Zuiderdam May 12 to July 22: Across the Pond and Beyond

[Dr.Dobro]

The Zuiderdam looped back south to Rotterdam for the third time, and as usual we got out of the crew's way during the madness of passenger changeover and loading and restocking and all.

We headed out to Dordrecht on the recommendation of a friendly Dutch couple with whom we had breakfast one day. Since we started passing through Rotterdam, about 40 percent of the passengers have been Netherlanders -- so many that ship announcements were made in two languages.

Dordrecht turned out to be a great, great recommendation. It is the oldest city in Holland (founded 1220) and has the historic look and feel of Amsterdam, with much less tourist buzz.

The city is inland from Rotterdam, accessible by the leisurely waterbus or by train. Dordrecht occupies an island of the same name, bounded by four or maybe five rivers. Depends what you consider a river.

 

We took a walk past the immense Grote Kirk (opened in 1285), and since it was Sunday, we got to hear the carillon of 67 bells play.

Karen squeezed her way down the narrowest street in the city

Below is a great example of centuries-old buildings designed to lean slightly forward over the street. These buildings have incredibly steep and narrow stairways, so the only way to get your sofa or piano into your top-floor apartment was to haul it up to your window from below.

The tilt lessens the risk of scraping against the neighbors' windows on the way up. Nowadays, people often hire a company with a firetruck-like lift to do the job.

We continued through the old city gate onto a waterfront promenade and enjoyed a pleasant outdoor coffee as boats of all kinds passed by, including a river cruise ship. Gotta try that some day.

 

This seal on the gate has greeted visitors to Dordrecht for hundreds of years.

Interesting lighthouse just across the way, guarding the confluence of some rivers. There is so much water that it's hard to figure what flows where.

When you're walking around here, you have to make sure to look up at all times. There are lots of artful surprises lurking just beneath the rooftops. Whoa, that is one naughty Ariel.

 

 

 

But you also have to look down to see the golden Stolpersteine, or "stumbling stones" embedded in the pavement brickwork. The *** regime sent many Dordrecht Jews to the death camps, and these little plaques are placed outside the last known home of each victim. They list the names, birthdates, and date and place of death.

We were stopped cold by this portrait of a couple -- maybe an engagement photo? -- in the window of a closed museum.

The gentleman was compelled to wear the Star of David even on this presumably happy occasion! And of course, Anne Frank's hiding place in Amsterdam is just a short train ride away. The Dutch were hit hard by the fascists and they seem determined to remember.

 

In a terrific stroke of luck, our visit coincided with the annual Dordrecht Book Fair, one of the biggest in Europe.

Vendors of just about everything you can print filled more than 800 booths. Every time you turned a corner, there was another street or square jammed with booksellers. There was a considerable number of English works, so the browsing was pretty good.

We passed this beautifully preserved 1965 VW Bug and chatted with the owner for a bit. He said he has several old VWs, including microbuses; he has them shipped from California, restores them and sells them.

All for today, amigos. Thanks for reading.

 

 

[WNCtourist]

Thank you Dr.Dobro for sharing your trip! 

[oakridger]

@Dr.Dobro do you have another cruise/trip planned anytime soon?  I don't want your trip report to end!!!  All of the added tidbits of information beside the ship related stories are so interesting!

 

~Nancy

[scubacruiserx2]

7 hours ago, oakridger said:

@Dr.Dobro do you have another cruise/trip planned anytime soon?  I don't want your trip report to end!!!  All of the added tidbits of information beside the ship related stories are so interesting!

 

~Nancy

 

 Hi Nancy . You must be a night owl as I'm a early bird up before 0530 EDT and saw that you had posted just an hour before . We hope that you are well and have a trip booked soon ! Joe and Pat 🙂😊

[scubacruiserx2]

On 5/21/2023 at 2:36 PM, Dr.Dobro said:

Greetings from the Zuiderdam in the North Atlantic! I'm going to take a stab at chronicling our travels here, starting in Fort Lauderdale and circling the British Isles before heading to Norway, Iceland, Greenland and back home to Boston.

A reset is exactly what we needed, and a cruise is a reset (and a recharge) like no other. We had a day to kill in Fort Lauderdale, so we rented a car and headed down to Miami to visit Wynwood Walls, an outdoor art gallery with 80,000 square feet of mural space. There's a lot of street art in the surrounding neighborhood too.

