CruisAir's blog ^pro

Today, a new shop at Schiphol airports shopping centre for aviation enthusiasts opened its doors: Planes at Plaza.

Eye-catcher of the shop that can be found in the publicly accesible shopping center on the arrivals level of the terminals is the front section of a former TWA DC-9 painted in home carrier KLM's new colours.

Historically this colour scheme is not correct as a DC-9 of KLM never flew in these colours, the current KLM colour scheme. Other eye-catchers include an authentic DC-10 gear

as well as a motor housing of a DC-10. The shop sells model aircraft, DVDs, toy planes, a few books and a few aviation themed souvenirs but no aviation magazines.

Yesterday evening I returned home from my vacation. It was great, Jelle and I enjoyed every bit of it. We met our great new friends David and Daniel onboard the Diamond Princess, took some fun flights in Hawaii and in Vancouver, made a short train trip on Vancouver Island, had pretty good Lufthansa flights, drank way too much alcohol, I gained about three kilos in weight, we enjoyed the two cruise ships we cruised on very much and I took an endless amount of pictures of which I will upload a selection here as of today.

Edit: boy, what a lot of pictures... I am still uploading to my computer. When done, after subtle retouching [ :-) ] I will start to upload the photos as promised. Thanks for your patience meanwhile.

Hi everybody.

Just a short note from the middle of the pacific ocean somewhere in between Los Angeles and Kona, Hawaii. It's a fascinating idea to sit on a giant cruise liner somewhere in the middle of the ocean and being connected to the internet. So far our journey went as planned and we are now on the second cruise ship during our holiday (yeah, I know, very decadent...) now on our way to Hawaii. Yesterday, our first day at sea after we left L.A. the ship rolled and rocked quite a bit which I didn't like at all and therefore stayed in my bed almost all day long... that was the only position that I didn't suffer from motion sickness. Today the sea luckily is calmer and therefore I can enjoy the cruise again ;-) I hope I have already taken some nice pictures. There even seems to be the possibility to upload them from the internet cafe here onboard but I'll first have to figure out how it works... those minutes are precious... meaning 0.75$ per minute... that's why I stop here and will get back to ya'll later during the trip with an update.

Me, on the Diamond Princess

Greetings from the Diamond Princess,

Guido

Update:at least it now worked to upload a photo though it took me almost 40 minutes to figure out how to do that from this public internet cafe computer onboard the ship. I had to upload the photo to my flickr account via email and from there let ipernity grab it to my ipernity account... anyway, it worked. Best regards,

Guido.

Just a short note to let you know why I haven't uploaded any new pix the last time. Very simple: I used up my monthly upload space and since I am on vacation now I decided to postpone my request for pro-membership. So, as I am back end of October I will have upload space again and I also plan to upgrade my membership to pro-level. Gotta go to bed now urgently, I have an early morning shift and will later leave for my vacation... and therefore: That's all folks, I'm off now... see ya all in a few weeks :-) Kindest regards, Guido

Finally, vacation is near. Only two more days to work and off we are, yeah! Jelle and I will fly to Frankfurt where my parents Lieselotte and Peter from Cologne will join us. During this trip my mother will celebrate her 70th birthday. So we thought we work out something special for her. As she didn't like to do much sightseeing and preferred to have nice and warm weather we finally found something to her taste... ;-) So that is why we will fly from Frankfurt to Vancouver (speaking of warm weather, yeah right...). But: here we will join our first cruise ship this year. We will step aboard of (former dutch) Holland America Line's Zuiderdam, one of their newest ships and a giant one. The Zuiderdam will bring us to Seattle and Los Angeles in four days.

Show a map of the routing

At Los Angeles we will then join our second cruise ship this year. We will join the original Love Boat Line which is Princess Cruises.

From L.A., the Princess Diamond will bring us to the Hawaiian Islands (yeah, now we're talking warm weather, right?!). Again, this is a giant cruise ship and also one of their newest built. We love those big ships as we are really fascinated by the ships, they are sort of destination for us as well. It is so fascinating that such a floating small city actually is a ship, you cannot really believe it, time and time again!

