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  • TravelerHigh seas, family, adventures
    Day 23

    In port in Porto in Portugal

    April 8, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    8/4 Our short visit to Porto, Portugal’s second-largest city. We docked at Leixoes, a few km from the city itself but it was all built-up anyway, driving through on the bus. We just took the included excursion which was okay though difficult for all excursions because of it being an Easter holiday so lots of visitors as well as major roadworks going on building an underground train network I think so all credit to the bus driver because the streets are narrow, several turned into one-way, and for some reason there was a lot of double-parking in the streets so I think the driver had to hold his breath and hope for the best in some places. The guide was Porto born and bred, very good.

    We took the scenic route into the city along the waterfront, lovely beaches and blue sea. Stopped in a central square so we could have a 20 minute walk around which was good because I wanted some cough mixture and there was a pharmacy right there. We were beside a small green park with a small bar, grass and very old olive trees, apparently the site of the city’s medieval olive grove that has been preserved – with a twist! Underneath is a new, small shopping mall, partly open to the sky where they’ve made a cut in the olive grove. Quite strange, but it was pretty all the same. We walked past the entryway to a public building with a huge stone ball suspended from the roof, pleased it didn’t fall on Pete.

    This mall led to another square and to the famous Lello and Irmao bookshop which was where JK Rowling started writing the Harry Potter books. There was a queuing race outside and dozens lined up to go inside, numbers very strictly policed, I wasn’t tempted, but the photo cribbed from the history talk shows how lovely it looks. The guide talked about whether the books used elements of the bookshop in descriptions, and also said that the students from the nearby university could often be seen wearing capes around the square – did that translate to Hogwarts perhaps?

    We carried on driving but it was hard to see much out the bus windows. And it was a bit hard to hear at times because of certain yappy people on the bus who had loud conversations over top of the commentary. So annoying. The guide gave us the city’s history, pointed out important buildings, and apologised again for the roading situation, but you just take it as it is. We could see a few of the tiled buildings, he pointed out that a lot of the tiling has been added in later years (20th century) when people realised they helped keep out the damp. The cathedral is apparently very ‘imposing’ and beautiful but we didn’t go near it, and the railway station is completely covered inside by tile stories. Didn’t notice many police around other than two officers on horseback in one street. Around the city there are traditional ‘English’ Gentlemen’s clubs still in use. I was interested that the guide kept referring to classes, both in the past and present day; a lot of references to upper, middle, lower classes which struck me as a bit odd. And it made me pleased to think that in NZ we don’t really have that huge divide, maybe to a small extent but this was really obvious.

    We saw some of the old city walls, some up high but many along the Douro riverfront with deep and high arches leading into back streets or big courtyards, apparently some would have been entrances to warehouses and named accordingly e.g. ‘coal street’ etc. Across the river you can see the big port (alcohol, not shipping) company warehouses and other buildings, mostly English names.

    There are six big bridges over the river, we could only see one side of the famous bridge built by Gustave Eiffel before he headed to Paris to see about a tower. The metal bridge in the photo, you can see a round tower at the top of the cliff, this was used by the Duke of Wellington as a base – I couldn’t quite work out if it used to be a monastery and was converted to barracks for the Duke, or was built as barracks and is now a monastery. Never mind. About half the group went their own way but the rest of us stuck with the guide walking along the riverbank then back through some small narrow streets to the meeting point, much more interesting to hear about the area’s history and more about Porto than to wander aimlessly in tourist territory surrounded by fridge magnets and handbags and cafes, learning nothing much.

    Back ‘home’ we were greeted by a parade of ship’s crew holding red umbrellas, chorus of ‘welcome back, welcome back’ and loud music, odd but fun all the same. Rushed to the theatre in time to hear most of the talk on the age of discovery and global exploration from early times through to Columbus, Vasco da Gama and so on. We went to a later one supposedly about ‘Fact or Fiction: Falmouth and Literary Cornwall’ which sounded quite wide-ranging (think smugglers and ‘Rebecca’) but it turned out to be just Poldark which was okay but not as expected. I had a much-needed sleep after that.

    We had booked (for free) at Manfredi’s Italian restaurant for dinner, one of the two ‘posh’ restaurants, and we had a delicious meal and wine, great waiter Enzo looked after us, from Peru. The people next door asked about how long he’d been on the ship, conditions etc: this was his second trip, Viking had better accommodation, food, conditions and great pay – he was making as much as, for instance, a doctor, would make in Peru. Has a wife and 7-month-old child back home, very proud to show us their photo.

    Then it was time for the 9.15pm show, songs and stories from Assistant Cruise Director Francesca, who had a magnificent operatic voice but also crossover so very entertaining with a variety of songs and she was well worth listening to.

    Back in our room we found the Easter Bunny had visited – or was still there: a chocolate bunny in a basket and some eggs.    Read more

  • TravelerHigh seas, family, adventures
    2
    Day 24

    At sea again

    April 9, 2023, Celtic Sea ⋅ 🌬 12 °C

    9/4 – a day at sea………oops, a bit of a glitch with the time zones. Pete set the alarm for 7.15, planning to have breakfast and go to the history talk at 9.30. BUT his phone decided to be extra-clever and reset itself to Spanish time when we passed by the northern part of Spain so we were up extra early on our second ‘lazy’ day at sea. No trouble making it to the talk at 9.30 about the Bayeux Tapestry with Dr Fenella Bazin who is the ship’s resident historian, and to her second talk at 2.30 about how four nations became the United Kingdom. Pete also went to one in-between about Stonehenge, full house at the theatre he said – and the conclusion is, it wasn’t the druids!

