This post continues the story of our Road Scholar tour of the Canadian Maritimes. At the end of Part 2, we had just arrived at the Delta Hotel in Moncton, New Brunswick, having completed our exploration of Prince Edward Island. Onward we go:

Sunday, September 24, 2023: After breakfast at the hotel, we headed southeast along the banks of the Petitcodiac River to the Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park, located on the western “arm” near the tip of the Bay of Fundy. (Interestingly, our guide at the park pronounced the name of the bay as “Funday” rather than as “Fundee” as I had always heard it. Apparently, that is the local way to say it.) This visit was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

The bay of Fundy produces the highest tides in the world due to its unique shape and dimensions, rising from 39 to 52 feet from low to high tide at the Hopewell Rocks site, depending on the date, time, and positions of the moon and the sun. Our visit to the park came as the water approached low tide, which allowed us to walk along the beach and explore the fascinating sea stacks, or “flowerpots” – so named for the impression conveyed by the trees and shrubs on top. These free-standing rock structures have been sculpted from the sandstone cliffs over thousands of years by the daily tides. In the photo below, you can see the arch in which weddings are regularly held; at high tide the water can rise above the top of the arch. I’ve also included a time-lapse video showing the tide cycle on a day that it reached 42.6 feet:

We spent about four hours at the provincial park exploring the excellent museum, walking along the beach, enjoying lunch at the museum café, and then walking along a trail on the cliff for an overlook of what we had seen on the beach. The seaweed was quite interesting – very thick and sturdy. It only survives if wetted by seawater daily, so the top line of the seaweed indicates the lowest level of daily high tides at the Hopewell Rocks site. The cliff rocks are also somewhat unstable and there are warning markers in various areas to prevent visitors from getting too close to them. Here are some more photos to provide a feel for the place.

After our visit to the Hopewell Rocks, we rode the motorcoach back up the Petitcodiac to Moncton and then on to Shediac, on the northern coast of New Brunswick. It was interesting to learn that the river flows backward as the high tide develops each day, then reverts to its normal course as the tide recedes again. After a brief stop at the Homarus Center to visit the world’s largest lobster, we boarded a boat operated by Croisieres Shediac Bay Cruises. Why is there an enormous lobster in Shediac? The city bills itself as the Lobster Capital of the World, of course!

NOTE: In an earlier version of Part 2, I made a mistake in my reporting. The photo above was taken in Shediac on Sunday, not in Borden-Carleton, PEI, on Saturday as I previously claimed. My apologies for the error, now corrected, which was no doubt caused by my age-impaired memory.

On the lobster cruise, we listened to a fascinating presentation on lobster fishing by the cruise boat owner, Ron Cormier, himself a long-time lobsterman. Since more than half of the passengers on the boat were from France, Captain Ron switched back and forth effortlessly from French to English and back as he went through his narration. We learned how modern lobster fishing employs conservation techniques to ensure that only mature lobsters are caught. This came about as advancing technologies led to overfishing, which nearly decimated the lobster industry in the latter part of the 20^th century. Today, lobster fishing in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence follows a sustainable model under which fishermen can make a good living. After Captain Ron’s presentation, we were treated to the most delicious lobster dinner Pat and I have ever had anywhere.

After the cruise, we returned to the Delta Hotel in Moncton, and I went on a brief stroll around the area to hunt for someplace that sold Dr. Pepper, to support my morning addiction. No luck, though. Not many places in Canada actually carry that most delicious of beverages, so I had to settle for a Pepsi purchased at the hotel front desk.

Here’s a map of Sunday’s travels:

Monday, September 25, 2023: On Monday, we again had breakfast at the Delta Hotel before checking out and heading off on the motorcoach once more. Our first stop was at the Joggins Fossil Center, on the Nova Scotia side of the Bay of Fundy. At Joggins, the highest tides in the world reveal the most complete fossil record of the “Coal Age,” 100 million years before the dinosaurs. The site includes an excellent museum, which we visited before heading to the beach with a very young, but also very knowledgeable, local guide. The beach was fascinating, strewn with rocks of assorted sizes and shapes and quite a few fossils. The exposed cliffsides were also fascinating, with vegetation growing above the high tide line and small waterfalls issuing from the rock walls.

The Canadian spirit of inclusion was especially evident in the museum restrooms, as illustrated by this sign on the wall. Imagine the reaction of a member of the US House of Representatives Freedom Caucus upon encountering that sign: not only is it presented in multiple languages, but it hints at the possibility of encountering someone not exactly like him or her inside. Precious!

After Joggins, we headed east. We made a brief rest stop at a place called the Masstown Market, sort of a combination garden supply store, restaurant, and mini-mart. I was delighted to discover that they sold Dr. Pepper, so I snagged a couple of bottles to feed my habit for the rest of the trip. Our next stop was the Sugar Moon Farm, a maple syrup producer and restaurant, where we had a tour of the manufacturing and bottling facilities followed by an excellent lunch.

Then it was off to Halifax, where we checked in at the Hotel Halifax before walking to a nearby restaurant, the Baton Rouge Grillhouse and Bar, for dinner. After dinner, Pat and I stopped off in the hotel bar for a nightcap. I figured that a guy ought to be able to find a decent single malt Scotch in the biggest city in Nova Scotia, what with all the Scotsmen populating the place.  My faith was rewarded with a dram of Lagavulin 16-year, which was incidentally the only adult beverage I had on the entire trip. Quite a contrast to Pat and Dave’s Tremendous Tropical Trek!

Here’s a map of Monday’s travels:

Tuesday, September 26, 2023: On Tuesday morning, after breakfast at the hotel, we departed for our last two tour sites in Noval Scotia. The first stop was at Lunenburg, a port on Nova Scotia’s southern coast. Lunenburg is the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America. Established in 1753, the city has retained its original layout and overall appearance, based on a rectangular grid pattern drawn up by absentee landlords in England who had no idea of the actual topography. It is one of only two urban communities in North America designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We began with a walking tour of the city, starting at the Lunenburg Academy, a historic school building constructed in 1895 to replace a building that had been destroyed by fire. The academy operated as a school from 1895 until 2012, when the Town of Lunenburg took over the property. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1983 for its distinctive Second Empire architectural features and its illustration of Nova Scotia’s education system in the 19th century. As of 2019, the building houses a library and music school, and restoration efforts are ongoing. By the way, local lore has it that the schoolhouse is haunted.

We saw well-preserved, historic homes along the way, many of which incorporate enclosed front entry porches – a unique Lunenburg design feature.

We also toured St. John’s Anglican Church; originally built in 1753, it is the second oldest continuous Protestant church in present-day Canada. It was destroyed by fire in 2001 but subsequently restored to its former glory, reusing many parts that were rescued from the blaze.

As we neared the harbor, we passed along a street lined with brightly colored buildings, which have become a symbol of the city over the past decades.

Next, we visited the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, with exhibits illustrating the history of cod and lobster fishing in Nova Scotia. Cod fishing was a huge part of Lunenburg’s early economy, but the working conditions for the fishermen were horrific – two-man crews worked endless hours in tiny boats far from the relative safety of the fishing schooners. Safety protocols and equipment were eventually introduced after the so-called August Gales of 1926 and 1927, when the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” claimed the lives of the crews of six Lunenburg schooners and an American schooner, and fishermen refused to work until reforms to the hazardous methods were instituted. Thankfully, today’s fishing practices are a far cry from the brutal past.

After the museum tour, we explored Lunenburg on our own for two hours, finding a nice restaurant for lunch and strolling through the town admiring the quaint décor, such as the Christmas tree made from lobster traps and the streets named for various species of fish.

We also watched the Blue Nose II, a replica of the famous racing schooner, depart with a boatload of passengers for a tour. The original Blue Nose was built at the Smith and Rhuland Shipyard in Lunenburg in 1921 with the goal of winning the International Fisherman’s Race, a competition for the hard-working vessels of fishermen who made their living on the sea. Nova Scotia’s pride and shipbuilding reputation sailed with Bluenose, and she took home her first Fishermen’s Trophy in October of 1921. During the next 17 years, no challenger — American or Canadian — could wrest the trophy from Bluenose. She earned the title “Queen of the North Atlantic” and became a Canadian icon.

Perhaps sharp-eyed readers can see the Bluenose Golf Club in the picture above, located across the bay from the Lunenburg pier. This was just another reminder that there are plenty of courses to be found in the Maritimes, which might be reason enough to come back some day.

After our Lunenburg visit, we climbed aboard the bus for a journey to Peggys Cove, a small fishing village on St. Margaret’s Bay. As we neared the town, the landscape changed dramatically to feature a rugged, granite coastline. What caused this dramatically different geology? I’ll try to summarize what I’ve read about it. Some 470 million years ago, deposits of mud and sand were formed near the earth’s south pole. As the continents shifted across the surface of the earth, these deposits were compacted into shale and sandstone. When the African and North American continents collided, the Appalachian Mountain belt was formed. The shale and sandstone were crumpled and folded, and the heat of collision transformed them into slate and quartzite. Molten material from below the earth’s crust then flowed upward and crystallized into granite at least 370 million years ago. Over the next 350 million years, uplift, weathering, and erosion removed much of the slate and quartzite, exposing the granite once buried by the mountains, and the sea waters that flowed into the resulting valleys caused further erosion.

Whatever the cause, the Peggys Cove landscape is beautiful and fascinating. It reminded me of the rock formations along our beloved North Shore of Lake Superior, though my understanding is that those rocks are much older and primarily basalt formed from lava flows. But I’ll stop trying to describe this any further, pictures being worth thousands of words and all.

There are many signs warning of the hazards involved in exploring Peggys Cove, but we didn’t let those deter us. After some clambering about, we relaxed on the comfortable chairs set out for visitors until it was time for dinner.

We had lobster at the large visitor’s center building, and although it was tasty, it was nowhere near as good as our feast on the Shediac Tour boat the day before. After dinner, we went back outside to watch the sunset before boarding the bus again.

On the way back to the Hotel Halifax, our bus driver, Kirby, entertained us all by missing a turn on one of the roundabouts – twice. He was clearly embarrassed, but all of us had done something like that before and were just glad to know that even professionals can sometimes find the occasional evil roundabout to be a challenge. Sadly, we had to bid Kirby adieu as we departed at the hotel, wishing him the best after eight nearly flawless days of Maritimes meandering.

Here’s a map of the day’s travels:

Wednesday, September 27, 2023: On Wednesday morning, we breakfasted with the remaining members of our tour group for the last time before heading to the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. I don’t have a map of the day’s travels, which, if I did, would show us Ubering to the airport some 32 miles north of the hotel, flying to Toronto, eating lunch in the Toronto airport (we just had to get another Shawarma wrap and a salad at that great place we discovered in Part 1), then flying on to Thunder Bay, retrieving the Tesla from long-term parking, and driving back to the cabin in Grand Marais. Not very exciting, but it gave us time to reflect on our Road Scholar program, The Best of the Canadian Maritimes. As we discussed the adventure, we enthusiastically rated it with two thumbs up.

So, there you have it, dear readers, my complete report on Pat and Dave’s Magical Maritime Meanderings. To sum up, here is a map showing all of our destinations and travel routes in the Maritime Provinces.

We haven’t scheduled any further travels for a while, since I’m having total knee replacement surgery in mid-October (left knee) and hopefully in mid-January (right knee). What with the associated physical therapy, we assume I won’t be up for travel until spring, and then we’ll be heading back to Grand Marais. However, in December of 2024 we are booked on a Viking River Cruise along the River Duro in Portugal, which I will no doubt attempt to chronicle. All the best until then …

This post continues the story of our Road Scholar tour of the Canadian Maritimes. In Part 1, I told of our rough start and the days of the tour through our visit to Fortress Louisbourg. The post ended at our hotel, Auberge Gisele’s Inn in Baddeck, Nova Scotia.

Wednesday, September 20, 2023: On Wednesday morning, we rose for 7 AM breakfast at the hotel before heading off for the northern part of Cape Breton Island. The highway that circles the northern tip of the island is the world-famous Cabot Trail, named for Italian explorer Giovanni Caboti, better known as John Cabot, who explored Cape Breton Island during his 1497 voyage. Our first stop was in Cheticamp, a picturesque Acadian fishing village where we visited St. Peter’s church and Le Trois Pignons.

When a new Catholic priest was assigned to Cheticamp in 1875, he determined that the area needed a much larger church than existed at that time. He imposed an annual levy on parishioners beginning in 1880, and construction of St. Peter’s was completed in 1893 by expert tradesmen from Quebec. Its vaulted plaster ceilings were completed in 1900, and the ornate altar was added in 1912. At right in the last photo below you can see our excellent guide for the day, a knowledgeable and charming local resident self-nicknamed “Cheryl of Gray Shingles,” singing a hymn for our group.

Le Trois Pignons (The Three Gables) is officially known as the Museum of the Hooked Rug and Home Life. It was begun when local resident Marguerite Gallant donated a huge collection of antiques and other artifacts she had collected during her 94-year lifetime. The museum also includes an impressive collection of hooked rugs by local artisans, including Elizabeth LeFort, who began hooking rugs at age 9 and became world famous, continuing to produce amazing rugs until her death in 2001 at age 91.

From Cheticamp, we traveled on to Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We made three stops in the park, at a scenic overlook, at the Bog Trail, and at the Macintosh Brook Trail. The scenery was spectacular, and very reminiscent of our earlier trip to Acadia National Park in Maine, although Cape Breton Island has more elevation change as one would expect of “Highlands.”

We had a group box lunch at the Macintosh Brook Trailhead (which coincidentally had a bank of chargers supplied by Tesla for their own and other brands of EVs) before driving out of the park again on the Cabot Trail. We then made a brief stop at Ingonish Beach for a final look at the spectacular scenery before heading back to the hotel.

I took particular notice of a lovely golf course near Ingonish appropriately called Cape Breton Highlands Links, rated as the fourth best in Canada and among the top hundred in the world. Hmmm, Tesla charger, great golf course – this may be a good place to go back to in the future.

Back in Baddeck, the group dispersed independently for supper. While most of the group went to various restaurants in town, Pat and I enjoyed the second of those beef bourguignon dinners that the hotel had set aside for us on Monday evening.

Here’s a map of Wednesday’s travels:

Thursday, September 21, 2023: On Thursday, we checked out of Auberge Gisele’s Inn and headed west. Our main stop of the day was in the seaport town of Pictou, where we visited the Hector Heritage Quay. This museum is dedicated to the voyage of the ship Hector, which arrived in Pictou harbor on September 5, 1773, carrying 189 passengers – the first people to emigrate directly from Scotland to Nova Scotia, though earlier ships had brought Scottish emigrants to Prince Edward Island. The Hector passengers were Scots forced off their ancestral lands, enticed by the ship’s owner who promised free passage, a year of free provisions, and a farm on land he had purchased near Pictou. After an arduous, eleven-week voyage, during which 18 passengers died of dysentery and smallpox, the provisions never materialized and the land was unsuitable for farming. Yet the new immigrants managed to survive and become a major part of the future Scottish presence in Nova Scotia. The Hector is currently being restored, as shown in the photo below. It has a long way to go to achieve its former glory as depicted in the companion photo I borrowed from the internet, and our guide at the museum wasn’t shy about sharing details of the ongoing fundraising effort.

