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Postcards from the Transition

Postcards from the Transition.

  • Topics
    • Winds of Change
      • Winds of Change, Africa
      • The Fall of the Wall
      • Velvet Revolution
      • Arab Spring
      • Balkan Turmoil
      • 9/11
      • Soviet Union
    • Christmas Markets
    • Lent and Easter
    • Holy Land
    • Pillars of Hercules
    • Architecture
      • Boardwalk Towns
      • Bridges
      • Castles
      • Religious
    • Transportation
      • Trains
      • Ferries
  • Europe
    • Balkans
      • Albania
      • Bosnia and Herzegovina
      • Bulgaria
      • Croatia
      • Kosovo
      • Macedonia
      • Montenegro
      • Serbia
      • Turkey
    • Central Europe
      • Czech Republic
      • Hungary
      • Poland
      • Slovakia
    • Southern Europe
      • Gibraltar
      • Malta
      • Spain
    • Northern Europe
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      • Iceland and Faroes
      • Isle of Man
      • Baltic States
    • Western Europe
      • Belgium
      • Germany
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  • Africa
    • Kenya
    • South Sudan
    • Tanzania
  • Caucasus
    • Armenia
    • Azerbaijan
    • Georgia
  • MENA
    • Ceuta (Spain)
    • Egypt
    • Israel
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    • Morocco
    • Oman
    • Qatar
    • Palestine
    • United Arab Emirates
  • N. America
    • Canada
    • Contiguous US
    • Cuba
    • Greenland
  • S. America
  • Alaska
    • Sitka
    • South Central Alaska
    • South East Alaska
  • Cruises
    • Iceland, Greenland & Scotland 2017

Tag: MS Amsterdam 2018 Grand World Voyage

2025 Pole to Pole, CruisesLeave a comment

Swimming in Power Plant Effluent…

May 24, 2025May 24, 2025 Rich McClear

…and drinking Krap.  Okey, most people call it the swimming in the Blue Lagoon but it reality they are swimming in the wastewater from a power plant. And Krap?  That’s the name of Iceland’s favorite blueberry slushy sold at the … Continue reading Swimming in Power Plant Effluent…

2025 Pole to Pole, Cruises1 Comment

Tankurinn, It’s not what you may think.

May 18, 2025May 18, 2025 Rich McClear

Djupivogur, Iceland has decided to slow down.  Its four hundred residents have opted to join the Cittaslow movement.  Cittaslow started in Italy and grew out of the slow food movement.  Membership is open to towns of under 50,000.  The goals … Continue reading Tankurinn, It’s not what you may think.

2025 Pole to Pole, CruisesLeave a comment

St. Nicholas Church, Ghent

May 7, 2025May 7, 2025 Rich McClear

Ghent has three large churches almost in a row. Each one of them is grand enough to be a cathedral, but two are parish churches that look like cathedrals. Gothic Ghent had the mega church figured out before the U.S. … Continue reading St. Nicholas Church, Ghent

2025 Pole to Pole, Cruises3 Comments

Ship Day, Shore Day, Cherbourg

May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 Rich McClear

In an earlier post I talked about “ship days.” Days that we are in a port but choose not to go ashore. This last couple of weeks has been intensive. As I write this leaving the Netherlands we have had … Continue reading Ship Day, Shore Day, Cherbourg

2025 Pole to Pole, CruisesLeave a comment

Celtic France, Brest

May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 Rich McClear

Asterix and Obelix are French comic book characters, Celts, who resisted Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. When I was reading these comics to my kids, I assumed that the Celts in Brittany, a peninsula at the western edge of France, were … Continue reading Celtic France, Brest

2025 Pole to Pole, Cruises2 Comments

A Beautiful Way to Catch a Train, Porto

May 4, 2025May 4, 2025 Rich McClear

Perhaps the rain was an omen. The weather on this cruise has been great but Wednesday we had overcast skies and rain, sometimes heavy. The ship docked at Leixeos, the port for Porto. Holland America ran a shuttle to Natosinhos, … Continue reading A Beautiful Way to Catch a Train, Porto

Christmas, Christmas Markets, SitkaLeave a comment

2024 Sitka Counseling Christmas Bazaar

November 30, 2024November 30, 2024 Rich McClear

Today we celebrated the 42nd Sitka counseling Christmas Bazaar. It was a clear and cold day. I don’t think I have ever had as much problem finding a parking place as I have today. That means having to walk about … Continue reading 2024 Sitka Counseling Christmas Bazaar

Cruises, M.S. Amsterdam 2020 World Cruise, S. AmericaLeave a comment

Graveyard for Ships

January 28, 2020January 28, 2020 Rich McClear

January 25, 2020, Montevideo, Uruguay Just before sail out I looked to the Stern of Amsterdam and saw some ships over on their sides.  I was thinking I didn’t think the tide range was that big in the River Platt.  … Continue reading Graveyard for Ships

Cruises, M.S. Amsterdam 2020 World Cruise, S. America1 Comment

Life on the Amazon, Belem Brazil

January 14, 2020January 14, 2020 Rich McClear

This is the second post from Belem, it is a continuation of the last post Delta Town, Belem Brazil. The first set of pictures are of boats on the river. This next gallery of photos is from our drive to … Continue reading Life on the Amazon, Belem Brazil

Cruises2 Comments

Cruise Blogs.

