'Round Britain: Silversea Cruises' circumnavigation of The United Kingdom adds Denmark & Belgium - Cruise of the Month

Cruise Travel, Nov-Dec, 2003 by Theodore W. Scull

In an era of stressful travel, it is a sheer delight to find a cruise and a destination that allows one to truly relax and enjoy the sights and life both onboard and onshore. For us, Northern Europe and Silversea Cruises filled this bill to a T, offering an uncrowded, sophisticated, and well organized cultural cruise experience.

Landing at Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport one summer's morning, there were no immigration or customs forms to fill out, just a quick passport check and I was "In Like Flynn"--though this was Denmark, and Ireland would come a week later. In minutes I was aboard a nonstop train into Central Station where my wife, Suellyn, was waiting on the platform.

Copenhagen is indeed wonderful, for it is easygoing, upbeat, and walkable. In fact the city boasts the world's first and longest car-free pedestrian street, known as the Stroget. Running from City Hall Square to Nyhaven (New Harbor), including several connecting branches, the popular route leads to the capital's best shopping, dining, and entertainment opportunities. And if you are really ambitious, you can follow it all the way to the cruise terminal at Langelinie.

Scandinavian summers are short and daylight hours long, so Danish denizens take their playtime seriously, flooding the streets and cafes with a festive atmosphere. One night, we opted for Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen's 160-year-old entertainment park that is said to be the inspiration for Walt Disney's American-style theme-park attractions. The significant differences are that Tivoli is very much a part of the city's life, not a separate isolated entity, and its 32 restaurants and ballet and concert venues are tops. Weekend evenings end with colorful fireworks displays.

During the day, we cruised the harbor and canals coming away impressed by how well Copenhagen uses its extensive waterfront, mixing a good balance of housing, recreation, and shipping. Suellyn climbed the Round Tower, Europe's oldest observatory and dating from 1642, while I begged off the dizzy heights experience and opted to take photographs instead.

Soon after embarking aboard Silversea Cruises' Silver Whisper and checking that our bags had arrived, we proceeded ashore to ferret out the other ships in port. Most dock at Langelinie, a welcoming open promenade featuring restaurants, bars, and shops that draw locals and tourists alike. On this sunny Sunday, cruise ships numbered six, while nine were recorded on a single day earlier in the summer, making Copenhagen a popular and ever-growing embarkation port. Cruise-liner-size ferries add to the activity with popular overnight sailings to Oslo, the Danish island of Bornholm, and Poland.

Sailing promptly at six o'clock, the Silver Whisper headed north through the Oresund, between Denmark and Sweden, passing Renaissance-era Kronborg Castle at Elsinor, the setting for Hamlet, William Shakespeare's tragedy about the Prince of Denmark. Then it was into the broader Kattegat and Skaggerak and west across the North Sea to Scotland.

The Silver Whisper, a 28,282-gross-register-ton/two-year-old ship, carries up to 383 passengers in all suite accommodations, the smallest measuring 287 square feet and the largest 1,435 square feet. Fares, while pegged at the upper end of the cruise market, include all gratuities and drinks in the bars and selected wines in the restaurants. Silversea draws an international passenger list to its four ships, and on this voyage, while Americans were in the majority, Europeans, British, and Australians were also sailing. The officers are Italian and the crew is European and Filipino.

The ship's layout has the cabin accommodations placed forward and most of the public rooms aft, with the exception of the forward observation lounge and the adjoining spa and fitness center. The larger Silver Whisper and Silver Shadow sisters have much in common with the smaller 16,800-grt/296-passenger twins Silver Cloud and Silver Wind in layout and amenities, and the company hopes that its high percentage of repeat passengers will move freely among them to choose the itineraries they would most enjoy. Some prefer the more intimate pair and others like a larger ship, but the fleet shares far more similarities than differences.

Dining is open seating in the main restaurant, and the Terrace Cafe offers a smaller setting for all meals, plus alternating French, Italian, and Asian specialty menus by reservation but with no extra charge. A brand-new 30-seat restaurant called Le Champagne provides an exquisite dining experience in a wine-tasting room atmosphere. On the evening we ate there, the menu featured foie gras raviolis in a truffle sauce, tempura-fried lobster tail in a Belgian endive salad, spiced beef fillet with candied leeks and roasted shallots, and a strange-sounding but eminently tasty dessert of glazed stuffed cherry tomatoes and vanilla ice cream. Adjoining Le Champagne, the Humidor is a clubby roost for after-dinner cigars, vintage ports, and cognacs.

One evening we asked a guest to join us for dinner in our suite, and we ordered by phone from the restaurant menu. The meal arrived in separate courses and included complimentary bottles of chardonnay and merlot. The sliding door to the veranda brought in fresh breezes, and as the sky darkened, we were soon looking at a very orange Mars in the southeast sky.