shiplorian

By May the 16th, it finally started getting a bit warmer in Berlin. Not warm enough to wear shorts, but at least to shed a few layers. The Berliners, of course, were packing the outdoor cafes, lounging on grass, strolling and enjoy the sun !!! Normally, on a Sunday, I'd go to the Tiergarten flea market, but really, bargins there are few and far between. I had planned on taking the train to Hamburg for the wonderful Sunday Fish Market, but I just wasn't up to that much travel, so decided to go see Schloss Charlottenburg which was a new city sight for me. The Palace was essentially built in the 1600/1700s by one of the early Wilhelms who named it after his wife. Hard to believe that this was to be a summer palace out ... read more

The stage play, “The Producers” finally opened in Berlin yesterday. In the same theatre in which Hitler watched some stage plays. It is against the law to display the Nazi flag in public, so you’ll find red flags with stylized bratwurt or pretzel artwork in different parts of the city…..the Nazi flag is being shown inside the theatre tho. The song title “Springtime for Hitler” is almost as prominent as the show’s proper name. My British Airways flight from London arrived 10 minutes early, so I got to experience the Berlin cool weather s bit sooner than expected. It is really strange to be in a place where some of the people are walking around in t-shirts and shorts and others are in sweaters and hoodies (like me). If you can find a sunny place out ... read more

Greetings everyone...................... It's been just about 5 months since I've had a vacation so you know that I'm chomping at the bit to get away. Thats not quite right because I did take a 2 day cruise to Nassau last month on the next-to-last cruise of the REGAL EMPRESS. That ship began her sea career in 1953 as the OLYMPIA and I do remember seeing her in New York and Boston and it sure seemed big at the time. Now she is on the slow delivery voyage to Indian scrappers. I do hope that someone will purchase and remove her wonderful Tudor styled wooden library rather than use that wood for a home fire. Later this month, I'm booked for my spring transatlantic crossing aboard Princess Cruises' CROWN PRINCESS ... a repeat of last spring's crossing. ... read more

I was thinking that perhaps my loyal readers might wonder what has been happening now that we are somewhere in mid-Atlantic between the Azores and North America. Well, we are rolling along quite nicely…..in spite of the fact that the forward stabilizers aren’t working. Fortunately, the ship “had” 2 sets of stabilizers and overall, the seas haven’t been that rough. The weather itself, tho, hasn’t been that great as it continues with lots of wind and temperatures that remain in the high 60s. The Europeans on board, however, find the temperature balmy, so they are the ones in the deck chairs (sometimes bundled up like mid-winter) and hot tubs. By about 10:30 AM, the jogging track is filled with people out for their morning walk….(3 times around the track is a mile)….so many that real joggers ... read more