Transatlantic Cruise
April 25 - May 9, 2015
(by Dave)
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You can view a slideshow
of the When finished, click your browser's Ponta
Delgada (The Azores) Cobh
(Ireland) Blarney
Castle (Ireland) Delftshaven
& Rotterdam The
Windmills of Kinderdijk Ghent
(Belgium) Around
the Ship There
are no words ... When finished, click your browser's |
In late October 2014, Patty and I took a 17-day Transatlantic cruise aboard the Emerald Princess from London to Houston. We liked that cruise so much that, this year, we decided to do it again, but in the other direction. On April 25, we boarded the Royal Princess in Fort Lauderdale and set sail for London. Aside from the bothersome time changes traveling east, our second voyage aboard the Royal Princess took us to ports-of-call in The Azores, Ireland, The Netherlands, and Belgium. This cruise, we did cruise line excursions at every port. This got us out away from the ship, but didn't leave much time for experiencing anything in depth. Plus, on these excursions, you're typically herded around with 40 - 50 other passengers. Regardless, we enjoyed every port-of-call. Ship's Horns play the Love Boat theme When a ship leaves port, it sounds
its horn. On this cruise, when the port allowed, the Royal Princess used
its ship's horns to play the Love Boat theme as it departed. I captured it
on video in Cobh (Ireland) and Rotterdam (Netherlands). You can view the
video here: Ponta
Delgada (The Azores) After sailing 6 wonderful days, we made our first landfall at Ponta Delgada in The Azores. We knew from the previous cruise that we liked this place. This time, we got out and saw much more of the main Azorean island, São Miguel (San Miguel). We visited the Sete Cidades area where we enjoyed scenic views of the island including Lagoa de Santiago (St. John Lake) and the twin lakes, Lagoa Verde (Green Lake) & Lagoa Azul (Blue Lake). We also enjoyed two beautiful churches ... Igreja de São Nicolau (Church of Saint Nicholas) and Igreja de São Pedro (Church of St. Peter). Cobh (Ireland)(May 5) Cobh (pronounced "cove"), known from 1850 until the late 1920s as Queenstown, is a tourist seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbor and is home to Ireland's only dedicated cruise terminal. It was also the only stop made by the Titanic on her ill-fated maiden voyage. It took us 2 days to sail from Ponta Delgada to Cobh; however, we didn't sail directly there, we had to detour to a rendezvous near Great Britain with a UK Royal Navy helicopter that evacuated a sick passenger to London for surgery. Nevertheless, we arrived in Cobh as scheduled. Blarney Castle (Ireland) While at Cobh, we took a tour out to Blarney Castle. There we climbed a steep, shallow, very narrow winding stairway to the top to watch tourists lay down and bend over backwards to kiss the Blarney Stone. Patty and I didn't feel like sharing germs with millions of tourists, so we abstained and just watched in amusement. Delftshaven & Rotterdam (The Netherlands) Two days after Cobh, we made the coast of The Netherlands and began an 18 mile voyage up canals and waterways into the country's interior to Rotterdam. Rotterdam is a city in South Holland, the Netherlands, located geographically within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt river delta at the North Sea. Its history goes back to 1270 when a dam was constructed in the Rotte river and people settled around it for safety. In 1340 Rotterdam was granted city rights by the Count of Holland and slowly grew into a major logistic and economic centre. Today it is home to Europe's largest port (and, boy, was it ever large!) and has a population of 624,799 (2014, city proper), ranking second in the Netherlands. I mentioned that we had to divert slightly on the way to Ireland so that a passenger could be evacuated from the ship by helicopter to be transported to London for surgery. Well, when we arrived at Rotterdam, there were two ambulances waiting at the dock to take two more passengers off the ship. We know these things happen, but this is the first time we recall being witness to these events. From Rotterdam, we did an excursion to Kinderdijk (see next section). We also did a brief walking tour of Delftshaven, which is a borough of Rotterdam on the right bank of river Nieuwe Maas, in South Holland, the Netherlands. The Windmills of Kinderdijk (The Netherlands) Located in the province of South Holland, the Windmills of Kinderdijk are a group of 19 monumental windmills in the Alblasserwaard polder (a polder is a tract of low land, reclaimed from a body of water, and protected by dikes). Most of the mills are part of the village of Kinderdijk in the municipality of Molenwaard. Built in 1738 and 1740, to keep water out of the polder, it is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands and one of the best-known Dutch tourist sites. The mills are listed as national monuments and have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. Ghent (Belgium) Our last port-of-call was the port of Zeebrugge at Bruges, Belgium. Patty and I did a walking tour of nearby Ghent, which, in my estimation, is the most European town I've ever visited. Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie and in the late Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe with some 50,000 people in 1300. Today it is a busy city with a port and a university. While in Ghent, we were treated to a chocolate making demonstration (Belgian chocolates are world famous). We also had a few minutes to walk around in the vast St. Bavo's Cathedral. Neither Patty or I can remember ever being in such a large church. Around the Ship This slideshow is simply some photos that Patty and I shot while on the ship. They include some made one evening during the Princess Cruise Lines golden anniversary party at which they dropped hundreds of gold balloons on the revelers down below. Also in this slide show, you'll see a photo of the Royal Navy helicopter leaving the ship with the ill passenger. We weren't supposed to be out on our balconies (or the exposed decks) during this evacuation, but, I couldn't resist checking it out briefly. There are no words ... I'll repeat, there are no words ... You'll just have to see for yourself. Photo info. Please enjoy the slideshows. Simply click the slideshow icon to see the photos. Once done, use your browsers back button to return here. All photos were shot with Patty's Canon PowerShot ELPH 130 IS or Dave's Canon EOS 7D MK II and Sony DSC-WX50 cameras. All images were shot as JPG (130 IS & DSC-WX50) or RAW (7D Mark II) and adjusted as needed in Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® CC. Additional photo data is provided below each photo in the slideshow. Enjoy the photos! All photos are Copyright © 2015 David & Patty Boston |
