Crossing the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii

Before we made the move to living full-time in Victoria, we decided to book another cruise.  This time across the Pacific to Hawaii.  We'd be gone 15 days: 11 days on the ship and 4 touring the islands.  Since we love sea days, this suited us to a tee.  The cruise ship, the Star Princess left from Vancouver and returned there to end its season in northern waters.

Two weeks before we boarded her, the Star Princess was in Victoria so we headed to Ogden Point to check her out.  It seems unreal to be in a city where cruise ships dock.  Earlier in the summer we went down to see the Queen Elizabeth, a Cunard ship.

For this trip, we boarded the same BC Ferries Connector bus we had used when we did the Alaska cruise (North to Alaska!).  There were two buses this time and they were packed.  We got the 'milk run' one but knew we had plenty of time to enjoyed the scenic route around Vancouver.  Turns out we were lucky to make the ferry crossing as the second bus 'forgot' to pick up passengers so had to turn back and almost missed the ferry.  Not a great way to start a holiday.

The Vancouver cruise terminal (Canada Place) is very well organized and we zipped through customs and boarding with no problems.  One of our suitcases was at our cabin door when we arrived (the other came while we had lunch).  We unpacked and settled in then headed to the top deck to watch the ship leave Vancouver.  Usually there is a big outdoor party but the weather was rainy so it was cancelled.  It's always fun sailing beneath the Lion's Gate bridge.

The first day out was rough and some suffered from seasickness.  Glen and I were lucky and didn't have any problems but we couldn't walk the promenade deck as it was pretty wet with the splashing waves.  As you know, we always do a walk in the morning while on board.  The Star Princess had a wonderful promenade deck that went from bow to stern.  Two trips around the boat was a mile.  Most days, we walked two miles before attending the enrichment lectures.

There were two lectures given each morning, one by a Hawaiian naturalist and one by a retired physics professor.  Both were knowledgeable and entertaining.  We learned about the formation of the Hawaiian islands, their volcanoes, their history, coral reefs, the attack on Pearl Harbour, and 3 talks on Captain Cook.  We also learned from the on-board hula teacher, the history of the Hawaiian monarchy.  Her husband taught those who wanted to play the ukulele (pronounced in Hawaiian oo-koo-lay-lay).

We often enjoyed the music of a dance band at lunch on the pool deck or the jazz band in our favourite Wheelhouse Bar.  Some afternoons we had coffee in the Atrium and listened to a string trio playing different styles of classical music.  We went to the casino once and I lost $40 in 15 minutes which put a damper on my play time.  We often caught the end of Trivia games that seemed to happen at all hours of the day and night.  There were oodles of craft and culinary demos to enjoy so no one on board was bored.

For some reason, we never seem to make the evening variety shows but one night we did catch comedian, Steve Caouette and he was very funny.  It was nice seeing comedy and not have to worry about swear words.  While in Hawaii, a local Hula School (Halau Hula Olana) entertained us with song and dance.  The little girls doing the hula reminded me of Meg when she was a young dancer.

AMA, our travel agency, treated us to two meals in the specialty dining rooms, one was Italian, the other a steak house.  Normally, you pay about $30 US/person to reserve a table in these restaurants.  We treated ourselves to a meal in the Crown Grill to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Little did we know that most of the ship's passengers were Canadian and the dining rooms hosted a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  Usually most people on a ship are from the States so this was an unusual cruise.

Rumour had it there was no Clamato juice on board so Canadians couldn't have their favourite drink--a Caesar (invented in Calgary).  We did see two flats of Clamato juice bottles being loaded on the ship when we got to Honolulu so that problem was resolved.  Princess must have also underestimated Canadian's love of draught beer as they ran out of Heineken (which Glen was drinking) two days before we disembarked.  Fortunately, they still had Newcastle Brown Ale which was what I was drinking.

One of the best things about cruising is the dining experiences .  We ate a wide variety of food and cooking styles.  I even had cooked vegetables for breakfast.  I think Glen had bacon every day--a treat he never gets at home.  Don't worry about his cholesterol as apparently it doesn't register on any scale.  The buffet lunch featured sushi a couple of times, ramen, tacos, Indian, and Chinese cuisine. as well as wonderful soups and sandwiches.  On formal nights, where you dress up for dinner (a cruising tradition), the dining rooms served lobster.  I ate mostly seafood meals but indulged in a steak once and it was amazing.  Glen had dessert every night and they were always a feast for his eyes as well as his stomach.

Glen's happiest moments, other than when he scanned the horizon for other ships, was charting our latitude and longitude as we headed south.  We had three time changes spaced over five days and gradually the sun got warmer until we were definitely in the tropics.  Seeing flying fish as we walked the promenade was a treat.

