Aha! Title got you ... well, you’ll have to wait a few posts for Albania or go here (but please come back):
http://trainsandboatsandplanesandtheoddbus.blogspot.ca/2015/11/albania-revisited-and-other-places-part_28.html
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Once upon a time, when ships departed, there was a sense of occasion. Bands played and paper streamers symbolically parted as the watery gap between dock and vessel widened.
No more.
Indifferent Fort Lauderdale dock workers and a solitary security guard as Holland America's Maasdam leaves on (yet another) voyage of thousands of nautical miles.
Topside a touch more enthusiasm. My friends Ferg (we were schoolmates), Sue and Bill discuss a trip that will take us across the Atlantic, into the Mediterranean, east to Greece and back to the States. For Bill (who's joined by his sister, Charlotte) and me, this is more or less a repeat of last year's autumn cruise, but with some ports added and dropped.
I'm fond of Maasdam, nautical equivalent of a welcoming, comfortable, but not intimidating, hotel. As glitzy cruising behemoths become the norm, this restrained vessel is now considered on the low end of 'medium sized'. Many of its passengers are on the high end of the longevity scale.
A previous, doubtless younger, passenger, who'd perhaps hoped for a more energetic experience, wrote a mixed review: ‘If you just want to relax, relax, and relax then this is the [ship] for you. You won't get your pulse above 80 on this one’.
Back in the same cabin as last fall, I'll relax by keeping my flowers alive.
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First stop, Puerto Rico, a Caribbean Greece with $72 billion of debt. But, hey! I'm a heedless tourist, the locals can sort out their own economic mess. Let them drink cervezas. As for me, bring on the relaxing mojitos and pina coladas.
By the San Juan shore, a rather splendid cemetery with once eminent, now long forgotten, marble worthies. Business was probably better back then.
What Puerto Ricans have I heard of? José Ferrer, Jennifer Lopez, Pablo Casals, Geraldo Riviera (who claims to have had an affair with Margaret Trudeau), former Toronto Blue Jay Carlos Delgado.
I commune with a San Juan gato ...
... roam the streets ...
... follow the 'papaya man' pushing his wheelchair converted to a produce cart through the old city. 'Papaya, papaya, come and get your fresh papaya' (en español).
Finally, I inspect the 'hard times' car wash.
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The following day, Sint Maarten.
From Maasdam's promenade deck I watch as ship after ship joins us. A tidal wave of vacationers in serious enjoyment mode inundates the dock, surges into town, washes into stores, engulfs bars and swamps beaches. As last fall, I opt for laundry and do not disembark. Nearly a week until our next landfall.
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Throughout this series, I’ll provide links to last year’s posts from the same ports. Those planning a similar trip may find some of the information useful:
San Juan and Sint Maarten 2014:
