Good morning,
To all of you still out there, I have been very quiet for a while, mainly due to the work on the Five books of the Holland America Line history 1873 – 2023. Book I, II and III have now been published and I am almost done with Book IV.
Hopefully I will look like this when standing in the bookcase when completed.
I have no date yet when IV and V will be out as it depends on how much time I and my co author / publisher Mr. Nico Guns have as other work goes on as well.
On top of that, cruising goes on as well, and my wife and I have just completed a 7 day cruise on the River Douro in Portugal. I have uploaded a review of this cruise under the normal sub directory My Cruises and Reviews, on the righ hand side of this blog space. I will see that we had a good time and the that it was a very good cruise.
And there is also the link below.
2025 01 12 – 19 April Emerald Radiance – Douro River Cruise Portugal
Furtheron I did some work on the various Captains of the Past, and I am very happy to announce that there are still relatives responding with photos and information.
Next cruise will be on board the ms Nieuw Statendam in June 2025 around England.
Best regards
Capt. Albert
May 1, 2025 at 11:28 pm
Good to hear you are still working on the series. I am still working on the 45 year history of seamen’s missions in Alaska. “Getting closer to the edge of finish.” as one Chinese seafarer phrased his shopping trip.I
really appreciate your hard work! Did you know the only surviving lifeboat from the 1980 Prinsendam fire is at the Valdez Museum?
May 2, 2025 at 12:26 am
Always good to see your email pop up in my notifications (usually after 4pm and before 4:30pm, excellent time to give my brain a break at work).
I find your posts very useful and interesting because I am familiar with the HAL product and its evolution and can compare how you write about the different cruise experiences with the HAL ships as a starting point. Everyone has a different interpretation on what a cruise experience should be and what is realistic to expect.
I have also been curious how the companies get 7 or 10 days worth of cruising from such a short stretch of river without stepping on each other’s toes.
Thanks for letting me be a ‘fly on the wall’ (or maybe the ship version should be ‘bird on the railing’) on these adventures.
May 2, 2025 at 2:57 am
Nice to see you back on line.
Looking forward to the books.
May 2, 2025 at 9:44 am
Kapitein Albert,
Leuk en fijn dat je weer online bent.
Ook fijn dat je lekker actief blijft en jullie samen nog heerlijk cruisen.
Veel plezier en totziens.
Groetjes, Fred Essenberg
May 2, 2025 at 6:29 pm
Interesting review.
We are in our last week of the Grand World Voyage onboard Zuiderdam, having boarded in Sydney. Next year will be on the Volendam which looked better than ever when we got to board her in Barcelona.