Last of a 4 1/2 month world adventure

May 12, 2013 - On May 8 we docked at Ponta Delgada on the island of San Miguel which is one of 9 islands making up the Azores. The Azores sit on an active mid Atlantic volcanic range, the most recent eruption in 1957-1958. This eruption was caused by Mt. Capelinhos and expanded Faial Island. San Miguel rests 900 nautical miles off the west coast of Portugal and is the largest island of the Azores. All nine islands have a total population of 230,000 and the islands are a territory of Portugal but have their own government agencies. The Azores were discovered by Diogo de Silves in 1427. The Iberians saw many birds. Mistaking the great birds for hawks the Iberians named the islands Acores meaning hawks. Settlements appeared about mid 1400s. The islands played a part in the world and European history. By the end of the 15th century all nine islands were inhabited and trade was expanding with Portugal. From 1580 to 1640 all Portugal and the Azores were ruled by Spain. The Azores became a rendezvous point for Spanish treasure ships returning to Spain from the new world. They have continued to play a part in the world and European affairs as air bases and communication center during WW11. A 1951 agreement gave the US rights to use defense facilities in the Azores. Evidence of the Azores volcanic activity can be see in the Furnas Valley where steam vents, hot springs and boiling mud pools exist. As in most of our ports there is the Sao Bras Fort (built in 1552) which was just outside the port. Pineapples, tea, sugar beets, and tobacco with hand-made cigars are exported from this island. Pineapples were brought to the island in 1820 but they are grown in greenhouses in a temperature range of 78 to 100 degrees F. It take from 18 to 24 months for a pineapple to mature. No chemicals are used. Oranges were also imported and grow well on the island. San Miguel has an international airport and flights from Montreal and Toronto come from May to October. There are a lot of dairy cows and on our trip around the island we saw the dairy. Japanese Cedar trees have been imported from Canada and are planted to hold the water in the soil and the soil in place. The trees are used in building but it takes about 30 years to mature so the wood can be used. The National Parks Board stocks lakes with fish as many of the lakes are not fed by streams. The islands get about 90 days of rain a year but fresh water is in abundance from under ground. Our tour took us to Sete Cidades which is a small village that is nestled between two crater lakes, the blue lake and the emerald green lake.There are small lakes all over the island that have been formed by centuries of geo-thermal activity or relentless winter surf. Mez visited a tea plantation that had production equipment dating back to before the Civil War from England manufactured by Marshall and Sons of Gainsborough, England. Five o`clock tea is not British in origin but comes from a Portuguese princess who lived in England and enjoyed her tea on Portuguese porcelain. The Dutch also had this custom as formal tea drinkers before the British. In fact, Orange Pekoe Tea is named after the Dutch Royal House of Orange. The famous 12 acre Terra Nostra Gardens of Sao Miguel were constructed by a US Consulate General, Thomas Hickling, and a British gardener. It is more than 200 years old with Sequoias and some Norfolk pines 13 feet in circumferance. In the 1970s school children studied at night using sperm whale oil lanterns. Curiously it was Nantucket whalers who hired and taught Azore fisherman how to hunt whales in the mid 1800s. There are close to 1 million people with Azorian heritage who live in the US.
May 9th we were suppose to stop for a day at Faial Island another island of the Azores and see the town of Horta. The swells for tendering were, as has been mentioned before, too big for the tendering to be done safely so we sailed slowly passed and took pictures of the island. As now we were going to be ahead of schedule the captain made arrangements for us to dock early in Bermuda. We arrived and were cleared in the port of Hamilton by late afternoon allowing many of those wishing to spend the evening having dinner on land. Mez and I had booked a dinner at the Pinnacle Grill on the ship and we enjoyed the view of the town as we ate. Bermuda is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean which is the oldest remaining British overseas territory and is located 1100 miles northeast of Miami.The following day I purchased a day pass and headed for the town of St. George's on the northeast end of the island. Public transit includes both ferries and buses running between the Royal Navy Dockyard and both Hamilton and St. George's. The natives call the buses the "Pink and Blue" as that is the color of the buses. Blue poles designate stops for buses leaving Hamilton and pink designate stops to Hamilton for all of us who are use to cars going on the right side of the road. Bermuda follows the UK in driving habits. Bermuda has history with ties to the Civil War. I walked into an old building in St. George's, a hotel with a museum on the first floor. That building had been an outpost for goods being supplied to the Confederate Army. Bermuda is 20.6 square miles with a population of 64,700 making it the 9th largest population density in the world. Tucker's town is where the wealthy reside. There is a lot to see on this island and as we moved along I was in awe of the local flowers and trees that were growing. A day pass was 15 dollars which also includes the ferries. Getting around was very simple and there are express buses and more scenic routes you can travel. I didn't have a lot of time but we were back from the upper end of the island in about 25 minutes.
