The alarms were set for 5:30am and we also set a wake up call through the ship just as a back up. Breakfast was available starting at 6am, so we were there shortly after to at least get a good meal in before our very long day started. I headed up to breakfast first and as I crossed the top of the ship to get to the dining area I looked out over Amsterdam and thought to myself how weird it is to wake up here, so very far away from home, but know that tonight I'd be sleeping in my own bed. My heart was a bit heavy, as it usually is when a trip has come to an end, but I'm thankful for cell phones and apps that allow me to talk to my family every day either by phone, text or sometimes we'd even Facetime so I could show them things I was looking at right at that very moment. Homesickness isn't even factored in because we are always in constant contact. Therefore, it makes it harder to come home when you've had such a good time. This cruise goes to a different location next week, so I could have totally stayed onboard for another two weeks.
After breakfast we gathered up the few remaining items in our room and headed for the theater where our shuttle group to the airport was supposed to meet. We were there 15 minutes early and stood around for about 30 minutes when we started to worry as no one from the ship was in there to talk to us. When we went out to find someone from the crew, they were in the process of being blasted by another passenger telling them to get a staff member in the theater to assist those who are waiting. He was right. Shortly thereafter an announcement was made that immigration was about 45 minutes late boarding the ship and everything was delayed by about an hour. We still had plenty of time to get to the airport, but some others were cutting it close. Finally on the bus, we were taken to the airport where we were once again delayed because not all the luggage had arrived and there were about 4 coaches of people all lined up. They made us wait on the bus and people were starting to get nervous they'd miss their flights.
Finally off the bus and with luggage in hand, we started the process of checking in and going through security. It wasn't horribly long, but had it been worse we might have been pushed to get to our gate in time. But as it all finally came together, we even had a few minutes to do a little duty free shopping and get a few last minute items. At the gate I popped a few night night pills and by the time I got buckled into my seat, sanitized the area and blew up my pillows, I was fast asleep. Guy said we sat on the plane for 45 minutes before it took off. I couldn't verify that. :) But I did wake up in time for sinus meds about 4 hours before landing and then just as we were decending I finally woke up. So I got nearly a 10 hour nap.
At Chicago we have Global Entry, so we bypassed a lot of the lines and got our luggage to go thru customs which was a snap. We went to the United desk to see if we could get an earlier flight to STL but it was overbooked. So what's next? Food. Well, Chicago isn't the hub of great restaurants and Guy had passes to the United Club (which was absolutly packed with several hundred people) but we finally found a seat and Guy grabbed a Coke, bread, cheese and cookies. We ate a bit and as I sat there I logged onto their free wifi and ALL MY PHOTOS uploaded within about 15 minutes. I am not joking. Gah! How I've missed fast internet!
Our flight home was a quick 48 minutes and Rosalie was there to pick us up. We visited for just a minute, but passed out hugs and headed home. It had been a long day. In Fairview Heights we stopped at 5 Guys for cheeseburgers and laughed about how early it got dark here. We are used to daylight at 10:30. When we got home we called the folks and then decided we'd try to create a zen space for the cat. Last year was the worst our absence has been on him and he got pretty sick with a panic attack and had to be tranquillized. So we came in kinda quiet, left all the bags out in the car so as not to make a racket. No TV, soft voices, showers and lights out. He seemed to be doing pretty good. My sinuses were completely messed up from the flights, so I just slept out in the living room in the chair. Nero slept on me off and on, but seemed to be good until about 4am. I was awake anyway, but the scratching and yacking has started. So we'll see where today leads. At least I'm off work to stay home with him.
So this is it. The end of the blog and the end of a wonderful trip. It's early, I've been up since 4am. But life will resume to normal in the next few days. Just thankful to be home safely and look forward to planning our next adventure! Until then....
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Monday, June 6, 2016
Day 18, White Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury, England
What a glorious last day. I can't put into words how much fun this last day has been. I'm not sure if it's better to end a vacation with such a great day or if it makes it harder to go home. Right now I'm feeling the latter of the two. :( But let's start from the beginning. We got up and had a nice breakfast before heading to Canterbury. It was a bit confusing because our clocks changed last night (Apple phone and watch automatically updated to the new time zone), but the ship is staying in the other time which we'll be back in shortly when we start heading to Amsterdam. So when my watch says 9:00am according to the ship it is 10am. Just so long as we are not confused about the time when we are due to be "all aboard". Now that we've got the time straight we headed out to catch a cab to the train station. It would have been walkable, 25 minutes or so, but there was lots of road construction and the area was a bit confusing, so it was easier to pay the $10 for the cab. The cab driver asked us if we were going to Canterbury and we said "yes". He said I can take you cheaper than the train. Guy asked how much and he said 35 (pounds). That was one way. We knew the train was only 16 (pounds) for both of us ROUND TRIP. I don't have great math skills, but 16 pounds vs. 70 pounds is a chunk of change. About $100 US dollars for a cab ride...not today! So Guy politely thanked him for the info, but told him no. The cabbie didn't push, so I was glad.
The train station was small and the old guy at the counter was a grumpy old poo but at least he spoke English and was moderately helpful. We got 4 tickets for 16 pounds, two to use now and two for the return. It is more like a commuter train that makes lots of stops, but the return train just came straight back to Dover. Exiting the train station at Canterbury East the signs pointed us to the city center which we followed and it took us up on the city walls that ran along the old part of the city. There is a lot of history here and we stood over ruins of an old gate built by the Romans in early AD. Cool. We came by the bus station and there was a really nice outdoor mall area with modern shops (H&M of course) and a pharmacy. I zipped in to buy some Ibuprofen and self-checked out, just like at home. After we looked around the shops they led to the old part of town that was exceptionally quaint and absolutely charming as all get out. My first stop was the Starbucks for my England mug. I had two to choose from. One had the white cliffs of Dover on it (even tho I wasn't crazy about the portrait of the guy on the mug - will research to see who it is) but I had to get that one because the other mug was of London and other sites we've been to, but not on this particular trip. So with my mug safely in my backpack we started our adventure into Canterbury.
The streets reminded us a bit of Amsterdam (minus all the waterways) but the old buildings lean a bit and are often very short. They had the wooded beams still showing like we've seen in some of the older towns we've visited. Guy remembered a past story where the towns taxed the size of the first story, so the wooden beams stuck out and were exposed because the second floor that sat on them was wider and bigger than then first level (the taxable area). I asked Guy if the people from 1500 were only 5 feet tall because I'd have to duck to get into some of the old buildings. :) We leisurely walked up and down the streets taking pictures and enjoying the gorgeous sunny weather. Once again....blessed blessed blessed. As we came to a little waterway we saw some boats lined up that were offering punting. We did punting in New Zealand and it was so much fun. It's like gondolas in Venice without the singing, fancy boats and is affordable. Guy asked me if I wanted to do it but I didn't have to answer him, he could see it on my face. We chatted with the boat guys and they offered 3 options. 35 minutes, 1 hour or 1 hour and 15 minutes pointing each route out on a map. I needed to use the ladies room before we got started, so they pointed us to a coffee shop where I got a cappuccino togo and used the girlie room. Back at the punting entrance we chose the 35 minute option because our time was limited in the town and we still had lots to see. Our "boatman" was Paul and he was amazing. He narrated a bit, but was mostly quiet and he let us sit back and enjoy the scenery. Once we got away from the park where some unruly kids were screaming, it was peacefully quiet with nothing but birds chirping. The ride was very smooth even tho he was pushing against the current with his long pole. We went under several low bridges and he would squat down to get under them. The boat never moved. He was good. I took some videos and photos, but mostly just looked around and soaked it all in. The ride ended a bit sooner than I would have liked, but I think he probably gave us more than our 35 minutes. He'd slow down when we had questions or if I was taking a picture or when we passed a mommy duck with two new little tiny babies. I could have stayed on the little boat all day. It was glorious (and better than therapy just like their sign promised). Money well spent.
As we headed back into town suddenly the little quaint town was overrun with tourists. Lots and lots of tourists. So we lucked out by getting at least a bit of time in Canterbury when it was still quiet. It cost 13 pounds to go into the beautiful cathedral that this town is noted for, but time didn't allow, so I just poked my head in and took a picture from the outside. Gorgeous. Next we did some shopping. This town, had I had a bit more time, would have cost Guy Alongi some money. The shops were cute and they had lots of lovely things. Yes, I bought shoes! Whew, just under the wire to pull of a decent purchase on this trip. While I was shopping, Guy was getting us some lunch in a cute little bakery. All I wanted was some fresh bread and butter with a Diet Coke. It was waiting for me when I arrived and we sat inside and ate. When we were done he went upstairs to use the guy's room and since it was warming up I took my puffy coat off and started folding it up. It is the kind that folds up into itself and zips up into a little tiny pillow that easily shoves into a backpack. The English lady sitting next to me was watching as I was doing my jacket disappearing act because I could see her out of the corner of my eye. After I was done I looked at her and she exclaimed "That was brilliant!" (In her fabulous British accent). That was all that was necessary to spark great conversation with her and her husband and when Guy got back we all chatted until we finally had to head back to the train station. They were a fun older couple and they love Americans they said. Ha Ha.
We didn't attempt to see downtown Dover as everyone we've talked to said it was not good. In fact some, including the couple we just met, described it with unpleasant words that I can't put in my PG blog. So when the train arrived back in Dover we just hopped a cab back to the ship and went on top to secure a good place to catch some sun and snap good pics of the white cliffs as we pulled out of the port. As I type, all passengers are aboard and the captain has given us his farewell speech. Passengers are lined up along the handrails to take their last photographs of the white cliffs. I'm sure the balconies are all populated on that side as well, but since our balcony is on the wrong side of the ship for the view, we are up top.
Saying "ciao" to the cliffs we heard the call of growling bellies and went down for a slice of pizza (or two) and maybe a cookie. Don't judge...I'm on vacation. Guy has left me alone to blog while he goes to talk to the ship folks about future cruises. If you put money down, even if you don't know when and where you are going next, they give you a significant discount. When he suggested checking it out, who was I to tell him not to? When he returned it wasn't anything too fabulous. Basically you put money down and it gives you a few perks (nothing too much more than we got this time...free internet and gratuities). But it locks in your cabin and the price for up to two years. It also means if the price every goes down, we automatically get that. So he did it because it's totally refundable and wasn't that much down. Where to next? We're working on it.
Dinner tonight was a sad one as it was our last night with Ileana. "Sad emoji" But let's talk food for a second...French onion soup for me and prosciutto and melon for Guy. Entrée was steak Diane and gnocchi for Guy and just gnocchi for me. Delish. Dessert was chocolate cake all around, coffee, hugs, photos and then a wave goodbye with a promise to follow each other on Facebook. I gave her my info and put the ball in her court. I hope she finds me. She showed us pictures tonight from her phone of her and Carlos. They are so cute together and she is a hottie with her hair down and dancing shoes on! Will miss her contagious smile.
Ugh. I sigh as I have to type the words..."our bags are in the hallway". We have just the bare minimum with us in the cabin and the vibe in the room is a combination of 'I can't believe it's already over, this was an amazing trip and just get me home'. The weather looks good in Amsterdam and STL, so we are praying for safe flights and big naps. Thanks be to God for his blessings and answered prayers of a safe and wonderful journey. First thing I'll do on Wednesday is post the photos. So hang in there with me dear readers, there is more to come.
The train station was small and the old guy at the counter was a grumpy old poo but at least he spoke English and was moderately helpful. We got 4 tickets for 16 pounds, two to use now and two for the return. It is more like a commuter train that makes lots of stops, but the return train just came straight back to Dover. Exiting the train station at Canterbury East the signs pointed us to the city center which we followed and it took us up on the city walls that ran along the old part of the city. There is a lot of history here and we stood over ruins of an old gate built by the Romans in early AD. Cool. We came by the bus station and there was a really nice outdoor mall area with modern shops (H&M of course) and a pharmacy. I zipped in to buy some Ibuprofen and self-checked out, just like at home. After we looked around the shops they led to the old part of town that was exceptionally quaint and absolutely charming as all get out. My first stop was the Starbucks for my England mug. I had two to choose from. One had the white cliffs of Dover on it (even tho I wasn't crazy about the portrait of the guy on the mug - will research to see who it is) but I had to get that one because the other mug was of London and other sites we've been to, but not on this particular trip. So with my mug safely in my backpack we started our adventure into Canterbury.
The streets reminded us a bit of Amsterdam (minus all the waterways) but the old buildings lean a bit and are often very short. They had the wooded beams still showing like we've seen in some of the older towns we've visited. Guy remembered a past story where the towns taxed the size of the first story, so the wooden beams stuck out and were exposed because the second floor that sat on them was wider and bigger than then first level (the taxable area). I asked Guy if the people from 1500 were only 5 feet tall because I'd have to duck to get into some of the old buildings. :) We leisurely walked up and down the streets taking pictures and enjoying the gorgeous sunny weather. Once again....blessed blessed blessed. As we came to a little waterway we saw some boats lined up that were offering punting. We did punting in New Zealand and it was so much fun. It's like gondolas in Venice without the singing, fancy boats and is affordable. Guy asked me if I wanted to do it but I didn't have to answer him, he could see it on my face. We chatted with the boat guys and they offered 3 options. 35 minutes, 1 hour or 1 hour and 15 minutes pointing each route out on a map. I needed to use the ladies room before we got started, so they pointed us to a coffee shop where I got a cappuccino togo and used the girlie room. Back at the punting entrance we chose the 35 minute option because our time was limited in the town and we still had lots to see. Our "boatman" was Paul and he was amazing. He narrated a bit, but was mostly quiet and he let us sit back and enjoy the scenery. Once we got away from the park where some unruly kids were screaming, it was peacefully quiet with nothing but birds chirping. The ride was very smooth even tho he was pushing against the current with his long pole. We went under several low bridges and he would squat down to get under them. The boat never moved. He was good. I took some videos and photos, but mostly just looked around and soaked it all in. The ride ended a bit sooner than I would have liked, but I think he probably gave us more than our 35 minutes. He'd slow down when we had questions or if I was taking a picture or when we passed a mommy duck with two new little tiny babies. I could have stayed on the little boat all day. It was glorious (and better than therapy just like their sign promised). Money well spent.
As we headed back into town suddenly the little quaint town was overrun with tourists. Lots and lots of tourists. So we lucked out by getting at least a bit of time in Canterbury when it was still quiet. It cost 13 pounds to go into the beautiful cathedral that this town is noted for, but time didn't allow, so I just poked my head in and took a picture from the outside. Gorgeous. Next we did some shopping. This town, had I had a bit more time, would have cost Guy Alongi some money. The shops were cute and they had lots of lovely things. Yes, I bought shoes! Whew, just under the wire to pull of a decent purchase on this trip. While I was shopping, Guy was getting us some lunch in a cute little bakery. All I wanted was some fresh bread and butter with a Diet Coke. It was waiting for me when I arrived and we sat inside and ate. When we were done he went upstairs to use the guy's room and since it was warming up I took my puffy coat off and started folding it up. It is the kind that folds up into itself and zips up into a little tiny pillow that easily shoves into a backpack. The English lady sitting next to me was watching as I was doing my jacket disappearing act because I could see her out of the corner of my eye. After I was done I looked at her and she exclaimed "That was brilliant!" (In her fabulous British accent). That was all that was necessary to spark great conversation with her and her husband and when Guy got back we all chatted until we finally had to head back to the train station. They were a fun older couple and they love Americans they said. Ha Ha.
We didn't attempt to see downtown Dover as everyone we've talked to said it was not good. In fact some, including the couple we just met, described it with unpleasant words that I can't put in my PG blog. So when the train arrived back in Dover we just hopped a cab back to the ship and went on top to secure a good place to catch some sun and snap good pics of the white cliffs as we pulled out of the port. As I type, all passengers are aboard and the captain has given us his farewell speech. Passengers are lined up along the handrails to take their last photographs of the white cliffs. I'm sure the balconies are all populated on that side as well, but since our balcony is on the wrong side of the ship for the view, we are up top.
Saying "ciao" to the cliffs we heard the call of growling bellies and went down for a slice of pizza (or two) and maybe a cookie. Don't judge...I'm on vacation. Guy has left me alone to blog while he goes to talk to the ship folks about future cruises. If you put money down, even if you don't know when and where you are going next, they give you a significant discount. When he suggested checking it out, who was I to tell him not to? When he returned it wasn't anything too fabulous. Basically you put money down and it gives you a few perks (nothing too much more than we got this time...free internet and gratuities). But it locks in your cabin and the price for up to two years. It also means if the price every goes down, we automatically get that. So he did it because it's totally refundable and wasn't that much down. Where to next? We're working on it.
Dinner tonight was a sad one as it was our last night with Ileana. "Sad emoji" But let's talk food for a second...French onion soup for me and prosciutto and melon for Guy. Entrée was steak Diane and gnocchi for Guy and just gnocchi for me. Delish. Dessert was chocolate cake all around, coffee, hugs, photos and then a wave goodbye with a promise to follow each other on Facebook. I gave her my info and put the ball in her court. I hope she finds me. She showed us pictures tonight from her phone of her and Carlos. They are so cute together and she is a hottie with her hair down and dancing shoes on! Will miss her contagious smile.
Ugh. I sigh as I have to type the words..."our bags are in the hallway". We have just the bare minimum with us in the cabin and the vibe in the room is a combination of 'I can't believe it's already over, this was an amazing trip and just get me home'. The weather looks good in Amsterdam and STL, so we are praying for safe flights and big naps. Thanks be to God for his blessings and answered prayers of a safe and wonderful journey. First thing I'll do on Wednesday is post the photos. So hang in there with me dear readers, there is more to come.
Sunday, June 5, 2016
Day 17 La Havre, France
Deja Vu. Ok that's French, right? Thought I'd toss around some of my extensive French vocabulary before we left the country. You know Betty, Cara and I took French lessons? Oh, yes. Very fluent, aren't we ladies? LOL. But back to the Vu in my Deja Vu, today was a repeat of yesterday. We ate breakfast, then took a three mile walk around the shops outside of the port. We saw them yesterday when we were on the bus coming back from the city center. Inside it looks like it once was an old warehouse facility on the dock. It was actually a pretty cool way to use the building. It had some nice shops, H&M is everywhere over here and of course this mini mall was no exception. The town was also flooded with pink. As we were walking toward the shopping area a 5K must have just gotten over because there were ladies all in pink with numbers pinned to them. We also saw the occasional guy with a pink wig or something funny. After we got to the end of the mall and turned around to walk back there was an absolute sea of pink coming in and walking towards us. So it must have been quite the race. I couldn't read the shirts (it was all in French) but being pink and having a ribbon on it we are assuming breast cancer, but can't confirm. Is the pink ribbon universal for breast cancer? That would be interesting to know. And...had I known about the race I would have joined them! I wouldn't have had anyone to talk to, but hey, it would have been a cool experience! I'm not sure how they number people for the race but we saw numbers in the low 100s up to 25,000s. I can't imagine there were over 20,000 runners/walkers, but they had one heck of a turn out.
