13th September
The second gale force storm from England has arrived. Our ship is sheltering in the Eemshaven harbour in the Netherlands.

At 10am we took the Shuttlebus into Groningen. It is 10 degrees Celsius, raining and windy.

We bought a map with walking tour for 1,50 Euro at the Tourist Office. It started to rain heavily so we stopped for coffee and cake in Cafe Wadapartja.

Highlights of the walking tour.
Goudkantoor Gold Office located on Waagplein from 1635. Tax collection office. 'Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's'.
The Forum on the southern side of the market has 17th & 18th century facades. The other sides were destroyed in during the liberation in 1945.
Poelestraat the bustling centre. St Josef Cathedral. Roman Catholic Church constructed at the end of 19th century.
Hereplein Square. The sculpture by A. Hesselink version of 'Langs moeders graf' (passing mother's grave) by painter Jozef Israels.
Herepoort Gate. The old connecting road to the south and the Main Street. The original 11th century gate is marked with natural stone paving.
The Groningen Museum then the Korenbeurs Coin Exchange from 1865 designed by architect J G Beusekom who adorned the facade with three sculptures: Mercury, Neptune and Ceres. The cast iron roof and many windows ensures perfect light for sampling grain.
Der AA-Kerk, the church and tower, located in the old harbour area. The church is dedicated to Mary and St Nicholas, patron saint of sailors. It was exulted to a parish church in 1247. The tower was reconstructed in 1718.
The Harmonie complex whichever includes two Universities. There are bicycles everywhere in this city due to the high student population. The bicycles have right of way.
Oude Boteringestraat contains many historic buildings dating from 1773.
Prinsenhoftuin Garden is a renaissance style garden laid out in 1625. Above the entrance is a magnificent sundial.
Saint George and the Dragon provincial war monument by Wenckebach 1959.
We walked along the Verbindings Canal and back to the city mall. Caught the 2:15pm bus back to our ship. It was very windy. We could hardly stay standing against the force of the wind.

After dinner it was announced that we would have to stay in Eemshaven another day due to the weather so all alcoholic drinks were free until midnight.
I had 3 cocktails: Cosmopolitan, Singapore Sling and Black Russian. I think the last one was pure alcohol!

14th September
Not a good morning for me!
Ww took the 10am shuttle to Groningen. Walked around in the rain. Bought bakery food. Fabulous! Caught the 1:30pm shuttle back to the ship. Had lunch and relaxed for the rest of the day. Went to the evening Show, singer Mary C Bernet.

15th September
A day at sea.
The storm subsided overnight. At 6:15am the pilot came on board to direct us out of the harbour. The Eemshaven pilot was distressed about the waves in the narrow and shallow 20 mile passage out and he got off our ship after 4 miles and left our Captain to get us safely out the rest of the way.
We set sail for England.
Captain Ioannis Papangelis asked us all to go the Majestic Lounge after breakfast. It is never good news when the Captain talks to us. He explained our change of itinerary but said that we would be in a new port each day for the remainder of the cruise.
We were now heading for the aisle of Wight.
At 10:45am we had Frühschoppen. Ron and I love this event. Beer, Rollmops rolls and German shanty singing.
We relaxed for the rest of the day.