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Top Chef and Tel Aviv

What fun! The excitement and fun of Top Chef is featured on each Celebrity cruise and today onboard the Celebrity SILHOUETTE we had the unique opportunity to participate. My husband Tony was selected from the audience to be a contestant chef while I was chosen to be a judge. Tony and his partner won the Quick Fire contest against another team and then Tony, assisted by the head chef for the wonderful Murano Restaurant, cooked up a tasty steaks. He won a bottle of French Blanc de Blanc for his dish.

Later this afternoon we landed in Israel and headed to the old city of Jaffa and then to Tel Aviv for the day. We learned so much about the history of this land and saw the church honoring where St Peter sailed west for Rome. We found Tel Aviv to be a vibrant, youthful city. Tomorrow we are off to Jerusalem.

Taste of Greek Island Life.
On the island of Kefalonia, located on the western side of Greece in the Ionian Sea, the tourist season is winding down and attention is shifting to harvesting the season’s grapes for wine, followed by olives and then the citrus crops. On a beautiful day we saw picture-perfect villages, olive trees overloaded with olives that will make their way to the olive oil presses and acres of orange, lemon and lime trees heavy with fruit. We also tasted the local Robola wines. Our local contacts were optimistic that the tourist trade would continue to improve as more nature and history lovers discover the island’s breathtaking cliff views, challenging hiking trails, secluded beaches and ancient Greek and Roman ruins and artifacts. We were told that next year will bring 100 cruise ships to the island.

The Knights of Malta. You can’t go anywhere in Malta without learning about how 700 Knights Hospitallers of St. John ...“the Knights of Malta”...saved Malta from an invasion of 40,000 Turks in the 16th century. Later, the Knights built the fortress city of Valletta, an architectural masterpiece, with impressive bastions, now the capital of Malta. The Cathedral of St John is the centerpiece of the city and the final resting place for over 400 knights. Sensory overload sets in early with the amazing display of gold gilding on most surfaces, including the impressive eight-pointed Maltese Cross, the symbol of the Knights’ Order. Parts of Malta seem frozen in time with 16th and 17th century bastions and buildings everywhere. Not surprisingly, the timelessness of the island has drawn many film crews here. We noticed a film being shoot today against a backdrop of a fort. Period films made here in Troy, Alexander, Gladiator and Count of Monte Cristo to name a few.

Fish for Dinner. We are spending the day in the seaside fishing port of Fiumicino, Italy. The fishing fleet comes in around 2pm up the Tiber River and the action starts as local chefs, fish mongers and the curious come down to inspect and buy the fresh catch of prawns, fish, squid and mussels. An hour later the fish mongers are auctioning the catch to other resellers.