Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 3: Frozen Edition

Day 4: Where We Head Out Of The City To A Small Town, An Art Museum, Christmas Market And Chocolate Cake.

Many Cobblestones Are Involved

December 20

Today is the day we transfer to the ship, the Viking Tor (or Thor). After we had breakfast made sure our bags were out in the hallway before 10:00 a.m., all 5 of us in our group boarded a van for the same excursion to Szentendre (Saint Andrew), a town about 40 minutes from Budapest. The group was pretty small, so we had a van instead of a big tour bus. These vans are great, because they are easy for me to climb up and climb down.

The town seems to have one main street. Our tour guide told us all we had to do was follow the cobblestone road to find our way back to the bus.

Szentandre is a classic small town in Hungary. Some of the population is actually Serbian in origin (Eastern Orthodox) and some Hungarian (Catholic). We wouldn’t know the difference, that’s for sure.

The little booth is the beginning of the Christmas Market. More cobblestones.

We slowly made our way towards the Magrit Kovacs museum. I know I had never heard of her. She was famous in Europe in the first half of the 20th Century for ceramic art, at a time when the concept of “ceramic art” wasn’t a thing.

There actually is a remnant of the Jewish community still in Szentandre. This street is the entrance to the Jewish quarter.

When we arrived at the museum, we discovered that it was actually a house converted into a museum; therefore there were a bunch of steps and no elevator. I’m always at a loss when cruise ship excursion descriptions can’t seem to include this kind of info.

But our tour guide, Nickie, was able to talk to the museum staff, and they opened up a back door for us so we could enter without steps.

Here’s a link to some detailed info on her life. Magrit Kovacs was an artist who decided to turn ceramics (normally considered “just pottery” and therefore not “art”) into a true art form. Her work is amazing! Her bio says she was “born into a Jewish family” (I never really know what that means), but many of her works have a strong Christian theme. By the time the Nazis came to power, she was so famous that somehow they dared not murder her. This is pretty amazing, since that never stopped the Nazis before (e.g. they were after Einstein). She was essentially under house arrest for the duration of the war with a big yellow Star of David on her front door.

These are some of her works that we saw in the museum:

The people she portrays almost always have a little smile

The smiles disappear after her mother dies. This is a portrayal of Magrit and her sister with their mother on her deathbed

During the Soviet occupation of Hungary, she was instructed to create this map of the world that is missing the US.

After the museum, we went to a coffee shop and had a drink and some cake, which turned out to be “lunch”. We had time to wander around the town for a bit giving us the opportunity to contribute to the local economy, which we did. We walked back to the bus along the smoother-surfaced street down by the embankment of the Danube.

Now it was time to head to the ship. We made good time until the last mile, where it was backed up a bit.

It’s great to back on board a Viking ship!

We unpacked and tried to figure out what was going on with the excursions via the TV app. Nothing made sense. We went to the front desk and started asking questions of the young guy waiting there. He immediately sensed he was over his head and called for the Program Director Mario.

We’re guessing that because this is supposed to be a Christmas Market cruise, and many of the markets close by December 24, Viking did their best to rearranged things to maximize the Christmas experience. The end result is massive confusion.

The day we’re in Krems (12/24), we’re not doing anything in Krems, but going to a cathedral in Melk. Mario said there’s 65 steps to walk down to get from the parking lot to the church. We thought he was joking. He was not. We predict that about 1/3 to 1/2 the ship will not be walking down 65 steps (and then have to walk back up). Though Mario mentioned there is a path down, but it’s all cobblestones. And then the church itself has steps, though *maybe* the elevator will be working. This does not sound hopeful.

The day we’re supposed to be in Passau we will be going to Salzberg, because the Christmas market in Salzberg is still open.

Linz now has an included walking tour that wasn’t listed a month ago, and definitely not over the summer when we were deciding on our excursions. We had booked a private walking tour in Linz (though Viator still hadn’t confirmed they were actually providing a tour guide while happily taking my money). We all agreed there was no point in doing both, so we canceled the private tour.

