Author: walkerjanem

July 14, 2022 (Thursday): We had a nice leisurely morning, although we were up pretty early. We left our hotel room a little before noon in search of a place for lunch. One of my apps had a list of Amsterdam pubs, so we headed out in search of the oldest one which was close to our hotel, Cafe Karpershoek. We found it, but did not like the menu, so we went next door. I had a chicken club which was basically the same as Dave’s Chicken Schnitzel except mine was in bread. After lunch we walked to the Palace. The Palace was not always a palace, but originally built as the town hall. Construction started in 1648 and while it was being used in  1655, it was not completed until 1665. The Netherlands was a republic at that time. When it was built, it was called the eighth wonder of the world. It was a hub of activity. All sorts of city business was conducted here. It was the administrative hub of the city. The four mayors and city councils, the courts, city jails, tax authorities, an exchange bank, insurance and bankruptcy offices, and much more conducted their business in this building. At the end of the 18th century, the Bavarian Republic was proclaimed in the Netherlands and the Governor, William V of Orange-Nassau fled to England and the Netherlands became an ally of France. In 1806, Napoleon appointed his brother, Louis, as king of Holland. Louis decided the only building fit to be his palace was the town hall building, and Louis converted the town hall into his palace. Louis was loved by the people, but Napoleon expected a more pro-France policy from his brother. In 1810, Louis abdicated. The people liked having a king, and from 1813, the son of William V, became King William I, of the Netherlands. William I was the first king of the House of Orange (aka William of Orange). The current King is a descendant of William of Orange.

This palace is not the primary residence of the current king, and it was only used sparingly by most of his predecessors. The Kings primary residence is in The Hague. 

Our tour told what the rooms were originally used for when it was the town hall, and then how  the rooms are now being used as part of the Royal palace. 

When we entered the Palace, the first room we saw was the Citizens’ Hall, the heart of the building. It is a huge hall: 55.5 ft wide,  88.5 ft high and 111.5 feet long. It provided access to the offices of the city government and the judiciary which lay beyond and on higher floors. Today, this is where state banquets, gala dinners and various award ceremonies are held. There is lots of statuary, but the most impressive is Atlas holding up the universe. The chandeliers are beautiful.  

This is a photo of the ceiling. 

There is a hallway around the outside of Citizen’s Hall, which leads to the other rooms we visited.

The throne room:

Current King’s sitting room: 

Former Council Chamber: When the building was the town hall, the four mayors met with their advisors in this room. King William III arranged the installation of the 1,587lb. chandelier which came from Paris. This room is currently used for smaller dinners and official photographs. 

 King Louis Bonaparte added a balcony to the building, and while we could not go out on the balcony, this is the view just inside, looking out over the balcony.

The current kings great grandmother was Queen Wilhelmina (1880-1962). She used the Amsterdam Palace the most. She ascended the throne at the age of 10 after her father’s death, but her Mother guided her until her inauguration at age 18. She has remained a popular figure in the Netherlands. She ruled for almost 58 years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. This is a portrait of her at age 20. 

During state visits, the visiting head of state stays here. In 1946. Winston Churchill spent a whole week here. It was used by King Louis Bonaparte, and was his bedchamber. It is called the “Bedroom of the English Quarter”, which may have resulted from Churchill’s visit. Before it was a palace, this room served as the Insurance Chamber. The city government realized that trade in the city, and thus the city itself, benefited from some form of insurance for ships and cargo against disasters, theft and liability. The insurance premiums were so attractive that many foreign merchants decided to insure themselves in Amsterdam. 

In the Tribunal, death sentences were pronounced. The death penalty was not treated lightly and was administered four times a year on average. We were told the story of one young woman, 18 years old, Elsje Christiaens, from Denmark, who had come to Amsterdam to work as a maid. In a panic, she killed her landlady with an axe. I’m not sure what kind of panic would cause her to do that, and I had no one to ask. On the day of her execution in 1664, she appeared in the Tribunal before the magistrates who sentenced her to death. Her sentence was read publicly, and after praying for the salvation of her soul, she stepped onto the scaffold where she was strangled and symbolically hit on the head with the axe used for the murder. Elsje’s body was left on public display as a warning to Amsterdammers and foreign visitors.  

We saw many more rooms, but this is a sample.

After the palace, we had a cheese tasting planned, but had about an hour before the cheese tasting. We found a cute plaza with a statue of Rembrandt with tables and chairs. So Dave had a glass of wine and I had a Bavarian beer. 

The cheese tasting was part of the Henri Willig cheese producer. We heard the whole story – Henri’s father was a dairy farmer and Henri inherited the farm. He wanted to do more than produce milk, and I’m sure make more money. So he learned to make cheese. We tasted 5 different cheeses (2 pieces of each cheese) and could dip them in sauces if we wanted to. The sauces were a brown whole grain mustard, balsamic glaze, and I wasn’t sure what the third one was but it could have been a cranberry sauce as it was sweet and somewhat fruity. The board looks large, but there were 6 people at our table. Henri Wellig also produces beer and wine, and we each got 2 drinks of our choice. Dave chose wine, he got a white and a port.  I chose beer and got a Pilsner and a dark beer. Youngsters got orange or apple juice.

The cheeses we tasted were fenugreek, pesto cheese, goat gold, smoked cheese and goat cheese extra old. The fenugreek is an herb common in Indian dishes. It gave the cheese a hint of walnut flavor. They were all very good and of course we bought some and brought them home.

We did not need a big dinner after the cheese tasting, so we just had an adult beverage (or a few) and shared an appetizer of bitterballen. We had bitterballen on the ship and enjoyed them – it is a Dutch meat based snack. I may try to make them at home.

Tomorrow we fly home as we are at the end of our 50 day vacation. It will be a long day, as we have to be up by 6:00am Amsterdam time which is midnight in Florida. Then we won’t get home until midnight, so a 24 hour day assuming no delays.

The End 😳!

July 13, 2022 (Wednesday): We are winding down from our travels. Today we disembarked the Viking Sigrun and moved to the Doubletree Centraal Station Hotel. Actually, we are very close to where our ship docked. We arrived at the hotel by about 9:30am, and fortunately they had a room available that early. The room itself is fine, but we have NO view, and people walking down the hallway can see into our room. Dave is pretty unhappy with the room, but I don’t plan on spending much time in the room. 

We rested up a bit, and Dave checked out a couple of tours. For today, we settled on a 3 hour walking tour that started at 2:00. We left the hotel about 11:30 and decided to walk towards where we were to meet the walking tour and look for someplace to have lunch. It turned out that the tour starts in a little park in front of the “new” stock exchange building, and next to the first stock exchange building. The first stock exchange building had a little bistro, so we had lunch there and waited for our tour to start.

Dave asked about the building where we had lunch, and the guide told him it was the first stock exchange building. But they outgrew the first building, and it became the commodities exchange, and the new exchange was built. While we ate lunch, we watched the ticker roll by on a sign above the new exchange building. There was a big bull statue outside the new building, too.

Our guide told us that Amsterdam had the first stock exchange. In the Middle Ages, Amsterdam wanted to be able to send ships to the Middle East for slices, but could not afford to but the ships needed to travel to the Middle East. So they sold shares in order to raise money to build ships. This was the first stock exchange. 

He also told us an interesting story about prostitution and the Catholic Church. Lots of sailors visited Amsterdam, and the government would look the other way because they felt the prostitutes were saving the good girls, the virgins. The sailors were superstitious, so before they went back to sea, they would confess their sins, pay a little fee, and be absolved of their sins. 

We walked past a bilding that used to be a gate to the city.

The guide took us to the old Jewish part of the city. He said when the Nazis invaded Amsterdam, there were lots of promises that life would go on as usual and the Jews would be left alone. So, there was no resistance in Amsterdam. But the. The nazis asked for a map of where everyone lived, so they knew where the Jews lived and began deporting them. Amsterdam became cut off and all the people were starving. Besides, they had harsh winters. Since the Jews had all been deported, their houses were empty and deserted. The remaining citizens destroyed the Jews homes to salvage the wood so they could burn it to keep warm. Our guides comment was the Jewish community was destroyed, but not by who you’d think. 

The guide talked about the rulers. The Netherlands used to be a republic. Netherlands was conquered by Napoleon in 1810, who abolished the republic, annexed Holland to France,  and made his brother the King of Holland. Then the French were driven out in 1813, but the people liked having a king. They called back William Of Orange, the son of the last stadtholder  (national leader) and the current King of the Netherlands is a descendent of William of Orange. Our guide commented that it was the only country he knew of that was a republic but became a monarchy. 

One house he pointed out to us was build by a very wealthy person, he was a slavetrader. He would pick up Africans and take them to the USA and bring back tobacco and other American products. The images on his house are of Africans.

Out tour ended at the palace, which doesnt look likeva palace because originally it was city hall.

Our guide was a former teacher and said he preferred to talk to people who wanted to listen to him, compared to students who don’t want to listen. He was very entertaining and we walked with him around Amsterdam for three hours!

After our tour, we had to sit down for awhile. We had seen The Grasshopper bar and restaurant earlier, so we stopped there to rest and get a couple of glasses of wine.

Then we walked back to the hotel to decide where to have dinner. It was impossible to find a restaurant close to us that posted their menu online. We finally just went down to the restaurant in the hotel, Eastwood Beer &Grill. Dave had Salmon with risotto and I had shrimp with risotto, but my risotto was different from Daves mine had pumpkin and almonds mixed in. It was very good. Dave thought his risotto was better, of course.

July 12, 2022 (Tuesday): we spent a lot of the day cruising on the Rhine. We saw cows in the water, and there is a lot of river traffic. We see barges carrying gas, liquid natural gas and coal.

We got to Kinderdijk about 4:00PM for our walking tour in the windmills of Kinderdijk. 

We had a walking tour in Kinderdijk. The guide was very informative explaining how the windmills work. Not being very mechanical, what I remember is that the windmills lifted water up into the oceans and rivers so the land became inhabitable. In old times the process was done using windmills, but now it is done with modern pumps and machines. our guide pointed out a lot of plants and flowers. It seems this area is a park, and they have many areas of wikdflowers.

There were many windmills in this area.

There was a story our guide told about a flood and the baby was floating on the water. The cat came and was balancing the cradle to keep it from turning over in the water, causing the baby to fall out and drown. (We heard a couple of versions of this story).

We were able to tour a windmill. A family lived in the windmill and the husband was responsible to move the blades so they would catch the wind and turn. This in turn moved the water up. The windmill we toured was a family with 13 children. The living quarters were very tight. The people had to be small because the beds were short.

The miller would farm when the wind wasn’t blowing to help supplement his income. Responsibility for the windmill would pass down generations, so sons would become millers. It sounded like there are still millers than live in windmills, which is surprising in this day. However, there was a miller, in wooden shoes, at the mill we visited and our guide described him as the miller of the day, but his mill was about 15 miles away. 

Our last night onboard…here is our menu for dinner tonight.

July 11, 2022 (Monday): We are in Cologne, Germany and we are doing a walking tour. The big point of interest is the Cathedral.

 It was started in 1248, and not completed until 1880. There was a period of time in there, over 250 years, that no work was done. The people of Cologne assumed it would never be completed. Then the people of Cologne got an infusion of money from Prussia to complete the Cathedral, with one stipulation. Prussia required Cologne to build the railway station next to the cathedral so when people were coming to Cologne on the train, the first thing they would see was the cathedral that Prussia financed. All of Cologne was pretty much destroyed in WWII, but the cathedral only received a small amount of damage. Photo of a photo of the devastation around the cathedral. 

The Cathedral we see today is not completely original as it is continuously being repaired, and portions replaced. The oldest window are in back of the choir. 

There is also a large gold reliquary in back of the choir that supposedly holds the bones of the 3 wise men. According to our guide, this treasure was confiscated from Istanbul by Milan, and then confiscated from Milan by Frederick Barbarossa in 1164. He said there is no way to prove that it is really the 3 wise men, but the contents have been tested and the contents are old  enough that it is possible. 

One of the stained glass windows in the cathedral is very modern. It looks like pieces of confetti. The artist of the window is very famous and books have been written about this window. Supposedly the colors and patterns represent verses and stories in the Bible. Our guide said he attended a 2 hour presentation on the meaning of the window. It is not a good photo because of the lighting.

Outside the cathedral is a replica of the finials on top of the two towers. They are about 31 feet high and 15 feet wide.

After visiting the Cathedral, the guide pointed out the “Rathaus”, which is city hall. We have heard this joke from other German guides, that English speakers think this says Rat House, which is where all the politicians are. 

For some weird reason which I did not catch, under the clock on city hall is a face of a bearded man. On the hour, he sticks out this tongue tor each hour. Across the plaza from city hall, high up on the wall, is a plaster caste of the “moon”. Supposedly he is mooning the politicians in  city hall. 

The guide took us past a museum housing Roman artifacts, as the city was originally founded by the Romans. The Romans were here almost 2000 years ago, in 50AD. The city is already planning a big celebration in 2050. All state funded museums are closed on Monday, so we could no go in. But through the window we could see a fabulous mosaic floor, that was only missing a few detains. Because of the reflection in the window, this is the best photo I got.Our guide said at one of the G8 meetings they put a large glass over the mosaic and served the heads of state dinner. Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and Boris Yeltsin were three that attended the dinner.

After our walk, we returned to the ship for lunch, and walked some more. We walked back to  the Cathedral area and checked out a store selling 4711 cologne. Dave did not like the scent, I think it was too “spicy” for him, so I did not buy any cologne. We walked back towards the ship and stopped for a kolsch beer at a recommend place. The glasses are narrow and not very tall. This is so there is not so much beer in your glass that you finish it while it’s still cold. 

Then we walked past the boat to the Chocolate Museum. This museum was open because it is ran by a company, Lindt Chocolates. We had no intention of going through the museum, but there is a store attached. We wandered the whole store and found some interesting items, including chocolate beer! Dave decided he’d rather have peanut M&M’s, so we did not buy any chocolate. Back on the boat we decided to have a beverage and sit at tables on the bow. I was drinking a dark beer and Dave was drinking wine. At one point I reached for my glass without seeing a bee was on the glass…and I got stung ☹️.

After dinner we sat on the top deck to watch our departure from Cologne. While it was getting dark, we watched and heard hundreds of green parakeets fly into the trees next to our boat. They were loud! Not a good picture because of it being dusk.

It was especially pretty because we had a full moon.

Great Saint Martin church built on the remnants of a Roman chapel, on what was then an island in the Rhine. The soaring tower was erected between 1150-1250. We were unable to get in, as I think it is also a museum, which is closed on Monday.  

The Cathedral at night, as we were leaving Cologne:

July 10, 2022 (Sunday): We have a more relaxed morning today. We left the dock about 8:30AM and we are cruising the Rhine River. Over 66 km, we pass 20 castles. Most of the castles today are museums, hotels, restaurants or all three. We were traveling south to north, so the first castles we saw were at the bottom.

We did not take pictures of all the castles, but some we thought were interesting. 

 

In the afternoon, we had a walking tour of Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. It overlooks the Deutches Eck where the Rhine and Moselle Rivers meet. We took a gondola across the river to get to the fortress. Ehrenbreitstein is Europes largest fortress.  

We had a great guide, who we found out at the end of the tour is an actor from England. 

However, he knew his history and was very well versed on the fortress. But he made a very boring subject interesting. The hill upon which it rests was settled as far back as the 4th century BC, and a Roman fortification was there around 400-500AD. Construction on the current fortifications began around 1100 and expanded in the 16th century. In @801, Ehrenbreitstein was partially destroyed by Napoleon, and the French occupied Koblenz for the next 18 years. The fort has been under French and British flags, and the American flag for two  different periods. If my memory serves me right, for a short time after WWI and then after WWII.

After returning to “our” side of the river on the gondola, we walked along the river for a bit, but because it was Sunday, almost everything was closed. So we walked the other way towards the Deutsches Eck which is the “German Corner”. This is where the river splits with the Moselle and Rhine. There is a monumental equestrian statue in a park. The statue is Wilhelm I, first German Emperor, erected in 1897 in appreciation of his role in the unification of Germany. 

we also were able to get pictures of our boat whike we were on the gondola. it is very long, but narrow. It is about 442 feet long and about 38 feet wide.

July 9, 2022 (Saturday):  This morning we are in Speyer, Germany. We have a walking tour. After we leave the boat, the boat is going to move to Worms, Germany, and we will rejoin the boat in Worms.

As many towns along the Rhine River, they were first established by the Romans. Our guide indicated the Romans were in Speyer 2000 years ago. In the 11th century, Emperor Konrad II was made emperor over all the German states. Emperor Conrad started building of the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer in 1030. In 1061, the Cathedral was consecrated. It was meant to impress not only with its size, but it’s pomp and majesty as well. 

On the back of the Cathedral, the most eastern point is a carving. The Christians of the day believed Jesus would come from the east. This carving is of children riding on lions and sticking their hand into the mouth of a poisonous snake. According to the Bible, the children could do this and be unharmed in Paradise.  

The Cathedral is on the east side of Speyer, because the east was where Jesus would come from. Inside it is enormous, but pretty plain. There are 12 columns representing the 12 months of the year, and 6 domes in the ceiling representing Monday through Saturday. The seventh dome is above the Nave and represents Sunday. In 1981, the Cathedral was added to the UNESCO list of “World Cultural Heritage”.

