Dec 27 - Disembarkation Day in San Diego,
Dec 28 - Home again and able to get back into the Blog! I love technology when it works! I hate it when it doesn’t!
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Dec 20 - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Dec 20 - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
We have arrived in Puerto Vallarta! 77° and sunny!
But first, we must report that, last evening, our toilet flushing was restored! So no Presidential Suite! No skipping down the hall in our nighties to our ‘satellite’ potty in the middle of the night! Oh well! It was fun to speculate!
Today we had intended to go to the Malecón, but it turned out to be much more difficult than we had anticipated. First of all, it was a lot farther from where we are docked than we remembered from 2020; we would have had to take a cab there and back with them charging $25 per person each way!!!
That seemed totally ridiculous, so we considered another option - a city bus! That might have been ok, but we soon found out that the cruise lines and the merchants have created a long, circuitous route through a mini mall to get to the street! After winding through the mall and then realizing that the bus stop was still a long way off, this old dame decided it would not work! 😢 because we still had the walk along the Malecón and the return trip to the ship ahead of us.
So - Plan B was to reboard the ship and enjoy a relaxing day! After lunch, given the gorgeous weather, we spent the afternoon on the Promenade Deck, reading, walking, people watching, and playing on our iPads!
And now we will soon change for dinner and see what lovely wine they are serving! I wonder what liqueur Boots will bring tonight!!
Not much to report when we are just lazing around on the ship! And tomorrow is another sea day! We certainly aren’t complaining as we have had a couple of weather updates from home!! The saying ‘ a bad day on a ship is better than a good day at home?’ comes to mind!!
Ciao for now!
The Lazy, Well-Rested Travellers
❤️❤️❤️
Monday, December 19, 2022
Dec 19 - At Sea
Dec 19 - At Sea
Another day at sea! And yet another adventure!!!
We had breakfast around 9:00 AM and then Mary walked the deck! Dorothy, the sloth, came back to the cabin to read!
We turned on the TV to catch the January 6th meeting on MSNBC and decided to order room service for lunch so we wouldn’t miss the proceedings. And that’s when the next adventure started! Sometime after noon we discovered our toilet wouldn’t flush! Hmmm….
We called Guest Services and they said they would send a plumber! Well, by 3:30 the plumber had not arrived and we were crossing our legs! So we called again and they assured us a plumber would be coming. At 4:00 Mary went in search of a public washroom. And at 5:00 I went down to Guest Services, stopping at a washroom on my way!
When I inquired about the plumber, Milos, the person on duty, had a note specifying the times I had called, and he told me it was a general problem in our zone?? and they were trying to figure it out. His temporary solution was to offer us the use of a washroom in an empty cabin down the hall! He thought the problem would be fixed soon! What does ‘soon’ mean? In an hour? After dinner? Next week?
Oh, and by the way, he gave each of us a $25 onboard credit for our inconvenience!
So we went to dinner! Delicious as usual! Mary certainly enjoyed her Merlot!
By the way, we have a new best friend, Boots! She is someone ‘in charge’ in the dining room. The first night we mentioned we wanted to watch our sodium intake, so every night she comes by to bring the menu for the following night so we can make sure there is a lower sodium choice for our dinner. Tonight she came to our table after our main course, and offered to get us more wine and I told her I thought I would have a Bailey’s instead of more wine! She just stood there - and I said ‘ Is Bailey’s too boring?’ And she smiled and said ‘Let me make you a White Russian!’. A few minutes later, along came this smooth, delicious beverage made from Vodka, Kahlua, and cream! Yum! Cheers to Boots!
So now after wine and a liqueur, we will have the courage to go prancing down the hall in our nighties to cabin #B622 in the middle of the night to pee! Yee haw! How many adventures can one cruise have?!?!
Our next step, if this is not fixed tonight, will be to request another cabin! (We would have done that earlier, but the prospect of packing up and moving is not so appealing! And we like our cabin attendant, Franklin!) In any case, I will practise my negotiating skills, in case I have to try and wangle the Presidential Suite! ha ha!
Tomorrow we will arrive at our first port, Puerto Vallarta! After checking out the toilet situation and having breakfast we plan to go ashore and stroll along the Malecón!
Stay tuned!
The Cross-legged Travellers!
🚽🤪🧻😳
Sunday, December 18, 2022
Dec 18 - Day at Sea
Dec 17 - Embarkation day!
