The Daily for Monday Apr 12, 2021

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

18 minutes ago, 1ANGELCAT said:

Good morning just had my 2nd dose of Pfizer, now sitting for 15 minutes. 
Back later 

Congratulations on the second shot.!  👍 👏

[arzz]

January 2019 Santiago, Chile on the way to Antarctica on Seabourn

 

Sat, Jan 12 Santiago

Slowly but surely we are recovering from many hours of travel.  Today in Santiago is was sunny and in the upper ‘70’s and 80’s with a nice breeze and Chile’s very dry air.  Almost perfect.

 

Yesterday we did some walking in our neighborhood of Santiago which is very clean, mostly new, and quite attractive.  On the residential streets the older homes have bars on the windows and doors but there is no evidence of any security bars even on the lowest floors of the new buildings.  I already sent some photos of the sculptures that litter the streets.

 

We booked a wine country tour for the afternoon.  It was very pleasant to get out into the countryside.  The Santa Rita vineyards are about an hour out of town.The drive there was bucolic.  At the vineyards there were incredible flowering trees and flowering plants.  The grape vines are planted in straight rows with a rose bush at the end of each row.  The rose bushes are the “canaries in the mines” - they attract flying insects and pests and can be easily watched for the formation of a leaf fungus which is deadly to the grape vines.  By catching it early on the rose bushes they do not have to treat the grape vines more than is necessary.

 

The vineyard itself dates back to the late 1700’s and even played a role in the Chilean revolution by hiding 120 revolutionary soldiers in the wine caves.  In honor of this event, they have a series of wines names “120”.

Unfortunately, after walking the vineyards, visiting the caves, and viewing the modern fermentation tanks and bottling operation (they can 12,000 bottles an hour here) the wine tasing itself was anticlimactic.  The three wines we tasted would not, in our opinion, rank anywhere near our favorites - in fact we would be disappointed should they be served to us.  No wonder the first two sell for $5/bottle and the third for $15/bottle.

We did, however, hear one tale worth retelling.  It seems this vineyard historically grew merlot grapes yet was unable to produce a merlot wine worth talking about.  They never won awards with it and it wasn’t particularly popular.  In 1993 there was a wine scientist who was going around Chile and cataloging the grape plants of Chile.  When he got to the Merlot vines at Santa Rita he was puzzled - the leaf looked like a Merlot grape but Merlot grape leaves turn yellow in the fall and these were clearly turning red.  After much searching and testing it was discovered that the “Merlot” vines at Santa Rita were really Carmenere vines, a species of grape that had gone extinct in the rest of the world due to an insect infestation - so these vines were not only not Merlot, they were the only vines of their type in the world.

 

Once they discovered the true identity of the grape they were able to produce some very fine Carmenere wines - as these grapes need to stay on the vine to ripen much longer than a Merlot grape and now they knew to do this.

 

Tomorrow we transfer to San Antonio, Chile and board our ship.

[arzz]

[arzz]

A day late on this port. From my Slow Boat to China in 2014 on the Amsterdam.  Xingang was our port for Beijing. 
 

Slow Boat to China - Day 22 - October 14

 

Our second day in Beijing.  Awoke to a sunny but rather crisp 48 degrees that warmed into the sixties.  Hazes still sit over the port and port city - industrial smog is what we expect it is.

 

Again, nothing too spectacular for us today as we will be in Beijing again on our tour starting on Sunday.  

 

I realized that I forgot to mention one tidbit about South Korea.  A couple of days before we arrived they celebrated the festival of "Alphabet Day" which commemorates the creation of the Korean alphabet.  Before that time some centuries ago they had to use either the Chinese or Japanese alphabets for written communication - the advent of their own alphabet is still celebrated today and I think that is wonderful. 

 

Yesterday we took a poll from folks that had ventured out on the ship's shuttle - some saying go do it - others saying it is not worth the trip at all - (and added to that the encouragement of fellow cruise critic members) and decided to venture forth from the ship.  Turns out, as we see it, both camps are right.