The Cathedral has been saved from disasters as it was not bombed during WWII. Speyer is the home of the Airbus factory and in WWII it was building airplanes. The airplane factory was the target of the bombing, so the Cathedral was spared. A large crypt lies beneath the chancel and is the final resting place of four emperors, four kings and three empresses. 

Some of the buildings outside the Cathedral have been destroyed, such as the cloisters. A statue which was originally in the center of the cloisters is still standing. The statue is of Jesus praying at the Mount of Olives. 

Speyer was an important center for Ashkenazic Jews. In 1084, Speyer’s Bishop invited Jews to settle in Speyer from nearby towns. It was a business development move since moneylending was forbidden for Christians and the city needed on for the new cathedral it was building. In return, the bishop offered rights and protections that until then were unprecedented in Europe.

In front of the Cathedral is a huge bowl. When a new bishop comes to Speyer, he is escorted to near the front of the Cathedral where the huge bowl is sitting. Each new bishop has to fill the bowl with wine. The tradition continues even today. The townspeople stand around and everyone gets a small glass of the wine. The bowl holds 1500 liters of wine! 

Another tidbit from our guide, during the Middle Ages, only people who lived in cities were free. One of the reasons towns such as Speyer were walled, was not only for defense, but to control the people trying to enter the city to become free. You had to live in the city for 1 year and 1 day to be a citizen of the city and considered free.

The Main Street is directly in front of the Cathedral, and a city gate is at the west entrance to  the city.

A portion of the east gate and wall is still standing behind the Cathedral.

Walking down the Main Street is what I have previously referred to as a Maypole in Munich. This pole actually has signs on it indication the services, provided by hand, of the residents in the city. 

The old part of town is not a large, but it seems like we never quite have enough time to explore as much as I would like to. Other people me met were able to get into the Lutheran church which has beautiful stained glass windows inside, but it was not open when we went by, so we missed seeing the Lutheran Church.

We did manage to get a couple gelatos….

Our group met at the big bowl in front of the Cathedral when our 1 hour of free time was up, and we walked a good distance to our buses, which then drove us to Worms, Germany where we met up with our boat. 

We got to see the airplane factory, who announced their presence this way: 

This afternoon, while the boat moved from Worms to Rudesheim on the Rhine was basically free time, which was great! 

At 6:15pm we are departing for our dinner in Rudesheim. We were transported to the restaurant in a little tram. We were able to get a table for 9, which was a group of us that were in the “blue group” on our pre-cruise extension. 

This was when we were in Oberammergau and Innsbruck. So most of the people in the blue group ended up in basement cabins on the ship including us. We booked late, and there were only 2 staterooms available, both in the basement, or cheap seats. However, there were 3 people in the blue group that had balcony cabins. When we all discovered we were being treated as 2nd class citizens, we hung together as the blue group. So, 9 people from the blue group went to this dinner, and 2 of the couples were celebrating their anniversary. It was a really cute restaurant, and it was located on one of the oldest streets in Rudesheim. Rudesheim  seems to be a big partying town, and we were there on a a Saturday night, which made the atmosphere even more party like. There was a one person musician band, and he was playing a lot of American music such as Sweet Caroline and West Virginia. Of course our group was singing right along with those songs. We had 3 bottles of wine on the table: a white, a rose, and a red. For the first round, most took the white so they brought a second bottle of white. We were all drinking pretty freely, singing along, and having a good time. On the table when we sat down was bread, and a spread of some sort, which nobody seemed to care for.  We later found out it was lard and not butter. The first course of the meal was two slices of a sausage that tasted a lot like halogenated, a salad, and another spread, which tasted much better than the lard. The next course was potato’s soup. It was very tasty with a couple of vegetables and maybe some bacon lardons. The third course was a couple of slices of pork, mashed potatoes and a cabbage medley. After dinner we got a shot of some type of schnapps. Then, the dessert was a cheesecake. The captain showed up and was dancing with our cruise director. They honored one lady who was celebrating her birthday and two couples celebrating their anniversary. Everyone was clapping to the music and having a good time. 

As I was walking out, an Asian guy grabbed my arm and asked where we were from. So  everyone knew we were having a good time. I was caught off guard by the Asian guy, and just  said Florida! 

Rudesheim looks to be a fun town, and the fact it was Saturday night didn’t hurt!

We had our choice of walking back to the boat or taking the little train back. Dave and I opted to walk, and it wasn’t very far. It gave us a chance to walk along the water, and the train tracks! Two trains came by as we walked back. 

July 8, 2022 ((Friday): The boat is docked in Kiel, Germany, but we will be crossing the river to visit Strasbourg, France. We will be back and visit Strasbourg again in December, on our Christmas markets cruise.  We have an included tour this morning. First we ride on the bus and our guide points out a lot of buildings, most of which aI can’t remember. I do remember that one of the buildings is a consortium of European nations, and another building is the consortium of European Union countries. The guide tells us that this part of France, and Moselle, has been German and then France several times. The children learn the Alsace dialect as toddlers, but when they start school, Hal’s the lessons are in French and half are in German. Once they start middle school, they start learning English. I think it is pathetic that Americans do not learn more languages starting in the primary grades. 

So first we had a bus tour, and then we did a walking tour with our guide. We ended at the Strasbourg Norte Dame Cathedral. The Norte Dame Cathedral has an astronomical lock. Which is very interesting. However, it is not the original. It has been reworked, but still based on the original. 

After we left the Cathedral, we were on our own, with prearranged shuttles back to our boat. It was about 11:30am, and we have a map with sights of interest. We have already seen Norte Dame, so the next on the sights is Madison Kammerzell. It is one of the most famous buildings in Strasbourg, one of the most ornate, and well preserved medieval buildings. It was built in 1427 but renovated in 1467 and 1589. It is no longer a private dwelling, but now houses a restaurant.

We were hungry, and we thought by walking through the market we might find a place to eat. Besides, I just love the European markets. 

No luck finding a restaurant close to the market, so we started looking for a restaurant. In my mind, I wanted a French restaurant but we kept finding Chinese, Italian, Lebanese, etc. I did not want to sit outside  because that’s where all the smokers are. We finally decided on Europe Cafe. Not the cutest, but we were hungry and they had French entrees. I had Quiche Lorraine and Dave had Chicken Cordon Bleu. Of course we had wine with our meal. 

After lunch, we had a couple more spots on our list of sights to see. We walked to the covered bridge. It’s interesting, because our guide pointed this out as a dam. When we got there, we discovered the dam was a little bit down the river. This may have been a dam at some point, but now it is a covered Brugge, with bathrooms! We were able to walk to the top of the bridge and get a nice view of what the locals call “Little France”. At some point, there was a hospital built in this area because many people were getting sick with what was called the “French  Disease”. Subsequently it was called Syphilis. 

We climbed to the top and had a nice view of “Little France”.

Tanning and tanneries became an important part of the Little France area. They built their homes alongside the river to have easy access to the water they needed. The tanners house had an open gallery under the roof, which was used for drying hides.

The covered bridge was part of the cities defense system from the 13th to the 17th centuries. Three of the brick built towers have survived.  

Next we walked to St. Nicholas Church. It was closed, so we could not go in. Standing on a Roman site, the church was built on the location of a chapel dedicated to Marie-Madeline in the 12th century.The church was rebuilt in 1381 and 1387 and dedicated to St. Nicholas, Parton Saint of sailors. Before he left. For Lambarene in the Gabon, the doctor and future Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer was minister here.

From gardens were locked up in a cage on the bridge where they were mocked by passers-by before being thrown into the water.We had to be back to the meeting spot, so the last site on our list was the “Bridge of Tortures”.in 1411 a law was introduced instructing those sentenced to death to be sewn up in a linen sack and thrown into the water.This custom continued until 1617. From 1466 onwards, thieves and people stealing  from gardens were locked up in a cage and passers-by would mock them. Then they were thrown into the river and forced to swim to safety. 

Late this afternoon we had a cooking demonstration onboard. Then after dinner we had a music trivia contest the team we were on came in 3rd! That is tremendous for us as we are usually last. 

July 7, 2022 (Thursday): The boat is docked in Breisach, Germany. We will be back here in December on our Christmas market cruise. This morning we have an included excursion into the Black Forest. We have a really good guide, he is from Toronto, Canada. We have an hour drive from the boat to the Black Forest, so our guide tells us all kinds of interesting tidbits on the long drive. One thing he tells us is the farmers have hired professional hunters to kill wild boars. But the hunters will not eat the wild boars they kill because the wild boars are radioactive. Apparently, when Chernobyl exploded, some of the dust blew over this area. The mushrooms that grow here absorb the radioactive dust, and the wild boars love mushrooms. Thus the boars get radioactive from the mushrooms they eat. Many of the old farms in this area are built so the farm equipment can be driven directly into the top level, and then the farm families live below. In olden times, the roofs were made of sod, which drew various vermin. Smoke from the residences helped eliminate the vermin, but the smoke unbeknownst to the residents, killed the residents at early ages. These roofs were also prone to catch fire.

We drove to Hofgut Sternen, which is a village in the Black Forest. It is thought that this area is more than 700 years old. Marie Antoinette paused through here on the way to her wedding to French King Louis XVI. Hofgut meant it was self sufficient. We took a walk with one of the guides into the forested area. One thing we passed was a bridge, which was strategic in WWII.  The allies kept trying to destroy the bridge, but they weren’t successful. But before the Germans surrendered, they destroyed the bridge. It has been rebuilt and trains cross the bridge daily.

While walking we passes some interesting forested areas. We crossed bridges over streams and the scenery was beautiful.

Back in the area of the settlement, someone was blowing glass, however he was working on heating the glass when we were there. We did not wait for him to actually blow the glass. We saw a demonstration on making a Black Forest cake. This is a little false, because all the pieces of the cake was already made, and the demonstrator just assembled the pieces. Apparently, there is a considerable amount of cherry schnapps in the original recipe. 

We skipped the cuckoo clock demonstration, but this location has what is suppose to be the biggest cuckoo clock in the world. One of the buildings had a 6 Sided star on a sign. Our guide said said 4 sided star meant food was available. A six sided star meant food and a bed were available. An eight sided star meant food, beds and stable space for horses was available. 

After visiting the Black Forest, we were bused back to the ship for lunch. After lunch, Dave and I signed up for a walking tour of medieval Colmar. Colmar is a cute and picturesque village with half-timbered houses, flowers and little streams running through the village. We saw a replica of the Statue of Liberty and discovered the designer of the Statue of Liberty, Augusta Bartholdi, came from Colmar. I assume the draping is suppose to show support for Ukraine, but the color of the draping is not quite right.

The inside of the Statue of Liberty was designed by Eiffel, but Augusta Bartholdi designed the  statue. We saw Bartholdi’s house, and other statues he designed. 

In the old times, houses were taxed on the size of the ground floor. People would design their houses in a step fashion so the upper floors would be larger than the ground floor, thus reducing their taxes. 

The smallest house in Colmar, about 100 square feet, and they paid no taxes. The house has now been incorporated into neighboring buildings. 

This building, built in 1609, is called the house of heads because there 105 grotesque heads decorating the facade. 

The Pfister house was built in 1537 by a wealthy man who earned his fortune in silver mines.

Colmar has gondolas like Venice, but I think they are mostly a tourist attraction. They also have motors, where the Venice gondolas do not. 

Our guide pointed out signs on the building that would describe what trade was in the building. This one was a beer mug inside a star. According to our guide, the Star of David hysteria we think of as the Jewish symbol was not limited to use by Jews in antiquity. The Jewish community of Prague was the first to use the Star of David as its official symbol, probably in the 17th century. The star was almost universally adopted by Jews in the 19th century. 

 Another sample of a sign indicating a butcher shop.

Storks are a symbol of the Rhine River area, and the storks have a huge nest on top of the  cathedral. Storks are monogamous and return to the same nest for years. Their offspring will also return to the same nest, so the nests can become very big and very heavy, but they are protected by the government.  

This cathedral was under construction, too, and archeologists were working around the outside as they founds bones during renovation work.

July 6, 2022 (Wednesday): Today was mostly about travel from Innsbruck to Basel, Switzerland to join the Viking Sigrun, our river cruise. Dave snapped a shot of the mountains from our stateroom before we left, as the clouds from yesterday have pretty much disappeared to give us a nice view.

We have a new bus driver, who hopefully will not get lost, and we have lost two people! We do not know the details of the people that have left. We drive towards Basel, and see interesting villages along the way.

We made a pit stop, and then we stopped in Vaduz, Lichtenstein for lunch. This was a bonus for me because Lichtenstein is the 4th smallest country in Europe after Monaco, the Vatican and San Marino (in Italy). It is also the 6th smallest country in the world. I never imagined that I would visit Lichtenstein, so I was excited to hear we would stop at its capital for lunch. We only had 1 hour and 45 minutes, so we could not spend much time there. However, it is a very small country. We had lunch at the Hotel Adler. They had a great outdoor area, but because we did not have reservations, we had to eat inside. Dave had wine of course, and I had Lichtenstein beer!   

We both had sandwiches, which I forgot to take pictures of. After lunch, we walked around a little – of course I wish we had about an hour more time, but it was a small town.

Before we left, we had some gelato! On the bus, just after leaving Lichtenstein, we saw this covered bridge, which I think is crossing the Rhine River.

We got to Basel about 4:30 and shortly there after our boat left the dock. We do not have a great stateroom, we are in the basement! Thus, in many ways, we are treated as 3rd class, which explains some of our bus issues and hotel issues. We had a long indoctrination discussion on board. We had a muster drill where we had to put our life preservers on and meet at a central location on the ship. Then we had dinner. One of the anytime entrees is an 8oz rib eye, which I thought was pretty impressive. Tonight we had goat cheese soufflé for an appetizer. I had a pork and dumpling entree and Dave had Halibut. I had a fruit plate for desert and Dave had wine for desert. We ate with people we met on the bus. They got stuck on our 3rd class blue group bus, even though they have better staterooms on the boat.

July 5, 2022 (Tuesday): We are staying at the Penz West hotel for 2 nights, which is about 2 miles from the Innsbruck old town. 

The name Innsbruck comes from “Inn” which is the river that runs through the town, and “Bruck” which is derived from bridge. So it was the bridge over the Inn River. It was originally settled by the Romans before the 4th century. In the 4th or 5th century there was a church and in 1138, a monastery was referred to in historical documents. In 1187, an official document names the place “Innsprucke”. 

After breakfast the Viking bus drove us towards the old town to meet up with our guide, Willie, for a walking tour. We walked through the Imperial Gardens which have existed since the early 15th century, but at that time, only royals and members of the high court were allowed in. We walked past St. Jakob Cathedral, but due to renovations, we were not allowed to go in. This cathedral holds the tomb of Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria from 1612 until his death in 1618. The front was fenced off, and behind the fence were archeologists working, as during the renovation, tombs were found in front of the church. 

Our guide pointed out the town tower, dated around 1444. The bottom of the tower looks different than the top because the top toppled during an earthquake and was rebuilt.

The Golden Roof is a very famous landmark in Innsbruck. The building where the golden roof is located, was constructed in the early 1400’s to be a residence for the rulers of Tyrol, one of the states of Austria. A later ruler, Maximilian I, commissioned a loggia of the facade of the building, with a roof of 2,657 fire-gilded copper tiles. The upper balcony served as a royal box where the emporer and his wife could enjoy festivals and tournaments in the square below. Our guide said 6 pounds of gold leaf had been applied to the copper tiles. 

The Imperial Palace was a residential compound of the Habsburg. The palace was initially constructed in 1460 and had a moat in front. Empress Maria Theresa, the only female ruler of Austria, made Baroque changes to the palace and filled in the moat. The moat is now a paved road. The palace is open in the center, and the front was the administrative building and the back was apartments for bureaucrats. In the center they hold regular concerts now.

The main shopping street in Innsbruck is Maria-Theresa Street,  named after Empress Maria Theresa. It is a pedestrian street. All of the old town of Innsbruck is pedestrian only. Delivery vehicles are allowed until 10:30am, but after that, no vehicles are allowed. On Maria-Theresa Street is St. Anne’s column, erected in 1706 to commemorate the defeat of Bavarian invaders in 1703. The Virgin Mary is on the top of the column, and St. Anne is one of the saints represented at the bottom. 

Innsbruck used to be a very religious place and many of the buildings have religious paintings on them.  

 Another building that our guide pointed out was “The wedding cake building” because of the decorated exterior.

Our guide was full of information and historical details, and he was very interesting. 

After our walk, we went into the Swarovski store, which the guide said was the biggest Swarovski store in the world. Viking did offer an optional tour to the Swarovski factory, but wdecided not to go. However, I took a (quite a ) few pictures in the Swarovski store.   

Another tour was the Nordkette cable car that goes to the top of the Nordkette mountain range. We did not sign up for the Viking tour, as I thought we’d wait until we got to Innsbruck and decide then if we wanted to go up on our own. On own own, it costs almost $50 per person.  We did not go up, because the mountain had a thick cloud cover, and we would not have been able to see much. We had some rain as well, and we’d duck into stores when we wanted to get out of the rain.

We did go to Cafe Sacher for “lunch”. This is the original Sacher-Torte only available in Sacher Cafes in Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Graz. I had the Sacher Torte with whipped cream, coffee, and sparkling water. Dave had Apple Strudel with Vanilla ice cream and a glass of wine. He was also served a glass of water. I thought the torte was dry, and Dave was not impressed   with the strudel, but he said the ice cream was good. 