Also, a new Budapest Christmas Market and St Stephen’s church walking tour was added for Saturday afternoon. Since the morning “Panoramic Budapest” tour in the morning is pretty much the same as what we saw on the tuk-tuk tour AND it starts at 8:00 a.m., Janet, Susie, and I opted to not go on that one. Andy had a castle hill hike scheduled anyway, and Tom said he was going on the panoramic tour so he could go into the church at the top of that hill. Many hills, many churches!

I think we have it figured out? It remains to be seen.

Tomorrow: last day in Budapest

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024, Part 3: Frozen Edition (a/k/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

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

Day 8 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1 – Naples

Where We Take Our First Non-NCL Excursion To Pompeii And Amalfi

Trigger warning, in case you’d rather avoid photos of dead bodies!

We booked a private tour for Pompei, Amalfi, and Ravello, because none of the NCL excursions were viable – all were too difficult in a group setting.

We booked the tour through Viator, something we’ve done many times. The driver, Lucca, arrived at 8:00 a.m. – a half hour earlier than what was on our ticket. But he was patient. He said he was right outside the gate.

We walked off the ship and walked out the gate. No Lucca. As a matter of fact, there were no drivers at all.

Turns out we hadn’t even begun the journey to find Lucca. The ship terminal in Naples is HUGE. Walk down here, turn left there, into the terminal, down another hall past shops, down the elevator and out the door.

Nope, not far enough yet.

Walk through the parking lot through a gate. Nope, not that gate.

Walked through the final gate, and there was Lucca holding up a sign with my name. I guess there’s “gate” and then there’s “gate”.

I had sent info to Viator pertaining to our trip (e.g. we needed a step stool to get in and out of the van), but Lucca had been told nothing. But he went with the flow. He recommended that we skip Ravello, because Ravello is perched at the top of a very high and steep hill. Fine with us!

He drove up a mountain road in the pouring rain on the way to Amalfi. At one point, we hit a goat traffic jam

A rather beleaguered mountain shepherd dog popped out behind them, looking a bit exasperated as the goats went every which way. That dog has a tough job.

As we descended on the other side of the mountain and we approached Amalfi, the rain cleared up and the sun came out.

Amalfi is a beautiful!

We had lunch in a cafe in the main square. We had a great view of this interesting fountain.

After lunch, we were on our way to Pompeii.

We had our own private tour guide in Pompeii. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch his name. He was marvelous – obviously very knowledgable. He easily adapted his itinerary to accommodate us slow walkers.

We first went through the museum.

These are actually plaster casts of the bodies found under the ash.

Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 CE is the first historically documented volcanic eruption. The people of Pompeii were buried under volcanic ash, not lava. Most people died breathing Vesuvius’ toxic fumes as it erupted.

Next stop was the large amphitheater. The acoustics are perfect. When you stand in the exact center of the ring, your voice can be heard everywhere.

Then we made our way to Pompeii’s streets.

Most of Pompeii’s sidewalks are flat. You can see the huge cobblestones in the middle of the street that were typically covered with water, garbage, and sewage. People crossed streets hopping on stepping stones that you can see in this photo. To make it easier for people to walk along the streets, most of the crossings going north/south now have metal grating connecting the stones making a flat surface.

Dining room – three sides that held three beds each for a total of 9 people, who ate reclining. The number 9 is for the 9 muses.

As we headed to the exit, we stopped at the smaller amphitheater

There was a bit of traffic on our way back to the port, but we still made it in plenty of time for all-aboard. Of course, we had to re-trace our steps through the gates, parking lots, elevators, hallways, and finally, the terminal.

What a fantastic day!

Tomorrow: A marathon day in Rome, seeing all the things…

Day 7 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1

Where Five Of Us Have A Pleasant Drive Around Messina, Sicily And A Fabulous Lunch. One Of Us Hoped To Hike Up Mt Etna, But Didn’t

And I Realize I’ve Forgotten To Mention The First Thing To Go Wrong

It’s always a little unnerving when there’s an envelope waiting for you when you get back from your days activities. The others had spotted theirs first before dinner a couple of days ago. We didn’t see ours until we went back to the room for the evening.

As I type this on May 23, I don’t remember which day that was. But, one of the reasons I’m in our room catching up on blogs is because of the contents of the letter.

