAH! As we had an overnight in the amazing Bordeaux, the next day we had our next tour, which was of the Medóc region, where we visited the unbelievably amazing and incredibly tasty Chateau Lynch Bages, which produces some of the best red wine in the amazing wine region of Bordeaux. They took us around the winery and we tasted a couple of there amazing reds. Then we headed back to the ship and we took off.
The weather where we were headed in St. Jean de Luz, France was supposed to be a bit rough, so the Captain, in the first time ever since I’ve been on board, decided to skip the town and arrive in our next city a day early. It turned out to be a wonderful thing as we headed into Bilbao, Spain. Upon arriving we headed into the city and took a wander. We headed over the famous Guggenheim museum of Bilbao, but as it was a Monday it was closed. However the building itself is a marvel, designed by the great Frank Gehery. If you happen to be a Disney fan (lol) it looks very similar to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California designed by the same man. It just has more sandstone elements to it and is more of a gold version. It also had a giant flower dog outside of the museum, which I can only describe with this picture:

**By the way that's me standing beneath it!**

We walked around the building and then headed into the heart of the city for a delicious lunch made up of white asparagus, langoustine salad, and Rob of course got a plate of jamón, or ham! It was delicious. We headed back to the ship, as there was our second show to do, fittingly our Latin show, Fiesta Latina Nights. As this was our surprise last overnight we were able to go out the next morning on a tour of the Rioja region of wine in the north of Spain. We visited a beautiful little town on top of a hill (which most of my readers will know as the same name as my home airport) La Guardia. It had a castle, which we retuned later to eat a fabulous lunch in, and its little alleyways and streets were not to be missed. Unfortunately Lara wasn’t feeling too well the morning we left so it was up to Rob and I to enjoy it for her. We then headed over to the famous and oldest Rioja winery Marques de Riscal:

During our tour of the amazing winery (did I mention that the Hotel which sits on the winery was another of the amazing buildings designed by Frank Gehery which I almost prefer to the Guggenheim. It really is a marvel:

) we got to see bottling in the works and it was so neat to see the atomized machines placing the labels on the bottles and such. We went into their “cathedral” which had wines from every year of production since the winery opened in 1819! After touring the entire place, we had a tasting of their white, which was lovely and their reserve red, which was also really scrumptious! What an amazing tour it was to see everything in production. When we got back to the ship we had our Broadway show that night and after the show ended I did a special encore number, in which I performed the song “In Whatever Time We Have.” The last time that I sang the song was six years ago after Lara and Rob said their vows to each other and so it was a special dedication to them on their six-year anniversary, and I think they really enjoyed it.

We then had a day at sea, in which Lara and Rob had an onboard wine tasting, the three of us went to the onboard Galley Lunch, in which they open up the galley, or kitchen, and put up a bountiful display of food including an Eiffel tower made of chocolate and a little Italian chef- man made of marzipan. The two of them also went to the amazing restaurant Le Champagne onboard that evening, and they really enjoyed the menu consisting of, and each dish based around Foie Gras. Rob even said he got the duck sweats from too much duck! Lol.

The next day we hit Lisbon, Portugal. With the sun shining high in the sky, the beautiful hot days that we’ve been having kept up strong. Lara, Rob, and I walked around the beautiful hilly city, visiting an amazing elevator, the only vertical elevator in the city, built in 1908, among other neat places. Back on board to leave at one, there was a bit of a hiccough. The drummer was missing. Our drummer was no-where to be found, so the ship had to leave without him. That night we did two shows, our Italian show, and that evening was Jazz a la carte. Jazz with no drummer was an interesting show indeed, but it was fine because prior to it the cast joined Lara and Rob for dinner in our lovely La Terrazza restaurant! Mmm yumm!

The next day we changed countries again, and hit Cadiz, Spain. Lara and Rob and I went on a wonderful tour of the Jarez area famous for being the home of Sherry! We went to one of the most known and oldest Sherry makers Gonzalez-Byass. Now the wine which makes some of the sherrys, Tio Pepe is not the best of the best, which is too bad and rather funny because so many Spaniards drink it quite regularly as its fairly cheap. The Sherrys that are made however, are absolutely phenomenal. We did a tasting of 9 wines, four of which were sherrys that were over thirty years old, mixed from over 150 vineyards! Talk about drinking history. A side note and funny little story: On the way back from Gonzalez-Byass, who’s wine Tio Pepe’s logo is a wine bottle with a guitar (don’t ask me why), we passed some pools of salt water outside of Cadiz where they make sea salt by having the water evaporate over time. In the pools were hundreds of little pinkish white dots and when asked, our guide explained that they were flamingos! Flamingos which fly from miles away where their nests are and spend eight hours feeding in these pools and then fly back. Now you might be asking yourself what about the baby flamingos who cant fly that far, well, I am happy to report that the flamingos have a daycare system! Two parents stay behind to watch all the children for the day and the “mother and father” couple swaps every day! “Alright its Fred and Barb’s turn to watch all the kids! Hah!”

