2012 Seven Continent Discovery Preparations

We've been very busy since getting off the Maasdam on August 27th.  Just a few days after arriving home, we took the Rock Island into Chicago where we met with the ABriggs manager John and delivered our passports to him.  His task was to get pages added to the passports as well as obtaining visas for Brazil and India.  After my bad experience with the post office losing my passport in 2007, I was very happy not to have to use the postal service at all this time!  ABriggs told us that they would be hand-delivering the passports to the embassies and would also be picking them up in person.  

The paperwork for the two visas was easier than we'd expected, though we found that we had filled the India application out wrong.  It was a quick fix, and we were able to mail our new applications in just a couple days after meeting with John.   Then it was time to sit back and wait.  

He had told us that everything should be done by early October.  He was right.  Our last visa, India, was completed on October 4th.  Since we were taking the train into Chicago on Columbus Day to pick up some foreign currency, we arranged to pick up the passports at the same time.  We were very pleased that we were able to get 10-year visas for both Brazil and India, so we're set for those two countries for a few years.  

After our Voyage of the Vikings, we got together with our friends Pam & Paul Floyd. Whenever either of us does an overseas trip, we get together and share our pictures and experiences.  Pam had asked us years ago to hold off on our trip to Antarctica until she retired.  Knowing she was retiring in June of this year, we signed up for the world cruise, which includes Antarctica in the itinerary.  Pam has known about it for ages, and tried over and over to find a roommate who would be interested in going with her.  After getting together in September, she tried again, virtually going through her entire address book looking for someone.  The reaction always seemed to be the same:  “50 days?”  So after a little discussion, and since we had booked a large stateroom, we invited her to share our room with us.  After a few days of deliberation, Pam decided that she would join us, giving us the amount that she would have spent on her half of a double room in the stateroom she’d intended to get.  Then it was time for Marcia (our outstanding travel agent) to wave her magic wand and work with HAL to iron out the details of a third person in the stateroom for a partial cruise.  A few days later all was good to go.

We then arranged for the shipment of luggage on December 27^th.  With this particular itinerary comes the issue of needing several kinds of clothing – for Antarctica as well as for the tropics, not to mention for casual, smart casual and formal dress.  And that’s just the clothing!   We’ve been to the travel doctor to make sure we have the proper inoculations and medicines that a trip of this sort entails.  It's a challenge to work out the logistics of packing so many suitcases (between us), and cross-packing so that if one piece of luggage goes astray, we still have what we need.     

Recently we made a trip to Joliet to meet with Marcia and discuss some AAA-related details.  We’d already booked the complimentary shore excursion available to us through Holland America (a perk for booking early), and we discovered that we were also going to receive some complimentary shore excursions from AAA.  We selected two of those to take, one in Nha Trang, Vietnam, and the other in Cadiz, Spain.

Our final document came right before Thanksgiving, with all the information about what to expect on the cruise – various packages that we could purchase at a discount before boarding, names of the ship staff (we were delighted to see that our favorite Cruise Director Bruce and Travel Guide Barbara were still slated to be on board), and themed activities.  Now all we need to do is get through the holidays, go through our "last minute" checklist to make sure that we are ready to be away for a long stretch of time, and we’ll be on our way.    The time will fly, I’m sure.  

In the meantime we've continued to work on setting up the blog to be more user-friendly.

At the top of the page we've added some tabs that will be quick links:

• Home page - takes you to first page of blog
• ms Amsterdam Tracker - links you to the exact location of the ship and the current weather conditions at that location
• Picasa Photo Album - takes you to our Picasa web album (moved from a side gadget)

At the side we've added a few new gadgets:

• Most recently added pictures (Picasa Photostream)
• Slideshow of current trip
• Subscribe by email

In addition we've included shore excursion names in our itinerary so you can see in advance what we plan to do on port days.

We discovered a web cam that shows the ships sailing out of Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades).  So if you’re interested in seeing us sail away on the 6^th of January at about 5:00 PM EST, check out this link and look for the ms Amsterdam (Holland America Line) on the map. Hover your mouse over the diamonds for ship names - cruise ships will be dark blue.  We’ll give a wave from the ship in case you’re watching!

http://www.portevergladeswebcam.com/ 


We're really looking forward to our trip and hope you enjoy traveling vicariously through us!  If there's anything else you would like to see on this blog, please let us know and we'll see what we can do.