During the trip I might update my blog every once in a while so you can virtually follow along. However, no guarantees given here as this is vacation time for me after all, meaning no obligations for a change... ;-) It's also depending on availability and costs, naturally... ;-) But check this space from time to time, if you're interested. Anyway, I appreciate your interest and say "Mahalo" for that (Thank you in Hawaiian). Aloha to you all and meet you all end of October... (ahh, sounds great...) :-)

Regards from Amsterdam, Guido

Are you interested in civil aviation in general and in Cologne's airport in special? Then consider to pay the continent's largest lowcost airport a visit this weekend, as the "22nd Aviation day" will be held at the airports' modern terminal 2/D this weekend between 10.00 and 18.00hrs. Organized by a spotters group called "Aviation Friends Cologne e.V." this special event is aimed at aviation enthousiasts and therefore offers books, postcards, photos, slides, models and many other aviation related items for sale, swap or buy. In cooperation with the aviation day the internet's leading discussion forum about Cologne Bonn airport - the cgncommunity - will have "open doors" this weekend to allow everyone interested to browse the whole forum without the need to have a registered (but free) membership. So feel free to also surf by and visit the cgncommunity discussion forum or consider joining one of our ipernity groups, cgncommunity | Cologne Bonn airport (CGN) or cgncommunity | aircraft at Cologne Bonn and do not miss to visit the aviation day at the airport either. But this post is not about sniffing into airports and forums but also about my cold I managed to get the last days... I hate it... why did it have to happen now shortly before my vacation next week?... Aaargh, hopefully sniffing is over on monday. ;-) Have a great (aviation) weekend, enjoy yourselfs :-) ________________________________________________________________________________________ *** For german speaking readers here are the original infos about above mentioned topics: "Schnupperwochenende" in der Community zum Aviation Day Hallo Community und Community-Gäste Aus Anlass des Aviation Day Samstag am Kölner-Bonner Airport bietet die Community dieses Wochenende einmalig die Gelegeheit, auch als Gast die bislang registrierten Mitgliedern vorbehaltenen Unterforen zu lesen. Die Community wird via unserem Team-Mitglied HLX4U und dem User RHBDirk mit einem Online-Auftritt am Aviation Day vertreten sein. Dort kann man das Forum "vor Ort" ausprobieren. Wir würden uns freuen, wenn Interessierte und bereits registrierte User uns einen kurzen Besuch abstatten würden, sei es online oder direkt am Tisch der Community am Flughafen! Viele Grüße Alex, Foren-Admin _____________________________________________________________________________________ Tauschen, kaufen und verkaufen Der „22. Aviation Day“ wieder am Köln Bonn Airport Die Aviation Friends Cologne/Bonn e.V. veranstalten gemeinsam mit dem Köln Bonn Airport den „22. Aviation Day 2007“. Am Samstag, den 22. September 2007, findet wieder am Köln Bonn Airport statt. Zwischen 10:00 und 18:00 Uhr treffen sich in Terminal 2/D alle Interessierten und Sammler unter den Luftfahrtbegeisterten und bilden ein Forum zum Informieren, Tauschen, Kaufen und Verkaufen. Schwerpunkte sind u.a. Flugzeugmodelle aller Größen und Arten, Bücher, Postkarten, Fotos, Dias und alles Weitere was mit der zivilen und militärischen Luftfahrt zu tun hat. Gewerbliche und private Anbieter bilden dabei einen interessanten Mix für jüngere und ältere Besucher. Eine Präsentation von ausgesuchten Modellflugzeugen rundet das reichhaltige Angebot ab. +++ Der Eintritt ist frei +++

