Caribbean Islands

July 30^th

Aruba in the Caribbean today.  Booked an excursion that included a drive around the island to several places of significance and an experience in a semi submersible boat (one with a viewing area under water), to look at a ship wreck and the topical fish.

What absolutely beautiful beaches.  Sand is fine and white with turquoise blue green sea the other side.  Small thatched beach huts dot the beaches – just what one dreams of a tropical paradise.

Weather forecast was 28, but with the humidity, it seemed warmer.  When we returned from our excursion we walked into town, but didn’t stay as it was so warm and the shops were all high end designer products though there was a market section of small shops selling tourist souvenirs.

An overnight sail took us to Curacao, the largest of the ABC Islands. Although hot, there was a stronger breeze today and that kept it more pleasant than Aruba.  Island is not as arid, nor probably quite as pretty as Aruba, but still nice to see.  Have learnt how to correctly saw the name of the place too.  It is Cur-ah-sow. With the ‘ah’ being quick and the ‘sow’ being like the pig.  (A bit of useless trivia for you!)

Visited the Hato caves and saw some basic formations and some fruit bats before a walking tour of the old area of town established by the Dutch in the 1700’s.  The house are all attractively painted in many different colours and shades. The old floating pontoon bridge was interesting as it opens by moving like a gate, to allow ships to enter the harbour (as many as 30 times a day).

Makes you feel a bit ignorant when you find out most islanders are fluent in at least three languages.  Dutch is official language, and they are taught English from primary school as well as speaking their own island language and then either French or German later.  Our cave guide did tour in English and Spanish switching to either language mid sentence almost.

 Curacao Floating market

 Aruba Beach

Aruba town

Next Blog

New York was nowhere near as good a stop as it could have been.  Three hours to clear immigration to start with – slow traffic to get anywhere and a departure time of 5:30 didn’t lend itself to too much sightseeing. 

Ron needed a new foil for his razor, so that was a top priority.  Caught taxi to Macys, bought a new shaver cheaper than the foil – if it had been available!  Had a very good lunch for less than $7.  Serves so large, we shared 1 soup and 1 meat & veg. pack.

Ship was berthed next to the aircraft carrier Intrepid, which is now a museum (space memorabilia included), but we were too late to visit.

As we departed the city, we had good views of Manhattan area, including the new Freedom tower on the twin towers site, and also the Statue of Liberty.  We had sailed by the statue about 5:15 am as we came up the Hudson River, and had some nice photos of it in the dawn light, but still nice to see it in full daylight. 

We had booked a trip to Liberty Island and Ellis Island, but this was changed because Ellis Island had been badly damaged in the cyclone earlier this year.  Since we didn’t want to spend 2 hours in the gift shop on Liberty Island instead, we cancelled the trip.

Headed off towards the Caribbean, only to hear that a tropical cyclone was forming where we were headed.  Change of plans and port followed.  Sailing path altered and Antigua cancelled and replaced with Aruba.  Haven’t been to either so didn’t fuss us much at all.  

Saw an excellent show the other night with marionettes.  Extremely good and very cleverly done.  Some of the puppets were operated with 8 strings, others up to 16 and apparently tonight we see one with 32 strings.  Lots of strings for one person to get tangled, but that did not happen. 

Manage to spend a bit of time playing 500 and have been attending the “raw beginners” bridge lessons.  Have actually learnt a lot playing both. Watch out our card partners!!

 Statue in the early morning

Freedom tower dwarfs surroundings

New Jersey skyline early dawn

Photos following last blog - internet too slow last time
Windturbines as we are entering Copenhagen harbour - good place for them
and A view of one of the canals in the city centre

Windmill in Rotterdam and the narrow houses

Troll in Oslo - lots of trolls around in streets and shops and a photo from ship as we are approaching the harbour

Torshavn, through the fog.  Picture is clearer than it actually was as filter on camera  improved view

At Sea

On our last night in Dover we had an intruder in our room.  Woke up and heard a noise in the bathroom but when Ron checked, he couldn’t see anything.  In the morning we discovered Ron’s toothbrush on the outside window ledge and the dental floss sticks.  A bird, probably a gull as there are many around, had decided to do some thieving.  Guess the noise we heard was the toothbrush on its way out the window.

