United States of America

L2323 – Bermuda Cut Shorts

~ Graham Alderson ~ 3 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, L2323 – The Washington Post, I described the wonderful tour we made to Washington DC from the port of Baltimore, and also a couple of days of scenic cruising that we did prior to reaching Baltimore. In this post I will cover the remaining three ports of call on our return journey from visiting Canada and the USA, a full day on the island of Bermuda, and shorter ‘pit-stops’ in the Azores and in Spain.

Hamilton, Bermuda

Leaving Baltimore we had two quiet days at sea, before arriving at our next port of call, Hamilton, which is the main town on the island of Bermuda. When I first awoke it was still very dark, so I checked on the internet to see where we were. I was surprised to see that it almost looked like we were sailing past the island, but then the ship swung around and sailed back fairly close to the shore. As the sun came up I could see we were following a marked channel into the port.

We returned from breakfast just as we were making our final approach into Hamilton. Our small size meant we were able to dock right in the centre of the town, which was great. The larger cruise ships have to dock much further out of town, more on this later.

Carol and I had visited Bermuda once before, on our 2018 World Cruise. On that occasion we had docked at a different place again, right down the other end of the long thin island. You can read about our adventures on that occasion in my post W1801 – Bermuda Shots.

When we received the tour descriptions this time around, Carol was surprised when I said I wanted to do a tour very similar to the one we did before. The tour was a scenic tour around the island, and knowing that the island has a reputation for being lovely, I wanted the chance to see it properly for ourselves, as last time the weather had so wet and misty. Last time the tour lasted five hours as it was travelling to and from the far end of the island, this time it was only three hours as we were docked more centrally.

With the narrow twisty roads on the island, only mini coaches holding around 20 passengers are used for the tours. We were a little late docking, and by the time the ship had received clearance and we had boarded our coaches, the tour set off just over half an hour late. As we waited to drive off I took this snap of one of the many attractive buildings on the waterfront.

For once the different coaches doing the same tour seemed to scatter off in different directions. Our driver/guide was quite a character, very enthusiastic about his island, and he kept us informed and entertained without continually bombarding us with facts and figures.

Our first stop was at a tourist hotel on the southern coast of the island, where we walked though to a pretty balcony overlooking a swimming pool, with lovely sea views. Our guide told us that many of the hotels along this coast had their own sandy beaches.

We then drove on further along the coast, to what our driver/guide said was his favourite beach. As we pulled up he told us to look at the cliff, he said it looked like a gorilla’s face – if I squint a bit I think I see what he means:

We parked up so that we could go for a walk along the almost empty beach. In the car park were a couple of chickens, the guide told us that they roam freely around this island. Down on the beach the sand was soft and white, but had some little bits of pinky-red coral mixed in with it. This was off-season, to Carol and I the temperature was just right – much more pleasant than mid summer, and I must say both the hotel and the empty beach looked very appealing.

Just before we left the beach, I noticed a colourful bird in the bushes at the back, and quickly zoomed in with my camera to see if I could photograph it. Usually in this situation the bird flies off just as I get the lens pointed somewhere in its direction, but in this case it was very cooperative, and I managed to get several shots. Later I looked it up on the internet, and I am pretty sure that it is a great kiskadee. If so this is yet another of man’s introductions that hasn’t gone well – 50 birds were introduced from Trinidad to control some lizards, but instead they eat helpful insects and the eggs of smaller birds, and out compete the local wildlife.

The next stop on our tour was at the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, somewhere that we had also visited back in 2018. The lighthouse stands on one of the highest hills on the island and its grounds offer panoramic views all around, which thankfully we could see at their best this time.

Continuing our tour, we stopped next at Somerset Bridge, featuring the smallest drawbridge in the world. Small flaps in the drawbridge could be raised to allow the mast of a sailing boat to pass through, but our guide told us that these had been fastened closed for many years. Here the guide also fed the large number of fish in the channel nearby.

Crossing the bridge, we drove on to the Royal Naval Dockyard. This used to the principle base of the Royal Navy in the Western Atlantic, but now a tourist attraction featuring museums, local boutiques for jewellery, crafts and souvenirs, and it is also where the large cruise ships dock. Like Somerset Bridge, it was somewhere we had visited on the previous tour, and we were content to wander around the shops.