Tomorrow morning we dock in Fort Lauderdale and then fly home on Saturday. Cruising is many different concepts to people. Some want to meet others, some want to relax and read, some want to learn and see the world around them and learn about other cultures. This was probably my reason with a little of the others thrown in. No matter what we have picked up from the media, or what our early learning institutions taught us there will always be 2 sides to a story. For those who grew up with the vision of Sir Francis Drake and his explorations around North America and his various discoveries he was not a nice man to many Spanish and Portuguese villages as he looted and killed many people. One of our passengers gave a very interesting talk about the 1967-1968 seizure of the USS Pueblo by the North Koreans and what really happened. He was the navigator on that ship and also was imprisoned by them along with the rest of the crew. For those who have never cruised build up to it by taking a short cruise. Cruises are excellent value and some can be purchased for under 100 dollars a day. Considering room, food, travel, entertainment, hot tubs and pools for that price I would suggest that one should try it.
Anyone wishing more information I can be reached at thowe@shaw.ca . In the subject box please state blog content as I do not open mail from those I do not know. Meanwhile get out and travel and see what a glorious world we share with one another, the animals, the flora, and the starry skies. HAPPY CRUISING!

Atlantic Ocean heading WEST

May 5, 2013 - Today I want to focus on our two days in Barcelona, Spain though Prinsendam is docked in Cadiz. The monetary concerns are barely seen in Barcelona as construction carries on and stores are full of people. Visitors continue to pour into this city and buy beautiful leather and porcelain items. Lots of work is being done on restoring many old churches and museums. The first day there I needed to take a tour of the city. The tour started by taking us to Vilana Hill which held many venues for the 1992 Olympics. A funicular runs up the hill to the Collserola Tower which was designed by an English architect named Norman Foster. The tower is the tallest in the city at 1,000 feet and allows a view on a clear day of the Pyrennees Mountains which make a natural boundary between Spain and France. There are 70 museums, 3 universities and 16 parks serving 3 million people who call Barcelona and the surrounding area their home. Interestingly Barcelona has an el bicing network which is seen along main streets. It maintains 100 bicycle stations throughout the metropolitan area. Rental is free for the first 30 minutes and then a few euros per hour after that with a small registration fee. We saw many Hop On and Hop Off buses around the town and one route stopped right outside the port terminal. Barcelona is probably the most avant garde city in the world. The vibrant, colorful districts draw all kinds of artisans to it. Some famous artists are Picasso, Milo, Dali, and Casals but the favorite of the residents is Antonio Gaudi. Not knowing a lot about hiI found many of his projects almost overdone. Casa Mila was Gaudi's home but his obsession was the Holy Family Cathedral. Gaudi did not plan for it to be a church when it started construction in 1882. He designed it and knew all the intricacies of the plan while no one else knew exactly what it was to look like in the end. Well in 1926 he was hit by a bus and died so construction came to a halt. It wasn't until the 1980s that the plans were found among his posessions. Today the inside of the church is finished with stone, iron and ceramics allowing the natural light from above to reflect. The entrance fee is 14.8 euros and up to 25,000 people per day have passed through it. Outside it has 12 spires representing the 12 apostles and then there are 4 smaller ones representing the 4 gospels. The fee is used on the construction and the maintanence of the church. Two years ago bull fighting was outlawed by Barcelona so the arena is now used as a large shopping area with restaurants and coffee bars. Another famous store in Barcelona is Stella McCartney clothing store whose highend stores are found all over Europe. Navarios Flower Shop opened in 1937 and has never been closed. It is open 24 hours 365/366 days a year and is in the old section of town. Barcelona is a vibrant and colorful town with great restaurants and the Catalunyan culture. You can almost see the people as they dance down the street. Barcelonian women seem to be very classy dressers when leaving home. Barcelona gets about 3.8 million visitors a year. Barcelona has its nature that is beautiful with sub tropical plants. We saw dolphins and a brides whale and migrating birds that hitch rides on cruise and cargo ships across the Mediterranean. No rain and what nice temperature we had.