Our next stop was Malaga.

We headed into the foot traffic city center for some lunch and boy, was it a beautiful area. The streets were paved with beautiful shiny tile as far as the eye could see. It was like being in an indoor mall outside with gorgeous buildings and 28 / 83 degree weather! It was gorgeous. We had lunch at a wonderful little tapas place called Salinas 3! Haha! It was amazing; we had kangaroo, croquettes of cheese, foie gras with caramelized apples, ham, mini burgers, among other things. The lunch was rockin’! We then walked around looking for some ice cream but decided later to not get any and headed back for the ship. The cast prepped for Studio 54, but for the first time we were having it done the proper way, as we were back in the heat, we had a deck BBQ and our show follows that outside on the deck! So we rehearsed in the 83 degree weather at 4.30PM and then we came back to perform the show drenched in sweat at 9PM. It was so awesome up there and the energy felt much better then it did in the dark theatre, especially for that show.

We then had a day at sea, in which it was very hard to come to terms with the fact that Lara and Rob would be leaving the next day, so we played lots of UNO and spent a lot of time together. The next day we arrived in Barcelona and we left the ship to go have some famous churros and chocolate, which is like drinkable liquid hot chocolate that you dip the delicious churros into. Tasty Tasty. We walked back to the taxi line and said our goodbyes and then they headed off to the airport. CIAO! I then embarked a few guests and went out once more in Barcelona in search of La Sagrada Familia, which I found by using the metro. It was so beautiful! The gorgeous Gaudi designed church which was on the front of my Spanish book in middle school, did not disappoint.
It was only a shame that I didn’t have forever to explore it.

That leads us into our next cruise. A quickie; back to Lisbon!
See you then!

Lots of love,
Rhett

SOME NEW PICS! (and around the British Isles)

Hello all! Hope your lives are filled with happiness!

Well we went around the British isles again from London to Southampton. Rather than boring you with much of the same thing about many of the ports that were repeated, I thought I’d make this blog a bit shorter.

We Stopped first in Edinburgh, but this time it was during the Fringe Festival! How amazing the Fringe is, is something you have to experience for yourself. We over-nighted, and while walking around I caught two performances from two different oxford a capella groups performing outside. They were awesome and one group did an arrangement of “Feelin’ Good,” a song I sing on the ship, so that was fun to hear. After that, I managed to get a front row center ticket to the hysterical Margaret Cho, and it about changed my life. She is one of my favorite American stand up comedians, who talks about the liberal taboo. After the set, Olivia, who was with me, and I met her and she invited us to another show that she was going to. HOW COOL! To be invited like a friend to another show to hang out with Margaret Cho! Unfortunately, we couldn’t attend as we were going to a different show, which wore us out. Kelly joined us and we went to a performance called “Showstopper! The improvised musical” in which they improvised an entire musical based on audience suggestions, it ended up being about a dead couple trying to save another couple from committing murder. Having just written that out it doesn’t sound very funny, but believe me this was an entire night of ab-hurting laughter. All in all a successful night.

Me and Margaret Cho!!

After that came Ivergorden where I took a tour trip to go to St. Andrews, the home of golf. It was a very fun and exciting trip to see the old course and the beautiful town of St. Andrews who’s college that I viewed was attended by none other then Prince William. (That’s right Auri.) I also went down to the beautiful West-Sands and ran along the amazing beach singing the Chariots of Fire theme song as that was the beach where the famous opening sequence was filmed!
Me at St. Andrews Old Course:

Running on the West Sands singing the Chariots of Fire theme:

We moved on to a few other ports, Portree had some amazing curry & cream mussels and was a lovely little harbor town nestled within high cliffs of the Isle of Skye.
Nina and I in Portree:

