a Blue Danube Part 1)

Days 1, 2, and 3 (Though Days 1 and 2 Are Actually Just One Very Long Day (As Is Tradition))

Where We Have A Relatively Easy Time Getting to Budapest (A Pretzel Is Involved)

And I’ve Already Given Up Trying To Pronounce Anything In Hungarian

Days 1 and 2 (12/17 and 12/18)

Our flights to Budapest were relatively uneventful. Something stupid always happens, but luckily the stupidity was relatively minor. We had booked oodles of time for the layover in Munich, so when the stupidity manifested itself (eg. Lufthansa changed the gate 3 times, each time sending me an email (G0d forbid, why not a text) in *German*, which, alas, I cannot read with any kind of proficiency), there was plenty of time to fix or work around it.

Good news! We were able check the box for “German pretzel”.

(Note: the following is my growing list of must-have foods in assorted countries).

Italy = gelato
Spain = paella
France = chocolate crepes, onion soup
Germany = pretzels
Hungary = ?
Austria = ?

Anyway, we arrived right on time and were promptly picked up by the Viking rep. Once at the hotel, we received the usual Viking briefing for their location extensions.

One couple who was with us on the ride from the airport seemed to be getting off on the wrong foot, by declaring that so far on this trip their interaction with Viking had been a disaster (they were picked up and the airport on time and arrived at the hotel?). Our observation was that this couple was just not really hearing what the Viking rep was saying (possibly an artifact of sleep deprivation and looming jet lag). They had told us this was their first ever river cruise, so perhaps that added to the mix. Stuff always happens (this time, some excursions on the cruise itself were rearranged generating a bit of confusion), Viking always fixes it, and you go with the flow and have a great time.

Anyway, eventually the rest of our group of 5 arrived. Three of us went on the 4:30 “orientation walk” provided by the Viking rep. It was pretty helpful.

We had dinner at the hotel – our first taste of Hungarian food, which I already knew I liked. The chicken paprikas sealed the deal.

I did have to deal with the issue of the “pillow top” bed before I could pass out. Apparently now all hotels in the immediate universe have these beds that come to my waist, making it physically impossible for me to climb into them. However, this time I had brought with me a tiny folding step, which works like a charm. Just way too much work to be able to go to sleep.

Day 3 December 19

Janet had booked a private 1/2 day “tuk-tuk” tour of Budapest for today. A tuk-tuk is basically a motorized rick-shaw. It looks like a motorcycle with some seats stuck onto it. It’s open air, so we were all bundled up.

If we look like we’re a little bundled up, it’s because we are. I’m wearing many layers.

Our guides were Gabriel and Gabriella.

First we went to Hero’s Square, built at the end of the 19th century with monuments and statues representing Hungary’s long history. New fun fact: “Hun” in Hungary comes from the Huns invasion over 1000 years ago (as in Atila, the Hun).

Millennium Monument/Hero’s Square – 7 Hungarian kings (St Stephen on the left)

Seven Tribal Chiefs (Millennium Monument/Hero’s Square

Gabriel our tour guide said that during the Communist era, the Soviets replaced some of the statues with Soviet “heroes”. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the original statues were put back.

Continuing on our way, we drove by the Széchenyi thermal baths. Apparently, Hungary is second only to Iceland as a capital for thermal baths (and without the volcanoes and earthquakes).

Our next stop was the Vajdahunyad Castle, built for an expo at the end of the 19th century. It does absolutely nothing other than look amazing. We did contribute to the Hungarian economy in the Castle’s gift shop.

Onward to the Hungarian State Opera House! We were able to go inside to the lobby, where we looked up at the fantastic ceilings.

From this angle you can see up to the 2nd floor

Our tour guide said that if we took the official Opera House tour, the last 10 minutes is a mini-opera performance. We figure that would be about as long as we could stand (not opera fans here, sorry not sorry).

Up until now, we had been touring Pest (where our hotel is located). Pest is very flat. Now we were heading into Buda, which is the 180 degree opposite of “flat”. On the way to the bridge, we passed by the Dohány Street Synagogue, one of the largest in Europe. Not sure we’ll have time to tour the inside during this visit, but it’s on The List.

We drove across the Liberty Bridge. It was originally named the “Franz Joseph” bridge, but at some point the name was changed. It was built as a part of the Millennium expo at the end of the 19th century. Our guide, Gabriel told us he really doesn’t like the name “liberty”, as it has nothing to do with anything.

Eagles perched with golden apples, and the royal crown insignia in the middle of the span

Immediately on the other side of the bride is this fabulous church built into the rock – the Gellért Hill Cave Catholic Church. An extraordinarily unique church, it first opened in 1250. It has survived conquering armies, wars, you name it. It reopened as a functioning church in 1989 after the fall of the Soviet Union. The temperature stays at about 72 degrees F all year round with no active heating or cooling.

