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Monday, July 5, Sailing the North Sea
Last night we ordered just an early-morning snack from Room Service--coffee, juice and a sweet roll. It was requested for 8 a.m.--when it still hadn't appeared by 8:30 a.m., we gave up on that and went in to the dining room. There were three other people at the table with us--all from Israel, but for all practical purposes we were alone. One woman made a teeny bit of small talk until the other two friends arrived. From then on, they carried on a lively conversation--in Israeli, we assume. But that seemed to make for a more pleasant breakfast than hearing from people with only complaints about the ship!
We tended to assorted business matters in the morning. The purser delivered our "preliminary" bill this morning, so we sat down and compared it to our ever-expanding envelope of credit receipts. Found one little glitch--we had been billed for one beer from the refrigerator in our room--which was not so. On the other hand, we had NOT been billed for the 5-pack received from Room Service. Honesty hardly paid this time--as we will now see a bill for 5 beers, instead of one on our final bill. But, how clear our conscience will be!
I returned my book to the library, and went through the British passport inspection. This was supposed to speed up our passage through immigration when we reach Harwich tomorrow, and it must have. We certainly whizzed right out of there. The disembarkation lecture was pretty familiar. We have a low number so should get off the ship in plenty of time to make that 2:45 p.m. flight from Heathrow airport. There was a short program by the Activities staff after the lecture--very similar to what we had on the Statendam--in fact, I think the Cruise Director used the same jokes ("Thirty dumbest questions asked on the cruise") that the Statendam Cruise Director had entertained us with.
Now that we couldn't possibly visit any more colorful Scandinavian ports, the sun was shining brightly on a very benign North Sea, and hardly a cloud in the sky. Where was this day when we needed it in Copenhagen? or Stockholm? or Helsinki? Hmmm??
But instead of complaining, we just took advantage of the pretty day to take our Lido buffet lunch outside on the aft deck. Still a cool wind, but still pleasant to be outside, in the sunshine. About this time, somewhere out in the North Sea, we saw our first huge offshore drilling rig, perched at least one hundred feet above the sea, complete with what appeared to be an oil derrick. There was a ship near it, whether it had something to do with the drilling rig, we never learned. What an "other-worldly" sight these drilling platforms are! Later in the afternoon and early evening, we kept passing by "nests" of these platforms, but never tired of watching them. What a strange life it must be, to work on those platforms, so isolated. Although, where there were several close together, I suppose they may visit back and forth by helicopter or ship. We also saw tankers snuggled up close to some of the platforms. Guzzling up North Sea oil, no doubt. This has made Norway a very prosperous little nation, and it hasn't hurt England and Scotland either!
Earlier, our tour guide had some interesting background on Norway's new source of wealth--the North Sea oil. Apparently in 1958 gas was found under the sea near Holland. This suggested that there might be the potential of oil in the North Sea. Phillips oil company offered one million dollars to Norway, for a joint venture to explore for oil, but the Norwegians refused. Not wanting to have to share the oil, if found, they hired USA experts who, sure enough, found lots of oil under the sea in the 1960's and 1970's. Today, Norway ranks way up there among oil-producing nations: Saudi Arabia is no. One, followed by Russia, and then, there is little Norway, number three! Our guide also said that there are pipelines from the offshore wells to both northern Europe and Norway.
In the afternoon, we spent some time in our cabin, filling out the passenger opinion survey. We gave the ship and its crew, and Holland America pretty high marks on most things, but these were our particular comments:
1) The dining room has a wonderful ceiling covered in blown-glass flowers, not unlike the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. But the lighting on the ship's flowers is terrible and totally negates the effect of the colored glass. We told them: "fix it."
2) Our TV proved to be a noisy cabin-mate. At times, there was a fair amount of vibration felt in the cabin, but we could ignore it during the day. However, at night, when the vibration was evident, our TV rattled in noisy sympathy and no matter how we turned it on its swivel, it persisted in rattling away. "Fix it."
These were pretty minor things. Overall, we have been well-treated, and well-fed, and now, we are ready to go home.
However, we cannot go home until we PACK THE SUITCASES. This always involves some interesting logistics: the bags will be picked up after 1 a.m. tonight. Anything still in the cabin must be carried off the ship with us. Easy enough to solve the p.j.'s and nightgown problem--we just slept without them. But, how to allow Glenn to shave in the morning, and not have his razor confiscated by the eagle eye of the security staff? Solution: Glenn kept his razor out, and after shaving he just removed the blade. Toothbrushes and a tiny tube of paste were just sacrificed.
Since we added very little in the way of souvenirs to our load, it really didn't take long to stuff things in our bags. Deciding what to keep of the rather large pile of paper accumulation (daily ship newsletter, maps, brochures, books, postcards, etc.) took longer than packing the clothes. But, we found we had a good bit of the evening left after the suitcases were zipped up, so we had two choices: we could go to the last Lounge show, consisting of a singer and a violinist, OR.....there were those slot machines. The singer and fiddler never had a chance.
