Our tour led us away from the city of Tromsø to an area to see and interact with sled dogs. We missed our dog sled riding excursion when we missed Narvik but the purpose here was really to go to a darker environment in hopes of seeing the northern lights.
We saw Tromsø’s Arctic Cathedral all lit up in the distance. We’d be visiting there the next day.
Along the way our guide was checking apps for various values on atmospheric load and particles and said she was optimistic that we would see the northern lights.
She told us a bit about the science behind the lights. Very basically, there is a process involving solar eruptions, particles, plasma and electrons. It is the end of the solar eruption that is sometimes visible in various colors.
The sun has an eleven year cycle of maximum and minimum solar eruptions. The maximum is projected for 2025. As a result 2024 and 2026 are also projected to be very good. We did not know that when we booked – just a fortunate coincidence. Don’t plan on taking this tour in 2030 or 2031, the low part of the eleven year cycle!
We arrived at our destination and started with the Alaskan Husky Dogs while waiting for the lights to, hopefully, develop. (Yes, this is Norway, and yes, I wrote Alaskan Husky Dogs.)
Dogs go through training to be chosen to pull a sled with a team. They are highly socialized. Appearance is not important.
Most of the dogs were in their shelters but some came out for a people visit.
This dog was tucked into his shelter but one was just laying on the ice. He was so still that several of us that thought he was dead. Someone alerted a handler and he assured us that the dog was fine. He said that this particular dog gets too warm in his shelter and often sleeps outside.
We learned that Norway has the longest dog sled race in Europe and the second longest in the world. The longest is the Iditarod in Alaska.
We gathered in the field and our tour guide’s optimism paid off. At first we saw the faintest whispers of white, whispy “clouds.”
After a very short while, we could recognize the difference between the clouds and the northern lights.
The color is far more visible through the camera! Our eyes saw white with a slight hint of green. (We saw white lights moving in Alaska and had not realized that we should have looked through our camera.)
It was an exciting night seeing the northern lights on our first real opportunity!
The skies were clear enough that we could see the stars within the lights.
Randy took all of these pictures just with his iPhone 15 Pro camera. He had cold fingers!
There were fires set up for warmth.
There was also a Sami Lavvu available to see artifacts and also warm up a bit.
After experiencing enough of the lights, or in my case getting cold enough to want to move on, we went to find the husky puppies!
This is their next generation of Alaskan Husky Dogs. They are four months old. Their kennel has inside and outside areas.
It was a good night – dogs and northern lights – what more could we want!
After missing Narvik because of high winds and rough seas, we were excited to be on land again.
Our tours were for later in the afternoon so Jo, Flynn, Randy and I walked off the ship into Tromsø. We wanted to test out our cold weather gear and had a little anxiety about whether we had enough.
We had enough! Despite the zero degrees temperature, we were fine.
We walked around Cathedral Square. The Cathedral of Tromsø was built in 1861 and is the only cathedral in the world made of wood. It has a capacity of 700 people.
At the time of construction, the cathedral and square were built over a cemetery. It wasn’t clear if that was known at the time. During renewal of the square in 2017, they found graves, some dating back to the middle ages.
We did some shopping.
We stopped for coffee.
As we were returning to the ship about 11:30, we had a beautiful sky. In mid January, Tromsø was just coming out of the “no sun for two months” period. (In summer there is an alternate period of continued daylight.)
We enjoyed seeing what art was displayed on our way upstairs to shed coats, gloves and hats before lunch.
Rot was one of our favorite waiters. He had one week left on his six month contract and then would be going home to Bali. His young son’s birthday was the day after he got home. He will be home for two months and then join another Viking Ocean ship, The Jupiter. Rot says Viking treats them very well which is always good to hear. Ship crew work long hours every day, always with a smile.
For those that know Viking categories, Rot said crew can go between Ocean and Expedition ships but River crew are separate.
In the afternoon, Randy and I went on one tour while Jo and Flynn did another. We were headed to the town of Sommarøy to see life experienced north of the arctic circle. As we left the city we had a beautiful view of Tromsø.
We stopped at a site for stone pictures similar to the petroglyphs we have in the southwest United States.
The area around Alta, a bit further north, has a higher concentration of ancient stone art. That is our next port.
We had the opportunity to take pictures of the surrounding mountains.
We were told there is very good fishing in this area of Norway.
We saw some older buildings and farms likely from the mid 1800s. The residents would have been poor fish farmers. They would have had to keep the fire going in one room all the time.
People ate fish six days a week. On the seventh, usually Sunday, they might have had sausage.
Norway was once a very poor country, very similar to Ireland. In the 1960s they found “black gold” off shore and Norway is now one of the richest countries. The money from oil is invested all over the world and saved in a fund for future generations. The fund is currently valued at $300,000 USD per person living in Norway.
The oil and gas produced currently goes to other countries. There is an end date for oil and gas production as Norway is embracing a greener future.
Houses in Norway are heated by electricity, produced by hydroelectric. Almost all energy used is clean energy. Sixty-seven wind turbines produce enough electricity for all of Tromsø.
They are placed on windy mountain tops and have red lights so planes are aware.
Fish is Norway’s second largest export after oil. Much of the cod goes to Portugal and Spain.
Nearly all houses in Norway are made of wood. Wood is readily available and building with it makes it easier to accommodate 25 centimeters of insulation in each wall.
We visited a community center serving residents and welcoming visitors.
We were served Norwegian waffles with tea or coffee.
We also had brown cheese made from the whey of goat milk, a Norwegian staple. It has an interesting flavor that I didn’t l love but am glad to have tried. We were served brown cheese numerous times on this trip.
The local women gave presentations on spinning and weaving.
We had the opportunity to buy a variety of handmade items.
I bought these mittens for about $45 USD.
We visited the local museum.
Three generations once lived here at the same time.
One item highlighted for us was this painting of Wanny Woldstad.
She was born in this small town of Sommarøy in 1893. Wanny married and had two sons. She raised them alone after the death of her husband. In the 1920s, she became the first woman to work as a taxi driver in Tromsø. Through driving, she met trappers who told her of their exploits. In 1931 she joined her first expedition. In 1932, she shot her first polar bear. Wanny spent five seasons hunting. She and her partners killed 77 polar bears. This woman, who did so much, died in 1959 after being hit by a truck. (Something is just wrong with that ending.)