It seemed like we had walked a long way to get to the shopping area so I set my GPS for the way back and it was a solid 1.5 miles. That wasn't that far, but when you aren't sure where you are going it seems longer. Before getting back on the ship we popped into the little shopping area/Internet cafe at the port to buy something for our dads that we had seen earlier. Yep! The dads have scored a gift. Pretty unusual to begin with, but as far as shopping goes...it's been pretty slim pickins, so the dads are at least getting something. And no, the Internet wasn't any faster because I tried uploading pictures with no luck. I'm not sure what the deal is, but I've given up trying and stopped worrying about it. My blog readers will just have to wait and check back one last time after I get home to see the pics. Not nearly as much fun, I know. I'm bummed, too.
Back on the ship we grabbed some lunch from the buffet just before it shut down and Ileana was there. She hugged Guy and we chatted for a bit, but we needed to get some food before they closed up. After lunch we found this really big hammock and jumped in. We stayed in there for 3 hours! Napping, surfing, reading...it was awesome. There were curtains on three sides and the fourth side looked out at the port. It was awesome. Before heading back to the room I asked Guy to get me a chocolate chip cookie. He did, but he came back with FOUR on his plate. Ugh...I ate two and so did he. "Don't ruin your dinner" I hear my mom saying. Too late. He said the guy at the counter said "How many would you like...5, 6? We have lots of cookies on the boat". Ha ha. Back at the room we sat outside on the balcony for a bit to enjoy the cool breeze. Suddenly a racket was going on next door on the balcony of the Russians. I had seen what happened, but Guy didn't and he was like "what the what is going on?" It was a seagull that swooped into their balcony and couldn't get out. Guy said "It's going to beat itself to death on that glass, are you going to be ok with that?" Well, just as I was thinking about calling for our room steward to see if he could do something the door slid open and someone from the Russian family grabbed it and tossed it into the air. It lived to see another day, but Guy said they'd left food out on the balcony. Note to self...keep bread inside.
Well, time for dinner so I took a long hot shower and started getting ready. Since the movie Brooklyn is "on demand" in the room, I just fast forwarded it to my favorite part and have watched it two nights in a row while getting ready. :) It keeps me entertained and my mind off how many times I've put my face on and off on this trip. Seems like I get ready twice a day. That's the only bad thing about the cruises. But you know....small price to pay!! :)
Dinner was pretty good. I ordered the spinach and artichoke dip and Guy got shrimp cocktail. Again. Ileana warned me that the other passengers were just so/so on liking the appetizer I ordered, but I told her I'd give it a go. The problem was it tasted fine, but wasn't made the way we are used to it with all the cream cheese and garlic. So once you got past that, it was fine. For dinner I got chicken Coq au Vin and Guy had steak. He liked mine better so I shared with him as neither one of us were starving. (Yes mom...no cookies before dinner). I had a white chocolate pastry for dessert with coffee. Glad my skirt has an elastic waist. I've got some serious work to do when I get home. But it has been worth it.
That's it for today. We've headed out back into the sea and tomorrow is Dover, England with a little side trip to Canterbury. Guy has spied out a Starbucks for me to get a mug, so the only country I have missed on this trip is Wales. Not to shabby and of all the places we've been, Wales would be my #1 place to return to. So I have a feeling I'll see a Wales mug some day. That makes it even more fun. :)
It seemed like we had walked a long way to get to the shopping area so I set my GPS for the way back and it was a solid 1.5 miles. That wasn't that far, but when you aren't sure where you are going it seems longer. Before getting back on the ship we popped into the little shopping area/Internet cafe at the port to buy something for our dads that we had seen earlier. Yep! The dads have scored a gift. Pretty unusual to begin with, but as far as shopping goes...it's been pretty slim pickins, so the dads are at least getting something. And no, the Internet wasn't any faster because I tried uploading pictures with no luck. I'm not sure what the deal is, but I've given up trying and stopped worrying about it. My blog readers will just have to wait and check back one last time after I get home to see the pics. Not nearly as much fun, I know. I'm bummed, too.
Back on the ship we grabbed some lunch from the buffet just before it shut down and Ileana was there. She hugged Guy and we chatted for a bit, but we needed to get some food before they closed up. After lunch we found this really big hammock and jumped in. We stayed in there for 3 hours! Napping, surfing, reading...it was awesome. There were curtains on three sides and the fourth side looked out at the port. It was awesome. Before heading back to the room I asked Guy to get me a chocolate chip cookie. He did, but he came back with FOUR on his plate. Ugh...I ate two and so did he. "Don't ruin your dinner" I hear my mom saying. Too late. He said the guy at the counter said "How many would you like...5, 6? We have lots of cookies on the boat". Ha ha. Back at the room we sat outside on the balcony for a bit to enjoy the cool breeze. Suddenly a racket was going on next door on the balcony of the Russians. I had seen what happened, but Guy didn't and he was like "what the what is going on?" It was a seagull that swooped into their balcony and couldn't get out. Guy said "It's going to beat itself to death on that glass, are you going to be ok with that?" Well, just as I was thinking about calling for our room steward to see if he could do something the door slid open and someone from the Russian family grabbed it and tossed it into the air. It lived to see another day, but Guy said they'd left food out on the balcony. Note to self...keep bread inside.
Well, time for dinner so I took a long hot shower and started getting ready. Since the movie Brooklyn is "on demand" in the room, I just fast forwarded it to my favorite part and have watched it two nights in a row while getting ready. :) It keeps me entertained and my mind off how many times I've put my face on and off on this trip. Seems like I get ready twice a day. That's the only bad thing about the cruises. But you know....small price to pay!! :)
Dinner was pretty good. I ordered the spinach and artichoke dip and Guy got shrimp cocktail. Again. Ileana warned me that the other passengers were just so/so on liking the appetizer I ordered, but I told her I'd give it a go. The problem was it tasted fine, but wasn't made the way we are used to it with all the cream cheese and garlic. So once you got past that, it was fine. For dinner I got chicken Coq au Vin and Guy had steak. He liked mine better so I shared with him as neither one of us were starving. (Yes mom...no cookies before dinner). I had a white chocolate pastry for dessert with coffee. Glad my skirt has an elastic waist. I've got some serious work to do when I get home. But it has been worth it.
That's it for today. We've headed out back into the sea and tomorrow is Dover, England with a little side trip to Canterbury. Guy has spied out a Starbucks for me to get a mug, so the only country I have missed on this trip is Wales. Not to shabby and of all the places we've been, Wales would be my #1 place to return to. So I have a feeling I'll see a Wales mug some day. That makes it even more fun. :)
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Day 16 La Havre, France
Last night we stayed up late watching the movie Brooklyn. I love that movie. I've seen it before and cried my eyes out, so much so that my sinuses were totally jacked up the entire next day. Something is blooming on this trip as well because I've had sinus issues for pretty much the entire trip. So the reason for the stuffy nose update is because I wanted to watch this movie again so bad, but didn't want to cry my eyes out and make my sinuses worse. Since I've seen it I figured I'd know when to look away or not be surprised by anything. Yeah, no, I still cried. Anyway, it was very late before we went to bed and it was no problem because today we had no specific plans. Guy was up about 8:30 looking out the window and tours were already leaving. We dozed back off to sleep and didn't get back up until about 11am. Nice!! We did miss breakfast, so we just ate a little waffle cookie in the room (thanks Olesya) and got ready to catch the shuttle into town to have a look around.
Guy had chatted with Lawrence, our concierge, and asked him about a little town about 7 miles away that Guy had seen on TripAdvisor. Lawrence said it was a nice little town and we could get a cab there for about 35 euros each away. I wasn't sure I wanted to spend $100 on a cab ride to a little town that was just "nice". So we opted to spend the 8 euros to go into the port town of LaHavre. By the time we reached the little city center it was 1am and most shops closed from 1- 4. So we just walked around and took in the sights (not too much going on here). Lawrence did recommend a restaurant for us to have lunch at. We found it, but there were a couple of restaurants surrounding it that had big crowds. None of these restaurant had menus in English and no one seemed to want to help us out, so I told Guy I was totally fine with heading back to the ship for lunch. But Guy was in the mood to try something local, so we ate at the Au Bureau like Lawrence suggested.
There were tables out front, inside and again in a little glassed-in outdoor seating area out back. We chose the outdoor one in the back because it was still outside with fresh air (and the sun temporarily popped out) but had seats in the shade. The menu had a few English words, but luckily it did have some nice photos. So that is how I picked mine. Amanda Hickman...we needed you today!! Guy, however, was trying to hover his phone over the menu using Google translate to see if he could see a few words in English. Just across the room was a group from the ship. One of the ladies was speaking perfect French to the waiter. I told Guy I'd ask her to give a quick translation of the menu if he wanted me to. He was looking for a steak. But he said he didn't want to interrupt their meal, so he kept trying to use his phone. That's when one of the words translated into HORSE MEAT and he quickly decided on the fish and chips. And HE was the one wanting to try something local (apparently not that local) and I don't think the French are known for their fish and chips, but he didn't want me to ask the table next to us and the waiter certainly was of no help. None of the restaurants were of any help. (Lawrence did tell us when we got back that this town is really known more for its ferries, so people come across in their cars and keep going. So they haven't had a lot of tourists until cruise ships began using this port more frequently. That would help explain why nothing was in English or they don't really speak it much). Still the French are known for speaking English but not going out of their way to help you or acting like they don't speak it. Side note: Last year my student, Sydne, came to France in a study abroad program. On the first day they put them through an orientation, talked a bit about the French culture and how to say the basics "thank you, please, etc." They also told them that if anyone asked them where they were from they were to say Canada. I'm not joking.
Back to lunch. You kinda hate eating at a place where you think they don't like you. However, we were there and we ordered. I got the veggie and cheese sandwich. It was excellent! I ate it with a fork and knife because that's what I saw everyone else doing. It came with fries. I'm not kidding when I say these were the best fries I've ever had in my entire life. I can't really explain it except some were thicker fries with a V cut running down the middle and they were not greasy, but were puffy, light, and had an oh so good crunch to them. Guy enjoyed his "French" fish and chips as well. We didn't linger long, paid our bill and headed back to the ship. I'm sure we could have found something else to do in the town, but it was a dead time of the day there and honestly I just wanted to enjoy a little ship time.
The sun was still out, so we grabbed a chocolate gelato onboard and headed to the top to get some vitamin D. I was going to read my book but got distracted when I found out Google was no longer going to support Picasa, the online photo manager I use for my blogs. So I researched a bit and snoozed a bit after moving into the shade. After that I headed to the room to change into my running clothes and Guy went to the top to shoot some baskets. It's like we've had the ship to ourselves today - and several other days. I guess people think when it is only in the 50s it's too cold to go outside, but in the sun it was warm! I had a nice run and Guy shot baskets until the wind got too strong. I kept thinking I was going to get rained on, but it was just dark clouds that were all talk and no action.
Dinner tonight was good as always. I had a Greek salad and a pasta dish with chicken and goat cheese. Guy had little tiny fish croquets, shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad and a steak. He finally got his steak today. And it was really amazing because I had a bite. Yum-o. Dessert was cheesecake with caramel sauce and Guy's was a chocolate flan with a caramelized banana. Stuffed again tonight. But we didn't have much of a breakfast today...ha ha. We only get to see Ileana for two more nights...so we can't miss our dinner in the restaurant again. - No more specialty dining. Not worth it for several reasons.
Tomorrow we are still at LaHavre. The ship is actually open all night, so we could come and go anytime we wanted until tomorrow night at 8:30pm. But maybe tomorrow we'll just stick around and enjoy an empty ship (300+ passengers are actually staying over in Paris tonight...I hope they are getting around ok due to the flooding and train issues). This would be our last chance to just enjoy a relaxing day because the following day is Dover where we'll be training into Canterbury, England. We'll get to see the famous white cliffs of Dover as we come and go from the port, so that should be exciting. And then we wake up the following day in Amsterdam and hop directly on the plane for home. So the countdown to the end of the vacation has begun.
Guy had chatted with Lawrence, our concierge, and asked him about a little town about 7 miles away that Guy had seen on TripAdvisor. Lawrence said it was a nice little town and we could get a cab there for about 35 euros each away. I wasn't sure I wanted to spend $100 on a cab ride to a little town that was just "nice". So we opted to spend the 8 euros to go into the port town of LaHavre. By the time we reached the little city center it was 1am and most shops closed from 1- 4. So we just walked around and took in the sights (not too much going on here). Lawrence did recommend a restaurant for us to have lunch at. We found it, but there were a couple of restaurants surrounding it that had big crowds. None of these restaurant had menus in English and no one seemed to want to help us out, so I told Guy I was totally fine with heading back to the ship for lunch. But Guy was in the mood to try something local, so we ate at the Au Bureau like Lawrence suggested.
There were tables out front, inside and again in a little glassed-in outdoor seating area out back. We chose the outdoor one in the back because it was still outside with fresh air (and the sun temporarily popped out) but had seats in the shade. The menu had a few English words, but luckily it did have some nice photos. So that is how I picked mine. Amanda Hickman...we needed you today!! Guy, however, was trying to hover his phone over the menu using Google translate to see if he could see a few words in English. Just across the room was a group from the ship. One of the ladies was speaking perfect French to the waiter. I told Guy I'd ask her to give a quick translation of the menu if he wanted me to. He was looking for a steak. But he said he didn't want to interrupt their meal, so he kept trying to use his phone. That's when one of the words translated into HORSE MEAT and he quickly decided on the fish and chips. And HE was the one wanting to try something local (apparently not that local) and I don't think the French are known for their fish and chips, but he didn't want me to ask the table next to us and the waiter certainly was of no help. None of the restaurants were of any help. (Lawrence did tell us when we got back that this town is really known more for its ferries, so people come across in their cars and keep going. So they haven't had a lot of tourists until cruise ships began using this port more frequently. That would help explain why nothing was in English or they don't really speak it much). Still the French are known for speaking English but not going out of their way to help you or acting like they don't speak it. Side note: Last year my student, Sydne, came to France in a study abroad program. On the first day they put them through an orientation, talked a bit about the French culture and how to say the basics "thank you, please, etc." They also told them that if anyone asked them where they were from they were to say Canada. I'm not joking.
Back to lunch. You kinda hate eating at a place where you think they don't like you. However, we were there and we ordered. I got the veggie and cheese sandwich. It was excellent! I ate it with a fork and knife because that's what I saw everyone else doing. It came with fries. I'm not kidding when I say these were the best fries I've ever had in my entire life. I can't really explain it except some were thicker fries with a V cut running down the middle and they were not greasy, but were puffy, light, and had an oh so good crunch to them. Guy enjoyed his "French" fish and chips as well. We didn't linger long, paid our bill and headed back to the ship. I'm sure we could have found something else to do in the town, but it was a dead time of the day there and honestly I just wanted to enjoy a little ship time.
The sun was still out, so we grabbed a chocolate gelato onboard and headed to the top to get some vitamin D. I was going to read my book but got distracted when I found out Google was no longer going to support Picasa, the online photo manager I use for my blogs. So I researched a bit and snoozed a bit after moving into the shade. After that I headed to the room to change into my running clothes and Guy went to the top to shoot some baskets. It's like we've had the ship to ourselves today - and several other days. I guess people think when it is only in the 50s it's too cold to go outside, but in the sun it was warm! I had a nice run and Guy shot baskets until the wind got too strong. I kept thinking I was going to get rained on, but it was just dark clouds that were all talk and no action.
Dinner tonight was good as always. I had a Greek salad and a pasta dish with chicken and goat cheese. Guy had little tiny fish croquets, shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad and a steak. He finally got his steak today. And it was really amazing because I had a bite. Yum-o. Dessert was cheesecake with caramel sauce and Guy's was a chocolate flan with a caramelized banana. Stuffed again tonight. But we didn't have much of a breakfast today...ha ha. We only get to see Ileana for two more nights...so we can't miss our dinner in the restaurant again. - No more specialty dining. Not worth it for several reasons.
Tomorrow we are still at LaHavre. The ship is actually open all night, so we could come and go anytime we wanted until tomorrow night at 8:30pm. But maybe tomorrow we'll just stick around and enjoy an empty ship (300+ passengers are actually staying over in Paris tonight...I hope they are getting around ok due to the flooding and train issues). This would be our last chance to just enjoy a relaxing day because the following day is Dover where we'll be training into Canterbury, England. We'll get to see the famous white cliffs of Dover as we come and go from the port, so that should be exciting. And then we wake up the following day in Amsterdam and hop directly on the plane for home. So the countdown to the end of the vacation has begun.
Friday, June 3, 2016
Day 15 Lost At Sea
Ok, we weren't really lost...there was just water everywhere and I sure didn't know where we were. Ha Ha. All I know is this was a REAL vacation day. Slept till noon, ate lunch, napped, ate dinner. :) Therefore, not much to write about today except we did eat in a specialty restaurant tonight, "The Tuscan Grill". I write this as my belly is stuffed and the experience is fresh...so here we go. It cost an additional $45 per person. Let's get that part out of the way because that ups our expectations a notch since we could have eaten in the dining room with Ileana for free (well, you know...at no additional charge).
We really could have had anything we wanted on the menu, but we've eaten so much lately we weren't really in the mood to overdo or try multiple entrees. So first they started by bringing by an antipasti tray and you could pick whatever you wanted from it. I had stepped out to wash my hands, so Guy chose mozzarella balls, prosciutto, and marinated mushrooms. Everything was just ok, but the prosciutto was yucky. In fact had I not been in a restaurant I would have spit it out. I don't care for it to begin with, but since it was on my plate I gave it a go. It was g.r.o.s.s. Guy loves prosciutto and he agreed it wasn't the best he'd ever had. Gah! Ok, let's move on. Next I ordered the caprese salad, but the waiter suggested the goat cheese salad. To be honest, I didn't even see it on the menu so I of course took his recommendation and it was outstanding! It was little deep friend goat cheese balls on a green salad with balsamic reduction. I'll eat anything with a balsamic reduction! (Well except that nasty prosciutto). Guy had calamari. It was ok, but heavy on the breading and a bit chewy, which is often the case. For our entrees I had the mushroom ravioli with truffle oil and Guy had a filet and a side of wide noodles in a cream sauce. All of our entrees were awesome, especially the pastas as they are all homemade. For dessert Guy was a no go, but I had the fondue (dark chocolate with all kinds of little yummies to dip) and a caramel macchiato which was way way way too sweet. -- Wow...harsh tonight on the reviews, huh? LOL. Well, if you are paying quite a bit extra then it better be quite a bit better. Can't really say that it was, but the restaurant was beautiful and we had a lovely table by the window that looked out the back of the ship, so we still had lots of fun. We met Ileana's boyfriend, Carlos, and he was super sweet and really loves her. So do we.
We came back to the room for a minute and then went to the 9pm show. It was three guys singing Motown type songs from the 50s and 60s. They were quite frisky with their dancing and reminded us of the Temptations. I think we had more fun watching the audience. There were some old gals who were really getting their jiggie on. :)
Well, short and sweet today. Tomorrow we dock in France. Apparently the weather has been a bit gnarly and the Louvre is closed, some roads are flooded and there is a train strike. Hmmmm...feeling kinda bad for those heading to Paris. Hopefully those going to Normandy will have less issues. For us it is another relaxing day on the ship as we have already seen Paris and Normandy on a previous trip. It's supposed to be raining, so we'll see if we want to go into the port town or just chill on the ship. It's nice to have options.
