Life in a 30,000 ton cradle...

At sea, in the fog, chilly out and slowly being rocked to sleep over several days.



Not too bad actually. Somehow however I have to get over the fact that it is OK to do virtually nothing. Some people call it a vacation.

People at home are sweltering in 33 C heat, putting eight and more hours in each day while we drift through the day in decadent idleness. I keep expecting my father to walk in and ask me what I accomplished today. I am working very hard to get over this guilt feeling however.

I have come to the conclusion that the gentle rocking of the ship is having an effect on the passengers, most of whom can hardly stay awake. The lecturers even give us permission to nod off during the talks. It seems to me that we have encountered this experience before on longer cruises. However they were long enough for us to get over it and eventually the doziness went away. Unfortunately I cannot recall how long this lasted. Possibly we will be disembarked before we come back to life.

We had an interesting dinner conversation the other night. Our American table mates told of a couple that they know that, prior to going on a cruise, they decided 'who we are going to be this time'. In other words, they masquerade as somebody they are not, and live the part while on that cruise. We were flabbergasted. After we were told of that, I could no longer believe a word the gentleman said. Every time he spoke I burst out in uncontrollable laughter. Eventually we were all in hysterics, except him. The gents wife asked what we would be if we were doing that sort of thing. Ian said he would be a weight-lifter. Well Ian and I are about the same size so we knew where he was going. I said I would be a psychologist , and "tell me about your Mother". Fellette said she would be a Rodeo Queen! It may not sound funny now, but it had us in tears for some time. Think about that concept for a while, I find it mind boggling.

The photos show some of the local flowers and veggies carved up by one of the ships vegetable carvers. That is about the most exciting thing that I have captured in the last couple of days. Not exactly National Geographic material but ones gets what one can.




Some trivia for you.

- 55,000 people live in Greenland, which is really an extension of the Inuit, [formerly Eskimos] who live in northern Canada.

- Canada is separated from Greenland by only 16 miles of water at the northern tip.

- Greenland is the largest Island in the world, [Australia is considered a continent].

- The coastline of Greenland is about 25,000 miles, [the distance around the equator], because of the vast amount of Fiords.

- Fiords are caused by glaciers scouring out a trench as it grinds toward the open water.

- 85% of Greenland is covered by an ice cap that is up to two miles thick.

- If this ice cap melts, the oceans would rise 20 feet.

At this writing it is 11.40 AM, on Friday. We are steaming up a fiord to our port, [anchorage ], for five hours, in the town of Qaqortoq. The name means 'The White Place' in Inuit.

There are no tours here, merely a church and museum that will open up for us when we go ashore. The weather is 10 C, [50 F], and overcast. We feel fortunate to get this far because the last cruise could not get close enough to tender in because of icebergs that blocked the entrance. We intend to bundle up and walk about as long as we are comfortable.

New to us, Saint Anthony, Newfoundland...

A few years ago we were thwarted from visiting Newfoundland while on a trailer trip because of bad weather. Today it could not have been better. The fog lifted, the sun came out and there was no wind, rain or bugs. Yesterday it pelted rain and sleet apparently.

Some background: Vikings gradually immigrated westward from the mainland of Europe, sort of island hopping the northern route, first Britain, the Shetlands, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and next obviously Newfoundland and Labrador. Just out of town from St. Anthony is L'anse aux meadows. The site of the first Viking settlement in North America, established by Lief Ericson, son of Eric the Red, who established Greenland because he was exiled from Iceland. The settlement, established about 1000 years ago, was called Vinland. It was abandoned much later and only rediscovered in the 1960's, now a World Heritage Site.

We took the Viking Trail tour from the ship, two school bus loads of happy cruisers.


Our guide was a Newfie lady, about 40 who had the most delightful accent and laugh. One of the best guides we have had, ever. We bumped along about an hour to a replica reconstructed Viking settlement where people in period costume entertained us in a delightful manner. Even the little kids were great.