While leaving the museum we saw this woman using a kick sled, a common travel assistance device. In this picture it is nighttime dark at 4:15 in the afternoon.
Enroute to our Sommarøy home visit, our guide told us that Norway has a very popular monarchy. “They are good people and don’t have troubles like the British monarchy.”
We learned Tromsø has more tourists in winter than in summer. Winter visitors come looking for the northern lights – just like us.
Our home visit was to the home of a local school teacher. Our driver told us it was tradition to remove shoes going into a private home. That was quite the task with a dozen of us trying to get our big boots off!
We met our hostess, Helen, who told us about her life as a mother, wife and school teacher. She said her husband was working this evening.
Then she introduced her husband, Egel – our van driver! They did that very well!
They served tea and coffee and Norwegian lefse. Lefse was new to everyone on the tour except Randy and me. I have Swedish and Lutheran heritage so we have made and eaten lefse for decades.
She served “old lefse” layered with brown cheese. (We usually eat it with sugar and/or cinnamon.) She also served soft lefse which was more like a layered cookie cake. That was new to us. We also had small portions of chocolate cake and who doesn’t love that?
They gave us a tour of their home and encouraged us to ask as many questions about their life as we wanted. They said life was very good in Norway. Things are very expensive but salaries are commensurate. Their government provides many services.
They said that even though Finland is the nearest neighbor, they have great difficulty with the language. Finland’s language root is from Hungary while Norwegian is similar to the languages spoken in Sweden and Denmark.
Our driver showed us his Nobel Peace Prize. He received it after his service in the Norwegian military (which is required for one year) as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
Helen showed us Norwegian and Sami flags. We would be touring with the indigenous Sami in a few days.
When I signed us up for this tour, I was expecting something similar to another home visit tour we took above the arctic circle in Alaska. During Covid, we went to Fairbanks looking for the northern lights and took a trip north of the arctic circle to see how people live off the grid. That post is Chena Hot Springs, Denali National Park, and Being Above the Arctic Circle
This home visit in Sommarøy was nothing like the one in Alaska but it was totally lovely! We were very happy with the tour and seeing their comfortable life above the arctic circle.
We have said many times that we love sleeping on a cruise ship because of the gentle rocking motion. Well, that would have been on the Atlantic, Pacific or Mediterranean.
We had a little too much rocking and rolling as we sailed the North Sea.
Heading out for breakfast we saw the sea sickness bags out and available.
We weren’t having any trouble so went about our morning zig-zagging down the corridors to compensate for the swells.
We headed to the education session on The Aurora Borealis by one of our guest speakers. It was taking place in the theater at the bow of the ship. We were just getting settled in when Randy could feel the nausea coming.
Randy went back to the cabin and took some Bonine from his toiletries bag. It had a 2011 expiration date. That shows how long it has been since either of us felt sea sickness on a trip. Fortunately, I had read that this passage could be rough and purchased some Dramamine to bring along.
Meanwhile, at the presentation we were given a lot of scientific information about the appearance of the northern lights.
It was interesting to me on the surface level but all I really registered is that there are also “southern lights” around the magnetic south pole. There just aren’t population centers to witness the lights as in the north.
He also talked about how to use various apps to discern the possibility, or probability, of seeing the lights (We used the apps when we were on our own in Fairbanks in 2020 looking for the lights.)
On this trip I didn’t really care to try and figure it out. We were going on Viking excursions at places and times to maximize our opportunities. We had also signed up for the phone call in the middle of the night to alert us if the lights were visible from the ship.
The speaker also included a section on settings for your camera and how to augment your photos after they have been taken. Three of the four of us had new phones (on purpose for this trip) which manage the environment mostly automatically so I let all of that pass by my attention. Flynn has a 15 Pro Plus, Randy has a 15 Pro and I have an iPhone 15.
I do very little augmenting of photos behind cropping and adjusting light levels. I appreciate how people use photo editing as an art form but I am usually valuing authenticity on my own.
Following the presentation I made my way back to the cabin to check on Randy. He was mostly trying to sleep it off. I showed him where the Dramamine was and went to look for saltines.
The ship didn’t have saltines but gave out green apples and ginger candy so I took those. Whether it was the sleep, the apples, the candy or the Dramamine, Randy was eventually feeling better.
There was a whole lot of wave action in the North Sea and many people were sick.
Access to outside decks was closed off so we couldn’t fall overboard. We were told that the situation should resolve in the late afternoon when we should meet the storm going south as we went north.
However, when Jo and Flynn and I were having afternoon tea, the Captain made an announcement that the waves were 20-25 feet high. He was reducing speed to avoid getting slapped around quite so much as the winds were 50-55 miles per hour. He said the ship was fine and “Enjoy the ride.”
There were more presentations and Viking offers the option of viewing them in the cabins at your convenience. Randy and I watched a couple that evening.
One of the presenters was Sue Stockdale, the second woman ever to reach the magnetic North Pole. In 1996, when her expedition was done, the magnetic north pole was in Canada. It is now in Serbia. We didn’t know that the magnetic pole moved over time.
We had another very rough night with 35 foot swells and 55 mph winds so the ship had to slow down to not get battered around even more.
The slowdown meant we would miss the port of Narvik on our itinerary and move on towards Tromsø.
We spent another sea day rocking and rolling. Randy was feeling fine so we went about our day attending presentations and reading.
We enjoyed drinks and cookies with Jo and Flynn.
In the evening we attending a Viking Explorer Society event for past cruisers. We were told that 52 percent of people on this passage had sailed with Viking before- including the four of us.
Later in the evening we went to a show given by the assistant cruise director. This crew is immensely talented.
Later, at the night club, we had one of the funniest moments of the cruise.
Flynn told the lead singer that he and Jo had been married for 52 years. Misunderstanding, she announced to the audience that it was Jo and Flynn’s anniversary and invited them up to dance alone.
It was not their anniversary but when they invited other people to join them on the floor, we too danced for Jo and Flynn’s “anniversary.”
The next morning we woke up at 11:00! We never do that. I guess we needed eleven hours of sleep after the last few days!
We finally saw a bit of blue sky again and a few mountains in the distance
We meandered through another sea day including a Tromsø port talk. Tromsø is considered the Gateway to the Arctic as explorations often left from the city. They can document humans in this area since 10,000 BC. Tromsø is the northern-most city (over 50,000 residents) in the world.
