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.
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!
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,
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
We were able to get a night canal cruise. It was better than the day time cruise.What a nice end to the day.
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!
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
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!!!
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!!!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Our second day of the SPB tour started at 0930 and today there were no problems with passport control.
Natalia ( the boss of Guide Guru) met us so we could pay her for our tour and she kept apologizing for emails sent yesterday when we were so late getting through immigration. We hadn't seen them so no problem☆
Our first stop was Pushkin. Oh Wow!!! It was more palaces and history with the primary part being the very famous "Amber Room" which seemed to mean more to the other people than me. Sure it was beautiful and magnificent but then again the palace was magnificent in its own right.We were shown photos of the damage done in WW2 and quite frankly the work put into restoration is remarkable. I would have liked to hear how they did all this restoration.
The last part of that area was spent talking about the residence of the last czar and I included a photo in my previous blog post showing about 1/2 of it. The czar and family were sent from this palace to the Ural mountains by the provisional government (which was overthrown by the Bolshevics less than a year later)
We went to a restaurant for a typical Russian meal before carrying on to a couple of photo stops (beautiful churches,statues etc).I caught up on blog posts and emails including the emails sent by Natalia,mentioned above-she was really stressed when she sent them as she thought we had skipped out on her and she was responsible for us in Russia because her company had registered us to be with them as we had a cruise line visa good for two days , not a regular visa.
The last stop of our incredible 2 days here was the Yusupovs' Palace.At first I thought this was "just" another beautiful palace but as we walked through the ornate rooms and started hearing the stories it became clearer and clearer why we were finishing our tour here. By the time we walked down a small twisting staircase into a room in the basement I realized that we were in the actual location where Felix Yusupov and fellow conspirators killed Rasputin.A really interesting story especially when explained by a Russian lady (Ada, our guide).The story came alive as she showed us pictures and paintings of the people involved.What on awesome finish to two great days of touring this incredible city.
An absolutely spectacular day which got going after being in lineups to leave the ship and clearing Russian immigration that took 1.5 hours (not an exaggeration).
Our tour company (Guide Guru) and 4 guests off the Royal Princess had waited for almost 2 hours for us. Thank goodness they waited because today was another unbelievable day that started with a drive around the city then a short 2 hour visit to the Hermitage. This museum is everything and more that people say it is. It is worth a trip back to SPB just to have a couple of days in it.
Our guide is Ada and she is very good. Other people on Trip Advisor have said the same thing. She is full of history and stories and talks about the Soviet system (good and bad). She also knows how to get us past lineups into sites. Super good guide.
After the museum we went to the Church of the Spilled Blood (if anyone is interested ask me the stories about it when we are home) then on to a Russian restaurant for traditional pastry meals.Very tasty.
After a 45 minute drive out of the city we were at Peterhof Park. Here there are wonderful fountains but truthfully I would have skipped that for time in the Hermitage..The trip back to SPB was on a hydrofoil boat which took us across the Baltic back to the city,and then went up the river to near the Hermitage before docking. Now that was neat.
Because we had been so late getting started in the morning Ada took us a site she had wanted to take us to in the morning. We went to the Fortress and inside the church there is the burial of many of the Russian czars including the re internment of the last czar and family all killed in 1918.
We got back to the ship about 1930 hours and have just finished supper in the Versailles restaurant.
This day has so MUCH more to it than I have written. There is so much amazing history here. WOW!!!!!!
Second attempt at this entry. I accidently erased the first one.GRRRRR
We started our day by seeing that our ship was the last arriving of 5 huge cruiseships and of course the only thing to see here is the old walled city (a UNESCO site) so naturally Caro and I joined 10,0000 other people enjoying the beautiful streets and sounds of a beautifully preserved medieval city. It is gorgeous.
After three hours of walking around we headed back to the Star for lunch then headed back out for a three hour bicycle tour. The bike tour initially went to the new parts of town (interesting) but ended up back in the old walled city. We walked around a bit more then went to a150 year old cafe mentioned in Trip Advisor (great pastry!).
It is now after supper and we are sailing to St Petersburg and as we do Caro and I are relaxing on lounge chairs on the promenade deck watching shipping traffic go by.
We will see the 9:30 show tonight then hit the sack for a super exciting couple of days in SPB!
Just finished updating the blog.found a hot spot on a side street.
Still touring Tallinn.. old city with lots of people
One great thing about an inside room is that it is dark and quiet.
Today the cruise director got on the intercom and woke us up at the ungodly hour of 10 AM!!!!
I think it's fair to say our jet lag is gone.
The ship was hopping today with everyone at the pools and as it was beautiful out we watched the world go by as we lounged around. There are lots of ships here in the Baltic and at one point I saw 2 cruise liners going the opposite way of us.
Tonight we ate another awesome meal at the Aqua restaurant and are preparing now to go see the ships dancers and singers do their thing.
Tomorrow we arrive at Tallinn Estonia. I hope I can upload my last few blog entries and catch up on e-mails.