 

The thirty minute shuttle ride left from our dock in Xingang to a mall in Tianjin.  The port itself is a large, modern, industrial port full of container and cargo ships.  Between there and here the roads and the landscape are totally, totally flat - we understand that much of this ground is reclaimed from the ocean which brings up the basic question of where all the fill to reclaim such a large area came from?  The roads are well paved and wide (three to four lanes each way) but there is not a lot of traffic.  I was trying to see what type of cars are driven here and there were not that many cars to look at.  Most were Toyota or Lexus, but there were also some Nissan and others that I could not identify mixed in.

 

The streets are surrounded by green belts down the middle and on the sides.  Lots of trees beginning to change colors from green to yellow and dark red.   The first part of the half hour trip we passed by huge yards full of containers and scrubby flat land including a whole area engineered to be salt flats that were covered in white salt crystals.  Farther down the road are many office buildings - electronics and other firms - not heavy industry.  New shiny buildings reminiscent of suburban U.S. office parks.

The office parks morphed into residential areas that did not have houses, or even small apartment complexes - they had groups of modern looking high rises that tower thirty to forty some stories up (I actually counted to make sure I was right about how tall they are).  There may be three or six or eight of these buildings clustered together surrounded by a green belt.

The mall itself is located across the road from one such set of buildings.  Inside the mall we found high end clothing shops, and restaurants including McDonalds, Subway, KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks as well as many local places to dine.  Several of the restaurants were "hot pot" style where each table has a pot of hot boiling broth to which they add meat, vegetables, noodles, etc. then fish out and eat the cooked food.

 

What we found as the star of the show was the other area of the mall,  a big box store that included electronics, housewares, clothing, etc and a large supermarket.  I enjoyed wandering the aisles (which were labeled in both Chinese and English) looking at the food available for purchase.  The produce section has all manner of both familiar and unfamiliar fruits and vegetables.  Some exotic ones that I remember from our last trip like dragon fruit as well as many more.  One particular fruit came in large melon like spheres but on the outside it had large pointed knobs.  One of them had been split open to show shoppers their insides - and then the store had left large padded gloves to use in case you wish to purchase one.

 

The aisles were marked with titles such as "puffed food" and "roll paper" - my personal favorite item - the bottle of cleaning solution with the drawing of a large, muscular Asian man labeled "Mr. Muscle" - the only English on the label.

 

There was also a section of fresh fish consisting of the more common iced dead fish that we are used to as well as the live shellfish and a couple of aquariums full of live fish.  The meats were displayed in open coolers in large hunks - unfamiliar cuts - and, maybe, butchered to order?    There was one open freezer full of frozen, unwrapped, chicken legs.

 

I found myself wondering - if I had to live in Shanghai could I learn how to shop here or would I starve?  I was surprised at the amount of English in the labels - but when it came down to it most everything was in Chinese.  For instance, the melons would display a number for price and below that was Chinese - so is the price for the melon or per kilogram?  I would probably starve.  

 

I am reminded of the time when we were in France many years ago (DH and I have no knowledge of French) and I stopped in a market to buy laundry detergent.  It was only after completing several loads of family wash that I realized that I had just laundered all of our things in fabric softener.

 

Upon returning to the ship we learned that if you went through the mall to the right place at the rear there was a fascinating flea market.   Oh, well - that will have to wait until our next trip to China.

 

In Japan we had to have our passports on our persons the whole trip.  Here in China we are required to carry a Xerox copy of our passport I.D. page upon which the authorities have placed a red stamp the means that we were admitted and cleared.  Each time on and off the ship that paper is examined.  On our last stop in Shanghai these papers will need to be returned to the Chinese.

 

And for those of you who are interested - since Incheon we have begun, again, to receive the standard gold wrapped square chocolates that are the current HAL standard - still getting the Seattle chocolates on formal nights.  I have to confess, however, that my preference is for the Hershey's kisses over the HAL chocolates, then the Seattle Chocolates (especially the ones that are dark chocolates) over the Hershey's kisses.  Sorry HAL.  But, then again, who am I to criticize a free chocolate?  I am happy with anything.

 

Tonight we sail towards Qingdao.

[Overhead Fred]

Rain and mid 40s is today's Saint Paul forecast with overnight lows below freezing for the next two days. All the emerging spring flowers seem to be on temporary hold!

 

So here are pictures from a much warmer spot; Cholla cactus near my folk's former place in Green Valley, Arizona in 2003-

[arzz]

Our first day in Xingang - sort of

 

Slow Boat to China - Day 21 - October 13

 

Today the ship is at Xingang, China - our port for Beijing.  It is clear, sunny and cool (temperatures in the mid 50's).  There is a haze outside.