I think that’s Saint Stephen on the right

Most modern addition to the church – look at the intricate carvings!

Our last stop was the Buda Castle grounds/Fisherman’s Bastion in the Castle District.

Buda Castle/Fisherman’s bastion – good thing we drove up to the top.

The tower that’s all that is left of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene destroyed during WWII

By now it was getting pretty late. We were all both frozen solid and hungry. We headed back to Pest over the Széchanyi Chain Bridge, the oldest bridge connecting Buda and Pest.

Széchenyi chain bridge Budapest Hungary. Opened in 1849 – the first connection between Buda and Pest.

What a fantastic tour! We have Gabriel’s card with his info for future reference.

After we defrosted a bit, we went for a late lunch at a restaurant recommended by the Viking host. A hot bowl of Hungarian beef goulash soup did the trick!

Though we had to make sure we tried a chimney cake – there was a little vendor across the street from our hotel, so Andy got one (chocolate sprinkles) for us to share. It was huge!

This evening we went on a Viking excursion for a Folklore dinner/performance. The folklore performance was very good, but as usual, the food provided at a mass-meal event was not that great. But the streets at night are beautiful.

Time to pack up, so we can leave our bags outside our door before 10:00 a.m. tomorrow -.

Tomorrow: More Budapest and Transfer To The Ship

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024, Part 3: Frozen Edition (TESTING TESTING Eins, Zwei, Drei)

Where For Some Reason We Are Going Someplace Even Colder Than Home

Though We Hope It Will Be As ExtraOrdinarily Pretty As Expected.

No, we haven’t left yet. That’s tomorrow. This is where we’re going (From Budapest to Passau):

We have a few days in Budapest before we set sail on the Danube for 7 days. I’ve heard all sorts of wonderful things about the Christmas Markets in the places where we’re going.

We have three new-to-us countries on this itinerary: Hungary, Austria, and the Slovak Republic. I actually know 3 words in Hungarian: Nem (“no”), Egen (“yes”), and Madgyar (pronounced ‘mud-yar’and it means “Hungarian”). Very useful.

The forecast high for most days is around 40 F. No snow is forecast, which is why I’m bringing snow boots. If I didn’t bring them, then for sure it would snow. I’ve also packed every heavy sweater I own. And scarves. And gloves.

We’ve also packed our Ugly Hanukkah Sweaters (mine blinks) and a little electric hanukkiah (it can also blink), since the first night of Hanukkah is December 25. Might was well join in with the festivities! I’m sure we’ll be confusing most people on the ship. Maybe we can ask the kitchen to make us some latkes?

Auf wiedersehen!

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure(s) 2024 Part 2 – O Canada Edition: Day 9 Prince Edward Island (9/16)

Where We Are Once Again Schlepped Around From Here To There For The Entire Day.

But At Least We Had A Beaver Tail

And Anne Of Green Gables, That Too.

Knowing absolutely nothing about Prince Edward Island (PEI) other than it’s the site of the “Anne Of Green Gables” books (by Lucy Maud Montgomery) that I read and re-read fairly endlessly when I was 12, I had no expectations as to what it was like (other than what I vaguely recall from the books I read almost 60 years ago.

We thought we had this bus-reserved-seat thing down pretty well. Andy told the bus-ticket person we needed to reserve seats near the front of the bus, the bus-ticket person made the note, and we thought we were good.

When our bus number was called, all sorts of confusion occurred once we exited the gangway. We lost the rest of the group as we wandered through the cruise terminal, and ended up being one of the last people on the bus. There was no reserved seats for us. The bus driver said, “We had 6 reserved seats and they’re all filled”. Obviously, they did not check the reservations against the room numbers. Good news: there was still a single seat in the second row, and another right behind that. Bad news: decent photos through the windows were not going to happen.

The ship was docked in Charlottetown, PEI. Whenever the tour guide starts the tour by pointing out ordinary structures (the middle school, the shopping plaza with a Walmart and a Home Depot), we’ve discovered this does not bode well. A nice enough town, the largest on PEI (40K) that gets a ton of snow every winter.

Farming is a big part of the PEI economy, with potatoes being the biggest crop. This meant that as soon as we left the city limits, the scenery consisted of nice rolling hills and farmland.

To our surprise, today’s tour included lunch! Which was, of course, a lobster roll and potato salad. Fortunately, there was also the choice of chicken salad and potato salad, or some vegetarian option (with potato salad (you see the recurring theme here)). The tour guide tallied up all the choices, and, I assumed, phoned it in to the restaurant.

Our first stop was at the Marine Rail Historical Park – mostly a bathroom break, but also a photo op for the Confederation Bridge that connects PEI to New Brunswick ($25 toll each way, but paid only on the way back to PEI). There’s a monument to the ferry service that existed before the bridge was built.

Next, we were off to the Gateway Village, that had a nice gift shop and a statue to Anne of Green Gables.

