Under the skillful guidance of Chef David Serrano, our dishes come together beautifully and better yet, even while using razor sharp knives, no cooks are harmed in… CONTINUE READING >>
The first of our hands-on cooking classes – Chinese Cuisine. We prepare Sichuan chicken, fried rice, and find out just what makes delicious soup both hot AND sour.
Under the skillful guidance of Chef David Serrano, our dishes come together beautifully and better yet, even while using razor sharp knives, no cooks are harmed in the production. To top it off, at the end of the class our creations become our lunch.
Follow along LIVE with us as we discover Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Japan. We’ll be visiting Shanghai, Zhujiajiao Watertown with its traditional wooden boat markets, the Great Wall and Forbidden City in Beijing, the culture and beauty of Dalian, the amazing port city of Busan, the Peace Garden…CONTINUE READING >>
Getting ready to board our flight to Hong Kong – so excited! It’s an almost sixteen hour flight, so when we see you next we’ll be a bit jetlagged! We’re really curious about crossing the International Date Line (we’ve never done it before – does it hurt?) and what happens to the sun. Is it daytime the whole way? How many lunches will be served? Planning on sleeping as much as possible!
At one hundred and twelve feet tall and at the top of two hundred and forty steps, the Tian Tan Buddha, AKA Big Buddha, looms high above us on Lantau Island in Hong Kong.
One of the Six Devas with an offering that symbolizes a virtue that is necessary to achieve Nirvana.
The big day has arrived as we set sail from Hong Kong aboard the beautiful Volendam.
Our captain takes us through the heart of Hong Kong, a city that juts straight from the ocean to the sky.
With over 1200 skyscrapers, Hong Kong is our world’s most vertical city. The blend of architecture and nature is truly mind-blowing, the mountainous backdrop seems to serve as a palette for the skyline.
Spacious and comfortable, with more than enough room to stash all of our stuff out from under foot, this will be our home for the next two weeks while we take in the sights, history and traditions of The Orient.
WATCH: Our stateroom on the Volendam!
DAY THREE: Culture & pampering at sea
Volendam’s food culture
Food is a big part of any cruise, it’s everywhere, all of the time. Usually the consuming of mass quantities is as far as the relationship goes, but we discovered a big difference our first day at sea.
The Volendam strives for a more cozy relationship with food.
Already we’ve sampled dim sum and dragon fruit. Guests may be treated to a tour of the bustling kitchen where every morsal is prepared. Cocktail classes and wine tastings are standard fare.
The crown jewel is Volendam’s Culinary Arts Center, presented by Food & Wine Magazine, is where the ship’s master chefs take time to demonstrate their talents along with the ship’s fabulous party planner, Beth. This is a state-of-the-art kitchen in a studio / theater setting.
While we are looking forward to the daily television-type cooking shows, we are most excited about the hands-on classes we signed up for later in the cruise where we will learn to prepare Chinese and Japanese cuisine. Better yet, when we’ve finished we get to eat it!
High tea on the high seas, and if that’s not relaxing enough…
Our first ever high tea was not only experienced while sailing the South China Sea, but sharing a table in the Rotterdam Dining Room with REAL Brits who were more than happy to show us the proper ropes!
Then we made an attempt at removing some of our halfway-around-the-world jet lag by applying heated rocks. So that’s why we’ve seen this in pictures so many times… hot stone massages rock.
DAY FOUR: Getting Ready for Shanghai
Time for the first of our hands-on cooking classes – Chinese Cuisine. We prepare Sichuan chicken, fried rice, and find out just what makes delicious soup both hot AND sour.
Under the skillful guidance of Chef David Serrano, our dishes come together beautifully and better yet, even while using razor sharp knives, no cooks are harmed in the production. To top it off, at the end of the class our creations become our lunch.
The day before each port of call our ship’s travel guide, Ian Page, gives a briefing on what to look for, how to get around, and basically everything to expect when going ashore. Ian certainly has the experience to speak with authority after having visited over one hundred countries in his years since leaving London — even experiencing a pirate attack off the coast of Somlia.
