Reality Bites

I must start with an apology to all my faithful readers who have been patiently awaiting this final post from our great trip. It's been slightly over 2 weeks since we got home from Boston and we have been very busy in the interim. Our first few days at home were occupied getting settled in to our old routines and adjusting to our new old reality. Making our own meals, making our own beds, putting the napkins in our own laps,waking up in the morning still in the same place you were the night before..... What hardship! We then had 9+ days at the cottage with the 4 grandchildren and no opportunity to catch up then. So at long last here it is.

When we signed up for this cruise they called it a Voyage. Well it ended up being an "Adventure". And what an adventure it was. We outran a big storm, missed ports due to bad weather, saw some incredible places with stunning scenery that not many people in this world have ever or will ever see, spent extra time in ports that was unexpected, made many new friends, and basically had one absolute terrific time. We were often overwhelmed by what we saw.


We knew before the cruise started that there were going to be a number of people who had done this Voyage before albeit with some different ports. At first I was skeptical about the attraction of doing this cruise a second or third time. At that point we had seen only one port ,missed a second one, and were in the process of outrunning the storm. But now having done it I can see why there are so many repeat customers.

This was also the first time Deen and I had travelled by ourselves on a cruise so we were a bit apprehensive about that. But over the course of the 5 weeks we became quite close to a number of fellow passengers from both Canada and the US and also getting to know crew members from the US, Phillipines, and Indonesia. Too many to name here and you all know who you are. People were quite friendly and we enjoyed meeting so many. We have so many invites when we go to Vancouver in August 2013 for an Alaska cruise with our family, that we will need to another 10 days to the trip so we can see our new friends (and old friends too).

I had never been a big fan of sea days and usually just found ways to make them pass. Deen on the other hand loves them. I ,however, came to enjoy them after a while. HAL had arranged an interesting series of speakers throughout the trip and I rarely missed any. I also went to drink mixing classes, some computer classes, the gym, some movies, and just plain old hanging about.

Using the Internet on board was a challenge. It was expensive (about 40 cents a minute for the the package I bought) and slow and would often drop the connection. However I managed my 1115 minutes so that by the end of the trip I had 5 minutes left. I would regularly supplement my time by free wi-fi in many ports using either my iPhone or the iPad. It was usually pretty easy to find free wi-fi.... Just look for crew members huddled about somewhere or go in to a bar or coffee shop.

I took over 2200 pictures so will have to spend some time in the coming weeks editing them down to something more presentable. I'll put some on my Facebook page and others on an easily accessible website. I also plan to re-edit this set of blog posts,add some more pictures, and create a soft cover book as a memento.

One last note. When we were at our first port, Corner Brook, I bought some local wine called The Funky Puffin. This bottle of wine made the rest of the trip with us, came home and even went to the cottage. Well I finally drank it at the cottage. This wine was advertised as a blueberry-rhubarb sweet wine and that it was. So here I am actually having some of it. I will keep the bottle and the label for my own wine making efforts.


Well I hope you all have enjoyed reading this blog as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Maybe the next one will be our Alaska trip in 2013. Bye.

-30-

Location:Stittsville ,On

Baa Ha-ba ,Maine

So I thought I would title this post with the local pronunciation of Bar Harbor. Very pretty town in a spectacular setting. Also a very nice no wind 26C weather day.

We were late arriving here by about an hour and that delayed everything . The US Border authorities came on the ship and wanted to verify all people and passports and that took some time. Then the ship people gave priority to the people going on ship's excursions for going on the tender. So our 10am tour on Oli's Trollies was going to be missed. However other people used their cell phones to call Oli and get it changed to 1pm.

So we arrived in town just before 11am and did some wandering. It is very much a tourist seaside destination and with the great weather lots of people out and about.


Bar Harbor itself dates from1769 and is located on Mount Desert Island which is attached to the mainland by a bridge. Acadia National Park is a big part of the island. Oli's tour took us on a 2.5 hour adventure around the town and up in to the Park. The town had grown from being the playground of the rich and famous , now to the playground of those less rich and less famous but still with a few spare dollars.

Our first stop in the park was at the peak of Cadillac Mountain, a height of 1530 feet above sea level . The views were spectacular. In the top photo you can see the town of Bar Harbor and our ship. When the tide is out people can walk across from the town to the island pictured.




Next stop was Sieur de Monts and the Wild Gardens of Acadia. Very pretty.



The last stop on the park tour was Thunder Hole. It's a small channel in the rocks and when the waves come in the noise is quite loud and the splashes terrific. Sadly for us we saw none of that but you can imagine what happens when you see the geography.