See some pictures of our shipboard fun here.

A Year in Flux

Honestly, I can't believe it's been over a year since I wrote a blog post.  Where has the time gone?  I do have an excuse -- this is a travel blog and we didn't travel much.  We had  'Staycations' as we pulled up stakes and moved from Calgary to Victoria.

After our TransAtlantic cruise, we decided to see if I could handle a winter in Victoria.  I find rainy days depressing.  So at the end of October, 2018, we left Calgary to live for three months in Victoria.  I survived!!

Glen, convinced we could live in the condo, felt if we renovated the bathroom and replaced the carpets, I would agree with him.  As with most things in Victoria, everything is done at a slower pace.  The ensuite's floor was tiled the day before Christmas.  Geoff et. al. arrived just after Boxing Day and we had a great visit (see my photos here).  The highlight of the visit was an exhibit about Ancient Egypt at the Royal BC Museum.  We also took the family crabbing and did several beach walks.

My sister, Lynda, arrived mid-January (see my photos here).  We enjoyed some seaside walks and spent time photographing the Government House and Beacon Hill Park gardens.  By this time, we had decided we could live in Victoria so went back to Calgary to begin downsizing.  Big job!!

At the beginning of March, we asked a realtor, Karen, to sell our Calgary townhouse.  She was amazing and brought in a stager to make our home look more like a show home.  Yvonne was brutal but in a good way.  However, it meant getting rid of all our bookcases, the top of our china cabinet, and most of our chairs.  We worked for two weeks boxing stuff up and getting a local moving company, Get a Move On, to lift the heavy furniture downstairs.  Our home was now just a house.  We listed it on March 20th and sold it on the 23rd.  This was very unusual for the market in Calgary but we had a great team of advisors and we heeded their advice.

As we packed up the house, we took breaks and re-visited some of our favourite Calgary haunts like the downtown river walk, the zoo (with the pandas), and Canmore.  We also checked out the new Calgary Central Library (see photos here)

We'd planned on returning to Victoria for an Easter holiday but this time with the intent to buy a townhouse.  Even though we had done a lot of downsizing, we still had too much stuff to live comfortably in the condo.  Karen had found us a great realtor, Beth, who helped us search for a townhouse.  Several we liked sold before we arrived in Victoria but our favourite on-line choice was still on the market (see above photo).  We looked at it and put in an offer.

Then we had to downsize the condo!  With Beth's help, we changed the look of our apartment then headed back to Calgary, putting the condo on the market May 1st.  Then the real work of packing up Calgary began.  I've lost count of the number of times we got boxes and packing paper or made runs to Goodwill.  We also moved our sectional couch to Meg's house as we knew we wouldn't need it in Victoria.

We moved out on June 4th and took possession of our townhouse on June 7th.  Glen became vice-president of our strata council on the 12th so we hit the ground running.  The former owners had left the place too dirty to live in so we stayed in the condo for two weeks while we cleaned and unpacked.  The condo finally sold and we moved the furniture from there to the townhouse on July 26th using another great company, You Move Me.

In the meantime, we played golf, walked some beaches, checked out the cars during Deuce Days, and joined a Probus club.  To see our Victoria Staycation photos, go here.

Now that fall is upon us, we can get back to settling into our 'new' place.  The townhouse is 30 years old so needs some TLC.  The garden is a work-in-progress and today Glen has finally begun painting the inside walls.  We haven't hung any artwork as he wanted to paint first.  We're also in the process of replacing the appliances and will begin renovating the ensuite bathroom after Christmas (Didn't I begin this blog with a bathroom reno?).

Port of Call -- Ponta Delgada/Sete Cidades

It turns out a lot can happen when you have two days at sea.  1) I locked myself out of our cabin safe which required a staff member to open.  Funnily enough, alcohol wasn't involved, just the distraction of me talking to Glen. 2) I had to wait in line at Passenger Services twice to get a new cabin key until we discovered that the clasp to my clutch was magnetized and I kept laying my card on top of it.  3) the Princess accounting system is not for the faint at heart.

That latter comment resulted from the fact Princess refunded what we paid for our excursions in Norway, N. Ireland, and Newfoundland.  How they did it was confusing.  A few passengers had problems so while we haunted the service desk for solutions to our safe and key card problems, we witnessed several angry people.  For those who may experience this the future, rest assured you won't be cheated.

So what did Princess do?  They refunded the entire amount of all our tours then charged us again for Rotterdam and Hamburg.  Seems simple enough but since I had paid for all our tours, I expected the refund to appear on my account but it was divided between Glen's and mine.  Once I got that figured out, the rest was easy.  As compensation for the change in itinerary due to the storms, Princess also credited our accounts with $200 each.  Some felt they had to spend it on board.  But no, if it wasn't spent, it would be appear as a credit on your credit card statement.  We spent ours on beer so there wasn't any credit going 'home'.  Princess also gave us a credit on a future cruise.  It was no fault of theirs the weather foul so we were impressed by these gestures.

