Our Anniversary

We celebrated our anniversary at sea.  We got a cake from the ships bakery, that we shared with our tablemates and our servers.  It was the best desert we have had all trip.

It is our 35th anniversary after 18 years of marriage.  Yes that’s right.

            

Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal

 

We landed this morning at the port of Ponta Delgada.  Yesterday we had to take a tender to shore, but today we actually docked.  That means we just walk off the gangplank to the dock and away we go.

We think, based on how long it took to upload yesterday’s pictures, that it might be better for us to post fewer pictures in each post.  So since we have very little self control about how many pictures we want to share, we may have more than one post per port.  Hope you don’t mind…

This island is very lush, as you will see.  We decided, since this town is bigger than our last port and has a transit system, that means 3 bus routes, that we would ride these buses all around town.  The town is not the entire island, but we chose to stay in town since our time was limited.

So we road around and saw the different parts of town and met an American man who used to live in Florida and now lives here.  He told us to go see one of the many gardens here.

That’s him and Arleen.

The garden was beautiful.

    

  

  

See, we were actually there (unless you think we just photoshopped ourselves in??????)

See, there are cats on this remote island. The Azores are 2/3 the way across the Atlantic. They are still 900 miles from Portugal. How did this kitty get here?

 

Hey, Deb, do you think this cat was trying to get the bird?

    Pretty isn’t it.

Ponta Delgada–Part 2

 

The island has more beauty than just inside the organized gardens.  Everywhere there are flowers.

  

Did you notice……yes they have crazy people who paint strange things on the side of buildings.

We visited a church during mass and had to be very quiet.  We did take some pictures, though,

          

I couldn’t resist…..her in the middle of the Atlantic, would you have guested???

 

There is shopping here, as there is everywhere.  This is a pedestrian mall near the port

A shop window with “valley cows”.  Arleen used to collect these, but she could not buy any, since we would have to carry them all around Europe.  So a picture will have to do.

Strange trees

The architecture is wonderful.  Here are some examples.

    

We stopped at a very small store that had funny looking fruit on display in a wooden box.  I stopped in to ask what it was.  I was pleased that the shopkeeper spoke English.  She said the fruit was called Black Heart.  No, the meat of the fruit is not black, but white, and sweet and tastes like a juicy sweet pear.  She gave us one to try.  Here is a picture of it.  We loved it.

Horta, Faial, Azores, Portugal

This morning we anchored off of the Azores.  We tendered into shore at the town of Horta

This is the view of a rocky shoreline and the fields above.

                      

For you who don’t know, this is a tender being lowered from the ship.  They are also our lifeboats, but they are not referred to as that, for obvious reasons.  They deploy 3 boats and ferry us back and forth from the ship.

This is a picture of the Fort of Santa Cruz.  Can you see the pigeons?  They are in every nook and cranny.

Now some scenes from Horta

 

Sidewalk designs all over town

Me doing this blog in the sun on a bench with wifi

Flowers

 

This is the island next to us, Pico.  Yes that is a volcano.

Tomorrow off to another Azore and  then one sea day before the European mainland.

Hope all is well with all.

6 Days at sea

We just finished 6 days cruising the Atlantic.  I am very glad to say the seas were friendly.  After the rainstorm that I told you about in the last post, the weather has been very good.  The temperatures have been between 68 and 72.  Not bad for the north Atlantic.

During our sea days, we would wake and go to breakfast.  Then there was either a talk or a bridge lesson or something.  Then after lunch we would read or play mah jong (OK Duane didn't play mah jong) or go to wonderful space lectures.  Yesterday we had a comedian do his stuff in the afternoon.  He was great.  His name is Frank King.  We always have dinner in the Lido buffet.  There we can see the ocean and choose our meals and put them together the way we want.  They cook the food fresh right there, and the service is really good.  The staff in the buffet even goes down to the dining room to get me a capuccino each night.

After dinner we go to a show, most of which have been excellent.  We had a pianist who could string together any number of songs in any style.  Even the cruise ship shows have been good.

After the show we usually go to the Crows Nest for a sing along or name that tune or something.

The only thing that has bothered us is that ever 2 days we lose an hour.  Noon become 1pm.  Since we lost 2 hours on the train and now 4 hours our poor bodies don't know when to eat or when to sleep.

All in all, we enjoyed the crossing.

Row, Row, Row your boat

 

Today was our first full day on board the Prinsendam.  Boarding yesterday went smoothly.  We found our way to cabin.  Our suite is a suite.  The ship was pretty well booked up when we made our reservations, so we had to take a suite.  I had concerns about taking the suite, not only because of the price, but because of the luxury of it.  It can be catching.  How do you go back to a smaller cabin.

Anyway, here is a picture of our “cabin”, and yes we love it.