On the drive back to our ship in Hamilton, our guide pointed out a house that he called “the house of many colours”. He told us that in Bermuda you can paint your house in any colour you like, but in this case they had taken this freedom to the extreme.

Talking of houses, our guide told us about the unusual white roofs on virtually every building. These concrete roofs are designed to capture the rainwater, the lime white paint helps to purify the water, which is fed to a large tank which is usually under the house. This tank is then the water supply for the house, as there is no mains water system. He also pointed out that while quite a few houses have chimneys, these are purely for decoration, as you would not want soot falling onto the roof and contaminating the water.

Returning to the ship we went back on board for some lunch and a brief rest, before returning to do some shopping in the town. Whilst there I could not resist snapping the brightly painted public conveniences on the quayside.

Back on the ship I was interested to read my post from our visit in 2018, and compare the photos taken in the poor weather then, to the bright sunshine on our second visit. I think the comparison more than justifies doing the same tour twice:

At around 5pm we watched from our balcony as we sadly set sail from this beautiful island – the island was still looking lovely in the low late afternoon sun.

That evening at dinner we were treated to an absolutely stunning sunset. I will be honest it was more than a little frustrating to be stuck in the dining room and not out on an open deck taking proper photographs, but here are some snaps which I took on my phone (thankfully I had it with me) through the glass windows of the restaurant which may give you an idea of how amazing it was.

We then had five days at sea crossing the Atlantic Ocean before we reached our next port of call, Ponta Delgada in the Azores.

Ponta Delgada, São Miguel Island, Azores

Compared to our crossing of the Atlantic from east to west earlier in the cruise, the five days spent crossing in the other direction between Bermuda and the Azores were calm and quiet. We sailed into Ponta Delgada, a port we have visited many times before, while we were at breakfast, and to our surprise we were to be in port all day – on our original itinerary it was listed as a half-day visit.

The weather forecast for the day was for sunshine and light showers, which looked quite plausible when we went out onto our balcony after breakfast to look around.

As this was very much a repeat visit we had not booked a tour, and planned just to do some shopping in the town. Out in the open the wind was quite brisk, but up in the town it was warm in the sunshine, and we soon regretted talking our light coats.

Shopping complete, we paused by the harbour and I snapped a few shots there of our ship and of the boats moored there.

We then made our way back to our ship, for lunch and a relaxing afternoon in our cabin, waiting for the Captain’s departure announcement. During the Captain’s noon report over the previous three days, he had been warning us about more storms ahead, and he was clearly getting us prepared for our visit to A Coruña in Spain being cancelled. He had said that they were investigating whether an alternative port would be possible if it was cancelled, but seasoned travellers like Carol and I knew that we would just be making our way slowly back to Southampton.

Sure enough, when he made his departure announcement, A Coruña was cancelled due to forecast seas of 8 metres in the Bay of Biscay, and we would be heading straight for Southampton. He warned us again of the stormy seas ahead, with 6 metre waves possible later the next day. Lovely!

As we sailed out the weather was already clearly on the turn, the wind had really got up and the skies were grey and threatening. I took the same photos as I had done on our arrival for comparison:

We had only eased a short way out from the quayside when I was astonished to see the pilot boat come alongside to reclaim the pilot – talk about money for old rope!

At dinner we watched the coastline of São Miguel Island slip past us in the fading light, and we wondered what the weather would have in store for us before we next saw land.

We are now hunkering down for four very lively days and nights at sea before we (fingers crossed) reach Southampton and home. We are lucky though, we have a lovely spacious cabin, and we are very content to hibernate there, apart from venturing to the restaurant for our meals, which is thankfully on the same floor.

Conclusion

As another cruise comes to an end, it is time to reflect on the highs and lows of our voyage. The lows are clearly the storms that have affected us both on the way out and on the way back – no one’s fault – just nature doing its thing. Unfortunately they meant we missed out on the first day in St John’s, Newfoundland, and our half day stop in A Coruña. The timing of the cruise, which meant we were in Canada very early in October, combined with a late Fall this year, meant we saw hardly anything of the autumn colours.

On the positive side, the real highlights were New York and Washington, where we were blessed with perfect bright sunny weather, and I am sure we were able to see both cities at their best.

