Vacation in Europe Part I
May 23, 2009, Saturday, America
Finally the day has arrived for our big trip. It is always a slightly nervous day, filled with hopes and dreams for the near future. I know I'm forgetting something. I always forget something. Not usually anything major, something like a hairbrush or a swimsuit or something (of course not those as I've given them as examples).
We flew from Seattle to Chicago with the intent to connect to Dublin. However at O'Hare they asked for volunteers to be bumped as they were overbooked. They needed three volunteers. They only had one flight from Chicago to Dublin a day so whoever volunteered would be on the next day's flight 24 hours later.
No one volunteered.
They threw in an offer for a $500 voucher for future travel on their airline (American), a hotel for the night, and meal vouchers.
Sean brought up that it might be worth it. I probably wouldn't have thought of it, so intent upon getting going, but once he brought it up, it made perfect sense. A short discussion and we decided that we could lose a day from our vacation in exchange for $1,000 of flights. So we volunteered.
But they still needed a third.
They upped it to a $700 voucher. Finally they got another volunteer. We asked if we would get the $700 as well and they agreed.
Of course that puts our plans in something of a tough spot. We figure what we'll do is skip Lille, France, where we had planned to spend a day. There are many things to see there in the fourth largest city in France, but none of them had quite the high appeal of things we wanted to see in other places.
It was around 7 pm and we decided that with our families being only about four hours away by car, perhaps they would like to come see us. I was somewhat doubtful given the last minute nature, but Sean called first and Joyce and Andy immediately said they would come as soon as they finished dinner. So I called my parents as well. They hesitated (Mom had apparently just started painting a room and they had planned on taking their grandkids to Fruitport's Old Fashion Days the next day and would have to skip that) but then decided they would come as well – though leaving early in the morning rather than coming and needing a hotel for the night (and allowing Mom to finish painting the room).
So Sean and I went to the hotel. We had to pay for internet, but we could spare the $13 at that points. So Sean downloaded a couple of geocaches so we could light up Illinois on the map of states that we have gotten geocaches within.
May 24, 2009, Sunday, America
Joyce and Andy arrived late at night and got a room at the same hotel. I was already asleep (I hadn't slept much the night before in hopes that I could therefore sleep on the plane) but Sean visited with them for a while.
Cal and Mary arrived around 7:30 am – and with a surprise. They brought my sister Michelle along with them unannounced.
So the seven of us spent the day together until about 3:30 pm. Mostly we talked about upcoming vacations for all of us and visited the Shedd Aquarium. The Shedd had just reopened after renovations so we got commemorative pins (for sort of free, if you don't count the $19 parking and the $25 admission fee). They also had some street artists; a drummer, a juggler, and a lady on stilts to promote the re-opening. The Shedd is really no better than Seattle's aquarium, but Michelle wanted to see that, so that was good. I suppose any break from dealing with four kids is good...
We grabbed a geocache before leaving the area, so now we have Illinois, as do our parents, both of whom are also members of geocaching, although not nearly as ambitious as we are.
So, all in all, for missing one day in Europe we got:
$700 each in American Airlines travel vouchers (must be spent within one year)
A day with our parents and my sister
$40 of meal vouchers ($20 for dinner, $10 for breakfast, $10 for lunch)
A hotel for the night
An Illinois geocache.
Not bad! Remind me to schedule things with an extra day so I can get bounced again for that sort of deal!
Michelle needed to go home to be with the kids, so my family left a bit early.
This gave Andy time to show us around his city, as he had lived in Chicago for several years. They took us to Millenium Park to see the relatively new concert area. There was a group playing xylophones and people spread out on the grass, giving the place a nice atmosphere. Then to the two... fountain towers with an ankle deep puddle-pond between them in which many children were playing. The towers doubled as projections screens, first showing a rather Pacific Northwest forest scene and then faces which made random expressions and finally spit water. But the most interesting part was what looked like a giant, reflective, stainless steel coffee bean from the outside. The inside, however, had a curved hollow upward where one would see multiple reflections. It was rather interesting and Sean and I agreed that it is one of the few pieces of modern art that we truly liked and was worth its expense.
Saying our last goodbyes, we returned to the airport. The flight was late taking off, but who cares? It is predicted to make up the time in flight.
We sat just behind first class. Remind us not to do that again. Although it looks like more leg room it is actually less because you can't put your feet beneath the seat in front of you. Deceptive. Much like exit row seats with don't fold back properly... Nope. Normal coach seats for us from now on.
Of course now that we have travel vouchers I can't help but consider what our next vacation might be. I'm thinking one of four possibilities:
Australia. This is, of course, the place that I have always wanted to visit most, but because it is expensive has never been our destination. This might bring it into a more reasonable price range...
Antarctica. As Australia is the place I have always wanted to visit, so Antarctica is the place Sean has always wanted to visit. We would need to buy some really warm clothing, but I guess I don't have a huge problem with the idea, just uneasy with it. I don't really like the cold...
Israel/Egypt/Jordan. Sean and I did a lot of work on this as a possibility for traveling with Sean's family, but it fell through and looks, at this point, as if it will not be rekindled. Therefore although I had not wanted to go this year as things looked like they might return to the possibility of a family trip, at this point I see no reason to wait on such an unlikelihood. I am of the opinion that every Christian should go to the Holy Land if they can afford it – not as a requirement, but just because it helps put things so much into perspective. I've been to Israel and Egypt, but Sean has not and would really like to go...
Europe by Rail. Do an open jaw flight from east to west (or vice versa) and go where we want when we want with a Eurorail pass. Live out of a carry-on. Just travel and see what we want to see when we want to see it with more flexibility.
But I really should not be thinking of this yet... But long flights tend to give time for the mind to wander, especially in the direction of such a windfall...
May 25, Monday, Ireland
Not an auspicious start to the day. We got in around 8:30 am but Sean couldn't sleep at all on the plane and I could sleep only in fitful bits.
We rented a car, ready to hit the ground running. It is a stick shift as those are half the price of an automatic in Ireland. That means that Sean, and only Sean, can drive on this island. Which means I have to navigate. This is a reversal of our normal roles.
Sean was rusty with the stick shift and we stalled out several times throughout the day. Nonetheless, we did okay and he quickly picked up the practice of driving on the left.
First we went to downtown Dublin (following a man who offered to lead us when we were trying to get directions at a gas station). Partly to look around the downtown and see things, but specifically to visit St. mican's church. We would have liked to have visited a few museums as well, but European museums are closed on Mondays. Oh well.
Anyway, we got to St. Mican's. The church was not overly impressive as far as European churches go. Nice wood, the typical eagle lectern, a little stand for giving sermons, one nice stained glass window (the rest were simple rainbow colors). But it did have two things of particular interest.
It held the battered remains of the organ that it is believed that Handel composed Messiah upon.
And it has interesting crypts. Due to a variety of natural phenomena, in particular limestone that soaks away moisture, a slow seepage of methane gas, and the cool atmosphere, people buried here tend to be preserved as natural mummies. Originally used for clergy in the 1000s when the church was first built, it soon began to become the last resting place for the rich as well. We could see four bodies that had been removed from their coffins for display, an elderly nun, a second woman (most likely also a nun), a man with one hand cut off, and the star of the tombs, the Crusader from probably the 1400s. At 6'6” he was too tall to fit into a coffin and so his shins were cut and feet put in with him on top of the rest. There is a tradition that touching his hand will bring good luck – indeed the parchment skin was worn to polished bone on one hand. When the guide let us most of the people on the tour, including Sean and myself, so touched his hand. Ever touch the skin of a man from the 1400s before? Not I... There is this flooding sense of history and yet humanity... A very strange sensation... And I believe this is one of only a very few places that any normal person can yet do such a thing... The crypt also contained the graves of people convicted of treason (Dang, I should remember their names, but I don't. Someone familiar with Irish history would...) and nobles. There are other family tombs as well but we weren't allowed to view them as they are technically “active”. That is the family bought the room so it is theirs and has never said that they will stop using it, even though only one has been used in the past several decades, as they could decide to bury someone else there with the next death...
Okay, so I have to admit, I seem to have a bit of a fascination with the macabre...
Then we went to Maynooth to the Fitzgerald traditional castle. Or rather ruin as that's what happens when you piss of the English. Anyone, there was a fence around it which prevented us from getting too close, but Sean was excited that it still had a family crest visible.
A nice teenager suggested that we actually check out the college while we were there seeing us snapping photos and declaring the college was much better and still standing. So we went as it was all of five minutes out of our way by foot. It had a beautiful cathedral, Gothic with impressive stained glass and gold and silver trimmings. The floors were rich parquet mosaics. Gorgeous! Definitely worth the small detour.
We, of course, grabbed a geocache there as well – we plan on getting one for every country that we visit.
We then drove to Bru'na Boinne. On the way Sean needed a nap, so we stopped. He took a nap while I grabbed a corned beef sandwich (saving a bite for him, of course). Very good. Not at all salty, which surprised me, as the American version is always very salty.
So we got to Bru'na Boinne and asked if we should tour Newgrange or Knowth. The lady said both. So although we were hesitant to pend that much, we dished out the extra money.
And I am glad that we did! Knowth and Newgrange are both passage burial mounds, two of the three largest, at least in Ireland. Knowth lines up with the equinoxes and Newgrange lines up with the winter solstice. But both were in ruins when discovered. Although certain things were known, others were not, and so Ireland allowed both to be “rebuilt”, each according to a different school of thought. This made them extremely different.
Knowth was left much as it was except that the large stones that surrounded the mound were protected by a cap of concrete. These stones were carved and made a great display with their various patterns, especially horsehows, spirals, concentric circles, and squiggles. Two areas, in front of the entrances, had scattered across the ground white quartz stones and very round cannonball like river stones in two sort of pools.
Newgrange, however, was reconstructed believing those puddles of stones had actually once been set up around the entrances, a sort of shell over large areas of the mound, and so it stands beautiful and shining white despite the drizzle.
We tried to get to Northern Ireland, but were just too tired. We stopped at a bed & breakfast for the night (and paid too much, 70 Euros) but were more interested in a place to sleep then struggling to find another place.
We can't be more than a couple of miles from the border...
May 26, Tuesday, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland
We woke early and had breakfast. It wasn't really a real bed & breakfast, at least to our thoughts. The hostess (Trudie) asked when we wanted to eat the night before and so had breakfast ready for us instead of us all joining around the table at a set time. I suppose that's good in that we could get going when we wanted, but also a bit hollow for a bed and breakfast as we didn't get to talk to anybody or mine them for ideas and information.
It was a traditional English breakfast: ham cut so that it still has some bacon, sausage, a fried egg (sunny-side up), toast, a slice of tomato, and tea.
We then walked across the street and looked at the stately cathedral. However it was not open and so we continued on.
Ireland is beautiful. But there are bits of hedges around the roads making it difficult to see far. Still, that breaks the wind, which is nice. Very few trees, however. Almost everything is being farmed on small steads – nothing wild. And there are lots of round-abouts. And names of roads change randomly back and forth and don't bother mentioning the direction but only the next city – so you better know where you are going and every town along the route!
I had expected a crossing station into Northern Ireland. All there was, however, was a sign saying that speed limits were now in miles. Not even a “Welcome to the United Kingdom” or anything!
We made it to Giant's Causeway without a hitch or a wrong turn, even though it wasn't advertised more than about 10 miles away.
Giant's Causeway was great! Grand and magnificent. However, one should walk down and then take the bus up – not vice versa. I was unhappy with the price of the bus (1 pound each way) until I realized that the parking fee (6 pounds) didn't actually go to the park at all! It goes to the county.
The ranger said that 90% of the columns from the old volcano that had formed this landmark were hexagons, 2% octagon, and most of the rest four or five sided. He pointed to the general area where the most famous of the octagons lay, but we couldn't find it though we searched for a while. But it was on and off drizzling, so I suppose our search wasn't too deeply involved. We hiked and explored a bit before returning.
We made our way to Belfast then, stopping for lunch in a little town. Sean had braised sausages while I had steak and guiness stew. After all, we wanted to try traditional.
From there to the ferry. Everything here is expensive – more so than I had expected. Six pounds each for a simple lunch, 15 pounds for a quick 10 minute taxi from the rental car drop off to the ferry!
They had a cool soda vending machine with a little “pickup” lift that moves to the bottle to carry it to the exit thereby avoiding shaking the contents.
The ship was actually not the simple ferry that I was expecting, but instead rather nice (which is good as it was also expensive). We tried to figure out what se should do for the remaining days and drew up a rough plan.
Out the window shone a double rainbow in the drizzle.
However when we got to Scotland the Hertz desk was closed. It was about 7 pm but we had not fugred there would be a problem as that wasn't so late. Well, this one closed at 5 pm and they had not told us. A nice local man said he knew where the lady lived and would knock at her front door to let her know we were waiting after Hertz told us it was too bad and we'd have to wait until morning. We waited about an hour chatting with an Australian couple, but finally gave up. Suitcases being towed along through the drizzle, we went looking for a cheap place to stay. Well, cheap is relative, I suppose. We found a place for 50 pounds (cash only) and so had a room for ourselves at the Thistle Inn & B&B, right above the bar. It's actually a nice room, but with shared bath facilities. It was really a family bedroom with three beds and a relatively nice view of the streets. But mostly it was in walking distance and wasn't 100+ pounds as the first two places we had tried had been...
So apparently we have until 9 am tomorrow before Hertz will open.
I had changed US$250 into pounds and am already down to about US$40 because of no one being able to accept credit card. Don't get me wrong, I knew not everywhere would accept credit card, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. Some of it was due to broken credit card machines, or at least so we were told, but others just didn't have it. And the UK seems more expensive than other places I have been in Europe....
May 27, Wednesday, Scotland, England
I woke at about 5:30 although the alarm was scheduled for 6. This far north the sky was already bright and woke me from my slumbers. I lay and thought and tried to sleep again for about 20 minutes before deciding to wake Sean.
I checked e-mail while Sean showered, as my workplace requested that I check in every Wednesday in case any emergencies had come up.
Then we went out to walk around town, spending a good hour exploring Stranraer by foot in the light rain that cast a further dreary shadow upon Scotland. It has the feeling of an old town, somewhat run down, that has recently had real numbers of people begin to come through, probably due to the Stena ferry that we took across. B&Bs and little hotels as well as restaurants have caught up, but the only interesting things to see are a quaint rather run-down village-town, some old but not all that impressive churches, and a tiny museum that is only open four hours (from 10 to noon and 2 to 4) a day, five days a week. St. John's Castle there also usually holds another small museum as well as being open to the public, but it was closed and scaffolded for renovations and therefore unaccessible.
My impression of Scotland has not improved...
We were back to our B&B around 7:30. Our breakfast, though, wouldn't be until 8 and we couldn't pick up the car until 9.