Showtime in the Frans Hall Lounge rounds out our day. With us all the way from the U. K., Scotty McLean manages to both amaze and amuse with an act full of magical humour.
We head back to our stateroom early to pour over the maps, guides and literature waiting for us. We fall asleep dreaming about our upcoming two days in Shanghai.
DAY FIVE: Shanghai and Zhujiajiao Watertown
Shanghai by day
Shanghai is the largest city in China and sometimes considered, depending on the criteria used for defining municipal populations, the biggest in the whole world. The Volendam docks right in the center of it on the Huangpu River. Directly across the river from our pier the skyline looms over us, dominated by some of tallest structures in the world. Perhaps the most striking is the Oriental Pearl Tower.
We were intrigued by a young man creating beautiful candy artwork of the symbols from the Chinese zodiac.
Using only a spoon and a slab of marble to cool the molten sugar, he made remarkable lollypops in just a few seconds. It seemed a shame to eat such fine work, but we justified it because they were too delicate to try to keep. Plus the caramelized sugar was much too tasty to ignore.
Shanghai is the commercial and financial center of China and the Bund is home to many of the main financial institutions operating in China, as well as some of the city’s most exclusive shops and hotels. So we took the short walk from our docking point take a look.
In the past few decades the area has become the gathering center for the city. At night the impressive buildings are lit up in a stunning contrast to the neon skyscrapers across the river.
Tourists from all over the world take in the sights along the riverside walkway that gives the district its name or cruise on the myriad of party boats that make their way up and down the waterfront after dark.
Back on board The Volendam we finish our evening with the Shelong Acrobatic Show by a local troupe of young gymnasts presented in The Frans Hals showroom.
DAY SIX: Getting Shanghai’d
The Old City
We begin our second day in Shanghai’s Old City. The area is an enclosed district of classic Chinese architecture, housing shops and restaurants.
While wandering the streets of the old town we stumble upon The Shanghai City God Temple dedicated to Cheng Huang Qin Yubo.
We notice several differences in this 600 year-old temple from the Buddhist Po Lin Monastery we visited in Hong Kong a few days ago before discovering the obvious reason, this is a Taoist temple.
For lunch we duck into dim sum heaven. Two floors of non stop choices of every sort of Chinese delicacy imaginable.
We got the chance to sample a Shanghai specialty, soup dumpling. The steamed bread holds a surprise of boiling hot broth inside. The small versions can be bitten open and sipped, but the large ones, like ours, are served with a straw. Even with the precautionary tubing, David manages to sear a bit of tongue.
Veronica also opts for a whole fish on a stick, having chosen from a wide buffet of stick food — including squids, tiny birds, and crabs.
After lunch we make our way to the Maglev, short for magnetic levitation, train for a ride on the fastest train in the world.
Instead of rails the train floats, or levitates, on a magnetic field. China is a pioneer in this technology. While on our run out to the airport The Maglev *only* made it up to 301 kilometers per hour, just short of 200 miles per hour, but it has obtained a record speed of 501 km/h (311 mph) on a test run.
Pretty much beat by our two days of running around Shanghai we chose to spend a quiet “movie night” for a change. We thought it seemed a little goofy that DVD deliveries were available to the staterooms when we first boarded the ship. Who wants to spend time on a cruise laying up with a movie? Well tonight our tired feet have the answer… we do.
DAYS SEVEN & EIGHT: At Sea – It’s not THAT kind of a cruise
There is a very different vibe aboard The Volendam on this cruise than the tropical, Caribbean variety. Not only because of the early spring weather in this part of the world, which is chilly, but also because the ports of call are “bucket list” types of places.
Because of this, the focus of the onboard activities leans toward travel planning and sightseeing making the ship’s travel guide, Ian, a rock star. His daily breifings in the showroom are packed and his Good Morning Volendam show each morning on our stateroom‘s television is packed with information about the upcoming cities we will be visiting.
