Zuiderdam May 12 to July 22: Across the Pond and Beyond

[Dr.Dobro]

Greetings from the Zuiderdam in the North Atlantic! I'm going to take a stab at chronicling our travels here, starting in Fort Lauderdale and circling the British Isles before heading to Norway, Iceland, Greenland and back home to Boston.

A reset is exactly what we needed, and a cruise is a reset (and a recharge) like no other. We had a day to kill in Fort Lauderdale, so we rented a car and headed down to Miami to visit Wynwood Walls, an outdoor art gallery with 80,000 square feet of mural space. There's a lot of street art in the surrounding neighborhood too.

 

 

Wynwood Walls also features sculptures, like this one depicting a handoff of the world to a new generation (here ya go, kid, hope you have better luck than I did with this old orb)...

and an anime-inspired figure that greets you near the entrance.

There are also a few interior galleries, and we were especially taken with the trompe l'oeil mastery of Dutch artist Leon Keer. It was not immediately apparent to us that the box hanging on the wall containing a vase is actually a two-dimensional painting, as the side-view photo illustrates. Just one of many illusions in the exhibit.

 

Keer created the reset button art in the photo up top. It also is two-dimensional, painted on the cement, and Karen and I just stood on the "button." Pretty cool!

 

We were going to do something else in Miami, but the traffic was so oppressive that we lit out for the territories: in this case, the Big Cypress National Preserve.

 

Here there be gators, and some creepy-looking vultures too.

We also got to see a different kind of bird: helicopters carrying slurry buckets, scooping up water to dump on a nearby forest fire. Not *too* nearby, thankfully.

We headed back to Fort Lauderdale via Alligator Alley, a road that always sang out to me from maps. Nowhere near as exciting as the name suggests. After a terrific dinner at a Cuban restaurant (Padrino's), it was back to the hotel to rest up for the rigors of boarding the next morning. Not to mention six sea days to get started.

All for now.

 

[sunviking90]

Thank you for doing this report. I love it so far. Art and nature! Nice to see people doing things off the beaten track.

you may want to change your title to “May” though. I started reading thinking you had hopped onto the world cruise somewhere.

[Dr.Dobro]

2 hours ago, sunviking90 said:

 

you may want to change your title to “May” though. 

Yes, May 12 is correct. Too late for me to edit, but I have asked the mods to fix it. Thanks.

[oakridger]

I agree that it is very interesting to me to see the art area you visited.  I'd never heard of it! I will definitely get over there next time I'm in Miami!!  Alligators give me the willies though......best to stay away. 😉

 

~Nancy

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Have a great cruise.

[Dr.Dobro]

Our first stop on this journey (after six mostly sunny days crossing the Atlantic) is Praia da Vitoria on the island of Terceira in the Azores.

 

Terceira, barely one-tenth the size of Rhode Island, is one of nine islands that make up this semi-autonomous territory of Portugal. It lies over 1,000 miles from the Portugese mainland.

These islands are the tip-tops of huge undersea mountains, rising almost two miles from the ocean floor. The Azores sit where three great tectonic plates (North American, European and African) rub up against each other, and the resulting volcanic burbling down in the depths gave rise to the islands. The Azores were uninhabited when the seafaring Portugese discovered them around 1450, although there is some inconclusive evidence of Viking settlement around 800 AD. (Interestingly, one piece of evidence is the fact that the DNA of Azorean mice is Scandinavian.)

Terceira is lush and lovely, hilly and green, with farm fields fenced off by stone walls of volcanic rock wrestled from the soil, much as New Englanders had to do. The geometric patterns stand out from the viewpoint atop Serra do Cume. This volcanic rock is everywhere, including construction of barns, paddocks and such.

Azoreans are about 90 percent Roman Catholic, with grand and impressive churches in every town.

The Catholicism here is characterized by a special devotion to the Holy Spirit. This is manifested in the "imperios" -- little chapels, brightly painted, which are the focal point of religious festivals in honor of Espirito Santo held throughout the year, including a spring and summer season when each town takes its turn with a week-long blowout.

We spotted at least 15 of these dollhouse churches on our circuit of Terceira, and I'm sure there are many more.

 

 

The main churches are plenty impressive too. The grand blue church is the Igreja da Misericordia (Church of Mercy), right on the waterfront with a statue of seafarer Vasco da Gama out front. Columbus also stopped here on one of his journeys.