Barb

Blog Updates by Email

Our Blog now has a new title: Snapshots from Around the World. It's a little more "interesting" than "Travel Blog".

We've also added a gadget to the blog that will give readers an update whenever we add a post. This will save us having to email people to let them know that we've updated, and it will also give those who are interested in following our blog a chance to subscribe. Just enter your email in the box at the right. You will get a verification sent to that address to confirm.

When a new blog is posted, the text of the blog will be emailed to you.

This will give people a chance to read the blog in their email inbox rather than going to the blog itself. There is a link in the email that will take you directly to the blog if you prefer to read it online.

Barb

Boston, Chicago, and Irene

For days we had been watching the progress of Hurricane Irene. Initially our Florida friends feared they would return to a hurricane-wracked Florida, but as we know, the storm shifted course and reached landfall in North Carolina. As far north as St. John’s, Newfoundland, they were preparing for a hit as it moved up the Atlantic coast of North America. Halifax was preparing as was Bar Harbor, Maine. It looked like the storm would hit North Carolina on Saturday morning, shortly before we were to board our flight back to Chicago. It would reach New York City on Sunday and Massachusetts after that. We began to become optimistic that we would get out of Dodge (or I should say, Boston) before it got that far north. We woke up to pink skies in Boston (“Pink sky at night; sailors’ delight. Pink sky in the morning; sailors’ take warning.)

We were scheduled to disembark between 8:15 and 8:30, but the ship hadn’t been cleared to disembark the ship by 8 AM! People with early flights were getting quite anxious to get going. We had to clear customs, which can take awhile as many international travelers know. But this time, we just had our customs cards collected without even being checked. We went out to the chaos of hundreds of pieces of luggage, every single one seeing to look like ours of course. (Can you say, “Needle in the haystack?”) After finding ours, we hauled it to the bus taking us to the American Airlines Terminal. We sat there for over a half hour waiting for the luggage bin to fill and people began to get nervous again. Finally it was full and we were on our way the short distance to Logan Airport. We followed the route to the Arrivals Terminal. Arrivals Terminal? Was he lost? Why was he taking us to Arrivals? When he stopped at the door for Arrivals, he announced that in their wisdom, the architects who designed the terminal had made the ceiling too low to accommodate large buses and all buses had to drop off passengers at Arrivals and they had to go up to Departures!

We paid our mandatory fees for checking our luggage (wonderful! right!) and headed for security. Barb, with all the metal in her body from two knee surgeries, wrist and shoulder surgeries, nearly always sets off alarms for more checks to determine that she’s not a terrorist. I got in another line, took off my shoes, belt, watch, put everything through and by that time, Barb was done and waiting. My carry on triggered their concern which mandated a personal inspection. They pulled things out and opened them to see what illicit items I might have. I knew what it might be and directed their attention to it. They looked at it and decided I wasn’t a risk and let me go. The airport was calm and peaceful. Yes, flights to all NYC areas airports were cancelled as to DC, Charlotte and a few other cities, but everything was a go for Atlanta and south and anything west.

We boarded our full plane and had still another surprise! A young man was seated by the window. I was assigned the middle seat and Barb was on the aisle. As I tried to flop into the middle seat, avoiding banging my head on the overhead bin above, the man told me to watch the floor in front of my seat. It looked like the carpet was pushed up, so I tried to avoid it, but then realized a large black dog was lying there! He apologized but didn’t explain why this large dog was occupying the floor in front of his and my seats! We had seen a man walking a dog through the airport but assumed he might be part of airport security. I was not expecting to go to my seat to find a large dog there. Barb, being an animal lover, was full of questions. Yes, it was a security dog. He specialized in bombs. (Was I still a suspect??) The owner was a military man who had been to Martha’s Vineyard as part of security detail for a certain president on his vacation and the dog and owner were returning to their base in Oklahoma. I must say that only a couple times did the dog even brush my foot as it adjusted its tight quarters under our feet. That was quite a feat for a German shepherd. The dog was silent and hardly moved. Barb and I decided that nearby passengers probably had no clue that a dog was so close. The owner was friendly and answered our questions but volunteered nothing. Barb gave him a DAR card expressing thanks for his role as a serviceman and asked the dog’s name. The owner said “Buli” had a business card of his own that he would give Barb when he could get his carry on in the compartment above. In addition to his duties today, Buli is also a “veteran” of Iraq. When we arrived at O’Hare, we got out and Buli popped up. Passengers nearby gushed and wanted to pet Buli and he willingly obliged. It was an interesting and different experience.


