Category Archives: travel

April 11, 2012 · 6:00 am

King’s Wharf Bermuda


This was my third journey to Bermuda and Ursula’s fourth.  Our ship docked at King’s Wharf, which is what we’ll view today.

King’s Wharf is a cluster of former military structures and fortifications, many of which have been converted over into retail shops, restaurants, and bars.  Even so, the area maintains its military flavor.

You can also spot the English influence that permeates the culture here.  The first clues, of course, are the plethora of traditional red English telephone booths.  If those weren’t enough to clue you in, then the motor traffic is.  These islanders drive on the left side of the road, and most of the vehicles are right-hand drive.

King’s Wharf is also a great place to take pictures of boats of all sizes, shapes, and functions.  There is a very active shipyard here, and there are always many boats under repair at any given time.

Friday we’ll run around the capital city of Hamilton.  Meanwhile:

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April 9, 2012 · 6:07 am

Views of the MS Ryndam


This is our first trip aboard Holland America’s MS Ryndam, and I must say that it’s a very nice ship for one that was built back in the late 1990s.  Of course it was refurbished in 2010, but still . . . .

At any rate, I decided to spend one evening strolling around taking interior shots, and the next day I took the picture of the pool you see below.  The dockside exteriors were taken in Bermuda.

There’s much to do aboard a ship such as this, even on sea days.  I enjoy playing bridge, for instance.  Ursula spends her time reading, and as soon as we boarded we headed up to the ship’s library.  Ursula’s picks this trip were biographies:  That famous corgi lover Queen Elizabeth; that infamous equestrian lover Catherine the Great; and volume one of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.’s life story.

In between all that, we’ve also enjoyed the following movies in the Ryndam’s theater:  Apollo 18 (nothing to write home about), The Muppets (good family movie); The Artist (I can see why it stole the show at this year’s Oscars; absolutely incredible film making).

Wednesday I’ll show you King’s Wharf, Bermuda, and Friday you’ll see the capital city of Hamilton.  Meanwhile, enjoy this tour of the MS Ryndam:

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April 6, 2012 · 5:08 am

Sunset at Sea


We set sail out of Tampa, headed south, rounded the Keys, and then headed east.  Before dinner I floated around the ship and took a few shots of the giant fountain-statue in the atrium.  It’s a rather impressive piece of art rising over two stories in height inside the ship’s central atrium.  At the front was a nice ship’s figurehead of the usual topless mermaid variety.

After that we headed on over to the main dining room.  You can see that pictured below as well.  The dining room here is a two-story affair with lots of natural light.

Guessed the ship yet?  It’s Holland America’s MS Ryndam—just one of many ships in Holland America’s ’Dam fleet.  They’re called the ’Dam fleet because, well—Rotterdam, Prinsendam, Ryndam, Statendam, Zuiderdam, Niew Amsterdam, etc., etc., etc.  That’s a lot of ’Dam ships.

As we were finishing up a delightful dinner with entertaining conversation from our two lovely dinner companions Mary and Ray Switzer (whom we’d met at dinner just the night before), Ursula noticed a spectacular sunset was in the making.  Fortunately, I had my newly acquired Canon G1 X with me, and we were able to rush outside in time to capture the red setting sun and dramatic clouds against the azure background above the reflective waters of the Atlantic.

We’ll continue our adventures in next week’s blogs.  Until then, enjoy the show below:

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