13th July - 25th July in Atlantic

Satruday 13^th July – Rotterdam, Netherlands.  Currency – Euro.

The heart of the city was destroyed in 1940 by the Germans and has been entirely rebuilt which makes it a modern city indeed.

We decided to leave Rotterdam for a 30-minute drive by comfortable private coach to medieval Delft and after about 1 hour we got out and strolled along the canals, enjoying the rustic courtyards and discover the most beautiful spots of historic Delft.

The town is also known as small Amsterdam, because of its canals and the grand monumental merchant’s mansions in the old town center. The town center of Delft is one of the best-preserved examples of a medieval Dutch town. It is a town with rich historic and cultural heritage.

Delft is also the town of the painter Johannes Vermeer. Think of his masterpiece “Gezicht op Delft” (the Girl with the Pearl Earring.

Delft is the burial ground of members of the Royal family, they rest in the New Church which is called this because it was built in the 13^th century and the Old Church was built in the 12^th century.  Besides the Royal family there are also several others famous people buried in Delft.

In the Old Church rest the painter Johannes Vermeer and great ocean commanders as Piet Hein and Maarten Tromp. 

We went to shop for cheese tasting and tried sheep, goat and cow cheese flavoured with chillies, nuts, fruit and lots of other things.  I was in my element as not only did they have cheese, they also had free chocolate tasting.  Yum. 

We then went to lunch in a nearby pub and I had a local soup made of mutton and beans and then we went on a 20-minute drive to the “Royal City” The Hague, where we went on a walking tour through this great old city. 

We went to the Palace Noordeinde which is the working Palace of King William, he lives somewhere else and only uses the palace during the day. 

Hague is an easy city to wander around (except for the bikes) the oldest parts are from the 13th century ending up at the spectacular Panorama Mesdag Museum. 

The Panorama is a cylindrical painting, more than 14 meters high and 120 meters in circumference.  The vista of the sea, the dunes and Scheveningen village where painted by Hendrik Willem Mesdag in 1881. Also his wife Sientje Mesdag and several other painters of The Hague School worked on this amazing painting. It is the oldest 19th century panorama in the world in its original site. The panorama is similar to the one that was in Alice Springs.

We continue the tour with a short walk to hidden courtyard “Rusthof”, as the word says, this court is totally hidden from the outside world.

The court from 1831 is most unique. The founder, Mrs. Groen van Pinsteren built this court for poor woman and widowers. Today only ladies above 55 are able to live in this court which has a beautiful garden.

Once again a lovely day and we were soon back home and watching the ship sail away from the harbour.

Distance from Dover to Rotterdam 116 Nautical Miles, average speed 16.57 knots

Sunday 14^th July we continued sailing through the North Sea towards Copenhagen.

I forgot to mention that I am now an Elite member of the Princess Line which is really great.  

The line has an award scheme made up of 5 levels and the highest is 15 cruises or 150 days on board and in Dover I made it.  

What does it mean, well every sector we get a mini bar which includes all the various spirits, water, coke and lemonade but even better I get free laundry and dry cleaning.  The free laundry is just fantastic and next time I will not need to take as many clothes.  I give away all the soft drink but keep the alcohol.

The weather is still warm but the wind is very strong and it is beginning to be to cool to sit on the deck.

Sunday is lazy brunch day and I wandered down to the dining room about 1100 and had a late breakfast and the drink of the day was Bloody Mary so of course had to have one.

We all sat around to watch the Australian movie call the Sapphire under the stars and really enjoyed it, although it was a little cool.

Monday 15^th July found us transmitting the narrow straight between Denmark and Sweden arriving in Copenhagen very early in the morning.

Copenhagen, Denmark.   Currency – Danish Korne.    Language – Danish, Farese.

The Danish Vikings were once the scourge of Europe; they raided and held large areas of England, France and Spain before settling down and using their knowledge to trade peacefully.

Copenhagen was built in the 11^th Century and is a Monarchy and most of the Kings have been named either Frederick or Christian.

The ship berthed right in the centre of the city so we all decided to us the hop-on hop-off bus to see the city.  We waited until most of the passengers went on their tour and we then set off to see this lovely old city.

Most of the palaces, churches and civic buildings belong to the royal family, the Amalienborg Palace is the ‘official’ royal residence for most of the year and Kronborg Castle was written about as “Hamlet’s Castle” by William Shakespeare.

Copenhagen has the longest pedestrian street, called Stroget, in Europe.

The statue of Hans Christian Anderson’s heroine, the Little Mermaid was a lot smaller than I thought and she was just within walking distance from where we were moored.

