Tag: Holland America
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Punta del Este, Uruguay
#flathal #flatstanley #uruguay #puntadeleste Flat Hal and Flat Halena are visiting a town that usually has 12,400 people. But today, there could be almost 450,000 people here! Why did everyone show up? Because it’s beach weather! Even though it is January, it is summer in Uruguay. Since we crossed the equator to the Southern Hemisphere,…
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Gatsby Night At Sea
#flathal #flatstanley #gatsby #fscottfitzgerald The party is named after a character named Jay Gatsby from a famous book. In the story, Mr. Gatsby was a man who wanted to get the attention of a friend he hadn’t seen in a long time. To try and get her to visit, he threw the biggest, shiniest, and…
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Another Sea Day Discovery
#flatstanley #flathal #phytoplankton A striking sunrise started off a pleasant, if somewhat bouncy day at sea. It was drizzling rain just 20 minutes before this picture, offering clouds for the sun’s rays to illuminate. Later in the day the Flat Friends noticed this portion of the ocean between Brazil and Uruguay has areas with a…
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Sailing Into Rio De Janeiro Is Simply Inspiring
#flatstanley #flathal A mix of modern & older buildings wait to greet the Flat Friends when we step ashore. Birds race around our ship as we sail in, escorting us to our dock, & high up, overlooking everything is a statue this remarkable community (& the world) came together to make. Nearly a hundred years…
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Two Days At Sea
#flathal #flatstanley The Flat Friends have been enjoying two days in a row at sea. At home, every weekend is different, the same is true of sea days. The easiest way to show how different they can be is the sunrise yesterday (a bit dark, moody and gloomy, above) compared to the sunrise today (vibrant,…
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Recife — A Second Visit For Flat Hal
#FlatHal #flatstanley Flat Hal and his pal Flat Stanley visited Recife, Brazil, less than a year ago, on this same cruise ship. Some of the same officers, staff and crew were aboard, so there have been a lot of familiar faces, and friends onboard. With a lot of exciting ports still ahead, the flat friends…
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Belém, the Gateway to the Amazon
#flathal #flatstanley Imagine a city so big it has tall skyscrapers, millions of people, and busy streets filled with cars—but it’s located right at the edge of the world’s largest rainforest! That city is Belém (pronounced beh-LEM), Brazil. Many people think the Amazon is just tiny villages and trees, but Belém is a huge city.…
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Navigating By The Stars…
In the age of Pirates, ships didn’t have computers and GPS navigation, but sailors still looked to satellites for help navigating. They looked to “naturally occurring” satellites… the stars in the sky! Using equipment they brought with them, and knowledge passed down for generations about the position of the stars, they could find their way……
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Crossing the Equator!
Today the Flat Friends sailed from the Northern Hemisphere into the Southern, by gliding across an invisible line known as the equator! We made certificates to celebrate: By Royal Decree:To all Mermaids, Whales, Sharks, and Flying Fish of the Deep:Be it known that on this day, the vessel carrying Flat Hal and Flat Halena has…
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Canceled Port Call At Devil’s Island
#flathal #flatstanley Devils Island was originally a prison, off the coast of French Guiana. Now it is mostly jungle and ruins, with a small hotel at the top of the mountain. We were unable to visit because the island was having issues with their water supply… it wasn’t safe to drink! The Flat Friends couldn’t…
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Barbados: From Pirates to a Proud Nation! 🇧🇧
#flathal #flatstanley We’ve learned all about the pirates and privateers who used to sail these blue waters. But a lot has happened since those days of “Letters of Marque” and hidden treasure! Here is how Barbados became the amazing country it is today: Barbados TodayThe “Pirate’s Triangle” is now a place where people from all…
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Bridgetown, Barbados… No Real Pirates in Sight
#flatstanley #flathal The pirates and privateers of the 1700s would be shocked! Flat Hal and Flat Halena sailed from Florida to Barbados in just 3 days. On the ship, these young travelers spent their time playing games, making friends, and reading. Pirates didn’t have much time for fun. They spent their days pulling heavy ropes,…
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Flat Stanley Went Home!!
#flathal #flatstanley Flat Hal had so much going on during his final 2025 adventure with Flat Stanley! Between preparing to say goodbye to his friend after nearly a year of travel and exploring new shores, his journal isn’t quite ready to be shared. It’s currently a collection of memories and pieces that still need to…
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Flat Hal’sPole to Pole Adventure!
