I
guess this is more of a novel than a blog, but here goes.
Well,
it sounded good on paper…
Every
year when we’re on vacation, we do a little planning for our next vacation, so
we won’t be so sad when it’s over. It’s good to always have something to look
forward to. So 2014 found us lounging in Fiji, enjoying our “heap” of
pineapple, soaking up the luxury of our presidential suite scored when our room
wasn’t ready. Life was good. Thinking of stepping a little outside what we’ve
done in the past, when an email came in advertising a 29-day Panama Canal/
transatlantic cruise ending in Copenhagen, for only $1800 each, we decided to
go for it. Being a year in advance, we found out would garner us double points,
elevating us to gold level in the Latitudes program. So I set about making plans, 5 days in
Copenhagen, train to Paris (one from Bill’s bucket list), and maybe a river
cruise? I called my old buddy Mel, since I knew he & Sherry had done river cruising
several times before. He travels with Vantage, a travel agency out of Boston.
He sang their praises, and we decided to book the exact trip they went on… 5
days in Prague, and a river ride from Budapest to Bucharest. In spite of it
being akin to the national debt, we decided we’re worth it. And I discovered I
still had some US savings bonds from the 80’s, with accrued interest that would
pay for the whole thing. Woot! My friends in the WTF’s advised that I
absolutely should make this trip. For those out of the loop, that's "Walky Talky Friends," my Tue/Thur walking group.
We were due to leave on April 12. Bill
took off work a week early, in order to have everything at the house in good
shape for Eddy & Julie who would be staying there while they had their
kitchen remodeled. I had even started tossing things in the suitcase so as not
to forget anything when on April 6, just as I was looking online to select which
specialty restaurant we would select for our anniversary dinner on 4/17, I got
a call from Catcher Lester @ VacationstoGo with some news that left me
speechless (a rare thing for me). Our 29-day cruise that we had planned for a
year had been cancelled. The ship’s azipod (propulsion device) needed repairs, and
it was going into dry dock. Noooooooo! After planning a full year in advance, I
couldn’t believe what was happening. The entire rest of the itinerary was based
on us landing in Copenhagen on May 11. I had been corresponding with Gerd, the
proprietor of B&B Rosa for months, and had reserved a room, no easy feat
given the price of accommodations in Copenhagen. Breathe deeply. It’s going to
be OK. Really.
I chatted w/Catcher Lester about other
possible alternatives, and he told me that NCL was refunding the full amount,
unless we cared to rejoin the ship in Miami in 2 weeks, and do the
transatlantic crossing as planned. Uh, no thanks, we’ll pass. So full refund,
plus a 50% credit for the refunded 1st leg of the trip since it was
the only part actually cancelled. But one small catch – the credit had to be
used within 6 months. Being that our current trip was to be 3 months, and I’d
be doing the annual Alaska cruise after that, it was a case of now or never.
Catcher Lester reviewed some Caribbean cruise on NCL, which would be basically
free except for port fees & taxes, and he found a transatlantic cruise on
the Royal Princess, leaving the day the NCL ship got back, out of Ft.
Lauderdale, about a 40 minute cab ride away, landing in London 2 weeks later.
SOLD! That meant an unexpected day of sightseeing in London, and the
unfortunate need to put our butts on an airplane again, to get to Copenhagen to
hook up with our original itinerary. The bottom line for cruise #1 was just
$448 for the two of us after the credit. It was on the NCL Getaway, a mega-ship
(>4000 passengers), something we’ve carefully avoided up until now. But
guess what? We loved it!
 |
| They Kept bringing us chocolate dipped strawberries |
 |
| They have a nifty serenity deck |
 |
| We had great weather |
Embarkation was a breeze, going straight from the
airport after a long, uncomfortable red-eye in the back of a set of United
planes, into a no-hassle, everything is ready for you, welcome aboard. Whew! We
made it. Flying the night before a cruise is always risky, but we really didn’t
have much choice. The ports weren’t memorable at all (St. Maarten, St. Thomas,
and Nassau), but the ship experience was fabulous. We hooked up with some
fellow displaced Cruise Critic members (Sunny Vegas and Tacklebox Dave), and
just generally enjoyed ourselves, going to the hot tub & pool area every
day, looking for internet each port. It was a simple life. At this point I
started sending messages to Sharon each day, so the blog adventure tale will
just be a cut & paste of those messages. Each day I captured the highlights,
many details that would have slipped out of mind if I waited until the end of
the trip to start writing about it.
So
here is how I told our tales to Sharon (and eventually cc’d Meredith, Eddy,
Jill, Judy, & Carol)…
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2015 10:36 PM
S FO: We’re boarding soon, hoping for seats together. I told the
story of it being our anniversary, and how we were supposed to be on a cruise
right now. We’ll see. ‘Bye for now.
PS I left my phone on the charger, but Julie spotted it before
we got out to Hamilton Ave. Woot!
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Subject: A Little Sun & Fun
Subject: A Little Sun & Fun
I
talked to you after we got onboard on Sat, having survived our redeye flight,
complete with crying babies. Did you know the USL terminal @ SFO is all torn
up? We had to go outside for quite a way because they had it all blocked off
and under construction. The only pleasant surprise on the initial part of our
journey was the taxi ride from the airport to the cruise terminal was only $27.
Heck, it costs that to get from SJC to our house. The dude driving made us a
bit nervous as he was driving, as he was continually using his cell phone, and
not hands-free. He kept looking at it. I didn’t inquire if FL has laws on the
issue, but you’d think taxi drivers should have their eyes on the road, yeah? I
didn’t say anything. Instead I just put on my seatbelt. And we got there safe
& sound. It was a bit of a relief to spy the ship ahead. Embarkation wasn’t
bad at all, particularly given that there were going to be 4,000 passengers
boarding. Once we go onboard, we began to get more and more encouraged, as the
ship was sparkling. Our room was a nice size, including the shower. It had a real
door, not that icky curtain that sticks to your legs when you try to turn
around.
We
fought sleep, and managed to stay up all day, until 10:00PM that day… amazing.
The whole redeye thing generally makes that first day a struggle.
Tuesday
we were in St Maarten, but other than taking the water taxi to town &
walking around a bit, we really didn’t do much. The water was a beautiful
turquoise color, and the weather was nice, so rather than pay $25 to rent 2
chairs & an umbrella on the beach, we just went back to the ship, to the
adult-only area and snagged primo seats and an umbrella. We had a nice Latin
lunch, and a bucket a bucket of beer. The beer might have been cheaper on land,
but we were ever so much more comfortable. And Bill didn’t have to get sand in
his sandals. We did go looking for more sunscreen, but couldn’t find anything
with enough SPF to do the job. We pretty much used up the can we brought, in
our first 2 days out on deck. Instead of a pool they have a water feature where
you can sit and get sprayed every so often. It definitely helps relieve the
heat.
Yesterday
we figured out that we were supposed to have made reservations for the shows we
wanted to see. Mon. night we went to a surprisingly good show called “Burn the
Floor” and we got there just as it started, and walked right in and got decent
seats. The show was like a session of Dancing with the Stars – great dancing.
What we found out is that if you don’t have reservations, you go at the last
minute, hoping for no-shows. Last night we went to a comedy show, and found
without reservations we had to wait in a long stand-by line. But we still got
in. So far meals have worked out well, as we’ve just walked in whenever we
want, and were immediately seated. Part of the reason is they were handing out
free specialty dining as a bonus for last-minute bookings, and that frees up
the other places. We opted for the free pre-paid gratuities since we generally
find the regular dining room food to be just fine. We always ask for a
shared table, and generally get it. In weird coincidences, we’ve run into two
more couples besides the 8 we knew about, here because of the cancelled Panama
Canal cruise. A number of them are going to try again next year, on the NCL
Pearl. We’re like this small band of survivors. Our group of 8 from the Cruise
Critic bulletin board met at the meet & greet, and stayed after the big
group meeting to commiserate and compare notes about what the line offered in
the way of compensation. One couple didn’t get the free
gratuities/dining/drinks choice. We met another one on the water taxi today.
She is Australian, and very good natured about the whole debacle. Since there’s
nothing you can do about it, you might as well enjoy whatever is. We met
because I offered to tuck in the tag sticking out of her shirt. She is planning
to get on the original ship when it gets out of dry dock, to continue to trip
on to Copenhagen. I sure hope it actually happens, and there are no problems.
I don’t know if I’m just an old fuddy-duddy or what, but I found much of the
comic’s routine last night to be not funny at all. He was talking about
drinking & driving, including going the wrong way on the road, as if that’s
something to laugh about. Sorry, but drunk driving just isn’t funny.
We
were walking by on the way to dinner on a formal night when we got sucked in by
a barker offering pics with the captain. So we stopped by, and found that he
was chatting with each set of passengers. I told him we were refugees from the
Star, and he was sympathetic, but quick to point out it wasn’t their fault. It
was the contractor who did the original repairs when it was in dry dock in
March.
We
found ourselves front row at a lounge, the mojito bar, with a Cuban salsa band,
and boy, were we ever treated to a sight. There was an older couple who got up
to dance, and they never stopped, and that old guy could really move those
hips. I got a little snippet of video, but I haven’t mastered knowing when it’s
on, so there is some trimming that needs to be done before I can share it.
Watching them just made m,e smile. And Bill made a happy discovery, too, a
pineapple/coconut mojito. Neither of us are fans of mojitos, but the one he got
that night was amazing. We decided we should go to their mojito tasting, but
managed to miss it. I didn’t get one, because I ordered a chocolate martini.
I’m pretty sure there will be another opportunity, but this ship is so huge,
it’s a big decision where to go each evening. I think we’re going to try for
the dueling pianos show tonight, and we want to be on deck @ 10:45 for the
fireworks display. Tomorrow in St. Thomas we’re going to see if we can get some
wi-fi to check our email.
I
see on the news that the reserve cop who shot that guy “by accident” thinking
it was his taser, is headed for the Bahamas, where we’re going. He plead not
guilty. Oy. See ya whenever.
PS
going to St. Thomas right now, to try to find internet. I attached a pic of
yesterday @ St Maarten and Bill in our adult-deck waterfall cool-off spot. Love
it!
Sent: Saturday, April 25, 2015
Subject: Love it that much
Subject: Love it that much
WED
St. Thomas:
We
love this ship so much that we bought a future cruse deal that will cover the
$250 deposit any time in the next 4 years, and give us $100 in shipboard credit
now. It’s good for any NCL cruise. We’re still going to do a Panama Canal trip,
maybe next year. OMG, Mere and the girls are going to have such an amazing time
on their cruise. I’m sitting on my balcony in port tight now listening to a
reggae dude playing & trying to get folks up to dance. $2 beers, ya know.
Oh, and after I thought about it a little more, I signed up for a second future
cruise, this time for $125 current credit. So now the margaritas & mai tais
will flow.
We
met an interesting gal outside a little while ago who works on a private yacht
for an old filthy rich guy from AIG. I suggested that the money might be a
teeny bit tainted, but she said he just won a big case against the US gov’t.
She has also worked with the Gates family, with equestrian things. She said
they were nice. She also said we were the first people to talk to her the whole
cruise. She’s in the new single studio cabin category that doesn’t make a
single pay double. Interestingly enough, we were seated with a similar person
at dinner last night, a young man who looks a lot like Brian, a software dude
from Florida living in NYC, working for a software startup. Anyway, we invited
yacht girl Joslyn to join us for dinner tonight, and I think she will. See if
you can figure out who her rich guy is… Tony, aka Mr G, age 88, AIG. His wife,
also 88, I think named Lee, eats vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free… pretty much
only some weird stuff that I never heard of. We guessed tofu, but she says it’s
temphe, and neither of us actually know what it is, but Bill had at least heard
of it. Maybe it’s not vegan. Whatever.
When
we got off the ship yesterday, a yellow butterfly fluttered around us, and I
said, “Hi, Honey,” and reckoned she’s enjoying this trip. At breakfast this
morning I looked across to the shore & saw the roof of a place that said
“Butterfly Garden.” Of course I didn’t have my camera with me, but I went back
later to see if I could capture it. My camera has a 30x zoom, and I couldn’t
believe how close I got. I was on the 16th deck of the ship, about a
quarter mile away, and I got a good clear shot. Amazing.
I was able to text here in the USVI, but no talking. When I powered up the
phone, I got a message that said talking would be $1.99 a minute. But I could
text, so I did sent a text w/pic to the boys. They all answered back
immediately. $2 beer, free wi-fi, and good conversation. The music was mellow,
and we were so nice & chill for the last hour of our time in port. The
downtown area was $4 each by taxi shuttle, but once there, it just seemed like
Mexico, only they spoke English & didn’t take pesos. The wi-fi on the ship
isn’t a good deal. There are plenty of places to get free wi-fi on land. I
enjoyed an iced mocha in St Maarten while I played w/my computer. I noticed
that Sarah changed her profile pic on FB to one from the wedding, with her
& Bri looking all cute. Well, her looking all gorgeous, and Bri looking
cute. I certainly hope Mere isn’t getting too uptight about her wedding plans
being fluid. Good things come to she who waits!
THURS
– Sea day Back onboard, I can read my downloaded mail and upload tomorrow
in Nassau when we find some more free wi-fi. This ship has some great new
features, like switches by the door to indicate “Do Not Disturb” or “Make Up
Room” so kids can’t flip over the door hanger signs. Also, the lights operate
only with a card key inserted, and when you do that, a light comes on outside
to show that the room is occupied. No more embarrassed room stewards walking in
on you when you’re getting dressed or napping. Seeing that Mere & the girls
are interested in the fun stuff, I am attaching a couple other pics that are
seeds for ideas of adventures they might have. In order to be sure of my room
number, I put a Dollar Store peel-off sticker on it. I’m the only one in our
whole hallway that has one. I brought enough to put our names, but didn’t feel
it necessary since nobody else around us seems to be celebrating. Often there
are balloons, theme decorations (like graduation!), pics, or whatever. I
brought magnets to hang my Cruise Critic door sign on the next ship since there
are about 200 of us onboard. They have both real ice cream in the buffet, and
soft serve available most of the time. I had 2 cones after the fireworks.
Yesterday Bill wanted to eat when I didn’t, so he went up to the buffet while I
sat outside on our balcony. The music down below at the $2 beer place was just
perfect. But as we left, we saw the Senor Frogs down at the end of the pier,
and partiers coming back from there said it was lots of fun, as they have a
small swimming pool by the bar, and invariably some folks end up in the pool.
The drinks may have been more expensive there, and I don’t know about the
wi-fi, but it did sound like a fun place.
The
evening entertainment around here is quite plentiful. Tonight, against Bill’s
preferences, we’re going to see Legally Blonde, The Musical. Reports from other
passengers are that it’s good. OK, actually I’m dragging him kicking &
screaming Last night we hung out in the dueling piano bar (“Howl at the
Moon”) and felt just a teeny bit out of place as it seems the entire crowd
knows the words when they’re supposed to sing along. “Uptown Funk” do-doh-do,
ya know? A surprising thing about the ship is that even though there are 4,000
people onboard, it rarely feels crowded. The captain said during spring break
they had 5,000 onboard, and THAT was crowded. I know there are at least a
couple empty rooms because we met someone who got their room changed because it
was right over the theater, and there’s a big drum platform on the upper level,
with major drumming going on throughout the Burn Up the Floor show. It’s quiet
after 11:00, but I guess they wanted to go to bed before that. After midnight,
pretty much only the disco and the casino have action going, and the only food
available is in the Irish pub, mostly fried or heavy stuff, and a very limited
selection. Bill brought little single shot packets of vodka & rum from
BevMo to mix w/juice, but we only used one of them. He just put them in his
checked luggage, and it doesn’t show up. They seem to catch bottles of booze that
are being smuggled onboard in luggage. But Eddy is the master smuggler. I don’t
drink enough to care one way or another.
I
found pics from the bon voyage dinner w/the kids, and attached one of those for
a giggle.
After reading your message, it sounds like I’m having a whole lot
more fun than you! No wheels falling off my trailer here! I also pondered a bit
about your description of your roomie fixing up his AZ house to sell. I’d be depressed
if I lived in something for a long time, then just when I had to leave, had to
see it all beautiful. I’m so glad we did our remodeling when we did, so we’ve
had a chance to enjoy it.
At
lunch today we sat next to a girl who used to work for Norwegian in the art
auction department. They hire young attractive people to convince folks to buy
art onboard. It’s shipped directly home, so no muss. But it goes up to $50,000,
and they’ve actually had a couple sales at that level. It’s pretty kitschy
stuff, largely from contracted artists like Peter Max and Kincaid’s estate. She
said it paid very well, and she took the job fresh out of college, and was able
to see a bit of the world and save some money. She did say that the art is
actually a pretty good deal onboard. Yeah, for something you don’t need.
That’s
about it for now. Until Miami, we’re off again.
PS
One more fabulous feature of the ship… the smokers have to go into what we’ve
dubbed “the naughty room” to smoke on the pool deck. On most ships, they get to
smoke on one side of each outdoor deck. Here’s just the naughty room, a
glassed-in area near the pool, and one aft outdoor bar. And of course the
casino, which saves us money, since we don’t care to be around all that smoke.
Besides, the machines are very stingy. The first day the Cruise Critic group
did a slot pull where everybody puts in 20 bucks & gets 20 pulls on the
dollar machine (usually Wheel of Fortune), then they split the take at the end.
We didn’t play, but we stopped by, and found out their $20 was turned into $9.
April
24 Copy of message sent on Facebook:
We’re
in Nassau right now, not yet decided if we’re going to get off & look for
wi-fi or wait until tomorrow & just do hot spot. Since I have so many pics
attached to yesterday’s message, I’m not sure how well that is going to work
out. Anyway, the advice has to do with water. It’s a great idea to have a water
bottle, since ship water tastes just fine, and it doesn’t cost 4 bucks. I
brought my Jazzercise bottle, plus we bought a heavy duty bottle @ the airport,
since their water DOESN’T taste just fine. Fiji water comes in a very sturdy
bottle that can be reused numerous times. And we keep it filled & in the
fridge in our room, so we always have cold water. Sans fridge, I’d use an ice
bucket, because I really like cold water. I’ll need to get over that going to
Europe, though, because from what I hear, that’s simply not the standard there.
Last
night turned out a little differently, as we had completely different ideas of
what would be the ideal evening. We decided to try a dining room we hadn’t yet
tried, the Tropicana. We got seated, and it was much bigger than the other
dining rooms we’d been enjoying. And then the band started up. Bill really
couldn’t hear a thing, so even before they came to take our order, we decided
to tube it. We left & went down to one of our preferred restaurants. I had
already decided on the turkey dinner, but one of the other main courses was
chicken alfredo. I asked for an appetizer portion of it before my main course,
and out comes a full meal, with a chicken leg in red sauce, rice, &
broccoli. Seems their idea of chicken alfredo is nothing like mine. I
apologetically sent it back, as it was nothing like I was expecting. Turkey
dinner was great, though. We were signed up for the 10:15 “Legally Blonde”
musical. Bill was a bit grumbly, but once he got in there, it was as if he were
being tortured. After 20 minutes he announced that he simply couldn’t take it
anymore, and said he’d meet me on deck 15 when it was over. I wore Honey’s
sequin top last night, and as we were getting on the elevator, a man commented
about how sparkly I was, and inquired if I’d be going to the deck party that
night. Bill was aghast, saying, “That guy was hitting on you!” Ha ha, loving’
the old lady vibe. I had the top in
the Goodwill bag, but couldn’t bear to let it go. Then I tried it on, and found
that it fit. It must have been huge on Honey. Sequins do chafe on the upper arms,
but it’s worth it to be so cute. I did go check out the party on 16 before I found
Bill on 15, but it was mostly young people. It was around midnight, scheduled
to go until 4:00AM. There was a completely drunk old lady on the elevator going
up who was trying to go down to her room, and I worried when she got off &
headed for the stairs since she couldn’t figure out how to make the elevator go
down.
Getting
back to the show, it wasn’t great, but it was very entertaining. Once male lead
couldn’t sing in key, but his voice was OK. Very weird. I wonder if he couldn’t
hear it. I had to reign myself in, because after the show they were offering
pics with the cast. Well, I was about as sparkly as they were, so it would have
made a great pic. Alas, the side I was on had the villain character and the
hairdresser. I came so close to going back around to the other side so I could
get myself with the star, but I stayed strong. Every pic, even with our 15% off
silver status discount, costs $17. And that’s for something I don’t need, and
would no doubt make Bill grumpy in the future as it flashed across my
screensaver
In the middle of the play, the PA system came on with “Code Alpha, Headliner
Lounge.” It was wild, because the characters froze in place for the 30 second
announcement, then picked up mid-sentence where they stopped. I guess it was a
medical emergency. We saw another one @ lunch yesterday when a young, thin girl
passed out on a tall stool in the grill area. I think it was too much sun, not
enough hydration/food, or maybe some other medical condition. She was teenaged,
and mom didn’t seem too concerned, just asked a man to hold her up so she
didn’t fall off the stool.
Well,
that’s the extra news since last night. So until tomorrow…
I hired a car service to pick us up from one ship and drop us at the next. That worked out perfectly, and it felt good to be treated well. We asked the driver if we could stop at a store on the way, as we needed to get some heel cream. After walking in sandals all week, we were both getting heel cracks. He said he knew just the place. Near Pt. Everglades, he pulled into the Walmart. The first thing we spotted was tons of wine. Since you’re allowed to bring 2 bottles onboard, we said, “Why not?” and picked up 2 bottles of Yellow Tail (Shiraz & cabernet). And we didn’t forget the heel cream! Alas, embarkation wasn't such a breeze on the Royal Princess. It was hot & humid, and we had to stand in line outside for about an hour. Ugh. Our photo is bound to find us looking hot & tired. But you'll not know for a week, as we head off across the pond, with no internet for a whole week.
(Sent May 2, 2015 from the Azores)
The first small world thing that happened on this ship is we sat down to breakfast on Sun, only to discover that our tablemates live in Vancouver, WA. When further questioned, they said it was actually about 5 miles north of there! They don’t know you, but they did vote for Don Benton. I think they live past you, but it was wild to have someone know Salmon Creek, Burgerville and their milkshakes, etc, etc, etc. With the university as a landmark, it’s easier to describe where you live since I can never remember the numbered streets around you.