After the museum, we motored to the nearby ferry terminal and crossed the Northumberland Strait to Prince Edward Island (PEI). After a brief stop at a small tourist area in Wood Islands, we continued on to Charlottetown and the Hotel on Pownal (named for Pownal Street in Charlottetown) where we stayed for two nights. As you can see in the photo below, it was quite rainy during the ferry crossing, so I didn’t get any useful photos.

During our stop at Wood Islands, the sun came out, and I was wandering around looking for photo opportunities. Just as I was ready to snap a few, I was drenched by a cloudburst and rushed back to the bus (if you can call my ungainly old-man gait “rushing”), and then the sky cleared again. I took this as a sign to give up on photos for the day, so you’ll just have to trust me that the scenery on PEI was quite lovely. I’ll also note that, following the changeable and often rainy conditions up to this point, the weather was fantastic for the remainder of the trip.

Here’s a map of the day’s travels:

Friday, September 22, 2023: On Friday morning, we joined the other tour participants for breakfast at the hotel at 8 AM, and then attended an excellent lecture on the history of PEI and Charlottetown by a man named Cameron Macdonald (it seems that a huge percentage of the people on PEI are named Macdonald). We learned that the island’s cultural heritage is a mix of First Nations, French, English, Irish, and Scottish. Archeologists have found evidence of Mi’kmaq settlements that date back thousands of years, and the early French settlers enjoyed very good relations with the Mi’kmaq people. Not so much so with the English, whom they opposed in the so-called French and Indian War, and perhaps not so much with the subsequent Scottish and Irish immigrants who flocked to the island after the English defeated the French and their Native allies.

Interestingly, our lecturer (and virtually all of the guides at the various sites on the tour – in Nova Scotia, PEI, and New Brunswick) took pains to explain that the places we visited are “unceded lands of the Mi’kmaq.” So, even though the lands were taken by the immigrants, current Canadian policy is to acknowledge that fact rather than ignore it or try to pretend otherwise in the vein of many US politicians. When I asked one of the guides if there were any discussions of reparations within Canada, she said no, but agreed that recognition of history is at a minimum the first and proper thing to do.

Following the lecture, we joined the guide for a walking tour of Charlottetown, during which he regaled us with stories such as the grisly, twice-botched execution of a man convicted of murdering a drunken man who had attacked him while walking in the street with his fiancée. The fiancée served as a prosecution witness when she learned that he already had a wife back in Scotland (or wherever he was from – I’m a little foggy on the details). At any rate, after the debacle, public executions were banned, though the gallows remained until the 1940s. The site of the gallows is now a public park with swing sets and other play equipment, which were being enjoyed by a group of schoolchildren even as Cameron told us the story.

We learned that shipbuilding began on PEI in 1789 and became the driver of PEI’s economy by the 1860s. The population was primarily engaged in farming, fishing, and lumbering, and many local residents became wealthy through manufacture of furniture and farm implements. However, the shipbuilding industry began to decline with the onset of metal ships in the late 1870s and collapsed almost entirely by 1880, wiping out half the economy. Later, bootlegging liquor to the US during prohibition became a large underground economy.

One thing I found curious is that the vast majority of the historic displays – statues, plaques, artwork, etc. – are related to Charlottetown’s status as “the birthplace of Canadian Confederation,” because the first meeting at which the idea was discussed took place in Charlottetown on September 1, 1864. The meeting was originally planned to discuss a union of the Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, PEI, and New Brunswick), but delegates from the province of Canada (present day Ontario and Quebec) got themselves invited and used the opportunity to push their own idea of Canadian Confederation. The Canadian delegates arrived on the ship SS Victoria, bearing a massive cache of champagne, and found no one to welcome them until a single man, PEI’s Colonial Secretary William Henry (W.H.) Pope, was eventually rowed out to the ship. Unfortunately, there were no rooms available at the local hotels because the first ever circus had come to PEI, and the town was swelled with visitors wanting to attend the circus. Only Sir John A. Macdonald, the man who eventually became Canada’s first Prime Minister, was given accommodations at Pope’s residence on the island; the other delegates had to bunk on the ship during the conference.

Despite the rocky start, the Canadian delegation wined and dined and charmed the others and pushed aside all thoughts of Maritime Union. Canadian Confederation did happen on July 1, 1867, after subsequent meetings in Quebec and London, in which PEI didn’t even participate. The island had no interest in joining the Confederation because the PEI economy was still roaring due to shipbuilding and strong trade with the US. It was only in 1873, when shipbuilding had begun to decline, that PEI joined the Canadian Confederation. Despite this reluctance to join, much less participate in the Confederation’s planning, Charlottetown is now hailed as its birthplace. I guess revisionist history does thrive in Canada, despite my earlier comments about acknowledging the taking of Native lands.

Some of the meetings took place at Province House, officially known as Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island, where the PEI Legislature has met since 1847.  The building was constructed starting in 1843, and the architect did not have a sufficient budget to include many features, such as the facade and balcony which were added later. Due to this delay in adding a balcony, there is no door leading to it, so politicians need to climb through a window when they wish to give a speech to an outdoor crowd.

After the walking tour, we had a group lunch at a local restaurant called The Gahan House (named for John Gahan, a prominent merchant and importer of wines, teas, and groceries on PEI in the 19th century) and then spent the afternoon roaming the city on our own. (I had an earworm of “She Wears Short Shorts” going all afternoon, eventually realizing that it might have been inspired by our server’s attire.)

We ate dinner, again on our own, at Brit’s Fish and Chips and then attended a madcap comedy at the Confederation Centre of the Arts called The Play that Goes Wrong. It was great fun and a nice way to end our time in Charlottetown.

Here’s a map of the day’s travels:

Saturday, September 23, 2023: On Saturday morning, we checked out of the Hotel on Pownal after breakfast and headed for the north side of the island. Our first stop was at the Prince Edward Island National Park. Known for its diverse habitats including forests and wetlands, the park provides a home for a variety of plants and animals, and is popular for its beaches, sandstone cliffs, sand dunes, barrier islands, and sand pits. The coastal area is inhabited by the endangered Piping Plover, whose nesting sites are protected. The park is a dynamic system of shifting sand carried by wind and waves, and is the finest example of sand-dune ecosystems in Atlantic Canada.

After the National Park visit, we stopped for lunch at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company, whose grounds include a beautiful Peace Garden. We also bought some jam there, which will serve as a reminder of the lovely place we enjoyed.

After lunch, we traveled to another part of the National Park, the Green Gables Heritage Place. This beautifully restored site includes: the MacNeill Family Homestead, which inspired the setting for Lucy Maud Montgomery’s famous Anne of Green Gables books, a well-tended garden, and two walking paths. One of the paths, the “Haunted Wood Trail,” winds some half-mile through the woods from the MacNeill homestead to the home Lucy Maud shared with her maternal grandmother, who was the local postmaster. I was very surprised to find that the site also includes a beautiful golf course — too bad I didn’t bring along my clubs!

Then it was off on the bus again, with two quick stops before leaving the Island. We made a spur-of-the-moment stop at the Somerset Ice Cream Bar, our guide Derrick’s favorite ice cream shop, and then again at Borden-Carleton before traversing the Confederation Bridge to New Brunswick. The bridge is billed as the “longest bridge in the world over ice-covered waters” at 8 miles in length. The curved design adds to the bridge’s structural integrity, ensuring its capability to withstand the high winds that regularly occur on the Northumberland Strait.

We ended the day in the city of Moncton, New Brunswick, at the Delta Hotel. Here’s a map of the day’s travels:

OK, I’ve done an awful lot of blathering, so I’ll stop now. In Part 3, I’ll cover Sunday, September 24, through the end of the trip on Wednesday, September 27.

Stay tuned …

As past readers know, for the past several years I’ve been documenting some of our travel experiences through blog posts. (The most recent of these was Pat and Dave’s Tremendous Tropical Trek, describing our travels in March of 2023, from Fort Lauderdale to the Panama Canal and back with Viking Ocean Cruises.) We are among those most fortunate of people who are able to travel about the world in our Golden Years, and we like to schedule these trips well in advance, so we always have something to look forward to.

As we basked in the winter glory of our “southern home” – our Minneapolis condo – back in January, even as we eagerly anticipated the upcoming Panama trip, we were trying to decide where to go in the fall. One of our most enjoyable past adventures was a jaunt with the RV we formerly owned to Acadia National Park in Maine (that one was dubbed Pat and Dave’s Eastern Escapade) back in August and September of 2021. During that trip, we had considered continuing on to Nova Scotia, which we could barely see across the Bay of Fundy as we enjoyed the scenery at Acadia. We didn’t make it that time, but vowed to go sometime in the future. So, as we were tossing around ideas for fall travel, we decided to do just that. For reasons which I can’t quite recall, much less comprehend, it was agreed that I would plan out the trip and make the necessary arrangements.

Fast forward to mid-May, when the following conversation took place.

Pat: “How are you doing on planning that Nova Scotia trip?”

Dave: “Ah …, well …”

Pat: “You’d better get going on that before you head to the cabin for the summer, or else nothing will get planned at all.”

Dave: “Sure thing, dear. I’ll get right on it.”

It just so happened that I chose that moment to go down to the lobby and collect our mail. And it just so happened that in the mail was a brochure from Road Scholar, the travel group formerly known as Elderhostel. And it also just so happened that Road Scholar was offering a tour entitled “Best of the Canadian Maritimes,” a 12-day motor coach tour encompassing Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. I quickly scanned the brochure on my way back up in the elevator, then entered our condo and resumed the conversation:

Dave: “You can relax now. I’ve got it all planned.”

We had gone on Road Scholar programs three times previously, to Key West, Hilton Head, and St. George, UT, though only the latter has been chronicled in the blog (Pat and Dave’s Eclectic Electric Road Trip). As a result, we were familiar with Road Scholar and were confident that the program would be excellent. So that was that, and we happily marked the trip on our calendars for September 16 through 27. Our plan was to drive from the cabin in Grand Marais, MN, to Thunder Bay, Ontario, then fly to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to join the tour group on Saturday, September 16. The “Best of the Maritimes” program began with a tour of Halifax on Sunday, September 17.

Sunday, September 17, 2023: On Sunday morning, we took the hotel shuttle to the airport and took a train some 25 miles into the city for a nice tour. Here’s a photo from that excursion:

Those world travelers among you are probably thinking: “That photo doesn’t look like Halifax at all.” Right you are! In fact, Pat and I were in Toronto while the Road Scholar group was touring Halifax, and I have no idea what they actually saw there. Why were we in Toronto? Our best laid plans were upended by Mother Nature, as Hurricane Lee forced cancellation of all flights into Halifax on Saturday. The first leg of our flight, from Thunder Bay to Toronto, was unaffected, but our flight to Halifax was rescheduled for Monday, September 18, so we hunkered down in a hotel near the airport to wait. We spent much of the day on Saturday on the phone with Road Scholar representatives trying to sort out what to do. On the advice of Road Scholar, we booked tickets on the Maritime Bus departing from Halifax International Airport at 3:50 PM Monday and arriving at a place called Nyanza, near the hotel in Baddeck where the tour group would be staying, at 8:30 PM. The Road Scholar advisor assured us we could catch a taxi from Nyanza to the hotel.

Meanwhile, we continued to look for an earlier flight that might get us to Halifax on Sunday. After repeated attempts to contact Air Canada – at the airport customer service desk, on line, and by phone – I finally spoke with an Air Canada agent Sunday morning. After giving me a condescending lecture about the hurricane, she reluctantly agreed to check all earlier flights, confirming that there was nothing available that would get us to Halifax prior to 2:30 PM Atlantic time Monday, by which time the Road Scholar tour would have left for parts east. Heaving sighs of resignation, we decided to take the UP Express train from the Toronto Pearson International Airport to Union Station in downtown Toronto and have our own self-guided city tour.

So, while the Road Scholar group was touring Halifax, we schlepped around the bustling, international city of Toronto. From the UP Express terminal at Union Station (UP stands for Union-Pearson, by the way) we walked through the SkyWalk to the CN Tower and then to the Harbourfront Center, taking in the sights of modern, glass and steel high-rise buildings, water taxis, tour boats, and sailboats flitting about the harbor, and the city airport located on an island in Lake Ontario.

I was mightily impressed by the CN Tower, which rises 1,815 feet, towering above the Rogers Center, the roofed stadium where the Blue Jays play. CN Tower is the tallest free-standing structure on land in the Western Hemisphere and the tenth tallest free-standing structure in the world. Interestingly, we learned that it gets hit by lightning about 75 times each year. We went up to the main observation level at 1135 feet and then up to the SkyPod at 1,467 feet, taking in the spectacular views before returning to terra firma. My only regret is that we didn’t stay ten minutes longer – the roof of the Rogers Center was closed as we entered the elevator to go down, but then opened as we descended a few minutes before the start of a baseball game, so I missed a great aerial view of the ballpark.

As we walked around the city, the one discordant note for me was that there are almost no “old” or historic buildings in the downtown area, and the handful that remain stick out like sore thumbs. The impression I got was of an ultramodern city that has no interest in its own history. Nevertheless, I was very glad to have the chance to experience it.

Monday, September 18, 2023: Monday turned into an all-day travel event. We left our hotel in Toronto at 9:00 AM EDT, arrived at Halifax International Airport at 2:30 PM ADT, and boarded the Maritime Bus at 3:50 PM. The somewhat crabby bus driver informed me: “There’s no such place as Nyanza; you’re going to Wagmatcook.” Somewhat taken aback, I tried to enjoy the scenery as we wound our way eastward, stopping to discharge and/or pick up passengers at some half-dozen stops and eventually disembarking at an Ultramar Gas Station in Wagmatcook at 8:35 PM. Per the original theory, that was where we would catch a taxi to Auberge Gisele’s Inn in nearby Baddeck, where the Road Scholar group had checked in earlier in the day. As we stood outside in the dark, an elderly gentleman emerged from the gas station (which was quickly locked by the lone attendant, presumably to prevent either Pat or I from trying to enter the premises). The gentleman regaled us with some local lore before climbing on a four-wheeler and driving off with a friendly wave, leaving us alone and somewhat unsettled.

There was one minor problem with the taxi plan, however. There are no taxis in Wagmatcook, Baddeck, Nyanza (which does in fact exist – it’s just not an actual stop for the Maritime Bus service), or anywhere else remotely close. Fortunately, we had tumbled to this earlier in the day and, through a series of phone calls and text messages, had arranged for the Auberge Gisele’s Inn manager to come and pick us up for a nominal fee. Which he did, and we were finally settled in to our cozy hotel room by 9:30 PM. The hotel staff had thoughtfully set aside the beef bourguignons dinners we would have eaten had we actually arrived with the Road Scholar group. They were quite delicious after microwaving, and we ate contentedly in our room, having finally caught up with our tour.

We later learned that the other tour participants had also taken a motorcoach from Halifax with a stop for a tour of the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, and were at that time attending a ceilidh (a Gaelic word pronounced “kay-lee”), a social gathering featuring Scottish songs, dancing, and storytelling. So, we missed those two things by being latecomers, replaced instead by our culturally-enriching, 12-hour travel day. I didn’t manage to get any pictures of interest, so instead I offer this map of the day’s journey from Halifax International Airport to Baddeck:

Tuesday, September 19, 2023: On Tuesday morning, we joined the other tour participants for breakfast at 7 AM, finding them to be a very congenial group. There were twelve other Road Scholars, hailing from California, Washington, Indiana, and Ohio, along with our knowledgeable and friendly tour guide from Prince Edward Island, Derrick Higgins. Four of the original eighteen tourists had canceled due to travel issues caused by the hurricane. (I presume those four had purchased trip insurance; we had not, so were more determined to catch up with the tour.) After breakfast we met our excellent bus driver, Kirby, also from PEI, as we made our way to the site of Fortress Louisbourg. This complement of fourteen tourists plus Derrick and Kirby remained together for the entirety of the trip.

