Day 13 - Le Havre, France 05/29/09

Wasn’t too much in this little port town that we needed/wanted to do. We took the complimentary shuttle into town and found this city’s Notre Dame. It was really gorgeous, and this has been one of the only times that we were close to a church like that in the middle of town.
Both of our backs were starting to bug us a bit, so we headed back to the ship. We’ll be busy tomorrow in Dover, and the next morning we disembark, so we’re going to get some of our stuff packed up tonight.

Day 12 - Plymouth, England 05/28/09

Since we had a bit of a delay leaving from Ireland (we had to wait for the tide to come in more before we could get out from where we were) it put us in Plymouth a bit later, and we couldn’t rent a car to get to Dunkeswell like we had hoped. We’ll make it another time.
We did have a great day here though! It is another gorgeous city. The ship was too big to pull right into their port, so we did have to deal with taking the ships tenders to shore, which is always an experience because the folks on this ship seem to feel that they are ENTITLED to be first, or at least in front of you, so they like to elbow and shove. (And one gal couldn’t seem to stop belching…? Ew. See a doctor!)
When we finally got to shore, we took the waterfront walkway around the shore towards the large, open, public park area called “The Hoe”.


We spent some time at the Hoe, which seems like such a fun place! It is huge, with lots of statues, gardens, and even an old lighthouse! In the nice weather it is set up carnival-style, with booths and food vendors, and we even saw some clowns on stilts. I saw more kids here than I have seen the entire trip.
From the Hoe, there is a long, main drag through the shopping area which is for pedestrians only, called Armada Way. We strolled down it just about long enough to find an ATM and get a few things at Poundland (everything only 1 pound!) that we needed. Then we headed back through the Hoe, and down to the waterfront, where we found a little cliffside café where we shared a burger for lunch and had a drink. Then we headed back to the ship a little early, and had one of the best dinners yet! Lobster tails and filet mignon.

Day 11 - ???, Ireland 05/27/09

We were supposed to be docking in Dunmore East, Ireland today, which is the main port for Waterford, Ire. We weren’t planning on going into Waterford, which was OK because there were things to see in Dunmore for free. But the night before the captain got word that because of a storm passing, we wouldn’t be able to dock there. We ended up getting rerouted a bit to an industrial port, but they still had transportation to Waterford, for 20 Euros! We thought it was ridiculous that they wouldn’t offer us the bus ride for free since there was absolutely NOTHING in this new port, and they had changed our schedule. Instead, we opted to stay onboard for the day. We aren’t even completely sure what the name of the place we were at is called. It was Bel- something, (Belmour? Belview?) from what the captain said that we didn’t quite catch. Anyway, it was still gorgeous to be in Ireland, and we needed the day to relax after Liverpool and before Plymouth.

Day 10 - Liverpool 05/26/09

We loved Liverpool! It was very, VERY windy though. (See?)The ship was docked very close to the city center and to Albert Docks, which were stopped being used sometime in the 60’s, and now all the warehouse buildings around it have been restored and turned into stores, bars, restaurants, and of course, a Beatles museum! We booked it right over to The Beatles Story, where we spent a good two hours going through replicas of all the places they played some of their first gigs, including Matthew Street with the Grapes and the Cavern.

After the museum, we hopped aboard the Magical Mystery Tour bus!
We had an awesome tour guide who actually has worked with Paul a few times, and had some good stories about them. We went into the suburbs by all of their childhood homes, some schools, the places they met. They not only drove us past, but down Penny Lane, and we also saw the gates of Strawberry Fields. The tour ended when they dropped us off near the downtown area on Matthew Street! There was a statue of Lennon and a brick wall of fame of those who have played the Cavern. We got to go inside both the Cavern pub and club, then we went to the Grapes (where the boys used to drink, because they didn’t serve alcohol at the Cavern then). We found the booth that is labeled as the one they used to sit in, and we also found some crazy guy. He and a buddy were sitting near the booth, and he had TWO pints down and empty, and 1.5 full in front of him! He offered to take our picture in the booth, and I never should have handed over my camera! He proceeded to take about 20 blurry photos of us, the whole while talking so fast that we couldn’t understand a thing! All we could catch was “the whole lot, get the whole lot! While you’re here; before you go; get the whole lot!”. We also caught that he was an ex-boxer, so it seems to us that they probably sit in there everyday doing this to people. Weird. After that, we headed home!

