Serene Wandering

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 were in Mazatlán December 4-18, 2023.

Next up: More 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!

The Acropolis is visible from almost everywhere in Athens!  It is an ancient citadel above the city containing several ruins, the most famous being the Parthenon.  

There is evidence that the hill was inhabited 4000 years BC. However, the significant buildings that remain were coordinated by Pericles, 495-429 BC.  He was a politician and general during Athens’ golden age.

We met our guide and started the long gradual walk up the hill.  Along the way we saw musicians and artists.  We thought this was an interesting instrument.

One of the first ruins we could see from closer up was the Temple of Athena Nike, built in 420 BC.

As we’ve seen before, path materials changed over time.  Original materials are maintained as much as possible.

This theatre has concerts five months of the year for a wide range of artists. Seating, redone in the 1950s,  is for 5000 guests.  

This is the Erechtheion, built between 421-406 BC. The temple has two porches, one with large columns and the other supported by huge female figures. 

Efforts to stabilize are visible on the top left.

Different sections were dedicated to Athena, Poseidon and others.  

Columns weren’t a solid piece. 

The Parthenon was built in nine years between 447-438 BC.  It served as the treasury of the empire and became a christian church in the late sixth century AD.  

With the Ottoman conquest in the fifteenth century, it became a mosque.  

In 1687, the Parthenon and other buildings were seriously damaged during the Venetian’s siege of the Acropolis when their bombs set off munitions that were stored by the Ottomans.

Artifacts were looted over time.  The grounds of the acropolis only started being protected in the 1960s. Since 1975 there have been large scale efforts at restoration and preservation. 

We had seen the Acropolis from Athens, and now we could see Athens from the Acropolis.

This is the oldest theater in Greece as seen from above.

This is the same theater from below.  There used to be a hospital nearby as holistic medicine was common practice in Ancient Greece. The theatre was seen as a benefit in treatment.

Our guide used this book during our visit around the Acropolis. It had different overlays to show the present view, and a presumed view from long ago.  I considered buying one but didn’t.  However,  if I were to return, especially without a private guide, I would absolutely buy one!

After our visit into the ruins, our guide led us through the Acropolis Museum.

Of course they found ancient ruins while the museum was under construction and incorporated them.

How did they move those big slabs of stone to make those huge buildings before modern cranes?

This shows some of the sculptures placed above an entrance.  

These are the pieces they have, or have recreated, and their size and placement.

There are many original artifacts.  This is a Nike.

These are five of the original women statue columns from the Erechtheion seen above.  Those outside on the Acropolis are reproductions. The sixth was taken and is on display at the British Museum.  

We had not been looking forward to this tour as we felt that, after Italy last year and then this trip, we were done with old things.  I’m glad to say we enjoyed our tour of the Acropolis with our guide.  In hind site, as far as ruins go, we went out big!

This was our room at the Grand Hyatt Athens.  It looks innocuous but over the course of 48 hours we had to call about a problem with lights, a problem with the air conditioning and a problem with the safe! We took our items out of the safe early because we didn’t want to have it fail before our 4:30 am trip to the airport!

But first, we had our final activity in Greece. We enjoyed a Catamaran Sunset Cruise and dinner.

It was a wonderful ending to five weeks in Europe.

We were in Athens on October 3, 2023.

Next up: Trip post mortem. What would we do again, what would we not?

Our Tuk Tuk guide was interesting.  He said right away that he didn’t like working for his boss and hoped the job was temporary.  He wanted to fly and eventually be a flight instructor.  He knew a lot about Arizona as it related to history, aviation and Air Force Bases.  He had strong negative opinions on Trump and America’s obsession with guns. It was quite an interesting beginning!

When we got around to talking about Athens, he drove us by the Academy with the pillars of Athena and Apollo.

He stopped at the relatively unimpressive (in comparison to many other churches) Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Dionysius.

This view was tucked under the entry.

Our impression changed immediately when we went inside!

Dionysius converted to Christianity by the teachings of Paul, as told in Acts 17:34 in the Bible.  He became the first (or second) Bishop of Athens and is the patron saint of Athens. 

He is viewed as the protector of judges and the judiciary. 

Our guide took us to the top of Mount Lycabettud for a view of Athens.

Getting artsy!

Always there are street kitties- and they look in good health.

We watched a member of the ceremonial guard march in front of the parliament building and the tomb of the unknown soldier.

We passed one of the Athens 2004 Olympic venues.

This door was the entry to Turkish jail where Greeks were kept and tortured for 400 years. It is left as a monument to the victims.

We visited the grounds of the Roman agora, that being a gathering place.

There were Roman baths.

These are ruins of Hadrian’s Library.

Hadrian was a second century AD emperor, one of the good ones according to our guide.