The islanders have created several "piscinas" -- saltwater coastal swimming pools bounded by small breakwaters. Still a little chilly for a dip, but we saw a hardy few doing it.

There are also hot springs on the island, but none have been developed into anything you can soak in. We took a walk through a small area of hissing and spitting fumaroles. Nice to see (not to smell), but certainly no competition for Yellowstone.

We can't get away from helicopters, apparently. We were minding our own business. enjoying a splendid clifftop view, when a Coast Guard helicopter chop-chops its way toward us. It proceeded to dive up and down in front of the cliff face as personnel hung out of the open door. Ptacticing rescue maneuvers, I assume. Nice little unexpected show.

That's all for today.... off to another island tomorrow.

Edited May 22, 2023 by Dr.Dobro
Clarity

[BetsyS.]

Dr. Dobro - Thanks for your great reporting and beautiful pictures! 😊

[0106]

Thank you for your trip report.  How was the crossing? Did you have any guest speakers or cooking shows?

[aliaschief]

Enjoying your cruise reporting. Thanks for sharing.

[arzz]

Hello Dr. Dobro

 

Very happy to hear from you and we are anxious to follow along.  The itinerary sounds wonderful.  The street art in Miami is absolutely fascinating - we were not aware of it and it definitely deserves a visit.  Thanks for sharing.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your journey.

Edited May 23, 2023 by arzz

[Dr.Dobro]

Our second day in the Azores is the city of Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel island. It is the capital of the Azores, but the city has only about 20,000 people.

 

After our car tour of Terceira, we stayed in town this time and enjoyed the sights. The center of the city, with its triple-arched city gate, is the Goncalo Velho Cabral Plaza. It is named for the Portugese monk and explorer credited with claiming the uninhabited island for Portugal, and his statue stands in front of the gates.

Nearby is the Igreja de Sao Jose, whose fairly plain exterior conceals the gilded nave within.

And connected to the square is the city's municipal plaza, where the city hall -- once a palatial private home -- is fronted by a statue of the island's patron saint, St. Michael the Archangel. No

separation of church and state here.

I was taken by the trees sprouting purple leaves in a public park. Maybe these are jacarandas, which we saw in Australia, but I'm no horticulturist. They's pretty, that's all I know.

Speaking of growing things, they have pineapple plantations in the Azores. Who knew?

We walked along a seaside street to the Forte de Sao Bras, a waterfront fort built around 1720 and still an active military installation. You can explore tunnels, view a military museum inside, and climb up on the walls for some nice views.

An Army officer said hello to us and asked us if we were going to the ceremony. What ceremony? Turns out it is Navy Day in Portugal, which explains why the Navy ship parked next to our ship at the pier was fully festooned with flapping flags.

The ceremony is a wreath-laying at a memorial to World War I sailors lost at sea, built into an outside wall of the fort, but the ceremony honors all Navy losses. The wreath was laid by the former (and first) president, Alvaro Monjardino (filling in for the incumbent during an overseas trip) and Ana Luis, president of the legislative assembly who serves as vice president. (No, I am not an authority on Azorean governance, but a friendly TV news reporter filled me in.)

 

Not many tourists stopped to see what was going on as they passed on the street, but one little girl got a photo op after the ceremony with a member of the honor guard.

We capped our town ramble with lattes at a lovely little waterfront coffee shop. Two lattes, total four bucks. I told the waitress that we would have to pay at least $10 in the U.S., and she was shocked. If you go, it's my fault the prices went up. At least for turistas.

 

That'll do for now. Adios, amoebas.
 

[Dr.Dobro]

On 5/22/2023 at 3:47 PM, 0106 said:

How was the crossing? Did you have any guest speakers or cooking shows?

Smooth seas all the way. No cooking shows. Guest speaker Jim McParland spoke well and knowledgeably on astronomy, geology and natural processes; he was sort of an absent-minded professor, but he knew it and played off it well.

 

HAL is also pushing the "Greatest Lecture Series at Sea," which consists of the cruise director (or whatever they call him now) reading canned copy from a teleprompter while he clicks through images and occasional videos on the big screen behind him. It was a smooth presentation, but nothing at all to do with where we were in the world. We went to the first one, about how surfing developed as a sport.

