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!
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
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.
Monday, May 23, 2016
Day 4 Hamburg, Germany
Last night at midnight we were still wide awake and watching Thor (in German). Finally we just decided to turn the TV off and give it a go. Guy fell asleep pretty quickly but I don't think he stayed that way. It took me quite some time to fall asleep, but it was definitely a night of tossing and turning for both of us. At 10am, I had NO DESIRE to get up, but Guy managed to hop up and go get us breakfast. Just like my prediction (or wish) from the night before, I woke up to breakfast in bed. :) He had gone around the corner to one of the bakeries close to the hotel. I told him I didn't care what it was, just so long as it had some kind of cream filling or pudding. The one he brought back also had giant strawberries on top. My dad would have loved it. He also brought me coffee from downstairs. They sure do make a delish coffee latte here.
At about 11 am we headed for the boat dock. By showing our room key, we can ride the boat around the lake for free. So we hopped on and grabbed a seat as we took a leisure stroll around the lake. The little boat stopped at every stop (kinda like they do on Lake Como...almost like a little water taxi) but the stops aren't towns, just other locations around the small lake. At one point the majority of the people got off. It looked like it might have been a nice lunch spot, but for what ever reason, it was a hot spot. That just left us with another older couple, German I think. When the group got off, that opened up some seats outside so we made our way back to the back for better photo ops. We sat down next to the only other coupon on board and the lady said to me "Nice place to live". I agreed with her. The day is humid and chilly. Ok with just long sleeves, but Guy ended up putting his jacket on. The boat ride was at least 90 minutes, but was a fun relaxing way to start the day.
When the boat got back to our stop, we got off and headed for some lunch. We had an early reservation for dinner (6pm) so we didn't want to eat too much. We went into the three local bakeries and chose Dat Backhus as it had the best selection of sammies. :) We both choose pretzel bread (and it's legit) but Guy had salami and cheese while mine was just cheese and veggies. I also picked out an apple tart of some kind. It was like apple pie with a bit of icing on top. REALLY good. We ate inside because for most of the day it looked like it could rain at any minute. But I think by carrying the umbrella that pretty much ensured no rain would fall. Ha Ha.
After lunch we headed to the train station to see about exchanging dollars for euros and to get our bearings for the train ride tomorrow morning. Guy thought the hotel had a high exchange rate, but the money exchangers at the train station were like legal robbers. Yikes...but our euros were getting low and we do still need a few for Amsterdam (we exchanged when we got back at the hotel) The train station had lots of food, so Guy wants to get breakfast there tomorrow and we'll get some snacks for the train ride. There certainly are lots of people watching opportunities in the train station and a good word to describe the area is at best "sketchy". But I had my umbrella from the hotel in had ready to poke any weirdo that got too close. :) After working our way through the train station, it led out to the pedestrian only street that was lined with shops. Most of them were big named stores, Nike, H&M, etc., and with nothing really to buy, we headed to the boat dock at the small end of the lake to see if we could catch our free boat ride back to the hotel. The lady at the counter said yes, but it would be an hour. That was still fine, but we opted to enjoy the cool breeze on a park bench in the shade for a bit and then take a slow stroll back to the hotel. Even tho it was humid, cool and cloudy, it was still a very nice day.
Once we got back to the hotel we checked our phone app to confirm our train tickets for tomorrow. One section with the big QR code they scan said our train left at 9:46. Perfect. But when you clicked over to "My reservations" it said our train left in the afternoon! What? We tried to figure it out, but the wifi at the hotel was cranky today so we headed down to the desk where a beautiful redhead with the last name of Weinberger (her grandpa had come to the US and was a dentist...hmmmmm) helped us. She, too, was totally confused by what she was looking at. So she looked online and found the phone number to DB Bhan and even tho she was switched to several different people and was on hold forever (she looked at me once and said "We'll figure this out") the train company assured her that our 9am was correct and they had no idea why the app was displaying the wrong time. She sent us to the 8th floor where we logged into the train website and were able to print out tickets just as a back up. So much for technology and mobile purchases! Erf.
Back to the room I started getting ready for dinner. It was raining pretty good and I was glad we chose to stay inside. Dinner was on the 9th floor of the hotel at the restaurant called Heritage. We had reserved a table by the windows that overlooked the lake and the view was great. We'd been going up each late afternoon for a coffee and that is where I've been writing my blogs (on the bar side next door) so the view wasn't new, but it certainly was entertaining. For the first time today the little sail boats were out, wake boarders and the boats with the multiple rowers. It appeared like people were getting lessons in both sailing and rowing. Well...here comes up quite a little downpour with some lightening and all the boats started coming in right away. I felt sorry for some of the rowers....they were really going at it to get in quickly. The rain was no biggie, but the lightening was making me nervous. I was glad when they all finally got onto the dock. This was all happening as we were getting our fabulous food. When I came back from washing my hands there was already a selection of breads with different kinds of spreads. Olive oil, something kinda spicy that tasted Mexican to me, a roasted tomato butter and sea salt. We started by splitting a goat cheese salad (it was sooooo gooood!) and then Guy went for asparagus and salmon while I opted for the asparagus risotto. Wow. I think I pretty much nailed it tonight as the winner of the best dish. It was cheesy with a great flavor. Savory, but not too salty. Just perfect. Afterwards we followed all that food by splitting a eclair. Chocolate of course. Perfection.