December 1, 2018January 25, 2025 Rich McClear

“Will this be the ship that carries me away?”  It’s a question my grandfather asked himself as a boy in Ireland.  An uncle had sailed away to America.  He earned enough to afford to return home, cabin passage, on fine … Continue reading Cruise Blogs.

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 20188 Comments

Coda – Around the World at 19 Miles an Hour…*

May 5, 2018May 5, 2018 Rich McClear

Actually it was a little less than 19 miles an hour, 18.9 mph or 16.4 knots as I reckon it.  Nineteen miles an hour seems like a leisurely pace to circle the planet.  But on a human scale it’s really … Continue reading Coda – Around the World at 19 Miles an Hour…*

UncategorizedLeave a comment

S#it Happens — Re-entry

May 3, 2018May 3, 2018 Rich McClear

We were upgraded to first class on flight 67, Alaska Airline’s “milk run” up the coast to home.  It seems like we knew every 4th person passing us getting on the plane.  We had early boarding because Suzi broke her … Continue reading S#it Happens — Re-entry

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 20183 Comments

A Whirlwind Finish

April 27, 2018April 27, 2018 Rich McClear

We’ve almost completed our circuit of the earth at the stately speed of 19 knots.  Holland America has done most things right on this cruise but I think they overplayed the ending.  In the last days we wanted to have … Continue reading A Whirlwind Finish

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 20183 Comments

Sunrise, Sunset, Sailout

April 27, 2018 Rich McClear

We sailed in just at sunrise.  At sunset I was on the deck because I thought it was a good perch.  Four hours after sunset we sailed out.  It is our last sail out of the cruise, beautiful and, in … Continue reading Sunrise, Sunset, Sailout

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 2018Leave a comment

Fortified San Juan.

April 27, 2018April 27, 2018 Rich McClear

San Juan was a walled city that spilled out past its walls that were anchored by two forts, Fort Christóbal and El Murro, the oldest Spanish fort in the Americas.  In 1898 the US Navy bombarded these walls and breached … Continue reading Fortified San Juan.

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 2018Leave a comment

Crowd Sourcing Help Please — San Juan.

April 26, 2018April 26, 2018 Rich McClear

No matter who we spoke with in San Juan, a driver, a shop keeper, the receptionist in City Hall where we went for directions, Hurricane’s Maria and Irma were not far from anyone’s mind or lips.  We saw damage from … Continue reading Crowd Sourcing Help Please — San Juan.

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 20182 Comments

My Understanding of Stuff

April 24, 2018April 26, 2018 Rich McClear

We’ve crossed into our 24th time zone, Atlantic Standard Time (or Eastern Daylight Time.) While we have one more port before Fort Lauderdale people are packing.  Many are already packed.  We are putting that off until the last minute.  I’m … Continue reading My Understanding of Stuff

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 2018Leave a comment

Amsterdam Art 202 (Sailing Ship Figureheads to Surrealistic Swiss Army Knives)

April 22, 2018January 3, 2021 Rich McClear

Today we entered our 23rd time zone, one more to go.  It’s a sea day and I wanted to continue to write about art on the Amsterdam.  In Art 101 I described some of the art work that I see … Continue reading Amsterdam Art 202 (Sailing Ship Figureheads to Surrealistic Swiss Army Knives)

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 20182 Comments

One Nation’s Hero — Another Nation’s Thug

April 21, 2018 Rich McClear

Sir Francis Drake sacked Cidade Vehla twice.  To the British he was a patriotic Privateer. To the people of Cape Verde he was a piratical thug.  His two sackings of the low lying Cidade Vehla plus a French attack later … Continue reading One Nation’s Hero — Another Nation’s Thug

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 2018Leave a comment

Kroil Jazz Festival — Cape Verde

April 21, 2018April 21, 2018 Rich McClear

Every spring Praia hosts two music events, the Kriol Jazz Festival and the Atlantic Music conference.  The Jazz festival kicked off the weekend of April 15 and 15 showcasing local talent.  It than took a break for the Atlantic Music … Continue reading Kroil Jazz Festival — Cape Verde

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 2018Leave a comment

Europe with Soul — Cape Verde

April 21, 2018April 21, 2018 Rich McClear

Praia, the capital of the Cape Verde Islands, was one of those stops on our cruise that that I thought of as kind of a place holder between Africa and home.  I knew three things about the islands, they were … Continue reading Europe with Soul — Cape Verde

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 2018Leave a comment

In Dakar the Hardware Store Comes to You

April 20, 2018 Rich McClear

I think to dodge the touts as much as anything we took a cab to the Medina (where we did some of our haggling), the Grand Mosque, which has minarets that look either like radomes or giant golf balls on … Continue reading In Dakar the Hardware Store Comes to You

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 2018Leave a comment

Do the Hustle – Dakar

April 20, 2018 Rich McClear

Ibrahim’s wife had a baby today.  In fact at least 5 Ibrahims’ wives have had babies, four boys and a girl.  It’s the favorite hustle in Dakar.  Ibrahim comes up to us all excited, puts a bracelet on Suzi or … Continue reading Do the Hustle – Dakar

Cruises, MS Amsterdam Grand World Voyage, 2018Leave a comment

Busman’s Holiday — Development Projects in The Gambia.

April 19, 2018April 20, 2025 Rich McClear

In The Gambia I planned a busman’s holiday.  I wanted to visit a few development projects.  One was St. Joseph’s Training School for men, which is in an historic Portuguese building and also has a market where you can buy … Continue reading Busman’s Holiday — Development Projects in The Gambia.

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