The floor rocked below my feet, but I felt steadfast in the knowledge that Shabbat was upon me. I stood by a table in the middle of the ocean while waving my hands over candles and reciting the blessing.
Uncovering my eyes, I held my siddur and started saying Kiddush. The table was occupied by men who placed the cloth napkins on their heads, in lieu of kippah. They raised their wine glasses and gazed at us with interest.
I was on the Azamara Club Cruises ship Journey, sitting with some new friends, including an interesting Irish couple in their 70s who had never experienced any aspect of Shabbat. While I recited the Kiddush, I felt the energy of wonder and peace settle over the table. The Irishman and his wife said, “Thank you for sharing the moment with us. You know, in our faith, we don’t have rituals we perform at home weekly, it’s only when we go to church. This was so beautiful.”
I smiled. Beauty was all around me; I was in the midst of a 12-night voyage from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Southampton, England. We were exploring places I had never even heard of, which is one of the reasons that cruising with Azamara Club Cruises is appealing. They host longer trips with smaller, more diverse ports of call.
One of the enchanting places I visited was with Orkney, Scotland. Orkney is a group of islands about 10 kilometers from the northeast tip of the Scottish mainland. I started my adventure with an early morning visit to the Highland Park Distillery, the northernmost Scotch whisky distillery in the world. Waitresses materialized at 9 a.m. with trays of 12-year-old vintage whiskey, and I giggled even before I had a taste. I’m not much of a drinker, but after a distillery tour and an explanation of how single malt scotch is created, I started to appreciate the taste.
From Highland Park I found my way to Balfour Castle. While wandering through the garden and admiring the colorful flowers I daydreamed about life in a castle. Then I toured the interior, and after walking through a secret doorway hidden in a bookshelf I was treated to tea in one of the extremely elegant, sunlit rooms.
Orkney also boasts a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Ring of Brodgar, which will take you thousands of years back in time. It’s a stone circle that is 104 meters in diameter, and it is thought to have been originally composed of 60 stones set within a circular ditch up to 3 meters deep and 10 meters wide. Today, only 27 stones are still standing and scholars debate over their origins. I just marveled at how the enormous rocks, which don’t seem to be from the area, could be moved to and positioned in such a location in the first place.
After a full day of exploration, I was greeted back on the ship by a smiling crew member with a big “Welcome home!” Cruising with Azamara is dreamy and luxurious, especially while enjoying room service on your balcony and watching the world magically float by. While the food is plentiful, there are also “specialty” restaurants to indulge your palate. The spa is über-relaxing, and the fitness center’s classes are fun. Azamara Club Cruises also provide itineraries for longer stays, often with night touring, to give passengers a full taste of a city. More excitement was on the horizon, as we were about to spend a full day and night in Dublin.
The history of Jews in Ireland is complex and fascinating. There is a small Jewish population, which has never numbered more than 6,000. However, some very influential Jewish figures have connections to the country. For example, Chaim Herzog, the sixth president of Israel, was born in Ireland.
The earliest reference cites a Jewish presence dating back to 1079, when scholars believe merchants arrived for a short visit. Dublin can boast of two Jewish mayors, a father and a son: Robert Briscoe, twice lord mayor of Dublin (1956-1957 and 1961-1962), and his son, Ben Briscoe (1988-1989).
Dublin is filled with a myriad of sites to visit, from the Hugh Lane Gallery to Dublin Castle. I also spent time in the Writers Museum, reading about William Butler Yeats and George Bernard Shaw. Even wandering the streets is akin to walking in a novel. James Joyce’s “Ulysses” comes to life in Dublin. In the book, many of the places his famous Jewish character Leopold Bloom frequents, such as the restaurant/bar Davy Byrnes on Grafton Street, are still open for business and marked with metal plaques.
I am a huge fun of the Dublin’s Gaiety Theater, where the performances are consistently outstanding. Appropriately, “Riverdance” was playing. Director John McColgan outdoes himself; the show is mesmerizing, the music is intoxicating and the dancers are phenomenal. By the end of the performance, I was at the edge of my seat and leaning so far forward it was almost as if I wished to be on the stage.
Heading from the stage back to the sea, another magical day was upon me, as we tendered in the Isles of Scilly (pronounced “silly”). The area consists of an archipelago that is fewer than 30 miles from Land’s End on the coast of Cornwall, England.
The famous gardens in Scilly were created in the early 19th century by former governor Augustus Smith. The islands are warmed by the Gulf Stream, making the climate temperate and allowing for an amazing variety of subtropical plants. Once Smith realized it was a frost-free environment where he could create an exotic garden, he started planting.
The experience of walking along the windswept beach on Tresco, one of Scilly’s major islands, was breathtaking; the purple heather littered the pathway as we walked up toward the Tresco Abbey Gardens. Upon arrival, I ran into the head gardener, Andrew, whom I asked for a private tour — the best thing I could have done.
I learned the Tresco Abbey Garden is filled with more than 4,000 different types of plants from all over the world, from New Zealand to South Africa, and is enchanting and bursting with color. Each plant has a story and Andrew showed me ones to make tea with (lemon verbena) as well as others that can heal a sunburn (aloe). We wandered off the property for a moment to see the magnificent views. The island is also a magnet for hundreds of migrating birds.
Clearly I had fallen into a storybook, and while more adventures awaited, I did not want to let go of this moment. I easily could have spent many more hours in the quiet and beauty of the Tresco Abby Gardens.
Just like the magical energy of a Shabbat dinner, during which we focus on family and try to forget the stresses of the week, the experience of traveling also has its own energy. Exploring exquisite places opens up new worlds and new channels for discovery, both of a certain location and of oneself. It’s a chance to be a modern-day explorer, to take a break from everyday life, and to fill one’s mind with magnificent sounds, colors and feelings. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, not only do you get to experience something really special, but you have the opportunity to provide others with a glimpse of a beautiful new world, too!
Masada Siegel lives in Scottsdale. Her new book, “Window Dressings,” is available at masadasiegelauthor.com.<?em>