At that point, we had pretty much walked all over the old town, but we visited a few more shops. I saw a sign for “Cafe 360” which billed itself as a wine bar and convinced Dave to check it out. It was on the top of an 8 story building and was a round glass structure. We got glasses of wine and enjoyed the views over the city. We actually had a great view of the ski jump used in the Olympics. It was a nice little break, but I didn’t like my glass of wine ☹️. 

We walked back to the shuttle bus stop. Viking was suppose to have a shuttle bus at 2:30 to take us back to the hotel, but apparently the driver got lost (same driver that missed the turn to Oberammergau) and did not pick us up until after 3:00. 

We have decided to rest at our hotel the rest of the evening and eat dinner here. The old town of Innsbruck is charming and interesting, but we feel like we’ve seen what we want to see.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Dave liked his red beef curry so much that we both had that for dinner tonight.

July 4, 2022 (Monday): This morning we left our hotel in Garmisch-partenkirchen, Germany. At breakfast they had a really neat wine station:

I think Dave should put one of these in our house. We met in the lobby at the appointed time, and drove back almost to Oberammergau to the Ettal Abbey. We waited for other Viking groups to arrive, probably an hour. Then we have this huge group of probably 100 people on the tour. We are taken into the Abbey church by an official abbey guide. He comments this is the largest group he’s had. His sound system sucks with lots of reverberation so it is very hard to understand what he is saying. It is a Benedictine Abbey with about 50 monks. The abbey was founded in 1330 by Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian, which is NOT the same Ludwig that built the fairytale castles. In fulfillment of a vow on his return from his coronation in Rome, his horse genuflected three times on the site of the original church building. A marble statuette of the Madonna and child is in the church on that spot. The statuette was brought from Pisa as a gift for the church. The church is dedicated to the “Assumption of the Blessed Virgin”. While the church has been damaged and rebuilt over the years, it is really beautiful inside. There are paintings on the walls and on the ceiling. It is divided into two sections with the larger part for church services, and the smaller part for the monks to fit, which is closer to the Madonna statue.

This tour took maybe 45 minutes, even with the large group of people. After our tour, we had to wait again, but I’m not sure what we were waiting for. Finally we left, driving through the Ammergau Alps to the hamlet of Mittenwald.

Mittenwald is famous for making violins and there is a museum there. Our guide explained how to get to the museum to do the tour, however, we only had about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 minutes to eat lunch on our own, which meant finding a place. Yes, I’m a little perturbed because I feel a lot of time was wasted at the abbey waiting before and after the tour. If there was more time in Mittenwald, maybe we could have walked around and explored more. We would not be interested in the violin museum tour, but others may have been. We did have a nice lunch, sitting with two other people, Karen and Terry, on our bus. We had pizzas, beer and wine. I wanted to get a gelato, but Dave spotted a store where he could buy a bottle of wine, and we only had about 10 minutes before we were suppose to be back at the bus. Of course, the wine purchase won.

Leaving Mittenwald, we drove to Innsbruck. Unfortunately our hotel is about 2 miles from the city center. However, it is a very nice hotel. We arrived about 3:00 and had plans to somehow go into Innsbruck, but after our long day yesterday, and 6 hours of sleep, once we sat down in our room, we were going anywhere. Later, we ate at the hotel, Penz West. I had wiener smitzel with parsley potatoes and salad, Dave had Red Beef curry Thai with rice. Both were delicious. We crashed early, hoping for a better day tomorrow.

July 3, 2022 (Sunday):  A long day today. We drove from Munich to Oberammergau, with our bus driver missing his turn to Oberammergau, giving us a bit of delay. Oberammergau is a picturesque Bavarian town. The houses are timbered and some have Lüftlmalerei, which are murals painted on the outside walls. While this style of art can be found in Southern Germany and Austria, it probably started in Oberammergau in the 1700’s.

We have a lunch before the performance, and about an hour spare time after lunch before getting in line for the performance. No pictures, but this was our menu and we had the pork.

You are not allowed to take much into the theater. One bottle of water, and a small backpack. We had to go through security, with the men and women in separate lines. They checked my backpack and did a body search over my clothes.

Of course no photos are allowed during the performance, but Dave got a picture of the stage before the play began.

The stage is not covered, but the seating area is. The huge theater, seating 4200 people, was built in 1900. Our tickets cost 201€ each. Since we are on a tour with Viking, everything for Oberammergau is arranged – food, hotels, transportation, tickets, etc. We only need to buy personal items. In 2022, performances take place 5 days a week, from May until early October. The performance is the Passion of Christ, but between scenes, the choir sings and there are tableaus of scenes from the Bible, such as Adam and Eve with the apple tree in the background, Daniel in the Lions den, etc. The play is totally in German, but we were given books with the translation. It is not easy to follow along, but we did follow it pretty well. Even the songs from the choir were translated for us. The performance is 5 hours long, but broken into two parts of 2.5 hours, starting at 2:30. So we had a 3 hour intermission at 5:00 and went to dinner. Viking put on a nice dinner – we had a choice of Salmon or beef, and bottles of red and white wine. Again, I forgot to take a picture. The second half started at 8:00 finished a little after 10:30, so we were very tired. There are over 170 Viking passengers, split into 6 groups, with each group at a different hotel. We got to our hotel about midnight, and we stayed in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany for the night.

The bubonic plague devastated Bavaria during the Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648). Half of Oberammergau’s population would die. In 1633, the villagers vowed that if God spared them from the plague, they would perform a play every 10 years depicting the life and death of Jesus. After that vow, none of the villagers died of the plague, and with few exceptions, such as coronavirus, the play had been presented every 10 years. Over the years, many dignitaries have attended, such as Dwight Eisenhower, Pope Pius XI before he became pope, Pope Benedict XVI before he became pope, Rockefeller, Vanderbilts, Kings, etc. 

In 1990, three women from Oberammergau won a court case that enabled married women and unmarried women over 35 years of age to perform in the play. In 2000, rights governing participation in the play were changed, allowing those living in Oberammergau who were not Christian or German citizens could participate. This meant that Muslims could participate. In 2000, 1600 adults and 550 children performed in 110 performances with 520,000 spectators.

I love the window boxes with flowers, and they are all over the place.

July 2, 2022 (Saturday):  Not much action today. We got everything packed up from our hotel near the center and took a taxi to our Viking hotel, Munich Garden Hilton. We were able to check in right away, and met with the Viking tour directors. Our director is Maria. We dropped off our stuff in the room and headed our to find lunch. We found a cute outside restaurant, Leib & Steele. 

The menu was not extensive, but the Scandinavian breakfast was calling my name. Scrambled eggs with shrimp, smoked salmon with horseradish crème sauce, yogurt with fruit, and fresh breads, which were delicious. Dave had sausages with sauerkraut, and some of the bread. 

After lunch we had a couple of things we wanted to find – Diet Coke for Dave and a new lock for my suitcase as the one I had broke. We found the Diet Coke pretty quick, but the luggage lock was more difficult. We ended up walking back to Marianplaz, which is about 2 miles from our new hotel, and found a great store, Globetrotters. The problem was figuring out how to get in. I swear, we walked up a flight of stairs and around the outside of the whole store, before we finally found an entrance. This store was all about camping and traveling, so they had luggage locks. We had to get back to our hotel for our meeting with our Viking tour director by 5:00, and it was already 3:30. Walking back, Dave got a picture of the trolleys used in Munich. 

But, we got back in plenty of time, spent a few minutes recovering and then went to the Viking meeting. We cannot take anything into the theater at Oberammergau e crept a bottle of water. People with mobility devices were warned the only thing they could take into the theater was a collapsable cane. Pretty tough for those needing a Walker or wheelchair. There are very strict entry requirements. We will have a very long day tomorrow. After the meeting, we decided we wanted pizza for dinner, and I googled a place, Taverna Del Sud. When we got there, they said no pizza. We checked the menu and decided we’d have pasta. So we sat down and I ordered lasagna. No lasagna. I ended up with spaghetti with meat sauce. Dave got rigatoni pasta with ham and peas in cream sauce (he asked them to hold the mushrooms, which they did). Our waiter was very friendly and kidded with us and a couple sitting next to us, Oneida and Mike. It happens they are on the same tour we are (174 people I think they said). I forgot to take pictures of our food.   But remembered to get a picture of the wine!

We are broken down into groups and our group is blue with 20 people. There are about 6 groups and each group is in a different hotel, determined by your color. We will probably end up in the dumpiest ☹️.

July 1, 2022 (Friday): We get home two weeks from today…but looking forward to our River cruise and the Passion play. We join our Viking tour tomorrow.  Today it was rainy and cool. We did not get moving early, but put the “please clean” note on our door at 10:30am and went to the lobby to read for awhile. We returned at 11:30am, and room hadn’t been cleaned, so we went back down to the lobby until noon. When we returned, room still hadn’t been cleaned. There was a cart near our door and Dave asked why our room hadn’t been cleaned. The guy (men clean the rooms) said it wasn’t in his area and to call housekeeping. We called, and they came pretty quick, but we obviously wasted almost 2 hours. I don’t think it really mattered though because we didn’t plan on doing much with the rain and cold. After the room was cleaned, we got ready to face the weather. Our plan is to walk to the Hofbrauhaus for lunch, which is what we did. That place is always crazy busy. It was 5 years ago, and it still is. We got .5 liters of beer with our lunch as it is a beer garden! We both ordered veal sausages with homemade mustard sauce. For side dishes, I ordered bread dumplings and Dave ordered potato salad.

I decided to include pictures of the menu. I thought the dumplings I had yesterday was potato dumplings which is why I ordered bread dumplings today. I am not crazy about either of the dumplings I had yesterday or today. They seem gelatinous. The gravy they serve with them is very good though.

After eating, we walked through the Hofbrauhaus gift shop. They had a really cute post card to send to kids, so we bought two for Mia and Lily. When we bought them, we asked about postage, and the clerk sent us a couple blocks away. We went there, but it was just mailboxes, they did not sell postage. Fortunately there was a person there, and he gave us the address of a place where we could buy postage. It may have been a mile away, but what else were we going to do on a rainy day. As we were walking there, we remembered the area as it must be a Jewish quarter. I remember I dropped my iPad and broke the screen last time I was here. We find the place, and it’s like a DHL office, but they said they could sell us postage. I was just going to buy the postage and write the cards later, but I had to write the cards and address them before they would sell us postage. Also, they did not take credit cards – we had to pay cash! I think we paid 7.4€ to mail two postcards, and Dave has no confidence that Mia and Lily will ever receive them. That was our adventure of the day. I have never had so much trouble sending a post card!

On the way back to the hotel, we walked through the market and bought a little more cheese from the same store as yesterday. We figured if we bought a little more cheese and a bottle of wine, we’d have enough leftovers from yesterday to use for dinner tonight.

June 30, 2022 (Thursday):  We usually just have a breakfast bar each morning, but ran out of our supply before flying to Munich. So when we checked in, they told us there was a bakery downstairs. Downstairs is underneath the hotel, and is where you catch the subway. At each station, underground, there are all sorts of stores. Besides the bakery, which is kind of a coffee stand with fresh pastries, there’s an Aldi grocery, a “Hit” grocery, a Chinese restaurant, a jewelry store, a Subway sandwich shop, and a bunch more little stores. The Hit grocery is huge. Anyway, this morning we went down to the bakery and got a couple of pastries, coffee for me and Diet Coke for Dave. Then we headed out to walk around. We have no big sites that we want to see as we were here about 5 years ago and saw everything that we wanted to see. We thought about going to Dachau, but decided against it as it is just so depressing. We saw so much of the Jewish history when we were here 5 years ago. It is just too hard to stomach the atrocities. 

As we headed to the open air market, we passed an old wall of the city from the mid 1400’s. 

At the market, I told Dave I wished we had one of these close to us. He said, “We do. It’s called Publix”. It’s not the same, Dave. He even found a vendor that interested him. 

Flowers in the market:

There are some statures, a May pole, and tons of vendors selling everything. Flowers, wine, cheese meats, etc.

We decided we’d wander and come back later for lunch. Actually, it was 11:45, so we walked to the Marienplatz which is where the Rathaus-Glockenspiel preforms daily at 11:00am, 12:00 noon, and 5:00pm. It was perfect that we were there at noon. We have seen it before, but it is always cool to see. It is the largest carillon in Germany. It has two floors. The top floor represents the marriage of Duke Wilhelmina to Renate von Lothringen, celebrated in February, 1568, on the occasion of which a knights tournament (a joust) took place on the Marienplatz. As the figures circulate, there is actually a representation of a knights tournament and one knight knocks back the other knight.

The second level is a coopers dance. The barrel makers are said to be the first to venture out into the streets after a severe plague epidemic and cheered up the populace with their dance.

After the upper layer plays, and the second layer plays, there is a golden bird above both levels that flaps his wings.

Lots of tourists fill the Marienplatz to watch the spectacle. Of course we have seen it before, but it is a highlight for any trip to Munich. The whole clock striking 12, the upper level, lower level and bird takes almost 15 minutes. We had an added attraction today – the Goodyear blimp passed in back of the tower while the performance was going on.

I bought a SIM card in London, and it is giving me sporadic coverage in Munich. What is really cool is I can use my translate app, take a picture of something in German, and my app translates it! It is really cool! 

Dave and I wander some more, but everything is familiar because of being here before. We did walk over to the Hofgarden which is next to the Munich Residenz Palace, the family palace of the kings of Bavaria. We had peeked into some stores on the way over but not in these – definitely some expensive shopping: Rolex watches, Prada, Louie Vuitton. By this time we were getting hungry, and we decided to go back to the market area. It is not always easy for us to find a place to eat. One place did not take credit cards, lots of places didn’t have a table in the shade, lots of the outdoor dining allows smoking which we don’t deal with. Plus, they have to have a menu with food we both like! Picky, picky, picky. We found a place, Zum Alten Market.

Dave had Weiner Schnitzel

and I had roast pork

We both had beers, and Dave said the beer tasted so good he might start drinking beer instead of wine. 😂😂😂. 

After lunch, we were stuffed, and decided to shop in the market for a dinner in our hotel room. We bought crackers, 3 kinds of cheese, salami and olives.

We walked back to the hotel and we needed some breakfast bars for the next couple of days. So we went down under the hotel to Aldi and Hit supermarkets and found a bottle of wine (!), some Pringles, potato chips (my downfall) and even some breakfast bars!

June29, 2022 (Wednesday):  We leave today for Munich. Everything is packed, but we figure there is no rush such our flight is not until 4:25pm and checkout is noon. We checked out about 11:45, used a trolley for our luggage and walked over to Terminal 4 to catch the tube to terminal 2. It was a bit of a wait for some reason – usually the tube trains runs every few minutes. Terminal 2 is a bit of a walk from the tube station, and when we go to enter, there are security people only allowing passengers inside. This is a change, as we have been in terminal 2 and terminal 5 a few times. All they are checking is for passports, so not sure how they can tell we are passengers or not. We show them our passports and they let us by. We find where we are suppose to check our bags, and it is a system we’ve never seen before. There are 4 stations, A through D, and your checkin information tells you what station to go to. We are assigned B. First you use a terminal to identify yourself and what flight your on. Then you enter how many bags you have and it prints out the luggage tags. Then you wait in line to get to one of about 15 people who weigh your luggage and send it down the conveyor belt. This is for many airlines, not just Lufthansa which is what we’re flying today. After getting rid of our big bags we head to security where you have to remove all your liquids and put them in a quart baggie, which is the same as in the US. All liquids are suppose to be under 100ml (3 oz in US). On all the flights I’ve been on for a number of years, I usually our my contact lens solutions in a separate bag, because they are somewhat exempted from everything you can stuff into one quart size bag. This time they required makeup to be in the bag, so Dave took my contact lens solution and put it in his bag. But, between the two of us, we had all our liquids in two quart size bags. Then we wait in another huge line to get our bags X-rayed and our quart bags of liquid examined. The baggie nazi inspector took my contact lens solution bottle and said it was too big (103ml instead of 100). She missed my fingernail polish remover which is 4 oz. Fortunately, I have more packed in our checked bags – assuming they reach Munich. So we go through security. I had nothing in my pockets, but I set off the sensors (my jewelry?), soI had to go through the puffer. But, they let me through. This whole process of checking bags and going through security took a little over 2 hours! We checked the menus on the restaurants and finally settled on sharing a Chicken and shrimp pad Thai. Dave said it was not picture worthy. It was just OK. Heathrow does not post gate information until about 15 minutes before boarding starts. So ours was supposed to be posted at 3:45, for 4:00 boarding. But…it wasn’t posted for a few minutes, and a little panic runs through me. Finally we get the gate and walk there. We are easily there by 4:00, but they aren’t boarding. They don’t start boarding until about 4:45, and out plane was suppose to leave at 4:25. We get on the plane, and it departs over an hour late. We got to Munich at 8:00PM, but that includes losing an hour. In England, it was 5 hours difference from Eastern Standard time and in Germany it is 6 hours difference. It is an hour ride (and 100€) from the airport to our hotel. We get to the hotel and check in. We are here for 3 nights. Our room was hot and by the time the technician came and fixed it, it was 10:00pm. We went to the restaurant and the kitchen was closed, but they would give us something simple. We had some pasta and wine. It was OK, but not great, and a bit expensive. We’ll have to check out some different local places. 