We came back to the room and I called my mom to chat for a bit and text my sister. I was going to blog on the train tomorrow, but it is just easier while it is all fresh. You know the saying "I can't remember, I've slept since then!" Well.........
Tomorrow starts our next adventure. Amsterdam! Can't wait!
At about 11 am we headed for the boat dock. By showing our room key, we can ride the boat around the lake for free. So we hopped on and grabbed a seat as we took a leisure stroll around the lake. The little boat stopped at every stop (kinda like they do on Lake Como...almost like a little water taxi) but the stops aren't towns, just other locations around the small lake. At one point the majority of the people got off. It looked like it might have been a nice lunch spot, but for what ever reason, it was a hot spot. That just left us with another older couple, German I think. When the group got off, that opened up some seats outside so we made our way back to the back for better photo ops. We sat down next to the only other coupon on board and the lady said to me "Nice place to live". I agreed with her. The day is humid and chilly. Ok with just long sleeves, but Guy ended up putting his jacket on. The boat ride was at least 90 minutes, but was a fun relaxing way to start the day.
When the boat got back to our stop, we got off and headed for some lunch. We had an early reservation for dinner (6pm) so we didn't want to eat too much. We went into the three local bakeries and chose Dat Backhus as it had the best selection of sammies. :) We both choose pretzel bread (and it's legit) but Guy had salami and cheese while mine was just cheese and veggies. I also picked out an apple tart of some kind. It was like apple pie with a bit of icing on top. REALLY good. We ate inside because for most of the day it looked like it could rain at any minute. But I think by carrying the umbrella that pretty much ensured no rain would fall. Ha Ha.
After lunch we headed to the train station to see about exchanging dollars for euros and to get our bearings for the train ride tomorrow morning. Guy thought the hotel had a high exchange rate, but the money exchangers at the train station were like legal robbers. Yikes...but our euros were getting low and we do still need a few for Amsterdam (we exchanged when we got back at the hotel) The train station had lots of food, so Guy wants to get breakfast there tomorrow and we'll get some snacks for the train ride. There certainly are lots of people watching opportunities in the train station and a good word to describe the area is at best "sketchy". But I had my umbrella from the hotel in had ready to poke any weirdo that got too close. :) After working our way through the train station, it led out to the pedestrian only street that was lined with shops. Most of them were big named stores, Nike, H&M, etc., and with nothing really to buy, we headed to the boat dock at the small end of the lake to see if we could catch our free boat ride back to the hotel. The lady at the counter said yes, but it would be an hour. That was still fine, but we opted to enjoy the cool breeze on a park bench in the shade for a bit and then take a slow stroll back to the hotel. Even tho it was humid, cool and cloudy, it was still a very nice day.
Once we got back to the hotel we checked our phone app to confirm our train tickets for tomorrow. One section with the big QR code they scan said our train left at 9:46. Perfect. But when you clicked over to "My reservations" it said our train left in the afternoon! What? We tried to figure it out, but the wifi at the hotel was cranky today so we headed down to the desk where a beautiful redhead with the last name of Weinberger (her grandpa had come to the US and was a dentist...hmmmmm) helped us. She, too, was totally confused by what she was looking at. So she looked online and found the phone number to DB Bhan and even tho she was switched to several different people and was on hold forever (she looked at me once and said "We'll figure this out") the train company assured her that our 9am was correct and they had no idea why the app was displaying the wrong time. She sent us to the 8th floor where we logged into the train website and were able to print out tickets just as a back up. So much for technology and mobile purchases! Erf.
Back to the room I started getting ready for dinner. It was raining pretty good and I was glad we chose to stay inside. Dinner was on the 9th floor of the hotel at the restaurant called Heritage. We had reserved a table by the windows that overlooked the lake and the view was great. We'd been going up each late afternoon for a coffee and that is where I've been writing my blogs (on the bar side next door) so the view wasn't new, but it certainly was entertaining. For the first time today the little sail boats were out, wake boarders and the boats with the multiple rowers. It appeared like people were getting lessons in both sailing and rowing. Well...here comes up quite a little downpour with some lightening and all the boats started coming in right away. I felt sorry for some of the rowers....they were really going at it to get in quickly. The rain was no biggie, but the lightening was making me nervous. I was glad when they all finally got onto the dock. This was all happening as we were getting our fabulous food. When I came back from washing my hands there was already a selection of breads with different kinds of spreads. Olive oil, something kinda spicy that tasted Mexican to me, a roasted tomato butter and sea salt. We started by splitting a goat cheese salad (it was sooooo gooood!) and then Guy went for asparagus and salmon while I opted for the asparagus risotto. Wow. I think I pretty much nailed it tonight as the winner of the best dish. It was cheesy with a great flavor. Savory, but not too salty. Just perfect. Afterwards we followed all that food by splitting a eclair. Chocolate of course. Perfection.