He took us to a site to view the Acropolis from a distance.  There was a planned city wide siren alert while we were there.  Everything worked as planned. Our tour would have normally ended at the Acropolis but we had a private tour later in the day. He showed us where we would meet our next guide.

It was in interesting tour with an interesting guide.  I hope, almost three months later, that he has gotten a job he enjoys more – or at least that he owns his own Tuk-tuk so he can work for himself.

We were on our own for lunch. We ordered 2 gyros, 1 coke, 1 glass of wine and paid the equivalent of $10.94. We found every thing in Athens to be very economical as a tourist.

As a tourist, I noticed when I walked into a store, the sales person would great me in English while greeting others in Greek. They can tell!

We were in Athens on October 2, 2023.

Next up: The Acropolis

Our first day in Athens started poorly and ended well.  We disembarked with approximately 200 other passengers for our Athens extension with Holland America.We boarded the provided transportation and were shuttled to their contract hotel. Any excursions or activities were on us to arrange.

When we arrived at the  hotel there were huge lines because, not only did Holland America use this hotel, but at least two other cruise lines did as well. We were able to pre-check-in after about an hour but our rooms wouldn’t be available for several hours. They would keep our luggage for us but the large room where they put luggage had very little monitoring.  I didn’t care so much about the luggage but we didn’t want to lug around our technology in shoulder bags to go out and about. They probably would have all been fine but we didn’t feel confident.    So we waited with many other people doing the same thing we were. 

An experience isn’t wasted if we learn from it which we did.  Don’t do this again!  We should have arranged for private transportation to a boutique hotel that wouldn’t have hundreds of people checking in at the same time.   Then we could have checked in, left our luggage if needed, and gone about our day in Athens.

We did eventually get our room and were able to find our way to our evening destination. We had booked a food tour!  That would be no surprise for those of you who have been reading for a while. 

We found our guide, Pascal, and were joined by other couples from the US, England and Brazil.

Our first stop was for pork gyros and chicken souvlaki.  They were both delicious.   

During conversation we learned that, in Greece, their main meal is lunch. It is served sometime between 1-4.  Dinner, served from 5-8, is a lighter meal.  Thessaloniki and Crete are considered the best Greek foodie cities. 

We walked through an area called Little Kook.  It is decorated five times a year.  Most recently it had been Alice in Wonderland but was now Halloween.  Next would be Christmas.  It is a neighborhood effort for both locals and tourists.

Our next stop was a very cool looking restaurant for Greek pies.

We had pies with spinach filling and some with a type of ground meat.

Our next stop was for a Greek pizza called Petnirly.  This food tradition came to Greece with workers from the Black Sea. Notice the boat shape. Petnirly have a variety of toppings and are eaten at any time of the day.   

After all those snacks we were off to dinner. This was served to us at a restaurant that used to be a famous coffee shop in the 1840s. It was an important gathering place after the Greek revolution.

We had moussaka, calamari, and a dish similar to moussaka made with pasta. We also had greek salad and tomato stuffed with rice.

We also had a view of the Acropolis from our tables.  There is almost always a view of the Acropolis from anywhere in Athens!

Our last stop was for Loukoumades!  

These are a deep fried doughnut type dessert with various coverings.  What a way to finish!

We were in Athens on October 1, 2023.

Next up:  We tour Athens and visit the Acropolis.

On our tour, we learned that the earliest humans in Greece are from six millennia BC.  Christianity grew out of this area.  The 1204 crusades took Constantinople and split the empire. The Ottomans came in 1453 and ruled for 400 years.

The fight for Greek independence began in 1821. France, England and Russia were supportive and for a time Greece had a neutral German king.  Athens became the capital in 1834.

Greece eventually had a Danish monarchy.  In 1974, 72 percent of the Greek population voted against continuing a relationship with the monarchy. 

Under Greece’s democratic style government, citizens vote every four years.  They have a prime minister and a mostly ceremonial president. The Greece constitution is considered the most advanced constitution across Europe combining examples from America and post revolution France. 

There are 11 million people in Greece, and five million of those are in Athens.

The Greek influence is so broad that there are 16,000 Greek words in English.

Our destination in Greece, on this day, was Corinth, both the canal and the ancient city.

In ancient times, several rulers saw a potential benefit in digging a canal through the isthmus between the Ionian Sea and the Aegean Sea.  The first known intent was from the 7th century BC but they just couldn’t make it happen given knowledge and resources at the time. (The picture shows the canal eventually developed.)

Instead, early rulers developed a portage road so ships could be towed from one side of the isthmus to the other.   

A second attempt at a canal was considered around 300 BC.  Three Roman rulers considered the idea but each suffered a violent death before initiating the project.   One of those rulers was Julius Caesar.

The canal idea was revived again after Greece became an independent country in 1830.  It was deemed too expensive for a new country to take on.  