 

 

Wynwood Walls also features sculptures, like this one depicting a handoff of the world to a new generation (here ya go, kid, hope you have better luck than I did with this old orb)...

and an anime-inspired figure that greets you near the entrance.

There are also a few interior galleries, and we were especially taken with the trompe l'oeil mastery of Dutch artist Leon Keer. It was not immediately apparent to us that the box hanging on the wall containing a vase is actually a two-dimensional painting, as the side-view photo illustrates. Just one of many illusions in the exhibit.

 

Keer created the reset button art in the photo up top. It also is two-dimensional, painted on the cement, and Karen and I just stood on the "button." Pretty cool!

 

We were going to do something else in Miami, but the traffic was so oppressive that we lit out for the territories: in this case, the Big Cypress National Preserve.

 

Here there be gators, and some creepy-looking vultures too.

We also got to see a different kind of bird: helicopters carrying slurry buckets, scooping up water to dump on a nearby forest fire. Not *too* nearby, thankfully.

We headed back to Fort Lauderdale via Alligator Alley, a road that always sang out to me from maps. Nowhere near as exciting as the name suggests. After a terrific dinner at a Cuban restaurant (Padrino's), it was back to the hotel to rest up for the rigors of boarding the next morning. Not to mention six sea days to get started.

All for now.

 

 

Dear Doctor . Thank you so much for sharing your cruise with us ( a free cruise -hooray ! ) We went on a similar cruise on the Zuiderdam in 2019 and have a similar cruise planned for next August , the 21 day Ultimate Viking Explorer leaving and returning from Amsterdam on the Nieuw Statendam . So we look forward to and are enjoying your insights .

For the record , I'm a native born Floridian who was a career Paramedic / Firefighter for 28 years in Miami Dade County who used to respond to transport and transport cruise ship passengers from the port of Miami . I did do a little time on our Air Rescue helicopters there as well . My closest connection to Connecticut was that my favorite roommate was from Bridgeport until he was replaced by wife of 45+ years . You may enjoy some of our photo review beginning with Seydisfjordur and it's puffins post # 314 found at this link . Keep up the great work . 👍

 

 

 

 

[Dr.Dobro]

We left Rotterdam behind for the last time and sailed north to Maloy, our final port in Norway. It's a fishing town of fewer than 4,000 people on the island of Vagsoy in the southern part of the country. I doubt they catch fish by hand as the mural suggests, but I won't judge.

We joined a group of eight who rented a ridiculous orange van and took a scenic drive around the Vagsoy Island. The day began cloudy and a bit foggy, so some of the pics aren't so great. C'est la vie.

 

One of the main scenic attractions is Kannesteinen, a small rock formation that somehow still stands despite centuries of Norwegian Sea tides chewing at it. It is made of a metamorphic rock called greenschist, often used by ancient people for weapons because it can be split into layers and sharpened.

Some people see E.T. in its shape. Terrestrial or not, people are not prohibited from climbing on top, but it is slippery and no one in our group felt like a morning dip.

We hiked up to the top of a headland where the Krakenes Lighthouse stands, but you can't actually get to it and you can just barely see it. The white building (which includes a few hotel rooms) blocks access to the light, which is the red knobby bit.

Well, it was a great shoreline view anyway, and I guess the main thing is that ships can see the light.

Maloy was the scene of a dramatic military operation in December 1941, called Operation Arrowhead. More than 500 British commandos stormed German positions on the island, with support from Royal Navy ships bombarding the area. The mission was to destroy storage and production facilities of fish oil, used by the Germans in the manufacture of explosives. Today a Maloy Raid Museum commemorates the event.

 

There's another invasion that takes place every year: the Norwegian Elvia Festival.

Yes, Maloy has a hunka hunka burnin' love for The King, and in August you can see four days of performances (including a gospel-themed show in a church) featuring impersonators and devotees from all over the world. The movie theater shows some Elvis films and there's even a parade down the main street, renamed Elvis Boulevard for the festival. Here's a scene from last year.

When we got back to the pier, a sign greeted us about a "rock and roll farewell" for the Zuiderdam, with a picture of an Elvis impersonator. How could we resist? 