Breakfast was much the same as yesterday with two link sausages, two slices of ham-bacon, a normal patty sausage, a dark patty sausage which was actually black pudding (although a better name for it would be blood sausage), a sunnyside up egg, and a slice of potato bread/pita. This one differed in that it had baked beans instead of a slice of tomato.
We then drove through Scotland, taking the Queen's route through the forest (and perhaps into the Highlands, although I am not sure if they technically start this far south in Scotland, it had that rugged feel to it. It was a longer route than the main highway, but we wanted to see something worthwhile in Scotland. There were lots of ancient houses that looked weathered by time itself, scattered sheep and cattle grazing in rugged grasslands, forests – real forests after the plains and fields of Ireland. The road was narrow and curvy. We saw a deer, another dead badger on the side of the road, and a ring-necked pheasant as wildlife.
Sean was quiet and obviously very unhappy, mopey, about the entire situation changed his mind from the gloominess of the last evening and decided that we should see what we could with the light instead of rushing to the biggest sights – so we would go to Hadrian's Wall after all. I was glad as this had been one of the few things he had really wanted to see but we had discussed giving up because of the whole Hertz foible.
So we said goodbye to the hills, forests, and plains of Scotland and entered England proper on our way to Hadrian's Wall, the farthest north that the Romans conquered.
We came to the Roman Fort Excavation site of Vindolanda first and walked around. Work was still going on and in one corner they had a reconstruction of a small section of the early wooden fort and wall and the later stone construction. It also had a reconstructed house, shop, and small temple. We also went to the museum there about the site. Apparently Vindolanda had yielded the most written scraps of any Roman site in the world. It also had what it billed as the only original Roman mile stone marker still in its original position within the British Isles.
Next we drove along scary roads (one lane with passing nooks to the sides in certain locations - its like they want to get people killed for coming out of the way!) and came to a parking lot where we got out to actually see Hadrian's Wall. It wasn't impressive – between sinking into the soft soil (the reconstructed one had a note how it had sunk about one meter in the past 20 years, far faster than anticipated) and being cannibalized for sheep fences, it was only about shoulder height and not that wide, although one could walk upon it. There was a walk beside it that could take you for several miles at least, but we opted out of this. So yes, Hadrian's Wall today... serves as a sheep pen. And the place they direct visitors to go to get a good look at it you actually enter the sheep pen (thanks to England's land access laws) to reach it. But dang it, its a sheep wall with history!
Then we went to the Roman Military Museum nearby. That was interesting, giving details on the lives of Roman soldiers in such a world frontier of their time.
Then we began the drive south through England. Put about 400 miles on the car today – not bad considering the time we spent doing things and the rather awful, twisty, narrow roads that we were driving. Lanes are more narrow and many of the turns blind and the roads liked at random places with walls or other things that would completely destroy a car if you so much as jerked the steering wheel a bit sneezing... Not what I would call a good road, but that they apparently decide is major enough to be a highway.
We had lunch at a little restaurant on the side of the road. We decided to try a bit more traditional food, so I had a ploughman's lunch, basically a bunch of cold finger foods, and Sean had steak pie.
We got down to Iron Bridge Gorge. The museums, of course, were closed by the time that we got there, but this is the home to the first bridge made entirely of iron in the world, conceived in 1775 and finished in 1779. It still stands and is open to foot traffic. There are also ruins of lime furnaces that we visited outside the museum area. It was rather interesting to visit what could well be considered the birthplace of the industrial revolution, especially as it does not seem so grand a place today. But then it is hard to remain in the forefront of technology...
So then we continued along the scary roads to Hereford. We got a hotel for the night (2nd night in a row now that we have a room above a tavern/pub) and went out to get some traditional fish and chips. It was already after 11 pm so there wasn't much selection open. We went to a little take-away shop. The fish was huge! We could easily have split one between the two of us, but not knowing this we each ordered our own. So now we have lunch for tomorrow! We sat down on the nearest steps we could find, the opening to a graveyard behind a cathedral. We even got a show with dinner – drunks were beginning to be let out of the bars and a group of them seemed to be wandering up and down the road singing one after the other “Que Cera, Cera. Whatever will be will be...” and a song that apparently goes “Na na na na na na na, fucking useless...” It was a strange medley of songs, to say the least. Probably not as bad in England where I believe that “fucking” and “bloody” have reversed significances as to their strength as cussing as in America.
Apparently there is a “Hay Festival” nearby and rooms were difficult to get and again more expensive than we had expected (70 pounds for the night – my tour book had led me to believe I would be able to get by on about 50 pounds a night...)
May 28, Thursday, England, Wales
The older tour book that we had with us (having loaned the newer, better one to Frank and Jenn as it was their first time out of America) said that Hereford Cathedral opened at 8:30. While the cathedral does, the special displays that we were really here to see do not open until 10, which had not been mentioned. This, of course, was not a good start to the day. We seem to be fighting business hours in an awful way this trip...
Sean wanted to move, but I wanted to stay. We walked around the grounds and inside the church. We watched as some masons worked on chipping out designs from sandstone for areas that were in need of repair, all the work being done by hand. It is a beautiful cathedral in the fancy, decorative Gothic sort of way. The inside was interesting, with stained glass windows in beautiful colors and shades showing various scenes from the Bible, the crypts both sunk into the floor and raised including one to a local St. Thomas which was believed to be associated with many miraculous occurrences in the area. Finally we were able to go see the special exhibits for which we had come; one of the best preserved medieval Mapi Mundis in the world, that is a map that is sort of a guide for pilgrims with the center being Jerusalem and the importance of places indicated by their size, and the second being the largest chained library in Europe, probably in the world. Both were interesting, but to think that the precursor of the modern library was chained in churches was something I have always found rather fascinating and so had wanted to see this. To think that these books were hundreds of years old and had remained like this... Of course, we weren't allowed to touch, but we also weren't allowed even photos...
Then we drove down to Cardiff and toured the castle there. It was impressive as well as highly ornate. We took the “premium” tour which allowed us access to several rooms that those with a general ticket would not see as well as an actual guide. There was a men's smoking room with artwork to represent time, a women's room with a rather strange Arabic inspiration in design and carved parrots looking down (mostly new world parrots, one might note) and cabinets into which perfumes would be put to be opened and to lend ambiance to the room when in use. There was a big medieval style banqueting hall, a smaller family dining room (where the table had a hole in the middle where a mature grape vine would be put to look as if it had grown there and to provide fresh grapes), a tower garden area, and a noble's bedroom. Most had Biblical themes, although the dining hall had historic English scenes instead. My favorite room, however, was the children's nursery with dozens of famous and not so famous story characters painted across the walls.
After Cardiff we had a choice. We had originally wanted to visit both Cheddar (yup, the namesake of the cheese) and Bath. We decided Bath instead.
We had leftover fish and chips for lunch – and still didn't finish them! The rest, however, we threw out.
Now the streets in Britain generally suck, at least to an American, but here they were far worse than even that low standard. Narrower, twistier, poorly laid out, poorly signed, and very crowded...
Finally we found street parking and rushed to the old Roman Baths themselves – getting there 5 minutes before they stopped letting people in for the day (one hour before they kick people inside out). We toured the old Roman Baths. Sean really enjoyed it. I guess I've seen enough Roman ruins that I didn't think it was that spectacular. It is interesting that this is the only natural hot springs in all of Britain, however. Even if it was taken over early by a sort of commercialization and heralded as a way to cure what ails one.
After that on to Avebury and the standing stones. These are not as famous as Stonehedge, but some of them are as large and they are more spread out. Better, however, is that you can go right up to the stones and touch them (they are, of course, once again in sheep pastures, but hey). They don't have the cross stones on top and are not as impressively preserved (for example people decided to build a road through the huge, loose circle of stones), still they are impressive. There is another double row of standing stones just a little outside of the town, not even marked, which we only found because of a virtual cache near it. This one is more compact than, although also smaller
On the road again until we came to Stonehedge. Of course by now it was closed and the most we could do was park on the shoulder of the road and go up to the fence and view them from there. We were rather surprised to see a few people actually walking amongst the stones. It had been our understanding that such was not allowed. We took pictures – and yes, it was more impressive and tighter than Avebury's, and include the cross stones that as well as more shapely stones. We asked one of the security people there what was going on – apparently if you reserve ahead (like six to twelve months ahead) and are willing to pay twice as much they let a small group of people wander amongst Stonehedge each day (being closely watched by two guards) after normal visiting hours have closed.
Oh, yes, and sometime between here we passed by a military base and there were several “tank crossing” signs across the highway that especially amused Sean.
Then we began the drive to Ipswich where we would return the car in the morning and from their take a train to Harwich and the cruise ship.
We stopped at a little service station for dinner along the way.
It was late, very late. And we were both exhausted. We decided we would not bother with a hotel in Ipswich. They're expensive in the UK! And it was already about 1 am. And we'd soon be on the cruise ship where we could relax – especially as the first day aboard would be a day at sea rather than in a port. So we parked in the little pull up to the Hertz to sleep (the actual lot was locked).
May 29, Friday, England, Cruise ship
Sean slept alright, but I did not sleep so well. I probably got about two hours of sleep. I bought breakfast (chocolate muffins) from the neighboring gas station.
Unexpectedly, the Hertz guy arrived around 7:40 – he wasn't suppose to be there until 9. And he let us come in! Not only that, but he even drove us to the Ipswich train station saving us from having to deal with a taxi. My faith in Hertz has been restored.
We went to Harwich International station and dropped off our luggage. It was still relatively early so we took the train to the end of the line, to Harwich town, and spent a few hours walking around. Harwich is actually a nice, cozy English town. It had once been a very important port, especially for the navy, and still in some ways for cruise lines (although that is outside of the main town itself). We started at the Redoubt Fort, a circular fort constructed to defend against Napoleonic invasions and taken out of service after WWII. It held interesting displays, mostly related to the military (especially in WWII) and the renovation of the fort when it had been bought by volunteers and turned into this sort of museum after about 30 years of lying abandoned.
