Bahamas

ITINERARY:
Very early on Apr 14, 2004 I leave Vista in a rented car from Budget for Los Angeles airport. Here I board an American Airlines plane to Ft. Lauderdale in Florida. There I board the ship “MV Discovery.”
Overnight the ship sails to Nassau, a capital of the island country BAHAMAS. There is a sightseeing tour of Nassau in the morning. In the afternoon, I go by myself by boat to nearby Paradise Island with “Hotel Atlantis,” whose grounds I stroll through.
After two days on the Atlantic Ocean with some interesting lectures our ship lands in Hamilton in Bermuda on Apr 18. The island belongs to United Kingdom. I take part in a sightseeing tour of the island with stops at an aquarium and a cave. In the afternoon, I visit the Royal Naval Dockyard with its fortress by myself using a ferry and a bus to get there. Later I take photos and video of Gibb’s Hill Lighthouse. The following day I visit St. George by a local bus. It was the first capital of Bermuda. In the afternoon I walk through Hamilton, the present capital of Bermuda including the Hamilton Fort.
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ITINERARY:
On Jan 3, 2010 late in the afternoon I drive an AVIS car from Vista to Los Angeles airport. In the evening I board a Delta Airlines plane. Without asking I got a first class seat to Fort Lauderdale in Florida. The plane lands there at very early hours of Jan 4. Later on I am taken to the ship Holland America “Noordam” (built 2006; 81,769 gross tonnage; 1,918 passengers and 620 crews). Noordam sails in the evening that day.
On Jan 5 Noordam anchors near Half Moon Cay in BAHAMAS. This island is rented by Holland America. I spend about 2 hours there. The following day the ship docks at Grand Turks > in TURKS & CAICOS a British colony. I explore the island partly on foot and partly in a van.
On Jan 7 our ship anchors at Samana Peninsula in the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. I take a bus tour of the Peninsula. We see some waterfalls, a number of hotels with beaches, a botanical garden and production of cigars.
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