In the early 20th century, the North Sea was Germany’s only outlet to the ocean and became a major theater of battle during world wars. After the Nazi invasion and occupation of souther Norway. the King escaped to Tromsø to lead the resistance. Eventually he and the crown prince evacuated to the United Kingdom.
Members of the resistance were identified by a monogram coin sometimes placed in shoes. “Weejuns” shoes had a slot for the Norwegian resistance coin. (Americans eventually co-opted this idea using pennies in the slot to create the penny loafers.)
As was our nightly ritual, we enjoyed before dinner drinks behind the piano, enjoying the art.
We finished the evening with a show featuring three Brits and a Scot, backed by a Filipino band, on a Norwegian ship, above the Arctic Circle, singing US country music! It was fun!
We were in the North Sea heading north January 14 – 16, 2024.
Our plan for the day was a walking tour into Amsterdam taking us from the ship to where we would board a canal boat. We had a rainy and overcast day so our pictures weren’t nearly as lovely as those we saw during our port talk!
We passed a Chinese restaurant that was built with the same blueprint as one in Shanghai. On opening night, the restaurant started to sink because Dutch people are larger than Chinese people. Then had to re-work the restaurant structurally.
Amsterdam has 165 miles of canals forming 90 islands that are connected by 1500 bridges.
That is more than Venice!
There are 11.5 million wooden posts placed in sand and peat that support Amsterdam. Eighty percent of the posts are original because they have never been exposed to air.
An average home has 10 posts where the royal residence is supported by 13,000 posts.
Houses are taxed by width so most were built tall and narrow.
There are 2500 house boats along the canals.
Most people in Amsterdam speak Dutch, English and a third language. Amsterdam is the most expensive city in the world, overtaking Zurich.
We were told that 26 percent of the Netherlands is below sea level. The country measures 3.5 hours by 2 hours. That seemed an interesting way to report its size. It is about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined.
This is one of the locks along the canal system to control water levels.
This is how houses were once identified.
Zeedijk is the street that is a boundary of the red light district. The city council is beginning to put limits on tourism trying to avoid excess numbers in general and especially excess party-goers in the red light district.
In this photo you can see how the buildings tilt forward. Many buildings were tilted slightly forward on purpose so items could be hoisted to upper rooms rather than trying to manage narrow crooked stairs.
We stopped at the Pancake House to have pankoeken, a Dutch pancake.
Then it was time to board our canal boat for our cruise.
This building is the Science Museum, nicknamed Titanic by residents.
The people are outside the Anne Frank house. The Anne Frank museum is a few doors away. We did not have the time in port to visit, but doing so could be a reason to visit Amsterdam again.
There are 800,000 people in Amsterdam and 1.25 million bikes.
There are 10-12,000 bikes retrieved from the canal annually and recycled. Some of them are said to be retribution for a broken heart. Heartbroken, throw your ex’s bike into the canal. (I saw this picture on Twitter.)
There are two underground bicycle garages on either side of the transportation station, each with room for 30,000 bicycles!
Driving an electric scooter now requires a helmet so there was a big transition to electric bikes avoiding the helmets. Pedestrians can’t hear the e-bikes and they go fast so there is a big problem with bike vs. pedestrian accidents.
A parking permit in the city costs about 550 euros per year, but there is a two to three year wait. I would not want to park any car next to the canal without any curbing!
We have taken Hop On Hop Off bus tours at times, but didn’t imagine you could do the same on a canal boat.
These are called the Dancing Houses. They are tilted because of movement in the ground layer.
This is a replica of the ship Amsterdam which sank during its maiden voyage in 1749. The rudder broke in the North Sea. The crew made it to safety in England. The Dutch East India Trading company was once a powerful naval entity. However, the life was difficult. The Dutch lost 700 ships in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Churches in Amsterdam usually have three crosses, one each for protection against plague, fire and flood.
We were on the canal during the Amsterdam Light Festival.
We saw a variety of sculptures, some lit even in daylight, along the canal.
This is the Montelbaanstoren Tower, built in 1516. It was once a part of the walls protecting the city and the harbor.
We went back to the ship and I decided, somewhat reluctantly, to do laundry. Laundry facilities (including soap) are free on Viking Ocean ships. That was convenient because our cold weather gear took so much room in our suitcases that we didn’t really have a large selection of regular clothes.
We saw wind turbines from our balcony window. Nine European countries are participating in building wind-farms in the North Sea.
We met Jo and Flynn at what became our regular spot behind the piano.
On any given night the pianist or the string duo played while we had before dinner drinks. The screen at the top of the stairs showed a rotating series of paintings by Edvard Munch, 1863-1944. A Norwegian expressionist painter, he became famous world wide. He painted over 2000 pieces and, if you don’t know any other, you probably would recognize “The Scream.”
This painting is called Landscape from Hitsven.
After dinner, we enjoyed our first Viking entertainment featuring the band.
The captain introduced his officers and senior staff.
The cruise director introduced our five enrichment lecturers. They will present on things you would expect like the Vikings and Northern Lights but also on Formula 1 Race cars and Aliens.
It was a good day in Amsterdam and evening on Viking Venus. We had no idea what was to come within just a few hours.
We had a 10:30 am pick up for our bus ride to Tilbury about 90 minutes away. That was a nice time considering our full day and late night the day before. Tilbury is the sea port for cruises near London.
Along the way, our guide told us about London’s “66 years” historical events. In 1066 William the Conqueror came and conquered the area. In 1666 the great fire destroyed most of London. Because so many buildings burned, most of London is younger than 1666. And, in 1966, England won the World Soccer Championships!
We passed St. Paul’s Cathedral, the main cathedral in London. The building is 365 feet high, one foot for each day of the year. Different from many cathedrals, there is no stained glass. Services are conducted daily.
The American Chapel on one end was built to commemorate the American soldiers who came to help during world wars.
Mansion House is the home for the Lord Mayor of London. He is in charge of the old city of London, now the financial district. The position has no salary and is for only one year. The Lord Mayor’s responsibility is to promote London as a city of finance. The benefit to the mayor is the ability to network.
There are 8.6 million people in the 15 square miles of greater London. Only about 8000 live in the old city but many more “work in the city,” mostly in finance. The economy of London is one third finance, one third tourism, and one third everything else.