That said, the ship has made adjustments that make possible continued use of outdoor amenities like the swimming pool. A retractable glass roof covers the deck area (including the hot tubs!) making it comfortable no matter what mother nature throws our way.
The second of the three formal nights finds us dressed up and ready for a visit to the Pinnacle Grill, one the ship’s fine dining options. Billed as a steak house, seafood is also prominent because we are, after all, at sea.
The meal begins with a little unexpected treat, mushroom espresso with truffle oil, followed by lobster bisque and, one of the house specialties, crab cakes.
The main event features lobster tail for Veronica and a slightly different take on surf and turf, filet mignon and prawns for David.
Even though we can hardly hold another bite, we finish the meal with a triple crème brule, chocolate, vanilla, and coffee, along with a chocolate soufflé, piping hot, right out of the oven. Wow, maybe we should get all decked out more often!
Your GypsyNesters give a tour of their stateroom aboard Holland America’s… CONTINUE READING >>
Your GypsyNesters give a tour of their stateroom aboard Holland America’s ms Volendam! Check out all of the closet space, the great bathroom and the comfy surroundings!
Has it happened? Have I become a crotchety old lady? Do I abhor certain kinds of music because I’m too old to get it? Am I shocked at some of the things that “young people” wear these days?
Possibly so. But I’m dead certain of one thing – people are much more rude than they were when I was a young whippersnapper.
Because we have a website I am painfully aware that there are those that don’t treat others with civility. I’ve quit reading the online comments on news stories – it’s horrific.
Then, out of nowhere, cyberspace-type incivility came crashing into Real Life. In a manner that I couldn’t ignore or justify… CONTINUE READING >>
Has it happened?
Have I become a crotchety old lady?
Do I abhor certain kinds of music because I’m too old to get it?
Do my eyebrows fly up at some of the things I see on TV?
Am I shocked at some of the things that “young people” wear these days?
Possibly so. But I’m dead certain of one thing – people are much more rude than they were when I was a young whippersnapper.
Because we have a website (and especially because we have a YouTube Channel) I am painfully aware that there are those that don’t treat others with civility. I’ve quit reading the online comments on news stories – it’s horrific.
The name calling and accusations and disrespect can quickly cause me to lose faith in humanity, to believe that everyone is inclined to be thoughtless toward one another.
After reading comment after despicable comment in BOLDFACE print, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that the great majority of people that David and I have met in this great big world are good.
Fortunately – though I do miss reading respectful debates – I can avoid that hooey online. And if anyone DARES to be nasty on my website – where I have delete button privileges – it’ll be gone faster than a jackrabbit with the squirts.
Don’t be skulking into my kitchen or on to my Facebook page talking that trash – you were raised better than that.
Like a lot of people, for better or worse, I’m becoming become numb to it all. After all – when it comes to visualizing who is behind the keyboard, I can easily conjure up a bored, unsupervised 15-year-old making the modern day equivalent of a prank phone call.
Or some homemade-brown-liquor drinkin’-Unabomber-type hell-bent on causing trouble.
Or a compulsive liar with sixty pet squirrels and a grotesque obsession with Vlad the Impaler issuing proclamations from a digital mountaintop. Heh. I lean toward the grandiose when I’m visualizing.
Then, out of nowhere, cyberspace-type incivility came crashing into Real Life. In a manner that I couldn’t ignore or justify:
Last weekend David and I were visiting The Boy at his Generic Midwestern Directional University (GMDU) town and took in a ball game. It was a beautiful spring day.
We stretched our legs in the warm sun and yelled “GO GMDU Wampus Cats!” We basked in each other’s’ company.
Halfway through the game I developed a jellybean jones that wouldn’t let go.
I could blame it on menopause, but the truth is that jellybeans are freakin’ delicious and I adore them. To relive my hankerin’ I trekked the half mile up the road toward a convenience store.
I was surprised that there was not a sidewalk, as the GMDU area is generally very pedestrian friendly. I had to walk along the curb in the gutter as I did as a kid – except I wasn’t dragging my trusty stick behind me.