All part of Parks Canada's effort to employ people. Today it was worth it. They did an excellent job and we were proud of them. Ian applied for the job as a blacksmith's helper, but failed the language test: He could not speak Newfie!


Next, merely minutes away is the actual remains of the newly discovered settlement. I had my photo taken in the sod-covered remains of lief Ericson's bedroom. [Or so I imagined].


The whole site of about five acres was excavated at one time, but Parks Canada recovered it in sod to keep it intact until modern technology and money catch up with the research that they want to do there. It is very well done as well and there are period re-enactors there as well. We sampled black bear meet cooking in one of the huts, it was actually very much like beef, better than I ever expected.

All too soon it was time to return to town and after a brief wander about we boarded the tenders and returned to our waiting palace. Shortly after that we were under way again, socked in with fog heading for Greenland which is a days sail away [612 nautical miles, north east]. We can feel the Atlantic swells for the first time now.

This is not a place that many people would want to live in. The winters are very long and cold. And the good weather is short and unpredictable. They have an abundance of moose and in the spring polar bears are about. Most young people leave, because it could be considered a dead-end if one stays.

As we pulled out a boatload of ice went by, do you think that is what they make the 'Glacier Water' that is for sale in town out of?


This may not be as exciting as looking for tigers in India or lemur in Madagascar, but is very relaxing and educational.

Halifax and Table Talk...

Halifax: Not your usual tourist destination of choice, unless you like to visit places that are full of history, although not what some would say is glamorous and significant history. As a Canadian I find it fascinating. This is the far east side of Canada with the Atlantic crashing in on it for centuries. It is also in the general area of where the first Europeans came to North America. [1604 I believe]. They happened to be from France and were known as Acadians. It was only a few years ago that we found out that my grandfather was an Acadian, so this is a significant place in our family background.



We have been in a fog bank since leaving New York and that was the situation until we were within 100 meters of the dock. It started to burn off and we actually saw something other than white for the first time. The day got better as the hours passed. Funny, I miss the foghorn!

Interestingly, we changed captains this morning, our Italian captain is off for two months leave, and we have a British captain between here and Dover. On the morning chat from the departing captain, he commented on what he called 'blind pilotage' coming into port. I can only assume that means that he was entirely dependant upon instruments to make his way through Halifax harbour. Hmmm. He also mentioned in the same talk about being in 'Northern Latitudes'. Not the kind of commentary we expected on board a ship called the 'Tahitian Princess'. Particularly when we later visited the Titanic Exhibit and relived the Halifax Explosion of 1917 when a fully loaded munitions ship collided with another ship in the harbour, resulting in what is still the world's largest man-made accidental explosion. I suppose that packing our bathing suits expressed our naivety about this cruise. No fear, all is well.

Great time in Halifax, a very friendly and easy-to-get-around city. Certainly a nautical city, much more than Vancouver. The waterfront area is beautifully restored and a board walk stretches the whole length. There is also a bus called FRED that is a neat feature. FRED means Free Ride Everywhere Downtown. Downtown is a misnomer, it gets you anywhere that is of interest to a day tourist. We did the walk, went to the Victorian Gardens,


were at the Citadel for the 12 noon gun,


then to the Maritime Museum,


and then to Alexander Keith's Brewery for a late lunch. Did you know that Halifax is where Cunard got its start?


We did some window shopping, picked up a couple of bottles of wine and back on board. Nice sailaway to some pipe and drum music and then out into the Atlantic by 5.00 PM. A point of interest from Ian was that the seas are usually calm in fog. The lesser of two evils I suppose.

We had a longer than usual dinner tonight. Our mysterious missing couple have never turned up so we are a table of six. The conversation seemed to go on forever and the laughter became contagious. We have only been the last out of the dining room a couple of times in our life. it is usually a sign of a happy table. Some of us ran for the 10.15 show, one went to the cabin to write the blog.