    We had an interesting chat to Dr Fenella and her husband Michael later in the café, a lovely couple well into their 80’s I’d say. She has been the historian since 2015 when Viking first started out so they’ve sailed all over. She comes from the Isle of Man.

    Regarding the Bayeux tapestry, of course it depicts Vikings in it’s story and all of the Viking cruise ships have large panels taken from the tapestry in each stairwell, probably five times life-size. Dr Fenella pointed out that the colours around the ship are taken from the tapestry – the blues, browns, ochre etc – and some of the patterns echo the tapestry as well.

    Looking again at the demographics on the ship, a week on (and where has that time gone?), we’ve concluded that we haven’t seen one single dark face amongst the passengers, there’s a smattering of Asian passengers but the demographic is overwhelmingly white, grey-haired, and probably over 75, and there’s a bit of botox employed in some of the faces. We’d say maybe a dozen under about 30 on the ship, and possibly just 10% under 50. As far as the crew goes, they come from everywhere. So far we know of: UK, USA, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Peru, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Ukraine, Russia, Argentina, Azerbaijan, China …………and it’s too late to think of any of the others we’ve come across. A real rainbow nation looking after us.

    Each night the show kicks off with this song being played really loudly, it’s very catchy, I had to google it – have a listen (skip the ads at the start). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIZdjT1472Y.

    Tonight it was the resident band and four singers/dancers with a round-up of popular songs from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, definitely singing along to those ones.

    As I upload this the ship tracker tells us we're west of Brittany and the island of Ushant. Tomorrow we hit the UK and expect wet weather for two days, let’s see what happens.    Read more

  • TravelerHigh seas, family, adventures
    Day 25

    Pirates

    April 10, 2023 in England ⋅ 🌬 12 °C

    10/4 Falmouth, Cornwall – woke early to see the white lighthouse floating by, then we could see St Mawes across the river with its castle, and then tied up in Falmouth. All passengers had to present passports to British Immigration so we had a strict order, our group was last so all filed across the stage in front of five officers, showed our passports to one of them and got looked at closely, then had a red dot put on our ship ID card, handed passports to the crew and we were able to leave. We’ll get the passports back on Wednesday when we get back into EU territory.

    It was a free morning, hadn’t quite decided what to do but saw a lovely pirate offering a history tour at 11am so told him we’d be back, went for a short walk to the St Mawes Ferry and spent 20 minutes each way across and back St Mawes/Falmouth. It was a bit lumpy crossing the River Fal, or in fact the Carrick Roads which is the third deepest natural harbour in the world after Sydney and ??not sure of the second. Rumour has it if Scotland leaves the UK they will be looking for a new submarine base….Falmouth looks promising!

    We stayed on board due to timing but the little trip was worth it, it’s a pretty little town with white houses strung along the shore and slopes, St Mawes Castle on the headland where apparently Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn once stayed. There were three crazy people swimming, we saw them strip off, jump in and pretty quickly jump out again, one went back for a second dive then out.

    https://www.falmouthuncovered.co.uk/
    The tour with Pirate Will started at the Killigrew monument, a granite pyramid in the middle of a pretty little green park, across from what was once the home of John Killigrew then his descendants (all called John) who were initially pirates…….no, actually the more polite privateers…….who had a licence to rob and plunder from their base in rural Falmouth. Then in 1613 Sir Walter Raleigh came to visit and suggested to John K 4 ‘why don’t you build a town and set up a shipping/trade/hospitality base’ and by 1615 there were four pubs and it was on the way.

    Falmouth then in 1688 became the base for the famous Packet Boats that carried mail to and from England initially to Spain and then all around the world, lasting until 1850 when steam power took over. Mail would arrive in Falmouth and be transported by ‘fast’ coach and horses to London or wherever, to London it took about five days. We heard that the Packet captains who transported gold took 1% of the value and could earn up to 20,000 pounds per year at that time, an enormous sum, but was danger money because there were still pirates.

    Falmouth grew and grew and it was a popular place to go, Beatrix Potter visited in the late 1890’s and said that the menus were written in five languages. There were consulates for many countries and the travel/history writer Philip Marsden said in one book it was a ‘town of outsiders’. Now there’s a university so more ‘incomers’ are welcomed. In the 1930s the town was full of little narrow streets, slums in some parts and there was a big clearance which opened up the town (though it wasn’t universally popular and in some cases not necessary) and now there are houses from that era hard up against Georgian, Victorian and brand-new builds, quite a mix, with some very pretty areas especially as you get away from the original waterside village.

    We climbed up above the river, had a good view from the old cemetery – another story about when the hillside collapsed and the road was covered in old coffins and skeletons. Will lives in the converted Quaker Hall and popped into his flat to pick up his accordion, sat on the wall for a couple of minutes and gave us a tune. He did a great job on the tour, enjoyed himself, not too wordy but made history come alive. As we walked down he told us a few stories about townsfolk and what they got up to, a tale of cannibalism in a shipwreck, a captive musician………..90 minutes very well spent.

