sailingdutchy

I did not have a chance today to spend a lot of time on reading the Daily . Missed showing you all my nice pictures from our cruise on the Volendam in 2017 . Semarang is one of the nicest Ports we have visited going to the Borobudur Temple and seeing a lot of the Indonesian life and culture going to and from that beautiful place . Thank you for all the Daily info . Take care Tony

We had our cruise to Antarctica on the Zaandam in January of 2015 from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires and had one of the calmest passages of Cape Horn than went completely around the Cape from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean and back . Cape Horn is well known of very stormy seas first described by the early discoverers and the Cape was named by navigator Willem Schouten in 1616 after his hometown in the Netherlands . He named it “Kaap Hoorn “ after Hoorn in the province of North Holland . Captain Cook also managed to circumvent Cape Horn about 150 years later . Our Captain PJ van Maurik reported the weather that noon being 8C ( or for Americans 46 F ) , clear skies with winds from North West at 21 knots . See here how we tracked that day and some more familiar pictures of the small Island and in a way the shape of the Island is like the shape of a horn. Our friend from The Netherlands took this gorgeous picture ! The monument on Cape Horn , the “ Albatross Monument “ made by the Chilean sculpture Jose Balcells featuring the silhouette of an Albatross in honour of the many sailors who have died while attempting to ‘round the Horn ‘ is 24 feet high had been heavily damaged by one of these storms , when we passed Chilean Navy approaching the Zaandam on an exorcise manoeuvre . Gorgeous sunset that evening and now on our way to Antarctica . Tony

@bennybearWe have not seen ours yet , waiting for them ! Where in Ontario ( we are in London )

That's very nice John from Douwe , we will look him up for sure in the Pinnacle Grill and look forward to a Free "kopje koffie" / cup of coffee at the Grand Dutch Cafe . ( It's the best "Cup of Joe " on board ship ! ). Have a few more very nice days on board ship , love reading your blog ! Cheers, Tony

Bon Voyage Rich with your trip around the world , something I often dream about ! Awesome that you received an upgrade to a verandah.

More than likely the main reason for the crew being understaffed for the 2 or 3 Holiday cruises which are 100 % fully booked and loaded with kids is that cruises pre and post Holidays are or will only be 70 % booked to capacity. The numbers for our Hawaii cruise certainly look to be in that range. It would be near impossible to increase crew just for a couple of weeks during Holiday Time .

LOL you are right John I was a day off we will be Friday in San Diego very close to the pier and visit the Midway than on Saturday we can walk to the terminal . Sorry I will not be able to meet up with you this time BTW if you are going to the PG again would you mind asking if this is the same Douwe ..........this from the K'dam in 2019. We had some fun than in the Grand Dutch Cafe with him . Love your blog Tony

Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar @Copper10-8 Maria en John onze Beste Wensen ! I enjoy your Blog and the many nice pictures you are posting . We will be on the Koningsdam next Friday so it is great to hear who is all on board and what is going on ,will you still be on board for the next cruise ? Tony

Thank you very much @rafinmdand everybody else for the good wishes . We are looking forward to this cruise and the nice warm weather . Let the Adventure Begin .......Happy New Year !

We visited Akaroa in April of 2013 while cruising from Auckland , New Zealand to Sydney , Australia and ending up in Vancouver , Canada on the Oosterdam . Due to the major earthquake that destroyed large parts of Christchurch and the facilities in that port Akaroa was used to take tours from there to go to Christchurch . Akaroa as named by the Maoris was than also called Port Louis Philippe by a large group of French settlers that arrived than. There still is a strong French influence, current population of 780 . The drive from Akaroa to Christchurch ( about 50 miles ) is through a beautiful mountainous area. Will try to find a number of pictures without to many names and dates of our tour. It is a tender port . Driving to Christchurch Large school in Christchurch Some of the destruction in the city , Cathedral , and apartment buildings Start of some new rebuilding in Christchurch Monument made out of destructed steel beams Clean up Returning to Akaroa through suburbian Christchurch Akaroa DW whispering something to the artist who was busy painting my portrait ……….. Back on board the Oosterdam after a very nice tour in a beautiful area . Tony