You could dress up as Anne in period costumes (came in assorted sizes and included a hat with attached red braids), and have a friend take your picture. I’m a big Anne Shirley, but not that big.

The lobster industry is another big part of the economy on PEI; everyone was offered a taste of lobster potato chips by the staff. Since lobster is about as unkosher as any food item can get, we declined. We said, “We don’t eat lobster”, to which the staffer replied, “YOU DON’T EAT LOBSTER!?!”. Nope, still don’t, hasn’t changed.

On we drove to Cavendish, the town where Lucy Maud Montgomery lived and the setting for the Anne of Green Gables books. We stopped at Cavendish beach for a photo op – you can see how red the soil is on PEI by the red cliffs:

Cavendish beach off the Gulf of St. Lawrence

Hurricane Fiona hit PEI in 2022 and did some serious damage to the island, especially the crops and the beaches.

After the beach, it was time for lunch. Somehow, even though the tallies of lobster, chicken, and vegetarian sandwiches were known, getting a non-lobster sandwich turned out to be something of a challenge for some unknown reason. Fortunately, we still had plenty of time before we needed to board the bus when our lunches finally arrived.

Then we were off to the “Green Gables Heritage Place” (IMO, an awkward name?).

Lucy Maud Montgomery never lived in this house or on the farmstead, but some of her relatives did. She visited frequently and used the farmstead as the inspiration for the location of the books.

Keep in mind that I was the one who had read these books all those years ago. Andy had not. So while seeing this place brought back memories of the books in my mind, it didn’t mean much of anything to him. What a good sport!

We had plenty of time to share a beaver tail pastry before boarding the bus. I’m going to save the photo of the beaver tail for the very end, so it’ll be the cover photo for the blog. For the uninitiated, a beaver tail seems to me to be a flat doughnut with yummy stuff on top.

We got one with Nutella, peanut butter sauce, and Reese’s Pieces. They make it for you on the spot. It was super hot and hard to figure out how to eat it without getting burned fingers. Utensils were nowhere to be found. We forged ahead and managed to make it disappear pretty quickly. UNBELIEVABLY GOOD.

On the way back to the ship, we passed by the cemetery where Lucy Maud Montgomery is buried. Here is an awkward photo of her grave, taken through the window as we drove by, and I’m trying not have a seat mate photobomb:

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s grave – the two cone shaped everygreen bushes with the flower bed in front

I tried to get some photos of the countryside. This was the best I could do:

We arrived back at the cruise terminal something after 5:00. We didn’t have a lot of time to look at the shops, because all-aboard time was 5:30.

Tomorrow is a sea day. Wednesday, 9/18, is Portland, ME – our last port on this cruise. Some “Welcome Back To The US” immigration stuff is happening that morning. The ship’s crew has been working with CBP to set up the schedule to process all 3K passengers by 12:30 p.m. This should be entertaining.

Here is the beaver tail:

This was sooooo good. And unbelievably messy. I had chocolate under my nails.

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 2, O Canada Edition Days 6 and 7 (9/13 & 9/14) – Quebec City

Where We Spend A Splendid, But Awkwardly Timed, 26 Hours In Quebec City

Day 6 Friday afternoon on 9/13

The timing of our “full day”/overnight in Quebec City couldn’t be much more awkward. The ship was scheduled to arrive at noon and depart at 1:30 the next day. Therefore, it wasn’t a full day during the day. Booking excursions was a challenge on all fronts – all the ship’s Quebec excursions were sold out. Finding a private tour that operated within the odd time frames took forever. I finally found one for Friday afternoon (9/13) from 2:00 to 6:00 from ToursByLocals.

It was originally supposed to be a tour of the old city. Our tour guide, Diane, reached out to me immediately to confirm the itinerary; I told her since we knew nothing about Quebec, we were sure whatever she had in mind would be fine.

And then she found out that the “Grand Prix” of Canadian bicycle races was scheduled for 9/13, which meant many roads would be closed off, including access to our ship and the old city. She came up with a different itinerary, which didn’t mean anything to us, but that didn’t matter.

On the morning of our arrival, the cruise director excitedly announced that the captain was able to dock a full 90 minutes earlier than scheduled! which still didn’t mean anything to us, because our tour didn’t begin until 2:00 p.m. But the people who wanted to walk into the Old City were happy, because they had an extra 90 minutes.

The view of the Hotel Frontenac from the ship

Diane our tour guide texted me to tell me that we had to meet her at a spot away from our ship, because she couldn’t get any closer. It wasn’t too much of a problem – we exited the ship and followed the Google maps directions that mostly followed the race course.

We found Diane without a problem. Her little white Honda was parked outside the main cruise terminal. For some reason, we couldn’t get to this cruise terminal from our ship.

Diane’s itinerary took us out of Quebec City itself to the suburb of Charlesbourg (pronounced Sharlzburg), and into a neighborhood with some very old houses, some dating from the 1700 and 1800s.