Fortress Louisbourg is a National Historic Site restored by the Canadian Government to represent its condition in 1741. The original settlement was founded in 1713 by French settlers from Newfoundland. The major attraction of the site was the abundant supply of cod, which supposedly sometimes ran so thick that ships could not navigate the waters, and settlers could harvest the fish using buckets. Subsequently, the fishing port grew to become a major commercial port and a strongly defended fortress, with fortifications eventually surrounding the entire town. The walls were constructed mainly between 1720 and 1740. By the mid-1740s Louisbourg, named for Louis XIV of France, was one of the most extensive (and expensive) European fortifications constructed in North America.

The fortress was conquered by British forces in 1745, but then returned to the French in 1748 under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which ended the War of the Austrian Succession. The British then established their own fortified town at Halifax. Louisbourg was recaptured by the British in 1758 as part of the general hostilities of the French and Indian War and the Seven Years War, and the British then used Louisbourg as the staging ground for their assault on Quebec. Having captured the fortress, the British expelled all French residents, known as Acadians, who would not pledge loyalty to the King of England. The Acadians dispersed to surrounding areas such as Prince Edward Island (known then as Ile-Sainte-Jean) and Newfoundland, and many travelled south to the Colonies or to Louisiana, establishing the Cajun presence there.

Our visit to the Louisbourg site included a walking tour with a guide, a lunch of soup, vegetables, and bread prepared in 1741 style, and free time to roam the grounds. Here are some photos – as you can see, it was rainy during our visit. We got caught in a downpour when we had reached the furthest point from shelter, eventually returning to the bus well soaked and moderately miserable.

After the Louisbourg tour, we returned through the rain and mist to Auberge Gisele’s Inn for a change of clothes and dinner. Then we rode into town to attend a play at Theatre Baddeck entitled “The Hydrofoil Mystery,” centered on Alexander Graham Bell’s secret development of a hydrofoil to attack German U-Boats off the coast of Nova Scotia during World War I. It was well-done, especially for a local theater troupe.

As the bus was preparing to depart for Gisele’s Inn, a local woman engaged in a conversation with Kirby. I was sitting too far back in the bus to hear what was said, but eventually she retrieved her husband and boarded the bus, directing Kirby to drive along the narrow, hilly streets of Baddeck to a turnaround, then back to her home on Queen Street where Kirby dropped her off to encouraging shouts and laughter from our tour group. She was a long-time resident of Baddeck, an Acadian descendant, and she impressed us all with her wit and friendly demeanor. It was a fitting end to our first full day in Nova Scotia.

Here’s a map of the day’s travels:

OK, that’s enough for the first installment.

In Part 2, I’ll cover Wednesday, September 20 through Saturday, September 23.

In Part 3, I’ll cover Sunday, September 24, through Wednesday, September 27.

Stay tuned …

In Part 2 of this blog series, I described our shore excursions in Cozumel, Mexico, Belize City, Belize, Roatan, Honduras, and Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. Now it’s on to Panama and Jamaica before returning to the USA.

Colón, Panama Wednesday, March 15, 2023)

The ship sailed from Costa Rica Tuesday evening and arrived at the at the docks in Colón at 9 AM Wednesday morning. Our shore excursion for the day took us on a 45 mile, one-hour bus trip to the Gamboa Rainforest Reserve.

Along the way, our tour guide told us that Colón is a poor city that rarely receives the promised government funding which instead goes mostly to Panama City, at the western end of the canal. As you can see on the map above, Gamboa is located roughly at the midpoint of the canal. As we neared the reserve, we passed by the prison where the infamous Manuel Noriega spent the final years of his life. The guide regaled us with her version of Noriega’s capture by the US military – while holed up in the Holy See’s embassy, US troops surrounded the building and played Van Halen music at ear-splitting volume for days until Noriega unsuccessfully tried to walk past them dressed as a woman. I suspect she may have embellished the facts a bit.

The Rainforest Reserve is associated with a rather fancy resort, where we stopped for a pre-tour rest break including a refreshing tropical punch drink.

Then it was on to the aerial tram. While waiting to board, I was bitten twice on my hand by mosquitos. I quickly applied some repellant, but I wouldn’t have needed to. Interestingly, I never saw another mosquito before or after that on the entire trip through the tropics. That was surprising to a Minnesota native who sometimes gets multiple bites every minute in Grand Marais in the summertime.

The tram carried us up through second-growth rainforest to an observation tower high on a hill once known as “naked hill,” since it was clear-cut during the canal construction in the early 1900s, but it is now thriving with lush, green jungle plants due to rainfall in excess of 200 inches per year.

Once we reached the top of the tramway, we took a short walk through the jungle to the observation tower. On the way up, we passed an old tank-like structure formerly used as a toilet for visitors. I learned that it was closed many years ago because people did not like the idea of sharing the toilet with native fauna such as boa constrictors. When we reached the top, the observation tower provided spectacular views of the Chagres River and the Panama Canal, including the eastern end of the so-called Culebra Cut through the continental divide.

After our return trip on the tram, we were treated to a tour of several exhibits at the Reserve displaying hummingbirds, butterflies, orchids, and sloths.

Then it was back to the ship, which dropped anchor at about 6 PM to join the queue for our transit through the Gatun Locks and into the Panama Canal.

Panama Canal (Thursday, March 16, 2023)

Here’s an expansion of my map showing our transit through the canal locks:

We had never heard the full story of the building of the canal before attending lectures on board the ship, and we found it absolutely fascinating. I’ll try to condense it down to a few sentences.

The initial work on the canal was begun by the French in 1881, buoyed by their success in digging the Suez Canal from 1859 to 1869. The French plan was to dig all the way down to sea level as they had done in Egypt. However, excavation was far more difficult due to the terrain and the raging torrent of the Chagres River during the 10-month long rainy season. Worst of all, the laborers were decimated by malaria, leading to eventual abandonment by the French in 1899. The US, which had previously built a railroad spanning the Isthmus, then negotiated a treaty with Colombia to build the canal. When the Colombian parliament rejected the treaty, Teddy Roosevelt engineered a revolution by local rebels, and the newly independent Panama then agreed to the treaty. Roosevelt later summed up his efforts by stating, “I took the Isthmus.”

The US effort began in 1904 with an enormous mosquito eradication program led by Dr. Walter Reed, since by then it was known that mosquitos are the vector for transmission of Malaria. The US design also abandoned the sea-level concept in favor of a more feasible plan: a huge inland lake, Lake Gatun, was created by damming the Chagres River, and locks were built at each end of the Isthmus to raise and lower ships between sea level and the lake level. In this way, the excavation through the continental divide, known as the Culebra Cut, was reduced by 85 feet of elevation, eliminating an enormous amount of effort. When the canal was finally completed in 1914, one man famously described the feat thusly: “We have married the seas by divorcing the mountains.” Even with this revised plan, the building of the canal is still heralded by many as the greatest engineering feat in history.

Subsequent work has included building of a second dam on the Chagres River in the 1930s, on the south side of Lake Gatun, to add reservoir capacity for canal operations, and the construction of additional locks as described below. The US agreed to return the canal to Panama in a treaty signed by Jimmy Carter in 1977, and Panama assumed complete control on December 31, 1999. Operation of the canal has subsequently been a great success for Panama.

We awoke early on Thursday morning as the ship was approaching the locks, excited to witness our passage into Lake Gatun. I went up to the main deck at about 6:30 to find a good spot for watching, but unfortunately the best spots were already occupied by a throng of earlier risers. I jockeyed around to various spots taking pictures left and right, but eventually decided to go back to our stateroom and observe from the balcony, where Pat had wisely decided to spend the morning. I’ll try to explain what we observed from our various positions during our transit of the locks.

As we neared the canal, a tender boat pulled alongside our ship and a canal pilot boarded the Viking Star. Somewhat later, a larger tender boat arrived and some sixteen or eighteen canal workers boarded the ship. I’m not sure what they all did, but some of them deployed ropes that were used to attach the ship to electric vehicles called “mules” which run along tracks on both sides of the channel. More about those later.

We entered the Gatun locks at about 7 AM. The series of three Gatun Locks each raised the ship by 28 feet. As we passed through the locks southward from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Gatun, other ships were also traveling northward toward the Atlantic in a parallel channel. Passage through each lock required three steps: closing the gates behind the ship once it had entered the downstream chamber, opening valves that allow fresh water from the next chamber to flow in and equalize the depth in the two chambers, then opening the gates in front of the ship. This process required about thirty minutes, so that our passage through the three locks took an hour and a half.

These locks, built at the beginning of the 20^th century, are only 110 ft wide. The Viking Star is 94 feet wide, relatively small for a ship passing through the canal these days. Even so, this leaves a gap of only 8 feet on either side of the ship if it is perfectly centered in the channel. Many larger ships have only a foot or two to spare. As the ship passed through the locks, the mule operators adjusted the cable tension at the front and back of the ship to ensure that it did not impact the canal walls during transit under its own power.

I was amazed to learn that each passage of a ship through the Gatun Locks results in a discharge of a stunning 26 million gallons of fresh water from Lake Gatun into the Atlantic Ocean. Then, when a ship passes through the Pacific locks, or returns through the Gatun locks to the Atlantic as the Viking Star did, another 26 million gallons of water flow out of the lake. 52 million gallons per ship every time! When I heard those numbers, I was initially consumed by guilt. My desire to see the amazing canal was contributing to the wasting of an incredible amount of potable water that is desperately needed in other parts of the world.

Of course, that initial thought doesn’t actually make any sense, since even if there were no canal, the vast majority of the 200 inches of annual rainfall would still flow out into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the raging Chagres River. All the dams and canal are doing is regulating the outflows in a manner that allows ships to pass through the Isthmus, while also generating power through hydroelectric plants at the dams. Once I realized that, I got back to the business of reveling in the brilliance of the world’s greatest engineering achievement. However, it is worth noting that climate change does in fact threaten the viability of the canal. Should the rainfall diminish significantly over time, canal operations may be limited by the water available in Gatun Lake.

Also of note is that a second set of locks was built in parallel with the original ones, the Aqua Clara Locks, completed in 2016. These locks are much wider and longer than the Gatun locks to accommodate modern vessels, and the operation of those locks is designed to recycle 60% of the fresh water, significantly reducing the potential future impact of climate change. We did not see the Aqua Clara locks in action. We also  did not see the locks at the Pacific end of the canal, but they are similar to the ones on the Atlantic end – the original locks completed in 1914 and newer, larger locks with the water recycling design completed in 2016.

At any rate, when we had passed through the third lock, the mule cables were disconnected and our ship sailed into Lake Gatun at about 8:30. Tender boats again came alongside the ship, this time to pick up the pilot and the other workers. The ship remained in the lake for some three hours. Off to the east, we could see some larger ships approaching the new Aqua Clara locks for their passage to the Atlantic. Around 11:30, our ship began to head back toward the Gatun locks, and I headed to the front of the ship to secure a good spot for a bird’s eye view of our return transit. Once again, tender boats delivered a pilot and other canal workers before we entered the northbound channel of the Gatun locks at 12:30. I watched from the front of the ship until we had passed through the first lock, then once again went back to our stateroom to join Pat on the balcony for the passage through the other two locks.

more After all that blathering, it’s time for some pictures, don’t you think?

At about 2:05 PM, we sailed out of the Gatun locks and under the impressive Atlantic Bridge into the waters off the Port of Colón, where the tender boats returned again to pick up the canal workers. Finally, at 2:45, we headed for Jamaica, still in awe of the amazing marvel we had witnessed.

Incidentally, we were told that the fee charged for our canal transit amounted to $150 dollars for each stateroom on the ship plus other fixed fees, amounting in total to approximately $140,000.

Montego Bay, Jamaica (Saturday, March 18, 2023)

Our ship docked in Montego Bay at about 8 AM on Saturday after sailing for 41 hours from Panama. A deejay with huge speakers was set up on shore to entertain us throughout the day with festive reggae and other upbeat music. Our tour for the day didn’t leave until 1:30 PM, so we had a lazy and relaxed morning and lunch on the ship before heading for the bus. The tour was also quite low-key as we travelled to a privately owned bird sanctuary where we were able to get up close and personal with swallowtail and mango hummingbirds in an open veranda beneath a thatched roof. We also strolled around the well-kept grounds admiring the lush vegetation, other bird species including finches and doves, and a small herd of ultra-cute goats.

During the tour, we experienced the only rainfall of the entire trek. However, it very conveniently waited to rain until we were seated in the covered veranda, then stopped as we took our stroll, then began again as we rode the bus back to the ship. On the bus, our guide taught us a bit of Jamaican patois, the commonly spoken language on the island. The easiest words? “Ya mon!” Before we passed through the security check back at the port, the guide explained that the security person would board the bus and ask to see our shipboard passes. We were instructed to hold up the cards and exclaim: “Seetcha!” I presume that was derived from the English: “See it here!” The dozen or so guests performed this duty to perfection, and the smile on the face of the Jamaican woman lit up the entire bus.

After returning to the ship, we stood on our balcony and joined many of the other passengers in singing along and dancing to Bob Marley’s “One Love” and other favorites while the music blasted from shore. As the ship left the dock at about 5 PM, our Jamaican deejay enthusiastically thanked us for visiting, wished us peace and happiness, bid us farewell, and asked us to come back again soon. We sailed off toward the US in fine spirits, prompting some of us to emulate the well-known Jamaican hero and fastest man on earth.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Tuesday, March 21, 2023)

After two more days of sailing, the ship returned to the same dock we had departed from two weeks previously. I had hoped to see some other islands as we sailed back to the US, but once Jamaica faded from view, we were never close enough to the other islands to see anything but the vastness of the Caribbean Sea. Reflecting on the journey as we sailed, Pat and I both agreed that, while the Ocean Cruise was great, we enjoyed our River Cruise experiences more, primarily because we were always doing something interesting every day, with more frequent stops and easy access to the shore locations even when not on the Viking excursions. In fact, while the long days of cruising in between the six stops on the Ocean Cruise were very relaxing, they also grew a bit tiresome since neither of us was super excited about the multiple onboard activities available.

After our final breakfast on board, we disembarked from the ship, walked through a skybridge to the port terminal building where we found our luggage, and proceeded without incident through US customs. We boarded a Viking bus and were ferried back to the FLL airport in plenty of time to catch our return flight to MSP. While at the airport, we had one of the worst meals I’ve ever eaten, a sloppy, half-cooked buffalo chicken pizza, and we knew that our fabulous vacation was over.

So, there you have it, readers. It was a fantastic trip, any way you want to evaluate it. Farewell for now … until we venture on another blog-worthy trip sometime in the future.