We also hit Balleycastle, a pretty little Northern Ireland port beach town, which latterly was lovely to look at but who’s one street town was nothing exciting. The other ports we had mainly been to before, luckily, as I developed a throat virus, which I have now recovered from due to more sleep than I’ve ever gotten and a lot of heavy-duty antibiotics. However I did of course get off the ship in my favorite, Dublin. I had a lovely little walk, but it was rainy as most of this cruise was, so I quickly returned to my warm Starbucks cup and my skype chat with a fellow performer on a different Silversea ship, my great friend Carina.
We arrived into Southampton where we debarked all the guests after a very stormy night of seventeen feet swells! My sister and brother-in-law embarked with us and are now on the ship through the end of this next cruise, which will be in Barcelona.
I’ll write to you all once we finish this cruise in a week and a half, but for now enjoy some NEW photos and stay well!
Love like always,
Rhett

A sunset from my cabin window:

Nina and I at the top of Europe, The North Cape, Norway:

The Norwegian Troll in Honningsvag, Norway:

The Waterlilly Gardens of Monet at Giverney, France:

Monet’s Pink and Green House in Giverney:

The Famous Angry Baby in Oslo:

The original dock of The Mayflower in Plymouth England:

Nina and I in Amsterdam:

The canal boat I took in Amsterdam:

In a sweatshop in Russia:

At a waterfall in Geiranger, Norway:

The Mussels I had for lunch in Bruges, Belgium:

Sitting "In Bruges":

Granny and I met up outside the ship:

Finally, I had to let out a crow like Peter Pan on Tower Bridge:

If you made it this far I thought I'd share a funny story:
I had this elderly woman come up to me on the last day of her cruise, that I hadn't seen before and she said to me, "you know, I'm in love with you.... You... you're just so handsome up on stage and..." she went on to say some other really nice things so I helped her with her luggage and i think it was perhaps her husband that said, "oh you're making her day, you know she's in love with you. You're all she talks about!" What an amazing way to end a cruise I'd say!

LOVE LOVE

Copenhagen to London and so much more!

Copenhagen. What a wonderful city! In the city center I found a long people only street filled to the brim with shops, (one more tick for Disney Copenhagen!) people, and chatter. I found a really neat peter-pan looking green sleeveless shirt that I had to get, it was on salg. (that’s a cross between Norwegian and Danish for Sale.) I also bought some candy and got whistled at in the street. Apparently people are not timid about what they want in Denmark. Well, any way I had a lovely day in Copenhagen as it was my second visit there. We boarded somewhere around 250 new guests as per the usual debark / embark day and they seem to be a nice crowd.

Some photos from Copenhagen!

Our next POC, or port of call, was Sczenzen, Poland! A pretty but needy little city with grand grassy hillsides leading up from the riverside, into the hot city center, which had a giant shopping center called galaxy, where I spent the better part of four hours catching up on my internet, TV shows and all the things I haven’t done or seen on-line in the last two months. There was a supermarket with the most reasonable prices and I bought some Polish Cheetos. They are the most amazing junk food ever; I only wish I had bought more! They are kind of a giant long puff rather then the gnarly little bumpy things in the states (look at me all European calling America “the states”).

Nina and I in front of a Church in Poland:

After that came Warnemunde, Germany! A neat port near Rostock, which had a beautiful beach and a long fair looking market street. We walked along the market street and I invested some money in some German Haribo Gummy bears (duh) and they were just as good, if not better then they are at home. Eric, Ares, Nina and I explored the street and looked all around at everything from the lighthouse to the waterfront windmills. The German people along with the Polish people, it seemed were not really versed in English as much as some of the other foreign speaking countries have been, so it was interesting to try and talk to the people who did not speak English.
We then went to the top of Denmark, to a small town called Skagen, pronounced Skaen (the g is silent). It was a boating town, which had a small little street of shops. There was a candy store making fresh fudge, which was delicious (however not as good as mums). Other then that, not much else, except for a random Gant, which I had no idea had a branch this far north in Denmark. We basically hopped back on the next shuttle bus back to the ship as there wasn’t much else, and it was pretty desolate; leave a bar called Javobs where everyone was having a drink at 10.30AM.

Germany:

After Skagen came Oslo, where I met up with my old friend Erik, who I hadn’t seen for fifteen years. We went to elementary school together for two years and became very good friends, then he went back to Norway. He recently found me on facebook and we reconnected and he took Nina and I around his city for the day. It was an amazing day… we went for a behind-the-scenes type look at the Jump tower where they held the long jump skiing world cup this past winter, and it had beautiful views over the city. We went to a wonderful garden filled with a lifetime’s work of statues by the same artist. He showed us the Castle, we had some lunch at this and then Nina left to go have some coffee with another crewmember. Erik took me around some other awesome sights like the beautiful opera house where we sat on the roof and ate some ice cream on the warm day…by the way I was in a tee most of the day! At the end of the day we said farewell, and that we shouldn’t let it be 15 years till the next time we see each other, hah!