From there we walked to the Maritime Museum, a small museum housed in a short lighthouse. It also seemed to focus heavily on the military. Not really as impressive as the fort, but it did have a nice view from the top. It also had old scrapbooks of people who lived during various wars and kept real scrapbooks with newspaper clippings and tickets to plays and everything which were interesting to flip through.
From there we walked to the old wooden double wheel crane used for lifting things off ships hundreds of years ago. Then to the much taller lighthouse, but which is private property and therefore no one is allowed in. Then to the local cathedral, nice but not all that impressive. Then to the Lifeboat Museum, which was closed although the people at both the fort and the Maritime Museum said we really should stop there (as well as the other place – I get the feeling these, being the three main “attractions” of the town, try very hard to push each other, even if probably only the Fort is worth the time and entrance fee....)
Although there are other things to see or do in Harwich, nothing else really seemed to beckoned us. So satisfied we returned to the port and boarded our ship, Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas.
We were a bit worried about Frank and Jen. They are known for their chronic tardiness.
We had a late lunch at the buffet.
But we looked around onboard and tried to get ourselves orientated. It was enough like other cruise ships that we had been on that it felt similar but different enough that it is probably going to be confusing. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but this one doesn't seem to be laid out as intelligently – it seems like to get to most places one needs to cross through areas of cabins or really go far out of the way... It just seems a very poor design...
Soon enough (if only barely), they showed up. We talked with them as they had a snack. They had spent two days in London and seen the Natural History Museum and the Kew Gardens. They seemed to love them both. I'm so glad! I had been worried about them – they'd never been outside of America before and we convinced them to take this cruise with us. But they didn't want to be as crazy as us with our before wanderings (which I do think is good) but that also made me concerned. Anyway... We spoke about the craziness of our time so far before returning to our rooms to unpack and organize.
We went to the introduction show in the evening. The “headliner” of the show was a daredevil balancer who specializes at balancing on top of rollers and balls. It was interesting, but not so exciting... Impressive, but well... I guess it was too solo. I'm use to larger shows on cruise ships. Oh well.
Dinner was great, of course. Food on a cruise ship is rarely anything else. We're sitting with a family: two teenage girls, mom, and grandma and grandpa. They seem to keep mostly to themselves and are the kind who obviously have extra money and spend it on wine and soda (which unlike the meals themselves are not free on the cruise ship).
Then, finally, around 11 pm, bed time. Of course we change time by an hour. So midnight. Good night.
May 30, Saturday, At sea
Day at sea. It's good to catch up on sleep.
We went to the fancy breakfast in the big dining hall instead of the buffet, but it was basically just a smaller buffet... There was no special menu or anything. Apparently the fancy breakfasts are simply going to be a waste of time...
The curtain across our room... well, doesn't go across. It's suppose to divide the bed from the little “living” area, but the track doesn't go anywhere, so it is purely ornamental. This is annoying, to say the least. We went and asked about it, but they told us that was just the way it was. We told them that no cruise ship we had ever been on before was like that and that the curtain in our friend's room, next door, had a fully functional curtain.
In fact I'm a bit disappointed so far. Cruise ships do try to nickel and dime people, but not normally to such an extent as this one is seeming to try. Cruise ships have a very constrained design by nature, but usually at least the design seems better planned. Cruise ships tend to have better shows and if you go to the fancy breakfast something special, but not here.
Anyway, I went to the Copenhagen & Stockholm talk that they had, but it was 90% about shopping (especially the shops that have paid to be advertised to the cruise ship) with only a very few helpful tidbits thrown in as if to keep us there. Sean went to the history presentation, learning far more but feeling that the lecturer, although he knew his stuff, had no public speaking ability and no ability to use power point in a reasonable manner.
We spoke with Frank and Jen and are going to start out together tomorrow. I think we'll like break apart before the end of the day – they are content with seeing less than we are. But we will see.
They showed us pictures of their time in London. The first several were great, but they really showed us way too many. Still, I am glad they had a good time and are obviously excited about this.
We went to the amber talk, as the Baltic is the place to buy amber and there wasn't anything else interesting going on during that time. I learned two good ways to tell if your amber is real: real amber should float in salt water and if vigorously rubbed it becomes electromagnetic and attracts things, such as hair or bits of paper, through static.
Not a lot else. Mostly lounged around.
We had a rabbit towel sculpture today.
Oh, that's another thing; no mints on our pillows.
Everything just feels... one step cheaper...
May 31, Sunday, Denmark
We arrived in Copenhagen a few minutes after 8 am, when we were suppose to be allowed to get off. We couldn't get off, therefore, until about 8:30.
It was interesting coming into port. Copenhagen has a lot of windmills, the modern kind for making electricity, sticking right up out of the water of the harbor and continuing in a line until they are anchored on solid land.
There are two other big cruise ships here. Nonetheless, because we are on our own, we really didn't have an issue with crowds.
We did, however, find that the combination of the four of us only sort of works. While we stayed together for the entire day, Sean and I moved slower than we would have liked (and therefore saw a little less) but faster than Frank and Jen would have liked. But it wasn't too bad.