We came back to the room and I called my mom to chat for a bit and text my sister. I was going to blog on the train tomorrow, but it is just easier while it is all fresh. You know the saying "I can't remember, I've slept since then!" Well.........
Tomorrow starts our next adventure. Amsterdam! Can't wait!
Sunday, May 22, 2016
Day 3 Hamburg, Germany
No alarms were set last night and we were in bed before 10. I slept really good and even with clogged sinuses I made it all the way through the night. Apparently there was some snoring going on in the bed...so Guy says. I was asleep so I can't really say. ;) My first peek at the clock was about 8am and then again at 10. Not sure I moved around too much last night (or so my back is telling me so) but I made may way out of the bed moving enough to reach my water and apple tart I had waiting on me from a bakery we stopped at yesterday. Up and about I finally get into my running clothes. Excited about the lake path, I headed out about 11:30. It is gorgeous out, about 70ish degrees with a pretty good breeze. Most of the lake was packed full of people. Lots of runners, walkers, both moms and dads with baby buggies, people on blankets, bicycles, older folks sitting in the benches, sail boating, wake boarding, rowing, and paddle boats. The sky is blue and everything is green and it is like a beautiful park all the way around the lake. It was just as lovely as I had hoped, except maybe just a few too many people. Quite a bit of zig zagging around people, but still pretty darn awesome. I had set my gps because I like to document my runs. I heard my music, but apparently I had hit pause and it didn't track my path or time. I googled it and it is a very popular running spot. 4.75 miles. We did quite a bit of walking today, so not sure if I'm up for it again tomorrow, but we'll see.
After a nice hot shower, Guy and I head out for lunch. We were going to eat at a restaurant on the lake (all probably touristy type food but one was recommended by the hotel). However when we got there they were in between breakfast and lunch (or so the waiter said in broken English) and so we headed for some restaurants we saw last night. Not looking for our biggest meal of the day we thought we'd stop for pizza at the Casa Di Roma, rated pretty high on Trip Advisor. Guy ordered pizza margarita and I ordered a caprese salad. However the cheese was actually "burrata" where the outer shell is mozzarella and the inside contains both mozzarella and cream that had an unusual soft texture. When sliced, a spurt of thickened cream comes out that is rich and buttery. Paired with this amazing cheese were grilled tomatoes, basil leaves and balsamic vinegar. It was so much better than I had anticipated and I can only image how wonderful it would have been if my taste buds had been at 100%. This is the first time I had tried this kind of mozzarella and at first I thought something was wrong with it. Guy explained what it was and Google later filled in all the remaining details. It certainly was a treat!
After lunch our plans were to go to Hamburg's Miniatur Wunderland, which we already had reservations for. This is one of city's most popular attractions. I've been calling it a train museum, but it is actually the world's largest miniature train display. Our ticket said we could go anytime between 3 and 4pm. Arriving, the lines weren't too long and we got in pretty quickly. It is in the warehouse district and takes up 3 floors. As you walk around, you see replicas of countries. Switzerland, "Amerika", Germany and many more. About every 15 minutes the room goes from daytime to nighttime where all the lights go dark. So the scenery goes from day to night and the towns (or whatever you are viewing) light up. That was crazy cool. There is a little airport where miniature planes take off and land on a runway. You first hear the plane engines, then the "Wows" of the kids watching (and the adults). It is hard to get up to the handrail of that display...obviously the most popular. At each display there are buttons to push and it makes something happen, like cranes lifting things or making windmills turn. Every detail is thought of, such as the hot air balloons have flickering lights that look like the flame that makes them go up. There are hundreds of thousands of little miniature people in this place. They have everything from crowded concerts, protests on the streets, a lumber jack cutting down a tree, hippies in campers, skiers coming down the mountain, bicycle wrecks, coal mines, people viewing underground stalagmites...you name it. These artists have been working on adding to this display for over 15 years and have had over 15 million visitors. Italy is currently being created, but they already have some of it put together. I'm not a train buff, I do have to say this was pretty cool. On the little pamphlet they give you there are twenty little "scenes" you are to look for and check off if you find them. Like a game. Somewhere there was a tiny dinosaur, a ski accident, a building on fire, prisoners in the prison yard and one was a couple making out on a blanket in a flower patch. I thought that was hilarious and we couldn't find it, so Guy asked. It was in the middle of Germany just past the camp ground, so of course we went back for a photo. And speaking of photos, the Wunderland is pretty much it as far as photos go today. But I'll stop talking about it and you can just go look for yourself. Sometimes I added people in just for scale. Definitely worth the time.
