Phillipsburg, St. Maarten

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 Phillipsburg, St. Maarten
The ship tied up to the docks at 7:00am...right along side three other ships.... Disney Fantasy, Liberty of the Sea, and Norwegian Epic. Our ship was the smallest of all...it sort of looked like the baby ship next to the Liberty of the Sea. When we walked off, we just kept looking back and saying...We took that little ship across the great big Atlantic Ocean! Amazing!

St. Maarten is a shopper's paradise! We walked into the town of Phillipsburg...about a mile along groomed sidewalk with tall palm trees. We arrived into the town along with a bunch of other folks from the other ships. We walked down Front Street, a mile long stretch that was a mixture of bars, hotels, shops and the beach front with lots of well groomed beach front on the Great Bay.

St Maarten had crystal clear aqua blue waters and white sandy beaches with a background of green mountains. Not a bad place to relax and enjoy the day!

Back in the 17th century, Dutch settlers started harvesting salt from the Great Salt Pond (directly behind the city) and sending it back to Europe, making the island known as the "Land of Salt." St. Maarten is the smallest island in the world inhabited by two nationalities. The island is split in to with the Dutch in the south and the French in the north. Interestingly, the French call the island " Saint Martin".

We went down a block from the beach and walked the mile of shopping on Back Street....Of course we had to stop and shop! It was too much of a temptation. This was one of the better island that we have ever visited. It was clean, smelled great everywhere, and all the buildings appeared to be freshly painted and modern.

After taking lots of pictures we went into the local McDonald's to send some emails and check the phone messages....as well as recoup from the heat that was outside. By 1:00 we started heading back to the ship to enjoy some quiet time before the ship set sail at 5:30. It is an enjoyable time to have the ship to yourself in the afternoons when docked in port.

We were the first ship to set sail out of the dock in the evening. Travelers on the other ships were out on their decks and on top looking down on us.

The ships all had a farewell horn blowing contest and all the passengers were waving good by. It was fun and exciting to be outside on top of our ship as we pulled out of the harbor. The sun was setting making it the end of another remarkable day.

St. Maarten was a great destination. We enjoyed the people, the scenery and our time off the ship.


 
 

Crossing the Atlantic from Lisbon, Portugal

Tuesday through Monday , October 29-November 4, 2013
We experienced a fantastic crossing of the Atlantic Ocean going from east to west for the first time. On the first day of our trip we experienced 30 foot swells so there was a lot of rocking and rolling , but the remainder of the trip was perfectly calm, blue seas during the six sea crossing days.

What have we been doing?

Walking the quarter mile track...usually 3 to 5 miles everyday.

Watching movies on the outdoor big screen and in the theatre...White House Down, The Man of Steel, The Lone Ranger, After Earth, The Great Gatsby  

Going to see great shows in the evening...our favorites were Stephen Bayliss, an outstanding British singer of pop hits, Nick Lewin, comedian-magician

Going to lectures about cars of the future, our destinations, speaking Spanish, future fuels, pirates of the past

Reading....The White Dress, The Husband's Secret, A Captain's Duty, The Drop

Listened to some great music, especially a talented musical trio from Manilla, Phillipines who played American top 40's

Experienced a total solar eclipse...which hasn't happened in five hundred years. From our spot in the Atlantic, it was dark and dim during the morning. After 12 noon, the sun was so bright.

Swimming, Biking in the gym, sitting in the hot tub and the sun

Doing crossword puzzels and sudukos

And last but not least....relaxing! No cooking! No Cleaning!

Lisbon, Portugal

Thursday, October 24, 2013
Kristy took us to Dullas Airport where we took off on British Airways at 7:00 pm. Excellent flight.. very smooth but difficult to sleep in an upright position. We watched a movie "42". Great biography about Jackie Robinson.



Friday, October 25, 2013 1st day in Portugal
We landed at Heathrow Airport in London at 6:30 am. The flight was about 6.5 hours with a 5 hour time change. Here we boarded TAP Airways at 8:30 am landing in Lisbon, Portugal at 10:30am. From the airport we took the metro using the red line and changing to the green line to the Indentation Station to our hotel. We checked in about 12:30pm and went right to bed. It had been a long night without much sleep. We got up to have a little dinner. Larry was ready to paint the town; however, I had not recuperated from the sleepless night...I continued to nap the evening away ...dreaming about what was to come.

