Live from Eurodam Transatlantic 11-27 August

[catl331]

Hope you do eat in the Tamarind. John and I enjoyed our dinner there. Even if one is not an Asian foodie, the beef is very good. The rice dinner was alot of fun as well as the reg. "free" lunch. I think all need reservations. Enjoying your trip from here in FLorida.:)

[Kween Karen]

These reports are wonderful.....thank you for doing them. I always love cruising along with someone!

[many cruises]

RetiredMustang: We are enjoying your postings from the Eurodam & especially your pictures. Thanks so much for doing this! :)

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[Starr Mtn]

Aug. 13, Thursday

 

, attached is a photo of the Pinnacle wine bar so you can see the chairs I described. If this works, I'll try to upload more photos.

 

More later,

Dave

 

After seeing that photo - I think my power wheelchair

seems or so much more comfortable ! Thanks

for bringing me along on your cruise.

[DFD1]

Dave, Your reports are great fun to read. You do a masterful job. Thanks so much for sharing your cruise with us.

 

We were at the Tatoo a few years back...nothing has changed, thank goodness, we were hip to hip as well, but the show was something we will always remember with great joy.

 

Glad you loved Scotland....one of God's great gifts to mankind!

[Truvia]

So cool! I am enjoying your post and getting more and more excited about going on a cruise soon. We haven't booked our trip yet...cant decide between Eurodam E Carribean or Westerdam E Carribean, both are week of Dec 13th. I think the more I hear about Eurodam the more excited I am. The Eurodam stops in St Thomas vs St Maartin, which is the reason for my indecisiveness. St Maartin sounds more exciting to visit and it has been highly recommended to me. What to do...what to do... Either way I will be cruising soon. Enjoy the rest of your trip dave!

[RetiredMustang]

Aug. 15 continued

 

I did some more wandering, looking at the stairwell art. There were paintings of ships by Stephen Card and some drawings he did; I had not previously seen his drawings. There were also many reproductions of Rembrandt paintings and drawings, including several self-portraits. Also, along the passageways of the cabins are mounted photos of older cruise ships and passengers, from the 50s and 60s mainly. Some are quite amusing, and many are interesting to look at, to see how things have changed. It must have been a different cruise experience back then; one photo shows a group playing shuflleboard .. in tuxes, dresses and high heels (not all on the same person). What a hoot.

 

The show last night was a ventriloquist, Don Bryan, and his puppet Mr. Noseworthy. I seem to remember seeing him before, either on TV or a previous cruise, He was very good, and had a very clever show. Very enjoyable.

 

Aug. 16, Monday

 

We put the clocks back an hour last night, but someone forgot to to notify the sun, and light started showing through gaps in the curtains about 4:45. We are early risers, so that was no problem. I went to get coffee from the Lido (we learned a few cruises ago to buy the lidded commuter mugs, so we no longer wait for coffee to be delivered and don't spill from cups trying to get back from the Lido.) and we enjoyed it on the balcony, although we needed a jacket as it is cool out there, but not really cold.

 

It is quite a pretty view. Our cabin is on the starboard side, and we can see headlands and coasts of Iceland off our balcony. The sun is reflected through clouds onto the sea off the starboard bow. There are some clouds about, including one a couple of miles away that is raining steadily into the sea, but it promises to be a nice morning ashore. I sure hope so. We have enjoyed all the ports so far, and are anticipating the Canadian port visits as well, but the key ones we were most anticipating were Iceland and Greenland.

 

We will be off after breakfast on our excursion. We picked the one that listed the most things to see, so we aren't due back until 6 p.m. or later. I will tell you about our day, but it may be tomorrow before I get to posting it.

 

Thanks all for your encouraging comments. Glad you enjoy my posts.

 

More later,

Dave

[Krazy Kruizers]

Loving your reports!!

[ducksoupforme]

I am loving these reports too.

We are booked on an almost identical itinerary for next August. We were originally booked in a port-side cabin but I changed to starboard because I figured the land sightings would be better. I'm encouraged to read your reports of the views of Iceland!

Iceland and Greenland are what I am looking forward to the most as well.

Sounds like you are enjoying your cruise - I hope it continues to be wonderful for you!

[Susie51]

Great reports. Thank you for continuing to post.