Up in the casino, it was Barbara's night. At one moment, I was $38 dollars ahead, and managed to escape with $20. Glenn made a small donation back to the casino, but all in all, the most profitable thing he did on this cruise was go to the casino! He brought home $73. of the Westerdam's money. I wonder how many other cruisers could make that statement??
Our luggage was picked up from outside our cabin door late last night--although there were a couple false starts when we heard them take the suitcases away, and later they were again sitting patiently outside our door!
Tuesday, July 6 , Harwich, England to Portland, Oregon
When we woke up at 5 a.m., we were in Harwich on the English coast. And of course, on the last day of our trip--it was a beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. A little smog, perhaps.
Looking out through our verandah, we saw a busy, busy port. Trains coming to and going from the train station that adjoins the pier. Trucks coming and going, picking up containers from ships, a freeway leading away from the port, full of cars, whizzing along.
We had an early breakfast in the Lido buffet, checked over our final bill (yeah, they added the 5 beers, all right) and everything tallied. On other cruises, we have had to vacate our cabin by 8 a.m. They were much more lenient on the Westerdam. We were told, you can just stay in your cabin--all departure numbers will be announced over your TV. And, at 8:30 they called "Blue, No. 1" -- our disembarkation number. We trooped down the ship's gangplank for one last time, found our luggage quite quickly in the big luggage room on the dock. They kept each color clearly separate from the others, which helped a great deal in finding our own bags. By 9 a.m. we were on a comfy, air-conditioned bus, and heading along English freeways, headed for Heathrow.
It was a long, slow bus ride into Heathrow. The countryside could have been in the Willamette Valley; we saw many fields of grain and that interesting English specialty--hedgerows marking off the fields. The closer we got to London, the less field, and the more traffic on the highway. Could have been I-5 at a busy time of day.
We arrived at Heathrow at 1 p.m.--ample time for our 2.45 departure. When we entered the airport, heavy bags in tow, it was a bit stunning to suddenly be dropped into so much activity with so many people of so many different races and costumes, all busily coming or going. Especially noticeable were the many women in Arabic/Islamic dress. Even some of the flight attendants had on a very attractive "fez"-type hat with a delicate scarf, half-hiding their faces.
We started to get in the same line as everyone else checking in for United flights. Then, some official-looking person asked us "are you flying Economy?" I said, "No, First Class." At that, he pulled us out of that line, and whisked over to a First Class desk. Actually, it turned out we were of a slightly lower caste--Business, not First Class. But the agent at the First Class desk smiled graciously and went ahead and checked us in. They also whisked our suitcases away so fast, we nervously wondered whether they would end up in Portland with us, or maybe in Oman!
We asked directions to the Red Carpet Lounge--same one we visited on our way to Denmark. All looked familiar as we entered the Lounge, but when I dashed for the Ladies' Room, there was a little sign pasted to the door. "Out of order. Please go to gate 20--which was a long, long way from the Lounge. But, after our little hike, we settled down in the Lounge, Glenn with a beer, and me with a "cuppa" tea, plus an assortment of those nice little butter cookies.
Before long, we found an empty Internet computer and gave our e-mail a quick review. There was an amazing amount of mail--most of it spam, but that could wait until we got home. We sent off a message to Mark and Karen:
Hi Kids!
We have survived 12 days in the Baltic and got dropped off at Heathrow airport about an hour ago. Took awhile to work through the various lines--got to the UAL Red Carpet Lounge where I REALLY wanted to use the bathroom--and found the toilets in the lounge out of order, so had to go far, far away to find one. That taken care of, Glenn has found the beer, I've got the tea and cookies, and we have about two hours to relax here before boarding our flight for San Francisco.
Sorry our e-mail messages had to be so brief--time is money in the Baltic port cities! At the last one, they wouldn't take US money, and I had just enough Euros for about five minutes of typing time--some consumed in finding that elusive ALT key so I could make an @ symbol. Nice that the English keyboards are like ours.
It was a nice cruise, but got off to a very soggy start--poured rain on us in Copenhagen, and was also very wet in Stockholm. But, we got lucky in St. Petersburg, the sun was out most of the time, and we thoroughly enjoyed our tours of Peterhof, the Hermitage and the folkloric dance one evening--when the "white night" was very evident. We really got little sleep on this cruise, and that was partly due to the fact that the sun was still setting at midnight, and came right back at 3:30 or 4 a.m.! I think we reacted like the birds--if it's light outside, time to get up!
Will have lots more to tell, but mostly wanted to let you know we are about to head for home. Mark, these very slow computers at the lounge refused to bring up your China itinerary, so we don't know when you are going on this fun!! trip. Sorry you have to go at all. Karen, hope all is well for you and Kanchi.