We were only in port for a few hours and were again at sea by 1600 on our way to Norway.  We found that everything was quite expensive as the wages and taxes are very high here.  Postcards which are usually 3 for $1 were 1 Euro each which is about 4 times as expensive

Some of the crew

That night the 5 of us went to the Steak House which is the only eating venue on the ship that you pay a cover charge for a 5 star steak meal and it is only $20 but the meal is fantastic.  

The only problem is that although the restaurant is inside it is right by the windows and it was so cold that we had to ask for blankets to wear to keep from freezing.  We left the restaurant about 2300, very full and warm on the inside.

Distance from Rotterdam to Copenhagen 590 Nautical Miles, average speed 17.35 knots

Monday 15^th July at about 0530 the pilot boarded the ship and we commenced a 54 mile transited up the fjord towards Oslo arriving 1000.

Oslo, Norway.                      Currency –  Norwegian Krone (NOK)

Once again the ship moored in the centre of the city and Ann, Ann and I walked through the heart of Oslo to the City Hall and past the National Theatre on our way to the Royal Palace unfortunately we would have to wait an hour until they would take us on a tour of the rooms. We saw the changing of the guards and we wandered through the gardens.

Oslo is a lovely city to walk around and we walked through the main street known as Karl Johan and it is full of very expensive shops, you know the type you look but can’t afford to buy.

We had walked for about 3 hours and then we walked to the splendid Akershus Castle which was first built in 1048 and further reinforced in the 1300’s by King Hakon V.  Inside the oldest part of the building is a museum and shop and also some of the buildings are still used and there are soldiers walking the perimeter.

The Castle overlooks the city and we could see our ship and it was only about 10 minutes from where we were and we had 30 minutes left before we were due to sail.

Ann and I found a small outdoor bar near the ship to buy a local beer and a packet of nuts and this cost 250 Kroner which is about $25.00, like I said everything is expensive in Scandinavia.  

The weather has kept warm during the day and cool during the night.

Did you know since 1947, the people of Oslo have given a gigantic Christmas tree to the city of Westminster, England as an expression of gratitude for Britain’s help to Norway during World War II.

Distance from Copenhagen to Oslo 270 Nautical Miles, average speed 17.76 knots

Wednesday 17^th July we rounded the most southern point of Norway and entered the North Sea and later passed between the islands of Shetlands and Fair Isle as we made our way towards the Faroe Islands. 

The weather has turned cold, wet and miserable, we can’t go outside on deck and the sick bags have disappeared from the stair rails.  Thank heavens I don’t get sea sick.

It is funny with sea days especially when we can’t go out to sit on the deck, the time still flies by so fast but we are never sure what we did.  I love the sea days and of course I also love going on shore to discover new towns.

Thursday 18^th July, this morning at 0700 we made our final approach to Torshavn entering Noisoy Fjord when we experienced strong winds up to 35 knots.  

The pilot and the Captain decided that due to the strong winds and the narrow shallow entrance into the harbour, for safety reasons, we had to abort our visit to Torshavn and continue on our journey to New York.

As you can imagine we were disappointed but it wasn’t worth the risk to ship and passengers.

The weather was freezing and I had put on my long johns under my tracksuit and had my hat and gloves ready, we went outside to take pictures then took off our outer clothes and settled in for another day at sea.

Toshavn, Faroe Islands.  Currency – Faroese krona, Danish krone (DKK).

The island of the Faroes are 18 islands in all, 17 of the inhabited, although volcanic in origin, the islands have be changed by glaciers and it is rugged country indented by fjords. 

Distance from Oslo to Torshavn 688 Nautical Miles, average speed 18.35 knots

Friday 19^th July at sea we sailed across the North Atlantic; the weather was freezing and overcast and the seas high and rough.  

The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world’s oceans and covers a total are of about 106,400,000 square kilometres and covers approximately 20% of the entire earth’s surface. Temperature is 14 degrees.

Saturday 20th July at sea, continuing across the Atlantic Ocean.  The Atlantic Ocean is named after the Greek mythical god Atlas making the Atlantic the ‘Sea of Atlas’.  Temperate is 15 degrees, winds were up to beaufort force 8 during the night which rocked us to sleep.

Sunday 21^st July at sea and we have now passed through the low pressure systems and the seas are now calmer and the temperature is rising.

Monday 22^nd July at sea, we encountered thick fog during the evening and the fog horn sounded throughout the night not that I could hear it from my ‘cave’.  We passed 15 nautical miles north of the site of the Titanic.

Ann and I were invited to join Davor Pvlovic-Kalifo who is the Staff Engineer Officer to dine with him for Dinner with 6 other passengers.  