    The town main street was much busier on the way back to the ship, lots of visitors on a public holiday and every second one had a dog. SO MANY dogs, big, small, well-controlled, underfoot, shops with notices saying ‘Dogs welcome’ – I think okay outside but not inside. They were everywhere and the narrow main street was really busy. We picked up a Cornish pasty to take back, sat on our balcony and I thought of my dad. He was a champion pasty maker, never forgotten.

    In the afternoon we did a bus tour around the area, it was a squished bus, a bit hard to see a lot but it was interesting all the same, the guide was very informative and we got lots of history, stories about the places we saw and a couple of stops. There was a howling gale blowing, faces just about got sandblasted at the beach, I was taking a photo of Pete looking back at St Michael’s Mount and he just about lost THE HAT – which, as we all know, he doesn’t venture out without, and he’s got a strap to pull out in case of a high wind. Then it happened, the strap snapped, hat nearly went flying. That was close!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Michael's…

    Anyway, back to the tour. We heard about Ralph’s Cupboard, one of many caves in the cliffs, Ralph was a giant who captured people stored them in the cave until he ate them. The tide was out so we could see people walking across the causeway to St Michael’s Mount, we’d done that in 2013 when we stayed in Penzance with Jen, it’s a beautiful little island and house. There was so much gorse on the hills, I asked if it was a noxious week like in NZ but the guide said ‘oh no, we like it, sometimes it gets burnt off but not often’. There were spring blossoms on the trees, I saw a couple of paddocks full of daffodils ready for picking, even saw a couple of calves with their mums. There were a few swimmers and surfers on the beaches, lots of craggy cliffs.

    And of course we can't forget the mining history of Cornwall, with abandoned mine chimneys and buildings across the hills and all around the countryside, hard to believe they went down more than 3000 feet in some cases, and well out under the sea. It's hard to imagine the life of miners, and how brave they were too in mostly awful conditions.

    So that was our short stay in lovely Cornwall, we’d like to go back again, there’s so much to see.

    I should say that there may be different photos on my Facebook page if you want to have a look. Thanks for reading my thoughts about our trip.    Read more

  • TravelerHigh seas, family, adventures
    Day 26

    Portsmouth - a morning in port

    April 11, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    11/4 – Part 1 – Portsmouth overview
    We were early into Portsmouth, sailed in quietly and I looked out just in time to see an aircraft carrier and another of the several Royal Navy ships in port, this being home to two thirds of the UK’s surface fleet, and an important base for many centuries. There’s a lot to see, far more than a morning allows so we knew the overview bus tour included in the tour would be useful. I’d love to have seen the Mary Rose and Victory but maybe another time? No visit to the Victory but we did see plenty to do with Admiral Nelson such as his statue in the old port area, Portchester Castle in the distance, church where the king married Catherine of Braganza, and the Victorian Fort Nelson up on the hills above the town. And the guide’s brother coincidentally happens to live in Nelson, New Zealand.

    Unfortunately it was another squished bus, 38 people and quite hard to see but the commentary was pretty much non-stop, I’ll never remember it all but it was fascinating all the same. I’ve attached the Wikipedia link in case you want a lot of detail. Most of the city is built on Portsea Island and there are a series of harbours, historical defences including four concrete constructions/forts just out to sea (one of which is now a hotel), huge long brick walls around the naval establishments, centuries-old sea and defence walls. Henry VII built the world’s first drydock in 1496, still in existence though rebuilt in later years. The Vikings were here, the French have attacked time and again, the Spanish had a go, and the Germans, all driven off. And although extensively bombed in WW2 the city was the HQ for the planning of the D-Day landings

    We drove through the town and up along the long ridge, Portsdown Hill, above the town which has great views showing the extent of the harbour. It also has a series of Victorian forts which include Fort Nelson which contains the Royal Armouries Museum. There’s also a fake ship, or the top half of what looks to be a ship, visible on the skyline which is used for various practices by the military. Going a bit further into the country we passed through a couple of very pretty villages which had some flint cottages, thatched cottages, narrow roads, very ‘chocolate box’. We could see Southwick House near here, Eisenhower’s HQ, and the pub where he and Churchill would go at lunchtime for a break and informal talks. The house is still occupied by the military even now, and the family are aiming to finally get it back though they have their land and farms around it.

    We had a couple of brief stops to have a look at ancient walls, a cannon, the site of the Mary Rose’s capsize on her first voyage (top-heavy, all hands lost, and now recovered and a famous archaeological site), and a huge tank landing craft from D-Day which had been (of all things) turned into a nightclub somewhere up north, sunk and was recovered and brought to Portsmouth. The chain link statue is a memorial to the emigrants to Australia, a kind of sister-city thing, and there’s also a memorial on the nearby wall with poppies, plaques, Australian flag.

    And fun fact – windsurfing was invented at Hayling Island by a boy called Peter and his dad who had a surfboard and fixed a small sail to it, there were photos in the paper and quite a write-up. A few years later a big company tried to take out a patent for windsurf boards (if that’s what they are called), claiming it was their invention, but got thrown out of court because of all the evidence against them.

