Mtn2Sea

We were in Arhus, today’s port of the day, last month while on the Zuiderdam. We choose a tour outside the city that took us to Gammel Estrup Manor house, the oldest parts of which originated around 1490. The Skeel family owned the house for over 600 years until it was sold in 1926. Today the house is a museum. As part of the tour, we had coffee/tea and a piece of cake that was made from a recipe written down by a housemaid in the early 1900’s. We then went to Rosenholm Castle, which originated as a manor house. A section of the house still serves as a part time residence for the owners.

On our last visit to Oslo, our port of the day, was on the Zuiderdam in 2023. We visited three museums that were conveniently located next to each other. The first was the Norwegian Maritime Museum, which has a dugout canoe that’s estimated to be 1200 years old. Other smaller boats were also on display. The next museum was the Fram Museum, which showcases the Norwegians polar explorers. We were able to board the Fram, which is a three masted schooner. This 128’ boat, which was used from 1893 to 1912 in the exploration of both the north and south poles, was most notably used by Roald Amundsen in his quest to be the first man to reach the South Pole. The next museum was the Kon Tiki Museum that honors Thor Heyerdahl, who led the expedition in 1947 where they sailed the Kon Tiki, a balsa wood raft, 5000 miles from South America to French Polynesia.

It’s been quite a day. We originally had a 2:52 flight. Talked to several people regarding whether we could make that flight and got conflicting advice. After talking with a shore excursions person, we decided to reschedule to a 5:30 flight. We had a Cunard bus transfer and would most likely have been too late for the flight, unless it was running late. The bus driver stopped a couple of times to ask security personnel for directions! When we started self check in, we immediately got a notice that our flight was delayed. Since we only had a 45 minute layover, we chose to check in with an agent. After first saying we would have a connection problem, she then said we had lucked out because the second leg of our flight was also 30 minutes late. We’re sitting at the gate hoping everything works out!

We’ve been to Zeebrugge three times and have enjoyed each visit. On our first visit we took a tour to Ghent and on the second visit we toured Bruge. Our last visit was three weeks ago. We took a half day tour that first took us to the small village of Damme, which is within the province of West Flanders. We walked down the Main Street to the Church of Our Lady, where construction began in 1225. The tower, which once had a spire, was finished during the 14th century. During the 16th century the church had financial troubles and part of the building was demolished. We next traveled to the Castle of Loppem, which was constructed between 1859 and 1862, and is considered a masterpiece of Gothic Revival architecture. Of course our last stop was at a chocolate shop, where samples were readily available.

Unfortunately no. We leave Saturday and fly to Southampton where we’ll board Cunard on Sunday for our return to the states

Tonight’s sunset from the Zuiderdam.

Tonight’s sunset from the Zuiderdam.

Zuiderdam leaving Aarhus, Denmark this afternoon. Aarhus-compressed.mov

Tonight’s sunset from the Zuiderdam.

Zuiderdam leaving Coby, Ireland today. Brief rainstorm right before departure. Conn Departure .mov

That’s my understanding of what he said. I was told if my gift card was greater than my bill, I should wait until the very end of the cruise so they could transfer just what I owed from the card to my onboard account. Because I know I will spend more than what I have on my two cards and it was late, I didn’t ask any follow-up questions.

I’m currently on the Zuiderdam and I went to Guest Services last night for a couple of things, including giving them gift card information regarding two AARP gift cards. I was advised I should wait because, if I have more money credited to my account from the gift cards than I spend, the balance would be non refundable. I thought that I was refunded a balance to my credit card on my August 2022 cruise (on that cruise I had onboard credits from several other sources, but they were less than what was credited to my credit card). I know I’ve never been given this advice when presenting gift cards to Guest Services. Anyone have experience with this situation?

Zuiderdam leaving from Port Everglades today for its transatlantic voyage. GH010698.mov

We visited Scarborough, Tobago, this past February while on the Zaandam where we took a ship excursion which consisted of an overview of the island. We stopped at two small forts that went back and forth between the British and the French a few hundred years ago. We ended the tour with a folkloric show that featured a steel drum player and several dancers. GX010628.mp4

Please let me extend my deepest condolences. While no words are even remotely adequate, I do hope your memories of better days bring you some comfort.

Really enjoying your review! So sorry to hear about your accident, but glad you’ll still be able to visit Keukenhof Gardens. We were there on April 18 last year and they were beautiful.

We’ve only been to Sydney once. Because none of the ship’s excursions appealed to us, we decided to just walk around some of the town. We visited two old houses and two old churches before eating lunch at a waterside restaurant. For us, the stop in Sydney was low key, but nevertheless enjoyable.

Thanks for taking the time to write such a wonderful review with great photos!

We docked in Cobh last May while aboard the Zuiderdam and took an excursion to the City of Waterford, where we visited the Waterford Visitor Center, which has a showroom as well as a small production line. The factory itself closed in 2009 and most Waterford crystal is now produced in other countries. After our tour seeing how the crystal is produced, we had lunch in a nearby hotel. On the way back to Cobh, we had a brief photo shoot of the Lismore Castle. A couple of photos showing the beginning stages of the crystal production. Two photos from the city of Waterford. Two photos from the bus ride to Waterford. Lismore Castle Two photos from Cobh.

I’m late posting today. We got home last night from our Amazon Explorer to find an industrial dehumidifier and numerous commercial fans in our condo. A water leak occurred in a unit two floors above us. They indicated the equipment will be here until Thursday or Friday. We stopped in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for the day almost exactly five years ago while on the Amsterdam. We took a long excursion to see the elephants at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. Our first stop involved walking down a pedestrian street, which is shared with the elephants, to a river where they bring elephants for their baths. We ate lunch at a very nice hotel before walking back to the main road where the orphanage is located. The word for the day was HOT. The air conditioned bus ride back to the ship was a welcomed relief, provided you didn’t watch all the crazy driving around you. This statue was outside a stationary store.

The Zaandam had an early sailaway from Roseau, Dominica, today. We have one more stop before getting back to Florida. Dominica Sailaway.mov

A year ago this month while on the Zuiderdam, we stopped at today’s port, La Possession, which is located on Reunion Island, a French overseas territory. We took an all day excursion that took us into the interior of the island, which has impressive natural features created by long dormant volcanoes. In addition to seeing magnificent scenery that included numerous waterfalls and steep mountainous terrain, we spent some time in a couple of small villages, Salazie and Hell Bourg, and had lunch in a small hotel with views of the mountains. Our last stop was at the Roulof Vanilla Plantation, which is being run by the fourth generation of the family that established the plantation. Reunion is a beautiful island, except for the traffic.

We stopped at Luderitz, Namibia, a year ago this month while on the Zuiderdam. After going through immigration, we took a boat that went to Halifax Island, which is a small island that in the 1800’s had 400,000 African penguins, but today only has a few thousand. Also on the island were, of all things, flamingos. Although our boat stayed just a little offshore, it was hard to get good pictures since the penguins were pretty small compared to many of the other types of penguins. For a portion of our trip, dolphins accompanied our boat. We also saw a few Cape Fur Seals on the trip to Halifax Island.

GH010640.mp4 We had a nice sail away from Tobago this afternoon.

Zaandam’s early departure today from Sint Maarten was delayed slightly due to a tour bus getting caught up in traffic. Beautiful sail away. My Movie 1.mov