It was great fun, they choose some passengers at random and they sit with various ship’s officers.  We had a special table and we had the same menu but were provided with wines and a special sweet.

All 6 ladies from our table were invited to different tables and I think it was because we are a very loud and cheeky group, though I noticed they split us up.

Tuesday 23^rd July at sea with calm seas and warm temperatures of 21 degrees.

One of the benefits of being and Elite passenger is the invites to Grapevine Wine Tastings which are held every sector and so I went to my first one today.  

We all were seated in front of 6 empty glasses and a plate of cheese and olives and over a period of 1 ½ hours were given a few drops of wine in each glass and listened to 3 head waiters talk about the wine.  I hated the wines but I was allowed to keep the shot glass the final wine came in.

Wednesday 24^th July at sea with calm seas and warm temperatures of 24 degrees as we approached the east coast of America.

Life has certainly settled into a pleasant routine and we have tried playing Balderdash which only succeeded in making all the people around us leave as we were laughing so hard and scrabble which last only a short while.

Have a look at these cakes; it was cake bonanza in the horizons buffet today and the cakes were fantastic to look but fortunately not all that nice eat.  Everything you see in the following pictures was made of icing.

Thursday 25^th July we made our approach to the Hudson River passing the statue of Liberty on our port side just before sunrise and berthed in Manhattan cruise terminal by 0600.

The Statue of Liberty was designed by sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi out of thinly pounded copper sheets over a seal frame.  Standing 305 feet high, it was dedicated on 28 October, 1886.

I was going out with a different Ann today but first we had to go through the immigration process which in most countries takes about 10 minutes and in some cases the immigration people come on board and the process is done before we leave the ship but not in America.

We lined up for 1 hour before we even left the ship and then another hour before we were free to discover New York.  We had already bought the visa on line and during the face to face, we had our finger prints taken and retinas scan.  It took heaps longer than last year but I think there were only half the immigration officers working due to the recent budget cuts.

Ann and I caught a taxi to Central Park as Ann had never been to New York before so really wanted to walk through it.

Central Park is over 843 acres and it is full of statues, flowers and heaps of people, walking, riding, playing sport and walking their dogs.

 

As we were walking through the park we came across some street dancers and they put on a great show, entertaining the people and they were a lot of fun and it was great to see them in person. 

The weather turned cold and wet as we walked through the park and so we made our way back to the main road.  

As we were walking around the park we came across a lovely lake and as we were almost to the road we saw the memorial to John Lennon and a small park called Strawberry Park, there were a lot of people sitting around and of course Beatles’ music being played.  

We caught a taxi to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum which is where I wanted to go, it was just off Broadway and fortunately we didn’t have to queue up for long and we were soon buying tickets for $36 and climbing the stairs to start the adventure.

Ann had no idea what was in store as we climbed into the open hand of the huge gorilla from King Kong to have our picture taken.  

We were taken to a lift and take up to the 8^th level and as we left the lift we were met by George Clooney and the Duke and Duchess of York.  

Ann was so surprised that they were made of wax, I must admit that it would be so easy to be fooled, you can see where the whiskers grew and of course the clothing actually belong to the person.

As you walk around there is a wax model just standing/sitting there and of course there were a lot of American’s we didn’t know especially in the sports level.  We kept moving down various levels, sports, film stars, singers, movie heroes, and a room dedicated to past and present Presidents.

Wow, I really enjoyed the wax works and it was everything I thought it would be, Ann was completely ‘blown away’.

We left the museum and walked into Time Square where we had lunch in a restaurant called Hubba Bubba which is a franchise based on Forrest Gump.  Huge meals so we shared one dish and that a just enough.

We had 1 ½ hours left so we strolled back to the ship, just before we got to the ship, we noticed a sign for a fortune teller so of course we had to go and have our palms read, which proved very interesting, seems that I am going to live till I am 89 (sorry kids).

It was soon time to leave and we enjoyed a lovely sail away, we sailed past the Statue of Liberty and the new Freedom Building which is built on the site of the Twin Towers. The building has taken ages to complete and hopefully will be finished soon.  When we came in this morning it was lit up with lights, red, white and blue and it certainly can’t be missed.

New York is the end of another sector and about 700 passengers changed over and I also got another restock of my minibar.

Distance from Torshavn to New York 2,870 Nautical Miles, average speed 18.11 knots

Distance from Dover to New York 4,534 Nautical Miles or 8,396.97 Kilometers

Total Distance Travelled from Sydney to New York – 21,213.2 Nautical Miles