Saturday night Volendam had its sock hop. We danced to ‘50s and ‘60s music, so you can’t really blame me for humming that ridiculous old Bobby Darin tune all Sunday morning while visiting the Forest Lagoon, a geothermal mineral bath … Continue reading Splish Splash
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.
Between our visit to Kamoyvaer fishing village and our return to Honningsvåg the weather cleared up unexpectedly, there was no fog and no wind. It was the perfect day to visit North Cape. North Cape (or Nord Cap) is branded … Continue reading This is the Donut Hole
Kamoyvaer is the type of town I love to drop an FM translator into. A translator is a low powered FM repeater. I’ve put them into small fishing towns along the Alaska Panhandle. Kamoyvaer fits the profile, in this case … Continue reading East of the Sun and West of the Moon
It was like we were in Tromsø on two different days. The night before this first call north of the Arctic Circle at latitude 69o the forecast called for temps in the 30s and a “wintery mix” of rain and … Continue reading St. Olaf vs. the Trolls
The click of a padlock and we are locked out. We were visiting the Sverresborg Trondelag Folk Museum, a open air museum with buildings collected from all over the region and assembled in a folk park. I particularly wanted to … Continue reading The Norski Elvis
The Lewis Chessmen may be the perfect icon for this portion of our voyage. The Chessmen were discovered on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. They were carved from walrus ivory from Greenland, probably transited through … Continue reading Ravenheart
Eidfjord sits at the end of Hardangerfjord, a deep (more than 2800 feet) and long (111 miles) fjord extending inland from the Norwegian sea. At the head of the fjord is the Hardanger plateau and the Hardangervidda National Park. The … Continue reading Hardanger Fjord
St. Giles Cathedral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is ironic in several ways. First off, I find the idea of a Presbyterian Cathedral, Presbyterians have no bishops, to be almost oxymoronic. But what I really find funny is the stained … Continue reading Reformation and Art, St. Giles Cathedral
I had never been to Edinburgh on a nice day. Every time I’ve been here the skies were gray, or it was raining. The gray skies, the brownstone buildings, and the Sir Walter Scott Monument, a gothic tower blackened by … Continue reading Auld Reekie
First, “Firth of Forth” is not easy to type. Autocorrect helpfully suggests “first of four.” Firth is only sort of an English word, mostly Scottish, deriving from the Norse. It has the same root as “fjord.” The Firth of Forth … Continue reading Firth of Forth
While I mostly write about ports and port experiences, on this sea day I write about some of the social events on the ship. Today we have our third block party, where we all go into the hallway, the staff … Continue reading Sea Day Catch Up.
May 4th and 5th are big days in The Netherlands. On May 5, three days before VE Day, the end of the Second World War in Europe, the German commander in the Netherlands signed an instrument of surrender with the … Continue reading Freedom in Haarlem!
The Holland America tour of Ghent may have been the best organized ship tour I have been on. On each bus seat we found a map of Ghent and a card with an emergency number to call in case we … Continue reading Ghent
I was in the crosswalk at about 11:40 Monday morning. The green signal told me I could cross. Then the light went out, it didn’t turn red, it went out. Immediately a car pulled in front of me. He lost … Continue reading Lights Out! Lisbon
Everywhere you look in Portugal (and frequently in Brazil and Cape Verde) you find Azulejo, painted ceramic tiles. Azujelo is from the Arabic Al-zullij, “polished stone.” Our guide on our Lisbon tuk tuk, tour, Maurice, told us they were developed … Continue reading Azulejo, Portuguese Tiles.
At the Barcelona Meetup I had a conversation with Jo Johnston, (Writer on Deck). We discussed the timing of the publication of our blogs. On this trip she published two in one day and decided not to do that again. … Continue reading Manueline Architecture in Lisbon
We are now sailing in Europe and are approaching our stop at Ijmuiden in the Netherlands. One of the tours Holland America is offering is a visit to the towns of Volendam and Marken. I have been holding this post … Continue reading Volendam and Volendam
Sometimes the best days just happen. We had nothing planned for Cadiz, just step off the ship and wander. We loved what we saw from our balcony as we docked and wanted to see it up close. It was Sunday, … Continue reading Sunday in Cadiz
On each world cruise Holland America plans something special. This year it was the “Grand Meetup.” Both Holland ships, Volendam and Zuiderdam, on Grand Voyages met in Barcelona for two days of parties and activities. Holland claims it is the … Continue reading Grand Meetup.
We had two days in Barcelona, but we didn’t spend much time in the city. The two Holland America ships, our Volendam and the Zuiderdam were berthed stern to stern where Holland America staged something called the Grand Reunion. I … Continue reading Rambling the Rambla, Barcelona
Gibraltar is one of the Pillars of Hercules, one of two (or three, people can’t decide which mountain on the African side is the second pillar) that guard the entrance to the Mediterranean from the Atlantic. Britain holds one, Gibraltar … Continue reading The Rock, Gibraltar
In the last post I talked about what Rick, Ilse and Victor would have seen if they had really been in Casablanca in 1941. This post is about what they would not have seen and what might surprise them today. … Continue reading What Rick Would Not Have Seen
What Rick might have really seen in Casablanca. Movie night on Volendam, Casablanca. I have seen it so many times that I “sang along,” quietly, with some of the greatest lines. The film was set in November 1941 and shaped … Continue reading As Time Goes By