Well, there was a show, but it was a Tom Jones impersonator belting out "Delilah" and other hits to a karaoke track. Jones and Elvis did have some things in common, such as the uncanny ability to wear out their pants from the inside. But when you're all geared up for "Jailhouse Rock".... oh, well.

 

One tourist tip for Majoy: If you run down to the local SuperMegaloMart to pick up some antifreeze, watch that you don't come home with wine instead.

The sailaway was lovely as the sun came out after all.

We even got a great sunset -- complete with North Sea oil rig -- to send us off. 

And that's it for today, kids. Thanks for reading!

[Cruise NH]

On 7/19/2023 at 8:40 PM, Dr.Dobro said:

We left Rotterdam behind for the last time and sailed north to Maloy, our final port in Norway. It's a fishing town of fewer than 4,000 people on the island of Vagsoy in the southern part of the country. I doubt they catch fish by hand as the mural suggests, but I won't judge.

We joined a group of eight who rented a ridiculous orange van and took a scenic drive around the Vagsoy Island. The day began cloudy and a bit foggy, so some of the pics aren't so great. C'est la vie.

 

One of the main scenic attractions is Kannesteinen, a small rock formation that somehow still stands despite centuries of Norwegian Sea tides chewing at it. It is made of a metamorphic rock called greenschist, often used by ancient people for weapons because it can be split into layers and sharpened.

Some people see E.T. in its shape. Terrestrial or not, people are not prohibited from climbing on top, but it is slippery and no one in our group felt like a morning dip.

We hiked up to the top of a headland where the Krakenes Lighthouse stands, but you can't actually get to it and you can just barely see it. The white building (which includes a few hotel rooms) blocks access to the light, which is the red knobby bit.

Well, it was a great shoreline view anyway, and I guess the main thing is that ships can see the light.

Maloy was the scene of a dramatic military operation in December 1941, called Operation Arrowhead. More than 500 British commandos stormed German positions on the island, with support from Royal Navy ships bombarding the area. The mission was to destroy storage and production facilities of fish oil, used by the Germans in the manufacture of explosives. Today a Maloy Raid Museum commemorates the event.

 

There's another invasion that takes place every year: the Norwegian Elvia Festival.

Yes, Maloy has a hunka hunka burnin' love for The King, and in August you can see four days of performances (including a gospel-themed show in a church) featuring impersonators and devotees from all over the world. The movie theater shows some Elvis films and there's even a parade down the main street, renamed Elvis Boulevard for the festival. Here's a scene from last year.

When we got back to the pier, a sign greeted us about a "rock and roll farewell" for the Zuiderdam, with a picture of an Elvis impersonator. How could we resist? 

Well, there was a show, but it was a Tom Jones impersonator belting out "Delilah" and other hits to a karaoke track. Jones and Elvis did have some things in common, such as the uncanny ability to wear out their pants from the inside. But when you're all geared up for "Jailhouse Rock".... oh, well.

 

One tourist tip for Majoy: If you run down to the local SuperMegaloMart to pick up some antifreeze, watch that you don't come home with wine instead.

The sailaway was lovely as the sun came out after all.

We even got a great sunset -- complete with North Sea oil rig -- to send us off. 

And that's it for today, kids. Thanks for reading!

Oh no, no more reports?  I would love to hear about your trip to Boston.  How was Greenland?  Did you encounter any icebergs?  Did you make it to all the ports?  Inquiring minds want to know.

[oakridger]

I hope @Dr.Dobrois fine and just having too much fun to post!!!  

 

~Nancy

[Dr.Dobro]

Well, thanks for your concern, all ... it has been a little while since I wrote. It's an oft-told tale of getting sucked into the cruise vortex, when the serious going-on-vacation business distracts you from the photos and the keyboard.

 

Spoiler alert: We arrived home as scheduled on July 22, thanks to our son for the pick-up. Coming home after 71 days at sea, we felt like astronauts re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down into a sea of loose ends. 

 

But now, with some equilibrium restored, let's wrap up what was a most enjoyable and exciting trip around the North Atlantic.

 

***

 

The Zuiderdam made a return visit to Akureyri, the only city of any size on the north coast of Iceland.  It's a long and pretty sail-in up the Eyjafjord to the city pier.

