UNPACKING THE TRIP, Part 3.

 OK!  OK!  But where did you actually go?!?

Fine.  I'll answer here.  I hope this isn't like watching one of those interminable slide shows back in the day that your parents insisted on narrating about their trip to Omaha.  But here goes...

We went here:

THE NETHERLANDS

AMSTERDAM: Pre-cruise, we arranged a two-day pre-cruise extension to spend more time acclimating to the time change and exploring a city we'd heard so much about.  It lived up to its reputation as a below-sea-level, very wet city.  Lots of canals.  We advise NOT arriving on the morning of the national holiday (King's Day) celebrating the Netherlands king's birthday.  It was crazy!  Everyone was wearing orange regalia, the whole city's neighborhoods were teeming with citizens selling flea market type "treasures" in front of their homes and businesses.  You could barely walk down the sidewalk, but taking one tiny little step off the curb put one's life at risk from extremely aggressive bicycle riders who do not give one f*&k about pedestrians.  Many tend to be an angry sort (both women and men) who think nothing of scowling, yelling, or flipping you off.  Also no one wears a helmet, so there may one day be a bit of payback for their aggression.  (I do worry about the little tykes riding in baby-seats who are similarly un-helmeted as if Dutch heads really are invincible, or just thick.)  We took a canal cruise with one super nice guide who says he wanted no part of the previous day's King's Day revelry in the Old Town area, and closed his business as the frat boy-type drunken bacchanalia unfolded, leaving broken glass, trash, and zillions of Heineken cans in its wake both on land and in water.  We didn't go to any museums since we wanted to be outside (and we know we will be back next year for another visit.)  We did find two great places for coffee -- real coffee.  I don't do drugs, so the other so-called "coffee houses" were not of interest to me (where pot is bought and smoked).  Nor do I think public exhibitionism and prostitution an amusement, so the Red Light District held no interest either, and wasn't on my tour agenda.  The Anne Frank house, however,  was a must-see; very moving and surprisingly inspiring.  Other than that, I guess Amsterdam was not my thing, at least this time around.  Inauspicious start.

KINDERDIJK:  

Windmills.  Option to go to tulip fields for an extra fee.  Skipped it.  We have tulip fields in Washington that frankly looked the same as those in photos we saw of the fields outside Amsterdam.

GERMANY

COLOGNE:

Known for its big cathedral.  Very impressive.  Learned that 95% of the city had been bombed by the Allies in WWII and most of the city has been rebuilt. (The cathedral sustained relatively little damage.)  Also we had a knowledgable and passionate guide who warned of the dangers of Fascism. He cautioned that as one person amasses power, putting his own people into positions of authority and allowing others to assume powers not legally granted, when laws are ignored or undermined, when norms are eroded, and the unthinkable becomes commonplace, BEWARE.  Right-wing populists are on the rise against democracies.  He said, "Do not turn away; do NOT turn away."  Many in the group thanked him for his message and heard it loud and clear.

KOBLENZ: 

All we got to see, really, was Marksburg castle, which was kinda cool.  It was "restored" for tourists, so a bit, well, touristy.  We climbed narrow stone stairways and looked out over the country side from the castle walls.  Then had to hurry back to the ship.

MILTENBERG:                                                                      

Half-timbered homes -- mostly built post-1945 to look like the originals.  Allied bombing destroyed most the of town.  Another too quick stop.  We had river miles to go.

WURZBURG: 

This is our terrific guide at the Prince Bishop Residence.  An elaborate monument to the guy in charge of the region back in the day.  Not really a bishop; nominally a prince.  But totally a narcissist.  Wurzburg was also mostly destroyed in WWII.  Now it hosts untold "Hen Parties" -- destination bachelorette parties of brides-to-be and their entourages.  Lots of street drinking.  College town.  Lively and fun, actually. And beautiful.

 

BAMBURG: 

NOT destroyed by Allied bombs; deemed too unimportant to waste ammo on, for which the populace is now grateful.  So, what we saw really was old and authentic.  Our guide here was a middle school history teacher; I'd love to have him in class. He made history come alive.