In Part 1 of this blog series, I described our activities while traveling to our departure port and on board the Viking Star. As promised, I’ll move on now to describing our shore excursions. In this installment, I’ll cover our first four stops as shown on the map below: Cozumel, Mexico, Belize City, Belize, Roatan, Honduras, and Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

Cozumel, Mexico (Friday, March 10, 2023)

After two days of sailing covering more than 600 miles, the ship docked in Cozumel, Mexico, a 250-square-mile island located off the southeastern shore of the Yucatan peninsula, about 40 miles south of Cancun. The name is derived from the Mayan “Ah Cuzamil Peten,” which means “the island of swallows.” Cozumel has become a hot tourist spot and a snorkeler’s paradise since the discovery of the world’s second largest coral reef system by Jacque Cousteau in the 1960s. The Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park was established in 1996 to protect the resource. Though Pat would have loved to go snorkeling, I’ve demonstrated my ineptitude at that several times in the past (comical to her, near fatal to me), so we opted for a different activity. We departed the ship and walked through a touristy area in the port of San Miguel before boarding a bus for a 10-mile drive through the Cozumel countryside to the Mayan ruins at San Gervasio.

The structures at the San Gervasio site date to around 1000 to 1200. The Mayan people there were flourishing when the Spaniards first travelled to the island in 1518 and established good relations, but were soon decimated by smallpox brought in by subsequent explorers. The population today is still almost entirely of Mayan descent, including our tour guide, Paco.

The Mayan settlement was a hub of worship of Ix Chel, the goddess of the moon, childbirth, fertility, medicine, and weaving. Pre-Columbian Maya women from the mainland would try to travel to the site and make offerings at least once in their lives. Paco pointed out several pieces of obsidian, which is not native to the island but was brought to the site by these pilgrims as gifts to the goddess.

The Mayans built a stone road through the jungle from the northern edge of the island all the way to the site, where visitors entered through a stone arch. Remains of the original road can still be seen. The altar in the central square and most of the structures are laid out so that the sides face precisely to the north, east, west, and south.

The site also features a sinkhole, networked to others on the island through underground aquifer, that was used to obtain potable water. The sinkhole apparently had been dry during periods of drought since remains of an altar were found well below the normal water level.

The building called Las Manitas, named for the red-colored handprints on the interior walls, was the home of the Mayan ruler.

One of many interesting anecdotes that Paco shared was the origin of the name “Yucatan” for the nearby Mexican peninsula. Apparently, it is derived from a Mayan word that was given in response to Spanish explorers who asked, “What is this place called?” Later scholars learned that what the Mayans were actually saying was “We don’t understand you.”

After our tour, we returned to the boat for activities described in Part 1 before sailing off into the sunset.

Belize City, Belize (Saturday, March 11, 2023)

We awoke the next morning in Belize City, or more precisely, anchored 2.5 miles off shore, since the Belize City harbor is too shallow for ships at only five feet deep. Belize is the country formerly known as British Honduras until its independence in 1981. (Many people seem unaware of where Belize is – as one of our guides told us, they changed the name but forgot to tell the rest of the world.) It is the smallest and least populous of the Central American countries (23,000 square miles and 440,000 people) and the only one that does not border on the Pacific Ocean. The official language is English, but the natives also speak Belizean Creole, a mixture of broken English, French, and who knows what else.

For the second day in a row, we opted for a tour of Mayan ruins. We left the ship on a small tender boat (capacity about 80 passengers) for the trip into the Belize City harbor, where we boarded a bus for a one-hour trip to the ancient site of Altun Ha. Two Creole “sistas” served as our guides, describing the sights in the city and the Belizean countryside. They also had fun trying to teach us some Creole. When they spoke very slowly, we could almost understand what they were saying, but when they spoke at their normal speed it was completely unintelligible.

The Altun Ha site was much more extensive and more accessible than the one on Cozumel. It was first inhabited during the Pre-Classic Period of Mayan history with the first major construction beginning in about 100 BCE. The site reached its peak during the Early Classic Period, from 200 to 600 AD and began to decline thereafter. The most impressive structures are large pyramids that served as ceremonial and civic centers as well as tombs. The impression I got was that the lower floors initially served as residences for the rulers and upper classes, then as tombs when they died. New residences were then built on top of the tombs for the new rulers. One interesting aspect of the construction is that the Mayans had no pack animals or wheels, so transport and erection of the huge stones must have required enormous amounts of human labor.

The guides told us that, while human sacrifices occurred at other Mayan sites, the rituals at Altun Ha were limited merely to bloodletting and non-fatal piercings and mutilations. Those “lucky” enough to be chosen for these rites were given allspice to induce a euphoric state and deaden the pain. A number of large allspice trees are still growing on the site.

The stepped pyramids acted almost like a magnet, drawing us to climb. Pat went first, on the building called Structure A1, an important temple and tomb with a wide, tapering staircase, while I thought about whether my arthritic knees could handle it. Eventually I succumbed to the lure, and found that going up was not too bad but coming down was terrifying. I managed it by going sideways and, for the final half dozen large steps, easing down on my butt.

Emboldened by this success, I had to climb the largest structure on the site, which had some scary access stairways on one side and in the rear. Pat opted to stay on the ground for this one and serve as the photographer.

On the bus ride back to Belize City, we passed through what is called the “dead center” of town. The main highway actually runs directly through a cemetery! The guides continued to regale us with information about Belize. One odd fact they proudly told us is that there is no welfare system in Belize. “If you don’t work, you don’t eat,” one of them said, claiming that this wisdom comes from the Bible. I’m no Biblical scholar, but this struck both Pat and me as the antithesis of what Jesus stood for and seemed at odds with the guides’ claims that Belize is a religious and compassionate country. Since tourism is essentially the only industry, it also seems rather difficult to sustain. Mahogany exporting was the first major industry during Spanish and British colonial rule, with slave laborers brought in to harvest the trees. However, mahogany trees are now essentially nonexistent, despite being the national tree of Belize, since they were literally all taken away.

On the tender boat back to the ship, I snapped the picture that I used as the “featured image” for Part 1 – just in case you were wondering how I got a picture of the boat in the middle of the ocean.

As we settled in for the evening and the boat set sail again, we decided that we had had an “Un-Belizeable” day in Belize.

Roatan, Honduras (Sunday, March 12, 2023)

When we left the ship on Sunday morning, we found that it was docked at a very modern cruise ship port called Mahogany Bay, on the island of Roatan. We were told that our ship would be one of the last to visit the island for several months as the rainy season would be starting shortly, running from Late March until early September. Roatan is located about 40 miles north of Honduras in the Bay Island archipelago, also very popular for snorkeling due to the same reef that runs south from Cozumel. We boarded a bus for a one-hour trip to Gumbalimba Park a private history and eco-adventure park founded in 2003.

We first learned about the island’s history by visiting an exhibit near the entrance to the park. Needless to say, Christopher Columbus is not a revered figure here, where the indigenous people first welcomed him only to be sold into slavery, infected by European diseases, and subject to brutal treatment. The island became a haven for English, French, and Dutch pirates before eventually being populated by Garifuna natives deported from the island of St. Vincent by the British in 1797. Britain then ruled the island until ceding it to Honduras.

Another exhibit included an impressive collection of butterflies, moths, and other insects native to the island.\

We then went on a walk through the park where we encountered iguanas, agoutis, macaws, and capuchin monkeys as well as lush tropical plants and trees. We even crossed a river on a wobbly suspension bridge, which added a bit of excitement. The macaws and monkeys had been trained to interact with the visitors and were very friendly, as you can see below. However, all of the animals roam freely in the park – there are no cages.

All in all, I think the Gumbalimba tour may have been the best shore excursion of the entire trip.

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica (Tuesday, March 14, 2023)

After two days of sailing, we docked in Puerto Limon. Columbus anchored his boat in this bay on his fourth voyage in 1502. As we were told by our guide, the native people welcomed him and brought various gifts in his honor. Columbus remarked that it must be a very “rich coast” – i.e. “Costa Rica” – if the people could afford such gifts. In fact, Costa Rica was not rich in gold and silver, consisting primarily of dense jungle and volcanos. Who knows if this story is true.

Our shore outing for the day included a bus ride to a nearby river and a peaceful boat ride where we observed the lush vegetation, multiple birds, a caiman lolling in the water, and howler monkeys cavorting in the trees. I’m posting some pictures, but you can barely make out any of the wildlife as the background vegetation seems to drown out the animals. Trust me, the experience was wonderful, even if I don’t have the photos to prove it.

Back at the Cruise Ship dock, we checked out some of the usual touristy stuff …

… before returning to the ship, where we attended a lecture entitled “The Stupendous Story of the Panama Canal,” by historian John Freedman. By this time we had sailed about 1600 miles, drawing ever closer to the principal attraction of the cruise. I went to bed that night with visions dancing in my head – not of sugarplums but of the amazing canal.

OK, that’s it for Part 2. In Part 3, I’ll cover our stop in Panama (including Colon and Gamboa), our transit of the Panama Canal locks, and our final stop in Jamaica.

Stay tuned …

As past readers know, I’ve been documenting our travel experiences through a series of blog posts. (The most recent of these was Pat and Dave’s Post-Covid Continental Caper, describing our travels in September of 2022, from Geneva to the Rhine River, the Mosel River, and on to Paris with Viking River Cruises.) Having just returned from our first ever Ocean Cruise, I’m posting yet another chronicle. Speaking of chronicles, I almost titled this one Pat and Dave’s Caribbean Cruise Chronicle, but somehow that didn’t seem to have the right panache. I probably could have come up with something better, but didn’t want to waste too much effort on the title, given my atrocious alliterative ability. Having now set the stage, let me begin the blathering.

Preamble

In my introduction to the Continental Caper, I explained that we had originally booked that trip in 2020 but had to cancel due to Covid, rebooked it for 2021 but again had to cancel, and finally made the trip in September of 2022. The Tropical Trek was similarly plagued by Covid, this time not only postponing it twice but also changing the destination. We had originally decided to take a trip with Viking Ocean Cruises to Greece and Turkey in fall of 2021, rebooked that for January of 2022, then cancelled again as the omicron variant blossomed worldwide.

The deciding factor regarding the second Greece/Turkey cancellation was the requirement to have a Covid test in Athens before being allowed to return to the US. What if we tested positive? We’d be quarantined halfway around the world for two weeks in some Covid prison with a pile of dirty laundry, scrambling to make flight arrangements. As we contemplated this unsettling proposition, we decided that maybe a tour starting from and returning to the US would be a safer bet. Thus, on our third try, the Ocean Cruise to Greece and Turkey morphed into an Ocean Cruise to the Panama Canal!

We had several reasons for deciding on Viking Ocean Cruises as opposed to Norwegian or Carnival or one of the other major cruise lines. First, we were very impressed with Viking River Cruises on our two trips with them (the Danube River back in my pre-blog days of 2014, and the aforementioned Geneva to Paris trip). Second, we get a catalog from Viking at least every other month, so we often spend time salivating over the potential itineraries when we are not actually travelling. Third, the Viking ships are much smaller than those of the other cruise lines. Pat and I are rather introverted souls (I blame my Finnish heritage and genes for that, which seem to have leaked and spread to Pat during our 44 years of marriage) and have no interest whatsoever in the social aspects of cruising. Simply put, we presumed it would be much easier hiding away from some 900 guests on a Viking ship than 6,000 on another line.

At any rate, after more than a two-year wait, the date for embarking on the Panama Canal cruise finally drew near. Our flight to Fort Lauderdale was scheduled for 7:35 AM on March 7, so we had booked an overnight stay at the Intercontinental Hotel at the MSP airport for March 6, to avoid a 4 AM trip to the airport on travel day. I was in Grand Marais delivering copies of my latest best-seller wannabe, Watery Grave, to the local bookstores on Saturday, March 4, so I was a bit behind the eight ball as far as preparations go. By Sunday evening, I was back in Minneapolis but still hadn’t started packing, even though Pat had her things all ready to go. I finally got going on Monday morning, loading our large, worn-out suitcase to the brim with my CPAP, travel junk, and enough clothes to cover the entire trip without doing laundry. As we prepared to head down to the condo lobby to wait for our Lyft driver, I stuffed my moccasins into the outside pocket, zipped it up, and watched in shock as the entire zipper disintegrated. I frantically dredged through the utility room until I found some duct tape to slap it back together before we rushed down to catch our ride.

Once at the airport hotel, we looked at the sad, old suitcase, with the duct tape peeling off and the outside pocket beginning to gape open again, and decided there was only one thing to do. We jumped on the light rail to the Mall of America and bought a new suitcase. After repacking our stuff, we trundled the decrepit old suitcase down to the front desk and bid it farewell forever. As we readied ourselves for bed, I pulled out the cords we had packed for charging Pat’s iPhone and watch and my iPad. “That’s nice,” I thought, as I attempted to plug the USB-C connectors into the USB-A ports on the adapters we had brought along. “Now we need to buy adapters with USB-C ports, since we left those at home.” Which we did after checking our bags at the airport on Tuesday morning, paying about twice what they would have cost anywhere but at an airport. Adding up the costs for the hotel, the suitcase, the adapters, and a couple of meals, we were nearly $700 in the hole and hadn’t even left town yet!

But things began to go better once we finally got on the plane. The direct flight to Fort Lauderdale was a breeze compared to the marathon of getting to Geneva for the Continental Caper. We were met at the FLL airport by Viking representatives and boarded a bus for a fifteen-minute drive to the cruise terminal where our ship was waiting. We got out of the bus and checked in at a reception desk in the terminal while porters delivered our luggage directly to our room. Excitement building, we boarded the ship to begin our adventure.

The Ship

We were two of 911 passengers booked on the Viking Star, nearly at its full capacity of 930. It looked pretty big when we first saw it, but it was dwarfed by some of the larger ships we subsequently encountered. Here are some photos of the ship I captured during the voyage:

We spent the first couple of hours on board wandering around the nine decks and finding the various amenities, and I was surprised that it didn’t feel crowded at all. That was in part because not everyone had yet boarded, but also because the various restaurants, bars, libraries, pool, theater, and so forth are spread out throughout the ship so large crowds don’t accumulate in any particular location. I’ve posted some schematics and some photos of various parts of the ship below.

When we rebooked the trip to Panama after canceling the Greek cruise, we found that we had chosen a somewhat less expensive journey, so we ended up with a little more to spend on the trip in the form of a credit we had to use or forfeit. As with the Rhine/Mosel trip, we elected to use some of the extra credit to upgrade our room from the basic option to a fancier one. We ended up with a nice room with a balcony on Deck 6. Here are some photos of our stateroom, number 6083:

The room upgrade wasn’t enough to use up all of the credit, so we also ended up getting what Viking calls the “Silver Spirits” package. This allowed us to get so-called premium wines and bar drinks at no additional charge throughout the trip, with a limit of $100 a day. This is in addition to the house wines and beers and various special drinks available to all guests at any of the restaurants. We weren’t able to drink as much as we could have, and the Silver Spirits option wouldn’t have been worth it except that we needed to use up the credits. Even so, the trip felt a bit like a booze cruise, and we came back wearing most of the extra calories around our waistlines.