Most folks on board have gone out on tours of one sort or another.  There is the very long one day tour to the Great Wall, and there are the overnight tours to Beijing which include the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and other sites.

 

We, on the other hand, have five nights in Beijing coming up on our Uniworld tour after we leave the ship in Shanghai - so no need to sit on a bus 3 hours each way to get to Beijing from here.  Today we are enjoying the extreme bliss of an empty ship.  

 

Almost everyone has gone somewhere.  Many of the lounges are totally empty and completely quiet.  Even at dining room breakfast this morning the quiet was remarkable.  It is a pleasure to be at home when "the kids" are all out.  My biggest plan for the day is a pedicure and massage.

Tomorrow we may avail ourselves of the complimentary shuttle bus to Tianjen and a shopping mall (about an hour's ride each way) ... or not ... we will see.

 

The realization that our part of this trip is fast coming to an end is both sad and exciting for us.  The wonders of many days in China lie ahead but the comforts of being at home on the Amsterdam will come to an end.  We are in the middle of much planning to get all of the laundry clean before we leave the ship, and decide what we need to leave behind to pare our suitcases to the required maximums of 44 lbs to check and 10 lbs to carry on for our six domestic China flights.  Last night, as DH wore his old tuxedo - I took photos of its farewell performance.  The tux will end its days on the Amsterdam, and give DH about 4 lbs more leeway in his suitcase.  Men's clothing is heavy!

 

This evening the dining room was decked out in red and white streamers, the dining room stewards in white shirts with red vests or vice versa for Canada Day.  There was also a large Canada Day cake on the lido at lunch time.  Too bad that Canada Day was on our first night in Beijing - so many folks missed it.

 

There was only one performance of the show this evening, a group of entertainers who call themselves "China" came to perform for us - they had a long drive in and then spent four hours held up at port security so that by the time they arrived at the ship they had no time to even do a technical rehearsal.  Yet, the show came off as totally professional.  The first act was a group of young men who did a traditional Chinese Dragon Dance - the second act consisted of three women, elegantly dressed in Chinese brocades who played several songs on three traditional Chinese string instruments, and the last was a dance performed by a dozen identically clad women wearing metal extenders on their fingers who performed a dance in formations reminiscent of the tap dances from the old black and white movies where the camera would shift to a position from the ceiling to show off the design of their dance formations.  Very colorful and fun.  A pleasant way to end the day.

 

Tomorrow we are still in Beijing.
 

 

[Mtn2Sea]

We ended our Antarctica trip three years ago aboard the Zaandam in San Antonio.  Since our flight out was late in the day, we took a long excursion that took us on a tour of Santiago, which included lunch and a local dance performance.  Later we were dropped off at the airport.  Here are a few photos from that day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[garlictown]

☕ Good Morning, Monday, and Thank You for the Daily!✏️

Salute to Libraries and their workers and would ❤️ to be able to get back to visiting our local one. 📚

@StLouisCruisers.....remember going to lots of Cruise Critic get togethers and making new cruise friends. Roll Calls are great! 🙂

I can't recall going to Santiago but other cities in Chile our ship stopped at were: Valparaiso, Arica , Punta Arnas, Puerto Montt (best kuechen),  La Serna, etc....🛳️on Princess/Celebrity ships before switching to HAL, LOL ! 😎

🙏Prayers for all in need.

[durangoscots]

Morning all. My neck is still stiff and sore but improving. Wish I knew exactly how I did it.... so I can avoid it in the future.

 

Today seems to be my day. We are having winds. The whole area is under a red flag alert. Lunch today will be a grilled cheese sandwich and I think I will add ham. And I spent a many years working in libraries. When I was in school I used to go into Baltimore every weekend to Pratt Library and drag home a stack of books on whatever  subject I was interested in at the time. Then, between high school and college I worked at Johns Hopkins University library. When I started graduate school I needed money to live the first few years before I got research and teaching work in the department.... so I worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison library. It worked well for me. I was in serial acquisitions and could pretty much set my own hours around classes.

