Sunday April 23rd: After leaving Mountain View Arkansas I had a harrowing drive in the rain with drunks on the road, which kept my nerves on edge the entire way. I managed about an hour and a half nap before turning in the car and heading for my 5:50am flight. I normally wouldn't choose such an early departure however I also would normally not fly to meet a departing ship on the same day. Luckily both the flight to Atlanta and the one on to Ft. Lauderdale were on time. Mom picked me up and off we went to board Holland America's Zuiderdam for an 18 day TransAtlantic crossing. Every step went easy from car drop to shuttle to embarkation with no lines. Once aboard I was finally able to start unwinding from the stress of driving flying and catching the ship same day. I even got a small nap before dinner.
Monday23rd&Tuesday 24th: Two full sea days helped tremendously and several swims, some thermal suite time and a few hours of puzzle did the de-stress job nicely.
Some interesting shows aboard so far from the comedian to the modern tenors to the juggler we saw this evening. Of course my favorite part is this ship has a BB King Blues Club (which doubles as a demo space for America's test kitchen demos in the daytime) so I get to dance a little bit. Honestly it makes me miss Kim and my awesome Sacramento dance family even more but I still get to move. And because of the limited selection of leads, I'm leading quite a bit and my foxtrot, rhumba, hustle and West Coast following is getting stretched.
Wednesday 25th: Today was in Bermuda and lovely despite 25mph winds and 71° temps. We walked about Kings Wharf and watched pottery and glass blowing demos as well as browsed the craft buildings. Beach time was unanimously vetoed due to fierce winds.
26-29thApr.:Now we head further across the Atlantic towards the Azores, heading for Horta and then Ponta Delgado. Four full sea days before we get there should help me catch up on my old blogs from earlier in the year and possibly even the 3 half finished books I should get to. Book club's and, yes Charles, I'm on the case! Of course there will be dancing and puzzles, eating, swimming and walks on deck too.
Compared to other Atlantic crossings I've done there's quite a bit more ship motion for a couple of the days on this stretch, which I will blame on the moderately rough seas and wind. The rocking doesn't bother me, although I'm sure just reading this will make Jessie A and Linda B green. As a matter of fact it makes me sleep quite hard. That is unless the wind is blowing so much it squeaked through the door like the other night, or I've caved in and eaten the dense flourless chocolate cake which makes me jittery and sleepless regardless.
30th Apr. Horta in the Azores
The weather was grey and cool with some rain so motivation to go ashore was low but we did make it in the afternoon. Took the tender boat ashore and had a nice walk about the town. While walking around ran into all the San Francisco friends we'd made on the ship so it was group photo time "San Francisco in Horta".We even found an art store so we could grab some colored pencils and a pad of paper. Cool painted/graffiti walls around the marina seemed to be the signature for this port.
More puzzle and dance time once back on the ship.
Tomorrow we dock in Ponta Delgado. Where I've been a couple of times...if the weather is nice mom may want to have some sunbathing swimming time vs going to town. I'm good either way.
Pool time! 😀🌞🏊
Tues May 1st:
Well swim&sun won over a repeat visit to the bustling (by comparison to the ship and Horta of yesterday) Ponta Delgado, on the island of Sao Miguel, Portugal.
Here's my pics so far this trip:
Self portrait towel animals FTW!
Horta Buildings and 'SF in Horta' group
Marina art and Horta waterfront
Me poolside aboard the Zuiderdam
Me poolside aboard the Zuiderdam
May 2nd-3rd &4th
At sea days now a blur of Thermal spa, dances at BB King Blues Club and puzzles! We did all 7 that I brought along and a bunch they had on board already!
May 5th Southampton, England
Mom and I had contacted Ronny and Michael to see if they would be anywhere near there to have lunch with us. They are such good sports that they drove all the way from the northeast of the country to their youngest daughter's near Farnborough and picked is up at that train station so we could spend the day with them. Once off the ship we caught a train that was less than an hour trip and Louisa and Ronny collected us. I had promised to bring Ca weather with us and should have specified spring not summer! We had a lovely and surprisingly warm 77+ day where we enjoyed their backyard for a delicious lunch some paddle ball and chatting nonstop! Nicki and I are the closest in age and have been great friends since we were about 13 and we all consider each other family.(Mom and Ronny are close as sisters!)
Luckily our ship stayed in port until 10:30 so we were able to get a lateish train and reboard the ship around 9:30.
May 6th Cherbourg France
Nope no war tours & monument viewing for us...had the ship to ourselves while all ashore.
May 7th Zeebrugge...same same
May 8th Amsterdam
While on the ship we talked about our plans for travel after and decided to change it up a bit. Instead of going all the way to Copenhagen on the 10th we disembarked on the 8th in Amsterdam to 'wing it' for a few days. This new plan meant we did not need to take a 10.5 hr train directly after disembarkation. Instead we had 4 days to make our way slowly to Germany.
We knew there were a few things we wanted to do in Amsterdam so we started by walking into and getting a room in a small but quaint 'Hotel Museumzitcht' across the street from the big museum we were going to go to. The Rijksmuseum was fabulous with 2 newly acquired Rembrandt portraits (80million Euros each!) There was Van Gogh and Vermeer and well a ton of art of course. However it was the temporary exhibits that were my favorite. An exhibit of ship models, timepieces and one of jewelery...including a few pieces by my favorite, Lalique (art deco).
We also spent a while ouside the door to the museum listening to a group of musicians playing Bach and one was playing a Balalaika.(see photo!)