We returned to the ship afterwards and Deen did some packing while I did the first draft of this post. Then up to the Crows Nest for final drinks with our little gang saddened of course by the goodbyes. Dinner in the MDR also happened to coincide with Indonesian Independence Day. Some of the staff were in Indonesian traditional dress and then ,as is the custom on the last day of a cruise, the march of the baked Alaska and the celebration of the dining room and culinary staff. Always a fun moment. More goodbyes to our table mates and the guys in the MDR who did such a great job of looking after us for the past weeks.


Our evening in the dining room was capped by a 56th anniversary celebration for two of our table companions of the past 5 weeks, a very delightful Dutch couple from Victoria BC, Henny and Kees. They are both very experienced cruisers and have a lot of interesting stories to tell. The ship presented them with a terrific cake and the dining room staff sang to them. Very nice moment.
You can see the Indonesian staff in their batik shirts.



The suitcases are now outside the door waiting to be picked up. Hopefully we'll see them again in the terminal building in the morning and then our shuttle to our hotel where we've parked the van for the past 5 weeks. We 'll be driving home Saturday getting in some time early Saturday evening.

So I didn't send this Friday night or Saturday morning as I had no Internet time left. So we got home just after 7pm and are very road weary. This trip took less time than the one to Boston aided by little traffic this time in Boston and somewhat faster roads by going up through Montreal.
Hard to believe 24 hours ago we were enjoying a great meal with new friends on board a luxury cruise ship. Now back to reality.

So this is pretty much the end of the regular blog posts. I'll do one more some time shortly after getting home with some overall thoughts and impressions of our trip.

Location:Bar Harbor, Maine

Cruising by Nova Scotia

Thursday was our last full sea day and filled with lots of interesting stuff (at least to me and as I' m the guy who writes this that's all that matters).

We started with the disembarkation briefing from Cruise Director Bruce. He does a terrific job and is very funny yet informative. Told us everything we need to know about leaving the ship on Saturday morning. Right after his talk was the crew farewell and that was a stirring moment. As they played "We Are Family" they brought many members of the crew on stage so we could thank them collectively for the wonderful and caring service. Service on board a cruise ship can't be beat. It was a very bittersweet moment as we have all lived together for the past 5 weeks and of course there are a number of crew members we encounter frequently in our day that we have come to like and enjoy. They are all so friendly and pleasant. We'll truly miss them.


After the crew farewell the Happy Hour gang went up to the Crows Nest, not for noon hour drinks but to participate in a team trivia event. We thought we would do well and did get 19 of 23 points, sadly though the winners came through at 21. We are going to try again Friday afternoon after our day's tour.

We had seen crew members setting up a buffet the previous evening and in the morning all around the Lido Deck Pool. It was a fabulous looking and delicious lunch time meal.


When we were finishing lunch Deen noticed out the window some whales jumping. I couldn't react quickly enough with my camera to get as good a shot as I did the other day in Greenland. I did comment that HAL was going to charge us all an extra $50 for the whale show.

Deen spent a good part of the afternoon packing. My contribution was to get out of the way. We all did meet of course at the usual time and place for Happy Hour and then a formal night dinner in the MDR. Surf and turf on the menu. And they promised fresh Maine lobster for dinner Friday night.


Friday morning sees us arriving in Bar Harbor,Maine . We have a trolley tour planned. And we are now back in the Eastern Time zone. It is actually quite nice getting the time back slowly.

Location:In the Atlantic east of Nova Scotia

The Republic of Newfoundland

Tuesday morning and early afternoon was a relatively quiet sea day filled with our usual sea day type activities which you are all probably bored about reading by now. The fun started when we entered through the Narrows in to St John's Harbour. They really are narrow and the Harbour as a result is well protected. St John's as you will see in the pictures below is a city of brightly painted houses. Also famous for Newfoundland dogs.


St John's claims to be the oldest city in North America dating back to 1497. It is the centre of Newfoundland government and has about 200,000 people in the metro area. The economy was largely focused on the cod fishing industry until the early 90's but now supports the off shore oil and gas industry.

Our previous plan for Tuesday night had been dinner in the Canaletto restaurant on board with our Happy Hour couples. That was quickly revised to dinner in one of the many pubs on historic George Street, the most densely
pubbed area in North America and certainly a hot spot.


The bottom image shows us at Bridie Murphy's enjoying a brew or two. Abra tried Screech and coke. When the music wasn't to our liking we moved further along to O'Reilly's Pub . There we had dinner and enjoyed the local traditional music.