I wasn’t in any danger, the lanes were wide, there was little weekend-in-a-college-town traffic and it was broad daylight. A nice pleasant walk on a nice pleasant day with delicious jellybeans at the end of it.
I must have jumped straight up when I heard – at full-husky-masculine voice – from twenty feet behind me,
“GET OUT OF THE ROAD YOU USELESS WASTE!”
I flinched as the bicycling douchebag (I realize that calling the gentleman a douchebag runs contrary to what I’ve said above, but the sorry fact remains – he’s a douchebag) sped past me.
I did what I always do when I’m in a weird situation. I froze. Damn.
As I made my way back to the stadium I was able to think of a million retorts – all of them clever and effective – but at the time, I just stood there like a, ahem, Useless Waste.
GMDU is in a sweet little college town with a high tax base and wonderful services for the handicapped (two more reasons for my sidewalk-less surprise).
What if I wasn’t just a jellybean seeking middle-aged woman, but a handicapped person – like my niece?
Or a college girl with low self esteem? Or a newly widowed lady lost in grief? Douchebag calling me Useless Waste took on an ugly reality.
The more I walked the more I seethed.
How could I just stand there? Why didn’t I come up with a snappy comeback that would have made Douchebag think twice about his actions?
Why couldn’t I run like the Bionic Woman, catch up to DB and give him what-for? And most importantly, why wasn’t I dragging that stick? I could have shoved it into Douchebag’s spokes.
Where was my delete button when I need it most?
I was nearly in tears, my go-to coping mechanism when I feel helpless. I had to force myself to let it go, no use ruining my visit with The Boy because a thoughtless person was rude.
Buck up Veronica – get back to your family and slap a smile on your face.
Back at the bleachers the guys asked why I was jellybeanless, so I recounted my tale.
When I got to the Useless Waste part, The Boy laughed. My neck snapped as my head turned to face him.
“Well, Mom, you’ve got to admit, that’s pretty funny.”
Before you judge, I’m going to come to his rescue, Recovering Helicopter Mommy style.
The Boy is not a heartless bastard. He was granted a high school scholarship for having the most community service hours in his graduating class. He has a big heart – he really does.
He is the first to point out something he perceives as unjust. He’s been known to rescue animals.
But, he does have a wicked sense of humor, something he comes by honestly, inherited from his parents. And he’s grown up in a crudity-anesthetized world.
Does this get him off the hook? Not by a long shot.
I burst into tears – I truly did – I wasn’t just messing with The Boy’s head. That got his attention. He doesn’t like to see his mother cry.
But it wasn’t until I asked him to think how his handicapped cousin would react to being called Useless Waste that he fully grasped the situation.
I’m not so naïve to think that my son is perfect and I am aware that I view him through Mommy colored glasses. But, still, I find it difficult to understand how he could have been so callous. He was raised better than that.
Have we begun to conduct ourselves so poorly as a society that this current generation can’t feel the weight of words?
Are they unable to think past their immediate desires to take another’s feelings into account before shouting/typing/hurling hurtful words?
Check this out: we’re on the border of Tennessee and Georgia. We find a community that is split down the middle with a blue line painted through the town.
It gets weirder (YAY!) — the blue line goes straight through buildings. Shops, a church, even a bar.
But wait, it gets weirder yet. The bar is also in two counties. And one of them is dry…CONTINUE READING >>
Copperhill and McCaysville are really one town divided by a state line.
That’s not all that unusual, we’ve been to many cities that are separated into two different states by a river or a road. No, what’s unusual in this case is the lack of any landmark or street dissecting the town.
We drove into Copperhill, Tennessee watching our GPS like hawks, trying to figure out just where the state line was, but being up in the mountains our reading was somewhat less than accurate.
We really weren’t sure what state we were in — other than confusion — until we parked and got out.
That’s when we noticed the blue stripes painted diagonally across Ocoee Street, the sidewalk, and up the walls of buildings and houses.
