Back in Rijsbergen.

When it was time to board our flight in Toronto there was chaos.  Two flights were being boarded at gates side by side and it was difficult to hear announcements and people were getting confused.  There was an electrical thunderstorm in Toronto and lightning strikes stopped cargo loaders from loading cargo into the aeroplane's hold because it was unsafe.  Passengers had boarded the flight but all other operations stopped until the thunderstorm had passed.

We finally arrived at Schiphol International Airport about an hour later than expected.  It seemed as if all flights had landed all at once.  There were long queues at Passport Control and then there was chaos at the baggage carousel.  There were at least 3 flights that had all their luggage on one carousel.  Luggage got stuck on one belt that was trying to take baggage up to our assigned carousel so it caused a delay until a luggage operator cleared stuck item.  Then then another flight landed and its baggage was unloaded to our carousel to add to the chaos.  So it took a while before our luggage appeared.

We finally escaped from the airport terminal and made our way to the underground train station and caught an express train to Breda.  At Breda station we caught a taxi to Rijsbergen.  The taxi driver had just picked up someone from the station but was agreeable to take us as well, dropping his first passenger off first. 

Our route from the airport to Rijsbergen.

It was good to get back to Rijsbergen and, first things first, we had a shower.  Oh bliss!

We are tired and at this rate we are going to have an early night to try and get over the jet-lag.

Montreal & Québec, Canada.

Luggage traffic jam below the decks.

Yesterday in Montreal it was a turn-around port day for the Maasdam.  So it was a busy day for staff having to see to disembarking guests, new guests coming on board, and the usual stocking up of provisions and getting the ship ready for the next cruise which is down to Boston, being a 7 day cruise.  

Guests' luggage being dealt with - below decks.

The Maasdam is back in Québec City again after sailing up to Montreal and back again.  

Montreal

Ongoing ship maintenance

Today I made arrangements to meet up with a friend.  I had met Stacy last year when she had taken a group of guests on a walking tour, and I had gone with the group.  We have remained in touch ever since so it was nice to meet up again under informal circumstances.  With Paul's permission Stacy came on board the ship for lunch and I took her around the ship afterwards, giving her a chance to have a look around and get a feel of what it could be like to be a passenger.  I also took her into some areas that passengers don't get to see - the laundry department, tailor's shop and more.  It was nice to have a catch up session and see her again.  Unfortunately I don't particularly like goodbyes but with about 10 minutes to go before the 'all aboard' time - well in this case 'all guests depart' time, we went down to the pier where we parted company.  I know that the Maasdam won't be back in Québec City next year but hope I will bump into Stacy at some stage whether it be in Québec or somewhere else.  Keeping in touch with friends, though, is important too!

The Maasdam's route to Charlottetown.

The Maasdam is now on her way to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and Paul will have to be up late to let the pilot off the ship.  Tomorrow will be a cruising day - along the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  I would like to say 'scenic cruising' but if fog sets in - it won't!  At least guests can put their feet up and relax for the day, making most of what the ship has to offer in the way of entertainment, food, spa, gym, etc.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Montreal

View of Montreal from the Maasdam's on board camera

The joys of loading up guests' luggage - Montreal

 

Québec City - views from the Maasdam

It is a heck of a long way down!

Work must go on - no time for bungy jumping from cherry picker 😩

Los Angeles International Airport.

We are tired 😫!

We had an uneventful flight from London to Los Angeles (LA) and were lucky to have a three seat row to ourselves, which included a window sea.  I spread myself out and tucked into two seats for a nap.  Paul watched films, played games or snoozed now and then.

Going through passport control and security was better and faster than the last two times when we have flown into LA.  Maybe it is due to the fact that we arrived late at night rather than during the day when the terminal can be a lot busier.  I'm not sure but in any case we were happy.

Flying to Pape'te, Tahiti

We had to pick up our bags from the incoming luggage carousel and walk them to the baggage drop-off point for our next flight to Pape'ete, Tahiti.  We still had to check in for the flight to Pape'ete because for some reason we couldn't do so online.  The ground staff were nearly half an our late (island time? 😉) )and there was a nice queue building up behind us.

Looking at the time, we have been flying anticlockwise so we are technically still on 3rd April rather than 4th April; gaining an extra few hours.  And we will gain more time by the time we arrive in Pape'ete; arriving early morning on 4th April. 

We now have a 2 hour wait for our flight so time to relax a bit.

The last few days since getting back to the Netherlands have been hectic.  Paul will be starting work at sea again soon so we had to do a few things:  clear out the caravan and take it to storage facilities (a former greenhouse), take a load of stuff in the garage for recycling, fetch the quad bike and put it in Paul's mum's garage and then finally take the car to an underground garage for safekeeping until we return to the Netherlands.

Gwenny, Paul's sister, came to visit us before we left and then it was all systems go with sorting and packing things that we will need for the next 3 months.

To Mo'orea from the Netherlands

Today we are staring our journey to Mo'orea, Tahiti, and sitting at Schiphol International Airport in Amsterdam, waiting for the call to board our flight to Heathrow Airport and then on to Los Angeles, Pape'ete (Tahiti) and then on to Mo'orea (French Polynesia, just across from Tahiti).  It is going to be a very long day ...

First leg of our flight - heading to Heathrow.

A taxi picked us up from Rijsbergen at around 7am.  Traffic was bad all the way to the airport.  I guess everyone is going back to work after a long weekend.  Just as well that we had set off early to the airport - we made it with plenty of time to spare to drop our luggage off, go through security and passport control as well as the long walk to the gate.

Now we are just waiting for the call to board our flight.