Most things are closed today because it is Sunday, so the walk there and back was pretty quiet. We got back to the room and I closed my eyes for a minute, but didn't want to nap too long because I think I'm getting myself on track to the time change and don't want to mess that up! It was supposed to pour down rain today, but it is 7pm and we haven't seen a drop and the temperature reached a toasty 80 degrees today.
Dinner tonight was at the Das Dorf. It was a very unique place down in a cellar. It was an atmosphere of dark wood and was clearly very old. I'm curious as to how long the building has been there. Anyway, Guy had made a reservation and when we arrived our server, Michael, was at the front. He was super nice and his English was perfect. As we perused the menu, he brought out the nightly specials written on a chalkboard and set it by Guy and then asked for our drink order. Usually when we order a coke it is in a teeny tiny bottle, which is about 4 really good gulps. So when I ordered my "Spetzi" (Fanta orange and Coke) he said "big or small?" I said BIG! And I also ordered a large water. Well...let me tell you, it was indeed big. I managed to get all mine down, but brought the water back to the hotel. Oops! Anyway, Guy had a hankering for traditional German sausage tonight, but alas, not on the menu at the Das Dorf. I had the veal ragu with homemade egg noodles and veggies and Guy had traditional schnitzel with giant white asparagus. Actually, asparagus was the main part of the order and then you just added to it with either ham, schnitzel, pork or fish. It must be in season because it was the giant white kind. And we've see other asparagus menus where that is basically the entree and you add something with it. Funny. So as we waited for our dinner, someone began playing the piano and he was excellent. One song he was playing I thought might be "O Danny Boy" but it was actually the traditional hymn "He looked beyond my fault". I started singing the words to Guy and he said that was the only church he got today. That was true I guess. :) So after dinner (I was still working on getting my giant soda down) I wished I had left room for dessert because I'm sure it would have been fabulous there, but I came back to the room and nibbled on a few peanut M&Ms just for something sweet. And as we came back to the hotel all the bakeries were closed so we have nothing for breakfast. Will have to venture out in the morning...or maybe if I'm lucky Guy will go out and bring it to me like room service. :)
Not sure of our plans tomorrow. It is supposed to be rainy (it is right now with a bit of thunder and lightning) but we'll see. A day to read a book or watch movies wouldn't hurt my feelings at all.
After a nice hot shower, Guy and I head out for lunch. We were going to eat at a restaurant on the lake (all probably touristy type food but one was recommended by the hotel). However when we got there they were in between breakfast and lunch (or so the waiter said in broken English) and so we headed for some restaurants we saw last night. Not looking for our biggest meal of the day we thought we'd stop for pizza at the Casa Di Roma, rated pretty high on Trip Advisor. Guy ordered pizza margarita and I ordered a caprese salad. However the cheese was actually "burrata" where the outer shell is mozzarella and the inside contains both mozzarella and cream that had an unusual soft texture. When sliced, a spurt of thickened cream comes out that is rich and buttery. Paired with this amazing cheese were grilled tomatoes, basil leaves and balsamic vinegar. It was so much better than I had anticipated and I can only image how wonderful it would have been if my taste buds had been at 100%. This is the first time I had tried this kind of mozzarella and at first I thought something was wrong with it. Guy explained what it was and Google later filled in all the remaining details. It certainly was a treat!
After lunch our plans were to go to Hamburg's Miniatur Wunderland, which we already had reservations for. This is one of city's most popular attractions. I've been calling it a train museum, but it is actually the world's largest miniature train display. Our ticket said we could go anytime between 3 and 4pm. Arriving, the lines weren't too long and we got in pretty quickly. It is in the warehouse district and takes up 3 floors. As you walk around, you see replicas of countries. Switzerland, "Amerika", Germany and many more. About every 15 minutes the room goes from daytime to nighttime where all the lights go dark. So the scenery goes from day to night and the towns (or whatever you are viewing) light up. That was crazy cool. There is a little airport where miniature planes take off and land on a runway. You first hear the plane engines, then the "Wows" of the kids watching (and the adults). It is hard to get up to the handrail of that display...obviously the most popular. At each display there are buttons to push and it makes something happen, like cranes lifting things or making windmills turn. Every detail is thought of, such as the hot air balloons have flickering lights that look like the flame that makes them go up. There are hundreds of thousands of little miniature people in this place. They have everything from crowded concerts, protests on the streets, a lumber jack cutting down a tree, hippies in campers, skiers coming down the mountain, bicycle wrecks, coal mines, people viewing underground stalagmites...you name it. These artists have been working on adding to this display for over 15 years and have had over 15 million visitors. Italy is currently being created, but they already have some of it put together. I'm not a train buff, I do have to say this was pretty cool. On the little pamphlet they give you there are twenty little "scenes" you are to look for and check off if you find them. Like a game. Somewhere there was a tiny dinosaur, a ski accident, a building on fire, prisoners in the prison yard and one was a couple making out on a blanket in a flower patch. I thought that was hilarious and we couldn't find it, so Guy asked. It was in the middle of Germany just past the camp ground, so of course we went back for a photo. And speaking of photos, the Wunderland is pretty much it as far as photos go today. But I'll stop talking about it and you can just go look for yourself. Sometimes I added people in just for scale. Definitely worth the time.
