Another photo

Photo I tried to upload in Mexico

Sunwing delayed-sigh

Well everything looked good as we arrived and checked in at PVR and  watched the arriving Calgary passengers disembark. After too much time waiting for us to board we knew something was wrong and soon came the announcement we were delayed at least one hour. And as it turned out we were late by about 1.5 hours (similiar to when we left Calgary).

Caro and I were separated for the return flight.She got a window seat near the back while I was given an aisle seat nearer the middle. Turns out my seat was one that normally costs more because of the extra leg room. No way I was going to give that seat up! It was awesome.

Some final thoughts. When we first arrived at the Crown Paradise Club we were a little disappointed but as the week progressed we started to really enjoy it.The grounds were always kept clean,the staff were always pleasant and helpful. The food at the buffet was not as international as I would have liked but Caro loved the Mexican food. The international restaurants were all great and we never had a meal we didn't thoroughly enjoy.

The ocean was close as this resort was not a big one and the turtle sightings were amazing.

We found the distance to down town not far on the bus and there were numerous buses for coming and going. Puerto Vallarta has a lot of things to do and many good restaurants. Maybe we will consider staying longer once we retire. Time will tell I guess.

We landed almost 2 hours late and as I write this we have been waiting an hour for our luggage..Sunwing.   SIGH

Saturday evening

Our vacation is almost over. SIGH

We spent most of the day reading under a palapa on the beach.

This evening we watched a wedding take place in a gazebo that juts out over the water. The sunset with gazebo photo below was taken during the ceremony.

Just after the sunset photo was taken we heard that there was going to be a hatchling release from the turtle preservation group so we watched that. Neat to see how the eggs we saw buried last night will be released in about ninety days  (the biologists came to dig up "our" nest sometime in the night).

Friday,what a fantastic day!

Caro mentioned to me that while I was catching my beauty rest this morning she had been on the beach and saw freshly hatched turtles making their way to the ocean after hatching. I wished I could have seen that!

After solving the blog upload issues we sat at the beach then went for another awesome meal at the Italian restaurant. Loved it!

In the evening it was my turn to see an amazing sight. I was by myself  at the beach about 8:30 when I noticed a couple of people looking at something. It was a large turtle moving out of the ocean and going up to lay her eggs. Several of us moved beach chairs until the turtle had found her spot to dig her nest. I quickly ran and got Caro and together with a dozen other people we watched the turtle dig,lay her eggs, then cover up before returning to the ocean..WOW. TOO COOL.

Unfortunately it was too dark to take photos and a flash would have affected the turtle

At Starbucks uploading

Found the reason I couldn't upload was the photos I had included.I deleted where I had to,to get the upload completed.

I will have to upload them when I get home

In the meantime I changed the settings of the camera!

Wednesday

Now today is what a vacation paradise is supposed to be like!

Sunny and more sunny!

We caught the local bus into the city center and we walked around for a couple of hours. We have made tentative plans for tomorrow which required a visit to a bank for more funds. Our first stop was a Scotia bank but its instructions in the ABM were not easy to follow so we carried on without a withdrawal.

We decided to catch the bus back to the resort which was a neat experience. The bus was at least 20 years past its best before date. No shocks or suspension of any kind judging by the tank like ride.The passenger  seats had been repaired numerous times and one had rebar welded to give it support. I swear my plant was quieter than being inside that bus. All was well as we arrived back near our resort in one piece (if not partially deaf)!

We were able to get money from a Banamex machine in the Walmart (and of course we bought more Oaxaca cheese!).

After an afternoon of beach reading and swimming we caught a taxi and went to a nearby small town that had a restaurant with pozole (for Caro of course). The restaurant was busy and the area was sketchy so we had the taxi driver take us to downtown P.V. where we found a great restaurant overlooking the Malacon. We had a great supper and walked  the Malacon again before we caught the bus back.

A wonderful day (and we also got our massages).

