West Coast Europe

October, 2025

The track of our voyage.

This is our third time on the Silver Dawn.

Autumn once again offered us a chance to break free from the shackles of home life, and once again visit Europe. Specifically, the coasts of Portugal, Spain and France.

Spring and fall offer the best advantages for travel, since the weather is mostly favourable and family vacations generally don’t happen during these times. The resulting lack of crowds makes everything from air travel to local attractions much less stressful. In this particular case, the overall stress of what’s going on in the U.S.A., and it’s affect worldwide, prompted a desperate need for us to escape the news cycle. Even a two week break can often be enough to reset our cortisol levels, especially when done with like minded people we love spending time with.

Since this would be an adventure by sea, we once again selected Silversea Cruise Line to move us from one location to another. Since all accommodation and dining is achieved within the confines of this moving platform, it’s an unpacked once, and enjoy experience. You can’t get much less stressful than that.

Our Veranda Suite with queen size bed, seating area and sundeck.

Our suite also has a walk-in closet and bathroom with soaker tub and shower.

The expansive main dining room was very luxurious.

The S.A.L.T. Kitchen was a specialty dining area.

The Arts Cafe was on our deck and very convenient for afternoon coffee and drinks.

Dolce Vita was the main lounge on Deck 5.

The Panorama Lounge on Deck 9 had an outside area as well.

The Observation Lounge was located forward above the Bridge.

Lisbon, Portugal

Like our previous European trip, this one also started in Lisbon. So the usual plan of spending a few days in the departure city before boarding the vessel wasn’t needed. We had already explored the finer points of this wonderful city. Besides, the “first day” of the cruise was actually spent in this port, and an excursion had been planned through the ship’s various offerings. Although, our own explorations of the previous year were just a tad better, in our opinion. Unfortunately, this feeling of being underwhelmed would become a recurring theme during out trip.