Guests Jan and Dick Yetke set sail on Prinsendam’s 64-day Grand Mediterranean Voyage in March, and we’ve just received these wonderful posts. We’ll catch up as quickly as possible. Enjoy the journey with Jan and Dick!

We had a very nice relaxing cruise down to Piraeus, the port for Athens, from Istanbul. We arrived in Piraeus at 4 pm. I stayed on the ship, but Dick went out for a short bike ride over to the ferry docks (next to our pier) to check out the ferry schedule to and from the small island nearby called Aegina. We have stopped there in the past on one of our sailing trips and he has always wanted to take our bikes back there when we are docked in Piraeus. Didn’t get to do it last year when we stopped there on the world cruise since there was a ferry strike that day. He got the schedule and was told there would be no strike the next day!!! Yea!!

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Guests Jan and Dick Yetke set sail on Prinsendam’s 64-day Grand Mediterranean Voyage in March, and we’ll catch up as quickly as possible. Enjoy the journey with Jan and Dick!

We have been to Kusadasi many times before and we really like it there. It is a big tourist destination, with one of the main attractions being the the city of Ephesus that is being uncovered!!!

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Thanks to HAL guests Sergio and Geneitha for sending in these awesome photos taken at Half Moon Cay.

We are convinced that these are award winning pictures, taken on our last trip in December 2012, at your private island in the Bahamas, Half Moon Cay! We are dreaming and looking forward to sailing with you again in the near future because we had a amazing time. — Sergio and Geneitha

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Topics: Caribbean, Half Moon Cay, Postcards from... | | 1 Comment

Thanks to HAL guest Kenneth Skelton for sending us this great photo that was taken while on his Passage to Italy cruise with Eurodam, while HAL was celebrating 140 years.

Topics: Europe, ms Eurodam, Postcards from... | | No Comments

Guests Jan and Dick Yetke set sail on Prinsendam’s 64-day Grand Mediterranean Voyage in March, and we’ll catch up as quickly as possible. Enjoy the journey with Jan and Dick!

This is a large city. We were here once, many years ago on this ship (2006 world cruise), but at that time we, along with another couple, got a taxi/tour guide and drove out about an hour east to a small village along the coast, had lunch and walked around a bit and came back.

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Guests Jan and Dick Yetke set sail on Prinsendam’s 64-day Grand Mediterranean Voyage in March, and we’ve just received these wonderful posts. We’ll catch up as quickly as possible. Enjoy the journey with Jan and Dick!

Now, for all of you following our itinerary on a daily basis, you should have noticed that we were supposed to be in Mġarr, Gozo, Malta today.

Well, at about 5 pm yesterday, we were informed by the Captain that the weather conditions were such that the anchorage for Gozo would be too rough for safe tendering operations. So, that stop was canceled, but the good news is that we were able to stay docked in Valletta for a second day!!

In case you don’t know, Gozo is a small island, still part of Malta, just off the north coast of the main island of Malta, so it’s very similar in nature to the main island. We were all quite thrilled that the alternative arrangement was such a good one. This was not an April Fool’s Joke!

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Topics: Cruise Diary, Europe, Grand Voyages, Mariner Voices, ms Prinsendam | | No Comments

Guests Jan and Dick Yetke set sail on Prinsendam’s 64-day Grand Mediterranean Voyage in March, and we’ve just received these wonderful posts. We’ll catch up as quickly as possible. Enjoy the journey!

We arrived here in Agadir this morning at about 7 am. All aboard is at 1:30 pm in order to sail at 2 pm, so it is a short day here. We are docked out in the commercial port, so a complimentary shuttle bus is provided into town.

We got off the ship at around 10 am and took the shuttle bus into town (we found out when we got on the bus that we could have taken our bikes, but we didn’t feel like going back to get them). Anyway, we got off the bus and walked downtown, then headed right through a plaza, down a walkway, down a lot of steps, and ended up at the beach. It is a beautiful, long, golden sand beach with lots of hotels all along it.

The Arabic letters on the hillside say God, King and Nation. The words are in order of worship according to our guide on the shuttle bus.

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Thanks to HAL guests Bert Hoekman and Renée Hoekman-Sulman for sending in this beautiful photo that was taken in Antarctica, while on their cruise with Veendam.

I wanted to share this picture of Glacier Alley taken last year on board Veendam. We were able to catch these spectacular light and dark contrasts while sailing on this wonderful cruise! — Jan Bert Hoekman and Renée Hoekman-Sulman

Topics: Antarctica, ms Veendam, Postcards from... | | No Comments