We collected our luggage, tossed them into our friend, Pat’s car, and headed home. Pat’s a great friend and we appreciate her willingness to give up a good portion of a summer Saturday to make the run to O’Hare to pick us up.

Now it’s back to the routine, but first the annoying job that follows every trip -- unpacking, and worse yet, checking through all the mail!

It was a great trip and we thank Marcia, our travel agent, for helping us get the dining steward we wanted, Deris, who had been our dining steward on the 2007 cruise with our cousins, Lyman and Beryl and Joan and Orlan. The memories of the bad weather in some places, the prospect of maybe being left behind in Acadia National Park, and the concerns over Hurricane Irene will fade as we think of the wonderful ports and the experience of Atlantic Canada, Greenland and Iceland (especially meeting Gretar for the first time since the 1960s, and his wife Kristin), the UK, Amsterdam, Ireland, and France.

We know that several people were stranded in Boston, including an Australian couple who intended to go to New York City until Monday. Those plans were cancelled as NYC had shut down on Saturday. They have waited out the storm and hope to get a flight to LA on Monday to take their scheduled flight back to Sydney. I am sure there are other stories. I checked the same flight we took yesterday and found it is cancelled on Sunday. What a difference a day makes!

The Voyage of the Vikings 2011 is over, but the memory continues as we look forward to the biggest cruise ever, starting in January! Till then……………..

Chuck

Bar Harbor, Maine

Things were much too hectic to post about our last port, and the first port in the US since leaving Boston on July 23. It was good to be back in the USA, but that meant our wonderful cruise was drawing to its conclusion. Friday was a busy last day for sure.

On days we don’t have excursions in the morning, we usually try to go to the dining room for a more leisurely breakfast and away from what I call “the Battle of the Lido” where it’s every person for him or herself, getting what we want and finding a table. Since we each have two hands, we are usually able to get everything we need in about three trips – unless I forget a spoon or some other item. Breakfasts are more relaxed in the dining room. On our last full day, we went to the dining room and usually request a table for four. It gives us a chance to meet someone new. In Bar Harbor we were meeting two ladies, traveling separately, and found one who lives in Florida now but was born in Brazil. The other lady is from Battle Creek, MI. Barb told her that she had graduated from Albion College since it’s not far from Battle Creek. As it turned out, the lady was an Albion graduate too, but ten years older than Barb . They had a good time with their Albion talk.

As we arrived in Bar Harbor, we were required to go through immigration with US officials doing a passport check onboard prior to being permitted to leave the ship. That quick process completed, we decided to take the tender to Bar Harbor in the morning as we had a rare afternoon shore excursion from 1:30 until 5:30. It was a glorious welcome home with blue sky and sunshine to greet us and temps into the 80s! That felt so good after not having experienced anything over 70 until we reached the Canadian Maritimes a few days ago. We had the chance to wander the town and do a bit of shopping in Bar Harbor.

For those who don’t know Bar Harbor, Maine, it’s on Mt. Desert Island in southern Maine and the center for lobster fishing as well as tourism and is the gateway to Acadia National Park, the first national park east of the Mississippi. It’s one of those places that is busy and bustling during the summer months and nearly abandoned in the winter. It caters to cruise ships and it’s easy to see why!

After spending a couple hours in town, we decided to take the tender back to the ship for some lunch before taking the afternoon shore excursion. However as we showed our required ship cards to go back, security told us we were being held on shore as four inconsiderate guest hadn’t bothered to do the immigration inspection. Their inaction impacted the plans of those who wanted to return. We don’t know how it was resolved, but after 15-20 minutes, we were allowed to return. That gave us a chance to continue our packing and to get some lunch.

