Travel Maven Blog ...... David Molyneaux posts from TheTravelMavens.com

Cruising Europe's seas and ports on the new, sophisticated Viking Star

A new cruise line, starting with a new ship, seldom happens, perhaps once in a decade. Huge obstacles include vision and investment, design and itineraries, marketing and selling to new clients.

So, the debut of the Viking Ocean Cruises’ Star Viking is a big deal. That the ship’s home port is in Norway, where much of the modern cruise industry began, but left, is remarkable.

The 930-passenger Viking Star, now cruising on itineraries to Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, and in between, is one of the prettiest cruise ships you will see.

Freighter cruising on Aranui 3 in the South Pacific

Jacques Brel’s memory is alive, well and living in Atuona

Travelers by freighter are enthusiastic and adventurous

Aranui 3 at anchor off Rangiroa in the Tuamotu Archipelago of the South Pacific. (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

The voice is unmistakable, even 20 yards away from a bright green barn that sits near a beach on Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands of the South Pacific. Inside is a memorial to chanteur Jacques Brel, who was known throughout the world as a passionate singer, songwriter, and movie star.

Listening to Brel on a warm, humid afternoon was one of the highlights of a freighter cruise to the remote islands of French Polynesia on Aranui 3.

I loved Brel in French. English versions of his songs were recorded by artists ranging from Nirvana to the Beach Boys and swept across the United States in performances of the musical revue, “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.”

From Daintree to Cooktown, Australia's history and tropical treasures

third in a series from Queensland, Australia

Daintree National Park in Queensland, Australia, is a world treasure. Most of the huge park is tropical rainforest, some of which has existed continuously for more than 110 million years. It may be the oldest rainforest on Earth. Some plant and animal species have been found nowhere else on the planet.

Protecting cassowaries

You can book a ride (or rental car) into Daintree from Port Douglas, north of Cairns, but you won’t get through it, toward Cooktown, without a four-wheel drive vehicle, such as those operated by guides from Adventure North.

Over rutted road, through crocodile-infested streams, and across one river on a cable-drawn ferry, an Adventure North guide carefully drove me  and my partner Fran Golden along a coastal road that is impassable in the wettest season.

Mingling with the mannequins: What the Dickens is Charles of England doing in Ohio

Cambridge, Ohio
As soon as Halloween is over, the Central Ohio town of Cambridge will have a festive Victorian look, not only among its buildings, but also its people, some of whom dress and act like Charles Dickens characters for two months each winter.

Through early January, downtown Cambridge celebrates all things Dickens, from carolers and well-dressed society types to street urchins, Bob Cratchit, and Tiny Tim.

If you stop by, you may also dress the part, borrowing for free some garb at Ye Ole Curiosity Shoppe on Wheeling Avenue and heading outside to mingle with the mannequins, which dot the downtown like extras in a huge performance.

For a sneak peek, here are pictures, taken at a local warehouse, of the many mannequins that soon will be stationed along downtown’s Wheeling Avenue at antique lampposts and benches.

Artwork abounds on new Seabourn Quest cruise ship

If you wake up from a vacation dream some morning and can’t tell which Seabourn sister you slept with last night, take a look at the artwork. The three newest Seabourn ships are identical triplets, but they dress a bit differently.

On the Seabourn Quest, which is cruising this week in the Mediterranean toward Barcelona and its naming ceremony on Sunday, you’ll see the same spacious two-deck spa; elegant restaurants and alfresco Colonnade; a marina (pictured above) that folds down from the stern on calm days for boating and swimming; all-suite accommodations; open bar lounges; and nooks and crannies for sunning and naps.

So, the key is to look at the art, including what one of my colleagues called psychedelic coffee beans, below.

Wandering Athens, eating well

Among the occasional advantages of advancing age are the opportunities to return to special places, destinations with meanings from the past. I suspect that I look to see what has changed, and usually I have changed the most.

In my first visit to Athens and the Acropolis, images from books, study, and expectations came alive for my wife and me in the early 1980s. Both of us lovers of human history, we soaked up the words from our tour guides and called the visit one of our best trips.

My second tour was at the guiding hand of my art-history-educated daughter, after her graduation from college. That trip I saw through her eyes the wonders of Greek art and culture as she took it all in for the first time. “Dad, this is huge,” she kept saying, explaining yet another unknown to me.

This time, with fewer expectations, I returned to the wonder of the Acropolis, visited the outstanding new Acropolis Museum, then roamed the area around Monastiraki with a goal of relaxing and eating with the locals.