Balls on the Ho, Plymouth, United Kingdom

Tuesday, September 19, 2012
Plymouth, United Kingdom

They call these cruises "repositioning cruises."  In short, we're going to be traveling a great distance and not coming back.  Embarkation was in Southampton, today is Plymouth, then Waterford, Cobh, four days in the Atlantic Ocean, then Canada Canada Canada, and New York.

I'm pretty excited.  After this cruise, I will be able to say that just like my father before me, I too came to America on a ship.

Today was spent almost entirely in the company of Kathleen Burgoon.  Here is our day:

 Welcome to Plymouth!

  

You know, the Pilgrims left from Plymouth, and they landed in Plymouth!  Imagine that.

 

 Do you see anything exciting that you might want to do?  Because I do!

OMG Asian Buffet.

Actually, as cool as that giant wheel looks, Asian food trumps it right now.

Mmmm...

When I'm back home in the states, a meal like that would be considered mediocre at best.  But when you're at sea, ANY Chinese food is good Chinese food.

O hai friends!

Dustin and Courtney Cunningham!

 Oh hai Kathleen!

The Cunninghams AND Kathleen.  In the same place!

Oh, uh hello Marcy, and Dusan.

I mean, sure my camera is still out.

 Okay guys, seriously?

Let's all jump on the bandwagon!

 Alright, time to head on over to that super fun thing that only Kathleen and I want to do.

The Wheel of Plymouth!

The Amazing Kathleen Burgoon doth present, "The Wheel of Plymouth."

Probably the best (read: only) thing to do in Plymouth.  I highly recommend it.

♩♪ Isn't she lovely? ♫

♫ Isn't he beautiful? ♪♩

 Video!

Balls on the Ho

Yes, I titled this post after this game.  It's lawn bowling with a very special British name.  Apparently, this field is called the Ho.  Or maybe it's Hoe.  I don't know.

Oh British people, how I love thee.  Let me count the ways.  Okay, well I have at least one now.  Oh, and baked beans for breakfast makes two.

The view from the top.

Yep, we're still on the wheel.

The Silver Whisper

Finally off the wheel.  Not saying it was bad, it was fun.  It's just that whole thing they do to get people on and off of a Ferris wheel.  THAT's what takes forever.

 Well, now that the thing to do in Plymouth is over, it's ime to head back to the ship

Oh, the stuff we talk about sometimes.

 Video

Well, we almost made it back on to the ship, but not until after we dealt with this guy.

They've really stepped up their port security in England.

He turned out to be really nice, actually.  Tomorrow is Ireland! and I don't think I've ever been, so I'm looking forward to it very much.

Normandy, Remembering D-Day

Monday, September 17, 2012
Normandy, France

From Amsterdam yesterday, to Normandy today.  There really can't be two greater emotional extremes.

I'm not going to pretend to be a historian here.  In fact, if there's anything I learned, it's about how little I knew about D-Day.  The amount of planning, the execution, the aftermath, and the cost; each of those things are worth hours of research.

Remnants of D Day are still out in the water.

Omaha Beach Monument

 Video

 There's a general heavy feeling that permeates the air here.

After stopping at Omaha Beach, we went into a D Day museum for a while where they shows us films and we got to look a moving scale models of the many phases of the D Day project.

They had to build an a port in one day while being attacked!  Do you have any idea how crazy that is?  Having worked on a ship now for some time, I understand that this idea was something that seemed impossible, but it was done.

The British took their derelict ships, and purposely sunk them in a line to create a breakwater.  After that special floating bridges were connected and then positioned between ship and shore so that the caissons could roll right off the water and onto the beach.  Here is one of those bridges:

We can only have the guests in a heavy mood for so long, after all it is vacation for most of them.  Se, we take a break from D-Day and go to a restaurant.

It was kind of incredible.

Yum.

Freaking Yum.

And how is this for an amazing use of mirrors?

Break time over, on to the American Cemetery.

It was good to be back on American soil, even if we were surrounded by France.

Read This

On the walls of the monument, you can see the outlines of the many campaigns that were put into action before, on, and after D Day.

I trust that nothing further will require any explanation.

Panorama, click.

Amsterdam at Night.

September 15-16, 2012
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Okay, okay, I'm going to say this here and now and up front.  There are no red light district photos in this blog.  You can find all of that stuff on google.  And besides, there's not really any one red light district.  There are several alleys that have red lights, and that means exactly what you think it means, and there are several of them, and they're all in the center of town.  Besides, photography is shunned in that section.  Oh, and I didn't even go because I was preoccupied.  But I will say this: I heard it's actually the safest place in the city.  Because of the nature of the work that is going on there, the alleys are full of cops.

Moving on.

I had responsibilities on the ship that kept me pretty late, but many people had made plans to congregate at a club later and watch this thing called "Burlesque Freak Out."  So here I am finishing my responsibilities on the ship with one of my best friends (and my next door neighbor) Roxana.  If I ever see her again it will be one of the top ten best days of my life.

I head out into Amsterdam at about 11pm by myself, and run to the central station (about a 10 minute jog from the ship).  It turns out that the stop outside of town for the night club is only one stop passed the place I randomly got off in the morning.  How funny.