Most things are closed today because it is Sunday, so the walk there and back was pretty quiet. We got back to the room and I closed my eyes for a minute, but didn't want to nap too long because I think I'm getting myself on track to the time change and don't want to mess that up! It was supposed to pour down rain today, but it is 7pm and we haven't seen a drop and the temperature reached a toasty 80 degrees today.
Dinner tonight was at the Das Dorf. It was a very unique place down in a cellar. It was an atmosphere of dark wood and was clearly very old. I'm curious as to how long the building has been there. Anyway, Guy had made a reservation and when we arrived our server, Michael, was at the front. He was super nice and his English was perfect. As we perused the menu, he brought out the nightly specials written on a chalkboard and set it by Guy and then asked for our drink order. Usually when we order a coke it is in a teeny tiny bottle, which is about 4 really good gulps. So when I ordered my "Spetzi" (Fanta orange and Coke) he said "big or small?" I said BIG! And I also ordered a large water. Well...let me tell you, it was indeed big. I managed to get all mine down, but brought the water back to the hotel. Oops! Anyway, Guy had a hankering for traditional German sausage tonight, but alas, not on the menu at the Das Dorf. I had the veal ragu with homemade egg noodles and veggies and Guy had traditional schnitzel with giant white asparagus. Actually, asparagus was the main part of the order and then you just added to it with either ham, schnitzel, pork or fish. It must be in season because it was the giant white kind. And we've see other asparagus menus where that is basically the entree and you add something with it. Funny. So as we waited for our dinner, someone began playing the piano and he was excellent. One song he was playing I thought might be "O Danny Boy" but it was actually the traditional hymn "He looked beyond my fault". I started singing the words to Guy and he said that was the only church he got today. That was true I guess. :) So after dinner (I was still working on getting my giant soda down) I wished I had left room for dessert because I'm sure it would have been fabulous there, but I came back to the room and nibbled on a few peanut M&Ms just for something sweet. And as we came back to the hotel all the bakeries were closed so we have nothing for breakfast. Will have to venture out in the morning...or maybe if I'm lucky Guy will go out and bring it to me like room service. :)
Not sure of our plans tomorrow. It is supposed to be rainy (it is right now with a bit of thunder and lightning) but we'll see. A day to read a book or watch movies wouldn't hurt my feelings at all.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Day 2 Hamburg, Germany
Well, from my last post things didn't go exactly as I like (my routine that is). The cheese pizza at the airport looked, well, not appetizing at all. And trust me, I'm not picky with my pizza - I love it all. So with only 40 minutes before we were to board the plane I opted for some nice thick French fries, which were good, but was already straying from my routine! When we finished up at the restaurant we had just enough time to use the potty one last time and get on. The plane was a 2-3-2 configuration and we set just about 3 rows behind first class. Lots of room for our legs to stretch out and to put our stuff. As the plane was taking off I already had my meds taken, area sanitized, seat prepped for a long nap and started blowing up my beach balls. With ear plugs in, I was in sleep mode before we reached our top altitude, however, the night didn't go as well as planned. I was tired, but I also suffer from restless leg syndrome. I call it "the Jimmie legs" and trust me, Jimmie was on the plane with me. Oh well. I still got some rest, I just fidgeted a lot. Besides an unusually painful headache upon descent, the ride wasn't bad at all.
We landed in Hamburg, Germany at 7am. No one was in the immigration lines and within 20 minutes or so we were in a cab headed for the hotel. Our cabbie was an older gentleman and was super friendly. We talked about my grandpa being German and Guy's grandparents both German and Sicilian. The cabbie went on to say that his best friend is Italian and quite the jokester. When his friend gets wound up he calls himself Mussolinii and the cabbie Hitler. Apparently they are a bit too old to be PC, but we got a kick out of the way he was telling the story. He asked if we had any friends in Hamburg and we said no. He said "That's too bad, it's more fun when you have someone to show you around". Guy said "we know YOU!". He laughed and said he was too old and too expensive. Guess we are on our own.
