Trips

Mon., 8/12 - and Tues., 8/13 - At Sea

The two consecutive days at sea were spent in the usual way: Attending lectures, Gale going off to craft class, and eating. On the first night of this pair we crossed the Arctic Circle on our way to Bergen, Norway and received another certificate marking the event - we have several already.

Wed., 8/14 - Bergen, Norway

The Zuiderdam docked at A doc in the port of Bergen. There were two other cruse ships docked at B dock. Marge and I donned our rain suits and revisited places we had seen on earlier visits to Bergen: the Hanseatic section with early 18th c. wooden houses which are now mostly expensive souvenir and wool sweater stores; the open fish market; and the Lille-Lungegardrann lake and park. The gazebo was surrounded by huge begonias. Marge took another photo Composer Edvard Grieg’s statue - this time without the pigeon on his head. We finally saw a green plus sign, the symbol for a pharmacy in most of the rest of the world. Marge got what she was missing and I was able to get rid of my two 100 Norwegian krones bills, which were replaced by new currency 1 1/2 years ago. I bought a Norway spoon (I only had Oslo) and a Freia dark chocolate bar. I suppose the merchants can always give the old money as change to an unknowing tourist.

We walked on and looked up the steps to the Johannes Kirk and then went back to the ship through the indoor fish market and through the grounds of the Rosenkrantz Tower and the old fortress. It rained on and off for the 2 1/2 hours of our walk. Our rain suits and Gortex sneakers kept us dry. Bergen is an interesting city, the second largest in Norway. We enjoyed our walk. The sun came out at 5 PM for our sail away. The fjord we sailed through was created by glaciers and is open to the North Sea. The port stays ice-free all winter. Bergen serves the oil platforms off the coast in the North Sea and the port is a busy place.

Flag of Norway	License Plate
Bergen Fish Market	Fish Market
At the Fish Market	Gazebo in the Lille-Lungegardrann lake and park area
Edvard Grieg	Bergen Manhole Cover
Thurs., 8/15 - At Sea Another day at sea with all the usual activities. Instead of crafts, Gale listened to the presentation “Flavors of the Mediterranean” in the HAL Test Kitchen on board. She heard about the kinds of olive oil, the proper way to cook spaghetti, and how to make a pesto and a garlic sauce. Then she sat through a flower arrangement demonstration. Fri., 8/16 - Rotterdam, Netherlands We docked just at the Erasmusbrug cable stayed and bascule bridge. (Bascule bridge: a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continually balances a span, or “leaf,” throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic - Wikipedia.) The captain had to back up the river to our dock because the Zuiderdam is too long to turn around up here. The dock was very convenient for our access to the city. Rotterdam is a very major port but only small barges, water taxi/buses, and sight seeing boats go further up the Maas River. The city is 22 feet below sea level and is protected by a dike system (Maaslantkuring) with automatically closing sea gates if the sea has swells that would flood the riverbanks.
Flag of the Netherlands	License Plate
Rotterdam Cruise Terminal	Public water source
The free shuttle bus took us to the Markthal, the only shuttle stop and a one mile ride. Just across the plaza are the iconic yellow cube “houses.” Picture dice standing on one point on a pedestal. These cube houses were so unique we paid 3 Euros each to walk through one. Stairs take you up the pedestal (which is all storage space) to the first floor which is level but the walls are all at 45° angles. The kitchen was a one-person space but was well equipped. A narrow circular stairway leads to level two with a bedroom and bathroom and another circular stair to level three which was the small top sitting room. To call the cube house unique is an understatement!
Cube Houses	Cube Houses
Cube House Kitchen	Cube House Kitchen
Cube House - Steep, Narrow Stairs	Cube House - Bedroom
Cube House - Decoration - Love the Cacti	Cube House - Living Room
Interesting Building	Another Interesting Building
Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk - Church of St. Lawrence (Protestant)- the only remnant of the medieval city of Rotterdam	Across from the cube houses and the tram stop is the Markthal, a large building with apartments around the shell and a market and food hall in the middle. The market sold everything imaginable. Some of the offerings reminded us of the Spice Market in Istanbul.
Markthal - Interior walls	Markthal - Interior walls
Spices	Olives
Fruit	On our walk back to the ship, we stopped at a visitor center to get WiFi and our emails, at a Metro station to use a rest room (one Euro each and very clean), and then walked toward the Erasmus Bridge, passing the Maritime Museum. Along the Schiedamse Dike there were 50 or 60 wooden boats afloat. They are part of the museum and you can go on board many of them. We just looked.
Toonder Monument - honors famous Dutch comic strip artist Marten Toonder	Maritime Museum
Maritime Museum	Willemsbrug suspension bridge
Erasmusbrug	Erasmusbrug
Interesting buildings	The Euromast
We crossed the Erasmusbrug looking at the steady stream of barges and water taxis on the river and then walked down and around the New York Hotel that was the original Holland America Line office building.
Barge on Nieuwe Maas - it is a distributary of the Rhine River, and a former distributary of the Maas River. It runs from the confluence of the rivers Noord and Lek, and flows west through Rotterdam.	Original offices of Holland America - now a hotel
Original offices of Holland America - now a hotel	Original offices of Holland America - now a hotel
Original offices of Holland America - now a hotel	The Erasmusbrug and lots of river traffic
The Zuiderdam was supposed to sail at 5 PM, but the ship was not loaded until 6:10 when we started the 42 km trip down the Maas River to the English Channel. We stood out on our veranda and watched the fork lifts loading palettes of food and materials through two “draw bridge” doors in our hull. Quite a process! On the sail-away, we saw the retired SS Rotterdam (steam ship) that is now a floating hotel. The journey down the river was all industrial port - containers, oil refineries, grain storage, and who knows what all. There were also wind turbines. It started to rain at 7 PM and we were still in the river.
Re-supplying the Zuiderdam	Most, but not all, of the pallets that held supplies for the Zuiderdam
SS Rotterdam	SS Rotterdam
Swans	Huge port
More port facilities	Really low in the water
River traffic	Entry to the tunnel under the river

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