After two days at sea, we arrived in the Azores at dawn.  The weather was perfect so we did our morning walk through the tiny town of Ponta Delgada.  What a charming place!  You could eat off the streets, they were so clean and the people were very friendly.  Of course, we were 3000 people wandering the streets that normally 70,000 inhabit so we made an impact.  Ponta Delgada is the capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal and is located on São Miguel Island, the largest island in the archipelago (nicknamed the Green Island for good reason).  Delgada means thin or delicate in Portuguese.  It became a village (vila) in 1507 but wasn't the capital until an earthquake destroyed Vila Franca, the former seat of government, in 1522.  Spain tried to take the Azores from Portugal in 1582 but an Anglo-French expedition fought to keep it Portuguese.  The main industry of the islands is agriculture, mostly dairy, tea, tobacco, wine and pineapples.  Fishing and tourism also contribute to the local economy.

We spent an hour wandering the distinct black (basalt, a volcanic rock) and white cobblestone streets of the town, heading along the waterfront to the São Bras Fort then heading inland to Rua Gil M Sequeira.  We passed São Jose Church and another dedicated to sailors and fishermen (Church of Our Lady of Hope Santo Cristo).  With each block the name of the street changed becoming Rua Marqués Praia E Monforte then Rua Machado Santos.  We took a side street and walked past the Sahar Hassamain (Gates of Heaven) Synagogue, founded in 1836 but is now only opened on Saturdays for guided tours.  We ended up at the Gates of the City (photo) before returning to the ship.

After lunch, on the pool deck of the Princess, we boarded our bus for a tour of the island with a stop in Sete Cidades (Seven Cities).  This small town (800 people) is nestled in an almost circular volcanic crater (3 mi/ 4.8 km across) of the same name.  We drove through a few small villages on very narrow roads to get there.  Kudos to the bus driver who navigated these often passing other buses or large trucks.  Hedges along the roads were hydrangeas, the flower of the Azores, and were often laced with deep purple morning glories.  The crater was painted a verdant green although some hills were yellowed by the Kahili Ginger flower that is a weed in the area.

Our first stop was the Neo-Gothic St. Nicholas Church.  A self-made man called Nicholas (I can't remember his last name) built the church so he'd have a place to worship and decided to dedicate it to his name-saint.  The village still worships there.  Like all churches on São Miguel, doors are unlocked and everyone is welcome to step inside.

The crater is famous for Lagoa das Sete Cidades.  The Blue Lake and Green Lake are separated by a tongue of lava (and a bridge).  Legend has it a princess with green eyes whose father was overprotective, escaped the castle one day and fell in love with a shepherd (blue eyes).  The boy told her father they wished to marry and the king became furious.  Not wanting to upset her father, the princess met the boy for a final time and they both cried enough tears to fill two lakes -- one blue and one green. Depending on the light, you can see the difference in colour although agricultural practises (and sewage) have made the blue lake greener due to algal growth.

After several stops to view the lakes as we zigzagged up the crater, we returned to Ponta Delgada and the Grand Hotel Azores Atlantico.  Here, in a restaurant that offered incredible views of the harbour, we tasted local wine (white from São Miguel, red from Pico Island) and a variety of excellent cheeses.  They served a soft, young cheese with a hot sauce that really perked it up.  São Jorge cheese had a buttery texture and wonderful taste.

Even though the Royal Princess sat within walking distance of the hotel, we had to board the buses to return to the ship.  It was getting late and the ship wouldn't sail without us if we were on the bus.

The next five days were spent at sea.  This was the part Glen really had been looking forward to.  He'd sit on our balcony and just gaze at the horizon.  At one point, the captain did announce we were over the mid-Atlantic ridge and that the valley was 3,500 m/11,482 ft below us.  Pretty exciting stuff!

We arrived in New York City before dawn.  I figured we wouldn't see the Statue of Liberty until I realized the boat was going astern and being on the starboard side, we'd get a great view.  It was a bit foggy but we did see the grand old lady.