Wonderful day today. Tomorrow we have a day at sea as we nip around the left side of Newfoundland, heading up north to the tip of that province. The next six ports are by tender, [lifeboats], that is if we are able to get into them, the previous cruise was unable to get ashore in Greenland because of ice.

We also had a flurry of emails to and from our designer for our new home. What did we do before emails and instant communications?

Catching up on ZZZZZ's

Not much exciting happening here folks I must confess. That fits into my plan, we have been somewhat busy at home lately and the last four days have been a bit hectic as well.

First a bit about the weather. Since we sailed from New York over two full days ago we have been in a perpetual fog bank. The visibility has not been over two hundred meters except for a brief period yesterday.


The ships foghorn has used the whole time, but after a while you no longer hear it. The temperature is great outside but cooling off the later part of today as we move slowly north. Nobody is complaining about the weather, as a matter of fact it gives all of us a reason to be lazy. I have done a bit of reading, but the movement of the ship and gentle rocking tends to be conducive to snoozing.

We did attend two talks today, one on Halifax and the other on the development of the Trans-Atlantic passenger liner business. As usual highly educational and well done.

On the dining room front we have an interesting scenario: We are a table for eight, but so far one couple is missing, or at least has not shown for the two evening meals there. The other couple are very pleasant, and that makes for rather long dinners. Fine with me.

Ian and Judy had us over for a pre-dinner drink tonight prior to the captain's Welcome Dinner. [The lobster was great].





After dinner Fellette, Ian and Judy went to 'the show', a song and dance group tonight. Not my cup of tea. So, to the cabin and get into a book on Newfoundland.

Tomorrow at 7 AM we are due to dock at pier 22, near to the historic Pier 21, now a National Historic Site. Pier 2 was where the immigrants at the start of the last century arrived, sort of a Canadian Ellis Island. Pier 21 is also where my uncle Jack, [my mother's brother], marched onto a troop ship in the early 1940's and marched off in late 1945, or was it 1946? He said he slept under a table on the way over, but had a bed on the way home. I remember him telling me that the British military police kept telling them to 'queue', and nobody knew what that word meant. They soon found out.

Well, the bed beckons and yes, the foghorn is still going off every minute or so.

Editors Note: This is written next morning at 6.45. We are within 1000 yards of docking but cannot see a thing. Still socked in by the fog and our foghorn is still blaring away. No rain though!

Last day in New York, first day on the ship.

Up early and a quick breakfast. We wanted to go to the Top of the Rockefeller Center before we left the hotel for the ship. Another spectacular building with views to die for. Did that. Nice walk on a Saturday morning in bright sunshine. A marathon was happening and all sorts of good stuff were going on everywhere.








Two busloads of happy cruisers from the hotel. We were transported past ground zero where there is such a bustling amount of construction going on it staggers my imagination.

To the ship, [it sails from Brooklyn], and in mere minutes we were on and in our cabin.


SURPRISE! It is gorgeous.


We got upgraded a week ago by our travel agent. We have a mini-suite. Skads of room and beautifully furnished. The suite is more like an English Boutique Hotel than a ship's cabin. This is about the best since Oriana 11 years ago. Plus the biggest balcony yet.






We had a quick bite to eat at the buffet and then to our cabin where our luggage was waiting for us. Fellette unpacked until we had life-boat drill, then back to unpacking. Fellette says that this is the first time ever that we have more drawers and cupboard space than we have clothes for.


By the way, we met three lovely English Grannies in the lift, [elevator] today. They had been ashore in NY today, they are taking back-to-back cruises on the ship. They told us they never got to see Greenland on the way over, too many icebergs! Very interesting. They also indicated that the crossing was what they called 'wobbly'!

Passenger mix: Canadian 38, UK, 102, American 451, plus others.

The adventure starts.

