Aarhus, Denmark Thru The End Of The Cruise To Copenhagen Departure Journal & Photos - Westerdam - August 8 - 9, 2005
Aarhus, Denmark/End Of The Holland America Westerdam Baltic Cruise/Departing Copenhagen August 8 & 9, 2005
Photo Links
Westerdam Disembarkation Talk In Vista Lounge (13 Pictures) Aarhus, Denmark Miscellaneous (5 Pictures) Westerdam Odyssey Restaurant (7 Pictures) Westerdam Casino (4 Pictures) Aarhus, Denmark Arrival (6 Pictures) Westerdam Bars (16 Pictures) Westerdam Inside Stateroom 8037 (5 Pictures) Westerdam Lido Restaurant (8 Pictures) Domkirke Aarhus (4 Pictures) Westerdam Erasmus Library and Internet Center (5 Pictures) Westerdam Vista Dining Room (9 Pictures) Westerdam Departure (7 Pictures)We didn’t arrive into Aarhus until 11:30 AM this morning. Matt finally woke up with one of his famous hangovers. He blamed the damn German beer. We woke up and went to breakfast, where I had two eggs over easy and French toast. Matt felt terrible so ran back to the room where he is still asleep now at 12:36 PM. I went down and bought my ship model of the Westerdam for my office then had to head to the Vista Lounge to hear the cruise director talk about check out tomorrow. He said he was going to keep it short and sweet but we were there for 45 minutes as he honed his stand up routine. The brought the entire crew out who sang us a song and then it was over. I wandered the ship some and took some pictures of some ship areas. I’ve been typing this for the last hour. I got my main bag with my million souvenirs packed so I’m ahead of the game right now. I’ll have to roust Matt now so we can go see Aarhus.
Well Matt still feels terrible and I’m getting some perverse pleasure from his pain, which seems to annoy him and I don’t know why. We went up to our last lunch at 1:55 PM right before the sushi bar and buffet closed at 2:00 PM. I had pork loin, seared tuna, sashimi raw tuna and salmon, sushi and avocado boats with salmon mousse on top. It was outstanding. Matt had all the same except for the pork loin. The buffet guy likes Matt because he gave him his seared tuna almost raw while mine was well done. I went down to mail some postcards and Matt’s showering. I don’t know if we are going to go into Aarhus or not since it’s raining.
Matt even though he just brought me pizza is a babbling selfish bastard. We are in the room and he keeps asking me what time it is and inane questions about everything on television. We are in the room now after our one-hour walk around Aarhus. This cruise could have really avoided this stop. There was nothing to see here at all and I saw Tom from Murfreesboro who said they went on a 2-½ hours tour and there wasn’t anything to see on that either. We had come to the same conclusion that I’d have rather spent another day in Stockholm or Warnemunde. Must eliminate Matt, he’s driving me insane with stupid questions. Will it never end? Note to self, no trips longer than 10 days with Matt ever again. He is packing now and maybe this will slow down the constant nagging. (By the way I am writing all of this just because he keeps asking if I’m writing about him) Hopefully the scotch he has left will be consumed as a sort of self-medication.
Matt finally relaxed when he put on his Hugh Hefner/Holland America robe. Of course this was 30 minutes before dinner. Dinner was outstanding as usual. I had seared tuna, cream of spinach soup and grouper. We had a nice conversation with our British tablemates: John, Jill, Ron and Barbara. Matt thinks he might have insulted Ron and Barbara when Ron kept saying they love the United States and Matt wasn’t getting the hint that he should have gotten his address to invite them to visit.
Matt finished his packing and headed to the casino while I finished my packing. When I put my bag out in the hallway I’d noticed Matt’s bag was sitting in the middle of the hallway blocking all traffic. When I made fun of him he kept explaining that he wasn’t trying to offend anyone he just doesn’t think. I had obviously made the right decision on staying out of the casino when I dropped $100 in 15 minutes. Matt came up to refill his Scotch and head back down. Amazingly he has almost finished his third bottle of Scotch even when I asked today if he could finish when it was a little of half full he said no. The bottle is down to a quarter and it’s only 12:15 AM.
The cruise ends tomorrow and I will definitely suggest Holland America to people. The ship is just beautifully decorated, very classy. The food has been amazing. I haven’t had anything I haven’t loved. All the ships crew are great people. In fact the only problem I might have is they are too attentive. It can get a little overwhelming all the help everyone is trying to give. Something like getting a dessert can be like running a gauntlet at times.
The only minor problems we had were the tender ride in Visby, the terrible performance by Bill Acosta, the under selling of Warnemunde as opposed to Rostock, and the stop in Aarhus. All very minor problems that were either uncontrollable like the tender ride for me or could be fixed.
I’ve been home a couple of days and will attempt to capture the last few days of the trip which were pretty uneventful compared to the rest of the trip. We got up with about a 7:30 AM wake up call not knowing when we’d be called to leave the ship. After showering we went up to get our last meal in the Lido Dining Room. I had two eggs over easy with French toast. As usual I was told by the egg guy that these were the best eggs over easy I’d ever have. We ate a couple of tables away from the cousins from Murfreesboro and said goodbye to them.
I think it was about this time when Matt and I were just shooting the breeze while waiting to be called that I made up stories about Matt being a super hero named “Hangover Manâ€