NUREMBERG:  

Infamous, of course, for the Nazi war trials post WWII.  We drove past the courthouse, Nazi headquarters, the parade grounds, the Congress Hall.  It was eery.  But today the grounds are an event center for concerts, the Congress Hall abandoned.  The public square in Town Center is vehicle-free and pedestrians, farmer's markets, and sidewalk cafes abound.  We had coffee and a famous Nuremberg gingerbread cookie within steps of the underground bunkers where the Nazi's stashed priceless art, knowing war was coming.  Afterward the art was threatened by looters and those trying to use the treasure to fund their escape once the Allies marched in.  We visited these bunkers.  Interesting.

In almost every "burg" in Germany we found "stumbling stones", brass plates inlaid with the cobblestones, marking the location of people killed by the Nazis, the vast majority of whom were Jewish, but Hitler had a whole list of people not to his liking and they were rounded up too.  This is a project throughout Europe, but requires the city's permission.  Munich has declined, not wanting the names of those killed to be stepped on as part of the walking surface of the sidewalk.  But the guides we spoke to thought them a great tribute to be able to see how many were taken and where they had lived.

REGENSBERG:

For some reason, this was a favorite stop for me.  Again, not bombed, so original and the twisty streets, a mix of Urban Modern and Old Country, the vitality of a young (college town) population, and lots to see and do made for a fun day here.  I'm trying to avoid posting pix of us on the blog, but I'll post this one.  Cuckoo!

PASSAU:  

Pretty town.  Another cathedral.  Baroque instead of Gothic.  Light and bright!  Interesting story told by our guide here. Relatively recently a group of Neo-Nazis decided to gather in the cathedral square and make some noise.  They weren't a big group, but were loud and obnoxious.  Inside the priests got together and decided to ring the steeple bells, rarely rung except on high holidays a few times a year.  If you are close the bells are so loud as to be painful.  They rang out on that particular day, sending the Neo-Nazis scrambling away!

MELK:

Melk Abbey is home to an order of Benedictine Monks -- it's an active community which runs a high school associated with it.  We got to tour, but were not allowed to take any indoor photos.  I tell ya, it was so ornate!  How much gold does the Catholic church actually own?  Because we saw so much gold; so many jewels in all these churches.

AUSTRIA

VIENNA:

Iconic Vienna.  Hmmm...  I get that we could basically only see the most touristy part of the city, but dang!  So crowded!!!  We did find a sidewalk cafe to enjoy sharing a Sacher Torte and Appelstrudel, but mostly we fought crowds, tried to avoid souvenir stores, toured yet another cathedral, and stumbled upon a rose garden that afforded us a bit of respite from the hordes.  This statue of Mozart was pretty cool.  We had a second full day in Vienna and didn't even go back into town.  Hub plotted a nature walk for us along the river on an island in the Danube that was just lovely.  This late in the trip, we were craving a break from cities and people.

HUNGARY

BUDAPEST:

Ahhh...  Who knew?  Budapest seemed so "exotic" to me before we arrived. Eastern Europe is an area I'd not really known much about.  We spent our last tour stop there, with an added two night post-cruise extension.  We LOVED it!  Truly a favorite place on my travel list.  It's beautiful and interesting.  The people were friendly, the streets clean and safe, even the touristy stuff was fun.  We learned the tram and subway, walked a huge city park, went on a night cruise that was breathtaking.  This photo is the iconic Parliament Building at night.

So...more than you wanted?  In creating this post, I have re-lived the trip and am reminded how fortunate I am to have been able to see all these places.  I was in Budapest on Mother's Day and thought of my mom, a farm girl from Illinois, and of my own childhood, a kid from a small working class city growing up on the decidedly 'blue collar' side of the river that split our town.  Never in one million years was it in my mother's, nor my, dreams that one day I'd be cruising around Europe and spending Mother's Day sailing into Budapest.  I am so grateful.  This is why, in spite of all my travel angst, I am already looking forward to our next European Adventure next year.  We will be hopping on the Rick Steves bus again, traveling back to Amsterdam, then Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France.  It should be sorta great, right?

