The explorations café is loaded with games. Suzi, our friends John and Pam, and I play Mexican Train Dominos. There were 6 sets. (Our set is who knows where but not here, we may find it in Hawaii). We picked … Continue reading Counting Dominos, Too Much Fun!
It’s not Déjà vu, it’s a little different from that. We’re sailing on our third R class Holland America Ship, Zaandam. All R classes have nearly identical floor plans but different decors, and with each going into dry dock at … Continue reading A Different but Familiar Universe.
And they’ll all want lifts to Brown’s Hotel ‘Cause some of them’s been travelin’ for quite a spell. All the way from Phil-a-del-fi-a (sic)NB On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe The San Diego Santa Fe railway station is … Continue reading San Diego Sidebars
My homeport is Sitka but Holland America considers three Pacific cities to be it’s homeports, Seattle (company HQ), Vancouver and San Diego Koningsdam, Niew Amsterdam and Zaandam are currently homeporting in San Diego, but with Zaandam being gone for 93 … Continue reading Homeport San Diego
I’m always nervous before traveling. I don’t relax until the plane rotates on takeoff and I watch Sitka glide by, catch a glimpse of my house, and fly into the mystic, the clouds that sometimes make Southeast Alaska Communities feel … Continue reading Into the Mystic
Our little red sutcase seems to have enjoyed its travels last cruise because it has convinced the rest of our baggage to go walkabout with it. FedEx, Contracted by Luggage Forward, picked up our bags on December 16th. According to … Continue reading Prayers to St. Anthony
We took our first long cruise 10 years ago. We had been on cruises before our kids were born back in the 70s. In the 90s, after Pop died, Suzi and I took Mom on a couple of cruises. But … Continue reading The Beautiful and Elegant… A Coda
Saturday morning, I stepped onto the stateroom balcony for the last time and saw two huge ships as we docked in Fort Lauderdale, a Princess and a Disney. I didn’t get much sleep on Friday night. We were up packing … Continue reading It Always Ends With the Milk Run
Back in the ‘90s after Pop died, we went on a couple of cruises with Mom. They had enjoyed cruising on Sagafjord and Vistafjord and we continued that tradition. On one cruise Mom got her Cunard 100 night pin. She … Continue reading Grannies’ Court of Honor
I had only technically been in Boston before this trip. I’ve connected through the airport and changed trains at the station. That was it. I don’t know much about Boston past Revolutionary War History with three exceptions, the green monster, … Continue reading Duck Boat, Swan Boat. Boston.
I first met Bud Stiker in1998 at a European broadcasters’ meeting in Madrid. Bud helped invent commercial broadcasting in Eastern Europe at Juventus Radio in Budapest. He understood radio sales and the oddities of post-Communist Central Europe. I wanted him … Continue reading Visiting Bud in Portland, Maine
St John’s, the Capital of Newfoundland, has two cathedrals named for St. John the Baptist. One is a Catholic Cathedral that serves the city’s mostly Irish population, the other is an Anglican Cathedral. St. John’s has a large Irish population. … Continue reading Two St. Johns in St. John’s
When most people think of the Norse ships from millennium ago they think of the Viking longship. But the backbone of Norse trade was the knarr, a freighter about 54 feet long. Knarr isn’t sleek, it’s broad and looks kind … Continue reading Norse Not Vikings.
L’Anse Meadows, Newfoundland. The first tour I booked for this cruise was to L’Anse aux Meadows outside St. Anthony, Newfoundland. For years people speculated that the Norse had landed in and explored North America. It was written about in the … Continue reading Looking for the Norse and Finding Celts.
One of the beloved cruise traditions is animals made of towels and washcloths appearing on your bed, sofa, chair or hanging from a hanger every night. When I first encountered it it delighted me and still does. Since the pandemic … Continue reading Carnival of The Animals
Halifax has a lot to see and do but I didn’t do much of it, this time. Fortunately, we were there on vacation a few years ago. On that trip I got caught in probably the largest non-urban traffic jam … Continue reading I Didn’t Get Very Far in Halifax
Saint-Pierre et Miquelon are an island group at the southern end of Newfoundland. They are a remnant of a French North American empire that included much of Newfoundland, Quebec, the Canadian Maritimes (then called Acadia), The Great Lakes (what is … Continue reading A Geopolitical Anomaly, Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
We have a week left on this cruise and things started wrapping up a week ago. A week ago, we got a letter from Holland to choose a disembarkation time and pick up corresponding luggage tags, two weeks before the … Continue reading The End is Neigh.
…Become Ocean! John Luther Adams, a composer who lived in Alaska most of his composing life, wrote a symphonic tone poem “Become Ocean” for the Seattle Symphony. It is about the melting glaciers in Alaska and the icecap in Greenland … Continue reading Iceberg Alley
I love it when I can correct my first grade teacher, Mrs. King, even if it is almost three quarters of a century later. There ARE “Qs” not followed by “Us”. As in Qaqortoq, a city in Greenland. Mrs. King, … Continue reading No “U”after “Q” ?, Qaqortoq
When Suzi and I first visited Iceland more than half a century ago there were no trees. It was heathland. Not barren, just treeless. Icelanders told us that in the 9th century, when settlers first arrived, the island had about … Continue reading The Mother of All Parliaments. Þingvellir, Iceland
We made it to Paamuit, Greenland, but in Ringo’s words, “It don’t come easy.” In past posts you got the story of our encounters with ice, hurricane force winds and 23 foot seas, our cancelation of one port and reordering … Continue reading It Don’t Come Easy, Paamiut, Greenland
…toil and trouble. Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble. Hveragerdi Village has been an exurb of Reykjavik since the late 1920s. It’s close to thermal springs and it became home for people who did not need to go into the capital … Continue reading Bubble, Bubble…
Last night all the elevators homed in on the lower promenade deck, deck three. They do that when the ship lists more than 5 degrees. Then Captain Paul Adams came on the PA system. We were watching the film “Wicked,” … Continue reading Course Correction