Thursday night on the beach

Well our 1600 hour boat ride back came on us suddenly;in fact so suddenly the boat had to wait while we squared up on the bill.

The ride back was phenomenal as we went into numerous bays letting locals off and picking up others. There are some beautiful places built in the numerous bays here. An amazing 45 minute ride back!

Tonight we ate in the French restaurant. Caro enjoyed it more than the  Italian but I still lean towards the Italian. Regardless,it was another awesome meal.

Tonight we are again sitting under a palapa,in the dark, listening to the waves in front of us and the sounds of the hotel behind us.

I've said it before but I need to say it again. Another awesome day.

Thursday,on the beach in Yelapa

As I write this Caro are I are in a small bay about 30 minutes boat ride from P.V. Around us are other tourists who have also taken boats to get here as apparently there are no roads leading to this place.

The beach is beautiful and has restaurants seemingly connected to the boats that bring us over. The 1000 hour scheduled boat from the water taxi dock in P.V. came to "our" restaurant  but the 1100 hour boat came in down the beach.

We climbed through the small town streets to the waterful. It was beautiful and worth the walk.

In the photos below one is of the main beach. We crossed over the river in order to walk to the falls. Our beach location is one of the blue Corona umbrellas in the middle of the photo.

Caro is swimming in the ocean while I read emails etc..I was able to upload 2 earlier blogposts but not yesterdays and I imagine not this one.I dont know why that is..I managed to have a email exchange with Vanessa so we know all is well and also that it is very cold. Which of course makes it better for us here!

Tuesday night

Tonight we ate at the Japanese restaurant and it was awesome! 

The rain stopped just before sunset and the forecast promises sunshine tomorrrow! YES!!!

Another night in the dark , under a palapa discussing future plans. Sure is easier to do when on a holiday than when at home!

Finally got a connection

Due to the continual downpour we decided to go to a nearby shopping center and in a VIPS restaurant we connected. We enjoyed some hot drinks and caught up on emails etc. No news from home so all must be good!

One of my blogposts did not want to upload and it is stuck in some kind of computer gridlock so I can't see it or retrieve it.

I have included the photos of that blogpost in this one which shows our beach looking in both directions.

We were hoping to get a beach massage today but the weather is too lousy for beach vendors to be working.

Tuesday morning

I woke up to another rainy day. Caro had gotten up before me and I knew she would go for a run however I didn't expect her to complete a street run to the city center and back  (probably 12 km total). Not only did she do that she felt compelled to do a short swim in the ocean when she got back because she thought it would be fun. Yah,well OK...I guess. ♡

Last night we ate at the Italian restaurant in the resort. It was fantastic with great food and wonderful service.  Later on we went to the "adult only" pool, watched the Star Princess leave port (wow) then finished by laying under a palapa on the beach listening to the waves wash up on shore while a soft rain pitter pattered onto the palapa; a beautiful evening.

Today it is pouring and all we have planned is beach massages in the early afternoon. Also because the wifi prices here are outrageous we need to find a hot spot elsewhere.

I am including a beach photo taken this morning. There appears to be room for the masseuse to place her umbrella when the time comes!!

On our way

We were at the airport 3 hours early as requested by Sunwing and even though the plane was already at the boarding gate, everyone from Sunwing seemed to be in vacation mode. We sat on the plane for over an hour before finally taking off 1 hour 20 minutes late. I used that time to catch up on sleep.

Sunwing has just finished serving their usual good food and beverages and as we pass over the U.S. it is time to start thinking vacation (which hasn't really been on our minds too much due to M+M's wedding).

Monday afternoon...
Everything went well with our check in and soon we were offered our first drink. Mmmm  Mexican rum with Mexican Coca Cola. Muy bueno! And in a neat coincidence the first people we talk to are from Beaumont and the husband grew up in Fort Sask..

After having a couple of meals we find the food plain, but the workers here are wonderful and all seem ready to make our vacation go smoothly so all is good.

