Around the World in 365 Days: London to the Sea

Day 81, Jan. 6^th: Time to get cruising! We finished our packing, and a quick breakfast at Café Nero – another chain in the area. They had the best latte I have had in a long time. We pulled our luggage the four blocks to the Victoria coach station – where we quickly met up with several of our fellow cruisers. We waited about an hour before coach 1 loaded (there were at least 5 buses going), for the hour and fifteen-minute trip to the port. There we stood another hour and fifteen minutes in line to check in (it’s a good thing we were on coach 1, I chatted later with a woman on coach 5 and she waited about 2 hours for check-in). Even though we had sent copies of our visas (except for India since we received the visas after the packet was due), they individually checked each visa and hand wrote in the numbers for India and New Zealand. There was one individual behind the screen (you did not want to get taken behind the screen) that started yelling and cursing and was escorted to another area by security. We later found out from other passengers that the Brits also needed visas for New Zealand and Australia. Since these are Commonwealth countries, some people did not believe they really needed to do this so had not gone online to get those visas. John and I provided all of our visas in order, and moved through without issue, getting our welcome champagne.

Except for the fact we can’t move our beds together, John and I love our room. There is a ton of storage spaces, our porthole has a shelf and good view –

we look on the top of lifeboat 6, so cannot look straight down, but is otherwise unobstructed. The Columbus itself has had many identities. She started “life” as the Star Princess for Princess Cruises in 1989, then went to P&O as the Arcadia, then she became the Ocean Village, then the Pacific Pearl before being re-christened the Columbus in 2017. Our dinner companions, Keith and Sue, knew her as the Pacific Pearl where she was a family ship, with lots of play areas, areas now redone as an observation lounge and a ping-pong table. I missed the beginning of trivia, but I found out from Linda and Edward, that there are some fellow “Yanks” on board from Philadelphia, but we have not run into them as yet. Many of the cruisers are going halfway around – getting off in Sydney. One, Anne, was worried since she was initially going to visit her niece when she disembarked, but her niece lost her home in the fires and has moved back in with her sister. The Australia fires are causing extensive devastation to humans and animals. They say we are only separated by six degrees to any other person on earth, through me, you are now connected by three degrees to a victim of the fires. If anyone wishes to donate, here are the links to the Australian Red Cross ( redcross.org.au ) and the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park (go to: kangarooislandwildlifepark.com – on the front page is a “Donate Here” link)  that is taking in injured koalas and other animals.

Day 82, Jan. 7^th: There was almost no one in the gym. One fellow was on a bike, another two were using weights, and I was the only treadmill person for the first 20+ minutes I was down there (the gym is on the 2^nd floor instead of on the top like I’ve seen on most cruise ships). The sign states “when busy, limit treadmill time to 15 minutes” – since only one other sole showed up for a treadmill, I jogged for 45 minutes, completely guilt free. We’d gotten up late (about 8:30), once John and I showered and got to breakfast, they were shutting down most of the stations at 10AM, with us and several fellow passengers loading up as they covered the food. We relaxed until arrival in Rotterdam. It gets its name from the Rotte River which runs through the city into the channel. It grew quickly in the mid-14^th century after they built a canal that helped connect the Rotte to other rivers and led to bigger towns. The city was destroyed by German bombing in 1940, leaving over 80,000 people homeless (and 900 civilians were killed). The city has since regrown and reinvented itself. Until ten years ago, it was the largest sea port in the world, and remains the largest in Europe. The people are friendly, and it’s a great city to bike, with many wide bike lanes. My mission for the day – shopping – clothes hangers, toiletries, a collapsible laundry basket, etc. John went in search of a haircut. I had a great day, wandering in and out of stores – finding my little tape-back hooks for my calendar in one store, a pretty collapsible cube for the basket at a higher end furniture store (think Pottery Barn type place without plates and cups), and a grocery store had the hangers and popcorn. I relaxed at a Dunkin Donuts with included wifi with purchase (I would have sat in a local coffee shop but their wifi was not working). I had a way too sweet donut called a stupfwaffel  (it had the little waffle on top and caramel filling) and a latte. I parked myself there for over an hour. Maybe the coffee shop person suspected I would be taking space for awhile and lied to get me to go elsewhere. With shopping done, blog posted and email cleared, I wandered to the Lawrence Cathedral which initially was built in 1449. It was heavily damaged in WWII, but the main structure survived, making it the only building remaining from early Rotterdam. The church is beautiful, with an amazing organ

