Dear Ms Pfeiffer,<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve now been back home for 10 days and wanted to let you know how my trip went, before my wife and I set off for Croatia in four days\u2019 time for an eight-week holiday in our motorhome.<\/p>\n
First of all, I\u2019d like to thank you for your professional assistance. You were always willing to listen to my many questions.<\/p>\n
Everything went smoothly: the journey by train, the booking at the recommended \u2018Port\u2019 hotel, and the taxi service to and from the ship was also reliable.<\/p>\n
The cabin I booked (the owner\u2019s cabin) was very spacious and cosy, although it had neither a radio nor a television.<\/p>\n
The crew consisted of a Romanian captain, Ukrainian engineers, a helmsman and a chief officer, whilst the galley and deck staff were from the Philippines. Unfortunately, communication was exclusively in English. This was a bit tricky for my school-day English, but it worked out in the end. The crew were very friendly and helpful. However, the engineers didn\u2019t ask me if I\u2019d like to have a look at the engine room. They were also the only ones with whom I had absolutely no contact. I was allowed on the bridge at any time, even during docking and undocking manoeuvres. The officers on duty always asked me if I\u2019d like some tea or coffee, which was freshly made on the bridge.<\/p>\n
In Dublin, the captain personally walked into town with me. In Waterford, the pilots asked me if they should give me a lift into town in their car, which saved me the cost of a taxi. I thought that was very kind of them. They then gave me some tips on places of interest in the city centre. The captain had told the pilots that I was a passenger and that, at the tender age of 15, I\u2019d once spent 18 months at sea. When the two pilots had a look through my old seaman\u2019s book, one of them spotted a ship in which he\u2019d also worked under the same captain. I\u2019d worked there until February 1980 and he\u2019d been on the ship in 1984. It\u2019s quite remarkable how small the world really is.<\/p>\n
We had incredibly good weather on both the outward and return journeys.<\/p>\n
Calm seas and plenty of sunshine. We often spotted dolphins; once they were even hunting fish right next to the ship.<\/p>\n
All in all, it was a fantastic experience to be back on a cargo ship after 46 years, though this time as a passenger.<\/p>\n
It certainly won\u2019t be my last trip of this kind.<\/p>\n
Warmest regards<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Ms Pfeiffer, I\u2019ve now been back home for 10 days and wanted to let you know how my trip went, before my wife and I set off for Croatia in four days\u2019 time for an eight-week holiday in our motorhome. First of all, I\u2019d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","kontinent":[87],"gebiet":[92,123],"class_list":["post-6893","reisebericht","type-reisebericht","status-publish","hentry","kontinent-northern-europe","gebiet-ireland","gebiet-northern-europe"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n