the return of beer on a boat!

If you ever do anything with your life, you should go find yourself a boat and enjoy a beer on it. And if you just so happen to be in the Düsseldorf area, I've got just the boat for you. 

My history with the beer on the boat is a long and sometimes heartbreaking one. But about 5 minutes after experiencing the bar on the boat for the very first time, I swore right then and there that I would be back! And that's exactly what Katharina and I did a few weeks ago.


If you've talked to me at all in the past month you've probably heard me whining endlessly about the weather. For the past 3 weeks it's been cold and rainy. COLD! like 14ºC/57ºF. In June!! Talk about seasonal affective disorder much? But before the summer cold set in, there was one glorious weekend that was both appropriately sunny and warm enough for the season. So Katharina and I jumped on a train to Düsseldorf, headed for the Rhine, found the bar on the boat, and claimed a corner with a view as our own. 

We had such an amazing time - as one is wont to do with a beer at a bar on a boat - that it only took 2 days for us to return to that magical place. So if ever the weather gets nice again and you can't find me at home (or on Facebook), you'll know where to look! 

The Fievel/Mayflower dichotomy.

At one point on our ferry ride across the North Sea, Andrea I were laying down in the cabin giving our sea-legs some rest, when the following conversation occurred: 

Andrea: I was just thinking, if it's this bad on a boat in 2012, I wonder how bad it was on ships like the Mayflower...

Me: I was just thinking about how journey must have been for Fievel! 

True story. I then spent the rest of the journey singing this song...

Rock the boat

To get to Scotland, Andrea and I were feeling a little creative. Instead of those boring old planes, trains, and automobiles that everyone else takes to get places, we decided to go by boat! 

We got a lot of questions about why we decided to go by ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle. Our main reason was simply to get out of Germany a day earlier. We originally wanted to head up to Scotland for new years, but the people we wanted to visit there were not going to be around until a couple days later. I knew at the point we'd have been in Germany for over 2 weeks and an overnight ferry might be a good solution. 

In the end, I thought the ferry was a really fun alternative to flying if you have some extra time to kill. So for those of you also considering the benefits of seafaring, I've put together a pros and cons list of ferry travel.

Pros:

• It's fun to be on a boat
• There are no luggage restrictions
• It's cost effective considering you're essentially getting travel and a hotel for the same price as a plane ticket
• There are no restrictions as to what you can bring on board (if you want to, say, bring lots of liquids).
• Your ears don't pop
• You don't have to turn off your electronics at the beginning and end of the journey
• You can shower before arriving at your destination
• You don't have to climb over angry people or use scary public restrooms just to go to the bathroom
• You're on a boat!
• It feels like your drunk 24/7 when you try to walk down the hall of a rocking boat.
• The passport/customs people are a lot nicer
• You can tell all your friends you went on a cruise

Cons:

• If you get bad weather like us, the boat rocks like mad
• Everything is about 5x times as expensive on board (but this can easily be avoided by bringing all your own food/drink on board, as there are no restrictions)
• The toilet is located inside the shower 
• It's not super convenient if you do not have an easily accessible port of departure
• You might get bored if your travel companion has a history of motion sickness and refuses to take drugs despite a career of dealing them.
• Public transportation to/from ports isn't as standard as to/from airports
• It's significantly slower than flying
• You're more likely to hit an iceberg a la Titanic than with any other mode of transportation

So as you can see, the pros definitely outweigh the cons. I enjoyed our ferry ride and I definitely want to give it another go, now that I know how it works (e.g. bring all my own food and drink and a travel buddy that doesn't get seasick).