#flathal #flatstanley #poletopole #hollandamerica The journal is done! All it needs now is a cover! I drew this map as we traveled, so I would always remember where we had been on our BIG “Pole to Pole” adventure aboard Holland America cruise line’s MS Volendam. It shows everywhere we went! You can print it out…
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Earth Is An Amazing Planet
#flathal #flatstanley We think the count stands at:31,856 Nautical Miles133 days of travel540+ passengers for all 133 daysapproximately 1,700 passengers onboard for a portion of the voyageOver 100 species (including subspecies) of birds seenIn 67 portsAcross 29 countries and territories The flat fellas visited almost 10% of the nations and territories of the world on…
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133 Days On An Epic Adventure
#flatstanley #flathal It is hard to believe all the places we have visited and journaled about since boarding this cruise just over four months ago. It is approximately 24,901 miles around the Earth at the equator. The flat fellas knew they would be traveling far and wide on this adventure… but around the world? We…
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Boston, Massachusetts
#flatstanley #flathal A city rich in history, Boston is full of historic sites. Our shuttle from the ship into town drove us past a replica of the Boston Tea Party Boat. From where we were dropped off many of our fellow passengers went and walked as much of the Freedom Trail as they had time…
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The Flat Fellas Went Walking In Portland, Maine
#flatstanley #flathal Portland offered a nice mix of small town feel with plenty of places to get a snack (like a gluten free donut for Flat Jay), buy a unique souvenir, or pick up some essentials like a new book to read on the flight home. A variety of older buildings caught our eye, including…
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Saint-Pierre Showed Its True Colors To The Flat Fellas
#flatstanley #flathal Often, when you visit somewhere, a guide will take you from place to place, introducing you to the location and its highlights. Flat Hal and Flat Stanley have enjoyed exploring on their own in a lot of ports, and Flat Jay got into the spirit as they walked around this community of less…
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St. John’s, Newfoundland, Offered A Colorful Walk Through Town
#flatstanley #flathal The flat fellas took a short walk around town, enjoying the colorful buildings and mix of old with a dash of new. But our excitement was for watching the scenery as we sailed away in the afternoon. A narrow channel between dramatic cliffs leads into St John’s, Newfoundland, and as we sailed out…
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A Brief Stop In St. Anthony, Newfoundland
#flathal #flatstanley With a population of less than 3,000, St. Anthony is not a port most people take a look at and say, “of course we are stopping here! No cruise would be complete without it!” Most passengers ask, “why are we stopping in this little village on the east coast of Canada?” Flat Hal…
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Visiting The Fourth Largest Town In Greenland— Qaqortoq
#flatstanley #flathal Greenland has a population of just over 56,000 people. In many countries that would be the population of a single city! Qaqortoq has just over 3,000 people. Qaqortoq has a similar feel to a rural community in the United States with a population of just a few thousand people. Unlike a rural community…
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The Flat Fellas Embraced The Scenic View In Paamiut, Greenland
#flatstanley #flathal Paamiut was a tender port. After two days of rough seas Flat Hal, Flat Stanley and their friend Flat Jay decided to stay on the cruise ship, and take photos from its decks. Where the weather in Iceland had been surprisingly comfortable, some might even say warm, Greenland offered freezing temperatures— good for…
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Passengers Enjoyed The Moment While The Bridge Planned Ahead
#flathal #flatstanley While the flat fellas and our fellow passengers were enjoying our time in Reykjavik the bridge crew was monitoring the weather and seas between us and our next port, in Greenland. The first decision they made, and announced, was to extend our time in port by 12 hours, allowing a weather front to…
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Exploring In Reykjavík
#flathal #flatstanley After walking over seven miles in Reykjavik the first day we returned to the ship where some fellow passengers asked what Flat Hal and Flat Stanley had spent the day doing and seeing. It was a deceptively hard question to answer. All those miles covered, so much fun had… but what to list?…
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Isafjordur Proved To Be A Hidden Gem
#flatstanley #flathal Approximately 2,700 people call Isafjordur, Iceland, home. Located on the Westfjords Peninsula, and considered to be the region’s capital, in part because it is the largest town, Isafjordur offers visitors access to waterfalls, Vigur Bird Island, and a variety of hiking trails for those who want to “stay local”. Fog creeped in around…
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The Flat Fellas Saw Too Many Puffins To Count Near Gjesvær, on the island of Magerøy
#flathal #flatstanley Having never seen an Atlantic Puffin in person before, Flat Hal was almost overwhelmed by how many wild puffins were around Stappen Island, a nature preserve for birds in Norway. Our bus drove us away from our port of Honningsvåg, and a small boat took us out on a “bird safari” tour. The…
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Flat Hal and Flat Stanley visited Tromsø, Norway…In The Rain
#flatstanley #flathal The sky was moody as we first started taking pictures in Tromsø. Just before the rain began, as we stood in the crisp, chilly air, gazing at the snow covered mountains, we wondered if there is a single month of the year when they don’t get snowfall. Looking over at the skyline of…
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Our Local Pilot Approaching To Board At 2:30 AM
#flatstanley #flathal The sailors and bridge crew of our cruise ship have navigated over 25,000 nautical miles during this cruise. Without looking at a map, Flat Hal and Flat Stanley can easily recall sailing the Caribbean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the North Sea, as well as the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the…
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The Night It Was Never Pitch Black Dark — Above The Arctic Circle, In the land of the midnight sun
#flathal #flatstanley The flat fellas once again stayed up as late as they could, wanting to see what the sun would do now that we had crossed above the arctic circle. They took some short naps… but time and again we were drawn to the light continuing to shine through our curtains. How could we…
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The Birds of Bruges, Belgium
#flatstanley #flathal #belgium #bruges Bird sightings… including some new to us birds!