Of course, alcohol wasn’t the only contributor to those extra pounds. The food on board was excellent and plentiful. There were four main restaurants:

1. The World Café is a self-serve smorgasbord with a huge variety of foods available during breakfast, lunch and dinner times. I estimate that 200 people could eat there at any time. While the food was self-service, friendly servers brought beverages as requested, including water, juice, wine, beer, coffee, tea and who knows what all. I liked this place the best because I could wear my jeans and hat and select any eclectic combination of food that struck my fancy. We ate most of our meals here.
2. The Restaurant is a classic eatery with servers who take food and drink orders and deliver to your table. The menu offered fewer options than the café, but the food was perhaps a bit better. I could wear my jeans and hat for breakfast and lunch, but at dinner they have a silly no denim and no hat policy. Collared shirts only, of course. Just because of this policy, I brought along the only non-denim pants that I own, which I bought some ten years ago and hadn’t worn for at least five years. I did manage to get them on, buttoned, and zipped, but I felt like an overstuffed sausage as I waddled off in them for the first time. We ate at The Restaurant three times, once with my jeans and twice with the fancy pants.
3. Manfredi’s is a rather fancy Italian restaurant that accommodates about 60 people and requires an advance reservation. The menu offered fewer choices than The Restaurant, but the food was excellent, and we ate there twice.
4. The Chef’s Table is the fanciest of all, accommodating around 40 people and also requiring reservations. A meal consists of five courses, each but the palate-cleanser paired with a suitable wine. The menu is fixed and based on a specific ethnic cuisine which changed every third or fourth day during the voyage. We ate there twice – the first time with a Mexican menu, the second time Xiang Chinese. The food and wines were divine. As Silver Spirits guests, we got the premium wines, which may almost be enough to make that option worth it.

So, I was forced to wear my fancy pants (which are actually just a pair of Dockers, but non-denim) and collared shirts for a total of six meals. I was always out of the pants within five minutes of returning to our stateroom. The funny thing is, they seemed to fit better as time went by in spite of my expanding waistline, probably due to stretching of the fabric. They didn’t rip, however, and if we ever go on another Viking Ocean cruise, I’ll make sure I can still fit into them – heaven forbid that I might buy some new pants.

In addition to the main restaurants, there were also several other places to eat and drink:

1. The Pool Grill, near the pool, as you might guess, which served hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, and salads. We ate lunch there several times. The hamburgers may be the best I’ve ever had.
2. Mamsen’s, named in honor of Viking CEO Torstein Hagen’s mother, of all things, served excellent waffles, soups, open faced sandwiches, fruits, and dessert tarts and rolls.
3. The Wintergarden served a British-style tea every day at 4 PM, including several sandwiches and desserts, accompanied by either a pianist or a violin/cello duo. We partook of this delightful event six or seven times. Pat always had tea, but I opted for Prosecco. (I had to try to make that Silver Spirits thing worthwhile, you understand.)
4. There were also bars all over the ship, including the Viking Bar, the Explorer’s Lounge, the Aquavit Bar, the Pool Bar, the Atrium Bar, and my favorite, the Torshavn. Why was it my favorite? Because the other ones only carried one or two single malt Scotches, Glenlivet and Glenfiddich, even though they showed some others on their menus. I was growing tired of the same bland ones every day until I discovered that the Torshavn also carried Laphroaig, Glenmorangie, and several others, but by that time there were only four days left in the journey.

In addition to all the great food and drink, there was some sort of entertainment going on almost all the time. In the large Theater, we attended an ABBA review performed by an earnest and talented quartet that just didn’t quite manage the desired vibe, I think mainly because either the Agnetha clone or the Anni-Frid clone (I couldn’t tell which one) had too much vibrato. We also attended a hilarious comic magician show, and we watched the Oscars broadcast live in the Theater. There were all sorts of shows we didn’t go to, though we occasionally overheard some of them as we roamed the ship, including a Beatles revue, the Viking Band, a couple of Broadway-style singers, a guitarist, the aforementioned pianist and classical duo, and the Irish cruise director with a lovely accent who, as we heard other guests saying, sang like an angel. They even broadcast Puccini’s Turandot by the Metropolitan Opera.

Other activities on board included line dancing, trivia contests, enrichment lectures, discussion groups, and all sorts of things that I can’t even remember. There was a spa, a sauna, and a snow room, which Pat walked through and said were quite nice. And, of course, there was the pool, where dozens of people lounged for hours at a time, and maybe 50 deck chairs which were filled constantly from early morning until dinner time. The pool crowd might have provided some enrichment of another sort, except that the average age of the guests had to be around 65 or 70.

In short, there was plenty to do on the ship. While many of the guests seemed to have formed into social groups that did everything together, Pat and I, true to our natures, pretty much just kept to ourselves. We chatted occasionally with other folks during meals, but we didn’t actively socialize at all. This was one difference from the River Cruises, which had far fewer dining venues. As a result, people tended to sit at the same tables for dinner every night and even we curmudgeonly folks struck up friendships wit a few other people. To reiterate, while there were 907 guests on this trip, it never felt overly crowded, and we were happy just being there by ourselves. We especially enjoyed sitting on the balcony with our books and various beverages.

The Itinerary

Here’s a map of the journey indicating the various stops that we made along the way.

In Part 2, I’ll finally get around to talking about our shore excursions, including stops in Cozumel, Belize, Honduras, and Costa Rica.

In Part 3, I’ll cover our stop in Panama (including Colon and Gamboa), our transit of the Panama Canal locks, and our final stop in Jamaica.

Stay tuned …

Welcome back to the travel blog describing our recent Viking River Cruise journey from Geneva to Paris. Part 3 of the story concluded as we were sailing up the Mosel River from Cochem to Bernkastel, Germany – our last segment onboard the ship. (The original itinerary called for us to be docked in Trier, Germany, at that point, but alternate arrangements had to be made as the river was temporarily closed to ship traffic following a collision between two ships.)

Sep 26 (Monday): After breakfast, our final meal aboard ship, we boarded our bus at 8 AM for the trip to Paris. There were two stops along the way, which helped break up the journey as well as provide more interesting things for us to learn about. The first stop was the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial, near the site where the famous Battle of the Bulge (also known as the Ardennes Offensive) was fought in World War II. The cemetery was established on December 29, 1944 by the 609th Quartermaster Company of the US Third Army while Allied Forces were containing the final German offensive of the war. It was formally dedicated in its current state in 1960 and is administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission. It contains the graves of 5,074 American soldiers, including that of General George S. Patton, as well as tablets listing the names of 371 missing in action. The grounds are immaculately tended, with the graves arrayed in an arc so each one faces toward the US, and there are many informative plaques commemorating the soldiers and providing historical information, such as maps illustrating the major battle movements. I found the place to be very moving – a solemn reminder of the costs of war.

Next was a stop in Reims, France (pronounced “Rhas,” where “Rh” represents that unique, throaty, cough-like French “R” sound). We had some free time to explore the market square and find lunch before taking a brief walking tour with a local guide. The major attraction on the tour was the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Rheims. The cathedral was originally founded in early 5^th century and dedicated to the Virgin Mary (or “Our Lady,” thus “Notre-Dame”) and was the traditional site for coronation of French kings, at least before the French began cutting off their heads. Clovis was the first king baptized and crowned in the cathedral and is still entombed in the present-day church. Construction of the present church was begun in the 13^th century, on the site of an earlier church destroyed by fire, and completed in the 14^th century. It is a beautiful example of high gothic architecture, undergoing extensive restorations in the 19^th century following minor damage during the French revolution and in the 20^th century following major damage during World War I.

Two of the guests travelled on their own during the free time to visit the site in Reims where Eisenhower had his headquarters after D-Day and where Germany surrendered to the Allies to conclude World War II. As we boarded the bus again for the final journey to Paris, they showed us some interesting photos of the place, inspiring me to mark it down as a site to visit if we get back to Reims someday. After an hour and a half or so of driving on the bus, we began to get bogged down in the traffic entering Paris. As we neared the heart of the city, progress slowed to a snail’s pace as the streets were jammed to capacity. We caught a glimpse of the iconic Arc de Triomphe as we turned onto Avenue de Wagram, turned onto Rue de Courcelles, and spent what felt like another half hour crawling along the final half mile. At 5:30 PM, we arrived at the Hotel du Connectioneur, our home for the next four nights, which claims to be a five-star tourist hotel.

On first impression, the hotel appeared to live up to the claim, with a very attractive lobby, a lovely garden in the rear, and attractive furnishings and paintings in the corridors. We were given what were purported to be keys to our room, but when we got to the fifth floor and found the room, the “keys” did not work. Upon further examination, we realized that they were merely plastic cards bearing the name of the hotel, with no magnetic strips. Back down to the lobby went Pat, returning after ten minutes with actual keys. (We later learned that several other members of our tour group had the same problem.) Once in the room, we found it to be a bit “tired,” with a scratched banquette with doors that didn’t quite close properly, drapes that were difficult to close, and other signs of wear and tear. I don’t want to give the impression that we were unhappy with the hotel – we and many other guests merely thought it didn’t quite live up to its five-star billing.

At any rate, once our luggage was delivered to the room, we set off on foot to explore the area around the hotel. We were quite impressed with the hustle and bustle of the city and the many fashionably dressed women – I suppose the men were also fashionably dressed but somehow, they didn’t make an impression on me. (Am I a chauvinist pig? Perhaps a bit …). Our walk took us to the Arc de Triomphe before we found a restaurant called La Flamme, where we had lovely Parisian dinner.

On the way back to the hotel, my phone died again. Since Pat had left hers at the hotel, we had only our semi-functional memories to guide us as we tried to retrace our steps. Being a couple of old farts who were rather tired by that point, we became slightly disoriented and had to stop into a bar to ask directions, but eventually we made it back for a nice night’s sleep – with visions of Parisian sugar plums dancing in our heads.

Sep 27 (Tuesday): After a complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel, we boarded a bus for an introductory tour of Paris. Shortly after departing, we noticed a nice-looking Boulangerie called Le Pain du Faubourg and made note of it as a potential place for lunch. The bus then made a circuit around the rather amazing traffic circle surrounding the Arc de Triomphe – it has some seven or eight lanes of traffic, all unmarked, and connects to a dozen avenues which radiate out like bicycle spokes. Somehow the Paris drivers manage to safely negotiate it while weaving across multiple lanes to reach their desired avenues, but we were extremely happy to be riding the bus rather than trying to drive on our own. The bus tour took us to the central city and along the right bank of the Seine River (after very briefly crossing to the left bank and back again) while our guide pointed out various landmarks. Most notable to me was the Louvre, the former royal palace which now houses the word-renowned art gallery. I could not believe the size of it – it was simply impossible to capture it in a photo.

The bus crossed to the left bank again and dropped us off near the Square Rene Vivani, a scenic park on the left bank, which offered a view of the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris. The cathedral is located on an island in the river called Ile de la Citie, the strategically located site of the original city of Paris. It is currently inaccessible as work continues to restore the cathedral following the major fire in April of 2019, with scheduled completion in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

After a brief talk by our guide, we were given some time to wander on our own with instructions to be back in no more than 40 minutes. We set off across the river onto the island, where we passed by the central police station located on a street known as the Quai des Orfevres, which immediately brought back memories of the books I’ve read by George Simenon featuring Chief Inspector Maigret – his office was located in that very police station. We enjoyed ourselves immensely as we wandered aimlessly westward to the end of the island, then across to the right bank and back eastward, snapping photos in every direction.

As I began to wander off again in who knows what direction, Pat reminded me that we needed to get back to the Square Rene Vivani quickly so we didn’t get left behind by the tour group. After again becoming momentarily disoriented, we eventually negotiated our way back to the right bank and were literally running (although I was lagging well behind my young whippersnapper of a spouse) so as not to be late. But all was well, as we arrived in plenty of time to rejoin our guide, although I was huffing and puffing a bit from the mad dash. As I strolled around the square, waiting for the group to depart again, I was approached by a young woman brandishing a petition and gesturing in a manner so as to indicate that she was deaf and collecting signatures for some important matter related to aid for the deaf. Reluctantly I began to fill in my name and country of residence, but I stopped when I got to the column stating how many Euros I was going to give her. Since I didn’t have any, I went to find Pat and ask her for some money to donate, but she told me I was an idiot, and luckily the tour guide summoned us to start moving along at that point. Later, I learned that the woman was part of a large, well-organized group of scammers who are nor deaf at all but work the crowds for money at many popular Paris tourist spots. Harrumph.

We walked with the guide for several blocks and through some lovely parks to the famous Sorbonne University, where our bus returned to pick us up again. We drove through the Luxembourg Garden, back to the left bank, and past the Hotel des Invalides – a complex of buildings containing museums and monuments relating to the military history of France, originally constructed by Louis XIV as a hospital for wounded soldiers – before stopping briefly at the most iconic landmark in Paris.

The bus returned us to the hotel shortly before 1 PM, and we walked to Le Pain du Faubourg to buy a nice sandwich for lunch. After devouring the sandwich back at the hotel, we once again headed out to board a bus at 2 PM, this time for a tour of the famous Palace of Versailles. The bus ride took a half hour as we drove 11 miles to the southwest, passing directly by the Roland-Garros Tennis Center. This caused a brief pang of regret for Pat, as we had originally planned to take this Viking trip in May of 2020, at which time the French Open tennis tournament would be ongoing and she might have been able to attend some matches. Of course, not only was the Viking trip cancelled due to Covid but the French Open was also delayed for five months, but we have vowed to return some year during a future French Open.

Getting back to the tour – I can only say that Versailles is simply stupendous. It was built by Louis XIV between 1661 and 1715 on the site of a hunting lodge and chateau built by his father. In 1682, he moved the seat of his court and government to Versailles, making the palace the de facto capital of France. This continued during the reigns of Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, who primarily made interior alterations to the palace, but in 1789 the royal family and capital of France returned to Paris. For the rest of the French Revolution, the Palace was largely abandoned and emptied of its contents. Napoleon used Versailles as a summer residence from 1810 to 1814, but did not restore it. Following the Bourbon Restoration, when the king was returned to the throne, he resided in Paris and it was not until the 1830s that meaningful repairs were made to the palace. We first toured the gardens, then entered the Palace itself for a guided tour – tour groups are limited to no more than twenty people and set for specific time periods. I won’t try to say anything more about the Palace, but leave you with the following photos that don’t fully convey the beauty and magnificence of the place.

Despite the efforts made to limit the number of people inside, as the tour proceeded the crowds became overwhelming. I began to feel very uncomfortable with the close contact and donned my mask about halfway through. As we rode the bus back to the hotel, I also began to feel as though I were catching a cold. I felt relieved to get back to the hotel, and we set off again for the Restaurant Morny, about a half mile south of the hotel, where we had a nice dinner. (I had flank steak and a Lagavulin single malt Scotch, only my second dram of the entire trip.) On the way back to the hotel, we stopped into a grocery store so I could by a couple of Cokes, which had become my morning go-to since Dr. Pepper seemed to be unavailable anywhere.

Sep 28 (Wednesday): Wednesday was the first day of our so-called Post-Cruise Extension, and we had no planned activities until 5 PM. We decided to spend the day just gadding about, visiting some new places as well as some of the places we had seen on yesterday’s tour. So, we went to the nearby Metro station and purchased an 8-pack of tickets for 16 Euros. Each ticket was good for one trip, for as many trains and transfers as desired until physically leaving a Metro station.

Our first trip was to the Montmartre district, where we rode a little tram up Montmartre hill (which we were each able to board using one of the Metro tickets) to visit the Sacré-Cœur (Sacred Heart) Basilica and have some nice views of Paris from the high elevation.