At long last we are boarding the ship today for our Baja adventure! When we arrived at the pier there was a line a mile long! The taxi let us out in the middle of the drive in area and we saw an attendant in an area that looked like a luggage collection point. So we sweet talked her into letting us leave our luggage, pleading that my mobility issues meant I could not possibly stand in that long line for an hour. ( Sometimes it’s not so bad to use a cane!!! LOL) Then we made our way to the check in line, and because we had no luggage, they assumed we had come from the very long line!!! It really was true - I could not have stood in that line!!
Once onboard we found our cabin. Luggage arrived shortly after. We went to the dining room at our chosen time and were seated at a table for two which we had requested…. But it was in a row of twos, so we were fairly close to a couple with a 2 year old and another couple on on the other side - all from Southern California. Not as great a set up as on the British Isles cruise.
We are certainly in the minority wearing our masks, but that’s OK!
Once again - an early night! We move the clocks ahead so it’s not that early!!
Dec 18 - Day at Sea
Today is the first of several sea days on this itinerary, taking us south along the Baja Peninsula to Puerto Vallarta.
After breakfast we went to the Port Talk where the excursion team presented information about each of our ports. So many of the offerings involve hiking, horseback riding or snorkelling! We have chosen easier tours in two of the ports and may add another.
Back to the trough!! We went to the buffet for lunch and then at 1:00 PM we were off to the movie! It was called Ambulance! It was an shoot-‘em up action thriller - not something we would normally choose, but it was amazing to think about how they filmed it, how many stunt men it would take to make the film, how much it would have cost for all those wrecked cars etc!
We had a short walk on the deck before heading back to our cabin to shower and get ready for the first ‘formal’ night! The ship is quite full and apparently there are about 300 children aboard, so it seems a lot busier than the last couple of cruises we’ve been on. The ship is all decked out for the holidays, crew are friendly and obviously happy to be back at work after what must have been a tough couple of years.
Tonight we put the clocks ahead one more hour, and tomorrow is another sea day as we sail to our first port of call! Weather has been mainly sunny and about 63° F (17°C)!!
The Happy Travellers
😃😃
Friday, December 16, 2022
Dec 16 - San Diego, CA
Today’s adventure…
the world famous San Diego Zoo!
After breakfast this morning we headed out to catch the Hop on Hop off Trolley Tour; the stop was a short walk from our hotel. We had a great driver, Mary Beth - known as MB, who entertained us with the commentary along the route.
San Diego is quite a beautiful city. As we crossed the Coronado Bridge we were able to see the harbour and how the city’s development occurred. We got off the Trolley at Balboa Park, a huge park that contains 17 museums. It was a fairly long walk from the bus stop through an area of the park that took us to a walkway to the world famous San Diego Zoo.
Click this link to see the layout of this great park:
The zoo has several options for people with mobility challenges; we were grateful to be able to take advantage of the guided bus tour which gave us an overview of the different areas. We caught glimpses of different animals as we drove through several sections of the zoo. We also rode the Kangaroo Express taking us on the edge of four distinct areas, Africa Rocks, Elephant Odyssey, the Northern Frontier and Asian Passage.
After completing those two included tours we stayed in the area around the Urban Jungle to observe the hippos, the giraffes, the zebra, and a cheetah. From there we did the Monkey Trail and Treetops Walk to see several different primates… baboons, mandrills, capuchins, gorillas, and others.
By the time we finished that loop, I was done! It was really an interesting four hours and fun to be so close to so many different species. We took a cab back to the hotel and flopped on our beds!
It’s been a pleasant introduction to San Diego. Tomorrow is Embarkation day!
The Tired Travellers
Thursday, December 15, 2022
Dec 15 - San Diego
Dec 15 - We’re Off!
After spending the night at the Holiday Inn across from the airport, our 4:15 AM wake up call got us to the 5:00 AM shuttle. The airport was busy!!! Long security lines and long, snaking lines in the Customs and Immigration hall!! But the magic Special Assistance wheelchair allowed us to avoid all the chaos as we were wizzed past all the other people!
Our flight was delayed by almost an hour, but by shortly after 9:00 we were on our way to SanDiego, California. It was a pleasant flight and we arrived to cool temps and sunny skies.
We took the shuttle service to our hotel with a Southwest Airlines crew! While we waited for them to check in we found ourselves at what we thought was a concierge desk to ask about the hop on hop off trolley. Well…. We ended up agreeing to go to one of those time share presentation gimmicks!!