[Gail and Jim, if you are reading this, please excuse the exuberance, but we are absolutely delighted regarding the cabin because for the last several times we have sailed the cabins kept getting smaller and smaller. Mind you Jim, we paid too much for this so curb your enthusiasm until you board this lovely little ship in about a month's time.]

[Ruth, the internet appears to be working just fine, time will tell when we get away from NY.]

My feet are killing me!

Day three. After another good sleep and quick breakfast we took the bus to 42nd street and then walked the 1/2 mile to the terminus for the Circle Line Boat Cruise tour of lower Manhattan.

A beautiful day for learning about the history of this very historical part of the island. A knowledgeable guide gave a running commentary on everything from Ellis Island, the remainder of the pier that Titanic was supposed to dock at, [adjacent to the pier where Luisitania docked], to the Statue of Liberty and everything in between.

We then took a cab to Macy's where we had a light lunch. The cab ride was an experience that has to be done at least once in a lifetime: New York gridlock. We then explored the Empire State Building which is another worthwhile experience

My feet were beginning to show signs of stress, but my companions were dauntless and we pushed on. First was Grand Central Station, which is clean as a whistle. We tried to relive the Elliot Ness shoot-out that was filmed there I believe, we had difficulty with the steps scene however.

Fellette and Ian then walked us to the Chrysler Building, which is nicer than the Empire State Building. There certainly were some very rich corporations and imaginative architects in the 20's and 30's in New York. After that we were all a bit bagged and took another cab back to the hotel where we relaxed for a few hours.

Dinner tonight was a light meal within walking distance from our temporary home. After dinner Ian guided us to Central Park. We strolled down the park for about 1/2 mile. It is lined with very fancy hotels and shops. Upmarket is the term. Ian then took us past the Park Hotel where he and some companions were housed while working with Donald Trump on a yacht project. It never got off the ground because Donald ran into financial problems in the crash of 1987.

Back to the hotel by 10 where we received information on checking out and transport to the ship tomorrow.

Well Ruth, tomorrow we find out what our facilities and ship are like. I wonder if we will be able to connect to the internet for the next 18 days? Who knows, this may be the last entry until we reach jolly old England.

Actually, I am ready for a rest and would like to get these suitcases unpacked!

On The Busses...

Two days in New York. That is not even enough time to get oriented, but it is all we have, three nights and two and a half days actually. We join the ship tomorrow afternoon.

We made contact with Ian and Judy early in the morning and met in the lobby. First time in two years that we have seen each other. Within 50 feet of the hotel we are chatting with one of about 5,000 yellow-jacketed black ticket sellers for the hop-on-hop-off bus tours. We had months ago decided that we would do that on day one.

Breakfast in an open-air cafe and by 10 we were on the Bus. We took the 'Downtown' tour, which includes 'Midtown'.

Maybe a quick geography lesson would be in order. We are in Manhattan, and island, 20 Ks long and four Ks wide. So, downtown is the bottom half. The buses are open top two-deckers. It seems that here are almost as many tour buses as there are cabs in NY. We spent over two hours having an informative and delightful tour of this fascinating place.

I have been here a few times in my life, always in some hurried fashion and never really became oriented about what was where: Wall, street, the garment industry, the theatre section, the Brooklyn bridge, Greenwich, Soho, [which means South of Houston, a street in the area], and so on. Seinfeld makes more sense to me now.

On the way we passed Macy's, both original and new location. Did you ever wonder why Macy's shopping bags have that humungous big red star on them? Because Mr. Macy was originally a sailor and he had a red star tattooed on his hand.

Soon it was time to grab a lunch at a deli, unfortunately not a Jewish one that offers the whole 'Jewish Deli Experience'.

After lunch, back on the bus for the uptown tour. Through Upper Westside, Morningside, Harlem, east Harlem, etc. Past Central Park [2 1/2 x 1 mile], and all the fancy homes and mansions of the rich and wealthy. The tour was a feast for anybody remotely interested in architecture and a museum buff would have had a field day.

