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sailingdutchy

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  • Posts

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About Me

  • Location
    Ontario , Canada
  • Interests
    Travel, gardening , art.
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Holland-America
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Europe , Asia , S America ,Antarctica

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sailingdutchy's Achievements

1,000+ Club

1,000+ Club (7/20)

  1. Greetings to all we are soon on our way to the airport. Our youngest son is taking us to the airport this time , which is better for my car than sitting there outside for 6 weeks and it is less stressful . Best wishes to you all , take care , stay safe. I will be back in December . Tony 😍😍
  2. Naha , Japan is located on the island of Okinawa and is the largest city and capital city of that Japanese Prefecture . Okinawa was part of the Ryukyu Kingdom from 1429 and officially annexed by the Empire of Japan in 1879 . Naha suffered extensive damage during the battle of Okinawa during WWII and the entire city centre had to be rebuild . Civil administration was returned to Japan in 1972 but a large portion of the US forces ( 26.000 ) are assigned to this prefecture. On Okinawa the Ryukyuan people make up the majority of the population and the traditional culture and language are still alive and well. We were in Naha on the Volendam and due to a storm they switched the date and we were very lucky that we arrived there on Nov 3rd , 2017 . Lucky because when the four of us walked to the monorail station to go to the Shurijo Castle we found out that a once a year special cultural event was to take place , the “ King of Ryukyu " was visiting the Shuri castle and going to pray at the different temples an amazing festival that only takes place once every year . Second post : Here a few more pictures of Shurijo Castle The original castle was built in the 1400’s destroyed in 1945 rebuilt in 2000 and during a huge fire destroyed again in 2019 as of last February rebuilding efforts are under way after crowd funding campaign . At the end of our visit we walked back along this 500 year old stone path , Kinjo-cho Stone path good thing we did it from the top down instead of climbing it it is quite steep and could be slippery . Tony 🤨 Sorry folks I had a couple of posts with some beautiful pictures of a very special and memorable day in Naha in 2 different posts and I thought I had pasted them the right way from the 2021 posting but I guess I still have to learn a whole lot more . Strange that the pasting went fine on an email to my daughter so I am just sending the text portion .
  3. Wishing you all a a very nice Sunday ! Because we are leaving soon , the suitcases are almost full , we celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday , our daughter and her DH came from New York and Martha’s mom at 98 cooked and also hosted us at her place , a delicious turkey dinner for 13 of us with help of Martha . The 13 pound turkey was a little too heavy for her ! We are so grateful that at her age this is still possible and it was very much appreciated by her grand children and great grandchildren . I have not asked Dora for permission but love to show her picture with 4 of her 5 great-grandchildren who were present , the 5th one is studying at Purdue and could not be here for a few days I have never called her Dora , out of respect , but since I came to Canada I have always called her Mom ! Tony 😍😍
  4. I just tried to look you up @SusieKIslandGirl on the Roll Call from Joyce for our cruise and was not able to find you . My email address is in my history in green which is under every post, please contact me if you can see that and if you like than I can give you our cabin number that I just received yesterday . Than we can probably meet in the Grand Dutch Cafe for a coffee and have a chat , would be nice to meet another Dailyite ! Tony 😄
  5. Thank you Sandi, @StLouisCruisers very much appreciated , this is one of my treasures from my youth . Funny fact as a Civil Engineer and a numbers man at the time , after this was finished and framed I counted how many stitches I had done .......I just had to know for myself .... it was a lot but very satisfying work after hectic days on the job it really relaxed me.
  6. Now that is too much , ( clicked 3 times just to make sure and now I have to see next time if I can turn it the right way up . At least you all now got the picture ! Tony 😍
  7. Best way to handle the last end of the tooth paste @ger_77, and you save a lot of money that way !!!, Cut the top off with scissors specially in some of the tubes with a hard plastic end and you can dip your brush in there for another week ! Works perfect and than you can recycle both ends of the tube in the recycling box ......and you have used it to the last drop ! Manufacturers don't like me to do that they like me to trow that last bit in the garbage and start a new tube !
  8. Son of a Gun , I Guess I still have to learn how to drag over photos . The photo did show up when I Copied and Pasted than I pushed the Save button and it was NOT saved .........Patience Tony , Patience .......Maybe it is on there now ........