    A busy morning, ready for lunch and then on to Arundel Castle in the afternoon – see the next entry, too many photos for just one entry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth    Read more

  • TravelerHigh seas, family, adventures
    112
    Day 26

    Arundel castle

    April 11, 2023 in England ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    11/4 – Part 2 – Arundel Castle – afternoon tour from Portsmouth
    Many years ago my sister Kaye and I read a series of books by Elsie J Oxenham, the ‘Abbey School Series’ published by Collins with distinctive pale blue or red binding, and by other publishers with bright pictures of jolly schoolgirls having adventures on their covers. They followed the lives of cousins Joan and Joy Shirley, their family and friends, and were set in an old abbey (based on Cleve Abbey in Somerset which we’ve visited), a manor house and………a castle. The castle in the book is called Kentisbury and it’s based on the beautiful Arundel Castle which is 45 minutes away from Portsmouth so I wasn’t going to pass up a chance to visit.

    Off we went, a group of 25, to the home of the Howard family, the Duke of Norfolk, most senior non-royal duke, who is busy in his hereditary role as Earl Marshal of England, currently responsible for planning King Charles’ coronation – he’s had a busy time lately with the Queen’s funeral, and the Duke of Edinburgh’s before that. The castle build was started in 1067, has been in the same family since 1138, has had many alterations and additions, is open to the public from April to September (too hard to heat for the rest of the year), and the family lives in houses around the estate, not actually in the castle itself.

    At the gatehouse there was a pretty display of tulips and spring flowers, they are getting ready for the annual tulip festival and all around the grounds and on the slopes below the castle walls are apparently 100,000 tulip bulbs, what a sight that’ll be in a couple of weeks, there’s a bit of colour already coming out. There are also beds of daffodils, I’d never seen white daffodils before, and pink blossoms coming out.

    We started in the huge private chapel, the start of a feast of beautiful stained glass throughout the house, I love all the colours and stories in the windows. The chapel is used by the family for special occasions, and the family christening gowns are in a display case. We were able to visit several rooms, too many to detail, but included an enormous ‘great hall’ which had a couple of lion skin rugs in front of the huge stone fireplaces, and even two beautifully painted snow sledges and an old and well-used sedan chair but even so you could see the lovely silk lining. It wasn’t very big so the users were either quite small or very squashed.

    There was a picture gallery stretching the whole width of that part of the castle, little seating nooks looking out onto the ‘motte and bailey’ castle keep on top of the original hand-built ‘hill’ now in the midst of the gardens, a beautifully set up dining room with the family china and silver displayed, a billiard room (once a bedroom) with a huge billiard table taking up almost all the room, Queen Victoria’s bedroom (specially decorated for her three-day visit). My favourite room was the library, the photo shows only half of it, very ‘Harry Potter-ish with dark wood and sumptuous upholstery, glass-fronted book cases, cosy seating areas along one wall, some with fireplaces. It was lovely. We could only look around one main level, then down to the servants area though not in the kitchens. There were big solid black radiators on the walls and the castle was surprisingly warm, the heating bill must be horrific, no wonder they close in winter.

    We had two hours to look through the castle, the extensive gardens if we wanted, and had time to visit the second chapel which is unusual in that half is a Catholic chapel on the castle side, and there’s a huge semi-opaque glass window in the middle which divides it from the Anglican parish church on the other side, no way through for tourists. It dates back to the 1300s and is partly a mausoleum for the family with stone effigies, but also has a huge stained glass window and beautifully carved seats. I took a photo of the ceiling, very detailed carved faces looking down on us.

    Having spent nearly 90 minutes in the castle we had about ten minutes in the chapel and when we came out it was raining so headed back to the bus and were back on the road by 4pm. We walked back through the ‘dry moat’ (actually a bit sticky underfoot with the rain), could see some of the gardens but it would take a day to see everything in and around the castle and town. Maybe we’ll get back here one day.

    And I have to say that Kaye still has the books and I dip into them every now and again, more than 55 years on. Maybe we never really grow up?
    https://www.arundelcastle.org/castle-history/

    Back on the ship we just made it to the daily ‘Port Talk’ giving information about our next destination, we were looking forward to Wednesday 12th, a full day ‘In the Footsteps of Monet’ taking us to his house and garden in Giverny (and the famous waterlily ponds) and on to Rouen .......BUT…….the announcement was that French ports were closed due to strikes, and we would have to spend the day at sea as there were no other ports to take us, plus the weather wasn’t great, so we would aim for a whole day in Bruges on the 13th rather than arriving at 1pm. Great, and having been to lovely Bruges in 2004 we chose a morning tour to a coastal village, confirmed our afternoon tour outside of Bruges to a castle and that was Thursday sorted.

    The evening’s entertainment was a pool party: the two Filipino nightclub singers, the four resident singer/dancers and the resident band were all in top form, had a couple of songs from Francesca (classically trained/crossover singer) the assistant cruise director. We even had a bit of a dance, the music was great. Finished around 1130pm, oldies go to bed early.    Read more

  • TravelerHigh seas, family, adventures
    Day 28

    The channel, a castle and a comedian

    April 13, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    12/4 – At sea unexpectedly.
    So, as noted before, the French port strikes and storms with wind blowing up to 50 knots meant we couldn’t go to Giverny/Rouen which was disappointing but understandable. I felt sorry for one man who had booked the tour to the US WW2 battlefields as a pilgrimage for his father, and others who had Paris on their bucket list for special reasons, but on a cruise the weather and politics dictate what happens.