Our guide told us that the British drive on the left side of the road because the Romans did it that way when they settled here in AD 43. Archeological evidence supports that assertion because the ruts on one side are greater so as when the carts were full versus empty.
Driving on the right side of the road started with Napoleon’s conquests and most countries in Europe now drive on the right. All British colonies, except Canada, still drive on the left.
We got to Tilbury and quickly checked in.
We boarded the Viking Venus and were immediately impressed.
Our cabin was very comfortable and a very nice size. We had a balcony but weren’t sure how much we would actually use it on this cruise! Viking has a practice of booking shore excursions based on cabin type and expense. We matched Jo and Flynn so we could be reasonably sure of getting the excursions we wanted together.
Jo and Flynn had been on a Viking Ocean ship before (they are all the same) so were able to board and relax. After watching the safety video and checking in at our muster station, Randy and I initiated the refund of our $100 taxi ride from Heathrow to the hotel. That was accomplished successfully in minutes.
We signed up for a ship tour and learned about the public spaces and the restaurant options.
Later, the four of us attended a port talk on Amsterdam. Cruise director Andre provided these talks throughout the cruise.
We learned how Amsterdam is really a collection of canals and bridges.
Bicycles are prolific in the city – and sometimes dangerous.
Next was a presentation on the History of the Netherlands by one of five guest speakers on our cruise. That was all before dinner!
Dinner at the The Chef’s Table is a multi course fixed menu with wine pairings. Dining at this restaurant (and one other) are by reservation but do not have an extra fee. Jo, pictured below, was on top of things and made our reservations as soon as they were available.
The menu at the Chef’s Table changes every three days. For better or worse, the menu is what it is, without modification.
None of us were very excited to see that the Cuisine of Great Britain was the theme. The menu included scotch eggs, beer battered fish and chips, Yorkshire pudding and brisket, and a Scottish trifle.
I would have never ordered any of the things on this menu! I did, however, eat everything offered (including the fish and chips) and it was all delicious. I guess that is the point!
London was the embarkation location for our cruise, so we went a couple days early to see the sights. Randy has no interest in anything monarchy related so choosing activities was a bit of a challenge! The monarchy is hard to avoid in London! In the end, we decided on a private tour of the Tower of London, a River Cruise along the Thames, and Piccadilly Theater with Jo and Flynn.
We met for breakfast at the hotel and then Flynn joined us for a walk around our hotel in Westminster.
We saw several of the iconic red phone booths.
We saw Westminster Abbey from several vantage points.
We entered Parliament Square Garden, and were not surprised to see Winston Churchill. A guide later commented on this statue that he looks grumpy, because he always looked grumpy. Of course he was guiding the country during some trying times.
We were surprised to see Abraham Lincoln!
There were people represented in the monuments that were not familiar at all such as George Canning. He was the shortest serving prime minister (119 days) when he died in 1827. (His shortest tenure record was taken by Liz Truss in 2022 at 49 days.)
We saw the clock known as Big Ben. Actually Big Ben is just the name of the mechanism. The Tower Clock (its real name) was renamed Elizabeth Tower to mark the queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
The Elizabeth Tower leans slightly.
The Parliament of England meets in the Palace of Westminster. The palace was the primary residence of kings from the eleventh century until 1512 when a fire destroyed the royal apartments. Parliament continued to meet there. The palace suffered a more serious fire in 1834 and suffered fourteen bombing raids during World War II. Despite it all, the castle stands and the parliament still meets there.
Richard I was King of England from 1189 to 1199. He was known as Richard the Lionhart because of his military leadership.
Oliver Cromwell, 1599 – 1658, was one of the most important figures in British history. He was a statesmen, politician and soldier. He remains controversial because of his means for gaining and maintaining power and his brutality against Ireland.
The Palace of Westminster has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1987.
After our walk about, Flynn and Jo took a tour of Westminster Abbey while Randy and I took “the tube” to the Tower of London.
The concierge at the hotel told us the tube would be much quicker and less expensive than a taxi or Uber.
To ride, you tap your credit card as you enter the system. We each needed our own credit card. We tapped the same cards again when exiting after our ride.
After a 15-20 minute ride, we arrived at the Tower of London and met our tour guide, James. He was impeccably dressed and just what you’d expect from a British gentleman.
James is the gentleman on the left standing with one of the Yeomen Warders, popularly known as a Beefeater. He told us we had made a very good choice touring with James.
The warders are symbolically responsible for looking after prisoners in the tower and safeguarding the British Crown Jewels. To be a warder, one must have 22 years of military experience. They, and their families, live within the tower fortress.
These apartments are for some Tower officials and a few of the high ranking warders.
One of the warders, Christopher Skaife, is also the Ravenmaster. He wrote a book about the tower ravens and their care that Randy and I read prior to our trip.
There is much history and tradition regarding the Tower Ravens. Although only a couple of the ravens written about in the book are still alive, it was interesting to see their space and hear about the new birds. The birds are usually allowed to fly about during the day but are put to bed at night.
The Beefeaters conduct tours around the Tower of London and it was quite a dilemma to choose between one of their very well attended and well regarded tours or a private tour. In the end, we were happy with our tour for two with James.
The Tower of London was founded in 1060 by William the Conquerer.
The White tower was, and is, the most famous building.
The White Tower holds the Chapel of St. John, built as part of William’s royal residence. The chapel has been in use for over 900 years.
After several phases of expansion in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Tower complex includes several buildings within two rings of defensive walls and moat.
This walkway is between the two defensive rings.
The Tower of London has served as a royal residence for many kings.
These rooms show how they were furnished during the reigns of Edward I and Henry III in the 13th century.
Over time there were menageries held within the tower walls. These are depicted by artwork around the grounds. James told us most exotic animals were gifts from foreign leaders.
There is much drama and trauma in the line of the British monarchy. King Henry VI was held prisoner in the White Tower and murdered there in 1471. He was succeeded by Edward IV who died in 1483. Edward had two sons but the two princes disappeared while being held at the white tower. They are presumed murdered on the order of their uncle, Richard, who wanted to be king. He became King Richard III.
The fortress that is the Tower of London held the kingdom’s armory.
This was King Henry VIII’s armor while he was still young and healthy.
