by Ron Largent | Sep 12, 2017 | Asian Travel, Cruise Line Deals, European Travel, Iceland, Iceland Hiking, Iceland Tours, Icelandair, International Travel, Special Events Travel Deals, Special travel deals, Stockholm, Sweden, Travel, Travel the World, Uncategorized, Volcano Island
Today is our day at sea between Tallinn, Estonia and Gdansk, Poland ….so have a relaxing day with seminars, etc…and it is a beautiful day at sea…
We got a bit behind on my daily updates as we just got busy with excursions and they have been great …yesterday was in Tallinn in Estonia. Very impressed. The city has combined the ultimate in modern design surrounding the historic and totally restored Old Town….they are one of the most highly developed technology cities in the world, and is the seat of the NATO computer protection system. Kind of a Silicon Valley in Northern Europe….and Internet everywhere. The city mixes the old and new very well…and is obviously a very wealthy city and country……with luxury cars abounding. They have capitalized on the Cruise Ship business with 4 big ships in port yesterday….and same expected today. The setting right on the water is very impressive and with the Old Town built inside the wall you can look down from the higher ground, so views are spectacular .
Two days in St Petersburg was great. Just too much to put here…other than to say the Hermitage museum is clearly among the most impressive museums in the world. St Petersburg is very very tourist friendly…and as such the crowds are almost overwhelming. Both Audy and I said at about the same time….biggest crowds we have ever been in..as we were exiting the museum…then the lines outside were a block long. Kind of a Disneyland on steroids……in terms of crowds. We were also able to go to Peterhof Palace….and again…..magnificent.
The evening at Swan Lake was, as expected, superb. We were in row 7….literally the best seats in the house. Truly outstanding .
The city of St Petersburg is also very impressive combining the old and the new…the pre communist with the post…and then the past 20 years making the city a world class metro area. It is now not only the 2nd largest city in Russia but now a destination resort for Russians as it is right on the water with great access to Finland and Scandinavia. A great place to visit and stay for a few days to see all. Very modern and very convenient
Helsinki was a delight to visit and a place to go back to. The excursion was perfect as we got to see the city and what has made it and the country great. Very modern and progressive and very busy with a lot of building and development. Being the shipbuilding capital of the world we were also able to see the giant ice breaker ships …
So, the Cruise so far has been wonderful. Everything we expected and the some. Overall impression of this part of the world is much as what we found in the Mediterranean……..Europe is moving ahead of the US in many ways, in my opinion. Certainly equal if not exceeding metro city development….same with technology….same with education, emphasizing science and technology. Obviously the weather here in Northern Europe is somewhat limiting, as the winter days are short and cold….but they are doing so well to offset that by modern technology in building and metro development, such as indoor malls, etc.
On to Gdansk, Poland tomorrow…….a great time.
by Ron Largent | Sep 5, 2017 | Asian Travel, Cruise Line Deals, European Travel, Iceland, Iceland Hiking, Iceland Tours, Icelandair, International Travel, Special Events Travel Deals, Special travel deals, Travel, Travel the World, Uncategorized, Volcano Island
Today started with me going to the airport on the airport bus to try and find the luggage. Bottom line….I got them.
returned to the hotel by noon and we got on the Hop On…and spent the afternoon seeing Reykjavik ……stopped at the Krisling Mall for lunch and Audy got a pair of pants. Some great shops in this mall, which is the largest in Iceland and still very small, but a neat place.