At the hotel, which is lovely, our room was ready (note: it's only 8am). What a blessing. We got to our room, showered and after setting an alarm took a 3 hour nap. Neither one of us wanted to get up, but we knew we had to or we'd never get acclimated. After getting moving we walked toward the train station where we planned to catch the hop on hop off bus. Immediately we saw a Vodafone store where I needed to get a european SIM card and the young man in the store was super and got me all hooked up. Weird tho...when I walked in I was the only customer and I said to the employee "Do you speak English?" He seemed offended and he answered "Of course". I've got to figure out the best way to ask. I don't want to just walk in and assume people speak English, but nearly everyone does. Especially the young people. But I don't to be the "ugly American" and seem like the world owes me. Ya know? I should have asked my German friend Mark Stoffel the most polite way to go about addressing people because I don't ever want to come across unkind.
So back to the hop on hop off bus...Guy had purchased the tickets at the hotel because the bus people usually only take cash and we don't have an excess of Euros on us yet. So when we got on the bus and it started off it had a narrator instead of the headsets you plug In and choose a language. Well, he talked mostly in German and when he did say something in English we either couldn't quite get it or we were already past the area. After awhile, Guy inquire about headsets and the narrator told us that there are two buses in their group that have the headsets and one would be by in about 40 minutes. Being about half way through we decided to hop off and have lunch. We ate at the restaurant recommended to us by the young lady at the hotel called Brauhaus Joh. Albrecht. I ordered the Joh. Albrecht schnitzel with potatoes and slaw, while Guy ordered fish and chips. We did the "splity splity" so we could taste a little bit of everything. I don't think it was so delicious because we were starving...it was just straight up delicious! Good choice.
After lunch we walked back to catch the hop on bus again and we let several go by waiting for the one that we could hear the narration in English. Finally one of the drivers said that only two do the route in English and usually only for half a day. It is almost 4pm, so we are thinking we'd just better get on and enjoy the scenery even if we didn't know what it was. Well, this narrator was a character and had the crowd in stitches. Somehow this just made it worse...not only were the people learning about what they were seeing...the guy was a comedian, too! Bummed. So we started to hop off at one point and see if we could find at least someone who narrated in both languages. But as we exited, the funny guy said "OH! I didn't know I needed to speak in English as well". So we got back on and were pumped we were going to get in on the fun. Not so much. He would speak mostly in German and then quickly say something like "to the left are some warehouses" and then go back to his German jokes. Oh well. At least we got to see around the city, which is the second largest in Germany, but you wouldn't know it (compared to Berlin) as it is very green with trees, lakes and waterways everywhere. It's quite lovely for a big city.
As we walked back to the hotel we stopped at a couple of bakeries and we got some snacks. We knew we'd be too tired to go out for dinner, so we nibbled on the amazing sweets (I didn't get a picture!!) and I had a coffee and Guy had a Coke as we sat in the 9th floor bar and overlooked the lake. I can't think of a better spot to sit and blog. It really is beautiful. It's now 8pm and time to call it a night. Fingers crossed Jimmie doesn't come to visit me tonight and we can get a solid night of sleep.
We landed in Hamburg, Germany at 7am. No one was in the immigration lines and within 20 minutes or so we were in a cab headed for the hotel. Our cabbie was an older gentleman and was super friendly. We talked about my grandpa being German and Guy's grandparents both German and Sicilian. The cabbie went on to say that his best friend is Italian and quite the jokester. When his friend gets wound up he calls himself Mussolinii and the cabbie Hitler. Apparently they are a bit too old to be PC, but we got a kick out of the way he was telling the story. He asked if we had any friends in Hamburg and we said no. He said "That's too bad, it's more fun when you have someone to show you around". Guy said "we know YOU!". He laughed and said he was too old and too expensive. Guess we are on our own.
At the hotel, which is lovely, our room was ready (note: it's only 8am). What a blessing. We got to our room, showered and after setting an alarm took a 3 hour nap. Neither one of us wanted to get up, but we knew we had to or we'd never get acclimated. After getting moving we walked toward the train station where we planned to catch the hop on hop off bus. Immediately we saw a Vodafone store where I needed to get a european SIM card and the young man in the store was super and got me all hooked up. Weird tho...when I walked in I was the only customer and I said to the employee "Do you speak English?" He seemed offended and he answered "Of course". I've got to figure out the best way to ask. I don't want to just walk in and assume people speak English, but nearly everyone does. Especially the young people. But I don't to be the "ugly American" and seem like the world owes me. Ya know? I should have asked my German friend Mark Stoffel the most polite way to go about addressing people because I don't ever want to come across unkind.