Leaving the boat was tedious.  We had to vacate our cabin by 8am but our group didn't leave the ship until 9:30.  We couldn't find a seat in our designated area so sat near the gangway.  We ended up going off first in our group as we heard the coordinator make the call.  The terminal was filled with different piles of luggage but we easily found Yellow 6 and made our way through customs to the waiting buses.  Unfortunately our driver dropped us off at the wrong terminal.  We walked most of the terminal before discovering we had to retrace our steps and catch a shuttle to our terminal.  We arrive to find our flight has been cancelled due to the aftermath of the hurricane.  Once we got our new flights organized, we went through security and entered the first restaurant we found.  It was 1pm.  Our plane to Toronto didn't leave until 6:30.  No meal was served as there was a lot of turbulence.  By the time we landed and walked to the gate, there was no time to stop and eat.  It was 11:00 when I finally had a sandwich but since I was nursing a cold, I really hadn't been that hungry.  We landed in Calgary and finally tumbled into bed at 3:30am our body's time.  Slowly crossing the Atlantic (it was fall back every day) made jet lag easier but it still took a week to get back to feeling normal.

If you want to see some photos of the Azores, click here.

Port of Call -- Vigo/Bayona La Real

The Royal Princess is not the fastest ship to ply the seas, averaging 20 knots (37 kph/23 mph), so we entered the English Channel the day after our Hamburg sailing.  It was after breakfast when I asked Glen if what I was seeing from our balcony were the famous White Cliffs of Dover (350 ft/110 m high) on the coast of Kent.  Sure enough they were!  I'd never seen them before so was very excited.  Glen had his binoculars out in minutes.  Being a clear day, we could see Dover Castle, founded in the 11th century and England's largest castle.  Its proximity to the coast of France meant it has always been a strategic fortification.  In the 1800s, a complex of barrack tunnels were constructed and these were used as an air-raid shelter/hospital in WWII.  It was also the headquarters for the military telephone exchange.  Looming nearby are the Swingate Transmitting Masts (364 ft/111 m) used as radar stations during the war to detect incoming aircraft.  Now they transmit microwaves.

On our next day at sea, we crossed the Bay of Biscay but we might as well have been in the middle of the ocean as there was no land in sight. Shipping traffic kept Glen close to his binoculars (from Canadian Tire and the best $200 we've ever spent) and spotted a Gannet flying near the ship.

The Royal Princess aside from being slow is a huge ship, 1083 ft/ 330 m long and can carry 3560 people. She was christened by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge, hence the 'royal' name.  Not every port can handle her so it took some time to find ones that could on our new itinerary.  Vigo, Spain stepped to the plate and the Princess tour staff scrambled to organize 8 tours of the area.  We attended a lecture on the area as we had no idea what to expect.  One tour was to Santiago de Compostela, the church with relics of the apostle, James and is one of the stops on the Pilgrims' route.  Our friend, Monica, had walked the Spanish portion of this pilgrimage (100 kms) so we felt taking a bus to the site was cheating.

Vigo is the largest city in the Galicia (northwest) area of Spain, close to the northern Portuguese border.  Its name means village (Vicus) in Latin but it was only recorded as a real village in the 15th century.  The Englishman, Francis Drake occupied it (1589) after he helped defeat the Spanish Armada (1588) and there is said to be ships in the harbour still bearing gold from the New World that Drake sank.  Another claim to fame is Jules Verne who used the harbour in his book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

We enjoyed the morning watching the comings and goings of the port, even spotting some dolphins cavorting in the harbour.  While having lunch, the Party Band played some great songs and kept us entertained.  It was a warm day in Spain and I began to regret not packing shorts (hey, I thought I'd be in the north Atlantic).

Our tour involved walking and wine (it was our theme after all).   First though our bus stopped at a church (Capela Da Guia).  Perched on La Guia Hill, it offered great views of Vigo and its port.   Then it was off to Bayona La Real (sometimes written Baiona).  This tourist town was founded in 140 BC and throughout its history was either Spanish or Portuguese.  The Old Town is dominated by Monterreal Castle built in the 16th century.  Nowadays, it's a tourist attraction and our destination.    the Hotel Parador Conde De Gondomar is part of the castle complex which offers incredible view of the bay and its islands.  Paradores are luxury accommodations created in castles, monasteries, and fortresses throughout Spain.

It was a warm, sunny day so our local wine and tapas were served on a terrace of the hotel.  Each region of Spain has its own version of tapas and Bayona is no different.  The word 'tapas' actually means 'to cover' and a theory is it began as a piece of bread one put on top of a glass of sweet wine to keep the fruit flies away.  Bartenders then used salty meat to cover the wine which encouraged patrons to drink more.  However, there seems to be many stories on how tapas began but suffice to say they usually have salty meat, olives, seafood or cheese.  There were also sweet versions in Bayona which attracted Glen's attention.

Not everyone on our bus was up for a walking tour so those who were followed our guide down into the town.  We walked passed Chapel to our Lady of the Garden and saw Belladonna flowers.  These are sometimes called Naked-Lady Lilies as they don't have leaves.  Our tour wound through the grounds of Monterreal Castle and down to the beach.  A same-sized replica of La Pinta (see photo), Christopher Columbus' ship sat in the harbour and we learned the real one arrived March 1st, 1493 with the news he had found the New World.   There is a commemorative plaque and the actual anchor from La Pinta on display nearby.

