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PA Trip
  • Jen Ritchey
Jun – Aug 2024

PA Trip

A 47-day adventure by Jen Read more
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  • Jen RitcheyTravelerPA Trip

    Queen Mary day 5

    August 1, 2024, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    Really not much to update today. I slept in until 7:30 which was nice. Yesterday my hamstring on my one leg was a bit sore - the smaller hot tub had super strong jets and one hit my leg at just the right spot and it cramped up or something and then was a bit sore all day so when I went to bed I thought no swimming tomorrow. I will give it a rest. Well, I wouldn't have swam anyways as I was so tired. I did too much yesterday, but then I knew that at the time. Oh well, I had fun :) I did look up what music I was dancing to last time and it was 70's music! I don't know why they picked not so good songs last night...

    Class today was a puffin which I really enjoyed. I like doing tiny little detail things with my small brush. I couldn't do the background on the bottom as I need plastic wrap to do that, and I might try and get some tomorrow as they wrap things in it for room service, but otherwise I will just wait till I get home. I sat in a different spot today, closer to the center of the room, and the boat was rockier and I did fine. Didn't feel sick so maybe I needed to move seats earlier! I will try the same spot tomorrow.

    Raymond asked me about lunchtime where we were so I took a photo of the map - making our way! I thought we got to Southampton on Saturday morning, but we don't until Sunday morning. So one more class tomorrow then Sat morning is time to work on things we didn't finish with a small showing of our artwork in the afternoon which should be fun.

    So I worked on my painting or read most of the day. I did go up for trivia and it was geography trivia today and we did alright. I do enjoy playing with the couple I befriended.

    Then this evening I went to listen to the big band music as I do really enjoy that and the singer was much better than last night. Lots of fun and if I weren't so tired I might have asked someone to dance!

    I'm going to bed early tonight and hopfully tomorrow I am all rested up!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerPA Trip

    Queen Mary day 6

    August 2, 2024, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    Another great day! Woke up to just a little bit of clouds and you could see the storm we were going around in the distance. By the end of my watercolor class it was sunny and gorgeous! I am on the sunny side of the ship this time (though the sun sets on the other side) and I had my door open and enjoying the warmth and sun all day! It was gorgeous!

    I did wake up late today, just after 8, so I had to decide if I would go try and swim without eating anything or skip it and try later. Well I decided to skip it cause I normally leave my room at 8 to swim and well I wanted to make sure I made it to my class on time. So had a lazy morning then class was so crowded! Every table was full! I think it was 42 people!! I ended up sitting just across the aisle from where I first was, but facing the wrong way, and somehow I was fine. I don't know why where I was sitting would make me sick, but I should have tried moving earlier! Oh well.

    When I got to class today and saw what we were painting I was like eh, I don't really like that, but I will do it just to paint. And while making my cardinal I kept hating it and thinking it looked awful, but by the time I was done I absolutely love him! He is so happy! And the background I adore. I think it is better than the example one as the example had all these berries and stuff and it was too cluttered. I love my happy little cardinal!

    I kept working on my painting and taking breaks to read or walk around on deck. I did try and swim, but every time I went out there were a ton of people in the pool. I guess that is what you get when it is so nice out! Yesterday was rockier (they said 3ft waves which is still a lot smoother than going to the states with the 10ft ones) and barely any wind. Though it calmed down a lot during the day and once again I cannot even tell we are moving.

    My trivia team did fairly well today. I knew a lot of the answers and helped out with 2 movie ones that they didn't know at all. They said they didn't know films when I joined their team and they really don't! One was who played Neo in The Matrix and they had no clue! So I got our team a couple of extra points :)

    Since I didn't swim I thought I would go dancing a bit this evening. It was a masquerade ball where you were supposed to dress fancy, but there was a bar I hadn't been to yet that was having a band play and you didn't have to dress up as much so I thought I would try that....only I got there a bit after it was supposed to start and there was literally no one but the people working there! And no band playing music! So no dancing for me. Oh well, I had a good book to read instead. Tomorrow I might try and get another project from my teacher as she has one for after I get off the boat as she is staying on a bit longer and try doing that myself. We shall see.    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerPA Trip

    Queen Mary day 7

    August 3, 2024, Celtic Sea ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Phew today was a day! I couldn't get to sleep last night so I woke up super late this morning (almost 9) and was so tired it was like there wasn't even a thought of trying to go swim then. So I got some breakfast and went down to the watercolor class to see if there was anything else I could try and paint today (it was just a day to finish up things you didn't in class) and I got there and the teacher was super sick! I was like well...maybe I will just sit in the back of the room and find something to paint myself...so then the teacher is all I am super sick, don't get too close in case it's catching, but if you are done with everything and you want you can come up and gather round and paint a face with me! So lots of people went up and got in nice and close and I was like does no one care about getting sick anymore?? Like even before covid I would have stayed away as I don't want to get sick...it is so odd to me. So I was sitting in the back and got my stuff out and the lady sitting behind me kept turning her head and coughing basically on me and I was like okay. This is not working out today, I am tired, I am going to just go back to my room.