It was pretty wacky, like standing on a giant map, with Tennessee printed on one side of the line and Georgia on the other.
And the zany antics didn’t stop there, at the state line both the main road and the nearby river change their names from Ocoee to Toccoa.
Even a church is split by the border, now that’s a new take on the separation of church and state(s).
Assessing our position, we deduced that we were actually parked in Georgia. So stepping over the dotted line and back into The Volunteer State, we walked half a block up to Patrick’s Pub & Grill.
We had heard about this place, the famous bar in two states, in fact it was the main reason we found ourselves in the far southeast corner of Tennessee.
Patrick’s front door opens onto the main drag of Copperhill Tennessee, nothing out of the ordinary with that, but the kitchen and bathrooms are in McCaysville Georgia. Now that’s a little different. But it got a little stranger.
We walked in and took a seat at the bar, and noticed that the dotted line had followed us inside.
Painted across the walls and floor of the hallway leading toward the back was that pesky state boundary again.
After quenching our thirsts while chatting with the bartender, we were informed that drinks could not be carried into the back area.
She explained that the Georgia county where the restrooms are — Fannin County — is dry.
Veronica nearly got herself in a heap-o-trouble by stepping one toe over the line, but luckily no local authorities happened to be present.
Adding to the oddity of Patrick’s, the State of Georgia claims that the border has been drawn in the wrong place and the whole bar should be in Georgia, which by our reckoning would make it no longer a bar.
Word from Tennessee officials is that ain’t gonna happen.
As unique as this state line situation may be, we got the impression while walking around that it isn’t necessarily the main attraction.
The tiny twin cities are served by two railroads that deliver tourists by the trainload (ba dum ching!) for a shopping and lunch stop during scenic tours of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The two lines come from opposite directions and end at the state line, which somehow seems fitting.
The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway makes its way up from Blue Ridge, Georgia along the Toccoa River, while The Hiwassee River Railroad comes down from Etowah, Tennessee through The Hiwassee River Gorge and over the famous Hiwassee Loop.
The passengers looked to be more interested in the offerings of the antique and souvenir shops than the curiosities of jurisdictional demarcation.
Perhaps that makes sense, because when it comes to finding a rare historic relic, classic curio, or the perfect memento, does it really matter whether the GPS reads Georgia or Tennessee?
Nearly everyone was warming themselves with varene vino, the local version of mulled wine, but in a twist we hadn’t seen before, hot white wine seemed just as popular as the red… CONTINUE READING >>
On Hlavne namestie, the main square of Bratislava, on a cold winter’s night, we found the Christmas Market.
The entire plaza in front of the Old Town Hall (Stará radnica) was filled with booths, most selling food and drink, and tables under small shelters where the purchases could be enjoyed.
A very social situation that we were more than happy to jump into the middle of.
At the center of it all is the Roland Fountain (Rolandova fontána), sometimes called the Maximilian Fountain because it was commissioned in 1527 by the Hungarian king Maximilian.
This makes it the oldest fountain in Bratislava. Max’s statue stands on top surveying the square.
Due to the temperatures, and the fact that it looks so downright festive, the water had been replaced by twinkling lights.
Nearly everyone was warming themselves with varene vino, the local version of mulled wine, but in a twist we hadn’t seen before, hot white wine seemed just as popular as the red. Had to give that a try.
Our verdict was that while delicious, it lacked the superior cockle-warming qualities of the red variety.
Perhaps the most popular vino vender was named “The Flinstones.” Yaba-daba-do (we think)!
We also gave zemiakové placky a try. This is a pancake made of shredded potatoes, crisp on the outside and chewy within. We chose to get ours covered in a layer of mild, yet tangy white sheep cheese.
Very tasty and stick-to-your-ribs on a chilly December evening.
Most food offerings involved meat, lots and lots of meat.
It all looked (okay, almost all) good, but the potato-and-cheese bomb we had just devoured didn’t seem to want any company, so we spent the rest of the night checking out the wares.