Oslo: (more to come)

A day at sea led us to Amsterdam was our next venture; I took a lovely boat trip down the canals of the city and saw a couple museums and some beautiful gardens. Went past the house that Ann Frank was locked away in, and walked past some “coffee shops” where the smell alone made me enjoy my day more and more. Just kidding, however, we did get a strong puff of the stuff every time we walked by an open door. Nina and I went over to the red light district, and wow, there were half naked women standing in windows and doorways as far as the eye could see. What an interesting city; a beautiful city with a lot of bicycles.

Amsterdam:

We then sailed on to Ostende, Belgium, and Gemma and Nina and I went in search of wifi. We found along the way some delicious Belgian chocolate and some sweets and a very interesting street performer with a huge crowd riding a unicycle the height of my mother’s house! After a delicious Belgian waffle, we headed back to the ship and carried on to Honfleur. I was on IPM, again in Honfleur so I alas did not get the chance to go out and see the port, but looking on was nice and I had a wonderful lunch (a crab cake burger with fries) on the deck in the open air.

A photo of the cast and some guests:

After leaving France we sailed into London for the last time this contract, which again was amazing, even though it was pouring with rain. I still got chills going under Tower Bridge, which opens up like a magical pop-up book. When we ported in London we had an over night and then the next morning we were to get the next lot of guests for the next cruise. I decided to take the train down to the Isle of Wight and stay the night with Granny. It was the best decision I’ve made, as I was welcomed with open arms to a warm land based home and warm chicken roast. It was the best night I’ve had in a long while. Just me and granny. She always fills my heart with such joy. I am so happy that I got to see her even if it was just for the night. However the end of the Isle of Wight Regatta was that night so I even got fireworks!! I returned that morning for embarkation and then got off the ship for a wonderful all you can eat sushi dinner. Following that I had a little night by myself and went to tower bridge and let out a really loud crow like Peter Pan. It was amazing. Then I went back to the ship and we started our next cruise around the British Isles!

More photos to Come soon!

Lots of love to everyone. Remember to love!
Rhett

The Three Sisters in Norway

Hey everyone, so Bette Midler once introduced a song this way, and when it’s late and foggy out I always think of this, so I feel like starting my blog today the same way:

“I’m about to sing for you now, a song from the sea…Sometimes you get out on the sea in the middle of the night, and, you know, you can’t see your hand in front of your face. There’s a way to navigate though you know, by the stars...I never learned.”

The cast along the Geirangerfjord:

The Wedding Veil:

Ares is the new the Senior Accountant on board, so he is in charge of really boring things, that you wouldn’t want to hear about; well, boring to me. However he is not one of those people who sits at his desk with grey whiskers and a green visor cramming numbers into a calculator like The Producers leads us to believe; instead, after Nina and I met him in the gym (yes, you read that correctly mother, the gym) we all became buds and he took Nina and I on a tour of our next city Tromso. Norway’s towns get more interesting when you have a guide. We went across a bridge that was ¾ a mile long to the incredible Arctic Cathedral who’s architecture is absolutely stunning:

We walked all over, did I mention that Ares keeps asking me if I have been to the gym today?! He like to be very active and now that we’re friends he’s making me do the same. As I’m writing this Nina, who is sitting next to me kindly reminded me, “uh…you haven’t been to the gym in ages babe, you know that right?” Thanks Nina, for those loving words. I so appreciate them. After sitting down for a coffee in a little local coffee shop on the main street (which my the way, we started dubbing the main street in ever down Oxford Street, or fifth avenue for the Americans because the size difference is so ironic), the three of us went back to the ship and sailed on to Honningsvag, which is the very top of Norway!

Part of the Geirangerfjord:

The Seven Sisters:

I escorted a ship tour to the North Cape! The North Cape is the most northerly part of Europe and there is a building with a cinema (showing a wonderful film about the North Cape set to music), post office(where I got my port postcard!) and many a statue commemorating the area, including the famous globe! We were welcomed with a champagne and caviar toast in the bar with giant windows and a balcony cut into the cliff three stories below ground. There is even, get this, a Thai museum, which made me think of no one but one of my best friends Kavin, so I took a picture of it to show him, which I’ll have to post once I upload them. We met two bicyclists that had just arrived from the south of Spain, a whopping 3,000 miles away. It had taken them two months to get there, and we witnessed it. I even took a photo with them, again waiting on the upload. It was quite thrilling to look down the sheer cliffs that dropped 1,000 feet below into the ice-cold Barrant Sea of the North. The top of the world, pretty much. Well, with the rugged tundra and the 6,000 reindeer running around at 71˚ north it certainly felt like it.

