VACATION/CRUISE

[Berkman]

I am in London, been here for the two past days and will be boarding a Royal Caribbean ship this afternoon. Heading for Oslo Norway, Copenhagen Denmark, Tallinn Estonia, two days in St. Petersburg Russia, Helsinki Finland, Brussels Belgium returning to Southampton England flying back on the 28th. There is a women's crew team here somewhere to take part in the big regatta on Sat but don't know where they are staying. Would go to it to cheer them on if we were still here.

Took a nice dinner cruise on the Thames on Tuesday night and yesterday we went to Windsor Castle, city of Bath to tour the Roman Baths and to Stonehenge. DON't drink coffee here it is terrible. Did see a Starbucks but I don't care for their coffee. Too strong and expensive for me.

[harbo]

Let us know if you get to see some noctilucent clouds. You are heading to the right latitudes at the right time of the year to see them. They can be rather impressive with the right seeing conditions.

http://earthsky.org/earth/night-shining ... o-see-them

[cox'n]

...women's crew team ...

"Crew team" is redundant as a crew is, essentially, a team. It's akin to writing musical "group ensemble". Instead, use "rowing team" or simply "crew". Sometimes the archaic, but still acceptable, "rowing crew" is still seen (as in I was cox'n for the rowing crew at UMass).

[I apologize if I come across as a curmudgeonly old cox'n as it's not my intention. I thought it might be an interesting piece of rowing jargont trivia.]

[Berkman]

^
Thanks for the info did not know that

^ ^ Unfortunately we did not see the lights. It was staying light until around 11 PM and lights would happen later. Would have liked to see them.

Cruising today and tomorrow on our way from Helsinki to Brussels. After having a week of mid 90 weather quite a shock to the system with low 70's and 60's. Saw a lot of places and sites. Unfortunately the pool are does not have a roof over it so only the few real brave souls are using the pool.

[Swampy]

So, how did you vote, stay or leave? I would hate to see you get blamed for the shitshow going on across the pond.

[Berkman]

We sailed before the vote but if I could have voted I would have voted to stay. Since the vote I have talked to many Brits and they said that a successor for Prime Minister a guy similar to Trump. The people that wanted out did not like that they had no control of immigrants or that if a legal decision was made in England it supreme court in Belgium would over rule them.

Of course we discussed our upcoming election and I said that we actually in my opinion have the choice between two evils, Trump and Queen Hillary. With that choice I would have to go with Trump. They say that a lot of states are definitely democrat or republican. We in NC are one of 16 states that will actually affect the outcome of the election. After the conventions it will really get very dirty, mudslinging campaigning. I don't even watch any of that garbage. Can't understand how there can be any people that have not really made their choice. What can be said to influence their choice?

[njumass08]

^ personally, I think a vote for Trump is a vote for Xenophobia.

[Berkman]

^

What is our other choice? Certainly not Queen Hillary. Not sure whom the libertarian candidate is.

[njumass08]

^ A vote for Hillary is a vote for liberal supreme court justices. And that is very very very important to me.

If you care at all about our country staying on a socially liberal path, then we have to elect Hillary so that she can appoint liberal supreme court justices.

There are going to be a lot of very important cases in the next few years.

[MassMan06]

Trump probably has 99.9% of the racist, homophobe, and xenophobe vote. That's my cue to vote for the other person.

[Berkman]

I wore a UMass BB T shirt and hat one day on the ship while we were cruising that day. With approximately 1,000 US passengers no one was interested in doing any discussions. On one of our tours in Oslo, Norway we were at a glass factory for a glassblowing demonstration and I saw a guy with a Texas Tech hat and we had a short discussion about football but that was all I could find for sport enthusiasts. Never did see the guy again.