After our sabbatical year 2003/2004 in Princeton, NJ, USA my husband and I wanted to try a different return voyage back to Norway. Rather than take the usual flight from Newark to Oslo we thought crossing the sea at surface would be an interesting alternative. After some search, we came across the Holland-America cruise with m/s Rotterdam from the New York Harbour to Copenhagen. This cruise also offered visits to several ports and coasts we had never seen before. The list below might give you an idea, and we hope you will enjoy the photo galleries you can reach by clicking the thumbnails.
| Saturday July 10, 7.15 pm: Departure from New York |
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On our way out we had a very good view of Manhattan in the light from the low sun. So there were plenty of photo opportunities already the first day to make use of our digital Nikon SLRs and a Canon Powershoot G2. |
| Sunday and Monday July 11-12: At sea | ||
| Tuesday July 13: St. Johns |
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After two days at sea we entered the port of St. Johns, Newfoundland in the morning, July 13. The weather was excellent, and we took a walk up Signal Hill and visited St. Johns cathedral on our return. |
| Wednesday and Thursday July 14-15: At sea | ||
| Friday July 16: Nuuk, Greenland |
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Nuuk (former Godthaab) was situated a short stroll away from where the ship was docked. The most prominent features we glimpsed at our short trip on shore were the nice museum area, the tourist office, the hill with the sculpture of Hans Egede, the little church and the kayaks stored at the beach. |
| Saturday and Sunday July 17-18: At sea | ||
| Monday July 19: Reykjavik, Iceland |
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After two more days at sea we entered Reykjavik Monday morning, July 19. We had booked a bus tour of the Golden Circle around the ...peninsula, featuring Thingvellir, geysirs, Gullfoss and more. Excellent! - and particularly interesting for us Norwegians. |
| Tuesday July 20: At sea | ||
| Wednesday, July 21: Oban, Scotland |
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In Oban we went for a stroll along the road and visited the old ruins of Dunollie castle. |
| Thursday, July 22: Orkney Islands, Scotland |
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We anchored at Kirkwall, and from there we went on a tour to see stone rings at Brogar and Stennes, and the neolitic village houses at Skara Brae. These were all outstanding and mind-boggling traces of the neolithic civilisations from more than 5000 years ago. The Norse heritage of the present population was also evident and very interesting (at least to us..) |
| Friday, July 23: Invergordon, Scotland |
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At Invergordon,
we went on a tour to Loch Ness and the Urquhart castle. Loch Ness monster myths, old castle ruins and modern time oil rigs all came in the same package. |
| Saturday, July 24: Bergen, Norway | In our own country, we did not see our photo opportunities that well... | |
| Sunday, July 25: Kristiansand, Norway | ||
| Monday,
July 26: Oslo, Norway Tuesday, July 27: Copenhagen, Denmark |
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A few pictures were taken in Oslo and Copenhagen, with some impressions from the town halls of the two capitals |
| Some events on board the ship |
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Although most of the photos were taken on shore, there were also interesting photo opportunities on board which could have been taken more advantage of than we did, but anyway - here are a few. |