[0106]

51 minutes ago, Dr.Dobro said:

HAL is also pushing the "Greatest Lecture Series at Sea," which consists of the cruise director (or whatever they call him now) reading canned copy from a teleprompter while he clicks through images and occasional videos on the big screen behind him.

And unfortunately, I have seen all of these canned lectures before.

[travelholics]

3 hours ago, Dr.Dobro said:

Smooth seas all the way. No cooking shows. Guest speaker Jim McParland spoke well and knowledgeably on astronomy, geology and natural processes; he was sort of an absent-minded professor, but he knew it and played off it well.

 

HAL is also pushing the "Greatest Lecture Series at Sea," which consists of the cruise director (or whatever they call him now) reading canned copy from a teleprompter while he clicks through images and occasional videos on the big screen behind him. It was a smooth presentation, but nothing at all to do with where we were in the world. We went to the first one, about how surfing developed as a sport.

We are truly envious. Jim McParland was our guest lecturer on our Koningsdam trip to Hawaii and French Polynesia in February and we so enjoyed his lectures and evening star gazing sessions. 

 

Loving your reports, thanks for taking us along.

[Mickb]

Zuiderdam was in Torbay today. Torbay was the safe harbour for several months many HAL ships during the COVID layup. It was lovely to see a HAL liner back in the bay today on a lovely early summer day. She departed about 6pm with 4 long blasts on the horn.

[Dr.Dobro]

After two more days at sea -- the last ones for a while, thankfully -- the emerald shores of Ireland come into view. Our destination today is Cork, the nation's second largest city. We are docked about 10 miles away in the marvelously named but not-so-pretty Ringaskiddy. We were supposed to dock in quaint Cobh, but all we get is this glimpse as we pass by on the way to our assigned berth.

The promised free shuttle buses to Cork were far too few for the passenger load. Lots of griping ensued. But we finally did get to Cork with its fabulous triple-steeple St. Fin Barre's Cathedral.

Construction on this Gothic Revival cathedral started in 1865, but the site has hosted continuous Christian worship for over a thousand years.

Not many churches have gargoyles looming over parishioners, but this one has some beauties, as well as less sinister carvings depicting the familiar icons for the evangelists (the lion for Matthew and so on). 

The principal entrance is inspired by the parable of the bridegroom and the five wise and five foolish virgins. This sent me down a biblical rabbithole to see what this was all about.

The message seems to be that planning ahead is important, but I am left wondering exactly what designs those women had on the bridegroom.

 

Rumor has it there is really spectacular stuff to see inside the cathedral too, but there is an admission price of seven euros per person. Now I'm not cheap -- well, okay, I am, a little -- but I won't pay admission to a house of worship as if I were going to the circus. I'm fine with dropping some money into a donation box, but this rubs me the wrong way.

 

Walking around Cork's city center, we found several other pretty churches popping up all over town.

There are also quirky little treats to savor. I loved seeing a pub named Sober Lane, with the monkeys (speaking of gargoyles) trying their best to ignore the carousing going on within.

This mural, maybe a bit creepy, stood out as well.

But classical art was even more surprising to find, inside the Crawford Gallery, home to a terrific collection of plaster casts of ancient statuary from the Vatican Museum.

These casts were made by sculptor Antonio Canova under a commission from Pope Pius VII in 1816. How the casts arrived in Ireland is quite a tale, too lengthy to relate here. But how fortunate for us that they did.

I remember being very impressed by the original of "Laocoon and His Sons" at the Vatican, and voila, here it is again. What a treat.

I'll leave you with a taste of Irish gastronomy with some of the fine viands to be found at the English Market, probably the city's go-to attraction.

Karen enjoys exploring in sprawling covered markets like this one. I just like ferreting out the weird stuff. I shall endeavor to carry on.

 

[roberts2005]

Sounds like a nice day.  Was it possible to take a taxi instead of waiting for the shuttle.

[Dr.Dobro]

Our next stop is Dunmore East, a picturesque town on the south coast of Ireland with thatch-roofed cottages and a cliff walk with terrific views. We knew that from a previous visit, but today we will be taking a shore excursion to Tipperary and the Rock of Cashel.

Since we started this absurd cruising lifestyle in 2012, we have taken maybe two HAL excursions. They are pretty expensive, and we usually manage to wrangle a do-it-yourself itinerary for much less, with a lot more freedom to do what we please. But the Have It All package includes use-it-or-lose-it credit for excursions, so we put on our stickers -- "dork dots," as legendary poster Whogo calls them -- and got on the bus.

