Shetland Island

Partly sunny, partly cloudy, but cold (50's) and windy, so dressed in hat, scarf, gloves, raincoat, fleece, and turtleneck, plus hiking shoes and wool socks.
Saw puffins!
Also amazing ruins from 1500's to almost 4000 BC!

St. Petersburg...Gold and More Gold

Gilt everywhere you look in the palaces and churches of St. Petersburg. So many beautiful places to see here, but we were overwhelmed on our two-day private tour (8 of us.)

Tallinn, Estonia...AMAZING!

We spent 5 hours walking all over this town from the 1200's...cobblestone streets, city walls, fabulous! One of the most beautiful old towns I've ever seen...and on a perfect day!

Newcastle Upon Tyne, Photos from Northumberland

Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

I had arranged a private tour for the 4 of us here that would take us to Warkworth, Alnwick, and Bamburg Castles and other areas of interest in the Northumberland part of England. Our tour guide, Clive Billett from East Coast Taxis and Tours, was outstanding. We began with a brief tour of the area we were docked in which included ruins of a priory and castle, then on to Warkworth Castle that we just photographed from the exterior (actually we never went in any of them...too much else to see.) Clive knew all about how they had feral hogs in the dry moat and attack dogs, so if you made it through those, you still had a lot of hazards to get though (doubt any did)...but then on through beautiful country and along the coast to Alnwick (pronounced "ahnick"), a lovely town with the castle that is famous for the Harry Potter movies as well as others. It is still inhabited by the Duke of Northumberland and is considered the second largest castle after Windsor to still be inhabited. The town was lovely and as a special treat Clive took us to the Barter Books, a huge second hand bookstore, that now is located in the old Alnwick Train Station. We grabbed a bite to eat there, but quickly lost ourselves among the books, the model trains, the exhibits of old books, and just people watching (with lots of dogs!) We photographed the castle from a distance (difficult to do from any other angle) and then headed onward to Bamburgh Castle. Bamburg is along the sea coast, so is quite a different type of castle, but again, just viewed it from the bottom of the rocks it sits on. Continuing on, we returned to the port via one of the most scenic valleys which also had a small castle/manor ruin and an 11th century church that is still in use. Clive was an entertaining guide who gave us much more information than we could possibly soak in, but the day was lovely (still jacket weather) and showed us a totally different part of England than we had seen before.

The following day was a Sea Day, so it was time to rest up and enjoy a relaxing day.

We arrived in Copenhagen on the 4th of July to a sunny, warm (60's) day. We were due to not leave port until 9:30 PM, so Chris took the Hop on Hop off bus that had a stop right at our dock into town. He spent 4 hours walking (fast) around town since he knew where he wanted to go and how to get there...he was back by dinner with some lovely photos (sunny day!) Sailaway at 9:30, but I was asleep before we got out of the port!

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South Queensferry, Scotland

Having been to Edinburgh several times before, we opted to tender into South Queensferry (our anchorage for getting to Edinburgh) for dinner at The Hawes Inn...cottage pie, fish and chips, and sticky toffee pudding...all very good!
Our tender ride to the dock was an E-ticket ride though...tide coming in, wind at 30 mph against us, so large wind waves. Docking a tender is difficult under great conditions but these were very poor...took awhile, but we managed. Ride back not much better but at least down wind.