We'll call you both tomorrow--expect it will be pretty late for a phone call by the time we reach Portland, although if we have enough time in San Francisco, we might try a call then. Should be in SFO about 5:30 p.m.
And, now, I get to sit up in that upper deck on the plane! Really looking forward to that.
Bye, and love from Mom, and Dad
Our gate was not too far from the Red Carpet Lounge and again, being in that favored "Business/First Class" group, we sailed right by the many others waiting to claim their Economy seats. On entering this Boeing 747, we were immediately told to head up the stairs to the upper deck. This was a novel experience, and overall, it was very nice. Certainly, we were in our own, quiet and serene world. Only about 26 seats, all just two by two, so the flight attendants could easily coddle us. About the only drawback was that the windows were very low, or else our big, comfy seats put us up higher. Had there been a lot to see, the low window might have been a bit annoying, but we were soon flying above the clouds and nothing very exciting to view out the window. Also, being an afternoon flight while heading west, we again had the sun beaming straight at our window, so was quite blinding, and we were happy to just put down the shade.
By the time our plane left England at 2:45 in the afternoon the clear, sunny day was clouding up again. (Apparently we didn't take the rainy weather away--England and the Baltic were still having rain well into July.)
Our seats were identical in design to the ones on the eastbound flight from Chicago. This time, we didn't need much "orientation" to figure out the buttons and where the headphone jack was, etc. More movies to watch, but again, we were probably more fascinated by that map showing our current position, speed, etc. than anything else.
We were treated to another very nice dinner, preceded by drinks and those warmed nuts. I could get quite addicted to those warm, mixed nut cups! The menu again offered filet mignon and this time we both chose that. A good thing the meat was tender, as once again, we had to attack it with that very dull plastic knife and fork.
After dinner, we pulled the blankets up around us, adjusted the chairs so we were rather stretched out, and made an effort to get some sleep. Even though this journey would see us arriving in San Francisco only a few hours after our departure, we knew full well it would be an eleven-hour flight and our bodies would know that we had been awake a long, long time. Glenn claims he didn't sleep at all, but that I snoozed almost the whole way. I claim that Glenn sure looked like he was sleeping at least some of the time, and that I only slept fitfully, for short periods. Ah, and where is the truth?
Anyway, hot towels and a little snack refreshed us a bit toward the end of the flight.
When our plane finally dropped down from its cruising altitude of about 39,000 feet and the Bay Area appeared, we could see that it was a sunny day, with the typical fog trying to creep over the coastal hills. We touched down about 5:30 p.m.
I decided to use the wheelchair service this time. The airport sounded like a big and confusing place to get through, since we would have to deal with US Customs and find our way to our next departure gate.
A little Chinese lady was my wheelchair pusher. Other than the fact that I weigh twice as much as she does and so felt a bit guilty as she pushed me up inclines and down long, long concourses, I was very happy to have her to lead us through the airport maze and save my leg all the walking. She whisked us through Customs, baggage pick-up, baggage re-check, etc. She also knew just where to find United's Red Carpet Lounge!
The Red Carpet Lounge at the San Francisco airport was the most elegant lounge we visited on this trip. Everything you could want--except for Internet access! Lots of little individual desks, and probably all have hook-ups, or "WiFi" for laptops, but nothing for those of us not lugging along a computer. Strange.
We enjoyed the lounge's complimentary drinks and some nibbles, and the chair-side telephone for calls to Mark and Karen. By the time we would reach Portland it would be too late to call anybody, so this worked out very well. Mark said he was now busy getting a gravity meter ready to send on ahead of him to China. He'll be going over there the last two weeks of July. Karen has been enjoying her weeks of leisure, and both Mark and Karen had arranged to be available for our NEXT cruise--to Alaska, in early September.
Our last flight of the trip left San Francisco about 8 p.m. An easy, smooth flight and sitting on the west side of the plane we were treated to a beautiful sunset about the time the plane reached the Oregon border. Our bags had dutifully followed us from San Francisco, and we had only a short wait for the 10 p.m. HUT bus to Salem. By the time we picked up our car at the Salem airport/bus terminal and drove into our garage, it was close to midnight.
We had no trouble getting to sleep--even with naps on the plane, it had been a long day since we left the ship in Harwich. We spent the next few days catching up, and trying to find a compatible time zone. When we started reviewing the pictures from the trip, we counted up: Glenn took almost 400 digital photos, and Barbara shot over 200 with her "point and shoot" camera. Those who are foolish enough to say they'd like to see pictures of our trip don't know what they are getting into!
With time to relive our trip through our pictures, we both agreed we were grateful that we had this opportunity to sail the Baltic Sea and visit many of the cities lining its shores. A fine addition to our memory bank!
Barbara Halliday, Salem, Oregon
July 25, 2004