Family Cruise

June was a month of travel for our family.   Along with Arta, we headed off to Southhampton to board the Independence of the Seas for a 14 day cruise through the mediterranean. If there were only time, each of us would be doing 14 different posts, capturing 5 different experiences of each day.  The days were full, full, full!  Hard to even know WHERE to start with the reports, since there was so much to see.

Botticelli's Birth of Venus

For one thing,the ship had an $8.5 million budget for art, and so arta and i spent tons of time wandering the stairwells exploring the (exceptionally well curated) collection. 

Robert Silvers' Birth of Venus

On the landing of the stairwell between each floor, you would find a smallish photo of a piece of 'classic' art.  


Occupying the rest of the space was a much larger piece of modern art 'in dialogue' with that classic.


For example, Botticelli's famous Birth of Venus was set along side a work of the same name by Robert Silvers. 

Silvers - close up detail

From a distance, it looks like it is just a close up of the botticelli original.
But when you look a closer look at Silvers' version, you could see that the piece was completely made up of smaller famous images of art...almost like 'pointilism', but with small computer generated images. (he is the inventor of photomosaic process).  Stunning. Anyways, there was something interesting to look at on each of the 12 levels in all 4 of the main staircases... like hanging out in an edgy art gallery with a good tour guide.

Duncan on the Flowrider

Duncan, meanwhile, was off learning how to master the flowrider.  Here is a photo, but it is tricky to describe.  Basically, water is rushing back UP hill at you, making a kind of thin layer of artificial wave you can surf on top of.

Steve signed Duncan up for lessons twice. It is WAY harder than it looks (and if you head out to youtube, you will see a ton of homevideos of people wiping out on it.Duncan reports that, while fun, you feel pretty much like you have been beat up after it is all over!  :-)

towel bunny lying in wait...

Steve and Alex spent lots of time in the Fitness Club on the top deck, with its astonishing views of the ocean.  They also spent time wondering how the cleaning staff could manage to turn seemingly innocuous towels into the most bizarre forms of animal art (ie., as the Wizard named Tim says in Monty Python's "Holy Grail", a creature "with sharp pointy teeth")


More posts on the cruise to follow.