His armor had the initials H and K (for Henry and Katherine) before he decided he liked Anne Boleyn more than his wife.
These buildings served as the Royal Mint before it was moved in the late 18th century. The buildings now serve as a museum and has apartments for the yeoman warders.
This section of the tower is unique in that it is made of wood that has survived for so long. There was a devastating fire in London in 1666. Over four days the fire destroyed most of the city and building in wood was banned.
The Crown Jewels of England are held in this building. No pictures were allowed inside but we saw the extensive collection of ceremonial scepters, crowns and “baubles” used in royal pomp and during the coronation of monarchs.
Some of these jewels contain stones from the Cullian Diamond, the largest colorless diamond in the world. The Cullian Diamond was found in 1905 in Transvaal, South Africa. It was given as a birthday gift to King Edward VII by the Transvaal government.
The rough stone was cut into nine large and 96 smaller diamonds. The largest of the nine stones is the 530-carat diamond known as the Star of Africa. It was placed in the royal scepter while others are highlighted in crowns and jewelry.
The Chapel Royal of Saint Peter is known as the burial place for some of the most famous tower prisoners including three queens of England. Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were wives of Henry the VIll. Jane Gray was a 17 year old who was manipulated by her family to claim the throne. She served as queen for only nine days. All three queens were executed after being imprisoned in the Tower during the 16th century.
The castle has history as a prison. Elizabeth I was held there by her sister Queen Mary, before becoming queen herself. Sir Walter Raleigh was held there after marrying one of Queen Elizabeth I ladies in waiting without her permission.
Despite its reputation, only seven people were executed in The Tower prior to the first and second world wars. Amidst the wars, 12 men were executed in the tower for espionage.
The plan was to hold Adolph Hitler within the tower as World War II was ending. Adapted plumbing was added for this purpose but, of course, never used. Hitler committed suicide in Germany.
Rudolph Hess, deputy commander of the Nazi Party, was held in the tower (on the top floor above) from May 1941 until the end of the war. He was transferred to stand trial at Nuremberg. He subsequently was imprisoned in West Berlin.
The Tower of London is a World Heritage Site.
The Tower Bridge across the Thames River is nearby.
We headed to our next activity and boarded a boat for a Thames River Cruise with Afternoon Tea.
We each chose our own flavor of tea.
We had a generous tray of sandwiches and desserts.
We had scones with clotted cream and jam. In Devon the cream is spread first and then topped with jelly. In Cornwall, the jelly is spread then topped with cream. I tried one each way and both were delicious.
Unfortunately the narration on our cruise was not well done and we didn’t always know what we were looking at.
We saw Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. That would be fun to visit on another trip to London.
Here is the New Scotland Yard. We don’t want to visit there unless they give tours.
The London Eye takes 800 people at a time on a 30 minute ride. On a clear day a rider can see Windsor Castle 25 miles away. The London Eye is owned by British Airlines.
At the end of our cruise, we disembarked near the Tower of London.
The Tower Bridge was very pretty all lit up.
We got back on the tube and headed toward Piccadilly Theater. (We were eventually charged the equivalent of $7.16 USD each for our rides. We both completed two rides but were only charged once – perhaps it was a daily rate. I have no idea.)
When we got off the tube we walked through Trafalgar Square. The monument is Nelson’s Column to commemorate Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars.
We found the Piccadilly Theatre and met up with Jo and Flynn.
Jo and I are ready to see Moulin Rouge.
The Piccadilly is one of the largest theaters in London. If the bricks used to make it were lined up end to end, they would stretch from London to Paris.
About fifteen minutes before the production began, we were entertained by cast members doing silent, erotic, meanderings around the theater.
Pictures were not allowed during the show but it was AMAZING. The four of us see a lot of music theater and we were so very impressed!!
None of us have seen the movie Moulin Rouge starring Nicole Kidman but it is hard to imagine it being half as good. Maybe someday we will watch it.
We were in London on January 11, 2024.
Next Up: We board the Viking Venus and head to Amsterdam.
Our next big travel adventure was a Viking Ocean Cruise called “In Search of the Northern Lights.”
We were invited by our friends, Jo and Flynn, after they booked the trip. Who doesn’t want to go to Norway in January? Randy and I had seen the northern lights once before on a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska. Those were white and shimmery, not colorful. We thought we’d like to try again.
We all live in Phoenix so none of us had cold weather gear. Jo and Flynn spent months researching, purchasing and borrowing items. We had the advantage of their research and eventually purchased what we needed at REI on a trip to Boise in November.
Because we were using airline credits on a trip we had cancelled, our connections were different from Jo and Flynn and not very good. We first went from Phoenix to Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles to London we splurged on business class pods as our flight was overnight. We hoped to arrive in London without being overly fatigued.
Our pods, 6D and 6F, were in the middle of the plane and angled away from each other.
We could talk but not easily. Mostly we didn’t.
Our flight was very rough at times with a lot of turbulence. At one point the pilot urgently told the flight attendants to sit in their jump seats. All that turbulence drama made an already late dinner even later.
Given the late dinner and continued turbulence, we slept very little despite being able to lay mostly flat.
Our arrival in Heathrow was on time and uneventful – unusual for us in London.
We were able to go to the UK + lane and took only moments to scan our passports. While we were gathering our luggage, we were met by Viking representatives even before we had our identifying red stickers on.
Then the taxi communications system was down so our ride to the hotel was delayed. We immediately thought here we go again!
If you have been reading for a while, you might remember that we’ve had trouble in London twice before when we were transferring flights at Heathrow. We spent unexpected nights in London hotels each time. See the posts Tour of Italy: Our Last Day and London – Again! to read about those misadventures.
After waiting twenty minutes or so, the Viking people told us they really had no idea when the problem with the taxi system communication would be solved and suggested we take a regular taxi. Our cost would be reimbursed by the Viking people at the hotel.
They walked us down, even handling one of our large, heavy suitcases. On the way, we told them of our previous London stories and laughed that we were in London breaking things again.
Then the lift (elevator for US folks) button was stuck, but the next lift worked. The Viking reps ordered our taxi and helped us on our way.
During the long ride to the hotel we saw rooftops that looked just like the setting for the chimney sweeps dance and brick row houses like the Banks’ home in the movie Mary Poppins. It wasn’t possible to get good pictures from the taxi, but if you have ever seen Mary Poppins, you know.