Saturday, October 26, 2013 2nd Day in Portugal

How fortunate we were to wake up to a day that it was not raining. The Portuguese had told us that it had been raining for the past week and this weekend was supposed to be great weather!



We enjoyed a little breakfast of fresh rolls and a ham omelet at a local cafe called "Capri" (specializing in baked confections)

and then started on our way toward the city center. We enjoyed walking through a park with water fountains of various shapes and sizes.

We continued our walk to a square where a farmer's market was set up with little individual tents of cheeses, honey, fresh breads,

 jewelry, sangria,

 

 

olives,

 



cork products, and other interesting venues. (Portugal produces more than half of the world's supply of cork. Wine corks are produced from cork trees as well as belts, shoes, jewelry, purses, and other products.) We walked past the Tower of Lisbon which had a long line of visitors waiting. By taking an elevator to the top you could view the red roofs of the city.

Passing many restaurants and shops we arrived at the waterfront. Here we enjoyed seeing the gateway to the city  and the yellow palace which appeared to be the center of government....Lisbon is the capital of the country.

 

 

 It was situated on a square with a popular walkway along the waterfront. A stage was set up in the square for a band to play music that we enjoyed during lunch in the awesome weather. We meandered back up, up, up, up one of the seven hills of Lisbon looking for Trolley 28, a vintage trolley car WHEW! Shop keepers were  closing their store fronts...it was siesta time....at 1:00 in the afternoon.

The trolley was late arriving due to a protest that was taking place. We enjoyed talking with the locals while waiting for about half an hour. Boarding the trolley we rode throughout the city seeing many of the sights that we visited during our spring trip to Lisbon.

The trolley dropped us off at our hotel. From there we went to a little Portuguese Restaurant to have a salad, and grilled chicken dinner that came with fries and rice (of all things). Luckily, we arrived just as the restaurant opened at 6:30. While we were served, a long line continually formed out the door, the locals waited patiently for their dinner...little did we know that we had chosen such a popular place. Grilled foods are very popular dishes in Portugal....our last cruise served grilled meats and kabobs out on the deck as a farewell to Lisbon celebration.

Sunday, October 27, 2013 3rd day in Portugal
We rose to a beautiful sunshine. We had a quick breakfast at Capri

and then were off to the city center to catch a train to Sintra, a quaint village about 45 minutes outside of Lisbon. Here we met a couple who were going to be traveling on cruise ship...what a small world! Anyway we had an enjoyable time talking with them during our train ride. Upon arriving at Sintra we could see the castle on the hillside, the seaside in the distance, a couple of cathedrals and a couple of palaces.

The place was very popular to stroll around on a Sunday afternoon and we enjoyed the statues and art work along the way. The gardens and European structures had given Sintra the title of being one of the most romantic places in Portugal...and it really was.

Music was played on the sidewalks. The sights were scenic from every direction. One of the most striking structures in the vista was the 15th century National Palace, the oldest surviving royal palace in Portugal.

It is still used for official receptions today. After visiting the town, we tackled the 30 minute hike up the hillside leading up to the thousand year old Moorish castle ruins.

Winding pathways of old, old structures and walls followed the upward grade toward the ancient castle. You could imagine the reason for building up on the hill, because you could easily see who was coming by land or sea...the Atlantic Ocean.

Our wonderful day in Sintra ended when a teenage tourist girl tried to slip through the train gate on Larry's card. Larry got through, but her head got caught in the gate...Larry to the rescue. He jumped upon the machine and used his legs to pry the gate open a tad so that her wedged head was relieved of the pressure of the gate. The gate finally opened after about a five minute wait and we imagine that young lady will not go through another gate on someone else's ticket... we bet she had one heck of a head ache that night.

Monday, October 28, 2013 4th day in Portugal and Departure on the Vision of the Sea
Everyday the sun can't shine and it choose today to take a break off and on. After breakfast, Larry went to purchase a portable CD player. He found one and hurried back to hotel just in time for the noon check out. We had a quick lunch and then boarded the metro...taking our luggage down one long flight of stairs to the underground station...no elevators or escalators in the older parts of the city. We rode the green line to the end and then boarded the 714 bus for about a 5 minute ride to the ship. The rain stopped while we were on the bus making our short walk from the bus stop to the ship a smooth little journey. Check in at the ship was quick without a wait. We got to our room around 2:00 to unpack and then ventured out for a tour of our ship, Royal Caribbean Vision of the Sea. 5:00 we had the safety meeting and 6:30pm she set sail out of the harbor passing under the replica of the Golden Gate Bridge and by the Statue of Christ.