    Instead we had a lazy morning, went to a couple of history talks, watched ‘The Greatest Showman’, movie, had a leisurely lunch and dinner, and ended the day in the theatre with all the entertainers contributing to ‘Songs from Broadway’ which played to a full house and ranged from Les Misérables to Grease. Cruise director Richard, dressed for the part and bathed in red light, did a great rendition of ‘Roxanne’ from Moulin Rouge, he’s got a good voice.

    I’ve said before that the crew are excellent and we’ve found our stateroom team of two is great, very obliging. They clean thoroughly in the morning, restock everything, sanitise, even squeegee the inside and outside of the veranda glass. They’re always about with the cleaning stuff. Then they

    Fellow passengers can be quite interesting, some sitting next to you might strike up a conversation or sometimes you just overhear conversations such as the one with a group of eight, some of the men obviously ex-servicemen who had been stationed in Germany in the 60s. ‘Waaaal, I was in the payroll office and one night we got word something was going down and we needed to move money out so we loaded up about $10 MILLION onto trucks and off we went. Wonder what would have happened if we turned left instead of right?’. I’d have liked that money.

    Or some are weird – Pete heard someone say ‘she hates the excursions, she hates the at sea days, you wonder why she came on this trip’. The mystery ‘she’ wouldn’t have been a fun companion.

    But on the other hand, talking to the neighbours at lunchtime, a lovely woman from Charleston and her friend from Maine who sometimes travel together. The lady from Maine owns a camp and a blueberry farm ‘native blueberries, much smaller, much more tasty’ and showed us photos of her neck of the woods, beautiful shores and sea and autumn colours. The other lady lives between a golf course and a small lake, the front of her house juts out over the water and……..an ALLIGATOR spends a lot of time under her deck. It’s fenced off so the alligator can’t get to her back door or driveway but evidently it gets quite interested if they are ‘grilling’ on the deck. New Zealand is on her radar for a trip, unless the alligator gets her first.

    Unfortunately late in the day we found out that there were two cruise ships stuck in Bruges and no dock available to Jupiter until early afternoon so we were back to square 1 – no morning excursion and the afternoon one would be delayed. So here’s what happened.

    13/4 – Dry land at last: a short afternoon in Bruges
    I was awake by 6am and could see the lights of Calais and other towns sparkling on the horizon, as well as the slow blink of a lighthouse. The sea was still rough and it had been raining overnight so it’s no wonder the sea was really dirty sailing into Zeebrugge, and we needed two tugs/pilots for extra safety.

    We had a quiet morning, went to the port talk about Amsterdam and that was all until after lunch when we headed out with guide Mark on an abbreviated visit to the small town of Damme and on to Loppem Castle https://www.kasteelvanloppem.be/en/visit, with a stop at Roose’s Chocolate Factory in-between. It’s pronounced ‘Roses’ and I was a bit worried it was ordinary old Roses chocs from our supermarket but no. Chocolates are hand-made and we could see the staff at work making and packing, lots of different chocolates and truffles to buy, and some generous samples too (not that we tried them???).

    In Damme we stopped at the 12th century city hall, a pretty building with statues of important people and a tinkly carillon of bells chiming at 3pm. We got a pretty thorough explanation of the various statues on the building, totally unretained in my brain other than marriages of convenience such as Margaret of York (statue on the end right side) married to cement the wool trade as the Flemish needed English wool for their fabrics. Also noted that women were actually quite powerful and ruled in their own right, not just as a consort in many cases. However, women only got the vote in Belgium in 1948.

    Mark’s commentary was fairly continuous, slightly political, a lot of it went over my head but some things stuck. We went past a windmill (pictured), on the top is a mermaid who, according to legend, was captured but instead of being kept was sent to the local fish market and sold! He said that prices have risen 17% in the last year due to the Ukraine war, power and gas are much more expensive, and people are starting to put solar panels on their houses. He talked quite a bit about both world wars and the part Belgium played including his father having been captured twice, escaped at the end of the war and was caught and helped by an American GI ‘Hands UP!’ and he answered ‘Belgium’, the only English word his father knew apparently. The local population had been starved, took a long time to recover.

    The countryside was flat, lots of pollarded willow trees lining the roads (apparently those trees and poplars are important for water and keeping things healthy, not sure how that worked), a couple of canals, lots of cycle paths even alongside quiet country roads. There were a few sheep but not much other than grass though with the war farmers are looking to grow wheat again. Farms used to be smallholdings but about 50 years ago the government decided they needed to be bigger, land was consolidated and the farmhouses were sold to townies who now use them for weekend/holiday homes.