Back on the first way we arrived, we had noticed that none of us that had booked the Norwegian “accessible” excursion to Florence including a visit to the Uffizi to see the David. We all had to make special trips to the excursion desk (open only between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. (i.e. dinnertime)) to get the tickets printed. Susie had an especially difficult time getting the ticket for an excursion she had paid for.

SOOOOOO – the mysterious envelope waiting for us just a couple of days after all that effort? Contained a letter informing us that our Florence excursion was *canceled*.

We scrambled for several days to find an equivalent replacement. I found one that might work via Viator, and we submitted the request to purchase. However, since it was only 2 days off, it was no surprise that there were no drivers available.

We also looked at “things to do in Livorno”, the port where the ship will be docked. Any search brought up “Go To Florence”.

None of the other NCL excursions were viable. They all involved way too much walking and/or taking a chance on finding cabs or ubers exactly when we need them. Plus, the available tickets for the Ufrizi were either way too early in the morning or way too late in the afternoon.

Susie, Janet, and I have been to Florence several times before, but this was supposed to be Stefania’s first visit. Ugh.

Back to the story of Messina.

We obtained our bus stickers and headed to the bus, where, to my surprise, the seat reservation sign was waiting for me on the front seat! Except it had “Mt Etna” printed, then crossed out and “Messina” written in by hand. I guess they had printed it off for Andy’s excursion by mistake.

We started the drive along the beautiful coastline towards the strait of Messina, where we had a photo op

Our tour guide, Julia, told us the strait’s mythological creation story of Scylla and Charybdis, the origin of the phrase “between a rock and a hard place”. It’s only 2 miles from Messina to the mainland, but the tidal currents are very strong, making it difficult to build a bridge. There’s been talk of a bridge for literally millennia. Julia said the current Italian government is once again working to build a bridge across the strait.

She talked about the Sicilian flag, that has a Medusa head at the crux of 3 barefoot, running legs:

Medusa is protecting the island by threatening to turn enemies to stone. This flag is similar to the Isle of Man flag that we saw last summer.

An earthquake in the early 1900s destroyed the entire city. All of the buildings except two have been built since then. One of the big changes the city planners implemented was wide streets (by European standards, anyway). There are none of the tiny, cramped streets typical of many European cities.

The new city was built on top of the rubble of the old one. This is a photo of a church that was one of the two structures to survive. It’s several feet lower than street level – at the original level of the old city.

We next visited the Duomo. First we visited the treasure – a two room museum.

This is the main nave.

It was hard to hear her inside the church – we were not provided with headsets. I missed a lot of what she said.

Our tour was timed to make sure we were outside precisely at noon to watch the mechanical clock do it’s thing. I did record all 12 minutes of its performance. I haven’t figured out yet how to post it (maybe YouTube when I get home).

The lion on the top tier lifts his head and roars, then the rooster on the second tier crows, lastly the figures under the rooster circle around to a familiar tune I can’t remember or name at the moment. I think the figures on the lower levels dance on the quarter hour.

It was truly marvelous. And at least it wasn’t wrapped in scaffolding like the clock in Prague when we were there last.

The tour ended in there. We walked a short distance to a cafe to have lunch. Julia mentioned we should have 3 foods while in Messina: pasta with clams/mussels, cannoli, and Sicilian ice cream (I think she called it gluta?).

The cafe didn’t have an English version of their menu, so we sorta made do with google translate. The server provided us a QR code to the online menu that we could switch to English (after we figured out how to do that). I didn’t find the English translations much help.

Susie and Stefania had the pasta with mussels and clams that they said was fantastic. Janet had a pasta with a pistachio sauce that was also fabulous. I had something called braciolotto that seemed to be some kind of a hamburger like thing? The server said the meat was beef. There were serval small patties on a giant bun. I think the others had a better lunch.

I did have a cannoli. It was amazing, sorta making up for the sandwich. It was HUGE.

As we started walking back, we happened to see Andy on his afternoon run.

We were so close to the ship – we could see it hovering over the other buildings in the port, but we couldn’t seem to get there from here. I think it took us about 10 minutes, but it seemed a lot longer.

