We've been ordering room service for breakfast because that's the only way to get breakfast before 8AM. The room service meals are just standard breakfast fares, so I won't be writing about that. I spent the rest of my morning reading and people watching at one of the bars on board. It was uneventful and relaxing...ah...vacations...
Ok, now comes the food bit. I do believe yesterday's dinner was the turning point in our dining experience on the Volendam. Lunch was scrumptious. Mom and I both started with honeydew melon and papaya with ginger syrup. I've tried my hand at ginger syrup and watermelon chunks unsuccessfully in the past. The ginger syrup I made was to pungent; it tasted medicinal. I much appreciated the refreshing taste of this dish done right. My next dish was smoked salmon tartare with wasabi creme fraiche and pickled red onion. This really wasn't tartare. Nonetheless, it tasted pretty good. The grilled miso glazed king salmon and zucchini pancake was nothing special. It tastes like something from a regular business lunch in a downtown restaurant. I decided to give dessert another shot and was pleasantly surprised by the earl grey chocolate pot de creme. It wasn't sweet and had a subtle bitter taste. The creme could be lighter, but compared to my previous experience, this was a dessert high. I liked how the white chocolate shavings look like icebergs floating on the creme, perhaps alluding to our Glacier Bay viewing later on today?
Apart from the papaya dish, mom's lunch consisted of chilled strawberry soup blended with lemon sorbet (excellent! this time the fruit soup didn't taste sickeningly sweet), beer-battered lingcod (another good choice), and a slice of citrus meringue pie (*shrug* we both hate meringue).
After lunch, we hit the deck as we entered Glacier Bay. It goes without saying that this was one of the highlights of the trip. What's a trip to Alaska without seeing a formidable glacier?
Another HAL ship entering Glacier Bay
The passengers went crazy pushing and shoving to get good views. I ended up climbing a rail at the front of the ship on the top deck to get the following shots.
Margerie Glacier
Calving!
Calving aftermath
View from the Crow's Nest of us leaving Glacier Bay
Captain Pieter Visser giving a thickly accented toast
This was kind of uninviting. Is it a lobster or a scorpion?
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