    Our main stop was Loppem Castle which is a mid-19th century, very large, house, rather than a castle. It’s set in pretty grounds with a small lake but unfortunately our visit was shortened so no time to have a walk round nor to get lost in the castle’s famous maze. I was interested because it was part-designed by Edward Pugin, son of Augustus who designed the London Houses of Parliament and there are similarities. We could only see the downstairs rooms – the main hall, dining room, and the ‘red’ and ‘blue’ rooms so-called because of the upholstery and stained-glass colours. I liked the tiled fireplaces and the tiled floor in the main hall, beautiful wood carved staircase, would really liked to have gone upstairs to see the bedrooms and a small museum. I have quite a bit of blue and white pottery from our time in Thailand and was interested in their small collection of pots, rather more valuable than mine I think. Photo is of a 16th century pot; the blue doesn’t really show up but I really liked it.

    They rushed us back on board but in fact we didn’t leave port until close to 8pm when we were having dinner. We went to the show at 9.15, a second one from comedian Lloyd Hollett and it was every bit as good. He’s only ever been on TV once, does personal appearances and cruise ships, and he made the interesting comment that a few weeks ago he was asked to not refer to his audience at any time as ‘ladies and gentlemen’, it must be more PC. Following through on that, one of our guides said something similar, that she has now changed her comments to ‘my dear guests’.

    But back to Lloyd, his two shows were well worth going to. He sings, chats, interacts with the audience, said he was a bit apprehensive about his humour going down with an American audience but they mostly got it. He filled the theatre both nights anyway and we went away happy. https://www.lloydhollett.com/    Read more

  • TravelerHigh seas, family, adventures
    11
    Day 29

    Delft and Amsterdam

    April 14, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    14/4 - Amsterdam
    Awake just after 5am to find we were in the brand new sea lock, opened late 2022, it’s not very deep and didn’t take long before we were sailing up the North Sea Canal towards the city, didn’t dock until 0815 so it was quite a long way to go. Then we were lining up to join just a dozen others on a tour to Delft, nice to have the small number and another good guide. The bus driver, Pavel, was Polish and said he worked about three weeks and then went home to Poland for a week.

    It took about 45 minutes firstly through the city, then new suburbs which the guide said were only up to about five years old and built on land covered with sand over the swampy peat base. Current population is around 800,000 and I’m sure she said there are about 180 different nationalities, but maybe it was 118. A lot anyway, especially with refugees and immigrants though it’s hard to provide for them all properly. We saw a few bulb fields but not a lot of colour other than a big hyacinth paddock in full bloom, very pretty.

    Our main visit was to the Royal Delft Company’s factory and museum (and shop!!) the company dates back to 1653 and I couldn’t resist this, fairly appropriate, wooden chest from Zeeland and dated 1653. We really enjoyed this visit, the company guide was informative and interesting without being too wordy, there was a lot to look at, we went through the museum then the factory where we saw the process and painting, I was forced to buy a pair of Delft cat earrings, some had time for coffee at their nice little café.

    They had a section showing copies of pottery screens, doorways, stoves etc that had been put into buildings, mostly in the Netherlands, I’d have loved a couple at home but…..too big! There were samples of Dutch pottery before they used the finer porcelain – similar designs but so much finer. There were examples of the 2017 design of a dinner service for the royal family, most recently used at a state dinner for French President Macron. There was a life size replica of the famous ‘Night Watch’ painting which took two men a year to make. We heard that the ‘Night Watch’ was so called because it was so dark and looked like night time, but when it was cleaned it was daytime and not at all sinister.

    The guide showed us how the basic pots were made and dried, and we saw Laurence, a master painter, almost finished two days work on a large pot, you can see the big screen so visitors could see how it was done. Then it was into the shop, lots of nice things such as tiles and plates, but of course I had to buy CAT EARRINGS, what else?

    Back on the bus and almost into the town centre, though buses aren’t allowed there now so we had a few minutes walk over a couple of bridges and had to keep an eye out for fast cyclists – they rule the roads anywhere. Apparently the government had a big campaign several years ago and put thousands of bikes around the cities to encourage people to give up cars, but they just got stolen and sold on so it was back to square one, and incentives for bike use which has worked a bit better.

    Four of the group stayed in the town square but the rest of us followed the guide for a walk around a couple more squares and streets, plenty to see and it’s so old, and the buildings seem to be beautifully kept with painted shutters and other woodwork, clean stonework. We saw where William of Orange was stabbed to death, the 16th century meat market, all sorts of lovely buildings including one with a golden mermaid on top, and a leaning tower dominating one street. There were cafes in the square and several tourist groups, and even a troop of Morris dancers visiting from England and giving a demonstration. We were told that in some cities tour groups are restricted to 15 and there’s a real shortage of guides because of this. They need more guides, but there are also more tourists coming from other parts of Europe, not going to England now since Brexit, so it’s a busy time for them.

    Back in Amsterdam just after 1.30 so we walked from our ship into the old town smack bang into the red light district which we both felt was bigger and more sleazy than when we were in the city in 2004. There were countless cannabis ‘museums’ and shops (definitely not that obvious previously), more grimy pubs with their attendant lager louts, rough-looking bouncers and sex shop minders, and it was pretty crowded but mostly with sightseers I guess. It’s all a fact of life but really we were pleased to get through to a quieter part and just wander along the canals, pretty buildings, a few flowers and boats, including one with a couple of Scottish bagpipers sailing down the canal. And we were hungry so paid for only our second meal in a fortnight, having eaten on the ship every meal except the Cornish pasty earlier in the week.