We let the guy at the desk rattle on about sightseeing and all the free stuff he could get for us!! Next thing we knew we were in an Uber on our way to the presentation center for Wyndham!! Yep! Gullible! BUT we got free hop on hop off trolley and free zoo entrance for tomorrow!! So this will get us to the Zoo without taking a taxi, and we can do our sightseeing on the trolley. Value of about $100 US each!!
The only downside was having to listen to the salesman try to convince us to spend tens of thousands of US dollars to buy points that would get us travel time!!! We kept telling him we only like to cruise and our ‘window’ for travelling is not 25 years! At the end, when he asked on a scale of 1-10, how likely we would be to go to another presentation in the future and we said ‘0’, he said he would get us an Uber back to the hotel!
By the time the guy finished with us we were exhausted from being up early and travelling for hours and we just wanted to get to our room!
After a bit of a rest we went across the street and had a quick bite, and now we are looking at our watches every 5 minutes to see if it’s bedtime!!! 6:00 PM…. 6:05 PM…feels like midnight!
We never know when we set out what the next adventure will be!!!
Hopefully tomorrow will be an enjoyable day at the world famous San Diego Zoo!!
Night! Night!
🥱💤🥱
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Sep 27 - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Time to come home! Last evening we got a message from Air Canada that our flight would be leaving 3 hours late! And by the time we got up we had another message saying it would be delayed 4 hours!
It was too late to change our transfer time, apparently. This is the one complaint I have with Viking - they could have put us on a transfer to the airport at 11 AM instead of 7:30 AM and we could have waited more comfortably on the ship. But they would not do that!?!
So off we went to the airport for the long wait. We did get a food voucher from Air Canada, and we sought out the Viking rep who helped us get the Special Assistance we had arranged.
By mid afternoon another hour delay had been announced! And finally the last announcement of a further delay… and we were boarding at 6 PM! Ten hours at an airport is not really fun!
It was a very long day, but now we are home, still on Europe time, and laundry ready to go.
Thanks for coming along with us on our Grand European River Cruise!
The Happy Wanderers
Monday, September 26, 2022
Sep 26 - Kinderdijk, Netherlands
OUR LAST DAY!
We had a leisurely start to the day, giving us time to enjoy breakfast and then come back to the cabin to pack. There will be a meeting about the disembarkation process at 10:30 which we will attend.
Following that meeting Tessa gave a presentation on Water Management in The Netherlands. It was a perfect introduction to our afternoon excursion, Kinderdijk by Vintage Barge.
Sadly it is a ☔️ rainy ☔️ day for our last excursion, but that didn’t hinder us from seeing a real operating dike! These dikes are a work of genius that has allowed Holland to reclaim land for many uses such as agriculture and even Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam!
We walked from the ship in the pouring rain to a dike where we boarded a barge that took us to the oldest dike in Kinderdijk. When we arrived we were given a tour of the area around the dike by one of the members of the Kinderdijk Foundation ( that operates these 19 dikes) keeping the area safe from flooding.
It was amazing to learn how the windmills pump water from the low lying fields into the rivers and canals. Without them, the land would be under water.
in order to catch the wind from any direction.
Using wind power, the pump moves the water
from the lower polders out to the higher river or canal
We also had a look inside the windmill at artifacts that had been used by the last family that lived in this windmill.
It was a fascinating tour and a great way to end our excursions!
It’s been a wonderful trip.. but it will all come to an end very soon! Disembarkation tomorrow!
Hope you enjoyed touring with us! We’ll be in touch when we are home and settled.
The Happy Wanderers
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Sep 25 - Cologne, Germany
Here we are in Cologne. We are docked about 30 minutes from the city at Viking’s Winterhafen. This is the place that Viking brings many of their longships when the season is finished. The photo below is an aerial shot of what it must look like with all the ships tied up for the season!
We are here to load provisions, and once that is complete we’ll move to a dock nearer the city.