We finally got to the Conrad St. James but did not get reimbursed by the Viking people at the hotel. They told us we would be reimbursed on the ship. Hmmmm. The taxi ride cost us just over $100 USD.
Despite arriving at the airport within a half hour of each other, but in different terminals, Jo and Flynn had their own airport transportation challenges. Viking arranged travel with another couple in a hired car along with all the big luggage needed by four people going on a cruise to Norway in January. Their driver was befuddled with the load so they did their own luggage arrangement and figured out how to sit amongst it.
By early evening, we were finally all settled in the Conrad St. James and met at the pub for fish and chips.
Randy had missed out on authentic pub fish and chips on both of our previous “visits” to London so he knew exactly what he wanted. Jo and Flynn ordered the same. I don’t eat fish, even fish and chips in London.
Our hotel, The Conrad London St. James, is in a 19th century building in Westminster. It was originally a hospital and was formerly Queen Anne’s chambers. Anne became Queen in 1702 after the deaths of her uncle, father, older sister and older sister’s husband. She was the last monarch from the House of Stuart. Despite seventeen pregnancies, Queen Anne died without an heir.
The queen’s second cousin, George I, from the House of Hanover, succeeded her. The House of Hanover ruled Great Britain until Queen Victoria’s son, Edward VII, from the House of Saxe-Coburg, took over by virtue of Victoria’s marriage to Albert.
The hotel has a world class art collection. ”The House Always Wins” shows a popular culture take on the House of Commons.
This large corgi is a nod to Queen Elizabeth II and her love of the breed.
Our room, the hotel, and the included breakfasts were all very nice. We did have to borrow electric adapters because, in the midst of worrying about warm clothes, we never thought about buying and bringing power adapters. The hotel seemed used to having to accommodate those who came unprepared.
We traveled to London on January 9 and 10, 2024.
Next up: With only one full day in London, we made the most of it!
For the first time in all our visits to Mazatlán, we decided to take a tour to the town of El Quelite. We were told they had a wonderful Mexican restaurant.
Enroute we were told that this area of Sinaloa, Mexico is known for corn, cattle and mangos.
We passed a sign indicating the Tropico de Cancer. This latitude is the same that goes through the Hawaiian Islands – but the landscape is so different.
Our first stop was at El Quamade, a small town known for making cheese. They supply cheese for much of Mazatlán and the state of Sinaloa.
We stopped at a small quail farm.
The bird in the foreground is a coquena. Coquena are half chicken and half turkey and are able to breed.
We reached El Quelite and took a walk up to a raised viewpoint with a small shrine.
We learned that the village was named for a vegetable that grows wild similar to spinach. The village began in the 1800s.
The village church was built in the 1800s and remodeled in the 1930s.
There was a holiday the day we were there and a ceremony was happening at the church.
We saw a little of the before and after.
The famous restaurant was named El Meson de Los Laureanos. The Laureanos were brother bandits that were famous in this area. They have been memorialized as Robin Hood types, but were really just bandits.
The food really was very good. We had many samplings served to us because we were part of a tour.
These were cheese and a Mexican pizza made with cheese from the former village.
We had rice water and chamomile water. I usually like water just plain but the rice water really was delicious.
Randy ordered a combination plate and I ordered a chili relleno.
I had never had a relleno served in a soup before. All the food was delicious.
Randy took a picture when he went into the baños. Target shooting urinals is the best we can figure.
As we were leaving town we went by ancient athletic grounds and a statue depicting a game played here thousands of years ago. The ball was made of rubber and weighed about 15 lbs. Hip action was part of the game. The teams played six on six and, in ancient times, the losing team was killed.
Back in Mazatlán, we enjoyed our second trip to the Angela Perata Theater – this time for Gala Navideńa, their Christmas spectacular. There was a good combination of songs in Spanish and English and lots of well choreographed dancing. We will definitely try to go again in the future.
We enjoyed spending an afternoon playing cards with our Boise friend Pam and her friend Charlene.
We went on another tour with Eduardo from our previous Flavor Tellers tour. In that instance, Eduardo was an employee. Eduardo is also developing his own company of tours. He has a Masters degree in Creative Writing from New York University and developed a tour around literature with a Mazatlán connection. The city doesn’t have known literary giants so this tour is about known writers who mention visits to Mazatlán, or those whose visits can be inferred through their writing.
We spent a delightful four hours learning about connections, or potential connections, with Herman Melville, John Steinbeck, Taylor Bayard, Ken Kesey and others we didn’t even begin to know.
We began at a library with a Spanish collection and an English collection. Each were administered by different agencies. Although both collections were closed during Covid, the Spanish collection received the care it needed to remain viable.
The English language collection molded after months and years of neglect. It is unknown what will happen with the deteriorating collection and space.
Eduardo took us to a cafe where they developed and served us tacos with a literary connection to one of the authors he told us about.
The details have escaped my memory but I appreciate the effort because he was improvising and accommodating my dislike of seafood.
This was not part of our tour, but we did walk by the Beatles in Mazatlán!
Towards the end Eduardo showed us a hotel, the Casa Lucila, named for his grandmother Lucila. The hotel has a rich musical history.
Eduardo’s grandfather is enshrined in a sculpture nearby – one of many sculptures along the Mazatlán malachon.
We ate breakfast a couple of times at a cafe called Surf’s Up. It is about a half mile walk down the beach from our resort.
On this morning we saw several groups of sea birds aggressively move from area to area after fish. We asked the waiter about the type of fish. As best we could understand, he was saying “pardo” but we found no fish with that name doing a bit of research. It could have been a language snafu, or a regional name of a type of fish. Who knows?
We enjoyed some sunsets!
We had some more quality time with the iguanas we shared our third floor space with!
She is kind of pretty when you consider the intricacies of the skin.
Just when we thought our naughty iguana was tamed by the sight of the maid’s broom, he was back. He watched Randy sitting there for a while, then came onto the balcony when Randy came inside. Whatever….we were going to dinner.
On our last morning, I looked out to the surrounding trees and ledges to do a count. Over our two weeks the iguana count had been a high of 12 and a low of four.
One of the iguanas saw me approach, turned away – AND FELL OFF the third floor ledge! Oh my! I heard it fall into the foliage, and not onto the sidewalk, so I was glad about that.