 

Have not been to the port of the day.... my trips to South America were before Santiago was abandoned or maybe abandoned us. Once on the QE2 and twice with HAL on the Amsterdam and later on the Princendam. Loved all 3 times.

 

Susan

[rafinmd]

I am just off the phone with the representative from the hospital.  They were considering me for trials of 2 new devices for surgical procedure.  They have heard from the first study on their list and determined that I was not a candidate.  They then submitted me for a second study and expect a decision on that study in the next 7-10 days.  We also talked briefly about what could happen if I am not accepted for the second study.  There are 2 standard treatments for a leaking Mitral valve:

 

I am not considered a suitable candidate for open heart surgery due my long standing (since age 18) lung issues which have advanced somewhat with age.  I don't think open heart surgery is an option under any circumstances.

 

The other surgery is inserting a clip in the valve which is done in a minimally invasive manner through a catheter.  I am not a good candidate for that procedure because of calcium deposits which could interfere with the valve being secured in place.  My surgical team did not suggest that and did not want to even look at it until the study possibilities were considered but if not accepted for the second study they would take an in depth look at the possibility this could be successful.

 

If there is no surgical option we will go on to consider medical treatments which could reduce the symptoms but would not be a definitive cure.

 

Roy

[USN59-79]

40 minutes ago, arzz said:

A day late on this port. From my Slow Boat to China in 2014 on the Amsterdam.  Xingang was our port for Beijing. 
 

Slow Boat to China - Day 22 - October 14

 

Our second day in Beijing.  Awoke to a sunny but rather crisp 48 degrees that warmed into the sixties.  Hazes still sit over the port and port city - industrial smog is what we expect it is.

 

Again, nothing too spectacular for us today as we will be in Beijing again on our tour starting on Sunday.  

 

I realized that I forgot to mention one tidbit about South Korea.  A couple of days before we arrived they celebrated the festival of "Alphabet Day" which commemorates the creation of the Korean alphabet.  Before that time some centuries ago they had to use either the Chinese or Japanese alphabets for written communication - the advent of their own alphabet is still celebrated today and I think that is wonderful. 

 

Yesterday we took a poll from folks that had ventured out on the ship's shuttle - some saying go do it - others saying it is not worth the trip at all - (and added to that the encouragement of fellow cruise critic members) and decided to venture forth from the ship.  Turns out, as we see it, both camps are right.

 

The thirty minute shuttle ride left from our dock in Xingang to a mall in Tianjin.  The port itself is a large, modern, industrial port full of container and cargo ships.  Between there and here the roads and the landscape are totally, totally flat - we understand that much of this ground is reclaimed from the ocean which brings up the basic question of where all the fill to reclaim such a large area came from?  The roads are well paved and wide (three to four lanes each way) but there is not a lot of traffic.  I was trying to see what type of cars are driven here and there were not that many cars to look at.  Most were Toyota or Lexus, but there were also some Nissan and others that I could not identify mixed in.

 

The streets are surrounded by green belts down the middle and on the sides.  Lots of trees beginning to change colors from green to yellow and dark red.   The first part of the half hour trip we passed by huge yards full of containers and scrubby flat land including a whole area engineered to be salt flats that were covered in white salt crystals.  Farther down the road are many office buildings - electronics and other firms - not heavy industry.  New shiny buildings reminiscent of suburban U.S. office parks.

The office parks morphed into residential areas that did not have houses, or even small apartment complexes - they had groups of modern looking high rises that tower thirty to forty some stories up (I actually counted to make sure I was right about how tall they are).  There may be three or six or eight of these buildings clustered together surrounded by a green belt.

The mall itself is located across the road from one such set of buildings.  Inside the mall we found high end clothing shops, and restaurants including McDonalds, Subway, KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks as well as many local places to dine.  Several of the restaurants were "hot pot" style where each table has a pot of hot boiling broth to which they add meat, vegetables, noodles, etc. then fish out and eat the cooked food.

 

What we found as the star of the show was the other area of the mall,  a big box store that included electronics, housewares, clothing, etc and a large supermarket.  I enjoyed wandering the aisles (which were labeled in both Chinese and English) looking at the food available for purchase.  The produce section has all manner of both familiar and unfamiliar fruits and vegetables.  Some exotic ones that I remember from our last trip like dragon fruit as well as many more.  One particular fruit came in large melon like spheres but on the outside it had large pointed knobs.  One of them had been split open to show shoppers their insides - and then the store had left large padded gloves to use in case you wish to purchase one.