We have been in Split a good number of times , have toured the city and surrounding area always with our wonderful guide and good friend Ante Batarelo . Last September while cruising on the Oosterdam in the Adriatic Ante suggested a day going through the mountains South of Split through the St Jure Tunnel to the impressive Biokovo Mountains to the Nature Parkland where they just finished building a new Skywalk with a glass floor about 1260 mtr above sea level to have a good view of the Islands Hvar and Brac . It was too bad it was a little bit cloudy. Medieval chapel overlooking the Cetina Canyon A good number of people held on to the railing on the sides but I don’t know if that would have helped them IF …….. From there the tour went back towards Split along the coast seeing a number of small historical towns like Makarska and Omis In Zrnovnica we had another very nice stop for a delicious Croatian Tasting Lunch to the sounds of rushing waters , of coarse including Croation wine and schnapps to toast our guide and the people at the Antonicin Mlin ( A Game of Thrones Filming Location ! ) before returning to Split after a great day . A wonderful day was had by all , see you next time Ante …….. Tony

We were on a very nice walking tour on our second day in Bordeaux that Jacqui @kazu had organized and I saw a lot of pictures from that tour already today so will only add a few that I don’t think I have seen yet from us. Leaving Bordeaux going through the nice estuary of the Garonne and the Gironde out to sea while having a special dinner what else can you ask for ? Je t'aime Bordeaux ! Those were the days ……on the beautiful Elegant Prinsendam ! Tony

On our wonderful 39 day Prinsendam cruise from Lisbon to Amsterdam we had an overnight in Bordeaux on May 2 and 3 2019 . The first day we first did a very nice wine country tour to St Emillion . Our arrival to almost the city centre of Bordeaux Celebrating our 50th at a winery and getting an extra glass from our tour guide ! Back in Port we met up with a couple of old friends native to Bordeaux whom we had met in Canada who invited us for a nice dinner at their place . They both are English professors at the University of Bordeaux After a nice dinner , some more wine they took us back walking and by tram late at night to the Prinsendam , it was wonderful to see them again after many years . Tony

............and you just had to show that after my snow storm story and pictures ............jealous !

Few pictures of when we were in Wellington , New Zealand in April 2013 on the Oosterdam and toured the city on our own to the wonderful Te Papa museum where we spend a few hours to learn a lot about New Zealand and than we took the Cable Car up to one of the large hills in the city to walk back down through the beautiful Botanical Gardens We had a very nice day and would love to go there again soon ! Tony

Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukah to all members of the Daily Family ! We are save and sound at home with all the major highways around us still closed so our DD and family for the next few days at least will still be obstructed from crossing the border in Buffalo . So sad that this had to happen after 2 years of Covid restrictions we might not see DD’s family again for these Holidays . Also hope we will get a break in a few days so we will be able to fly to San Diego after the New Year Tony

Thanks very much John ( Jan ) @Copper10-8 for your pictures and explanation of the ship we had seen a couple of times now , I did not know there were so many of those in service but it makes sense after what you told us . Prettige Kerstdagen en een Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar ! Ton

BTW when we were in Key West in 2018 we saw this very strange , unmarked ship it looks like a huge catamaran and from what people told us it belongs to the US Navy . Than when we were on the Oosterdam a couple of months ago we saw it again in one of the ports in Europe , I believe it was in Italy again away from where we could have a good look at IT up close. Maybe @Copper10-8 or someone else of our CC family can tell us more what this is and what it is used for . Tony

Thank you Roy @rafinmd for keeping todays edition of the Daily going very much appreciated! And a very good morning to all from a very blistery SW Ontario we might have to built an igloo to stay warm , thank you for the Daily to all of the contributors . Just a couple of pictures today from me from when we were in Key West on one of my favourite ships the Rotterdam VI on April 9 , 2018 . We have see this act in a few other places in the US and I have to think back to 1945 everytime I see this. Have a very nice day everybody , have to put another log on the fire to keep DW comfortable . Also hoping that everything will go down to normal so we can fly to San Diego in a couple of weeks to defrost on the Koningsdam ! Tony 😃

