Cruise

A cruise is a very special experience. It is the most relaxing vacation I have ever been on, it's simply impossible to be stressed on board a cruiseship. In this case we cruised the Caribbean, and we visited Puerto Rico, St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbados. 

The cruise was such a nice experience, that at the moment I'm planning to take another next year, this time through the Panama Canal, it has always fascinated me.

If you feel tempted to take a cruise I can highly recommend Scandinavian Cruise Center in Copenhagen, the are very helpful to find the cruise that suits you (www.cruise.dk). Since I only have been on one cruise,  I can't comment on other companies of course, but the one we sailed with were really good. It is called Celebrity Cruises (www.celebrity-cruises.com). Here is a link to a description of the ship and comments about the company (www.cruiseserver.net).

Photo 1 shows the state room and photo 2 a plan of the ship. Our state room was on the 9th deck (of 11) almost in the stern. We had a panoramic window and our own balcony.

The safety precautions were very high, this was 2 month after september 11. Each passenger

got a plasticcard at arrival, then a picture was taken, and every time you left or arrived to the ship, the card was read in a terminal, and the safety officers could see the picture. If you for some reason had a wrong card you were not allowed to embark or disembark. The card were also used as key to the state room and as mean of paying on board the ship. The ship was cash-free, a good safety measure against weak soules.

Key, embark/disembark and pay card

The first stop on the cruise was St. Croix (photo 1 below), it seemed a bit on the dead side, but I take it was because we arrived on a Sunday. No matter what cruiseline you're travelling with, the ships are impressive, here our ship the GTS Infinity, GTS meaning Gas Turbine Ship. A little trivia about the ship and the amount of food consumed during a cruise - here.

It was very special to visit the old Danish islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas and still see road signs in Danish (photo 2 below). Denmark sold the the three islands of St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas to USA in 1917 for 25 million dollars. Not the smartest thing to do, and I bet that every Minister of Finances and Taxes have banged their heads against the table ever since.

Since the islands is situated in the same area, regarding nature they are quite similar, but I found a difference in the conditions of life. The most wealthy islands with the best infrastructure was the ones governed by USA. The poorest was the ones either governed or previous governed by the British, except for Barbados they are doing pretty good.

The pictures here are from St. Lucia, Barbados and St. Thomas.

As the end a couple of photos more from the ship, here from the main restaurant in two storeys with seats for 1170 guests. Photo 2 is from the grand buffet the last evening on board.

Gran Canaria

The trip to Gran Canaria was a charter, which normally is against my will, all this hustle and being packed like sardines is definitely not for me. The trip was with my parents and my sister and her boyfriend and I must admit the tour exceeded my expectations to a charter holiday. A reason perhaps was the fact that we went on tours by ourselves instead of being guided round, something I have done several times since then.

The island is very special, and the landscapes with the mountains are quite spectacular.

Tenerife

As mentioned above, I use the ability to get a cheap travel with a charter bureau and then mind my own business when I get to the destination. My Dad and I are in the progress of creating a tradition, the last 4 years we have taken a vacation in Tenerife in November to get a shot of sun, so we can get through the not very pleasant Danish winter.

Teide, Spain's highest mountain (Tenerife) and the rock known as "Gods finger"

USA

The trip to Indianapolis (my first to USA) in 2000 was a business trip together with a colleague for our company, so we didn't get much travelling around. But we did managed to experience a little, among others the hotel had king size beds as standard, 30 channels on the tube and of course air-conditioning (Photo 1).

As a car-freak the states are a dream, and I managed to see some "real" trucks. When you've seen the movie "Convoy" more than 10 times, you know what a real truck look likes - and of course it has to be a MACK (Photo 2).

I expect that most people knows how a Toyota or Nissan pick-up looks like, well it's not much different over there, they're just bigger and they go under the name a "Texas Limousine" (Photo 3).

We were invited to a baseball match, which was pretty fun. Indianapolis Indians as the home team is named plays in Minor League, the next best league. The best is called Major League. At the time we were there the Indians were leading their division, and they managed to win this match too (Photo 4 & 5).

In the background of photo 45you can see the football teams home turf, it is called RCA Dome and it is an indoor field with 57890 seats and 104 luxury suites. Indianapolis Colts plays in the best league - NFL, and the team isn't bad at all (you might want to check www.nfl.com or www.colts.com).

Even though I cheer for Colts; I must admit I think Philadelphia Eagles has the best cheerleader team (Eagles).

Vorupoer

In Denmark Vorupoer might not sound as exotic as some of the other destinations, but to me a vacation here is just as good as one outside Denmark. This is also the reason why the Easter Holiday has been held here for the last 15 years.

Unfortunately the fishing has gone down, so almost all fishing boats has disappeared, which is a pity, since a great deal of the charm is connected to the small fishing village, and the fact that they pull their boats up on the beach.

Ireland

Ireland is also a fantastic country, and it is not without reason it is called the green island. A name I've heard several times, but I didn't quite understood it to the full before I visited the country.

Photo 1-3 is from a Japanese garden situated in Tully, Kildare. The garden is made up to symbolise Life - i.e. the phases we go through in a lifetime. The garden is really beautiful and definitely worth a visit. The red bridge symbolises the Bridge of Life that you have to pass (Japanese Garden).

Photo 4-5 is from a church with a very special altarpiece - nature. Instead of a normal altarpiece behind the altar there is a gigantic window. Unfortunately I don't know where the church is, it was our chauffeur who suddenly got the idea to show us this rather different church.

The three photos below is from Powerscourt House (www.powerscourt.ie) a mansion with a gigantic garden, well they call it a garden, I would call it a park, but whatever it's called it is impressive. On the first photo you can see a mountain in the background, it's called Sugarloaf mountain.

Scotland

Scotland has its own side, since it is very special.

Click the link to get to that side - Scotland