As we walked down the Montmartre hill, I was again approached by a supposedly deaf person soliciting money, and she became rather aggressive when I failed to produce any money. She eventually walked away and I saw that she joined a group of about a dozen women of similar age, all wearing what was essentially a uniform of a gray jumper over a white blouse. Harrumph again. We then walked to a restaurant recommended by a search on Pat’s phone, but it required reservations. Luckily, we found a nice, casual place called the Brasserie Flotte nearby. After lunch we set off for the Louvre, not actually to visit the museum, but to see the famous pyramid at the entrance and to explore the nearby Tuileries Garden.

Then we crossed the Seine to visit the Musee d’Orsay on the left bank, an art museum housed in the former Gare d’Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900 for the World’s Fair. We strolled around the building looking at paintings by Monet, Renoir, and other French artists and briefly entered a special exhibit of works by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. Unfortunately, the crowds were rather large, and I again began to feel uncomfortable with the close contact and wore my mask during most of the visit.

We used the last of our Metro tickets to return to the hotel, arriving shortly before 5 PM, and began to get ready for what was to be a highlight of the trip – dinner and a cabaret show at the Paradis Latin, which claims to be the oldest and most legendary cabaret in Paris, located in the Latin Quarter. The building was initially built by Napoleon as a theater where bourgeois and intellectuals mingled with merchants, workmen, and students. It was rebuilt by Gustave Eiffel in 1889 and has served as a popular cabaret ever since.

Unfortunately, my “cold” was starting to feel worse, and I worried that I shouldn’t be going to an indoor cabaret show if I was contagious with something. So, we took out our home Covid tests, and instead of the Paradis Latin, we discovered trouble in paradise. I was positive. Despite my five vaccinations and previous careful avoidance of people, I had become infected by contact with someone, either a fellow cruise patron, someone in the crush of visitors at Versailles, the deaf scammers – who knows? The bottom line was that my vacation was done and I needed to begin isolating immediately. Pat was negative, so after some discussion we decided that she should go to the show and I would stay in the room with my mask on. She returned later in the evening with a glowing review of the show, as well as some photos and videos. Here’s one for your viewing pleasure:

She was only allowed to use her camera during the pre-show while dinner was served. The real show was apparently spectacular, including multiple lithe and attractive performers, multiple costumes – in some cases rather minimal – and multiple sets. I would have loved it, Pat told me, and I felt really sorry for myself.

Sep 29 (Thursday): I put out the “Do Not Disturb” sign and stayed in the hotel with my mask on all day. Pat brought me up some breakfast from the buffet and left for a walk to a nearby park, the Parc Monceau. She again returned with photos, several of which I’ve included below.

She then went off to get another sandwich at Le Pain du Faubourg, but she returned with a surprise for me. Somehow, she took a wrong turn or something and couldn’t find the place, but she found a similar place whose name she doesn’t recall and bought a sandwich there. And, wonder of wonders, the place had cans of Dr. Pepper! She bought two for me, and my previously flagging spirits soared! Then she was off again, this time for a walking tour called “Flavors of Paris” to the St. Germaine neighborhood in the 6^th Arrondissement. She visited four local shops and sampled Parisian foods, including olive oil, chocolate, cheeses, and macaroons. She also passed by the oldest café in Paris, Le Procop.

And again, she brought me a surprise – one of the establishments had too much cheese for the Viking guests on the tour, at least in part because I didn’t show up. So, they packaged it all up and sent it home for me!

Sep 30 (Friday): At last, it was time to go home. Pat again brought me up a plate for breakfast, and we headed down to the lobby at 9 AM, both of us wearing our masks, and boarded a bus for the airport along with two other couples. I was already feeling much better and was able to reassure the others that I was not seriously ill, though did not tell them about my positive Covid test. I was afraid that if anyone found out, I would have to stay in France for 10 days according to their travel policy. I am confident that the risk of my traveling was minimal as both Pat and I wore our masks all the way home (except for the brief time we were eating on the plane). In my defense, I will say that the only reason I even took the Covid test was out of concern for others whom I could possibly have infected, and I suspect that many people are travelling these days while unaware that they are positive, because most people probably are not self testing unless they feel quite ill.

Viking again showed their commitment to excellent customer service as we were accompanied on the bus by a Viking agent, who escorted us all the way through the confusion of Charles De Gaulle Airport directly to the Delta check-in counter. The airport proved to be very clean and modern, with automated passport scanners and face recognition cameras for a hassle-free exit from French sovereign territory into the International Airport space. Here’s a photo I took from our boarding gate.

During the flight, I watched two movies (including Maigret, starring Gerard Depardieu, inspired by our sighting of the Quai des Orfevres police station). In stark contrast to Charles De Gaulle, when we disembarked at Dulles International in Washington, DC, we found an old, grungy-looking place. We took a weird looking bus to an enormous customs hall, where we had to shuffle along in line for half an hour to reach one of the entry gates with an actual person in attendance. (There were about fifty gates, but only ten or so were in service.) After passing customs, we took a tram to the Delta check in counter to drop our luggage, then went through the TSA screening line with shoes and belt removal and all that because Delta failed to note that we are approved for TSA PreCheck, had a mad scramble to find my phone and vest, and ended up literally running to our gate as we were being paged: “Passengers David and Patricia Saari, report to Gate xx for immediate boarding.”

Back at MSP, we summoned a Lyft ride, only to discover that the driver had left and charged us a $5.00 no-show fee, all because we were waiting at “Zone B” instead of “Zone A,” some fifty feet away. Live and learn. But we did eventually arrive safe and sound at our condo at 9:49 PM CDT after summoning a second Lyft ride.

So, there you have it, dear readers – all in all an amazing and thoroughly enjoyable journey. Here’s a map of our travels through Switzerland, down the Rhine, up the Mosel, and on to Paris.

Final Thoughts: I’ve been thinking a lot about the trip during the three weeks since we returned, and I’d like to leave you with a few last updates and thoughts:

1. Regarding the Covid situation: On Saturday, I contacted Health Partners for instructions on what to do. I was prescribed a regimen of antiviral drugs and instructed to continue isolating for five days and masking for five more after that. The “cold” symptoms disappeared in a couple of days, and I never got a fever or any sort of aches or pains. After several days of negative tests, Pat also had a positive test and followed isolation and masking instructions per her Allina Clinic. She felt crummy for a few days but also had no fever. We are both fine now, with no carryover whatsoever, currently at our summer place in Grand Marais.
2. If we had it to do over again, we would have worn our masks in all crowded areas during the trip. We were not vigilant enough, lulled into complacency by being vaccinated and boosted and having avoided infection throughout the worst of the pandemic. However, we believe it is safe to travel if proper precautions are taken.
3. We highly recommend Viking to anyone considering overseas travel. As I have described in the blog, their planning and service were excellent. We met several people on the trip who have travelled five or six times with Viking, and one person who was on her tenth Viking trip. All agreed that the trips are well worth the price.
4. We learned a lot on the trip about European history and culture. We found people everywhere to be friendly and welcoming of us as American tourists. I visited Paris nearly fifty years ago and had a very different feeling – at that time I perceived many as snobbish and disdainful of the American tourists. I hope my observations on this point are correct and that things have changed for the better and forever.
5. Nearly all of the guides on the trip expressed serious concern about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which they perceive to be the worst crisis for Europe since World War II. Let us remain committed in our support for Ukraine, as we are supporting all our European allies by doing so.
6. I’ll close with an observation one of the Viking guests made that summed up the differences between Europe and North America very concisely: In North America, 200 years is a long time, and in Europe, 200 miles is a long way. Let’s continue to cherish both cultures and learn from each other.

Welcome back to the travel blog describing our recent Viking River Cruise journey from Geneva to Paris. Part 2 of the story concluded with a shipboard lecture about the relationship between Germany and France, after which we spent a quiet night while still docked in Mainz, Germany. Then we were ready to once again sail downriver on the Rhine.

Sep 23 (Friday): The ship departed Mainz at 8:45 AM to begin a four-hour trip through a region that I can only describe as a fairy tale land, with some thirty medieval castles dotting the hills on both sides of the river. The cruise itinerary was structured for this sailing to be done during the day precisely for this reason. The only problem was the weather – it started out chilly and foggy, and while the fog dissipated fairly quickly it never warmed up to the comfort level we had previously enjoyed throughout the entire trip. Despite the chill, I spent the morning up on the sun deck of the ship, gawking and snapping photos as we went along and listening to the commentary by our Viking cruise director. Virtually all of the castles were sacked and destroyed by French forces in the early 1690s as Louis XIV made war against the Holy Roman Empire. Most have been rebuilt at least to some degree, but some remain as mere ruins. Today, the castles make for picturesque backdrops to the quaint villages and steep vineyards lining the banks of the Rhine.

As we approached the famous Lorelei rock (spelled “Lorely” by the locals) we were told that the river was very shallow, with only 0.7 meters (27 inches) clearance below the ship’s keel. Luckily, this was sufficient for sailing; earlier in the season the river had been closed to cruise ships in this region, so we were very grateful for recent rainfall that had restored the water level and allowed our cruise to proceed. As we passed around a bend in the river, revealing the large rock formation on the east bank, I thought I could hear the siren song of the Lorelei enticing the captain, but he remained steadfast as we passed by. Imagining an earlier time in history without engines or navigation aids, before the modern road was built along the river bank, perhaps with a fog like we had in the morning, I could easily imagine ships crashing into the rock and spawning the legend I first learned of in German class as a teenager.

My last photo during the morning sail was of the Rheinfels Castle, just past the Lorelei rock in the town of Sankt Goar, which was built in 1245 by the local Count for his personal residence and tax collection headquarters – and incidentally was the only castle in this region of the Rhine able to defend itself against Louis XIV’s troops. As I was snapping away at the castle, my phone gave up the ghost – dead as a doornail. Was it the magic of the nearby, seductive siren that crashed the phone? Nope, I had simply taken so many pictures that it needed a recharge. So, I had to settle for a mere 150 photos during the morning sail, rather than the 300 I probably would have had if I’d fully charged the phone ahead of time. (Just be thankful I’m not putting them all in this post!)

By the time we reached Koblenz, the phone was back in business again, just in time for a walking tour of the city after lunch. Located at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel Rivers, Koblenz was first established as an encampment for Julius Caesar’s troops in 55 BCE and became an important trading settlement. Naturally, our walking tour stopped first at an ancient church, the Basilica of St. Castor, first established in 836. It was redone in the Romanesque style in 1208, and a gothic vaulted roof added in 1498.

Near the Basilica is a public square with some modernistic sculptures, including this one which the guide told us was a human thumb representing something or other that I can’t recall, but which Freudian types seem to think is actually representing another part of the human anatomy.

We then saw an enormous statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, located at the confluence point of the rivers. Wilhelm was crowned as the first Emperor of Germany (beginning the so-called Second Reich after the Holy Roman Empire, or First Reich) upon conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. We learned that the Emperor was actually crowned at the Palace of Versailles in France, apparently as an act of humiliation for the defeated French. The statue was destroyed by bombing during World War II, but was later rebuilt and dedicated to German unity.

We then walked through the more modern section of the city, where we passed by a protest march led by young climate activists, which is apparently a fairly regular occurrence in many German cities. For some reason, the march seemed to stir some anger in at least one of our fellow Viking tourists; I wanted to ask him if he was a former oil company executive, but decided to bite my tongue instead. We also saw what has become the symbol of Koblenz, the “spitting boy,” officially known as the Schängelbrunnen fountain, so named for the Schängellied, the city anthem. It symbolizes the fun-loving, quick, and clever nature of Koblenz residents. The boy’s image even adorns manhole covers throughout the city.

After the official tour, Pat and I took a gondola ride across the river to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, a huge structure overlooking the city from the east side of the Rhine. The fortress sits on the site of a castle built in about 1000 before being expanded and improved many times over the centuries. Especially fortified against gunpowder weapons during the 16^th century, the castle was successfully defended against sieges by Louis XIV and Napoleon’s armies until finally surrendering to French forces in 1799. The French then destroyed the castle in 1801 when forced to withdraw from the region. The current fortress was built by Prussia from 1817 to 1828 and has never been attacked. It was occupied for a time by American troops after World War I and used as a place of safekeeping for archives and cultural objects during Word War II. Since then, it has been used at various times as a refugee camp, a residential housing site, and a youth hostel, and now is a major tourist attraction offering historical displays and spectacular views of Koblenz and the two rivers.

Once we were back on board the Herja, the ship set sail again at 5:45, heading up the Mosel River a very short ways to Winningen, where we docked for the night.

Sep 24 (Saturday): The ship departed Winningen at 6 AM, winding its way up the Mosel River through the steepest vineyards in the world. We learned that the Mosel River Valley is lined with slate, which retains heat and acts as a natural tempering system to create a perfect grape-growing climate. Even in wintertime, when the regions outside the valley are covered with snow, the valley itself remains temperate and snow-free. Many of the vineyards are planted on slopes at angles of 60 degrees or more, making for very challenging, hand picking by skilled workers (many of them migrants) during harvesting season.

After lunch, the ship docked in Cochem, Germany, and we departed by bus for a shore excursion. We drove along the south bank of the Mosel past picturesque villages and lush vineyards. Along the way, we saw that a large cargo ship was essentially stuck downstream of a sharp bend in the river as a result of a collision with another ship, and we were informed that this may well require a change to our cruise itinerary. Eventually we reached the town of Senheim, Germany, where we visited the Schlagkamp Winery. The winery shop was extravagantly decorated with an eclectic collection of winemaking implements and other assorted stuff. We were entertained by the winery owner, who could easily have a second career as a standup comedian. He talked about how the family-owned winery has evolved over the centuries to incorporate new technologies with the old methods while we tasted three wines: an Elbling, a Riesling Secco, and a Red Vineyard Peach Liqueur. (He also told us the secret to a good marriage in the Mosel Valley. When courting, ask your prospective mate three questions: 1) what is your name, 2) who is your family, and 3) how many acres do you own.) We enjoyed the wine very much and bought a bottle of the unusual peach liqueur as a memento (which probably won’t last long).

After the winery tour, we boarded the bus again and drove back to Cochem, this time along the north bank of the river. As we drove by, I was able to get another view of the ship that was blocking the river, and I could see that it had rammed into the concrete barrier alongside the river.

Once back in Cochem, we exited the bus for a walking tour of the town, during which we saw two of the old city wall gates and something I’ve never heard of before – a wine vending machine. Our guide also showed us high-water marks from past river flooding events and explained how the residents and business owners near the river periodically have to deal with the impacts from serious flooding, including twice in a month during 2021 in nearby areas. So, even though the town appears idyllic, there are difficulties, the same as anywhere in the world.

The highlight of the tour was a visit to Cochem Castle, an imposing structure built high on the steep bluff overlooking the town. Luckily for us old farts, the tour included a bus ride up the hill (masks mandatory on the bus). The original structure dates back to the 11^th century, but the castle was razed by Luis XIV’s troops in 1689 and lay in ruins until it was restored in 1866 by a wealthy private owner whose eclectic tastes resulted in a fascinating mixture of styles. Our guide entertained us with tales of secret passages, castle romances, and other tales as we strolled through dozens of rooms filled with beautiful furnishings and historical artifacts. (Tour group sizes were limited and masks required inside the castle.)