I was stoked to try the steel pan class, and even got there 5 minutes early, only to find there were about 5 too many students for the number of instruments (22). But because I was wearing my mardi gras beads at the lifeboat drill, and again at the class, and the leader was our muster station guy & saw me, he said, “You’re in!” Everyone else had to jockey for position. Playing a steel drum was always one of my bucket list items. Now the actual playing of the song proved a bit challenging for me, because as you’ll see in the pic, the notes aren’t in order. Our tune is a grand total of 18 notes, but it’s almost beyond me to stay focused to find my way to the right notes. The song is “Mathilda” (NOT Waltzing Mathilda!), and we get to perform at the mardi gras party just before our stop at the Azores, along with the drum circle. It should be fun. I just keep wearing the beads to channel the vibe. Some of the old codgers are worse than me, and I’ve made great progress now that we’ve had 2 rehearsals.
I had another first this morning – I went to the Zumba class. The instructors onboard are certified, but the choreography is very poor compared to the Jazzercise I’m used to. The teachers faced the class, which I guess isn’t the norm for Zumba classes, so a lot of the people were having a hard time following. At dinner Sun night, a little Asian woman from London was trying to tell me the class would be too hard for me. I danced circles around her. It was a bit humid, as it was out on deck 18 on the basketball court. There were about 50 students, and no extra charge for the class. I’ll probably go every day, as I really felt great after I finished & took a shower.
Sun night I was able to convince Bill to join me for the “Movies Under the Stars” but it took a lot of fast talking. And the lounges really aren’t comfortable for more than an hour or so. The movie was “The Theory of Everything” and we both enjoyed it. Oh my, what fantastic acting, portraying Hawking.
We got a phone message from Fred’s Santa guy, but the message was garbled. I just kept looking for Santa, and I found him today! I was actually looking for Bill after pan band practice, scanning the buffet. I marched right up to him and asked, “Are you Ron?” He said he was, so I said, “I’m Rhonda” & turned to the woman and said, “And you must be Barbara.” He was so happy to catch up with us. He’s quite a talker (as am I). He reckons I’ll make a great Mrs. Santa when Bill is ready to take his place as a Santa. Barb has to touch up his beard & hair to keep it white. We arranged to meet for dinner tomorrow. Tonight was a formal night, and we decided to skip it. He brought a red dinner jacket! It was actually purchased for his induction into the Santa Hall of Fame that he attended on the way to FL. Fred never even mentioned that he has a family! They were interested in Mere’s AK life. He worked as an engineer for a tunnel boring machine company.
Seas have been calm so far, but we went through a squall today, complete with lightening & thunder. Very cool. Well, not really cool, as it has been warm & humid so far. We’ve been in the pool & hot tub, gotten a little more sun, but no real burns. That’s good, since it’s going to be getting colder from here on out. We have a Tuscan wine tasting tomorrow.
TUES
4/28/15 Just back from Zumba, which was moved indoors for the rest of the
voyage. It was crowded, on a small dance floor in front of the stage. Some
Asian dude stood next to me, and he had a terrible lack of respect for
personal space. On the other side was a gal from Louisiana, and we bonded and
tried to defend our space. Today’s instructors were two women, one the same new
one as we had yesterday. Again she kept forgetting what she was supposed to be
doing, and would get the deer in the headlights look. She looks and acts like
the character “Chrissie” on “Three’s Company.” But it gets me moving, so that’s
a good thing. I run upstairs and get some yogurt & granola before I go to
class, so at least my mornings start out right. This cruise is predominantly
older passengers, and we noticed last night when they donned their formalwear,
they got snooty. The rest of the time they’re fine. So on Cunard when they
dress every night, we get to suffer again and again. Last night we were sitting
on our balcony sipping wine, watching the world go by, when we got the idea to
skip dinner (and formal dressing). Bill had already looked at the menu, and
there wasn’t much there for us. So I was VERY bad… prosciutto & mushroom
pizza for dinner while we watched movie trivia flash by on the big screen, then
ice cream & cookies for my main course… you know, my perfect meal? Their
oatmeal raisin cookies are fabulous. The only place you can get real ice cream
without having to pay is in the dining room for dessert. So I stick with the
soft serve out by the pool, but I get it in a bowl so I can adorn the edges
w/cookies. Sounds about right, right?
Last
night we did go to the show, and sat with an interesting couple (Bob & Bob) we met
on the first night. Younger, rounder Bob is big into community theater, and
they’re putting on a play here, so he was going to theater practice while I
went to pan band practice. We crossed paths in the hallway. OMG, during last
night’s show he was so into it, clapping loudly every chance he got. The show
was “Colors of the World” and had amazing projection graphics instead of a lot
of props. The stage had a 4 foot platform, so the scenes projected below and behind
the performers, making it look like they were in the scene. They had Hawaii
beaches, New York, India, Paris, Japan, and fancy costumes. Surprisingly Bill
actually liked it. Even the Bollywood section was entertaining.
Bill signed us up for an Uber Tuscan wine tasting event today, and it was oh,
so yummy. We had small bites paired with each of 6 wines. We ended up buying 2
bottles of wine that were delivered to our room while we were out and about.
When we got back, we decided to go in the hot tub, then get some cheese &
crackers and have some of the wine out on our balcony, formal style!
It started raining like
crazy, and our plans to go in the hot tub were dashed. We changed plans &
decided to get pizza so we wouldn’t have to walk across the slippery pool deck
to the buffet. We spent the rest of the afternoon on our balcony watching the
weather & drinking wine… to the point where I HAD to take a nap. We managed
to get up in time for a late dinner, and somehow ended up in the traditional reservations-only dining room. We were going to find the right one (anytime dining) when they
virtually begged us to stay. They put us at a large table where one of the
couples was dining at a specialty restaurant tonight. It was fine for us, but
the other people were a bit nonplussed. We got out just in time to hit
the 10:15 comedy show. Unlike most cruises, on this one there is no late-night
R-rated show. With our older demographic, it’s probably just as well. This
morning we went to another Cruise Critic event, the gift exchange. They had us
break into smaller groups numerous times, based on things we had in common,
then trade the gifts all around. When they had us split by generation, those
born before 1945 made up the biggest group. I ended up with the perfect gift, a
table cloth & napkins from the US Virgin Islands, someplace we just visited
a few days ago, and certainly didn’t buy souvenirs. The gifts were supposed to be something related to where you live. Our gift of dried apricots
& thumb drive were appreciated , too. At one point, I was stuck with a pen
from a baseball team. I was so glad when someone took it. We weren’t supposed
to be able to see the gift, but the donor didn’t bring wrapping, and they
squished paper cups around each end of the package. The best part of the gift
we got might have been the bag. It came with a real working compass on it. So
now I have to lug it all over Europe, because I can’t bear to let it go.
I have another pan band practice tomorrow, and Zumba, of course. And we have to
make a donation at the casino, because they’re having another non-smoking
night. We want to show our appreciation for the gesture.
THURS
4/30/15 Well, Santa was a bit under the weather the first night we had plans,
so we rescheduled for last night, and although we were waiting for each other
on different decks, we finally got together with the help of some waitstaff. I
wore my red shirt and red & green mardi gras beads to make like Xmas. We
had a nice evening, and they went with us to the ventriloquist show.
 |
| He really is Santa! And there's Mrs. Santa, too |
Later, around 1:00AM, we ran into the ventriloquist at the late-night snack bar. He sat with another couple and us to chat a bit before heading off for the night. He talked about how careful he has to be in certain areas, and how certain snooty cruise lines ask him to omit complete bits, like the one with the black dummy. It’s funny, because he tells everyone his wife is a lovely black woman, and then it’s OK. Actually she’s a red-headed Irish gal. He made quite a few old people jokes, too. Like “Everyone who takes Viagra or Cialis raise you hands… Whoa, you can’t even get your hand up!” We visited a bit, and didn’t get to bed until around 2:30. That was because we lost another hour last night. That meant I couldn’t get up at 8:00 to go to Zumba. Instead we got up @ 10 and went upstairs for Belgian waffles… with fruit sauce & whipped cream. And we took our Kindles out on deck & read for a couple hours. Of course since it was right by the soft serve ice cream, I had to get a cone. That was “lunch” then we had our Cruise Critic afternoon tea @ 3:30. There was another group meeting in that particular dining room @ the same time… the singles & solo travelers. I figured I could get a good price for my Hawaiian-shirt clad hubby! The organizer went to a lot of trouble to make invitations for everyone to remember the event. But she consistently made all the events too complicated. Just getting us together is enough. We can take it from there. I got a good tip on how to get the best price for cruises, by putting it out to a comparison site that will find the best price from any agency offering the cruise you’re interested in. After you find the cruise you want, check out cruisecompete.com and see if you can get different prices. Vacationstogo has always done a pretty good job, so I’ll probably stick with them
Yesterday
we went to a port talk on Cork Ireland. Bill’s main goal is to drink genuine
fresh Guinness, and apparently there are plenty of pubs wherever you go.
There’s a train into town directly from the pier in Cobh (pronounced “Cove”)
and a few museums, but we haven’t yet decided where to go. We like to get a
tour on land rather than through the cruise. Yes, we know it’s risking not
getting back to the ship on time, but it would be a poor business model to do
that, and we’ve never had a problem.
When
we tell our travel plans, numerous people have told us to beware of the
gypsies, who are superb pickpockets, with many different methods. One of the
favored is to thrust a baby at you so you instinctively grab, while they strip
you of your fanny pack. Another one is a little kid popping out of mom’s skirt
to dart hand in your pocket. I’ll probably use Judy’s bag that hangs inside the
clothes. I wonder why the police don’t stop such mayhem. Obviously they need
the tourist $$, and they don’t want to scare them away. Ah, but everyone loves
Paris. I guess a man could also keep his wallet in his front pocket & keep
his hand in there, too. Remember Daddy always kept his wallet in his front
pocket?
Tonight’s
show sucked. It was the singers & dancers doing a Burt Bacharach tribute.
Dang it, we have to move our clock forward another hour tonight. This morning
the alarm went off at 8:00 even though I could have sworn I turned it off.
Probably no Zumba again tomorrow. We nearly missed breakfast today, ... Oh my,
miss a meal? Never!
This message is getting a bit long, so I think I’ll close
it out and start another. We’ll be getting internet in the Azores in just one
more day, and I have high hopes that it will make it through cyberspace to you.
Obviously I haven’t yet gotten any of your messages for the last week, but that
will all change on Saturday, YAY. I hope nothing too exciting happened while I
was offline. Until later…
FRI
May 1
After
a week at sea, tomorrow we hit port in the Azores. It’s just for a day, then
another 2 days at sea, during which time I figure I can catch up on your news
that will undoubtedly come streaming in once we find our internet. Other than
daily shipboard life as described in my other message, there’s not much to
report. It’s such a relaxing time. I found out that if you own Carnival stock,
you can get a $250 shipboard credit. I never knew that, and think there’s some
in my IRA. And if not, I’m going to get me some! It covers the whole Carnival
family, including Princess and Holland America. You have to send them a copy of
your broker stmt before the voyage, so it’s too late for this one, but for the
future, I’m on it! Even if the stock lost money, it would pay off in benefits.
I think only 100 shares are required. Eddy used to have some, but I think he
sold it. He’ll probably get it back at some point. Coupled with the
cruisecompare site I told you about yesterday, we may be onto something.
They
collected up all our passports today, to present to the Irish authorities when
we arrive in Cobh/Cork. That always makes me a little nervous, letting them out
of my hands, but it’s what has to be, and we’ve been through it before. Then we
have to present them again personally for a full UK Immigration inspection that
takes place on sea days. This expedites the disembarkation process. They know
what they’re doing, so we’ll just be the sheeple.
Oh,
what a happy surprise, to find a new book by one of my favorite authors in the
ship’s library, The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls.. Sisters Liz &
Bean are dragged around the country by their often absent mom, who fancies
herself as a rising star. She leaves them, and the girls decide to go find
their uncle Tinsley in Virginia, thus starts their life in Byler, where they
take on the town mill supervisor & chief bully, Mr. Maddox. These are
feisty girls.
We had our final practice for the Mardi Gras celebration tonight, only to find
out it’s formal night, so my grand plans to wear my tie dye t-shirt aren’t
going to work out. Everyone else will be in formalwear. I can still wear my
beads, though, and I’ve got a lot of them. I expect they’ll be handing them out
at the event, too. We’ve had more practice than the average group, since they
normally do this on 1-week Caribbean cruises. Bill was going to go video our
practice, but he’s a bit under the weather, with a touch of a cold (like
Santa). We hooked up with the drum circle group today, and they got to play
along with us for one round. It’s a bit distracting, but it should be fun.
In one major accomplishment, today I taught Bill how to sew on a button! His
favorite shirt from Fiji had several buttons coming loose. He tried to do it
while I was out, but wanted to know how you tie off those longs threads hanging
out the front! It was quite a learning experience for him. He was impressed
with the method of putting the knot in the end of the thread to start, then
finishing up with the loop knots at the end. And the whole concept that the
knots go on the underside, where they can’t be seen… priceless.
It was a bit chilly & rainy today, so I went to the movie, one I’d been
wanting to see for a long time, “The Judge” with Robert Downey Jr and Robert
Duvall. It was every bit as good as the IMDB reviews said it would be. It’s in
Redbox for a buck, so get it. Seriously.
Bill was also a bit out of sorts because he couldn’t sleep last night. He got
up around 3:00AM and went down to the atrium area and visited with 2 fellow
insomniacs. One was a very interesting man from Holland. Jumping an hour
forward every day has left everyone in a weird state of jet lag. Right now
we’re 6 hours ahead of home, and I think we have 2 more hours to go. I don’t
know if it would have been easier to do it all at once, or an hour a day, but
we are just a tad fuzzy. I woke up @ 7:30, looked at the clock and determined
that wasn’t enough sleep. Next thing I knew it was 10:30. Tonight’s late
show is a magician, and we still plan to go. When the shows get a little slow
is when we both drift off… hopefully no snoring.
There’s
not much to do in The Azores, a lot like Hawaii, only cold in the winter. They
have a pineapple plantation and some volcanic fields. Our only priorities will
be to find us some internet and a pint or two. I’m thinking after 2 weeks at
sea maybe I should try on my tight jeans to see if I can still get into them.
Today I wore my mom jeans, and all the other days I wore shorts or yoga pants.
So
yeah, that’s our quiet day. Ahhhhh. G’day.
5/4
MON (Sent Tues 5/5: “A Movie Marathon”)
Since
Bill is under the weather, we ended up staying in the room for a movie marathon
yesterday. We watched “Godzilla,” “Transformers,” and “Rosewater.” The latter
was a really difficult one to watch, but it had been on my RedBox list for a
while, and when I saw they had it onboard, I wanted to get it done. Whenever I
watch movies like that, it makes me appreciate our freedom in USA just a little
bit more. We’ve had to move our clocks ahead yet again, so we both have sleep
attacks from time to time, but that’s to be expected. Plus, Bill is taking all
sorts of cold medicines. I decided to hold off on my Enbrel for a couple days,
hoping the cold won’t get me, but I’m not terribly optimistic. I have a hint of
symptoms, but nothing major at this point. The gift shop had a pretty good supply
of medications to supplement what we brought. We have lots of ibuprofen, but
Bill tossed the NyQuil at the last minute, as well as MY Advil PM. Yesterday we
bought Hall’s cough drops, Robitussin DM, and DayQuil, although he meant to get
NyQuil. A very kind fellow passenger gave us a strip of generic DayQuil after
she heard Bill’s sad story in line at the Pharmacia in Ponta Delgada. I told
her our cabin number (and described it with the peace sign on the door), and
didn’t really expect her to remember, but she did. I keep thinking how
fortunate we are to be able to travel now, while we’re still young enough to
enjoy it. Hopefully the cold will be the worst of the physical issues. Tonight
someone is being airlifted off the ship “due to a serious medical condition.”
Some people even have to vacate their cabins during the process. That’s the
sort of thing that gets reported in the Cruise News bit on FB. I haven’t been
able to access FB when connected on shore, but Bill has. My computer time is
hogged up downloading & uploading email. I suppose we should be going out
on excursions more. We might take a train into Cork, but we’re not navigating
the narrow steps to kiss the Blarney Stone, hanging upside down. In fact, we’re
not waiting in long lines for anything, including the standard tourist things
in Paris. We’re more interested in people, food, & beverages. I’ve made
friends with a gal from Atlanta who will most likely come visit this fall on
her way through town. I figured I’d take her to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The
attached pics are from Ponta Delgada, and you can see how cool-looking the
streets are, made w/local lava stone.
 |
| He has a fan club |
 |
| Awesome streets |
 |
| Carrots for the star |
Also, you can see I’m eating my veggies!
That pic was after the Mardi Gras performance. Bill can’t pass up a hot dog
stand, and it was a big ‘un. We were walking w/Santa Ron & Barb when he
spotted it, and Santa took the opportunity to sit & rest while Bill did his
thing. Santa gets around slowly with a cane, but he’s up for anything, and oh
boy, what a talker. He was introducing us to people he met on the streets. We
didn’t head out with them, but ended up coming back together. And the comedian
got Santa up on stage with a few other guys. I was a bit worried, since he
doesn’t do anything that might reflect poorly on Santa’s image. The comedian
(Cary Long – Look him up, too) had all of the guys write what kind & color
underwear they were wearing & he guessed it. It was a funny bit, but a
little uncomfortable, as he did ventriloquist voices, and gave Santa a dirty
old man voice.
I
was so excited to discover more messages when I turned on my computer last
night and had it sort, based on unread. There was Mere’s message about the duct
tape wallets (cool idea – she sent me one last year), and maybe us staying with
(and getting to know) Marilyn, and your message about the cruise. I also got a
message directly from Princess with details about our Alaska trip. That will be very
soon after getting back from our long trip, but it will be fine. I hope you got
the postcards that I discovered on the in-house system where they post our
daily activity schedule. Nobody else I’ve spoken to has found it, so for now, I
don’t even know if the e-postcards went out. It claimed they did, so let me
know. We should be able to do that on our AK cruise, too. I have no worries
about the flight home from PDX (or SEA if you’re not going home after our
trip), because I now have a ton of SWA points, and those aren’t nearly as
sensitive to timing as buying tickets outright. I was just concerned about the
Anchorage flight, as it’s the height of the cruise season, and waiting to less
than 2 weeks before is ill-advised, both for cost and availability reasons. The
weird thing is our cabin # is the same as ours on this ship, only on a
different deck. On this one, we’re in A629, which I love, because each time the
elevator gets to our floor, it says, “Aloha” and of course I have to respond
“Aloha” right back, and to anybody still inside, and anybody I see in the
hallways.
I had a late lunch yesterday, and felt really full, so missed dinner again. I
wanted to hit the 10:15 show, and almost missed it as we were watching movies
in our cabin. I got out just in time, and figured I’d grab a late-night snack
after the show. That part worked out OK (scored a mozzarella/prosciutto/tomato
panini), but ugh, I wish I hadn’t bothered with the show. I pictured it as sort
of a one-man band deal, based on the description in the guide,
“Multi-instrumentalist Oli Nez” but it turned out to be a Welsh guy who plays
different woodwinds, one at a time, playing surprisingly old stodgy music for a
young guy. He came walking in with an alto sax, and his big trick is he can
hold a note as long as he wants, using the breathing technique like they use on
the didgeridoo. The crowd went wild. Me? Meh. He also played a soprano sax,
clarinet, and flute. I didn’t even stop by the casino to drop in my ten bucks
on the way out. Look him up online, and you’ll see what I mean. The ship band
accompanied him, and I’m hoping to catch up with the guitar guy so I can give
him some money to buy himself a drink in thanks for leading our pan band
sessions. He was rather saintly, dealing with us 22 old codgers banging on the
steel pans. I could tell he was dying a little bit each time, but he never said
a cross word, and kept up his supportive demeanor throughout. I didn’t see him,
but saw some of his buddies, including the sax guy, at lunch today. I’ll wait
until I run into him.
I hope I get in some messages & have a chance to actually read them before
we get back onboard tomorrow. But whatever, we’re into our last week now, so we
should have consistent internet after Saturday. One of the features I looked
for when selecting accommodations was internet access. I hope all is well with
you all.
Subject: Pretty funny
I thought the postcard was pretty funny. Fun to get, to be sure, but a riot that they won’t let folks use the internet without paying through the nose and yet you can send postcards! It’s obviously a marketing deal to snag new customers but a savvy person could do a whole lot of writing if they had a mind to! It just tickled me somehow.
From: Rhonda Sent:
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Subject: RE: Pretty funny
Subject: RE: Pretty funny
Enjoy a
free postcard? Well YEAH, it’s our Scottish heritage. Right now I’m sitting in the pub,
drinking hard cider, soaking up the free wi-fi. Poor Bill is still onboard,
sleeping off the cold meds, being miserable. This is his 4th day of
not being able to enjoy stuff due to his cold. I think I’ll recommend
whiskey tomorrow. It cures everything. Thanks for keeping the news going.
 |
Cider ON TAP! |
Sent: Thursday, May 7, 2015
Subject: Dark
Subject: Dark
Thurs:
Sea Day
We
decided to go to the movie in the real theater today (rather than Movies Under
the Stars), because it was one I had heard about, and I thought it got good
reviews, “Wild” with Reese Witherspoon. But it was very dark. I heard it was
about a gal walking the Pacific Coast Trail, to find herself. It was a lot more
than that, including hard core drug use. It was good, though, because it was
our excuse to leave the Cruise Critic “farewell luncheon” where we were stuck
sitting at a table with one of the organizers. It’s nice to hook up with some
people who will be on the same cruise ahead of time, but the organizers were a
bit over the top enthusiastic. The movie started @ 1:30, so it was, “Oops,
gotta go!”
We
were up early today, because we had to line up to go through British
immigration. They had 2 officers onboard, and we had to file past & get our
passports stamped. It will make for a much easier disembarkation. We told them
we’d only be there 2 days, but not to worry, because we’d be back, cruising
home on the Queen Mary 2. They liked that. From there we went up to breakfast,
and just hung out reading until lunch time.
I was so happy last night to finally find the guitar player/pan band instructor to give him the
well-worn envelope I had been carrying around in my pocket for several days. He
claims running the pan band workshops is fun. I asked what they do if they want
to play a song in something other than the key of G, and he said “Get another
pan.” We happened across him in playing in a lounge as part of a jazz duo, with
the saxophone girl from the band. I never would have gone to a “jazz duo” but
we decided that a good cold remedy for Bill might be a shot of whiskey. Anyway,
I told the guy how much I appreciated his workshop, and he said how he likes it
when there are strong players like me who help carry the group. I told the gal
she rocked it the other night, outshining the star with his party trick of
didgeridoo breathing on his sax. I also said part of my problem is he played
high instruments, and I prefer tenor or below. I told how I always played
violin, and so wished that I played the cello like my sister.