We got off the ship and stopped at a small cathedral – more so that Frank and Jen could get a good look at a European Cathedral than anything else. While beautiful, it was small and not overawing. But we would have been surprised if it had been anything else. There was an impressive bronze sculpture not far outside, a chariot being pulled by four oxen and a fountain below. Snakes curled around the pillars at the edges. Larger than life-size.
We continued along the shore to the statue of the Little Mermaid. While extremely famous I really wasn't all that impressed. It was just a statue, and not an overly impressive or large one at that.
We hiked to Rosenborg Slot (castle/palace), but it didn't open until 10. We did walk through the blooming gardens, admiring the flowers and carefully trimmed trees.
We continued on to the National Museum of Denmark. Although it also opened at 10 we figured that by the time we walked there it would be open and that it wasn't much out of the way for us to return to the castle after the museum.
Although we stuck to the Danish and Scandinavian areas of the museum, skipping their exhibits on further flung cultures, it was still three floors of history ranging from prehistoric to quite literally the present day (having such things on display as a playstation 2). They had excellent exhibits including a treasure trove of amber, multiple bog mummies, and many varied things pulled out of bogs where they had likely been sacrificed or perhaps lost. Excellent! And all the better that it was free!
We grabbed a bite to eat at a little cafe outside yet another cathedral, although this one had been converted into a restaurant. Sean had a smörgåsbord (open face) sandwich. Because the restaurant specialized in seafood and all the smörgåsbord were fish, I had lobster and asparagus soup. Very good. Sean enjoyed his as well. Only Jen, who had gotten a herring sampler, did not like her meal.
We returned to Rosenburg, taking a different route to enjoy some of the architecture including my favorite the dragon spire with four dragons with long entwined tails forming a tall spire.
We passed a funny signs exhibit with signs from various places that had been seem and replicated for the amusement of all.
Rosenburg was now open.
The gardens, which had been nearly empty, were now filled with sunbathers.
The palace treasury may not have had so much archaeological significance as the museum, but they had culture, beauty, and riches. The throne room had three life size (or perhaps slightly more) silver lions, all superbly crafted guarding a narwhal tusk throne. In the basement were jewels and jewelry, including crowns – many of the items still worn by the royal family on special occasions. My favorite was the gorgeous emerald set including a crown, necklace, etc.
From there we grabbed ice cream and started back. We passed through the star fort, taking a quick look at it, but didn't have time to truly explore. We got back to the ship with eight minutes to spare. While I like to maximize my time in ports, especially as our ports are on average only eight hours long each, that's cutting it a bit close for my tastes...
And it had been a lovely day.
I had blueberry yogurt soup, fried chicken, and berry cake for dinner.
Then we planned the next day before it was time, once again, for bed.
June 1, Monday , At sea
A pointless day at sea. Unless I am quite wrong, we could have easily been somewhere! But then again, most all museums in Europe are closed on Mondays so I guess its not that bad. Still...
Hopped onto the internet (which is awful slow, continually timed out, and sucked in general) to let Nikolai know that we'll be there tomorrow and to make sure things were all arranged.
I'll need internet to book a hotel in London... but not tonight. Or, at least, not right now. Frank, being far more addicted to the internet than I am, is ponying up the extra cash and said that it does seem to be moving slow today. He thinks everyone shares the same bandwidth so the best time would probably be in the wee hours of morning.
Went to the port and shopping presentation again – but again except for a few good points, it was mostly useless about shopping. This one was for Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and Tallinn.
Also went to a seminar about Russian souvenirs and artwork. I hadn't realized the amount of time that is required to make a proper lacquer box (made from paper mache and can take more than a year to process) – or even just one of the nesting dolls! Up to 20 coats of lacquer are used, one after each different color of paint, all applied by hand to make a proper piece.
I went to the onboard art auction – just to go to one. It was interesting. He'd call up an artwork, say who it was by and a little about the artist and perhaps about the painting, give their gallery price, and then start the bidding at a significantly lower price. Only about half the pieces sold and of those about half went to a single lady who seemed to be bidding like mad. There was one piece that I actually quite liked and that would have been a steal. It went for only $65 and came framed and everything. The problem was that it was a walk-off – they won't ship it, you have to carry it off the ship, and knowing our schedule.. It was a nice beach scene by a Tel Aviv artist, don't remember his name. But then I tend to like individual paintings, not things by any specific person. Perhaps I could have found a post office easily and found a way to ship it, but things go so fast in an auction format that by the time I had really thought about that, the bidding was closed. I, after all, had come out of curiosity and hadn't really been planning on bidding on something...
We planned for Stockholm.
June 2, Tuesday, Sweden
We woke early upon the recommendations to do so to see us entering the port through the fjord. It seemed very low for a fjord, I think of them as being steep and often quite tall, where this was water-hugging. Barren but beautiful, rocky land and trees, houses scattered about, sometimes even on tiny islands where they look like they'd get washed away by the wake of a big ship like ours.
Another cruise ship, about the same size, was following us, which was interesting.
When we docked we took the shuttle into Gamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm, and walked around the Royal Palace. We watched the morning changing of the guards, or perhaps mustering and then changing. Not certain how much of it was for show and how much was real as I don't speak Swedish...
