Athens is where our cruise ends, our final port of call with a 6 night port stay, at least for for most of us. For Kevin, Shannon, and Elias, a 4 night port call. The Grandkids are into Rick Riordan … Continue reading Our Final Port of Call, Athens
My experience living in Montenegro is that sometimes things don’t work. We got off the ship and the van I booked to take all nine of us to the Lovćen cable car was not waiting. I texted and called. It … Continue reading Flying Low in a Cable Car.
In my last post I referred to our retreat from Kotor before the NATO bombing campaign. From 1998 to 2004 we spent part of our summers in Kotor either running or teaching at a journalism summer school that had attendees … Continue reading Summer Memories, Kotor
Tuesday was another sea day where Brian, Liam and Fiona were recovering. Liam went into quarantine while we were in Rome. Both Fiona and Brian were out of quarantine Tuesday. On Wednesday we arrived in Bari, Italy at 11 AM. … Continue reading Bari, Pasta Town
Our next stop on this cruise was Civitavecchia, the port for Rome. Rome is a bit far from the post, up to 90 minutes with traffic. Kevin, Shannon and Elias went into Rome and took the hop on hop off … Continue reading We Pass on the Vatican so Lightning Strikes.
Had Napoleon been born any earlier he would have been Italian and not French. Napoleon was born in Ajaccio, Corsica’s capital, in 1769. Corsica had been ruled by the Italian state of Genoa from 1284 to 1755 when it became … Continue reading Corsica, Can We Claim a New Country?
We are in Barcelona for two days. On day on Kevin, Shannon, Elias and Fiona went to the beach. Brian and Liam stayed on the ship. The pace of their travel around the world caught up with them. Suzi, Liz … Continue reading Barcelona Walkabout
The Nasrid Palaces where the center of power for the Granada Emirate. They are designed around rectangular interior courtyards and flowing water. The decoration looks inward rather than outward, and is made of stucco, and stonework. The courtyards are surrounded … Continue reading The Nasrid Palaces at the Alhambra
There are good ships. there are wood ships, There are ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are friendships, And May they always be. Holland America’s Mariner Society appropriated that old Irish toast substituting “dam” for “friend.” And … Continue reading Coda, A Dam Good Voyage.
It started too early in the morning and didn’t really end for two days. I set the alarm for 6 AM after being up watching the last World Stage Company show featuring the team leader Florance and then finished packing. … Continue reading The Journey Home
Just as we were running out of time the pace on the ship picked up. We had six sea days between Nuka Hiva and San Diego. We needed those six days to sort what we wanted to throw and what … Continue reading Frenzied, Fun Filled Finale
I was surprised and delighted when I entered our room after our first dinner on our first night of our first Holland America Grand Voyage in 2015. Sitting on the bed was a cute little animal made from towels and … Continue reading A Delightful Tradition
Holland America has always been a cruise line with great music but they have stepped up their game for this grand voyage. My favorite improvement over recent cruises is the reintroduction of the Zaandam show band. Guest performers are playing … Continue reading Music On Zaandam
Everyone on the cruise is calling it Project Linus, after the Peanuts character who was never without his blanket, but it isn’t. It’s been a tradition on Holland America World Cruises for cruisers to knit or crochet blankets for hospitalized … Continue reading Project Linus by Any Other Name.
Music is the decorative theme of Zandaam. The walls are lined with musical memorabilia, an eclectic Hard Rock Café. Like Hard Rock there are guitars autographed by rock stars like Iggy Pop and Freddy Mercury, and others with illegible signatures. … Continue reading Musical Zaandam
The final sail out of a cruise seems like a forced celebration. We had a great time and now it is over. In the past we have had two or three sea days between the final sail out from San … Continue reading The Final Sail Out
The Taipivai Drive is a tour I’ve wanted to take for 8 years. It is the only tour offered by Holland America Lines on the island of Nuka Hiva in the Marquéses Islands. The tour is organized by residents with … Continue reading Final Port of Call, Nuka Hiva
I’ve written a lot about the ports of call this trip but not nearly as much as I usually do about life at sea on this Grand Holland America voyage. Usually during a cruise, I have more posts than days … Continue reading Virtual Food Trucks
We have one more port and six sea days after that left in this cruise. In other words, a whole seven day cruise ahead of us. Yet today we got our disembarkation letter, we have to select our time to … Continue reading Claiming the Moment, Sailor’s Delight
Unlike the other French Polynesian Islands we visited on this cruise, Fakarava is flat, no mountains, just a long skinny, roughly rectangular island, think of it as a picture frame, 37 miles long and 13 miles wide around a deep … Continue reading Fakarava, The Penultimate Port
Some mornings I wake up with a terrible earworm. Elvis Presley singing “All Shook Up.” When that happens, the only cure is an Elvis sandwich for breakfast. This has happened four times on this cruise so far. It happened Saturday, … Continue reading In Praise of Elvis.
I had been looking forward to our stop at Raiatea. The last time I was here was a two day stop. We had originally been scheduled in Raiatea for one day and for a stop at Bora Bora the next. … Continue reading Vanilla and Fish
When I looked out my balcony this morning, anchored in Cook’s Bay Mo’orea, I saw the pointed peak of the mountain and thought, the same thing I thought the first time I was here, “OMG I have dropped into the … Continue reading OMG! It’s Bali Hi. Mo’orea.
On Tuesday we became “sticker people” taking a Holland America tour “Tahiti’s Natural Wonders.” About halfway through I was asking myself “why?” feeling that I had made a mistake booking this. Our first stop was at Venus Point where Captain … Continue reading Tahiti Without COVID