When we went down for breakfast about ten minutes later, it was no where to be found. That made me hopeful for its survival. It isn’t like iguanas haven’t already survived since the beginning of time.
Another trip to Mazatlán was successfully and enjoyably accomplished. Using two weeks a year, our contract will be complete in 2028. As much as we enjoy going to Emerald Bay, we will not renew. There are too many other places to explore. Adios Amigos!
We were in Mazatlan in December 2023.
Next up: A break for me the writer and you the reader!
When we went on our annual journey to Mazatlán, I had no intention of writing the trip. We have a timeshare there so we go every year. It is usually just a relaxing time without anything special going on.
We get two weeks a year so sometimes we have friends or family join us and we use both of our weeks in the same week. Other times we come for two weeks by ourselves which is what we did this year.
We have been coming to Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay since 2008 and have found we enjoy being there in December when there are fewer guests.
That makes it easy to move around and find lounge chairs by the pool. Our favorite waiter by the pool this year was Armando. Those drinks are Miami Vices – half strawberry daiquiri and half piña colada.
As I said, I didn’t have any intention of writing this trip but some things happened that were just interesting and fun.
While lounging on our third floor balcony, peeking through the palms at the Pacific Ocean, this guy walked by! That was the opening salvo!
We started looking around and saw many iguanas on the building ledges and in the trees nearby. Our room was at a good height for seeing them in the trees and we were on the end of the building. We had trees and ledge exposure on two sides.
It didn’t matter if the wind was blowing, they’d just sway in the breeze.
This is an older male. He was on the ledge every day. Seeing eight or nine of his clan was the norm. One day we saw twelve! We were starting to think there was a nest or colony nearby.
It was all fun until one morning I went out to have my coffee and croissant on the balcony. One guy surprised me by already being on our side of the balcony fence!
We had seen a small green one on the balcony once before but it scurried away quickly when we came out. This one was not deterred.
I think he was a teenage male because he had the draping under the chin that the large orange males have, but not yet the full orange coloring. And he was naughty!
He was NOT intimidated at all by my presence and wouldn’t be shooed away. When I gave up and went back inside he actually tried to get in our room. He acted like he’d been inside before – maybe when some previous guest left the screen door open.
I was trapped inside drinking my coffee.
Randy went out and shared the balcony with him for a while. Soon a second iguana joined the “fun” times.
A bit later the maid came by and brought out her broom. Randy used it to scurry them off.
We were used to iguanas being on the resort grounds, and had enjoyed them for years, but this was the first time we had such up close and personal interaction!
Our maid’s name was Selene, pronounce “suh LEN ay.” My name is pronounced “suh REN ay” in Mexico. I showed her how my name was spelled just one letter differently and how mine and hers were pronounced in English. She spoke even less English than I do Spanish but we understood the iguanas and our names.
Another first time event in Mazatlán for us on this trip was a food tour through Flavor Tellers guided by Eduardo. We went to six or seven places with the first being the best.
It was a taco breakfast cart. They only have the license to be in the location until 11:00 am so have to start breaking down at 10:30. Our tour began at 10:00 and we went straight there.
Randy and I are veterans of food tours so knew to eat very little prior to the tour. We also know that it is usually best not to eat the entire offering to pace ourselves.
However, these tacos were most excellent. Randy had one with beans and a hint of chorizo. Mine was made with machaca. Notice the plastic covering over the plates – an interesting alternative to paper plates or to washing the plates.
Our second stop was for fish stew or another taco. We did the tacos. These were far moister and seemed almost like enchiladas. We paced ourselves at this stop.
The third stop was to a real tortilla factory.
We learned how the tortillas are made from sun dried white corn and cooked with limestone.
The corn is rinsed and then the corn is ground. A small of amount water is added to make the dough.
The dough is formed into circles by machine and put through a multi layer baking process. The tortillas are stacked and sold immediately.People come and buy them from the shop as soon they come out of the oven.
Tortillas are considered an essential staple so the prices are regulated by the government. The sign says 25 pesos per kilo.
Our next stop was a shop selling only fresh fish. Any fish that is not sold the first day is smoked over night and then sold as smoked fish. If it isn’t sold that day it is made into a fish paté and there is never any of that left. We both tried a bit of the smoked fish and Randy tried, and enjoyed, the paté.
Our next stop was to visit the shrimp ladies. There are other kinds of gross sea creatures as well – gross because I don’t like any seafood and gross because there were flies everywhere! The picture only shows about a third of the tubs with seafood.
We were offered dried shrimp. I declined but Randy tried it and, even though he loves all kinds of shrimp, he didn’t like this sampling enough to finish it.
Our main eating venue was a Mexican restaurant with a lot of Mazatlán family history and lore. We had seen one of the locations near our resort but had never eaten there.
We had a collection of typical breakfast foods for the table and could have what we liked. Again, I preferred the machaca, dried beef cooked in seasonings, shown on the right in this plate.
Our last stop was Tres Islas (three islands) Brew pub.
We were offered two tastings each and we shared. The first, on the left, was a plumeria. The second two glasses of beer are the same because we both wanted the beer made with coffee and vanilla. The last was a vienna beer reminiscent of those we had in Europe.
A day or two later, we went to a Venados baseball game. The Venados (deer) is the Mazatlán city team and we had been to another game years ago.
The old stadium was taken down and replaced by a great new one!
Besides the game, there was non stop entertainment happening including the Mexican Chippendales. As someone who usually cares about the outcome of games we go to, I’m glad I didn’t care about this one! I would have found the non stop distractions annoying, if I cared. After being no hit for the first half of the game, the Venados roared back to win!
I have had it in my Mazatlán trip notes for years to go to the Christmas program at the Angela Peralta Theatre. It isn’t possible to order tickets online and this year we were there in time to get tickets for two shows.
First we need some history on the theater. It is a luxurious opera house named for Angela Peralta, a beloved Mexican singer who lived from 1845-1883. She was a world-famous soprano, composer, harpist, and pianist. She married a cousin who soon died in a mental institution. Then she had an affair with her manager. The affair was so scandalous that religious citizens in Mexico City derailed her career.