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The Flat Fellas Walked Around Bruges, Belgium
#flathal #flatstanley #bruges #belgium The night before we arrived in Bruges the flat fellas looked at a map and tried to figure out a walking route allowing us to see as much as possible in 5 hours. The bus that brought us into town, and dropped us at Bargeplein, drove us past the city gates……
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The flat fellas visited the second largest city in Portugal — Porto
#flathal #flatstanley #porto #portugal #leixoes The itinerary said Leixões (Porto). The first thing Flat Hal and Flat Stanley set out to understand is why two places were listed — and how far apart they are. It got a little more interesting when it was announced we were being offered a shuttle to Matosinhos. A third…
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Sunrise sail in to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
#flathal #flatstanley #riodejainero #brazil As we sailed in to Rio de Janeiro, a beautiful, if somewhat subtle, sunrise welcomed us. The sunrise was “out to sea” compared to the city we were approaching, but the increasing light, and the changing angles of the sun almost made the skyline look like a present that was being…
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Montevideo, Uruguay
#flatstanley #flathal #montevideo #uruguay A big Capital City with some small town charm Approximately 1.3 million people live in Montevideo. A city with parks, large churches, and an easy to walk and explore environment with little restaurants and places to stop hidden in unexpected places. In one alley, amid the posters glued to a wall,…
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Montevideo Bird Sightings
#flathal #flatstanley #uruguay #birding Imperial Cormorant, Cattle Tyrant, Chalk-Browed Mockingbird,Eared Pigeon, House Sparrow, Rufous Hornero, and a Hawk?
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Montevideo, Uruguay
#flatstanley #flathal #uruguay The Flat Fellas are realizing that Flat Hal at least does quite a few things when traveling that he doesn’t normally do at home. He doesn’t normally walk over 5 miles in the course of a few hours. Does normally take pictures of (or even notice) every interesting building he passes. And…
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Sea Days — Two In A Row
#flatstanley #flathal #cruise The flat fellas have been traveling for over 45 days. In the beginning Sea Days were like an average Saturday. A break from the week, chores and homework. A chance to play games, have fun, and not worry about when all aboard time is. But as the trip gets longer sea days…
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Puerto Madryn — the local birds were amazing
#flatstanley #flathal #puertomadryn Other passengers took excursions to nature preserves and penguin colonies in the area, but the Flat Fellas decided to take a little time and walk around the port area with friends. There were several Kelp Gulls along the beach, a short distance from the pier, who appeared not only accustomed to humans,…
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East Falkland Island… An Island Without Trees?
#flatstanley #flathal #falklandislands Our guide drove us around for almost half an hour. During that time he explained the Falkland Islands is an interesting place to live in part because they have no native trees. There are plants growing low to the ground for animals to graze on. And a berry that is endemic (remember…
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Gentoo Penguins in the Falkland Islands
#flathal #flatstanley #falklandislands Very near where the King Penguins were hanging out was the colony of Gentoo Penguins. Small white flags were stuck in the ground to let human visitors know where the constantly shifting boundary we should not cross was at the moment. This is the penguins territory, we may visit it so long…
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Penguins in the Falkland Islands
#flathal #flatstanley #falklandislands #penguins The flat fellas joined a tour out to see two colonies of penguins. Here are pictures of some of the King Penguins, including some fuzzy babies. The totally fuzzy appearance means they are less than a year older. They will not have the vibrant colors of the adults until they are…
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The Flat Fellas Visit Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands
#flatstanley #flathal #falklandislands The Falkland Islands have been a British Overseas Territory since 1833, but in 1982 Argentina tried to claim the Falkland Islands. This led to a 10 week war. Looking at the map, the Falkland Islands are close to Argentina… but that doesn’t mean the British didn’t send help when it was needed.