June 28, (Tuesday): We did not do much today except get our belongings organized for our trip to Munich. We did our online checkin, and I washed out a few items in the hotel sink. We walked to the Green Man Pub again for lunch and we both had Chicken and ham pies. These pies are much better than Swansons Chicken Pot pies. These have a better crust, and more filling.

Walking home we are in the path of jets landing at Heathrow and they fly right over us. After lunch we packed most of our stuff, threw away stuff we no longer needed, and we are ready to leave England after an unexpected 16 day visit. We ate dinner in the hotel cafe, but they were out of our favorite wines and our favorite flatbread. We got a bottle of rioja wine, which was pretty good, we split a hamburger, which is huge with two overcooked Pattie’s, and I got a side of creamed cabbage with bacon, because it is delicious! 

I just have to comment on how clean the subway stations, the buses and the trains are. There is no trash on the tracks! There’s no trash on the floors or inside the buses. Many of the public buses are the red, two story ones like you see on TV, and like the one we rode from Windsor to Heathrow with the loud, obnoxious children.

June 27, 2022 (Monday): Today will be our last planned adventure in England. Our day started really well. Originally we planned to take a 9:45am National Express bus to Winchester, but we got up and got dressed and we’re ready to head out by 8:00am. We have to walk over to terminal 4, take the tube to terminals 2,3 and change to a tube to terminal 5 to catch our bus. Sometimes the tubes run timely, other times there is a long wait. We thought if things went well, there was a chance we’d catch the 8:45am bus. We got to terminal 5, bought our tickets, boarded the 8:45am bus, which immediately left….at 8:42am! The bus left early! 

It was an uneventful ride and we got dropped off in a large parking area just outside of Winchester and found we had to take another local bus to the town center. The National Express driver said the bus into town was free, but it wasn’t. It was a short 15 or 20 minute ride, and we were dropped off right at the Anglo-Saxon King, Alfred the Great. His statue, was placed there in 1901 to celebrate one thousand years since Alfred died. He became king of England and made Winchester his capital in 871. He ruled Wessex until his death in 899. Alfred had successfully defended this area of England, Wessex, against attacks from the Vikings. At that time, whoever ruled Wessex inherited the title of King of England. 

We went to the visitor center and signed up for a 1.5 hour walking tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable, and she made the tour interesting. She was telling us lots of facts and figures about historical kings and historical battles, which I can’t remember. I do remember a few of the stories, however.  We started the walk in a beautifully landscaped garden with a view of the  Alfred the Great statue. 

On the way, I saw this little creature on the sidewalk…he actually was pretty good size! 

 We walked through the garden to a walkway with a huge wall on one side and an interesting garden on the other side.  

According to our guide, the walking path and the property on both sides belonged to Sir Peter Smithers. Some have suggested he was the inspiration for Ian Flemings “James Bond”. Our guide said he was quite the gardener and that gardeners have to be courageous. He had two trees, a magnolia from South Carolina and another tree native to Italy that adapted to the climate here, where you would not expect them to. This walkway led from the commercial part of the city to the religious part. According to our guide, many monks and religious people walked this path. During the two world wars, many American soldiers passed through Winchester and would have walked this path, too. At the end of the path was a tunnel, which was great because it had started to rain. We sheltered in the tunnel and our guide pointed out lots of centuries old graffiti on the walls.

She pointed out a house where Jane Austen spent a Christmas holiday (There is a lot of Jane Austen history in Winchester). The rain let up a little and when we exited the tunnel, we were on the backside of Winchester Cathedral. (This tour does not go into the Cathedral. Dave and I will do that on our own, later. )  She took us to her favorite tombstone, Thomas Thetcher, who died after drinking a small beer. According to our guide, the person who started Alcoholics Anonymous had seen this tombstone and was inspired to start AA in the USA. However, it was common to drink a small beer at the time of Thomas Thetcher because the water was polluted and the process of fermentation would make the resulting beverage safe to drink.

Our guide pointed out a pub, The Eclipse Inn, that was previously a rectory of St. Lawrence Church. In 1685, Lady Alice Lisle was found guilty of harboring two fugitives from the Monmouth Rebellion. The judge was a “hanging judge”, went into a rage and bullied the jury to return a guilty verdict. The punishment was to be burned at the stake, but the judge later relented and changed the punishment to beheading. Lady Alice Lisle was beheaded on a platform constructed outside The Eclipse Inn. She had to crawl through a window on the second floor to receive her punishment. She was the last women in England sentenced to beheading. Four years after her execution she was pardoned. Supposedly her ghost haunts the Inn.

Our guide pointed out other landmarks where castles and fortifications had been, but now we’re only remnants. She took us to an area where a huge castle had been constructed, burned down, later turned into military barracks, and today are million pound (£) flats, with beautiful lavender beds.

The only remnant from this huge castle is the Great Hall. On the way to the great hall, she pointed out a monument to US Soldiers who fought in England during the great wars.

Arriving at The Great Hall, the guided walk was over, and we were on our own to explore The Great Hall. The Great Hall was constructed between 1222-1235, commissioned by Henry III. The Great Hall is the home of the “Round Table” of King Arthur and Camelot fame. The Round Table has resided in The Great Hall for over 700 years. In 1976, a team of specialists analyzed the wood and determined it was built between 1250-1280, placing it within the reigns of Henry III and Edward I. Edward I held a grand tournament in Winchester in 1290 to celebrate the betrothal of his children. It is believed the Round Table may have been constructed for this occasion.

Over the years The Great Hall had many uses, including a court of law, and this is where Lady Alice Lisle was tried. There is a bloody looking block (actually painted red) in the Great Hall which I assume is symbolic of Lady Alice Lisle’s beheading.

Today, it is a tourist attraction and home to The round Table which hangs on the wall. There is a huge statue of Queen Victoria.

On the wall opposite the round table are The Wedding Gates. The stainless steel gates commemorate the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. The key to open the Wedding Gates is in the shape of a “W” to represent Prince William.

The Great Hall has lots of history and symbolism.

We cannot leave The Great Hall as it is pouring rain. So we wait it out for awhile and when the rain lets up, we went in search for a pub for lunch. We checked out The Eclipse Inn, but did not quite like the menu. We checked out another pub and menu, but finally settled on the third pub we found, “The Old Vine”.

They actually pump the beer from kegs.

Interestingly, two of their lights are similar to those Dave and I bought in Venice many years ago.

I had the Ploughman’s lunch and Dave had a meat pie with chicken, ham and leeks. 

After lunch it was time to take on Winchester Cathedral.

About 650, King Cenwalh builds a church in Winchester (not the Cathedral). About 828, Winchester becomes the capital of England. 1079, building starts on the Cathedral. Over the years there has been much expansion, remodeling and restoration. One particular fellow that caught our eye was William Walker. In the cathedral there is a memorial to William Walker for saving the Cathedral with his hands. Water running under the Cathedral was weakening the building and he used a divers helmet, with air pumped down to him to strengthen the supports by cleaning out old wood and cementing the foundations. The Cathedral is 558 feet long, Nave width is 82 feet, and has a height of 150 feet. The floor area is 53,480 square feet. There are many tombs in the floor, as well as other locations in the Cathedral. First we visited the treasury, which was a room up some narrow stairs, with no windows, which contained ancient silver chalices, cups, and other silver pieces used in churches, I think mostly from England. The oldest item we saw was a silver paten which is a plate used to carry bread at the Eucharist from 1260.

Back on the main level, we see the grave of Jane Austen.

There is a 12th century marble font still used for baptisms.

The Holy Sepulcher Chapel contains 12th and 13th century wall paintings of the Passion of Jesus Christ.

Another chapel has 6 mortuary chests containing the bones of a bishop, a queen, and early kings. These chests are sitting on beams high above the ground. The contents have been examined and the bones only reflect one woman.

Behind the nave is a section referred to as the “quire” which I think is term for where the choir sings during services. In Winchester Cathedral, the quire is the oldest of great medieval quires in England to survive substantially unaltered. There is a lot of graffiti on the walls of the Cathedral which surprised and disgusted us.

While visiting the Cathedral, there was a special exhibition “Kings and Scribes: The Birth of a Nation”. This exhibition gave us an opportunity to view part of the church from above.

Two notable items are a 12th century Winchester Bible, written in hand, and I believe it was 958 pages, but the pages were very big – maybe 20 inches x 14 inches, and the writing is small. The Bible has been analyzed and it is believed to have been written, in Latin, by one person, with no white-out, over 5 years!. We were also able to peek into a library from the 17th century, but couldn’t touch anything. We were not allowed to photograph the bible or the library.

Many hares around Winchester! Here’s some samples!

The fun begins: We were pretty done with touring, it was about 4:00pm and out bus was scheduled at 5:20pm to return to Heathrow near our hotel. We figured we’d get to the bus pickup early, but didn’t really want to do much else. So we headed to the city bus pickup that takes us to the National Express pickup. The city bus came pretty quick and we were at the National Express bus stop by about 4:30. It was cool, with a breeze, with off and on drizzle. Dave was smart enough to bring a book while we waited, but I had nothing to entertain me. At 5:20 we were looking for our bus, as our bus from Heathrow to Winchester this morning had left early, we thought the bus back to Heathrow might be early. One of the city bus drivers told us National Express sometimes runs late because of traffic. So we waited. About 6:00, I tried to call National Express, but their offices close at 5:00. The city bus drivers kept coming by and were sympathetic. While we are waiting, 3 National Express buses, going in the wrong direction came by. We kept questioning their bus drivers, but they were of no help and unwilling to help. One lady city bus driver was very kind and trying to help us. She said her last run back to Winchester was 7:00 and we told her if National Express had not come by then, we would go back to the city with her and catch a train to London. After sitting in the cold, drizzle rain for 2.5 hours, at 7:00, no bus, so we rode back to Winchester with her and she dropped us off at the train station. The bus driver didn’t even charge us for our ride to the train station! She had been very kind and helpful during our wait. The ticket lady at the train was helpful, too, and said she frequently heard of issues with National Express. Our trip to London would require two train changes. She printed out an itinerary for us so we knew which stations we were to switch trains. We only waited minutes before the first train came about 7:30pm. We had no issues changing trains and got into London about 9:00. We found a store selling sandwiches, vodka and wine, which we bought! Then we started looking for the tube to take us to Heathrow. Yes, I needed vodka tonight. The tube station, Paddington, was inside the train terminal, and we were able to get a tube train fairly quick. Probably did not get back to our hotel until 10:00, about 3 hours later than we expected. While riding on the nice, comfortable train, Dave asked why we didn’t use the trains in the first place. I said, our choices were a direct bus, OR, taking the tube into London and then catching 3 different trains to get to Winchester. Obviously, the direct bus looked like the best choice. 🙄

June 26, 2022 (Sunday):  We spent the day in London today. Fortunately the tubes were running, but some were very crowded. We got off the Piccadilly line at Green Park and switched to the Jubilee line getting off at the London Bridge stop. From there we walked to Borough Market. This is a really cool, phenomenal market focusing on food. Borough Market consists of three main areas: Three Crown Square (larger producers and merchants), Green Market (small, specialist produce traders) and Borough Market Kitchen (street food traders). Surrounding the Market, you’ll find a complementary blend of restaurants, bars and shops. They are all individual vendors with foods from England as well as other counties. Fresh vegetables, cheeses from many producers, wine, beer, meat, condiments, etc. Here are some pictures:

I was not very hungry, although I did get a glass of Prosecco, and since we were there during lunchtime, it was packed with people. Dave was getting hungry, probably from looking and sampling some great food, but did not like the idea of sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers with no table. There are restaurants, but they were packed, too. We decided to look for a pub.

Walking out of the market area was an old cathedral, Southwark Cathedral, the oldest gothic church building in London. In AD 606, it was a convent. In 1106 it was a priory. I didn’t know what a priory was, so I looked it up. It is a monastery of men or women under religious vows.

The church has been expanded and remodeled over the centuries, but they preserved one area which had archeological interest. They found evidence of a Roman road from the 1st century, and a medieval stone coffin, one of several found, possibly from the 13th century. 

Walking out of the cathedral, we could see an old ship in dry dock, in an inlet off of the Thames River.

This interesting sign was posted in front of the dry dock:

After visiting the cathedral, we found a pub, “Old Thameside Inn” and it alongside the River Thames, apparently established in 1873.

We got an outside table next to the river.

I got some Scottish salmon and Dave got barbecued brisket with horseradish sauce.

These were “starters” or appetizers because if we eat too much at lunch, we aren’t hungry for dinner until too late. This pub is one that is on the “London Ale & Gin Trail”. 

After eating, we walked toward St. Paul’s Cathedral, where Princess Diana and Charles were married. We walked across London Bridge, but it is not as eye catching as Tower Bridge.

We passed monument square, a monument built on the site of the St. Margaret Fish Market to commemorate the great fire of London. The fire burned from September 2 – 5, 1666. It devastated 2/3 of the city, destroyed 13,200 houses, 87 churches and 52 livery halls. It was built in 1671-1677, designed by Robert Hooke in consultation with Sir Christopher Wren. 

We got to St. Paul’s Cathedral which is where Prince Charles married Lady Diana. Of course, no photography ia allowed onside the Cathedral.

St Paul’s Cathedral is an Anglican Cathedral in London that is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. The present structure, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. Its construction, completed in Wren’s lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding program in the city after the Great Fire of London. The earlier Gothic cathedral (Old St. Paul’s Cathedral), largely destroyed in the Great Fire, was a central focus for medieval and early modern London. At 365 feet high,it was the tallest building in London until 1963. The dome remains the highest in the world.

At 365 feet (111 m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1963. The dome remains among the highest in the world. 

Services held at St Paul’s, besides the wedding of Charles and Diana, have included the funerals of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, and the 80th and 90th birthdays of Queen Elizabeth II.

We happened to get there at 3:00pm for the Evensong and Sermon on the Second Sunday after Trinity Service. The service was very moving, but did not quite follow the program we were given. Being as it is Sunday, we were happy to be able to attend the church service. The choir was made up of adults and young boys, but they are planning to include young girls, too. While the music was beautiful, it was hard to follow the choir when they were singing. But we had the words in our program, so even though we couldn’t understand them, we could read what they were singing. They read two passages from the Bible. The first was about Isaac being deceived by his wife Rebecca and giving his blessing to Jacob instead of Esau. The second was about Jesus returning to his hometown with his disciples and when he began to teach in the synagogue, the elders were offended by his wisdom. Later, after much singing by the choir, the sermon was preached by Rev. Giles Dove, Chaplin, Glamis Castle, in Scotland. Many portions of this Anglican service were similar to our Methodist church. We were very glad we happened to be there for this service.

After the service, we were close to Paternoster Square where there is a sculpture in bronze “The Wild Table of Love”. Julie Rocheleau asked me via Facebook if we had seen it. Since it was so close to St. Paul’s, we went to see it. 

We got back to the hotel after 6:00pm, and just had appetizers for dinner. We really had a good day in London and felt like we saw alot.

June 25, 2022:  Another transportation strike day, but the buses are running. We plan to walk today. I found a shopping mall and thought we’d go there. I really have not seen any stores that sell clothing except resell shops, of which I’ve seen a lot. It is called The Centre and is 2.7 miles – so a nice hike for us. We walk past several places we’ve been before, like St. Mary’s Church and The Bell on the Green, but The Centre is further away. We get to a place called The Centre, but all the stores are outside. There are sports stores, but no ladies clothing stores. We wandered in and out of some of the stores, but did not buy anything (not even Diet Coke, Pringles, or wine!). We decide to find our pub of the day. There is a pub type restaurant at one corner of the Centre, it’s called “The Moon on the Square”. We go in, and it’s very crowded, probably because it’s about 1:30pm on a Saturday and everyone is out getting drunk already! So we find a table and while we weren’t crazy about the menu, we decided on something to order. There is a symbol to scan to order from your table, which we used. We filled out our order, get to the pay section, I scan my credit card, and it wants to text me a code to verify I am who I say I am. Well, we’ve been through this before and the code would be texted to my US number (which is the number on file with my credit card) and not my English number, so I would not get the text. So Dave goes up to the bar to order. After waiting about 10 minutes, he gives me the sign – let’s get out of here! No one would wait on him and the bar maids were crazy busy. So we walk around and do not see much that’s inviting. There are several ethnic restaurants, but they do not look appealing. We finally end up at what I think is a chain, Nando’s. It was busy! I did not take a picture of the food. We just got chicken wraps. They were good, but we thought all their food was overpriced. After lunch, we walked a little further as we had seen a church with a tall steeple and I wanted to check it out. As we got close, we realized the church had been converted to apartments or condominiums. At this point, we decided to take a different route home so we could see some different scenery. But, there really wasn’t much to look at – that’s why there are no pictures today. Our walk home took us by the first pub we visited, The Green Man. We were also in the flight landing path and could almost touch (😳)  the bottom of aircraft flying over our heads. One plane came in and was really too high to land, sure enough he pulled up and it looked like he made another attempt. The only picture today is of a gas price sign. It was hard to get the picture, because for some reason, every time we tried to take a picture, the regular, unleaded price didn’t show up! It was weird, but we finally got it. So if my math is correct, a gallon of unleaded gas would cost almost $9:  (1.939gbp/liter x 1.22 to convert to USD = $2.36/liter x 3.785 to convert to gallons = $8.93!). We have seen the price fluctuate between 1.90gbp/ liter to 1.999gbp/liter.

We ended up walking about 7 miles today.