    Fun facts: The old city houses were built on about 11 million piles sunk 15 – 20m into the silt and soil down to bedrock; the average house stands on 9 or 10, the railway station on 9000, the royal palace on 14,000. The tall narrow houses mostly lean slightly forwards so anything being craned upwards won’t damage the façade, and some lean slightly sideways because of subsidence. The tulip, despite all the tulip craze and crash centuries ago, isn’t native to the Netherlands but is native to Turkey. The Netherlands is the second biggest brewer of beer in the world, 14%, next to Mexico which produces about 30%. And each year around 15,000 bicycles are hauled out of the canals……….along with about 50 cars. Speed limit on the expressways is mostly 100kph, after 7pm it goes up to 120 kph.

    Sailing out from Amsterdam, having left a bit late around 6.30 because there was one passenger missing; a call went out over the intercom asking for a certain person to report. Then 20 minutes later, according to the lady in the next balcony to us (she and Pete were talking), a woman ran really fast up the gangplank, it was quickly detached, and the ship was on its way a couple of minutes later. She was THAT person!! Ooops.

    We sat in our room watching the world go by, so much to see: people waving from the little cross-canal ferries and tourist boats close to the city; lots of people out walking and some walking dogs along the very well-marked tarsealed canal path; there were a few cyclists; we could see into back yards and marinas, there were allotments and gardens too; lots of businesses of course and some empty land as we got further towards the lock. There were lots of giant windmills, and for a long way the sides of the canal were built up with ladders and moorings, especially by the container port (that was Port Nelson on steroids). Further out into the countryside there was just flat land, green, brown, reed-lined ponds, a road and cycle path parallel to the main canal, nice two-storey houses in a fairly traditional design, a bit more industry, lots of trees all bare of leaves, it will be pretty in a few weeks when they’re all green.

    We watched the ship go into the lock then had dinner, and on to the show which tonight was Cruise Director Richard in a one-man show, a bit of humour, a bit of singing, another good evening on board Viking Jupiter.

    Have a look at the next entry (or previous - depending on how it works) for some more photos.    Read more

  • TravelerHigh seas, family, adventures
    2
    Day 31

    Last days with Viking Jupiter

    April 16, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Reporting on two days, 15 and 16 April
    Saturday 15/4 – a scheduled at sea day and definitely relaxing, the sea wasn’t so bumpy. We could see several oil rigs on the horizon, a few boats through the day but otherwise nothing to see but the sea. I had a haircut, having also indulged in two pedicures over the fortnight, spoiling myself. We watched a movie, Pete did the washing (he loves self-service laundries and the odd people that frequent them, marvelling that people actually get anything clean because half of them don’t read the instructions then have a hissy because the machine won’t work), I went to a talk supposedly the presenter’s walking tour of Bergen but she was way off beam again rambling about a conference she’d attended sponsored by Cubans (I think that’s what she was talking about) and Nordic knitwear and how good it is, not a lot about Bergen. So just as well we went to the daily port talk, got much more out of that.

    For dinner we had a booking at the Chef’s Table, a five course tasting menu with matched wines, an emphasis on Norwegian dishes including a REINDEER ravioli in reindeer consommé, and lamb farikal which is literally ‘sheep in a cabbage’ and was a very tender lamb loin wrapped in cabbage and I guess poached. Very nice too.

    We went to the theatre for half an hour of music from the Filipino band and singers, then at 9.30pm the Captain came and thanked everyone for being the best passengers ever, and there was a farewell parade of staff from all sections. And then the resident four entertainers gave us The Beatles Songbook, so that had a couple of people singing along (I was one of them), they were really good, it was a great final night at sea.

    Sunday 16/4 – Arrival in Bergen at last but I wish we had another few days on the cruise, it has gone so quickly and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. We were awake not long after 5am and had a great view of the sun coming up from our bed, the little islands in the fjord – definitely snow on the mountains and could see frost on the ground. It was truly beautiful, very peaceful. It took about two hours up the fjord to Bergen, docking just before 8am – we’d had breakfast by then and were ready for the day.

    It was urgent ‘life admin’ first for Pete, he took a taxi to the station to sort our train bookings for Wednesday; he’d booked on line, we got half price for being old, BUT there was no option to choose seats and we ended up with one seat carriage 7, the other in carriage 2. Not ideal for a six hour trip. The lady at the station was really helpful, strictly speaking the tickets were non-refundable but realising they had been booked together, same booking number etc, she said it was all pretty strange and kindly moved us both to the same carriage. Phew. Then he went searching for a SIM card – our NZ roaming doesn’t roam in Norway, Poland or Denmark so we’re going to be difficult to contact apart from Email at times – being Sunday it wasn’t the easiest but he got one at a 7-Eleven and that’ll activate sometime Monday. He also sussed out our hotel which isn’t very far away, and walked back to the Jupiter.

    In the meantime I’d taken my book and phone so spent the time checking and replying to messages, all the while enjoying a great view over the harbour, a few boats going to and fro, then decided I might go Spanish and have a ‘second breakfast’ – donut, spicy bun and a cuppa. Pete must have smelt the teapot because he turned up then and told me all about his adventures.