Cadiz is located on the southwest coast of Spain on the Atlantic Ocean. It is so much smaller than Barcelona but very beautiful. The area was first known to be inhabited in 1100 BC. It was a trade and commercial port for north south ships. In 1596 Francis Drake totally destroyed the city and those that escaped wondered if they should return or not. They did and built a wall around the new city in 1598. The city stayed within the walls until the 1960s when development came in the form of new hotel complexes. Today one can see the colonial influence on the city. Cadiz has 40% unemployment compared to the federal amount of 26-27%. There are 180,000 residents and another 20,000 in the surrounding area. Our guide spoke a lot about how the EU has affected their lives. Her husband was laid off from a metal working job and got hired as a bus driver and today was to be his last day doing that. I felt for her and her husband. The city has a number of unfinished projects due to the downturn in the economy. There are buildings left unfinished and a bridge is partway erected. One happy thing she said was that the mayor is a very strong, opinionated woman who has no problem with telling it like it is. You graffiti a building and you are up at 6 am on a weekend cleaning. There are no graffitti pictures on any building. The beaches are cleaned daily in winter and twice daily in the summer. The streets are cleaned nightly with a wash. It is Sunday today and I saon herbs and combinations and what they do for you..w no less than a dozen people sweeping sidewalks and gutters and picking up litter on the beach. We took a tour of Cadiz and continued to Jerez where we visited a sherry making establishment. Years ago the property had been a religious establishment and some of the rooms are still intact but additions have been added to create the sherry plant. I have been impressed with the Spanish and their concern for the environment and the pride they take in looking after their city and making visitors welcome. Mez spent the day in Seville and saw Our Lady of the Holy See. He spoke of the elaborate angels and an old robe of some king which hung in the entrance of the church. The brocade design on this 1000 year old robe was impressive. Many of the buildings here in Spain have structures that mix Gothic, Moorish and Baroque art and for those who are well-versed in architectural design one can almost see the eras that they were built. Jerez is home to the Andalusian horse fair which is due to open tomorrow and so we drove by the area where the fair takes place.
May 6 and 7 have been days at sea and though they give us some relaxing time there is always activities to keep you busy. We have just started a program Dancing With the Stars at Sea and today was a foxtrot competition. It was fun to watch. We have also had very interesting speakers. Danny Catt from BCIT has been on board teaching us about photography and how to use our cameras and take interesting pictures. He also gave a lecture on whales and dolphins. Peter Watson is a retired professor from Carlton University and was in the Department of Physics. He continues to teach and do research and is giving us a group of lectures on astronomy. He is doing a historical synopsis of astronomy through the ages. There are health seminars that I have attended- one on herbs and their affect on the body. Jane A Gorden is on board teaching pearl stringing and I have been having fun watching fellow passengers design necklaces with pearls and beads. One couple had bought a necklace for 6 dollars in Morroco and decided to restring it by adding pearls making it astoundingly gorgeous. It was fun to watch them redo it and make it their own. Then there was the night of karaoke and I actually have a fan base here on ship, not a lot but what fun we all had. The casino is a big item for some but I just walk through and watch. One movie is shown 3 times per day in the theater and then the following day on the TV. Then I decided to see what Skydrive can do as there is no compatability issue with it. It was given in the Microsoft workshop. Tomorrow we will be in Ponta Delgada in the Azores. Currently we have plans to dock at 8 AM and we will leave tomorrow night at just before midnight. Cruising is an adventure and we have a ship mechanical problem that hopefully will be fixed by tomorrow night but our midnight departure will allow us to see more of Sao Migual which is the largest of the nine islands of the Azores. I will be heading up to see Sete Cidades Crater Lake in the morning and if time allows I will head off on my own in the afternoon. After Ponta Delgada our plans carry us to Horta, Portugal and after a few days to Bermuda. I will probably send my last post of the last three ports when I arrive in Fort Lauderdale on May 17.

