 21 April 2007At Sea With breakfast in the dining room we begin a day at sea aboard the Veendam. After leaving Dubrovnik at sunset yesterday we have sailed South past Albanian and Macedonia and are heading for Greek waters.  We won't be stopping anywhere today, which allows the opportunity for Second Breakfast in the open air up on deck overlooking the water.  For some reason spotting another ship in the distance is always very exciting.  A beautiful straight wake stretches out behind us. Steering such a straight wake takes skill. Unless, of course, you are steered by computer, I guess. Computers are good at that kind of thing.  Another ship in the distance, and another not very interesting photo.  I think that's the same ship as a second ago. But just in case you're thinking that we're going to spend today wandering around the ship being bored and looking at ships in the distance, then have no fear. There is plenty on the schedule for today. Our Daily Program introduces us to our Captain, Albert J. Schoonderbeek and reminds us of a few important things for today: - Tonight's Dress Code is Formal - Please set your clocks ahead one hour before retiring this evening - During the night we sailed past the Italian "Boot" and into the Ionian Sea. - Tonight is the Captain's Champagne reception... And so on, like that. (Give me a break.... the program is four pages long. The point being that there's lots of things going on.)  With a number of different activities to choose from it is sometimes difficult to decide what to do. For example, I have never been on a tour of the galley on board ship, so that was something I was interested in doing today. Here a bunch of us wait to go on the Veendam Galley Tour.  Before departing on the tour we are given an information sheet and map of what we shall see. We shall be going through the Galley in the same direction as the staff must do during meal service (check out the arrows). Obviously during busy times the Galley is a pretty chaotic place, therefore the rule is have everyone move through in the same direction.  And so we start the Galley Tour. The first thing that is obvious is the radical change in décor. Stepping from the dining room we enter a stark metal world of stainless steel and bright fluorescent lighting. The galley is where 90% of the food is prepared on board the ship for its 1200 passengers and 540 crew members.  This is the Dish Wash area where they will handle something like 3000 dinner plates, 7000 dessert plates, 2000 side plates, 5000 glasses, etc. (Evidently dessert is a popular thing as its plates outnumber the other plates.)  The hand-washing sign is in English and what I presume to be Indonesian and Filipino. I find it interesting that Holland America have so many Indonesians as crew. Most cruise lines have mostly Filipino, I think. But I assume this is because of the long-standing connection between the Dutch and Indonesia. Also interestingly enough, in addition to the cooks for the passengers there are also 2 Indonesian and 1 Filipino cook on board to prepare meals for the crew. I take this to indicate that there is a 2:1 ratio of Indonesian to Filipino crew members. I also further take this to indicate that neither the Indonesians or Filipinos are all that interested in eating the same food as the passengers. This might be smart because they are all very thin whereas many of the passengers are not.  It seems that for the sake of efficiency the crew people must be multi-talented. In addition to being cooks some must also be artists.  Here we see one of the cook/artists carving an ice-carving that people will walk past tonight on their way to dinner and perhaps a few might notice and comment on.  Look at that bin of watermelons at the back to the right side. Maybe one of those guys is the one who does the interesting watermelon carvings that adorn the buffet line every day.  There are always these trays of fresh fruit around, even in your staterooms. But I can't imagine coming out of the dining room and thinking, yes, I'd like a banana right about now.  Here we see some cooks preparing platters of different cheeses. I have to say that I would like to have some proper Dutch cheese while onboard a Dutch ship. I think my time in Holland has made me elitist when it comes to cheese.  Here we see some of the bakers preparing pastries and apple tarts. The Baker and his staff prepare more than 20 kinds of bread each day, including 120 loaves of bread, 100 loaves of French Bread, 4000 dinner rolls, 800 Danish, as well as hamburger and hotdog buns, etc.  Entering the Hot Kitchen now we see a wall lined with examples of all the dishes prepared aboard the Veendam. Somehow when I see all of them on the wall like this it's a bit McDonalds-Assembly-Line-like and the magical image of chefs sitting in the kitchen preparing food is lost. But, of course, you can't feed so many people without such a system. And besides which, there's enough variety on this wall that 90% of what's shown here would not even be served during our stay.  A bit of a zoom on some of the dishes. Thai Beef Salad, English Roast Beef, and Turkey Cranberry burger sound good.  Some of the Hot Kitchen cooks in what looks a lot like a McDonalds kitchen.  One of the head chefs - Chef Tomas (he's German) - explains to us how things work here in the Galley.  You may notice that Chef Tomas has a very tall hat. The reason for this, he explains, is so that in the crowd of a busy kitchen the supervisors can easily be spotted.  The atmosphere in here is certainly far less organised and quiet during meal service times.  And so we make our way out of the Galley as the tour comes to an end. But I find this interesting that they have escalators in the Galley to carry the stewards up to the upper level of the dining room. An escalator instead of stairs, of course, will save a lot of dropped plates. As we leave the Galley it might interest you to know how much food will be prepared during an average week on board the Veendam:
 Immediately after leaving the Galley Tour we make our way to the Culinary Arts Centre where the special guest chef for this voyage is Michael Symon and he will be showing us how to prepare a couple of his recipes.   I include the two recipes for anyone who might be interested in such things. Carmela, maybe?  As you can see, the cooking demonstration is quite popular. And Michael Symon is himself apparently quite a special chef as well and has appeared on Iron Chef as well as his own cooking network programs as well.  After the demonstration is over, some samples of the recipes are brought in by the Veendam's chefs for everyone to sample.  Back outside again after a morning of tours and demonstrations we see some land off in the distance. Greece, I assume.  There seems to be a constant haze on the water here in the Mediterranean. Everything in the distance is always slightly obscured and hazy.  Fast-forward ahead to evening. (I took a nap, okay?) The pool has been covered for the night. For some reason they close the pools on the Veendam rather early. I am not sure why.  It's always strange to see birds on board a ship. This one is taking shelter from the wind and trying to find a quiet corner.  Another bird steps out of the pool-side showers. Interesting colouring on these birds. I ain't never seen yellow-breasted birds before.  Another view of the islands and mainland of Greece off in the distance.  I came out on deck to see the sunset, but it seems that with all this cloud we might not see much.  It doesn't look like there will be much of a sunset, does it?  Sunset or not, it's still very pleasant to sit up here in the open air with islands streaming past us.  Okay. Last picture and then it's off to dress for dinner. Tonight's dress code is formal, as you may recall, which means annoyance for me. This isn't going to court where I can pull a jacket over a black t-shirt and black jeans and call that dressing up.  Okay. Sorry. I forgot to take pictures of dinner. So it's time for bed. The bed has been drawn down and chocolates left. A note reminds us to turn our clocks ahead. Oh yah, and there's a towel elephant on the bed waiting for us when we return from dinner. |