I was walking back on memory lane today. Since some days for whatever reason there was a song on my mind that I remembered I liked very much as a teenager. I could not remember the name of the group however I remembered it was somehow italian but it was sung in english and the title included something with "Highway to ...?" and I couldn't remember the questionmark. I thought it was heaven but when you look on google or itunes for a title with something like "Highway to Heaven" you get lots of links as this was the title of a very popular tv series from that era as well. But today, all of a sudden, I thought it must be "freedom" instead of "heaven". And with that I immediately found one of my then favourite songs ;-) Anybody here knows it or remembers it? It was sung by a group called "Fahrenheit 104" and it's called "Highway to Freedom". It's so wrong because it's somehow "kitsch" at its best but on the other hand I still love it :-) So if you want to either love or enjoy it, here's the youtube version: it's not allowed to embed the video,
so please follow the link to TubeCode where you can click the video to start it on youtube. By the way, does anybody have any idea if I can find an mp3 version of the original somewhere? I should still have the original single at my parent's home but that's 'ancient' technique and I don't have a record player anymore, let alone I wouldn't know how to transfer it from vinyl to digital... ;-) At least itunes had a version by dutch artist Lee Towers but I think the original is much better, of course :-) Oh, and please don't hit me for my bad taste in music... you wouldn't believe how weired my taste is... ;-) Greetings from Amsterdam, Guido

I just read an internet article in german newspaper "Die Welt" about George W. Bush's newest plan: [read here in german] in future he wants any person coming to the U.S. without Visa to submit specific information 48 hours before entering the country! They are really getting completely nuts if this is going to be introduced. It's so out of this world, that'll never work! How can then anybody spontaneously decide to make a trip to the U.S.? I know from experience (I work as a ticket agent for an airline) that people come to the airport and decide right on the spot to make a trip to the U.S. the same day. So in future if George's plans are introduces this would not be possible. How about all the business people who must make important business trips, can they wait 48 hours? Will they all want to apply for a visa to avoid the 48 hour rule then in the future? All airline staff will never ever be able again to fly to the U.S. as we can never tell 48 hours in advance if we are going to be on a certain flight as most of us rely on a space available ticket which in many cases we only buy on short notice and therefore also don't know the ticket number in advance - to me this government of the U.S. makes it less and less attractive to visit the U.S.A. It's a beautiful country which I have visited many times already but my desire to go back is diminishing by every new "blunder" George W. commits... Sad story, George and his government are going completely nuts.

In preparation for our vacation I thought I start ironing some shirts and stuff. I am one of those persons that hate ironing and therefore once clothes are washed they get folded and stacked away somewhere in the closet. When I intend to wear something I will therefore have to iron it first. But to me that seems to be the most perfect solution to avoid unnecessary ironing... Anyway, after my friend (who applies the same strategy with his clothes...) had started to iron the stupid electric iron stopped working after only three shirts. Is it only us or is this a general "feature" built in every iron that they simply do not work that long...? I mean, this one (a Siemens make) used to serve us for quite some time now but still it's only one of several we have bought the last years. They should last longer than just a few months but on the other hand what is still built for eternity? It's a shame. But hey, that saved me from ironing for today ;-)

I confess: that's what I am, I am addicted to coffee. :-) And I think it's my mother's fault... or was it my grandpa when he fed me coffee with a spoon when I was a baby... ;-) It doesn't matter anymore... I drink a lot of coffee. At work, at home, when "on the road".
At home, we usually drink Senseo coffee. Even though I think it's not the best coffee out there it's a very convenient way of making a fresh cup of coffee. I prefer it to filter coffee at home because I tend to forget that there is still coffee in the pot when I am busy with things... and if coffee was standing too long it's simply disgusting... even though I can drink it, but I sure don't like it... an alternative at home would be to drink the Nespresso, we have a machine for that as well. I really love the nespresso, it's great coffee, very convenient and the Nespresso design cups - like this one shot by stewart.leiwakabessy are very desirable to have. ;-) We even have a coffee percolator (once bought at Ikea) but I have never ever used it, too much of a hassle - I am sooo spoiled... At work we drink "normal" filter coffee which I would consider to be better tastewise than the senseo. When at home at my family I am used to and simply love the coffee my mom always makes, it's what she calls "schmutziger" (german for dirty) coffee - meaning it's not filtered but the coffee ground is in the pot and when you pour it it get's in your cup as well... but I like it's taste and color - oh ya, it's the coffee that is known to others as "turkish coffee" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_coffee , though my mom makes it her own version... ;-) Finally when away from home I love to make a visit to Starbucks. I am glad that good coffee has finally arrived to the U.S.A. ... But of course their coffees are much too expensive, but I like 'em.
So are you addicted to coffee as well? What do you drink?

a station near you? I now uploaded a collection of my station photos and they can be all found back in the new folder "stations".