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Scenic Cruising in Antarctica
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica Flat Hal and Flat Stanley had a fantastic last day of scenic cruising in Antarctica. When we first stepped outside to take photos it was snowing— leading to interesting attempts to get the camera to focus on the white landscape and animals with a lot of white in them. The sun came…
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Flat Hal and Flat Stanley Saw an Albatross
#flathal #flatstanley #antarctica Samuel Coleridge Taylor wrote a story called “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” It left such an impression on readers that people started using the expression “an albatross around his neck”. For a time, sailors viewed seeing an Albatross as a sign of bad luck, mostly because of this story, but now…
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Day 3 Antarctica Showed the Flat Fellas Another Side of Itself
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica Having seen moody and overcast, and bright, vibrant sunshine, day three offered dense fog and mist. For most of the day it seemed impossible to identify the horizon, the water bleeding into the mist. The flat Fellas spent part of the day looking through photographs we had already taken, and working on…
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A Fun & Cold Time Watching The Sun Set
#flatstanley #flathal #antarctica The high of the day was only a little above freezing, and the temperature seemed to drop quickly with the sun, but the color didn’t just linger in the sky, it seemed to get more brilliant and interesting as the time passed. For most of an hour, maybe more the sky reflected…
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Day 2 Antarctica Showed Up Ready For Pictures!
#flatstanley #antarctica #flathal @hollandamericaline After showing us its moody side, Antarctica dazzled the flat fellas with endless expanses of ice, mountains, and the occasional wild animal. “A Colony of Gentoo Penguins to Port!” It was such an exciting announcement. The flat fellas joined other passengers in rushing to the rails of the ship. The scoured…
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Playa Roja,the Red Sand Beach at Paracas National Reserve
#flathal #flatstanley #peru #redsandbeach The sand is stained red from the volcanic activity in the region, as best we understood, giving the beach a different look than the white sand beaches we are used to seeing. The flat fellas found the red of the sand easier to see from the hillside where we took these…
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A tour around the island of Tahiti with Flat Stanley and Flat Hal
Captain Cook visited Tahiti several times, and one of the places we visited had several monuments, including one to him, and one related to the Mutiny on the Bounty. Do you know about Captain Cook? The ship The Bounty? Their stories have captured the imaginations of generations, and are one of the reasons Tahiti is…
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The Flat Fellas visited another national capital together – do you know what city it is?
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have visited Pago Pago, Suva, Nuku’alofa andAvarua (do you remember which country each of those cities is the capitalof?) the cruise has now brought us to the capital of French Polynesia, Papeete. Walking around Papeete we stopped by the city hall, where a major functionwas going on. We also tried…
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Bora Bora birds… Flat Stanley and Flat Hal recognized the birds we saw!
When we first started this trip we would not have been able to gesture to the most of the birds and ask one another “is that a….?” and insert the correct name. However, as we walked around Bora Bora we recognized a Pacific Reef Heron, a Brown Noddy, a Zebra Dove, and some pigeons (also known…
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Overwater Bungalows is one of Bora Bora’s claims to fame – and the Flat Fellas caught a glimpse of them!
The most famous type of hotel room in Bora Bora is an overwater bungalow. The room is on stilts over the water, frequently over part of a coral reef. People who have spent a night in one of the rooms say there is an area with a couch that has a glass floor. You can look through it…
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Bora Bora – the Flat Fellas explored an island so many have heard of
Before heading ashore with Flat Hal and Flat Stanley today we tried to think of why Bora Bora is an island so many people have heard of, and know the name of, even if they don’t know it is in the Society Islands, or French Polynesia. We started our learning with the help of Gemini…
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Vava’u, Tonga shared their culture and community with Flat Stanley and Flat Hal
Many of the ports Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have visited on their cruise have welcomed the passengers with local music, dance, residents in native dress sharing a glimpse of a life different than ours back home and taking time to talk with us and make us feel not just welcome in their community, but…
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Some of the birds in Tonga made an appearance for our cameras…
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal are good sports about respecting the personal space of wild animals, even when we wish we could get closer for better photo opportunities. The birds in Fiji seemed to master the art of blending in with the trees, and staying well away from the sun and heat, but a few…
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Flat Stanley and Flat Hal visited the capital of Tonga!
This is the fourth capital the flat fellas have visited since we left Texas. Can you list the four? In the past four weeks, Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have made their way to four unique capitals in the Pacific: Honolulu, Hawai’i; Pago Pago, American Samoa; Suva, Fiji; and Nuku’alofa, Tonga. While all are capitals,…
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SOLAS – Safety Of Life At Sea
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal mustered again… this cruise is over 30 days, and it was time for a little reality to come in to our vacation. Here is an explanation, with some help from Gemini AI for why Cruise ships conduct safety drills every 30 days, there are a few important reasons: It’s the…
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Flat Stanley and Flat Hal on a 1.4 mile piggyback ride through the tropical rainforest at Colo-I-Suva Forest Park
Honestly, the Flat Fellas had the right idea. Piggyback ride is how I wish I had gone, but instead I carried our Flat Friends over rugged terrain on a challenging, and beautiful hike through the rainforest. There were times when the trail was narrow, and steep, but it ended in a natural pool everyone had…