I
think it was ill-advised to spend so long in the pub yesterday, drinking cider
without having something to eat. The only food I saw there were potato chips,
and that’s just not my thing. When I got back to the ship, I had a piece of
pizza, a tall glass of water, and a long nap. I had a bit of a headache the
rest of the evening. But oh my, I could have spent the whole day there. Bill
didn’t get off this ship, because his cold was still keeping him from enjoying
himself. He thought he might be too weak to even walk a few blocks. So off to
the put I went by myself. The changing cast of characters was fabulous. As I
ordered my first cider from the bar (no table service), a stereotypical Irish
man told me I looked like a famous red-haired singer there. I said, “Nope, I
can’t sing a note, but I can lift a pint.” He tried to get me to sit between
him and his buddy, but I said I needed to get to a table where I could do some
internet. I horned in on an older couple’s table, and eventually they left. I was in
the back section, and next thing I knew, there was fantastic Irish singing
coming from the bar area. There was a guy with a guitar who sang the whole
afternoon. So after my first cider, what was I to do but get another? A woman
tried to talk to me, but I couldn’t understand her accent. I think she was
telling me I shouldn’t be spending my time there with my nose in a computer. I
told her I had to write to my sister, and she backed off. It seems that the
locals come out when the ships are in town, and they hang out in the pubs,
offering conversation in hopes that the tourists will buy them a drink. The
back part of the pub ended up being filled with folks from CA & AZ, which
is weird, because the western folks are in the minority on the ship. About half
are from Florida, and 20% from England (makes sense, since we left from FL and
end in England). It was raining as I left the ship, but sunny as we entered the
harbor. Once I was in the pub, I have no idea what was going on outside. I
initially went into the train station looking for internet, but since it was
right outside the ship, there were way too many people there. I went to a
tourist office and asked, and they sent me up the street to Kelly’s pub. The
pic I posted on FB was done with my tablet, since I didn’t have a camera cable
with me. I asked the couple next to me if I could take a pic of their 2nd
round . Obviously my computer couldn’t be in that shot. Every night I transfer
the pics from my camera to my tablet and am naming based on time &
location. I have the backup drive to get a second set for safekeeping, plus the
random pics I send to you or post on FB. Eddy suggested I used pics in a zipped
folder, but that’s beyond my skill level. I can click to unzip, but have never
gotten the steps right to zip myself. So I’ll continue to go around unzipped.
Ahem.
It
was formal night again last night, and I actually dressed up in my fancy dress,
but alas, forgot to get a pic. We had dinner with some like-minded folks, and
Bill was able to enjoy his first political discussion of the trip. Generally
it’s taboo to talk religion or politics on a cruise. Afterwards we headed for
the main show, which was billed as a comedic singer. She was pretty bad. Bill
wanted to leave, but it would have been so rude & so obvious. She looked a
bit like Adele, and did covers of hers and Cher’s songs. She made did a
constant stream of fat jokes about herself, and had quite a bit of audience
interaction, picking on people for being late, having a younger wife, still
having hair, etc. Next we hustled down to the lounge at the other end of the
ship to hear the comedian, and thankfully he was good. If you care to google
the annoying singer, her name is Siobhan Phillips, and the good comic was Tony
Daro.
Well, it’s time to have some breakfast & head into town (Rotterdam), so that’s it for now. We’ll be in Belgium tomorrow, but apparently at the port, far from anything of interest.
Sent: Friday, May 8, 2015
Subject: Don't Go There
Subject: Don't Go There
I took about 50 pics today in Rotterdam. We
absolutely loved the city, in fact think it might be a good idea to come &
rent an apartment for a few weeks. There were bicycles everywhere, but when we
were riding the bus back to the ship during rush hour, it was mind boggling. It
was a steady stream of bikes, including people of all ages. It was funny
watching them go on the slope up the bridge, with everyone bobbing along,
obviously putting in a great deal of effort. But I didn’t see a single person
get off & walk the bike or even stand up to get some leverage. We went from
the ship on a shuttle to the downtown area where our destination was a marketplace
that I describe as a “Whole Foods on steroids” It had a dome that was a work of
art.
 |
Wow, what a ceiling |
 |
Cherry vanilla |
For me, the best thing was the ice cream, although I actually selected
cherry vanilla frozen yogurt. It was amazing. They had internet @ the cruise
terminal, but it described itself as “limited.” Yeah, no kidding. It was just
plain frustrating. We had a similar experience with the internet at the market.
We finally found some great internet at a little gay bar next door to a sex toy
store. That’s where I finally got my queued messages to go. I wanted to post
the pic of Bill in the giant clogs, with the comment
 |
“Do these shoes make my feet look fat?” |
One
really weird thing was at the ice cream place, they didn’t take cash. It was
debit or credit only. Bill had all the cards on him, and he had stepped back,
since he wasn’t getting any for himself. I had to flag him down to get a card.
Then I realized I had his, so I just faked the signature. His card just has
initials instead of a first name, so they wouldn’t know it wasn’t mine anyway.
The charge was only about 2 bucks, but whatever. Earlier we had climbed some
stairs to a little place in the middle of the place, and had some cava
(sparkling wine) and a meat tray. We were struggling with the menu when the
waitress came over and asked if we’d prefer an English menu. Doh! We wanted to
use the credit card there, so it never occurred to us that any place might
refuse cash. Bill got a rum-raisin crepe at a sweets place. He was over the
moon about it, saying it was better than any dessert he has had onboard, and
there have been some good ones, so it was definitely his kind of dessert. The
only thing I got there was pictures. I even took a movie of the gal shaving
chocolate from a hunk that looked a lot like a barber’s pole, to garnish the
creations.
Tomorrow we’re going to be in Zeebrugge which is actually just a port. We take
a shuttle about 15 minutes into town (Blankenberg), and if we wanted to go
another 30 minute each way to Bruges, we would be stuffed in a bus and herded
around with a bunch of other people, and it would be another $120-$200 EACH for
the privilege. They offer a Brussels tour, too but it hogs most of the time on
the bus as it’s 80 miles away. So we’re kinda looking at the stop as a no-stop.
We’re required to carry passports in Belgium, too. We can probably find some
Belgian chocolate, but honestly, we have plenty of that back home, and I prefer
See’s anyway. I probably should keep my mouth shut.
Oh my, I had a coughing fit tonight just as dinner began, I think due to
inhaling a grain of pepper as the waiter was trying to convince me to let him
put pepper on my goat cheese soufflé. I simply couldn’t stop. I was just about
to leave when we spotted the guy walking around hawking limoncello. I bought
it, and voila, cured! He actually had me take the first shot, then the second
one was free. I continued to sip it through the meal, but I cancelled my main
course (a meat trilogy), and changed it to another cheese soufflé. There was
also an intermezzo of strawberry sorbet, so I had him bring a second one of
those, too. And I finished the meal w/crème brulee and mint tea. Bill is still
coughing from his cold, so I could have a touch of that, too. We stopped at the
gift shop after dinner and bought us each a dose of NyQuil, I may be a bit
groggy tomorrow.
We had dinner last night with a McDonald from SFO! I’m not sure how it came up
in the conversation, perhaps when I asked her how she met her husband. Anyway,
she was there the same time as you, but she didn’t seem to recognize either
your or Pam’s name (even as FA of the year!), but of course she knew Iris. They
lost their house in the Oakland hills fire, or at least he did. I wasn’t sure
how long they’ve been married. Anyway, her name is Beatrice, and I’m guessing
she was a bleached blonde FA. She took the exit package same as you, to try to
preserve health insurance and other benefits. She buys her cruises with
interline discounts, too. But like you, flying first class on a pass is a thing
of the past, and often flying on a pass is VERY challenging. I told her your
story about the flight manual, and she loved it.
My next Princess
cruise (ours) will give me platinum status, and with that I get my very first
taste of free (SLOW) internet. Little cruises count the same as big ones
(although you could level up with 50 sea days) but I don’t think I’ll have time
to slip one in during the 10 days I’m home before heading for AK. So no free
internet for us! The only good thing is we’ll be in the USA in the ports, so we
can do phone & hot spot wi-fi then. We just have to be careful not to turn
it on in Vancouver. The couple with the most cruises on this ship are from
Orinda, CA, with a grand total of 1,404 days.
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2015
Subject: My Hero
Subject: My Hero
FRI
Last night Bill did the laundry. Actually it was around 1:00 in the morning
when he started, a great time since everyone else had cleared out. That place
was hoppin’ all day, since many folks are getting off with us tomorrow, touring
England, and it’s nice to start out w/clean clothes. We actually liked being
right across from the laundromat, because we didn’t feel like we had to stay
there to wait with our clothes. We’d simply pop across the hallway to check on
it. We have heard absolutely no hallway noise. In fact the only distraction is
the Chinese people next door who spend a lot of time on the balcony, and yell
loudly back and forth. Tonight we’re packing up to head for our day in London.
I gave the steward my ice packs to freeze for my Enbrel. I went ahead and did
one shot, as the delay is starting to show on my arms, legs, & scalp, and
it appears that I’m going to escape the wrath of Bill’s cold. We’ve been buying
mineral water whenever we think of it, and so far the one from Portugal has
been the best. They all taste a little different. Today we got two, one with
“medium” bubbles, and the other “sprudel” like the ones we used to buy from
Trader Joe’s. The clerk pointed out that I had two different types, but
understood when I explained we weren’t familiar with either, so needed to try
both. The saddest part was that Bill tossed in an ice cream bar for me, and I
forgot about it until I was on the port shuttle after having walked about 5
minutes up from the store to the port entrance. And what reminded me was seeing
a gal on the bus finishing off her ice cream. So I surreptitiously got it out
and ate it still with the wrapper around it. It was a sliver Magnum bar, with
thick white chocolate on the outside, and a caramel swirl on the inside.
I just wish I had been able to enjoy it as we walked. The port bus was
ridiculous. When we got on, there was only one seat left, and several people
standing. The driver continued to let people cram in until the doors wouldn’t
close. And I just had to shake my head as people continued to try to get on.
Honestly, people, there WILL be another bus. But that extra cramming made it
impossible to continue eating the ice cream. Luckily it was a short ride
through the working port area. I understand why they can’t have people wandering
around out there. Zebrugge is really an ugly port, and not at all set up for
tourists.
The
funniest thing was we didn’t get the idea of the tram (light rail) tickets and
we just very lucky we didn’t get stopped on the way to town. Although we
purchased tickets from the little grocery store, we didn’t validate them on the
machine on the train. At the other end we asked the ticket booth guy if we were
supposed to buy another ticket, and he said no, but lectured us about
validation, and did it for us. We were only there for a couple hours, so it’s
not like we were going to use the tickets again. All we did in Blankenberg was
get the free wifi and have a drink. They didn’t speak English there. Bill had a
beer and I had a very tasty coffee. We saw what must have been a hotel, with a
sign that just said “HOT” and there was a nice beach in town. That was about
the only game in town, so we didn’t stay too long.
I guess the English Channel is small enough that it requires careful scheduling
for ship traffic separation. That’s why we had to leave Belgium early, and
arrive in Southampton at 5:00AM. Since 700 of the passengers are staying
onboard for the next 7 days, the luggage handling should be a lot easier for
the crew.
SAT
Off the ship and now at the Sofitel, about a 3 ½ hour process. I think I’m
going to take a nap! Off to London tomorrow. Cheerio.
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2015
Subject: London, Ho
Subject: London, Ho
We
got to the Sofitel & settled in, then the hungries hit me. I decided to go
to a pub, and Bill found one online, but when we went to the front desk, they
informed us that most people go to the White Horse, and they’ll come pick you
up, and deliver you back, avoiding the cab fare. Sweet deal for the pub, getting
all those tourists dropped on their doorstep, and decent for the tourists, too.
The van driver also bussed the tables. There were so many twists & turns
getting there, with traffic circles & all, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have
made it if I were driving. And the streets were so narrow. Pretty much two way
traffic on one way streets. He had to stop to let a bus go by, which enraged
the guy behind him. Nutso. But anyway, back to the Sofitel… the pub didn’t open
until 5:00, and it was only 4:00. The concierge called & they said they’d
pick us up at 5:10. I had to get something before then, so we went down to the
tea room and had some tomato soup and a little apricot crumble thing. That
filled in the gap (since oatmeal @ 8:00AM), but it also dampened my enthusiasm
for pub fare. We had 2 appetizers and that pretty much did me in. The first was
garlic fried button mushrooms, and the other was pita strips w/hummus. It stays
light pretty late here, although not compared to AK in the summer.
We
got advice for how to plan our day tomorrow, pretty much using the hop on/hop
off bus to fit in everything we need to see in a single day. The Tube will zip
us there in about 45 minutes, then the Big Red Bus is just outside. We also get
a river trip with that. It should be a fun day.
This hotel has a very large zen garden just outside our wing. I decided to try
to do a time release pic, and entertained myself running to get in front of the
camera.
I had to say goodbye to the fishie for now, since he only goes on cruises.
I dunno… He might enjoy London With Bill in Hawaiian shirt we already appear
as over-the-top tourists. I am definitely bringing the fish on Cunard, though,
just to annoy the snooty people. Did you know they still operate on a class
system on that ship? There are decks & dining rooms where we won’t be
allowed, since we aren’t first class passengers. There is no difference in the
cabins, just different levels of service & snoot. Heck, we have a balcony.
No matter. We didn’t pay enough for it. We’re just using it as a bus to cross
the Atlantic, and I doubt that we’ll be with them again, so it really doesn’t
matter.
OK, like I said earlier, Cheerio!
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2015
Subject: Like The Blue Screen
Subject: Like The Blue Screen
I
was super worried when we got back from a very long day today, when my Surface
just froze on a purple screen, with the dots going around, saying “shutting
down” only it never did. I tried letting it sit for a bit, pushing the power
button to turn it off, ctl+alt+del, and charging, but nothing seemed to help.
Finally I gave up and read on my Kindle for a while. When I had the energy to
try again, I did a cold boot, and by golly, it worked. What a relief. My
pedometer also went dead today, so I didn’t even get to see the magical >10k
number. It was a challenging day all around. And very frustrating. Contrary to
popular belief, “most” of the people here don’t speak English, starting with
our cab driver who was from Turkey, but it was better than the bus. It was an
$80 cab fare, but it would have been nearly impossible hauling suitcases.
When
we arrived at the B&B, we weren’t sure if it was the right address, as the
street is all torn up. But luckily the hosts were home, and came out to greet
us. What a funny moment when we realized that our hosts aren’t a gay couple
after all. Gerd is a woman’s name in Denmark! Gert with a t is the man’s
version. And Per’s expression when he realized I thought Gerd was a guy…
priceless! We have an attic room, which means there’s just a small area where
we can stand up straight. Of course the bed is tiny, but we expected that. They
offered to let us have the other room with has 2 twins stuck together. , but
it’s only 4 nights, and I’m pretty sure we’ll survive. The other room is vacant
tonight, so Per told us we could party! There’s a shared bath with a shower
that looks homemade. I hope our new neighbors are friendly. It’s a German man
and his son.
I
have been unable to figure out our train for Friday, so we decided to go to the
train station to talk to them. First off, we had no idea where we were, in
spite of having a tourist map. The bus just stopped and announced it’s the end
of the line, right outside a metro station. A young gal told us what the
announcement said. But we knew from Gerd that we were supposed to be able to
take the 6A bus all the way to the train station. Finally a woman at the hot
dog stand told us to go across the street and catch a 5A bus. Indeed, we
eventually saw a landmark from the map, Tivoli Garden, and knew the train station
was just across the street. By this time it was about 3:30. After waiting in
line for 45 minutes, we get to the front only to discover that since our ticket
was sold by the Bohn (German) company, they couldn’t help us find a new train.
They were more than willing to sell us another ticket. “NO! I already have a
ticket.” Oy. So she sent us to an address a block away in an office building.
We found it nearly by accident, took the elevator up to the office on the 3rd
floor, only to find they closed at 4:00, and door was locked tight. By then
hunger was making everything even more difficult. That Bill had to use a
bathroom at the train station, and was floored when he couldn’t get in without
the right change, and was forced to use his credit card. Can’t wait to see that
charge. We then went over to the tourist info office, also only to find they
close at 4:00. We next hit the nearest restaurant, which happened to be
Italian. But guess what? They don’t open until 5:00. We stayed anyway, and had
pasta for dinner. Next back to the train station to see if we could buy
“Copenhagen Cards” there, a pay-one-price key to the city. We figured we might
as well get it today since we didn’t want to have to buy another single ride
bus ticket. We were directed to the Lost & Found office. But sure enough,
they had them, so we got the 3-day pass, and can now visit all the museums,
canal cruise, Tivoli, bus, train, metro, etc in an unlimited manner.
Coming
home we found again the bus drivers don’t speak English, but a kindly older
woman passenger told us to get on, and she’d tell us how many stops to go after
she got off. The 2 drivers both said they had no idea where we were going, even
when showed a map & address. The same thing happened with the bus coming to
a stop before the destination, though. This time we had to switch to a 42 bus,
and it took us the remaining few blocks. We got off and headed up to the list
of businesses Gerd had given us earlier, as we wanted to get some beer &
cider from the supermarket since it’s super expensive to drink in a bar in
Copenhagen. Mission accomplished, plus an ice cream bar to reward our success.
It was a long day. Getting to our terminal @ Heathrow started our day’s
challenges, and it just seemed that we had hurdles everywhere we turned. It
made us wish that we were on an old folks’ guided tour. Tomorrow we’ll head
back downtown to the train station area to try again at the Bohn office. I
can’t believe they’d sell me tickets for $200, then just say, “Oops, sorry that
train was cancelled, you have to buy another ticket.” Hopefully someone there
will speak English. The website simply offers to allow you to cancel a ticket,
minus a cancellation fee, then pay big bucks for a new ticket at last minute
prices. Indeed, that may end up being what happens, but I hope not. We can
downgrade out of first class, but I don’t want to. For now, I just want
to ensure that we have seats reserved on a train outta here on Friday.
In
London yesterday we chatted, and shared a table with, a couple from just north
of Sacramento. The town was crazy with a big parade for VE Day, and all sorts
of extra people. They were even throwing in a free day on the bus tour since
they had to make so many diversions due to street closures. But we couldn’t use
it, since we were heading out. Honestly, we had seen enough architecture at
that point, and we were ready to go.
 |
Loving the Big Red Bus |
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Subject: The Back Side
Subject: The Back Side
Well,
we saw the Little Mermaid today… at least the back side of her, along with a
bunch of adoring fans. The postcard view is better anyway.
 |
| He didn't even notice the street artist. It started pouring right after this. |
We did a canal tour,
and cruised right past her, but she’s (naturally) facing the land. Except for a
brief loan to China, she has been sitting there over 100 years, and has endured
all sorts of vandalism, including losing her head twice and having a bikini
painted on. The canal tour was a nice way to see quite a lot with minimal
effort. And lucky for us, it hadn’t started raining yet . Pretty much the
entire rest of the day was cold & wet, and neither of us brought jackets
today since it was so nice in the AM. In fact, Bill was considering wearing
shorts. He was glad he didn’t. We aren’t really planning to unpack these 4 days
we’re in Copenhagen, since I have the bulk of the clothes bundled ala “Pack
Like a Champ”, and I’d like for them to be easy to zip up for the trip out of
here on Fri.
We
started our day with the breakfast furnished by the B&B, basically yogurt
w/granola & rolls. At first I thought she forgot the yogurt, until I
realized it comes in a carton like milk here. We asked for it to be ready @
8:00, but didn’t hear any creaking around outside our door, and though it
wasn’t here yet. Time slipped away, and we went to the breakfast nook around
8:20, and it was there. Must be the fairy left it. It worked out fine, as we
headed downtown for attempt #2 on the train ticket. What a contrast from the
previous day’s experience. There was only one person ahead of us, and the clerk
was completely fluent in English, and was horrified that my ticket was in
German. She explained that it’s a Danish holiday weekend coming up, so they’re
working on the tracks between here and the ferry, so we have to take a bus to
that point, which is the first 2 hours of the journey. It also leaves a bit
earlier. Our seats are still valid, as the train will be waiting at the ferry,
and will proceed as scheduled to Hamburg, then we switch & make our
original connection to Cologne. She printed me a new schedule and advised how
to find the bus when we get there on Fri. Whew! She was pretty funny, though,
making sure we knew it was the Danish railroad’s fault, NOT the German’s.
We found our way to the canal tour by ourselves, by looking at a map, of all
things! There were two different companies who honored our card, and I just
happened to look out and see a boat down below as we crossed a bridge. So we
hopped off the bus & asked if that was one of them. Yep, and the boat was
just about to leave. Great timing. It took about an hour to get around the
canals, and the boat was less than half full, so everyone had good seats. We
had the canopy window open until the very end when it started sprinkling. We
headed up a pedestrian shopping area that made us both think of Julie (see
pic), and there were a couple street artists out as well, although I think Bill
is immune. But then it started raining more and more. Both of us just had on
jeans & t-shirts, with no poncho, umbrella, or jacket. Doh. The day before
we hauled the jackets around all day and didn’t need them. It figures. When we
couldn’t take it anymore, partly because of needing to find a potty, and partly
because we were both getting cold, we stepped into a café for some lunch. A
happy surprise was that the potty was free. And for my Scottish/Jewish self, a
discovery that our card gave us a 10% discount at that restaurant. The waiter
wasn’t familiar with it, but checked, and found it was valid. Bill ordered a
tall beer, and I had a strawberry milkshake, which we dawdled over as we dried
out. We ordered nachos and mozzarella salad to share for lunch, as it was
around 2:00 by then. The rain didn’t let up, so we figured if we were going to
do anything else today, it needed to be a museum sort of thing. We were going
to see the white marble statues but then saw that there was a more interesting
looking museum nearby, complete w/Egyptian mummies. As we waited to cross the
street in the rain, with 4 more blocks to walk, we both spotted our homeward
direction bus and had the same thought, “Let’s give it up for today.” The ride
home required a bus change, which involved walking in the rain another block,
and the ride seemed to go on forever. I even began questioning if we were going
in the right direction, even though I knew we were. Nothing looked familiar.
But finally we reached the end of the line, and hopped another bus for the last
few blocks back.
I
had a bit of a rough night last night, for whatever reason. I woke up @ 3:30
with that burning in the tummy, and knew I was in for it. I got sick, but it
was just a tiny bit of cider, mostly dry heaves. WTF??? But afterwards I took
some Tums, and went right back to sleep until 7:00AM when the construction
started outside. I still don’t know what that was all about, and I felt fine
today. We slept with our windows open, and the street noise didn’t bother us at
all, even though I know it was there. But dumping piles of rocks in the loader
bucket definitely made any alarm unnecessary.
