Cruising the Bay of Bicayne

Hi well it’s been officially a week so far... Copenhagen,  Amsterdam and Brugge, Belgum...

I spoke about Copenhagen and how much fun it was to see JM and Kasper... we had a nice sail around Denmark past Sweden and Norway down to Holland or the Netherlands as they are known.

Amsterdam is a very unique city... and canals are predominate is these cities/countries of the north.  We got off the ship and walked to a canal pickup point and got on a canal bus that allows you to get on and off as you want. We were a little confused as there are red, green, orange and blue lines and the canals of which there are three major canals and one makes a U shape from the harbor back around the city.

It was cool seeing the city this way and we traveled to the bottom of the U and got off to see the Rijks Museum. There were paintings by the Dutch masters (Rembrandt, Jan Steen, and Vermeer) and a lot of historical displays including a Dutch man of war built to 1/12^th scale!

We traveled back on the canal and got off so we could walk to the center of the city called Dam Square...where we sat and had a beer... A Pilsner or a blonde beer... It’s the main place in the city and many hotels, the palace and the cathedral are located there.

We walked back stopping at a bicycle store where I bought the cool lock system that all of the bikes had and looked at the sites... Coffee shops here sell or dispense cannabis for onsite consumption legally.

We returned to the canal and took one that brought us back to the ship by 4.30 with a 5pm departure to Belgium and the city of Brugge.  It was a nice day and the weather was cool and partly sunny...

We then sailed overnight to Brugge an hour from the port of Zeebrugge... we were in for a surprise... what a beautiful city... going back to the 8^th century.. You could stand in the center and look at 500 years of architecture.  This city also has canals you can take to see the sites, but we were on a walking tour. It was fabulous... such a quaint city... as a fan of Herculo Peroit a character on the Mystery Channel  program of “Peroit” I found it fascinating and wished I could have stayed for days.

Part of the tour was beer tasting, the Belgium’s make over 700 types of beer... we tried four beers and one was from the Trappist Monks... they we so good. The people we very friendly, and the bar we were in well it was so charming, in fact the whole town was clean and like a Disney production...

The last thing we did was clime the tower Belfort at the Bruggemuseum... for those of you who saw Collin Farrell in the movie filmed in Brugge you will remember the tower... 350 steps to the top!

Finally we walked back through the city to the waiting bus for the ride back to the ship to take us to France J

That’s all for now, but wait till I tell you about Mont St Michel… “Bonsure mona mie”

We are sailing across the Bay of Biscayne on our way to Malaga... we will be sailing for two days or 1000 nautical miles... Through the Straits of Gibraltar...

So long for now…

Destination point

Hi

Wednesday morning started out early.. 5 am to be exact. After a week of what seemed like non stop running and planning we headed to the airport. Giving David detailed directions to get home by 7.30 to take his sisters to school.. The airport lines were amazing and with not real signs to help we ended up finally reaching an attendant who new what he was doing and we were off to board.. the flight to DC was good.. we had treats, newpaper and a movie on the overhead.

In DC we roamed the terminal and sat down to get some refreshments and I asked "what time do we board?" in 15mins! Dah..

We boarded SAS and I hoped for the best.. but nothing allows for 10 or 11 hours of flying through the night in a seat thats just a little to small. Arriving at 7 am in Copenhagen we went through customs and made it to the hotel and they checked us right in what a deal!! I had a few minutes to get ready and head for the lobby..
Jeanne Margeret was there! It is now 10 am lol and I cant think! just smile and follow Jeanne..

We had a great day walking the length if the city, cruise on a canal boat, have brunch, walk some more have a nice drink at a great coffee shop and walk back to Trivoli Gardens and walk some more.. meet Kasper and have a nice dinner there ...and then.... we all walked back to the hotel :) I think it was 7pm by then and they were headed to the train back tu Auhst and home.

By then I was comatose and falling a sleep as Jeanne gave suggestions for the next day.. I found my way back to my room and fell a sleep immediatley.. satisfied Igot the most out of the last 24 plus hours of no sleep...

I will fill you in on today later and the arrest of a terrorist in the city.. no true story..

Night all

Departure

Well this is it.. leavin tomorrow.. 8 am leave SFO.. arrive DC 4pm 5.30 leave DC arrive Copenhagen 7am...breakfast with Jeanne Margaret 10am.... run around Copenhagen ... 7pm dinner with JM and Kasper.

Sleep most of Friday.. recover and visit some interesting sites... sleep some more and sail at 5pm Saturday..

I know it takes a couple of days to adjust to the time change (9hrs) so I don't have great expectations the first few days, but two days should be plenty to check out the city and get an idea. Especaily with JM and Kasper to help.

I am still running around and have a parents meeting to night at 7.30 to go to, and then finish packing, at the end its.. throw it all in the luggage and head out :)..... for the flight and any idle time I am reading two books.. Stephen Hawkings The Grand Design and Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.. should keep me busy.

I will make the next post on Friday and hope to have a video and tell how the flight over the pond went..

Here's hoping for a smooth ride and good reading..

Till the next time..

More plans

Hi,

Well I hope you have seen the first post.. I am getting a little anxious as the time draws near.. as you can imagine there are hundreds of details to be done and just as many for the trip.


As an update we are planning on visiting Mont St Michel on our stop to La Havre in France and ancient Solona and the town of Trogir in Coatia...

You should Google these and see what is so special about each one.. quite fascinating really.. these are the two actual tours on our trip the rest will be exploring on our own. We have a day at each stop to explore.. not much time really but we hope to get a real sense of its history and culture.. Having been to Paris before we opted for Mont St Michel and in Croatia we decided the language barrier would be to much to do on our own..


Well back to the list of to dos and planning the kids activities before shoving off.. that's a nautical term for leaving the dock :)

More soon...

PS be sure to go fishing on the bottom of this page with your mouse..

The planning phase

Hi.. well most of the plans have been made..well as far as the getting to the ship and what stops we will be making eight countries in all with a night in Dusseldorf Germany as a one night lay over. We hope to walk and tour on most of the stops as the ship will be close to most of the major sites.. in Amsterdam for instance we plan on taking a water buss.. that makes frequent stops so we can get off and view the sites..

We are going to focus on the sites in each city and we should have a good outline of the things we want/afford to do and see.


The list of cites are Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Malaga (sp), Catenaga (sp), Malta, Split (cor) and Venice.

Stay tuned more to come..

15 days to departure