At least, that's the view from here...©

UNPACKING THE TRIP, Part 2.

Amsterdam to Budapest.  Fourteen days.  Twelve hundred miles.  Sixty-six locks.  Five countries (Netherlands, Germany, Austria, a slice of Slovakia, Hungary). Three rivers (Rhine, Main, Danube).  

This is the Viking Grand European River Cruise.  

And we added to it by also electing to purchase a "pre-cruise extension" of 2 extra nights in Amsterdam and a "post-cruise extension" of 2 extra nights in Budapest.  And as if that were not enough, we personally planned a pre-pre-cruise extension of 3 nights in New York City just for fun and to get us a bit acclimated to the time change ahead.  So we were away for three weeks.  

I barely remember New York.  Or Amsterdam.  Or at this point, much of anything before Budapest.  Memories were made, but must be prompted with reminders and photos.  There was so much crammed into a relatively short amount of time.

Well, first of all, I credit/blame PBS for all those Viking commercials leading in to our favorite Masterpiece programs.  We finally decided to just do it.  We are Rick Steves Europe tour veterans and wondered what it would feel like to be pampered the Viking way.  Pretty darn good, as it turns out.  

Our Longship was lovely, very comfortable, well-appointed.  The management staff was capable, attentive, and super friendly and kept everyone and everything working like clock-work.  The staff/crew can't possibly be paid enough for how great they were -- from Management to room stewards (housekeeping) to wait staff and technical staff (somebody has to steer the ship and dock it and get it through all those locks).  Everyone was busy, efficient, and smiling!  I questioned many of the staff/crew and they all seemed to genuinely be happy to work there and loved the "family" they formed together. All 53 were from elsewhere -- mostly Eastern Europe and the Philippines.  They were grateful for the work and reapply to come back to Viking year after year.  Viking seems to treat their crews well, with plenty of time off and even paid them during the Covid shutdown.  So that was a good thing. (Photo is , left, our Hotel Manager, Ole, from Norway who was in charge of all the staff and smooth running of the amenities; and right, Marco, from Serbia, who was the Tour Director and handled all the complicated logistics for excursions, on-board festivities, port talks, etc.  They are dressed here for our German heritage/dinner night, going table to table pouring shots of Schnapps.)

We opted for a veranda stateroom, a bit larger than the others that had no veranda.  Ours opened with  a slider door to a small deck that gave us fresh air and a nice sitting space as we watched the shoreline pass by.  That said, we really didn't spend much time there and what isn't shown on the commercials is that some docking locations are so crowded that ships literally tie up to each other, meaning there were times in port that our veranda was 6 inches from the adjacent ship, affording no view and no privacy!  Curtains closed!  (See photo -- yes that's how close we were.) Still, I'd opt for it again because of the air and the view and also just to get a few extra feet of space over the rooms without a veranda.  I certainly would not be happy with the lower deck, below-waterline rooms with only one small window high up on the wall looking out at water level.

Food was great.  Three meals a day.  Big breakfast buffet and some made to order items.  Lunch and dinner were limited option menu-driven with some choices always available, and some changing daily to feature local fare depending upon where we were on the rivers.  It was all white tablecloth, lots of silverware, fine dining presentation.  The food looked pretty and mostly was delicious.  We had only a few "duds", but that's subjective.  (Always a meat, fish, or vegetarian option, but heavy on the meat.) Desserts at each meal were heavenly (and deadly for the waistline).  Portions were reasonable, not enormous, but satisfactory.  I don't drink alcohol but for those who do there was unlimited "house" wine and beer at lunch and dinner.  Or you could buy a "Silver Spirits" package add-on for a fee that allowed premium wines, beers, and cocktails at any time during the cruise.  It did start to feel like we were constantly eating and with dinner not served until 7:00, ending between 8-8:30, I went to bed too full most nights.  I generally like to eat earlier.