 

It turned out to be a bit of all right. The Rock of Cashel is a limestone bluff atop which the kings of Munster (most of south Ireland) ruled for centuries. It is purportedly the site where St. Patrick baptized the king in the fifth century.

They also say the rock was created when the devil took a bite out of a mountain 20 miles away (the Devil's Bit), broke his teeth and spit it out.

Whatever buildings existed in St. Patrick's day are long gone. The structures there now date "only" to the year 1100 or so, forming one of the most significant medieval centers in Europe.

The immense (and now roofless) cathedral is the largest structure, with towering walls and intriguing carvings.

The oldest part of the complex is the round tower, 92 feet tall and somehow still standing.

Behind the cathedral is a graveyard, full of Celtic crosses. We were surprised to see graves as recent as 10 years, and we learned that only members of certain families with well-established ancestry can be buried there. There are not many left who qualify.

The remains of a relatively modest monastery sit right next door.

On the way back to Dunmore East, we stopped at Cahir Castle, completed in 1142. It sits on an island in the Suir River, so it has a natural moat, right on Main Street.

 

We enjoyed a spirited talk from a castle guide who, along with history, liked to gross out visitors with tales of medieval life. For example: To get the lice and ticks out of the royals' clothing, they would hang the garments over the latrine trenches on a hot day, so the rising ammonia would disinfect them. Whew. Hope they had Febreze.

 

We couldn't help but hum along to "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," one of several traditional songs played on the return bus ride. It's an old music hall tune, describing the homesickness of an Irishman who went to work in London. It became famous as a marching song for Irish soldiers in World War I.

 

But another version emerged among the British troops sent to fight in France. It went like this:

 

That's the wrong way to tickle Mary,
That's the wrong way to kiss!
Don't you know that over here, lad,
They like it best like this!
Hooray pour les Francais!
Farewell, Angleterre!
We didn't know the way to tickle Mary,
But we learned how, over here!
 

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by Dr.Dobro

[Dr.Dobro]

On 5/27/2023 at 5:28 PM, roberts2005 said:

Sounds like a nice day.  Was it possible to take a taxi instead of waiting for the shuttle.

I did see taxis. There is also a Cork city bus with a stop labeled Ringaskiddy Deep Water Port, presumabky right outside the gate. If you google the Cork city transit map you'll see it.

[whogo]

4 hours ago, Dr.Dobro said:

"dork dots," as poster Whogo calls them

Wish I had originated the term. We heard it from fellow cruiser Paula who had an in with the cruise staff. Nothing like finding that the one good photo of you is marred by a bright pink sticker. Dork dots are what photo editing was made for.

[Dr.Dobro]

We have arrived at the Riviera. Well, the English Riviera, anyway. The town of Torquay, on the shores of Torbay, is a Victorian resort town on the Devon coast.

Karen's priority number one for Torquay was seeking out Devon cream tea with gluten-free scones, and her research brought forth a tea shop called Thyme for Tea that met the requisites. Not a scone guy myself -- I usually find them too dry -- but these were so freshly baked that they were just fine. Especially with clotted cream and jam.

We hiked above the western side of the bay toward an outcrop called Hope's Nose.

Along the way, we got fine views of Thatcher Rock, which we had presumed was named for Margaret Thatcher. Actually, its name comes from the rock formation a little downhill from the peak on the right side.. A thatcher was a person who gathered long-cut hay or grass to form thatched roofs, and the formation seems to show a person with a bundle of thatch over his shoulder.

There also seems to be a large ship of some kind anchored out in the bay.

This church has been converted into the Little Theatre, operated by Toads Theatre Company. Seemed fitting that "Nunsense" was being performed there.

Back in town, we saw a plaque memorializing the launching of invasion craft on D-Day, both from Torquay and other towns, some of which we will be visiting.

Still in place are the huge concrete ramps used to launch the boats, now fronted by a marina.