After the castle tour, the bus deposited us by the western city gate before strolling back through the town and across a bridge to our ship. Once back on board, we were informed of a change in the cruise itinerary as a result of the upstream ship accident – instead of setting sail at 7 PM for Bernkastel, we would spend another night docked in Cochem and travel to the German cities of Bernkastel and Trier by bus on Sunday before returning to the ship in Cochem.

Sep 25 (Sunday): So, off we went after breakfast on the bus. The extra time needed to drive to Bernkastel and from Trier back to Cochem made for a somewhat strenuous day, but we enjoyed the chance to see some of the countryside that wouldn’t have been visible had we sailed to Bernkastel during the night as originally planned. Bernkastel is a charming little town known as the “Pearl of the Mosel,” with medieval squares, narrow lanes, and half-timbered houses galore. Unfortunately, it was raining during much of our walking tour and the multitude of umbrellas prevented me from getting pictures of some of the best sights, but I did my best to capture the spirit of the place. We again saw high-water marks from the periodic floods and heard of the resilience of the local people who accept and respond to the challenges of mother nature. We also saw several statues of bears (Bern, in German) which particularly tickled my fancy.

Along the way, our guide told us of the famous “Bernkastel Doctor,” which is actually the name of a wine from one of the local wineries. According to the story, the Elector of Trier, was staying at a nearby castle in 1360 when he became seriously ill. The Elector’s celebrated doctors prescribed all kinds of medicines and remedies for his fever, but to no effect. In desperation, apothecaries and herb women from near and far were brought in to give the Elector their potions, but nothing worked. Eventually, a local winegrower brought the Elector a keg of his finest wine, declaring it to be the best medicine. The now-desperate Elector took the wine and his fever was miraculously cured. As a reward, the Elector issued a certificate awarding the vineyard the prestigious honor of “Bernkastel Doctor” from then on.

We also stopped into St. Michael’s church, a beautiful Catholic church near the river. It was much smaller than the giant “ABCs” we had been seeing in other places, and it was completely empty. Our guide explained that attendance at churches has dwindled to practically nothing, in large part to the “bad things that some priests have done,” as he euphemistically put it.

After the Bernkastel tour, we reboarded the bus and drove to Trier, where we were set free in the main market square to find ourselves a spot for lunch. Due to the inconvenience of missing lunch on the ship, which we would have done had it actually been docked in Bernkastel per the original itinerary, Viking provided each passenger with a credit of 30 Euros. Pat and I strolled through the square looking over the various delicatessens and restaurants. We passed by one called the Brgrhouse, which had as its number one burger choice the “Juicy Lucy.” (Did they copy this from the world famous Minneapolis burger?) Eventually we settled on one called Brasserie ZUR SIM, where we enjoyed some delicious Flammkuchen, which is essentially the German version of pizza. Unfortunately, we had to abandon our outdoor table for one inside when the Flammkuchen were swarmed by bees – I guess they found them as delicious as we did.

The restaurant was located adjacent to the Porta Nigra, the “Black Gate” of Trier, built in the winter of 169-170 by the Romans, who first established an encampment at Trier circa 16 BCE. The gate was damaged when Trier was sacked multiple times by various Germanic, Hun, and Frankish tribes, and eventually a hermit monk named St. Simeon took up residence inside, in 1028. He was later buried in the gate and beatified, and two adjacent churches erected in his honor. However, when Napoleon came to Trier in 1804, he ordered the churches and monasteries closed and the gate restored to its Roman form.

After lunch, we had a walking tour of Trier, starting at the immense Aula Palatina, or Basilica of Constantine, constructed between 300 and 310 entirely of brick. The bricks look very different from modern ones, being very wide but not thick, and the layers of mortar are essentially as thick as the bricks themselves, but they must be very strong to still be standing nearly 2000 years later. The building incorporates a natural circulation heating system built into the floor and the exterior walls, which seems extremely advanced for such an ancient building. This system provided a comfortable setting for the Romans in their togas even in the cold, northern climate. The interior is sparse, a far cry from the opulence we saw in our previous visits to cathedrals and churches, though it does have a nice, modern organ (it now serves as the Church of the Redeemer and is owned by a congregation within the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland).

We then walked past the Palace of the Electors with its beautiful Garden, residence of the Archbishops and Electors of Trier from the 16^th to the 18^th centuries, then on to the Trier Cathedral. The Cathedral was originally commissioned by bishop Maximin in the fourth century, following Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. The original building was sacked by the Franks before being rebuilt, destroyed again by the Vikings in 882, then restarted and completed around 1066. Over the centuries the church continued to be rebuilt and embellished, according to the fashions of the moment with Gothic vaults, Renaissance sculptures, and Baroque chapels, but the overall style of the building remains Romanesque with a Roman core.

Then it was back to the market square and the Porta Nigra, with a stop at an interesting model of the old city, before reboarding the bus and beading back to the ship.

As we drove, I was struck by something our guide had said during the walking tour. While relating some of the more modern history of Trier, she was speaking of the aftermath of World War II. “After the war we were lying low,” she said, looking directly into my eyes, “but you held out a hand and lifted us up.” She was obviously referring to the Marshall Plan and the US’s role in restoring Europe from the devastation. I thought back to some of the other things we had learned on the trip – Louis XIV’s utter destruction of the Rhineland, coronation of the German Emperor at Versailles after the Franco-Prussian War, the draconian terms of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. In these cases, victory on the battlefield wasn’t enough – total humiliation of the enemy seemed to be required. But then, after Hitler fell, the victorious side took a different approach. It wasn’t done simply out of altruism, of course, but to restore economies and promote strong trade, and to create an alliance against the feared Soviets – but nonetheless it was the right thing to do, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride for one of the best things my country has done in its history.

We arrived back at the ship in Cochem in time for dinner. The river now having been cleared for ship travel again after the accident, the ship sailed off toward Bernkastel at 5:30 PM. Here are a few pictures of Bernkastel and the scenery along the Mosel during the final sailing portion of the trip before docking in Bernkastel. On Monday, we would be departing from there by bus for Paris, rather than sailing all the way to Trier per the original itinerary.

OK, that’s enough for now. Here’s a map of our travels through Switzerland, down the Rhine, and up the Mosel.

In Part 4, we’ll be off to Paris for the grand finale of our trip. Stay tuned …

Welcome back to the travel blog describing our recent Viking River Cruise journey from Geneva to Paris. Part 1 of the story covered our pre-cruise activities in Switzerland. I’ll pick up the narrative where I left off last time, having just completed a walking tour of Basel, Switzerland.

Sep 19 (Monday): After reboarding our bus in Basel, we were transported to our Viking ship, the Herja. The ship, built in 2017, accommodates 190 passengers and a crew of 50. There were only about 160 passengers on our cruise, and it didn’t feel cramped or crowded at all. As I mentioned in Part 1, we had upgraded to a fancier stateroom with a little balcony as part of our 25% rebooking bonus when we had to cancel the first time. As you can see in the photos below, the ship is very long (443 feet) but fairly narrow (38 feet) and floats only about 20 feet above the water at its highest point. Shortly after casting off from Basel, the reason for these particular dimensions became quite obvious as we passed through the first of many locks we would encounter along the river. The ship was just narrow enough to pass through the lock gates and just low enough to pass underneath when the exit gate was raised. While this first lock was much longer than the ship, others we encountered later left only a few feet of length to spare fore and aft. In other words, the ship’s dimensions were specifically tailored to fit the river locks.

Monday afternoon and evening were spent sailing peacefully down the Rhine River. During this first sailing segment, we unpacked our luggage into the stateroom drawers and closets, toured the ship, were pampered at lunch and dinner by the friendly servers in the elegant dining room, and had a restful night’s sleep in the large bed. By the time we docked in Strasbourg, France, at 8 AM Tuesday, we had passed through another four or five locks, but the ship was so stable and the lock process was so smooth we were barely aware of any motion unless we were looking out the windows, sitting outside on our balcony, or up on the deck.

Sep 20 (Tuesday): After breakfast, we boarded a bus for a brief tour of Strasbourg, passing by a very large park (Parc de l’Orangerie) and the extensive campuses of the Strasbourg University and half a dozen other colleges; our guide explained that the city is a worldwide center for research in medicine, pharmaceuticals, and other major fields. It is also home to the European Parliament as well as multiple European and international agencies. In this region, the Rhine is the border between France and Germany, so anything on the west side is part of the French province of Alsace. After the bus tour, we disembarked in the old city for a walking tour.

The centerpiece of the old city is the Cathedral Notre Dame de Strasbourg, built between 1015 and 1439. The spire is 466 feet tall and was the tallest building in the world until 1874. The building is so enormous I couldn’t get a picture of the whole thing, so you’ll just have to infer its size from the photos below. The interior is magnificent, with a domed ceiling and enormous stained-glass windows. (During World War II, Hitler wanted to convert the place into a monument to the German people. In preparation for this eventuality, the stained-glass windows were removed and hidden in a salt mine in Germany, where they were later found by the famed “Monuments Men” of the US Army and returned to the cathedral.) Another amazing thing in the cathedral is the Astronomical Clock, with sculptures – the 12 apostles, figures representing the stages of life, angels, and more – many of which move about at various times of each day. The clock was originally built in 1352, but has been updated over the years, most recently from 1838 to 1842, and now shows the official and solar time, equinoxes, the date and day of the week, Zodiac signs, and the phase of the moon, among other astronomical data.

After the tour, we wandered about the old city. It is very picturesque, with modern buildings that blend seamlessly with the old. Eventually, we found a place for lunch – the Restaurant au Sanglier, known especially for its wild boar dishes. Pat had some sort of vegetarian dish, but I had to try one of the house specialties, a wild boar ham hock (while quite tasty, it turned out to be so enormous I could only manage to eat about two thirds of it). After lunch, we returned to Gutenberg Square to catch a shuttle bus back to the boat.

Before dinner, we donned our life vests for a mandatory safety drill, which went off very smoothly. I wondered if everyone would be so calm if a real emergency arose, but luckily, we never had to find out. At 9:45, the ship set sail down the Rhine again, but not before there was a page requesting the passengers in one of the staterooms to check in – they had apparently failed to scan their keys when reboarding the ship, and Viking didn’t want to leave anyone behind.

Sep 21 (Wednesday): When we awoke, the ship was docked in the German town of Germersheim, on the east bank of the Rhine. After breakfast, we boarded a bus for a tour of nearby Speyer, Germany. One fun thing we learned along the way – the US Army sponsored a music festival known as the British Rock Meeting in Speyer in 1971 and again in Germersheim in 1972, primarily for the entertainment of the US troops. However, the organizers failed to mention the plan to the city fathers of Germersheim, who were horrified by the prospect of 70,000 Woodstock-style revelers over three days, causing a mad scramble for police and security coverage. According to our guide, the Hells Angels also stepped in to provide security, and although the event went off with no serious incidents, the Army quietly dropped plans for future such festivals in the area.

Our first stop in Speyer was at the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer, a Romanesque design built between 1030 and 1061 by Holy Roman Emperors Konrad II, Henry III, and Henry IV. Originally built with a flat roof, Henry IV upgraded the building to include a vaulted ceiling, adding external flying buttresses to mimic the then-emerging Gothic style. (To me, these looked entirely ornamental, with no actual structural function. Also, I should actually say that Italian masons did the work – the emperor only gave orders, after all – and these masons travelled on to other towns for Cathedral projects once the Speyer work was done. One might say they were among the earliest migrant workers.) The purpose of the Cathedral was, through its size and beauty, to project the power of the emperor to its westernmost edges. Its four towers represent the four seasons and the idea that the power of the emperor extended in all directions. The interior of the building, though vast and impressive, is quite plain compared to the Cathedral in Strasbourg.

We also learned that the upper Rhine River no longer follows the precise route that it did up until the early 19^th century – it was straightened by Swiss Engineer Johann Gottfried Tulla beginning in 1817 to improve navigability and reduce the distance by river between Basel and Worms by 50 miles. The work was completed in 1876, after Tulla’s death of malaria. As a result, the remains of the Speyer city wall no longer abut the river but are several hundred yards away from it. After touring the Cathedral, we walked to the market square, dominated by 19^th century administrative buildings constructed under Otto von Bismarck after establishment of the second German Reich by Kaiser Wilhelm I. We strolled the length of the square (actually a very long rectangle) to one of the remaining gates of the old city wall, then back toward the cathedral again, stopping along the way at a small bakery for a sandwich lunch.

We had been surprised to learn that Speyer is home to a large Technical Museum which houses an enormous, eclectic collection of automobiles, aircraft, and space-related items, and that it was located only a short walk from the Viking bus rendezvous point. So, we went there and spent about two hours wandering about. Most of our time was spent in the space hall, which had extensive details of the major worldwide space programs, including Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and others. I was extremely surprised to learn that the Soviets were developing a space shuttle which actually orbited the earth before the program was abandoned when the USSR was dissolved in 1991. The most visible attraction at the museum is a Boeing 747 airplane mounted high above the ground and accessible by a very long staircase. The interior is populated by dummies of passengers and crew, with large sections of the fuselage opened up to reveal the construction details. There is a large chute, like a waterslide without the water, to get down more quickly, but I opted for the long journey down with my aching knees, fearing a worse outcome if I tried the quick method.

At 6:15 PM, the ship again cast off and we sailed peacefully into the night, arriving in the early morning hours in Mainz, Germany.

Sep 22 (Thursday): When we awoke, the ship was docked in Mainz, again on the east bank of the Rhine. After breakfast, we went on a walking tour of Mainz – no need for a bus since the city is so close at hand. Mainz is just downstream of the confluence of the Rhine and the Main River, and was first established as a port by the Romans in 13-12 BCE. During our tour, we strolled along lovely, tree-lined streets to the central city, where the first highlight was – no surprise – another beautiful church (ABC), in this case St. Martin’s Cathedral. This one was begun in 975 by the Archbishop of Mainz in the Romanesque style, intended to establish Mainz as the second Rome, and completed in 1009. However, on the day of its inauguration it was badly damaged by fire, and was then rebuilt and mostly completed a second time by 1037. It has subsequently been modified several times, adding elements of various architectural styles.

After visiting the Cathedral, we proceeded to the nearby Gutenberg Museum, where we saw not only replicas of Gutenberg’s history-making movable-type printing press but also exhibits providing a comprehensive history of printing up to the modern age. Below you’ll see photos of a recreation of Gutenberg’s printing shop, including the case containing pieces of movable type. Since there were fewer capital letters and they were used less frequently, these were stored in the top part of the case. The non-capital letters were used more frequently and were thus placed within easier reach in the bottom part of the case. Hence, we still refer to them as “upper case” and “lower case” letters. The most special exhibit was in the so-called “strong room,” which contained several original copies of the famous Gutenberg bible – we were not allowed to photograph those, but I did take a ton of pictures of the other exhibits and have included a few samples below. (One thing I did not photograph – much to Pat’s surprise – was a large wall containing Tabloid newspaper front pages including many pictures of topless women. Gutenberg might have been shocked by what his invention has wrought.)