I meet up with my friends from the ship, and we're waiting in this long line that winds up two flights of stairs.  Eventually we get in, and this place is weird.  First of all, everyone is dressed in a combination emo/gothic/hipster/pussycatdolls kind of way.  Contrast that to how awesome we all look (see below)

Nevertheless, we try to make the most of it.

And I'm having a good time, but mostly because Ingrid is there.  Ingrid has this way of dancing that says, "I'm enjoying every second of my life no matter what anyone says, does, or thinks.  You should enjoy life too."  Every second you spend with Ingrid is like refreshment to the soul.

Getting refreshed.

But then the show started, and it ended up being nothing we expected other than just freaking weird.

It turned out to be a tongue and cheek poking fun at burlesque show with not very attractive girls instead of an actual burlesque show.  Waaa waaaaaa.

But the MC was good.  I will give him that.  Here's a compilation video of him, and the fire dancer they hired.

Enough is enough, and we all agreed to leave after the fire dancer.  Since we were hungry, we stayed out instead of heading back to the ship.  Our taxi driver took us to a place called Light Square where I took this video.

 I have to admit, it's a little weird how there are open public urinals on the street.

And yet, it's so much better than a pay toilet.

After the girls went to that smokey restaurant that I refused to stay in, and after I got a Whopper at Burger King, we went to MacDonald's...for the free wifi.  #shiplife

Completely random guy who wanted to be in a photo with us, on my camera, just because.

Still beautiful at night time.

Another picture of Marcy because she got all dressed up, and I think people should see it.

And that's it for now.  I hope to go back one day.  My general impression of Amsterdam at night though is "young."  Maybe it was just that night club and just light square.  Maybe the taxi driver took us there because he thought we'd fit in better, but I really felt like we were the oldest people there.  If that's not true, then Amsterdam is a city full of adults during the day and college kids that sleep through the day and them come out and stay out all night.

Does this have anything to do with the weed?  You decide.

Amsterdam, so much more that what it's famous for.

September 15, 2012
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Before I tell my story and show you how awesome Amsterdam is, I have to mention that the roughest day at sea to date was the night before Amsterdam.  It was the only night we ever cancelled a show.  It was so bad, I had to lay in the back of the ship in the dressing rooms on the floor because being vertical in any way would induce vomiting.

That said, Amsterdam is awesome!

I got off the ship in the morning as soon as it cleared, hopped on the public transportation, took it to just outside the city and started my walk back.  Here is what I saw.

Heh heh heh.

 Lesson 1 about Amsterdam.  Coffee does NOT mean coffee.

I often bought flowers for the room when I was in port.

Just incredible.

Personally, I would never eat at a place with this name.

Amstel - Amsterdam.  Making connections.

So far, Amsterdam is on the top of my beautiful cities list.

There, I saw windmills in Holland.  Check.

Clever phrase that is EVERYWHERE!

No shortage of amazing architecture at every turn.

Probably Amsterdam's biggest export.  There are many times more Heineken signs than Starbucks.

I took this picture because the Magic Mushrooms sign made me laugh.  But then I backed up and realized that this little building was built right up against the church behind it.

Getting high for Jesus.

It's what you think it is.

In most alleyways, it's hard to find a place that doesn't sell pot.

Europe does public transportation well.  Amsterdam is no exception.  Here's the central station.

So that was my morning walk, which actually turned into quite a run because I had to make it back to the ship to meet the rest of the cast.  Our plan was to follow the Cunningham's to a place called The Pancake Bakery to celebrate Dustin's birthday.
 

Got my wooden shoe license.

Always thought of Vince as larger than life.  Here is my proof.

 In the next picture, Courtney points towards the Anne Frank house.  I know that is a really big deal to a lot of people, so that's why this picture is included.  The Anne Frank house is somewhere in that general direction.  But honestly, we're all hungry, so lets go eat pancakes instead.

Mmmm.

Happy Birthday, Dustin!

This turned out to be a really neat place.  I started with a French onion soup, and then went on to an Egyptian Pancake.  It was a pancake with lots of meat and spices with a salad on the side.  That is how this place works.  Pick a nationality and that style comes in a pancake.

Marcy and I have completely opposite taste.  Any doubt, look at her face.

And then comes the pancake ice-cream dessert.

Yatta!  I did it!

Said goodbye to the other four, and then went for a walk back to the ship with Kathleen Burgoon.  Found some gypsies along the way.

I want to stay here.

Click this picture at your own risk.

I'm doing my best to give you a sense of how beautiful this city is.  It's so much more than the whores and drugs.  It's actually a really great place to be during the day.  It fact, it's probably one of my favorite places.  I remember having a feeling of being overwhelmed by how beautiful it was.

And then I couldn't help but laugh at this.  Throughout most of the city, there are three sets of lanes of traffic, and you can see them all in the next three pictures.  There are the lanes the cars drive in, then there are the bike lanes, and then there's the pedestrian walkway.

Bike lane.

You always see entire families biking together.  It's kind of precious.

 But the absolute best thing is that if your car is small enough, you can drive it in the bike lanes.

Mr. Bean would be so happy.

As glamorous as my life may seem at this point, I have to acknowledge the major downside of working on a cruise line.  More often than not, we leave ports early, and spend the nights sailing.  This means I get to see most of the world, but I couldn't tell you what the night life is like.  Every once in a while though, we get an overnight at a port.  Guess what happened in Amsterdam?

Next post: Amsterdam at night.