At dinner, Andy told us his Mt Etna excursion was very disappointing. Two hours of driving and only one hour on the mountain, with no hiking or walks. Several people came expecting to hike up the mountain. Apparently that would have taken another hour. Considering the entire excursion was 5 hours (most of that driving) and they arrived back hours and hours before all-aboard time, it seemed silly that the excursion couldn’t have been extended to allow for people to hike.

At this point, we had kinda resigned ourselves to a “day at sea while in port” instead of any Florence adventure. This kinda turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Tomorrow: Naples (Pompeii and Amalfi)

Day 6 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1

Sunday, May 19: Corfu, Greece

Where Four Of Us Spent Some Hours On A Bus Driving From One Scenic Spot To Another, Desperately Trying to Stay Awake

And The Other Two Saw A Palace (Of Sorts)

We tried a new strategy today to be able to get on the bus as soon as possible: we would get our bus stickers as usual, but then I’d immediately start walking to the bus.

The meeting place to pick up the bus stickers was the comedy club. When we arrived, the line was all the way down the hall. This did not look good. Someone else saw us standing there with our chair-cane things (I should take a photo of it; it’s very popular), and told us we could just barge into the room and get our stickers – that’s what she did for her sister.

So we did.

I started the trek towards the bus – which hadn’t arrived it. It was already warm, and it was a long long. Apparently I could have asked for assistance (euphemism for “wheelchair”, but I was under the impression that was not allowed except for certain circumstances. As I trudged along the pier, an NCL person told me that because the buses were parked so far away, I could have taken advantage of the assistance. It would have been great to know that.

The bus was just arriving as I made to the end of the pier. An NCL person asked to sit to wait for it to park. Which I did. But then they didn’t tell me it had parked.

No matter – the rest of my crew had just shown up and we were the first ones on the bus.

As the bus filled up, an NCL person handed a piece of paper to the tour guide. She looked at it and seemed completely confused. I saw what it was and exclaimed: “That’s for me!” This didn’t seem to help her, but she gave me the piece of paper. It was the reservation for the front seat of the bus that we had arranged for on the first day on the ship that hadn’t worked on the previous two excursions. Third try is the charm?

The Seat Reservation Finally Works – Just a Couple of Minutes Late

The tour guide was very nice, but she had a very soothing voice. And it was a little warm. This combo resulted in a struggle to stay awake.

Bottom line: I only remember 3 things out of her entire monologue:

Corfu is very old
Corfu was never conquered by the Ottoman Empire
Corfu was once a part of the Venetian empire. You can tell by the Venetian Lion emblems all over the island.

That’s about it.

Our firist stop was at Bella Vista (“beautiful view”)

The little bitty Island on the left is Mouse Island

Driving back down through Corfu, we saw an old fort. No idea if it had an actual name. The guide always referred to it as Old Fort.

We continued driving up to the top of Corfu. The towns were incredibly tiny. This town has two traffic lights – one at each end of the town. You get to wait 7 1/2 minutes for your turn to drive down the single one-way street.

Single lane street with its traffic light

This is view from this last scenic view point:

Then it was time to go back to the ship.

On our way back, we passed by the Church of Holy Mary Madrakina, an historic church in Corfu. It is an extremely popular location for baptisms. So popular that people make reservations more than a year in advance. Andy was able to get a photo of a celebration at the church.

Once again the warmth and the guide’s soothing voice made it extremely difficult to stay awake. Though sometimes watching the driver manage those incredibly tight turns did get the adrenaline flowing for a bit.

Meanwhile, the guys went on a walking tour of Mons Repos Palace. I got the impression it wasn’t much of a palace. But there was a cat.

We had time to hang out for a bit before dinner. You’ll notice that I never mention the evening entertainment. That’s because we hadn’t gone to one yet. The shows just don’t sound interesting, which is weird for NCL.

Tomorrow: Messina, Sicily, Italy

Day 5: Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Edition Part 1

Day 5: Where We Roam The Ancient Streets Of Dubrovnik, Croatia, But Do Not See Any Dragons

We’ve always heard great things about Dubrovnik, and at last we could find out if all those things were true.