We’re
going to the aquarium tomorrow, a trip I easily figured out on the transit
maps. The first bus goes directly to the metro stop, and it goes directly to
the aquarium, all included on our card. The write-up highlights the “cute sea
otters from Alaska,” but it is actually the largest aquarium in Northern
Europe. If we get time, we’ll either visit a museum or go to Tivoli Gardens.
Our pass lets us get in once a day if we want, but it doesn’t include the
rides. We also need to go through City Hall.
Overall, we’re not
that thrilled w/Copenhagen, particularly in comparison to Rotterdam, which we
loved. There is a lot of graffiti all over, and prices are outrageous. But you
never know if you don’t check out places, right? I think we’re going to step
out for a bit more this evening, so until tomorrow, Hej-hej (‘bye).
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Subject: Soggy
Subject: Soggy
The
weather has been soggy, with showers throughout the day, and bright sunny
intervals in-between, but we were ready for it with the right jackets today. I
studied the transportation options yesterday, and knew exactly how we’d head
for the aquarium today. What a nifty way to cover a lot of ground. Their metro
is like BART, and it’s soooo much better than plodding along in a bus. Once we
got to the downtown station via bus, we hopped the metro and were there in
under 10 minutes. Well, it was about another 10 minute walk from the station,
but it wasn’t raining at that particular moment, so we were good. The place was
lovely, and they even have one thing we don’t… the walk through tunnel, with
big fish & rays swimming directly over your head. I love that. The building
is architecturally interesting, too, in spokes that resemble a nautilus shell.
We
went back to town for lunch, to a marketplace that our host recommended. It was
quite fabulous, too, and we bought some cheese & fancy crackers, grapes,
and champagne, for a nice touch. The cheese guy was anxious to practice his
English, and proudly said he had been to the Bay Area, and went on highway 580.
Very cute. And amazing, wonderful ice cream for dessert. Right there you know
I’m going to be happy. Next up we visited Tivoli Gardens, mostly just because
it was covered in our ticket. They do have nice gardens, and I got a cute video
of Bill playing some Japanese music with mallets hitting wooden slats. It’s
mainly just an amusement park for kids. Next up was a walk through City Hall,
which had non-stop weddings going on, and we sat inside a cavernous hall and
watched all the brides & their families parade by. Bill was fascinated by
the timeless clock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Olsen%27s_World_Clock I had a bee in my
bonnet that I wanted to find the statue of Hans Christian Andersen somewhere
outside City Hall. Naturally it was on the complete opposite side of the
direction we walked, but I got my way.
 |
| Hans & Me. We're buds. |
Because
it gets so crazy around commute time with all the bicycles, we figured we ought
to head back around 3:30. We just missed a bus, and the next one seemed to take
forever. Three of the other route’s buses went by before ours came. Then there
were 3, one right after another. Anyway, we got back to the neighborhood and
decided to stop & pick up take-out rotisserie chicken for dinner. It was
5:00 by then, so although that’s a bit early for dinner, we went ahead and got
it. We were done with dinner by 6:00PM.
The host told us that tomorrow is a holiday, so some things might be closed.
Mostly shopping, with doesn’t bother me at all. I just hope the museums are
open, as we identified two that we plan to visit tomorrow. I looked up the
holiday, and it’s Ascention Day. They have a lot of Christian holidays here,
which is interesting, since about a quarter of the women are walking around in
Muslim dress. We thought about going to the zoo, too, but our host said
transportation isn’t so easy getting there. Her English isn’t as good as it
could be, though, so we may go for it anyway. It looks like a straight shot on
the bus map. And the website says “our” bus has a stop right at the entrance.
The two museums are about a 10-15 minute ride towards downtown. We picked them
as we drove past on the way back today. The maps are confusing, though, so I
don’t know how it will all work out. We’re leaving here @ 6:00AM on Fri, taking
a taxi to the train station where we’ll hopefully find our bus to the train
that goes on the ferry. Apparently our original NCL cruise ship did make it
across the Atlantic, although we haven’t run into any Americans who were on it.
We’ve actually run across very few Americans at all.
Looking forward to
another day of adventures, hopefully not too many mis-adventures. G’nite.
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2015
Subject: RE: Movin' Along
Subject: RE: Movin' Along
Yeah,
lovin’ on the Surface… Take 2
Yes,
the Surface acted on its own, sending my message before I even got a whole
sentence written. But it was time to go, anyway, so here’s take 2. We’ll be up
at 5:30 to catch the bus to the train that will be waiting for us by the ferry.
We’ll board using our original seat assignments, and head across to Hamburg,
switch trains with just a 30 minute timeframe, then to Cologne, where we’ll be
staying at the Wyndham, which is right by the train station. In fact, that’s
one of the complaints by some guests… too much train noise. But I think we’ll
be fine. It’s just 2 nights, then off to Paris.
We decided to get us some culture & education today. First to the
Geological Museum, then to the National Art Museum. Neither of us are too into
staring at old paintings, so I’m sure we didn’t do it justice, but I sure did
enjoy looking at all the rocks & meteorites at the geological place.
The
art museum had works dating back to the 1300’s all the way up to the present.
We went back to the market for lunch, and Bill enjoyed a Thai ban mi sandwich.
Mine was too spicy, but I ate a bit of it, then had a Kind bar and another ice
cream to kill the heat. That’s OK, though, because dinner made up for it. We
had to be back by 6:00, when our pass expired, so we came back for a nap, then
went out for dinner around 8:00. We walked the entire few blocks of nearby
businesses, and finally decided on an Italian restaurant even though neither of
us were particularly interested in that type of food again. They solved the
problem for us, though, as it would have been an hour wait since we didn’t have
reservations. Off we went, this time to a place we discounted on the way by the
first time, because 1) it was on the other side of the street, and 2) it
sounded like health food. Indeed, it was organic, but it ended up being a first
class meal, better than anything we’ve had so far. It is a new place, so we
promised to bring their flyers to the B&B. They had a special holiday meal,
with an appetizer that was rare thin beef and broccolini on a cream dip,
followed by a swoon-worthy main course of thin sliced flank steak in a mushroom
sauce w/potatoes Anna & cabbage. And even better was the dessert! It was
crumbled macaroons topped with white chocolate cream, topped with rhubarb cream
and little red crunchies on top. It was a perfect blend of sweet and tart, with
crunch. I didn’t have my camera, or I would have taken a pic.
 |
That's one big meteorite, sliced to perfection |
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2015
Subject: Like BC
Subject: Like BC
It
felt like we were on the BC Ferries today, as the train drove right on, we had
to exit for the ride, then return to the car deck as we docked. The train was
the first thing off the ferry, and away we went, through fields of mustard. It
was a fairly short ferry ride, then we had another hour and a half to Hamburg,
where we changed trains for the last leg to Cologne. Our hosts this morning
were up and at ‘em, having baked fresh rolls for us before we headed out. They
also called the taxi, which was there as scheduled, @ 6:00AM. It was looking
good, with things going as planned. I got to visit the bakery at the train
station, to get the recommended pastry while Bill opted for the sausage egg
McMuffin (ugh). The buses pulled up outside the train station just like they
promised, and we were off on our way EXACTLY on schedule. Believe me, you don’t
want to be late for the train service around here.
I
forgot to mention one of the oddities I noticed about Europe. The TP is like
harsh paper towels. I already knew not to expect ice water, so we’ve been
buying lots of bottles of sparkling water. The Danish one provided by our hosts
had a touch of lemon, and we liked it a lot, so we bought some more of it. Last
night I actually had a glass of wine with dinner, and ended with a de-caf
latte, to go with the amazing rhubarb dessert. The young waitress had been
called over to talk to us since the waiter wasn’t so confident w/English. It
took both of them to come up with the word “mushroom” and she used “biological”
for “organic” then smiled hugely when we got it. All around when people talk to
us, a common phrase is, “How you call it?” At the end of the meal she
asked how we happened to be there. It had only been open a month, and they
hadn’t seen any tourists yet, since it is well outside the tourist area. We
told her that we were at the B&B around the corner, and she said, “Oh, then
you rented a car.” We said, “Nope, rode the bus.” The look on her face was
priceless… “YOU rode the bus???” She was flabbergasted that we would do that.
Then when we said we’d take a stack of flyers back to the B&B, she was
totally blown away. She couldn’t figure out why we would do that. As there
would be nothing in it for us. It was just an amazing meal, and I’m still
thinking about it.
As for our tour schedule, the only reason we were in Copenhagen is that’s where
our original ship was to dock. We made plans based on that. The London trip was
an added bonus since the replacement voyage dumped us there, 2 days earlier
than our original plan. We jumped on the bonus days and booked the Sofitel at
the airport. The only reason we’re here in Cologne today is that it was an
8-hour trip via train just to get this far, and we would have had to change
trains and go 4 more hours to Paris, our ultimate destination, and that just
seemed like too much travel for one day. So we figured, heck, take an extra day
and see Cologne while we’re at it. We’ll do the city tour tomorrow. The train
was super-fast, but it still took a long time. I faced my first challenges
hauling all my luggage up steps at the train stations, and on & off the
trains. We had to change trains in Hamburg, and my happy prize for that was a
pretzel. Once onboard the second train, Bill bought us both giant beers, which
served as lunch, along with the rolls Gerd made for us this morning. I brought
them with us, because I didn’t want to make her feel bad.
The countryside when
whooshing by, as we were going between 150-200MPH. The countryside is so green
and lovely. And we saw tons of what I thought were mustard fields, but turned
out to be rapeseed fields, used to make canola oil.
We
both needed to find a potty when we got off the train, and I told Bill I’d
rather wait until we got to the hotel. He said, “We’ll you’d better find it
quickly.” We walked out the door, not knowing if we had gone the right way out
of the station, and voila, there it was, directly across the street. Doesn’t
get much better than that. Later I found out that the train station potty is an
expensive one… a whole euro, compared to only 50 cents at the restaurant. But yeah,
free in our hotel room! The room was really hot, so we turned up the fan and
closed the drapes, but when we got back from dinner, it was still warm &
stuffy. Imagine our delight when we figured out the windows open! It hadn’t
even occurred to me to check, but Bill did, and boy, instant relief. If it
weren’t for all the street & train noise, we’d sleep with it open. The
cathedral is every bit as impressive as the books said it is. Taking the front
desk clerk’s advice, we headed out to Peter’s Brauhaus for dinner. They only
serve one kind of beer, but it was fairly innocuous as beer goes. The tables
are cramped, and they make you sit at a table across from each other, right
next to other people. The couple next to us love the USA, and wanted to talk in
English. Because of all the din, and the language issues, it was quite
challenging. We stopped at one of the many ice cream shops (cherry again – I’m
fadding it) on the way back from dinner, then zipped into a chocolate shop at
the train station to fuel my stash that was depleted since I finished up the
chocolates from the cruises. I didn’t realize they were liquor flavored, but
they are quite yummy, and only $7 for that big gourmet bag of them.
Walking
back in front of the Cathedral there was a street artist, playing away, on a
grand piano. I took a video that I’ll try to upload someplace. I’ve never seen
one of those guys haul around a real piano before. He had it on a platform with
heavy duty wheels underneath. It made for such a nice atmosphere for the grand
building.
A
weird thing happened to my camera today. I took the pic of our beers on the
train then put it away. When I brought it back out, it was hot, and the lens
extended without me turning it on, then it wouldn’t budge, take pics, nada. I
figured it must be the battery, maybe worn out because it was trying to open in
the case. Bill bought 2 extras before we left, so we swapped it out, and that
was it. So now I need to know to be careful not to push the on button when I’m
putting it away. We discovered that traveling in the 1st class
compartment is a lot nicer than the cheaper seats. It wasn’t that much more,
and it was way less crowded and more civilized.
That’s
it for our day. Hope yours was interesting, too.
Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2015
Subject: Not the Mint
Subject: Not the Mint
Another
odd thing here is instead of having a mint on our pillows, we each had a little
package of Haribo gummy bears. It must have worked, because we both slept
through the night in spite of whatever noise might have been going on. And I
call that a win. We shouldn’t have been that tired, since we both dozed a bit
on the train yesterday, and the bed was hard, hard, hard, and pillow virtually
nonexistent.
Before
I forget, no, I don’t get text messages or have any other phone service in
Europe. Not until we get back to the good ol’ USA, after the Cunard cruise,
will we be back to normal phone communication. Can you believe we’ve already
been gone a month? Tomorrow we’re headed for Paris, another crazy thing for me
to ponder. Having never before visited Europe, I am finding the whole
experience very educational. At least half of the people smoke, but at least
here it’s only allowed outdoors. So every restaurant has a tiny seating area
inside, and a vast area covered with big umbrellas outside. And what’s sad is
they all look like smokers once they’re of a certain age. I’m pretty sure
people now know the effects of smoking, so why do they still do it?
OMG,
you wouldn’t have believed the place we went for lunch & drinks today. The
attached pic is a glimpse of one of their musical entertainments… had to be
there.
I have two videos that are classics. When I put together the big trip
video, I’m sure both the oompa guys and the caliiope will make the cut. For
now, just enjoy the pic and try to imagine what it would be like. The entire
pub is filled with all sorts of kitchy stuff. We could hear the accordion music
coming out the door and hesitated before going in, but oh my, what a hoot. They
had all sorts of old noisy things, including my favorite musicians in the pic
and a player piano, and just tons of stuff everywhere. I had a cheese plate for
lunch, and a piece of amazing apple strudel for dessert. I couldn’t drink the
beer there, but at least I tried it. The only downside was that it was late
when we got out of there, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to eat a regular
dinner. Then it started sprinkling, and I voted for getting something to take
back to the hotel. I got a chicken leg, and Bill a sandwich that turned out to
be inedible, and some beef sticks, and when we got back to the hotel, we found
the entire lobby filled with an English tour group, all waiting with their
luggage for the 6 passenger elevator. So I asked the bartender if we could sit
in the bar area to eat our dinner, as obviously it was going to be some time
before we could get up to our room. It only took about 10 minutes to clear the
lobby, but I got the idea to ask what time those same people will be leaving in
the morning, as we have a train to catch. Yup, same time as us. So we’re
going to get out a half hour early to avoid the mess. I didn’t feel too bad
about Bill missing a meal, since he had the pre-breakfast wurst first thing
today. They have apples at the front desk, so we each ate one each day, too. And
Bill drank a lot of beer. We had pastries for breakfast, so all those carbs are
no doubt affecting hunger levels.
We
were treated to a huge fireworks display tonight, alas not in our direct view,
but reflected in the glass of the building across from us. I think they were at
the river, but it was quite a display anyway. We also saw fireworks in
Copenhagen, I think for Ascension Day. Earlier tonight we walked all along the
river, and saw a couple of river cruise boats. It’s different seeing them in real
life vs those shiny brochures we get all the time. We saw a couple of the tour
groups around town, and imagined ourselves following around like sheeple.
Independent travel has its challenges, but being herded isn’t one of them. We
took the city tour today, on one of those double decker buses, and although the
recording was in English, it wasn’t spoken naturally. Whatever, we saw the
highlights of the city, and didn’t see anything we were burning to visit more
closely. We did go inside the cathedral twice today, though. During our later
visit there was a service going on, and we got to hear the pipe organ and
experience the sound in that cavernous place. Naturallly all the speaking was
in German, so we couldn’t understand it.
It seems wrong to be going to bed hungry, but I think we’ll survive. It’s after
11:00PM, and I think I’m going to give sleep a try.
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2015
Subject: Me, too!
Subject: Me, too!
You
wrote your message while traveling on the train, and I received it while
traveling on the train. Today it was the Thalys train to Paris, and we were
surprised to discover that the first class cabin includes free internet, and
snacks. We had our very own team of coach attendants who brought us OJ, coffee,
yogurt, & croissants. It seems like it has just been getting better and
better. And the internet connection was great. The train showed up 10 minutes
before departure time, so we were able to get settled before it departed. Right
away, I heard a guy chatting up another passenger, saying he was from San
Francisco. He was a real chatty retired transplant surgeon from UCSF, along
with his younger wife. They maintain a home in Henderson, NV to avoid CA income
tax, something we’ve considered ourselves. Although if you look at the cost of
the home, it might be six to one, half a dozen to the other. He talked about
downsizing from his 7,000 sq ft house to something more manageable @ just
2,100. So in a very brief time, he let us know that he owns 4 homes and has
lots of money. They were on a 4 week trip, 2 weeks as a tour, and 2 weeks on
their own. I showed them our map/itinerary, and he was suitably impressed, and
immediately wanted to know how Bill could get that much time off work. I’m such
a talker, I was busy recruiting him as an ombudsman while he was busy trying to
tell me how important he is I think he met his match!
I had a bit of travel anxiety interrupting my sleep last night, and ended up
getting up an hour before the alarm since I wasn’t sleeping well at that point.
So I just took a shower & read a bit to pass the time. We were already
packed up last night. Leaving early to avoid the British tourists, we were
dismayed to discover a bunch of them in our elevator lobby, and none of us able
to get on the elevator, as it came down already full. One kindly fellow knew of
a freight elevator, and went around the corner and got it for us. It could
barely fit the two of us and our luggage. But we made it. Neither one of us
took advantage of the loo on the train, so when we disembarked, the need
suddenly presented itself. I scrounged up the change in Euros, and we took
turns, but there was quite a queue for the ladies’ and one of them was out of
order. An attendant came and plunged it, and lucky me, I was the next to be
assigned to that particular potty. But nothing bad happened, and we were soon
on our way. As warned, we were accosted by a gypsy woman, but she was really
just begging, not trying to pickpocket. It was 12:30 in the afternoon, so there
weren’t any shadows to provide cover. She followed us all the way to loading
our luggage in a taxi (around the corner), and finally I told her I spent all
my money on the bathroom, so NO! She kept saying, “You pay me.”
When
we went out for a bite of lunch today, the food & wine was so good, we
decided to try to come back later for dinner. And after walking, and walking,
and walking, we were definitely ready to sit down & enjoy another meal.
They even peel the tomatoes! We did a whole lot of walking this afternoon,
though, and we’re both bushed now. When we got back I showed Bill the “feet up
the wall” yoga position, and he had to admit I was right. It really does drain
the swelling in your legs, and it feels great. A convert! I posted today’s pics
on FB, since mainly what we did was walk (and walk) over to the Eiffel Tower.
 |
| The BEST restaurant, and near our hotel, too, across from the National Assembly |
 |
| We have different ideas on what makes good sightseeing |
When we first arrived we went up the street to a market to lay in a few
supplies. Then we headed out on our adventures. Tomorrow we’ll do the city tour
and find the laundromat. Our suitcases were starting to be smelly. No Bueno!
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Subject: A Happy Shopper
Subject: A Happy Shopper
Hard
to believe, but I actually enjoyed going through the fancy dept store today.
AND I actually bought something. For whatever reason, I’m short on socks, so I
decided that might be a good thing to buy in Paris. But I probably have the
biggest female foot in the entire city, so I figured I’d do better shopping in
the men’s dept. I swear, their socks were better looking than any socks I’ve
found in my size anywhere else. And they’re called “Happy Socks.” Yeah, no
kidding. But I don’t know any man, gay or straight, who would be willing to
wear them. But lucky me! I went looking for some French undies, but the lacy
pair I picked out was 56€, and nothing special. I annoyed the clerk kvetching
about the price. The sign said 30% off. And when I asked (yes, I was going to
buy them), she said, “No, that’s not for tourists.” It sounds a lot like
Kohl’s, where you have to use their card to get the sale price. So I told her
no thanks, and we went on our way. We had a pretty fine time going through all
the floors of the store, and ended up selecting some macaroons (custom box)
which were packaged up in a very fancy way. We haven’t eaten them yet, so I
can’t report on the taste. The “American Gourmet” section cracked us up.
 |
| Those are definitely happy socks |
 |
| Gourmet to an American. Right. |
We
got back on and headed over to Notre Dame, where we actually attended mass. We
had great timing, popping in near the end of the service, getting to hear the
organ and some singing. I took some nice pics there, too, and have a video of
the end of the service. We walked around looking for a good restaurant, and
almost went for the street crepes, but it was getting too close to dinner. I
bought a big meringue, though, and that effectively spoiled my dinner anyway.
We got back on the bus and rode it all along Champs de Elysees again and I took
a crazy video of the traffic circle around the arch. With all those streets
coming together there, it’s an absolute madhouse. We came within 2 inches of
hitting another bus, but I think those drivers are used to it. We hopped off at
the closest stop to where we’re staying, and that required a walk over a bridge
and up a couple blocks. We wanted to try a different restaurant rather than the
one we loved so much on our street, just for a change. Big mistake. It was just
passable, whereas “our” restaurant is dynamite.
Uh oh, Bill is closing up for bed
now. It’s midnight so I guess that’s probably a good idea. We didn’t get back
in time to pick up our laundry this evening, so we’ll do that first thing
tomorrow. G’nite.
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Subject: THREE Days
Subject: THREE Days
I
can’t believe it took me three days to notice that 80% of the women here wear
scarves. I wondered why all the souvenir kiosks had racks and racks of scarves,
but honestly, I hadn’t noticed that EVERYONE is wearing them, often even the
men. It’s almost like there are no necks in Paris, since they’re all covered in
giant wrapped scarves. They don’t seem to make any effort to match them to the
outfit I’ve seen some very creative ways to tie them, but most just fold it in
half then put the ends through the loop and let them hang down to one side. The
funny thing is, I brought 3 scarves with me, to dress up my long sleeved
t-shirts on Cunard. So far I haven’t even taken them out of the suitcase.
Everyone seems pretty bundled up, yet I repeatedly found myself taking off my
jacket and going in a short-sleeved t-shirt. But I also haven’t seen anyone
nearly our size here, so perhaps that’s part of why they’re so cold. That and
smoking, which is seriously not good for one’s circulation. The women all look
so old. And you could see some desperate ones, trying fruitlessly not to look
old, by caking on the makeup, & even some false eyelashes.
Because I got to enjoy some lovely ice cream in the Latin Quarter today, I
wasn’t especially hungry around dinnertime. So we stopped so Bill could have a
beer, and he ordered some fries to catch up to me, and we agreed to hunt down
the bakery with the pink wrapping we saw everyone carrying as they walked past
the bar where we were sitting. It was just a block up the street, so we got the
baguette AND croissants, and then stopped at the market for some wine &
cheese. We didn’t know the cheese, but it looked rather brie-like, and we
decided to go with it. I looked it up on google, and here’s the story: Perail de Brebis is a soft-ripened, flat
disc cheese made of sheep's milk in the Pyrénées region of France. The cheese
is specially ripened in wooden moulds as it has the tendency to get quite runny
at room temperature. The rind of the cheese is smooth, revealing a pate that is
pale yellow, soft and thick. It is the perfect choice if you desire something
that is creamy and rich with a strong, powerful
taste balanced by earthy undertones. That made for a perfect in-room
light meal. We still had 2 apples hanging around from the Cologne hotel, and they
needed to be eaten, so that rounded it out, along with the chocolate and
macaroons we got yesterday. Now those were a real disappointment. In spite of
the appealing colors & fancy box, the macaroons were just meh, so-so. I
posted the dinner pic on FB.