We went shopping this morning for all the groceries Caro needs to bring home. Mission accomplished, so it is now hot tub time (we are not too hungry for lunch  because we polished off a tray of Oaxaca cheese we purchased at the store).

Puerto Vallarta

We've started our newest travels.

Presently at YYC waiting for our flight to P.V.

We came to Calgary yesterday and stayed with Charlie and Pat. We went to Yuk Yuks comedy last night (our first time ever to visit a comedy club) and we had a blast. I recognized the headliner from listening to The Debators on CBC radio. A great evening  Thanks to the both of you

It certainly is nice to be getting away just as the weather turns really wintery. It  was slow going on the Deerfoot at 0530.

Kids , the blog entrys might be spotty as I don't know if the resort has wi fi at a reasonable cost.

At Heathrow

Everything is going smothly so far on our way home,Copenhagen airport was easy and even Heathrow has been smooth so far.

It looks like our flight home is full and we are not sitting together but are one in front of the other and it looks like windows for both of us.

Friday afternoon at Amsterdam Airport

After a good sleep we were up relatively early and went to Mikes Bicycle tours where we rented 2 bikes. We knew the location of a windmill on the Amstel river so we cycled out of the city and within about 15 minutes were cycling along the river looking at picturesque farming scenes on one side and scullers and motorboats on the other.

We cycled to the windmill and after the obligatory photos we carried on,eventually coming to a very pretty town located maybe 15 km south of  the city. After a few minutes there we decided to return to the city but when we turned around  we quickly realized we had used up all our good luck regarding rain.

After biking hard to get back before things turned bad we finally got caught in a downpour. Fortunately we had brought our umbrellas and after 20 minutes everything cleared up.

After returning our bikes we walked the streets for another 90 minutes then headed back to the B+B where we picked up our luggage. After a tram and train ride we made in to our boarding area here in Schiphol airport in less than 2 hours. Wow, efficiency is everywhere here!

Ummm-everything is effecient here except being able to upload blogposts.Will try in Copenhagen I guess!

A Long yet Short Day

Today was our bus trip day, hence the title because we spent many hours on  the bus and only 4 hours walking around Brugges Belgium.

We walked down to Centraal (25 minutes) and just made it on time for our bus because I didn't realize my watch was 10 minutes behind. Oops!

We had a pleasant 3 hour drive through the countryside with Caro getting her fix of seeing Wind Mills.

Somewhere along the way it started raining and Caro and I frowned at each other upon the realization that we had forgotten our umbrellas. DAMN!

The rain gods were on our side, as just as we got there the sun came out. YES!

The old city is truly a marvel, and not only do we know that fact, but so do the other 20,000 people there today ( a guess on my part but it won't far from the reality).

We took a highly recommended canal cruise then headed over to climb the  Belfry Tower ( again highly recommended) but after being in line for over 30 minutes and still not at the ticket wicket we had to cut our losses-in this case "time" and headed to the shops to purchase some souvenirs and eat traditional Belgium fast food. Mmmmmm!

Just as we were leaving the city it started pouring and we drove back in the rain. Approaching Amsterdam the rain gods heard our pleas and the rain stopped again.We walked back from Centraal to our place and just as we got here a heavy rain shower hit. YES!,another lucky break!

Brugges was awesome ( I should count the number of times I have used that word or similiar during this trip) but there were too many jostling tourists.There were also numerous horse drawn carriages and my allergy to horses started affecting me so we popped in to a pharmacy for medicine which seemed to do the trick.

One thing I haven't mentioned before about Amsterdam is the ever present smell of "medicinal" smoke and a preponderance of young males that seem to "need" this medicine!

Tonight we are enjoying a late night bottle of wine courtesy of our wonderful hosts ( a retired high school principal and retired teacher wife; they are looking after this place for a few weeks while the owners are on vacation)

The photos below are of Brugges,

Biking with "Mike" and a visit with Vincent

Another busy day with many miles under our belts. We started out in the morning by walking to Centraal to get tickets for tomorrow's bus trip and since we had a couple of hours to kill we walked and walked seeing some very different areas of this city.