I got hungry this evening, which is unusual because our lunches are larger than what we normally eat. we went to the Hilton restaurant and I had the fish and chips:

Dave had their trout dish:

He had this before and really liked it, but said this portion was smaller than when he had it before. It included beets as a vegetable which he normally doesn’t like, but I think he liked these beets because they weren’t pickled.

 June 24, 2022:  We got up early this morning. I was thinking we were going to take a bus from Heathrow terminal 5 to Windsor Castle. Dave wants to do an Uber because it is only 8 miles and it takes the bus over an hour. So I tried to book an Uber, but kept getting errors and could not book a car. I ended up calling Uber support, and they said the problem will be fixed within 72 hours! I think the problem is that I am using a SIM card and the phone number on the SIM card is used over and over. Uber is telling me the phone number I’ve been assigned is in use on several accounts. I think that’s why I cannot book an Uber. By this time, we had missed the 9:05am bus. So we try the car service, Sky Cars, we used to move from the Ibis hotel to the Hilton. We have to wait 20 minutes for the car, but it turns out to be cheaper than Uber – 18 GBP vs 25 GBP (Great Britain pounds). I had not booked the tickets for Windsor Castle in advance because I didn’t know exactly what time we’d get to the castle, or based on the buses/Ubers/car  services, if we’d get there. So while riding in the car on the way to the castle, I try to book our tickets. 10:30am, which is the time Dave wanted, is still available. So I enter all my information, get to the end, and to verify my identity, they want to send a code by text to my phone. The problem is I am using an English phone number and they want to send the code to my US phone number. Another glitch in our travel! I can’t get the tickets in advance. We get delivered right to the castle about 10:00 am, so we actually beat the bus. There is a long line, and I told Dave we’d probably have to wait in that line. But no! We were sent to a very short line to buy our tickets! The lady selling us our tickets was very nice and told us we’d have time to visit St. George’s chapel before the changing of the guard at 10:45! Out tickets, which were about 27 GBP per person included an audio guide. We were told there are no photographs allowed inside the buildings. We got our audio guides. Walking to St. Georges chapel, we see the Round Tower. As I look over the wall at the Round Tower, there is a little park with a little pond. Just as I look, mama duck and her ducklings jump into the pond. Of course I was not quick enough to get a picture of the ducklings going into the water, but they were cute. They loved walking on the lilipads. I hope you can see them in the picture. The first picture includes the round tower and pond, the second picture I tried to zoom in on the pond.

Next, we went to St. George’s chapel. Harry and Megan were married in St. George’s chapel. The chapel can accommodate 800 people.

St. George’s Chapel was founded in the 14th century and is the chosen burial place for the British Royal family. There are many famous burials in the chapel, I believe they said 10 kings, including Henry VIII, George VI and his wife (Queen Elizabeth’s parents), and Prince Phillip. It is expected that Queen Elizabeth will also be buried here. The ashes of her sister, Princess Margaret, are in St. George’s chapel. There are many sacred relics housed here including a fragment of Jesus’ cross. 

As we walked the center aisle, I could look side to side and in my mind see where the Royal family has sat for Harry and Megan’s wedding. I remember in watching the wedding that Megan walked halfway down the aisle by herself, and then was joined by Prince Charles. It is very obvious inside that the chapel appears to have two halves. 

After visiting the chapel, we found a place to stand to watch the changing of the guard. This ceremony lasted about 45 minutes! The guard in place before the change had a dark uniform. Several military with the same dark uniform marched in and underwent an inspection by a senior military person. In the distance we could hear drums and then a marching band. The marching band, in the recognizable red jackets and fur hats, marched past us, and then a regiment of guards in the red jackets and fur hats followed the band. The dark uniforms and the red jackets did some maneuvers, mostly just standing in place and getting perfectly aligned. The guard with the dark uniform was replaced by a red jacket with a fur hat, and the marching band played 3 songs. Several of the military went into the guards room and stayed there until after the band played. Finally, they all came out of the guards room, the marching band started playing and led the way for all the military to leave. 

We were surprised it lasted so long, but we really had a good spot to watch. 

After the changing of the guard, we visited the state apartments in the Castle. Windsor is the oldest inhabited castle in the world and has remained in continuous use since built by William I in 1066. Queen Elizabeth is in residence at Windsor Castle. 

The first thing we saw was Queen Mary’s Doll House. The doll house was never meant to be a child’s toy. It was presented to Queen Mary in 1924 and meant to demonstrate all that was best in British workmanship. So it has running water, miniature leather bound books, a miniature gramophone with records that really play, wine bottles with real wine, etc. These apartments were used by prior kings and queens, and a few of the rooms are currently used. So we did not see Queen Elizabeth running around ☹️. We probably saw over 20 rooms. The normal tour routing was changed as they are preparing a display of the Queens Jubilee. The Jubilee display will be in St. George’s Hall and the Lantern room, which were the rooms severely damaged by the fire in 1992. St. George’s Hall can seat 160 people for Royal banquets. Our audio guide was great as it gave us a one or two minute description of each room and the notable objects. I have to say it was one of the best audio guides we have used, as it was not too lengthy. We spent about 2 maybe 2.5 hours touring the castle. We did buy a couple of souvenirs- 2 shot glasses emblazoned with the jubilee insignia and an official souvenir book about Windsor Castle.

Leaving the castle, we walked into the town of Windsor. It is really cute, and of course we found a pub as we were hungry after all that touring. We found “The Carpenters Arms”. All the pubs we have been to have a listing for “starter” which are like appetizers, and “sharing” which 2 or more people can share. Dave and I opted for a fish platter which was advertised to contain “Wholetail Scottish Scampi, king prawns with Marie Rose sauce, smoked Scottish salmon, beer-battered haddock goujons, and mini salmon and dill fish cakes served with tartar sauce and lemon aioli”. Most of it we enjoyed. 

After lunch, we checked the bus schedule, and we had about 45 minutes to find our bus stop. We actually found the stop pretty quickly, and noted that this particular bus did not make all the stops, so it should only take about 45 minutes to get back to Heathrow instead of 70 minutes. Since we still had awhile before the bus was scheduled to arrive, we walked around a little. Windsor had transformed what used to be the train station into an area with shops.

The train still stopped here, but the big station and ticket booths had been replaced by ticket machines. We wandered and saw the replica of an engine that used to pull the Royal train cars, as well as cute shops. We walked back to the bus stop, bought a bottle of water, and anxiously awaited the bus, hoping we were really in the right spot.

The bus came, and it was empty. It was a double decker, so of course we headed upstairs and sat in the front. We actually sat across the aisle from each other taking up all 4 front seats! There was no one else on the bus! We drove for a bit….and pulled into a school parking lot. About 30 loud, screaming, foul mouthed kids boarded the bus ☹️. Somehow our journeys always turn out different than expected. The bus proceed to make about 5 or 6 stops that were not listed on the schedule, dropping off kids at each stop. Finally, at the next to last stop, all the kids were gone and we had 5 minutes of peace before getting to our stop, Heathrow terminal 5. We are staying at the Hilton at terminal 4, but there is a free train/tube between the terminals. We did check out Terminal 5 for a planned journey on Monday, and then proceeded to the tube/train. First we go to the tube/train that stops at terminals 2 and 3, and then change for the tube/train to terminal 4 (there is no direct tube/train from terminal 5 to terminal 4. You have to go to the stop for terminals 2 &3 and change tube/trains). We get to terminal 2 & 3, and look at the board to see the next tube/train to terminal 4 is in 16 minutes. Then they make an announcement that if you need to go to terminal 4, you have to go back to terminal 5 and take a bus to terminal 4. We always run into issues! OK, we go back to Terminal 5, find the bus. You are suppose to swipe your credit card getting on and getting off, but if it’s between terminals you won’t get charged. We swipe getting on, and I swiped getting off, but Dave’s credit card apparently didn’t register….he will probably be charged for taking the bus to the end of the line ☹️. 

Finally getting back to the hotel, we head straight to the bar for a drink. All in all, it was a good day. But could have been much better without the hiccups!

June 23, 2022:  The transportation strike is in full swing today, so if our feet don’t take us, we’re not going. We did not do much today. Not needing to get up early, we hung around in our hotel room doing some research on the two or three places we still want to go while here. I washed some things out in the bathroom sink. By 1:00, we were ready to do our walk to a pub. The one I picked out is called “Load of Hay” and about 1.5 miles away. We started out the same way as day before yesterday, as the Load of Hay is just about 1/2 mile down the same road as “Inn on the Green”. We passed what I previously thought was a duck sitting on her nest, but upon further research, I discovered it is actually a coot. She is still there diligently doing her job.

We walked past St. Mary’s church again and past Inn on the Green. We notice lots of construction which is billed as affordable housing. We also passed a gated community with a sign saying it is owned by a charity. Dave and I think it is some form of charitable housing for seniors, or disabled or something. It looked very nice. We finally get to “Load of Hay”, and find out they are not serving food today – must be because the staff was unable to come into work because of the transportation strike. Our travel hang ups continue! We remember passing another restaurant, “O Calhau”.

It is more of a restaurant than a pub, but has liquor and beer and wine. It bills itself as a Mediterranean Restaurant with tapas. We had 3 tapas plates for lunch: Parma ham with melon, bruschetta, and calamari. They serve calamari with tartar sauce, but Dave asked for tomato sauce instead, which they substituted. It was a good lunch.

Afterwards we stopped at a store so Dave could buy more wine and Pringles.  We walked back to the hotel, checking out the construction some more. Yes, a slow day thanks to the transportation strikes.

June 22, 2022: My fingernails are very important to me, and if I were “Elon Musk” wealthy, I would pay for my nail technician to travel with me! On many of our longer trips, I have not been able to find a nail salon that looked clean, used drill type tools, etc. Even on the cruise ships – they’re clean, but they don’t use the tools to really get the acrylic thin so it doesn’t lift. So my nails have been a big concern for me since we will be gone 7 weeks. I knew I could go 4 weeks since I’m not doing housework or doing any heavy lifting….but I didn’t know what would happen beyond that. Today, I am at 4 weeks. So when we found we were going to be in London for awhile, I started looking. I asked ladies at the hotels, googled, checked trip advisor and cruise critic. Somehow I kept going back to one salon I found on Google. One lady at our hotel told me to look in Kensington or Knightsbridge. The salon I found had 3 locations, including Kensington, and listed “acrylic fill” as one of their services. Dave was very encouraging as he knows how important the fingernails are to me. So since we did not have plans for today other than to find a pub, our big mission today was to find a place to get my nails done! Because of the transit strike this week, there are fewer trains running, so more people on the trains. The salon I found, Serenity Nails and Beauty, has 3 locations, which I took as a good omen, and the closest one to me, in Kensington, was at the tube stop for “Earl’s Court”. I could have booked online, but it looked like they had lots of openings, and I wanted to see the place in person before committing myself. We got there about noon. They had 4 pedicure chairs and 3 nail chairs – so kinda small, but they were busy! They had availability at 2:20pm, so I booked it. Dave and I just wandered around the area and we knew we could find a pub here for lunch. Earls Court is part of Kensington and Chelsey. It is really a cute area and we enjoyed walking around checking out which pub we would go to for lunch, and wasting some time. We settled on The Blackbird Pub. Their specialty was pies and it is named after the famous Blackbird Pie, immortalized in the nursery rhyme, “Sing a song of Sixpence”. It is really not an old place, but it was fixed up cute.

Dave had been wanting a British meat pie, so this was perfect. I had a mini steak pie and Dave had a mini ham pie. They were served with gravy and mashed potatoes. It was the perfect size for lunch. The pie, gravy and mashed potatoes were very good. After eating, we still had an hour before my appointment, so we walked some more. Finally, it was 2:20. The lady that did my nails did a very good job and hopefully they will last until I get home in 23 days. Yea! 

In the meantime, Dave found another pub close to the nail salon, The Kings Head, to enjoy a glass of wine while he waited for me.

Back to the tube station to go back to the hotel – we didn’t have to wait too long, but the tube cars were packed!  Dinner at our hotel tonight. Dave had fish and chips, and I had a lamb dish with creamed cabbage which was delicious!

I have to try to remember to take pictures of our food before it is half gone!

June 21, 2022:  The transportation strike has us pretty much grounded. We did do some research on a couple of places we hope to visit, but with the transportation strike, we will play it day by day. We looked into flying to Munich early, but all the hotels we were interested in are full – probably because of Oberammergau and the Passion Play. 

Our big adventure of the day was trying out another pub, and of course we are looking for places we can walk to, which means less than 2 miles away. Today we walked to The Bell on the Green. It is only about 1 mile from our hotel. On the way, we crossed a narrow, shallow river, the Duke of Northumberland’s River. There was a mama duck sitting on her nest just above the water! It looked like papa duck was bathing himself on the other side of the river, with another duck!

We also walked by an old church and graveyard. St. Mary’s Church is the Church for Bedfont and is historic.  The original church was likely wood, and the village was mentioned in the Doomsday Survey. The most likely date for rebuilding the church in stone is mid 12th century. There are two yew trees which are trimmed to show two peacocks at the top, and the dates 1704 and 1990 on each tree. Apparently the 1704 represents the date the trees were trimmed to resemble peacocks, and the 1990 was the year an expert topiaries recut the trees which had lost their shape after the Second World War. Not sure I agree that they look like peacocks.

We did not see them, as we could not enter the church, but there are brass plaques inside the church memorializing people who died, the oldest being Isabell Page who died in 1629. There were many tombstones in the graveyard, but most were very hard to read. The oldest we saw that we could read was from 1740. 

Not much further along, we reached our “Pub of the Day”, “The Bell on the Green”. As a side note, we see a very mixed, integrated population in England. Many workers, servers and pub owners appear to be of Indian descent, but there are many black people, too. As to the pubs and even the hotel restaurants (Ibis and Hilton) have curry dishes as well as Indian dishes,  many vegetarian and vegan dishes. Today, Dave ordered a spicy chicken sandwich which he said was not very spicy.  Many dishes are served with chips, which we call French fries! I like to try different things, so I had Lamb Biryani. The lamb was incorporated into a blend of rice and vegetables, and came with a red sauce, Biryani gravy,  made with tomatoes, spices, herbs and vegetables (I think I recognized green beans and peas), and another sauce, Raita, that reminded me of tzatziki….and maybe it was! Raita is yogurt based. It was good and very filling. The pub had some cute sayings above the bar.

The Bell on the Green

We stopped at a grocery next door to pick up some necessities for Dave – Diet Coke and Pringles. Then we walked back to the hotel, checking out the church some more,  and making sure mama duck was still on the nest (she was). 

After our big lunch, we didn’t want much for dinner. We felt like the Hilton didn’t have any good appetizer type offerings that we hadn’t already tried, so we walked down the tunnel that connects us to the terminal at the airport, and there is a Crown Plaza (and a Holiday Inn express and a Premier Inn) also connected to the same tunnel. We decided to try the bar at the Crown Plaza. Dave got chicken wings that were too spicy and I got squid with a sauce I didn’t like with a couple glasses of wine. Oh well, at least we tried something different!

June 20, 2022:  After a very busy day yesterday, we are not doing any big trips today. This week will be challenging anyway, as a transportation strike is planned this week in London. 

Dave has a bagful of laundry he is going to send to be washed, which is mostly socks, underwire and shorts. He gets it all ready and gives it to the housekeeping lady. I am fortunate as I can wash out most of my stuff in the sink. To skip ahead a bit,when we get back from lunch, there is a knock on the door and they are returning the laundry. And, more importantly, they gave us a 50% discount! Wow! At least someone likes us!

I have been searching for pubs within walking distance, and we tried one for lunch today, “The Green Man”. It was established in 1537, but parts of the building date back to 1640. There is a legend involving a secret chamber in back of the fireplace….which is where the bathrooms are now!

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel, stopping to check out a convenience store. They don’t have a good selection of wine, but they do have some lite tonic! We pass a field with some horses, and there are two young ones. One of the young horses kinda looked at us and we thought he might walk over to us, but about half way, he decided against it. I think this breed of horses is Gypsy Vanner, a bred of domestic horses from Great Britain. They had the long hair over their feet.

We got back to the hotel and took a brief rest, and decided to take the tube to terminal 2, as we think that is where we are leaving on Lufthansa. We thought we would check it out since we have the time. It is free to travel between the terminals. So we walked over to terminal 4, which is near our hotel. There was a train waiting, so we hopped on. We were at the stop for terminals 2 & 3 in about 10 minutes, and we were kind of amazed it took that long. After the train arrived, we had to choose terminal 2 or 3, and we chose terminal 2 as that is the one we are flying out of. I was actually hoping to see some shops and such as I did not bring a hat on this trip and thought I might find a visor. After taking numerous moving walkways and escalators, we finally arrived at Terminal 2. It was a zoo! People all over the place! We did manage to see where we need to check in. But decided it was too crazy. There is suppose to be a Pub here, but with the masses of people, I lost interest very quickly in trying to find it. So, we decided to head back. We backtracked through the maze of escalators and moving walkways to finally get to the platform we needed to return to terminal 4. The next train was suppose to be in 20 minutes. It kept getting pushed back further and further. I think we ended up waiting 53 minutes for a train to take us from terminal 2 to terminal 4. Again, the Walkers travel plans are cursed!

We get back to the hotel, rest for a bit, and decide to go to dinner, in the hotel. Nothing much planned for tomorrow due to the transportation strike. We will probably seek out another pub. 

You can tell it was a slow day – lots of pictures!