I
went down & bailed our laundry out of the cleaners this morning while Bill
lounged a bit. That was only fair since he went for the baguette yesterday. The
lady seemed a bit offended when I opened up the paper wrapping to inspect to
make sure my 5 shirts were in there. Too bad! The jeans looked great, neatly
pressed hanging up just waiting for me. The t-shirt I washed by hand is
slightly stiff, but not as bad as shirts I tried to wash in the past. Hand
washing just isn’t for t-shirts, but I already knew that.
We eventually got ourselves out the door close to noon. First stop was the post
office, to mail cards to Joan and Bev, since they don’t do email. Bev at least
does FB, but remembering how to access email escapes her. She doesn’t even know her email
address. Of course you need one in order to have a FB account, but Mike or
somebody set it up for her, and she has never had to deal with it again. It’s OK, she’s 79 years old! She loves
FB, and I’m glad she has a way to stay in touch with the goings-on of her
extended family & friends. After we got
back, I realized I should have sent one to Lucy, too. So I’ll go again
tomorrow, and it will be easier since I know where the post office is. I was
surprised that the hotel didn’t have stamps, but I guess it would be hard to
know the postage rate to all countries. The PO is just 2 blocks away.
We stopped at a very busy corner café for lunch. Although it was hoppin’, many
of the customers were standing at the bar, even though there were tables
available. So we got a nice one by the window and proceeded to dine for about 1
½ hours. Of course we had wine, and espresso with the 3 tiny desserts plate.
It’s a common offering, and is different at each place. Today we had a tiny
crème brulee, a mini-brownie w/custard sauce, and a fruit tartlet. They were
all very tasty. Eventually we headed out, hoping to walk back to the island
(where we were for Notre Dame yesterday). On the way we saw the bridge with the
padlocks, made famous from the Sex and the City movie. (I wonder if Carrie
& Mr. Big’s lock is still there? I heard later that all the locks were removed shortly after we visited.)
Bill is still looking for the cheese shop
he saw on TV, and he knows it’s there somewhere, just not sure where. We walked
all over, up and down every street, and never found it. So we headed back over
the river and hung out the rest of the day in the Latin Quarter. They have many
streets with no cars there, and tons of crepe places, but of course what I
found was ice cream! From there we headed over to the Orsay, where we found
tons of people, but still enjoyed looking around. We got caught in a couple
more cloudbursts today, and I briefly considered buying a cheap umbrella from a
street vendor. It was over by the padlock bridge, and I told the guy I wanted
to first open it because I needed to know that it worked. He said no, that if I
opened it and it was broken, I just bought it! He suggested it wouldn’t rain any
more today. In other words, “Don’t buy this crappy umbrella!” Ha ha. I didn’t.
Most of the time we could duck under an awning or go into a café to wait it
out.
It
was too early for dinner, but Bill did want that beer, and that’s how we ended
up deciding on how we’d spend the rest of our evening dining in. We initially
planned to do the night cruise that came with our bus ticket, but by the time
we got back, it was too late. Tomorrow is our last chance. We really need to be
on the 9:00 boat, even though there’s one last boat at 10. We’ll probably walk
back, and that’s too late to be walking around down there IMHO.
Tomorrow
night we’ll be packing to leave Paris for Prague. We are being picked up by a
taxi @ 6:30AM on Fri. And we’re flying, so we have to pack carefully. No wine
opener in the carry-on. Bill lucked out that it didn’t get caught last time.
He’d hate to lose it as it’s one of his favorites. It’s nearing midnight, so
I’ll wrap this up. OK, g’nite.
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2015
Subject: 2nd
Subject: 2nd
We’ve
breathed enough second hand smoke here (and much more to come) that we might as
well be smokers ourselves. Indeed it’s great that they now don’t allow smoking
indoors in Paris restaurants & bars, but as a result, everybody is walking
down the street puffing away, And every restaurant has at least half of its
seating on the covered patio outside. So we can’t eat outside. Ever. There’s a
café practically on every corner, and we were fortunate enough to hit on a good
one our first day. Since then, the food has been pretty mediocre. We ate at the
good one 3 times, though.
Although
we are traveling with carry-on sized suitcases, we each check our rolly bag.
With the restrictions on carry-on liquids, there’s no way we could bring all our
stuff in carry-on. And my special hair foam is in a can, more than 3 oz, so I
couldn’t bring it anyway. I would not be happy without it. I did my root
touch-up today, wishing I had Elaine here to do the real thing. I wasn’t happy
with the red fade, so I decided today was the day. But a very bad thing
happened. I put the cap from the tube in the sink so as not to get it on the
edge, and the plug popped up, the cap went down the drain, and the plug fell
back in place. It happened in an instant. The drain still works now, but
I imagine sometime in the future it will be plugged up. I’m sorry, but it was
an accident! Anyway, if you noticed in the scarf pics, I no longer have red
hair. And I’m happy about that. We meet up with the Vantage river cruise people
tomorrow, and I want to look vibrant. The line describes itself as catering to
the over 55 crowd, so I imagine we’ll already be on the younger end of the
spectrum, and we’ll suddenly feel like Mr & Mrs America I already think I
don’t look almost 62, but with the right hair color, maybe 50-ish.
Interesting that we both got our color tweaked the same day.
I was a bit concerned because I hadn’t received any travel documents from
Vantage (like a boarding pass or something). So today I wrote to them, and they
answered right away. They are still expecting to meet us at the airport, but it
was good that I asked, because the hotel is not the one mentioned in the
brochure. If something goes wrong with the hook-up, we need to be able to get
to a hotel where they’re expecting us. So all systems are GO for tomorrow’s
trip to Prague. We got in our river cruise this evening, but alas, not after
dark. We took the 8:00 boat, and walked back up to “our” restaurant for a late
dinner. People were still coming in after 10:00, and the restaurant was
hopping. We weren’t disappointed in our last meal in Paris. We each had a version
of steak, mine with a Roquefort sauce, and his with morel mushroom sauce. And
crème brulee for dessert. The river cruise took us back past
the oldest bridge in Paris, which ironically has the name “Pont Neuf” or New Bridge.
We got our postcard
for Lucy from a very French bookstore, and asked the storekeeper if I could
write it there, and for directions to a post office. What she gave us was
directions to a mailbox, which is no good if you don’t already have the stamps.
We eventually found the post office I used yesterday (or whenever that was –
everything is now a blur), and by waiting in line you can actually have a clerk
determine the correct postage and have them send it. Imagine that! I didn’t do
any other postcards, so don’t bother checking your mailboxes! I figure these
daily messages are way better than any postcard could ever be.
Uh oh, 5 hours until time to get up, so gotta
tube it for tonight. Off to Prague in the very early morning. We’re pretty much
packed and ready to go.
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2015
Subject: Those Wings? Not So Smart
Subject: Those Wings? Not So Smart
So
today we were headed out of Paris for Prague, via CDG airport. Hotel desk had
arranged for taxi to pick us up @ 6:30AM. The driver was the clerk’s dad, who
had limited English skills. We got in the taxi, and he asked us which terminal
we were going to, since there are 3, and they’re far apart. Well, we didn’t
know. We just knew it was Smart Wings airlines, operated by Czech Airlines.
After checking his handy guide, he found nothing, so I suggested that he call
his son back at the hotel w/computer access, which he did. Son tells him it
might be Terminal 3, but that it was at 8:40, not 9:45. We knew that wasn’t
right, but let him drive on. He kept talking to himself, saying, “Terminal 2,
Terminal 3” and he’d follow that with “I give you good ride.” When we got to 3,
he ran in to ask, as there were absolutely no signs giving the airline names.
They told him it was terminal 2. So back around we went, and he went in at T2,
and they assured him it was right. We bid adieu to him, and headed in, asking
all along the way. We were eventually directed to check-in section 6, with
quite a few stations, but not a single soul in sight. Eventually a few more
passengers showed up, all looking equally lost. We started to form a line in
front of the middle station, when a woman agent came along and set up shop at
the end. So we moved over there. But it turned out her desk was for Malta
check-in. Eventually 3 more agents showed up, and we were just kinda hanging
out in front between the lines, and hogged our way in to check in. We were sent
to gate 51, as printed on our boarding pass, with boarding listed as 9:15. We
sat in the gate area until 9:30, and still no plane, and no announcement, so
Bill went to check the board, and found it now listed at gate 40, with “flight
delayed” on the screen. Great. So we move down to 40, and about 10 minutes
later so did everybody else. Then gate 40 was a madhouse. And it had no plane,
either. Finally a tarmac bus showed up, and the checked us through. It took 2
busloads, but eventually everybody was ferried out to a random plane parked in
the middle of nowhere. Yeah, Smart Wings. Bill said he couldn’t relax until the
plane was in the air
And
that’s when the real fun started for me. I don’t know if I mentioned that I’ve
been on the edge of a cold, and even got some day & night meds in Paris.
Well, although I didn’t realize it, my ears were plugged up. And the pain on
take-off & landing, and the resulting hearing impairment for the rest of
the day was just over the edge ridiculous. No amount of yawning, chewing,
swallowing, rubbing, etc would stop the pain. And I really couldn’t hear for
about 4 hours after we landed. And it still feels plugged up. Boo
When we landed, we were shocked to find no customs check-in. We just got our
bags and headed out, to a very worried Vantage representative who had been
waiting for us for about an hour. She had others scheduled to share the same van,
but finally sent them on their way. So we had our own van, too. I was so glad
we paid for the airport transfer, as it was a long ride to the hotel, and there
are 2 Hiltons in Prague. We’re at the Old Town Hilton, which is in a really
cool part of town. And the room is very nice. It seems very spacious after the
rooms in Cologne & Paris.
The
greeter gave me pause when she saw us and said she was so relieved, but also
surprised, as we appear to be about 20 years younger than the rest of the
group! Uh oh, what have we gotten ourselves into? I told her I’m older than I
look! Once everyone arrived, we had a little orientation walk around the blocks
surrounding the hotel with our local host Vicky. Later we met up for an info
briefing for the whole week, complete w/wine, beer, soda, etc, and that was
followed by a very nice dinner, where we sat with 2 single travelers, who were
just looking for someone to hook up with. One was a trumpet player from
Wisconsin, and the other a travel agent from Maine, both retired. We had a
wonderful dinner provided by the tour, and agreed to meet up tomorrow night for
dinner, to go to the beer restaurant down the street. They have 50 kinds of
beer. The guy is the oldest of 13 kids, 12 still living, and he’s 68, and
having seen all sorts of issues with his younger siblings, just decided he was
going to see as much of the world as he possibly can, with this being 1 of 3
trips this year. He is single, no kids, and figures, “Why not?” The woman is a
widow, and just likes to travel. We laughed a lot, and the guys decided they
want to try the absinthe, and might need us ladies to make sure they find their
way back after drinking it. We met two other couples from CA, and they seem
60-ish as well. It’s going to be fine. Everyone else just flew in today from
the US, so they’re all bushed and jet lagged. We’re going pretty well after
surviving our airplane ride with the chickens & goats.
We went walking around the neighborhood when we first got here, and we
discovered a great market. I have a video that I may try to post to YouTube,
but I don’t know what kind of connection we can get here. Also, messages may be
erratic, as we only get internet in the hotel lobby, unless we pay $25 a day to
upgrade to have it in our room. Uh, no thanks! Y’all can wait for our
fascinating tales. At the market Bill kept going back to the booth that
featured boar and deer sausage, and after a couple samples, he finally broke
down & ordered a whole one. There were a couple guys doing blacksmithing, a
band playing, and lots of interesting booths. Unfortunately the market is only
Mon-Fri, and we’re leaving first thing Monday morning.
Right
now we’re sitting in the bar, soaking up the free wi-fi, having one last drink
for the day. My liver will be glad when I get home and quit drinking every day.
Right now I’m having some Baily’s while we get our internet fix. It made me
realize that when I pour it at home, I give myself a LOT more than a single
shot.
OK,
that’s about it for today. Prague tours tomorrow and the next day, then off to
Slovakia, which is the only country on this trip that uses the Euro. The
economy of the other countries hasn’t caught up yet, so although they accept
Euros here, the official money is Czech crowns. We’ll trade in a little here
tomorrow, and use any leftovers to close out our hotel bill. Bill came up with
that idea. We’ll have a couple drinks on our tab, but probably not much else.
We’re certainly not going for the 25 bucks a day internet. That reminds me, I
didn’t tell the tale of the 3€ bottle of water on last night’s river cruise.
Bill put 4 into the machine, got 1 out in change, but nothing happened. He was
going to let it go, but you know me, I just can’t do that. So I hunted down an
employee and whined & got a voucher which I could take to the gift shop
after we docked. She gave me a token which I put in the machine, and it did the
same thing! So I can only conclude we don’t know how to operate French vending
machines. The gal finally went to the machine herself & got the water for
me. Oy. So now it’s off to bed for us, and we’ll hopefully be able to
connect once a day for now.
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2015
Subject: A Bunch of Drunks
Subject: A Bunch of Drunks
Oh
my, I’m not sure I should be writing right now, after spending about 4 hours
having “dinner” which although it included a meal at some point, included a
whole lot of alcohol before and after, with the guys fulfilling their bucket
list thing to try the local absinthe, a horrid smelling high proof flamed
booze. I have a great video of it, but don’t think the bandwidth will let me
upload it to YouTube, so you may have to wait until you get home for that. Bill
was trying to say it made his lips numb, but what he said was “nips lung.” Two
single travelers have adopted us, and so the 4 of us went out to dinner
tonight. It was a fun evening, and we “had” to stay until the music started so
we could check it out. I’m pretty sure we each had at least 4 drinks and now
I’m pushing water. Everything was fun, and after the waiter took the pic of the
4 of us, he turned the camera around and took a selfie.
 |
| He lit it, and advised to blow it out before catching beard on fire |
I tried to order
chicken, but he said everyone cooks chicken; I should have something else. And
he basically made me order the duck. Those are 2 kinds of dumplings on the
side. What’s missing? Vegetables, of course. Gayle asked if I’d send an email
to her daughter, just to let her know she’s OK. She was widowed 5 years ago,
and it makes her family very nervous when she takes a notion to travel by
herself. She lives in Maine. And the guy is John, a trumpet player from
Wisconsin. Our group has 20 total, and it’s weird, but 8 are from CA. Of course
2 of those are from the other CA (the southern one), but the other 6 of us are
all Bay Area residents.
In
our little happy group, we have a name for obnoxious people, “barge people.”
Gayle said on a previous cruise they identified some annoying folks that they
thought would be better off riding on a barge towed behind, to spare everyone
else from their ways. So we now have the code, and can talk about barges
without anyone knowing what we’re really talking about.
After
our included buffet breakfast here at the Hilton, a bus picked us up for our
tour @ 9:00. Our guide, Liba, is quite well versed on local history, and gave a
nice tour of the castle, including yet another gorgeous cathedral. Bill was
most intrigued with the display of armor and the little movable slot windows
where they could shoot at invaders. It was a very challenging walk for a few of
our fellow travelers. We had breakfast this morning with a couple named Sharon
& Fred! I assured them I wouldn’t be forgetting their names since they're the same as yours. Anyway, they
both use canes and struggled to keep up, and to navigate the steps. They missed
dinner last night because they slept through it. The actual tours work quite
well as they have us wear an earpiece that catches the guide’s voice through
her microphone. It has a volume adjustment, so even Bill can hear the dialog.
We’ll be using the devices throughout the whole time with Vantage, as each port
has guided tours. It’s kinda nice to have all the tickets handled. And they
explain everything before it happens. So we knew that we’d need to scan our
tickets several times during the castle tour, and as a result, nobody lost
theirs.
We
got back around 12:30 and went to lunch w/John at the same restaurant where we
had dinner. It’s called “50 beers” and although they only have 2 local beers on
tap, they have bottled beer from all over the world. The guys each had both the
light & dark local beer before trying the crazy shots. Surprisingly, nobody
had difficulty walking back to the hotel. Well, it was just a block, so we were
just fine. We were prepared to have to manage the guys. But even Gayle had 4
glasses of wine.
We
walked around the local area a bit today, and walked all the floors of the
shopping mall. The funniest part was when a guy selling curling irons dragged
me into his kiosk to show me how great his iron worked. Then he demo’d on Bill
and told him if I ever got tired of him, he’d be next in line! He was very
swishy, but it appeared to me to be an act. I suggested that it wasn’t any big
deal to get my already curly hair to curl, so that’s how he ended up doing
Bill’s. I found my daily ice cream, but still haven’t found the ultimate. I
guess I’ll have to do some more research.
We
have another tour tomorrow morning, then at 2:00 we’re going to the Thai
massage place. It was recommended by our tour host, and it’s only 15€ for a half
hour. We signed up for the full hour.
Time
to go back up to our room. I haven’t checked FB yet, but Bill has been on it
the entire time I wrote this message.
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2015
Subject: Bye Bye Prague
Subject: Bye Bye Prague
I’m
posting today’s 2 main pics on FB. I had an alcohol-free day (first in a long
time) and Bill only had 1 beer today. That’s a record so far!
 |
| At the Charles Bridge. This just might be our Christmas card pic |
Our
last day in Prague, and it was a winner for sure. We did a tour of the old town
area, the prior Jewish ghetto. Once they were all forced to live in the ghetto,
they started shipping them off to Auschwitz, where most of them died. We
finally got a pic of us together, something Bill just doesn’t like doing. I
have to beg him to take my pic, too. The bus picked us up at 9:00, and drove us
across town, and we walked back. Because it was a Jewish holiday, we couldn’t
get into to the Jewish cemetery or synagogue. But we walked past them. One
synagogue is the oldest one still in use, built in the 1300’s. The most
ridiculous thing today was when everyone and their brother crowded into the
square on the hour for the clock to go off. The little doors open and the 12
apostles appear. The whole thing takes about 30 seconds. Yes, it’s an
interesting clock, showing the phases of the moon, signs of the zodiac, sunrise
& sunset. But what a mass of people. Crazy. The circumstances are ripe for
pickpocketing. We next toured the city hall, and saw the actual clock dudes up
close.
The
most interesting thing today was our Thai massage. We asked for deep tissue, which
was a good choice.
Bill had been suffering debilitating neck muscle spasms all
day, and the timing for the massage was perfect. We took the option to have the
same room, which was a good thing, since the whole thing was weird enough that
we needed each other for reassurance. First off, they made us leave our shoes
out front and put on their Crocs. Once on the table, they used a washcloth to
clean our feet. And then, before I knew what happened, the gal climbed on board
and was on top of me on her hands & knees, using the knees to dig into the
calf muscles. Very odd, and a little intense. The rest was pretty good,
although they massaged parts that have never been massaged before. I was taken
aback when she whipped the towel off my chest and massaged all around the
stomach & abdomen. Bill commented that she massaged “all around the dangly
parts!” That was an unusual experience. Then, at the end, they had us sit up on
the table, got behind and proceeded to stretch us this way and that, leaning
forward, arms up & over, and behind the back. It was quite a workout. They
don’t have the same sense of modesty that we do, so that took a little getting
used to. But it felt great, and gave Bill some relief (but not the kind you think of when considering "massage with relief"). He had a nice nap after
the massage. I briefly fell asleep too. I’ve been fighting that cold, too. It’s
mostly a cough, which of course bothers everyone else. Sometimes I get going
& can’t stop. And my ears are still plugged, but I did get my hearing back
anyway. That was quite a scary tale you told of flying with plugged ears &
going deaf for so long.
Bill
woke up from his nap starving, so we headed out for the place we ate the first
day. But it was packed, and there was a line out front. So we walked across the
way to a more expensive cloth tablecloth place. Service was very slow, and
naturally it was more expensive, but it was very nice. They gave us each an
iPad with the menu on it, so we could see beautiful pics of each dish, which
was very helpful in making our selections. Also, it gave a choice of about 8
different languages. I had chicken & Bill rabbit. For me the best part was
the mango sorbet that was served on the side on my crème brulee dessert. I
handed off half of the brulee to Bill and devoured every bite of the sorbet. It
was my second ice cream of the day. After the massage we walked home via the
ice cream shop, the one pointed out as being best in our first day’s tour.
 |
| Vicky never led us astray |
They
were right. I got pistachio, and it was divine. We’ve been limiting it to just
a tiny scoop each time in the quest to find the best. But now that we’ve found
it, alas, we’re leaving. We have to have our luggage out at 8:00, and bus
leaves at 9. Off to Slovakia we go!
That’s
it for tonight.
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2015
We
had a rather quiet day today, moving from Prague to Bratislava, Slovakia, by
bus. There was a lot of nice green farmland along the way (wheat &
rapeseed), and we stopped in a college town, Brno, for lunch and a walking tour
along the way. The lady we befriended tripped & fell on the
cobblestones, but claimed she was OK. She hit her head but shook it off.
There’s a bone doc along with us, so I think we’re pretty good when it comes to
such things. Bill and I ate with him & his wife, a nurse, and I said in my
work we’ve been told that if an elder falls, if they’re able to get back up on
their own with assistance of an object like a chair, then it’s OK. If they
can’t, they need to have that hip x-rayed. He agreed. I’m not in email contact
with her daughter, but I don’t think I’ll tell her about it. We don’t want her
to worry, when there’s nothing that can be done about it. After that, one of
the men had her hold his arm the whole time we walked. That’s how I walk
w/Lucy, and it feels ever so much more secure than using a cane or walker. This
lady uses a cane due to a knee that needs to be replaced. She talked about the
pain of bone on bone. Yeah, got it. Bill was actually hanging back, staying
near her, but we were almost back to the lunch place when it happened. We dined
at a nice hotel & the meal was a lovely beef dish w/a rich sauce &
potatoes, and it included wine & flan for dessert. Although I’m still
wearing my jeans, I don’t know at this rate how much longer I’ll be able to do
that.
The town of Brno is very artsy, with all its young people. I got a kick out of
the art, and whimsical stories. The town loves its alligator/croc, gifted to
the city and embraced by all as their symbol. Um yeah, whatever.
In the bus
along the way, our tour guide Vicky put in a video of her favorite cartoon as a
child. It is about a little mole who gets in all sorts of situations, and there
are no words. We have cartoons like that too, but neither of us could remember
the character. We’re traveling on a very comfortable bus, with room for
everyone to have their own seat if they want. The group of just 18 is perfect.