On our way, we stopped at a building mural depicting the history of Quebec City:

She talked about the French style vs the Quebec style of roofs. The house below is a Quebec style house from the 1800s:

It faces south, not the street
It has a steel roof
The roof extends beyond the house to allow snow to slide off the house onto the grass.

This is a more French style house – flat house front, it faces the street, and it’s very close to the street (not set back):

After driving around for quite a while, we opted to stop by a fudgerie (a fudge store). The store had a building mural depicting the “King’s Daughters”: about 700 women who came from France in the late 1600s to marry the first men settlers who came a few years earlier. Here’s a link to more info.

The fudge was fabulous. We bought a bunch (no surprise).

Heading back into Quebec City, we stopped by (one of?) the oldest hospital in Quebec. Some parts of the building date back to the 1700s.

The hospital was across the street from a military cemetery, where the soldiers who died during the British-French wars in the 1700s are buried. The wars finally ended in 1770 with the British retaining control of Quebec.

Yeah, there’s no English translations anywhere

As our tour drew to a close, we asked Diane for a recommendation for a restaurant for dinner in the city. On our way there, she drove down Cartier Ave with its colorful lampshades that are swapped out periodically, each one its own mini-art installation.

We had dinner in a restaurant called Cafe de Paris: terrible service but great food:

At least we had a great table by the open window on a beautiful evening, while we waited almost endlessly for our food to arrive:

Since we were not 100% sure of the actual physical address of where our ship was docked, we decided to take a cab instead of an Uber. Diane had assured us all the cabbies knew what “wharf 93” would mean. The restaurant called us a cab.

The street in front of the restaurant while we waited for the cab

The cabbie didn’t quite know what I was talking about when I said “Wharf 93”, but I showed him the address that Diane had thoughtfully texted me. The cabbie said that the best way to refer to it was “Quai 93” – pronounced “key”. Good to know, in case this ever comes up again.

We had nothing scheduled for the next morning – all the Celebrity sponsored excursions had been booked back in April. Andy had the brilliant idea of going to shore excursions to just ask to see if something had become available.

Lo and behold! there were 2 spots open on a 3 hour Quebec City tour that included Montmorency Falls! Even though it meant getting up at Oh-Dark-Thirty, we grabbed it. We had thought we wouldn’t be able to see the old city this trip. Problem solved!

Tomorrow: The Old City and the Falls.

Day 7 Saturday, September 14

We were indeed up and about at Oh-Dark-Thirty and on the bus by 7:40. The city was still cleaning up from the bike race on the previous day – the trash trucks were everywhere. Our bus driver managed to squeeze past them with an inch to spare.

Our first stop was the Chateau Frontenac. We had some time to wander around.

The boardwalk going in the opposite direction goes all the way to the Plains of Abraham

Our ship is the one on the right. I think that’s a Holland America ship on the left (Zuiderdam)

After the chateau, we drove by the Parliament building.

Then it was time to go to the Montmorency Falls just outside the city. These falls are taller than Niagara Falls {but, sorry not sorry, not nearly as impressive…}

I took a photo of Andy taking a photo of the falls and its rainbow.

This a view of the Quebec City skyline on our way back to the ship.

Once back on the ship, we watched the scene off our veranda as the ship pulled out of the dock. There were a flock of sailboats – one guy really took a HUGE chance by not getting out of the way as the ship backed up. You could hear the ship’s horn blasting away at the idiot – who did make it past the ship just in time.

The rest of the day was “scenic sailing”.

L’hit-rah-ot, Quebec. G0d willing we’ll be back.

Day 8 is a sea day, as we make our way to Prince Edward Island (which in my mind is associated to the “Anne of Green Gables” books.

Monday, September 16: Prince Edward Island

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 2: O Canada Edition/Days 3 & 4 (9/10 & 9/11)

Where We Saw Highlights of Halifax, But Can’t Seem To Count 10 Of Them As Promised, and

An Interesting Visit to Cape Breton (Sydney)

Day 3 Halifax

To everybody out there who really like Halifax, apologies in advance. We found Halifax to be: Ok.

We booked an excursion through the ship called “Top 10 Highlights of Halifax”. Knowing absolutely nothing about Halifax, this sounded like a great idea. It was an all-day excursion, so we assumed there’d be some kind of lunch break.

As the bus left the cruise terminal, our tour guide began describing the sites around us: a grocery store (“Different from *your* grocery stores!” – because you can by legal marijuana), a junior high school, and a few other equally mundane buildings, all on our way to our first stop: the cemetery where some of the victims of the Titanic were buried.

There are about 100ish Titanic victims buried in this cemetery, some of whom were eventually identified, and some not. Each of the bodies that were buried in this cemetery were had a number assigned to them as they were pulled out of the water. The graves are not in number sequence.