A rerun today of last years pictures of the wonderful tour we had on Hakodate with Smile Taxi ! ( Thanks @StLouisCruisers for the prompt. Because we are busy today getting ready for the storm ) We had the pleasure to get to Hakodate while on the Transition Cruise on the Volendam on Oct 11th , 2017 , the weather was a little bit windy and the day started of with some rain but we had a wonderful tour with 8 of us in a “ Smile Jumbo Taxi “ with our driver /guide Hideo . Like I said the day started quite rainy and windy but our driver had umbrellas for each of us on board , notice the white gloves that Hideo wore all day and he had nice clean and ironed white head covers on our seats in the taxi . And with a very nice personal welcome from the company . We first went up the mountain near Hakodate to the National park to have a great view over the city and walked over to the Gokoku Shrine where some special ceremonies were going on . From there we drove to the very top on the mountain to the Ropeway Sorry not as nice a view as on the picture I noticed earlier today .......... We watched a very good film at the theatre there about the history of the city , had a snack and most of the ladies because of all the rain had to go and deal with the special WC for which you really needed a drivers licence and Japanese sign language ……….. but they were impeccably clean We than left to have a walk though the Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse with all kind of small specialty stores Even upside down you can see the beautiful swords ........lol After a nice little lunch , with some nice Ramen Soup in a small port we than drove to the Hakodate Magistrate’ s Office the “ Bugyosho “ in the Goryokaku Park , we toured that building and learned about the special construction of it After the Bugyosho we went to visit the gardens of the Catholic Trappistine Monasteries a Convent founded by 8 French nuns , most of the buildings were reconstructed in 1927 . After visiting a couple more small parks and the Old British Consulate it was time to get back to the Volendam Despite it raining for most of the day and very few people able to speak English we all had a fantastic day , and hardly noticed the rain anymore after a while Greetings from Japan ! Tony Sorry about the length of my post but I wanted to show that after long searching there are a few scarce nice independant tours available even with the lag of English speakers and this was a wonderful tour , we saw an awful lot that day !

Thank you very much for that information @Gail & Marty sailing away . One of the main reasons of me raising this question was to see if anybody had seen or met the captain and also if by chance somebody from the company is reading the CC posts to shake them up a little bit . In our eyes Captain Albert is a very large asset to the company who should not just disappear , the excuse of not being able to get a visa due to Covid restrictions is getting very old and unbelievable . Hopefully the Captain will also be on the 150 Anniversary of the Company in April , which I was going to ask him about on his blog . Thanks all for your reactions ! Tony

We have often followed Captain Albert's Blog specially around the time with the newbuilts of the Koningsdam and the Nieuw Statendam he is a very fine story teller and kept us up to date . We have also met him a few times on the Premier Voyages of these two ships and even had a wonderful dinner one night with him in the Tamarind with our friends . Captain Albert is for us THE historian of the Holland America Line who also had fantastic presentations with lots and lots of slides and great stories on the World Stage to a full house with people sitting on the stairs and standing in the back. To Holland America he also was very valuable and went around the fleet training the crew in safety for passengers and crew. He has written and co written a number of books Since the Covid break he was at home in England while updating special events and also the schedules of the Captains of the Companies fleet . For the last couple of weeks I have not been able to find his Blog which was separate but still part of the HAL blog. I sure hope this is not another cost cutting measure , that would be a great loss to Holland America and to us the passengers who are interested in the companies history ,and if so that would be a great loss to the HAL in my opinion ! Ourselves we were hoping he would be on the Rotterdam celebrating with us the 150th Anniversary in April. Tony

@Copper10-8 Our youngest grandchild when her mom wasn't looking for a while ,she found the Nutella .............. doesn't she look innocent ?

We have done 5 different ones all over the Island , really liked the very West end and also along the North coast , quite a difference in nature to the North West end

Thank you all for the very nice pictures of Funchal , we have explored the Island with the same wonderful guide and friend Daniel Freitas in a small group of 7 or 8 about 5 times and have been from the Eastern tip near Machico all the way to the North Western town of Porto Moniz . The nature of the Island with all of its exotic flora is just amazing very green and I believe the only place in Europe that grows lots of bananas . The four times we have been there we went to different areas so I have lots of pictures but will try to keep it to a "minimum " on this post . Some of our favorite places to visit were , the Mercado in Funchal , Porto Moniz , Santana , Sao Vicente , Machico and Camara de Lobos ( and on the way back to the ship don't forget to have a few sips of the special Madeira drink Poncha and visit the Henriques & Henriques Madeira winery ) Tony 😀 Our friend and best guide on Madeira , Daniel Freitas ! On the glass walkway high above the cliff They say these babies taste delicious , I have to get over those teeth first before I try them The special drink in Madeira , Poncha ...... At the end of our tours we have done the Madeira wine tastings with Daniel at Henriques & Henriques ! And we bought some plus a bottle for Daniel's wife Eusebia Hope I did not praise Daniel too much otherwise he will be too busy when we get there next time .............