Modern houses and flats surround the old town because Bayona attracts many summer visitors --  the population increases from about 10, 000 to 50,000.  The main street is modern with shops and restaurants but walk a block away from the beach and you're next to buildings that are centuries old.  The Convent of the Dominicans (built in 1547) still has nuns who have taken a vow of silence.  On the next street is the Misericordia Chapel which has a crucifix the Spanish used to smuggle gold from the New World.  They reasoned pirates would never desecrate it and I guess, pirates do have a code of honour as it was left intact.

Our tour ended at the Town Hall and our guide said we were on our own.  Glen and I wandered along the beach wall and returned to the bus.  Glen wanted to watch us leave port so we ate supper on the pool deck after sampling what the buffet had to offer.  The sunset was spectacular.  A
fter attempting to take photos through the glass, I ran downstairs to our cabin and got better shots from our balcony.  Must say the tropical sun makes for very dramatic photos.

To see these, you can view my Vigo album here.

Port of Call -- Hamburg/Lubeck

When we awoke on September 13th, we were docked in Hamburg, Germany.  Our tour didn't leave until after lunch but we decided to stay on board rather than venture out into the busy port.  It would have been Glen's mom's 101th birthday so we thought of her and how she loved to travel.  In later years, she and Jim (and Aunty Pearl) cruised on Princess ships and I think she was with us on this trip.

Hamburg is Europe's second largest port and lies on the Elbe River and its two tributaries, the Alster and Bille Rivers.  Officially, it's called Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and was a free imperial city-state of the Holy Roman Empire in the middle ages. It continued to be a sovereign state until unification in 1871.  During World War II, it was heavily bombed so most of the buildings within sight of the ship were modern.  The most impressive was the new concert hall called the Elbphilharmonie.

After the war, it became a state in the Federal Republic of Germany and in the early sixties launched a group called The Beatles.

Germany and beer go hand-in-hand so we chose to take a tour of a brewery.  It also involved a walking tour of the town of Lübeck.  Again we were warned it would not be an easy walk.  Despite this, a woman complained she didn't know it would be so hard.  Glen used his cane for stability on the cobblestones but other than that, he was fine.

Like Hamburg, Lübeck was part of the Hanseatic League (confederation of merchant guilds) and an important port on the Trave River (flows into the Baltic Sea).  The town is now famous for its Brick Gothic architecture (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and the first taste of this unique building style was the Holstentor or city gate (see photo).  Lübeck is in the state of Schleswig-Holstein which gives the gate its name and to the famous dairy cattle, Holsteins.  Built in1464, the gate protected the river from invasion, apparently mostly Danes.

Our guide, Stephanie, used a walkie-talkie system to tell us about the town.  If you wandered too far from her, the receiver around your neck cut out.  I learned this first hand when photographing the Holstentor.  I got involved in my efforts to capture its grandeur and began following the wrong people into a shopping complex.  Fortunately, I lost contact with Stephanie so retracted my steps.  The group, including Glen, had crossed the street whereas I had not.  Glen said he panicked a bit until he saw me returning.

In the middle ages, the town was known for its salted fish.  On one bank of the Trave River were the brick salt warehouses.  The workers, mostly women, would gut the fish and toss the entrails into the river.  This meant the place stank and the water undrinkable.  No one worried about that since everyone drank beer!  My kind of town!  There were different types of beer and children drank one that was 0.5% alcohol.

Talk of beer made us thirsty so Stephanie took us to the only surviving brewery (Brau Berger) of the middle ages (about 140 breweries dotted the town at that time).  Brau Berger was opened in 1989 by Harald Berger who wanted to brew a middle ages style beer, Zwickelbier which is unpasteurized and brewed in barrels.  The cellar vault in which we consumed the drink was built in 1225 and is the oldest in Lübeck.  Thomas Rosenhahn is now the brewmaster and with the help of another brewery, produced a flight of beers for us.  We tasted them all and also enjoyed a delicious pretzel.

To walk off the effects of the beer, we meandered through the streets of the town learning about its unique architecture.  Most buildings were made of brick as fire was a constant threat in the middle ages.  As families grew more prosperous, they would cover the brick with stucco or plaster in lovely pastel shades.  Houses were also built in backyards and tiny alleys ran between these small homes.

The prime example of Brick Gothic construction in Lübeck is St. Mary's church built between 1250 and 1350.  It is said the devil thought the townsfolk were building a wine bar and they didn't dissuade him of that idea.  He helped as best he could as he found wine bars good for harvesting souls.  When he discovered they were really building a church, he was not pleased until the townsfolk promised to build a wine bar across the street in the town hall.  Which they did.