L2323 – The Washington Post

~ Graham Alderson ~ 1 Comment

Introduction

In my last post, L2323 – Two Slices of Apple, I described the two fabulous days and nights we spent in New York, blessed with glorious sunshine and lovely clear skies. At around 8am on the third morning we set sail, for two days of scenic cruising before reaching our next port of call, Baltimore in Maryland.

Cruising the Hudson River

When we left our berth in the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, instead of heading back out to sea, we turned the other way in order to spend the day scenic cruising up and down the Hudson River.

Alas the clear skies and bright sunshine had gone, and persistent misty rain was just setting in, which was to last all day. We were at breakfast as we set sail, but when we approached the George Washington Bridge I popped out onto a rear deck to take some photos of it, and of receding New York.

Had the lovely weather continued, we had planned to sit out on our balcony to watch the scenery slip by. Instead it was a case of sitting in our cabin watching out of the windows, and the bridge camera on the TV, and trying to spot when it was worth venturing outside for a few moments. When we approached the unusual Governor Mario M. Cuomo twin bridge I did brave the wind and rain at the front of the ship for a short while.

Not long after passing the West Point Military Academy we passed a goods train heading the other way, and we were astonished to count 120 freight cars behind the locomotives – American trains are on a completely different scale to the ones we are used to back home in the UK.

Once we reached Pollepel Island, a small rocky island featuring Bannerman Castle some 50 miles north of New York, our ship turned around and headed back down the river. Just a few of the trees had started to turn colour, and we were both mindful of how much better the scenic cruising would have been if the fall had started earlier, and of course had the weather been kinder – but of course these things are all in the lap of the gods.

As we approached New York once more, our friends Rosemary and Steven joined us to watch on each others balconies, just as we had done when we first sailed into the city. However what we saw looked so different due to the completely different weather – on the first day the skyscrapers shone in the bright sunlight, this time they had a moody and slightly menacing air in the misty rain. The iconic Statue of Liberty looked so different too – it made us even more appreciative of our epic sail-in two days earlier.

Finally heading out to sea, we sailed south along the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

Sailing the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal

The following morning we rounded Cape May Point, and sailed into Delaware Bay. We were headed for the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, a 14 mile ship canal which connects the Delaware River with Chesapeake Bay, and which saves around 300 miles of sailing around the Delmarva Peninsula.

The canal was first constructed in the 1820s, and was dug by hand with picks and shovels, and originally had several locks to allow vessels to pass the various water levels along the route. In the 1920s the canal was partially rebuilt by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it was both widened and deepened, and all the locks were removed.

With much better weather we watched from our balcony as we made our way along the canal, enjoying the countryside, attractive houses and a variety of bridges. Just like the previous day, we were mindful of how much nicer it would have been if the fall season had started earlier.

Just over an hour later we sailed out into Chesapeake Bay, and sailed towards our next port of call, Baltimore in Maryland. We reached the port while we were at dinner, a couple of hours earlier than expected.

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Our berth in Baltimore was some 7 miles from the city centre, and there was no shuttle bus provided that evening, so it would have been an expensive ride by taxi for anyone wanting to venture ashore then.

When we pulled back our curtains the next morning the sky was full of colour, hopefully a good omen for the day ahead.

Carol and I, like our friends Rosemary & Steven, and a high percentage of the passengers on board had booked a tour not to Baltimore, but to the capital city, Washington DC. The tour was some 8 hours long, not least because it was an approximate 1.5 hour coach journey each way between the two cities. The tour promised four parts – a chance to see and walk around the various iconic National Monuments, a stop outside the White House, lunch, and then a visit to the Air and Space Museum. While Carol was most keen to see the Monuments and the White House, I was most looking forward to the Museum and a chance to see for example the Apollo 11 Command Module that went to the Moon.

When we checked in for the tour in the Neptune Lounge it was very busy – there were 9 coaches doing the tour. Everyone was being given a short information sheet, which told us that we were unable to visit the Air and Space Museum as they were not accepting group bookings due to refurbishment works. Instead we could visit either an American History Museum or a Natural History Museum, or if we were not happy with this, hand our tickets back for a full refund. All other tours were fully booked, so if we elected not to go, the only options left were to stay on the ship or take the shuttle bus into Baltimore. We decided to continue with the tour, and went down to board our coach.