When we returned later to the ship they had on the Lido Deck their dessert extravaganza. I was too full to actually eat anything but did get a good set of pictures.


Wednesday saw us out and about in the city. Deen went shopping and I took a taxi up to Signal Hill. This is the spot made famous by Marconi in the early 1900's when he accomplished the first wireless signal to Europe. It is also the site of The Queens Battery which served to protect St John's and the Harbour over many years of warfare.



We met up later in the morning for some wandering then met Bonnie and Geoff for lunch at The Duke of Duckworth Pub. This pub has been made famous to many Canadians who are fans of the TV series The Republic of Doyle. Before I was allowed to come in for lunch I was sent on a mission to photograph the house where the Doyle family lives in the series. This is the green house in the collage.Deen and Bonnie were both hoping for an Allan Hawco (Jake Doyle) siting while I was looking for Sgt Bennett.

After lunch we went in to a nearby store that had anti-Harper T shirts. They were very funny . The store also had small signs and pins ,one of which said "Being Old doesn't seem so Old now that I'm Old ". Well at least I thought it was both funny and appropriate. Eventually we boarded the ship for sail away. As we passed Signal Hill they had a ceremonial firing of the cannons and the ship horn sounded a number of times. Very cool moment. Again I tried to capture The Narrows in a photo as we left and the bottom picture is Cape Spear, considered the most eastern point in North America .



All in all a great trip to St John's. It was nice to be back in Canada,use my cell phone to call the kids and g-kids , and not have to calculate currency conversions. The Newfie $ is at par .....

Tonight was dinner in the Canaletto with Bonnie,Geoff, and Dianne (or Lady Di as I call her). The three of them have a lot in common from Whistler and Vancouver. Geoff and I went to the show which featured a comedian, a magician, and a rock singer. Quite a combination.

We also gain another 30 minutes back so we're one hour ahead of Eastern Time. Thursday will be a sea day as we head to Bar Harbor,Maine. Thursday will also be the start of packing the suitcases.

Location:St John's ,Newfoundland

Bing Bong ! This is The Captain

After breakfast we were expecting an ordinary sea day as we made our way to St Anthony's in Newfoundland and a Tuesday shore excursion to L'Anse Aux Meadows. However when you hear the somber tones of the Captain outside of his normal noon position and weather report you know something is up. In this case he was reporting high winds and seas in St Anthony's that would make tender operations impossible. He said there were 12' waves in the Harbour .

So the alternative became head straight to St John's and arrive early , in this case 5pm Tuesday and have an overnight there. While we were disappointed to miss L'Anse Aux Meadows this would be a great alternative. We were supposed to have dinner Tuesday night in The Canaletto with our Happy Hour friends but then we all immediately started planning an evening in St John's instead. Deen was left with the task to find a restaurant close by the ship with local music. I'll report on that in my next blog post.

In the remainder of the day Deen went to another cooking demo and I went to a lecture about ocean liners past to present. Very interesting. Later that afternoon we both went to a movie... Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Confusing plot and I've read the book.

After Happy Hour Deen and I went to The Cirque dinner in The Pinnacle Grill.


The Cirque meal is modeled on the restaurant of the same name in New York but at a much more affordable price. All very nicely done and the food was terrific. Pictured here are friends Geoff and Bonnie who celebrated their anniversary there. The bottom pic shows the Adagio Strings, a quartet of 3 very attractive young women and a guy and they play beautifully every evening. We sat and enjoyed their music for a while.

While we were dining in The Cirque it was Pirate Night in the MDR so I had to go over for some pictures there and talk to our table mates who we had deserted once again.


Pictured at the bottom are Budi ,our regular dining room attendant, and Sadu whom you have seen pictured before.

After listening to the Adagio Strings we met up with Barbara and Allan and headed up to the Crows Nest for a nightcap. The DJ there was featuring 60's music. But I finally got Melanie to slow down long enough that I could get a picture with her.


So Wednesday will be mostly a sea day as we cross the Labrador Sea and arrive St John 's at 5pm. We are now 1.5 hours ahead of Eastern Time for those not familiar with the peculiarities of Newfoundland Time.

Location:Labrador Sea

If this is Sunday it must be Qaqortoq

On the first half of the trip going east we missed our stop in Greenland, or Kalaallit Nunaat (land of the people) as its known to locals. We finally were able to land and visit here. The day was sunny and no wind with temperatures approaching 17C. All in all a very nice day.