Inside the church, vaults are the tallest brick ones in the world, the central nave being 38.5 m (126 ft) high.  The brick is painted white with wonderful floral motifs.  During WWII, it was almost completely destroyed by fire and several great works were lost including the Totentanzorgel (organ) probably played by J. S. Bach and the Dance Macabre paintings.  Due to its destruction during the war, St Mary's is one of the Cross of Nails centres.  A Cross of Nails is made from three nails of the roof truss of Coventry, England's St. Michael's Cathedral destroyed by the Nazis in WWII.   It is a symbol of peace and reconciliation given to churches damaged during the war.   Next to the cross in St. Mary's lies the church bell which fell from the tower during the fire and was left in situ.

After a quick march through the Market Square two sides of which are the town hall, we arrived at what makes Lübeck famous today--Marzipan, a confection made of sugar and ground almonds usually molded into different shapes.  Lübeck claims to have invented marzipan when the town was under siege and the only food left was sugar and almonds.  The most famous store, Niederegger, was founded in 1806 and their logo features the Holstentor.  Lübeck marzipan is supposed to have less sugar than other varieties.

We had a half hour to ourselves so Glen and I went to the Market Square.  We sat enjoying the passing scene until it was time to catch the bus.  At this point, it was obvious we would miss our dinner reservation time at Sabatini's restaurant onboard the ship.  Back at our cabin, we did a quick change before heading down to supper.   It was at this time, the captain announced our travel plans had changed and due to a hurricane along the east coast of the US and a storm over Belfast, we would take the mid-Atlantic route across to New York City, our final destination.  He also mentioned we wouldn't be leaving on time as the train from Berlin bearing over 100 Princess passengers had broken down.  Good to know Princess waits for those on tour who have problems.

They are also forgiving of those who miss their dinner reservations.  AMA had paid for the reservations ($30/person) so we had no choice of which time or day.  We arrived at Sabatini's one hour late.  Alexandro was very understanding when we said our tour was late and found us a lovely table by the window.  Unfortunately, instead of watching Germany slip by while we ate, we watched the buses from Berlin arrive at the terminal.  The food was excellent, though and our server Yuriy from the Ukraine, amazing.

After our meal we sat on the balcony and watched the ship sail down the Elbe River and out into the North Sea, heading west back into the English Channel instead of north to Norway.

To view photos of this excursion, go here.

Port of Call -- Rotterdam/Gouda

We departed Southampton docks at 5 and headed out into the English Channel (biggest shipping area in the world).  After zigzagging across the Channel during the night, we arrived in Rotterdam, Netherlands just as we ate breakfast.  The harbour is long so we spent a couple of hours on our balcony watching the passing scene.

Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, began in 1270 when the Rotte river was dammed (hence the name).  The city now spans the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt river delta and is the second largest city in the Netherlands.  It was heavy bombed by the Nazis during World War II so much of the architecture is new and exciting.  Most of the city is built behind dikes and is below sea level.  We passed the lowest point of 6.76 m (22 ft) on our bus tour.  It was neat seeing the North Sea flowing above our heads.

The Royal Princess pulled alongside the old Holland America Quay, now known as the Cruise Terminal Rotterdam.  Many immigrants left Europe via this pier on their journey to make new lives for themselves.  The terminal now welcomes about 20 cruise ships a year.

I booked all our tours before we left Canada so when we got to our cabin, we had an envelop containing our tour tickets.  It also told us where to meet our groups.  Princess has organizing shore excursions down to fine art and we were given a coloured sticker and number (Yellow 3) in one of the dining rooms.  We boarded the Yellow 3 bus and were on our way.  We had two criteria for our tours.  One, walking must be involved and two, there had to be drinking and or eating.  Along the way we hoped to glean some neat facts and take lots of photos.  The tour in the Netherlands we chose was to Gouda (pronounced How-da with a guttural H) and of course, involved cheese tasting.  It was billed as a strenuous walk and limited to 40 people. Turns out Princess tours' idea of strenuous and ours are two different things.

We began by viewing the ship from a local park so we could take a photo then the driver wound his way through Rotterdam while our guide, Stephanie, pointed out the sites.  Then we traveled along a dike road through the countryside.  Our guide was amazed our driver took this route and at times, it was scary looking out the window down into farmers' fields.  The fields were laid out with canals running between them which reminded me of photos I'd seen of Canadian soldiers in WWII slogging through soggy fields driving the Nazis out of Holland.

