het onderzoeken

Thursday 31st May 2007

4:12 p.m. CET Had a steady night last night, which was a welcome interlude from the busy nights of late. Despite it not being especially busy, there were a few couples who were requesting songs and stayed until the end.

The weather has been superb today, after lunch one of the guys from the band lent me his bicycle and after making my way through the freight terminal and exploring the port a bit, I rode down the path between the canal and the main road just outside the port for a couple of miles or so, passing several aerogenerators, peering down on the passing traffic from behind the trees like giant alien observers, and I also saw several big barges, some of them being shunted by tug boats down the canal. I stopped at what appeared at first glance to be an orchard, but after closer investigation it seemed to be more of an abandoned picnic area, which had become overrun by rabbits.

Having examined a map of the local area I now know that the harbour that houses the mooring for P&O Ferries is called Beneluxhaven, and the nearest settlement to the port is a place called Kruiningergors, which is only actually a couple of kilometres away. The nearest town is Oostvoorne, which is about twice that distance (as the crow flies), but would be fairly accessible on a bike. I think I will make a trip down there sometime, but I think that would be more of a day out rather than an afternoon amble.

As well as getting some fresh air and some exercise, and familiarising myself with the surrounding area, one other advantage to my small-scale expedition was stumbling across the Seafarer’s Centre, which is at a hotel not far away. Apparently they have a swimming pool which is free to use, so I will definitely be making use of that at some point during the next week or so.

Friday 1st June 2007

11:12 a.m. BST Not the most satisfying of nights last night, although it was very busy and there were people listening and making requests, the evening didn’t flow all that well, not least during the first part of the evening, when attention was diverted by an enormous thunderstorm that rolled overhead just before our departure from Europort. Before my 9 o’clock set I was stood in the doorway of the crew deck and witnessed some pretty spectacular lightning and very loud thunder. During my first vocal set I saw the sunset on the horizon, despite the huge thundercloud, which was quite an unusual and extraordinary sight. Later on during my break, after we had left the port and were out in open sea, I was watching the storm which was still very active on the horizon, with the clouds occasionally glowing and flickering silver and gold.

It wasn’t until getting ready for work yesterday evening that I noticed that I had been rather badly sun-burnt during my cycling expedition! Fortunately it wasn’t too painful and it has now largely faded.

Footnote: I have just been reading an article about Europort on Wikipedia which claims that the Pride of Rotterdam and Pride of Hull are the largest passenger ferries in the world!

Footnote 2: 'het onderzoeken' is Dutch for 'exploring'. In case you didn't know.