I think this is the fourth visit for us, and on the other three we took excursions into the spectacular countryside. This time we stayed in town and enjoyed a modest ramble along the fjord south of town.

Akureyri's cruise mini-terminal had an interesting display of salvaged woodcraft, and nearby is a pretty streetscape.

 

 

 

Bird ID, anyone? Several of these along the shore.

Our walk led us to the home of Akureyri's favorite son, Jon Sveinsson, a Jesuit and author of the Nonni series of children's books. They've been widely read in northern Europe for over 100 years.

Sveinsson's bust sits atop the writing desk at Nonnahus, his childhood home.

The town museum had a steel wire recorder from the 1930s playing some tunes of the era.The sound quality was comparable to my grandfather's 78 rpm wax records. Interesting to see technology that never caught on but works nonetheless.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but on our walk back to the ship we witnessed an ugly cloud spewing from the Zuiderdam. The first photo is a look north to the ship; the second faces south, deeper into the fjord.

 

The captain got on the honker that evening and said the spew was caused by moisture in the fuel or in the system, and it was harmless but ugly water vapor. Now he could have said it was fairy dust, and I might've bought it. But he did say he fielded a lot of local inquiries. Engine-savvy folks, feel free to weigh in.

 

Here's something a lot more fun from our sail-away. I snapped this tasty waterfall photo...

...but I did not realize until I got the photo on a big screen (and a bit grainy) that three Icelandic heads were poking out of a little pool at the brink of the falls.

Holy Nonni! That's gotta be some frigid water, unless they're lucky enough to have a hot spring mixing in.

 

And so we continued on, following the Nieuw Statendam, which was our tag-along partner for a few ports now.

Will write again in a few weeks. Just kidding.

[Reagan0712]

According to Google, it’s a Black-headed Gull.

I enjoyed your pictures once again.

Edited July 30, 2023 by Reagan0712
.

[Dr.Dobro]

Hi again all,

 

Iceland has its famed Ring Road, shown in blue below. Visitors plan itineraries of 7 to 10 days to make the circuit, easier now since it's become fully paved. (Still has over 30 one-lane bridges, though.)

Anyway, you'll notice the weird tumor growth jutting from the northwest corner of Iceland. This is (are?) the Westfjords, and to get there you have to get off the Ring and cross an isthmus just 4 miles wide. Juat 7,000 people live in the Westfjords, with the heaviest snowfall in the country often closing roads and cutting off the region for weeks each winter.

We left Akureyri and sailed west along Iceland's north coast, running parallel to and just a few degrees below the Arctic Circle. This was our last taste of 24-hour sunlight.

 

We pulled into Isafjordur, biggest town in the region, and quickly hopped on an excursion to Vigur Island and its rich seabird population. We had attempted to book this as a private excursion, but the operator told us it would be sold only through the ship's shore excursions (at a highly inflated price). Best use we have had for the use-it-or-lose-it shore credits!

It turned out to be spectacular -- our best birding experience of the whole trip and the one and only time we got reasonably close to puffins.

These comical and appealing birds are the stars of the show up here, but previously we had seen only a few in faraway flight or small groups bobbing on the waves.

We visited during the nesting season for arctic terns, which will dive-bomb visitors to defend their nests. Visitors received sticks with little colored markers and held them aloft as they walked past the nests. The terns wouldn't swoop below the sticks.

Karen took my dare to lower her stick for a moment. It wasn't down for long.

 

Vigur Island also has an uncommonly large colony of black guillemots.

And this little acrobat is a red shank, we learned.

Amidst all this exciting bird life, a centuries-old farm thrives from the more mundane eider ducks who nest along the beach.

There are more than 3000 nests built every year, and the eiderdown left behind is harvested and processed by the resident family. The island also hosts a few student naturalists from France who greeted the excursion and showed us around.

 

The windmill on the farm, built in 1840, is said to be the oldest in Iceland and the northernmost in the world.

The windmill is the vantage point where we got the puffin pics, but I have to admit that we were lucky. The birds were only close to us for about 10 minutes, so if you're dreaming of doing this, be advised.

But, hey -- hooray for luck, right? What a great day.