Gouda is a delightful town known mainly for its cheese.  It also makes those long clay pipes you see in old paintings and lovely candles.  Our guide insisted we try some stroopwafel, a local sweet made of two waffles with a caramel syrup in between.  Very tasty.   Another claim to fame is the longest church (123 m or 404 ft) in the Netherlands, Sint Janskerk, known for its stained glass windows.

Our guide led us along the town's cobbled streets, past the church, and into the town square.  It is dominated by a Gothic city hall (built between 1448 and 1450).  Around 1100, the town was a marshland next to the Gouwe River and the townsfolk harvested peat.  A canal connecting it to the Old Rhine river transformed Gouda into a trading town.  Several great fires and devastating plagues affected the town's economy and the term Goudaner became synonymous with beggar.

Behind the city hall is the market where cheese was and still is, traded (every Thursday).  Ironically, Gouda cheese is not made in the town but the cheese is traded there and must pass strict quality controls.  Across from the market is the Waag or weigh house.  Built in 1667, it was used to weigh goods (mostly cheese) so the local lord could levy taxes.  Inside is a cheese museum and Stephanie led us upstairs for a cheese tasting.  We were given samples (big chunks) of four different ages of Gouda cheese and wine.  From what I have told you, you should know that Gouda is not famous for its wine.  For good reason, it was pretty rough.  The fact there were glasses of wine leftover tells the tale.  After a local volunteer told us all about the cheese industry in the area, we were given free time.

Both Glen and I wanted to see Sint Janskerk's famous stained glass windows as they are on the UNESCO list of Dutch monuments.  The church is dedicated to John the Baptist, the patron saint of Gouda.  During Reformation, it was plundered but the windows were left intact.  In 1573, the Gouda city council prohibited the practice of Roman Catholicism so it became a Protestant Dutch Reformed church as it is today.  In 1939, the windows were removed which saved them from destruction during WWII.

The church entrance is a glass room which we thought sold souvenirs and the famous Gouda candles.  As we tried to enter the church, a man yelled something that sounded like "cash".  How embarrassing--we didn't know we had to pay to enter (about 7 euros each).  The man then provided us with headsets and a recorded description of what we were seeing.  I soon dispensed with mine as I wanted to take photos and we didn't have time to linger.

Our driver took the ring road back to the ship which was much faster.  We boarded minutes before everyone was supposed to be back.  I had been worried we might miss the sailing but Princess does wait for her own tour buses to return.


To see photos of our Gouda tour, go here.

Retirement Cruise-Crossing the Atlantic

After doing our 45th anniversary cruise last year (see North to Alaska!) on the Island Princess, we decided to celebrate Glen's retirement with another cruise.  The Princess cruise line had treated us so well, we used them again.  I let Glen choose the cruise although we both decided we wanted to spend more than 7 days on the ship, the shower had to be bigger to accommodate Glen's height, and there would be more days at sea.  When Glen was younger his family made 3 crossings of the North Atlantic to visit family in England.  He wanted to even that number and do the crossing from England to North America.

So last October, we returned to our AMA travel agent, Sylvia and told her to book the Norway & Atlantic Passage cruise, aboard the Royal Princess.  It was to depart September 10th and Glen was to retire September 1st so perfect timing.  It seemed a long way off but as everyone knows, time flies when you're having fun.

Our journey began with a flight to London's Gatwick airport via WestJet.  It was a 9 hour flight with us landing at 10:30 Sunday morning.  We had to make our way from the North Terminal to the South but a train made the journey an easy one.  We stayed at the Hilton hotel and they let us check in right away.  After a nap, we explored the terminal to find where we'd meet the Princess bus the next day.  Who knew there are two WH Smith stores (one outside, one inside) in the terminal?

I had organized a rendezvous with Glen's cousins to take place Sunday afternoon in the hotel lobby.  We were enjoying a beer ( Old Speckled Hen, first brewed on the 50th anniversary of the MG car factory [1979] and named for the car that workers used to get around in [covered with specks of paint]) in the hotel lobby when Denise and Betty arrived.  It was so good to see them!  I hadn't spoken to them in 40 years although Glen had often touched base during his work-related travels to Europe.  We had a lovely dinner together in the hotel restaurant then said our goodbyes.  We were feeling the affects of jet lag and went to bed early.

We met the Princess people (the WH Smith inside the terminal) the next morning for the transfer to Southampton, the port from which the cruise ship departed.  It was a long bus ride but we met a guy from Ottawa called Don so passed the time talking with him.  Turns out he has a YouTube business featuring cruising tips called Don's Family Vacations.  He has done oodles of cruises so had some interesting stories.