    The ship was parked directly opposite the Bergenhus Fortress so we had time to have a look around. It’s a 13th century royal residence, currently a naval/military base with a museum, but also used by the King when he’s in town for receptions etc. And indeed the king has been in town, we’ve seen his ‘motorcade’ three times: one cop on a motorbike, one police car and four black cars. Just low key. He had been on board a beautiful tall ship, over 100 years old, that had come back to Bergen after 20 months at sea, parked just along from Jupiter. Anyway, we had a walk round the grounds, admired the line-up of cannons pointed into the ground so they wouldn’t have done much good in a raid, couldn’t get into the museum part but will try again. The fort is also used for concerts, past stars include Elton John and the Rolling Stones.

    After lunch we took the included tour of the town, waterfront, through a huge tunnel to the next fjord and up high above the town – or really Bergen is a city but with all the beautiful old buildings it has a ‘town’ feeling. The population is a bit less than 300,000, it’s Norway’s second city after Oslo, country population is a bit more than 5 million. Norway was ruled by Denmark up until 1905, became independent, but the people still wanted a king so they asked Danish Prince Charles to become king, he changed his name and was then King Hakon.

    We had three photo stops: an old church, though called the ‘new church’ where we only went into the crypt; the concert hall named for Edward Grieg, famous composer who, by the way, was only about five feet tall so his statue is life-sized. The hall is shaped like a giant piano, you can see it from the lookout on Mt Floyen; and the last stop was above the town looking down on the waterfront. The houses are like dolls houses, mostly wooden and similar-looking but there are a few very modern builds which look a bit out of place. It all seems clean and bright. The guide was doing her very first solo tour, she did ok, a couple of glitches but we got plenty of information without being over the top.

    We had a half hour walk along the waterfront when we got back, I was interested to see the tall ship, and then we found the navy was doing a demo of a small ship so the inner child came out and I sat on the gun seat. Lots of people around, small stalls, nice to see everyone enjoying the sunshine.

    Then it was time for our second tour of the day, this time to a farm a few k’s away on another arm of a fjord, beautiful setting for a tiny 130 acres ‘farm’, half of which was granite up the side of the mountain. Owner Arild met us and walked us through the property – they also run horse treks and other tours. The farm has been in the family for five generations since 1875; it was originally owned by the King of Norway, sold in 1663, had a couple of other owners before Arild’s family. He showed us his horses, quite rare old breeds (protected) which he’s keeping going to work on the farm and for commercial reasons. His ‘day job’ is teaching baking to prisoners in an effort to give them a trade when released, also business management so they know how to manage money.

    He’s got a few coloured sheep, some baby lambs (ready…..aaaaaah……), told us about farm subsidies which used to pay out per animal on the farm and farmers apparently didn’t have many, then it was changed to animals sent to the works and suddenly the numbers changed. Norway used to import most of their lamb from New Zealand but hardly any now. An average dairy farmer would have maybe 20 – 25 cows, I couldn’t work out where they would get enough milk for the whole country. He talked about other business subsidies and said how important Norway’s oil production was, as well as gas, especially now with the Ukraine war. Only two or three years ago there was a lot of talk about cutting back on production for environmental reasons but that’s quietened down now.

    https://www.ovre-eide.no/turisme The farmhouse has been restored but much of it is original, the oldest timber in it was dated to 1540, pine. The boards are thick, rough-hewn, amazing joints, and the room was quite dark red which is original to the house, they’d found samples during the reno. They’ve reclad the outside walls, put insulation in the middle, and rebuilt many stone walls especially the walls which would catch the worst weather.

    Arild disappeared while our group of about 20 was served a selection of his baking, four different small cakes, very nice especially a sort of macaron which had quite a chewy centre. Little apple cakes were served with whipped cream, and we had a choice of tea, coffee, hot chocolate.

    The big surprise was one of the young women serving us appeared with Arild, both in national costume, they did a short folk dance then he talked about the costumes which apparently can cost up to about USD6,000, can be inherited, can be a family design, regional, or just made up. Red stockings for unmarried women, black for married, lots of beading and very fine embroidery or drawn thread work on the shirt cuffs. Last was a short piano piece by Grieg, played by Arild – he’s a man of many talents.

    I was especially keen to do this tour, my great grandfather sailed to New Zealand from Norway in 1875 with three siblings, had the general store in Chertsey. When we went to Oslo in 2015 with Jen we visited the Stange/Hanum area and a Genealogy contact had found the farms where my 4 x great-grandfather and the following generations had lived, it was a special time, and I was interested to get a bit more of an insight into Bergen and surroundings.

    We had to finish our packing when we got back, bags had to be in the hallway for collection by 8pm ready for disembarking on Monday. Dinner was at Manfredi’s again, once again excellent food and it was nice to talk over the last fortnight’s adventures on the high seas (literally). Our last night on board, the two weeks had really flown.

    I'll add farm photos in a second post.    Read more

  • TravelerHigh seas, family, adventures
    2
    Day 31

    Farm and harbour photos

    April 16, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    More photos from Bergen, such a lovely place - very colourful along the waterfront and the old Hanseatic trade area

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