    So then after relaxing for a bit I thought I would go see if the pool was free to swim. It wasn't at first so I walked around deck a few times, and the clouds were crazy when I was walking around, and then the upper pool cleared out and only one guy was swimming laps in it so I said perfect! And jumped in too. Well after a bit this big group of older German people decided to get in the pool and I thought there is not enough room if they all want to lap swim...we shall see how this goes! Well they didn't want to lap swim, they just wanted to hang out, and the other guy got out just as they were getting in. So no problem, I started swimming as close to the one wall as I could figuring they can have the rest of the pool. Well...they decided to spread out perpendicular to me so I literally could not swim to the other side!!! It was like really? You can't spread out parallel to me? It is not like the depth really changes and it is really shallow on the one end or something...so they finally gave me a tiny space to swim by and I checked my watch and it had been almost 15 min so I said fine. I am just going to leave (as one of them started coughing up a storm - luckily the wind was blowing their germs away from me). So that was fun, but I did get a swim in. I just don't understand how people can be so self centered...

    So then after lunch I went down to the little art show and I figured some people from class would be there and we would chat a bit or something, but no one was there! So I left, then went back to pick up my pictures after a bit and headed outside...and as soon as I stepped outside I thought this one wave looked kind of funny...and it was dolphins! They kept swimming right up close to the boat! They were playing in the waves and swimming all around!! It was so much fun! At one point there was a big group of at least 10 swimming around! There were also rainbows in the splashes from the waves of the ship which I enjoyed as well.

    Then trivia today was all movie related! So I was the ringer on the team! It was funny what movies the couple I played with had never seen or heard of! (That is the three of us in the photo). They were so nice and afterwards the lady asked if I had seen the photo scavenger hunt and I hadn't so she was showing me and I knew where a couple of them were and she knew where a couple of them were so we wandered around trying to find the other ones and I went by a lot of places I hadn't been before! I thought I had explored everything, but definitely not! I didn't find them all, but I found lots of fun things (like puzzles set up for anyone to work on if they wanted). So that was fun.

    Then this evening Dana Monique had another show so I went to that and had a blast. Dancing and singing and just having so much fun! Everyone was up and dancing and it was another great evening!

    So this morning was lazy and kind of annoying, but this afternoon was wonderful and so much fun! Tomorrow we get to Southampton in the morning and most people are getting off (they said 800 something were staying on so like 1,800 people getting off). I plan on getting off and wandering Southampton a bit, maybe get some lunch, then back on the boat. I'm going to wait to see about swimming until I get back on board as I don't want to do too much and be exhausted on my last day! So we shall see how it goes :)    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerPA Trip

    Southampton

    August 4, 2024 in England ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    I am so tired right now, but it was a great day wandering Southampton!

    I got woken up before 7 to someone trying to get into my room (one of the cleaning people or whatever, which I don't know why as I had my do not disturb sign up!!) so that was fun. It was loud and my lock was on so they couldn't open the door, but they were trying. Then I couldn't get back to sleep so I had a relaxed morning as I was so sleepy and then headed out about 10 to spy on what I could spy on.

    The weather was gorgeous! Sun with some clouds and a light breeze. Perfect temp for a wander. We were docked farther west than we left from and I was surprised by how close it was to the train station! I was walking into town, was going to go to a grocery store as I was looking for some sweets, and the train station was right there! They also had all of these lighthouses up around the city and there was a map of their locations and such. I saw so many groups of people, families, rushing around trying to see all of them and I am not sure why. Maybe they had limited time or something. I did enjoy wandering and spying them as most were really pretty.

    I went to the grocery store looking for Parma Violets as I wanted to try them and forgot last time I was here. They either had to make something with them or someone made something that tasted like them on the British Bakeoff and they sounded interesting (delicately perfumed violet sweets). At first I found them oddly sweet and not as perfumy as I would have expected, but they grew on me. I like them!

    Then I wandered to find something for lunch. I ended up walking by this sourdough pizza place that had a special roasted eggplant pizza so I had to try that and it was so good! The dough was delicious and the toppings as well. It was so much better than my disappointing pizza when I was first in Southampton!