After a quick trip back to our place to wash some clothes we headed over to Mike's Bicycle shop for our 3 hour bike ride. Now our tour guide swears her name is Mike and I guess I'll believe her. See the photos below of our great ride. Early on in our adventure half of us got totally separated and I was able to find the guide again. She put on a big show that in 12 years no lost people had ever found their way back to the group and I was the first one ever, Don't know if she was pulling my leg but I got a nice round of applause and a bicycle bell was my eventual reward (nice!). "Mike" was an awesome guide and a great character.

The bike tour ended at about 3:30 and by 4:30 we were inside the Van Gogh museum. I'll be honest. I was looking forward to the museum as Van Gogh has made a tremendous impact in the art world but as we looked at a huge body of his work I realized that while I like some of his paintings (alot!)the vast majority of them leave me cold. There are a few that are amazing like The Harvest and his self portraits but it is also true he did crappy  work as well. Still I am glad we went.

We spent another hour walking around before eating some typical Netherland fries and then getting back to our place to enjoy more wine,cheese and bread. I imagine tonight will  be an early one as we are up at 0730 for breakfast,then onto a bus

Tuesday Night after a Cruise

We were able to get a night canal cruise. It was better than the day time cruise.What a nice end to the day.

Tuesday night at Amsterdam

I read my previous blog to Caro and she commented " today is why we work all year" and I couldn't agree more. It is hard to top the sights that we are seeing.

Van Gogh, and Rembrandt, and treasures, Oh My!

Van Gogh and Rembrandt and treasures,OH MY!

Fans of the late John Pinette  may recognize the  rythmic connection to my title.

After a wonderful breakfast we walked 10 minutes to the Rijks Museum and got there before the huge crowds.

We had originally booked a bike trip today but it thundered and rained all night and was crappy this morning so we used our hosts phone and post poned our tour until tomorrow.

This museum is huge and has "only" 8000 articles on display of the 1.2 million they have, BUT when the 8000 they display include The Night Watch by Rembrandt AND one of his  self portraits, AND Van Gogh including his famous self portrait , AND Johannes Vermeer; WOW.

After 3 hours of paintings, sculptures,objects d'art,and Delft pottery our eyes were "glazed" over and we were at the point where beautiful amazing pieces of art were not being given the attention they should have been so it was time to leave .

We walked the streets of the central city for many hours before picking some local cheese,bread and wine and coming back to our B+B. 

We may go out tonight to walk the streets if we get around to it

Amsterdam!

We had a nice flight on a Dash 8 from Southampton to Amsterdam with a small airline called Flybe.

The Amsterdam airport was very effecient and we were on our way out the door  within the hour. We took a train to Amsterdam Centraal Station  then caught the tram to our B+B. Extremely easy to get to.

We are located in the old part of town so all the great sites are within 30  minutes walking distance. We were outside Anne Franks house but decided to forgo the long lineups as we saw the place in 1980 and we saw more of the house than people are allowed to see now.

After a couple of hours walking along the canals we took a canal cruise.

Tonight we picked up some wine and cheese and are enjoying it  in our room.At the present time we are the only ones here. Our normal  hosts are on holidays so they have friends of theirs looking after the place. They are wonderful to talk to.

Another awesome day!!!

Monday morning at Southampton Airport

We had a great day yesterday as Phillip and Lorraine took us to Christchurch where Dad grew up. We toured around there for a bit then headed over to where Phillip grew up; the extremely beautiful typical style old town of Bieulieu (can't remember the exact spelling).Anyway it was wonderful and I am attaching photos of this village.

At night we went to eat at a Chinese restaurant which was extremely tasty and quite different than our Chinese restaurants.

Restaurant prices here seem to be just as insane as the continent. I can't imagine eating out often at these prices.

