ms Volendam: The Library

One side of the library on Volendam

My favourite room - the library on the 'Volendam'. It's huge, big enough to incorporate a cafe and bigger than the library in my small home town! With floor to ceiling windows, Eames chairs and ottomans and leather couches, it's a place in which to spend many relaxing hours on sea days.
  At one end of the library is a long Italian marble table, inlaid with coloured flower motifs. It's ideal for spreading out the large atlases that are available. I like doing that to plot our course. Bookcases line the walls with a selection of history books and biographies that feature the lives of many famous people.

Explorations Cafe on Volendam

   The middle section of the library has a large table for jigsaws and another comfortable leather couch to curl up on. Here also is the Explorations cafe. If you feel like coffee and cookies while reading, the barista will make your order, for a small charge.
   Lots more bookcases have a great range of travel books and guides, the latest best sellers, novels, and beautiful photographic art and architecture, and wildlife books. There's even a book exchange for people who've finished with their own books and want to swap for another.         

Read and relax in Volendam's library

The other end of the room has computer stations, more couches and the ever so comfortable Eames chairs placed by the windows. So comfortable that you'll often find people have settled in them with a good book, then dozed off in the sun. You can read to the musical accompaniment of gentle snoring.

   A long table holds the latest edition magazines and newspapers. Every day, you can pick up a sheet of sudoku puzzles and the daily quiz questions (they're hard!). There's a prize for the person who gets the most correct answers. But don't get too excited - it's usually the dreaded luggage label!