Amsterdam

 Actually we left Amsterdam two days ago, but I am behind in posts.

We were actually not very impressed with the part of this city that we saw.  Being a destination for many years for tourists, it seems the locals have abandoned the downtown as almost all the people walking the streets are tourists.  And those people have very little regard for local traditions, local cleanliness, and local people.  There is a lot of litter.  There are disproportionally many stores selling cannabis and related products.  Even the high end stores that you find in any capital city are relegated to side streets so souvenir shops can take over the major walkways.  The locals are mostly irritated with the tourists not heeding the rules for bike paths and the rights of cyclists.

Having aired my negative impressions, I still want to say that the Rijksmuseum is well worth the visit even though The Night Watch is behind glass and being restored.  

But we had much more fun in the Nemo Science museum with the interactive displays and activities. 

 The canal cruise we took started sour because the boat did not arrive on time, but worked out fine with a good guide and lots to see.

But at 12:30 on Thursday, all ten of us were on the boat, the Godefridus van Aemstel, settling into our cabins and looking forward to adventures together.

The Trip of a lifetime

Travel companies love to entice you by promising the trip of a lifetime to some exotic place or a unique adventure.  You can scuba off the Great Barrier Reef, be pampered on the Riviera, paddle in the Yukon or whatever.  There is always someone to sell you an excursion that you will never forget.

I have  played in the white sand of a Cuban beach, crawled up the side of a mountain in New Zealand, been swimming with sea lions in the wild, flown over a volcano in Hawaii and much more.  True, I will always remember these adventures, but today I am embarking on a different trip of a lifetime.

This trip took my lifetime to bring to being.  I am cycling with my children and grandchildren from Amsterdam to Brugge.  It is a week long adventure where we sleep on the barge and during the day we cycle and meet the boat in the afternoon.  Rowan is 10 and now able to ride the 40 - 50 km per day, and I am still fit enough to do the same.  This is the time in my life to do this.  

I can't wait!

Gratitude

 There has been much todo in social media these past few weeks, about all the things that are going wrong in the world.  A post from Pope Leo reminded me that filling your mind with conflict and wrongs that you can do nothing about, will sap your emotional energy and paralyze you.  Instead, he encouraged us to see the good and work for justice in order to be the hope that the world needs.  That is very much in line with the philosophy of gratitude, where you focus on what you are grateful for, and so have a positive outlook, one that will inspire yourself and others.

So, looking at this trip through the lens of gratitude.

I am grateful for the people who shared this experience with me.  For my Joanna who jumped on a plane and then on a ship for an adventure with her mother.  For Johanna who drove from the south of Germany to the the north, organized accommodation and trips to show me a face of my birth country which I did not know.  For Chris, Liz, Kalina and Natasha who trained into Hamburg to share dinner with me and then took me around the city for a walking tour.  For Richard, Jennie, TovaElise and Rowan who included me in the excitement of their move to a new home. Reconnecting with people strengthens our ties which even the internet can't match.

And, there are people whose names I don't know, the gentleman who showed me where to catch a number 11 bus in Sandviken, the lady who helped with tickets and bus stop to get me to Valbo Shopping Center, the waiter who secured decaf coffee on the ship and many others.  People who reassure you in the belief that most individuals are decent, helpful and often, friendly.

I am grateful for the wonderfully diverse natural world and also the gardens that celebrate the beauty of a particular species or area.  From the lush tropical environment in Martinique, to the resilience of the trees after a hurricane, to the tenacity of trees against the North Sea winds.  And then there were the gardens in Ponta Delgada with puhutakawas in bloom and the Hobbie garden of Westersede showing that people who love plants create enduring magical spaces.

I am grateful for fantastic food, simple or complex, for Conference pears , Swedish lunches,  German bread, Nutella gelato, brown beans at breakfast, fancy cakes.

I am grateful for the unusual song of birds in different lands.

I am grateful for good internet everywhere and the many marvels of modern technology, for smart elevators that send a specific one to you rather than the whole bank of them, for ships that install windmills in the ocean, for my credit card that will buy what I want anywhere.

I am grateful for environmental initiatives in hotels, on the ship, in Gavle's recycling depot, in the Saga lounge where it is posted the grams per person to encourage minimal waste.  I love the wind farms along the Baltic sea, the solar arrays on many houses, the focus on local food and celebration of unique local products  like Sanddorn jam, fresh fish, North Sea shrimps, and Azorean pineapple.

I am grateful for good organization so that life runs smoothly, for protocols on the ship, for trains that run on time (all except one, but 1/9 is good odds), museums set up so there can be a crowd of highschool teens doing a project but the tourist is not impacted.

I am grateful for the wide diversity of people and languages so I know I can fit in also.

I am grateful that my feet have been good despite all the walking.

I am grateful for surprises, possible even at 74 years, like a hedge of rhododendrons that is a sea of white, or a new colour of petunia (deep purple with a bright green edge!).

I am grateful for my freedom to plan this vacation how I wanted, to book hotels and trains that suited me, to take my granddaughters shopping.  

I am grateful for a home in a good country where people care about me.

I am truly grateful and remind myself of that at the end of each day.

Ostfriesland

 People ask Ian and me, what it is about Ponta Delgada that draws us back there every year.  It's hard to explain, but the answer is somewhat clearer to me, now that I have experienced this part of Germany which my cousin, Johanna, loves so dearly.

It is peaceful, peaceful and green.  The fields here are significantly ditched to draw away the water in this area which was formerly quite marshy.  There are cows and sheep everywhere, grazing in the fields and on the made-made dykes which hold back the North Sea in rough weather.  Their little hooves also serve to tramp down the dyke making more stable.  One can walk with them, but be sure to close the gates.