So back to the hop on hop off bus...Guy had purchased the tickets at the hotel because the bus people usually only take cash and we don't have an excess of Euros on us yet. So when we got on the bus and it started off it had a narrator instead of the headsets you plug In and choose a language. Well, he talked mostly in German and when he did say something in English we either couldn't quite get it or we were already past the area. After awhile, Guy inquire about headsets and the narrator told us that there are two buses in their group that have the headsets and one would be by in about 40 minutes. Being about half way through we decided to hop off and have lunch. We ate at the restaurant recommended to us by the young lady at the hotel called Brauhaus Joh. Albrecht. I ordered the Joh. Albrecht schnitzel with potatoes and slaw, while Guy ordered fish and chips. We did the "splity splity" so we could taste a little bit of everything. I don't think it was so delicious because we were starving...it was just straight up delicious! Good choice.
After lunch we walked back to catch the hop on bus again and we let several go by waiting for the one that we could hear the narration in English. Finally one of the drivers said that only two do the route in English and usually only for half a day. It is almost 4pm, so we are thinking we'd just better get on and enjoy the scenery even if we didn't know what it was. Well, this narrator was a character and had the crowd in stitches. Somehow this just made it worse...not only were the people learning about what they were seeing...the guy was a comedian, too! Bummed. So we started to hop off at one point and see if we could find at least someone who narrated in both languages. But as we exited, the funny guy said "OH! I didn't know I needed to speak in English as well". So we got back on and were pumped we were going to get in on the fun. Not so much. He would speak mostly in German and then quickly say something like "to the left are some warehouses" and then go back to his German jokes. Oh well. At least we got to see around the city, which is the second largest in Germany, but you wouldn't know it (compared to Berlin) as it is very green with trees, lakes and waterways everywhere. It's quite lovely for a big city.
As we walked back to the hotel we stopped at a couple of bakeries and we got some snacks. We knew we'd be too tired to go out for dinner, so we nibbled on the amazing sweets (I didn't get a picture!!) and I had a coffee and Guy had a Coke as we sat in the 9th floor bar and overlooked the lake. I can't think of a better spot to sit and blog. It really is beautiful. It's now 8pm and time to call it a night. Fingers crossed Jimmie doesn't come to visit me tonight and we can get a solid night of sleep.
Friday, May 20, 2016
Day 1
Our day started early with a wake up call from a meowing Nero. Luckily it was only about 15 minutes before my alarm was to go off anyway. Up and about at my usual 5:45am work day, I started getting ready. We were factoring in some extra time to grab a breakfast sandwich at Panera in O'Fallon, which we did. Wanna start the first big travel day with a warm full belly. When we arrived at Rosalie's house (The Alongi version of Park 'n Fly) we had about 30 minutes before the cab was to arrive, so I took a moment to call Mom with a few last-minute instructions and over-the-phone hugs. When we arrived at the airport we weren't sure exactly how long the lines would be in security as it is all over the news about TSA being understaffed and people missing their flights due to horrendous wait times. We felt pretty confident because we have global entry, which gives us TSA pre-check, but you never know if they will pull you as the "random check" and make you go through the regular line. When we got to the airport is was pretty much crickets and the same for the security line, but as guy was getting "the wand" after beeping the X-ray machine I chatted with a older gentleman in a suit who was going home to Dublin. Guy told me to ask him what to see while we were there, so of course I did. I told him we were only there for a day as we were going on a cruise, but for future reference of a possibly longer Ireland trip I asked if it was easy to drive around the country by car. He said in a very humble tone, "I'm the US Ambassador to Ireland so I have a driver", but he went on to say that the roads are tiny and combining that with driving on the opposite side of the road it can get a bit tricky. He and Guy chatted until we got to our gate and he was fun to talk to. He said it rains all the time, not storms, but short-lived drizzle. I read on an online Frommer's guide that locals in Ireland don't carry umbrellas, they just pop into a local pub until it passes. Ha Ha.
Since we were really early, I had time to get on my phone and start dumping a bunch of photos (there are only 5,000 on there) and most of them are already downloaded on my computer at home. Some I just couldn't delete tho, such as a video of Nero holding on to Guy's leg or the photo of the receipt from my most expensive meal ever (with my sister on New Years Eve... I sent it to her just for a laugh). But I did have time to get several images off. And yes, it is the only camera I brought. The MCMA department at SIU is cringing right now - a photography degree and using just an iPhone???? Yup. --So as we got ready to board the plane, Guy was like "HEY!!" For the past few weeks he has been telling me about two guys from Italy who were in town doing something at the cable factory. They were in to eat at the restaurant several times per week and the Alongi's have had a good time visiting with them. One gentleman, Gian Luca, is from Lake Como, Italy (f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s) and he was giving sightseeing tips to some of Guy's employees who are headed there on vacation soon. So these guys have been quite popular and often the topic of conversation around my house lately. Anyhow, Gian Luca is on our flight and when he saw Guy he said "The Earth is small" in broken English.Very cute. So finally, I got to meet this mysterious Italian guy I've heard about for some time now. Who knew it would have been on our flight? :)
Also on our flight is a Middle Eastern family with 3 stair step boys from the ages of probably 4 to 7ish. They keep flipping back and forth between perfect English and Arabic. Cute as buttons and were a hoot to listen to as the plane was taking off. One boy said "I can see everything!!!" And as the plane made a sharp left turn there was a symphony of OOOOOOOOOs. I'm typing this on the plane, so I'm waiting to see if turbulence stirs up something funny.