Apparently there was a real person named Jack Dawson (per the John Cameron movie from 1998), but his full name was John Joseph Dawson. Since he was in the 3rd class level of the ship, in reality there would be no way for a 3rd class passenger to ever meet a 1st class passenger. But that’s the stuff of movies, literally. We managed to pass by his headstone without taking a photo, mostly because we were in a group of 50, and we didn’t even see it.

This is a photo of the headstone of the “Unknown Child”:

When the bodies were retrieved from the water, their clothes were removed and burned. The person tasked with burning the clothes plucked a pair of children’s shoes from the top and kept them in his attic. Fast forward about 80 years, the family house was sold and the shoes were donated to the Canadian Titanic museum. After much detective work, the shoes were finally identified as belonging to Sidney Leslie Goodwin, who died at the age of 18 months with the rest of his entire family.

You might just be able to make out from this photo that the Titanic victims’ headstones are lined up in the shape of a ship’s hull:

Next up was a long (1 hr+) out to Peggy’s Cove, a beautiful little lobster fishing town, known for it’s fresh lobster rolls and scenic lighthouse.

When we arrived at Peggy’s Cove, the tour guide told us we had an hour before returning to the bus.

It had been 3 hours since the last bathroom break (before we left). The line at the bathroom was formidable. It was also after 1:00, so we had the issue of what to get for lunch that was not lobster (which we don’t eat). We ordered take out turkey sandwiches at the coffee shop that took 20 minutes to arrive. Of our 60 minutes, we had already spent more than half of it just taking care of business.

Andy was able to capture a photo of a schooner going by, apparently something that is a bit rare:

If we’d had more time, we would have been able to wander around the pathways just a bit, but after finishing our sandwiches, there was barely enough time for another bathroom break before getting back on the bus.

We headed back to the city for our next stop. We were dropped off on a street in (what I’m guessing?) downtown Halifax:

We wandered up and down the street a bit, bought something in a shop the tour guide recommended, and then went back to the meeting spot at the entrance of the Halifax Public Gardens. The Halifax Public Gardens were established by the Nova Scotia Horticultural Society in 1834. It’s one of the few remaining examples of a Victorian garden in North America.

Here’s the gazebo restored to its original colors:

This a photo from the “Wedding Bridge”, where people come to stage their wedding photos.

These succulents are dug up every year and kept in the hothouse over the winter

At some point it started to rain, so the group sped up to exit the garden and board the bus.

The bus drove to the top of the Halifax Citadel National Historic site – a 19th century fort. It doesn’t look like we have any photos of the view from the top (the bus didn’t stop and we were on the wrong side of the bus).

That was the end of the tour. It was a pleasant enough day, but not a “wowza”.

Day 4 Sydney

Because we booked this cruise kinda “last minute” (for us anyway), many of the ship’s excursions were already booked up for some of the ports. Sydney was one of them. Instead we booked a private tour through Ventures Ashore. This was our first time using this company (usually we use Viator or ToursByLocals).

Possibly there was some confusion on the company’s end – we met our tour guide, Bill, right on time after disembarking the ship, but he seemed to think there would be more than two of us. Nope, only us two. And when I handed our voucher to Bill’s boss when we exited the cruise port, the boss said he tried to call me. I had no calls from them on my phone, and I had wondered about that.

Good news: it didn’t matter and we were on our way.

The first thing we learned was that Sydney was on an island called Cape Breton. Who knew? Sydney is the only city on the island, though there are towns and villages.

It was a good hour to our first stop: the tiny postoffice in Christmas Island (which is not really an island), Nova Scotia. We’ll be getting our post card that we mailed to ourselves with the “Christmas” postmark.

Next up, the Highlander Village, where a small village was reproduced (maybe some of the buildings were authentic?), and re-enactors dressed in period costume worked in each building (similar and an on a smaller scale than Colonial Williamsburg in VA). Each house seemed to be in a different year in the history of Cape Breton. We spoke to a young woman in a one room log cabin house who’s story was set in 1850.

In another building, we spoke to a carpenter. There was an antique carriage in the work shed.

And here’s the pig. She was busy doing pig things.

Andy visited a couple of buildings that required climbing uphill and/or steps.

I think this was the general store, maybe?

Our tour guide had sorta mentioned we had about an hour, but between totally losing track of time and me having to walk a good chunk of the trail (the transport chair doesn’t do well in gravel), I’m pretty sure we had been gone about 90 minutes when we finally surfaced. Well worth the time.

It was about lunch time as we headed to Bedeck, where Alexander Graham Bell had lived with this family. Because we were running late, we opted for a diner instead of the regular spot he brings his customers. Good food, and we were in-and-out in 30 minutes! We were back on track.

Our tour guide dropped us off at the Alexander Graham Bell museum, where we spent at least an hour, maybe a little more.

Bell was a contemporary of Thomas Edison and Guglielmo Marconi; sometimes their work overlapped.