This evening we went to dinner in the Lido buffet.  Our plan is to eat there all the time.  I know some people love eating in the formal dining room, being waited on, etc.  Not us.  We like to look at the food first and then design our dish ourselves.  For example, if the fish comes with baked potato and green beans and the steak comes with squash and mashers, we can have the fish with green beans and squash.  Or you could have steak with baked and mashed potatoes.  It is mix and match and we love it.

This evening we have been traveling through a big rain storm, thunder and lightning and the whole works.  Luckily no lightning hit the ship.  I don’t know what happens then.  Hopefully we are the equivalent of “grounded”, you know “oceaned”.  The seas are not too bad, though.  The rain has been coming down in buckets.  In the Lido, there is a dining area outside, it was flooded.  Of course no one was eating outside in the rain.  But right after we got our appetizer, the rain started flooding the dining area.  First on one side of the ship. So we moved to the other side.  Then the water followed us.  Not to be separated from our dinner, we just took our shoes off and started singing (you got it) row, row row your boat. 

Here are some pictures of the scene.  Hope you can make out the water.  It was great fun.  (for us….I’m not so sure the staff liked it much)

We made it to Florida

We made it to Fort Lauderdale and to our hotel with all of our stuff.  Amazing after changing trains twice. 
We have internet so we can post.  Nice room and it doesn’t rock or boom or whistle.  It actually feels good to stop moving.  Funny thing to say when we are boarding our ship tomorrow.
We board tomorrow and see our cabin.  After the tiny roomettes on the trains, any size cabin will feel luxurious.  This motel room feels like a mansion.  If’s just a regular motel room, but everything is by comparison.
We have a kitchenette, so for the first time in maybe 20 years we had frozen food meals.  For breakfast, lunch and dinner.  And you know what……they are pretty tasty and they are pretty healthy.  Well tomorrow we have ship food.  Goody.
More after sailing,,

Followers

I forgot, if you choose to follow our blog (sign up as a follower) you will get an email when we blog.  That way you will know when we post something new. 

Our plans

Hi everyone,
We have finally gotten our packing done.  We plan to leave by train from Grand Junction on Tues.

I thought it would be time to let you know our plans.  We plan on training from Grand Junction to Fort Lauderdale, FL.  It will take 3 days, with train changes in Chicago and Washington.  We will arrive in Florida on the 11th and rest up until we board the Holland American ship Prinsendam leaving on the 13th.  You can see our exact itinerary on the HA website.  Basically, we are going across the Atlantic for 6 days.  (boy are we looking forward to that).  We proceed on to London, then upward all the way to St. Petersburg, then back down to disembark in Amsterdam.  The cruise is 30 days long.

Well, once we disembark we will travel around via Eurail.  We plan on going to eastern Europe primarily, but don't count on that.  We will go where the whim sends us.  We will be in Europe for 3 months.  During that time we will take a cruise down the Danube from Budapest to Nurenburg. 

When Europe is done with us we are cruising back from Copenhagen, via Greenland and Iceland, to New York.  We plan to stay in the east for about a month,  then home.

Are you exhausted just hearing about it?  I am.

Well, I am very excited to get started.  The real blogs will start soon.  (is this blog fake?)

Till later.

Wow !!! Our first comment.  How great.  Just one problem..... If you post a comment and use the anonomous choice please sign it so we know who commented.

So who commented today?

One week to go

It is a little more than a week before we leave on our great adventure.

Both Duane and I have believed that when a wonderful time is going to be had, the devil jumps in to try and mess you up before you go.  I went to New Zealand with my sister.  She had enough frequent flyer miles to get 2 tickets.  It was so difficult to actually book that we were ready to cancel.  Even after we got the reservations, seating and flights were all messed up.  Once we got there we had the best time.

So we are hoping all the problems we are having now just portends a wonderful trip.

If anyone really wants to know what has been happening, just ask.  Nothing too bad, just time consuming and exhausting.

We really are looking forward to the trip.  Tonight Duane is singing in a Barbershop Chorus show.  After that and one trip to the doctor's, packing should finally be our first priority.

Our first adventure starts on May 8th when we board an Amtrak for the 3 day trip to Florida.  More when there is more.

Well, things are starting to come together.  In general here is our plan.
We will leave Grand Junction, CO by train and travel for 3 days (and nights, with sleeping accommodations) all the way to Fort Lauderdale, FL.  Then, after spending 2 days there we will board the Holland American ship Prinsendam and cruise to Amsterdam via Scandinavia and St. Petersburg  Russia.

After reaching Europe will will travel around for about 3 months.  We plan to mostly visit eastern Europe, since neither of us has been there before.  We don't have details yet.  (we still have a couple of weeks and we don't want to rush anything ;-)  )

While in Europe we are going to go on a cruise on the Danube.  Then at the end of our trip we will cruise home on a Princess ship via Greenland and Iceland.  I have always wanted to see those places.

When we arrive in New York we will spend some time there, then see the fall colors and then head homeward.

OK, so that is not very detailed, but neither are we.  We are loose and free.

So stay tuned for more info.  Trip starts the second week in May.