Day 9 - Belfast, Ireland 05/25/09 (Happy Memorial Day!)

Well, it wasn’t hard to get up today! We’re in Ireland!! We aren’t taking any of Holland America’s tours since they are expensive and we have a GPS unit. They shuttled us to the city center where we had a great day just wandering around and seeing what there is to see. (And thoroughly enjoying the accents.)
Right near where they dropped us off was Belfast’s City Hall, which seems to be a very popular meeting spot. On the grounds was an area for open-air concerts, as well as a continental fair! They have a Ferris wheel just like London, and there were all sorts of food and goods vendors from all over the place.
(Below: In front of the City Hall. Do we look like we belong here? We think so.)

We took a bit of a walk away from the city center, but didn’t go too far. There seemed to be some very pretty churches and buildings around, but if you go too far away from the city center it starts to get a bit…spooky. Of course there are tons of graffiti left over from “the troubles”, but it was strange to us that there also seemed to just be a lot of old buildings that were either housing new things, or were just abandoned, that still had very tall brick walls around them with nasty looking barbed wire all over.

And of course, we stopped for a pint of Guinness before heading back to the ship.

Days 6-8 The Crossing, 05/22/09-05/24/09

Whew! After 4 days straight of being on this ship in the middle of the Atlantic, we finally hit land again! It’s been a lazy couple of days, but they almost had to be. We had VERY rough seas on the crossing, at least 12-28 feet the entire time. Neither of us got sick at all, but between that and the time change, we are so wiped that we’ve been sleeping in until nearly 1 PM! (And eating lots of room service food.)

Everyday we played team trivia with another couple we had met on the first day, though we can’t seem to win again! We also got together with the other knitters on the ship every day for a bit. Other than that we played a lot of cards/read/knit. We also had fun seeing all the neat art around the ship.

Day 5 – At Sea 05/21/09

Had a pretty lazy day! Had breakfast, and then played cards for several hours. In the morning we had rough seas, 7-12 feet. We both feel just fine. There was actually an event scheduled today called “Sit and Knit” so I met 4 other knitters, and taught one gal how to do toe-up socks. We’re meeting again tomorrow. After that we had trivia again, and an early dinner. Now we’re in VERY rough seas, 12-18 feet! We both still feel fine. This is the roughest sea I’ve been on, and about the only one Rick has been on. There’s nothing going on tonight that we feel like going to, so we’re planning to be lazy in our room and watch more movies.

Day 4 – St. John’s, Newfoundland 5/20/09

We got to shore almost as soon as we could, since we were expecting my passport to arrive today we wanted to start early to see the town. Unfortunately we ran into the same problem as in Halifax, nothing opens until 10 AM! While we were waiting, we took quite a walk across the town. There was a harbor side park that had lots of statues and information about the town. (Pictured below: Rick with a Labrador and a Newfoundland dog)

Across the road from the park is a sort of general war-memorial with awesome statues.
Around 11, we headed back to the ship and hung out in our room until we got the call that our passport had arrived! We then headed back to shore looking for a place to get a drink! (Hey, we had to get rid of our Canadian dollars somehow!) The locals pointed us towards George St, where there were TONS of pubs! We stopped at Bridie Molloy’s, an Irish pub, and had ourselves a Guinness.We had a late, small lunch in the Lido, and then team trivia afterwards. We were both VERY tired from traipsing around town, so we took nearly a 4 hour nap before our 8:30 dinner reservations. We still went right back to sleep after dinner was over!