We have seen a statue just like this one in East Timor that had been placed on the hillside when Pope John Paul arrived on the island. We are also planning to visit the famous Christ Statue in Rio de Janeiro in February.




We waved good bye to all the twinkling night lights of Lisbon thinking about all that we had seen over the past few days. Would we want to spend more time in Portugal? YES! The country is easy to travel through, a combination of old and modern, and definitely not touristy. Portugal is culturally diverse. We saw many Africans (with traditional dress)...because Africa is so close.

   So if you like friendly locals, exotic old architecture, castles, mosaic tiles, scenic red roofs and inexpensive wine....Portugal is just the place for you.

After dinner, we attended the welcome aboard show and then shuffled off to bed for a night of heavy rocking and rolling. We were experiencing the aftermath of the storm that had hit Great Britain with the gale force winds. The captain announced that all the ladies needed to put their stilettos away for the first day at sea because it was going to be a rough ride.
 

Spring Adventure 2013 Summary

What a great time we had visiting so many countries in Europe. We were so fortunate to have had really great weather during the whole trip. Looking back on our Spring 2013 Adventure we would summarize our trip with these thoughts:

This was the longest cruise in our lifetime with 36 days of sailing.

This was our longest cruise at sea with nine straight days on Holland America's Noordam.

Lisbon, Portugal was the most affordable city.

Cadiz, Spain had the most compact city with old refurbished structures looking oh so modern inside.

The Colliseum in Rome and the Acropolis in Greece were the most incedible structures.

Alanya, Turkey had the most beautiful waterfront views.

Olympia, Greece had the most beautiful blooming red bud trees.

Athens, Greece had the easiest to follow and most modern metro systems. It was wonderful how they preserved the ancient stone carvings as displays for Athenians to enjoy each day in the underground metro hallways.

Jerusalem, Israel was the most unique city. So many observable cultures living and working in this city.

Haifa, Israel had the best bus service around the city.

The Dead Sea, lowest point on Earth, had the best floating experience of our lifetime.

Limossol, Cyprus was the prettiest island visited.

Knossos, Greece was the oldest civilization visited.

We met the friendliest people in Iraklion, Greece.

Most beautiful snow covered mountains were in Iraklion, Greece and Lake Garda, Italy.

Obidos, Portugal and Sirmione, Italy had the most interesting castles.

Mount Vesuvius was the largest volcano encountered.

Venice was the priciest place of our visit. It also had the most tourist and the most small boats traffic....with no cars on the island, boats made up for the car traffic.

Berlin was an amazing city....a grand mixture of modern and historical architecture with a fascinating history. Berlin ranks highly for being able to ride bicycles so freely throughout the city...just as nice as in Holland. Larry and I are not real city lovers, but we sure did enjoy all of our time visiting Berlin.

Germany had the most English speaker while Italy had the least.

Ted by Ted Turner was our favorite book that we read during this trip.

Skyfall was our favorite movie ....celebrating 50 years of James Bond films this year.

Our favorite train ride was through Tuscany, Italy. Our favorite car ride was going north on Lake Garda. Our favorite cruise line was the Holland America Noordam. Our favorite boat ride was crossing Lake Garda on the ferry.

The best sunsets were viewed on the Mediterranean.

Our Spring Adventure in Europe and on the Mediterranean created some wonderful memories of seeing some of the most remarkable ancient historical sights...some of the oldest that Larry and I have ever experienced. We enjoyed every minute of our journey and it certainly was a trip worth taking....at least once in our lifetime.

Berlin, Germany II

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Woke up to a rainy day! Today marks a week of visiting sunny Berlin and we couldn't complain about a little rain. We still managed to dodge some raindrops to hop into a museum called Topographie of Terrors.

It was only a block away....the area where the most terrifying Nazi political departments had built their headquarters. A perserved section of the Berlin Wall runs alongside the grounds beside the torture cells.There was  an extensive exhibition that documents the Nazi crimes. About an hour of torturous pictures was all that we could stand. It was a sad and depressing exhibit.

