Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
Today was a sad day. It was the last day of the trip. What made it sadder was that we formulated relationships with everybody on the boat. I could never get into the minutia of details of who we spoke with and when, but throughout the week we had the chance to get to know everybody and get closer. With our waiter, our busboy, the dining room captain, the maitre’d, the social director, the captain, and the other passengers. A relationship and intimacy is sometimes hard to clarify being a vague, immeasurable thing.
Maybe I can explain the feeling this way. The goodbyes this morning took longer then normal. Even when the conversation reached that point where it was clear that the conversation was over, we stood, awkwardly standing, looking for more to talk about.
At first we shook hands goodbye, and then it was hugs goodbye.
We exchanged numbers, emails and the such, and then slowly walked off the boat. When Margherita realized that she had forgotten something at the Pursar’s office, I had to go back to get it because she found the goodbyes already a bit emotional.
We waved goodbye to the ship and then did a quick tour of Cincinnati.
Cincinnati is a city suffering from a multiple personality disorder. It’s actually three cities all connection. The Ohio river splits the city at this point with Cincinnati on the northern shore. On the Southern shore is Kentucky made up of both Covington and Newport, Kentucky. All three of these cities make up the personality of the one city.
We only had a few hours so it was time for quick decisions to cover the city quick. We passed TANK the local tourist bus service which did loops through all three cities, paid one dollar per person and then decided to follow the loop the entire route.
We saw the famous Tyler-Davidson fountain right in downtown Cincinnati. Between the large hustle and bustle of the city is an open square park with this quaint fountain the middle.
We rode to Covington and saw MainStrasse, the old, history German section. All the houses have that unique Bavarian architecture leaving the area with a unique and colorful feel. Some residential house and a few commercial houses make up the two main streets that cross with a beautiful fountain in the middle.
From there, we jumped on the bus and saw the Newport seafront which has an IMAX theater, a Borders Bookstore a shopping mall and an aquarium.
However, we had run out of time. The clock was running down and it was time to grab out bags and head out of town. We rode the bus to our starting point, picked up our bags and grabbed a taxi to the airport.
Overall, I cannot rave enough about the respite and break the boat allows. After rushing around and working in a hectic, New York City lifestyle, nothing resets your perspective like sailing upriver at 8-10 miles an hour. Watching people wave just like your walking down their street. Looking up and seeing simply stars at night. Touring a town for a few hours, meeting people from the heart of America and then, going back and eating until your require liposuction. This is what America is about and it takes a cruise on a boat like the American Queen to remind you of this.