 

The aisles were marked with titles such as "puffed food" and "roll paper" - my personal favorite item - the bottle of cleaning solution with the drawing of a large, muscular Asian man labeled "Mr. Muscle" - the only English on the label.

 

There was also a section of fresh fish consisting of the more common iced dead fish that we are used to as well as the live shellfish and a couple of aquariums full of live fish.  The meats were displayed in open coolers in large hunks - unfamiliar cuts - and, maybe, butchered to order?    There was one open freezer full of frozen, unwrapped, chicken legs.

 

I found myself wondering - if I had to live in Shanghai could I learn how to shop here or would I starve?  I was surprised at the amount of English in the labels - but when it came down to it most everything was in Chinese.  For instance, the melons would display a number for price and below that was Chinese - so is the price for the melon or per kilogram?  I would probably starve.  

 

I am reminded of the time when we were in France many years ago (DH and I have no knowledge of French) and I stopped in a market to buy laundry detergent.  It was only after completing several loads of family wash that I realized that I had just laundered all of our things in fabric softener.

 

Upon returning to the ship we learned that if you went through the mall to the right place at the rear there was a fascinating flea market.   Oh, well - that will have to wait until our next trip to China.

 

In Japan we had to have our passports on our persons the whole trip.  Here in China we are required to carry a Xerox copy of our passport I.D. page upon which the authorities have placed a red stamp the means that we were admitted and cleared.  Each time on and off the ship that paper is examined.  On our last stop in Shanghai these papers will need to be returned to the Chinese.

 

And for those of you who are interested - since Incheon we have begun, again, to receive the standard gold wrapped square chocolates that are the current HAL standard - still getting the Seattle chocolates on formal nights.  I have to confess, however, that my preference is for the Hershey's kisses over the HAL chocolates, then the Seattle Chocolates (especially the ones that are dark chocolates) over the Hershey's kisses.  Sorry HAL.  But, then again, who am I to criticize a free chocolate?  I am happy with anything.

 

Tonight we sail towards Qingdao.

A good description of the mall in Tianjin.  I think it is an Aeon mall.  Just behind the mall is a train station.  You can catch a train to Beijing there, but not many stop here; maybe one every two hours.  The best bet is to take a taxi from the mall to the main Tianjin train station where you can catch a high speed train to the Beijing South train station.  

[kazu]

Thanks for the Daily, Rich and our morning smile 🙂   

 

Not that we need it, but I guess our weather is celebrating Big Wind Day, today.  Looks like I will be cleaning up more branches later on today 😔 

A good grilled cheese sandwich is so indulgent 😉 Love National Library Workers Day.  I worked in libraries from grade 9 until I completed University.  It’s not all quiet, sedate work as people imagine 😉 

 

That wine sounds like one to add to my list.  Thanks @cat shepard

 

We haven’t been to today’s port but we did have  enjoyable days in Santiago pre cruise before we boarded our cruise in Valparaiso.  It’s a gorgeous city with a lot of history and a lot of fantastic food and wine 😄 

 

My friend in another part of Canada is weary of lockdown and I can’t say I blame her when she said this:

 

 

I’m afraid she is going to be a bad influence on her cats 😉 

 

 

A bit late today as my reliable garden spot got my bulb in I wanted so I headed out early before they were gone & before it was busy.  Now DH has decided to get “involved” in the gardening.  Help is a good thing - lectures or suggestions on what I KNOW won’t work in our gardens is not.  I might be having to shop for endangered plants 😉 

 

 

Prayers for everyone on Roy’s Care list & for those that need them and 🥂 to those on the Celebratory / Shout Out list.

 

Have a good Monday everyone.  Stay safe and please don’t forget your masks 😷 

[kazu]

1 minute ago, rafinmd said:

I am just off the phone with the representative from the hospital.  They were considering me for trials of 2 new devices for surgical procedure.  They have heard from the first study on their list and determined that I was not a candidate.  They then submitted me for a second study and expect a decision on that study in the next 7-10 days.  We also talked briefly about what could happen if I am not accepted for the second study.  There are 2 standard treatments for a leaking Mitral valve:

 

I am not considered a suitable candidate for open heart surgery due my long standing (since age 18) lung issues which have advanced somewhat with age.  I don't think open heart surgery is an option under any circumstances.