We are presently at the gate waiting for our flight to Amsterdam. We had a wonderul time here and Lorraine and Phillip were great hosts. Thanks to the both of you!!!

Saturday in Southampton

Lorraine and  Phillip picked us up at Gatwick airport and proceeded to drive us through wonderful countryside to their home in Southampton. We spent the today  talking and enjoying a bottle of bubbly.

Last night Lorraine's  mom Prim came over with Ray and we caught up on  all the family news . I forgot to get a photo of her , Dad so I will try tomorrow.

In the meantime here are a picture of Lorraine,Phillip and Harley as well as a photo of their back yard.

Last night at Sea

Well as with every cruise the final , sad night has arrived.

We were sailing all day so we lounged around on deck 12 reading.

As with most nights we ate in the Versailles restaurant and ascalways had a good meal.

The stage show was truly spectacular  and at the end the dancers and singers got a  standing ovation, and well deserved it was.

We walked around the ship a few times on decks 7 and 12 and watched the world go by.

This was a super cruise and we enjoyed the Star better than the first time we sailed on it 5 years ago. It seemed a happier ship with better service and engaged staff.

Tomorrow we fly into London Gatwick for a weekend with Lorraine and Philip.Looking forward to it.

Wednesday night after Stockholm

What a great city!

After the Vasa museum (which is one of the major reasons I wanted to take this trip) we headed back on the Hop on Hop off bus to the new part of downtown. We went to the hall where the Nobel prizes are awarded before walking to the city center. After walking around a bit in the city hall where the Nobel banquet is held we headed across the bridge into the historic center (Gamla Stan).

We watched a  bit of the changing of the guard (they have a military band on horses) we purchased tickets to the Royal Palace and proceeded to do a fly by through all the rooms .  The Swedish royal family were paupers compared to the Russians.,

Another hour of walking the old town and then we were back on board for a 4 PM sail.

This morning we had been up at 0600 to watch us go through the archipelago and it was so awesome we sat on the Promenade deck and watched for 3 hours as we sailed away. OMG it was spectacular. We didn't actually get into the Baltic until after 4 hours of island after island. I can see why Sweden was a huge military power at one time. Stockholm would have been nearly impossible to get at.

Just finished the Vasa Museum

Wow.Awesome

At the Vasa!!

Got here at 0905  Super exciting!!

On route to Stockholm

We finished the hop on hop off bus circuit with 45 minutes left of our shore time.

After eating supper in the Versailles restaurant again we decided to go in the hot tub (which was the first time for me in the water).

We were in the hot tub with a Mexican couple who live in Michigan and were later joined by a young UK couple who have just quit their jobs and are starting to travel. We had great conversations and finally dragged ourselves out of the tub when our hands were totally wrinkly. A good time with fascinating people.

The plan is to get up at 0530 as we enter the Stockholm archipelago. The ship staff is opening the front part of the ship so us keeners can enjoy the view as we arrive. We will dock at 0800 and we will be off to the Vasa museum ASAP!

Helsinki

We decided at the last minute to use the Hop on Hop off bus for a city tour and because the buses have wi-fi I was able to upload the second day of SPB.

Right now we are sitting on a boat  waiting for a 90 minute harbour cruise to begin around Helsinki harbour. Looking forward to seeing the fortress.

Our impressions so far of the city is   UMMM underwhelming. It is pretty and pleasant and the harbour area is beautiful but it is a tough act to follow after SPB.

We have another beautiful sunny day and I think the harbour cruise will be great.

We are 3 hours into a 7 hour day and so far the people are very nice and accomodating (this part of the city is a tourist mecca as to expected)

Later: finished the harbour cruise and it was very enjoyable

The streets are alive now and it is very nice. We have walked 20 minutes to the Rock Church and as I write this  we are listening to piano music.  Pretty here.

We plan on catching the Hop on Hop on Hop off bus and finish the tour back to the ship.