Wed April 16, 2025
Hi All. It’s a glorious sea day and yes we got to sleep in! We once again skipped breakfast (heresy!) and went straight to lunch. After lunch we went to the first of several enrichment lectures. We got really educated today!
The first was called “Secret Intelligence: Omaha Beach on D-Day”. The speaker, Mark Lubienski, who we actually sat next to at dinner last night, is an intelligence expert from Oxford and Cambridge universities outside London. He shared the reason why the US placed the WWII museum in Bedford, VA., which I never knew. The reason was that over 50% of the residents of Bedford who fought in the war died at Omaha Beach. Very sad.
He shared the various intelligence schemes done by the Allies that convinced Hitler and the Germans that the D-Day invasion would not be at Omaha Beach but rather further east at Calais, France. From creating a fake US army stationed near Dover, England to decoding the intelligence messages from a Japanese General that was close to Hitler and the German higher officers. We fortunately won that war in part due to the intelligence efforts of many people.
The second topic was “View from the Oval Office: What Tools are available to the President” by Jeffrey A Weinberg. He served 9 presidents starting as an intern under Nixon. He felt there were three ways to consider the presidency which are Constitutional, Personal and Institutional.
Examples were: Constitutional was the President being able to veto anything. And how hard it is to override a veto. Personal such as Eisenhower as a 5 star general bringing military ideas and structure to the Presidency and Ronald Reagan as the great communicator who was an actor and brought those skills to his bilateral meetings with heads of state. Institutional being the chief of staff and how important that role is, along with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Cabinet.
He actually talked a lot about Trump in general but did not get political. That would have gotten crazy if he did! Lol
The next topic was “The House of Orange – Royal Family of the Netherlands” since we’ll be in Amsterdam tomorrow. Current King of the Netherlands is King Willem-Alexander but it all started in 1433 with the Duke of Bergundy and Philip the Good. William the Silent (of Orange, which is actually a province in Southern France) led the rebellion to allow the people of the Netherlands to practice their own religion. That started the name of “The House of Orange”.
He discussed the Dutch Golden Age where they had the Dutch East and West Indies maritime trading companies around the world. He mentioned how King Wilhelm III from 1849-1890 was the last of the Salic Kings (meaning Kings had to be male). Once he died, they had 123 years of Queens (girl power!). To celebrate the house of Orange, the Netherlands have a King’s Day every year where everyone wears orange.
The next topic was given by a Silversea rep and he discussed the new summer and winter expedition voyages they will offer in 2026 and 2027. You know we’re always up for new adventures! And he discussed several places we’ve never been to which were the Galapagos, the Kimberly Region of Australia, the Northwest Passage in Northern Canada and South Georgia island near Antarctica. I’m ready to sign up for all of them!
Tonight was Formal night so we got all gussied up and went to the Captain’s gala. We then went to dinner at the Italian specialty restaurant named La Terrazza. I once again had some great seafood! But first they start you off with an amazing charcuterie board. I then started with a lobster appetizer (of course!), the shrimp with pasta, and the Milanese style bread crumbed lobster tail (of course!). I ended with the dark chocolate cake. Everything was top notch! We’ll probably come back again.
After dinner we went to the show which was the Silversea singers and dancers doing a show called “Limelight” which covered many musicals from Broadway and the West End. Great music!
We ended our night once again going to the jazz club to listen to our favorite musicians. We never get tired of listening to their great music! Hope everyone had a great hump day! Tomorrow we dock in Amsterdam!
The Wandering Italian 