We were laying in bed ready to go to sleep, watching a little TV. Dave is flipping through the channels and comes across a program ”Naked Attraction”. I could not believe what we were seeing on TV, and of course we had to watch! This is like a dating game show. There are 6 men or women in booths on stage, and a “contestant” of the opposite sex. The people in the booths are stark naked and as the show progresses, their bodies and faces are revealed starting from the bottom up. Each person in the booth is eliminated one by one based on the body parts revealed until there are only two left. At this point you can see their faces and their whole body. Now the contestant goes offstage and returns naked! when the naked contestant comes back, they pick their date from the two remaining people. The conservative, putitan me was shocked that this was on TV, in the 10:00 time frame. But I couldnt turn it off and had to watch! Can you imagine going in to work the next day and saying, ”Oh, did you see me on TV last night?”.

June 19, 2022: Did not get an early start, probably headed out about 10:30am. Our plan for today is to go into London and visit the British museum. Our hotel is connected to Heathrow Terminal 4 which has direct access to the Piccadilly tube line. It is very easy to travel on the British public transportation. You just swipe your credit card at the entrance and when you exit. According to the hotel concierge, it will never be more than 14 GBP per day, no matter how much you use it. The train is waiting for us so we hop on. It is about an hour ride to our stop, Russell Square. From there it is a short walk to the British Museum, which has free entry! It is busy today, but with free entry, and on a Sunday, I guess that would be expected. We grab a map, but it takes us a few minutes to get our bearings. The British museum is a bit overwhelming and has more artifacts than anyone could possibly see in a day, maybe even a week. You can get an audio guide, but there would be too much for us to see. But, their map has a convenient “must see” list with each artifact listed on the map, by the letters A through L.  A dozen artifacts seems about right for us, and remember, they are located all throughout the museum which has 7 levels I think. 

So, pretend your on a journey through the British Museum with me!

The first item, A, is “ The Holy Thorn Reliquary” which I assume is suppose to be from Jesus crown of thorns….but we will never know! We find the location, room 2a, but the exhibit is closed! So we cannot see item A.

Item B is noted as the most famous chess set in the world, The Lewis Chessmen.

 

A little amazed that this is the most famous chess set in the world!

Item C is an Astrolabe, which is a spectacular scientific instrument from the Islamic world.

In this same large display, I found this globe to be very interesting:

Item D is The Oxus Treasure. It is one of the largest collections of Achaemenid gold and silver objects and dates to about the 5th and 4th centuries BC. It was found in the 19th century close to the river Oxus on the boarder of Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Item E is The Portland Vase and is the Roman inspiration for Wedgwood.

Item F is Tang Dynasty Figures from the tomb of a general.

Item G is Shiva Nataraja, Lord of the Dance from south India.

We decided it was time to take a break, so we stopped and had lunch. There is a sit down restaurant but it had a very long line, so we went to a quick pick lunch where you pick your items and take them to a cashier to pay and hope to find someplace to sit and eat. Fortunately Dave is always very good at finding a seat, and he did again today.

After a bit of rest and refreshment, we were off to find Item H, Brass plaques from Benin, masterpieces of African Art. But when we got to the stairs leading down to the African gallery, it was closed! while wandering around to see if there was another stairway down to the Africa exhibits, we saw a bonus artifact – a crystal skull. We’ve seen some documentaries on crystal skulls and they are purported to be ancient. However this skull was examined by experts and thought to have been made in the 1800’s.

The next item, I, is the Moai known as Hoa Hakananai’a. It is a colossal ancestor figure from Rapa Nui, Easter Island. The people from Easter Island have asked the British Museum to return the figure, but so far it is still in discussion.

Item J is probably the most interesting, The Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone was the key to deciphering hieroglyphs. This is the one exhibit that people were really crowed around.

Item K, Assyrian Lion Hunt reliefs, seemed to be missing in action. There were some huge stone sculptures in the Assyrian gallery that looked like maybe they lined a road, but no Lion Hunt reliefs.

The last item, L, is Parthenon Sculptures from ancient Greece. The museum had an obnoxious amount of sculptures from the Parthenon, lining the walls of a huge gallery.

This is curved because I used the ”pano” feature on my phone

This is another curved pano picture. I use the pano option when there is too much to get in one photo.

While this completed the ”Don’t miss list”, we did see other exhibits while we were passing through various rooms/galleries looking for the next ”don’t miss item”. One exhibit we saw was a mostly complete monument, The Nereid Monument from Turkey.

Another item that caught my eye was this tile piece, supposedly from Nebuchadnezzar‘s Throne room.

Dave and I found it a little disturbing (?), not sure if that is the right word, with almost the greediness of the Museum collections. I think reading about the Moai from Easter Island and how the Islanders want it back, and all the pieces from the Parthenon, where we know from visiting Athens that they are trying to reconstruct the Parthenon made us feel like it wasn’t right for the British Museum to keep all these artifacts. They are very interesting to see and read about, but its like overkill. Just our opinion…..

We left the museum about 3:30 and checked our map of London to see what else we wanted to see. We have been here before and saw many of the sites, so we decided just a little refresher. We walked to Trafalgar Square which was totally being overtaken by Muslims having some type of gathering.

The we walked to the building that once housed Scotland Yard, but on the way we passed “Walkers of Whitehall Pub & Restaurant”, and Dave felt a tug at his heartstrings.

Our next stop was 10 Downing Street, but we could pnly get to the start of Downing Street as it was fenced off with several bobbies guarding the entrance.

Another famous London landmark, Big Ben!

Can you believe they still have these in London? Maybe they were just there to amuse tourists. If so, I guess it worked!

Our final stop was to walk by Buckingham Palace. Last time we were there for the changing of the guard. The horses marched down the road right through the gates. This time we only saw what the horses left on the street 😀. There is a park, St. James, that we walked alongside and we saw one attempted escapee.

Just before getting to Buckinham Palace, we saw some swans, and crazy people trying to pet them! Swans can be vicious!

Some pictures of Buckinham Palace – could not get close, and actually crawled through a fence to get here, as did many other people!

We had enough of London and headed back to our hotel on the tube. When we got back, we got a drink and went outside to a little area the hotel calls their beach. We stayed for awhile, but got cold and went back inside to finish our drinks and have dinner, and then crashed after a long day.

June 18, 2022: Check out time is noon, so we took our time showering and getting ready to leave. We check our about 11:30 and tried to use Uber for the first time. They kept wanting us to verify our credit cards, which we did many times over, and they they would reject our payment method. We tried with Daves card and my card. Finally we gave up after about an hour and got the number of a car service from the hotel. The car service price was actually about the same as Uber- maybe a little cheaper even, but we had to wait an hour. While waiting, we notice I is hotel has a sign advertising the price of rooms – it is actually more expensive than the Hilton that we’re going to! Finally about 1:30 we get our car and he drives us to the Hilton. We check in and we are in room 384. Dave hoped for a good view of planes landing and taking off….it is a view of the planes, but not a great view. Our room however is bigger, has a “chiller” (not as cold as a refrigerator), tissues, a desk, a nice chair to sit in, a closet, a safe, some drawers, an ironing board and iron, a brightly lit bathroom, a big shower, an ice machine down the hall, better shows and movies on TV, etc. Obviously, much nicer than the Ibis. And, Hilton left us a welcoming gift!

Dave did a home test for COVID, and he still has a very faint lint indicating positive. However, it is so faint compared to our other tests that I’m sure he is almost over it. Fortunately, I don’t think we will need any tests for our travel to Germany or our River cruise. Supposedly, Viking had dropped all testing requirements unless required by the country we’re visiting, and it looks like those countries are requiring vaccinations and boosters less than 270 days old. We are good with that as our last booster was May 2. Regardless, I think in 11 more days Dave should be texting negative. I have my handy certificate of recovery from Princess, so I do not have to test.

We spent the day unpacking and reorganizing our clothes. We will probably send a few things to the laundry here at the hotel. I can rinse out most of my shirts in the sink, but will send shorts and jeans to the laundry. Lunch & dinner at the Hilton today.  Tomorrow we may go into London.

June 17, 2022: We did not get going early – really not morning (or late night) people. Around lunchtime we headed towards a park I had read about, Cranford Park. On the way we crossed a little stream which we e crossed gefore, but today there were ducks enjoying the water. On the banks are what I think are Queen Ann’s Lace, as we have seen this same plant along the roadsides. But the Queen Ann’s Lace on the banks are about 8 feet tall!

We stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch, and then continued our walk. Cranford Park is billed as a “natural country park with 144 acres of wood, meadow & wetlands, a graveyard and a resident ghost”. Supposedly the site was used by the Knights Templars and is recorded in the Doomsday book. 

When we got there, we discovered it was mostly closed for renovation! Of course…typical for our travels! There is normally a visitors center, but it was closed, too. We were able to walk around St. Dustin’s Church and graveyard. I believe I read the church is from the 14th century! Unfortunately the church was locked. We did find some interesting gravestones, and the earliest we could read were from the early 1700’s. The oldest ones get hard to read. There were beautiful grounds, and several paths, but without maps we were not adventurous enough to walk any of them. 

We headed back to the hotel, and decided to do a slightly different route. I had pulled the route up on Google maps, but with the construction, we could not get exactly where we wanted to go. We knew we were headed in the right direction, and finally Google rerouted us. We walked awhile, and then Google literally took us down a dirt path, along “Frog Ditch”! That was interesting! What was nice, was it was in a wooded area, following the ditch, but there was nice shade from the trees and it was a very hot day. If we had found the original route, we would have been walking alongside a road in the hot sun. It was an interesting experience – the path was about 1/2 mile long, maybe a little longer. By the time we got back to the hotel, we had put in our 5 miles for the day. But, we still wanted to go to the grocery store and pick up some essentials (for Dave). So after a little rest, we walked to the little store and back, which was another mile under our belts. 

We ate dinner at our hotel – I had a lamb kebab which was just a little tough, and Dave got chicken curry, which was HOT and SPICY! After 2 bottles of water, he managed to finish it. Then, back to our room to reorganize and pack up for our move to Hilton tomorrow.

June 16, 2022: Spent much time on the phone today ☹️. I think my Verizon account gives me a “free day”, but if not, I’ll have a big charge for call to….Verizon! I purchased a SIM card, only to discover my new iPhone was locked, which means I cannot use a SIM card from anywhere except my Verizon USA SIM card. Tried chat, but it was getting me nowhere. Finally called customer service. The rep had to complete some form, but by the evening, Dave got an email that my phone was unlocked! Also made call back to travel agent to cancel our October cruise. Seriously, all this, trying chat, trying SIM card, calling, on hold, blah, blah, blah….took much of our day! After this Princess fiasco, we’ve decided to take a break from cruising for awhile, not to mention how the stock market is crashing. ☹️. We did get out for awhile and walked to Kentucky Fried chicken which is about 1/2 mile away. We also entertained ourselves watching planes land at Heathrow. We just went downstairs to the hotel in our restaurant for dinner to find that after 7:00PM (it was about 7:30PM), they have a limited menu. We had to stand in line at least 20 minutes to put in our order. We both got Ham and cheese panini’s. After eating, we stood in line another 20 minutes to get drinks and sat at tables outside….and watched planes coming in to land. 

I found an interesting park nearby that I hope we can visit tomorrow, but it is forecast to be hot, so we will see.

June 15, 2022: Dave and I pretty much wore ourselves out! This morning, Dave saw that the Heathrow Hilton at Terminal 4 was reasonably priced – probably because Terminal 4 just reopened! So we decided to walk there and check out the hotel. It is about 3.3 miles, one way, to the Hilton. On our walk, we enjoyed watching the planes landing at Heathrow fly right over us!

It was hot, but fortunately we have changed from jeans to shorts. Had a little trouble figuring out the entrance as a pedestrian, but we finally got in. The doorman, Paul, was very friendly and helpful. He took us to the Concierge, Dragos, who answered all our questions. The hotel looks very nice, nice lounges, the room has Wi-Fi and a “cooler” instead of a refrigerator, but ice is available. Transportation into London is very close, so we booked our room and Dragos got us a little better deal than what we were seeing online, plus upgraded us to a deluxe room. Dave said that just means we’ll have a robe and slippers, which we would never use anyway. I am so relieved that we have a place to stay! We walked through their walkway into the airport (the hotel is connected to Terminal 4), and wandered around a bit. It was early afternoon by this point, so we got a sandwich and drink, and sat down to rest for a bit. After lunch we wandered into one of the airport shops, and I bought a SIM card for my phone. Then we began our long walk back to our current hotel, Ibis. We rested for awhile, then I checked my phone and saw that I had emails from Nancy. I missed the early emails, but finally picked them up when Nancy, Bill, Rusty and Susan was waiting for their food at the White Hart Inn. So we walked over to meet them. They were done with their meal, of course. Nancy and Bill stayed while we ate ours. We had ribs – just one generous serving, with a green salad, Cole slaw, and French fries. Bill had tested positive early in the cruise and took Paxlovid, a COVID drug. He tested negative at the end of the cruise, but now he has rebound COVID. He looked miserable, but it is just cold symptoms – runny nose, sneezing and coughing. He wore a mask while we were there, but hopefully our COVID is protecting us for awhile at least. Rusty and Susan stay for a few minutes, but they left their credit card someplace and wanted to see if they could find it. Turns out they had left it at a little convenience store and the store held it for their return! 

We walked back to our hotel and crashed. We walked over 8 miles! 

June 14, 2022:  We did not do much today. Spent a lot of time trying to find a hotel for our 11 days after our 5 days at Ibis. Dave is very good at finding good hotels. We are trying to decide whether to stay in London, where we would be able to walk around, or stay near the airport where we would have transportation into London and elsewhere where we may want to visit. The hotels in London central are very expensive, with the decent ones costing more than $350 per night. Some of the less expensive rooms, other than being tiny, don’t even have windows! 

Our first big adventure today was walking to McDonalds for lunch. It is about 1/2 mile away. We sat outside to eat our burger and fries and then walked back to our hotel. 

The second big adventure was to walk the other direction from our hotel to see if we could find a decent grocery store to buy breakfast bars and soda. About 1/2 mile away, we spotted a Starbucks and a Kentucky Fried Chicken. We kept walking and all we were seeing were these small Indian convenience stores. There are plenty of them, but they don’t carry breakfast bars. The road we are walking on is parallel to a Heathrow runway, and we see lots of planes coming in.

We probably walked about 2 miles and gave up, walking back to our hotel. After a bit of a rest in our room, we went down to the lobby to grab a drink and some dinner. We got the best thing on the menu – chicken and bacon pizza. That should be enough to explain the menu. The dining area was pretty full, and there was a group of young people that came and really filled up the place. After eating, we went outside where there are a few tables and found a seat, but it was too chilly – so we just went back to our “spacious” room.

June 13, 2022: I think a lot of people who were already in quarantine for 5 or more days, and received the same Certificate of Recovery letter that I received stating I was no longer contagious, complained about being disembarked. Late yesterday evening we received a call from the ships doctor that I would be retested sometime after 6:00am on the 13th with the assumption that if I was negative, we could stay on the ship. The thing is, once you test positive for COVID, you may test positive for weeks. This is why you are issued a certificate of recovery, with the date you were positive and stating that you were quarantined for the CDC  requisite of 5 days…because you will be testing positive for awhile. 

The medical technician showed up about 6:30am and swabbed my nose. She said we’d hear within an hour. I get the call from the ships doctor – no surprise, I still tested positive. 

We had expected a long morning with no food, so we ordered a big, hot breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, beans, etc. with orange juice and coffee….except the coffee didn’t come with the breakfast, so I had to call to get my coffee delivered a bit later.

Our letters tell us to be ready for a knock on the door around 9:30am, and we will be escorted off the ship. We wait and wait. finally they come for us about 11:00am, and they tell us to keep walking until we see two big gray buses. It is a bit of a hike from our room, down the hall to the midship elevators, down the exit ramp of the ship, through the halls and big luggage rooms of the terminal, and then outside around the building to to two gray buses. There are masses of people with our purple luggage tags that identify us as the COVID passengers. And many people in front of us as they probably started getting people at 9:30, but it took until 11:00 to get to us. We join the long line and hear the two gray buses are full. They need to get more buses. And the line in back of us keeps growing. The last couple on line, we happen to know from our lunch in Clearwater. They are Rusty and Susan Anderson. Later we find out they didn’t come for them until 1:00PM, but they think they may have been forgotten. We are standing outside with these masses of people, and of course there are those people at the back of the line who can’t wait their turn. It ends up that the Princess people move a bunch of people from the end, right in front of us, to make room for the people coming to board the ship. So now we are one big mass of humanity. My wild guess is that there are over 200 people waiting for transportation to the hotel assigned by Princess, in London – well, near Heathrow airport, actually. With the two buses already filled and gone, I would have to guess that Princess disembarked at least 300 people, who were planning to cruise to Norway. 

After about 90 minutes, some Princess people did bring us water (but no lunch 😁). Sometime after the two hour mark, a bunch of taxis show up. We later hear the buses refused to drive COVID positive people to London. There was an unbelievable amount of taxis. Of course everyone had a lot of luggage – they were planning for a 34 day cruise, not 18 day. Many of the taxis could only handle 2 people and their luggage. We ended up in a taxi for 4 people. 