Bell was involved in the invention of the hydrofoil in the earliest history of flying in Canada:

We had seen a tour group from our ship in the Highlander Village. They had followed us to the diner in Bedeck, and we saw them once again coming into the museum as we were going out. Our tour guide said he’s always happy when he’s just ahead of a ship’s tour group, because then he knows that the ship won’t leave before that group is back on board!

On the way back to Sydney, we stopped a couple of times for scenic photo ops.

Just before returning to the port, we drove through one of the Native American reserves. Their leader, Chief Paul, has done such a good job of improving the lives of his people on the reserve, there’s a running joke (or maybe not) that the city of Sydney wants to recruit him for the next mayoral election.

We had a fantastic day in Cape Breton. It is stunningly beautiful, with super friendly people who are very happy to see tourists!

Tomorrow: Sea day (which is when I’m writing this blog).

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 2: O Canada Edition Days 1 and 2 (9/8 and 9/9)

Where We Manage To Board The Ship Without Incident

And Spend A Splendid Day In Penobscot Bay

Day 1 was pretty easy.

The only confusion we had was when we arrived at the specified parking lot for the cruise port. There were no signs telling us where to go or what to do, only a machine that wanted to charge us money for something we had already paid.

Eventually a guy (who’s native language is so obviously not English) who sort of pointed us here and there to park. Fortunately, the ship’s shuttle showed up a few minutes later and we were on our way.

Possibly one of the smoothest cruise check-ins ever, with not one hitch and no more than a minute wait any step along the way. We had been warned by the cruise line NOT to show up before our allotted time or we would be turned away. I seriously doubt that would have happened. But our timing was perfect – we arrived exactly at 2:00 anyway.

After boarding, we dropped off our stuff in our room, then grabbed something to eat at the buffet.

Our bags showed up around 4:30 or 5:00. We started unpacking, which is when we noticed this room has almost no storage – 5 drawers to be shared by two people for 11 nights.

At dinner we met our table mates. When I made the reservation back in March, Celebrity gave me two options: 6:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m., so I picked 6:00 p.m. I had no idea this meant we were assigned a table with the same people for the duration of the cruise. We haven’t seen this since our very first cruise in 1980. The deck 4 restaurant is assigned seating. Deck 5 is for “come whenever” seating. If I had been given that option, that’s what I would have picked.

Good news: the people at our table are very nice, and I’m sure it’ll be fine to eat with them. It’s just…odd.

For a first day, it was pretty good. Not nearly as crazy as the first day on the NCL ship in May; of course there a far fewer people and a much smaller ship.

Day 2 Rockland, Maine

Late yesterday afternoon, we visited the Customer Service desk, which was actually very helpful. We upgrade our wifi package so as to make it useful (this was not clear when I bought the package online a few months ago). And we also asked if we could request to sit at or near the front of the bus for all of our Celebrity booked excursions.

This morning we tested this process. And it worked! It was an entertaining challenge to toddle down the steps of the gangway to the tender boat (a/k/a life boat), but I was able to do it and also climb into the tender. This is the second time we’ve seen steps to a tender gangway – the last time being on the NCL ship last may.

When we arrived at the Rockland tender dock, we had a little bit of a wait for our bus to arrive. And when it did arrive, our stateroom number was on the front seat! Yay!

It was an absolutely perfect weather day – clear skies and temps in the low 70s. We had a scenic drive up to Mt Battie, where we had a panoramic view of Penobscot Bay:

Andy wandered around a bit to a nearby tower:

After 20 minutes of beautiful scenery, we got back on the bus and drove to Camden. We bought a couple of sandwiches for lunch before we made our way to the bay to board the schooner that would take us on a two-hour sail.

The Appledore is a schooner with two masts. We were 46 passengers in total – we had no problem finding a seat. We saw the captain and two crew members; apparently there are more crew members around, but we didn’t see them.

We sailed for 2 hours in the glorious sunshine!

Crew members managing the sails. Passengers were recruited to “help” raise them.

This is the lighthouse that is on the Red Lobster logo

Once we were out into the bay, you could ask to “drive” the boat. This was Andy’s turn. I wondered why the boat was doing weird things….

It was a fantastic afternoon! I just wish I had remembered to bring my sunglasses and visor. The sun was super strong!

Random side note: this morning we realized this was the first time either one of us has been in Maine.

We’re off to dinner soon, followed by the evening’s entertainment.

So far, so good!