We were booked on a tour on a special bus meant for easy viewing of all the sites. Last night, there was a new ticket in Andy’s name in our room that showed a change to the time and meeting point. There didn’t seem to be such a ticket for me. Everybody else in our group confirmed the new ticket. Uh oh.

We were out on the pier earlier than the designated time, because we needed to talk to someone about my missing ticket. The NCL person at the pier thought I was asking to join the group; eventually she figured out the problem was the missing new ticket.

Except it wasn’t really missing – it was stapled to Andy’s ticket. I don’t know why they did that. It would have been a bit easier if there had been two separate tickets on the desk in our room.

On this excursion, the driver didn’t do anything except drive. There was no tour guide. The driver handed us ear plugs. We plugged ourselves into the bus. We listened to a recording for the next two hours as he drove us along the scenic route to Dubrovnik.

View of our ship from the hills around Dubrovnik

When we arrived in Dubrovnik, it was obvious many other people had the same idea. It’s early in the travel season, and yet it was already super crowded.

If you’ve read my blog before, you know there’s always at least one bathroom story involved. For anybody new to my blog: there’s always at least one bathroom story involved.

There was a public bathroom a couple of blocks away. Of course there was a line, and I joined it. Then the Bathroom Lady called out to me, “LADY LADY COME COME”, so I followed her off the line – through the exit turnstile and past the 1 euro coin machine. So I stood in the next line for the women’s room.

“LADY LADY COME COME”, she called, and grabbed my arm sent me into the men’s room. The stalls, of course, had doors from floor to ceiling; no problem. I came out and there were a couple of guys at the urinals (what urinals? what guys? I didn’t see anything…), so I quickly washed my hands and dashed out of there.

This is not the first time a Bathroom Lady steered me into the men’s room to help me get through the line. And not the first time the guys in the men’s room didn’t pay any attention to me.

We had lunch at a restaurant right by the fortress.

The food was fabulous, our server was great, and it was a beautiful afternoon. Another adventure climbing down and up two flights of stairs for the bathroom, and it was time to roam.

{Note: much, much later in the evening, we realized our server dumped a bunch of bogus food orders on our bill and added an extra 20 euros. So much for our wonderful server}

We followed the crowd into the fortress and the center of Dubrovnik old town.

“Game of Thrones” was filmed in Dubrovnik – I could definitely see why. Many of the shops had “officially licensed Game of Thrones merchandise” that seemed to be mostly refrigerator magnets. Otherwise, no sign of dragons.

If you look to the upper left, you’ll see a staircase. It cost extra to climb up there.

There were super narrow side streets that had steps as well. Andy and Tom decided to climb one of those instead.

Andy in the red cap is on the left. Tom in the red shirt is on the right.

Tom took this photo from the top of the stair case

A photo of Andy taking a selfie at the top.

We took the shuttle bus back to the ship – the price of the shuttle was included in our ticket. If we hadn’t had a ticket, it was $20 each way. Another nickel-and-dime cost.

Tomorrow: Corfu, Greece

Day 2 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Where We Had Hoped To Go To Burano, But The Weather Had Other Ideas

The marvelous idea of spending the day wandering around Burano was literally drowned out by rain showers alternating with downpours. Somehow the thought of walking around in the pouring rain did not sound attractive at all.

Stefania suggested the Ca’ Presaro International Museum of Modern Art. In theory, a short bus ride away with only ONE bridge. Sounded good! Since we had the time, Andy and I went to their bus stop, because my other favorite European chachke shop, Pylones, was right there at the entrance to the stop. I first saw this store in Avignon in 2023 – somehow managed to not have enough time to shop there.

We had sufficient time for me to find all the items I had hoped to get the last time, without having to pay shipping by ordering online from home.

Our group found us right on time, and we hopped onto the water bus for one stop.

In theory, this museum was almost without spitting distance of where standing. BUT, Venice had other plans in store for us. Off we went following our gps (which works erratically in Venice at best). Toddling along, we come to something that looks like a hole in the wall. The directions said to make a left turn into the hole in the wall. Stefania went first, the rest of us behind her like ducklings. She gets to the end and all she sees is water. Oops. So we all back our way out of the cleft. Then we thought, maybe there was a way to make a right turn? Below is the photo of Tom going down to check. He thinks it’s possible, so we all go back down the cleft. Uh oh, nope, that was wrong. No way to turn left. We back out of the cleft again.

