retired from what?

Shot from the top deck of the Viking Atla (named for the Norse giantess water goddess - made me wonder about the advisability of naming large ships after mythological giants, like the Titans, for instance).   Suburban Rotterdam development facing a recreation of Noah's Arc, built to Biblical specifications by demonstrably crazy Dutch creationist Johan Huibers.  Yes, that's a giraffe on the bow. In Kinderdijk... Technology faces off across the Lek river, and across several centuries.

Love Amsterdam. Love it for all the same reasons we did in 1979 when we spent a couple of weeks here. Indeed, it was December of '79 and we stayed at the Hotel Brian, a cheap B&B. We knocked on the door. A man in his twenties answered and looked us over. In a clearly American accent he said, " Rooms are 30 guilders a night each and hash is 6 guilders a gram."  One cold night when all the employees where out, we were put in charge of the door, which meant checking the prospective guests out, just to be sure that everyone would feel at home at The Brian. We turned down one, accepted another.  But lest you think it is about smokables, it is not. It is about the feeling of being someplace where you are accepted and put at ease.  The Dutch are simply the most charming, friendly, least paranoid people we have ever encountered. They never seem to grow frustrated with clueless tourists, their English is excellent and they are quick to offer advice to those who look lost. Whil...

Today we were asked to fill out feedback forms on our cruise.  I wrote      " Viking did nothing wrong. The mistake was mine. This is not my type of travel."  I told them the only way I would consider another cruise is if the boat was small, everyone got a bike and we only went to places inaccessible to tour buses.  Was it painfully awful? Not at all!  Whenever we could, we avoided the group tours and did our own thing. But it was still a lot like being at a summer camp. For the intellectually challenged. I was amazed at the sheer lack of paying attention, the technical ineptitude over the audio guides, even after five days, the questions asked over and over. Add to that PA announcements, head counts on the bus and parading out all staff members on the last night for a round of applause...well what can I say. I blame Downton Abbey.  Plus, we found no one who didn't love it.  Again, the ship is lovely, the staff and food were very nice and we ...

True-  We have never been on a cruise before, never been part of an organized travel thing of any kind and we will expound on that later, but for now, we will comment on other aspects, like Christmas Markets in Europe. They are bustling and feel festive. Most people are speaking German and they are eating and drinking, as at least a third of the shops are dedicated to guhlwine or bier or some other beverage that will warm your cockles, as it were, and an endless array of edibles; none that might be called healthy. Waffles with Nutella anyone?  As to goods, there are many, many ornaments, mostly made in China, and apparel, mostly from India and alpaca from Peru, and many candles and scented thingys and such from who knows where.  And at each Christmas market in each city, things are pretty much the same, though the small towns do have some sheds that sell home made goods, usually in support of a charity, school or sports team.  Clearly their are those on this ship tha...

The train from Paris arrived exactly on time and, despite assurances from the woman at the Information window that every cabbie would know where the dock was, our cabbie did not. At one point he attempted to convince us to get out at the wrong ship but eventually we found our vessel and Mark must have tipped very well, because he lost his frustration and was suddenly apologetic and jolly. Remember, he and we did not have a language in common, just a few words we hoped the other would comprehend.  We parked our luggage on the ship- our room wasn't ready- and they served a light buffet lunch, and then we boarded a shuttle bus back to the city center with a young, earnest tour guide who said he was studying organic farming.  Our guide spoke English rather well, but some of his sentence structure was hilarious;  "tell me" became "give me a sentence." Wish I had written down more. After a passionate but only moderately understood description of a Rodin from our young...

It is that we have had very wonky wifi. We are heading into day 4 of this cruise and, in brief, the ship is lovely, the staff is fine, the food is quite good and I have only felt humiliated by my fellow Americans a few times. The same number of times that I have wanted to lambaste some cocky American man expounding on how he loves his BMW but Germany is just too socialist, never once considering that it is their socialist system that produces such brilliant designers and engineers and their unionized labor that manufactures these great cars but again, I digress.  But how I ever thought I would be able to adapt to the bus tour excursion is beyond me. Mark and I have managed to do a lot on our own but sometimes the attraction is just too far and/or they are going to move the boat while you are out, so... We have many photos to upload. The quaint/charm meter is pretty much pegged to the right.  More soon! 

...while we gather our thoughts on the Rhine. Basel Town Hall (Rathaus - construction begun in 1504) faces Micky D's.  We're lovin' it! St. Stephen's Minster on the high ground above Breisach, Germany, catches the last of the sun before it slips behind the Vosges Mountains on the French side of the Rhine.