Holland America Westerdam Baltic Sea Cruise

2923-E Olney-Sandy Spring Road Olney, MD  20832 Phone: 301-774-4646 Fax: 301-774-3610

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Departing Copenhagen July 30, 2005

Today was an easy day, mostly because it was pouring rain in the morning.  Outside our window in the canal there was an interesting site.  All morning there were people playing soccer on the canal in kayaks.  Matt, “the master of snap judgments”, was hard on one guy who was knocked out of his kayak and had a problem getting back in.  He said the guy sucked, I felt he was being harsh.  It must have been some sort of league since they would empty the playing area for a while and be replaced immediately.  

Since it was raining we checked out at noon and took a cab to the ship.  The cost was 150.00 Danish Krona.  We had thought about taking the subway or bus but I didn’t want to have to deal with our luggage and the rain.  The rain had slowed to a drizzle but the clouds were ominous and there really wasn’t and close bus stops or subway stops to the hotel.  

When we got the port they rushed to grab our bags out of the taxi and take them away.  One problem was we didn’t have our cabin number yet so our luggage tags had not been marked.  We had the one guy in Copenhagen who didn’t speak English well.  He kept trying to take the bags away and I kept trying to tell him they didn’t have the cabin number marked.  Finally another guy came over with a cabin list and I marked our cabin number on the luggage tags.   

Embarkation was quick and painless.  There was a family checking in next to us and since I was wearing a Redskin Polo shirt the little boy asked his dad if I was a pro football player.  Matt was upset that I didn’t lie and tell them I was Russ Grimm.  I figured the dad would have figured any football lie out since training camp begins during this week back home. 

We got onboard and I wanted to drop my computer bag off in the cabin but they were not ready yet.  We wanted to go back into town until the ship disembarked at 4:30 PM. We were sidetracked at the Sports Bar with our first beer of the cruise, a Grolsch at $4.95.  I was told I could store my bag in the Piano Bar but when I got there the attendant told me I could only keep the bag there until 2:00 PM.  This didn’t help since we would be back in town and I wouldn’t be able to pick the bag up.  We decided to go eat. 

The buffet in the Lido Restaurant was excellent.  By far the best I’ve had on a cruise.  They have many different stations to pick from including a sushi bar and deli.  The sushi was very good and I had a panini prosciuto sandwich.  It was nice to not have worry about the price of eating.   Between 1:00 PM and 1:30 PM they announced the cabins were ready.  I went down and dropped off my bag and we started to head off the boat for a last look at Amsterdam.  Matt got discouraged at trying to fight the crowd that was trying to board the ship and gave up.  I made it off and decided to catch a cab to the Little Mermaid Statue.  It was 60.00 Danish Krona but at least I didn’t waste time wandering aimlessly like usual.  I figured if the cab got me there I could get back.    

The Little Mermaid is very small as we had been told and there were tons of people there as we had been told.  Apparently the town of Copenhagen isn’t thrilled that the Little Mermaid is the symbol of their town.  Its head has been chopped off numerous times.  They have steel rods in the neck to help stop the vandalizing.  Not only were there people on shore, but also tour boats would come and stop on the water to view the statue.  The statue gets no respect either; you have people climbing all over it to get a picture. 

I started to walk back to the ship and found a bus stop that I thought would take me to the ship.  Unfortunately the bus was running an abbreviated scheduled and on went one stop.  This put me in the middle of the subway route that would have brought me to the entrance to the shipyard.  The walk wasn’t bad and at least the rain had stopped. 

I got back to the room and Matt was there.  We had the lifeboat drill at 4:30 PM.  Matt waited until the last minute to get his life preserver so that he could experience the drill like a real time drill.  Of course when the alarm went off he panicked and had problems getting the life preserver out and putting it on.  The drill was nice and short and for the first time I can remember only in English. 

We went up on deck after storing the life preservers back in the room to watch the ship leave Copenhagen.  It’s a very shallow channel out of the area and they need a pilot to take the ship 16 miles outside of Copenhagen.  You pass all the windmills on the departure on the outskirts of town.  We didn’t realize they were actually set up in the canal.  There are 28 supplying energy to Copenhagen and many more in Malmo, Sweden across the water.   

We slowly left the area and realized the bridge, which is called the Oresund Fixed Link, that connects Sweden and Denmark is really a bridge and tunnel.  The Westerdam actually goes over the traffic in the tunnel and not under the bridge.  It really is a beautiful bridge, if bridges can be beautiful.  We had a beer in the Crow’s Nest and enjoyed the view. 

When we went back to the room we watched Meet the Fockers for a while which is a real funny movie even though I can’t stand Barbara Streisand.Dinner was at 8:30 for us on the lower level of the Vista Dining Room.  Matt got his scotch for dinner and I headed to the table and met our tablemates.  They are two British Couples, John and Jill from 40 minutes west of London and Ron and Barbara from Wales.  They seem to be in there 60’s and snap judgment maker, Matt thinks John is an Oxford type of fellow. 

Again the meal was great, I had a mussel in lemon sauce starter, substituted a salmon and avocado starter for salad and had grouper with risotto for my meal.  They had about six different choices for dinner and it was hard to chose. Everything was excellent.  The dining room doesn’t seem like a cruise ship dining room, it seems more like a classy restaurant.  It might be because we can’t see any windows to the ocean very easily. 

Back to the room and we basically called it a night.  The room steward who has seen Matt pass the room 10 times today finally switched the beds to two beds from one.  We actually have a huge room since it is a handicapped accessible room.  The bathroom is enormous.  My only beef with the room is the width of the beds, which I seemed to be holding on all night not to fall off.  Matt ordered a bottle of Cutty Sark and three club sodas for $27.00 and was very happy when he found the Wild Bunch on television.  Not so happy when the Magnificent Seven came on after midnight.  He fell asleep sometime during his fourth Scotch and second movie.  We lost an hour so slept until 10:00 AM local time.

 Day at Sea July 31, 2005

Matt got showered and was upset that he had learned he’d slept too long and taken too long to shower to make breakfast.  Now he can only have nine breakfasts.  He left about 11:00 AM to go to the Bloody Mary Bar.  I’ve been typing yesterday’s journal through right now and organized my clothes in the closets.  It’s about noon right now and since we’ve got a day at sea I really don’t plan on doing anything after our first week of nonstop touring.  I needed a day of rest before the next eight days of port stops.     

Matt went to work out and eat lunch while I checked out my art auction.  When I caught up with him later he had all kinds of issues including, an old man that was right ahead of him on his lifting cycle that was lifting way more than Matt and the confusion of there being no marking as to whether the sauna was male of female or for both.  No fair asking someone to clear this up. 

Before the official art auction began I went up to the Lido Dining Room and had lunch.  The place was packed.  I had rigatoni with alfredo sauce, a couple slices of pizza, sushi, a couple of salmon cakes, weinerschnithzel, a tomato stuffed with bay shrimp and an avocado stuffed with chicken salad.  Matt had predicted a salmon meal since they had salmon for dinner the night before.  The cruise lines are the masters of using everything.  Again the food was outstanding. 

The auction started and my Alexander Chen was the third picture to come up and the second to be bid on.  To my surprise the opening bid was $95.00 not the $135.00 they had told me.  I put in the bid and no one matched so my Alexander Chen portfolio increased.  Where I will put it is another question.  Being the second one to put in a bid I won a free piece of art…..again.  This actually messed me up since the Chen was a take off.  The free piece cost me shipping.  I guess I could have turned it down but I didn’t. 

The auction was packed and I was sitting behind a pillar and really couldn’t see anything.  After awhile I headed to the room to get my camera.  I got back right at the end for the drawing for free art but didn’t win a second.   

Matt had now gotten into his scotch and the bottle has taken a beating.  He wanted to go to the casino, which cost him dearly last cruise.  I wanted to hit the hot tub.  I ordered a six pack in the room which only cost $18.75 as opposed to $22.50 separately.  For the second night in a row Matt got up and as he headed to the door to figure out how to get ice, the guy showed up with my beer.  Matt tried not to, but couldn’t believe the irony of this happening two days in a row.  He can sniff out the alcohol coming to the room.  I got beer sent to the room because all the bars near the pool closed at 8:00 PM or earlier.   

I went to the hot tub with my Red Rabbit book and three Miller Lite’s; in a bag with the ice I stole from Matt’s scotch ice.  I hung out for about an hour and came back to the room at 9:45 PM.  Matt was back from the casino and claims to be down 25 to 75 cents.  This is mostly because he couldn’t stop putting money into the slots on the way out.  He might also be wrong because he started trying to make fun of his evening dinner outfit and used Tockett and Crubbs instead of Crockett and Tubbs. 

I tried to hook up the dial up system on my computer but either we can’t get access where we are or the line was loose.  I had to hold the line into the modem’s jack.  Matt got the munchies and went up to get himself ice cream and brought me back some cookies.  We sail into Tallinn in the morning so we’ll get a good nights rest.  We really don’t have much of a choice as Matt said he looked in the disco and saw mostly skeletons.  He’s reading a book now and I’m signing off.

Continue To Tallinn, Estonia August 1, 2005

Return To Copenhagen, Denmark July 27 - July 30, 2005