Back on the tender to the shore, we boarded our shore excursion called “Best of both Worlds” a play on the importance of the lobster industry as well as the beauty of Acadia National Park. We saw some old vacation homes for the rich of yesteryear and made a quick stop at a small Bar Harbor college, College of the Atlantic, which enrolls about 250 students and emphasizes human ecology.

From there, we drove to the Oceanarium which shows how the lobster industry works. Unfortunately a few months ago, a fire had devastated the primary building and makeshift facilities were having to be used. The crusty but wry sense of humor of the seasoned lobster fisherman was interesting. He showed how one tells the difference between the male and female, how the lobster traps work, and reassured those concerned about how lobsters are put into a boiling pot. Lobsters have tiny brains to the point of some saying they have no brains (which I find reassuring as sometimes I feel like I’m the one with no brain). Traps are designed so that the lobster is lured by the scent of the bait into a trap through a cone netting that allows it in the trap but not out. Since the memory span of a lobster is miniscule, they don’t remember how they got in. The compartment into which they crawl is referred to as the kitchen. There is a similar cone netting that permits them to crawl in, but not out of the storing compartment, called the living room. Fishermen come and harvest the lobsters caught in the traps. By the way, the lobster has to measure a tail shell of at least 3 3/16th inches – that had been reduced from 3 ¼ inches. Since lobsters don’t feel pain due to their tiny brains, placing them in a pot doesn’t cause a painful death. Lobsters needn’t fear me however, as I don’t see the big deal about having lobster for dinner. Give me some beef on weck instead, or even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich rather than lobster!

Our next destination was Acadia National Park where we enjoyed the scenery from the bus. As we rose higher and higher it gave us a wonderful panorama of Bar Harbor and the coast. We could even see the Maasdam in the harbor. We stopped several times for the required photo opportunities. There was one particularly memorable stop. It was so we could see Thunder Hole where the waves rush in and with no place to go, the water swirls up and makes the sound like thunder. I am sure many have seen similar places (Hawaii visitors certainly have). We had 15 minutes to view Thunder Hole, make a pit stop if required, and check out the Visitor Center. I went in and found Barb there, chatting briefly with a young man who seemed quite interested in finding out our impressions of Greenland and Iceland. He commented on how he really wants to visit Nuuk, Greenland (national capital) and Reykjavik, Iceland. We finally had to apologize, saying we needed to get back to our tour bus. We went down the slight hill as Barb commented, “I hope we aren’t the last ones back,” and in the next breath, I yelled, “It’s moving!” The bus was starting to pull away without us. I started running behind the bus, waving my arms frantically and hoping the driver would spot the frantic tourist running behind him. Some people were crossing the road in front of the bus and I yelled for them to stop the bus. Luckily the bus stopped and we sheepishly got on. Barb asked if we were late, commenting that her watch read 4:09 when our return time was 4:10. (Sounds like a teenage excuse doesn’t it? But the tour guide admitted they were pulling away a bit early and apologized profusely.) It seems she had done her required count, found 31 people, so she thought she had everyone and they could leave. What she forgot was that she started with 31 but after her initial count at the start of the tour, two more people had boarded, making the actual count 33. The guide had 31 stuck in her mind, so off they went – without us! We found that several who were seated near us called out that we were missing so probably they would have stopped anyway, but when we saw the bus start up, we didn’t know that! Needless to say, at the last few stops, we were quite early in our return. While we liked Bar Harbor, and it wouldn’t have been as serious be left there as, say Djupivogur, Iceland, it was still somewhat unsettling to think about missing the last tender on the last full day of the cruise. But the worst never happened, and we boarded the ship with the rest just before we pulled anchor and headed for Boston, getting ready for our departure on Saturday morning.

Chuck

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Our last day at sea was busy with several one-time events. First, we had our disemarkation talk, followed by the crew farewell. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, it brings tears to my eyes when the cast sings their farewell song, “Love in Any Language”. I managed to buck up, though, knowing that we’d be on another cruise in the not-too-distant future. Lunch brought one of their famous specialty buffets. Most of the buffets on this trip haven’t appealed to me because I’m not a lover of seafood (at least the kind they served – mussels, scallops, clams, various kinds of fish, etc.), but this one was delicious! In addition to the above seafood, they also had shrimp cocktail, and they also had flank steak, pork, and chicken. And I found a new dessert that was yummy – a meringue “sandwich” with peanut butter filling! Mm-mm-good!