Since this happened yesterday and I didn’t get a chance to write it up, the details of what happened after that are now fuzzy. I do know it involved wandering around, asking a couple very confident sounding people for directions that we tried to follow exactly, but somehow we just kept finding little bridges to climb that took us nowhere.

Such is the magic of Venice – we suddenly found ourselves at the museum! Really not clear how we got there, but it didn’t matter anymore.

It was now late enough for lunch. Of course! We ate in the museum’s cafe. Unlike American museum cafe food which is almost universally horrible, our lunch was great. It’s possible our server might have been a little frustrated with us? But then again, her English was better than our Italian. There was great potential for complete and total miscommunication.

After lunch we finally started seeing the exhibits. The good news is: this museum is only 3 floors. We covered the whole thing in a couple of hours.

Forgot to make note of the artist’s name

I dunno what this was about, but there were elephants involved

This was the view of Venice from the 3rd floor

Before we left the museum, we went back to the cafe to have what was labeled “chocolate gelato”, but there are differing opinions on the accuracy of that statement.

When we exited the museum, we saw a little bridge that looked like it might be the way we SHOULD have arrived earlier. Sure enough, up and over the little bridge, down a cleft, a left turn and we popped out right at the bus stop. Even for those of us taking a little longer on the bridge, it was under 5 minutes.

This is Venice’s charm – getting lost and getting unlost is all a part of the fun!

We hung out a while at the others’ hotel, and then toddled down the street to find a place to have dinner. After dinner, we had to have some REAL gelato at the gelateria in the piazzale. Unbelievably good dark chocolate for me! YUM!.

Even with the rain and the getting lost, it was a marvelous day.

BTW, this is what the entrance to the bus stop looks like. You will notice that there are zero indications that there’s a bus stop down that alleyway. Everybody just knows where it is.

Ciao, Venice, till next time!

Tomorrow: The Ship

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventures: 2024 Edition, Part 1: “Ciao Time” Day 1

Or, Day 1 AND Day 2, or

As Is Tradition: The Day That Never Ends

So far, our current Excellent Adventure 2024 is off to an auspicious start: we experienced no traffic at all, all the way through Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and even Brooklyn (the Belt Parkway was eerily free flowing – unheard of!). That is, until we approached JFK airport. Apparently something huge was going on (my guess – the usual major road construction), because Google maps took us on a scenic tour of the south shores of Brooklyn and Queens, taking us to places we had never been before, or it had been a very, very, very long time. For example: I cannot remember the last time I was in Rockaway, Queens other than maybe in college? I did not think to take photos; it was a very pretty drive.

And I learned something new: The reason Cross Bay Boulevard in Queens is called “Cross Bay Blvd” is because…it crosses Jamaica Bay. I’ve driven past and across Cross Bay Blvd many, many times without a thought as to why it was called that. Who would have thunk?

Parking our car at the SmartPark lot was simple, easy, and fast. We were at Terminal 4 in no time. The flight itself was uneventful (always good). I slept maybe an hour, which seems to be what I do on long flights.

We zipped through Passport Control, our bags came quickly, a cab was immediately available for a flat fee of $40. We were at the hotel sometime after 10:00 a.m. Really couldn’t get much smoother than that!

We’re staying at the Hotel Santa Chiara in Piazzale Roma next to the bus station and arrival point into Venice. We picked this hotel because of Venice’s logistics – the city has no wheeled transportation (no cars, bicycles, golf carts, etc.). This means you have to walk everywhere. The vaporetti (water bus system) is fantastic and can get you close to your hotel, but inevitably you have to walk some distance lugging your bags. You can hire a porter to schlep your bags for you; those guys are amazing how they haul huge dollies full of luggage over bridges and through the tiny streets at top speed. Good luck keeping up with these guys. Which I couldn’t do 20 years ago; now it’s impossible.