Greenland is the world's largest island (in the Islands That Are Not Continents category) and is 85% ice covered. There are about 57,000 inhabitants and close to 90% are Inuit. The Vikings first came in the 980's AD and stayed for a few hundred years. In 1720 Europeans arrived again this time for good. World War 2 saw the emergence of Greenland with the presence of US forces to block potential German occupation. It is now part of the Kingdom of Denmark with limited autonomous powers. The town of Qaqortoq has about 3,500 inhabitants and is Greenland's second largest "city". While shrimp fishing is a mainstay of the economy, tourism and education are important. No shore tours were available and we really only had a few hours to explore.

However the day got off to a momentous start with the sighting of whales from the ship. I was lucky to catch this shot. Deen was thrilled to watch them.


The town is located in the south on the side of hills. The houses and buildings are very colorful. In my wandering I also included a picture here of a young man with his rifle going hunting somewhere.







The fountain shown here is apparently Greenland's only fountain. There were also interesting rock carvings and the car attached to the side of a wall was from a local sports bar.

We left shortly after noon and proceeded south and slightly west. I went to a talk about Newfoundland and its outports and Deen went to a lecture on astronomy. Later I went to a movie. Happy Hour in the Crows Nest followed. It is soon enough going to be difficult preparing my own HH drinks and not having the always delightful Melanie (a new Facebook friend BTW) serving them.

We went to dinner in the Pinnacle Grill tonight with Shel and Abra to help celebrate Abra's birthday. They are both such interesting people. In the summer they live just outside Seattle and in the winter they live in the south of France.


After a very nice dinner we went to a Four Seasons Tribute Show then the Indonesian Crew Show. The crew show was very well done and the cast members, all of whom work in either the housekeeping dept. or the dining rooms, really seemed to enjoy themselves.


Our clocks went back 30 minutes Sunday night so we will be on Newfoundland time ( 1.5 hours ahead of Eastern Time) Monday through Wednesday . Monday we are crossing the Labrador Sea on our way to St Anthony's for Tuesday morning arrival.

Location:Qaqortoq ,Greenland

Two Posts for the Price of One

Friday and Saturday were both sea days as we went from Akureyri to Qaqortoq, Greenland through the Strait of Denmark .On Friday the seas were rough and I took two gravol and slept for 4 hours during the day. I felt better afterwards and am now trying Deen's motion sickness cure of the bandaid over the belly button. So far so good. I thought I'd be less sensitive to the motion as I got used to it.

Deen spent her day productively going to a cooking demo then a hands on cooking class. She'll be an expert on the HAL cook book by the time we're home. In the afternoon we went to a lecture about the 3 upcoming ports and I'll share some of that info as we hit the ports.

Friday evening was very busy. Drinks with our small gang in the Crows Nest, dinner in the MDR, then a Roll Call gathering at 9pm in the Lido Bar area. I then went to my first ever on board movie, the US version of The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. Good flick.

Saturday morning a promising start as we approached Greenland and scenic
cruising in Prins Christian Sund. We sat in the Crows Nest(no Happy Hour involved this time) and Deen spotted an iceberg off in the distance. All we needed were whales jumping over the icebergs and we'd be happy.



In the morning we also went to an Explorer series talk entitled "Women Pirates-Hellions of the Sea Lanes". Very interesting and who knew? He covered 5 of them as they lived short but merry lives.

Our lunch was a special one for Mariners ie people who have cruised on HAL before. A cruise like this draws many repeat cruisers so there are lots of Mariners on board (about 90%). We were all anxiously awaiting word from the Captain that we would be able to enter Prins Christian Sund for a few hours of scenic cruising. The local authorities send in a helicopter to ensure it is safe for ships to enter as ice can often be an issue . Just after noon he was given the all clear and away we went.

The pictures below will speak for themselves. The views were magnificent and cameras don't really capture it. We had a clear day although a strong cold wind but many of us soldiered on outside for the best shots. Prins Christian Sund is a marine channel located right on the southern tip of Greenland and is considered to be one of the most beautiful cruise experiences. We can' t disagree with that!







We passed a village on the main land side of the channel . As we passed the Captain blew the horn and 3 boats came out to greet us. Everyone was waving and it was a very cool moment.



The passage took just over 4 hours and I have lots more pictures to show when we get home. I hope these pictures capture some of the majesty of the place.









A relatively quiet evening followed: Happy Hour with the regulars, dinner in the MDR, then a magician comedian in the Showroom. We head now to the western edge of Greenland to visit Qaqortoq on Sunday. Very small and isolated community. We also changed our clocks back an hour on Friday night so we are now 2 hours ahead of Eastern Time.

Location:Strait of Denmark and Prins Christian Sund