Our local guide was a self-confessed history buff, and for the entire journey from Baltimore to Washington she told us all about the history of the area and many notable figures including of course George Washington. We made good progress along the famous I95 Freeway, and our coach dropped us very close to our first stop, the iconic Lincoln Memorial.

Just as in New York, we were blessed with lovely weather, which made everything look even more special. We were particularly taken with the long Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in front of the memorial, with the towering Washington Monument in the distance.

We then walked to the Three Servicemen Statue and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, our guide told us that the design of the latter had been quite contentious at the time it was constructed.

Nearby was the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, for the nurses and other women lost in the war. We thought that the Mall, or park, in which all these monuments are set was stunning, especially in the lovely sunshine that day.

We then walked to the other side of the Reflecting Pool, where the Korean War Veterans Memorial is located. It was this monument, with the figures of the soldiers spread out before us with haunted looks on their faces, that had the greatest impact on us. Yes, it is very moving to see the huge lists of names such as at the Vietnam monument, but somehow seeing the statues really brought home that all the losses were real people and what a tragic waste of life that war can be – particularly relevant with current events in Israel and Palestine and in the Ukraine.

Reluctantly leaving this memorial, we walked back to our coach for the short drive to the final National Monument we would visit in person, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. Our guide told us about how long it had taken to finally get a monument to an African American person. She also told us that the family had chosen the stone used for the monument, but I still felt uncomfortable seeing a wonderful black man honoured in what looked in the bright sunshine to be a very white stone. Across the Tidal Basin we could see the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in the distance.

We then reboarded the coach to drive close to The White House, the iconic home of the President of the United States. We walked from the coach along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, where under the watchful eye of Secret Service men (so secret that they had Secret Service signs on their front and back!), we took our photographs. To be honest I thought the house looked smaller than I had imagined. Across the Avenue were statues of General Marquis de Lafayette and General Andrew Jackson.

On our drive to Union Station, where we were to have lunch, we drove close to the iconic United States Capital Building with its very recognisable dome.

At the Union Station our guide led us down to the food court, where we could purchase various types of food, which could then be eaten on tables in the centre of the court. Naturally it was very busy and noisy – not my scene at all – but I did understand it was a place where people could get fed in a short amount of time – we had around 45 minutes.

Returning to our coach we then drove to the two museums, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, which were conveniently located close to each other. Each museum was free to enter, but the hour and a quarter only really allowed time to visit one of them. Our guide had told us some of the things on view in each museum to help us choose, and we went for the American History one, not least because Carol was interested in seeing the dresses worn by the wives of the American Presidents.

We then looked around a display area featuring artifacts from American culture, such as the original Kermit the Frog and Dorothy’s ruby shoes from the film The Wizard of Oz.

After an obligitary visit to the gift shops, we went downstairs to an area devoted to America on the Move. Here I scooted around taking photographs of just some the cars, busses, trams, trains and boats that were on display.

We could easily have spent longer in the museum, but it was time to return to the coach for the long drive back to our ship. Fortunately this time our guide kept quiet to allow everyone to rest and doze.

As we drove back we reflected on what a very special day it had been, once again enhanced by being so lucky with the weather. We had seen so many iconic sights and places, and when we see Washington on the television we will now have a better understanding of the geography of the place, and we were so impressed by the wide streets and all the beautiful buildings. However I know that the memory that will most stay with me will be that of the statues of the soldiers and their haunted faces in the Korean Veterans Memorial.

Just before dinner we set sail from Baltimore, sadly this time heading east on the start of a long voyage back to the UK. We are due to make three stops on the way, in Bermuda, the Azores and Spain – and our adventures there are likely to be the subject of my final post for this cruise.

Postscript

The following day we were talking to fellow passengers about the tour to Washington, and it turns out that while we had a very good experience on our coach, passengers on several other coaches were far from happy with what happened to them. We were told that three of the nine coaches had problems and needed to be replaced, and in one case the passengers had to wait for two hours outside the White House with no lunch before the replacement arrived. We also heard that another guide was so hopeless that they were getting the names of buildings wrong that they passed, and another coach left Washington so early to avoid the traffic that it returned to the ship an hour and a quarter early.

Like in Sydney, where Carol and I had a completely different experience on the same tour, but a different coach and guide, to our friends Rosemary and Steven, it just shows how much it is the luck of the draw when it comes to doing a tour.