Bergen and Shetland

A gorgeous day greeted us in Bergen, so we were among the first off and headed right away to the funicular that goes up to an amazing overlook. We were in the first car up so enjoyed the view with a lot fewer people than were there later. Once we got down, we headed to Susan Fosse's Knitwear kiosk at the Fish Market to see if she still had the same buttons for a sweater that I had bought there a few years ago. She told us to check at her shop with her mom in The Bryggen (old Bergen), but meanwhile we found a few more of her things to buy. We like to shop with a local person who designs the sweaters, etc. She has a degree in knitting design that shows.
After that, we did head to the Bryggen, but there was no matching button, but her mother gave me one that would fit and I liked...with a Viking ship design. Works for me. We just enjoyed a quiet ship the rest of the day.
We set the clocks back last night so got a bit more rest, but with the sunset at 11ish and sunrise at 4ish most nights, we wake often...I've started using eye shades.
This morning we arrived in Lerwick on the largest Shetland Isle. I had arranged a private tour with Roundabout Shetland (Les Sinclair) which proved to be excellent. There were six of us in a van that went all over the southern part of the island to the ancient (6,000 years!) ruins of Jarlshof, to the cliffs of Sumburgh Head to see the puffins nesting, then to Scalloway which was important during WWII as part of the Shetland Bus.
It's still cold...50's, windy, but no rain. I wore a turtleneck, fleece, and Marmot rain shell, hat, and scarf.
Photos will come later, but I was thrilled with my opportunity to get puffin photos! One walked right up the bank in front of me...he was too close for my lens!

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Flam, Norway...Spectacular Day!

The Zuiderdam in Flam. Fantastic day, but cold...hat, scarf, 3 layers (including fleece.) Assorted scenery from train and bus ride to Voss.

Sognefjord and Flam

Last night was Brigitte's birthday which we celebrated on a rocking and rolling ship...10-15' seas. This morning we are in Flam to take the famous Flam Railroad up the mountains. We love this fjord that we've been in before. More photos later .

Stavanger, Norway

Last night at dinner in the Lido...

I've changed the name of the Blog

I changed the name of the blog so that when it comes to the In Box of your email, you'll realize it's from us. The other heading made it sound like an ad.

Leaving Kristiansand

Kristiansand, Norway was cold (60) and mostly overcast, but the sun came out for our sail away which Chris captured on video. Otherwise, we stayed on board for the day since the port was uninteresting to us. This morning we docked in Stavanger which looks like a cute town, but it's been quite rainy so far, so we probably won't get off the ship. We spent 2 hours talking with a fellow our age who also has been an RVer and traveled to many of the places we have been. It's Brigitte's birthday today, so we're celebrating it in the Pinnacle Grill...and being Gala Night, we'll all be dressed for the occasion!

Still getting used to the time change...

We arrived in Copenhagen on a relatively nice afternoon...nice enough to go to the Round Tower with friends, followed by a very nice dinner with excellent mojitos, and open-face Danish sandwiches. All of us were exhausted by then, so called it a night and were asleep by 9 Denmark time. Arrived at our port and boarded the ship without incident yesterday...damp evening, so not much of a sail away, so after dinner we all called it a night. This morning was cloudy/party sunny, so we took advantage of decent weather to walk to see the Opera House here in Oslo that we had remarked upon on our last trip. Unusual architecture! You can walk on the marble roof! Well, we found that "progress" has happened so the lovely opera house is now surrounded by a "crane jungle" with buildings going up behind it, on the side of it, etc., so the view is not as lovely as before. I did manage to get 9600 steps in though! (All level!) It's raining now as we are getting ready to leave...I think there's more of the same tomorrow in Kristiansand so I doubt we'll do much...we still need some recovery time. Dinner time!

June 24: Kristiansand, Norway.
Cool morning, but mostly sunny. However, there's not much we wanted to see here, so are taking a "down day" and enjoying a quiet day on the ship so my knees will recover from the last few days. The good news is that we received word that our reservations for the 4-day safari and overland trip to Angkor Wat have been approved for next year's World Cruise...we are crazy, I know!


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Almost ready

I've downloaded assorted port information, checked out some excursions in various ports, checked the weather for our first few ports, and have begun laying aside clothes and "stuff" to take (meds, electronics, etc.) Money has been delivered (Kroner, Pounds, Euros), so I think we're just down to actual packing.

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The beginning...

We will board Holland America's Zuiderdam in Copenhagen on June 22 and return to Copenhagen on July 16, 2017.  We've been to a few ports before, but most of them on this cruise are new to us.