We really could have had anything we wanted on the menu, but we've eaten so much lately we weren't really in the mood to overdo or try multiple entrees. So first they started by bringing by an antipasti tray and you could pick whatever you wanted from it. I had stepped out to wash my hands, so Guy chose mozzarella balls, prosciutto, and marinated mushrooms. Everything was just ok, but the prosciutto was yucky. In fact had I not been in a restaurant I would have spit it out. I don't care for it to begin with, but since it was on my plate I gave it a go. It was g.r.o.s.s. Guy loves prosciutto and he agreed it wasn't the best he'd ever had. Gah! Ok, let's move on. Next I ordered the caprese salad, but the waiter suggested the goat cheese salad. To be honest, I didn't even see it on the menu so I of course took his recommendation and it was outstanding! It was little deep friend goat cheese balls on a green salad with balsamic reduction. I'll eat anything with a balsamic reduction! (Well except that nasty prosciutto). Guy had calamari. It was ok, but heavy on the breading and a bit chewy, which is often the case. For our entrees I had the mushroom ravioli with truffle oil and Guy had a filet and a side of wide noodles in a cream sauce. All of our entrees were awesome, especially the pastas as they are all homemade. For dessert Guy was a no go, but I had the fondue (dark chocolate with all kinds of little yummies to dip) and a caramel macchiato which was way way way too sweet. -- Wow...harsh tonight on the reviews, huh? LOL. Well, if you are paying quite a bit extra then it better be quite a bit better. Can't really say that it was, but the restaurant was beautiful and we had a lovely table by the window that looked out the back of the ship, so we still had lots of fun. We met Ileana's boyfriend, Carlos, and he was super sweet and really loves her. So do we.
We came back to the room for a minute and then went to the 9pm show. It was three guys singing Motown type songs from the 50s and 60s. They were quite frisky with their dancing and reminded us of the Temptations. I think we had more fun watching the audience. There were some old gals who were really getting their jiggie on. :)
Well, short and sweet today. Tomorrow we dock in France. Apparently the weather has been a bit gnarly and the Louvre is closed, some roads are flooded and there is a train strike. Hmmmm...feeling kinda bad for those heading to Paris. Hopefully those going to Normandy will have less issues. For us it is another relaxing day on the ship as we have already seen Paris and Normandy on a previous trip. It's supposed to be raining, so we'll see if we want to go into the port town or just chill on the ship. It's nice to have options.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Day 14 Edinburgh, Scotland
This morning we woke up in Glasgow, Scotland and had a dreadfully early meeting time of 8:15. I was up at 6:30 and felt like I'd been hit by a truck. If we are tired, just think about the older folks that are doing these excursions each day! Kudos to them! Today we were on the bus at 9am ready for our two hour ride to Edinburgh. The ride was fine and our guide, John, and our driver, John, were both pretty quiet. They are doing quite a bit of road construction/expansion, so traffic was congested and slow. John only chimed in on the microphone when there was something of interest. Other than that he was silent and it was so nice. Everyone was up early, so most people were snoozing, me and Guy included.
When we arrived at Scotland's capitol city it was very compact and crowded. The castle at Edinburgh was humongous and it was almost like its own little city within giant walls. The sections of the inner castle looked more like buildings than castle, but it stood high on a hill and was quite something. We were on our own to look around the city, we just needed to be back on the bus at 3pm. We didn't get the tour of the castle as we had been castled out by this point, but it may have been a good one to see if you are ever coming this way. Wiki says: Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position on the Castle Rock. Archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the Iron Age (2nd century AD). It's the most paid-visited attraction in Scotland. In 2013 it had 1.4 million visitors. The British Army is still responsible for some parts of the castle, but it is mostly ceremonial and administrative. (We saw the guards walking back and forth. Very serious)
Instead of an internal visit to the castle we took the hop on hop off red bus around the city, which I don't recommend. It took about an hour and they really didn't tell us anything very exciting and the city is so compact that if you had a full day or two you could have totally walked it. After we got off the bus we covered quite a bit on foot. We also did some shopping today and this is not only Scotland's capitol, but is also the jip joint capitol as well! It had the same exact stuff in every store where we picked up a few things, found a Scotland Starbucks (scored a mug) and a few other trinkets we were looking for. It was about 2pm and we were starting to get hungry, so we walked by a restaurant/pub called The Malt Shovel that had good trip advisor ratings and went in. The server told us food was taking about 30 minutes. If we actually got our food in 30 minutes we'd be fine, but if not, we'd be in trouble making it back to the bus. At about 2:35 Guy was getting a bit nervous, but we heard the doorbell (one rang when food was ready for the servers to pick up) and it was ours. We had cod sandwiches and fries. The bun was probably better than the cod, but it was still delicious. The old pub is decorated in very dark wood and a gold picture frame is around the flat screen TV. What a cool idea. We sat at a table by the window and it was a long but skinny wooden table. Too bad we were rushed as the place had a cool vibe. And it's too bad we don't drink beer, they had all kinds of different beers and they pumped the tap when they were pouring them. It was all pretty cool. I'm sure this is a happening place at night.
Without an extra minute to spare, we headed out back toward the bus at a pretty good pace. When the buses were in sight, we knew we still had about 5 minutes and I was out of Dove soap. So we quickly hunted for a pharmacy or store. Then I remembered one more gift I wanted to buy so I was zipping in and out of shops like a tornado. Not only did I get my gift, one of the jip joints had a bar of Dove! Score!! When we got back on the bus we were not the last ones on, but after we were all onboard there was one of the 16 buses from the ship to Edinburgh that was having engine trouble and we were all going to have to take some passengers on. No worries, we had about 10 open seats. However, the other bus finally started and off we all went. Again, neither of the Johns had much to say and we officially heard snoring from the passengers. :) Traffic was horrible again and it took us a few extra minutes to get to the ship. However, we were an hour late getting out of this port because some of the buses behind us got caught in even worse traffic due to a fatal car accident. :( But everyone from our ship got back safely. When we got to the port we had to go through an area set up with local gifts. We actually found two really nice Tshirts. So our shopping was successful today. I'm getting my mojo back.
When we were walking to the ship a local high school band was playing for us. They were all in kilts and playing bagpipes and drums. They marched back and forth in front of the ship and the side of the ship facing the docking area had its balconies filled with passengers and all along the top people were looking over and clapping for the band. The coolest thing is that these young people have learned and practice tradition. It was awesome. The drummer girls were spinning their sticks and it was just so cool to see. Back on board we went up top for just a bit and then came down to get ready for dinner. We bumped our reservation back to 9pm and I'm glad we did. I was even a few minutes late! Ileana made some suggestions and I had a BBQ spring roll that was amazing and Guy had shrimp cocktail and a salad. Our entrees were both really great. I had a vegetable Wellington and Guy had duck breast. Yum-o. And I'm not even feeling super hungry, but it was really tasty. Dessert was mini lava cakes and ice cream. Perfect.
Scotland review: we had a great day and the area was beautiful. The big city was what we expected only more grand buildings and the castle was spectacular. It was pretty, but just coming from the countryside of Wales it doesn't compare, however, in all fairness we drove straight across Scotland from the west side to the east side and only saw that section. We see mountains off in the distance and I'm sure those areas are much more scenic. Would need to come back to explore it a bit more to be able to give a better review.
Weather review: WOW! Everyone on board (crew) and people in the places we've visited keep telling us we are BLESSED to be having such spectacular weather. Our singing tour guide yesterday thanked the driver for a great job driving the bus and then thanked God for the amazing weather. There was definitely a unified moment of thanksgiving on the bus, but on the ship as well. I think everyone realizes we are seeing some unusually beautiful weather! :)
Now tomorrow is a day at sea. We are so excited to sleep in and do nothing. We have a time change tonight and we lose an hour this time, but at least we don't have alarm issues to worry about. I hope our bodies will let us sleep in late. VERY excited for a vacation from my vacation. Update on pictures. There is no update. I can't catch a break with fast wifi anywhere. I hate it because it makes the blog so much more interesting...however, they'll get up eventually. Even if I have to wait till I get home. It's late and I'm heading to bed. I'll re-read this blog tomorrow and fix any typos and maybe add a few things I've forgotten. So excuse mistakes for now. :)
When we arrived at Scotland's capitol city it was very compact and crowded. The castle at Edinburgh was humongous and it was almost like its own little city within giant walls. The sections of the inner castle looked more like buildings than castle, but it stood high on a hill and was quite something. We were on our own to look around the city, we just needed to be back on the bus at 3pm. We didn't get the tour of the castle as we had been castled out by this point, but it may have been a good one to see if you are ever coming this way. Wiki says: Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position on the Castle Rock. Archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the Iron Age (2nd century AD). It's the most paid-visited attraction in Scotland. In 2013 it had 1.4 million visitors. The British Army is still responsible for some parts of the castle, but it is mostly ceremonial and administrative. (We saw the guards walking back and forth. Very serious)
Instead of an internal visit to the castle we took the hop on hop off red bus around the city, which I don't recommend. It took about an hour and they really didn't tell us anything very exciting and the city is so compact that if you had a full day or two you could have totally walked it. After we got off the bus we covered quite a bit on foot. We also did some shopping today and this is not only Scotland's capitol, but is also the jip joint capitol as well! It had the same exact stuff in every store where we picked up a few things, found a Scotland Starbucks (scored a mug) and a few other trinkets we were looking for. It was about 2pm and we were starting to get hungry, so we walked by a restaurant/pub called The Malt Shovel that had good trip advisor ratings and went in. The server told us food was taking about 30 minutes. If we actually got our food in 30 minutes we'd be fine, but if not, we'd be in trouble making it back to the bus. At about 2:35 Guy was getting a bit nervous, but we heard the doorbell (one rang when food was ready for the servers to pick up) and it was ours. We had cod sandwiches and fries. The bun was probably better than the cod, but it was still delicious. The old pub is decorated in very dark wood and a gold picture frame is around the flat screen TV. What a cool idea. We sat at a table by the window and it was a long but skinny wooden table. Too bad we were rushed as the place had a cool vibe. And it's too bad we don't drink beer, they had all kinds of different beers and they pumped the tap when they were pouring them. It was all pretty cool. I'm sure this is a happening place at night.
Without an extra minute to spare, we headed out back toward the bus at a pretty good pace. When the buses were in sight, we knew we still had about 5 minutes and I was out of Dove soap. So we quickly hunted for a pharmacy or store. Then I remembered one more gift I wanted to buy so I was zipping in and out of shops like a tornado. Not only did I get my gift, one of the jip joints had a bar of Dove! Score!! When we got back on the bus we were not the last ones on, but after we were all onboard there was one of the 16 buses from the ship to Edinburgh that was having engine trouble and we were all going to have to take some passengers on. No worries, we had about 10 open seats. However, the other bus finally started and off we all went. Again, neither of the Johns had much to say and we officially heard snoring from the passengers. :) Traffic was horrible again and it took us a few extra minutes to get to the ship. However, we were an hour late getting out of this port because some of the buses behind us got caught in even worse traffic due to a fatal car accident. :( But everyone from our ship got back safely. When we got to the port we had to go through an area set up with local gifts. We actually found two really nice Tshirts. So our shopping was successful today. I'm getting my mojo back.
When we were walking to the ship a local high school band was playing for us. They were all in kilts and playing bagpipes and drums. They marched back and forth in front of the ship and the side of the ship facing the docking area had its balconies filled with passengers and all along the top people were looking over and clapping for the band. The coolest thing is that these young people have learned and practice tradition. It was awesome. The drummer girls were spinning their sticks and it was just so cool to see. Back on board we went up top for just a bit and then came down to get ready for dinner. We bumped our reservation back to 9pm and I'm glad we did. I was even a few minutes late! Ileana made some suggestions and I had a BBQ spring roll that was amazing and Guy had shrimp cocktail and a salad. Our entrees were both really great. I had a vegetable Wellington and Guy had duck breast. Yum-o. And I'm not even feeling super hungry, but it was really tasty. Dessert was mini lava cakes and ice cream. Perfect.
Scotland review: we had a great day and the area was beautiful. The big city was what we expected only more grand buildings and the castle was spectacular. It was pretty, but just coming from the countryside of Wales it doesn't compare, however, in all fairness we drove straight across Scotland from the west side to the east side and only saw that section. We see mountains off in the distance and I'm sure those areas are much more scenic. Would need to come back to explore it a bit more to be able to give a better review.
Weather review: WOW! Everyone on board (crew) and people in the places we've visited keep telling us we are BLESSED to be having such spectacular weather. Our singing tour guide yesterday thanked the driver for a great job driving the bus and then thanked God for the amazing weather. There was definitely a unified moment of thanksgiving on the bus, but on the ship as well. I think everyone realizes we are seeing some unusually beautiful weather! :)
Now tomorrow is a day at sea. We are so excited to sleep in and do nothing. We have a time change tonight and we lose an hour this time, but at least we don't have alarm issues to worry about. I hope our bodies will let us sleep in late. VERY excited for a vacation from my vacation. Update on pictures. There is no update. I can't catch a break with fast wifi anywhere. I hate it because it makes the blog so much more interesting...however, they'll get up eventually. Even if I have to wait till I get home. It's late and I'm heading to bed. I'll re-read this blog tomorrow and fix any typos and maybe add a few things I've forgotten. So excuse mistakes for now. :)
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Day 13, Liverpool Port and Conwy Castle, Wales
I sound like a broken record with our mornings, but yep...same routine as yesterday and on a bus by 10:30 to go on our excursion. Today we were in Liverpool, England but took a trip to Wales. The bus ride was absolutely gorgeous through the countryside and it was a very pleasant surprise. I had no idea what to expect and it was way more beautiful than expected! Our first stop was at Conwy Castle, but we saw a couple of outstanding castles on the drive. One was legit and looked like it was still being lived in...it looked that good. However, most are in ruin or not able to be kept up. So was the case with Conwy Castle today. However, it was fun to walk around and here is the scoop from Wiki: Conwy Castle is a medieval fortification in Conwy on the north coast of Wales. It was built by Edward I, during his conquest of Wales, between 1283 and 1289. Constructed as part of a wider project to create the walled town of Conwy, the combined defences cost around £15,000, a huge sum for the period. Over the next few centuries, the castle played an important part in several wars. Following the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, the castle was held by forces loyal to Charles I, holding out until 1646 when it surrendered to the Parliamentary armies. In the aftermath the castle was partially slighted by Parliament to prevent it being used in any further revolt, and was finally completely ruined in 1665 when its remaining iron and lead was stripped and sold off. Conwy Castle became an attractive destination for painters in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. UNESCO considers Conwy to be one of "the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe", and it is classed as a World Heritage Site. So there you have it! :)
After the castle tour (Guy and I snuck away from our group to see it on our own at our own pace) we walked around the town of Conwy for about an hour. Guy passed a busy little stand selling fish and chips. He couldn't say no, so he had lunch before lunch. He did save me a bite. It was pretty good. While he ate I shopped and found a post office to get some postcards mailed. There were a few cute shops but again nothing that was a must have except a few tea towels. I feel like I've lost my professional shopping edge! Usually our little sofa has a pretty good stash of gifts stacked up by now and all I have filled are two tiny little shopping bags. :)
As we all gathered back up to the bus, we headed out for lunch. We ate at the Waterloo hotel and it was nice. Nothing too fancy, but there were several tables for two and we ate in the sun room area. Our bus was the first one there, so we got served first and finished up first. They gave us small salads with cold salmon, then chicken with potatoes and carrots. It was just ok, but that is pretty much to be expected I think. So then dessert was just some cut up strawberries with whipped cream. Nothing fancy but it was good. Since we were done early, Guy and I walked to the town instead of taking the bus. Again, it is a lovely day. I had on a sweater and never had to crack out the coat (except on the freezing bus) and the sun was in and out. When it was out it was warm, but when it was in...it was chilly. But the walk was brisk and nice after a filling lunch. The shops were selling locally made trinkets and other jip joint type gifts. I shopped the little area then just walked around the rest of the town taking pictures. It's a lovely town although a bit touristy. And while we waited for our bus at the meeting point, Guy bought me an ice cream that was pretty darn good. Going against my germy wishes, I did use the spoon the lady put in my ice cream even tho she touched it at both ends. Sheesh...they were manhandling the cones with bare hands and no one is thinking anything about it! Taking money then making the cones. No washing and no gloves. Wales must not have strict health codes. So I obviously got mine in a cup (or a "tub" as they called it). Salted caramel and chocolate. I ate it anyway, even with the gross plastic spoon because it was exceptionally tasty.
I think our itinerary mentioned another stop, but after we left Betws-y-Coed we headed back to the port. The ride was 1 1/2 hours, so it was a haul, but we went back a different way than how we came in, so all the scenery was new and just beautiful. The roads were curvy, so my mom would have been a car sick hot mess if she had been with us, but this area was actually very hilly. They called them mountains. I'll give them that...even if on the smaller side. They were very green and had homes dotting them with patches of trees and patches of grass. Most grass patches had sheep on them and we saw a few black sheep mixed in every now and again. That was fun. I took a lot of pictures through the bus window, so not sure how they'll turn out, but I have to say today was an absolute awesome surprise. I give Wales a thumbs up.
The only sad note today was I was in two countries and no Starbucks mugs. AND had I been in my own car I'd have scored both. In Wales the bus passed one that was so close I could have reached out and touched it and at the Liverpool port there were at least 3 in walking distance. However the Internet said they closed at 5:30 and we didn't get back to the ship until 6:30 and all aboard was at 7pm. So no time to even go explore. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get one from Scotland and I'll have another shot at England when we get to Dover.... But Wales will require another visit. That might not be too painful (wink wink).
Back at the ship I hopped into the shower and was ready for dinner by 8pm. I called and chatted with mom while the wifi seemed to be pretty decent then met Guy at the table. Ileana was busy tonight and we were tired, so we had fun with her, but we were tired and didn't hang around late. Food was Caesar and shrimp cocktail for Guy and for me I had a goat cheese phyllo triangle with a quinoa salad. Our entrees were good, but mine was the winner which was a wide noodle in a mushroom sauce with goat cheese. It was kinda like mushroom stroganoff only better than any I've ever fixed. Guy had beef and veggies. It looked good (stewing), but he also liked mine better. For dessert I had pear crisp and Guy had a cheese plate. He struggled to find one he liked, but I was dying laughing at his facial expressions when he was trying them. Sometimes they smell so bad there is just no way they can taste good...and they didn't.
Ok, wrapping it up as tomorrow is another busy day. Scotland here we come! Maybe I can score some wifi. Only got about a dozen more pics uploaded. I'm still trying to finish up Cork! Doh!