L2323 – Two Slices of Apple

~ Graham Alderson ~ 2 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, L2323 – Train, Trail and Transit, I described our visits to Portland and Boston, and our transit of the Cape Cod Canal. Very early the following morning we sailed into our next port, New York, New York, otherwise known as the Big Apple, where we would stay for two days and two nights.

Sailing into New York

Sailing into New York meant of course that we would sail past one of the iconic sights in the world – the Statue of Liberty. It was not entirely by accident that Carol and I have a cabin on the port side of the ship – the side that would see the statue as we sailed in. Our friends Rosemary and Steven who are also on this cruise have a cabin on the starboard side, so everything worked out perfectly – they came to our balcony to see us sail past the statue, and then we transferred to their balcony to watch us sail past all the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

Looking at the weather forecast for the two days we were in New York, we saw that we were going to be very lucky, blue skies and sunshine virtually all the way – perhaps this balances out the storms we endured earlier in the cruise.

Sure enough when we all went out onto our balcony around 7:30 am the sun was shining and the visibility was good – perfect! Not long after sailing under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge we started to see the statue in the distance, and our excitement levels rose.

As we approached the iconic statue we suddenly heard squeals of delight coming from the balcony of the cabin next door – a whole gaggle of stewardesses were outside, full of excitement and busy taking selfies in front of the statue. We always love it when we get to see the crew having a chance to really enjoy themselves.

The Deputy Cruise Manager Ollie was giving a commentary, and when that switched to the sound of Frank Sinatra singing New York, New York, I reckon there can’t have been many dry eyes in the house, well not on our balcony anyway.

We stayed to watch us pass the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration and the Liberty State Park, and see some of the skyscrapers in Jersey City in the distance, before we switched over to Rosemary and Steven’s balcony.

From there we had fabulous views of all the skyscrapers that make up the iconic Manhattan skyline, made even more dramatic by the sun rising behind them. We watched a helicopter land at a heliport right on the waterfront.

While the ship docked into Pier 90 of the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, we went to breakfast to fuel up ahead of a long and busy day ahead.

Slice 1

We had booked just one ship’s tour in New York, which was on the first evening (more on this later), leaving the daytimes clear for us to do our own thing. As we so often do, we had booked tickets for the Hop On, Hop Off (HOHO) bus, in this case 48 hour tickets to cover both days. We had booked with the Big Bus company as they seemed to have a stop nearest to the cruise terminal.

It was still a few minutes walk to the bus stop, and unusually there was no bus company person there to validate the tickets on our phone, so when the bus came along the driver just let us on board. We were on the red downtown loop – there is also a second blue uptown loop which we planned to use the following day. Low and behold when we got back to the road junction outside the cruise terminal the bus stopped there too – a temporary stop only used when a cruise ship was in. Never mind, the exercise did us good, and on the walk to the bus stop we were amused by this billboard poster:

We rode the bus up to Times Square, which marks the beginning and end of the downtown loop. Here everyone is supposed to get off the bus, but as we had only ridden a short distance and there was a long queue waiting to get on, the driver kindly let us stay on board, and we took the chance to secure really good seats upstairs before the bus filled up. From there we had good views of Times Square, all the bright lights and all the throngs of people there.

Our plan had been to get hop on and hop off the bus at various places to explore on foot. However seeing that the bus was completely full, we decided that if we hopped off, we might not be able to hop back on another bus, so changed plans and elected just to ride the bus all the way around and back to our ship.

On the way we passed so many wonderful buildings, both old and new, and in fact I loved seeing the juxtaposition of one to the other.

Our route took us down through Soho and Lower Manhattan to the Financial District, before it looped back past the One World Trade Centre and then all along the bank of the Hudson River to our cruise terminal. With all the traffic this took us over 2.5 hours to do the complete loop, by which time we were both finding the hard seats were getting rather uncomfortable! We chose to get off at the permanent stop we had used to board the bus, and walk back past the USS Intrepid flight museum so that we could stretch our legs.

We went back on board for a late lunch and to rest and sleep, as we had a busy and late evening ahead.

The evening tour we had booked was a five hour tour called City Lights & The Empire State Building, and as it set off at 7pm it meant we were going to be up way past our normal bedtime!!