 

The other surgery is inserting a clip in the valve which is done in a minimally invasive manner through a catheter.  I am not a good candidate for that procedure because of calcium deposits which could interfere with the valve being secured in place.  My surgical team did not suggest that and did not want to even look at it until the study possibilities were considered but if not accepted for the second study they would take an in depth look at the possibility this could be successful.

 

If there is no surgical option we will go on to consider medical treatments which could reduce the symptoms but would not be a definitive cure.

 

Roy

 

Oh dear, Roy.  I hope you are accepted for the 2nd study.  🙏🏻 It appears to be the best option.  

[USN59-79]

We have never been to San Antonio, but have been to Valparaiso a few times.  Not sure what happened to stops in Valparaiso, but suspect that as a commercial port it no longer had the room for a cruise ship to dock.  We have also flown in and out of Santiago and stayed there a week awaiting a cruise.  It seems to be a very safe and friendly city.  We got around using city busses and my Spanish For Dummies book.

Ray

[Copper10-8]

5 hours ago, richwmn said:

Today is .........................., and National Library Workers Day................................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dfish]

15 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

I am just off the phone with the representative from the hospital.  They were considering me for trials of 2 new devices for surgical procedure.  They have heard from the first study on their list and determined that I was not a candidate.  They then submitted me for a second study and expect a decision on that study in the next 7-10 days.  We also talked briefly about what could happen if I am not accepted for the second study.  There are 2 standard treatments for a leaking Mitral valve:

 

I am not considered a suitable candidate for open heart surgery due my long standing (since age 18) lung issues which have advanced somewhat with age.  I don't think open heart surgery is an option under any circumstances.

 

The other surgery is inserting a clip in the valve which is done in a minimally invasive manner through a catheter.  I am not a good candidate for that procedure because of calcium deposits which could interfere with the valve being secured in place.  My surgical team did not suggest that and did not want to even look at it until the study possibilities were considered but if not accepted for the second study they would take an in depth look at the possibility this could be successful.

 

If there is no surgical option we will go on to consider medical treatments which could reduce the symptoms but would not be a definitive cure.

 

Roy

Roy, you really do not want to present your medical caretakers with such a puzzle to figure out.  Medically, you want to be dull and boring.  

 

Seriously, I hope you are accepted into the second study and if not that your medical team comes up with a viable option.

[dfish]

2 hours ago, mamaofami said:

Yesterday we opened a bill for some ear tests DH had at a hospital in Philly. $1900. Suddenly, this hospital is out of network even though we’ve used it for several years. No notice, so today’s job is to find out what gives with this. One hospital that has joined with Penn Health is in network so we don’t understand why we didn’t get some notification.

 

Networks are the invention of the devil.   When I broke my hip the hospital I went to was in network.  However, the doctors who worked inside the hospital were not.  Not a single one of them.  They were all a part of a medical group owned by the hospital.  This is done on purpose.

[rafinmd]

2 minutes ago, USN59-79 said:

We have never been to San Antonio, but have been to Valparaiso a few times.  Not sure what happened to stops in Valparaiso, but suspect that as a commercial port it no longer had the room for a cruise ship to dock.  We have also flown in and out of Santiago and stayed there a week awaiting a cruise.  It seems to be a very safe and friendly city.  We got around using city busses and my Spanish For Dummies book.

Ray

Valparaiso is a real oddball case.  They certainly did not seem to be welcoming to cruise ships.  I understand that they did not guarantee a space in port until quite close to a ship's arrival (I think about 2-3 months).  It seems like every time I was there (several times on Crystal, once on HAL) we docked in almost identically the same place.  Our dock was almost in the center of town, but we had to take a long shuttle ride to a cruise terminal which was in a very unattractive part of town.  To make things worse, the 2 mile or so ride was mostly in the port but passed through a section that was open to the public.  I understand needing to go to the terminal for customs but made no sense that we could not reboard the shuttle in the center of town, we needed to go back to the terminal and take another long ride back to the ship.

 

My last 2 times there (Zaandam in 2017 and Crystal Symphony in 2018) they had built a brand new terminal but with the same shuttle, and then we had to take a second shuttle to get to the entrance of the old terminal and leave the port.