I worked off the bigger lunch than usual by participating in On Deck for the Cure. Several years ago Holland America teamed with Susan G Komen to raise funds for breast cancer research. I participated a few times (pre-knee replacements), but haven’t done it for quite awhile. After my surgery last October, I decided that I was going to make the effort to try to finish the 5K walk this time. They always give us a pep talk before-hand, and ask survivors to step forward to start the walk off. There were five of us, and one was my friend Jean that I’d met on the 2009 Grand Voyage (we sat next to each other in the HAL Chorale). She’d just had her surgery three months ago, and other than her, my surgery was the most recent. We set off to do the lucky 13 laps around the deck. I’d been doing some walking at the beginning of the cruise but backed off when I developed a sinus infection at the beginning of August. I started walking again after Scotland (the 15th of August), but hadn’t done that many laps at any stretch. Neither Jean nor I wanted to walk fast, so after we started the walk, we fell to the back of the pack, walking at our own pace. Cruise Director Bruce (who had been the director of the HAL Chorale) walked a lap or two with us before walking with some other participants. Walking at the slow pace made it possible for me to keep going. Jean dropped out after 10 laps, but I managed to make it the whole 13 laps. Despite finishing second- or third-to-last, I felt a great sense of accomplishment at having completed the entire walk, and I welcomed the complimentary neck massage they were offering to the participants. Now I have to keep it up so I can participate again on my next cruise!


After a lovely day at sea, we arrived early on Thursday morning in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We were scheduled to meet on shore for an excursion that would take us to Peggy’s Cove and the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, where many of the victims of the Titanic were buried. The day was warm and sunny – the warmest we’ve had since setting sail from Boston on July 23rd. Our kilted tour guide, Alex, was a wealth of information on the history of the area. Nova Scotia is Latin for New Scotland, and large percentage of the inhabitants are of Scottish descent. Alex explained about his attire, saying that all the guides wore kilts, but he wasn’t being traditional. Traditional dress requires that men do not wear underwear, and he said that the Scottish guards had to march across a mirrored area to prove that they were dressed appropriately. He commented that with the winters they have in Nova Scotia, he was not interested in being traditional. The Scottish guard did not used to wear brooches on their kilts until the time of Queen Victoria. Apparently on a windy day, the queen got more of a view than she had bargained for, so she offered her brooch to the kilt-clad soldier. Since then it has been tradition to wear a brooch or pin to hold the kilt closed.

We were very fortunate to visit Peggy’s Cove on a picture-perfect day as well as at a time when there weren’t yet many tourists in the town. It is a very picturesque fishing village with the most photographed lighthouse in Canada. He gave us a brief lobster demonstration, explaining how to tell whether a lobster was a male or a female, but since it had to do with measuring tentacles on the underside, I would need to have one of each to tell which one had the shorter tentacles (which I think was the female). Male lobsters are smaller than females, and you can tell their age by knowing their weight. He told us that they’d found an 87-pounder recently which would be way too tough to eat so they tossed it back.

We had time to walk over to the beautiful lighthouse overlooking the harbor and take many pictures, as well as walking through the small village (supposedly only 35 people live there, but it sure looked like there were at least 35 buildings)! Since it isn’t currently lobster season, the lobster traps and the fishing boats were in the harbor, affording us many excellent photo opportunities.

Our other stop on this tour was the Fairview Lawn Cemetery. The guide explained how Halifax came to be the final resting place for the victims of the Titanic. Even though St. Anthony, Newfoundland was much closer, it wasn’t equipped for something like that, so they didn’t attempt to go out to try and recover the bodies. So Halifax stepped up and sent recovery ships out to the site to recover as many bodies as they could. They had a very methodical way of doing this. They numbered each victim, as well as any belongings (clothes) that they might have had, numbered the body bags, and then made sure they matched all numbers. Families of victims who were identified were notified, and they were given the option of getting the belongings back. The White Star Line asked families if they would like to have the bodies shipped home, if they said yes, then the White Star Line told them how much it would cost. Since most of the recovered victims were traveling 3rd class, the families could not afford the expense of transporting the bodies home, so they were buried in Halifax. Graves were numbered with the same number as appeared on the victim. Some of the interesting graves were that of the Italian chef who had brought 21 of his family members on board to help him run the 1st class dining room, all of whom perished, the Swedish woman who went down with four children (who was portrayed in James Cameron’s movie Titanic with two small children as the ship was sinking), one of the members of the stringed quartet, and J Dawson, a coal shoveler on board who became the inspiration for Jack Dawson in the movie. The guide said that he’d had people come and cry over the grave thinking that Leonardo di Caprio was buried there. (Sometimes you have to wonder about people!!!)