The coach took us first across Manhattan and the East River to the Fulton Landing, which is underneath the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, so that we could get views of the illuminated city skyline across the river. The traffic was again very heavy most of the way, and it took quite some time to get there.

As we walked from the coach to the river’s edge we could see a dramatic changing display of dozens and dozens of coloured lights. We asked the local guide what it was, he did not know, I can only assume it was a drone display.

The views of Brooklyn Bridge and of the city beyond all lit up were just fabulous, and I knew there was no chance my photographs in the low light were going to do them justice.

All too soon it was time to reboard the coach for the drive back to the iconic Empire State Building. Unfortunately by the time we had driven through the traffic to get there, gone through the security checks and ascended two lifts (one to the 80th floor, the other to the 86th floor!), we only had around 20 minutes to drink in the astonishing views of the illuminated cityscape so far below, before the building closed for the night. While most of us found this a bit frustrating, it was more than enough time for Carol – regular readers will know she is not great with heights (to be fair she has improved a lot), and she did not appreciate that above a low wall there was just a chain-link fence between her and the ground.

We steadily made our way around all four sides of the building, and I managed to take some photographs – of course again they could not do justice to what we could see with our own eyes.

When we sadly descended the building and returned to the coach, our local guide told us that he thought the views were much better and more dramatic by night, and we could both see why that would be the case.

The final stop on the tour was some free time back in Times Square. The guide gave us an hour, but told us we could return to the bus at any time. If we thought it was busy and noisy there in the daytime, it had nothing on what it was like late in the evening! Of course all the illuminated advertisement signs shone out even brighter than ever, and there were countless street musicians, singers and dancers each with their own music blaring out, and it was hard to walk through the wall-to-wall people everywhere. Carol and I stuck it for a few minutes, mainly by going into the relative peace and quite of a souvenir shop, before returning to the coach.

The hour was nearly up before the last of our fellow passengers returned, and we could then drive back to the ship and our much needed bed.

Slice 2

As we had tucked up so much later than our normal bedtime, it was not surprising that we rose much later than usual the following morning.

We walked to the temporary bus stop close to the cruise terminal, and there a bus company lady validated the ticket on my phone. She told us that as it had not been validated the day before we could use it again the next day – but sadly this bargain was of no use to us as were were sailing at 8am in the morning.

We rode the red route downtown bus up to Times Square, where we got off and walked a short distance to a stop on the blue uptown route. Alas a bus pulled away just before we could get there, but it did mean we were at the front of the queue for the next one that came along. We got good seats upstairs once more, and rode the bus most of the way around, before getting off at the corner of Central Park that is closest to Times Square. Once again we had some fabulous views of all the lovely buildings from the top of the bus.

We walked through the park for a while, before I walked up to a lady and asked her how much she would charge for 45 minutes! Don’t panic, I wasn’t doing anything naughty – Carol and I had decided it would be lovely to do a horse and carriage ride around the park – especially as it was such a lovely sunny day again, albeit a little colder than the previous day.

After agreeing a price and a route we climbed aboard, and were glad of the thick rug our driver/guide offered us. Yes, it was a bit of an expensive treat, but the ride around was so delightful and magical – it gave us memories that will last forever.

The park looked lovely in the bright sunshine, and as we went around the guide kept telling us which films and tv programs had been filmed in the various places – sadly most of this went over our heads as we hadn’t seen many of them. We obviously did know John Lennon, and she showed us both the apartment building where he lived, and the area of the park known as Strawberry Fields in his memory.

When we very sadly got off the carriage at the end of the ride, the guide gave Carol a carrot to feed to Snowdrop, the curiously named black horse that had propelled us around. The horse clearly knew the routine and had taken and eaten the carrot long before I was ready to take a photograph of the moment!

As we walked back long 7th Avenue towards Times Square, we noticed a large number of police cars all parking up, and wondered what was going on. When we reached 5th Street we ‘hung a right’, and followed that road right back to our ship – an easy stroll that only took us around half an hour, showing how well placed our berth was.

We returned to the ship tired but extremely contented after two simply magical and special days in New York, and we were happy to spend the remainder of our time in port resting and relaxing, or in my case starting to sort the hundreds and hundreds of photographs that I had taken over the two days.