We went to the Royal Armory Museum within the palace. Well all of its pieces were impressive, it seemed rather small. Especially when Rick Steves (whose travel book we were mostly going by) had promoted it as possibly the best armory museum in Europe. It had various weapons and armors as well as a number of royal carriages (and this being Sweden, sleds).
Then we walked a bit past Storkyrkan (a church), the Nobel Museum, and the German church to get a closer look at their architecture.
We returned to Storkyrkan where we were to meet Nikolai. We had told him that we would wear bright green, both shirts and baseball caps, and so he found us easily. For some reason I didn't think he looked much like the picture he had sent and wasn't entirely certain at first it was him. He was taller than I had expected, taller than Sean. Together we walked around Gamla Stan, him now acting as a tour guide. He pointed out his favorite shop in the area, a sci-fi and gaming store that Frank and Jen felt they had to go in to see the differences and similarities.
After too much time for something we could have done in the States, we continued on. He showed us the narrowest alley in Stockholm which allowed one-way foot traffic only and was obviously something of a tourist hit as it was crowded.
Then we went to the Blue Door restaurant that he had found for us (we had asked him where we should go for some traditional Swedish food). Despite its name, the door was regular brown and he explained how it was considered an historic building and therefore could not be changed without special permission – even not back to its original way but had to be kept as it was at the time of that listing. We had lunch, salad, bread, and our choice of salmon or pork with pancake/crepes and lignonberry jam. I also had lignonberry juice to drink. Everything was very good. The pork wasn't an American cut and had a bacony aspect to it.
We hopped a water ferry to approach the Vasa Museum, passing the local amusement park.
On our way we came to a special exhibit of relatively small boats, free to the public, so we went in to take a quick look at these vessels as well. There wasn't anything all that exciting about them – well, at least to someone who generally considers boats another means of transport instead of appreciating their finer aspects.
The Vasa was a huge ship that sunk on its maiden voyage because it was too top-heavy (because in the middle of construction the king ordered that a second level of guns be added and no one would say no to the king). This meant it sunk on its maiden voyage. Luckily it was preserved quite well where it sank, not even having made it far enough to reach the generally far more corrosive sea water, and so this ship from 1628 was hauled back to the surface and now stands virtually complete in a museum designed specifically for it. The museum also housed various exhibits further explaining both it and its time, everything from a reconstructed gun deck and crows nest to the skeletons of crew members that had been found with the ship. Supposedly if it had been only a foot wider it probably would have been fine... Now this is a ship I can appreciate.
Then we went out and met Nikolai's wife Viktoria.
From there we went to the Nordic Museum, about life primarily in Sweden. It was quite interesting, although it was very good that we had Nikolai and Viktoria along because almost nothing was in English and they could, of course, explain things for us. I found their Easter celebration quite fascinating. The children dress as witches on Easter and go around house to house, in the west handing out candy to the neighborhood and in the east begging for candy. I wonder if that's sort of where American Halloween comes from? But why Easter? It was also fun going with them because in the upper floors, the more contemporary times, they would point out things that they or a relative had.
Also interesting about the museums we went to today, the floors were made with a local red marble in which one could see fossil straight-shelled nautilus. Nikolai said that such was very common in the area. I'm sure he thought I was crazy for taking pictures of the floor... I mean, seriously! So common that they pave their floors with them?
Anyway, once again cutting it close, we hoofed it for the shuttle bus pickup.
We passed a sign advertising “Extra Hög Spanning”. Each word making sense in English, but not in that order, and with little help from the picture behind of a smiling person holding a ticket or piece of paper of some sort, we had to ask what the heck the advertisement was for. Nikolai explained that it was an advertisement for the lottery which basically translated as “Extra excitement/tension”.
It would have been nice to have some time to just relax and talk a bit more, but with such limited time, well, we chatted a good bit while doing things...
Finding the shuttle bus, the last shuttle of the day, already on its way, we said an abrupt good-bye and jumped aboard. Close again (though we probably could have made it with a taxi – the ship had just had to dock too far from the part of town we had wanted to be in) – but at the same time that such makes me nervous, it does mean that are taking full advantage of our time in the various ports.
We went and snacked (well, mostly sipped at tea for me) at the buffet as we watched the fjord pass by again, this time in the opposite direction.
The huge blister on my left foot popped today, my sock was damp and off-color in a circle around it. I thought these were good hiking shoes, but they have proven not to be so much as I had hoped. It's nasty and painful. Oh well.
I went to the “welcome back” gathering for those who have cruised before, curious to see what that was about. Basically it was a free drink and snacks (which can be gotten at other places on the ship), a little band, and the Captain coming down to give a brief speech, in this case primarily an advertisement for the new ship being completed this year for the line, the Oasis of the Seas, which will be able to hold more than 5,000 guests (whereas this one holds about 4,000) and encouraging people to sign up for another cruise. Not really all that exciting.
Dinner was excellent, scallops rosetti, lamb, and chocolate cake. Mmm...
Great day!
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