    I found that north and east of the train station were much nicer than the area of town where I had wandered before. There were lots of big parks and I sat and read for a while after lunch and it was really nice. On my way back to the boat I stopped to get a milkshake...that ended up being chocolate milk So disappointing!!

    Got back on the ship and I am on the perfect side! Mainland Europe will be out my window and I am now on the sunset side of the boat also! One more day and then I will be in Hamburg!!

    I went down to spy on the show tonight, a 60's band, to see what they were like. They are going to be playing the dance venue tomorrow night so I wanted to see what they were like....and they were awful. I was like well, I guess no dancing for me! Oh well, I am still having fun :)    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerPA Trip

    Last Day on the Queen Mary

    August 5, 2024, North Sea ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Man very few photos today! I got up a bit late at 8, had some breakfast and was trying to decide if I wanted to go to the last (for me) watercolor class. Since teacher was so sick on Sat I was iffy about it, but then I decided I would go and take a photo of what we are doing and then come back and work on it in my room. Only I showed up and it was canceled because she was sick so decision made for me. Hope she feels better soon!

    So then I came back and decided to pack up everything I could then just read my book and walked around on deck the rest of the day. I was going to go up for the afternoon trivia but lost track of time reading and missed it.

    They said 1,100 people are continuing on so that means if the boat is full that 1,500 people are getting off and since 800 people continued on from New York to here then if it is full at least 700 people took the boat just for these 2 nights. Not a bad way to get from a to b if that is where you are going, but that is more than I expected (the boat might not be full also :)

    And that’s it for today! I’m tired so hoping I will be able to get to sleep early since I have to be up at 7 tomorrow to get some food before debarking. Hoping the train ride home is quick and easy (there were some vandalism of the train stations in Berlin - cut lines or something - on Friday that they are hoping to have repaired by tomorrow…right now it shows my train getting in 20 min late as it has to bypass the one station, and if that is all that is not bad). We shall see!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerPA Trip

    Home again!

    August 6, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌩️ 17 °C

    And the journey is over! I am back home and it was pretty easy getting here. I got up and had some breakfast on the boat, packed up the last of my things in my backpack, waited until my disembarkment time and headed off the boat. They had given me a paper that said I had to make sure to check in with the customs officers since I don't have an EU passport and get my passport stamped or there could be issues at the airport when I leave Germany! When I got down there there was barely a line so I handed my passport over and the lady barely looked at it. She kind of did that quick flip through the pages thing and then handed it back to me and said have a good day. No stamp, not sure why they even had that check to be honest, maybe it was because of my permanent residency? It worked out so no issues.

    Then it was off to the bus to take me to the train station. I had paid for it via the boat people and it was so easy! I went and got on, they loaded my luggage and we were off! It was annoying trying to get my 2 giant heavy suitcases to the correct platform, but I had plenty of time. My train was 20 min late leaving Hamburg and then we arrived 40 min late in Berlin, but it was so quick and painless it was great. I did try and read on the train, but that was a no go and I pretty much instantly started to get sick. Oh well.

    Then I decided to get a taxi home from the train station (I was going to take another train up to a closer to home train station that has parking since the main station for some reason doesn't have an area to pick up/drop off except for taxis, but the next train wasn't leaving for 20 min and I could be home by then!).

    It was so nice seeing Raymond again!! He was like I don't have to do much at work today so we can do whatever you want! So I unpacked my things, then we went to the park and hung out and read some (he had kept sending me photos of him reading in the park while I was gone and I was like how come we never do that??? Or really he never reads except on vacation! Why does he read when I am not there?? He said he needs more book recs so I gave him a few :) We went out to dinner since I didn't want to go shopping and get stuff and we went to go to this vegan restaurant that is right around the corner basically, but it wasn't the vegan restaurant anymore. It was a new restaurant but had basically the same vegan menu, but also meat stuff, so we decided to try it out. It was pretty good, maybe better than the other versions of the things we normally got! I was sad at first, but I think this is a better restaurant so yey for having some good food nearby!

    So that is it for this adventure! I loved the boat ride and will definitely book looking to do that again when I go visit PA. So much easier and less stressful than flying even if it take a lot longer. Plus I get to be on the water for so long! I love that. It was also super nice getting to see my mom again and visit her for such a long time. I still am like how did we ever fit everything into a 2 week visit? It was such a nice time!! Though I am happy to be with Raymond again and start planning the next adventure! 4 weeks till Norway! Until then :)    Read more

    Trip end
    August 6, 2024
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