CRUISING AROUND CAPE HORN ... and other places

G'day again, hbg

Really enjoying your travels! Just enough detail to be interesting!

thursday , april 13 - mindelo , cape verde islands
ship's log : -11:28 am - safely docked
- 7:53 pm - unmoored
- 8:12 pm - commenced sea voyage

today we'll be going ashore in mindelo/cape verde islands . certainly far away from everything ! the islands are located in the north-atlantic , about 600 miles west of dakar/senegal .
there isn't much going on on the islands . they are trying hard to bring in some tourist business , but there isn't much infrastracture and it'll be difficult to interest tourists to come here - but we did get here !

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the rocky islands rise starkly out of the sea


harbour pilot coming aboard (in an old dutch motorboat)


takes two people to tie up the 'rotterdam' ,
one worker - one supervisor


ocean going tug hoping to be called into action


'the castle' - formerly the residence of the prison governor
(the island was at one time used by portugal to house mainly political prisoners)


sailors have left their marks on the quai


'the pink palace' - formerly the residence of the island governor


crew of the german (passenger) sailship 'alexander von humboldt' have left their mark


back aboard - one of the many beautiful flower displays to be found all over the ship


the harbour lights make a beautiful display at night

friday , april 14 , praia/cape verde islands
ship's log :
07:32 am - safely docked
11:50 am - unmoored
12:06 pm - unmoored

it was a short overnight cruise to the port of praia ,
this is a rather obscure little port ,
there was no bus service into town , but a long walk ,
it was also good-friday and we were told that pretty much everything would be closed ,
to top things off , it was quite hot - about 35 C - and humid ,
so we decided to stay aboard for the few hours the ship was docked .

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to entertain ourselves , we watched the crew during their fire-drill


new crew members being shown lifeboat procedures ("children and women first ! " - but what about me )
the guy on the left better pay attention !


inspecting our lifeboat ; those numbers represent one person each
best not to wind up between two large people or it'll get a little tight


good bye , praia !

I really like this.

Street art!

the whole quai was covered by this art courtesy of passing sailors .
it seems that many of thhe ships were supply-ships , sailships or sail-training ships - not many regular cruiseships ; how the heck did we wind up there ?
starting in 2007 holland-america line ships will call on dakar/senegal instead .
hbg

I like town-sightseeing on festive days. It's much cheaper than on normal days Seev.

Amazing. What a fabulous trip, and great photos.
I remember my husband, when working in Immigration Branch in Hong Kong, had to deal with the Cape Verde island representative and put together reciprocal travel agreements - don't think many Hong Kongers went there!!

hope no one minds some comments about the difficulties we ran into when trying to visit the cape verde islands .
we had booked our cruise - which required us to get a visa for brazil . we were told that chile would levy an 'entrance fee" at the port of entry (santiago airport) . we were told it would be US$ 40 , by the time we arrived it had been raised to over US$100 .
two weeks before we left our travel agent phoned . she was quite frazzled . she had just received a fax from holland-america line , that informed her that we needed a visa and a yellow fever vaccination certificate for entereing the cape verde islands - even if we would not leave the ship
i found out that it would be impossible to obtain a visa within two weeks . i also found out via website that a visa could be obtained upon landing in CVI . turned out , we didn't need one .
i checked the CDC website and it advised against yellow fever vaccination at our age - would require close medical supervision for two weeks etc .
we were almost ready to cancel the cruise .
i phoned our local health unit and was told not to worry ; they would issue an 'exemption certificate" .
(it turned out that there was some friction between CVI and brazil , that's why CVI insisted on vaccination for anyone coming from brazil - whether they had been in a yellow fever area or not !!!)
so we got our certificate at no charge and were reassured not to worry .
before leaving rio the yellow fever vac. certificates were collected aboard and our exemption was accepted .
however one couple had not been aware of the requirement and were given the vac aboard ship for a charge of US$ 700 per person - they were not happy , but what could they do but PAY UP .
glad we planned ahead .
hbg

saturday , april 15
ship's log : strong breeze , rough seas , partly cloudy skies

another day to relax at sea ,
tomorrow we'll be arriving in the canary islands , one of europe's favourite vacation spot .
(as my brother-in-law says : "great vacation spot , so much like germany . we have a german backer , a german butcher and the german newspaper arrives every morning . in the spring it's much like germany with sunshine !" )

sunday , april 16 - santa cruz de tenerife , canary islands
ship' s log :
- 12:05 pm - safely docked ,
- 9:30 pm - unmoored ,
- 11:06 pm - commenced sea voyage

one of the canary islands comes into sight



the pilot boat has just dropped of the harbour pilot and returns to shore


tourism in action ! what a little music and dancing won't do for tourism .


we'll be going on a bus tour to 'tanagana' on the other side of the island .
there isn't much tourism on that side of the island since only a narrow and twisting mountain road connects the tourist area with 'tanagana' .
the young locals enjoy zooming up the road with a girl on the pillion -
as we quickly found out


some beautiful old farms and estates .
the land had to be terraced to make farming possible


a rest stop .
bread , goat cheese , red wine ... and orange pop - the locals mix it with the red wine



our guide told us that only a few people are still working on the farms , much better employment can be found in the tourist areas and there fore farming is slowly dying out









on the way back we stopped at the church of the "black christ" - the church shared a courtyard with the local police station and we were asked not to take any picturs outside - the local police is rather jumpy (and grumpy ) we were told

last posting july 16 ?
the last four weeks just seemed to float by !
trying to get back on track now .
hbg
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monday , april 17
arrecife , lanzarote , canary islands
ship's log :
8:19 am - safely docked
7:00 pm - unmoored
7:18 pm - commenced sea voyage
----------------------------------------
today we are visiting another one of the canary islands .
we decided not to join a guided tour , but just walk around town , stop for
coffee , visit a church , do a bit of shopping (some nice european soap and
local candy , we are the last of the big-time spenders !) ,
it was interesting to compare their stores and super-markets with what we have
in north-america .

the city itself seems rather non-descript but we enjoyed the 'unscripted'
outing , don't need a guided tour every day .