[QuattroRomeo]

Lovely contrast in that last photo; beautiful landscape shot! And I just love the "3 Icelandic heads" popping out of the waterfall pool- great catch!

[Dr.Dobro]

After a day at sea we pulled into Reykjavik for the second time. On the previous visit we suffered the first umbrella-worthy days of the trip, and we spent our time just exploring the capital city. But this time the skies were mostly blue, as they have been most places -- the weather gods were sailing with us.

 

So, let's see: perfect weather, a two-day stay in port, sundown around 11 pm. Sounds like the perfect recipe for another road trip!

We secured our vehicle at an Iceland-based rental joint about 30 minutes walk from the port, and hey voila! We're off to the south coast for the day, and here's what we saw.

Waterfalls, of course! No place does waterfalls like Iceland, which has more than 10,000 of them on an island the size of Kentucky. This is largely due to the tremendous glaciers that cover 11 percent of the land. This is Myrdalsjokull Glacier, the fourth largest. 

Mix all that ice with a snowy, rainy climate and you have huge amounts of water. And thanks to the magic of tectonics -- Iceland lies astride the European and North American plates -- you have upthrust mountain ranges creating great tumbling cascades.

Below is one of the big kahunas -- Skogafoss, a 200-foot plunge over what used to be the coastline cliff. That coast has retreated three miles south.

But you don't have to hunt the big ones for satisfying waterfall action. They're everywhere, including on several little loop roads that branch off the Ring Road.

That bright green vegetation around the falls could be velvet.

There always seems to be a red-roofed church standing solitary in the wide-open spaces. They are kept up well so they must be active, but people must travel long miles.

We continued down to the coastline near the town of Vik, where we stopped at Reynisfjara Beach, an expansive reach of black sand.

This great cave features columns of basalt rising out of the sand, then folding inward in a most pleasing way as they form the roof of the entrance.

Nerd alert! The beach and cave were Eastwatch-by-the-Sea in "Game of Thrones," with Daenerys Targaryen accepting the loyalty pledge of some tribe or other. I think a dragon was involved. My sons have to explain it to me.

Anyway, down at the other end of the beach are pretty big rock formations. The first one reminded me very much of Perce Rock in Quebec, where the missus and I spent our long-ago honeymoon.

 

Hey, bonus puffin! We found one nesting high up on a cliffside.

After a nice pizza stop in Vik, we headed back northeast to Reykjavik through the long evening light.

We continued road-tripping the following morning, and we'll pick that up next time.

 

[QuattroRomeo]

Velvet and how! Beautiful scenery. And the basalt formations are so interesting to look at!

[whogo]

When I grow up I want to travel and write like you, Dr.Dobro.

[Dr.Dobro]

For the second day of our car rental in Reykjavik, we got up early and hit the highway at 6 a.m. We were going to see some sights on the "Golden Circle," a 140-mile loop from the capital city that includes some of the most popular attractions. (Not to be confused with the Ring Road, which circles the entire island.)

 

Our goal was to get out ahead of the tourist busses which would fill every parking lot by mid-day. Win! We had virtually no traffic all the way to the immense Gullfoss waterfall, where only about 10 cars carrying other early birds were parked.

In summer, the Hvita River dumps 5,000 cubic feet of water per second into the rapids at the top of Gullfoss.

I couldn't picture how much 5,000 cubic feet is, but I hit upon the School Bus Scale. One big yellow school bus occupies about 1,000 cubic feet. Just imagine, every second, five school busses rolling and tumbling by.

After the rapids, the river makes a hard right turn and plunges 130 feet into a crevice.

We were taken aback by the Mountaineers of Iceland mega-rigs awaiting customers. Not exactly what comes to mind when I think of mountaineers. I had to look up what MAN was; it's a Munich manufacturer of everything from city buses to military vehicles.

We moved on to the nearby Geysir geothermal area and walked among rocks hissing steam and hot springs of gurgling, boiling water.

Geysir gets its name from the Icelandic geysa, meaning "to gush," and English has adapted the word to apply to any such gusher. "Geysa" is how they still pronounce it in Boston, howevah.

The area includes an Icelandic version of Old Faithful, called Strokkur. It's a hyperactive little devil, going off every 6 to 10 minutes, but you have to be quick -- it's one squirt and done. Photographers have a two-second window.

