The Great Outdoors at Sea

On August 13, 2019 By thestampsinmypassportIn Uncategorized1 Comment

I have been wanting to write much more than I have been the past couple of months. I have so many things I would like to talk about, but not sure how to weave all of the thoughts together. I know that things that bring me joy are related to travelling, food and my photos. I love my photos. I actually bought an IPhone which I think I shared in a previous post a couple of months ago. I am ‘old school’ and never liked cell phone photos, until I CHOSE the phone I purchased because of the camera. I am wondering how this will impact me when I take my next trip.

Recently I noticed that many of my sentences start off with “when I was in….” or, “that time when I was with…and we were….”. I have always known that I am a storyteller. I think people in my life expect me to have a story about anything and everything. I don’t mind having this title and believe it will serve its purpose well in my future.

I wanted to share a story about this photo that I took on my cruise in 2016.

On the Norwegian Ship we were on the back of the ship had an outdoor cafe called The Great Outdoors. It served a lighter version of the buffet food in the main restaurant. It was open from early morning until late in the evening and had bar service as well. The best part of the experience was the image in the photo…just sitting at the back of the ship watched the sea go by.

This was where our group met for breakfast each day. Our cruise was supposed to have three ports of call, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Los Cabos. The ship has some mechanical issues and we only ended up in Puerto Vallarta.

Due to the fact we had A LOT of time at sea one particular day we ended up having breakfast out on the deck, stayed long enough to have mid morning snack and stayed even longer to have lunch. We were joking last week remembering at one point thinking we should move tables because we were sitting at the same table for so long.

Spending the week on this cruise was a wonderful experience. No, we didn’t get to Los Cabos or Mazatlan, but we spent a lot of time laughing, sharing and creating memories. Memories that will last a lifetime. Expect the unexpected and you never know what can happen.

Do you have a memory that happened when something unexpected happened to you, either in your travels or every day life? I would love to hear about it. Please follow my blog in the top right hand corner and leave your comments here.

There is always a story, you won’t have to look far….

Quiet Anniversaries

On August 8, 2019 By thestampsinmypassportIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Social media isn’t something we can ignore. We have the choice of course to decide how how much we share and what we ‘choose’ to share. I have made some choices to share less than I have in the past and I think that I am going to choose to use this space more than my facebook feed to share aspects of my life moving forward.

Yesterday I was wishing two friends happy birthday greetings. After that I paused to remember another anniversary that shared the same day as these birthdays. It was the 15th anniversary of Aviva’s passing.

I was re-telling the story of that day to my friend last night. I know not everyone has the same memory recall as I do, but I can remember the story as if it happened yesterday. I do realize that some of that now is how we, human beings, live around the stories we write in our heads. The event is the event, in this case, that someone in our life has passed away. How we remember the events is the story that we carry forward.

Living memories are like video footage. The person is still with us, their voice can be recalled, their tone, and most of all, laughter. You can reach out and touch the memory because it feels so close, because it is. It is your present.

Memories of those who are passed still photos. Images that we have to piece the story together, because the narrators are not here to share the memory. it is your past.

Which is why we need to really live in the present. Be in the moments of your life and be present. Not every event will have a photo to recall the memory down the road, so create strong memories with the people in your life. Surround yourself with people that will challenge you, lift you up and push your forward.

My Travel Alphabet – A is for Antwerp

On August 1, 2019August 1, 2019 By thestampsinmypassportIn Uncategorized1 Comment

While out with a friend recently and I said something to the effect of – “I have a story…” to which she replied, “of course you do…” and what can I say other than I have a thirty year career in an industry that has given me a gift. A gift of life experiences that can be shared by telling my stories. For me, every experience is an opportunity for a story to be shared.

To get my creative brain in motion I started a list. It didn’t start out to be an alphabet list, but it soon became just that. Some letters have many thoughts and ideas that spilled out into my journal. This could take a while. This could be the start of this book that everyone says I should write. Time will tell.

But for now, we start at letter A – for Antwerp, Belgium.

I had an incredible opporunity to be invited by a travel agent friend to go on Viking River Cruise on the Rhine starting in Amsterdam. I could have also started this project with my time in Amsterdam, but maybe that will be for round two.

River cruises are unique experiences that if you have had a chance in your lifetime to experience, you must. You get up close and personal to the most amazing cities in Europe and beyond. Docking almost always in the centre of the city or town and offering one included excursion at each port.

We left the ship for our walking tour. Each guest has their own headset and the tour guide walks ahead and gives you all that you need to know without you missing anything if you walk slower or like myself and a couple of the ladies I met were busy taking photographs of everything. My obsession the first time I went to Europe was balconies, and on this trip it was windows and doors.

There appeared to be a lot of arts and culture in Antwerp as well as I saw lots of posters promoting ballet, musical theatre and movies.

As we progressed on our walk, there was one thing that was pretty clear to myself and the ladies I was walking with, we were passing a lot of great food along the way. When the group tour finished and they were walking back to the ship, we decided the better way to spend the rest of our time in Antwerp was to…eat our way through. Which we did.

Our tour ended right near an outdoor street vendor selling dried fruit and nuts. Of course we wanted to take photos of his goods, so we ‘had’ to purchase some goods and then take photos.

Our next stop was to have “Friet met Mayonaise” – or in English, fries with mayo. I know that recently there have been new mayo and ketchup combos and people in North America think it is a strange combo, but in Holland and Belgium it is perfectly normal to dip your fries in mayo. This one chip stand had about 10 different kinds of dipping sauces. We wanted to try them all, but you had to pay for the paper cups per sauce. So…we put as many kinds as we could in one cup.

Belgians are known for…chocolate of course. Leonidas is a very large Belgian chocolate chain. The tour guide likened it to ‘the Starbucks’ of Belgian chocolate shops. When in Rome, or in this case, Belgium, eat and buy chocolate.

We could not leave our food tour of Antwerp with, you guessed it, waffles. We walked past the cutest little shop on our walking tour in the morning, but it wasn’t open at that time. On our way back to the ship, it was open and ready for us to sample delicious waffles with all the fixings. It did not disappoint.

When I look back on my river cruise experience, I will always remember my day in Antwerp. It was a great mix of history, arts, culture and of course food.

I hope that tempted your appetite for what comes next…letter B of course.