Overland in the Americas: End of the adventure

This blog is dedicated to the late new romantic guinea pig "Waffle" - R.I.P

When we were offered a tour of the engine room I for some reason imagined poking our heads round a door of room where an engine would be housed.....how wrong I was. We toured numerous hot, noisy, rooms which were reminiscent of the Poseidon Adventure. We saw where seawater was turned into our drinking water, the big pipes for seawater to come in and cool the engine, the main axle from the engine driving the propeller and as well as keeping the engine running for the propeller, all the refrigerated containers need electricity constantly too. It's a massive operation.

This is the engine control room

The ships steering mechanism

Back up on the bridge with cadet Mirko, Chief Officer Peter, 3rd mate Dragan and 2nd mate Nemanja. Dragan and Nemaja were leaving the ship as their four month contracts were finished. They go home for two months then off to sea again.

Mess man and Cookie, Edgar and Jigo.

One last sunset in the Channel

The bridge at night. The radar which had been empty all the way across the Atlantic was now full as we came along the Channel.

We woke up to find ourselves in the Port of Rotterdam. The previous night, while we slept, Mum and Dad were watching us from their computer coming up the river on a series of webcams! Here's a picture they took....

Melanie and me with Jigo in mess room

Ralph disembarks

One last look back to HS Schubert

After a final breakfast and goodbyes to all the crew we left the ship and were quickly intercepted by Dutch customs. A far cry from the aggresive American border control people, the Dutch customs guys were incredibly polite and friendly and satisfied that we weren't smuggling booze, cigarettes or drugs we were sent on our way.

After a quick stop for chips and mayonnaise at Rotterdam central station we headed to Amsterdam where we were meeting up with Dan and Natasha our camping companions from Yellowstone and Utah National Parks as they now live in Belgium. Ruth and Chris from Biggleswade were also on their way to meet us.

Ham and eggs for breakfast

The Amsterdam limo

Street art

Ethiopian food, yum

Pancakes

Ralph found it amusing to watch me and Ruth crossing the road. There's so much to look out for in Amsterdam, bike lanes, mopeds, cars and trams, it's like being in a game of Frogger.

house boat on the way to the flea market

Playing Farkel, a dice game Ruth and Chris introduced us to and which we played a lot with Dan and Natasha while camping. Dan is a particularly unlucky roller, defying all statistical odds but he did win this game!