So packing... I told Guy there was no way I could pack several sweaters and stay in our usual European packing method of just one carry on and a backpack per person. So I switched to a big bag and figured I'd have tons of room. Um, no. So then I moved to the I think I'll try not to have to do laundry method. We are gone about 18 days. Now I have SO MANY CHOICES on what to wear, but I had to sit on my big bag to get it closed. At the airport check in counter my bag weighed 49.5 pounds! SCORE! No extra fee...but only by the skin of my teeth. Whew!
Once we get to New York, I'll have my usual pre-long flight dinner of a slice of cheese pizza, diet Coke, an aspirin to help prevent DVT since I don't move around on the plane, and finally my trusty Xanax. Immediately after the plane takes off (and after completely sanitizing my area) I'll blow up my pillows, put in my earplugs and set my watch alarm to wake me up for pre-landing Sudafed and Ibupfren. Sounds like a lot, but when your routine ain't broke, don't fix it. Our flight to Germany is less than 8 hours. For me it will seem like about 1 hour. :)
Signing off for now and am happy to report an uneventful yet already fun Day 1.
Since we were really early, I had time to get on my phone and start dumping a bunch of photos (there are only 5,000 on there) and most of them are already downloaded on my computer at home. Some I just couldn't delete tho, such as a video of Nero holding on to Guy's leg or the photo of the receipt from my most expensive meal ever (with my sister on New Years Eve... I sent it to her just for a laugh). But I did have time to get several images off. And yes, it is the only camera I brought. The MCMA department at SIU is cringing right now - a photography degree and using just an iPhone???? Yup. --So as we got ready to board the plane, Guy was like "HEY!!" For the past few weeks he has been telling me about two guys from Italy who were in town doing something at the cable factory. They were in to eat at the restaurant several times per week and the Alongi's have had a good time visiting with them. One gentleman, Gian Luca, is from Lake Como, Italy (f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s) and he was giving sightseeing tips to some of Guy's employees who are headed there on vacation soon. So these guys have been quite popular and often the topic of conversation around my house lately. Anyhow, Gian Luca is on our flight and when he saw Guy he said "The Earth is small" in broken English.Very cute. So finally, I got to meet this mysterious Italian guy I've heard about for some time now. Who knew it would have been on our flight? :)
Also on our flight is a Middle Eastern family with 3 stair step boys from the ages of probably 4 to 7ish. They keep flipping back and forth between perfect English and Arabic. Cute as buttons and were a hoot to listen to as the plane was taking off. One boy said "I can see everything!!!" And as the plane made a sharp left turn there was a symphony of OOOOOOOOOs. I'm typing this on the plane, so I'm waiting to see if turbulence stirs up something funny.
So packing... I told Guy there was no way I could pack several sweaters and stay in our usual European packing method of just one carry on and a backpack per person. So I switched to a big bag and figured I'd have tons of room. Um, no. So then I moved to the I think I'll try not to have to do laundry method. We are gone about 18 days. Now I have SO MANY CHOICES on what to wear, but I had to sit on my big bag to get it closed. At the airport check in counter my bag weighed 49.5 pounds! SCORE! No extra fee...but only by the skin of my teeth. Whew!
Once we get to New York, I'll have my usual pre-long flight dinner of a slice of cheese pizza, diet Coke, an aspirin to help prevent DVT since I don't move around on the plane, and finally my trusty Xanax. Immediately after the plane takes off (and after completely sanitizing my area) I'll blow up my pillows, put in my earplugs and set my watch alarm to wake me up for pre-landing Sudafed and Ibupfren. Sounds like a lot, but when your routine ain't broke, don't fix it. Our flight to Germany is less than 8 hours. For me it will seem like about 1 hour. :)
Signing off for now and am happy to report an uneventful yet already fun Day 1.
Monday, May 16, 2016
Pre-trip Prep
It's Monday and we leave on Friday. So.Much.To.Do! But I needed to get the blog started so I knew everything was working. I chose a crazy fun theme, but I thought the design looked like waves. Let's hope we don't actually experience BIG waves...
Looking forward to experiencing new places and meeting up with friends, both old and new. Wonder what I'm talking about? Stay tuned! :)
Looking forward to experiencing new places and meeting up with friends, both old and new. Wonder what I'm talking about? Stay tuned! :)
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