She still enjoyed success elsewhere. She arrived in Mazatlán and died of yellow fever at age 38 before ever having a chance to sing in Mazatlán. Seventy-six of her troupe and many citizens of Mazatlán also died of yellow fever. Some people believe that Angela Peralta was married to a singer in her company on her death bed, either after she was unconscious or after she was deceased.
The theater that bears her name was built in 1874 and named the Rubio Theater. It fell into decline during the 1920s and was completely unusable by the 1960s.
The theater was completely renovated in 1992 , named the Angela Peralta Theater. It is lovely! The seats look like a painting, but this is a photograph we took before it started to fill up with patrons.
Due to the way they have tiered seating, even on the sides – there are great views from almost every seat.
Our first show, in English, was Betwitching Broadway. A group of four singers and a pianist were joined by the Mazatlán symphony for a selection of musical numbers.
The common themes were witches, murder and death. We heard songs from Wicked, The Little Mermaid, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Sweeny Todd among others.
Prior to dinner we went to one of our favorite restaurants called Topolo. The setting is an outdoor courtyard with lots of color.
They make salsa for you at the table to your specifications. We go to Topolo every year when we go to Mazatlán.
We spent a little more than five weeks in Europe in August, September and October 2023. We enjoyed two cruises with a few days in Switzerland in between.
We began with a Viking River Cruise called Cities of Light with our friends Warren and Connie.
We had a few days in Switzerland on our own.
Then Randy and I continued with a Holland America cruise called Ancient Mysteries and Egypt. We do love to travel!
We had a very nice time on our Viking cruise with our friends. We are so glad they had a wonderful time! Viking is great, excellent, exceptional, at what they do – but river cruising just isn’t a good fit for us.
The crew and our fellow guests were great!
The tours were mostly excellent. Viking has an included tour for every port, which we always did. They also offer optional tours and we added those whenever the schedule allowed.
The “issue” with our Viking River Cruise, and why it wasn’t a good fit for us, is the design of the ship and how it operates.
There are basically three large common areas- one a dining room used only for meals at designated times.
A second is the lounge that serves for relaxing, lectures, entertainment and everything else.
The third is the sun deck that is available, or not, depending on upcoming bridges, time of day etc.
There really wasn’t any quiet place to gather or sit with another couple, or alone, other than our cabin or balcony. The lounge area gets busy and loud with activities and people gathered there.
Meals are at designated times and you are almost always eating with others whether you want to be social or not.
We missed the flexibility and options for eating, relaxing, and entertainment on a larger ship. Ironically, part of what we like about being on a larger, mid-size ship is the opportunity to be alone as a couple or an individual.
All that being said, I’m very glad we went on our Viking river cruise and glad we had an itinerary that allowed us to see the castles along the Rhine.
We felt like we were coming home when we boarded the Nieuw Statendam. Not only because we had sailed on her three times before but because this style of cruising is what we know and know we will enjoy.
The Neptune Suite was awesome and we’ll take one anytime it is offered to us steeply discounted! It is way too expensive to be part of our norm. The cabin and balcony were great but the upgrade added a few more perks we enjoyed. The first would be the Neptune Lounge, a dedicated space and services for approximately 20 cabins. It came with a small buffet changed out a few times during the day. We had a self serve honor bar if we wanted something quick to take to our balcony without going upstairs or downstairs to a real bar. The Neptune Lounge also came with Lorraine and Claire, our concierge duo. They knew our names the first time we walked in the lounge. They were wonderful at taking care of so many details including dining reservations, shore excursions, random questions and money exchanges. I never stood in line at guest services one time on this cruise thanks to them! It was a level of service we had not experienced before.
Maybe someday we can get a Neptune Suite again.
The Neptune Suite also gave us the opportunity to have our meals in the Club Orange dining room. We usually did so just because it was part of the benefit, but didn’t find anything particularly remarkable about it except that it was quieter than the main dining room.
Although, they did know it was my birthday. I don’t know if that would have happened in the main dining room without us telling them.
And for our Ancient Mysteries Itinerary….
The ports of Ephesus and Istanbul, Turkey were my reasons to book this itinerary and both were great! We have no need to go to Ephesus again but if we do, touring with a faith based guide would be a different perspective.
If Istanbul came up again, that would be most welcome but we have no intention to specifically book it again. There are too many places we haven’t been to repeat places very often.
After Italy last year and then continuing with this trip, we were “DONE” with ruins in our brains before we were done with ruins on our itinerary.
We did go out with a bang though spending our last day of ruins with a private guide at the Acropolis in Athens.
So here is an oddity – one of my favorite things we did on this trip was go to the top of the Eiffel Tower but Paris didn’t do it for us at all. We found it loud and dirty and getting transportation was very challenging. It also didn’t help that Paris was in a heatwave and air conditioning is not common.
Another item of note…I just recently wrote about one of the women statue- columns from the Acropolis being taken and on display at the British Museum. We heard that dozens of times on this trip everywhere we went from Egypt to Greece to Turkey. “ _____ is part of our heritage and history but it is on display at the British Museum.” That seems sad to me although I have also heard that some things may not have “survived” if not taken to the British Museum.
These were the countries we added to our list: England, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Greece, Egypt and Turkey.
And transitioning to the real world….
Our ship, Nieuw Statendam, was in Jerusalem when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. This was one week after we left the ship.
Passengers were called back from shore excursions and the ship went out to sea as quickly as possible. We belong to several Holland America Facebook groups and were watching posts in real time. After all the Holland sponsored tours had returned, the captain chose to wait a bit longer for a few passengers who had gone on private tours. I’m sure that would have been a difficult call – especially if the delay was lengthy. All passengers and crew were on board before departing.
On October 8 we read reports that Israeli tourists were killed in Alexandria. We had been there on September 22 with our guide talking about the tolerance of Alexandria citizens.
Hindsight….We stayed in Alexandria, and did not go to the pyramids, because we had an upcoming trip in January and February 2024 to Israel, Egypt and Jordan. Israel was canceled and then we chose to cancel Egypt and Jordan. We now wish we had taken the opportunity to go to the pyramids when we were relatively close. We will have to keep that lesson in mind going forward. Take the opportunity at hand when you can, because you never know.
Going forward…We have a Viking Ocean cruise coming up so it will be interesting to see how it fits for us. Our travel agent, who was so, so valuable for us in planning and dealing with mishaps while we were on this trip, thinks it may be our sweet spot. We’ll see!