After the castle tour (Guy and I snuck away from our group to see it on our own at our own pace) we walked around the town of Conwy for about an hour. Guy passed a busy little stand selling fish and chips. He couldn't say no, so he had lunch before lunch. He did save me a bite. It was pretty good. While he ate I shopped and found a post office to get some postcards mailed. There were a few cute shops but again nothing that was a must have except a few tea towels. I feel like I've lost my professional shopping edge! Usually our little sofa has a pretty good stash of gifts stacked up by now and all I have filled are two tiny little shopping bags. :)
As we all gathered back up to the bus, we headed out for lunch. We ate at the Waterloo hotel and it was nice. Nothing too fancy, but there were several tables for two and we ate in the sun room area. Our bus was the first one there, so we got served first and finished up first. They gave us small salads with cold salmon, then chicken with potatoes and carrots. It was just ok, but that is pretty much to be expected I think. So then dessert was just some cut up strawberries with whipped cream. Nothing fancy but it was good. Since we were done early, Guy and I walked to the town instead of taking the bus. Again, it is a lovely day. I had on a sweater and never had to crack out the coat (except on the freezing bus) and the sun was in and out. When it was out it was warm, but when it was in...it was chilly. But the walk was brisk and nice after a filling lunch. The shops were selling locally made trinkets and other jip joint type gifts. I shopped the little area then just walked around the rest of the town taking pictures. It's a lovely town although a bit touristy. And while we waited for our bus at the meeting point, Guy bought me an ice cream that was pretty darn good. Going against my germy wishes, I did use the spoon the lady put in my ice cream even tho she touched it at both ends. Sheesh...they were manhandling the cones with bare hands and no one is thinking anything about it! Taking money then making the cones. No washing and no gloves. Wales must not have strict health codes. So I obviously got mine in a cup (or a "tub" as they called it). Salted caramel and chocolate. I ate it anyway, even with the gross plastic spoon because it was exceptionally tasty.
I think our itinerary mentioned another stop, but after we left Betws-y-Coed we headed back to the port. The ride was 1 1/2 hours, so it was a haul, but we went back a different way than how we came in, so all the scenery was new and just beautiful. The roads were curvy, so my mom would have been a car sick hot mess if she had been with us, but this area was actually very hilly. They called them mountains. I'll give them that...even if on the smaller side. They were very green and had homes dotting them with patches of trees and patches of grass. Most grass patches had sheep on them and we saw a few black sheep mixed in every now and again. That was fun. I took a lot of pictures through the bus window, so not sure how they'll turn out, but I have to say today was an absolute awesome surprise. I give Wales a thumbs up.
The only sad note today was I was in two countries and no Starbucks mugs. AND had I been in my own car I'd have scored both. In Wales the bus passed one that was so close I could have reached out and touched it and at the Liverpool port there were at least 3 in walking distance. However the Internet said they closed at 5:30 and we didn't get back to the ship until 6:30 and all aboard was at 7pm. So no time to even go explore. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get one from Scotland and I'll have another shot at England when we get to Dover.... But Wales will require another visit. That might not be too painful (wink wink).
Back at the ship I hopped into the shower and was ready for dinner by 8pm. I called and chatted with mom while the wifi seemed to be pretty decent then met Guy at the table. Ileana was busy tonight and we were tired, so we had fun with her, but we were tired and didn't hang around late. Food was Caesar and shrimp cocktail for Guy and for me I had a goat cheese phyllo triangle with a quinoa salad. Our entrees were good, but mine was the winner which was a wide noodle in a mushroom sauce with goat cheese. It was kinda like mushroom stroganoff only better than any I've ever fixed. Guy had beef and veggies. It looked good (stewing), but he also liked mine better. For dessert I had pear crisp and Guy had a cheese plate. He struggled to find one he liked, but I was dying laughing at his facial expressions when he was trying them. Sometimes they smell so bad there is just no way they can taste good...and they didn't.
Ok, wrapping it up as tomorrow is another busy day. Scotland here we come! Maybe I can score some wifi. Only got about a dozen more pics uploaded. I'm still trying to finish up Cork! Doh!
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Day 12 Dublin, Ireland
I'm Fat.
Ok, thought I'd just get that out of the way. I'm almost tired of eating...is that possible? I was thinking ahead when I brought clothes with elastic waist bands. Sheesh. Breakfast is killing me. When you are used to yogurt and maybe a granola bar for breakfast and now your plate is full of pastries covered in butter and syrup every day my stomach will have to be re-trained when I get home!
Today was nice because we didn't have an excursion. So we leisurely got up and caught the shuttle into Dublin. The sun is shining and we almost didn't take our coats, but at the last minute we shoved them into the bag. We caught a shuttle bus into town where we immediate caught the red hop on hop off bus. The narration was in English and you could use the headphones if you wanted to. The ride was about an hour and a half. We sat on the top and the air was brisk, so we put our jackets on for a brief time. Traffic in Dublin is atrocious, but the big double decker managed its way around as best it could. The sights were nice and it was interesting, but lots of talk about writers and other famous people that lived here or there and I didn't know who they were, so it wasn't as cool for me personally as some of the past bus rides we've been on. Still, there is absolutely no way you can cover that much of a town on foot, so it was well worth the 10 euros (Note: The people from the ship are only charged 10 euros at stop number 5 where the ship's shuttle drops us. If we had gone to another stop we would have been charged 19). We hopped off just a few stops short of the entire loop to do some shopping in a pedestrian area. My main goal today was an Ireland Starbucks mug. There are Starbucks on every corner, so that was easy. My second task was to figure out if I needed to reload my SIM card because I'm picking up Vodafone but I'm not getting data. So I popped into a Vodafone store and apparently my card I bought in Germany would work in mainland Europe, but not in the UK or surrounding islands. Plus he told me there was no need to buy an Ireland one today because I'd have to reload in the UK tomorrow. So I'm going to pick one up tomorrow and see if I can get data. It's only about 15 euros and should work now for a couple of days. At the Vodafone store Guy asked for a good place to get fish and chips (Guy's #1 goals today). The guy told us of two places, one was like a fast food joint that we had just passed and the other was a restaurant called The Church. It was in an actual old church. We're in!
So as we walked down the road toward The Church we shopped along the way and didn't see too much that interested us (there has been minimal shopping purchases on this trip). When we got to The Church it was packed and we opted to sit outside on such a lovely day. Well let me tell you, when you sit directly in the sun and are getting ready to eat hot fish and chips, the inside of the restaurant looked pretty good! So they moved us and our cokes inside. Our server was sweet and Guy ordered the fish and chips (which came served in a tiny frying basket) and I had an open faced goat cheese sandwich with pickled onions on top. Delish! I took a few pictures while inside the restaurant. It was a legit little old cathedral and apparently the guy who started Guinness beer was married in there when it was still a real church. It was actually pretty fun and was lovely inside, but there was a big bar in the center of the building and it almost seemed sacrilegious. I suppose the church isn't the building, but instead the people who are in it. So if the people aren't meeting there, then it isn't a church. But I still couldn't wrap my head around it as I stared up at the giant organ pipes on the wall next to the stained glass windows. Definitely different! But as we ate I downloaded my photos using their free wifi. I still didn't get all the way through Cork, but I'm working at it every chance I get.
After lunch we walked the area that we didn't see on the hop on hop off bus and walked over a white bridge spanning the river that was for pedestrians only. Apparently years ago they charged people one cent to cross, like a toll. So one day two guys walked up and wanted to know if they charged for cargo across the bridge. When the money collector said no, then one of the guys jumped on the other one's back and they went across for a penny. So when we went across I asked Guy if I could jump on his back. He just stared at me, so I took that as a no. At this point everything on my list of "to-dos" was covered (which included buying some decent shampoo and conditioner as the ships is pretty stinky and not doing the trick) so now I just needed to buy some Ireland souvenirs. We found a great big place that was the ultimate jip joint. I got a little shopping basket and proceeded to fill it with trinkets. Small things that would pack easy. Still, my shopping has been pretty sparse. But that is ok...sometimes I bring too much stuff home.
Back at the pick up point we caught our shuttle back to the ship. It was just after 5pm, so while the boat was still docked I changed and got a quick run in while Guy sunbathed and read his book. It was nice. I quickly got ready for dinner and the eating thing started again. Waldorf salads for both of us. Guy and I both ordered the meatloaf and Ilyana quick said "NO!!". She said "You know I love you both, so that is why I'm telling you that the passengers are saying it is just "eh" ". We died laughing but we know she knows, so I ordered the veggie pot pie and Guy ordered the chicken Kiev. Both were good. Dessert was chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream for me and Guy ordered the blueberry tart. He only ate half as he was stuffed, but I couldn't even begin to eat anymore.
So that was our day. Not totally in love with Dublin. We knew it was a huge city, so that was no surprise, but they are putting in light rail train tracks all downtown, so there was construction everywhere. It is the fastest growing city in Ireland, so for transportation needs they are putting in the trains. That will be great a year from now, but today it is a mess. Another couple told us they took the Guinness tour but said it was just so-so. The city overall was very clean and lots of fun pubs if you are into beer drinking - you'd be hitting the jackpot. And in all fairness, being here for only 7 hours probably doesn't make us the best judges. But nothing seemed to calling us for a return trip.
P.S. Heard from Sydne today. She has been to Prague and now has reached Budapest. She is in love with both places. She comes to Dublin next, so I'm curious as to her take on the city as she'll get a better feel for it since she'll be staying here for a few days. I'll get the scoop on the pub scene for sure. :)
Tomorrow: Liverpool, England...home of the Beatles. And an excursion to Wales where we will visit the Conwy Castle, the town of Conwy itself, the market town of Lianrwst and the resort town of Betws-y-Coed. Yes, I've double checked the spelling. Maybe tomorrow I'll learn how to pronounce them! Yikes...sounds like a full day!
Ok, thought I'd just get that out of the way. I'm almost tired of eating...is that possible? I was thinking ahead when I brought clothes with elastic waist bands. Sheesh. Breakfast is killing me. When you are used to yogurt and maybe a granola bar for breakfast and now your plate is full of pastries covered in butter and syrup every day my stomach will have to be re-trained when I get home!
Today was nice because we didn't have an excursion. So we leisurely got up and caught the shuttle into Dublin. The sun is shining and we almost didn't take our coats, but at the last minute we shoved them into the bag. We caught a shuttle bus into town where we immediate caught the red hop on hop off bus. The narration was in English and you could use the headphones if you wanted to. The ride was about an hour and a half. We sat on the top and the air was brisk, so we put our jackets on for a brief time. Traffic in Dublin is atrocious, but the big double decker managed its way around as best it could. The sights were nice and it was interesting, but lots of talk about writers and other famous people that lived here or there and I didn't know who they were, so it wasn't as cool for me personally as some of the past bus rides we've been on. Still, there is absolutely no way you can cover that much of a town on foot, so it was well worth the 10 euros (Note: The people from the ship are only charged 10 euros at stop number 5 where the ship's shuttle drops us. If we had gone to another stop we would have been charged 19). We hopped off just a few stops short of the entire loop to do some shopping in a pedestrian area. My main goal today was an Ireland Starbucks mug. There are Starbucks on every corner, so that was easy. My second task was to figure out if I needed to reload my SIM card because I'm picking up Vodafone but I'm not getting data. So I popped into a Vodafone store and apparently my card I bought in Germany would work in mainland Europe, but not in the UK or surrounding islands. Plus he told me there was no need to buy an Ireland one today because I'd have to reload in the UK tomorrow. So I'm going to pick one up tomorrow and see if I can get data. It's only about 15 euros and should work now for a couple of days. At the Vodafone store Guy asked for a good place to get fish and chips (Guy's #1 goals today). The guy told us of two places, one was like a fast food joint that we had just passed and the other was a restaurant called The Church. It was in an actual old church. We're in!
So as we walked down the road toward The Church we shopped along the way and didn't see too much that interested us (there has been minimal shopping purchases on this trip). When we got to The Church it was packed and we opted to sit outside on such a lovely day. Well let me tell you, when you sit directly in the sun and are getting ready to eat hot fish and chips, the inside of the restaurant looked pretty good! So they moved us and our cokes inside. Our server was sweet and Guy ordered the fish and chips (which came served in a tiny frying basket) and I had an open faced goat cheese sandwich with pickled onions on top. Delish! I took a few pictures while inside the restaurant. It was a legit little old cathedral and apparently the guy who started Guinness beer was married in there when it was still a real church. It was actually pretty fun and was lovely inside, but there was a big bar in the center of the building and it almost seemed sacrilegious. I suppose the church isn't the building, but instead the people who are in it. So if the people aren't meeting there, then it isn't a church. But I still couldn't wrap my head around it as I stared up at the giant organ pipes on the wall next to the stained glass windows. Definitely different! But as we ate I downloaded my photos using their free wifi. I still didn't get all the way through Cork, but I'm working at it every chance I get.
After lunch we walked the area that we didn't see on the hop on hop off bus and walked over a white bridge spanning the river that was for pedestrians only. Apparently years ago they charged people one cent to cross, like a toll. So one day two guys walked up and wanted to know if they charged for cargo across the bridge. When the money collector said no, then one of the guys jumped on the other one's back and they went across for a penny. So when we went across I asked Guy if I could jump on his back. He just stared at me, so I took that as a no. At this point everything on my list of "to-dos" was covered (which included buying some decent shampoo and conditioner as the ships is pretty stinky and not doing the trick) so now I just needed to buy some Ireland souvenirs. We found a great big place that was the ultimate jip joint. I got a little shopping basket and proceeded to fill it with trinkets. Small things that would pack easy. Still, my shopping has been pretty sparse. But that is ok...sometimes I bring too much stuff home.
Back at the pick up point we caught our shuttle back to the ship. It was just after 5pm, so while the boat was still docked I changed and got a quick run in while Guy sunbathed and read his book. It was nice. I quickly got ready for dinner and the eating thing started again. Waldorf salads for both of us. Guy and I both ordered the meatloaf and Ilyana quick said "NO!!". She said "You know I love you both, so that is why I'm telling you that the passengers are saying it is just "eh" ". We died laughing but we know she knows, so I ordered the veggie pot pie and Guy ordered the chicken Kiev. Both were good. Dessert was chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream for me and Guy ordered the blueberry tart. He only ate half as he was stuffed, but I couldn't even begin to eat anymore.
So that was our day. Not totally in love with Dublin. We knew it was a huge city, so that was no surprise, but they are putting in light rail train tracks all downtown, so there was construction everywhere. It is the fastest growing city in Ireland, so for transportation needs they are putting in the trains. That will be great a year from now, but today it is a mess. Another couple told us they took the Guinness tour but said it was just so-so. The city overall was very clean and lots of fun pubs if you are into beer drinking - you'd be hitting the jackpot. And in all fairness, being here for only 7 hours probably doesn't make us the best judges. But nothing seemed to calling us for a return trip.
P.S. Heard from Sydne today. She has been to Prague and now has reached Budapest. She is in love with both places. She comes to Dublin next, so I'm curious as to her take on the city as she'll get a better feel for it since she'll be staying here for a few days. I'll get the scoop on the pub scene for sure. :)
Tomorrow: Liverpool, England...home of the Beatles. And an excursion to Wales where we will visit the Conwy Castle, the town of Conwy itself, the market town of Lianrwst and the resort town of Betws-y-Coed. Yes, I've double checked the spelling. Maybe tomorrow I'll learn how to pronounce them! Yikes...sounds like a full day!
Monday, May 30, 2016
Day 11 Waterford, Ireland and Kilkenny Castle
This morning we woke up to some kind of loud clatter. Not sure what it was, but it was enough to ruin a really good early morning sleep. Needing to be up a bit earlier today we got ready, had the buffet and gathered our things for our excursion. Again the luck o' the Irish is with us as the sun is out with a cool breeze and it's going to be beautiful. We tendered into the port again today, but the ride was only 10 minutes. The air was brisk, but we sat on top again because they had it filled (crammed) with 88 people, all of us going on the same tour. Our tour guide was Mary and she talked as much as Pat did yesterday, but she gave us a little peace and quiet on the return trip. We decided that it was Pat's constant Ummms that killed us yesterday - those long drawn out moments he was searching for the right words. Exhausting.
Our bus ride was over an hour as we drove through the beautiful green countryside of Ireland. It was beautiful, but became a bit repetitive and my eyes got heavy and I may have snoozed just a bit. Our first destination today was Kilkenny Castle. Of course it has a lot of history dating back to the 1200s, but for the most recent 600 years it was owned by the Butler family. They made their money by leasing out the surrounding land to farmers. However, as the years passed, they received less and less money and eventually in the 1930s they had a 10 day auction to sell off everything in the house and walked away from the castle. In 1967 one of the heirs handed the key over to the city for only 50 pounds. Since then the city has completely refurbished the inside and it is quite lovely. The surrounding grounds are as beautiful, if not more, than the inside. Being Downton Abbey fans we were thinking back on the episode where the one family had to auction off everything because they couldn't afford to live there anymore. It made us sad. Apparently there are two Butler women who live in the US. They are all that remain of the family and they no longer hold any kind of title.
From the castle we walked down for lunch at a hotel/restaurant called Langton's. Finally something nicer than the wedding hall we were at yesterday. It was quaint and we got to sit at a table for two and have a quiet lunch. They served chicken with a mushroom sauce, cabbage and carrots. Dessert was again some kind of cheesecake, but tasted much better than yesterday's dessert. The food was just ok, but the atmosphere was lovely. After lunch we got back on the bus and headed for Waterford where we were to take a tour of the famous Waterford crystal factory. Not too exited about this, but it was part of the tour. When we arrived they had free wifi and our tour didn't start for 30 minutes. So as I shopped the very large and expensive gift shop I was downloading as many pictures as I could. I honestly was searching for something to buy, but nothing was tickling my fancy. So then starts the tour. We were first briefed by one of the Waterford guides, then taken to a holding room where all the lights were out and we had to watch a short movie before entering the factory. That's were the fun began. There was much more manual labor involved in each piece than I thought. First the crystal was heated to a molten stage then given to a glass blower who worked it with a wet wooden mold while blowing the piece. From there it is heated and blown again, then put into a metal mold where it is spun and blown. From the mold it is still slightly glowing but it is worked for a brief time and then the top part was cut off and put into a kiln for annealing overnight. From there it goes to an inspection room where the extra glass is cut away, smoothed, then sent to the next room where each piece is marked and cut by hand by experts (before being turned loose to work on the glass the artist has undergone 8 years of apprenticeship and has passed certain tests). From this point I think is where they take the pieces down the road for final finishing. All we heard was a few millimeters of the glass is taken away all around the piece, but the process requires stricter regulations as far as the health of the people around during that process. When we watched the cutters make the designs today, the cuts were etched (frosted) looking from the process of making them making the cuts. Of course the final piece is very smooth and completely clear, so that final process must be smoothing it all up in that other location. I was actually interested in that process, but didn't ask any more questions. I was pleasantly surprised by the tour and how close we got to be to the action! It was fun to watch. Now...they also had machines that cut some of the more intricate pieces. That is how I had assumed it was all done and the final pieces were nothing that required skill. But alas! I was wrong. This stop was a real nice surprise.