Every day we had a shore excursion that was included in the price of the tour.  We disembarked, usually had to bus to the city center, met up in groups with a local guide, and explored the central city historic areas of whatever port we were in.  The local guides were mostly great; a couple were not.  One could also buy for an extra fee a variety of "optional excursions".  These would be what you see on the commercial of people making cheese, or sampling wine in the vineyard, or going to an art gallery.  We only bought two optional excursions.  They are pricey ($100-$200 per person) and we didn't want to over-schedule ourselves nor did we want to shell out the dough for an unknown entity.  

One we bought was a "hike" in the Wurzberg, Germany hills that ended up being mostly in the city with a stop in a chapel, a stroll through a big city park with some elevation, and ending at a fortress with some views, but definitely not "out in the hills" as expected.  The other was in Nuremberg to see the "Monuments Men" (movie) underground bunkers where the Nazi-threatened art was stowed. That was pretty cool.  In some cities we had a bit of free time to explore (one whole day in Vienna), but often we had to be back on the ship to head for our next destination.

There was a sun deck on the upper level that afforded terrific views, including that iconic one of castles on the hillsides that is featured in all the commercials.  It looks just like that.  We had great weather, so that helps.  What they don't show in the commercials, however, is that the sun deck was closed for several days due to low bridges on a part of the river.  The clearance above the ship was about 18 inches at times!  If the water level rises too much the ship cannot even get under the bridges and all the passengers need to disembark and be transported around the series of low bridges by bus and re-installed on a different identical ship waiting on the other side.  We were glad not to have that hassle. (This can also happen when the water is too low for sailing.)

There is little nightlife on the ship.  Fine by us; we went to our stateroom after dinner most of the time. We had a couple of local entertainers come aboard and had a few "game nights" led by the Tour Director that were actually fun, but mostly it's one lounge singer type guy at the piano.  This is not the razzle-dazzle of a big ocean liner.  No casino, no stage shows, no pools, no karaoke, etc.  It is a quiet and early-to-bed crowd.  We estimated the average age hovering around the mid-70's, all of varying abilities, mostly physically able-enough; also, one wheelchair, one walker, many canes.  

There were 187 passengers.  Those we met were mostly from the U.S., a couple Canadians,  and a few Aussies and New Zealanders. All were interesting in their way, friendly enough; no one brought up politics, but we had our suspicions.  We are not the most outgoing people, so we didn't really make fast friends with anyone that would last beyond friendly conversation on the trip.  In fact, we got very savvy about claiming one of only two 2-top tables for ourselves at dinner.  Most tables seated 6, 8, or 10 people.  Forced socializing is exhausting for us.

All in all it was a positive experience and many we talked with thought it perfect.  We made our pro and con list.  

Pro:  We were well pampered, well fed, well looked-after.  The crew was amazing.  Only had to unpack once.  Had a home base. Someone else handled all the logistics and did it flawlessly; we stopped in interesting, sometimes iconic places; saw and learned some new things.

Con:  Little to no sense of where we were other than on the rivers.  No chance to see the countryside around us or get beyond the city-center tourist areas.  It was boat to city, back to boat, on to the next stop.   Also we did not like added expenses for optional excursions.  We also were not thrilled with the (optional but every one did it) tips for local guides and bus drivers (they deserved it, but it was awkward at times); as well as mandatory tips for crew/staff.  (You pay a set tip fee ahead of the trip or if you didn't, it's added to your bill at the end, with the encouragement to give extra in cash for those who you thought did an exceptionally good job for you personally) .  We like that Rick Steves tours have a NO TIPPING policy and all sites/experiences are included; his company pays everyone well and doesn't want/expect his travelers to do it.  

At the end, we decided we were very happy to have gone on a Viking cruise and I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in that type of travel.  That said, and I'm aware of "anchor bias" in that we did Rick Steves tours first and measured our experience against that but I still think I'd come to the same conclusion: we are still more Rick Steves tour types.  We just like his philosophy of travel and his insistence on getting a breadth of local experience, not a "travel in luxury, drop in and leave at the tourist-y spots" experience.  Not that a little luxury is a bad thing.  I did enjoy that too, for sure.  But, at times Viking felt like a very expensive and posh Uber ride -- a lovely way to drop in at a series of ports.