 

 

 

 

Sunday, May 19, 2013
The sun came back full force and we head out early to go to the tallest tower in Berlin for a second try of going to the top. After a fabulous bike ride...traffic was nill on Sunday....we found a huge line coming out of the building which made us go to Plan B.

We rode over to one of the many docks to take the boat ride on the Spree. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed every minute of the tour....the best part...not having to stand in line.

 After the river trip we had a great picnic lunch while watching a four person group play various snake charming style tunes.

On we rode along the Spree River heading to the Berlin Train Station called Hauptbahnhof. The city was lively with throngs of people out soaking up the sun. Along the way we passed many German Beer Gardens.

Reclining lawn chairs facing the river were lined up for Berlin sun worshippers. Upon arriving at our destination we saw a fantastic, massive, ultra-modern structure....a huge shopping mall and train/metro station rolled into one. This was even better than the one we saw in Milan.

After exploring the infinite number of floors of the train station, we headed over to Tiegarten to escape the crowds. Here we visited the Memorial for Murdered Jews, a Holocaust memorial for Germany.

Construction of the memorial began in 2003 with it being opened to the public in 2005. The memorial consists of 2711 concrete blocks and a visitor center.

We opted to come back to the visitors center on another day....it was just too beautiful to go inside.
We ran into the most interesting gentleman...he had been riding his motorcycle around the world since 2000. He was mute but happy as can possibly be. Larry took a real liking to him quickly.

The rest of the day we biked the streets of Berlin. What a fantastic way to spend a Sunday!

Monday, May 20, 2013

Today is a National Holiday in Berlin so all the offices and most stores are closed. At a cool 55 degrees with a blustery breeze, Larry and I layered up and headed our bikes for a little ride south of Tiergarten, yet another area that we had never been to in Berlin. Our destination was to see Kaiser-Wilhelm- Gadachtniskirche....what long name!...a church that was built in 1895 and destroyed by a bomb in 1945 during WWII.

After the war the ruins were removed leaving only the massive front tower. Original mosaics adorn the ceiling. Authorities decided to leave the church as a reminder of the terrors of war. A new octagonal church in blue glass was built beside it.

This area, the center of Western Berlin, is an ultra modern district full of department stores, offices, and restaurants. It also displays the sculpture called "Berlin". Erected in 1987, it symbolizes the former divided Berlin.

We also rode by the Berlin Zoo....we felt chilled so we headed our bikes back to the apartment arriving just in time for lunch. We decided to enjoy the rest of the day by reading, watching a movie and catching up on the emails.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

With sun shining high, we decided to spend the day taking an extra long bike ride to see the greatest palace in Berlin, Schloss Charlottenburg. We decided to go through Tiergarten and pass over the Spree River into an area that we had not traveled....the long way....but it was delightful! The park was gorgeous with nice little bird sounds. We followed the Bellevue Allee Path all the way to the Spree crossing the bridge in front of the German White House. We followed the river through an exclusive area of nice homes and guarded high rises. It was a fantastic ride with manicured gardens of flowers and blooming bushes and trees while the river meander along the way.

One of the sights that we have been seeing during the past days in Berlin...bears....all decorated and painted in various ways. A bear is on the Berlin flag and bears on bridges. The bear is a symbol for the city.

 

 

We arrived at the palace about 12:30 and found a bench in a park to sit down to some left over fried chicken from the day before. After lunch we enjoyed the palace and its French style gardens laid out in a geometric pattern.

King Fridrich I built his wife's summer retreat here at the end of the 17th century. The area became inhabited by wealthy people living in elegant villas and officially became apart of Berlin in 1920.

 

Anyway, we headed back to our apartment riding through Otto Suhr through the Ernst-Reuter Platz and the Berlin University and then down Strasse Des Juni. Oh the sights!

We dined out at a cute Chinese Restaurant that we had walked by several evenings on our daily strolls. Delicious!  Simply a terrific day in Berlin!
Wednesday May 22, 2013

We enjoyed a  gorgeous bike ride to Alexandersplaza today taking in some of the parks that line the River Spree.

Statue of Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels..."old order" of long ago.

