Memories on this Date

[bennybear]

 So enjoying these wonderful photos of places I have visited or hope to!  

I’m happy to be very flexible,  I should have started this in August as we have done several long cruises at that time.  

We loved the cinque terre and Siena as well.   Just hoping we get a chance to see Israel.  

[Cruising-along]

45 minutes ago, bennybear said:

 So enjoying these wonderful photos of places I have visited or hope to!  

I’m happy to be very flexible,  I should have started this in August as we have done several long cruises at that time.  

We loved the cinque terre and Siena as well.   Just hoping we get a chance to see Israel.  

Thank you for being flexible 🙂  I've condensed our 4 days in Israel to a few (hahaha!) photos here.  In 2011 the Egypt cruises were being cancelled by all the lines, so our Celebrity cruise added the 2 days we would have been in Egypt to the 2 days in Israel.  We saw a lot!  We were cruising with my sister and BIL, lots of good memories.

In order, (can anyone help me learn how to label each photo?  I seem to always make a mess of it!) 

Northern Palace, Megiddo; Round altar, Megiddo; Baha'i Gardens; Sea of Galilee from Mount of Beatitudes; Jordan River; my sister and I wading in the Jordan River; Sea of Galilee; The Dead Sea (I'll spare you the photo of me floating). 😅 ; Garden of Gethsemane; and the Wailing Wall (we were there on a Holy Day).

[whogo]

I will spare you the photo of a glass of Little Creatures Pale Ale from the excursion from Melbourne on our 38 day Vancouver to Auckland Noordam cruise in 2018.

 

Our first Koala in the wild.

 

A fee range kookaburra:

The Twelve Apostles formation on the Shipwreck Coast:

[iflyrc5]

One year ago today - Oct 27, 2019 - Limassol, Cyprus. We did a 6 hour tour with Spanos tours visiting a Castle, the village of Omodos, a winery and other sites along the way. Beautiful sunny and warm day for touring.

[Horizon chaser 1957]

This date, 2016. Sunrise in Hong Kong, a walk in Kowloon Park, the Hong Kong light show from the back of the Volendam, and the first towel animal of our amazing Asia cruise. The Volendam and her crew made me fall in love with HAL.

[ger_77]

Apparently we really like cruising in October - on this day 11 years ago we were in Jerusalem.  Six years, four years, and two years ago we were in Barcelona getting ready to board one of HAL's lovely ships for trans-Atlantic crossings.  So glad to have the memories to carry us through right now.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[aliaschief]

2 hours ago, iflyrc5 said:

One year ago today - Oct 27, 2019 - Limassol, Cyprus. We did a 6 hour tour with Spanos tours visiting a Castle, the village of Omodos, a winery and other sites along the way. Beautiful sunny and warm day for touring.

It was a great cruise and a great group of cruisers. It was nice meeting you. Thanks for the pics.

 

Bruce

Edited October 27, 2020 by aliaschief

[NextOne]

Our Cruise Critic group in Athens last year on this date. A great group and a wonderful day!

[rafinmd]

October 28, 2017 was the first day of a 2-day port call in Shanghai.  The R-class has the advantage of being able to dock within walking distance of the Bund while bigger ships must stop at a distant port on the Yangtze.  We docked right behind the Volendam.

 

 

I had a very long tour, a visit by high speed train to Hangzhou.  We were among the first off the ship and began a slow drive through the city to the train station.  There was airline type security at the station but access to the trains was all controlled by automated gates.  My car was new and pleasant but much less roomy than the corresponding cars on Amtrak Acela.

 

 

 

We reached speeds of about 180 mph.  At one stop we got a look at a train like ours.

 

 

 

In Hangzhou we started with lunch and then our first stop was Westlake.  It was a playground of the rich and famous in the pre-revolutionary times and Chang Kai Shek once had a place there.

 

 

 

Our second stop was the Lingyin Buddhist Temple.  The prominent feature was a laughing Buddah statue.

 

 

Our guides were cautious about time and we returned to the station about an hour ahead of our 7PM train.  It was only an hour ride but by the time we got back to the ship it was 9PM and the Lido was closed.  My “dinner” consisted of a bag of potato chips we were given on the tour followed by ice cream when the Lido opened for late night snack.

Roy

[whogo]

October 28, 2016 brought our Prinsendam transatlantic cruise to Iraklion, Crete and our first ship's excursion to the Archaeology Museum and the Palace of Knossos, dork dots blue 14. I got a kick out of these Minoan bowls at the museum, am smiling as I post them:

 

Can you tell what this is?

It is a shepherd with his flock. I had never seen a bowl with 3d figures on the inside. And the next object?

I know it looks like a bowl of Cheerios, but those are loaves of bread in a three legged cup.

 

 

[NextOne]

Last year on this day, we were on Mykonos, as they celebrated "The Day of No," honoring the day that the Greek government refused to let the Nazis enter their country. 