The drive to Heathrow took another 2 hours, and we had not eaten since breakfast. We finally get to the hotel we’ve been assigned to for 5 days – Ibis Heathrow London Hotel. We are told at the front desk that Princess is paying for the room for 5 days, we are not suppose to leave the room but order in food and he gives us a menu with lunch and dinner items, but no breakfast items.  He takes our credit card and puts a $500 (supposedly) hold on it to cover our food purchases and assures us will will be refunded any balance not used. The interior of the hotel lobby looks modern and clean. It is one big open space with not much separating the lobby check-in area from the restaurant, which is like McDonalds tables and chairs. It is about 3:00PM, and we head to our room.

Dave and I are really disappointed in our room. There is a bed, a bathroom, a shelf along the wall and one chair. It is tiny. There is no room to walk around. We are suppose to order all our food for 5 days, but the room does not have a phone. (What happens if one os us COVID people have a medical emergency with no phone in the room?). The room does not have a refrigerator, microwave, table, Kleenex, or hand towels. Diabetics getting kicked off the ship might need a refrigerator for insulin. One wall, probably 8 feet long, has a minuscule closet with 4 hangers. There is a curtain that covers the rest of the wall. We open the curtain thinking a window is behind it, but the window is maybe 2.5 feet wide, and the rest is just wall! This is funny….the bathroom toilet is at most, 15” off the ground – It is a cross between a squatty potty and a western toilet. Difficult to get up and down for mature people! We have 2 bath towns and a bath mat. Dave had seen a cleaning lady in the hall and went to ask her for hand towels (remember with COVID how we are suppose to wash our hands!). She had no clue what he wanted and finally gave him two bath mats, which are very thin, so we are using them as hand towels. Obviously, Princess was only looking at $$ and had never seen the inside of this hotel room. Others from the ship were sent to the Radisson Blu Heathrow (which looks like they have great rooms) or the Mercure (which we find out later has more of the basics).

On a positive note, I will say the room seems to be clean. It is ideally set up close to the airport for a one night stay is you fly in late, or if you have an early morning flight. In those instances, all you want is a clean bed and bathroom because you are just going to sleep and leave. But for an extended stay where you are suppose to be confined to your room, it is totally inappropriate. 

Once we are in the room, Dave took a COVID home test and of course he is positive. Counting back with when he began to get congested, we figure he is in Day 4. England does not have a quarantine requirement, Princess gave me a letter saying I’m not infectious and I’ve serve my time, so….Dave will be cautious and we are not going to confine ourselves to thesis room.

I am emailing Nancy (and Bill) Young, another Clearwater lunch couple. They have been assigned to the Mercure. They are friends with Susan and Rusty Anderson, who were the last in line. We are all very hungry and I found a pub online that is between their hotel and ours, White Hart Inn, and we decide to meet there for an early dinner. 

The pub was quite charming and the host was very friendly and welcoming. We all had fish and chips with a beverage of choice. We had a pleasant early evening. We did find out that while their room at the Mercure is small, it does have a table (so a little more room), microwave and refrigerator.

June 12, 2022: We got the letter, or rather letters. Yes they plan to kick us off the ship in Southampton. They will put us up in a hotel in London for 5 days and give us $100 per diem for food. What is even more interesting is they gave me a letter saying I’m no longer infectious and I don’t have to isolate – but they’re still kicking me off the ship. Dave is trying to contact the powers that be and figure out why they are kicking us off the ship if I’m no longer infectious. Also found out another couple we had lunch with in Clearwater tested positive! So 8 out of 8 of us that lunched together before the cruise have tested positive. What are the odds?

June 10 -11, 2022: Not much action when you are in quarantine! We are at sea for two days. On Saturday, 6/11, they are testing everyone onboard for COVID. Dave got a letter with an appointment time, but he can’t go because he is supposed to stay shut in with me. He finally called the medical team and they said they would send someone. After that he got two calls about missing his morning appointment. About 3:00, a lady came and did his test, but we never received the results! I have internet so I’m checking the message boards, and also have the email and stateroom phone number for Nancy and Bill Young, a couple we had lunch with in Clearwater before the cruise. It sounds like we will be getting a letter telling us what will happen when we reach Southampton. We may be booted off the ship, which is a bummer because I’m at the end of my quarantine. But again, we don’t know if Daves test was positive or negative. I feel like Dave was set up to get COVID , because he quarantines with me in close quarters. If he doesn’t get it, it will be miraculous. He is coughing a little, and he has a little congestion, but not as bad as me, and mine was pretty mild. I am feeling much better every day. We have been ordering things from room service, and it takes forever. We decided we wanted a snack this afternoon about 4:00, so I ordered some potato chips and chocolate chip cookies. We did not get them until after our dinner arrived at 6:30, so over 2 1/2 hours! Lunch orders have been a bit exciting, too. Sometimes they only bring one set of silverware. Most lunches come with French fries and we always ask for ketchup. One day it took over 2 hours to get the ketchup, so of course the fries were cold by that time. The next time they forgot ketchup, Dave called and the phone rang for over 20 minutes before they answered. He told them that the last time it took over 2 hours to get the ketchup, so this time they brought it in about 5 minutes. Of course the fries were cold because it took 20 minutes to reach someone to tell them they forgot the ketchup! We are seeing more rooms with tables at the doors in our hallway, so we know those are quarantined people. When I spoke to Nancy, she said she tested positive today as well as Susan and Rusty who are traveling with them. Bill had COVID this trip, but had gotten a prescription from his doctor for Paxlovid, and quarantined himself. He tested negative today. Tomorrow will be interesting if we get “the letter” which will determine our future. Dave calls medical about his test again, and they tell him they don’t have him on the list of positives so he must be negative,

I do not believe Dave is negative. He is not severely sick, but he is coughing more than usual, and has more congestion than usual. I think the lady who did his test ((who seemed a little scattered), lost his test. After being confined with me, and with this strain of COVID being so contagious, he has to be positive.

June 9, 2022: We are in Lerwick, Scotland, the Shetland Islands. Unfortunately, since we are in “lockdown”, we can’t go ashore. The town looks very quaint from our stateroom on the ship.

It looks like a New England town. There is an interesting ship docked in the town, Island Sky, registered in Nassau. It looks like a smaller size cruise ship. Our ship is at anchor and to get to shore, passengers have to take tenders. We ordered our breakfast for 9:00AM, but it didn’t come until 9:45! We were starving! I do not feel awful, and I feel better than yesterday. Yesterday I had a headache all day, but that seems to have gone away. I was coughing more yesterday, too. I am very tired, and keep falling asleep. I am sneezing a lot! Dave, the wildlife observer, spotted two sea lions in the water not too far from our ship! He will try to get a picture. We watched several times, but we’re unable to get a picture ☹️. We have been getting our food delivered, and we supposedly can order anything we want. Unfortunately, sometime the food is warm but not hot, and the wine is warm and not cool (white wine). But, we’ll survive. We are splurging tonight and getting some chocolate cake and red wine! This is a pretty good time to be in quarantine…. The captain just announced we will be missing out next port, Cork, Ireland, because tropical storm Alex is causing weather issues and the seas will be too dangerous. We will be approaching Falmouth through the Dover straights instead of passing by Scotland, Ireland and Wales (if my geography is right), basically taking an extra sea day to get to Falmouth. we do see families rowing by our ship!

June 8, 2022: Yesterday, walking around Akureyri, I had a bit of a sore throat, didn’t sleep well last night, and felt a little congested. All night long I kept thinking I probably have COVID. So when I got up this morning, I took one of our home tests that we brought. Unfortunately, I was positive! We called the medical center onboard and waited about 4 hours for a technician to come and test me. I tested positive again. Dave tested negative. This blows my mind because there are people on the ship not wearing masks, mixing with strangers at trivia and such, and eating at shared tables. Dave and I do none of that! We wore our masks from the time we left home and we always get a table for two in the dining room. When we go to the theater, we sit off by ourselves and we have not been going to trivia or any of the events where we can’t social distance. Anyway, we are quarantined in our stateroom for at least 6 days, or until I test negative. I don’t know how Dave will avoid getting it, being cooped up with me. On top of that, we have no TV, and no internet. Dave has a couple of books, but I finished the two I brought. We order our food and they bring it to us. Today is a sea day, so we are not missing much. Can’t really use our balcony because it is pretty chilly outside. The captain has made some announcements about a storm that may affect our ports, but has not given us any details. The water is much rougher than it has been. Tomorrow the ship will be in Lerwick, Scotland, but we will be in our stateroom ☹️.

June 7, 2022:  We are in Akureyri, Iceland today. I am glad that our cruise hit 3 ports in Iceland to give us more exposure to the country. This is a bigger city than Isafjordur and there are more shops to visit. I had seen a small glass sculpture with the etching of an Icelandic horse that I liked when we were in Reykjavik, but there was a flaw in the glass so I didn’t buy it. I figured I would find one in our other Iceland stops, but unfortunately I didn’t. I wanted to buy a little something to remind us of our visit to Iceland, so I got a little troll figurine. Trolls are big in Iceland, and in Norway, too. So after visiting some shops, we saw the Lutheran Church which sits high over the port…110 steps to be exact!

We made it up the steps and the church was open. They have some beautiful stained glass windows, one of which came from London.

A resident saw it in London and thought it would look good in the new church that was being built. It was thought to be one of the windows saved in WWII from a church in Coventry, England, but was later determined that it was not from that church. It is still the center window in back of the alter. After visiting the church, we walked up some more to visit the botanical gardens. The gardens sit higher than the church, but it is a gentle sloping sidewalk along the side of the road. It is a distance up, but we made it! The area covered by the gardens is probably only a couple of blocks, smaller than the gardens in Halifax. I really enjoy all the flowers, which would be impossible to grow in our climate in Florida. There are many tulips, daffodils, pansies, etc., and many others that I don’t know. I think we saw some azalea’s and begonias, but the descriptions are in Icelandic or Latin, so we weren’t sure what they were.

The climate feels so much warmer than the actual temperature. I only had on a sweater and was very comfortable. Dave said his toes got cold, but I had on wool socks, so my toes were fine. The botanical gardens sit next to a junior college. So as we exited the gardens, there was a big sign next to a path which led downhill back toward the main part of town. Going down it is called the “path of destruction “ because there was a dancehall at the bottom and the college kids would take the path down to the dancehall. But coming up the path, it was called the “path to higher education” as it led to the junior college buildings. We headed down the path to destruction, and it was treacherous. It was pretty steep and made of cinder stones, so it was easy to slip and lose your footing. At the bottom, we walked back towards the town and visited a few more shops that we hadn’t seen earlier.  Many of the shops have their doors open because the heat from the underground thermal vents is free! I wanted to stop back in one of the shops we had seen earlier and buy my Iceland souvenir, the troll. I saw some socks and convinced Dave to buy a pair because I think they will help keep his toes warm as we head into Norway. One interesting point, we didn’t think the shopkeeper was overly friendly. Maybe all the passengers from the ship wore her out, but we felt like we were a bother to her. 

I did like Iceland and I think the scenery is beautiful. I am so glad I didn’t freeze! It is so weird to look out our balcony window and see mountains (hills?) with snow on them. These mountains are the result of volcanos, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it was like here when those volcanos were erupting. Of course, that was thousands of years ago, but the ground in Iceland is still moving, and the heat from underground supplies the warmth and hot water. 

June 6, 2022: Today we are in Isafjordur, Iceland. It is a very small town, and the westernmost city in Europe. . The ship anchors in the harbor, and we have to take “tenders” to shore. As the destination lecturer said, whoever named them “tenders” never rode in one. The tenders are actually the lifeboats. Getting up in the morning, the TV is telling us the temp is 41 degrees and we are kind of dreading get off the nice, warm ship, but we are in Iceland and I want to take advantage of it. There weren’t any organized tours that interested us, so we just plan to get off the ship and wander around. We know there are museums, a library, a grocery store, a Thai restaurant and a bakery. We were most interested in finding the grocery store so Dave can buy some M&M’s and Pringles, and checking out the bakery. We walked a short distance from the tender port into town, following the other people from the ship. We stopped in a little souvenir shop, but there’s not much there. We wander a little more and there is kind of a plaza in what seems to be the city center with benches and picnic tables. We walked on and saw the bakery and the grocery store,practically across from one another. It feels warm outside! It reminds me of visiting Sandie in Denver years ago where the temperature was cold but the sun warms everything and you’d never think it was only in the 40’s. We go into the bakery, and so did everyone else from the ship. It is busy with a few tables which are all taken. Dave is humoring me by being here. He doesn’t drink coffee so he grabs a water,which he isn’t going to like because it is carbonated with some lime flavoring. I get a coffee and pick out a pastry with chocolate frosting. We get it to go because it is too crowded in the bakery, and we walked back to the little plaza and sat at a picnic table. It is so pleasant out, we are enjoying the fresh air. But the coffee isn’t that great and Dave doesn’t like the frosting on the pastry. I think the pastry itself has a good flavor. After our little break, we decide to save visiting the grocery store until we are on the way back to the ship. We wandered around the town some more. Many of the houses are painted bright colors and are constructed from corrugated metal sheets.

We passed a small Catholic Church, and then walked further and saw a large cemetery. We walked through the cemetery and as our guide yesterday told us, peoples last names are their fathers name and then either “son” or “dottir” (daughter). So Dave’s last name would be “Donaldson” and my last name would be “Raymonddottir”. The oldest grave we saw was someone who died in 1865, but most of the graves were from the 1900’s. The cemetery is attached to a large church, which I assume was Lutheran, as our guide yesterday indicated Lutheranism is the most prominent religion in Iceland. We spotted a large whit building which was originally a hospital, but now is a library, or “cultural” center. Since it was a public building we decided to go in to use the facilities.  There are children out and about, and the librarian told us that today is a holiday, Pentecost. Being that is a religious holiday, it was evident that religion is still very important, at least in this small town. I did not get the same feeling in Reykjavik, and our guide said most young people are either atheists or agnostic. Near the library was a large statue honoring fishermen. We decided to head back to the ship, stopping at the grocery store on the way. The grocery store building reminded me of a grocery store we visited in Japan. You walk into the building and the grocery store was on one side of a long, wide hallway, and there were businesses on the other side, including the Thai restaurant. We checked out the grocery store, and found the shelf holding the pringles, but the slot for Daves favorite (sour cream and onion) was empty! They had plenty of pringles, just not his flavor. The had smaller bags of M&M’s, but those he can buy for less on the ship. So, we left empty handed and walked back to where we have to catch the tender to go back to the ship. Close to our boarding area was a big pipe dispensing ice into large trays. Then, a guy in a forklift would lift the filled ice trays and take them down the dock to a large ship, which was apparently a fishing troller.

That was interesting to watch while we waited for our ride back to the ship! Once back onboard, I thought it would be nice to sit outside around the pool and soak up some sun. But, it was not as nice as it was onshore! It was too breezy and cool ☹️.

June 5, 2022: Today we are in Reykjavik, Iceland. We had an all day tour with Viator, entitled Golden Triangle with Crater. We met others that had signed up on the ship and walked off together about 8:30am. We realized we were probably early, as the tour operator was not going to meet up until 9:00am, We watched the buses come and go, and Dave and I wandered over to where the big busses were coming in. Finally about 9:00am,a big bus comes in with a sign that says Grand Golden Circle tour and we checked with the guy getting off the bus, who had our name. Yea! We have our bus! It was a big bus, and people from the ship almost filled it, but they made one more stop to pick up people from the hotels, I assume. This will be an all day tour because it covers several miles. The tour guide, Palli, teaches at a junior college. He is very knowledgeable, but his microphone is not the best, so it is a bit hard to understand him. He gives us lots of facts about Iceland, for example, they eat more pizza per capita than any other country in the world. Also, there was a big controversy about whether pineapple should be a pizza topping or not. We see mountains with snow on top, but the landscape is pretty desolate. About 95% of the homes in Iceland are heated from the steam underground. We can see holes where the steam is coming up. I think our guide called these hatches.

Leaving Reykjavik, we cross the giant hot water pipes that feed Reykjavik. We see many Icelandic horses as we drive. Our guide tells us there are 400,000 sheep in Iceland, too, but we don’t see them for awhile. Initially, all we see are the horses. 

We stopped at a strip mall, in Selfoss, basically to use the bathrooms, but there is a display of what happened when this area was hit by an earthquake. Iceland actually sits on the North American and European tectonic plates. Inside this strip center, on the floor, are plastic sheets that cover where the floor split, with North America on one side and Europe on the other. The grave of Bobby Fisher of chess fame is near here. 

We travel many miles between our stops. Our first stop is the Kerio crater, which is a volcanic cone formed from an eruption about 6500 years ago that collapsed and filled with water.  It is 270 meters long, 170 meters wide snd 55 meters deep. 

We see lots of mountains and lava flows our guide explains why some mountains have ragged tops and others flat tops. Apparently it depends on whether the lava breaks through the top of the mountain and flows over the edges or just spills over the top to make the jagged tops. 

Our next stop, and the first stop as part of the golden triangle is Gullfoss which is a waterfall. It is a beautiful waterfall which spills over into a more narrow river. 

The second stop on the golden triangle is Strokkur geysir. Geysir literally means gusher. The Strokkur geysir is pretty regular and erupts every 7 or 8 minutes, and can shoot about 50 feet into the air.  It happened that while Dave and I were watching, we actually had a double eruption! It erupted and the a few seconds later, it erupted again.