The airport taxi was able to drop us off within a short walking distance of the hotel. And all the vaporetti lines have a stop in Piazzale Roma. Perfect!

We were able to check in immediately. The view out our window isn’t much, but that’s ok – we know what’s waiting for us on the other side of the bridge.

View from our hotel (Santa Chiara) in Piazzale Roma, Venice

We rested for a bit and then ventured out. We decided to walk to the Jewish quarter, hoping that the Google maps’ estimate of 15 minutes would be correct. Unfortunately, no, not really. We had to deal with 3 bridges: one not so big, one not so bad because of side-ramps meant for luggage trolleys, and one ginormous monster that just took me a while.

We did take a break along the way to have lunch. The server tried multiple times to entice us to order a full sea bass, including bringing the whole fish out to us on a plate. Nope, nope, nope – one thing I’ve learned from many years of travel is to keep meals on the first day small. I’m not normally a pasta fan, I selected cheese and spinach ravioli. It was delicious!

After lunch, we made our way to the Ghetto di Venizia – the first Jewish ghetto created in the 1500’s

For anybody who is not familiar with the origin of the word “ghetto”, take a look at this link on Wikipedia. Good bet it’s not what you think.

We first came to Venice in 1999. We had a blast touring all the old synagogues and shopping in all the stores. My favorite was a shop called David’s Shop selling Judaica items made of Murano glass. Andy and I bought two kiddush cups (one red, one blue, both with 24 k gold embelishments) that we’ve been using every Friday night ever since.

We came back to Venice in 2011. Bought two more kiddush cups – both purple and a different design from the first ones.

So, my main goal this trip was to buy two more kiddush cups to give us a mis-matched set of six.

Lo and behold, David’s Shop was still there! We picked out two more kiddush cups – one green and one amber (not yellow, we were told, definitely amber).

We had a great conversation with the shop owner, who’s been working with the glassblowers in Murano for over 50 years. He told us that there were no kiddush cups for several years during COVID; if we had come just a couple of months ago, there would have been none. He has to order thousands of cups at a time, with a certain number in each color/pattern. His sister is the person who personalizes each item upon request. Apparently she is now in her 70s with aches and pains in her fingers and her neck, and she really wants to retire. He said he’s thinking about retiring in 3 or 4 years, too. So glad we were able visit this time!

Fun coincidence: on a wall was a photo of a bar mitzvah invite to a congregation in Rockville, MD! The photo shows the invite and the kiddush cup as engraved in 24 K gold leaf by the shop owner’s sister. The photo cuts off the name of the congregation, but we’re pretty sure it’s not ours. Still an amazing coincidence!

Of course, we bought much more than 2 kiddush cups, including a Murano glass yad – a pointer for reading out of the Torah. Wonderful conversation with someone who felt like an old friend. As we were leaving, he threw in an extra fridge magnet.

Went a slightly different way back hoping it was a little easier. Depends on the definition of “easier”. Chilled out – Andy went to the grocery store to get breakfast stuff.

We decided to walk back a different way in an attempt to avoid the really big bridge we tackled on the way here and take an easier bridge. Kinda depends on your definition of “easier”. The path we took replaced one huge bridge with another huge bridge (maybe even higher), but the steps were smaller and maybe easier to navigate.

After a rest at the hotel, we made contact with the rest of our group. They had spent the entire day on a “let’s cram as much Venice as we can into one day” tour involving many huge bridges. We decided to meet them where they were staying.

This time we decided to try the vaporetti – the public water bus. We Made contact with the rest of our group. We decided to go to them – spent a whole long day climbing all the bridges in Venice. Decided to try the vaporetti (water buses) instead. Took us several tries to figure out exactly where to go to catch the correct bus. The good news is – the location of our hotel is the end of the line for ALL the bus lines. The bad news is – it’s really confusing to decipher which is the correct dock for where we wanted to go. Eventually we figured it out, and it was super easy after that.

We had a wonderful dinner, but we were fading fast. We found our way back to the vaporetti stop (note: there is no visible marker indicating where the stop is from the main street).

Tomorrow: Hoping to go to Burano, but the weather forecast is bleak: TBD