Getting back on the bus there was an older couple in our seats. Normally bus etiquette is everyone stays in the same seats and you can leave your things, etc. Well, not knowing how chilly it might be in the factory, we took our jackets in and didn't leave anything behind. Of course everyone who was on the bus was in there original seats. So we hated to take someone else's. So Guy said "Where were you guys sitting before so we know where to sit". The man snidely said "In the back". Ok...? So we just went all the way to the back. When we got back on the ship the lady who had been in front of us all day saw us and said she liked Guy's comment. Letting them know in a nice way it's just easier to keep your original seats. It really doesn't matter to us, we are all going to get there at the same time. We just didn't want to mess up other people's seats (like a church pew). She said after we walked away they said "Well, they didn't leave anything in the seats to save them!" Oh well...it all worked out.
A lot of our day today was on a bus, which is fine, because without the excursion we couldn't have seen all this good stuff today, but there isn't really a lot more to write about. :) Back at the room I'm putting down my thoughts again before dinner. That was nice last night to get a jump start. And all my photos for Guernsey are all up and I've started the Cork upload before I had to leave the Waterford showroom. One forgets how nice fast wifi is when you are just used to being around it all the time. :)
We made our 8pm reservation with a few minutes to spare before they gave our seat away (they give you a 15 minute window) But I actually got ready in 50 minutes even with drying and curling the hair. Ilyana was waiting for us as usual with her contagious smile and as usual our food was very good. Guy had a crab cake, Caesar salad and short ribs. I had a pear and apple salad with pasta. Chocolate cake and an apple tart finished the meal. We chatted with Ilyana for about 20 minutes as the place was clearing out pretty quickly at this point (about 10pm) and then we headed to a place to find better wifi. What's app works great for texting in bad wifi, but it doesn't make for great calling. So I went to the middle of the ship by the elevators and called home. Mom and I chatted for a long time, but there was a bit of a delay. Certainly better than nothing!!
Looking forward to tomorrow. Dublin. We are going to explore the city on our own, take the red hop on hop off bus, get an Ireland Starbucks coffee mug for my collection and enjoy not being on a big tour bus with a strict itinerary. Winging it sounds pretty good.
Our bus ride was over an hour as we drove through the beautiful green countryside of Ireland. It was beautiful, but became a bit repetitive and my eyes got heavy and I may have snoozed just a bit. Our first destination today was Kilkenny Castle. Of course it has a lot of history dating back to the 1200s, but for the most recent 600 years it was owned by the Butler family. They made their money by leasing out the surrounding land to farmers. However, as the years passed, they received less and less money and eventually in the 1930s they had a 10 day auction to sell off everything in the house and walked away from the castle. In 1967 one of the heirs handed the key over to the city for only 50 pounds. Since then the city has completely refurbished the inside and it is quite lovely. The surrounding grounds are as beautiful, if not more, than the inside. Being Downton Abbey fans we were thinking back on the episode where the one family had to auction off everything because they couldn't afford to live there anymore. It made us sad. Apparently there are two Butler women who live in the US. They are all that remain of the family and they no longer hold any kind of title.
From the castle we walked down for lunch at a hotel/restaurant called Langton's. Finally something nicer than the wedding hall we were at yesterday. It was quaint and we got to sit at a table for two and have a quiet lunch. They served chicken with a mushroom sauce, cabbage and carrots. Dessert was again some kind of cheesecake, but tasted much better than yesterday's dessert. The food was just ok, but the atmosphere was lovely. After lunch we got back on the bus and headed for Waterford where we were to take a tour of the famous Waterford crystal factory. Not too exited about this, but it was part of the tour. When we arrived they had free wifi and our tour didn't start for 30 minutes. So as I shopped the very large and expensive gift shop I was downloading as many pictures as I could. I honestly was searching for something to buy, but nothing was tickling my fancy. So then starts the tour. We were first briefed by one of the Waterford guides, then taken to a holding room where all the lights were out and we had to watch a short movie before entering the factory. That's were the fun began. There was much more manual labor involved in each piece than I thought. First the crystal was heated to a molten stage then given to a glass blower who worked it with a wet wooden mold while blowing the piece. From there it is heated and blown again, then put into a metal mold where it is spun and blown. From the mold it is still slightly glowing but it is worked for a brief time and then the top part was cut off and put into a kiln for annealing overnight. From there it goes to an inspection room where the extra glass is cut away, smoothed, then sent to the next room where each piece is marked and cut by hand by experts (before being turned loose to work on the glass the artist has undergone 8 years of apprenticeship and has passed certain tests). From this point I think is where they take the pieces down the road for final finishing. All we heard was a few millimeters of the glass is taken away all around the piece, but the process requires stricter regulations as far as the health of the people around during that process. When we watched the cutters make the designs today, the cuts were etched (frosted) looking from the process of making them making the cuts. Of course the final piece is very smooth and completely clear, so that final process must be smoothing it all up in that other location. I was actually interested in that process, but didn't ask any more questions. I was pleasantly surprised by the tour and how close we got to be to the action! It was fun to watch. Now...they also had machines that cut some of the more intricate pieces. That is how I had assumed it was all done and the final pieces were nothing that required skill. But alas! I was wrong. This stop was a real nice surprise.
Getting back on the bus there was an older couple in our seats. Normally bus etiquette is everyone stays in the same seats and you can leave your things, etc. Well, not knowing how chilly it might be in the factory, we took our jackets in and didn't leave anything behind. Of course everyone who was on the bus was in there original seats. So we hated to take someone else's. So Guy said "Where were you guys sitting before so we know where to sit". The man snidely said "In the back". Ok...? So we just went all the way to the back. When we got back on the ship the lady who had been in front of us all day saw us and said she liked Guy's comment. Letting them know in a nice way it's just easier to keep your original seats. It really doesn't matter to us, we are all going to get there at the same time. We just didn't want to mess up other people's seats (like a church pew). She said after we walked away they said "Well, they didn't leave anything in the seats to save them!" Oh well...it all worked out.
A lot of our day today was on a bus, which is fine, because without the excursion we couldn't have seen all this good stuff today, but there isn't really a lot more to write about. :) Back at the room I'm putting down my thoughts again before dinner. That was nice last night to get a jump start. And all my photos for Guernsey are all up and I've started the Cork upload before I had to leave the Waterford showroom. One forgets how nice fast wifi is when you are just used to being around it all the time. :)
We made our 8pm reservation with a few minutes to spare before they gave our seat away (they give you a 15 minute window) But I actually got ready in 50 minutes even with drying and curling the hair. Ilyana was waiting for us as usual with her contagious smile and as usual our food was very good. Guy had a crab cake, Caesar salad and short ribs. I had a pear and apple salad with pasta. Chocolate cake and an apple tart finished the meal. We chatted with Ilyana for about 20 minutes as the place was clearing out pretty quickly at this point (about 10pm) and then we headed to a place to find better wifi. What's app works great for texting in bad wifi, but it doesn't make for great calling. So I went to the middle of the ship by the elevators and called home. Mom and I chatted for a long time, but there was a bit of a delay. Certainly better than nothing!!
Looking forward to tomorrow. Dublin. We are going to explore the city on our own, take the red hop on hop off bus, get an Ireland Starbucks coffee mug for my collection and enjoy not being on a big tour bus with a strict itinerary. Winging it sounds pretty good.
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Day 10 Cork, Ireland
We had our alarm set for 8am and just happened to be up before it went off. We were still pulling into the port at Cork and as we ate breakfast beautiful views were going by. No room service today, we ate at the buffet. After breakfast we went back to the room to gather our things and contemplated taking a coat. We did, but the sun was out and was a beautiful day, probably close to 70 and finally a break from the fog. Like the guide told us...today the sun is out and it is a Sunday. Last year the sun came out on a Wednesday. LOL. So today was an exceptionally lucky day for us! :) Our coats were no problem, we just left them on the bus. There was a chance of rain today, so better safe than sorry I suppose. We have our "puffy" coats that fold up into their own pockets, so they are super easy to tote around and just put in the backpack when we need to.
About 10:30 we got on the tour bus and started heading through the countryside of Ireland, Pat our driver and Pat our guide (very popular name here) both did a good job, but Pat the guide talked non-stop. It was honestly quite exhausting. And he said "Ummm" a lot. Ok not just a lot, But. All. The. Time. Sometimes he thought so long for the word he wanted to say I forgot what he was even talking about. He was, however, filled with useful information and sometimes funny jokes. You knew it was a joke because during the delivery of it, he said "ummmm" a lot less. The drive was beautiful as Ireland is very green and slightly hilly, dotted with cows, sheep and beautiful little well-kept homes. After about an hour on the bus we stopped at a little port town called Kinsale. It was quaint and most shops were closed because it is Sunday. We had about an hour and a half to walk around. It was cute and we bought a tea towel and a latte. One side note: from just outside this town, in 1915, the Lusitania was torpedoed, bringing the US into WWI (per Guy and all his little war factoids he is always tossing out...my own personal google). Back on the bus we went through the actual big city of Cork, which was bustling even for a Sunday and had a lot of American stores. I had my eye peeled for a Starbucks to get my Ireland mug but didn't see one, plus we didn't stop, but instead drove a little bit out of the town to a hotel that had a large banquet facility where lunch was waiting for us.
Lunch was a starter of fruit, a bowl of Irish stew and Bailey's cheesecake for dessert. The staff walked around with trays of local beers for us, but they also had Coke and water. A traditional Irish band played while we ate and occasionally two young Irish girls danced. They were good, but it was a good thing they were there because any form of Irish ambiance was non-existent in this facility. Apparently they had a wedding reception there the night before because there were two wedding balloons that had escaped and got trapped at the ceiling. Our table had nice people at it and the place is filled with just Celebrity passengers, all from buses doing the "Best of Ireland" tour. Everything about lunch was just ok, but we weren't expecting anything gourmet...so we shouldn't have been disappointed, but in a way we were. Couldn't they break us up into smaller local pubs? This was very institutional and for the price we paid for the excursion I'd have thought the could have done a bit more when it came to lunch. After all, it was the "Best" of Ireland, right? Ok...'nough said about that. Heading back to the bus we drove another hour to Blarney Castle. Here lives the famous Blarney Stone. It was at the top of the castle where you had to go up 102 steps of a increasingly smaller staircase then lay on your back to lean back and kiss the stone. The queue to kiss the stone was about 1.5 to 2 hours. Pat asked everyone to please do that first before walking around as they may not have time to do both. With zero desire to stand it a tiny claustrophobic stairwell jammed with people to kiss a germ infested rock was pretty much not on my life's bucket list, so we opted to just walk around the property, which was absolutely beautiful. The Blarney house, where the owner of the estate lives, is usually open to the public, but it is closed until Spring, or June 1. Well, that was 2 days from now, so we just missed it. Either way, it looked lovely.
After walking all around the grounds (it was like a botanical garden) we took lots of pictures and then headed for a little shopping. They had a giant selection of Ireland goodies to choose from and I just couldn't decide. So we didn't buy anything except drinks at the coffee shop and a chance to get on some real wifi. We got 30 minutes for free. So the clock was ticking as to how many photos I could download. I was either going to run out of free wifi, my phone was going to die, or I was going to have to head back to the bus. The one that got me was having to go back to the bus, because after the wifi shut itself down after 30 minutes it let me log right back in. So I didn't quite get three days worth downloaded. Darn. I needed only 30 more minutes to catch up. Maybe tomorrow.
So as we started on the 30 minute ride back to the ship, we got to see what the tide does around here. This morning as we headed away from the port Pat said the tide was up and it looked like we were surrounded by lakes. He said in the evening it is like a marsh. He was NOT joking, as the morning's lakes were now big open areas of mud. I'm surprised there weren't more dead fish flopping around our birds getting their dinner, or maybe even stinky. But this happens daily and was crazy to see. It looked like the cruise ship was down about 8-10 feet from the waterline on the side of the port's stone wall. In my photos I took a picture of the low tide marsh with a boat just sitting in the mud. I suppose in the morning the boat will be floating again. Interesting.
One of the noteworthy things about today's port is that is was the last stop of the Titanic before it headed to America. As we pulled in this morning I envisioned the grand vessel sitting at the port with all the ladies in their long fancy dresses and large decorated hats bustling around the loading area (like in the movie), however on the way back, Pat burst my surrealistic bubble by saying the Titanic didn't actually come all the way into the port, but instead sat just outside so it could get a quick get-away to its final destination. The reason was because it was an important mail carrier from Ireland to the US and was probably making quite a bit of money by doing so because they didn't want to mess anything up by delaying the voyage, thus delaying the mail. It was carrying 1500 bags of mail and about 120 passengers from Cork.
Back in the room we had about an hour and a half or so before dinner and I opted to start my blog over going to tonight's show. We are tired today and the thought of just dinner and coming back into peace and quite and reading our books sounds really good, so I needed to get the blog underway. Guy has taken his shower already, but no need for me to have to get ready all over again just for an hour of dinner, but I'm looking forward to a hot shower as soon as I walk back into the room.
At dinner we were greeted by Ilyana with our usual "Hello darlings, how was your day?" She makes us want to go to dinner just to see her. :) So a quick run-down of food and we'll call it a night. Guy and I both had the caprese salad. It was very good. Then for our entrees I had turkey parmesan and Guy had sea bass with pasta in a white sauce. Again, all very tasty. We ended the night with tiramisu and strawberry angel food cake. So far we are giving food on this ship an A. We'll see if they can maintain this status as we are pretty harsh judges when it comes to our food.
Good night from Ireland. Note: I did get new images up today, but Day 9 Guernsey isn't complete yet.
About 10:30 we got on the tour bus and started heading through the countryside of Ireland, Pat our driver and Pat our guide (very popular name here) both did a good job, but Pat the guide talked non-stop. It was honestly quite exhausting. And he said "Ummm" a lot. Ok not just a lot, But. All. The. Time. Sometimes he thought so long for the word he wanted to say I forgot what he was even talking about. He was, however, filled with useful information and sometimes funny jokes. You knew it was a joke because during the delivery of it, he said "ummmm" a lot less. The drive was beautiful as Ireland is very green and slightly hilly, dotted with cows, sheep and beautiful little well-kept homes. After about an hour on the bus we stopped at a little port town called Kinsale. It was quaint and most shops were closed because it is Sunday. We had about an hour and a half to walk around. It was cute and we bought a tea towel and a latte. One side note: from just outside this town, in 1915, the Lusitania was torpedoed, bringing the US into WWI (per Guy and all his little war factoids he is always tossing out...my own personal google). Back on the bus we went through the actual big city of Cork, which was bustling even for a Sunday and had a lot of American stores. I had my eye peeled for a Starbucks to get my Ireland mug but didn't see one, plus we didn't stop, but instead drove a little bit out of the town to a hotel that had a large banquet facility where lunch was waiting for us.
Lunch was a starter of fruit, a bowl of Irish stew and Bailey's cheesecake for dessert. The staff walked around with trays of local beers for us, but they also had Coke and water. A traditional Irish band played while we ate and occasionally two young Irish girls danced. They were good, but it was a good thing they were there because any form of Irish ambiance was non-existent in this facility. Apparently they had a wedding reception there the night before because there were two wedding balloons that had escaped and got trapped at the ceiling. Our table had nice people at it and the place is filled with just Celebrity passengers, all from buses doing the "Best of Ireland" tour. Everything about lunch was just ok, but we weren't expecting anything gourmet...so we shouldn't have been disappointed, but in a way we were. Couldn't they break us up into smaller local pubs? This was very institutional and for the price we paid for the excursion I'd have thought the could have done a bit more when it came to lunch. After all, it was the "Best" of Ireland, right? Ok...'nough said about that. Heading back to the bus we drove another hour to Blarney Castle. Here lives the famous Blarney Stone. It was at the top of the castle where you had to go up 102 steps of a increasingly smaller staircase then lay on your back to lean back and kiss the stone. The queue to kiss the stone was about 1.5 to 2 hours. Pat asked everyone to please do that first before walking around as they may not have time to do both. With zero desire to stand it a tiny claustrophobic stairwell jammed with people to kiss a germ infested rock was pretty much not on my life's bucket list, so we opted to just walk around the property, which was absolutely beautiful. The Blarney house, where the owner of the estate lives, is usually open to the public, but it is closed until Spring, or June 1. Well, that was 2 days from now, so we just missed it. Either way, it looked lovely.
After walking all around the grounds (it was like a botanical garden) we took lots of pictures and then headed for a little shopping. They had a giant selection of Ireland goodies to choose from and I just couldn't decide. So we didn't buy anything except drinks at the coffee shop and a chance to get on some real wifi. We got 30 minutes for free. So the clock was ticking as to how many photos I could download. I was either going to run out of free wifi, my phone was going to die, or I was going to have to head back to the bus. The one that got me was having to go back to the bus, because after the wifi shut itself down after 30 minutes it let me log right back in. So I didn't quite get three days worth downloaded. Darn. I needed only 30 more minutes to catch up. Maybe tomorrow.
So as we started on the 30 minute ride back to the ship, we got to see what the tide does around here. This morning as we headed away from the port Pat said the tide was up and it looked like we were surrounded by lakes. He said in the evening it is like a marsh. He was NOT joking, as the morning's lakes were now big open areas of mud. I'm surprised there weren't more dead fish flopping around our birds getting their dinner, or maybe even stinky. But this happens daily and was crazy to see. It looked like the cruise ship was down about 8-10 feet from the waterline on the side of the port's stone wall. In my photos I took a picture of the low tide marsh with a boat just sitting in the mud. I suppose in the morning the boat will be floating again. Interesting.
One of the noteworthy things about today's port is that is was the last stop of the Titanic before it headed to America. As we pulled in this morning I envisioned the grand vessel sitting at the port with all the ladies in their long fancy dresses and large decorated hats bustling around the loading area (like in the movie), however on the way back, Pat burst my surrealistic bubble by saying the Titanic didn't actually come all the way into the port, but instead sat just outside so it could get a quick get-away to its final destination. The reason was because it was an important mail carrier from Ireland to the US and was probably making quite a bit of money by doing so because they didn't want to mess anything up by delaying the voyage, thus delaying the mail. It was carrying 1500 bags of mail and about 120 passengers from Cork.
Back in the room we had about an hour and a half or so before dinner and I opted to start my blog over going to tonight's show. We are tired today and the thought of just dinner and coming back into peace and quite and reading our books sounds really good, so I needed to get the blog underway. Guy has taken his shower already, but no need for me to have to get ready all over again just for an hour of dinner, but I'm looking forward to a hot shower as soon as I walk back into the room.
At dinner we were greeted by Ilyana with our usual "Hello darlings, how was your day?" She makes us want to go to dinner just to see her. :) So a quick run-down of food and we'll call it a night. Guy and I both had the caprese salad. It was very good. Then for our entrees I had turkey parmesan and Guy had sea bass with pasta in a white sauce. Again, all very tasty. We ended the night with tiramisu and strawberry angel food cake. So far we are giving food on this ship an A. We'll see if they can maintain this status as we are pretty harsh judges when it comes to our food.
Good night from Ireland. Note: I did get new images up today, but Day 9 Guernsey isn't complete yet.