We were cautioned not to touch the water as it is very hot – like boiling. And, not to walk off the paths as the ground can be unstable. Our guide said one person ventured off the path and her leg sunk into the ground resulting in third degree burns. Since this location is 62 kilometers from a hospital, that was a very painful ride to get treatment for those burns! There is another larger geysir, the original geysir,  nearby, but it has stopped erupting. Our guide said it needs another earthquake. There are many steaming holes around this area with steam coming out of each hole. All the holes have names with the word geysir, so I assume they could erupt anytime. They are just not as regular as Strokkur. While here, there is a visitor center, so we were able to grab some lunch. Dave and I split a ham and cheese baguette, a small can of chips and a water. There are gifts shops at all the stops, but we have little need for Icelandic knits or furs. I took advantage of making a pit stop here, and I could barely wash my hands as the water coming out of the tap was so hot! It didn’t seem to matter which way I turned the handle, the water was hot. Maybe my sink was malfunctioning because Dave said his water was fine. Definitely proves the water coming up from underground is hot!

The last stop and the third stop of the golden triangle is Pingvellir National Park. This area is very interesting, although it has started to rain. Dave did not bring his rain gear, but I did. So he stayed on the bus while I went with the guide. First we stood at the edge of the North American plates. You can look down on the river below, which our guide called no-man’s land, as it is in neither North America nor Europe. The plates separate about 1 or 2 cm. per year, which means Iceland is growing. Standing where we were, our guide said it was about 10 km to Europe.

Across the river below is a church, and the national cemetery, where only two people are buried, two poets.

Then we walked through a gorge to an area called The Law Rock, and you cantellit is raining!

In about 930 AD, local chieftains gathered at this spot. They gathered to agree on critical issues of the day.  They chose this spot mainly because it had recently been seized from a murderer and designated for public use. It was relatively accessible in summer from every corner of Iceland and had ample water, grazing lands, and firewood to supply the sprawling gatherings. This continues to be an important meeting place over the centuries. In 1944, the independent Republic of Iceland was proclaimed here. We continued down the path to the Drowning Pool. Women accrued of crimes were drowned here in the late 16th to mid 18th centuries.

Then the bus drove us back to the ship. 

When we got back to the ship, we had a letter from the Captain indicating there were COVID cases onboard and masks were required to be worn. The captain also made announcements a couple of times. It will be interesting to see if people will wear their masks. Dave and I have been wearing our masks since day 1 because we have too much planned after this cruise and we hope we can stay healthy. We notice they have moved all the chairs away from the bars so you cannot sit at the bar. In the buffet, you can’t order a drink and wait for it….you can order it, but then you have to go back to your table and the staff delivers your beverage. It will be interesting to see if the COVID measures are enforced.

It stays light here for a long time. I don’t think the sun sets until after midnight and rises about 3:00AM ( I’m taking the word of our captain, as I don’t stay up that late or get up that early). As Dave and I were getting back to our cabin, Dave looks out and sees a whale breaching! I only got to see the resulting splash. He thinks it was an Orca. Dave is so good at spotting things – he has pointed out birds to me while we’ve been out to sea. Who would think there would be birds way out here!

June 3 – 4, 2022 Two more sea days. We attend the port destination lectures, and that’s about it. We have lost the internet, but still have TV. Saturday afternoon we went to a wine tasting for “elite” cruisers,  Went to dinner Saturday night and Dave heard them discussing the Chef’s table, which means we missed it again ☹️. 

June 2, 2022: We went to the “Captains Circle” party which is for frequent cruisers with free drinks. Of course, since we have the drink package, we get “free” drinks, or at least they’re paid for in our cruise fare.

May 31 – June 2, 2022: We are at sea, with two more ahead of us before our first port in Iceland. So, not much happening. We are attending destination lectures, but we have already heard the enrichment lectures as it is the same presenter we had in November. The weather outside is getting colder and rougher. By dinner time Wednesday evening, the ship was rocking pretty good. Overnight Wednesday, we were awakened a few times with big crashing waves hitting the hull of the ship. We are surprised that we still have internet, as we were told we would not have it. But it is slowing down. Takes a long time for emails to load, and writing this blog takes a long time as the internet keeps pausing.
Tonight is the Captains Circle party, which is for frequent Princess cruisers. Seems like they are usually they are held on formal nights, but the invitation specifies ”smart casual” dress.

May 30, 2022: Monday, Memorial Day in the US. We docked in Halifax this morning. After breakfast Dave and I got off the ship with directions for a walking tour I downloaded from ”GPS my City” app. We started out walking along the harbor on a very nice wooden boardwalk. We were a little closer to town than what I expected and actually exited the ship inside our first sight, the Farmers Market. We didn’t even realize we were in the farmers market until we came back to the ship and saw signs indicating the farmers market was only open and operational on Saturdays and Sundays – today is Monday! Our next sight, or point of interest was the boardwalk itself. There are museums along the boardwalk, lots of places to eat or grab a snack, so very touristy. Just having had breakfast, and not being interested in museums, we just walked along and enjoyed the waterfront. We passed some large community hammocks which was interesting and a couple of people were taking advantage of them. We also passed some ”Drunken Lampposts” which is a sculpture displaying all the fun that can be had at the local beer gardens.

We walked past The Government House of Nova Scotia, which is the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia.

The Government House is practically across the street from the Old Burying Ground.

Our next stop was The Church of Saint David. The church was designed in 1865 and built in 1868-1869, opening on November 7, 1869. The Presbyterian church was established in 1925 when the Presbyterians leased and then purchased the former Grafton Street Methodist Church as their congregational home. The building is in the midst of the Old Methodist Burying Ground of Halifax. A small cemetary still exists. It is much valued for its historical and spiritual association with Methodism and the creation of the United Church in Canada, and also for its association with its architect, David Stirling. Stirlings creation is a rare, if not unique, example of the Victorian Gothic style. The building is highlighted by its great front gable with tall Gothic buttresses and five detailed finials that project above the roof line. Most notably, the church was built without a steeple.

From the church, we walked to The Public Gardens. Many things were in bloom, and because of our climate in Florida, we are not able to enjoy many of the spring flowers such as those on display in the garden today. We saw beautiful tulips is various colors, daffodils, lilacs and even a cherry blossom tree.

There was an Oak Tree planted by Queen Elizabeth’s father, but the future queen was there, too.

There was a pond, and a placard showing a picture of a champion rower on the pond. What struck me was the current condition of the pond. It is unbelievable that someone could row on this pond. However, there were ducks that seemed to enjoy it!

Another photo from the gardens…..

We spent a good amount of time in the garden enjoying the flowers and trees.

A short distance away from the garden was the Halifax Citadel Historic sight. The entry fee was $7 Canadian per person for seniors. The site was fortified in 1749 when the city was founded by the British. The Citadel was meant to defend Halifax Harbor and the Royal Navy Dockyard. Four citadels have been built on Citadel Hill. The first, built in 1749, was small with a flagstaff and guardhouse near the summit. By 1761 its condition had deteriorated. The second was completed in 1776. It was a permanent fortification that could accommodate 100 troops. The British military presence in Halifax through Citadel Hill is thought to be one of the main reasons that Nova Scotia – the 14th British colony ( Remember where the first 13 were! I don’t remember reading this in my history books!) – remained loyal to the Crown throughout and after the American Revolutionary War. However, the poor construction caused the citadel to fall in ruins in less than 10 years. The third citadel was completed in 1796. It was lardger but fell into disrepair by 1825. The fourth and final citadel was built between 1828 and 1856. This massive masonry-construction fort was designed to repel both a land-based attack or attack from the water by United States forces (those rotten Americans!). However, the Halifax Citadel quickly became obsolete following the introduction of more powerful rifled guns in the 1860’s. By the end of the 19th century, the role of the Citadel had evolved as it was used as a command center for other, more distant harbor defensive works. It also provided barrack accomodations. After WWII, the fort began to decay but it was restored and opened as a living history museum and historic site in 1956. We entered through a tunnel, with two guards protecting the fort. The first room we saw was the guard room and lock up cells.

We wandered around the inside, lower level, and then climbed to the next level to watch the ”Noon Gun”. Noon in Halifax is announced by the firing of the noon gun, a tradition that has continued every day since at least 1856.

We continued around the upper level, checking out the views of Halifax from the cannon sites.

Leaving the Citadel, we are by the Town Clock which has been in service since October 20, 1803. The clock tower is a four story, octagonal structure atop a rectangular building. The clock itself is four-sided so that time can be seen from all angles. It has a 13 foot pendulum, which is suppose to strike quarterly and hourly, but we didn’t hear anything. The tower housing the town clock has been used in the past as a guard room and as a residence for the clock caretaker.

The next sight was the city hall built in 1890. It is located at the north end of “The Grand Parade”. The Grand Parade is a military parade square that dates to 1749. The first contingent of British settlers in Halifax arrived in June, 1749. Charles Morris, the Chief Surveyor, worked on the town layout which comprised an urban grid made up of oblong, rectangular city blocks with the Grand Parade at the center of the town. The plan stipulated a church at the southern end of the square, and a courthouse and prison at the northern end. The church, St. Paul’s Church, opened in 1749. It was the first Protestant Church in Canada and is the oldest building in Halifax. The northern end remained vacant until the city hall was built in 1890. The parade is composed of green space, statues, memorials to peace officers that fell in the line of duty, and those that died in WWI.

At this point, we felt we were ready to return to the ship. We did not make it out to Fairview Lawn Cemetery, which is the final resting place for 125 victims of the sinking of the Titanic. It is a distance out of town, and we had already walked almost 6 miles around town, so we didn’t make it to Fairview Lawn Cemetery.

We are back onboard with five more sea days before our next port, Reykjavik, Iceland, next Sunday, June 5, 2022.

After dinner we made it to the early show in the theater – comedy and improv. The guy was funny, which was a good thing. Then we went to the Wheelhouse bar for music and drinks before bed. We are having trouble finding a seat in Crooners, the martini bar, so we’ve been ending up in the Wheelhouse bar.

May 29, 2022: Sea Day. We went to a lecture about Reykjavik, Iceland which will be our first port in Iceland. It sounds a bit like Oregon or Washington, lots of brief showers and then it clears up. The lecturer, Bernard Hutchison ”Hutch” said Iceland is very expensive. A burger from a McDonalds is about $20, and a beer and a burger is about $30. We are planning to do a ”Golden Circle” tour with Viator, and apparently several others onboard the ship. We listened to Hutch’s lecture on Halifax on the TV in our stateroom as we had missed the live lecture on Saturday when we attended the meet and greet instead. We were lazy today and did not walk the decks. After dinner we went to the Wheelhouse bar for drinks and music, then to bed.

May 28, 2022: Another sea day. This morning we went to a meet and greet which is a gathering of people who have been chatting on the Cruise Critic message boards. There were probably over 100 people! I was on a mission to meet someone with the handle ”your nurse 13” as we are touring Reykjavik with Viator, but she is kinda the one responsible for directing us to Viator, and I did manage to find her. We had lunch with Nancy and Bill Young, and Susan and Rusty Anderson. These are people we had lunch with at Whiskey Joe’s in Clearwater before the cruise. After lunch and a little rest back in our stateroom , Dave and I walked the deck for a little over an hour to get in some exercise. Tonight is a formal night, but we do not get super dressy…actually, Dave forgot a tie this trip! But, he has his sport coat. Some men have tuxes. After dinner we had a drink in the wheelhouse bar and listened to two different bands playing music.

May 27, 2022: Sea Day! Not much happening. We went to an enrichment levture and then realized this is the same lecturer we had on our November, 2021 transatlantic with the same subjects. Today was the Bermuda Triangle. The evening show was a vocalist, and we skipped it.

May 26, 2022:  When we got up this morning, we had an email from Princess that one of our ports, Longyearbyen, had been dropped and they were adding two ports in its place. We will be going to Alta, Norway on June 20, and to Lofoten Islands (Gravdal), Norway on Jun 22. I am a little bummed as we were planning to do a dog sled (on wheels) ride in Longyearbyen.

We left home about 7:50AM and had no issues driving to the port in Ft. Lauderdale. We dropped our big luggage at the port and drove to the airport to return our rental car to Hertz. Dave was inquiring of the Hertz employees as to where to go to get a taxi, and the Hertz guy volunteered to drive us to the port. That saved us from running around to find a taxi with our carryon luggage, so we were very happy. Embarkation was pretty smooth, although there were a lot of people, so some lines. No one was checking for the time you were assigned to show up, so I am assuming people with later assigned times came early. As soon as we were on the ship, I called to make reservations for the “Chef’s Table”, so we will see if we get it this time….I am not hopeful. We are in a mini-suite, C205. It is not as large as some of the other mini-suites we’ve seen, so I’m glad we aren’t in a standard balcony cabin as I would think that would be really tight. Our balcony is probably twice as deep as the standard balcony cabin balconies, which is nice. 

As we sit in port waiting to leave Fort Lauderdale, we see a boatload of boats! This ship must be heading for some exotic port, and there are some pretty big boats onboard. I think two had names – Azure Dream, and Wind Dancer. 

We went to lunch in the dining room, and just as we were finishing our lunch, Dave spotted Regina and Larry who are friends of our friends, Wayne and Melanie.

We have lots of sea days on this cruise, so there won’t be much to write about on those days. On our typical sea day, we check the “Princess Patter” which is the activities for the day, eat, drink, go to the shows and listen to music in the various bars. In between we read and relax on our balcony or somewhere on the ship. 

May 25, 2022 – Our COVID tests were negative! We are in the final prep stage. I find it hard to decide how much mouthwash/toothpaste/contact lens solution/etc. to pack for 50 days. Most of the ports will be in ”the lands of long pants”, and most of our clothes are Florida clothes. We are pretty much packed however and we are taking two large suitcases, a roll-aboard, a smaller bag that fits under an airplane seat and maybe a zipper beach type bag for last minute stuff. We were also concerned about getting our rental car that we had reserved way ahead of time. Rental cars have been scarce, but apparently the rental car supply chain is loosening up…kinda. The car we got is a 2019 (!) with 30,000 miles. In the ”old days”, all the rental cars were current year or maybe 1 year old.

Our plan is to drive to Fort Lauderdale – we are in boarding group A, which boards at 11:00AM. It is a 3 hour drive, plus we have to return the car, so an early morning for us. We will see!

May 14, 2022 – Getting ready for our trip, only 12 days until we leave. Got an email from Princess that there may be times when we will be unable to connect to the interner. I am hoping to update my blog live, but internet connectivity may hamper that a bit . Another email from Princess indicates boosters will be required. Dave and I are prepared for that, as we got our 4th shot on May 2. Some European countries are requiring vaccinations and/or the last boosters to have been received less than 270 days ago. There are people on the message boards that are upset that Princess made that decision the end of April, just a few weeks before we sail. The booster has to be given at least 7 days before embarkation, so there is still a few days time for those who need to get boosted.

There won’t be much to write aboout on our many sea days – just what onboard events we go to, and what we had for dinner! We expect to experience a lot more cold weather than we are used to.

This is the itinerary for our 7 week trip:

On the Island Princess:

Thursday, May 26	Fort Lauderdale, FL		4:00pm
Friday, May 27	At Sea
Saturday, May 28	At Sea
Sunday, May 29	At Sea
Monday, May 30	Halifax, NS, Canada	8:00am	5:00pm
Tuesday, May 31	At Sea
Wednesday, June 1	At Sea
Thursday, June 2	At Sea
Friday, June 3	At Sea
Saturday, June 4	At Sea
Sunday, June 5	Reykjavik, Iceland	8:00am	8:00pm
Monday, June 6	Isafjordur, Iceland	8:00am	6:00pm
Tuesday, June 7	Akureyri, Iceland	7:00am	5:00pm
Wednesday, June 8	At Sea
Thursday, June 9	Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland	9:00am	5:00pm
Friday, June 10	At Sea
Saturday, June 11	Cork (Cobh), Ireland	9:00am	6:00pm
Sunday, June 12	Falmouth (Cornwall), England	7:00am	5:00pm
Monday, June 13	London (Southampton), England	6:00am	5:00pm
Tuesday, June 14	At Sea
Wednesday, June 15	Haugesund, Norway	9:00am	5:00pm
Thursday, June 16	Olden, Norway	8:00am	5:00pm
Friday, June 17	At Sea
Saturday, June 18	Tromso, Norway	9:00am	6:00pm
Sunday, June 19	Honningsvag, Norway	8:00am	9:00pm
Monday, June 20	At Sea
Tuesday, June 21	Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Norway	7:00am	6:00pm
Wednesday, June 22	At Sea
Thursday, June 23	At Sea
Friday, June 24	Trondheim, Norway	7:00am	7:00pm
Saturday, June 25	Andalsnes, Norway	7:00am	4:00pm
Sunday, June 26	Skjolden, Norway	Noon	8:00pm
Monday, June 27	At Sea
Tuesday, June 28	At Sea
Wednesday, June 29	London (Southampton), England	6:00am

Fly to Germany for our Viking Land Tour and River Cruise:

6/29 – 7/2/22 Munich, Germany

7/3/22: Oberammergau, Germany for the Passion Play

7/4 – 7/5/22: Innsbruck, Austria

7/6/22: Basel, Switzerland

7/7/22: Breisach, Germany

7/8/22: Strasbourg, France

7/9/22: Speyer & Rudesheim, Germany

7/10/22: Koblenz, Germany

7/11/22: Cologne, Germany

7/12/22: Kinderdyke, The Netherlands

7/13 – 7/15/22: Amsterdam, The Netherlands