Random thoughts from the sea
Days 42-43, 2025 European Odyssey Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 9-10, 2025; Dover, England, and Rotterdam, Netherlands. An astounding 300 million people – one out of every 27 people living on earth – are not living in the country of their birth, the United Nations reports. Immigration is a highly politicized
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Day 40, 2025 European Odyssey Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025; Edinburgh, Scotland. Imagine sitting in the stands at an American college football game, watching the home team’s marching band take the field for maybe 10 minutes. Most spectators have headed for the concession stands or toilet – or buried their faces
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Days 36-39, 2025 European Odyssey Sunday to Wednesday, Aug. 3-6, 2025; Wales and Inverness, Scotland, I am beginning to see why tourists might quip “ABC!” Another Bloody Castle! Estimates for the number of castles in the British Isles vary, but it’s in the thousands, depending on your definition. Generally, castles
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Days 32-34, 2025 European Odyssey Wednesday to Friday, July 30-Aug. 1, 2025; Killybegs, Galway and Cobh, Ireland. For travelers who like to check off lists, there are unlimited choices. One of my sisters is on a quest to visit the highest elevation point in each state. (She knows she will
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Days 30-31, 2025 European Odyssey Monday and Tuesday, July 28-29, 2025; At Sea and Stornoway, Scotland. What is it like to cruise on one of Holland America’s largest ships for the first time? Mind you, these are not large ships. The Nieuw Statendam is 975 feet long, just shy of
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Days 28-29, 2025 European Odyssey Saturday and Sunday, July 26-27, 2025; Dover, England, and Rotterdam, Netherlands. When I say there are only a few repeat ports on my summer back-to-back cruises in Northern Europe, I’m not counting Dover and Rotterdam. We visit each city four times because they are the
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Days 25-26, 2025 European Odyssey Wednesday and Thursday, July 23-24, 2025; Faroe Islands and Shetland Islands. For the past couple of years, I’ve flown the flag of each country we visit on my cabin door frame. It’s a fun ritual to change the flag when we head to a new
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Days 21-23, 2025 European Odyssey Saturday-Monday, July 19-21, 2025; Grundarfjørdur and Reykjavik, Iceland. The trope that Eskimos have many words for snow is debated among linguists, but it does illustrate the belief that those whose life is filled with snow probably understand its nuances better than people who’ve never seen
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Days 17-18, 2025 European Odyssey Tuesday and Wednesday, July 15-16, 2025; Paamiut and Qaqortoq, Greenland. For only the second time since cruising, I was glad I had brought my bug head net ashore. Our visit to the lovely fishing hamlet of Paamiut on the southwest coast of Greenland was marred
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Days 12-14, 2025 European Odyssey Saturday-Monday, July 12-14, 2025; At Sea (Greenland and Labrador Seas, Prins Christian Sund). Greenland is the world’s largest island, at 836,330 square miles. On most maps it looks much larger than it is, due to the distortion of Mercator maps. (If you want to go
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