They have trouble justifying the optional excursions, though, because only
about half want to take them. They’re pretty expensive, and seem to me like
just more of the same.
As
we went along on the bus, the trumpet dude got out his trumpet to explain to me
how the notes are formed on a trumpet with just 3 keys. I really had never
looked at a trumpet up close before, and he showed me the tubing that gives
either a half or whole step, resulting in all 7 notes in a chromatic scale. It
actually made sense! Our tour guide came walking down the aisle about then and
was happy to find out what was in that case the man is always carrying around.
He also explained the difference between b-flat and c trumpets. I never knew
there were two different types. Most people play b-flat instruments, and they
have to transpose when they play with an orchestra. That would drive me nuts.
Vicky talks a lot about life under the Communists, and how proud the Czech
people are, and how unfair it was that people had everything taken away, and
the challenges in rebuilding. Life has been much better for them since they got
out from under the Communists in 1989. There is still a lot of evidence in how
it used to be, though. Like the block apartment buildings, which are now
privately owned, but are all that ugly cement block construction. Prague is in
Bohemia, and Brno in Moravia. So we had our history lesson for the day, and now
we’re headed out for dinner & a quiet evening to get ready for sightseeing
in Bratislava tomorrow. I’m already infamous, because in our orientation tour
today, the guide pointed out where the good ice cream can be found.
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Subject: I WAS Happy
Subject: I WAS Happy
I
had started a nice newsy message about scoring a new pedometer and a purple
polka dotted umbrella,
as well as a paragraph about the split of the former
Czechoslovakia into Czech Republic and Slovakia, when I stopped to go to
dinner, and when I came back, my computer was frozen and I had to power down,
losing everything I wrote. So now I’m not so happy, but suffice it to say, the
Czechs are a lot happier about the split than the Slovakians, because being
such a small country, they no longer have a voice. And the split was done
without a vote from the people, strictly a political move. They’re downright
annoyed. But at least happy that they’re no longer under communism. Today when
we were on top of the hill where the palace sits, they pointed out where the wall
used to be, and there’s a road there now. The other side is Austria. In fact
Vienna and Bratislava are the two closest capitals of any countries, being only
40 miles apart. The guide says when people ask her where she’s from, she
doesn’t generally say Slovakia, because nobody knows where that is. Instead she
says, “40 miles from Vienna.” I have to admit, before this trip, I wouldn’t
have known either.
We
took a little fake train for our tour around Bratislava today, then later
walked back to town for lunch. The city lies right on the Danube, which seems
to have quite a current, and it’s certainly not blue. It was sprinkling most of
the day, which is why I finally decided to break down and get an umbrella. We
were in a sporting goods store, looking for a pedometer (since mine died early
in the trip), and there sat the perfect little umbrella, for only 6€, and
I just had to have it. And I actually got to use it on our walk into town.
Although it was raining, it wasn’t cold at all. The hotel is located right on
the river, attached to a large shopping mall. It has a food court very much
like ours, except instead of hot dog on a stick, they have schnitzel. We really
can’t buy anything, as we’re already packed to the gills. One of the guys
(trumpet dude) who went on the wine tasting tour today brought us back a bottle
of wine, and my inclination was to bring it downstairs and share it with
everyone after dinner. He hinted that he’d rather have us carry it on the river
boat tomorrow. So we’ll just pack a little better for our departure in the
morning. I think I can fit it in my carry-on sized bag, rolled up in clothes.
We
went for lunch in town, planning to go back to an authentic local food place
pointed out by the tour guide. The story of the true Budweiser was told on one
of our tours, and Bill had been wanting to try it. I posted the story on FB.
Indeed, it’s an entirely different animal than the slop they call Budweiser at
home.
The crispy things on top of the food are fried pork. At first I thought
it was crunchy potatoes, but one salty greasy bite confirmed it was pork bits.
I couldn’t eat too much of the food because it was just too rich. But the apple
strudel? No problem! You might notice a McDonalds in the background. It’s so
sad to see them everywhere. KFC, too. And compared to other places, they’re
expensive. But the local people like it. And of course foreigners go there,
too, as a familiar place.
Tonight
we had a farewell dinner for our little group, as we’re joining up with the
rest of the folks on the river cruise tomorrow. It will be nice to get on the
river, and be in one room for 10 nights. We’ll actually completely unpack. On
this part of the trip we were at the Prague Hilton 3 nights, and the Bratislava
Sheraton for 2 nights. We were happy to see Bill’s jeans & t-shirt back
neat & tidy from the hotel’s laundry today. My jeans aren’t to the point
where they need washing again yet. It can be done on the boat, and although it
will be expensive, you gotta do what you gotta do.
And
that’s the daily news. I hope the internet on the boat is OK, so you can
continue to travel vicariously through us.
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Subject: Had to Comment Back
Subject: Had to Comment Back
RE: Do they have a Laundromat on the boat or
do you have to use their service? Peg has black pants she travels with
that wash and, she claims, dry almost before she can hang them up. She
also takes old undies and tosses them as she goes.
Funny
you should mention that… I just threw away an old pair of undies last night. I
have 2 long sleeve shirts that dry instantly, too. I’ve been wearing them a
LOT, often in layers w/vest. We’ll have to use the ship’s laundry service,
unfortunately. And that means I continue to hand wash my socks & undies.
The white socks will get more and more gray, but it really doesn’t matter. I
mostly have colors anyway. On the Princess cruise, it was $3 a load to wash,
and $3 to dry. I’m sure glad we washed everything before we left there. Bill
still has 2 freshly laundered Hawaiian shirts from the Paris place, so he
should be good for a week. My yoga pants did OK w/hand washing, but I really do
like wearing jeans. Well, as long as I can still squeeze into them. Yes, our
group of 18 or 20 will all be getting on the boat together tomorrow in
Budapest, but we’ll be a group of around 160 total. Everyone will be jealous of how
we’ve bonded already. Oh, and fishy gets to come out since we’re boarding a
cruise! G’nite (again).
 |
Fishy in the bag... "Let me out!" |
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Subject: Making Strudel
Subject: Making Strudel
I’m
not suremy video will go through, but I thought I’d give it
a try. One of my fellow passengers caught me in action, throwing the strudel
dough before we stretched it out. It was quite an amazing process, stretching
it, so as not to get any holes. We made cherry/poppy seed strudel, but they
also had apple, and cheese. They were all good. The meal was goulash, with a
sort of biscuit topping, and they greeted us at the bus with a shot of local
schnapps. 2 kinds of wine with lunch, too. Audience participation makes all the events more entertaining.
We’re
now onboard the river boat, cabin is fine, already visited the library, and are
going for safety briefing now. More later.
I told somebody on the bus today about “Daily Drivel” and “Rocking
Chair Journals,” and they absolutely loved it.
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Subject: Some Pics from Today
Subject: Some Pics from Today
The
farmhouse lunch was tasty & interesting, but we had to work for it! There
was perhaps a bit too much drinking today, what w/schnapps greeting, 2 kinds of
wine w/lunch (one dry & one dessert wine), champagne welcome gathering on
the boat, wine w/dinner, and champagne send-off party, as we headed for the
beautifully lit parliament building for a night float-by (pics posted on FB).
Bill tried to go up for a last drink around 10:00PM, but he found the carpets
rolled up and not a soul stirring. I think that means we’re supposed to be
sleeping now. But heck, breakfast isn’t until 8:00.
The farm was out in the middle of nowhere, and it was an audience participation
program. We actually helped make a flatbread first, then a cherry strudel. The
dough was thin, the size of the table. When we got done stretching, it was
hanging 4 inches over the edge on all sides of the table. Then we put the
filling on one side, and used the cloth to roll it up into a long snake shape.
Crazy.
I know they are good people, because they have
a yellow lab! Alas, the dog was locked up in a stall. Because she looked pretty
young, and I’d venture to guess has a bad habit of jumping on people. I went by
the stall and said, “Who’s a good dog?” She jumped up & put her nose
through the bars to say hello. I was really tempted to sneak in, but the
combination of hay & dog would probably have been too much for me. I don’t
know where the owners were at that particular moment, so I probably could have
gotten away with it. They didn’t speak much English, so I might not have
understood if they said no!
Tomorrow is the city tour of Budapest, leaving @ 9:00AM. Everything is at a
great pace, and with the crowd generally being older than we are, we seem young
and strong. Everything is relative. So I guess we’ll call it a night, and look
harder to find the party people tomorrow. G’nite all.
 |
| That's our boat... and paprika flavored hooch |
I think my very favorite pic of the entire trip was the parliament building, all lit up as we pulled out of Budapest to head on down the Danube.
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2015
Subject: Small World
Subject: Small World
We
were chatting with our next door neighbors, and discovered that they know Pam,
a former employee of mine who moved to St. George UT. Well, today they
introduced us to the rest of their crew onboard, and one lady is going to be
hiking with Pam the week after our trip, an organized activity of the hiking
club at their senior community. I guess Sun River is THE happening place for
the over 55 set, and the list of activities they described was mind boggling.
One couple moved from the Napa area where they managed a small winery &
tasting room, and said it’s simply a wonderful place to live.
We’re
pulling out now, heading down the river, so the internet is going to get very
spotty as we move into lightly populated areas. So I’ll send a couple pics from
today and call it a day. Today was just a city tour, an afternoon nap, and a
neck/back massage for Bill. Our tour guide wasn’t as good as the previous ones,
so it was a little disappointing. There’s an amazing colored tile roof on the
church on top of the hill, but way too many people here. The tourists are like
locusts. Gotta keep moving along. So g’nite, and look for more interesting
stuff in the smaller places, whenever I can next connect.
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2015
We’re docked in Kalocsa, Hungary right now, and it looks MUCH better, maybe
even sleepy. That’s because the main town is 2 miles away, because the river
floods regularly. But the town only has a population of 1500. The tourists are
starting the summer invasion in all the big towns. Ugh. Right now we’re going
to an organ recital & folklore workshops. I think we’re going to study paprika!
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2015
Subject: Turns Out
Subject: Turns Out
The
town of Kalocsa, Hungary that we visited today actually has a population of
over 18,000. The people and the place were charming. We enjoyed the organ
concert (well, some of us did!), then we were taken to a place near the boat
dock where they put on quite a spread for us. I have a hilarious video of Bill
trying to learn how to crack a whip, but it just wasn’t happening. He ended up
having FIVE shots of the local hooch (slivovitz) , along with the wine with lunch,
and he was feeling pretty happy.
Everyone participated, in one way or another
But I was the one who ended up taking a nap
this afternoon. It wasn’t too long, though, and we went up top and visited with
some other guests for a bit before it was time to go for our lecture on what it
was like to grow up under communism. Surprisingly, neither host recalls being
unhappy. They felt like they had everything they needed, but a description of
watching TV flat on the floor, so as to avoid flying bullets didn’t seem like a
happy memory to me. Also, having one’s house searched to make sure they
didn’t have any money seemed pretty creepy. Bogdan’s dad was a bus driver, and
thus had contact w/foreigners, so he was particularly under suspicion. Turns
out they hid the money in plastic in the cabbage pot. But at least under
communism everybody had a guaranteed job and a place to live. They had been on
a list for 6 years to get a car, and when everything changed, they lost their
money and didn’t get the car. All they had left was enough to buy a TV.
We got our obligatory paprika today. It’s everywhere, and in case you didn’t
know, has 7x as much vitamin C as oranges.
Poor internet here, but
hopefully, g’nite to you.
Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2015
Subject: After Midnight
Subject: After Midnight
We
just got in from watching the boat dock in Croatia, and we need to get to bed
to be ready for tomorrow’s activities. We were gone most of the day, in Pecs,
Hungary, touring old catacombs, churches & porcelain outlets. We had a nice
lunch in an old champagne cellar, and as you might have seen on FB, spent some
time hanging w/the captain. The people from St. George, UT who are doing the
hike in Italy next with my former employee, were with us most of the day. I
found out that others can go on trips with members of their community, so I
just might try to stay in touch with them. The other big group is folks from
our pre-trip group (Prague/Bratislava) who continue to find happy places to
drink beer together. Our guide sang the Hungarian national anthem to us on the
bus coming back today. She had a nice voice, and the range was challenging, but
she nailed it. Interesting way to up the tips!
Gotta go. G’nite.
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2015
Subject: Like They Promised
Subject: Like They Promised
Today’s
lunch with a local family was promised to be one of the most memorable parts of
our trip, and boy, oh boy were they ever right. The homes were carefully
selected, but this was their first meal of the season. They have an
interpreter, plus the younger folks all speak a little English. We were
welcomed with some homemade brandy in different flavors, then treated to a
wonderful father & son guitar duo, better than the official concert we
attended in the church this morning. They were so nice. And every part of the
meal was perfect. Afterwards, we went back outside for a garden tour, where we
met the dog & saw the garden, where I unfortunately failed to snap a photo,
because we had to get back to the patio for our final concert, where I played &
sang with them (House of the Rising Sun).
 |
| They gave us their CD |
The meal was so good, and plentiful.
Everyone in the neighborhood was excited about this. The bus dropped us off at
4 different houses, 8-10 at each, and I think we hit the jackpot. One of the
homes didn’t drink alcohol, so theirs was a much more sober experience. Ours
started with the tray of 6 different types of brandy, then gave us plenty of
wine through the meal, which they claim would cost $100 a bottle, but I
seriously doubt that. Something lost in translation, I think. We had a lovely
chicken soup with everything homemade, including the noodles. And the chickens
were wandering around outside. The next course was chicken, fixed 2 ways – one
breaded & one baked, amazing potato wedges AND mashed potatoes, 2 salads,
fresh homemade bread, and for dessert, cherries off their tree, and a
walnut/raisin roll. And get this, as we were leaving, they insisted we take
doggy bags! We shared the cherries with the rest of the bus, since the other 3
groups didn’t seem to report anywhere near the good time that we had. See the
pics. It was unbelievable hospitality. I was so engrossed that I took very few
pics. The gal at the end in the group shot is the translator.
The
lunch was in Osijek, about an hour from Vukovar. When the Serbs attacked,
Vukovar was virtually destroyed, and other areas of Croatia were also heavily
bombed. It was quite a problem for many of the people because with the
countries just across the river, there were many mixed marriages of Serbs
and Croatians. Because it was all part of the former Yugoslavia, they had no
army or weapons of their own to fight back. They threw rocks. So pretty much
everything was just taken over, and there were many war atrocities. But they’ve
mostly healed and forgiven, but not forgotten. At the end of the tour, our
guide asked us to go into Serbia with an open mind, and to know that it wasn’t
the people who invaded, it was the government. And many of the Serbs had to
leave their homes, too. Although the town is largely renovated, there are still
parts showing holes from the bombing. There were thousands of bomb being
dropped per day. The guide said that although the countries have different
religions, this wasn’t a religious war.
The
other troubling issue is that they have 40% unemployment, and now that they’re
in the EU, their kids are free to go to other countries to look for a better
life. Parents are sad that all their kids are leaving. One big hope, however,
is tourism. And I think that’s one of the reasons the family was so anxious to
please us. The house was selected to host because the mom works as a cook in a
restaurant. All the homes had to be certified to serve food by the health dept.
The dad is an electrician, and the two sons work at the winery. They feel very
lucky to have jobs. They anticipate getting 2 of these luncheons per week now
through the summer. Grandma is there cooking, too, and she was a cook for Tito
(Prime minister/president/military leader of Yugoslavia for many, many years
until his death in 1980. He’s considered a benevolent dictator, fondly
remembered by many), so you know her cooking is great. I just can’t say enough
about what an amazing experience this was. And certainly better than our usual
tour-a-day routine. Bill said he thinks he’ll expire if he has to see one more
church. After the cathedral @ Cologne, and Notre Dame, nothing can compare
anyway.
I
have to start getting ready for the formal night now (that means put on makeup
and a sparkly top around here). Serbia tomorrow. G’nite.
Sent: Monday, June 1, 2015
Subject: Belgrade, Serbia
Subject: Belgrade, Serbia
Sorry
to have to report, but there was absolutely nothing happy about this city. It’s
big (2m people) but has little character. We walked around the fortress, which
has a nice view, but our guide was pretty negative about things. For example,
he said, “We don’t throw our smokers out. They can smoke inside (or outside)
the restaurants.” Right there, we were already crossing it off as a place we
might consider to visit again. When there are so many other places that have
seen the light on this issue, we’ll go to those other places first. The guide
commented that nobody would be allowing our bus to turn, since drivers there
show no consideration for others on the road. In fact, when we got off the bus,
a car at the crosswalk honked at us to get out of his way. The most interesting
sight was the ministry of defense building that was bombed by a smart bomb.
It’s still there, with the big gaping hole in the front, but the other building
around it weren’t damaged. We got a chuckle out of our “oops” smart bomb that
hit the Chinese embassy. USA had to move its embassy further out, in order to
get away from the protests, to a more secure place. The bus never stopped at
those sights, so I couldn’t get a picture.
We
ended up electing not to go back into town for the afternoon, and I read a book
about Germany and took a nap. That made me wide awake for the evening’s
activities. We had an excellent dance group onboard, doing a range of dances
that were reminiscent of Jewish weddings, and Russian macho show-off dancing.
Both the music & dance were very good. We went up top for a nice view as we
left at 10:00PM, then around 11, we went down to the bar where the captain was
just waiting for someone to talk to. He bought our drinks, and we had a nice
chat. And now it’s time for bed. We sail through locks tomorrow for the first
time. Being that it’s now 1:20AM, I’d best call it a night.
Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Subject: A Lock is a Lock?
Subject: A Lock is a Lock?
I
really thought since I’d been through the Panama Canal, I knew what locks were
like. But guess what? A river boat is very different. First of all, we went
zooming in there, about 6 inches from the wall on the starboard side. A river
boat stops a lot more quickly than a passenger ship. And as I was waiting for
the doors to close behind us, instead of swinging shut, it came up from below,
and I could see us dropping. There were also two people in a kayak in
there with us. The scenic cruising today was very pleasant, taking up most of
the afternoon. We cruised past the “Mt Rushmore” of the Danube, a tribute to
some president (I couldn’t focus on the narration coming over the loudspeaker.
 |
One of two times when she was seen posing, rather than taking the pics |
Still in Serbia, in the morning we visited a village of about 3,000 people,
Donji Milanovac. They have high hopes for tourism, having recently built a
hotel with 500 beds. Being that there is really nothing there, I doubt if it
will be very successful. There was another fall by a barely with it passenger.
She fell off a curb & broke her hand. We’ve had 5 falls so far, with two
requiring a trip to the hospital. But they both got out after being patched up,
and were able to travel on. Today’s victim was no surprise to any of us,
though. We had previously commented that she appears to have dementia. And she’s
traveling alone. I guess this is typical for this type of cruise. It’s really
not one for young folks. The pace is very slow, and repetitive. We’ve seen
enough churches, palaces, and town squares to last a long time. Oh, and buses,
too. The long bus rides are getting old. Luckily tomorrow’s town is a walking
tour. And a children’s dance group will be coming onboard in the late
afternoon. We waited outside today with a couple others, while the rest of the
group went inside the church. So far, I’ve started sneezing or coughing in
every old church we visited.
We visited an elementary school in session today, and I think the kids enjoyed
having all these foreign people trooping through their class. Well, actually we
just peeked in, and I snapped a pic. We finished our walk through the town by
stopping at a little café by the river, where I had a cappuccino, and Bill a
first beer of the day. When we got off the boat this morning, we were
greeted by another folk dance troupe, performing very much like last night’s
group. My only recommendation is that they do a little audience participation.
I could totally pick up the dances, but certainly don’t have the stamina they
do. But then I have about 40 years on them.
We’re
jumping an hour ahead tonight, and docking in Ruse, Bulgaria tomorrow. We’re
ahead of schedule, so they’ve booked the walking tour for us, with free time in
town before heading back for the afternoon’s programs. Many of the passengers
are all excited about the day after tomorrow, because apparently we’ll have the
best prices of the trip for buying souvenirs & jewelry. We’ll be in the
larger area, and will have lunch with university students. I guess it’s a
pretty good deal for them, getting free lunch just to sit with a table of
tourists and practice their English.
Here's what they do to avoid shopping & boring tours
PS
I did look up the Mt Rushmore dude, and he was a king, ousted by the Romans.
Whatever. http://www.webphoto.ro/romania/a-romanian-rushmore-on-the-danube-gorges-honoring-the-king-of-dacians.html
Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Subject: More Education
Subject: More Education
Today
we had a history lesson on the formation of the EU (European Union). They have
28 countries now, and 24 different languages. It’s hard to imagine how so many
culturally different people can operate as a single unit. But it sure is nice
being able to cross freely across borders. The longest pending applicant is
Turkey, and our host said he didn’t think they’d ever be admitted, for 2
reasons… they’re too big, and they’re Muslim. The EU countries are pretty much
Christian, and there’s even quite a bit of tension between countries because
some are Roman Catholic, and others have other forms of orthodoxy, and in every
single place we’ve visited, they’ve dragged us to their church. One town had a
mosque, but it was only used by foreign students. There is an occasional
synagogue, but with all the Jews pretty much eradicated during WWII, they
really haven’t come back to most places. Under communism, any practice of
religion was frowned upon, and although people COULD go to church, it was noted
and held against them.
Another
interesting thing that surprised me is that there are so many river boats along
our way that often we have to double park. When we first got on the boat, I
wasn’t able to get my traditional embarkation photo with Fishy, because we had
to walk through another boat to get onto our boat. Luckily they were managing
our luggage at that point, so we didn’t have to carry a bunch of stuff. There
are 164 passengers on our boat, and we are divided into 4 buses, of 40 each.
There are always a couple people who don’t go. They trot us around the same
places in every city, but still I’m glad I’m on a guided tour. Today they
walked us to the square, then abandoned us, assuring us it was an easy walk back,
just look for the tallest building. Unfortunately, we were hanging back with a slower couple. They're both at risk for falls. On one of the walks, she fell, and took him
down, too. That’s how he got the gash on his forehead. Anyway, the guy said he
knew a shortcut back to the boat. It was very hot out, so shortcut sounded
good. Unfortunately, it ended up being about double the walk back. But we
stopped in a cool bar, where we had some drinks. We were just leaving when an
English-speaking guy, maybe the manager, came out and asked if we had seen the
garden. We followed him, and there was a wonderful courtyard full of tables
where we could have sat. But we were just leaving.
We got a bottle of water to
go, and headed on our way. Luckily there were no falls, but it was still scary
because she had to stop to rest several times along the way,. We just headed
for the river, but found ourselves at dock #2, when we were parked at dock #8.