  9. Thank you so much Sandi @StLouisCruisers for getting up early each and every morning and start the Daily Fleet posting on CC in absence of Rich who seems to be thoroughly enjoying his cruise on a BHB in SE Asia ( I am jealous of Rich because I have really enjoyed my cruises in that area . We had booked that cruise again a year and a half ago and than we cancelled it due to the very flights being so long ). Now today we are getting ready doing our last minute stuff to get on the N Statendam in about a weeks time in the Mediterranean in Athens. My question is , was this the only time that Laem Chabang was “Destination of the Day “ ? I thought I had posted a long story with lots of pictures of our 2 day tour there , sorry for my ignorance it also could have been that I just posted my report and pictures on line just for my family on FB ? Again thank you for all of your work and dedication on the Daily , and by the way @StLouisCruisers I loved seeing the results of your needle work making that beautiful Christmas stocking ! Back in the late 70’s while sailingdutchy was a young immigrant to Canada and he had taken on a few jobs to get his family started he was practising his patience by picking up what he had learned in the Netherlands and than late at night he did some cross stitching and also petit point which I enjoyed very much . Most of the time the patterns were to be counted out and not printed . This is one of the pieces that I am quite proud of which I finished in 1981 an icon from the Ukraine area in the Petit Point or I believe what is called in English “ tent stitch “ . Extremely fine stitch and I was happy that I had and still have very good eyes , at a much older age now plus I improved my level of patience ! I still only need reading glasses lucky me . Down the road after our 6 week cruise I might possibly show a few other pieces that I still have in my possession . Have a great day everybody I am off to my Travel Agent to pick up a lot of documents that we need for our cruise Tony 😍😍 sailingdutchy
  10. Good afternoon all , another nice port today from Rich and Sandi , Nagasaki , we were there on Oct 18 , 2017 on the Volendam . As a matter of fact we were suppose to go there for a second time a couple of weeks later but for political reasons , “ bad” weather and an extra day in Shanghai our itinerary was changed and we had to cancel our tour for the second day in Nagasaki . So our tour through Nagasaki was likely quite different than what many others have done , with our small group and Miyuki our guide we first went by streetcar to the Mt Inasa Observation platform ( 333 m ) to have a great view of Nagasaki and learned of its history. From there we visited Dejima , formally a small island first occupied by the Portuguese and taken over by the Dutch . From this small island all the trade was conducted between Europe and Japan in the 1800’s . After a nice lunch in Chinatown , we went by streetcar to Teramachi where we visited a number of temples all very close to each other . The most famous one the Kofukuji temple ( Zen Sect.- 1620 ) Last place for the day we visited the “ Megane - bashi “ the Spectacles bridge A great day was had by all back into port the skies broke open but we received a farewell from the school band anyways ! In 2019 we were suppose to go back to Nagasaki on the Westerdam , instead we roamed the seas for a large number of days , you all know what happened ....... Tony 😀
  11. Congratulations not only with the extra star but also with the new shining medal ! Up to the next step , there are a couple more possible !
  12. We visited Villefranche-sur-Mer a couple of times in the spring and again in the fall of 2022 , in May while on the Nieuw Statendam I had booked a small group tour with 7 of us to go from there to a few Perched Medieval Villages of the Alps because in earlier years we already had been a few times to Cannes , Nice and also a number of times to Monaco . After tendering into Port we met up with what worked out to be our wonderful guide Fouad who showed us the beauty of this area The first mountaintop village we visited was Tourrettes-sur-Loup , in the Province- Alps-Cote d’Azur For our dearly departed friend Jose ............ we had just heard about what had happened back in Canada , RIP . Admiring a new Citroen 2CV …..meaning “two taxable horsepower “ Getting some sweets for on the road , some delicious Nougat Next we were taken to Gourdon another beautiful old mountaintop village Gourdon , one of the most beautiful medieval villages in France where the Roman ruins are to be found and its dramatic perched vantage point earned it the name “ the Eagles Nest “ For a nice little lunch I had a Croque-monsieur and madame Martha had a Croque- madame It was now time to slowly go back towards the coast while having another stop in Greolieres overlooking the Loup valley dominated by the the remains of the village “ Hautes Greolieres and the St Etienne’s chapel An amazing day was had by all , we hope we can hook up with this great guide soon for another tour with him ....................alez, alez , alez Fouad ! We have to get back to the port to go on the tender , the Captain is waiting and blowing his horn ........ Have a great evening everybody , sorry for the long post and being so late , see you soon on board another BHB ………… Tony 😍😍
  13. Hi Mike @Mike B Landlubber Thank you for your Live from the Nieuw Statendam I have been reading today of all your adventures , commentary and pictures . We will join the N S in a couple of weeks could you tell me please who the Captain and Hotel Director are? Thank you Tony
  14. Oops .......Major , Major Boo Boo ........... something I believe I can not correct on this site .........My dear, dear daughter Natascha is married to her wonderful husband DH ! Michael and she gave us two wonderful grandsons one who is studying at Purdue and the younger one at the University of Toronto . ( Glad that nobody in my family will see that post ) Tony 😅🫢
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