Home Is Where The Ship Is

2011 Crystal World Cruise

Ill take things that I know for $20,000 Alex

2015 Holland America World Voyage

The Med, Norway And Beyond

Suez Canal Crossing

Suez Spelt Backwards IS Zeus

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Monday, July 28, 2014

New York - Manhattan

Sailing Into NYC Harbor-@4:30 am . Spectacular View. Our smokestack just cleared the Verranzano Narrows Bridge by a few feet!
After six sea days, it is great to see first land, on this special July crossing of The Atlantic.

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Monday, July 21, 2014

SOTON-Southampton, UK

Sailing across The Pond - The Atlantic Ocean, on the shortest bridge between New York and Europe - The Queen Mary2.  It is not a Cruise but a Voyage, nor a cruise ship,  rather A Liner, the last of the great ocean-going liners.

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Saturday, July 19, 2014

Hamburg- Queen Mary's 10 Year Celebration Sail Away

The Queen Mary 2 comes to Hamburg every year.
 For her tenth jubilee she got a special celebration.
I took lots of videos, and posted them for my my friends on Facebook, but this one pretty much sums up the crowds enthusiastic response  as the flagship sails away down The Elbe River to open waters in the North Atlantic...
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Thursday, July 17, 2014

Norway-Stavinger

July 2010 was the last visit I made to these amazing Viking waters. It still has the  alure and charm.Glad to be back.
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Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Hamburg - Cargo Container Architecture

With a little imagination, the shipping container becomes a cheap, reliable building block that can be used to build  this chic little cruise terminal.

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Monday, July 14, 2014

Hamburg, Germany-Love Your Werk!

Sailing down The Elbe River this morning, docked in Hamburg.  The last time I was here was in August 2009, two weeks into my 5 year  "World Tour"-here's a picture from back then-


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Sunday, July 13, 2014

@Sea-WorldCup

Last time I was at sea during a World Cup, was 2010 on the Costa Atlantica,  and Spain won. The place was electric. The Germans wer e more well behaved and after the win cheered a bit and left single file. Ironically the ship was dead tonight because they were replaying the match on tv. Twice as nice.

July 2010


31- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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It's A Wonderful World in the Frank Capra movie called Denmark. I see friends shaking hands, saying, "How do you do?" They really saying, "I love you!" Hair Today Gone Tomorrow The follicularly-challanged You know what happens every time a bell rings....an angel gets its wings. You know what happens to your hair, as you accrue more T.O.E., Time On Earth, Every good hour on the planet you have, you lose one. Shaving your head perfectly bald,  then, is a bit of fake-it-till-you-make-it- until
29- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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Imagine Whirled Peas I didn't wake up this morning. I came to---here in Oslo, home of the Nobel Peace Prize where in a perfect world, chickens get to cross the road without having their motives questioned.  The prestige, the impact of winning a Nobel, I'd kill for one! I have good chemistry, maybe I could get one in that category too. I think, therefore I am under qualified for these awards as well: Oscar for Best Cinematography, 2010 Cy Young Award, International Air Guitar Championship,
27- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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It only ends once-anything before that is just progress Rewriting the dictionary of superlatives-maginficient, stunning, breathtaking, spectacular, awesome just won't do. Stunning and rejuvenating will have to. Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts. In fact, ignorance is bliss here in Northern Europe.There is no global warming! The water is too cold to go swimming :(. It is not the fall, but the sudden stop at the bottom that gets you. What does not kill me, makes me stronger.
23- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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Regular Warnemünde vs Extra Crispy Copenhagen Voted as one of the ten English words that were hardest to translate-Serindipity, I call it good luck. I am  big fan of the extraordinary role that luck plays in all our lives-big luck,small luck, good luck. Luck is an art.  We are like  fish, the last ones to know we are in the water,and  most of the time we swim right past luck , and we're looking in any direction but where luck is.  We all get those moments, however,
20- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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The statue is the saint, the map is the territory, the menu is the meal: Saint Petersburg  remains a museum, open from 8:00 AM to 5:00
20- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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Go East Young Man   When was the last time you even thought about Estonia, the worlds first post commie Nordic  country? Guess what? It’s a place. People live there, very beautiful ppl,especially the  Baltic girls. Yes, they are attractive. Yes, they are hip and trendy, yes they might be the most beautiful woman in world, but for tourists, there are the castles and churches. Tallinn, for instance, is a very well preserved medieval city. It is our Baltic port of call again.  Ernest
19- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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Travelling is like flirting with life. It's like saying, I wanna  love you, but I have to go; this is just the way it is.The bigger the summer vacation the harder the fall. Vacations are like gambling, and  always connected with winning and losing, and generally where it is least expected we receive, more or less than what we hoped for. Especially if you say the T word, tourist.  The march of stupidity and the routines of tourism are even more monotonous than those of
12- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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Narrow Road To The Interior 4 season in one day Mother Narture laughs out loud Life is forever I'm past the point of no return. I'll just concern myself with the best way of moving forward. Mindless Purity Putting the ODD back in God Before, Norway, Earth Goddess was just a yuppie  salad dressing you could buy at Whole  Foods. I never thought  that people died. They just went to organic health food stores... and  that Japanese guy who always wins the hot
10- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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Hold My Bike While I Kiss Your GirlfriendNot riding a bike in Copenhagen is like not kissing someone in Paris.Cést la vie.If Paris is the City of Lights, then Copenhagen is the City of Cycles.There are 1.7 million people here and 1.7 million bicycles. Cylcing is not a moral manifesto or Carbon Offset.  Although some would argue for putting warning labels on cars,Danes ride their rusty garden gates to get to places. When it take 15 minutes to find your bike at the train station, you know
9- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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It´s Alway Sunrise Somewhere I am in Warnemunde but this photo needs no interpretation.  There is a malignant optimism in watching the sun rise, breathing in the cool baltic sea air. Another 24 hours in the time factory,where everyone slaves away earning enough love to break their own chains. Narrow Road To The Interior Beauty on the rise. Golden fire from the East. Someone notices. "We call it football"We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others--Germany is out
5- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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The sun sets at about 11:30pm and rises again at 4:30am. So… we never see night anymore in Scandanavia. 85 degrees and sunny. The Swedes think it will be the hottest day of the year. We don´t see things as they are, we see things as we are. Still waters still running  de
3- Jul- 2010-- by Ed Reif»