Since the museum closed at 5 we had plenty of time to relax in a cafe by the canal & do a cheesy canal tour on one of the tourist boats with the narrated audio guide. (In Pics lots of bridges and the skinniest house in town)
May 9th Amsterdam
The next morning our hotelhost made us a perfect European breakfast and we went back to the museum to slowly browse the museum store during the heat of the day. The strange hot weather is following us around. Both of us feel silly lugging rain gear and jackets and long underwear and keep ending up in tanks or sunshirts.
We then transferred luggage to the airport left luggage and took the bus out to the Kukenhof Gardens. It is only open a few weeks a year and we were lucky enough to catch it before the end on May 13th.
After walking our feet off in the amazing tulip (and orchid and other flowers) gardens we went back to the airport train station to find out that there was no way to get to Paris..no trains busses planes or even cars...well there was a car but the drop fee alone was 700Euros! In any case we managed to get to Antwerp and had a generous hotelier in Paris who graciously did not charge us for the night even though it was almost 7pm when I called to let them know we were stuck. Their goodwill paid off because the next night we stayed there and both plan to return and stay there again.
(Highly recommend Hotel &Spa La Lanterne in 5th Quarter of Paris!)
May 10th Antwerp to Paris
The train station alone is a reason to go to Antwerp as it is one of the most spectacular I've ever seen!
We spent the morning in the hotel pool and then meandered (cooler weather day thankfully) to the walking shopping street. Evidently it was Ascension Day and almost everything was closed. So we shared a Belgian waffle walked to the closed Rubens house and museum and had the most elegant stop for chocolate, coffee and a Fanta at Napolean's mistress' house.
A nice fast train to Paris in the late afternoon gave us just enough time to swim and dress for dinner. La Lanterne was delightful and classy and the pool was in an underground cave below the hotel. Le Pie Noir was decadent and delicious...I won't bore you with the details of the menu...just try it when you can get to Paris! (Oh but pistachio creme brulee FTW!!!)
May 11th Paris -Strasbourg-Baden Baden
Love the TGV! After breakfast a quick swim and pack and walk past Notre Dam we made it to our train to Strasbourg. 2 hours and we will arrive on the Eastern edge of France.
TBC...
Well Mom and I ended up doing 6 cities in 4 days...Amsterdam, Antwerp, lunch in Brussels, Paris, lunch and walk in Strasbourg and by the time we got to Baden Baden on the 4th day, I needed a spa day! And if you have never spent a day in Friedrichsbad...well you need to! (And let me know when and I will meet you there!!!)
Friday 11th May: After leaving Paris, we spent a few hours of train layover having lunch and walking Strasbourg before catching the train to Baden Baden. Once we stepped off the train Lydia was there to meet us which was a delight and we took a taxi into town, wandered about and ate dinner (which did have spatzle and Flammenkuchen!(super thin crust white sauce pizza like stuff)
Sat May 12th: The next morning we went and had massages at the spa...not really worth it...quintessentially 'meh' & spa-like. And then had lunch out on a sidewalk restaurant. More walking about the adorable town and then it was Baden-Time! I've been to and written about Friedrichsbad before but it was so awesome to get to share it with my mom and sister who really appreciated it. We didn't think we'd stay our whole 4 hours but it ended up being 3 and 3/4 hours! 17 stations of lovely mineral water showers, steams, saunas, soaping-brush-exfoliating-
Sunday 13th May &Mother's Day:
Our Hotel room at the Hotel Am Markt was nice and exceedingly clean and quiet which was great. Of course it was situated right next to the church so Sunday morning at 8...well let's just say BELLS BELLS and more BELLS...there was no sleeping in for us! It's ok that made sure we didn't miss breakfast or our train to Chur, Switzerland.
Chur was super quiet (it being a Sunday and Mother's day as well) but we walked most of the town and had a nice time. This was a stop in preparation for the scenic Alps crossing that leaves from there.
Monday 14th May:
The Bernina Express from Chur across the alps into Tirano, Italy was fun...we only had moderate visibility for about a third of our trip...too many clouds/fog to really see the alps in their glory. It was still fun and we were grateful the whole journey wasn't like three last 3rd where you could barely see 10 yards from the train because of the clouds.
I guess I will just have to come back with Kim and try it again 😜
I'm writing this on the train from Tirano to Milan where we get to stay 2 nights. The weather has cleared up some so the views as we go along Lake Como are beautiful! They also provided us a great laugh as every time I pulled out my phone to try and get a shot of the lake we would go through a tunnel...it was like magic! Well at least like a sad comedy and we had a great 'laugh to tears' out of it.
Off to Milan!
May 15th in Milan
Toured the impressive Duomo Cathedral and it's Museum for the first part of the day. Took a nice break in the middle before going exploring in the very hip Navigli district and having a lovely dinner.
May 16th..in Milan and Venice &my Birthday
Lydia caught an early flight home and Mom and I took the train to Venice where we made our way to Murano...the home of blown glass. She checked in and registered for the GAS World Glass Arts Conference. We then went wandering and looked at lots of amazing glass art, watched a cool demo of a blown glass heart and vase and had delicious homemade spagettini for dinner.
May 17th Venice to London
Mom had to get up at 6:30 to get in line at her first full day of the conference so I slept in, packed up and after finding her for a hug I took the Alilaguna water bus straight to the airport. When I'd booked this flight it was super cheap probably because it had a 17 hour layover in London. Luckily for me Anna and David were in town and happened to be driving past Hammersmith stop at around the same time as my flight and the tube would get me there. We had a lovely but super short visit and this morning David zipped me back to the airport to catch my 11:15 to SFO.
It has been four and a half weeks since I've been home and I'm very ready to see Kim after the last month of travel without him.
Happy Travels to all of you near or far
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