[RetiredMustang]

Aug. 17, Monday (cont.)

 

Sorry about the date mix-up; apparently I set my own clock back a day when I set my watch back an hour. (I wonder if I can set my birthdate forward about 20 years ... )

 

At any rate, it is still Monday, and we are in Reykjavik. We watched during breakfast as we came closer to Reykjavik, and afterwards, I went back down to our balcony and helped the captain dock the ship as I usually do, by giving hand signals and hip and leg English, just like I do with my golf shots, only these worked better since the captain and I made a great approach and mooring (and my golf shots usually don't).

 

I then had a few minutes to check out the Tamarind menu, and ask somebody from the staff who knows whether or not they have rijstaffel at lunch -- John (jtl513) is right as usual: it's only available at dinner. I seem to remember reading on Cruise Critic that somebody got a group together and had it at lunch one cruise, but I could have misread or misremembered. At any rate, it is not available at lunch on this cruise.

 

....

 

O.K, we're back from our tour, and in a word: WOW!!!

 

We took the tour called Viking Trails, which was a tough choice over the Golden Circle Tour, but the one we took included something the other didn't; it's been weeks since we signed up on line but I think we chose the one we did because of a stop at Thingvellir to see the site of the Althing. Plus, it focused on the history and literature of Iceland.

 

We first drove along the coast north to a town called Bogarnes, birthplace of a warrior/poet featured in one of the Icelandic Eddas, and toured a museum with a short but very good presentation on the Viking discovery and settlement of Iceland.

 

We then visited a hot spring, and learned about how Iceland has captured and is using the geothermal energy they have. The spring(s) we visited had only recently been put to use to heat and power homes in the area. Then, it was on to a hotel at Reykholt for lunch. By the way, I learned today that the word "reyk" in Old Norse/modern Icelandic means "smoke" or "steam". In the case of Reykjavik, it was called that because of the steam from the hot pools around the bay; Reykjavik means "smoky/steamy bay" and Rekholt means "steamy forest". I think this may be related to the old Scottish word "reeky" in the older meaning of smoky. (Well, I thought it was interesting even if nobody else did. DW thoroughly assured me that nobody else did, so I didn't share with the group ... )

 

After lunch, we toured the site of Snorri Sturluson's house, and saw at least his hot tub (thermal bath) which is still there; the remains of the house is being excavated. Snorri was the most famous writer in Iceland's history, and in the late 1100s and early 1200s collected/wrote some important works, the Eddas, which are the world's main source of info about Norse mythology. There was also a museum featuring him and his works.

 

Then, it was on to Hraunfossar, an impressive array of waterfalls issuing from a lava field into a river. The water is glacier melt and some rain water that percolates through the lava. After visiting the falls, we left paved roads and took a gravel single-lane road over the Cold Valley, passing over lava fields and between glaciers. We climbed to over 2,000 feet, and the weather turned to cold rain which seemed to fit the landscape somehow.

 

We dropped over the pass between the glaciers down to a large lake in the rift valley between the North American and Eurasian plates, an area calle Thinvellir (the Norse/Icelandic alphabet has extra letters, one of which transliterates to "th".) This is notable mostly, in my mind at least, as the site where the Althing was held for centuries. The Althing is, I think, the oldest continuous representative body in the world; Iceland's parliament. The site has subsided due to tectonic activity along the plate boundary, but much of the meadow is still there, although it is more watered than in the past, we were told.

 

We then returned to the ship just before 7 p.m., less than an hour late, which is pretty good for an all-day tour. We came abord, dropped our stuff in our stateroom and headed upstairs, hoping to get into the Canaletto restaurant, with the Lido as our backup. Luckily, the maitre d' at Canaletto seated us without a reservation I'll share more about that tomorrow. But, now I will try to post this and some photos I took before turning in. All in all, it is an amazing land. Our guide told us that 80% of the land is uninhabitable, and to me the surprise was that 20% is habitable. I guess I had a wrong, but probably typical, impression of Iceland.

 

More later,

Dave

[pspercy]

port visits as well, but the key ones we were most anticipating were Iceland and Greenland.[/quote]

 

Which ports do you visit in Greenland ?

I've been to Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg), be interested to know if it's changed much.

 

Thanks for the reports too.

[catl331]

What did you have for lunch at the hotel on your tour???