Day 3 – St. Pierre, France 5/19/09

There isn’t much of interest here if you aren’t taking an excursion, and it’s either a 30-minute walk from the ship to the town, or you have to take the tender boats across the way. Since we didn’t pull into port until 2:00 PM anyway, we opted to just stay on the ship. (Picture below: The tenders that take you to shore are also the ships lifeboats!)
We slept in and stayed in our cabin until almost lunchtime. Had a small bite at the Lido, then played some cards in the bar while waiting for team trivia to start. We actually won today with 15/20! We got some Rotterdam mugs. After dinner, we went to the show. It was the British Magic Champion, Phil Hitchcock. He was a great magician and really funny. After the show we hung around our room and watched movies until bed.

Day 2 - Halifax, Nova Scotia 05/18/09, aka 'This is way more fun than last night'

Since we were expecting our luggage to be arriving in Halifax today, we didn’t plan on doing too much. (Not to mention due to the temperature being 15 degrees! Good thing we’re used to it.) I had at least wanted to check out the yarn store downtown, but after we got downtown and walked around until 15 minutes after most stores should have opened, we found out that it was Victoria Day in Canada, so none of the stores were open! We headed back to the ship for lunch and to wait for our luggage. (Pictured below, graffiti reads: This is way more fun than last night)
After lunch in the Lido we inquired about the luggage at the Front office. The gal said that it was expected to be arriving by plane at 3:00, then it had to be cleared and get to the pier before the gangway came up at 4:30! She said they really had to sweet talk some guy that morning to get it done. In the meantime while we were waiting, we had team trivia again with Jim and Linda. We got 14/20 right, still didn’t win! Some of the odd questions: a group of bananas is called a ‘hand’ not a ‘bunch’; to be considered empoloyed by the Mexican Gov’t, you only need to be scheduled for 1 hour a week. (Picture below: Walking to downtown Halifax on the boardwalk.)
After trivia it was getting close to time to leave port, and we still hadn’t heard about the luggage. We were getting a bit nervous, but they called with the good news around 4:35. We were so happy to have clean clothes!!
We got cleaned up and had dinner in the main dining room. We were sat with 3 other couples, two from CA and one from Holland/GA. We had a very talkative 3 hour dinner and left stuffed! (Pictured below, an awesome lobster statue. We call him Gooby the space lobster.)

Day 1 - At Sea 5/17/09

The first sea day was definitely a day to earn our sea legs. Neither of us was feeling the greatest in the morning, and both ended up taking the medicine that they give out at the front office. After we got those and some food in our systems, we both felt great. We walked lots of laps around the promenade deck because the brisk fresh air felt so nice.
In the afternoon we went to one of the Rotterdam’s many bars for the Team Trivia contest. We paired up with a lovely couple from Long Island named Jim and Linda, and we got 13/20 questions right. Not enough to win, but it was fun! Some of the weird questions we didn’t know: the dots on dominoes are called ‘pips’; the German surname ‘Beethoven’ translates to ‘beet garden’; a group of humming birds are called a ‘charm’.
We spent some time in the library before dinner, reading and trying to do the NY Times crossword puzzle. After about half an hour of that we felt stupid enough, so we headed to the Lido for dinner.
Dinner was amazingly good. I had filet mignon and Rick had a rack of lamb. Our waiter, Joey, started a bit of a conversation with us, and when he heard about the troubles we’d had, he insisted on bringing both of us glasses of cabernet sauvignon on the house!
After dinner we grabbed a table in a bar to play some cards. Two folks who had seen us upset about the passport at the pier stopped to say hi and ask how things were going. They left, and a few minutes later they came back and gave us a large bottle of French champagne!
We went to the movie at 8:00, which was Frost/Nixon, then to bed for the night.

In a New York minute...