After a quick lunch on the ship, we went back out and took the Hop On, Hop Off tour that included stops at the Citadel and the lovely Public Gardens. The Citadel is a fortress that overlooks the city. We timed it perfectly (for a change) and were able to see the changing of the guard. We were quite surprised to find that the guard coming on duty was a woman! We enjoyed walking through the Public Garden, and were particularly interested in watching photos taken of a new bride and groom, as well as someone who looked like death personified (face painted white). We would have loved to find out if it was some kind of tradition or just something they were doing for fun. Guess we’ll never know.

It hardly seems possible that our 35-day trip is almost over. Just the port of Bar Harbor remains before we fly home to Chicago on Saturday. Because of the timing of the tour and the need to pack, it isn’t likely that we’ll post the final blog entry until after we get home.

Barb

P.S. Soon after we got home I saw a segment on TV about people having "zombie weddings". When I checked it online, I realized that this was something that some couples are opting to do nowadays. Not my choice of wedding guests, but to each his own. (Sigh - whatever!)

St. John's, Newfoundland

We found that Newfoundland (pronounced NewfoundLAND, with least accent on “found” and most on “land”). It was our third stop in Newfoundland and Labrador including the small village we visited at the very start of the cruise. All three days were reasonably warm – in fact they were warmer than any of the European ports. In St. John’s, the British claimed the “new found land” for the queen in 1583. Today we learned that until 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador was not a province, but rather it had been associated with Canada without full provincial rights. After several invitations were rejected, in 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador voted to become a province by a margin of about two percent. Newfoundland of course is the island and Labrador the mainland, but the overwhelming percentage of the provincial population is found on Newfoundland.

For the second morning in a row, there was dense fog, but unlike yesterday when the skies brightened quickly and the warmest day of the year was experienced in St. Anthony, the fog in St. John’s was much more dense. St. Anthony is found near the very top of Newfoundland and St. John’s, the provincial capital and largest city, is in the far southern portion. We had hopes that the fog would quickly lift like it did yesterday.

As we got off the ship to board tour busses, we were greeted by the provincial mascots, the Newfoundland dog and the Labrador retriever. Of course, Barb had to take time to snap a picture of the dogs. I had planned to do so later, but that didn’t work out as the ship’s tourists had perhaps worn out the dogs with the constant photos and on our return, they were gone. In addition¸ we were greeted by some costumed musicians along the pier.

On this cruise, we have taken very few city tours but opted to do this in combination with a visit to Cape Spear National Park. As we left, our guide told us that we would visit Signal Hill (more on that later) last in hopes that the fog would lift and we would have great views of the harbor. So our first stop was a small village very near St. John’s, called Quidi Vidi. No one is sure of the origins of the name, but it could come from Latin. Quidi Vidi was a small fishing community with a secluded harbor where fishing is the primary source of income. Our guide pointed out an old wooden home, regarded as one of the oldest wooden structures which had not been materially changed, in North America. Many of the places along the harbor were being rebuilt as they had been virtually destroyed by a rogue wave about three years ago. From there we went to visit the attractive Government House and where the provincial Lieutenant Governor lives, all in a park like setting. An old wooden church was nearby.

Then we visited the Roman Catholic Cathedral, designed in the shape of a Latin cross and a church with beautiful stained glass windows and a very ornate ceiling. We followed a route above the city to Cape Spear National Historic Park where we visited the location of the eastern most point in North America. There are two lighthouses, but only one was visible but we heard the foghorns blaring loudly as the fog was still quite dense. Our view of the water was severely hampered by the fog unfortunately. At the site, there are also some World War II gun emplacements. It seems that in the last two years, we have seen so many World War II sites that I had been unaware of before – from Bora Bora on our South Pacific cruise, to our wonderful World War II trip over D-Day 2010 to some of the European World War II locations, to the island of Guernsey on our UK and Norway cruise last year, to the role St. John’s played in that war.