 

 

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Today we rode of to the  edge of the Tiergarten to get tickets to enter the Reichstag. Standing in line for along time, we finally entered the building with our passports to get tickets to enter on Sunday.  This is a very popular tourist site and we had rode by it several times saying, 'Oh we'll go do that on a rainy day". Glad we didn't have to stand in line on a rainy day to get the tickets. While waiting we saw quite a few entertaining sights.

 

Curry wurst is the rage here...heartburn city!

 

 

Have you ever seen a human statue earn a living laying around?

 

Friday, May 24, 2013

Today we rode bikes to a terrific little upscale area with shops and restaurants beside the Spree that Berliners and tourist enjoy strolling around. It was  a great area for just sitting and watching the boats go by.

St. Nicholas Quarter

 

 

 

Window shopping for German Products

German Biergarten

 



We bought tickets the day before on line to go up in the Fernsehturm... Berlin's and Europe's tallest building....(we actually got tired of arriving there to find a long line to go up in it)  So with prepurchased online tickets up we went (at 8:00pm in the evening)  thinking we were going to have a nice ice tea on top....Surprise...the place was booked with reservations so we snapped a few shots up on top and  came back down. It was not as spectacular as we thought it was going to be....if you've been in the Space Needle in Seattle, the Empire State Building in New York or the Sears Tower in Chicago, I guess it all starts to look alike. 







 

 

 

 

Saturday, May 24, 2013

It was a totally rainy day, but we managed to get out for a little walk. We came across this huge map of Berlin. The map showed the Berlin Wall in red. It was so alarming to us! Larry and I had never  known that the Wall circled the city with the West side being in the middle.

When the Wall came down, a path of where the original wall had been  was marked by stones left in the pavement.

We were aware of the hardships that  Eastern Berliners had lived. We had thought that it had primarily been a hardship for the East. This map pointed out that the Berliners in the west were surrounded by the wall and could only leave through the airport or one train station. Although the west was the free side of the wall, it appears that Western Berliners were held captive within the wall.They too suffered many hardships.

What an eye opener!

Sunday, May 26, 2013


The rain continued on, but we grabbed a couple of umbrellas and caught the metro to use the tickets that we had waited in line for so long on Friday to the Reichstag, the German Parliament....Similar to the Capitol in Washington DC.

Reichstag with the new glass globe in the back

Berlin has a lot of modern and old  buildings combined.

To enter we had to have our passport and  tickets at a specific day and  time. Our tickets allowed us to enter at 11:15. The building was very, very secured with metal detectors. I had a small bicycle tool in my bag and they took it and saved it for me to pick up when we left. Anyway, it was a great place to go on a rainy day.

The front of the Reichstag was constructed between 1884 and 1894. It became the  official site of the German government but was deserted by the Nazi leadership in 1933. The building remained unused after a fire destroyed parts of it during WWII. Renovations took place beginning in 1957 and 1972. A new portion was built on with a glass globe  structure attached and  the German parliament began meeting there in 1999. It is truly an antique and modern architecture rolled into one. Fantastic views of the city can be seen from the glass globe, even on a rainy day.

One of the numerous views from the globe

 

As we left the Reichstag, we saw a number of slates sticking upward from the ground in a row. They had names and dates on them. When we asked about them, we found that they were a commemorative tombstone for all the parliament members who had died during WWII due to Nazi rule.

 

 

 

We had a great German lunch after our tour and then we walked over to the Holocaust Museum. We waited about 20 minutes to enter and went through a metal detector before entering the  displays.

 

 

 

 

The pictures  inside of the Holocaust victims were very vivid and depressing. Children under the age of 14 were warned against entering. After about an hour, we had seen plenty of the ravages of Hitler. Since it was not raining, we walked  back to the apartment just missing the next group of showers.

                                                  Outside the Holocaust Memorial

 

Monday, May 27, 2013

 

The sun was high in the sky today so we headed  our bicycles toward  Victory Park about a 45 minute ride to the south. The ride was enjoyable passing over the Spree Canal and lots of little businesses along the tree lined streets.

 

Here we enjoyed  the highest hill in Berlin. Victory Park had a magnificent  24 meter waterfall...manmade. Lots of winding paths lead to the top of the hill. The park was built around 1894. At the top of the hill was a monument  created in 1821  to commemorate the Prussian  victory against Napoleon. We had a nice view of the city while eating lunch on the top steps of the monument.

 

 

 

We enjoyed the streets of Berlin and another great park right in the middle of the city. What a great way to spend the day!