DFR Travels

Now I know where we are...

Thursday, June 5. Bright and sunny but cool.

Yesterday I mentioned the fact that we were entering the North Sea OR The English Channel. It was the North Sea. We are NOW in the English Channel, having just passed the White Cliffs of Dover in bright sun but some haze on the right side and over on the left we could see France. It is shocking to see how close those two are together. Imagine six years of war with a terrible enemy that close. We in Canada escaped any such frightening scenarios.

On this short vacation it is unlike any other that we have been on before. Today is one of only three 'sea days', in other words, all the other days we are busy ashore and active with little time for shipboard leisure time. Suits me but a bit of a change for sure.

The passengers on this ship are somewhat less active than we are used to. There are quite a few elderly Dutch on board plus a mix of international passengers. I can understand the high Dutch count because there is basically no distance to travel to the ship, same as Alaska cruises for us in the Vancouver area: walk on and off from home.

I seem to have lost touch with reality in some regards in the class of service we have. I booked a nice cabin but were offered a upgrade a few weeks ago for what I consider a modest price. This got us into a suite, one of 19 on the ship. With that comes all sorts of perks, besides the spacious cabin. There is a private lounge where there is always tea or coffe, very attractive snacks and nibbles and an attendant who will look after every whim or need you can think of: our laundry, that we put out last night, was in our cabin at 8:00 this morning, complimentary, and our fresh fruit basket was refilled and our ice bucket refreshed. I am not sure how we are going to use that champagne that was in the room between the two of us without someone to share it with.

Tomorrow in Portland, we are looking forward to seeing friends Alan and Carol whom we met on Oriana in 1999 on our first long voyage. We did another world voyage a couple of years later with them as well. Between the two vogages Alan had a heart transplant, a miracle of modern medicine for sure.

Alan and Carol also came to visit us at the Farm as part of a western Canadian trip some years ago and we had a trip up to the cabin at 100 Mile with them. Alan has had to take anti-rejection medicine ever since his heart transplant which means he has to take care regarding infections, etc. Alan and Carol have driven from their town of Paignton, Devon, and are spending the night in the Portland area so we can spend the day together tomorrow. It is a few hours drive to their home so we will make an early day of it so they can have a decent ride back home.

After dinner tonight there was a bit of a musical show in the lounge where there was an announcement that we would shortly be anchoring off of Portland where we will spend the night before entering the harbour around 6.30 am. We then clear British Immigration and customs before going ashore.