Seems the roads off the square are like spokes, so the further we walked, the
further we were getting from our boat.I'm pretty sure we were more worried than they were. We never saw the “tallest building”
until after we spotted the boat. They decided they wanted to go back to the bar
for dinner. They were serving Spanish food (tapas, maybe), and I think they
took a cab and went back. When we finally got back from the walk, the
children’s dance program was long over, and it was nearly dinner time. We just went
into dinner on the boat, and I guess they went back.
The town itself was very gloomy, even the newest buildings, like the one shaped
like a ship.
Like other formerly communist countries, everything is gray and
blocky, The average local monthly wage is about $300 a month. And that’s one of
the reasons we decided to lower the charge for tips to the cruise director.
He’s from here. If everyone gave the recommended amount, it would be $900 a
DAY. They want to shame you into leaving it on your account, but we’re just not
going to do that. The $12 a day per person for the other staff is fine, but
that other tip just sticks in my craw. We’ve had no special services, and
although he has an important job leading all the briefings and making sure
everyone gets on the right bus, WE don’t need him to do that for us.
Right after dinner there was a cabaret show, and it was a traditional French
show, complete with seductress singer and 4 dancing girls in sparkly thong
bikinis with chiffon capes. I’ve never seen so many old men with their mouths
hanging open! And poor Bill… he missed it, because he was so tired from the
walk. He went back to the room and I went to the show. During the show a weird woman mimed playing a trumpet. There are all sorts of people on
this trip, and we have to get along, so we are polite to everyone. I don’t know
if we’ll do another trip like this again or not. We need some time to think
about it. A little too much “Baaaa” for our taste.
Tomorrow
is more Bulgaria, and the next day Romania, then we’re done with this part of
the trip. It’s hard to believe we’ve been gone since April 17.
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2015 3:15 PM
Subject: Bulgaria - We Goofed
Subject: Bulgaria - We Goofed
We
went around with local tour guides for two rounds of city tours here in
Bulgaria, and they were pretty much in alignment on the fact that they chose
the wrong side in WWII, but said they didn’t send their Jews to the
concentration camps. The entire city of Ruse is filled with block after block
of the flats constructed under communism. They’re sooooo ugly. Since Ruse is
right on the Danube, the communist government figured it would be a good place
to build factories, and of course they needed workers, so people were sent to
live here to staff the factories. So now they have a bunch of abandoned
factories. Another interesting tidbit was that there is give & take being
part of the EU. They’ve received quite a bit of funding for restoring old
buildings, and it’s good, because although they had to make payments to the EU,
when the money comes back, it has oversight, so isn’t quite as susceptible to
corruption & fraud. The bad was that they had to give up their atomic power
plant, which previously provided all power needed. Now they have to buy power
from France. I asked Bill why that would be, since she said their plant was
newer than the ones in France. He said it was built by the Russians… Uh,
remember Chernobyl? Yes, we certainly did know the history of the formation of
the EU, but hearing local perspective is really interesting. To make sure
everyone who’s interested is informed, the boat holds lectures every day, then
we go out with local tour guides to see & hear the real deal. We visited a
museum today, a restored wealthy merchant’s home. It was highly fortified on
the bottom floor, to help protect the family from marauders, since often the
man of the house was away on business. We also visited an old church that was
disguised on the outside so as not to look like a church, but beautifully
decorated with Frescos on the inside. I
couldn’t hang out inside since it brought on asthma, but we were able to hear
the description from outside. They also had a men’s choir singing inside – only
4 guys, but with the acoustics, sounded like more. They’re retired guys who
have been singing together for 10 years – a doctor, architect, music professor,
& military officer. They dress as monks for effect.
We
went into the larger town, Veliko Tarnovo, and had a lunch (that didn’t suit me
since it was filled w/onions & red bell peppers) with a local student at
each table. Our gal is a freshman at the local university, studying to be an
English teacher. She said the Bulgarian schools are terrible. Outside after
lunch, we were herded to a shopping street, and Bill actually bought something…
a man purse. I suppose you’d call it a messenger bag, but it was exactly what
he’d been looking for, and the craftsman was so proud of it. Bill wants it to
carry his iPad. He figures he’ll strengthen the strap with copper rivets when
he gets home.
Our purchases in Bulgaria
He topped off his shopping success with a couple “Buds” while we
waited for the bus to pick us up. This is the REAL Budweiser, not the dishwater
stuff called Bud in the USA. As you probably saw on FB, I found the local ice
cream stand. So far the best ice cream was in Prague, but I still must keep
testing in order to be sure. We had our crew talent show tonight, and they did
a series of cute, silly skits. Off to Romania tomorrow, and the chance to stick
our toes in the Black Sea.
Sent: Friday, June 5, 2015
Subject: Enough Already
Subject: Enough Already
Today
is our last day onboard the River Splendor, and honestly, I’m ready to move on.
Every day seems like the last. One of our fellow travelers makes up acronyms
for everything, and what we do every day is “ABC”… Another bloody cathedral! Bill has decided he has “Aller-Jesus” which is the allergy to cathedrals. We
have gone to at least one church every day, and today there were 4. I actually
found it puzzling why they showed us the places they did, because
everything looked abandoned and in a state of disrepair, yet off in the
distance we could see what looked like a modern city. And they took us to a
beach that obviously wasn’t ready to receive beachgoers.
 |
The other time when Ellen wasn't taking a picture |
 |
Genevieve was just a delight |
 |
| Toes in the Black Sea |
I
almost didn’t go on today’s tour, because we had a native food event on the sun
deck at 10:30 this morning. It involved eating some grilled meat and local
beer. I tasted, but didn’t really eat it, then I opted for a diet Coke. By noon
I just felt like taking a nap. I woke up too early as we went through some
final locks, lowering us to sea level. So I was short on sleep, and annoyed my
stomach. I told Bill to just go to lunch without me while I rested. He came back
with a little sandwich for me, and after I ate that, I felt great. So off we
went.
Although I didn’t take pics, tonight we had a
friendly gathering up in the lounge, where John, Bill’s drinking buddy, played
his trumpet. He worked the crowd like a DJ, appealing to our national pride. He
first played some old standards, then played the songs of each branch of the
military, and had the vets stand up during their song. He then had the whole
crowd sing along with “God Bless America.” Then we drank some more and went
back to our rooms to pack. Suitcases have to be outside our door @ 7:00AM, and
departure for Bucharest is at 8:45. We’ll have our final day of touring,
a farewell dinner & night at the Marriott, then it’s off to the airport the
following morning. About 50 of the participants are taking a post-cruise
excursion through Transylvania, and we’re headed off to Berlin. We won’t have
internet in our room tomorrow, but can go to the lobby to connect. So be
patient if things get a bit silent. G’nite.
John, the life of the party
Sent: Saturday, June 6, 2015
Subject: Doesn't Take a Genius
Subject: Doesn't Take a Genius
Every
single communal meal we’ve had so far has been chicken, in one form or another.
So tonight, for our farewell dinner, the gang was not at all happy to discover,
yep, chicken. This time it was a dry chicken breast on some fettuccini. I felt
bad for the people who really enjoy their meals. Personally, I don’t really
care. And besides, we had stuffed cabbage for lunch, and it wasn’t chicken! I’m
not exactly sure what sort of meal was in there, but I ate 1 of 4 rolls on my
plate, and a little bit of the polenta on the side.
Our
morning consisted of a 3-hour drive to Bucharest, followed by the lunch that
included a folk show with a band and some dancers. It was fine but a bit too
loud to carry on a conversation over the meal. After lunch they took us to an
outdoor museum of sorts, displaying various types of homes throughout the
country, dating back to the 1700’s. They moved a bunch of houses and
painstakingly reassembled them. There were hordes of people there, so it was a
bit overwhelming. We were driven around the town a bit in our big ol’ bus, and
got to the hotel by 3:00. For such a fancy dancy place, it has some real
issues. First, the elevators won’t handle the volume of traffic using them.
Second, the JW Marriott is a popular place for weddings, or at least
receptions, and like everywhere, Sat. is a big wedding day. We saw brides
outside every church we passed. Our guide said the party doesn’t start until
dark, and if the guests start going home at 3:00AM, you can consider your party
a failure. They’re supposed to party all night, until 7:00AM.
We
don’t have wi-fi in the room here. Like in the states, the fancier the hotel,
the less likely it is to have free wi-fi. My hope is I’ll be able to go
downstairs & send this on its way, then head back up to get ready for bed.
Some of the other folks have to leave here @ 4:00AM. They get a “breakfast box”
for their last meal. We get the full buffet breakfast, and we have people meeting
us there at 8:30. We don’t have to be out of here until 10:00AM. I’m glad we
get to enjoy our huge room with a view.
Our Berlin hotel looks good from the
reviews and the pics, so I think we’ll be comfortable for the next few days
anyway. It’s just not “executive level” like we scored here today.
 |
| Bucharest room with a view |
How
weird, Bill is watching South Park dubbed in Romanian. Our guide today said his
English largely came from watching American movies. They don’t generally dub
them here, and most of the young people speak at least passable English. In a
skit about the different types of tourists, when they got to the American, they
showed him throwing money around, and I get the impression that pretty much
everybody thinks we’re made of money. In Bucharest salaries are much higher
than in the smaller cities. But the sheer volume of people is staggering for
the infrastructure. They have 1.5m cars, and the highways max out at 800k.
Luckily there’s a subway. It handles about 500k commuters a day. But there’s a
lot of gridlock.
The
guide was pretty funny, talking about the irony of the communist HQ building,
with the speared olive sculpture in the front, directly facing the royal palace
of the former king (before communism). They couldn’t get away with ordering it
destroyed, so they ended up just having to look at it across the street every
time they walked out.
 |
| That's an olive, right? |
Well, it’s off to Berlin in the AM. I guess I’ll start packing. G’nite.
Sent: Sunday, June 7, 2015
Subject: 3rd time's a Charm
Subject: 3rd time's a Charm
Typical
normal travelers’ issues, but at last we’re in a hotel room with all the
important things working. We figured we were all squared around, and I had
emptied the mini-bar and stashed my stuff and we headed out for a walk, and to
find a place to eat. After practically being force-fed 3x a day for the last 2
weeks, finding ourselves here in Berlin around 4:00 after missing lunch was
making Bill crazy. So we headed out on a restaurant/beer pub quest. We thought
we found one, only to find it closed. So we kept walking, and passed an entire
block that has some OK looking places, but they smelled bad. I think they were
working on sewer pipes in the area. Eventually we found an authentic German
place, with lots of German beer on tap. Their menu was quirky, but the food was
pretty standard,. We walked in and there was a couple sitting at the table
behind ours, drinking white wine. I looked at them, and out of my mouth came,
“Hey! You can’t drink wine in a beer place!” (They agreed & switched) I
don’t know why but I just knew they were Americans. Maybe because of the wine.
They were dressed low key appropriate for Europe.(They’re the ones
behind me).
Anyway, turns out they’re from just north of Sacramento, and she
and I were at Sac State at the same time. We chatted quite a bit. They are
doing a quick European tour, and here for just 4 days, then off to Rome. Bill
just shakes his head at the way I talk to strangers. The food was great, the
beer was great (although I couldn’t finish even a small one), and we had a nice
walk afterwards. We stopped at a market at the train station across the street
and bought some fruit, yogurt, and water.
Alas, when we got back to our room, it was very hot, and the thermostat claimed
the window was open (which it wasn’t), so we called the front desk. After many
attempts to get it going, it was requested that we change rooms. We got into
the next room only to find that the refrigerator didn’t work. With the medication,
plus the yogurt that we just bought, we really needed it to work. So they came
back up, to give us yet another room. I suggested perhaps this one might
include a free beer! Sure enough, when we got there, the gal said the Heinekens
in there were for us. Of course Bill doesn’t like Heineken, but it was still a
nice gesture. We gave her a tip for all her running around. It wasn’t her fault
after all. So now we’re truly settled in, and hope to get a good night’s
sleep and do the city tour in the morning. I think we’ll take the train to
Potsdam the next day, just so Bill can have his pic taken next to the city
sign. Bev lives in Potsdam, NY. I guess the tourist sights are somewhat limited
in Potsdam, but there is a castle. Problem is, we’ve seen a bunch of castles
over the last few weeks, and the thought doesn’t excite either of us. But we’ll
still go.
It
appears that Berlin has an art thing going with big painted bears all over
town. We already saw two of them, and will keep an eye out for some more. I checked it out on Wikipedia and it sounds just like the one they did with sharks in SJ. All the proceeds went to charity. I was also interested in the reader on the wall of the library. It reminds me of the thinker.
Our flight here was a challenge, but luckily it was only 1 ¾ hours. That is,
once we finally got going. The ride was a bit unsteady seeming, and Bill
commented that he was really glad when we landed shiny side up. It seemed like
we came in really fast, and landed with quite a clunk. We had a screamer behind
us, and parents who said absolutely nothing to the kid. She was mostly
bothering the woman in the middle seat between Bill & me, but the
screeching was annoying to everyone. The one bright spot was that my ears
didn’t bother me. They’re still a little crackly, so I was a bit concerned. The
customs officials here were even grumpier than usual, although I had an easier
time than Bill. Our taxi driver didn’t speak English, but he got us to the
hotel OK. It was impossible to drive right up to the front door, instead
leaving us on the busy street, indicating we should walk up the alley. It
wasn’t far, but it did seem odd. We’re only here for 3 nights, so I think we’ll
be fine. Luckily Bill checked, because the train to Hamburg doesn’t leave from
the station across from us. It’s about a mile away.
When
we’re on Cunard, you’ll be in complete e-mail withdrawal, since neither of us
will be writing to you. OK, that’s it for now. We got back one of the hours we
lost, so I felt pretty awake this evening. Until tomorrow.
Sent: Monday, June 8, 2015
Subject: Short on Words
Subject: Short on Words
It’s
bedtime, we’re really tired from all the sightseeing, and we have a long day
planned for tomorrow, going by train to a concentration camp and to Potsdam. We
suffered through a looooonnnnngggg bus tour of the hop on/hop off variety, and
we definitely should hopped off and stayed off. What should have taken 1 ½
hours took 3, as the driver kept stopping to have a smoke. And at the end, they
just left us stranded even though they were supposed to be running for 15 more
minutes. We went into a nearby hotel to figure out how to get back to our
starting place without having to walk 2 miles. We obviously didn’t understand
the system. We managed to get the train figured out and made it back, but today
was really a waste. We did see the obligatory sights - Berlin Wall, etc.
The sad part is the ticket is good for 3 days. I told Bill
we should find someone to give it to, although I’m not sure I’d wish that trip
on anybody. We did have a nice lunch, and a 2-part dinner, so the day wasn’t a
100% loss. We asked the concierge where we could get sauerbraten, and he
directed us to a restaurant about ¾ mile away. We went there, but discovered
they didn’t have it. So we decided to stick w/just appetizers & go back to
last night’s restaurant (even though they don’t have it either). That was a
good call. At the first place, I had tomato soup and Bill had an appetizer with
a nice salad and 2 sausages. And beer, of course. The attached pic shows what
our second dinner was.
I found a few more bears around town today, and I find them very appealing. I
found a little black dress for Mere, and I confirmed why I like Nespresso coffee.
Our plane coming in yesterday was an old 737-700 (says Bill – he notices such
things). I wonder if Air Berlin buys Southwest’s old planes?
OK,
really have to give it up for today. It’s almost 1:00 in the morning. G’nite
Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Subject: Brilliant
Subject: Brilliant
We
did have a VERY long day today, but it was a good one. We carefully followed
the S-train & bus directions in Rick Steves’ book, and even did our train
tickets correctly today. And that was a good thing, because we got checked on
the way back. It was the first time we’d seen an inspector on the train. She
gave a citation to a guy sitting just behind us, for not having a valid ticket.
Luckily this morning when we were looking for help with what ticket to buy, the
convenience store clerk told us to be sure to look for the little red machine
to validate the tickets. We were using a 24-hour pass. Anyway, a young couple
across from us on the train from the concentration camp back towards Berlin
heard us talking and asked where we’re from. They were from San Diego, here on
a choir tour. They had the day off from rehearsals and decided to go to Berlin
sightseeing. We were hoping we’d find just the perfect people to give our city
tour bus tickets to, and they were the exact right ones, being that they were
planning to buy them. We warned them about the 6:00 (which was actually 5:45)
abrupt shut-down of the system, so they’d be prepared. They were hoping also to
catch a string quartet performance.
We
did put a lot of miles on the shoe leather today, and we’re both tired. We left
for the concentration camp at 7:30, catching a breakfast snack at the train
station. We had about a 15 minute walk to get there once the train arrived,
then we walked all over the camp, and walked again later in Potsdam, with the
bottom line for the day being 17k steps. We’re both a bit achy. And I have to
grouch at Honey for gifting me with her thin skin, as today when I took my
flannel shirt off, I looked down and saw one of those red bruises, and blood
dripping out of the middle of it. Luckily I had Kleenex with me, and later I
got a bandage from the café. It bled a lot, but I have no idea what I caught it
on. I took my purse strap over my head to get off the sleeve of the shirt, but
I didn’t feel a scrape of any sort. There was no charge for the concentration
camp museum, and even their toidy was free. We went ahead and got two of the
speaker paddles & two maps, for 3€ each. We were there for about 3 hours,
and I think we were very, very lucky to be able to see it without hordes of
people. There were a number of high school groups there, and we just kept our
distance from them. I expect during tourist season the place would be jammed,
and in fact when we left around 2:00, there were big crowds coming in. You can
see the pics on FB – nobody around us. The memorial sculpture has a base
showing the 18 countries the prisoners came from. It’s just so mind numbing to
think about someone being imprisoned & tortured just for being Jewish, gay,
gypsy, or politically opposed. I know the story and I’ve studied it many times,
but when it’s in your face like that, it’s shocking all over again.
We took the city bus back to the train station even though we walked out
there. By then we were dragging. Bill decided to grab a McD’s burger before we
got on the train, but walked right back out when he saw that they wanted 8€ for
a crappy McD’s burger. NEVER! We ended up waiting for Potsdam to have lunch,
but it was a bit of a disappointment, too. I think we’re done with fried food.
We went to the Italian restaurant across the street tonight, and we ate pizza.
It was a nice venue, though. It’s a UNESCO site, the Cecilienhof palace &
gardens. That’s where Truman, Churchill, & Stalin negotiated how to deal
w/Germany after WWII. And there’s a brewery nearby called Meierei where we
stopped. We had to take a taxi up & back as it was a bit off the beaten
track. The book said we could take a combination of 2 buses from the train
station, but it didn’t seen practical at that point.
We leave here just after noon tomorrow, heading for Hamburg. Then 2 nights, and
we’re on Cunard, with possibly no more internet until New York. Maybe in
Southampton, but only if we find the right pub! G’nite.
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Subject: You Know Those Bears?
Subject: You Know Those Bears?
The
ones in Berlin that don’t measure up to your own local frogs/pigs/cows? Well,
Hamburg has their own thing, too, it’s a guy who looks like a leprechaun to me,
but according to the internet is actually part of a collection of one hundred identically-sculpted yet
differently painted statues of Hans Hummel spread out throughout Hamburg as a
2003 art project. He was purportedly the last water carrier before all the
homes in Hamburg water supplies.
We had just a 2-hour train ride to get here,
and it was nowhere near as nice as the earlier trains because it was a
regional, not high speed international train. But things went smoothly and we
arrived as scheduled. We didn’t have a seat reservation, and there weren’t 2
seats together, so a couple who had booked 2 window seats hoping the train
would be full moved together in a row so we could have a row. We were obviously
a bit lost, since nearly every seat had a reserved sign on it. I paid it
forward, though, because one lady was trying to get out the door, to go to the
WC, and she was too short for the eye to see her and open. So I got up and
waved her through. Unfortunately we had to sit going backwards, but today it
didn’t bother me.
Our hotel is very
odd, requiring that we go up and down a series of stairs, through twisted
hallways to the “other section” of the hotel. The hallway is being painted.
Once we got settled in, we went walking, looking for a beer for Bill, but the
direction we went was VERY seedy (strip clubs and shady looking characters abound),
so we went around the 2 blocks, but got back to the right side of the area as
soon as we could. We ended up dining at a steak chain restaurant in our same
building that was adequate, and wasn’t schnitzel. Bill had a couple tall beers
so was ready to give walking another try. There was tons of shopping, but
nothing of real interest. We found the water and saw some boats out there, then
when Bill couldn’t take it another minute, I left him sitting on a bench to go
see the 2 landmark buildings by myself, the town hall and ABC (another bloody
cathedral). I still like looking at them.
We headed out with no
plan today, but tomorrow we’re going to do a water tour, hopefully out there
before the crowds get too bad. The aimless wandering netted us 10k steps, so
we’re probably going to sleep OK. The hotel has no air conditioning, and it’s a
bit noisy outside, so I don’t know if we’re going to sleep with the windows
open or closed. Then there’s the issue of the sun streaming in at 5:00 in the
morning. Ugh. It wakes me up every time.
We asked our
waiter tonight what he’d recommend for tomorrow since we only have one day here
in Hamburg. He said to do the harbor tour, but when we told him we’d be going
out on the Queen Mary 2, he seemed awed. Obviously we’ll be seeing the harbor
then. The locals are very proud that a ship of that stature is visiting
Germany. For us, it just beats flying to London – no big deal. In any case, we
should do something rather than nothing. And now I’m going to try to get some sleep.
I hope you had a happy bday, but I know your husband makes no effort to make
sure you have cake. Visiting the cupcake for the DIY was a good call.
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2015
Subject: LAST CALL
Subject: LAST CALL
Well,
this is about it for internet until we get to NY. And I’m not even sure this
will go since our connectivity today has really sucked. It pops in and out, but
not long enough to really do anything. At the front desk they said they’d look
into it. Sure. When you pick a hotel because of internet availability, then it
doesn’t work, it makes it harder to overlook the other negatives about the
place… like its location & lack of AC. But if I need to buy any sex toys,
it’s nice to know they’re nearby! We’re going to take our computers down to the
lobby, hoping it’s just a bad router, but I seriously doubt it, since we have
plenty of bars. It’s just not letting us in. 
We
got up and at ‘em early, over to the train station for a breakfast bagel &
cappuccino. We had free metro passes for the first 2 days in town, according to
the hotel desk, so before trusting that, we took the passes to the info desk to
make sure it was legit. It was, so we headed for the underground to go to the
harbor. On the map, it appeared that 2 different lines went there, and the
first train that came wasn’t the one they told us to catch. But I insisted.