Hi all, sorry about the delay in us posting here. We arrived by plane to New York, but unfortunately our luggage did not. (Along with all of our computer/camera cords!) Delta was very helpful, though, and worked with us to get the information on our first few ports of call so that they could get the luggage to us on the ship.
We had quite a drive from the JFK airport through the west side of Manhattan to our pier. When we were getting ready to start the boarding process I started to get a bit worried about the fact that I was without my passport, so we found someone to ask about the situation. The gal we spoke to got the head of shore operations to come out and work with us. At first she was pretty sure that she just couldn’t let us on the ship, and that there was nothing she could do about it! It goes without saying that we were pretty upset, and she escorted us through security to a waiting room while she went to research what could be done.
Thanks to her and Michele (THANK YOU!!!) it was worked out that I could get by with my copy for the first couple of days, and have the passport mailed to the port agent in our third stop, St. John’s, Newfoundland. Now we’re just praying that Fed-Ex gets the package there before the gangway goes up at 5:00, but the shore operations gal said that Fed-Ex said it should be no problem. Phew! We got lucky.

mmm, coffee

Well, after sleeping on the lovely Pittsburgh airport floor for several hours, we finally have coffee and are getting ready to board our flight to NY. Rick just discovered that Pittsburgh may be the home of the Steelers, but they're also the home of horrible drinking water.
We're tired as heck, and a little discouraged as we made the discovery this morning that KASHA forgot her passport at home. (I was trying to be good and make copies, and forgot it in the scanner!) So now we're going to have to figure out how to get it mailed to our last Canadian port before we head out for open seas.
So, a little snag, but I think we'll be able to work it out. More later from the ms Rotterdam!

Itinerary

On May 16th, Rick and I will be getting on Holland America's ship the ms Rotterdam, and heading across the ocean to Europe! Along with our laptop and the wireless internet now available on the ship, we will be actively blogging our pictures and experiences here while we cruise.
This is a view of the trans-atlantic route we will be taking. This is our itinerary in detail...(so far)
May 15th - Flying to New York
5:00 PM Flight departs Minneapolis for New York
11:35 PM Flight arrives in New York ...sleep in airport!

Day 1 : May 16th - Goodbye USA!
9:00 AM : Take a taxi to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal
11:00 AM : Embark ship
4:45 PM : Say goodbye to the US, sailing right past the Statue of Liberty

Day 2 : May 17th - 1st Day at Sea
Explore the ship!

Day 3 : May 18th - Halifax, Canada
8:00 AM : Arrive in Halifax
5:00 PM : Depart Halifax

Day 4 : May 19th - St. Pierre, France
2:00 PM : Arrive St. Pierre
7:00 PM : Depart St. Pierre

Day 5 : May 20th - St. Johns, Canada
8:00 AM : Arrive St. Johns
5:00 PM : Depart St. Johns

Day 6 : May 21st - 2nd Day At Sea

Day 7 : May 22nd - 3rd Day At Sea

Day 8 : May 23rd - 4th Day At Sea

Day 9 : May 24th - 5th Day At Sea

Day 10 : May 25th - Belfast, Northern Ireland
7:00 AM : Arrive Belfast
10:00 PM : Depart Belfast

Day 11 : May 26th - Liverpool, England
7:00 AM : Arrive Liverpool
8:00 PM : Depart Liverpool

Day 12 : May 27th - Dunmore East, Waterford, Ireland
8:00 AM : Arrive Dunmore East
5:00 PM : Depart Dunmore East

Day 13 : May 28th - Plymouth, England
8:00 AM : Arrive Plymouth
5:00 PM : Depart Plymouth

Day 14 : May 29th - Le Havre, France
6:00 AM : Arrive Le Havre
7:00 PM : Depart Le Havre

Day 15 : May 30th - Dover, England
7:00 AM : Arrive Dover
6:00 PM : Depart Dover

Day 16 : May 31st - Rotterdam, The Netherlands
7:00 AM : Debark ship; explore Rotterdam
12:00 PM : Get on train for Paris
2:00 PM : Arrive Paris

Day 17 : June 1st - Flying home
2:15 PM : Flight departs Paris
5:55 PM : Flight arrives Minneapolis