Got into the big Cathedral and heard the organist rehearsing…..not as good as William…..but the church is modern and very impressive. Had some great coffee
at a little shop opposite….got back to the hotel about 5….then walked down the street about 2 blocks to this great restaurant and had a wienerschitsel and it was great. Sat net to these 2 retired doctors…fun time…
Went by 10/11 for some chocolate….back to the rom for the 4 am departure to the airport….Icelandair to Stockholm
by Ron Largent | Aug 12, 2016 | Alaska, Alborg, Asian Travel, Bergen, Copenhagen, Cruise Line Deals, Denmark, Eidfjord, European Travel, Finland, Fjords, Gdansk, Germany, Glacier Bay, Glaciers, Helsinki, Holland America Cruise Lines, Iceland, Iceland Hiking, Iceland Tours, Icelandair, International Travel, Juneau, Latvia, Northern Europe Cruise, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sawyer, Sitka, South Sawyer Glacier, Special Events Travel Deals, Special travel deals, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Sweden, Tallin, The Fjords, Tracy Arn Fjord, Travel, Travel the World, Uncategorized, Viking Cruises, Vikings, Volcano Island, Warnemunde
Monday was our day in Juneau and we arrived about 11:30am…..and disembarked about noon to find our excursion which is to the Tracy Arn Fjord and on to the South Sawyer Glacier and then back to the Sawyer Glacier. These are historic Glaciers that have become popular as they are not so massive that you cannot get up close to them but can actually get up to within a mile as we did. Tracy Arn Fjord runs south from Juneau and is about a 3 hour jet boat trip to the Glacier itself. Enroute we saw a couple of whales but nothing like our return where a couple of them decided to out on a show. At one pint in the return we just stopped, turned off the engines and watched. The boats are about 40 passenger tri hull style that sits about 2 feet in the water so as to go over the small ice patches easily. There is the captain in front in a small cabin then a covered and uncovered upper level and an enclosed seated area with small toilet and crew area for snacks Etc on the main level. These are older boats but quite safe and very functional for this kind of trip, and they have been doing this for years. All 3 crew members talk and explain what we are going through and one of the crew members, Ryan, really put on a show that the end. Very funny…talented guys. Very cute and a story in itself as I woke up laughing about them.
The Glaciers are so hard to describe as they are combinations of ancient ice, sediment, new rain that turns to snow and ice, and the natural elements. The result is the most unusual colors and configuration that one could imagine…see to believe kind of thing. At South Sawyer we got fairly close but the at Sawyer we got up real close and that is where Ryan went out on the side rail and scooped up ice that we then got a photo with. It was here that we went up to the captains area and spent about 30 minutes as he held the boat steady and we watched for the ice to calve, or fall, from the main Glacier. Small pieces kept falling off and all of the photographers were up on the top with their big cameras waiting for that big moment when the big piece would fall off. Well, finally it did…quite an event, as the guide told us that this was a rare occasion….and we were there.
The trip back was interrupted 3 or 4 times by stopping to watch the whales. At one point a whale was swimming with us about 1/4 mile from the boat…..doing his dives, etc and putting on quite a show.
Got back to the dock at 9 and caught the shuttle bus back the short distance to the ship area and back on the ship and to our room….a great day
by Ron Largent | Aug 12, 2016 | Alaska, Alborg, Asian Travel, Bergen, Copenhagen, Cruise Line Deals, Denmark, Eidfjord, European Travel, Finland, Fjords, Gdansk, Germany, Glacier Bay, Glaciers, Helsinki, Holland America Cruise Lines, Iceland, Iceland Hiking, Iceland Tours, Icelandair, International Travel, Latvia, Northern Europe Cruise, Norway, Poland, Russia, Special Events Travel Deals, Special travel deals, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Sweden, Tallin, The Fjords, Travel, Travel the World, Uncategorized, Viking Cruises, Vikings, Volcano Island, Warnemunde
We had a relaxing morning with the buffet breakfast as we overslept the earlier breakfast….or rather took too long in the room…..and as we ate we started to see the glaciers in Glacier Bay….eventually ending up in the front observation areas, going between the inside comfy seats and outside along the outside viewing area. We spent the next 4 hours looking at either the John Hopkins Glacier or the Margorie Glacier. Both are magnificent to see…and again a very major part of the Cruise…and a must to see if you have never seen them. A great day of Glacier viewing.
At 5 pm we went to see the movie in the Big theater style Vista Lounge “Bears. A Disney production…it is outstanding….photos and scenes are absolutely magnificent…and really told the story of the Alaskan Brown Bear….just great.
We then went to seated dining, which we really preferred versus the Buffet…and sat with 5 couples which turned out to be another story that can be to,d when we are home. Suffice it to say the retired IBM guy, the younger Mormon couple where the woman was a teacher and LDS missionary to Russia…the big talking and funny Alabama coupe, and the software guy and his indescribable wife from Maryland. It was a dinner that was characterized by delicious food, loud talking about football and other talking, and absolute bizarre by the Maryland couple. I asked the question of the Alabama guy who was a USAF vet as well as had been in a mission trip to Georgia in Eastern Europe…and had home schooled their kids ” what was the mood of the folks in Alabama about Trump.”…the rest must be told in person so remind us of the couple from Maryland when we get home.