Heading West - toward home

April 29, 2013- It is late afternoon and I have returned from a day in Rome. Our ship is docked in Civitavecchia at the Port of Michaelangelo. Civitavecchia has about 500,000 people. (The port is a powerful maritime engine that fuels Rome's Lazio region.*) Today there are 5 cruise ships in the port and there are also commercial freighters that are loading and unloading. The train station is about a 20 minute walk along the seaside promenade. The ride into Rome took about 60 minutes and the traffic did not seem congested. Once there I was blown away by the buildings and the areas that are preserved from milleniums ago. The Vatican was very busy but our tour did not include a walk through it. I did take some pictures of it and we had a nice lunch across the street from it. The Colosseum was the most impressive building to me but at just about every turn a different structure appeared. Our tour was a leisurely drive around Rome except for our lunch and some shopping time. We saw the Roman Forum , various temples to Kings, and an inauguration of the new Italian President on the front stairs of the government building with all the guards dressed in their regal clothing and holding flags. The Circus Maximus sits below the Palatiine Hill and is 664 meters by 123 meters. Efforts to landscape the area have been fruitless as they have not been maintained. The structure was established under the Etruscan kings who transformed the village of Rome into a monumental city. As time passed the Circus Maximus slowly had additions made to it as a new conquering king came into power. It grew from seating 50,000 spectators to almost 250,000 who watched the chariot races. We saw king Hadrian's Mausoleum, the Roman Forum, the window Mussolini used to speak from and St. Peter's Square. We saw where the Baths of Caracalla were and so many other interesting buildings : some have been fixed and maintained while others are still in a destroyed condition. We did not see Trevi Fountain or the Pantheon. We crossed the Tiber River as we entered the historic center of Rome. Rome is the largest city in Italy with 3.5 million people while Italy has about 55 million. I found Rome to be a facinating city with its history easily seen. The Vatican sits on 108 acres west of the Tiber River where about 1000 residents live in an independent nation under the terms of the Laterna Treaty which was signed in 1929 between the Vatican and Mussolini.
* taken from Holland America Brochure
April 30, 2013 is a day in the history of the Netherlands as the queen stepped down and her son took over. We can keep up with all the news here on ship if we choose. Today was a relaxing day as the captain made a decision not to tender into Sardinia. I had a tour of the island and was disappointed to not have seen it. There is no dock for large cruise ships so it meant that tenders would be used. A tender is a small boat used also as a lifeboat if necessary. The swells around Sardinia were about 5 meters or 18 feet which would cause a tender boat to rise and fall some distance making transfers from the ship to the tender quite difficult as people step onto it and since 90% of our current passenger load is over 60 years old the captain decided to not take chances with the safety of the crew or the passengers. Usually on tour days little happens on board so the staff hurried and put together some of the sea day activities so the guests could keep busy. I decided to take a nap and to read a book on Rome that I had purchased yesterday at the Vatican store which sits across the street from the Vatican. Mez had a tour that had taken him to the Sistine Chapel and he saw Michaelangelo's paintings. That chapel was completed in 1484. As with all of the Mediterranean history, conquests, and groups of people come and go and those remaining asimilate into the conquering culture. We have found that English is spoken by many in the tourism industry so I always ask " Do you speak English? ". Some say "no" others say "a little". So you know where you stand. Every annoucement is in English on the ship. Tomorrow we are due to dock in Mahon or Mao on the island of Minorca (or Menorca).
May 1, 2013 we awoke docked in the Port of Mao. Menorca or Minorca is governed under Spain. It is the 2nd largest island of the Balearic Islands located off the southeastern coast of Spain. The island has a permanent population but the summer brings in tourists and visitors. Our day there was wonderful making getting around interesting and it has an esthically pleasing design to the town. Prinsendam was right across the street from a main square where kiosks sat and sellers sold. A set of white stairs went up the hill to the upper part of the town but the road coming down curved around crossing the crosswalks for the stairs. I had not booked a tour but had a great experience riding the train express around the town. I picked it up on the curving street at the bottom of the hill. The train drove on the road but had a clanging bell and a toot-toot horn. For 6 Euros the train went along the beach and then climbed to the older section of town where it stopped to allow us to take pictures. A great female tour host collected the fares and made announcements about Mahon and the various old buildings as we drove by. Many streets are one-way crushed between high walls and old buildings making picture taking a challenge as there was a great deal of shadowing along the narrow streets. Mahon was under British control for most of the 1700s so Georgian architecture still lingers here. Menorca came under Spain in 1802 when the Treat of Ameins was signed between England and Spain. People are most responsive as the train goes by. Some yell "Hola" ( we say "Hi"), others wave and some just watch this train with two coaches drive by. Ferries service the Mediterranean between mainland and the islands. We saw Grimaldi ships at many of the ports. Private yaucts and sailboats are seen here from Norway as the jet setters make their home here in the winter. Menorca is part of the UNESCO World Biosphere Preserve. No fertilizers, contaminents, or pollutants are allowed on the island. They have a large amount of fresh water and they look after the surrounding sea habitat. The ecological system is very delicate that both the land and the sea needs protection. The people are easy going, there seems to be no one in any hurry. I found traffic around the island very peaceful as people stopped and talked to each other as they drove opposite directions. Along the harbour road were many restaurants, stores and places to visit. I enjoyed seeing my traveling companions out and about as I rode the train express. An overnight sailing will take us to Barcelona, Spain where we will be able to spend two days.