Nina & I at The Globe at North Cape:

Gemma & I in Leknes:

After the Northcape, we rounded the top of Europe and sailed into Murmansk, Russia: a barren place, which was rundown and sad looking. I had IPM, so I stayed on, plus the Russian Government wouldn’t allow me to disembark anyhow as I was not on a scheduled tour and did not have a Visa to enter the country. I did however get out at Archangel, Russia on a tour of the city and it was nothing to write home about. It makes one realize how lucky we are to have what we have. It felt as though I was stepping into a time warp to the past. Some areas were nicer than others, but it felt as though the money was being put into having more secret service looking people roam the streets than anything else. I would have loved to get my hands on some caviar and vodka but wasn’t allowed to do anything outside the tour, so missed out on that one. I’m sure the other areas of Russia are lovely, but this far north it just seemed disappointing. Perhaps if I was Russian I would enjoy it more or be more familiar with everything. Our ballroom team, Anton and Olga who are Ukranian had a lovely time purchasing snacks and things that reminded them of home, so that reminded me that everything we experience in life is completely subjective.

Me at The Wedding Veil:

Nina & I in Hellesylt:

Me at the Hellesylt waterfalls, near where I jumped into the Fjord:

We had a couple of sea days, and in between them we stopped (for some wi-fi) in Hammerfest, Norway. A rainy little town with the most random shopping center, where we ran into another Peppes Pizza, I must have been wrong when I wrote a status update saying “Peppes Pizza. A Norwegian chain? Doubt it.” We have had internet from Peppes Pizza in almost every port that we’ve had internet in! Thank you Peppes Pizza! Haha. Anyway, a few more brightly colored houses. It’s funny, I don’t mean to drag on the towns in Norway, but they become the same thing after you’ve seen one of them. However the scenery is beautiful! We’re now in a slightly larger city, Kristiansund, Norway, sitting at, you guessed it another Peppes Pizza (haven’t tried their pizza yet, lol). It looks like a lovely town, the hillsides are packed with little houses that all look alike, I’m reminded of a song:

“Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky, Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes all the same. There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one, and they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.”

We found this amazing fountain in Copenhagen:

Nina and I are just talking about the blog while I’m writing this and the second highest country views, after the US are from Slovenia, thanks to her mother, Ljuba! Thanks Ljuba!

A random Statue in Copenhagen, I had to put my head in the middle of:

Now then, I must tell you about the most amazing women that are on this eighteen day leg of the journey. They are three sisters, and as always I won’t use names, to protect their privacy. These women are amazing. They are funny and have so much life within them and are living every moment for what it is. Living life to the fullest. I admire them so much. I found out a few days ago that one of the sisters has cancer and is not doing to well. You would never know it. She is beautiful and happy all the time and in fact they celebrated a secret birthday party for her, which I found out about too late, so I’ll have to sing for her before she leaves. Anyway, they’ve taken a liking to us performers and by the end of the cruise we’ll have dined with them three times. Whenever they see me, they all shout my name with joy. It’s a wonderful thing to have such admiration from someone who has sailed with Silver Sea for many years and is a Lady! I mean an actual Lady, meaning her husband is a Sir! How cool. They give me such wonderful strength to see them facing this battle head on and living life to the fullest. Did I mention that they sit in the front row of all the shows and cheer until their hands are red!?! So in our Broadway show I sang a song for them called, “I’d Rather Be Sailing” which I have a new found love for as it is a song about doing exactly what they are doing. In context it is sung to someone who is in the hospital, and the singer is telling him to slow down and not worry about work, but to live his life the way he wants to live it, to do the things that bring him joy and to make the choice to live happily while he can. I love these three women for everything they are and I am so proud to know them and know that they love me back.

Me at The Royal Palace Square in Copenhagen:

We have our last show this leg tonight, a sea day tomorrow and then we get a whole new load of people in Copenhagen day after tomorrow! I hope all your lives are well, and everything in them is grand! If I’ve learned one thing this trip, its that you have no time to be anything other than elated, so just don’t be bothered to be miserable. Hah!

Lots of love - and I do mean love…spread the love, people don’t love enough,
Rhett

P.S. One of my best friends in the whole world Shanna made a video of herself doing a dramatic reading of the the opening sentence from my last blog (the one I'd put on the back of my book) and it made my life so happy. So although I can't share it with you, I just wanted to thank her for being so amazing!