After the tour, we strolled through the town, finding a sandwich for lunch at a nice Boulangerie, and then went to visit the world-famous Chagall windows at St. Stephan’s church. The church was heavily damaged in World War II, and its restoration was completed in the 1970s. The pastor wanted to include symbols for peace in the reconstructed church, and decided to hire Marc Chagall, a Russian Jewish artist, to create new stained-glass windows, thus symbolizing reconciliation between Germany and its wartime victims and international peace among the former combatants. In the design of his windows, Chagall drew inspiration from the Old Testament, evoking the common ground between Judaism and Christianity. From the outside, the windows don’t look like much of anything, but inside they emit a beautiful blue light – the photos do not capture their ethereal beauty.

After returning to the ship, we attended an interesting lecture by a history professor, learning a bit about the long, difficult relationship of the French and German people. This region has been especially volatile, with Alsace and its cities being conquered and re-conquered over the centuries by French and German rulers, somewhat like pawns in a massive chess game.

OK, that’s enough for now. Here’s a map of our travels through Switzerland and along the Upper Rhine.

In Part 3, the ship will continue down the Rhine before take a big turn in Koblenz and heading up the Mosel River. Stay tuned …

As past readers know, I’ve been documenting our recent travel experiences through a series of blog posts. (The most recent of these was Pat and Dave’s Eclectic Electric Road Trip, describing our travels in April and May of 2022, from Minneapolis to St. George, UT, and back again with our Tesla Model Y.) Now, just a scant four months later, here I go again, this time regaling readers with a totally different type of travel adventure.

First, a bit of explanation regarding the title: “Pat and Dave’s Post-Covid Continental Caper.” I think the “Pat and Dave” part is pretty self-explanatory, but new readers may not know that “Pat” is my lovely wife of 43 years and “Dave” is a world-famous writer of mystery novels, otherwise known as “me.” The “Post-Covid” part refers to the fact that we originally intended to go on this trip in 2020 but had to cancel due to the Covid 19 pandemic. We booked it again for 2021, but again had to cancel. This time we decided to go ahead with it, armed (literally) with five vaccinations each during the intervening years and a box of N95 masks. The “Continental” part refers to the European Continent, in that jaunty way that urbane world travelers such as Pat and I toss around travel terms. The “Caper” part was obviously selected to form a catchy, alliterative title, but after three years of banishment by Covid it did indeed feel like a real caper.

OK, so let’s get on with it, shall we? The trip was sponsored by Viking River Cruises, the number one rated river cruise company in the world according to their marketing materials – a claim no doubt intended to justify the rather steep prices they charge. We had taken a Viking cruise on the Danube back in 2014 (before I started travel blogging) so we knew that Viking is a quality travel company. I won’t quote the price in the article since you can go look at the Viking web site if interested, but I will say that both Pat and I feel we got excellent value for the money we spent. I will also add that Viking was very good about all the cancelling and rebooking; each time we cancelled we received a voucher for 125% of what we had paid for the original booking, so we ended up with a little more to spend on the trip as compensation for the two-year delay. (We elected to use the extra amount to upgrade our room from the lower-deck “steerage” class to a fancier one on the main deck with a little balcony, which we really enjoyed.)

The trip began with a Lyft ride to MSP International Airport at 9 AM on Monday, September 12. I won’t bore you with details of the plane ride except for a few quick observations. First, air travel sucks, in my humble opinion. After shuffling sheep-like through the TSA security line, followed by two hours of thumb twiddling at MSP, we boarded a United plane for a one-hour flight to Chicago O’Hare. Then we had another two-hour wait at a Lufthansa gate for a flight to Frankfurt, immediately adjacent to another Lufthansa gate for a flight to another German city scheduled to depart 30 minutes prior to ours. People continued to cram into the space between the two gates trying to hear the sporadic announcements from Lufthansa, which were mostly drowned out by general O’Hare announcements about parking, baggage vigilance, and other sundry issues that were mundane and irrelevant to our specific boarding instructions. Also, our tickets did not have a “Zone” indicated, so we were not sure what line to get in.

Thankfully, after all this pandemonium, we found ourselves safely on board the plane, watching movies and eating snacks, dinner, and breakfast as we crossed the Atlantic. Thankfully, the transfer in Frankfurt to our flight to Geneva on Swiss Air was much calmer. Interestingly, both Lufthansa and Swiss Air required masks on the planes, while the United flight to Chicago did not. When we arrived in Geneva, the legendary Viking customer service began, as we were greeted by a Viking representative who escorted us and our luggage (along with about ten other Viking guests arriving from various locations) to a bus that took us to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Geneva, where the “Continental Caper” officially began. So, with all this introductory stuff finally out of the way, the narrative begins!

Sep 13 (Tuesday): The first part of the trip involved travel by land through Switzerland, and the first two days were spent in Geneva. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel is located directly across the street (Quai Turrettini) from the Rhone River. The first thing we did upon arrival was to stroll along the river to get a feel for the city and find a place to eat lunch. We saw many interesting buildings along the way, as well as a large fountain called the Jet d’Eau that spouts 360 gallons per second of water some 460 feet in the air, a sight that can be seen from almost any point in the city. Perhaps the most interesting spot was the Brunswick Monument, a tomb built in 1879 to commemorate the Duke of Brunswick in exchange for bequeathing his fortune to the city. Nice way to cement one’s legacy, I’d say. We ate at a Lebanese restaurant before returning to the hotel via the narrow streets away from the riverfront boulevard, also discovering a local food market along the way. Our total walk covered 1.6 miles according to Google, and we were very impressed by the cleanliness and old-world charm of the area. Following a Tuesday evening briefing from our Viking hosts, we went to the hotel reception desk to obtain a free pass for riding the city trams and buses before retiring early.

Sep 14 (Wednesday): In the morning, we joined the Viking group for a bus tour of Geneva, during which we saw sights such as the United Nations European headquarters, the International Red Cross/Red Crescent, and the famous “broken chair” peace sculpture. We debarked in a large park near the old town of Geneva for a 1.6 mile walking tour. Along the way, we saw a large wall dedicated to key figures of the Reformation era before stumbling into a ceremony celebrating new police academy graduates, then strolled through charming, narrow lanes before returning to the wide boulevard by the Rhone to see a lovely flower clock. After the tour, we walked back to a nice café near the Brunswick Monument for lunch, then to the English Garden along the Rhone before rejoining the Viking group for a boat cruise on Lake Geneva (officially known as Lac Leman). With a total area of 224 square miles and a maximum depth of 1020 ft, the lake is quite large, its semicircular shape straddling the border between Switzerland to the north and a thumblike projection of France to the south. Our boat tour only covered a small portion within the city of Geneva itself, but we were treated to panoramic views of the city and a close encounter with the Jet d’Eau.

After the official Viking tours were done, we used our free tram pass to travel some four miles west from Geneva to Meyrin, where we visited the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). CERN operates the world’s largest supercollider, though we were not able to visit that. We did spend an hour or so in a free museum building with several interactive displays about particle physics. These were fascinating, informative, and more than a bit over our heads, but we really did enjoy the place.

Sep 15 (Thursday): After breakfast on Thursday morning, we boarded a bus and drove east along the northern edge of Lake Geneva to Lausanne, where we stopped to visit the International Olympic Museum. I thought this was going to be a bit silly, but I was wrong. The museum is built into a hill overlooking Lake Geneva, including about five levels with all sorts of displays documenting the history of the Olympics. There are extensive details about each and every one of the modern Games from 1896 in Athens to 2022 (the 2020 games) in Tokyo. We were able to see such things as: the torches, with film clips of the torch carriers (even one carrying the torch over the ski jump in Oslo and one with an exchange of the torch between hang gliders in Australia); film clips of the opening ceremonies; Jesse Owens dominating the 1936 Olympics in Berlin; Paavo Nurmi, the Flying Finn, leaving the pack far behind in Paris in 1924 with five gold medals and carrying the torch in 1954 in Helsinki; equipment donated by various Olympians, including Rafael Nadal’s shoes (a particular thrill for Pat); and much more than I could ever list. The grounds are also well-kept and quite beautiful, with stunning views of Lake Geneva, immaculate topiary, and inspirational sculptures. I left the place with a newfound respect for the ideals embodied by the Olympics, the inspiration they have provided to countless athletes and fans, and the impact the games have had on human history (though I’m still a bit skeptical about the huge amounts of money spent).

After the museum, we set off eastward again along Lake Geneva to a village called Lutry, where we visited the Domaine du Daley winery. This is the oldest commercial establishment in Switzerland, founded in 1392 (a mere 630 years ago!) located in the heart of the terraced vineyards of Lavaux, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a bit of a challenge getting the bus in there since the winery is located on the side of a very steep hill – the grapes need to be hand-picked because mechanized equipment is not feasible with the steeply inclined vineyards. We got a brief tour of the processing facilities and then were treated to lunch and a tasting of three wines from different grape varieties: Chasselas (white), Vieilles Vignes (rose), and Plant Robert (red). All were excellent, and we left the winery with full tummies, a bottle each of the Chasselas and the Plant Robert, and smiles on our faces.

The bus made its way generally eastward, following a winding route through the beautiful Alps as we continued toward Zermatt. Zermatt is a “green city,” with no internal combustion engines allowed, so the bus trip ended in Täsch, where we boarded a shuttle train for the final few miles. As we walked from the train station to the Hotel Schweizerhof, a number of small electric maintenance vehicles went zipping by on the cobblestone street lined with modern businesses of all types. After checking in at the hotel, we joined our Viking host for a walking tour of Zermatt with its narrow lanes, beautiful churches, hotels, homes, and shops, and a lovely park. Of particular interest to me were the houses in the old town, constructed with heavy slate roofs with logs at the eaves to prevent ice or the heavy slate tiles themselves from falling off and damaging a neighbor’s property (which would require payment for damages under Swiss law). Although the town lies at the foot of the famed Matterhorn mountain, we were not able to see it due to low cloud cover. Following the walk, we enjoyed a meal of Fondue and Raclette, the famous local Swiss cheese dishes, before retiring to our hotel room.

Sep 16 (Friday): After breakfast on Friday morning, we walked to the train station and boarded the cog railroad which runs from Zermatt (altitude 5,314 ft) to Gornergrat (altitude 10,132 ft), an observation area with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. The climb is so steep that an ordinary type train could not possibly traverse it – leave it to those ingenious Swiss engineers to come up with the cog idea. The morning was foggy, and we were resigned to a cloud-obscured trip with only our imaginations to conjure up the vaunted scenery. After all, we were told, clear views of the Matterhorn happen on average only 95 days of the year. But then, about halfway up the track, the train burst out of the clouds and there we saw the Matterhorn in all its splendor! By the time we reached the top shortly before 10 AM, the sky had cleared almost completely, and we walked around with mouths agape at the spectacular views in every direction. In a small museum up there, we learned the story of the first climbers to reach the Matterhorn summit in 1865. Tragically, the least experienced climber fell on the way down, pulling three others to their deaths before the rope tying them all together either broke or was cut, saving the remaining three. (That mystery still has not been answered after all these years.) After nearly two hours of touristing, we shared an apple tart at the Gornergrat café, took a virtual hang glider trip called the ZOOOM (which was really fun), and headed down on the cog railway again at noon.

We stopped at several points on the way down for more sightseeing and for lunch. At the stop called the Riffelsee Photo Point, we got out and walked down a treacherous path to a small lake (the Riffelsee) in which the mighty Matterhorn was reflected for our viewing pleasure. We then clambered up to the train again and rode down to the Riffelhaus Hotel, founded in 1853. After greeting the local mascot at the train stop, we walked to the hotel and had a nice lunch on the veranda with yet another great view of the Matterhorn. One especially neat thing in the hotel is an old, hand-written ledger that lists all the people who have successfully climbed the Matterhorn, kept under glass for protection, of course.

After lunch, we rode the cog railway to Zermatt again, rested up in the hotel for a bit while sipping our Plant Robert wine from the Domaine du Daly, and then headed off to a local church (St. Nikolas) for a concert by the Zermatt City Orchestra, one event of the annual Zermatt Music Festival. The program included a featured trumpet player from Spain for Haydn’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra in E-flat major, a string serenade by Suk, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor featuring the lead cellist. The trumpet player was excellent, and the orchestra was enthusiastic and competent (though no match for the SPCO), and we enjoyed it very much.

Sep 17 (Saturday): After breakfast on Saturday, we again walked to the train station, this time boarding the Glacier Express for our next destination of Chur (pronounced “Koor”). The train ride took approximately six hours, during which we were served a nice lunch and had a couple of opportunities to get off and stretch our legs during brief stopovers. Though there wasn’t much to actually do during the trip, it felt as though we were travelling through a fairy tale land, with mountains all around and picturesque villages nestled in the valleys. The grass was so green and the sky so blue, it almost felt fake – too beautiful to be real – making the journey pleasant and relaxing. At Chur we left the train and boarded another bus for a two-hour drive to Zurich. Again, not much happening, but the scenery was beautiful, the mountains gradually falling away as we began to follow alongside the Rhine River. We arrived at the Renaissance Zurich Tower Hotel shortly after 5:30 and, after settling into our room, walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. It was an odd choice – The Brisket Southern BBQ – but at least I had a Swiss beer.

Sep 18 (Sunday): After breakfast, we had a brief bus ride to Lake Zurich and then boarded a boat for a cruise on the lake. During the cruise, we saw the Opera House, a popular public park, and then – as we drew further away from the city proper – some of Zurich’s tonier neighborhoods, including the house rented by Tina Turner. We learned that something like 90% of Zurich residents rent rather than buy homes. We saw a huge Lindt chocolate factory, which stimulated my sweet glands. The lake is very scenic, and the cruise was pleasant, although it was a bit chilly due to the wind. After the boat trip, we went on a walking tour of the city, mostly on narrow, cobblestone streets. We saw some beautiful churches (naturally), several interesting squares and fountains, including one where wine is pumped through the fountain during the annual festival, and a large park overlooking the Limmat River where dozens of people were playing bocce ball. Our local guide showed us how to buy tickets for the trams, busses, and water taxis at a machine, so we got one to use after the tour. She also pointed out a nice restaurant (Adler’s Swiss Chuchi) where we could try the local specialty, Zurich-style veal fricassee, as well as fabulous fondue and raclette dishes. After the official tour, we used our transport tickets to ride the water taxi down the river into Lake Zurich and back upriver again. I especially enjoyed how the water taxi had to zig and zag from one side of the river to the other so as to fit beneath the highest open sections of the various bridges. After the taxi ride, we had a LARGE late lunch at the Swiss Chuchi before riding the tram back to the hotel, with no need for dinner.

Sep 19 (Monday): After breakfast, we boarded a bus for about a one-hour trip to Basel. Once we reached Basel, a local guide boarded the bus and provided some commentary as we drove through the city for a while; my pictures during the bus journey were quite lousy as I tried to shoot through the windows, but then we got off and had a walking tour of Basel, starting at an interesting fountain outside the Opera House designed by Jean Tinguely using pieces taken from the original Opera house before it was “modernized.” We viewed the former cathedral, now a Reformed Protestant church. I found it interesting that the Reformers modified the original statue of St. Martin cutting his soldier’s coat and handing half to a beggar – in the new worldview the church should not be “encouraging” beggars, so the man was re-sculpted into a tree stump. We had some nice overlooks of the Rhine before returning to the Tinguely Fountain and reboarding our bus, enroute to our Viking boat.

So, dear readers, I will end Part 1 of the narrative at this point. Here’s a map of our travels through Switzerland.

In Part 2, we will board the boat and begin our journey down the Rhine River, so stay tuned …