Baltic Sea
It is a day at sea for us as we cruise from Poland to Latvia, moving between two of the newer European Union members. Up to now new experiences have been coming at us at an almost breath-taking pace, particularly if you have not visited this region before. So, it is indeed very pleasant to have a day for catch-up: writing in the diary, doing a bit of relevant reading, perhaps listening to a couple of lectures, as well as participating in a panel discussion on the future of Europe hosted by our shipboard experts.
Outside there is an almost eerie fog from time to time, now close, but more often distant so that passing ships are hard to make out; they were solid on the radar, but little more than ghostly shadows through binoculars. The sea, however, has been very calm and many people took the opportunity to come up and quiz the Bridge Officers on the function and operation of various pieces of navigation equipment. “What’s the gyro do?” “It’s a more accurate type of compass for a ship as it is not affected by rolling, pitching or yawling.” “Why do you have two radars?” “They operate at different wavelengths so that one is more sensitive to closer things and the other is better at greater distances.” “Why isn’t the course line oriented towards the top of the screen?” “Because it is more practical to have the screen oriented the same way as the paper navigational chart, with north at the top, although that too can be changed.” By golly it is so nice, so nice for me to just be able to listen sometimes and learn!
Thus far we have had an interesting mix of nature and culture, although to me, at first glance in some places, culture doesn’t seem to play very nicely, and nature appears to get a bit beaten up. But then, I look down, I look closer, at a wall, in a crack and I get lucky—it’s small, easily over-looked, but very beautiful, my favorite plant in Europe, the ivy-leaved toadfax. Now I’m re-energized, less anxious, ready to step out of myself and even make eye contact with that person heading towards me with popsicle blue hair, because when I think about it, that’s what all this is about: not just the past, but the present and even the future, learning about other people and other cultures. This is not a museum, this is our world and some people dye their hair un-natural colors and some people spend ten years of their life putting little radios on toads and some people build great things while others change things that already seem to be good, and so it goes. All in all I guess the world is only as small as you make it and I do like it big.
It is a day at sea for us as we cruise from Poland to Latvia, moving between two of the newer European Union members. Up to now new experiences have been coming at us at an almost breath-taking pace, particularly if you have not visited this region before. So, it is indeed very pleasant to have a day for catch-up: writing in the diary, doing a bit of relevant reading, perhaps listening to a couple of lectures, as well as participating in a panel discussion on the future of Europe hosted by our shipboard experts.
Outside there is an almost eerie fog from time to time, now close, but more often distant so that passing ships are hard to make out; they were solid on the radar, but little more than ghostly shadows through binoculars. The sea, however, has been very calm and many people took the opportunity to come up and quiz the Bridge Officers on the function and operation of various pieces of navigation equipment. “What’s the gyro do?” “It’s a more accurate type of compass for a ship as it is not affected by rolling, pitching or yawling.” “Why do you have two radars?” “They operate at different wavelengths so that one is more sensitive to closer things and the other is better at greater distances.” “Why isn’t the course line oriented towards the top of the screen?” “Because it is more practical to have the screen oriented the same way as the paper navigational chart, with north at the top, although that too can be changed.” By golly it is so nice, so nice for me to just be able to listen sometimes and learn!
Thus far we have had an interesting mix of nature and culture, although to me, at first glance in some places, culture doesn’t seem to play very nicely, and nature appears to get a bit beaten up. But then, I look down, I look closer, at a wall, in a crack and I get lucky—it’s small, easily over-looked, but very beautiful, my favorite plant in Europe, the ivy-leaved toadfax. Now I’m re-energized, less anxious, ready to step out of myself and even make eye contact with that person heading towards me with popsicle blue hair, because when I think about it, that’s what all this is about: not just the past, but the present and even the future, learning about other people and other cultures. This is not a museum, this is our world and some people dye their hair un-natural colors and some people spend ten years of their life putting little radios on toads and some people build great things while others change things that already seem to be good, and so it goes. All in all I guess the world is only as small as you make it and I do like it big.