After dinner I did venture up onto the top deck in order to take some final photographs of the lights of the city that never sleeps.

The following morning at 8am we set sail for a day of scenic cruising in the Hudson River. This, the following day when were due to sail the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, and our adventures in Baltimore the next day are likely to be the subject of my next post.

Postscript

We later found out the likely reason for seeing so many police cars in 5th Avenue. While we were at dinner, Andy the Entertainment Manager made a public announcement, which is most unusual at that time. He told us that the police had informed the ship about two large public demonstrations going on in the Times Square area, on different sides of the current troubles in Israel and Palestine. We were very strongly encouraged not to go anywhere near the area. We knew the evening tour that we did was being repeated that night, obviously that tour would not be able to do the final part in Times Square.

L2323 – Train, Trail and Transit

~ Graham Alderson ~ 2 Comments

Introduction

In my last post, L2323 – Va-moose from Canada, I described our visits to Sydney and Halifax, which are both in Nova Scotia, Canada. I also described how our planned visit to Saint John in New Brunswick, Canada, was cancelled due to Tropical Storm Phillipe, and how everything on the ship was battened down for an expected rough ride to our next port of call, Portland in Maine, USA.

In reality the seas were not as bad as we feared, and after a day and a half we sailed into Portland while we were at dinner. Our Captain, Captain Val, continues to do a wonderful job of keeping us informed, he even warned us that as we sailed through a narrow channel close to the harbour, there was not room to use the ship’s stablizers, so that we might encounter a bit more rolling. It seemed a little strange to be arriving in port in the evening and in the dark – it was around 8pm when we docked.

No one could leave the ship overnight as this was our first port of call in the USA, and the face-to-face Immigration clearance could not occur until the morning.

Portland, Maine, USA

We had an early start in Portland as the face-to-face Immigration interviews were due to start at 8am, and our deck was due to be the first called, after those on early tours. Everything was very well organised, with lots of crew around to guide and shepperd people to the right place. Carol was quickly cleared, I had to have my fingerprints taken, but was then cleared OK. Once we had been cleared, we were free to leave the ship – of course those on the lowest decks will have had a much longer wait to get ashore.

It was a first visit to Portland for both Carol and I, and we had decided to just do our own thing – exploring the port at our own pace. While doing my research ahead of time I had spotted that there was a little tourist train, the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad, which followed the coastline around the bay. We decided to ride this train first, and then explore the old part of town afterwards.

The train station was just a short walk from the ship, and we arrived at just the right time to secure good seats, without having too long a wait before departure. The train ambled along quite slowly, and we had good views of the scenery from the open windows. The Conductor/Guide gave a commentary about both the history of the line and the sights that we were seeing. We were surprised to hear that the line followed the route of a standard gauge railway which used to run all the way from Portland to Montreal in Canada. Now the trains can only run a short distance as a swing bridge that crossed the bay burned down, and it has never been repaired.

The train stopped at the far end of the line for a few minutes before starting the return journey back to the station. While we were there our friends Sharon and Phil kindly took a lovely photo of Carol and I together on the train.

Once we arrived back at the station, we walked back towards the old part of the port. It was a bank holiday that day – the day that used to be Columbus Day, but which is now Indigenous People Day – so we were warned that many of the shops and restaurants might be closed. In fact most of the shops where we walked – a lot of which were gift & souvenir type shops – were open, and there seemed to be quite a lot of restaurants open too – I expect the fact that two cruise ships were in port helped!

We enjoyed wandering around, looking at the many old buildings, and doing some gentle shopping. It was just nice to be in an American port that wasn’t full of skyscrapers and other very modern buildings.

We had lunch ashore, before heading back to the ship to rest up ahead of what we expected to be a busy day ahead in our next port.

We set sail around 8pm, meaning we had been in port for 24 hours, departing for the short sail down the coast to our next port of call, Boston.

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

When I awoke early the next morning, Carol already had the curtains pulled back to reveal a lovely colourful dawn. She calmly told me that I had missed a fabulous sunrise, just a shame she didn’t choose to wake me! I watched and photographed as we sailed into port, with lovely orange light from the newly risen sun.

Both Carol and I had have visited Boston in past, before we met, and in each case as part of a visit to the USA by plane rather than by cruise ship.