I finally gave up! I have decided to stay on the ship today as I think the tours involve a lot of walking and standing and my back is telling me ‘No!’ Mary has gone on the 2 hour city walking tour this morning; here is the description from the website…
Learn about Cologne's heritage and view its iconic cathedral, towering over the city in all its Gothic splendor. Step into a rich past, following some of the city's preserved historic street patterns and hearing about its Roman and medieval history along the way. As you stroll, your guide will regale you with tales of local folklore figures, Tünnes and Schääl, and the city's flourishing Jewish community. In Old Cologne, pass the elegant silhouette of St.Martin's church and stop to view Coloqne's magnificent Gothic cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Construction of this towering structure began in 1248 and continued in several stages over the next seven centuries. The largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe, this magnificent church boasts two soaring spires and beautiful stained glass windows, and largely escaped the damage that ravaged the city and the rest of Germany during World War Il.
I would have liked to see the Cathedral, but because it is Sunday there will be Mass in the church and I may not have been able to go inside. So given the amount of walking I decided to stay on the ship.
This afternoon the tour is Brühl UNESCO Palaces. Hopefully by taking a break today I will be able to do our last excursion in Amsterdam tomorrow. Mary is going on the Palace tour this afternoon…
Peer into the life of royalty at an estate built for the prince-archbishops of Cologne, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You will meet your guide at the dock and drive to Schlosspark, at the edge of the Naturpark Kottenforst-Ville nature reserve. Here, Augustusburg Castle sits at the center of beautifully landscaped grounds, a vast and splendid example of Germany's early rococo architecture. During a tour, admire the grand staircase and some of its many extravagantly decorated rooms and chambers. Take a stroll through the park's spacious gardens lined withhedgerows and trees before returning to your ship.
I’m sure it will be similar to the other palaces we’ve seen on our journey so my back will be saying ‘Thank you!’ once again!
Now we just have one more port and I am looking forward to seeing a windmill in Kinderdjik!
Check back tomorrow for a full report!
Love,
One Lame Dame and a Trouper
❤️❤️❤️
Sep 24 - Koblenz, Germany
Today we have reached the Rhine River, the most scenic river on our journey. We spent a good part of the day ‘scenic cruising’. Vineyards cover the hills on either side, castles sit perched on the hilltops, and small towns are nestled at the bottom of the hills with easy access to the roads and train tracks.
Katz Castle in Sankt Goar
Shortly after our arrival in Koblenz we headed out for our excursion to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. set high on a hill with magnificent views of Koblenz, at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers. Ehrenbreitstein Fortress has long enjoyed a strategic locale, built on the site of a previous fortress whose history stretched back to 1100. The citadel was constructed in the early 19th century to protect against the French.
We took a gondola to the hilltop for our fun and informative tour with our costumed and colorful actor/guide who took on the persona of John Humfrey, a lieutenant colonel in the British Corps of Royal Engineers. He guided us through this excellent example of Prussian military fortifications.
The gondola ride back to the ship gave us a bird’s eye view of the city and our ship, docked beside the Viking Sigyn. The ships sometimes dock side by side and we have to walk through the one closest to the dock to get in and out. In the photo below, we are on the outside and had to go through the Sigyn parked alongside the dock.
It was an interesting afternoon.
Time is running out! We’ve had great guides and great tours.
Until next time…
The Tired Travellers
Friday, September 23, 2022
Sep 23 - Wertheim, Germany
Here we are in Wertheim! A small town with similar buildings and reconstruction as previous places - Regensburg, Passau. A choo - choo train got us from the ship to Wertheim!
Wertheim is constantly plagued by floods, so many of the buildings have watermarks on their doorways. In this case the watermark is shown by the difference in colour of the wood a little more than halfway up.
Buildings were identified by the initials of the owner, the year, and a coat of arms.
This is the smallest house in Wertheim - only 10’ wide at street level.
There was a fairly large Jewish population in Wertheim and to honour them the black bricks outline the beginning of the Jewish area.
The little blocks are laid in the street to indicate the names of the Jewish families who once lived in that building.
After the tour we had free time to wander the streets and alleyways.
The leaning tower of Wertheim!
Because it was built on sand, and the area was always flooding, the
tower began to lean until it was stablized!
And begins to lower it
into place for us to embark
This evening we had a special German meal! The wait staff wore red and white checkered shirts to match the tablecloths and napkins. They served beer and wine, soft pretzels, cheeses and cold cuts as appetizers followed by German Wedding Soup. The main course was a sampling of chicken, braised beef, two kinds of sausage, sauerkraut, red cabbage, bread dumplings and warm potato salad! And of course, dessert!!! A sampling of 4 cakes, pancake and ice cream!!
These two stuffed dames then waddled back to our room and called it a night!
🐷🐷
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