Torquay was the setting for the "Fawlty Towers" BBC series, starring John Cleese of Monty Python fame. The Wikipedia entry on the series includes this amusing info:

 

In May 1970, the Monty Python comedy group stayed at the now demolished Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, Devon while filming on location in Paignton. John Cleese was fascinated with the behaviour of the owner, Donald Sinclair, later describing him as "the rudest man I've ever come across in my life". Among such behaviour by Sinclair was his criticism of Terry Gilliam's "too American" table etiquette and tossing Eric Idle's briefcase out of a window "in case it contained a bomb". Asked why anyone would want to bomb the hotel, Sinclair replied, "We've had a lot of staff problems". Michael Palin states Sinclair "seemed to view us as a colossal inconvenience". Rosemary Harrison, a waitress at the Gleneagles under Sinclair, described him as "bonkers" and lacking in hospitality, deeming him wholly unsuitable for a hotel proprietor. "It was as if he didn't want the guests to be there." Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth stayed on at the hotel after filming, furthering their research of its owner. Demolished in 2015, the building was replaced by a new retirement home named Sachs Lodge in memory of Andrew Sachs, who played Manuel in the sitcom and who died in 2016.

So nothing too exciting today -- a little tea and a nice hike. We'll try for thrills 'n' chills next time.
 

[Sir PMP]

Great reporting, thks.

[oakridger]

I have not had a scone that can compete with the one with gobs of clotted cream and jam on the Isle of Wight!

 

Thanks for the continued excellent pictures and descriptions!

 

~Nancy

Edited June 1, 2023 by oakridger

[Dr.Dobro]

We made our first landfall on the European continent at Le Havre, France, with a plan to rent a car and visit D-Day invasion sites in Normandy.

 

On the way to the beaches, we visited the Memorial de Caen, where we expected to find the story of Operation Overlord laid out in great detail. And we did.

But we found so much more, and for me, this was the most interesting part: a huge and richly illustrated exhibit that explained the rise of fascism in Germany between the world wars. I'll post a few things below.

 

This is a campaign poster from the 1933 federal election. The text reads "Hitler Builds -- Vote for List 1."

The ***' taste for eugenic cleansing is evident in this image produced by Neues Volk, the monthly publication of the Office of Racial Policy, in 1937. It depicts a physician-like figure with a disabled man. The text reads "60,000 Reichsmarks, what this hereditary patient costs the people's community in his lifetime. Fellow citizen, this is your money too."

We have all seen films and photos of the Star of David that Jews were forced to wear, and the striped uniforms of the concentration camps. But despite our familiarity, it is jarring to have the actual items right in your face.

 

This is a plate issued in England to celebrate Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as "The Peacemaker." His peace agreement with Hitler in 1938 was initially popular in Britain and France, but we all know how that turned out.

These is a fascinating collection of propaganda posters, including this Japanese depiction of FDR as some kind of ghoul.

And here's FDR with his henchman, Churchill, dishing out gangster-style violence to Europe.

I failed to note the source of this image, probably just after Pearl Harbor, showing a stereotyped Japanese stabbing an American cowboy in the back, while Hitler and Mussolini yuk it up. Given the fact that the American is also a stereotype, could it be British?

The museum is built atop long tunnels actually used by the Germans as a command post for defenses along the nearby Normandy coast, part of Hitler's "Atlantic Wall." Those are open to visitors too.

 

We continued on to Colleville-sur-Mer and Omaha Beach, a principal landing site for American troops. I have read that the hard-to-watch opening scenes of "Saving Private Ryan" give a pretty accurate picture, but it's hard to fathom that such carnage occurred in such a peaceful, idyllic place. It also struck me that the distance from the surf to the fortified bluffs is much shorter than I had imagined.

Overlooking the beach is the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, where 9,388 troops were laid to rest, including two sons of Theodore Roosevelt. The grave markers (with a cross or star of David) are laid out in precise geometric rows, stretching into the distance.

The memorial includes the statue "The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves."

And behind the statue is the Wall of the Missing, where the alphabetized names of 1,557 servicemen known to have taken part in the invasion are listed. Many of them were surely buried in the cemetery under stones identifying just "A Comrade in Arms Known But to God."

Even in the most solemn of places, you can find a little humor. The cemetery is kept in immaculate condition, and it's easy to see why: this work crew includes two guys with tools and five apparent supervisors. Some things are universal!

And that's our report on a fascinating and educational day. Will write again soon.

[Dr.Dobro]

Hmm, interesting: apparently Cruise Critic does not allow posting the commonly used name for the National Socialists. But it is their taste for eugenic cleansing I was talking about.