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Day 9 The Channel Island of Guernsey
Today we woke up in Channel Islands on the Island of Guernsey with a call letting us know our breakfast was on the way. We had decided on room service just for something different. I had written our selections on the card and put on our cabin door the night before. There is no additional cost for room service and I wasn't being a piglet, but did make several selections. When it arrived it took two ladies to carry the tray in. I took a picture of the stacks of covered plates. Ok...it's not as bad as you are thinking. Everything came on a separate plate. Our cheese omelets were pretty good size, but for instance an order of French Toast was one slice of bread and bacon was two slices. Each came on it's own plate. I did have a strawberry smoothie and it was a pleasant surprise. Yummy.
With our bellies full we headed down to get a group number assigned to a tender (the little boat that will take us to the port) because the ship is too big for this port. It was about a 20 minute ride from ship to shore. I was excited when we got on our little boat as there were still spots to sit on the top - outside. It is cold and foggy and not the most popular spot, but for me it was! Better than crammed inside with about 50 other people. So we headed for shore and I took some pictures. They won't be good, but will document how foggy it was. Every day has been that way. Day and Night. In fact, last night and again tonight the ship blows it horn frequently. All night long. All. Night. Long. -- So when we reached the shore we had about an hour and a half to look around the town before catching our tour at noon. The port town was cute with lots of book shops, pastry shops and even a Dollar Tree. It wasn't an American Dollar Tree, but basically the same thing only everything was a British pound. As I was finishing up some post cards, Guy went it and was telling me about it. Yep, everything for a British buck. :) We knew our tour was from noon to 3:30 and there was no lunch involved, so we stopped at a pastry shop and got some local cuisine. Supposedly it had the world's best Cornish pasty, which was like a little flaky dough pocket filled with goodness. Guy had cheese, leek and bacon while mine was filled with veggies. It was warm and tasted like a hand-held chicken pot pie without the chicken. I was pleasantly surprised. The staff there was busy and cordial, but certainly not too friendly. We ate inside and then headed out to find our tour.
The town has a lot of French architecture or influence and was wonderfully quaint and a little bit hilly. The roads were narrow and with the cold foggy day it just added to the ambiance of this seaside village. Supposedly it dated back before Christ at about 500 BC, but that was guessing from carbon dated bones found on the island. The castle that guarded the people of Guernsey has been there since 1206. It was first occupied by the French but then later the British. Hence the French influences on the buildings. It is famous for its German occupation from 1940 - 1945, this learned during our tour which started from the pier. There we met our driver, Tom, a blonde blue-eyed kid who swore he was old enough to have a drivers license. We were wondering. :) He was funny and put on a headset and narrated as he drove. First we went to the German Occupation Museum which opened in 1966 and gives guests an idea of what life was like in Guernsey during the occupation. Over half the island evacuated, but for those who stayed, they faced strict rules and near starvation.
From there Tom took us to a part of the island where the Germans dug trenches and had built concrete bunkers. It was at the top of the island and the guns could shoot 360 degrees. It was a beautiful location as it was on the cliffs above the east side of the island overlooking the English Channel. Guy had a good time walking around under the ground while I stayed up top and took some pictures. As we headed out from there (it was an extra stop along the way) we headed toward the German military underground hospital. As we drove there, Tom spoke of modern day life on the island, types of sports they do, how expensive it is to live there, schooling, medical care, etc. It was interesting. Also, the cows on Guernsey are very special and the dairy farms are owned by the local government. They have an extremely high content of fat in their milk making their milk, butter and ice cream especially creamy. So now everyone on the bus wanted ice cream. Ha Ha. The pound was also unique in Guernsey. It can only be spent there. If you took it with you off the island, it was just as a souvenir. Same with the stamps from the post office. They could only be used on Guernsey.
As we got to the underground hospital, we all went in together and Tom took us around. It has 7,000 square meters of tunnels all completely camouflaged. It is virtually invisible from the surface. The tunnels are mostly empty, but a few hospital beds and kitchen supplies still remain. It was also a huge storage spot for ammunition. The interesting thing was it took 3 years to build (some of the tunnels you can look in are unfinished) but after all that hard work it was only used for about a year before the island was liberated in 1945. Hundreds of German soldiers were brought there after the Normandy invasion. There was an X-ray room, an operating room and room after room of hospital beds. It was cold and wet inside and the ceiling looked like it had these little stalactites hanging down, but really it was the salt from the concrete coming out, which tells us they used sand from the beaches to make the concrete. It was a little bit creepy and there were signs all over pointing you where to go. But I could see someone getting confused and turned around inside. Just in case, I never got too far away from Tom.
After leaving the hospital were were just a few minutes ahead of schedule so Tom drove us to the smallest chapel in all of Europe know as the Little Chapel. Probably the smallest in the world, it was started by Brother Deodat, a member of The Brothers of the Christian Schools who ran the college in Guernsey. After WWII it was finished by Brother Cephas to carry out the dream of Brother Deodat. It is decorated inside and out with a combination of shells, pebbles, glass and broken china. It is currently covered with scaffolding on the outside as it appears to be cracking and sliding down the hill a bit,but you could still see the entrance and go inside. It was pretty awesome. While I was exploring the chapel, Guy ran for some of Guernsey's famous ice cream so we could try it. It was good...be still not gelato. ;) Heading back to the ship, Tom said he'd have to put his foot down a little (on the gas) to get us back on time. The last tender left the port at 3:30. We were cutting it close, but we know the ship won't leave without us being just a few minutes late. Overall this was a very interesting tour and very worth it. You got time to see the town on your own, then a bus ride around a portion of the island. Tom was really great and we learned a lot in just a few hours.
The tender pack to the ship was another cold and damp ride up top, but the brisk air felt good. It took a bit of time to get back on the ship as the waters were just a tiny bit choppy and there was another tender ahead of us to unload. Back on the ship we dropped our things in the room and headed up for a snack...then back to the room for a quick nap before having to get ready for dinner. We did the same thing as last night. 8pm reservation and took in the 7pm show. Tonight's entertainment was 4 tenors that were singing classic rock 'n roll songs. They were really good and that was pretty fun. Nobody was talking next to Guy tonight, so that was nice. Then to dinner to see Ilyana and eat MORE food. Of course I took my phone to take some pictures, but it died right after I took a picture of my meal. Guy's meal and our desserts are only a snapshot in my head. LOL. As usual it was very good.
Back to the room we sorted some laundry that needs cleaned and I started the blog. Oh yeah, today in the town the local library had free wifi so we popped in just for a second because I needed some information from a text on my phone. While I did that, I checked on my book that would never completely download on the ship and it downloaded in like 2.5 seconds. I'm. Not. Kidding. Wifi on the boat is frustrating me, but is better than nothing. Still...I didn't think to upload my pictures there because we were in a hurry. So again...no pictures until I can park myself in decent wifi for a bit. Just know they are coming and will be fun to see.
With our bellies full we headed down to get a group number assigned to a tender (the little boat that will take us to the port) because the ship is too big for this port. It was about a 20 minute ride from ship to shore. I was excited when we got on our little boat as there were still spots to sit on the top - outside. It is cold and foggy and not the most popular spot, but for me it was! Better than crammed inside with about 50 other people. So we headed for shore and I took some pictures. They won't be good, but will document how foggy it was. Every day has been that way. Day and Night. In fact, last night and again tonight the ship blows it horn frequently. All night long. All. Night. Long. -- So when we reached the shore we had about an hour and a half to look around the town before catching our tour at noon. The port town was cute with lots of book shops, pastry shops and even a Dollar Tree. It wasn't an American Dollar Tree, but basically the same thing only everything was a British pound. As I was finishing up some post cards, Guy went it and was telling me about it. Yep, everything for a British buck. :) We knew our tour was from noon to 3:30 and there was no lunch involved, so we stopped at a pastry shop and got some local cuisine. Supposedly it had the world's best Cornish pasty, which was like a little flaky dough pocket filled with goodness. Guy had cheese, leek and bacon while mine was filled with veggies. It was warm and tasted like a hand-held chicken pot pie without the chicken. I was pleasantly surprised. The staff there was busy and cordial, but certainly not too friendly. We ate inside and then headed out to find our tour.
The town has a lot of French architecture or influence and was wonderfully quaint and a little bit hilly. The roads were narrow and with the cold foggy day it just added to the ambiance of this seaside village. Supposedly it dated back before Christ at about 500 BC, but that was guessing from carbon dated bones found on the island. The castle that guarded the people of Guernsey has been there since 1206. It was first occupied by the French but then later the British. Hence the French influences on the buildings. It is famous for its German occupation from 1940 - 1945, this learned during our tour which started from the pier. There we met our driver, Tom, a blonde blue-eyed kid who swore he was old enough to have a drivers license. We were wondering. :) He was funny and put on a headset and narrated as he drove. First we went to the German Occupation Museum which opened in 1966 and gives guests an idea of what life was like in Guernsey during the occupation. Over half the island evacuated, but for those who stayed, they faced strict rules and near starvation.
From there Tom took us to a part of the island where the Germans dug trenches and had built concrete bunkers. It was at the top of the island and the guns could shoot 360 degrees. It was a beautiful location as it was on the cliffs above the east side of the island overlooking the English Channel. Guy had a good time walking around under the ground while I stayed up top and took some pictures. As we headed out from there (it was an extra stop along the way) we headed toward the German military underground hospital. As we drove there, Tom spoke of modern day life on the island, types of sports they do, how expensive it is to live there, schooling, medical care, etc. It was interesting. Also, the cows on Guernsey are very special and the dairy farms are owned by the local government. They have an extremely high content of fat in their milk making their milk, butter and ice cream especially creamy. So now everyone on the bus wanted ice cream. Ha Ha. The pound was also unique in Guernsey. It can only be spent there. If you took it with you off the island, it was just as a souvenir. Same with the stamps from the post office. They could only be used on Guernsey.
As we got to the underground hospital, we all went in together and Tom took us around. It has 7,000 square meters of tunnels all completely camouflaged. It is virtually invisible from the surface. The tunnels are mostly empty, but a few hospital beds and kitchen supplies still remain. It was also a huge storage spot for ammunition. The interesting thing was it took 3 years to build (some of the tunnels you can look in are unfinished) but after all that hard work it was only used for about a year before the island was liberated in 1945. Hundreds of German soldiers were brought there after the Normandy invasion. There was an X-ray room, an operating room and room after room of hospital beds. It was cold and wet inside and the ceiling looked like it had these little stalactites hanging down, but really it was the salt from the concrete coming out, which tells us they used sand from the beaches to make the concrete. It was a little bit creepy and there were signs all over pointing you where to go. But I could see someone getting confused and turned around inside. Just in case, I never got too far away from Tom.
After leaving the hospital were were just a few minutes ahead of schedule so Tom drove us to the smallest chapel in all of Europe know as the Little Chapel. Probably the smallest in the world, it was started by Brother Deodat, a member of The Brothers of the Christian Schools who ran the college in Guernsey. After WWII it was finished by Brother Cephas to carry out the dream of Brother Deodat. It is decorated inside and out with a combination of shells, pebbles, glass and broken china. It is currently covered with scaffolding on the outside as it appears to be cracking and sliding down the hill a bit,but you could still see the entrance and go inside. It was pretty awesome. While I was exploring the chapel, Guy ran for some of Guernsey's famous ice cream so we could try it. It was good...be still not gelato. ;) Heading back to the ship, Tom said he'd have to put his foot down a little (on the gas) to get us back on time. The last tender left the port at 3:30. We were cutting it close, but we know the ship won't leave without us being just a few minutes late. Overall this was a very interesting tour and very worth it. You got time to see the town on your own, then a bus ride around a portion of the island. Tom was really great and we learned a lot in just a few hours.
The tender pack to the ship was another cold and damp ride up top, but the brisk air felt good. It took a bit of time to get back on the ship as the waters were just a tiny bit choppy and there was another tender ahead of us to unload. Back on the ship we dropped our things in the room and headed up for a snack...then back to the room for a quick nap before having to get ready for dinner. We did the same thing as last night. 8pm reservation and took in the 7pm show. Tonight's entertainment was 4 tenors that were singing classic rock 'n roll songs. They were really good and that was pretty fun. Nobody was talking next to Guy tonight, so that was nice. Then to dinner to see Ilyana and eat MORE food. Of course I took my phone to take some pictures, but it died right after I took a picture of my meal. Guy's meal and our desserts are only a snapshot in my head. LOL. As usual it was very good.
Back to the room we sorted some laundry that needs cleaned and I started the blog. Oh yeah, today in the town the local library had free wifi so we popped in just for a second because I needed some information from a text on my phone. While I did that, I checked on my book that would never completely download on the ship and it downloaded in like 2.5 seconds. I'm. Not. Kidding. Wifi on the boat is frustrating me, but is better than nothing. Still...I didn't think to upload my pictures there because we were in a hurry. So again...no pictures until I can park myself in decent wifi for a bit. Just know they are coming and will be fun to see.
Friday, May 27, 2016
Day 8 At Sea
We got an extra hour of sleep last night as the clocks got set back. Well, in theory we got an extra hour, but Guy's iPhone didn't update to the time change and our alarm went off at 8 am like it was supposed to, but it was actually 7. I didn't go to bed until after 1am and I couldn't figure out why I was so tired. We both had an activity we were going to do at 10:30 and it wasn't until then did we realize we were up an hour too early. Gah! It's vacation, people. Getting up early when you don't have to breaks all laws of nature. Sigh... So for the next hour I tried to figure out why my photos didn't upload and my battery in my iPad was going down not up. Frustrating morning. Apparently the wifi is so bad I can't upload images. My mom and I were chatting on What's App last night and we got cut off. So we knew then it was sketchy at best. So now I'll just have to upload images from my phone while at the ports. No big deal really, I'm just type A and like my images to be up when the blog is up. Relax, Beth. It's vacation.
So at the REAL 10:30 Guy went down to the dining area to take a tour of the Galley (the ship's kitchens) and I went to the Art Auction. The plan after our activities was to meet back in the room for a nap. Good plan. Guy said his adventure was interesting to see the behind the scenes of such a huge operation, but the best part was the staff answering everyone's questions. The executive chef was Jamaican and apparently quite the character. He said they were all funny. My art auction was the opposite. No one really laughing, it was more serious and people spending big money. This is pretty expensive art and their most expensive piece was an original painting that was available for a mere $45,000. There was one piece I had my eye on. I inquired about the price and it was about $1,400. Um, no thank you. But it was lovely and I was envious of some of the buyers today. The largest bid was several thousand dollars while the lowest bid was around $350. Apparently it was a pretty good deal the gallery was offering. I'm not an art collector because I have a talented aunt whose beautiful paintings I will never take down. But the experience was fun and I've always been curious about the ship's art collections and auctions.
Napped - 2 hours - oh, yeah....
About 2pm we got up to grab some lunch and move around. It is a foggy day on the English Channel and you really couldn't see out very far. Supposedly on a clear day you could see both the English coast and the French coast. Not today my friends. The same goes for tonight. You can't really see out at all. It's creepy but I know the ship has radar, so no worries. Guy spent his afternoon reading a book outside in a deck chair and I spent my time in the Apple Store with a gal trying to help me upload pictures and figure out why my iPad isn't charging. Technology hiccups filled my afternoon. No uploading of pictures and no downloading of books. Lots of people are complaining about the Internet. It is what it is until we get to the next port. At least my What's App works well for texting/talking and surfing the web is fine, too. So not all is lost in bad wifi land. The reason I was trying to download a book was because my sweet friend Amanda Hickman had recommended the book: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society several years ago, which I read. However, we are actually going to be in Guernsey tomorrow and I wanted to re-read the story just for fun. But alas...the download froze at 95% and never moved again.
We got ready for dinner and it was fancy night in the dining room. We didn't really bring things for super dressy dress up, but we had a couple of outfit options that were good enough to get by. When Guy got out of the shower I was already ready and he said "You look nice, I like your tiara". Dear readers, please understand I do love a good tiara, but this was just a sparkly headband and is not quite the same. However, I had a good laugh about it and did receive the title of "Princess". Before dinner we went to the 7pm show because our reservations were for 8pm. It worked out perfectly as the show was 50 minutes long and we were right on time for our reservation. The show was like a musical and some of the singers were really really good. Guy had a couple next to him that talked the entire time. It was a bit frustrating. When we got to the restaurant for dinner the hostess told us she had us saved the table for two by the rail like we had requested (that overlooks the downstairs dining) but someone saw it was open and "jumped in it". So apparently they didn't ask them to move. I told Guy if it was our non-compliant neighbor I was gonna have words. That would have been so funny! But it wasn't and we just sat at the table next to them. They looked like they were enjoying the spot. Maybe we will get it tomorrow night! Dinner was really delicious again tonight. Starters were salads, Guy with the traditional Caesar and mine was a watermelon and tomato concoction with feta cucumbers, red onions and a vinaigrette. I'm going to try to recreate that at home! Our second plate was fried frog legs and they were tasty! For our entrees Guy had beef medallions and I had a zucchini and goat cheese somethin' somethin' and it was quite amazing. For dessert we went with Ileana's suggestion of apple crisp and she was correct. Superb.
Well that was about it today. Nothing too adventurous except ... Drum roll ... my ride in the all glass elevator. It wasn't bad at all because I could see out and the doors open immediately. Not sure I care to ride it by myself, but maybe!! Baby steps....
So at the REAL 10:30 Guy went down to the dining area to take a tour of the Galley (the ship's kitchens) and I went to the Art Auction. The plan after our activities was to meet back in the room for a nap. Good plan. Guy said his adventure was interesting to see the behind the scenes of such a huge operation, but the best part was the staff answering everyone's questions. The executive chef was Jamaican and apparently quite the character. He said they were all funny. My art auction was the opposite. No one really laughing, it was more serious and people spending big money. This is pretty expensive art and their most expensive piece was an original painting that was available for a mere $45,000. There was one piece I had my eye on. I inquired about the price and it was about $1,400. Um, no thank you. But it was lovely and I was envious of some of the buyers today. The largest bid was several thousand dollars while the lowest bid was around $350. Apparently it was a pretty good deal the gallery was offering. I'm not an art collector because I have a talented aunt whose beautiful paintings I will never take down. But the experience was fun and I've always been curious about the ship's art collections and auctions.
Napped - 2 hours - oh, yeah....
About 2pm we got up to grab some lunch and move around. It is a foggy day on the English Channel and you really couldn't see out very far. Supposedly on a clear day you could see both the English coast and the French coast. Not today my friends. The same goes for tonight. You can't really see out at all. It's creepy but I know the ship has radar, so no worries. Guy spent his afternoon reading a book outside in a deck chair and I spent my time in the Apple Store with a gal trying to help me upload pictures and figure out why my iPad isn't charging. Technology hiccups filled my afternoon. No uploading of pictures and no downloading of books. Lots of people are complaining about the Internet. It is what it is until we get to the next port. At least my What's App works well for texting/talking and surfing the web is fine, too. So not all is lost in bad wifi land. The reason I was trying to download a book was because my sweet friend Amanda Hickman had recommended the book: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society several years ago, which I read. However, we are actually going to be in Guernsey tomorrow and I wanted to re-read the story just for fun. But alas...the download froze at 95% and never moved again.