When we got on the bus in the afternoon, we had a Japanese tour guide. We had difficulty understanding him and it did not get better the longer we went on. We went past the place where John Lennon got shot. They have created a bit of an attraction in honour of him called 'Strawberry Fields', suddenly we had an urge to see the Strawberry Fields and got off the bus. Within minutes we were back on another bus. This time we had the most informative and knowledgeable guide ever! We never did see the Lennon shrine, as our intention was to change buses without offending our host.

By the way, New York seems to have cleaned up. Or maybe it never was as nasty as I thought. Harlem and the related areas are clean and tidy, as were all that we saw, all day long. I know there are poor areas everywhere but none that we saw. New York seems to be a very highly organized and well regulated city, from what we saw at least.

Back to the hotel in late afternoon, time for a jet-lag nap. A few showers were falling near the end of the trip, but not enough to spoil the day.

Later had a delightful dinner at Rosie O'grady's Saloon, across the street from our hotel. In bed at 10 and up at 6.30.

Newark revisited...

Newark, New Jersey is just across the Hudson River from New York. That is where one gets the best view of the NY skyline. About a 1/2 hour car ride to what they call The Big Apple.

Newark is where we landed last night at a very nice sized airport. 1/3 the size of Vancouver Airport. We cleared customs in Vancouver so we were at the luggage carousel in mere minutes. We were to be met by a Princess Cruise person since we bought the over-priced three night hotel package. We are the the Sheraton Towers about 7th Avenue and 53rd Street.

Our travel day was smooth enough, Murphy did not follow us fortunately. As you know there are a zillion steps to get from your home to your destination with your luggage without some glitch. We only had three steps to go as we came down the escalator to the luggage carousel.

1. Will we be met by a driver?

2. Will our luggage be there?

3. Will we have reservations at the right hotel?

As we came down the escalator to the luggage carousel there were several people holding up cards with names on them. I did not see our name so I went to the luggage carousel. A tap on the shoulder by Fellette and she pointed to a man with a sign that I had read a Dial Car! So step one was glitchless after all. Our luggage soon arrived and we were off.

A 1/2 hour ride in a Lincoln Limo, [I told you it was over priced], and we were through the Lincoln Tunnel and into the raw seamy side of NY where we could have gone to a Peep Show, or and Adult Video shop, or Fellette could have popped into a 'Male Room', whatever that is. The streets were packed with people and cars and 4,000,000 cabs.

To the hotel and bingo, mission accomplished we were 'here'.

I have visited Newark several times before on early Canada Ticket business. In 1979 I made a visit to finalize plans to buy our first press, I was meet at the airport by a huge man who squired me around the place for a few days. At the end we shook hands and I gave him $25,000 as a down payment on a rebuilt press and a promise to deliver in six months. I was housed in a motel in Newark, a seamy place but OK.

Nine months later, I was in Newark again, four weeks before Christmas. The press was not delivered, we were living on food stamps and I was a very, very unhappy person. My oversized host was a con-man it appears. He had taken my money and used it to satisfy other people who were hassling him to fulfill his promises. I was 3000 miles away and no threat.

I walked into the shop that day and said I was there to stay until I saw my press on a truck. I again stayed in the seamy Newark Hotel. Only when I had a longer stay, [three weeks], did I realize that the motel was a favourite spot for Friday and Saturday one hour stays by amorous and very noisy lovers!

I helped finish the press, saw it stuffed into containers and left for Vancouver a few days before Christmas. There was not a lot of gifts under the Christmas tree that year, but the kids were used to it by then, as our money had dried up months ago.

That was then, and this is now! Nice to be in New Jersey again, this time to join a cruise and see friends Ian and Judy for the first time in two years.

D Day...

Well, it seems like D day to me. What a rush!

It is one half hour from now that our ride to the airport arrives and we are still 'taking care of details'.