We were so fortunate to have been able to do this and to have Hub's 4,000 photos to remind us of where we were.  Next post will be about sights/sites seen.  Miles to go before we sleep...

At least, that's the view from here...©

UNPACKING THE TRIP, Part 1.

When last we met I wrote a post entitled "I Don't Wanna Go?".  Well, I went.  Now I'm home.  Home with the usual disorientation, jet lag, and an unexpected positive Covid test.  Travel is fun! 

This, from my previous pre-trip post:  "Ive learned ways to calm my anxieties around air travel, not sleeping well, gut-upsetting new diet, too much stimulation, too  much busyness, being with strangers, getting confused in new cities, and generally just not being in my familiar life.  But still calming anxiety is not the same as eliminating it.  My highly-sensitive constellation of traits all go on high, high alert."

Yep. All of that.  Except I completely lost my "calming" skill set!  Oh, I did my deep breathing through some anxious moments, but my usual meditation practices fell by the wayside as my routine was dictated by the day's itinerary and I gave into slothfulness around commitment to making time for quiet solitude.  So, yes, I had a few "travel freak-out" episodes where I was overwhelmed, over-stimulated, over-socialized, and under-rested and "forgot" my mindfulness practices to get me through it.  I cried instead.  I had several completely sleepless nights interspersed with merely restless nights, and a few glorious full nights of sleep, which didn't help that much.  I stuck as closely as possible to my usual diet -- no red meat, no alcohol.  But eating three full restaurant meals a day, with pastries and desserts!, wrecked havoc with my gut, not surprisingly.

Many people absolutely love travel, love to be lost in a new city, love to try new foods and drinks, love to mix and mingle with strangers, love to plan and plot and play out all the logistics it takes to get from point A to point Z and all points in between, love to experiment and experience things as far from familiar as possible.  I am not that person.

But I do love seeing places I've heard about, learning about their history and culture, experiencing something novel, interesting, and beautiful, sharing it all with Hub.  And I accept that in order to do that I'll have to endure some personal discomforts that my nervous system wants to resist.  I am working mightily to mitigate my hesitancy with persistent practices that calm and reassure that all is well in spite of feeling like I just want to go home to my refuge.  And in spite of aforementioned challenges this time, I mostly did GREAT!  So there's that.

Also on the positive side, we walked and walked and walked and walked -- averaging over the three weeks, about 13,000 steps a day -- generally 5-7 miles a day.  I'm so grateful for my dedication to healing my hip issue over the past year to allow me to be able to move this much. Walking was fun and necessary. 

We saw iconic sites and beautiful scenery, met nice people, learned new things, made "pro" and "con" lists of our experience and made decisions about future trips.  By the end I was very ready to come home, but not desperately longing to, so that's progress of a sort.  

Unfortunately one of the challenges was both of us coming down with colds a week into the trip.  Me first, then Hub, who had it worse.  It was annoying since we'd worn masks on planes and buses, to avoid close breathing contact.  But still, we noticed many of our fellow travelers also seemed to be coughing a bit and we all just chalked it up to what everyone said was a cold or allergies.  How naive/forgetful we've all become!  Once home, Hub continued to feel lethargic, so finally tested for Covid.  Positive.  I was negative.  I may have had it earlier, or not.  We were both vaccinated two weeks before leaving, but vaccination means "you won't get it as bad", not "you won't get it at all."  Now I think half of our fellow travelers with "allergies" were probably Covid positive too.  We join the ranks of so many of our friends who have returned from trips with a positive test.  This is Hub's first bout with the virus.  He's no longer an outlier. And I have another thing to add to my travel anxiety list.

With this little "travel sucks" rant out of the way, my next post will be much more positive as I review our the ship, our trip, and all the really cool things we saw and did.  So don't be deterred....it's gonna get better!  I just want to reassure those among you who share my travel angst that it's real, it's OK to feel this way for good reasons, and it doesn't have to stand in the way of also having a pretty great time.  

At least, that's the view from here...©