 Boarded the Sea Princess on Friday afternoon and unpacked.  Not sure how the contents of our cases can also manage to fill all wardrobes and drawers in our room.  Where did it all fit!  Trouble is – it has to go back in the cases again (but not for a little while).

In Rotterdam we had a tour out to the Windmills of Kinderdjik. These are the traditional mills we see in photos, but their purpose was to drain the fields, not mill grain.  There are 19 of them and it is now a National Heritage site.  Saw some very narrow houses in the old Delfhaven area.  Apparently they were taxed on the width of the house so this was kept small but the houses are quite deep to compensate.

  

In Copenhagen we visited the Little Mermaid again and had a bus trip around the city.  Sightseeing buses had free wifi but was fairly patchy, only managed to clear the junk from emails without sending anything.

Not good internet access in this area, so including a few ports.  In Oslo we went  for a trip to the Viking museum and saw three long boats from around 800AD.  Two had been restored, one was as found.  Huge number of burial gifts, beautifully carved were found in the burial mounds with these ships.  Went to the Holmenkollen ski jump to see scenic views of city before going to the Vigeland Sculpture Park.  Over 200 statues, all except one ‘au natural’ depicting the Circle of Life.  Wonderfully made in great detail.  Most were bronze casts, but the central monolith display was marble.  This was completed after Vigeland’s death following plaster casts he had made. 

No port stop for Faroe Islands because the weather was unfavourable.  Had travelled through fog for some time and the wind was coming from the wrong direction to make berthing easy and widened the turning circle of the ship.  Now on a seven sea days to New York.

Dover Castle

 Dover Castle dominates the skyline when you look up from the town

From the top of Henry IIs Great Tower, you can see the Church of St Mary-in-Castro and the Roman Pharos (lighthouse).  This is all inside the castle battlements.

Thursday

Today we have walked our feet off I think.  Up to town to leave the washing at laundromat for a service wash before taking a taxi up to Dover Castle.  We did think of walking, but I decided that I would rather ride.  Thank goodness!  It was a steep winding road and quite a distance - a good half hour walk we were told and all uphill!!  A very interesting castle with a very long story.  Went down into the underground tunnels and had a sound and light type presentation of Dunkirk.
As part of our hotel package deal, we had a cream afternoon tea - scones, jam and cream, very beautifully presented on a two tiered plate.  Too much really for afternoon tea, but it was very nice.
Suitcases to repack tonight for almost the last time for our holiday.  gosh I like that aspect of cruising.

10th July

Left London today and caught high speed train to Dover.  (Took a photo of train for Jay)  Hotel is nice and right on the sea front, not that it is any comparison to our beaches – all small rocks. Saw some people ‘sunning’ themselves and preparing for a swim.  Didn’t actually see them go in though. 

Weather has changed and had a few spots of light misty rain, but still not that cool.  It is really nice to feel some fresh cool air.  Have noticed before that it is not always that easy to get room windows open, and of course in London, there was no cool breeze anyway as it was so warm.

Tomorrow we are going up to Dover castle.  It dominates the skyline of the town.  Not sure about walking up there, wonder if there is some form of transport?

Tuesday 9th July

Last full day in London.  More shopping for 'bare essentials' before going to theatre to see matinee performance of Jersey Boys.  We bought half price tickets and got front row seats in the dress circle. Enjoyed the show and the music.  Tomorrow we are off to Dover by high speed train.  Decided that it would be a bit more comfortable than a stop start bus trip and cheaper than a private transfer!

Sunday 7th July

Arrived in Dubai after a little eventful hiccup.  Found out Friday that Visa PIN wouldn't work and problem couldn't be fixed over phone.  Needed to get to Adelaide by 12 to sort this out.  Made it with about half an hour to spare.  Visa fixed and off to have lunch with Tish and girls for Cassie's 17th birthday.  She passed her driver's test that morning so will now move up to being a 'P' plater.
From there, to Mark's where we helped Connor celebrate his 8h birthday (a little early), before he and Tatum flew back to Brisbane on Sunday morning.