On the Boat to the Old Country - May 2012

To visit Europe it is first necessary to get there. This is one reason that cruise ships were invented. As a result of schedule conflicts, this year we ended up with our second choice itinerary on a cruise line we had not previously tried. The ship was the Constellation, one of the Celebrity Cruise Line fleet, and our journey took us from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
For our needs and wants the Constellation is probably equal second in our personal ranking, alongside Norwegian Cruise Lines.
Check out the boat here.

Planes and Boats and Camping Cars

A clunky segue from previous European trips to our 2012 outing. The theme of the pictures is getting there or getting back while reconciling the constraints of airline regulations with the practicalities of life.

Making the transitiion from the European continent to England as a pedestrian, motorist, RV enthusiast or trucker is pretty straightfoward and not outrageously expensive. The shortest trip, just a couple of hours, is the ferry from Dover to Calais with other routes taking up to six hours or so. The routine is always the same. Ship docks; traffic jam is released from several decks and swarms into the general melee; new traffic jam is guided on board; drivers are herded up to the passenger decks for the duration of the trip; ship leaves.
The passenger decks are what one might imagine a Soviet bloc cruise ship to be - not a place in which one would choose to spend much time. They do get the job done however and have an excellent safety record.

A few pictures are here.