The Icelandic horse is a small but solid breed, and they are everywhere. The nation keeps the bloodlines pure by forbidding the importation of other breeds. There are herds kept elsewhere in Europe, but once a native horse leaves the island it cannot return.

Horse racing in Iceland dates to 1874. They even have winter races over frozen lakes. The horses are groomed with a characteristic front-combed haircut (vintage teenager, c. 1972). Fine looking animals. So were us teens.

 

Speaking of cute critters, you have to love this pic of ebony and ivory living together in perfect harmony. With Big Mama, of course.

I think this little dude is a red shank, our second of the cruise.

Can you stand one more splendid waterfall? This is Hjalparfoss -- not the tallest, not the mightiest, but certainly one of the prettiest we've seen. Love the flowering meadow and that column of lava rock standing up to the two half-fosses.

Back to the ship for an evening sailaway. Follow-up; The captain announced that local authorities had inspected the ship that day, following up on the emissions incident in Akureyri, and the system checked out.

 

Speaking of emissions, the volcano south of Reykjavik was just starting its renewed eruptions as we pulled out. There seemed to be a lot more alarm on the U.S. cable channels than we saw right here near ground zero.

 

It's not a big old ka-blooey eruption, just a huge, slow lava leak, and it's in a remote roadless area. There was some concern that the road to the airport might be affected, but it didn't happen. All in a day's work on a volcanic island.

More to come. Thanks for reading!

[oakridger]

I especially like the pictures with wildflowers in the foreground of the waterfalls!

 

 

~Nancy

[Dr.Dobro]

We pulled out of Reykjavik and sailed north to our final port in Iceland: Grundarfjordur, on the Snaefellsnes  Peninsula. (We tried to get the pronounciation down, but we just settled on "Sniffles.")

 

We took a half-day tour around the peninsula, which is touted as "Iceland in Miniature" by the local touristicians. That's a bit of a stretch, but it was a very pretty area and we enjoyed yet another improbably sunny day.

 

The highlight for me was Arnarstapi, a tiny town with huge seaside cliffs overlooking rock formations and the nesting places of thousands of seabirds.

I've been looking at this picture of a gull and chick, and it seems to show remnants of the egg shell around the baby's body. Could it have just hatched? Ornithologists, please weigh in.

There was no shortage of cormorants, either.

But hey, here's the big news: Whales at last!

I'm pretty sure these are orcas because of the distinctive black and white pattern. But are orcas whales or dolphins? Wikipedia has it both ways: "The orca (Orcinus orca), also called killer whale, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member."

These pics are grainy; the orcas were some distance from the cliffs, and my camera's built-in telephoto was tested to the limit. I'm wondering whether this is a mom giving lessons to her calf.

Here's an impressively tall lighthouse with severe utilitarian styling.

This photo looks back from the cliffs to the tiny town. The glacier-capped mountain is actually a volcano called Snaefellsjokull, and it occasionally leaks lava, but there has been no eruption for hundreds of years.

In Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), this mountain was where the explorers found their passage to the underworld.

We continued our walk, admiring the cliffs and rock formations. We met a couple in full wedding regalia, walking out to the cliffs for photos.

I didn't get a pic, but the bride was wearing hiking boots.

Back near Grundarfjordur we stopped to see Kirkjufell, Iceland's most photographed mountain, with a nice little waterfall to punctuate the picture.

Nerd alert: Kirkjufell served as Arrowhead Mountain in "Game of Thrones." According to a nerdsite I visited, "10,000 years before Aegon's Conquest, the Night King was created by the Children of the Forest near this mountain." Here's a pic.

Strange place for the Children of the Forest to hang out, because there ain't no trees here. That branch in the photo is pure CGI.

 

Karen got close-up with a horsey friend, one of several on a farm right by the mountain.

And that will do it for today. Adios, amoebas.

[oakridger]

Another fun and informative post!  Good for my Sunday evening read.

 

Thanks,

~Nancy

[grannyshell]

I just discovered your travelogue while researching a cruise called Voyage of the Vikings. We're from the Boston area too. My goodness, what an amazing trip and an equally amazing journaling of your adventures. Are you a travel writer? I hope there are more installments because this seems like a good book that I can't put down.