that must fill you with wonder hearing it on Sunday morning. According to the brochure, it is the largest in the Netherlands. The other amazing part of the church are the triptychs in the nave, which honor many different religions and people. Rotterdam is full of creative architecture, especially noted by the “Cube” apartments.

Several more travelers embarked from Rotterdam, so the ship filled up quite a bit for dinner. Our dinner companions for the journey include a couple from northern Scotland who now live in the southern part of England, and another pair of women from the middle of England – I could not hear them clearly. The only name I remember at the moment is Arthur, the Scotsman. I have had zero luck in the casino, with rapid loss of 20-pound sterling each of the first two nights onboard. John has done a little better. With John gambling, I went up to the disco and found a group of women to chat and dance with.

Day 83, Jan. 8^th: We really woke up late today – 9:10 in the morning, so grabbed breakfast before getting to the packed gym. Big change from yesterday. I did weights today, so that wasn’t as crowded as the treadmills and ellipticals. I showered and made it to the guitar group! About five of us brought our guitars, mine came the furthest. It was a challenge to get to the lounge since you had to go up an outdoor stairway to get there – and all the exterior staircases were closed off due to “high winds”. I basically bullied a staff member to take me to the room. We don’t have a lot of music in common, and only myself and a man named Bruce sing, so I’m kind of lead singer at this point. They are all better guitar players, so with my voice I bring something to the group. After lunch I went to choir – with at least 100 other passengers, where we started singing “Can’t Help Falling in Love” – so far so good. After a musical morning and afternoon, I had to see to more practical matter – laundry. Onboard laundry costs 5 pounds per load (wash and dry). The laundry rooms are a good size, with about 10 washing machines and the same number of dryers, but I imagine the area will quickly become crowded with 1400 passengers vying for machines. The motion of the ocean steadily increased, with a poor weather forecast for tomorrow

Day 84, Jan. 9^th: Now we’re really rockin’ and rollin’! We’re traveling through 8-9 meter seas (25-30 feet high waves) with winds of up to 90mph (tropical storm strength). Suffice to say, all outside areas are closed, so no guitar group today. Along the initial planned course, weather would get even worse, so the Captain decided to change plans. Instead of going to Ponto Delgado in the Azores, we’re heading to Funchal in the Canary Islands on the Island of Madeira. John and I have been to both Ponto Delgado and Funchal in the past, both are pleasant ports with nice areas to explore. We’ll still have a day of very rough weather en route, but should start to improve after midnight. In the meantime, the hallways are lined with barf bags.

Most of the fellow travelers I have seen don’t seem to be having any problems, but again, almost anyone on this length of cruise is an experienced cruiser, so occasional rough days are just part of travel. Internet is only available in the large public areas, but the speed was better than expected. It did take almost 10 minutes to upload a 25 second video of the waves to Facebook Messenger for my family. The weather continued to worsen through the day. At lunch at the buffet we watched a large coffee pot fall off from its ledge (a 50+ pound coffee machine – weight – not money).  People were falling into windows and bulkheads. We watched the waves crash onto the 7^th floor, and when on the 5^th, the tops of waves seemed to go by at eye level.

Our drawers flew out, spilling some contents to roll across our cabin, one drawer broke, but we managed to save the metal piece in case they needed it later. We braced the drawers with a closet door and a full bin at the base. Somehow, the staff just kept on. They did an amazing job. Dinner time was in the dining room only (no buffet on 12, they were worried about too many people falling over) with plastic plates and cups, and we had to help catch some of the waiters to keep them from landing in our laps. It calmed down somewhat through the evening. We found a guitar player in the Taverna that knew a lot of American tunes (I think he chose them because I was singing along). Better weather predicted for tomorrow.