Tomorrow: Halifax (and I think a time change to Atlantic Time)

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 2 – “O Canada” Edition

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

No We Haven’t Left Yet

We’re off again! This time staying in the Northern Hemisphere for a change. This is our itinerary:

Sooooo many nice things about this itinerary:

It’s round trip from Boston. This means we can drive to Boston and park at the cruise port.
- No airplanes.
- No airports.
- No TSA lines
- No weight limit on our suitcases
- No real limit to the number of bags we can bring on board, though realistically, they still have to fit under the bed.
No jet lag
- It looks like Halifax, Sydney, and Charlottetown are in the Atlantic time zone, which is one hour ahead. We will probably toggle back and forth an hour.
We can visit family on the way up, visit more family on the way down.
We can spend a little time in Boston. It’s been a while.
The cruise itself should be rather relaxed.
- Unlike other itineraries where we seem to have a sense of urgency (“We *have* to see the David in Florence!!”, and we all know how THAT turned out), there’s no sense of urgency at all here. All places I’m interested in seeing, though, especially Quebec City.
- All of our excursions start no later than 10:00 a.m. (i.e. no crazy 5:30 a.m. alarms to hurry, scramble, get off the ship by 7:00).
- There are 3 individual days at sea. We’re super-not fans of days at sea, but one at a time is fine. Three sea days in a row? Nope, nope, and nope.

We board the ship on Sunday, September 8 and disembark on Thursday, September 19.

Everybody think happy thoughts for continued good late Summer weather!

Day 11 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1 – Cannes

Another “Day at sea in port” + Cannes + Nice and Eze

I opted for a second day on board ship. We had received a notice that there were steps involved to board the tender. Since I’ve been to Cannes a couple of times before, I was fine with staying on board. I found a good spot in the empty cafe, caught up on blogs, and the servers brought me an endless supply of club soda.

Meanwhile, Susie, Janet, and Stefania went ashore. They had a marvelous lunch. That’s their photobombing server.

Then they went on the little train that goes around Cannes. The film festival is alive and well, and generating traffic.

Andy spent the day on an excursion to Nice and Eze. First he had lunch. This I wish I had been there for.

Driving through Nice, the tour guide pointed out a glimpse of Elton John’s house perched on the mountain.

The arrow is pointing to Elton John’s house

Walking around, he saw some interesting statues.

Inside the Cathedral of Sainte Marie Sainte-Reparate

And, of course, the beach:

I loved Eze the last time we were here. It is crunched into the mountainside. Lots of steps. Lots.

And lots of art everywhere.

The obligatory church photo.

The view from Eze is marvelous.

A view of Eze on the way down the mountain. The square pinkish building is the church. Behind it is an old fort destroyed by Louis XIV in the 15th century.

On the way back from Eze, the tour stopped at a perfume factory. I can’t begin to tell you how glad I am I missed this. I’m allergic to most fragrances (to put it mildly). I would have had to stay outside.

The last tender was supposed to be at 3:00 p.m., but Andy’s tour was running late. This is the advantage of booking a tour through the ship – the ship had to wait and provide the tender.

Tomorrow: Palma de Majorca. I will be back on the trail. We’re supposed to have a private tour starting at 1:00 p.m., but as of dinnertime, Janet hadn’t heard a confirmation. We figure the worst case scenario, we take the shuttle into town to have lunch and go shopping.

Since WordPress tends to use the last photo in the blog as the cover photo, so I’m repeating this here, because I think it’s a better cover photo than the one just above.

Day 10 – Florence

Where Some Of Us Have A Restful Day Off

And Others Choose To Climb Towers

This is going to be pretty short, as nothing much happened.

It was great to have the day “off”. The four of us spent the day hanging out by the pool. I caught up on some blogs. My knee was feeling much better – I was able to walk a bit, albeit still very slowly.

There really wasn’t much of anything to do in Livorno (the port city) anyway. Every time we looked up “things to do in Livorno”, the results pointed to “go to Florence.”

Andy went off on his “Climb The Tower Of Pisa” excursion. The first/last time we were in Pisa in 1999, the tower was closed. I remember there had been cables holding it up, and sand packed into its base to keep it from falling faster than it already was. Since then, the source of the falling was determined and rectified, and the tower fortified.

The bell tower on the right, the church, and the bapistery (round building) on the left

He walked all the way up to these great views.

And of course, the requisite Tower Pose

After he came back to the ship, we spent some time by the pool.

It’s now the time to begin preparations for leaving the ship and going home. We had all received our luggage tags for disembarkation on Sunday; though we’re all on the same flight to NY from Barcelona, somehow we were in two time frames. A visit to Guest Services straightened it out – we’re now all in the same group.

Tomorrow: Cannes {Andy and Tom are going on two different excursions. Janet, Susie, and Stefania will be taking the tender into Cannes to have lunch. Because there are steps involved with boarding the tender (13 to be exact), and my knee isn’t up for any kind of distance walking, I’ll be spending another “day at sea in port”. I’ve been to Cannes twice before, so I’m fine with not visiting this time.}

Day 9 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure Part 1: Roma

Where We Have An Amazing Whirlwind Day In Rome

And Then The Second Thing Went Wrong

Just A Little Bit

Five of us were on a private tour for Rome today – a whirlwind “see all the important things” day. Our driver and tour guide, Paolo, picked us up right on time outside the gate. And he had a step stool to help us get into the van.