[Susie51]

Thank you for sharing the interesting facts about Iceland. Also, thank you for posting the pics.

[RuthC]

Glad you had a good day in Iceland.

I thought it was a kind of kick to see where the North American and Europe tectonic plates come together. I managed to have one foot on each continent at the same time. :D

Thanks for continuing to take us along for the ride.

[smting]

Dave,

 

Thanks for the updates! I have been working on the West Side Highway for the past year and can't remember seeing a HAL ship coming down the Hudson in that time. Usually just Carnival and Norwegian. I will be looking for your ship on 8/27. I usually get into work around 7 and usually catch the Carnival Miracle from our roofdeck, but it has been getting into port earlier lately. On those days, it is a sight to see this huge white floating city appear to pass thru the city streets as I walk to work.

[RetiredMustang]

Tuesday, August 18

 

We were offline this morning as the ship lost satellite connections, but it came back a few minutes ago, so I'll try to post while we still are connected. We are sailing between Iceland and Greenland, and the weather is not too bad. I hope it holds, because we are due to do scenic sailing around Prinz Christian Sund tomorrow, conditions permitting. Then, the next day to Nanortalik for a port visit.

 

Lunch at the hotel was soup and then cod with potatoes. Very good.

 

 

Canaletto

 

We ate dinner at the Canaletto restaurant after our Iceland shore excursion yesterday. This is a relatively new concept in HAL ships. They take the section of the starboard Lido, nearest the midships elevators/stairs, where the pizza is available during lunch, and create a separate specialty restaurant in the evening. But, there is no separate charge to eat at Canaletto.

 

The menu says it is Italian-inspired, and it actually comes close to real. We lived in Naples, Italy, for 6 years, and many of the dishes are ones we could find in trattorie and ristorante in Italy. Each meal apparently starts with antipasti, as we did not order it but a server came round with a platter of delicious items like bocconcini (little mozzarella balls), marinated/grilled zucchini, asparagus, mushrooms, bell peppers, etc. We have actually had such antipasti in Italy, and I recommend it if you like such things. That was a real hit. The server only gave you the items you told him to, and only as much as you wanted, so you could have just a little (DW) or a bigger plate (me).

 

For our first course, DW ordered minestrone, which again was a good dish that could be served in a trattoria. I had the Canaletto salad, and I've never quite seen anything like it in Italy. It had large leaves that needed cutting with a knife to eat, radicchio on bottom, followed by butter and red lettuces, with a bit of thinner greens like arugula on top. They had dressed it with a vinaigrette that looked and tasted like it had been pulsed with diced yellow tomatoes. All in all, it didn't have any unusual ingredients, it's just that the totaltily was more elaborate than I expected.

 

I had linguine ai frutti di mare for the second dish, and it was great. The sauce was again a bit more elaborate than the classic sauce of olive oil, garlic, shallots, flat-leaf parsely and white wine, and possibly diced fresh tomatoes with the clams, mussels and shrimp. (Italian cooking is actually pretty simple, each dish using a few basic items of the freshest quality.) The sauce included cream and some parmesan or similar cheese, which is not usual with seafood. So, it was a bit different than expected, but quite good.

 

DW had veal milanese, which is basically a weiner schnitzel. Usually we have found that veal is more often prepared with light sauces and is not breaded.

 

For dessert, DW had a Napoleon, which is Miglia Foglie (thousand leaves) in Italian, but for some reason the menu listed it by the French Mille-Feuille. She reported that it was good in any language, and I noticed that she left no more of it than I had of the pasta, which is to say none at all. I had the flight of tiramisu. There were three kinds that came in what were in essence large shot glasses, each containing a few spoonfuls of dessert. One was the normal coffee-flavored, and two were ones I had not had before; a lemon flavored one which was good, but the best was the Amaretto-flavored one.

 

All in all, it was a very good meal, and we may eat there again. Now, if they had osso bucco with risotto on the menu, we would probably eat there more than once more.

 

More later,

Dave

[Tillylovesseabourn]

Its realy been fabulous to hear of your days on Eurodam, keep it coming, I 'm really looking forward to the next installment!

[catl331]

Right on Dave! I think John and I will book the Canaletto on our Dec. cruise. Gotta get those French words off that menu!!! I would love that Risotto too. We had a peasant bread soup down one of the alleyways in Florence and I would love to experience that again. Are you listening HAL? Capice?