AMA gave us a voucher so we could do the express check-in at dockside.  They processed us quickly and we received our cruise cards which function as a room key and a credit card.  They also gave us a number, 34, and told us to sit in the terminal and wait to be called.  Elite cruisers boarded first then they began calling numbers beginning with 20.  Boarding halted at 22 when the gangway connection broke.  Turns out the tide was extremely high and the gangway wasn't designed for that.  I figured we'd have a later lunch on board so bought some eccles cakes at the snack shop to tide us over.  The gangway was fixed and more numbers called, then it broke again.  Finally, 34 was called but by the time we reached the end of the gangway, they gave up fixing it.  Everyone then boarded through the service gangway.  It took 3 hours for us to get to our stateroom.  Jet lag didn't help our mood but our spirits lifted when we entered our cabin.  The mini-suite was lovely with a normal sized bathroom so Glen was happy.  While I unpacked, he watched, form our balcony, the ship leave Southhampton for Rotterdam.  We then had a much deserved beer in the Wheelhouse bar and met our to-be favourite server, Pranit from Nepal.

We didn't stay up too late as we would be doing a tour the next day and jet lag got the better of us--such party animals!!

The cruise we had signed up for involved stopping in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Hamburg, Germany, Bergen, Norway, Belfast, N. Ireland, St John's, Newfoundland, and New York.  As you can guess, there were to be many days at sea.  However, we didn't get beyond Hamburg when plans changed.  The meeting of hurricane Florence and a storm over Belfast meant dangerous seas for crossing the Atlantic so the captain decided to go south instead.  Who said cruising was boring?

I'll describe our ports of call in subsequent posts but thought I'd give you an overview of our days at sea.  Because Glen could walk this time, we decided to climb the stairs most days.  The Royal Princess has 16 decks (#13 doesn't exist) and busy elevators so being willing to do the stairs saved time.  It also burned off the extra calories!  My Fitbit had problems with the ship's roll and one day recorded that I had climbed 75 flights of stairs.  There was no way I did that!  And yet, even though we ate and drank every day, I didn't gain any weight.

Every morning after a buffet breakfast, we did a 30 minute walk.  Sometimes this was on the jogging track; sometimes on the pool deck.  Unlike the Island Princess, the promenade deck was only open when the boat was docked.  Usually there was an enrichment talk at 10 which we attended.  Topics ranged from ocean facts to the evolution of navigational instruments.  Then we'd head to the pool deck for pre-lunch beer.  Lunch was often from the buffet or the fast food places nearby (pizza and burgers).  After lunch, Glen would have a nap or we would listen to an audiobook in our cabin.  The couch made the room a great place to relax.  Then it was off to the Wheelhouse bar for pre-dinner drinks.  There were two dining rooms open for anytime dining as well as two specialty restaurants where you made reservations (Crown Grill and Sabatini's).   After supper, we either went to a show (the comedian and magician we saw were both Canadian) or watched a movie.

Partway through our crossing of the mid-Atlantic, Glen came down with a cold so it was nice we had a comfy cabin where he could rest.  He wasn't the only one coughing.  Unfortunately, a couple of people had their holiday cut short because of a medical issue.  We witnessed a woman being taken out on a stretcher in Vigo, Spain and then a day out of New York, the US Coast Guard did a medical evacuation of another woman.  Apparently she required treatment only a hospital could provide.  Obviously Princess handled these situations professionally.

I couldn't bring enough clothes in one small and one large suitcase so I often did a laundry in our bathroom sink.  I had brought liquid detergent and clothes pegs and used these to great advantage.  Unlike the dry prairies, air-drying on a ship takes time.  I did discover a small laundry room on our deck but had no wish to spend my day watching a machine wash my clothes.  Another option was to have the ship's crew clean our clothes but I saved at least $150 by doing it by hand.

The ship had a huge casino with machines and gaming tables.  We played VideoPoker a few times and lost so there was no real incentive to return.  The thing I did appreciate was most of the machines were non-smoking.  For those who like games, there were several trivia games every day and the library was well-stocked with board games and playing cards.  The Zumba teacher also gave dance lessons and every night there were folks dancing in the Piazza.  Not Glen or I as his hip is still not up to that.  There were two rock bands (mostly oldies), a string trio, pianist, and an Irish folk singer so every evening was filled with music.

There were three formal nights and roaming photographers snapped shots of people all gussied up.  Some were in tuxes and evening gowns but Glen was not out of place wearing his sports jacket.  Those nights we always ate in the dining room as they often had special dishes and Glen knows the final formal night means baked Alaska for dessert (Princess tradition).  I ate lobster tail three times but only in the specialty restaurants.  One night we signed up for a Tuscan food/wine tasting which was excellent.  They knew Glen was celebrating his retirement so brought out a nice chocolate cake at the end.  On our final sea day, we did a tour of the galley and the chef had created a display of 140 potato dishes.

To see my photos of our time at sea, click here