Well, a very full and fun day….as we left the dining room as the last couples to finish as they cleaned the tables at 9 pm….what else is new?
by Ron Largent | Nov 12, 2015 | Alaska, Alborg, alpine, Asian Travel, Bavaria, Bergen, Bern, Bullet Train, Copenhagen, Cruise Line Deals, Denmark, Eidfjord, European Travel, Finland, Fjords, Gdansk, Geneva, Germany, Glacier Bay, Glaciers, Gstaad, Helsinki, Holland America Cruise Lines, Iceland, Iceland Hiking, Iceland Tours, Icelandair, Inter City Express (ICE), International Travel, IR Train, Juneau, Latvia, Lausanne, lucerne, Montreaux, Munich, Northern Europe Cruise, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sawyer, Sitka, Ski The Alps, South Sawyer Glacier, Special Events Travel Deals, Special travel deals, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Sweden, Switzerland, Tallin, The Fjords, Tracy Arn Fjord, Travel, Travel the World, Uncategorized, Viking Cruises, Vikings, Volcano Island, Warnemunde, Zurich
We took this trip a few years ago, and will re-visit some of these sites, locations, and events this coming December. Here is the daily log:
We started thinking about a winter trip to Europe after we had taken a 4-week trip to China in September 2002. Coupled with this, our four children decided to do something for us to celebrate our 40th anniversary, and this started us thinking. At the same time, Audy read about the Christmas Markets in Europe, especially in Germany, and we agreed this would be something we would enjoy doing and seeing…thus the idea was born.
Initially we wanted to see these Christmas Markets, but in looking into them and when and where they were held, we found that for the most part they were early to mid December, which just would not fit with our schedule. Then we looked into Tours that would see these various places, and found that they were, for the most part, bus tours where you traveled to a different city each day, etc. This did not appeal to us…so we decided to “do our own trip”. Utilizing United Frequent Flyer miles and Marriott Points for the hotels….all was left with getting around in Europe and we happened on Eurail Passes….and our planning started. Our goal included seeing Berlin, where Audy and I met some 41 years ago while on an exchange type program, and which has been through a lot of change since the days when we rode our bikes under the Brandenburg Gate, including the Wall between East and West Germany. Another goal was to see Leipzig, which had been in East Germany, and which Audy saw in 1988 when she was in Germany with Curt…we wanted to see how the city had changed in the 12 years since the wall came down. Our third goal was to see Warsaw, Poland, where neither of us had been. All three goals were met, as you will see.
Day 1 (of 14) started on December 24th, 2002, as we left Redding on the United Express commuter to San Francisco (SFO). At SFO we boarded a United flight to London…where we changed to Lufthansa and on to Dusseldorf and then to Zurich, Switzerland, arriving at 6 PM on Christmas night. London Heathrow Airport is one of the older ones in Europe, and still serves millions annually as it has for 50 years, and it looked just as we remembered it, with tunnels and roads under buildings and very cluttered with offices and buildings almost on top of each other. On the other hand, Dusseldorf is a very, very modern airport serving the industrialized western part of Germany, and this airport is as open, bright, and light…as Heathrow is dark. An interesting contrast, but just right for our timing, for Dusseldorf Airport was very quiet on this Christmas Day so Audy had a good 1 hour nap while we waited for our flight. Arriving in Zurich, we used the shuttle to get to the Renaissance Hotel, which was about 10 minutes from the airport…and obviously it was bedtime, as we had been fling for 24 hours.