[RetiredMustang]

catl331,

 

I got typing too fast and messed up the Italian, it's mille foglie. Ah, the Tuscan bread soup, and the risotto, in the trattoria on the back road a couple of blocks behind the Uffizi where the tourists don't go, and ... but until I can get there, HAL does a pretty good version that they top with a first rate osso bucco. I highly recommend it!

 

Dave

[Kween Karen]

Sounds like I better try the Canaletto at least once! Great description!

[Susie51]

Is this alternative restaurant available on Westerdam?

[goody1]

My wife and I were on the Eurodam on the cruise immediately before the OP and also loved Canaletto, however our favourite was Tamarind which was superb. Fantastic food in a great setting, superb service and a great bar (Silk Den) adjacent to the restaurant for pre-dinner cocktails.

[CasaSmith]

Dave,

 

You sound like you are having a wonderful cruise so far. Great pictures. I am going through the cruise through your eyes. I feel like I am there. You are a great writer. Thanks again for taking us a long. How has the temperature been?

 

Thanks.

[RetiredMustang]

Aug. 19, Wednesday

 

We set the clocks back again last night, the second night in a row. The sky started getting light shortly after 3, and I had hoped it was the Northern Lights, but it was predawn. We slept a bit more, but even so it was just 5 when we got up.

 

A few random thoughts and observations this morning:

 

Canaletto on Westerdam? I picked up a couple of 2010 brochures outside the future criuise counselor's desk earlier (you know, just to read the articles, not to look at the pictures), and just checked the floor plans of the ships. It appears that all the ships except Prinsendam and Maasdam either have or are getting Canaletto. Prinsendam isn't probably because of its smaller size with no place to put it, but I'm not sure why Maasdam isn't getting one while the other S-class ships are.

 

Lecturers. I am one who fills out my comment card at the end of the cruise, and I often would recommend that HAL bring on someone to talk about the history, geography, natural attractions, culture, etc. of a port instead of just where to buy diamonds and perfume. I've noticed on the last few cruises that HAL has started to do so, and this cruise the one they picked has been superb. Jon Sigursson from Iceland is well-traveled in Iceland and Greenland, is very knowledgable and has been packing the mainstage for his talks. He is a wonderful phtographer, and the slide show and music he puts at the end of each talk is stupendous. He is scheduled to give us narrative all day as we travel through the Prins Christian Sund. He talked about it and showed slides yesterday, and everyone on board is excited. The clouds are burning off, the sun is coming up and the whitecaps have disappeared from the ocean -- should be a fine day. A few minutes ago DW shouted "whale" and it seems she wasn't the only one to spot it, as there were slams of doors to balconies all up and down the starboard side. Jon said there was a good chance we would see whales around 8 a.m. until we entered the sound at 9, and then again this afternoon when we exit back to open sea.

 

Trays. It doesn't bother us, but there are still several people complaining, some saying that other lines have them and they don't understand why HAL does not. We've recommended to a few that it they feel that strongly about it, they should put it down on a comment card or mention it on the end of the cruise questionnaire. I think HAL really does pay attention to those, and there have been some changes for the better that I have noticed over the years.

 

Art auctions. One thing that is a bit better, but still somewhat an annoyance to me anyway is the Park West (P'est) at Sea art auctions. I understand that some people enjoy the auctions and that HAL makes a lot of money on them which keeps our costs lower, but I just wish they would find somewhere else than the Ocean Bar to hold the auctions. They not only take up that bar, but the noise renders basically the whole atrium area unusuable for anything else. The Crow's Nest would have caused more problems, and I suppose the Queen's Lounge was taken with other demonstrations and things, so there may not have been anywhere else available. Oh well, they were gone by the time we were looking for our pre-dinner drink -- when you get down to it, if that's the worst thing I can find to complain about, this must be a great cruise. And it is; we are having a blast!

 

The sun is up, the sea is sapphire, the birds are wheeling about and performing for us, so I think I will post this bit, put on a sweater and go join DW on the balcony to watch for whales. It's been cool but not really all that cold -- highs in the 50s and 60s. I'll be back later to tell you about our day cruising through Prins Christian Sund.

 

More later,

Dave