A SOMEWHAT UNUSUAL TRAVEL REPORT
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| dreamview at Paradise Point |
I like to fly, once you made it into the plane, mind you, but after 3 hours I turn into a whining kid – are we not there yet? – well…
Atlanta airport is the airport of the long,long ways and the fast black girls pushing Fred’s wheelchair. Beats me, the young lady had been twice my size but 3 times faster! Mr. H. of course is sitting in his wheelchair like the VIP he is and me, I am trailing equipped with 2 jackets,two carry ons and a waterbottle, upon which I finally sat on the boat proudly presenting wet pants from then on. Great!
We arrived in Florida- Ft.Lauderdale in pouring rain Thursday afternoon and had the luck to find again (always seem to happen to us) the dumbest taxidriver around who did not know this really big hotel at the beachside and kept asking us for the address. As if we knew. Cooling down my thickly feet in the sea at the beach had not been possible, sky and sea purest black. Check-in aboard our vessel the next morning and security were a scream, much sterner than at immigration,which I found astonishingly friendly. But that had been maybe thanks to our “push girl” a real sunshine! In our cabin we found the electric wheelchair as ordered but no gala dinner outfit for F. Our friendly steward came up with the clothes later but unfortunately Herr Husband did not have the athletic shoulders to fit in. So we got one size smaller, which showed a little tight around the waist, will move the button a little later on. Last nite dress code had been smart casual, tonite wil be formal but we will dine at the Tuscon Grille, also dressed up. The staff is friendly all over and the passengers are a mixed crowd. To watch people is fun. We are sitting on our balcony, sun is absent but it is warm. I always have to giggle when I think of my friend Charly who just recently took a cruise and one of his hints had been – do not stick to your cabin all the time, there is much to see on the ship, mix! – hmmm…Charly!
Summing up Saturday April 6 – 1st day at sea….
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| St. Thomas |
Trying to get familiar with the ship, gotten lost at least 3 times, the wrong steward started to call me by name, drank 2 fruitpunch, almost drunk, thought there had been no alcohol in ! And then, while dressing for dinner, I broke out into a terrific sun allergy even if I had not been frying in the sun! charming! Good thing, that the Tuscon Grille and bar had dimmed lights. Must be the long, nasty winter which made me sensitive like Dracula’s sister. The southafrican waitress had been a darling and so attractive! Herr H. is trying hard to destroy the ship with his wheelchair, first he ripped the bed from the wall, not so easy that, because he claimed the extensions cord for loading was not long enough – of course it was – then he performed his master stunt., he rammed the restaurant table and everything, glasses,dishes cutlery fell over and downs and the very decorative balsamico-oliveoil bottle crashed against the picture window. The stuff running down the glass and the broken pieces all over the place. We had to move untill our place had been cleaned up again. All the culprit had to say that he did not do it by purpose. Well,that really would have been it!. And coming out of ther elevator on the way to our cabin he rammed a pillar because he had to turn around. The music plays up front,mister! Then I had a laughing fit, in the restaurant I had been pretty pissed off. –
So, today,Sunday sunscreen 50 will go on my skin, sun or no sun. We are just landing at Basseterre/St.Kitts . It is Tuesday (the day my friend Arthur would have been looking for us at St.Thomas) April 9 and in a little while our nice cabin steward will bring our breakfast to our balcony and then we are off to hit the sugar train. About yesterday and day before I will talk later, now we watch the docking!
So, back aboard, minus driver’s licence Mr. Schultze, that he lost. Basseterre railway tour had been interesting, all those waving people at the side of the tracks gave us the impression that this had been organized. Today even number houses have to wave, tomorrow the uneven ones. The little village I liked more than Charlotte Amalie where we took an unvoluntary island tour. Actually we only wanted to take only a tour of the place, because our date Arthur did not show up and he wanted to be our guide. Turned out he had mixed up the day and the fellow at the security gate from the ship had added to the confusion. Since I asked him for help because I could not quite figure out Arthur’s answering machine, he told me I had the wrong number. As it turned out he had told Arthur that there were 2 passengers waiting for him at the pier and Arthur told him that he had ordered no packages and that must be a wrong number. As I always say – shit happens – and we finally managed to get together after all but then we had only about 2 hours left. So Arthur took us up by car to Paradise Point where also a cable car is running . He invited us to drinks and time passed too fast with getting to know each other. There had been sympathy from both sides and I had the feeling we knew each other for ages. And the view from Paradise Point had been fabulous!
So now it is Arthurs’ turn to let us show him our sights whenever he takes his trip to Paris sometime in the future.
Today we had our first tropical rain, like a warm shower it was.
Wednesday April 10
….took us to Barbados, very exciting, since we wanted to organize our own tour and I played my hamster in the wheel role to find a wheelchair somewhere for F. to get him from the shuttle to a taxi. Wow…It turned out that the el.wheelchair was good aboard but rather useless ashore, because it had not been foldable and we could not take it along this way. But our taxitour which we shared with another couple had been a success, alone from the aspect of getting to know the scenery of island life for a bit. St.John’s Church, presumably the oldest catholic church upon the islands, was impressive, especially the spooky tombs.
Thursday April 11
…led us to Dominica, the most tropic of the islands. It had been quite humid and warm of course and we decided to organize us again ourselves. Our guide, Danny suggested that we visit the Jacko Falls, which Fred could also reach by walking a few paces. This time we had taken the electric wheelchair along – bummer – useless on the terrain. Now this had been real rainforrest and we have seen our first banana plantation and I had been so astonished that Ananas grows on the ground, I had figured them growing on trees. In the evening we skipped dinner and rather watched the beautiful sunset and took a snack from the buffet which we had on the outside part of the restaurant.
Now, Friday, 12th of April gave us a beach day at Palm Beach on St. Maarten including a lousy B-B-Q at the French part of the island. The other half is Dutch. I never thought that surf can pull your feet away like that and I really hit my knee on the ground. The bad one at that. Must say that we are still learnable and therefore we took a shipside owned wheelchair along and I pushed. Of course I did everything wrong and had a very unsatisfied passenger. Our busguide had been a Texan, he was funny and helpfull - unfortunately somewhat fast in speech. His favoured words had been cool and uncool. St. Maarten seemed very clean but the island had suffered heavily from hurricanes.
Well, another two days at sea and then again Ft. Lauderdale, there we took a tour aboard the Jungle Queen through the canal region and I finally managed to get a sunburn ,well shit! And Herr H. spilled bloody Mary onto the brightwhite tablecloth in the restaurant. – end of mischief!
To top it off, never saw so many fat people like aboard and have not walked such long distances since we sent Shaylor dog to dog’s heaven.
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