The successful opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 sparked canal interest again.  The Greek government passed a law authorizing the construction of a Corinth Canal. Construction began in April 1882 and, after some financing drama, was completed in July 1893. Construction took 11 years.

The canal connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea to the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. The  canal is 4 miles long and only 80.7 feet wide at sea level.  It is not passable for most modern ships and is now mainly a tourist attraction.

We traveled a short distance to the city of Corinth. Archaeologists believe the area of ancient Corinth was inhabited from the 10th century BC.

Ancient Corinth was one of the largest and most important cities in Greece, with a population of 90,000 in 400 BC.  The Romans demolished Corinth in 146 BC and built a new city in its place in 44 BC.  It was later made the provincial capital of Greece.

Corinth was once the richest city of the world.  It had two ports, one on each side of the isthmus, with the ability to travel almost anywhere.  The portage road allowed for travel between the Ionian and Aegean seas.

Paul visited Corinth during the time of Roman occupation. In 51 AD he lived here with Aquila and Priscilla.  Paul was run out of Corinth but he wrote several letters back to believers in Corinth. Those are recorded in Corinthians I and II in the bible.

Paul came to this area to preach, likely from this platform.

This is the Temple of Apollo. Its structure corresponded to the golden rule of temple building. The number of columns on the short side = x and the long side = 2X + 1.

Aphrodite protected the city from her temple on top of the mountain.  There were also Aphrodite prostitutes to take sailors’ money while their ship was moored at port, or being moved along the portage road.

Ancient Corinth had quite a history combining Greek mythology, the Rule of Tyrants, Roman rule and the missionary visits of Saint Paul, Byzantium history and devastating earthquakes and on and on!

The modern city of Corinth is outside the area of the ancient city because of destruction from a massive earthquake in 1928.

We visited Corinth on September 30, 2023.

Next up: Athens

When we woke up and looked outside there were three other cruise ships anchored near Santorini!  One of them, The Odyssey of the Seas, was huge. (It has a maximum capacity of 5500 people.)  Hmmmm, that’s a lot of people on an island.

Santorini is one of 32 islands, called the Cyclades, forming a circle around the Island of Milos. A huge earthquake devastated Santorini in 1956.  As a result, there were a lot of resources and attention put into the island. That made Santorini famous.  Tourism is the primary industry, followed by wine making.

We visited the village of Oia, home of the iconic white buildings with blue accents.

The color scheme goes back to the late 1930s when there was a cholera epidemic. It was believed that the white paint had some kind of agent to reduce the cholera transmission rates.  The blue is an accent in tribute to the Greek flag. It isn’t a rule that people must adhere to the white with blue but most seem to use these colors.

Although most views are stunning there are a few iconic ones. These people lined up to get one of those shots.

We walked the other direction so we could see more than that one view in our allotted time!

It’s a good life for this Santorini cat!

The island hotels and villas are beautiful with beautiful views!

There are still people in line to get the best picture.  I’m happy with ours!

Our tour moved on and we had a quick photo opportunity at a beach with black sand!

The next stop went back into island history. In the 11th Century,  a holy icon was received on Santorini.  It appeared to move locations and the locals followed the icon before settling here. The current Panagia Episkopi Church is on the site of an 11th century monument to the Holy Madonna, complete with the holy icons.

This building is from the 14th century and survived a large fire in the 18th century.

The original holy icons were stolen and later replaced.

Our next stop was for refreshment. There is no agricultural production on Santorini except grapes for wine.  The plants are small due to hard conditions with wind, heat and lack of rain.  Eighty percent of the grapes grown on Santorini are for white wine. 

We had a very nice stop at Santo Wines.  We tasted  one dry white, one dry red, and their specialty – a chocolate flavored red.  We had a delicious snack of cheese and tomatoes and olives.  The dry cracker was interesting.

Our initial thought every time we looked out across the island was that there was snow! No. What we saw was the mostly white houses on the island top.

The end of our tour was in Santorini’s capital of Fira.   It was very, very crowded with passengers from four cruise ships, and other visitors, and the line to take the cable car down the cliff face was very long. We progressed slowly for about an hour before boarding. Unfortunately, we experienced a few people who were not on their best take your turn in line behavior.  After waiting so long, the ride down took only moments!

There was another option, and we should have taken it!  The zigzag wall is a stairway.  There are donkeys on that stairway.  I assume you can hire them to take you down but I would have just enjoyed seeing them while walking! Those that did walk down said it was fine, just very, very hot with no relief from the sun.

This was our view of Santorini as we sailed away.  It was very beautiful but just too crowded with four ships!  If we ever choose to return we will stay at a villa overlooking the sea.  We could just sit and enjoy the view until the cruise people were gone!

We were on Santorini on September 29, 2023

Next up:  Corinth