For this visit we had decided to use the Hop On, Hop Off (HOHO) Trolley Bus, especially as we found that it stopped close to the terminal building. However finding the stop proved to be a challenge – we asked several people including the Police, before the arrival of a Trolley Bus and noting where it stopped gave the game away. As we sat on the bus, I spotted a tiny paper sign strapped to the chain link fence – not exactly conspicuous!

The first bus took us as far as the Waterfront, where we had to alight to either catch a different bus, or explore on foot. Carol and I had a wander around Quincy Market, but when we returned to catch another bus the queues were very long, so we elected to continue exploring on foot for now.

We walked for a while to pick up the Freedom Trail, which is marked by a line of red bricks in the pavements/sidewalks. We followed this for some time, stopping to admire all the lovely old buildings which were intermingled with all the modern skyscrapers.

Eventually it led us to Boston Common, where we rested on a park bench and enjoyed a snack lunch. While Carol relaxed in the warm sunshine, I scooted off to snap the stunning Massachusetts State House.

We continued our very pleasurable walk across the Common, and then crossed the road into the adjacent Public Garden, where we were intrigued to see the Make Way for Ducklings sculpture that I had spotted online earlier.

As we left the Gardens, we spotted a HOHO bus stop just across the road, and we were just in time to catch a trolley bus there. It was the stop that was right outside the building that was made famous as the site of the bar in the American comedy show Cheers, although due to renovations not much of the familiar facade was currently visible.

We decided to ride the HOHO bus all the way back to the cruise terminal building. The driver was also the guide, and she gave a continuous commentary as we drove around. It was very noisy in the bus with its open windows, especially with so much construction work going on everywhere, so the commentary was turned up very loud. Between the external noise, the loudness of the commentary and the driver’s accent, to be honest we did find it difficult and rather tiring to follow everything that was said, but we did enjoy seeing all the different buildings, old and new.

The bus dropped us literally outside the terminal building, and we were soon back inside the peace and quiet of our cabin for a much needed rest – indeed it wasn’t long before we both had an afternoon nap!

We were due to remain in port until 11:30pm that night, but Carol and I were sound asleep long before that!

Cape Cod Canal, Massachusetts, USA

The next morning saw yet another early start, as around 7:50am Balmoral started sailing through the Cape Cod Canal. This artificial waterway connects Cape Cod Bay in the north-east with Buzzards Bay in the south-west, and saves shipping sailing a distance of around 135 miles around the treacherous waters off Cape Cod.

While Carol accepted a kind invitation to join our friends Rosemary and Steven on their balcony for the transit, I preferred to go to the front of the ship on the main deck so that I could see and photograph both sides of the canal, and of course the three bridges that traverse it.

We had a few spots of rain just as we entered the Canal, but fortunately it did not last for long. Very soon we reached the first of the two road bridges, the Sagamore Bridge.

It was a pretty passage along the canal, which was mostly lined with trees – alas we were too early for any autumn colours.

All too soon the second, and very similar, road bridge came into view, the Bourne Bridge. It was at this time that Ollie, the Deputy Entertainments Manager, gave a short commentary about the Canal. While he talked quite a bit about the two road bridges, I was surprised that he did not mention what I thought was the most interesting bridge across the Canal, which is the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge.

This is what is known as a vertical lift bridge – the centre span carrying the railway track is lifted some 135 feet into the air to allow ships to pass. At the time of construction in the 1930s it had the longest span of any vertical lift bridge in the world.

After sailing under the rail bridge it was only a short distance before the ship reached open waters once more, and it was time for me to find Carol and our friends for a much needed breakfast.

Early tomorrow morning we are due to sail into our next port of call, New York, which will mean an even earlier start to ensure we are up and ready to watch as we sail past the iconic Statue of Liberty. We will be there for two days and nights, and our adventures there are likely to be the subject of my next post.

Postscript

It was only when I started preparing this post, that I noticed that my last post had been the 300th that I have made on my cruise blog. When I started the blog back in January 2016 I had no idea that I would traverse the world on so many wonderful cruises, and continue for so many years posting such a huge number of posts. The mind boggles at just how many words I must have written, and how many photographs I must have added over the years.

I would like to thank everyone who reads my blog for taking the time to do so, and in particular thank everyone who has made such kind comments, it does make all the time and effort involved worthwhile. THANK YOU!!