Murphy was around today, again! I arrived at The Farm to say goodbye to all there and just as I got there my Blackberry phone died! Gadzooks, that is my life-line to the real world for the next five weeks. A tittle bit of battery-removal and a reboot cured that though. Just sent to test me I suppose.

Yesterday one of our tasks was to pick the peas in the garden, and shell them and freeze them. That brings you back to earth in a hurry, nothing like shelling peas to slow you down!

Tonight we sleep in New York, Lord willing.

Hope to talk to you later.

By the way, did you know that Air Canada flies from Vancouver to New Jersey, direct? When we booked it was to NY. Let us see if Murphy is still with us at the airport.

Murphy's law...

According to Murphy's Law, "if it can go wrong, it will". What law is it that says "it will go wrong at the most inconvenient time"?

Upon arising this AM, I turned on my Blackberry as part of the morning routine, and some emails came in. Later, as part of my routine, I turned on my laptop, that precious thing that is going with us tomorrow to keep in touch and do the Blog. No Mail! Darn, Murphy and his brother have got together!

Today's plans now include taking the laptop to work and have the experts there check my settings.

Oh well, who is going to give us any sympathy on a glitch like that when we are fortunate enough to be able to take a trip like this? Nobody.

The last cruise we went on I also had a computer glitch. That time Murphy waited until we were in Florida at the hotel the night before our 111 day cruise. My computer acted up, it seemed that about six keys on the keyboard did not work. In desperation I phoned friend Ruth , who lived there, for advice. Upon her recommendation I whipped out and bought a remote keyboard for the trip. I beat Murphy then and I will beat him again this time.

A bit about this upcoming cruise...

This is a relatively short vacation for us compared to past years, two nights in NY, 18 on the ship and 11 in England.

It is a bit of an odd itinerary, going to Greenland and Iceland to name a couple of places that were never very high on my wish list. However the companionship overcame any misgivings on the itinerary, so we booked.

The basic vacation plan is as follows: We fly to New York on the coming Wednesday, spend two nights there before joining the ship. 18 nights on board the Tahitian Princess, [670 passengers and 30,000 tons]. We disembark in Dover and take a cab to their home. We spend 11 days there [doing handyman jobs, if they let us]. We do have a day in Paris for lunch via the Eurostar train through the Chunnel, and no doubt some other outings as well.

We fly back home on August 24 to work off the cruise food.

I hope to have internet connections and do a blog. Wish me luck, as keeping 'connected' while travelling can be a challenge.

Test packing..

What is a test pack? Well, it is not really a test pack, it is really getting out the suitcases and picking out the clothes and shoes etc that you think you need, or want while away.

We have two days in New York, 19 on the ship, including shore time in Halifax, Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland, the Shetland, and Norway. Then about 11 days in England including a day in Paris. So what would you pack for such a trip? What is the weather likely to be in Iceland, or Newfoundland?

Well, a few hours later, the bedroom was an absolute shambles and there was no recourse but to bash on. Packing for the World Cruise two years ago was a breeze: we just took everything that we even remotely thought that we might need. Then we shipped it off three weeks ahead of our departure. We just took a small suitcase each with us when we flew to Miami.

This time we have to physically take the suitcases with us. ["Such a hardship" I hear you saying, no, it is just plain fun and adds to the trip,] It really is exciting getting all your fancy clothes out and seeing what fits and what doesn't. I love seeing Fellette trying on her outfits and then getting her beads and accessories that go with it. I actually took pictures of her various outfits, but her hair was not that great at the time so, sorry, no fashion parade folks.

By noon the next day, my lovely had it all tucked in and we got it into three cases. Included in one case was an extra folded up case for who knows what!

Me again!

For anybody that reads this thing, here is an update.

Fellette and I are off on a reasonably short trip in July. Leaving home Wednesday July 22 and arriving home August 24.

Details to come.