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Day #5: Warnemunde

Jun 14th, 2017 by

We docked in Warnemunde, Germany a little after 5am this morning for our shortened port of call. 

We spent a happy morning and lunch in this seaside village. It’s really a very charming place. We strolled about the city, took in the canals and beachfront, and also tried to enjoy as much as Germany has to offer–all in half a day: fresh strawberries, a Berliner (donut), a pretzel stick, fried seafood & chips (mit sauce), dark German beer, and an “eis” treat. 

Wunderbar! Wunderbar! Wunderbar!

Canal view:

The girls at the lighthouse:


Beach:

Charming cottages and shops:


Delightful town:


Cool seafood boats along the canal:


Serving a great lunch:

Happy Libby:


Local dunkel beer (happy Paul):


Of course, NCL couldn’t get the logistics right (again) — making us stand in line to board for well over an hour (surprise — more irate guests!).


Speaking of which, I didn’t want to waste another day at sea, and I’ve just grown tired of these morons. Sooo… I made a game time decision to abandon the cruise at our last port of Stockholm (actually a port an hour outside of Stockholm–they changed it shortly before we left for the trip!). 

So, I booked us two nights of hotel rooms and train tickets back to Copenhagen. That’ll give us a full extra day (really day and a half) in Stockholm. Why? I value my time more than I value a few dollars. So this 9-night round trip cruise is becoming a 7-night one way journey. And, I’m once again at peace, even if we’re missing Estonia. 

Happily back aboard the Norwegian Getaway:

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Day #4: Germany (or not)

Jun 14th, 2017 by

This morning we were awakened by an announcement from the captain that our arrival in Germany was delayed (likely for many hours) due to poor weather conditions (high winds, specifically) in the channel. That means that the day has largely turned into an unscheduled “fun day at sea” or as I like to call it, “a complete waste of my time.” 😬

Afternoon update:

We’re still sailing around in circles with no hope to dock anytime soon. I have taken to watching French movies with subtitles. All hope is lost. 

Evening update:

During dinner, the captain informed us that we wouldn’t be docking at all today. Instead, our official arrival has been pushed until tomorrow for a shortened visit (so folks wanting to go to Berlin still cannot). That means we’ll also now miss our visit to Tallin, Estonia — the only new country on this trip for Emerson, Libby, and me. 

Why didn’t we just skip Germany altogether? Well, we couldn’t because it’s an alternative port of embarkation / disembarkation for NCL, as well as where we’re picking up our food for the rest of the cruise. So, basically, the vast majority of paying passengers get screwed because of weather and (more specifically) to accommodate NCL’s logistical needs. 

What is NCL going to do about it? Nada, it seems. 

On top of that, we returned from dinner to learn our second day’s execursions in St. Petersburg have been cancelled. Now pissed off to the point of not seeing straight, I went down to the (closed) shore execursion desk where I proceeded to bitch loudly at staff until they grudgingly fetched me the ShoreEx manager. He thankfully was helpful and rebooked everything in Russia, but really they ought to have had more than banker’s hours given the volume of people with issues on this ship at this point. 

So, in summary, Admiral Paul sends the captain (and really all of NCL) greetings and suggestions on how to dock this ship in his (their) derrière. 

Note: I’m posting this from Germany on Wednesday morning. Due to being back at sea early today, all day tomorrow, and then in Russia for two days — expect no further updates from me until Sunday. 

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Day #3: Copenhagen

Jun 12th, 2017 by

We awoke to partly cloudy skies and a stiff breeze. Since we had time before needing to head to the ship, we went out for breakfast and walked about the city. We strolled the Stroget from City Hall to the Nyhavn, which had Copenhagen’s most iconic city views of sailing ships moored along a colorful canal. 


Got photos working in Germany on 4/14. 😏

We more or less retraced our route back to the hotel, stopping in a few shops along the way. The stretch of the Stroget close to Nyhavn is populated with the shops of international, high-end, luxury brands. Toward the City Hall, the retailers seem to be a bit more local, as well as targeting the tourist trade. This included a pretty awesome Lego store, which pleased Emerson greatly. 

