![\"VikiingMapWestbound\"](\"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/VikiingMapWestbound.jpg\" "\\"VikiingMapWestbound.jpg\\"")
<\/p>\nTuesday – August 22, 2017<\/p>\n
We sailed away from Rotterdam, The Netherlands yesterday afternoon and cruised southward along the English Channel between Great Britain and France. \u00a0Fortunately, the wind was light and the seas were calm last night.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rotterdam marks the end of our eastward cruise and the beginning of the return westbound cruise. \u00a0Or, looking at it another way, the midpoint between the circuit. \u00a0The first half passed very quickly and there are several exciting ports ahead on our way back to Boston. \u00a0We even travel around the northern part of Iceland near the Arctic Circle.<\/p>\n
Because we\u2019re heading westward, we had to set our clocks ahead one hour. \u00a0Maybe I\u2019ll catch up on lost sleep during several time changes cruising to Europe. \u00a0It was a clear day with blue skies. \u00a0Ships are passing on both sides of the Rotterdam because we\u2019re in a major shipping channel.<\/p>\n
The Irish government sent two officials onboard to stamp our non-EU passports this morning. \u00a0Not a bad job. \u00a0They fly to Rotterdam, work one morning, enjoy leisure time onboard, and disembark in Dublin. \u00a0Similar to the Ice Pilots who rode with us from Greenland to Reykjavik. \u00a0I now have an Ireland stamp in my passport in anticipation of going ashore tomorrow in Dublin.<\/p>\n
We have a new Captain abroad because the other one retired from active duty in Rotterdam and will have an office job for three months of the year. \u00a0The new Captain is Eric van de Wal and he seems happy and excited about his new position. \u00a0He\u2019s more visible than the previous captain. \u00a0We saw Captain Eric in the Lido smiling and laughing with crew members.<\/p>\n
The cruise social director, Jan, packed in lots of activities to keep us from getting too bored today. \u00a0There are several lectures we want to attend, also movies, games, art auctions, Casino, gym classes, and live shows tonight.<\/p>\n
Lectures today: excursions and sights to see in Dublin, Liverpool, Douglas on the Isle of Mann; Arctic Explorations<\/em> presented by Dr. Hannesson; and The Other Side of the Moon<\/em> presented by the meteorologist, Dr. Bendel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tuesday – August 22, 2017 We sailed away from Rotterdam, The Netherlands yesterday afternoon and cruised southward along the English Channel between Great Britain and France. \u00a0Fortunately, the wind was light and the seas were calm last night. Rotterdam marks the end of our eastward cruise and the beginning of the return westbound cruise. \u00a0Or, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruising","category-holland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12328,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12208\/revisions\/12328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}