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Humans envy my swimming ability, but I wish I could read Ed´s blog. Donald Duck Black Swan Dynamics The swans are talking to me, as I take a break from biking, and look out into the Søerne. Makes me think of"meaningful coincidence" and  Being Fooled By Randomness ...the architecture of my own brain that thinks things are happening by chance when they are actually happening by design.  Black Swan logic makes what you don't know far more relevant than what you do know. Isn't it strange
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Saturday, July 12, 2014

Southampton, UK

After 6 sea days, we took a voyage, not a cruise onboard the Queen Mary2. This is the shortest bridge between New York and Europe. Airplanes, afterall, are like diets - I don't like being on them.
The QM2 allows dogs onboard-cute!
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Sunday, July 6, 2014

Unique New York




The whole object of traveling  is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.

When I went to NYU, back in the middle ages of 1980, my Economics Professor William J. Baumol asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I told him ‘Happy’. He  said I didn't understand the assignment, and I told him he didn't  understand life.



One belongs to New York instantly,one belongs to it as much in 10 minutes as in 10 years I grew up young wanting to leave it, and I am growing old wanting to get back to it. But you cant't go home.(again).The future just ain't what it used to be. Nobody walks in L.A. but getting around by subway in NYC is no longer a pain in the English, since I can ask for directions in almost any language now, and I did, especially in Spanglish.

Once the culture shock honeymoon period of leaving rural Long Island for the bright lights and big city was over, I made the switch from country bumpkin to city dweller. I was what I pretended to be Urbane. Yet to be truly cultured and have worldly experiences. I couldn't just be a book worm. I had to undergo life through “experiential” purchases-and traveling- It started with the mantra, "Any Place But Here".


.I am back in  New York, where I docked two years ago

July 14,2012

I came to America last week as an expat. You know, on a Disney cruise ship, through the Statue of Liberty. And I saw that skyline, not just as a representation of steel and concrete and glass, but as really the bedrock  of the American Dream.
It has  become the statue of my personal liberty. We don't call it the statue of immigration, we call it the statue of liberty. She is  carrying the torch of liberty from the USA to the rest of the world. 




  • 2012 New York Trip Reports



Wall Street-You Have Just Been Shot 

Manhattan Project- NY is The Bomb 


.
Unique New York-All You Need Is Britto 
NYC-Notes From The Underground. 

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