Once again a black Mercedes van, this one had the six seats facing each other. Andy and I faced backwards; this was occasionaly annoying when he pointed to things that were behind our heads.

It’s about 90 minutes from Civitavecchia to Rome, and a little further to downtown. First stop: the Trevi Fountain. Even before that: gelato! We have fallen way behind in our gelato quota for this trip.

A couple of us threw the required three coins, to make sure we come back some day and spend a little more time. We had just enough time to finish our gelato.

Next stop: Spanish Steps

Only ten minutes at the Spanish steps – we were on a tight time table. Next stop: the Colosseum. I didn’t realize this tour would include time to go in and walk around.

Titus’ arch greets us as we approach the Colosseum. Somewhere on here is the depiction of Romans carrying the Jerusalem menorah into Rome. We checked both broad sides and didn’t see that scene. It might have been on one of the short sides. We didn’t have the time to figure it out.

Titus’ Arch depicting the ransacking of Jerusalem in 70 CE after the fall of Masada

This is what we were looking for:

The confusion around where we were supposed to go were colossal (see what I did there?). Andy and I were separated from the others for a bit, but we eventually found them.

Andy and I went up to the second level

Next was lunch. Paolo took us to a restaurant obviously known to him, and more confusion ensued. We didn’t realize lunch was included. The servers wanted to bring us a “tasting” menu, but we all knew that wouldn’t work. We all had specific food requirements that we knew a tasting menu would fail (no pork, shellfish, olives, yada yada). We ordered off the regular menu instead – everything was excellent!

After lunch – the real biggies – the Vatican Museum (unfortunately, not enough time for the cathedral).

Our Vatican tour guide was a little weird. He obviously knew his stuff, but seemed oddly indifferent to the mobility issues a couple of us have. He would say: “This is the last elevator, but after this it’s flat”. And then there would be steps. He would insist we do the steps, even when there was an elevator. At one point, the museum staff insisted we take an elevator, even as the guide dashed up and down steps. Even after that particular elevator, there were still more steps down.

In 20/20 hindsight, if I had had an accurate and clear understanding of the path to the Sistine Chapel, I most likely would have made a completely different decision from following the guide blindly up and down steps. But every time I asked about more steps, the guide would say, “Just a few more, just a few more”.

There was one statue that had actual glass eyes. Our guide explained that some statues did have eyes – typically the statues we see and think of don’t, possibly because the glass cracked and broke over the centuries.

Apparently one eye is blue and one eye is brown, but we couldn’t get close enough to see that. Fun that the guy’s head and hand covers just the right spot.

Here’s an interesting tapestry. See if you can see the effect in the photos. As you walk past it, it seems like Jesus’ eyes are following you. The first photo is from the left of the tapestry:

I think the optical illusion only works in person, IMO.

This is the point where things go just a bit awry. The guide had mentioned that we had to go down to the Sistine Chapel – we were on a one way path leading to it. So I asked – is there an elevator. He said, “No, not on this end.” So how many steps are we talking about? “Just a few, just a few”. I said, “Are we talking 5 or 6, or a couple of flights?” “Just a few steps more, just a few”.

Well, “Just a few” turned out to be 3 full flights of steps, a looong way down. I took it very slowly, but I knew my knee was unhappy.

I made it to the chapel; no photographs are allowed, so take my word for it that’s amazing. The guide had spent some time outside explaining the different sections. Here’s a photo of the sign:

After a few minutes, it was time to go. That’s when I realized I couldn’t put weight on my left knee. And we weren’t allowed to use the rented wheelchair in the chapel. With a great deal of help, I hobbled to the other end of the chapel and plopped myself into the chair.

And there was an elevator! Which either he had decided not to tell me about or had been so confusing in his description of things that I hadn’t figured out what he was saying.

The elevator took us straight back up to the main lobby of the museum. I *think* possibly that if I had wanted to use the elevator to see the chapel, I would not have been able to go through the rest of the museum. HOWEVER, *if* I had clearly understood exactly how many steps would be involved (going through the museum and down to the chapel), I might have opted to just do the chapel.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

As I managed to climb into the van for the ride back, the guide said, “I so sorry if I brought this on you!”. Too little, too late.

Note: I had looked up the Vatican museum’s accessibility options. The museum’s website said that most of the museum was accessible, though not all of it. Unfortunately, there had been nothing specific as to the location of elevators or any description of the stairs down to the chapel.

The day had been going soooo well!

The lack of a Florence excursion was now looking like a blessing in disguise. The four ladies would have “a day at sea in port”, while the guys went off on their excursions. We all needed a break, and my knee would have an opportunity to recuperate a bit, leveraging all my doctor proscribed meds.

{Final note: by bedtime, I was able to stand again and walk very, very, very slowly}

Tomorrow: Florence