A brief stop to another attractive harbor, Petty Harbour, was followed by the visit to Signal Hill above the St. John’s Harbor (and visible from the ship). The fog seemed to be lifting so the decision to delay the stop at Signal Hill seemed at first to have been a good idea. Signal Hill was where Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal. It was also where the first telegraphic ship distress signals were faintly received. In fact it was the success of saving that ship, that made the Titanic overly confident that they could be rescued. Our guide commented that maybe we could have a good view of the harbor but as we climbed in altitude, the fog was present and we were disappointed that what we had hope to see was largely obscured by the fog.

As we returned to the ship, Barb noticed that there was a Tim Horton’s close by. We had been hoping to find a Tim Horton’s while on the Canadian portion of our journey, so we headed straight for it after the tour ended. For those not fortunate enough to have visited a Tim Horton’s before, it’s a chain of Canadian donut restaurants, named for a popular NHL hockey player, Tim Horton, who was tragically killed in an auto accident. Being close to Canada, the Buffalo area has lots of Tim Horton’s and having moved to the Chicago area which has nothing but Dunkin Donuts, a Tim Horton donut is a real treat. Maybe it’s good, because I am not nearly so tempted by donuts since Tim Horton’s is not an option. But I felt I deserved at least one Tim Horton’s on this trip and today looked to be a good bet! So we hoofed it over to Tim Horton’s with our mouths watering for the donut. (Western New Yorkers take it for granted, but as a transplanted Chicagoan, we can’t get a Tim Horton’s donut easily – much like our yummy beef on weck sandwiches which are totally unknown outside Western New York. On second thought, maybe it’s good we don’t have Tim Horton’s.) We went in commenting to each other that we would have a peanut donut and if they were out of those, a jelly donut would be a second choice. Unfortunately we saw none of either in the trays but we inquired about them. We were told that they no longer carry peanut donuts because of peanut allergies. Apparently the Canadians are also into uber-regulation of peoples’ lives too!! So we settled for a few TimBits and received our Tim Horton’s fix that way.

Now it’s one more day at sea and final ports in Halifax and Bar Harbor, Maine before we disembark our Voyage of the Vikings in Boston on Saturday.

Chuck

St. Anthony, Newfoundland

As we boarded the ship today, leaving St. Anthony, Newfoundland, the captain announced a couple very interesting statistics: First, he said that the locals were wearing big grins today because it was the warmest day of the year so far. He added that had we tried to come to St. Anthony last week we would not have been able to make this port because of the massive iceberg that had been blocking the harbor. Originally a part of the iceberg that had broken off Greenland in August of 2010 (about the size of Manhattan Island), it began to break apart, so we were very fortunate, not only to be able to get to St. Anthony, but also because we had such enormous and beautiful icebergs dotting the waters.

St. Anthony (and Newfoundland) is one of those funky areas of the world that’s a “half hour” time zone. It’s 2.5 hours ahead of Chicago time. So last night we got a half hour extra sleep, which was fortunate because our first of two shore excursions was scheduled to leave at 7:00 AM. All night we heard the fog horn blowing, and when we peeked out of the curtains, we saw nothing but very dense fog.

We were a little late in leaving because it took awhile for the ship to clear with Canadian authorities. We boarded the tender for a long tender ride into town. As we rode, we could see little other than fog, but we did receive a very warm welcome as a pod of dolphins accompanied us ashore.

Our first shore excursion took us about 45 minutes north of St. Anthony to L’Anse aux Meadows, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Just a few minutes out of town we saw a small moose, who seemed as interested in our bus as we were in it. Our guide said she’d seen eight moose on the way in, but we only saw that one – must have been too far past dawn for them to be easily visible.