 

Very strange.
 

Roy

[cunnorl]

Good Morning from a warm and breezy day at the beach.

   Yesterdays storm was a real rainmaker ( badly needed) and some winds. Other areas were hit stronger than us.

   Love grilled cheese, I consider it a real comfort food along with tomato soup.

   I also grew up in Massachusetts and we would go to Mt Washington every summer. Always real windy. Dont remember it not being  very windy.

   I volunteer at our library.  Mostly offsite stuff at this point. We have been open for awhile  but numbers are way down and all programs are on hold. Hats off to the workers who go in everyday.  

   Was scheduled to go to Santiago on this years Grand S. America and Antarctica but it was cancelled. So back on the list.

   Roy-   You are in my thoughts and prayers. Hope they can do something to help.

 

Stay safe and enjoy today.

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

17 minutes ago, USN59-79 said:

A good description of the mall in Tianjin.  I think it is an Aeon mall.  Just behind the mall is a train station.  You can catch a train to Beijing there, but not many stop here; maybe one every two hours.  The best bet is to take a taxi from the mall to the main Tianjin train station where you can catch a high speed train to the Beijing South train station.  

Another option, which we did, was to take a train from the mall to the main Tianjin train station and catch the high speed train to Beijing.  The local train from the mall takes about an hour to reach the main station.  It’s big advantage over taking a taxi is you do not risk getting stuck in traffic.

 

When the train into Tianjin entered and departed a station, the station attendants would stand at attention and salute  the train.

 

The mall we went to was Aeon Mall.

 

Lenda 

 

[JazzyV]

Good morning. Thanks for the Daily.

Good days except for big wind, which can do so much damage. I've lost some shingles this year and need to get the roof looked at.

I like the meal and drinks.

I have been to Santiago, as it was the start of my 2018 SA/Antarctica cruise on the Zaandam. We left from San Antonio as there were issues in Valparaiso. 

 

It's chillier here today, with off and on showers so no yard work today. I just shaped 2 loaves of sourdough bread and they are in the fridge for a slow second rise. I'll bake them this evening.

 

@baltic17 Keeping good thoughts for your DH on Wednesday.

@rafinmd I hope they can find a workable solution that preserves your functional ability.

 

Prayers for the care list and cheers to the celebration list.

Stay safe and wear your mask. 

 

View of Gran Torre Santiago

 

Mary Statue, San Cristobal Hill, Santiago

 

Monument to the indigenous people, Plaza de Armas, Santiago

 

Christmas tree in Plaza de Armas, Metropolitan Cathedral in back

 

Funicular San Cristobal Hill

 

The Zaandam in Santiago

 

 

Leaving port

Edited April 12, 2021 by JazzyV

[puppycanducruise]

@rafinmdSending prayers your way.

[Cruising-along]

Good morning all!

I sure hope we don't get any big winds, but it seems to happen every year just as the blossoms on the trees are at their most gorgeous here.  Also we have a protected land area right behind our fence, and have had trees come down perilously close or into our yard.  It's nearly impossible to get them taken out, by the time "they" say it's a danger, it's too late.  So no big winds please!

 

Love grilled cheese sandwiches, and sometimes have it for dinner if I'm not too hungry that night.  Never was a fan of Rodney Dangerfield, but this joke is pretty good! The wine sounds like a winner -- and finally a white wine too!  We have 2 retired Librarians in our family.  I agree with Debbie, too many carbs in this meal for me too.  Not sure what will be for dinner tonight, I haven't had enough coffee to think that far ahead. 😄

 

Never have been to this port, but we'll sail from there on our Antarctic cruise in Jan. '23.  So if all goes well 🤞 we'll spend a few days there pre-cruise.  Thanks to all for the photos!

 

@rafinmdRoy prayers that you will be accepted for the 2nd study or if not an acceptable solution will be found.

 

 

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

@rafinmd  Hope you are accepted for the second study.  If not, hope your doctors can find a solution that lets you maintain your activities and your active life.

 

Lenda

[smitty34877]

Oh my,Roy  @rafinmd, I  hope  you  hear  soon  about  the  second  study  or  other  medical  options. It  has  to  be  difficult waiting to  hear solutions.     Terry