We checked out of the hotel a little after 11am and took a taxi to the ship, the Norwegian Getaway. 

We spent the remainder of the day doing what one does on the first day of cruise: check-in, having lunch, exploring the ship, making plans (dining reservations and shore excursions), muster drill, etc. 

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Day #1 & 2: To Copenhagen

Jun 10th, 2017 by

We’re back in Europe for the first time in two years! That’s a crazy long break for us, but we opted to finish the 50 states last year with our visit to Hawaii and our epic road trip through the Mountain West and Great Plains. Honestly, we enjoyed that so much I can’t say that I really missed going overseas, but it’s nevertheless nice to be back now. 

Our flights were on time and (relatively) uneventful. I say “relatively” because we initially had some difficulty in Tampa. We inherited a broken airplane from an earlier Cincinnati flight, but it was fixed in a surprisingly timely manner (especially as we were watching a couple of guys repair the rear stabilizer on the tail from a lift) and wouldn’t have mattered anyway since I got us confirmed seats on the next flight to Atlanta an hour later. 
The transatlantic flight was pleasant enough in Economy Comfort. We arrived in London a little late due to holding for air traffic over England for 30 minutes. For our onward journey to Copenhagen, we managed to get through the arrivals process, change terminals, and checked in with British Airways in about an hour and a half. We wasted a couple of hours at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 (which feels more like a high end mall than an airplane terminal) and flew on to Copenhagen. 

On arrival in Copenhagen, we took a taxi into the city center (about $45) to our hotel, The Square. Although, I’m usually a Marriott guy, it had a better location across the street from the city hall and about a block from Tivoli Gardens. The hotel itself was typically European of a Scandinavian persuasion–fairly modern design in the lobby, functional but small (by American standards) rooms. 

As we only made it to the hotel around 6:30pm, we headed out for dinner after checking into the hotel. Having wandered about the city center for a bit, we settled upon the “Cock’s and Cow” (a name that seems dirty and ungrammatical, though more likely just lost in translation). It’s a sort of high-end, independent burger and chicken joint, which we thought would appeal to Emerson. The food–salads, burgers, and fries–were all pretty good (great for Europe) and not wildly expensive for Scandinavia (about $70 for the four of us). After dinner, we walked around the city a bit more and took Emerson past Tivoli (which she’s excited now to visit, not remembering her first visit at 16 months of age). 

Note: I’ve been trying to troubleshoot an inability to upload pictures to the blog. Unfortunately, the problem (which seems to involve file permissions on my web server) isn’t likely easily fixed while traveling, especially since I left my laptop at home. So, a thousand words might have to be worth a picture until we get home. 😬

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Day #18: Heading home…

Jul 4th, 2016 by

I’m writing this at 31,000 feet en route to Tampa. Our travels from Denver have been uneventful since leaving the hotel at 5am. Indeed, I’d call the flights “pleasant” overall — both to and from Colorado. 

Although I think of this as a “two week vacation,” we’ve actually been traveling for 18 days. It feels like it. We’ve covered a lot of ground in those days: 3,978 miles, 11 states, and 7 national parks (but who’s counting?). 

We also completed our 157×50 project. 

Now what? I’m not entirely sure. I think we’re going to make a point of visiting every national park in the lower 48 (plus a few others). We’re probably also going to continue “collecting countries” as there are certainly places we’ve not yet gone that we’d like to go (and probably some places that we don’t want to go but will find ourselves in and enjoy even more). We’ll certainly return to some favorites… though that’s not exactly a small list for us to define. Maybe we’ll buy an RV and/or a boat and/or a vacation home (we’ve talked about all three but have never managed to pull the trigger yet on any of them). 

In any case, while this trip is ending and we’ve reached a milestone, the journey continues onward for as long, far, wide, and deep as we’re able to go.

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