Then I panicked, and we got off, only to discover that we only had one more
stop to go. So we caught the next one that was just 2 minutes behind, and it
all worked out. Again, no fare checkers, but I was still a little uneasy at not
having a “real” ticket. The tour was nice, and we wandered through canals, a
lock, a container port, and shipyard. We were able to get right up next to the
container ships. But from there, they just look big and ugly.
We
think we heard the tour boat captain say a new cruise dock had just opened 2
days ago, and we’re just hoping the taxi driver can find the way to the ship,
as the address we have may have changed. It’s just hand written anyway, as our
documents don’t specify dock site. Carnival is also paying for a new dock here.
That may have been the one that just opened.
June
11 is always such a sad day for me, and I imagine you, too. Yes, we were lucky
to have her as long as we did, but that empty place will always be there.
So now we’re headed out for dinner, and having a leisurely morning before
heading for the ship. Bon voyage to us!
Sent: Sunday, June 14, 2015
Subject: A Flash
Subject: A Flash
I
started a message onboard the QM2, figuring I’d have no more access to
internet, but we dragged our machines with us into Southampton, and are at a
mall having a quick cup of java before we try to find something interesting to
do. The shuttle brought us to a shopping mall. I looked down and saw my arm
bleeding right through my lavender top. And it was CLEAN… BOO. But the latte was fabulous.
Anyway,
here’s what I had written so far,
Saturday,
June 13, 2015
Leaving
Hamburg yesterday, all I could say was, “Good riddance to grumpy Germans!” We
were advised that boarding time for our deck was to be 2:00, so we asked the
hotel if we could check out at 1:00 instead of noon. Nope. OK then, so we get
down to the desk, hauling all our luggage up the 3 sets of stairs, down the
elevator and to the lobby, and ask if they can store them while we go get a
bite to eat. Nope! The clerk said their luggage storage room was full, so too
bad for us. We could leave them in the lobby if we wanted, but in that part of
town, that seemed ill-advised, so we decided to haul them across the street to
the train station and bring them with us to breakfast.
The
process made Bill so grumpy he didn’t want anything, but I did, so he tossed
the credit card at me and told me to get what I wanted, but nothing for him. I
got him a double espresso anyway, and a bagel & cappuccino for myself. We
sat and read for about an hour, then headed out to catch a taxi. There weren’t
any. Finally we saw a place where a few cabs came in, but others rushed to get
them before us. Finally Bill got aggressive and got one, but the driver refused
us once he heard where we were going. So did the next one. Finally the third
cab driver agreed to take us. We couldn’t imagine what that was all about.
Later I heard that it’s common, because it’s only a 10€ fare. Bill tipped him
well, and he was happy.
But the mess of people at the cruise terminal was mind boggling. First a big
line to check the bags. And we had no tags since they weren’t available at the
time we left the USA. Next a big line to check in. Security wasn’t too bad, but
when we got to our cabin, we found that the keys didn’t work. A cabin steward
let us in, and our smaller bags had already been delivered. We were advised to
go down to the desk on deck 2 to get the cards fixed. We did that, and stopped
for a bite to eat. The buffet lunch wasn’t very appetizing, so I just had a
roll and some cheese.
We
walked around a bit and got familiarized with the ship layout. There’s a free
launderette, including the soap. Bill was stoked about that. What was most
impressive, though was the library. It’s HUGE, something like 10k books. Bill
got two, and will pretty much be busy reading for the entire trip. I’m sure
he’ll do a book a day, and maybe two some days. They even have large type. I went
to the beauty shop to schedule a pedicure since I’m down to just two big toes
with polish, and the rest naked. While I was there, I decided to go ahead and
get a root touch-up, as it was the cheapest thing on the menu, and I really do
hate the gray wings that had been emerging. We still have almost 3 weeks until
we’re home, and my hair had gotten very light and reddish, and I’m worth it!
The receptionist asked if I’m a morning person, and I assured her I definitely
am, so she scheduled me for 8:00AM.
We
found our table for the 8:30 seating, and sitting there was an English couple,
very relieved to have us join them. They had been on for 2 nights, sitting at a
big round table by themselves. Bella and David are about our age, and are on a
5-day Southampton turnaround cruise. They’ll be just fine dinner companions for
tonight as well, then the real cruises will be boarding. We both ordered
venison, and it was very tasty. I ate a Brussel sprout by accident, and managed
to swallow it without gagging. Bill watched in amazement! I thought it was
potato, so imagine my surprise when I bit down. I didn’t want to freak out our
new acquaintances, so I just toughed it out. They didn’t even know.
Sailaway
was scheduled for 11:00PM due to the tides. Hamburg has 13 foot tides, so all
along the river (Elbe) the walls were very tall. The ship had to wait for high
tide for the river to be deep enough to get out. Tons of sightseeing boats were
all around. We went up to deck 12 to watch as we sailed away. There was a
Dixieland jazz band playing by the pool, and it was very festive. The ship is
half filled with Germans who are on a 2-day getaway trip to Southampton.
Because of the number of them, the safety briefing had to be translated, so it
took twice as long as usual. Yeah, yeah, don’t throw your bloody cigarettes off
the side of the ship. And boy, do they smoke. It was nearly impossible to get
away from it on land, and they allow it in a lot of places onboard, just not in
staterooms or on balconies or the dining room or theater. Pretty much any open
deck is fair game. It makes me long for the “naughty room” they had on NCL.
I
set the alarm for 7:00, and ordered room service breakfast for 7:15, but I
actually woke up at 6:10, after a very good sleep. In fact, Bill ordered an
evening snack through room service, and I didn’t even wake up when it arrived.
He had on all the lights, reading of course, and stayed up quite late, but I
was so tired, I just slept thought it all. Our goal was to get down to the UK immigration
check in the dining room around 7:30 when they opened, as we learned that trick
on the trip over. No lines then. Our deck was scheduled for 9:30, but we were
done in about 2 minutes when we arrived at 7:40. At 8:00, I met my lovely
colorist, Louise from South Africa. I also struck up a conversation with the
other early bird passenger there for highlights, a woman from Saskatchewan. I
asked her if she knew where Elbow is (near Moosejaw), and she did.
MORE
– Sunday @ the mall:
We
had a second English couple at our table last night. They had been off to the
specialty restaurant the previous night. The first couple, David & Bella,
immediately noticed that I have a different hair color. It looks dark brown
right now, but I know it will lighten in a week or so. I’ll try to send a pic
under a separate message, since I don’t want to lose this. Bye for now.
L, sosr
Sunday,
June 14, 2015
Like
Friday, we had another “good riddance to Germans” day today, as the
short trip folks disembarked, and the English and Americans took their place
for the transatlantic cruise. The smoking and demeanor was just getting to us,
and oh, what a relief to find friendly people everywhere. We took the shuttle
to town, and were at the mall where they dropped us off. We were a bit put off
at that point, because we were about to get on the shuttle bus when we were
aced out by the crew, who completely filled it. We were the only people who didn’t
get on, but the bus driver said another bus would be along in about 15 minutes.
Eventually it came along, and it was better, because it was a double decker,
and we were first, so got our choice of seats.
We didn’t know where the bus was
going to drop us, but found it was at the mall, which didn’t really open until
10:30, but some coffee places were open, and the whole mall had free wi-fi. So
we settled in for some java & FB. But that’s when my arm started bleeding.
I asked the gal at the coffee shop if there was a place I could buy some
bandaids, and she said there was a pharmacy across the street. We finished our
drinks, and she came up with the first aid kit and asked if I’d like an
antiseptic wipe and a bandage. Problem solved. I was wearing a lightweight top,
so I went in the bathroom and washed the blood off and put the bandaid on.
There was no sign of infection, so I think it’s just the thin skin thing. Once
that was handled, we headed out to find the tourist information office. We
followed a walking path that ended with a map, and found that we had gone in
the opposite direction of the office. So we went back through the mall and
found an old town area. Next thing you know, we were in a pub with a very
friendly bartender who let me try all 3 flavors of ciders they had on tap. I
tell ya, I’m in cider heaven. The ship has Magner’s pear cider, plus 2 others.
We ate lunch in the pub onboard yesterday, and I was quite happy with my
beef/cheese pie and ice cold cider. We’ll be back there during the cruise, maybe
every day.
At the pub in Southampton, we struck up a
conversation with a local who had spent 10 years in LA. He said he came home
for his brother’s wedding, met a girl, had a kid, and now is pretty much stuck
here even though they broke up. We told him next time he comes to CA, he should
stay in N. CA, and definitely see the redwoods. I could tell he wanted to stay
& chat a while longer, but his friend was picking him up. He said he’d be
back in an hour, but we had to move along. A woman reeking of perfume came in
and sat near us, and started smoking, so was our sign that it was time to move
on. Because it was an e-cig, it was allowed. The pub had an African Gray
parrot, Molly, which obviously attracted Bill. They bonded and she even let him
pet her head.  |
| This Bill's perception of the Queen Mary 2 |
Sent: Sunday, June 14, 2015
Subject: Well, Reallly
Subject: Well, Reallly
This
really is cheerio for now. We’re still at the pub, each having 3 drinks, well,
4 for him, if you count the scotch. Glen Moray – his new favorite, thanks to
the trumpet player on our river cruise who brought a bottle onboard &
shared it with his friends up on the top deck one night. With that much booze,
we think we should probably start looking for the shuttle, as it would be a BIG
mistake to miss the ship! So ‘bye!
Monday,
June 15
Well,
not too much to report on this VERY sedate cruise. Stuffy, stuffy, except for
our friends from Cruise Critic, who had requested a dinner table for two,
because they didn’t want to risk being stuck with people who were conservative
and judgmental. A retired pilot, Richard is a talker, but interesting, and Joan
is very nice. They’ve lived in many places, FL now, but Seattle in the past,
which explains the liberal attitude. We met up for lunch in the pub, then went
to the designated meeting area for the Cruise Critic get-together. Imagine our
amazement when the only other person who showed up was the snooty, grouchy NY
woman who had suggested that neither of us belonged on Cunard. She ordered a
Perrier, but none of us ordered anything, having just come from the pub where
we downed beers & ciders (YUM!). She stayed about an hour, then the 4 of us
stayed another hour, having great conversation. Richard initially worked for
Eastern, but through all the bankruptcies, buyouts, etc, his retirement
paycheck comes from Delta. He mentioned that some of his friends had gone to
UAL, and weren’t happy (Duh). Then he told a funny story about getting dressed
up for cruises. He decided to buy a tux, and it came with both white &
black jackets. He put on the white one and looked in the mirror, and said,
“Damn, I’m mighty good lookin” They went to dinner, had a marvelous time, had
the formal pic taken, and when he got home, discovered the tag was still on the
sleeve, proudly showing in the pic.
Ugh, formal night tonight, and Bill
doesn’t have a dark suit or tux, but he sashayed in behind my flowing skirt and
we didn’t get challenged. But he sweat like a pig through dinner, significantly
detracting from the enjoyment of the meal. This whole jacket-required thing is
a deal breaker for us. And the food in the buffet is inedible, so there’s
really not much choice. Portions are small, too, but so far Bill hasn’t ordered
two entrees.
Tuesday,
June 16
Ugh, formal night AGAIN, which isn’t
really all that different than other nights except Bill has to wear the tie.
Women have a lot more leeway. Many of the women wear short cocktail dresses.
The rest are in long gowns. I only have one dress, so tonight I’m doing the
black slacks w/sequin top. We’re skipping the captain’s cocktail party where
the program tersely informs us, “Out of respect for your fellow guests, the
formal dress code for this evening will be strictly enforced.” Yeah, we won’t
be coming back on Cunard.
Wed.
June 17
Finally
I got to see the “Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” I loved the movie, not
quite as much as the first one, but still very sweet. The outing was a solo
endeavor since Bill wouldn’t be caught dead watching such drivel. But he saved
me a seat for the next show, so I went directly from there to the theater to watch the comedian,
Adrian Walsh. I sat down, and immediately the lights went down and the show
started. I love timing like that. The guy was fairly entertaining, but British
humor is a bit more refined than ours.
The show was early tonight, before dinner for late seating, so it ended
up being an early evening for us.
Last night I attended the show after dinner
with our tablemates, and that worked out well. It was a nice evening of singing
& dancing with very elaborate costumes, again something Bill would hate. So
I was glad for the company. Our dining companions, Chris & Linda are a
charming, funny English couple, and we get on just great. This morning after
breakfast, we decided to kill some time on the slot machines until it was time
to go to the pub. We both had a pretty successful time of it, and were there
for over an hour. The best news is I’m now even, and Bill is only $10 down. We
had been before, and I was down $30. I never gamble more than $10 or $20 a day,
but the casino here is completely non-smoking, so it makes us stay longer.
We went for a walk, and decided to go back
to the dining room for lunch. There we met a couple from Chicago who gave us
their travel agent’s card since they’ve booked some great sounding cruises that
I want to investigate. They’re fans of Holland America, and like us, won’t be
coming back to Cunard. The snoot factor is just too much. In fact, in the
casino we chatted with a couple we’d seen earlier, and he actually got asked to
leave a lounge one evening when he wasn’t wearing a jacket. It’s like they
think they’re back in the 50’s. When we finally got to the pub, it was trivia
time, and there was nowhere to sit, so we took our drinks up to the room and
read for a bit until I went to the movie. I ended up bringing it with me to the
movie, as I don’t drink very fast.
Thursday,
June 18
In
a nice coincidence, we were seated at a very large table at breakfast, and when
we sat down, I asked the man next to me where they’re from. “Sunnyvale.” I
turned to him and said, “I’ll bet your name is Fritz, and your wife is Marie,
right?” He was startled. It was the couple we’d been hoping to meet from the
Cruise Critic board. They had also been on an extended European trip before
this cruise, and cruised over on Royal Caribbean. They rented an apartment in
Paris for 10 days, and it looked fabulous. I got the website they used so I can
check it out for future trips. We met them later for lunch to swap some more
travel stories.
In the afternoon, and I don’t know WHY,
WHY, WHY I did it, but I went to a movie of Madam Butterfly in 3D, glasses and
all. It was 2 hours & 12 minutes, time I’ll never get back. I’ve never been
an opera fan, but this was particularly excruciating since it was simply a
filming of a live opera. It had subtitles, and I swear if she sang about the
twinkling stars one more time I was going to expire myself. I got there early,
and my area I had staked out was invaded by people who sat in the empty seats
next to me. On one side was a big man from New York who hogged the armrest, and
complained about his seat not being adjustable, and on the other was a woman
with perfume that made me sneeze. I would have left, but I was right in the
middle and would have had to climb over a bunch of people. And it was hot, but
too cramped to get out of my vest. Sheer torture. But now at least I can say
I’ve seen Madam Butterfly.
The evening show was billed as a
“performer” and not knowing what that meant, we went. It was Gary Lovini, a
violinist with a weird continuous smile, backed by the ship’s band. He won some
show like “Britain’s Got Talent” about 10 years ago, and has been working as an
entertainer since then. I’m not a fan of violins, and they had flashing strobe
lights that kept hitting me in the eyes, so again I was sorry for my use of
time in that way. I managed to read a whole book today, though, so the day
wasn’t a complete loss.
Friday,
June 19
The
last formal night, and one more night until we’re freed from this stuffy place.
We’ll miss our charming English tablemates, but Bill summed it up when he said
this is the only time he has ever wished he could get off a cruise. The Brits
gave us their contact info so next time we’re in England, we can come see them.
We didn’t get out to Stonehenge, and apparently they’re on the way, so next
time we get to London, that will definitely be on our agenda. We also have some
Canadian friends we picked up on the river cruise we’ll probably see again,
too. We finished up some books today, and played back most of the winnings in
the slot machines. I have $10 more, either to play out or cash in tomorrow. We
also went down to the purser’s desk to have them remove the automatic tips and
give us envelopes to tip as we wish. We got the stink eye, but we don’t care.
The room steward & dining room staff were great, but the service in the
buffet was horrible. They didn’t look around to see what needs to be done, and
were very slow to clear tables, kept blocking aisles w/carts, and the food was
awful, too… cold, mushy, basically inedible. But oh boy are their scones good!
Skipping the chocolate buffet, I went to
the show tonight, a stock singing & dancing program, dragging Bill, but
excusing him after about 10 minutes, as the torture was too much for him. We
skipped the performance of Romeo & Juliet today, but I heard it was good.
The actors were all studying their lines at the breakfast buffet this morning.
Saturday,
June 20
Well,
tomorrow is Father’s Day, and the day we get off this bucket of bolts. I think
the only pics I took were of the sail-away in Hamburg. So today I took a pic of
the rusty balcony & disintegrating rail. This ship is in need of
refurbishing. But it doesn’t matter to us, because we won’t be back. I played
out my 10 bucks in the slot machine, finished the books we were reading, and
happily packed up our stuff in order to be able to hit the road at 8:00AM. I’m
not sure why, but we have to be in the lounge at 8:00 for a bus that’s
scheduled to leave @ 9:30. Could be the allowance for US Customs. Hopefully
we’ll just fly through as some of the first passengers off the ship. I figure I
can turn on my phone and make a wi-fi hot spot while we wait. We’ve come to the
conclusion that the people who keep returning to this ship just don’t know any
better. And they’re really doing themselves a disservice by not expanding their
horizons.
We had lunch with the first couple we met
from Cruise Critic, and said our farewells and exchanged thoughts about the
cruise (or voyage as they insist on calling it onboard). We’re pretty much in
agreement on the highs & lows of the voyage, although they liked the Romeo
& Juliet and we didn’t go. I’m glad we went with Cunard this time, because now we know we’re not
missing anything. Our friends caved to the pressure and rented a tux. We had a
good final comedy show, but it was followed by a really bad Neil Diamond
tribute by singers who aren’t very good (one out of tune, another more
screaming than singing). But we survived, and that’s a good thing J
Bring on the Princess cruises. I must say, I was shocked to figure out the AK
cruise makes 7 cruises in one year. That’s pretty outrageous.
Sunday
6/21
Happy
Father’s Day to Bill! We’ve landed in Brooklyn, to muggy rainy conditions, but
glad to be back on US soil. We had a great view of the Statue of Liberty on the
way in. Off we go, for a nice family visit. And Mere is heading off to sea.
Fun.
And after a week visiting Sherry & Mom, we'll be glad to be home.
 |
LOVIN' THE USA |
TRIP POST SCRIPT
Before we went on this trip, I couldn't have identified the countries we visited, and had no idea of what sort of land and people lived there. For me, travel is all about the people. It reminds me of the life of privilege we lead, and about how people really are the same everywhere. They love their families, and live the best they know how. Travel is certainly educational, exhausting, and rewarding. If one can survive being in a tiny cabin or hotel room with ones spouse for months at a time, it's a pretty good indication that there's a strong marriage at the foundation :) And would we do it again?
ABSOLUTELY!!!
Here's the whole itinerary, entitled, "Where in the World is RJ?"
Dates
|
City
|
Hotel
|
Comments
|
4/17/15
Friday
|
SFO-MIA
|
UAL1427/528 11:05PM
SFO-ORD-MIA
|
Taxi from Miami
airport to cruise
|
4/18-4/25
Sat-Sat
|
Caribbean Cruise
|
NCL Getaway
|
7-day Caribbean cruise
|
4/21 Tue
|
St. Maarten
|
||
4/22 Wed
|
St. Thomas
|
||
4/24 Fri
|
Nassau, Bahamas
|
||
4/25 Sat
4/25-5/9
|
Miami-Transatlantic
|
Royal Princess
|
Cata Black Car
Service Miami to Ft. Lauderdale 14-day cruise
Miami-London
|
5/2 Sat
|
Ponta Delgado,
Portugal
|
||
5/5 Tue
|
Cork, Ireland
|
||
5/7 Thur
|
Rotterdam, Holland
|
||
5/8 Fri
|
Zeebrugge, Belgium
|
||
5/9-5/11
Sat-Mon
|
London
|
2 nights Sofitel
Heathrow
(+44)20/87577777
|
x-fer by Princess
Southampton to London Heathrow
Fly from Heathrow to
Copenhagen
SAS Flight 502 9:50AM
|
5/11-5/15
Mon-Fri
|
Copenhagen, Denmark
|
Bed & Breakfast
Rosa
+45 39 66 91 29
|
Taking Bahn train on
Friday (goes on ferry!)
Copenhagen-Hamburg--Cologne
|
5/15-5/17
Fri-Sun
|
Cologne, Germany
|
Wyndham Koln
+49 2211649360
|
Continuing Thalys
train to Paris
|
5/17-5/22
Sun-Fri
|
Paris, France
|
Hôtel du
Palais Bourbon
+33
(0)144113070
7th
Quarter
|
Fly to Prague Smart
Wings#8759 9:45AM
Operated by Czech
Airlines from CDG airport
|
5/22-6/7
Fri-Sun
|
Prague tour to
Budapest/
10 day river cruise/
Overnight Bucharest à
Vantage airport
transfer
|
Vantage hotels
Vantage Travel,
Boston
1-888-514-1845 if Q’s
|
Prague-Slovakia
5/22-5/27
Board River Splendor
5/27
6/7 fly Berlin Air
#8271 Bucharest to Berlin
|
5/22 Fri
|
Prague, Czech
Republic
|
Hilton Prague Old
Town
|
|
5/25 Mon
|
Bratislava, Slovakia
|
Sheraton Bratislava
|
|
5/27 Wed
|
Budapest, Hungary
|
ms River Splendor
(boat)
|
|
5/29 Fri
|
Kalocsa, Hungary
|
||
5/30 Sat
|
Vukovar, Croatia
|
||
6/1 Mon
|
Belgrade, Serbia
|
||
6/3 Wed
|
Ruse, Bulgaria
|
||
6/5 Fri
|
Constanta, Romania
|
||
6/6 Sat
|
Bucharest, Romania
|
InterContinental
Hotel
|
|
6/7-6/10
Sun-Wed
|
Berlin, Germany
|
NH Berlin Friedrichstrasse
+49 30 206 266 0
|
Bahn train to Hamburg
1:24-3:28PM
|
6/10-6/12
Wed-Fri
|
Hamburg, Germany
|
Hotel Furst Bismarck
+49 4079025164200
|
Near train station
|
6/12-6/21
Fri-Sun
|
Cruise Hamburg to
Brooklyn
|
Queen Mary 2
|
|
6/21-6/23
Sun-Tues
|
Albany(Caroga Lake),
NY
|
Sherry’s house
(Bill’s cousin)
|
Alamo rental car from
JFK
|
6/23-6/27
Tues-Sat
|
Hannawa Falls/Potsdam,
NY
|
Uncle Dahl’s house
|
Sat. 6/27 drive back
to JFK
Jet Blue # 669
6:30PM Arr SJC 10:00PM
|
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