L’Anse aux Meadows is the only authenticated Viking settlement in North America. Icelandic sagas had told about Eric the Red and his son Leif Ericsson moving westward. They first went to Greenland and settled there. Then Leif Ericsson went farther west in search of a land he’d heard about that had many, many grapes. A Norwegian explorer Helge Instad researched the area extensively, in search of evidence that would prove the arrival of the Vikings. After years of searching, he came to the area just north of St. Anthony to explore. When he asked locals if there were any ruins, they told him yes and showed him the mounds of ruins. Along with his archaeologist wife, he worked with the locals to excavate the mounds. After much research they realized that they had in fact found the remains of a Viking settlement that dated back nearly 1000 years. Their most prized find was a pin that was a typical Norse pin used to fasten cloaks, a sure indication that the people here had been Vikings.

Instead of excavating the area to death, they chose to leave it as it was (as one of our guides said, in hopes that at some time in the future technology would have advanced far enough to preserve things even better). We walked through the ruins with a local guide, who (like so many of the guides and re-enactors we spoke with today) had lived in L’Anse aux Meadows all his life and had worked with Helge Instad to help excavate the ruins. Each of these people spoke with pride about the part they took in this historical find.

Beyond the mounds of original buildings was another village. This was a replica which they had set up to look like the original. The sod-bricked buildings were so interesting: it was amazing to see the way these buildings were constructed. The sod bricks were covered with grass, and the insides felt pretty cozy. However, I can say that on a day that was about 70°. I don’t want to test it in winter. The re-enactors inside explained what life would have been like for the Vikings who lived here.

We took a very brief school bus ride to Norstad, another interesting site. It was another replica of a Viking settlement, containing several buildings and more re-enactors. The first thing we came to was a pig wallow (and the inhabitant was definitely not a re-enactor)! After watching the pig get its mud all lined up so it would have a comfortable area to sleep, we continued on to a huge building, which turned out to be the boathouse. Inside the boathouse were two Viking re-enactors who told us about how the boats were built. It was interesting to peer into the enormous boat and try to picture the people who might have used it. A little further on we came to the smithy. A teen-age boy was in there plying the trade. He explained that each village had only one smithy, and the smithy worked hard to keep his trade a secret. So he would have kept the doors closed so others couldn’t see what he was doing. With the fire he had to create inside, he would soon have gotten sick, and most smithies died young.

After a quick visit to the little church, we ended up in the chieftain’s house. This was divided into three sections. In the first were women who were making thread by hand from the wool (rather than using a spinning wheel). They had a 1000-year-old loom (replica) and showed how they would have spun the cloth from the wool. Back then, even the sails on the ships were made of wool! The next section was where the people ate. The cooking pots were in the center, and women were making flat bread. We got to sample some, and I even got to sit in the Chieftainess’s chair and pretend I was drinking mead from her horn. The third section contained an area where they kept the wood.

Having taught about Leif Ericsson arriving in Vinland, I was particularly interested in seeing these sites, and I was not disappointed!

When we returned to St. Anthony, we had just enough time to browse a couple of gift shops before boarding a boat for our second excursion of the day, Northland Discovery by Boat. We were among 13 people fortunate enough to climb to the upper deck to catch the views from the top. We enjoyed watching humpback whales feeding and diving and generally playing in the water. One even came within six feet of the boat, but naturally I was on the wrong side. (One lady teasingly suggested that I go to the other side so she could see the whales because no matter which side I was on, the whales were on the other side!) No matter, I did get to see them – just didn’t get pictures.

In addition to the whales, the guides took us very close to the amazing icebergs. They were by far the largest we had seen on our entire trip! It was incredible to see them so close with their white tops and blue undersides. They managed to get some ice for us and broke it apart so we could taste the icebergs. I got an enormous chunk and sucked away on the largest “ice cube” I’ve ever had! It was very pure water!

As we headed back to the dock, we caught glimpses of pods of dolphins ahead in the water. They were very quick, and as the guide said, by that time of day they aren’t as active. They’d probably spent hours entertaining the tourists and were tired of performing. But at least we did get to see them.

The day included two very different excursions – one historical and the other natural. Both were amazing experiences! We were very happy that the dense fog that had accompanied us almost from the time we left Greenland to the time we arrived in Newfoundland had decided to leave and give us sunny skies and the warmest weather we’d had since we’d left Boston on July 23rd.

Barb