This May Be Crazy! April 1, 2025

As we check destinations off our Bucket List, we settled on a trip to Europe this April to see the Keukenhof Gardens tulips in Amsterdam. We looked at various Holland America itineraries and came across this thing called a "repositioning cruise", leaving from Ft Lauderdale. Since Fort Myers was also on Sam's Bucket List (to check out old haunts), we put together an interesting, but long, adventure.

We start in Ft Myers for three days with a rental car, then drive across to Ft. Lauderdale, board the Niew Statendam on April 5th, sail across the pond, with a stop in Bermuda, and arrive in Europe around April 14th. We'll have several excursions in UK and a day trips to Paris and London before landing in Amsterdam, where we'll stay for an extra day to see the Kuekenhof Gardens. We'll fly home April 22nd.

This will be our 5th Holland cruise, second on the Niew Statendam.

A challenge here is what to pack! The first week will be hot, then we expect cold and rainy!

.........

We flew unevenfully all day, arriving at our AirB&B about 9:00PM. Its warm and humid! Nothing to see here; the adventure starts tomorrow.

Wednesday - Friday April 2 - 4 Fort Myers Beach and environs

Uneventful flight into Mt Myers; picked up rental car and on our way!

Calamity! My trusty netbook appears to have died. Got wet from a leaky water bottle in my backpack. Never revived.

After hours of researching how to get my phone keyboard to print punctuation marks while doing talk to text, I finally figured it out on day three. The day we have boarded the Nieuw Statendam for our trip. 

I will not bother to tell about our 3 days in Florida prior to the cruise except to say that the weather was great and we had a nice explore around Fort Myers, Sanibel and Captiva Islands. We visited the Edison museum, Ding Darling Nature Preserve, Lehigh Acres, Waffle House, Lake Ochechobee, and more.

We stayed at this odd place called Latitude. Former motel turned AirBnb. Reminded us lot of Kingsale in Marathon. Awesome sports bar next door!

On Saturday we drove over to Ft Lauderdale, delivered the car at the airport and were met by the Holland Rep for our ride to the hotel, the Element.  Easy peasy!

We think this was Sam's dad's house in Lehigh.

Saturday April 5 - to the ship

After breakfast in the hotel, and some waiting around, we loaded our stuff into the bus and headed for the terminal.

Nothing much to do on the first day aboard except get settled. Departed around 4:00PM and headed out to sea! Fun to watch all the harbor activity was we left.

Sunday April 6 at sea

Today was the first of many at Sea days. The weather continues to be spectacular with warm sun and not much wind.

After a leisurely breakfast in the dining room and further exploring the ship, listening to a ridiculous jewelry shopping presentation, we had a light lunch by the pool before returning to our room to watch the women's final four basketball game. (Connecticut won convincingly). 

We had dinner in the main dining room a little early to be sure to get to the main stage in time for the evening show. The show was a song and dance routine which was entertaining enough but seemed rather old fashioned. We were most impressed with the projection on the back wall providing the sets.

After the show we came back to our room and watched the Red Sox score 18 runs vs. the Giants.

Monday, Another sea day

 No rush this morning as we look forward to another sea day on our way to Bermuda. Breakfast in the lido where I enjoyed a custom-made cheese omelette. 

Weather continues to be spectacular. Sunny, warm, calm seas, wow!

Captain announced that we were now officially in the "middle of nowhere" over 17,000 ft of water. 

Late this morning Sam went to a flower arranging presentation which was quite interesting. While she did that I went up to the fitness center and did my usual stuff then out to the running track on the 11th deck where I actually did some jogging. Knees feel okay but legs are really heavy!

We went to two presentations this afternoon in the big theater. First was about AI and the second was about what we can expect when we disembark in Bermuda tomorrow. 

We enjoyed a nice dinner in the main dining room with our new friends Valerie and Tom from St Paul. After dinner we went to a rather bizarre musical performance at the main theater. 

We intended to return to our room to watch the men's final four basketball but were disappointed that for some reason ESPN had disappeared. 

Tomorrow morning we should find ourselves docked at Kings wharf in Bermuda and disembark for a tour around the island. 

Tuesday in Bermuda

After room service breakfast (which I do not recommend ) we disembarked to the pier in Bermuda to find our bus for the day's excursion. The weather continues to be spectacular, even though quite windy today. 

Our driver for the day was very knowledgeable and a great driver on these narrow roads. He took us from one end of the island to another stopping several times for shopping or looking at local features such as a beautiful beach.

We learned about freshwater, that there is none on the island. The residents rely on collecting rainwater from carefully maintained roofs. 

Tourism is the main industry here and seems to be reliant on cruise ships such as ours. 

We enjoyed a nice lunch at a restaurant called White Horse with a recommended fish sandwich. 

We returned to the ship by 4:00 put our feet up then met our friends for dinner. After dinner we went to the show which was a young lady from Ireland who sang a variety of musical selections. She was very entertaining !

Tomorrow is the first of seven sea days. I am not sure I am enthusiastic about that!