Dit is een samenvatting voor onze Engels sprekende vrienden en bekenden

This is a summary of our stories in the same orderas the short stories apprearted. This means that the summary starts with the last story and the first one is the last in the summary (I doubt if this makes sense). The Photo's (Foto's in Dutch) will probably speak for themselves.

Atlanta: flying from Tampa to Atlanta, we experienced a delay of 1,5 hour because of a problem with the door of the Delta Boeing 757; we were at the Doubletree Airport hotel just after 2 PM. Temperature around 77 F and sunny. On our last day, Wednesday, we took the hotel shuttle to the airport and used MARTA to go downtown. We visited the Martin Luther King Center and were impressed. Afterwards we went to see the Georgia Capitol and we had lunch on the food court within the CNN building. Our last hours in the USA were spent at the pool of the Doubletree.

We came home to very foggy Netherlands on Thursday 24 February around noon, drove home and arrived here about 4 P.M. We are still working on the six hours time difference, but we manage!

Tampa: on our arrival day after the second cruise in Tampa, the weather was very good. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay and walked through International Plaza. We also found a nice Italian restaurant to have lunch. At the hotel that night we hade a bad experience at dinner, Jan's was OK, mine stone cold and after another 20 minutes wait I went to the room and settled for a bag of peanuts. The hotel made up for it the next day with some nice snacks.

On our second day in Tampa, we took the shuttle to the airport and from there Hart bus 30 downtown. The streetcar took us to Ybor City, a National Historic Landmark. We had lunch at a Cuban restaurant and got cooked chili peanuts as appetizers. Back in Tampa we did part of the River Walk.

Roatan, Belize etc.: on Roatan we had a nice excursion with a very small bus, there were 2 rows of 2 seats and a very narrow space between. We were in the last row and had to leave the bus sideways (like everybody else). We went to see tropical trees, fruit and flowers and later a bird and butterfly park. After that we stopped for drinks in West End, a beach resort. Back to the ship via Coxen Hole, capital of Roatan.

Belize is still rather British. We had a tour to the Maya site of Altun Ha. (over 2000 years old). We had a very good guide and enjoyed our stay there.

In Costa Maya (Mexico) we had a tour to Chacchuben, a Maya site dating back to 500 - 1000 years BC (BC not meaning Before Columbus or Before Clinton, mind you). Again a very knowledgeable guide and this site, near the border with Belize, is not very well known, so it was very quiet.

Tampa and Key West: we did the cruise to West Caribbean on Rijndam (Holland America), a nice small ship. We stayed in a verandah suite. We started from Tampa after a night in the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay about 4.40 PM. Around 7 PM we went under the long bridge to St. Petersburg (we drove across the same bridge in 1992).. We arrived in Key West at 1 PM. We walked Whitehead Street past Harry Trumans Little Whitehouse and Jan climbed the lighthouse (dating to 1854). The Southern Most Point was our next stop. Back on Duval Street, past restaurants, shops etc. and past Sloppy Joe's. The next day was a sea day.

Few answers: were reactions to reactions on our stories by friends and neighbors.

Puero Rico, St. Thomas, Bahamas and Miami: I only posted this story in Tampa because I could not get it through from the Eurodam. It was very cold and rainy when we arrived in Fort Lauderdale. We had a transfer to chaotic Miami airport and a flight to Tampa that same Saturday 12 February. Here is the rest of this story:

Puerto Rico made our clock go one hour back (so that there was five hours difference with the Netherlands). After an early lunch we were on deck when we entered San Juan harbor past El Moro fort and lighthouse. We had a bus trip to Bacardi, were shown around and got to taste the stuff. We were dropped off downtown and walked back to the ship.

On St. Thomas we crossed the island in an open safari bus. There was a stop at Peter's Greathouse with a lovely view of the surrounding British and US Virgin Islands and a lovely garden. Later we had a stop for a view over Charlotte Amalie and a ride on the Paradise Tram. The ship next to us was the enormous Allure of the Seas (over 6000 passengers; over half of which gay men this time). A lot of Danish street names in Charlotte Amalie because the Danes owned the islands up to the 20-ies of the 20^th century.

The next day was a sea day.

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas lots of burned flesh on the beach; we just took a short walk, nice, but nothing!

Fort Lauderdale & Grand Turk: we started at terminal 26 in Fort Lauderdale after passing an open bridge (Straits of Florida), which made us feel at home (IJlst had a bridge that is always open if you want to go across).

The second day in our verandah stateroom on the Eurodam (Holland America), was a sea day. I did the kitchen tour and in the afternoon we enjoyed a talk by Robert Kennedy jr. about the environment. He talked for 1,5 spontaneously, without looking on paper and he made some very good statements about energy use and production (probably more European than American was our impression).

On Grand Turk (4 x 1,5 mile big) we saw the whole island on a tour. Lots of salt ponds and a working lighthouse dating back to 1852.

Schiphol Airport - Atlanta - Fort Lauderdale or fog - rain - sun: one night before the start in an airport hotel near Schiphol (Amsterdam's airport). Rain and cold on arrival in Atlanta. Overnight Embassy Suites Atlanta Airport and the next morning to sunny Fort Lauderdale, were we stayed at the Marriott on the beach.