[iflyrc5]

One year ago today - October 28, 2019 - Island of Rhodes, Greece. Our group did a 4 hour guided walking tour around the city with stops for lunch and some liquid refreshment along the way.

[Cruising-along]

One year ago today we were in Valletta, Malta.  It was an interesting day, besides getting in the middle of a terrific thunderstorm.  How it rained!!  We went to St. John's Cathedral, the Tarxian Prehistoric ruins, and then to Mdina where we got soaking wet.  We dashed from store front to store front, and at one time there were a few dozen of us huddled inside a shop hoping for the rain to stop (it didn't).  I had an umbrella, but it was useless because of the wind gusts.  I wasn't able to get more than a couple photos in Mdina because of the weather, the last photo shows the water running off a building.

[bennybear]

Wow!   I loved visiting Israel, Shanghai,  Hong Kong,  Malta, Greece and Cyprus!  Thank you for the great pictures.   

@iflyrc5Was that elderflower in Greek?

 

Edited October 28, 2020 by bennybear

[Horizon chaser 1957]

Four years ago today, my first HAL cruise aboard the Volendam. Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.

[Cruising-along]

One year ago today we had a big treat.  Stromboli was putting on quite the show, and our captain sailed slowly in circles so we could all have time to see the show.  I remember being on our balcony (and all our neighbors were too) for a couple hours that night.  

[rafinmd]

Years ago in February I was in Halong on the Zaandam.  My memories the next few days are as much about suspense and intrigue as sights and photos.  After my 12+ hour tour the first day in Shanghai I didn't book another tour for the second day.  When I returned about 9PM from that long tour the Volendam was still in port.  It should have left at 4PM.

 

My plan for the day had been to ride the Maglev train to the international airport.  I had done it when visiting Shanghai on the Crystal Harmony in 2004 and wanted to do it again.  As I left the Amsterdam I walked past the Volendam (still there) and there was no activity.

 

I rode the shuttle to the Bund and then took the subway to the Maglev terminal.  The ride to the airport was VERY fast (I believe the train was capable of 320 kph but was governed for 300 (184mph).  It was comfortable but not really roomy, and the ride was very smooth and quiet.

When I returned to the ship there was a note on my bed.  It started with a delay of our departure from 9PM to midnight but then got ominous.  The note continued that we would not be allowed to disembark the next day due to expiration of our visas, indicating a much longer delay in our sailing.  The note continued there would be an update on our Hong Kong arrival, a critical matter for me since I needed to make a flight to Rome that day to connect with the Prinsendam.  Definitely nail biting time.

 

Finally now, a picture of Shanghai (well, actually Pudong) at night.

 

 

Roy

[ski ww]

Prinsendam in Kusidasi on our cruise in the Black Sea, we stopped there twice. It was Turkish independence Day so lots of flags. 

 

[whogo]

We visited the Vatican before our 2012 Prinsendam transatlantic. Only one decent photo worth sharing, the ancient statue of Laocoön and His Sons, taken before we were hemmed in by the throngs on the way to our first look at the Sistine Chapel.

 

[iflyrc5]

One year ago today - Oct 29, 2019 - Souda - port for Chania on the Island of Crete in Greece. We took the shuttle bus to Chania - about 15 minutes and did our own walking tour of the town. Beautiful day for a walking tour.

[ski ww]

In 2014 on the Prinsendam in Iraklion Crete.

[rafinmd]

On October 20, 2017 I was disappointed but not surprised to wake up on the Amsterdam still docked in Shanghai.  The 4 miles I walked on the lower promenade deck was my record for a ship moored in port.  Captain Everson came on the PA at 8:30 and announced we had finally been cleared to depart with the Volendam following a half hour later.  I breathed a quick sigh of relief as we backed away from the dock and bid Adieu to the Volendam precisely at 10:30.

 

 

A silver lining to our delayed departure is that we got to sail down the Huangpu in daylight.  When I was in Shanghai in 2001 and 2004 the river had been filled with small freighters with noisy one lung engines.  There were nowhere as many this time but I did see the occasional example.

 

 

We also passed a navy base with a Chinese submarine:

There were 2 lighthouses marking the end of the Huangpu, which we passed around 12:30.

Once we hit the open water of the lower Yangtze we started getting views of the Volendam following us in the distance.

 

It was quite a lengthy sail down the Yangtze.  It was about 5:30 when we dropped off the pilot and entered open seas.

 

Roy

 

[bcummin]

More than one ship has been shanghaied in Shanghai,

Barbara

Edited October 30, 2020 by bcummin

[Cruising-along]

One year ago we were in Naples.  We've done Pompeii twice, Herculaneum, Vesuvius and Amalfi Coast, this time we were looking for something different.  We went to a Buffalo Mozzarella Farm and then to the ancient ruins of 6th century Paestum. Some archeologists were hard at work uncovering an ancient road.

[Cruising-along]

Seven years ago we were at HMC and rode the horses along the shore and in the water.  What a hoot!