There is the ocean and the magic of watching the water move -- waves, tides, ripples.  And the interaction of the water and the land is fascinating.

There are harbours and boats of all shapes and sizes and purposes.  Some have site unique modifications that attest to the ingenuity of the years of seafarers.  

There are traditions of long standing importance to the local people, which connect them to the place they live.  The tea ceremony was needed for workers in the cold to have a break and warm up.  It happened easily 4 times a day.

There are green spaces and spectacular gardens -- the kind you almost weep over, they are so beautiful.  I have never experienced rhododendrons as I did today at the Hobbie Rhododendron Park, and the blossom season was just starting.  

There are museums and places of cultural significance.  We spent half a day at the Auswanderer Haus in Bremerhaven.  There was no record of our trip, but this where my family left Germany 72 years ago.  Looking at the harbour and seeing the displays  in the museum was quite emotional.

There is regional food, and it is always worth trying.  You understand what is important to the people of the area.

There are baked goods -- the kind for which you get up at 7 am and go to the bakery.

And then there is the most important thing -- the fact that you share the experiences with someone who is important to you.  Johanna has become a friend, not just a cousin, these past few years as I have visited with her in Vaihingen and travelled with her to southern Germany and now to the north.  She was delighted to show me this place that is so iclose to her heart, where she and her mother came many times for vacation.  That's like me, dragging Joanna all over Ponta Delgada 2 weeks ago because there was so much I wanted her to see -- and we did the same kind of things that Johanna and I did.

Having a place where you can truly relax, get away from the everyday responsibilities for a while, live simply, is a true blessing!

More trains

I have decided to do more train travel.

I am currently on the ICE from Hamburg to Bremen.  The seats are comfortable with a nice little tray table big enough for my laptop and my tea.  There is a good wifi connection.  Just two seats behind me there is a great luggage section.  The hum of the train is just a background sound.  The motion smooth.

There is a lot less hassle than getting on a plane.  There are many more options for travel in a day.  

The view is lovely.  Spring green is adorning most of the trees.  The fields are worked and ready for the growing season.  Forsythia and little fruit trees are blooming along the tracks.  

It is a Saturday morning and sitting in my area is a group of young guys who are headed for some kind of sporting event.  I don't know if they are playing or just going to be spectators, but the group is well behaved.  

I booked the ticket yesterday afternoon through the DB website and they give seniors' discounts.  

If I miss the connection in Bremen, I have a 12 minute window to get to the next train, I will just take the next one. Easy.

If I chose, there is a bistro car.  I could also have booked ahead for a bicycle.  

They will check my ticket, and I will need to show my passport to validate my senior fare.

It is a civilized way to travel.

Through new eyes

It is said that when one experiences familiar things with someone who sees them for the first time, it's like seeing them anew.  I have found that to be true when doing things with children and yesterday that extended to my big kid, who came to Ponta Delgada for the first time.

We  walked all over the city -- had to show my favourite parts.  We saw that the tree Ian and I like in a plaza is actually a pohutakawa tree as it was in bloom where it never is in February.  

The lava tubes were amazing with the heat glazed interior.

We enjoyed our burgers for lunch along with the Fanta Maracuja (passion fruit soda).

We checked out the pineapple plantation.

We checked out the temperature in the swimming area but as it was only 15.9 C, we just stuck our feet in.

Yes, we both agreed that the ship is a monstrosity, but as Joanna said, she is our montrosity!

Fifth day at sea.  I have no ill effects and even walking is natural now.  The rock and sway is fine -- like sitting in my basket chair.

We do our workouts -- Joanna runs and stretches and does her physio, I do my walking and then my resistance workouts with bands and weights.  The gym is well equipped and has not been too crowded.

We do our crafts -- Joanna is making progress on her diamond dots and my birds of paradise are taking shape.  There are some nice tables on deck 16, sheltered so our work doesn't fly away because outside it is quite windy, but with a great view to the ocean.  Yes, it looks the same all the time.  The navigation report at noon every day says that the waves are 2.5 m, but up there they seem like ripples.  We are going about 17 knots, that's about 31 kmph.

We have lost four hours so far, one each night for the past four.  So now we are all set for Ponta Delgada tomorrow.  Since the whole schedule goes with the time, there is no problem.

The shows are nice.  Last evening was the ABBA show with dancers and high energy.  Good music too!  Today we saw a sand artist.  That was unusual but she is extremely talented to be able to draw just with sand in her hands.

The staff does different things with the food.  Yesterday it was the German FruhSchoppen with really nice sausages, sauerkraut, salads and pretzels.  They made a baguette about 10 meters long and served everyone slices.  The desserts aren't my cup of tea, but I can enjoy cheese and fruit.  There is delicious gelato on the main level and it isn't even too costly.  Today was a rice festival, which we discovered after we had lunch and couldn't figure out why everything was rice.

Every deck has a composer associated with it.  We are on deck 10 -- Gershwin.  Coming down from 16, I always recite:  (Don't mind the baby, Peppa Pig goes).  Debussy, Marchionne, Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Pagionne, Puccini, Gershwin.  And from us down to the main commercial/entertainment deck 6: (So we venture back) Strauss, Wagner, Verdi and Beethoven.  

I don't plan to go to the main show this evening -- another show by the juggling/equilibrium guy, but they are playing Twisters on the big screen by the pool  F1 was great there a few nights ago.

The temperature is getting cooler every day, both air and sea.  We started with sea temp at 27 and are now down to 22.  I will swim in Ponta Delgada if it is 20 or above.

We are doing well!