TransAtlantic October 2018
Coming back from Holland we decided to take a boat rather than fly. Flying sucks.
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Of course we still had to fly to get to the boat from Holland. That sucked really hard. We got a discount flight that was cheap enough but absolutely everything was additional cost. We paid about the same to take our bags along with us as it cost to take us along. We could literally have booked additional seats for our bags at about the same cost. Our first choice was the train but surprisingly the train would have been prohibitive. Maybe a bus next time.
October 2 Copenhagen
After a really annoying flight and a fairly smooth transfer from the Norwegian people we arrived at our boat. The first thing we noticed was all the people, and especially the person wearing a very expensive looking Make America Great sweatshirt. A lot of our relaxation evaporated at this point. The original incentive for taking a transatlantic was our conversation a couple of years back with a guy who had taken it the other way from New York to Copenhagen. He said the boat was empty and it was the most relaxing cruise he had ever been on. Oh well, there are no guarantees in life.
October 3 Gothenburg Sweden
Our first stop was the city of Gothenburg. We did a bus tour rather than walk around ourselves since the city is quite large. We saw a botanical garden, some old churches and stuff (of course) and a really big fish market.
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| Inside a big old church | They always put churches on hills | Botanical Garden | 
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| The grounds | Venus fly traps | More of the grounds | 
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| A disturbing statue | Fish market | Leaving harbour |
October 4 At Sea
A day for treadmills, exploring the ship and drinking in the hot tub.
October 5 Southampton England
Next it was off to Southampton.
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| Foggy morning | Old building | Tudor building | 
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| They buried people under the floor of this old church | The Good Book | Part of the old town wall | 
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| More of the wall | Some neat grass | God's House Tower |
After a quick walk about it was back to the boat for lunch and then back into town in search of the spitfire museum. Southampton figures in the history of the Supermarine Corporation which is varied and fascinating. Possibly the most famous Supermarine creation was the spitfire, the sexiest fighter ever made. But there were lots of other successes.
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| Giant flying boat | First class | Supermarine spitfire | 
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| WW2 Spitfire | Other side | In the back is the original jet boat |
October 6 At Sea
Not much to say about that.
October 7 Cobh
It's pronounced Cove. A very pretty town to walk around.
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| Looking over Cobh from the balcony | The streets are pretty | And so are the driveways | 
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| And of course there's a giant church | That goes up and up | The lifeboats were doing some kind of ballet for some reason |
After lunch we got on a bus and headed over to Cork.
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| Mourning the Lusitania | Church door | Church window | 
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| A totally amazing organ | With pipes everywhere | We just missed a lady playing it | 
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| An old bridge | The Onion Seller | Original Roman stuff | 
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| A pretty building | I was expecting bigger pints in Ireland | Leaving Cobh |
October 8-9 At Sea
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| Ocean | Ocean | Ocean |
October 10 Ponta Delgada Azores
This place was great. We may go back sometime and rent a place to see more of the island(s). We took a 4 by 4 trip up the Água de Pau Massif stratovolcano which is very cool.
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| Driving up the volcano | Lagoa do Fogo "Lake of Fire" | From the top you can see the ocean |
Then we drove over to the Caldeira Velha which is a nice walk in the woods (rainforest) with a hot springs at the end.
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| Pretty lush | Change rooms for the hot springs | One pool | 
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| They're not kidding, it's hot | More rain forest | Woodland Nymphs |
Then it was a drive over to a tea plantation on some not-quite-roads.
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| Quite the View | Quite the Road | Quite the Bridge | 
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| At the tea plantation | Lovely grounds | And lots of tea |
The last bit of the trip was the Miradouro de Santa Iria, a lookout on the Ocean.
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| Looking North | Looking South | Looking |
After the trip we had some time to kill so we walked around town.
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| Lovely architecture | Nice parks | The university grounds |
October 11,12,13,14,15 At Sea
We were getting into a rhythm of butting in line at the buffet (like everyone else), waiting for exercise equipment, drinking and going to shows. The upper decks were closed more often than not as we were driving around between hurricanes and hurricane wannabees. Once, though, the wind abated a bit and as we were walking around the upper decks there was a falcon of all things. It had apparently hitched a ride in the Azores.
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| Endless | A time change every day | Hitchhiker | 
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| Trust me. There’s a little black dot in this picture which is our falcon flying around behind the boat. | Hot tubs. Warm tubs anyway. | Our anniversary |
October 16 NewYork and then Home
After 5 days on the open ocean we were almost in civilization. We just had to get out of New York and back home. It was quite cold and there was no apparent organization to the bus transfers - you just walk around and ask various bus drivers if they're going to your airport and are being paid for by the boat people. Eventually we found a bus that was willing to drive us to our airport and after the usual adventures flying, especially in the States, we got to Toronto and eventually home. It definitely was a change from flying across the Atlantic but since the boat was so very full I'm not sure we'd rush out and do it again. Anyhow, time to take it easy for a few months and plan our next big adventure.