The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Eight

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

September 30 (Tuesday, Day 14, Aomori, Japan) -

Aomori was added to the itinerary when Russia was removed. We docked around 8 AM and it was cloudy and even rained for a few minutes but ended up sunny and nice. We decided to stay onboard until around 10 or so shops wouldn't open until then anyway. For about an hour after docking there was a Taiko drum group welcoming us which was very nice and we could easily see and hear it from our balcony. There was also a tent at the base of the gangway staffed by English-speaking Japanese to help answer questions.

YouTube of Taiko drum group:

The Aomori greeting celebration

 

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Seven

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

September 29 (Monday, Day 13, Hakodate, Japan) - Continued

We had decided to go ashore with Gary and Charlotte. Hakodate had a free shuttle bus running from the port (which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere) to the city about 15 minutes away. When we got off the shuttle bus we were greeted by a bunch of high school girls in their nautical-inspired school uniforms. They were the welcome committee and were also there to help the tourists with questions and stuff. Snookums asked one of them where the Morning Market was and she (and a friend) told us they would take us there. We followed them and after about 1 mile got to what looked like a grocery store. We thanked them profusely and started wandering around.

The Hakodate Morning Market?

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Six

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

So, here we are, less than 200 miles out of Shanghai, China, and I'm finally getting back to posting. We had a whirlwind tour of four Japanese cities, walked a lot, and didn't have much chance for Snookums to write up the journal or Filbert to add the photos and upload them.

We've gotten all that done for the Japan portion of our trip, and wouldn't you know, the ship's Internet is down "because of the position of the ship." Sigh.

So, instead of this getting posted at about 2 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 6, it's getting posted . . . later. What the heck, we're only ten days or so behind! We'll catch up---eventually.

OK, here we go . . .

September 26 (Friday, Day 10, At sea) -

We spent the night being tossed and turned by the high waves (very rough - 12 to 18 feet per the Navigation channel). Nothing fell but it was difficult to walk around the cabin. Snookums claimed that she was airborne for an instant around 2 AM. We decided to get up around 5:30, shower and be first in line for Lido breakfast at 6:30. Well, there was a bunch of other people already there but we managed to get a table by the window. The ship was rocking and rolling but neither of us was sick. We hope it stays that way. We ended up talking with Gary, one of our dinner tablemates, until 9 AM.

Rough seas

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Three

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

September 23 (Tuesday, Day 8, At sea) -

Snookums woke up early and decided to work out for the first time. She returned totally sweaty after an intense session on the elliptical as well as after doing some floor work and free weights.

We were supposed to cruise through the Aleutian Islands today but since the Russian port was cancelled our course is more diagonal down towards Japan and we were just “at sea” today.

In the middle of the ship, the main atrium contains a big map that shows our cruise progress.

The Big Map in the atrium

 

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Three

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

September 21 (Sunday, Day 6, At sea) -

Filbert’s fancy watch was dead and needed a new battery so today we went to the store to see if they had a battery. When the guy returned the working watch and didn’t ask for our cabin number, we asked “How much?” and the man said there was no charge since he took a battery out of a watch that was broken (probably one of the $10 watches). What service!!! We haven’t had a single complaint so far and don’t plan on having any.

The Watch

 

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Three

September 20 (Saturday, Day 5, At sea) -

Snookums' cold is in full force but she did manage to attend the 10 AM cruisecritic.com get-together. cruisecritic.com is a website and it has a place for people that are going to be on the same cruise to trade information. Anyway, a get-together for the ~60 people was arranged so we went. Filbert purchased a polo shirt since Snookums felt sorry for the guy that organized the shirt purchase since he had several extras to sell.

At the CruiseCritic.com Meet-&-Greet

 

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Two

September 19 (Friday, Day 4, Boarding ms Amsterdam, Seattle, WA) -

We woke up at 6 AM in order to see our ship come into port at 7 AM. But, it came in early so we got up for nothing. Oh well. Another excuse to be tired and grumpy later.

We walked to Pike Place Market for breakfast with a view of the waterfront and on the way back to the hotel. Snookums stopped to get a pedicure. The day was cool and overcast, like yesterday, but we didn't care since we would be getting on our ship today.

Filbert suggested that we take the public bus to the ship and Snookums readily agreed. This meant that we walked about 1/2 mile to get the bus and then about 1 mile after getting off with our two rolling suitcases. It cost a total of $3 and we're sure that we were the only people that took public transportation to the 65-day cruise!

We walked from the nearer stadium (the darker arches) to the near end of the Terminal building in the foreground.

The Amsterdam in port at Seattle

 

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part One

September 16 (Tuesday, Day 1, Flying to Seattle, Washington) –

Departure day!

Midwest Airlines at KCI

Flying over Mt. Rainier

Here is the tale of our trip to Europe, featuring two Transatlantic cruises (eastbound, then westbound).
I'm doing the syndication-trick of posting all ten parts of our tale, one post per day, through the magic of modern web site technology.  All ten parts have been posted, so this here post is more or less a table of contents.

So, here's our travel tale of how we sailed across the Atlantic to Europe, spent a few days there, and sailed back:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

Ship images from Wikipedia:

Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas

Cunard's Queen Mary 2

In case you're wondering why I split it up like this . . . it's to reduce the load-time.  I try to limit the pictures to ten or fewer per posting, to allow those with slow Internet connections (such as, for instance, those on cruise ships at sea, don't cha know) to read the story without waiting forever and a day for the darn thing to load.

Over The Water And Back Again—A Transatlantic Trip
By Snookums, edited by Filbert, photos by Filbert

Part 10-- below (or at the "read more").

May 20 (Tuesday, Day 24, At Sea) –

Even with the time change we slept in until around 9:30 AM.  We ordered coffee and a fruit plate and Snookums finally showered in order to do a load of wash.  Then we went to lunch at the buffet.  The buffet is separated into four distinct areas that are actually pretty far away from each other.  It’s a weird layout since you have to walk quite far to get items from the four different stations.  There is an Asian station, the grill station, the Italian station and the carving station.  Today we both ate from the Asian station and enjoyed red curry with beef and vegetables.

Ship's library