Day 2—Zurich, Dec 26: After a fair nights sleep (I was awake for 2 hrs. due to jet lag), we got up and took the airport shuttle to the Airport Train Station to catch the train into Zurich. They have arrangements in all of the cities where you can buy a 1 or 2 day pass that allows for unlimited riding on the public transport system. We rode the train into the main train station, which is quite large and quite buys, and after looking around for a place to eat, of which many were closed due to the day after Christmas closing, we walked out on the street to the adjacent McDonalds. Suffice it to say that traditionally we have refused to eat at McDonalds, etc…but, as we found in China, they have excellent “local foods”, as was the case with the Egg McMuffin we had. Quite good and with coffee came to about $4.00. We then walked down their Haufbonstrasse, which is the main shopping pedestrian street in Zurich. Every possible shop…many very upscale..and a beautiful area, in spite of the rain that was starting to fall. We walked about 2 hours and got up to the Lindenhof overlooking the Limmat River and the beginning of Lake Zurich…the Picture-postcard Lake that you often see when you see Zurich photos. From there we headed back to the station area, where we were going to catch the “Trolley tour” of the city, which we did. For 2 hours we got to see the big churches, including the famous one where artist Marc Chagall has the stained glass windows. Quite a beautiful city. Following the tour, we caught the train back to the hotel…a 2 hour rest…and at 5 got up to come back downtown to see “the lights”. We walked back down to the lake and then back to the station for a lasagna dinner…and back to the hotel…a good first day in Europe.
Day 3…Zurich to the Alps, 12/27/02: Although Zurich is impressive as a staid and wealthy old city that was not harmed by the war…what we were to encounter on this scenic day trip is almost indescribable. We caught the 9 am shuttle to the train..got on the Lucerne IR, which stands for Inter Regional, train…also known as the express trains…and headed for Lucerne, which is south of Zurich along Lake Lucerne…another picture postcard city. This was the first leg of the scenic trip up into the Alps, so we stopped at the station long enough to get a close-up look at the Lake and the new museum…and try to recall when we were there previously. It was starting to clear, so was very pretty, and in 30 minutes we were on to train #2, bound for Interlaken, which is the entry point into the Alps from this direction. It was here that we met the family from Florida that was on the 1 week ski trip…in Gstaad…and unfortunately for them and thousands of others…no snow, due to the southern Europe warm weather…(40 degrees was the high that day). At Interlaken we boarded train #3..and as we started up the weather cleared beautifully…and off we went to Zweissimen, which is the town for the start of the Golden Pass Scenic tour, and we got on train #4 for the steep climb, etc…into the middle of the Alps. This was absolutely spectacular, and the lack of snow allowed us to clearly see the Alpine villages, the beautiful mountains, and the enchanting valleys and waterways, from creeks to rivers. Nothing like it. And, the train goes where the cars can’t go, in that much of the track is literally along the side of the mountain, making for exciting views. This trip took us 2 hours as we traveled up and over and down into the french speaking part of Switzerland, and into the city of Montreux. Unbelievable beauty describes this part of the trip, as we passed by world famous resorts such as Gstaad…with many people but no snow. From Montreux we boarded train #5 for the short ride into Lausanne…then on to #6 for the return fast train to Zurich via Geneva and Bern. We were back in Zurich by 7 PM, and enjoyed our evening meal of the train…delicious soup and bread, which was about all we wanted for we had been sitting and viewing all day…and what a day it had been. Highly recommended for anyone that goes to Zurich, for this is the real Switzerland that can only be seen on this kind of a train trip. On the train ride back into Zurich, we were on the European bullet trains, and they run at speeds up to 120 mph. We had a number of these…some called IR and some called ICE (InterCityExpress)….and although the ICE is the new and famous looking bullet trains…all of them can really move. Inside the trains you do not hear much, for they are all electric and very quite, but stationary objects that are passed by the trains are blurs…and cars on the highways look as it they are creeping along, although they are probably going 60 or 70 mph. All of the trains are very clean, with very comfortable seats…and they have plenty of non-smoking areas…, which we always had. Some of the trains are double decker, but on all of the trains, the windows are big, so you can see all that you want to see with no problem whatsoever. On the return trip we went along Lake Neuchatel, another picture lake, but often fog covered due to the elevation of the lake when it is warn like it was, relatively speaking.
Some observations: Zurich is very expensive and not too tourist oriented. It is the money city with the famous banks and the large insurance companies. Zurich Insurance is the largest re-insurer in the world, attesting to the amount of money in Swiss banks. The area is very clean, and especially so as you travel out into the country as we did. The farms look almost unlived in…so neat and clean. As mentioned, the scenic trip was definitely a highlight.