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outside the fort - mrs h holding up "loot" that we captured using the
"piece of hardware "


plenty of signs telling you where to go !


an interesting corner


inside one of the old churches - beautiful and artistic altar







commemorating two "cannon-balls" , no doubt


before re-boarding the 'rotterdam' we check to ensure our lifeboat is ready for launching at a moment's notice
(i'm sure you've heard of the command : "women and children first !" -
well , that includes me - in one way or another )


a british cruiseship arrives in port


ahhh , that's life !
i had to get up to take the picture - no crew-member available !



tomorrow will be another day at sea and on wednesday the "rotterdam" will dock in cadiz , spain

tuesday , april 18
ship's log : near gale , rough seas , partly cloudy skies

tonight's show is the "crew farewell show" - always a a very enjoyable event followed by another great dinner !

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let the show begin!








deja , our assistant maitre de (he made sure we got a special order of dutch herrings - matjes )



our two great table stewards - amin and ibrahim ,
they looked after us as if we were their children that hadn't had a decent meal in a while , a jewish mother couldn't have looked better after us
("why don't you have some more meat ? don't you like it ? should i bring something else ?"
mrs h and i often shared one dessert , that really puzzled them at the beginning of the cruise
"why don't you each have a dessert , there is plenty in the kitchen !
we explained to them that we didn't like food wasted and they both agreed with us .)


a great time was had by all !


noel , our wonderful wine-steward
(i asked him how he got the name of 'noel' ; he explained that he was born at christmas and that his mother had insisted that he be named 'noel' - much to his regret ! )


after dinner we set off for several rounds of the promenade deck to enjoy the fresh sea-breeze - and try to walk off a few calories

wednesday , april 18 , cadiz/spain
ship's log :
- 6:30 am - port pilot aboard
- 8:00 am - safely docked
- 5:15 pm - unmoored

today we are arriving in cadiz and will visit the city of jerez ,
a tour of the sherry producer gonzales byass (tio pepe sherry)
and lunch (plenty of refreshments , we've been assured ) at the winery are part of the tour

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after an interesting tour through cadiz , we drive out to jerez where we are being welcomed by tio pepe himself


this way please - we just follow the smell of the sherry ,
even the slower tourists are suddenly picking up their pace



one of the beautiful old churches across the winery ,
people seemed to be more interested in visiting tio pepe rather than the church



there seems to be plenty of sherry for everyone



a beautiful mosaic showing the wine growing regions



plenty of warehouses to store the sherry



i'm always intrigued by the beautiful stonework - even though it's a little difficult to walk on (particularly AFTER the sherry tasting )



after arriving back in cadiz , we left the tour and walked around the beautiful city on our own



watched the street musicians - the second fellow took up a collection and most people responded generously - it was just a great afternoon



after finishing our coffee and mineralwater , set off for another little walk through old cadiz



mrs h decides that it's nice to visit here ... but home is calling



another farewell dinner ... much waving of napkins , handshakes , hugging ... tomorrow night we'll have to cook and serve dinner ourselves if we want to eat



one more look at the dining room entrance ... our fourth cruise on the ms. rotterdam is coming to an end ...



at the entrance to the dining room : a model of the old ss. rotterdam (now retired) on which we made two cruises , a great old lady , a true oceanliner



the suitcases are tagged and packed ... we'll be leaving the rotterdam at 8 am in lisbon/portugal tomorrow morning , april 20 ...
should arrive back home by late evening ( turned out to be 2 am friday - but no luggage was lost !) .
btw i took a pix of all our luggage in case a piece should go missing , might help in later identification




thanks for coming along !
we thorougly enjoyed our trip - with highs and some lows -
hope you had some fun coming along !
hbg


the ms. ROTTERDAM , our home for thirty-three days

Hi Hamburger

It was a pleasure to read your cruise-report. Sometimes it was a review of places, we visited on our cruise with MS ASTOR some years ago, We also enjoyed the sherry-tasting at tio pepe.

Are you already planning another cruise? I'm looking forward to your next report!

Waving to you and Mrs. Hbg.
Seevetaler

I've very much enjoyed your cruise photos and commentary, Hamburger..
thank you for the effort behind this thread.

wonderful! hamburger!

thanks for all the praise , guys !
i'm sure it's going to make my head swell !
i really enjoyed picking out the pix and supplying a bit of commentary .

i've done some more editing on the pictures - resizing and highlighting - and want to burn a new dvd .
however i find burning my own dvd a bit of a struggle . i've tried both the window-xp and the nero versions and have not been successfull yet .
i think i'll see if i can find a detailed (step-by-step) instruction manual to help me .
any suggestions anyone ?

i'll probably have a 'post-script' in another month . (ehbeth and gang will be arriving this weekend , so there won't be much fiddling around with the computer ).
hbg

Nice pictures. I will enjoy all the pictures later.

I believe this shows it was a very fast boat..

the ms. 'rotterdam' has a cruising speed of 20-22 knots .
what you are seeing are the waves that were running up to twelve feet high - but still pretty smooth cruising - stabilizers help.
hbg

Good story-teller, that hamburger.

And the pix are great fun too!

22.0 knots = 40.744 km/h = 25.323 MPH. I think this is a fairly rapid speed of the ship. :wink: