... i got a little bit singed on the Saturday while visiting the various naval vessels in Den Helder. It was a fun day, although there were a number vessels where the bags had to be left behind and no photography was allowed inside the ship which is something that usually has a negative effect on me (if I can't take pictures then it is not really worth my time and I usually go through things rather quickly). I was kinda thinking of going today (Sunday) as well for the various demonstrations that are being given, but the weather service here is warning for extremely dangerous weather in the afternoon so will stay home and probably watch a bunch of lunatics on bikes battling for some yellow-colored t-shirt as they are going to encounter the predicted extremely dangerous weather...
In the mean time, a few pics that I took...
Belgian Frigate
Leopold I.
Bow of the Dutch Submarine
Dolfijn.
Dutch Submarine
Zeeleeuw.
Dutch Submarine
Bruinvis. It was possible to get a guided tour on her as well as the
Walrus, but you had to get tickets somewhere to be able to do that. Since I originally missed the location, by the time I found it, tickets were no longer available. Even so, no bags allowed and no photography either. The white boat to the right moving away is the old pilot boat Castor which was used for the pirate demonstration and for the price of 12.50 euros it was possible to be part of that demonstration.
... and now two different ways of checking and storing bags...
... the way it was done aboard the LPD
Johan de Witt...
... and the way it was done for the LPD
Rotterdam (actually "the picking up your bag" part)...
In my opinion it was way better handled aboard the
Johan de Witt than aboard the
Rotterdam. It is possible that they were a bit easier aboard the
Johan de Witt for it was okay for me to take along my bag. I haven't been on board of the
Rotterdam (obviously due to the ridiculously long line for picking up the bags) but I am fairly sure that I would have had to leave my bag there. The big problem is that even if you did not leave a bag behind, you would most likely be stuck in that long line anyway while with the
Johan de Witt there was plenty of space inside for people to go and pick up their bag and for those who did not have a bag to walk right by any potential line-ups.