Do you guys like trains and do you also use it? I go to work with the train daily. For me it's most convenient as it's only a seven minute train ride to my work whereas it would take about 30 minutes if I would take the car to work (because of the longer car ride and the need to park far away from the work place and catch a shuttle bus from the parking place). Some years ago we even got rid of our car and since then we only (have to) rely on public transport. But it's simply a matter of planning ahead to find suitable connections on trains, trams and buses. How about you, what's your daily hassle to get work? ;-)

Greetings from Amsterdam, Guido

Not to long ago I was looking for some airline commercials over at youtube (did I mention that I have a passion for aviation, as well?)... I came across this commercial which I really like:

I like the Frontier corporate image and the way they promote themselves.

Frankfurt Airport has a nice bookshop somewhere in the arrivals hall which is dedicated to aviation. It was there that I saw a book about "old" Swissair sales posters with really beautiful, stunning photography.

Guido

P.S.: I am experimenting a bit here to see what I can do and how to do it. I really like that blogging part of ipernity. Hope you don't mind. ;-)

Online travel guide publishes one of my photos. … read more

Navigator of the Seas

It's still a few weeks ahead but already I am counting down till I finally go on my yearly vacation... and guess what? I am going to cruise again! :-) I am really looking forward to it, can't wait 'till I am finally aboard a new ship. This time we will sail on a Holland America Ship, the "Zuiderdam", just for a few days. Anyway, I'll be around here for a few more weeks to come. Regards again from Amsterdam, Guido

Oh my god, it's already 01.15 and I'm still surfing on ipernity (isn't there a nice short commonly agreed on nickname for the site?...like, "ity" or such?)... and I have to be at my work fresh and shiny and wide awake at 06.00... I think I should go to bed now... well, to make it short: I am off this coming weekend for a change (yeah, I work shifts and I am only off every third weekend) and I will leave Friday afternoon to visit my family in Cologne. No updates in the next three days, therefore. I wish you all a pleasant and enjoyable weekend. Greetings from Amsterdam, Guido

After "moving" in here at ipernity I now managed to transfer the first few pictures from flickr. And I even started "decorating" the "house" by creating the first albums so I can get a similar structure in my stream as I had over at flickr. Please bear with me while I am still busy to transfer my pix from flickr to ipernity and not all pictures have the same and/or all tags right away. I am working on that. Thanks for your patience, I hope you enjoy the photos anyway if you haven't done so before over at flickr. Regards from Amsterdam, Guido

Funny thing, a few days ago I hadn't even heard about this place called ipernity and now I am sort of moving in this new "house" from my old home over at flickr. But what happened? Since mid may I was cut off from internet by my dutch provider KPN. It took them until last Friday to at least reinstate my internet access on a temporary basis while they try to re-establish my old connection. During my three month absence from the internet something happened over at flickr, the place where I felt comfortable showing my photos: they introduced censorship for a whole country (several, to be precise) and one of the countries is my home country of Germany. I do live in Holland now but my Yahoo ID, necessary to sign in to flickr, somehow was german. So in fact I was censored and felt censored. What a mess, finally I could get back on the internet and I really looked forward to upload pictures again to flickr (not that I could not do without but hey, you have to have a hobby...) and then I felt many doubts. I like flickr technically speaking. It did for me just what I wanted and the price per year was/is absolutely ok. But it didn't feel right and I also noticed many people moving some place else. So I started looking around. I noticed that one of my contacts from flickr who was photomotion had disappeared there. So I wondered what went on and after some "googleing" I found that he had moved to this site which I hadn't heard of before. The site looked attractive and obviously does the same thing as flickr and maybe a bit more. That's when I thought to give it a try. So here I am, your new neighbour. For the time being I will start to decorate my new (second?) home which actually translates into I'm not uploading on flickr but only here. I'll keep my presence at flickr as is and will later decide if I keep a presence at both, flickr and ipernity and/or even zooomr which I also looked into but which is still too much beta for me when I tried it. Regards from Amsterdam, Guido