We got ready for dinner and it was fancy night in the dining room. We didn't really bring things for super dressy dress up, but we had a couple of outfit options that were good enough to get by. When Guy got out of the shower I was already ready and he said "You look nice, I like your tiara". Dear readers, please understand I do love a good tiara, but this was just a sparkly headband and is not quite the same. However, I had a good laugh about it and did receive the title of "Princess". Before dinner we went to the 7pm show because our reservations were for 8pm. It worked out perfectly as the show was 50 minutes long and we were right on time for our reservation. The show was like a musical and some of the singers were really really good. Guy had a couple next to him that talked the entire time. It was a bit frustrating. When we got to the restaurant for dinner the hostess told us she had us saved the table for two by the rail like we had requested (that overlooks the downstairs dining) but someone saw it was open and "jumped in it". So apparently they didn't ask them to move. I told Guy if it was our non-compliant neighbor I was gonna have words. That would have been so funny! But it wasn't and we just sat at the table next to them. They looked like they were enjoying the spot. Maybe we will get it tomorrow night! Dinner was really delicious again tonight. Starters were salads, Guy with the traditional Caesar and mine was a watermelon and tomato concoction with feta cucumbers, red onions and a vinaigrette. I'm going to try to recreate that at home! Our second plate was fried frog legs and they were tasty! For our entrees Guy had beef medallions and I had a zucchini and goat cheese somethin' somethin' and it was quite amazing. For dessert we went with Ileana's suggestion of apple crisp and she was correct. Superb.
Well that was about it today. Nothing too adventurous except ... Drum roll ... my ride in the all glass elevator. It wasn't bad at all because I could see out and the doors open immediately. Not sure I care to ride it by myself, but maybe!! Baby steps....
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Day 7 Amsterdam/Cruise
Well, we woke up to our last day in Amsterdam. We actually like Amsterdam. There is a lot going on and it's really fun just to walk around the canals. It's really beautiful, especially in the evening when the bridges are sparkling with little lights. It's kinda cool! Of course there are lots of crazy things happening as well, but we are old, so we don't really partake in the activities for the young.- I goofed around too much in the morning checking emails and ran us a bit late. Not that we had to be anywhere at a certain time, but at 11:50 the hotel folks were at our door wondering if we "needed help with anything". A very polite way of saying "get the heck out". Guy ran up to get me a coffee latte and we quickly ate our left over Nutella donuts from yesterday. They were better cold! We have mixed emotions about the W hotel in Amsterdam. We'd stay there again and the staff was super nice, it was just very hipster and the rooms were a bit interesting. Overall, it was great, just different.
We caught a cab to the cruise terminal and the taxi driver made a wrong turn and couldn't get us as close as we could have been, but it was fine and we only had to pull our bags over cobblestones for a short distance. No worries. We got to bypass the line when we reached check-in because we have Concierge level "status". That saved us quite a bit of time. Getting onto the ship we did a little self-guided tour after we saw the staterooms weren't quite ready yet. The ship is the nicest one we've been on so far. All the past ships we've been on have been nothing special. We've never been concerned about the ship, just the stops it is making. However, this time the boat is an upgrade for us. We sat outsize in the hazy sun and there was a cool breeze out. Not quite enough to get us to go in, tho. You can easily spot the people with jet lag as they are sleeping in the pool chairs (that was us last time we took a cruise from Amsterdam, so we feel their pain). You can also tell it is going to be a cold cruise as they have blankets set out for people to cover up with. Ha ha.
Ding Dong...Announcement: Staterooms are ready! So we went down and checked out or cabin. It is smaller than our last room, but the bathroom is pretty good size and so long as it has a balcony I'm happy. I was just worried I wouldn't have enough room to unpack all of our stuff and there was certainly not enough room to have two giant suitcases open. Itching to sanitize the room, I could not as our suitcases have not arrived yet - so I couldn't get to my Lysol can and tub of wipes. We have a Russian family next door. Their little one was out on the balcony pretty much screaming. We could see at least 4 people through the frosted glass and we think we've counted a fifth. I'm going to strangle Guy after 12 days in this tiny space, so I can't image two other adults and a small child in there with me. Where are they putting their bags and where are they sleeping? Yikers. While we were waiting for our bags we decided to hit the buffet line and grabbed some lunch. It was pretty good. I did eat some bread pudding that was pretty fabulous. Simple, but tasty. We then walked around and checked out the spa and fitness room, the Library, and pretty much every single floor. At 4:30 we had the safety drill and we of course had to go to that. Close to the end of the drill you could see a man trying to leave early. But the ship employee wouldn't let him. He made him come back inside but the passenger wouldn't sit back down. Hey, no one wants to do this, especially when you've done it several times on other cruises, but if there really was an emergency you are going to be glad you know where to go! When it was over, the front rows got to go first and the back was the last to leave, but of course the feisty passenger was standing in the back and should have been last, but he just walked out. So 700 other people were following the rules, but there is always that ONE GUY. Well, guess what, that ONE GUY is our Russian neighbor next door! Can you believe it? We had a good laugh about it...a screaming child and an non-compliant old guy right next door...AND they are smoking on their balcony which is against the rules. Trifecta.
After the drill we went back to our room and our bags were there! Woo Hoo! So I cracked out the Lysol and Lysol wipes and started with the bathroom working my way out to the balcony. Not a surface went unsprayed. All handles, gadgets, drawers (inside and out), hangers, remote control, you name it and it got a bath. Now I'm not a freak like this in hotels, but I also don't want any part of the norovirus that is so common on cruise ships and what if the people that walked out only 4 hours earlier had it? You KNOW it's still fresh on all the surfaces. So, I strapped on my battle gear and went to war. Well, about half way in, our cabin steward wanted to come in and show us a few things. Guy said it would have been hilarious if I'd had gloves and a mask on. But I told him I didn't like germs and was cleaning the room..."no offense" I said. He acted like he understood...but you know. It was awkward. He asked what we needed and I told him that I was going to put all the "fancy germ infested pillows" under the bed (ok...I was thinking germ infested but didn't really say that out loud) and I didn't want him to put them back out each day. Also, I asked for a sheet for the sofa so we felt comfy setting on something clean. He said no problem. I told him he didn't need to change it, but leave it as is each day. He said "I won't do anything until you tell me to". I like him. :)
Guy stayed out on the balcony as I fumigated and asked a few times if I needed to come out for fresh air. It was pretty stinky. But I was nearly done and after my cleaning job (my mom would have been so proud) I changed and went upstairs for a run outside on the running track and to clear my lungs out. Luckily the early birds would be getting ready for dinner and there wasn't much of a crowd on that deck. I set my GPS to track my mileage, but the ship had started moving as well. Boy did I run FAST. I could hardly hear my GPS lady telling me how far I had gone, but when I heard her say 6 miles I pulled out my phone to see how long I had been running. It had been about 40 minutes, so I'm figuring more like 4 miles. I laughed tho...my best pace EVER! Guy was just below me in a covered area out of the breeze. After my run I went down and we sat and watched the boat pulling out of the canal it was in, which took sometime. We did have to go through a lock and Guy wanted to watch that process, so I went upstairs and took a shower to get ready for dinner. It was nearly 8:30 before we made it to the dining room, but they had a nice table for two along the rail and our server, Ilyana, was super great. Our food was very nice and there was plenty. Of course you could have anything you wanted, but I wasn't starving and didn't get any extras.
After dinner we walked around the ship just a bit more and I chatted with Oleysa and Sydne via What's App. Sydne made it to Berlin and her hostel is MUCH nicer than the one she just left in Amsterdam. However, she said they are still living like animals tho...because they have no hair products. I'm still laughing about that. Oleysa wanted to see pictures of the ship, so I started taking some. Thanks for the reminder because I wouldn't have had many photos for the blog today!
So on that note, I think we've pretty much covered today's adventure. Tomorrow is a day at sea AND we gain an hour as we head away from Amsterdam. Woot Woot. We get another hour of sleep! Good thing...it's already midnight!
We caught a cab to the cruise terminal and the taxi driver made a wrong turn and couldn't get us as close as we could have been, but it was fine and we only had to pull our bags over cobblestones for a short distance. No worries. We got to bypass the line when we reached check-in because we have Concierge level "status". That saved us quite a bit of time. Getting onto the ship we did a little self-guided tour after we saw the staterooms weren't quite ready yet. The ship is the nicest one we've been on so far. All the past ships we've been on have been nothing special. We've never been concerned about the ship, just the stops it is making. However, this time the boat is an upgrade for us. We sat outsize in the hazy sun and there was a cool breeze out. Not quite enough to get us to go in, tho. You can easily spot the people with jet lag as they are sleeping in the pool chairs (that was us last time we took a cruise from Amsterdam, so we feel their pain). You can also tell it is going to be a cold cruise as they have blankets set out for people to cover up with. Ha ha.
Ding Dong...Announcement: Staterooms are ready! So we went down and checked out or cabin. It is smaller than our last room, but the bathroom is pretty good size and so long as it has a balcony I'm happy. I was just worried I wouldn't have enough room to unpack all of our stuff and there was certainly not enough room to have two giant suitcases open. Itching to sanitize the room, I could not as our suitcases have not arrived yet - so I couldn't get to my Lysol can and tub of wipes. We have a Russian family next door. Their little one was out on the balcony pretty much screaming. We could see at least 4 people through the frosted glass and we think we've counted a fifth. I'm going to strangle Guy after 12 days in this tiny space, so I can't image two other adults and a small child in there with me. Where are they putting their bags and where are they sleeping? Yikers. While we were waiting for our bags we decided to hit the buffet line and grabbed some lunch. It was pretty good. I did eat some bread pudding that was pretty fabulous. Simple, but tasty. We then walked around and checked out the spa and fitness room, the Library, and pretty much every single floor. At 4:30 we had the safety drill and we of course had to go to that. Close to the end of the drill you could see a man trying to leave early. But the ship employee wouldn't let him. He made him come back inside but the passenger wouldn't sit back down. Hey, no one wants to do this, especially when you've done it several times on other cruises, but if there really was an emergency you are going to be glad you know where to go! When it was over, the front rows got to go first and the back was the last to leave, but of course the feisty passenger was standing in the back and should have been last, but he just walked out. So 700 other people were following the rules, but there is always that ONE GUY. Well, guess what, that ONE GUY is our Russian neighbor next door! Can you believe it? We had a good laugh about it...a screaming child and an non-compliant old guy right next door...AND they are smoking on their balcony which is against the rules. Trifecta.
After the drill we went back to our room and our bags were there! Woo Hoo! So I cracked out the Lysol and Lysol wipes and started with the bathroom working my way out to the balcony. Not a surface went unsprayed. All handles, gadgets, drawers (inside and out), hangers, remote control, you name it and it got a bath. Now I'm not a freak like this in hotels, but I also don't want any part of the norovirus that is so common on cruise ships and what if the people that walked out only 4 hours earlier had it? You KNOW it's still fresh on all the surfaces. So, I strapped on my battle gear and went to war. Well, about half way in, our cabin steward wanted to come in and show us a few things. Guy said it would have been hilarious if I'd had gloves and a mask on. But I told him I didn't like germs and was cleaning the room..."no offense" I said. He acted like he understood...but you know. It was awkward. He asked what we needed and I told him that I was going to put all the "fancy germ infested pillows" under the bed (ok...I was thinking germ infested but didn't really say that out loud) and I didn't want him to put them back out each day. Also, I asked for a sheet for the sofa so we felt comfy setting on something clean. He said no problem. I told him he didn't need to change it, but leave it as is each day. He said "I won't do anything until you tell me to". I like him. :)
Guy stayed out on the balcony as I fumigated and asked a few times if I needed to come out for fresh air. It was pretty stinky. But I was nearly done and after my cleaning job (my mom would have been so proud) I changed and went upstairs for a run outside on the running track and to clear my lungs out. Luckily the early birds would be getting ready for dinner and there wasn't much of a crowd on that deck. I set my GPS to track my mileage, but the ship had started moving as well. Boy did I run FAST. I could hardly hear my GPS lady telling me how far I had gone, but when I heard her say 6 miles I pulled out my phone to see how long I had been running. It had been about 40 minutes, so I'm figuring more like 4 miles. I laughed tho...my best pace EVER! Guy was just below me in a covered area out of the breeze. After my run I went down and we sat and watched the boat pulling out of the canal it was in, which took sometime. We did have to go through a lock and Guy wanted to watch that process, so I went upstairs and took a shower to get ready for dinner. It was nearly 8:30 before we made it to the dining room, but they had a nice table for two along the rail and our server, Ilyana, was super great. Our food was very nice and there was plenty. Of course you could have anything you wanted, but I wasn't starving and didn't get any extras.
After dinner we walked around the ship just a bit more and I chatted with Oleysa and Sydne via What's App. Sydne made it to Berlin and her hostel is MUCH nicer than the one she just left in Amsterdam. However, she said they are still living like animals tho...because they have no hair products. I'm still laughing about that. Oleysa wanted to see pictures of the ship, so I started taking some. Thanks for the reminder because I wouldn't have had many photos for the blog today!
So on that note, I think we've pretty much covered today's adventure. Tomorrow is a day at sea AND we gain an hour as we head away from Amsterdam. Woot Woot. We get another hour of sleep! Good thing...it's already midnight!
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Day 6 Amsterdam
Today we are proud to say we didn't get out of bed until noon. And we actually had a pretty good nights rest. We were in no hurry today, with no specific plans and it is raining a bit. Leisurely we got up and got ready. Drizzly and in the 50s means long sleeves and our jackets. Without a definite plan we headed out just to walk around for a place to have lunch. As we made a turn down a street that was nothing special and not very busy, there was a little hole in the wall where people were setting outside under a canopy. As we went by the menu board had the soup of the day as sweet potato and pumpkin and they served breakfast all day. Done and done. We chose to sit inside and it was a super cute place serving organic food. It was friendly and warm. Guy ordered an omelette and I had the soup with homemade bread. Very lovely - "Greenwoods" was the name of the cafe.
After "brunch" we headed toward the train station along a canal knowing we'd eventually bump into the canal cruises and we certainly did. We chose the Lovers Canal Cruises (hee hee) and when we got on the boat it wasn't full yet, so we opted for sitting outside in the back. Well, the back was covered overhead with plastic and it was kinda hard to see out, so we moved back inside once the boat was underway. It wasn't full, but the forward facing seats were all taken and so we sat facing backwards. It was still better than our view from outside and the young feller driving the boat (today was only his second day driving this boat) was narrating the scenery. You didn't hear that in the back. So he told some really dry and not-funny jokes, but he was trying. We were told that each year 20,000 bicycles are pulled from the canals. He also said if you didn't lock your bike up (which is their main source of transportation in the city) that someone would steal it. But that was ok, just steal someone elses. He said they steal each other's bikes all the time. Funny. We passed several areas that were architecturally different and he explained why and who once lived there. They also talked about the buildings all around the city that are leaning. They were initially built on wooden pilings which eventually rotted and the buildings shifted. They are now replaced with concrete, but they are amazing to look at. Some look like with one good push they'd tumble right over.
After our cruise we walked along the pedestrian shopping area and it was packed with people. Lots of American chains, H&M, Nike, Forever 21, etc., but I was looking for either Victoria's Secret or Bath and Body because I'd like some body spray. But no luck. So we went over to check out the flower district and it was mostly bulbs. We were thinking the last time we saw it they had more fresh flowers out, but maybe the season isn't quite right. One little shop had the drawstring bags that said Amsterdam for 3 euros. That was a cheap souvenir but when I went to the counter to ask where I could find one, I stood there for what seemed to be 3 or 4 minutes as the owner/employee chatted on the phone. You could tell the conversation was personal. He saw me but made no attempt to say "just a minute" or anything. So I left and went across the street to the Christmas store. It was filled with lovely ornaments and I found a cool little manger scene for my mom (she collects them) and it had a little wooden shoe by the manger. As I went up to the counter to ask the guy to get it out of the glass drawer I saw the other section of the store that was filled with gross paraphernalia (Amsterdam is full of it, which is fine, but not in a Christmas store). Just couldn't get myself to spend my money there. I think my mom would agree. So as we walked down the street we came across a Starbucks and I popped in for a Netherlands mug for my collection. Scratching that off my list. So to date, that is my only purchase of the trip.
Heading back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner, it's now time to reveal my surprise guest of the day...SYDNE! Yep, had dinner tonight with my student employee from SIU! Well, she actually just graduated, but we are pulling her back in as a Grad student this fall...not ready to let her go just yet ;). We knew we'd both be in Europe at the same time, but it just happened that we were in Amsterdam on the same day. We've been excited about it for several weeks. My friend Olesya had made the reservation for us and gave us the name of this restaurant as a recommendation. (Thank you!) We met Sydne and her friend Stephanie at the Cafe De Jaren. The menu was limited but interesting and delicious. The staff was friendly and the atmosphere was nice as well. We had fun swapping stories about our adventures and it is fun to see that they are such good travelers at such a young age. Sydne isn't afraid to try anything, so she is the perfect person to backpack through Europe. I haven't stayed at a hostel before, but she is making the best of it. She doesn't like them, but loves to travel and makes it work. Kudos, girl!
After dinner we walked to a little sweet shop and we all had a warm Nutella filled doughnut. So. Good. This little shop is next door to our hotel so we took them up to our room to check out our crazy modern digs and then up to the 6th floor for some drinks and music. The hotel has a female DJ on staff and she was rockin the place with a mix of old and new. The room was filled with "beautiful people" and was ultra chic. Sydne looked around and said, "at the hostel we are living like animals...I don't even have hair products!" I thought Guy and I were going to fall out of our chairs laughing. That was definitely the line of the day. :) So after we were all caught up, it was starting to get late and the girls still had a few places to see tonight, so we walked them out and hugged them goodbye. Can't wait to hear about the rest of her trip when she gets back. Safe travels ladies!
Well, tomorrow starts our cruising adventure. We've had a really great time so far and are looking forward to seeing a few new places. We have excursions booked for most days and it will be nice to relax in the evenings and not worry about finding places to eat. Not that we don't enjoy that, but sometimes you like no-brainer evenings. It IS vacation after all!
After "brunch" we headed toward the train station along a canal knowing we'd eventually bump into the canal cruises and we certainly did. We chose the Lovers Canal Cruises (hee hee) and when we got on the boat it wasn't full yet, so we opted for sitting outside in the back. Well, the back was covered overhead with plastic and it was kinda hard to see out, so we moved back inside once the boat was underway. It wasn't full, but the forward facing seats were all taken and so we sat facing backwards. It was still better than our view from outside and the young feller driving the boat (today was only his second day driving this boat) was narrating the scenery. You didn't hear that in the back. So he told some really dry and not-funny jokes, but he was trying. We were told that each year 20,000 bicycles are pulled from the canals. He also said if you didn't lock your bike up (which is their main source of transportation in the city) that someone would steal it. But that was ok, just steal someone elses. He said they steal each other's bikes all the time. Funny. We passed several areas that were architecturally different and he explained why and who once lived there. They also talked about the buildings all around the city that are leaning. They were initially built on wooden pilings which eventually rotted and the buildings shifted. They are now replaced with concrete, but they are amazing to look at. Some look like with one good push they'd tumble right over.
After our cruise we walked along the pedestrian shopping area and it was packed with people. Lots of American chains, H&M, Nike, Forever 21, etc., but I was looking for either Victoria's Secret or Bath and Body because I'd like some body spray. But no luck. So we went over to check out the flower district and it was mostly bulbs. We were thinking the last time we saw it they had more fresh flowers out, but maybe the season isn't quite right. One little shop had the drawstring bags that said Amsterdam for 3 euros. That was a cheap souvenir but when I went to the counter to ask where I could find one, I stood there for what seemed to be 3 or 4 minutes as the owner/employee chatted on the phone. You could tell the conversation was personal. He saw me but made no attempt to say "just a minute" or anything. So I left and went across the street to the Christmas store. It was filled with lovely ornaments and I found a cool little manger scene for my mom (she collects them) and it had a little wooden shoe by the manger. As I went up to the counter to ask the guy to get it out of the glass drawer I saw the other section of the store that was filled with gross paraphernalia (Amsterdam is full of it, which is fine, but not in a Christmas store). Just couldn't get myself to spend my money there. I think my mom would agree. So as we walked down the street we came across a Starbucks and I popped in for a Netherlands mug for my collection. Scratching that off my list. So to date, that is my only purchase of the trip.
Heading back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner, it's now time to reveal my surprise guest of the day...SYDNE! Yep, had dinner tonight with my student employee from SIU! Well, she actually just graduated, but we are pulling her back in as a Grad student this fall...not ready to let her go just yet ;). We knew we'd both be in Europe at the same time, but it just happened that we were in Amsterdam on the same day. We've been excited about it for several weeks. My friend Olesya had made the reservation for us and gave us the name of this restaurant as a recommendation. (Thank you!) We met Sydne and her friend Stephanie at the Cafe De Jaren. The menu was limited but interesting and delicious. The staff was friendly and the atmosphere was nice as well. We had fun swapping stories about our adventures and it is fun to see that they are such good travelers at such a young age. Sydne isn't afraid to try anything, so she is the perfect person to backpack through Europe. I haven't stayed at a hostel before, but she is making the best of it. She doesn't like them, but loves to travel and makes it work. Kudos, girl!
After dinner we walked to a little sweet shop and we all had a warm Nutella filled doughnut. So. Good. This little shop is next door to our hotel so we took them up to our room to check out our crazy modern digs and then up to the 6th floor for some drinks and music. The hotel has a female DJ on staff and she was rockin the place with a mix of old and new. The room was filled with "beautiful people" and was ultra chic. Sydne looked around and said, "at the hostel we are living like animals...I don't even have hair products!" I thought Guy and I were going to fall out of our chairs laughing. That was definitely the line of the day. :) So after we were all caught up, it was starting to get late and the girls still had a few places to see tonight, so we walked them out and hugged them goodbye. Can't wait to hear about the rest of her trip when she gets back. Safe travels ladies!
Well, tomorrow starts our cruising adventure. We've had a really great time so far and are looking forward to seeing a few new places. We have excursions booked for most days and it will be nice to relax in the evenings and not worry about finding places to eat. Not that we don't enjoy that, but sometimes you like no-brainer evenings. It IS vacation after all!
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Day 5 Amsterdam
Well the alarm went off at 7am and I jumped for joy. Why? Because I slept about 2.7 minutes all night log. Erf. Guy had an equally bad night. He thinks it's the bed. I think I have bags under my eyes. Germany knows how to age a girl. Reaching for my eye cream...
Zipping up the big bag required my bum to be sitting on it. How does that happen...our clothes seem to be getting bigger. But we both agreed be brought too much stuff on this trip. Next time we'll remember this and just make plans to do laundry. Saying goodbye to our room, we headed down and caught a taxi to the train station. Could we have walked there? Yes. Was it raining? Yes. Did the taxi cab say "Short ride" when we got to the station? Yes. Were we sorry we took a cab? No! (It was several blocks actually!) At the station, being over an hour early, we purchased a few pastries in the cafe and I had a Starbucks rivaling caramel macchiato. After a nice breakfast we headed to the track our train was supposed to come in on. So speaking of the BIG bag a few minutes ago, let me just say the ONLY track that didn't have a down escalator was of course ours. We did manage to get them down the stairs without incident, but again we are still rethinking our poor clothing decisions. A train arrived at the time our train was supposed to arrive and we were a bit confused, so I asked the lady next to me and she assured us our train was next. When it did arrive and finally depart Hamburg station, we were 20 minutes behind schedule. Our layover to change trains at the next town was 20 minutes....
Guy and I dubbed this train as the "Library Train". I've never been in a car filled with so people but be so quiet. I leaned over and seriously whispered to Guy, "I gotta pee" and the lady across from me smiled. No private conversations to be had on that ride. So as I was reading my magazine, I glanced down at my watch and told Guy we were getting close. We got our bags down from the overhead area and made our way to the doors to be first out. As of right now, and we are still moving, we have 2 minutes to catch our next train. As the doors opened we heard the conductor say something about the train to Amsterdam but it was in German. All we knew was we needed to run. I have a new respect for Guy as he bolted down two flights of steps with 99.5 pounds of bags in his hands. A group of us were running to track 12 and there sets our train. Whew! But alas, the doors had already shut and people from our group were trying to push the open button and were screaming at the conductor to wait! I mean screaming! Ok, so I don't speak German, but there was an older guy standing there kinda hollering back at us and I know what he was saying..."Yelling and banging on the train won't make it stop". Yes, it pulled away slowly, mocking us as we stood in frustration.
Staring at each other, we shrugged our shoulders (universal symbol BTW) and went up to the ticket counter. We weren't sure which line to be in, so I stood in the info line and Guy went to the ticket counter. I knew I was in the right line because the guy from our train, wearing lime green, was letting the info guy have it with a raised voice and shaking his fist in the air. I asked the girl in front of me if she spoke English but she said no. I was dying to know what he was saying. Anyway the info guy asked a question and about 8 people raised their hands and he gave them all a piece of paper. Darn! I know I needed one of those pieces of paper, too! So I could see Guy next door and we were both making our way through the lines at about the same pace. One of the guys who got a piece of paper was walking by and I asked him if he missed the train to Amsterdam. He said yes! He went on to tell me apologetically that he had only 3 minutes to catch his next train and had to go, but it was complicated and they would tell us how we might be able to get our money back. Money back? I just want a ticket to Amsterdam. So when I got to the ticket guy, he said the next train was in 2 hours and he slammed his stamp on my paper and handed it to me. I said, "So I just show this on the next train and this is all I need?" He said, "yes". In the meantime, Guy was in an actual ticket line and the lady there said we could get on with what I had, but she could reserve us a seat. A seat. Not two seats. So they have plenty of "free" seats and we'd just have to see how it went when the train got there.
One thing about the big suitcase is the make nice seats. So as we waited for the train we pulled our suitcases off to the side and plopped down and ate our sandwiches we had purchased at the breakfast cafe. We people watched and had some interesting conversations about other cultures. Funny how we stereotype so quickly....and how I wish I spoke every language. :) Fearing missing our next train, Guy dragged me out to the track way too early (usually that's fine but it was only 52 degrees out there!) So I sat in a little waiting area that had some glass around it and chatted with a lady from Germany that spoke minimal English, but I think she wanted to practice with me. So I obliged. She said she has a friend here from Florida and in August she hopes to go there. She has lived in Hamburg for over 30 years and there was a famous singer that either came from there or has a big house on the lake we stayed by. She seemed surprised I had never heard of him. She was nice and fun to talk to.
On the train it looked like someone was in our seat (note: seat, not seats) so we just chose two "free" ones together but we'd be facing backwards for 3 hours. No worries. Now this wasn't the Library Train, it was the foul language train. Three rows away there are two American kids and this girl has a filthy mouth and to top it off she is loud and wants everyone to hear her. She was flipping back and forth between English and German on the phone, so Guy was thinking about asking her if she'd cuss in German if she didn't mind. That way we wouldn't know what she was saying. We endured "Rated R" girl for about two hours and as the train filled and more people were talking, she became less noticeable. The worst thing is her dad called her and she was telling him her flight on Sunday was cancelled. So as she became more animated with the story (which we'd already heard) she began cussing and saying the worst of all words to her dad! Sheesh. Just a shout out here to our parents for setting a good example and/or giving us a good smack when our mouths got out of hand.
Arriving at the W Hotel we entered inside and were quickly escorted to the 6th floor where the reception desk and bar area was located. The elevator was tight but I rode it because the bellman was with us and he had a radio. So let me tell you...the doors open s.l.o.w.l.y. I would be one and done in that bad boy. So after checking in, I took the stairs down to the 2nd floor to our room and the stairs are fantastic with glass doors on each floor. Very open and in the center of the hotel. Ahhh...if they could all be like this. Most times we are going through hotel laundry rooms or back kitchens to get to the stairs. Ok, so now...the room. This is a brand new hotel and extremely modern. The floors are painted concrete with a big red rug under the bed and artistic lightning. The sink is just at the end of the bed and the shower is a frosted glass pod also out in the room -with really no privacy to speak of (getting in and out of the shower that is). The toilet is in a little room by itself and is fully mirrored on the outside and solid red on the inside. The door opens like a refrigerator, no real handle or lock. The pictures will help explain.
Since we were running late from the train snafu, we changed and freshened up and headed out to meet Olesya for dinner. Olesya is a friend of mine that I went to grad school with at SIU. She is originally from Ukraine but lives just 45 minutes or so from Amsterdam with her boyfriend, Jan Hein. We had been chatting for a few weeks about my upcoming vacation and were hoping to get to meet for dinner. She actually made dinner reservations for us tonight (recommendations from Jan - a local) and then again for tomorrow with my other "surprise guest". (Blog followers stay tuned). So our GPS was doing a pretty good job of getting us to the restaurant, but we thought we'd gone too far and turned around. That really messed up Google Maps. So I asked a young girl and she said it was just down the road. She was super sweet and wished us luck. But as I turned around, there stood my Olesya that I haven't seen since 2011. Still exactly the same. Fun, beautiful and always a great conversationalist. The food was awesome at the Brasserie Harkema, but the conversation was even better. After dinner, it was about 9:30pm and we decided we would head out to one of her favorite pubs, Café Papeneiland, and there Jan Hein would be meeting up with us (he was working late). We took the "scenic route" and walked around Amsterdam with all its glorious waterways and bridges. At 9:30 it is still slightly daylight and we got the feel of a Dutch evening as the cold misty air ruined our hair but made the walk refreshing. On the way to the bar my phone died, so Olesya had a charger and we plugged it in at the pub at a table around the corner. I heard one of them say "We won't take it with us". I hope not! Also, this pub is a favorite of Bill Clinton's and when he is in Amsterdam he always gets their apple pie! So of course we didn't have dessert at the Harkema in anticipation of this pie. It did not disappoint! After a bit, Jan Hein was able to join us. Being a chef, he and Guy had lots to talk about in between funny stories of his past adventures. I can't tell you how fun our evening has been. It is getting late and Jan has to work early in the morning, so we headed back to the hotel (passing the apparent making of some kind of movie). It's just past 2am now, but I wanted to finish the blog while everything was fresh. But don't worry...my morning will consist of sleeping in and when I wake up I"ll be looking again through my bag of local treats that Olesya brought me tonight as a gift. Especially the one I'll be tasting with my coffee!
What a great day. Sorry for typos...it's late.
Zipping up the big bag required my bum to be sitting on it. How does that happen...our clothes seem to be getting bigger. But we both agreed be brought too much stuff on this trip. Next time we'll remember this and just make plans to do laundry. Saying goodbye to our room, we headed down and caught a taxi to the train station. Could we have walked there? Yes. Was it raining? Yes. Did the taxi cab say "Short ride" when we got to the station? Yes. Were we sorry we took a cab? No! (It was several blocks actually!) At the station, being over an hour early, we purchased a few pastries in the cafe and I had a Starbucks rivaling caramel macchiato. After a nice breakfast we headed to the track our train was supposed to come in on. So speaking of the BIG bag a few minutes ago, let me just say the ONLY track that didn't have a down escalator was of course ours. We did manage to get them down the stairs without incident, but again we are still rethinking our poor clothing decisions. A train arrived at the time our train was supposed to arrive and we were a bit confused, so I asked the lady next to me and she assured us our train was next. When it did arrive and finally depart Hamburg station, we were 20 minutes behind schedule. Our layover to change trains at the next town was 20 minutes....
Guy and I dubbed this train as the "Library Train". I've never been in a car filled with so people but be so quiet. I leaned over and seriously whispered to Guy, "I gotta pee" and the lady across from me smiled. No private conversations to be had on that ride. So as I was reading my magazine, I glanced down at my watch and told Guy we were getting close. We got our bags down from the overhead area and made our way to the doors to be first out. As of right now, and we are still moving, we have 2 minutes to catch our next train. As the doors opened we heard the conductor say something about the train to Amsterdam but it was in German. All we knew was we needed to run. I have a new respect for Guy as he bolted down two flights of steps with 99.5 pounds of bags in his hands. A group of us were running to track 12 and there sets our train. Whew! But alas, the doors had already shut and people from our group were trying to push the open button and were screaming at the conductor to wait! I mean screaming! Ok, so I don't speak German, but there was an older guy standing there kinda hollering back at us and I know what he was saying..."Yelling and banging on the train won't make it stop". Yes, it pulled away slowly, mocking us as we stood in frustration.
Staring at each other, we shrugged our shoulders (universal symbol BTW) and went up to the ticket counter. We weren't sure which line to be in, so I stood in the info line and Guy went to the ticket counter. I knew I was in the right line because the guy from our train, wearing lime green, was letting the info guy have it with a raised voice and shaking his fist in the air. I asked the girl in front of me if she spoke English but she said no. I was dying to know what he was saying. Anyway the info guy asked a question and about 8 people raised their hands and he gave them all a piece of paper. Darn! I know I needed one of those pieces of paper, too! So I could see Guy next door and we were both making our way through the lines at about the same pace. One of the guys who got a piece of paper was walking by and I asked him if he missed the train to Amsterdam. He said yes! He went on to tell me apologetically that he had only 3 minutes to catch his next train and had to go, but it was complicated and they would tell us how we might be able to get our money back. Money back? I just want a ticket to Amsterdam. So when I got to the ticket guy, he said the next train was in 2 hours and he slammed his stamp on my paper and handed it to me. I said, "So I just show this on the next train and this is all I need?" He said, "yes". In the meantime, Guy was in an actual ticket line and the lady there said we could get on with what I had, but she could reserve us a seat. A seat. Not two seats. So they have plenty of "free" seats and we'd just have to see how it went when the train got there.
One thing about the big suitcase is the make nice seats. So as we waited for the train we pulled our suitcases off to the side and plopped down and ate our sandwiches we had purchased at the breakfast cafe. We people watched and had some interesting conversations about other cultures. Funny how we stereotype so quickly....and how I wish I spoke every language. :) Fearing missing our next train, Guy dragged me out to the track way too early (usually that's fine but it was only 52 degrees out there!) So I sat in a little waiting area that had some glass around it and chatted with a lady from Germany that spoke minimal English, but I think she wanted to practice with me. So I obliged. She said she has a friend here from Florida and in August she hopes to go there. She has lived in Hamburg for over 30 years and there was a famous singer that either came from there or has a big house on the lake we stayed by. She seemed surprised I had never heard of him. She was nice and fun to talk to.
On the train it looked like someone was in our seat (note: seat, not seats) so we just chose two "free" ones together but we'd be facing backwards for 3 hours. No worries. Now this wasn't the Library Train, it was the foul language train. Three rows away there are two American kids and this girl has a filthy mouth and to top it off she is loud and wants everyone to hear her. She was flipping back and forth between English and German on the phone, so Guy was thinking about asking her if she'd cuss in German if she didn't mind. That way we wouldn't know what she was saying. We endured "Rated R" girl for about two hours and as the train filled and more people were talking, she became less noticeable. The worst thing is her dad called her and she was telling him her flight on Sunday was cancelled. So as she became more animated with the story (which we'd already heard) she began cussing and saying the worst of all words to her dad! Sheesh. Just a shout out here to our parents for setting a good example and/or giving us a good smack when our mouths got out of hand.
Arriving at the W Hotel we entered inside and were quickly escorted to the 6th floor where the reception desk and bar area was located. The elevator was tight but I rode it because the bellman was with us and he had a radio. So let me tell you...the doors open s.l.o.w.l.y. I would be one and done in that bad boy. So after checking in, I took the stairs down to the 2nd floor to our room and the stairs are fantastic with glass doors on each floor. Very open and in the center of the hotel. Ahhh...if they could all be like this. Most times we are going through hotel laundry rooms or back kitchens to get to the stairs. Ok, so now...the room. This is a brand new hotel and extremely modern. The floors are painted concrete with a big red rug under the bed and artistic lightning. The sink is just at the end of the bed and the shower is a frosted glass pod also out in the room -with really no privacy to speak of (getting in and out of the shower that is). The toilet is in a little room by itself and is fully mirrored on the outside and solid red on the inside. The door opens like a refrigerator, no real handle or lock. The pictures will help explain.
Since we were running late from the train snafu, we changed and freshened up and headed out to meet Olesya for dinner. Olesya is a friend of mine that I went to grad school with at SIU. She is originally from Ukraine but lives just 45 minutes or so from Amsterdam with her boyfriend, Jan Hein. We had been chatting for a few weeks about my upcoming vacation and were hoping to get to meet for dinner. She actually made dinner reservations for us tonight (recommendations from Jan - a local) and then again for tomorrow with my other "surprise guest". (Blog followers stay tuned). So our GPS was doing a pretty good job of getting us to the restaurant, but we thought we'd gone too far and turned around. That really messed up Google Maps. So I asked a young girl and she said it was just down the road. She was super sweet and wished us luck. But as I turned around, there stood my Olesya that I haven't seen since 2011. Still exactly the same. Fun, beautiful and always a great conversationalist. The food was awesome at the Brasserie Harkema, but the conversation was even better. After dinner, it was about 9:30pm and we decided we would head out to one of her favorite pubs, Café Papeneiland, and there Jan Hein would be meeting up with us (he was working late). We took the "scenic route" and walked around Amsterdam with all its glorious waterways and bridges. At 9:30 it is still slightly daylight and we got the feel of a Dutch evening as the cold misty air ruined our hair but made the walk refreshing. On the way to the bar my phone died, so Olesya had a charger and we plugged it in at the pub at a table around the corner. I heard one of them say "We won't take it with us". I hope not! Also, this pub is a favorite of Bill Clinton's and when he is in Amsterdam he always gets their apple pie! So of course we didn't have dessert at the Harkema in anticipation of this pie. It did not disappoint! After a bit, Jan Hein was able to join us. Being a chef, he and Guy had lots to talk about in between funny stories of his past adventures. I can't tell you how fun our evening has been. It is getting late and Jan has to work early in the morning, so we headed back to the hotel (passing the apparent making of some kind of movie). It's just past 2am now, but I wanted to finish the blog while everything was fresh. But don't worry...my morning will consist of sleeping in and when I wake up I"ll be looking again through my bag of local treats that Olesya brought me tonight as a gift. Especially the one I'll be tasting with my coffee!
What a great day. Sorry for typos...it's late.
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