Fording the Fjords

  Lots of quality time in the Paris airport today! And a lot of time to tell every little detail of our travel saga. Just kidding, it will SOUND like every detail but it’s only the bullet points: (gave quite a bit of detail in yesterday’s post!) -departed Paris for DTW at 4 pm Paris time.  -at about 6:45, a mechanical issue and we’re headed back to Paris. Landed at 9:30. -by 10:15, entire plane of passengers at the Air France counters learning that we would be rebooked “automatically” (some had flight info; we did not) -given a hotel voucher for a Holiday Inn Express near the airport.  -by 11:00 we were at the hotel picking up a pizza from the bar which was the “dinner included.” At least the pizza was good! -at midnight Snap Chatting with an Air France (AF) rep. Disconnected mid chat, no resolution. (No phone # to call) -At 2:30 am hour-long AF Snap Chat with no resolution; we need to go to the airport in person (where we absolutely were the night before.) -at 3:45, text...

Our bags had to be out by 10 pm last night. Headed to the airport at 6:15 am for 10:00 flights. Dave and Deb fly thru PA on American; we’re on Air France thru Paris. View from the ship at 5:30 am: So now, a day of waiting in airports. Quick 50 minutes from AMS -CDG. Now 3 1/2 hours til our flight to DTW. FYI, Paris airport (CDG) has the best chocolate. Half hour to get through passport control at CDG; would have been faster if they had moved us into the automated line sooner. Pretty painless.  But then.  We boarded about 30 min late and took off just 20 min late about 4 pm Paris time…flew 2+hours and then the pilot said we had a mechanical issue and were going back to Paris. Arrived there at 9:30 pm Paris time. Looong walk through the airport to get in line with the other few hundred on the flight to get rebooked (tried on line…no deal). We got a voucher for a nearby Holiday Inn Express that included dinner and breakfast. It was now 11 pm and the bar closed at 11:30, so the di...

View from our room today! Sailing in the North Sea. We love the long boat River cruises partly because you can pretty much always see land. This ocean cruise has been similar, except for today when we’re sailing from Skagen to Amsterdam for the flights home. The ship never feels busy except for today when everyone is necessarily on board. Still, it’s not “crowded”.  The ship is beautiful. Viking doesn’t recommend their cruises for people with physical challenges because most of the tours involve a lot of walking, usually on uneven cobblestones. But we’re seeing a few people who rarely leave the ship and are finding plenty to do. Here are some of the areas: Atrium with lots of seating on 3 floors. Game and puzzle tables, cards, etc. Guitar player in some areas, piano and violin in the evenings. This was our favorite bar area. Right next to the piano/violin music. Shops, spa and workout area (we never set foot in that…but made good use of the shop (not the jewelry tho) and Deb had a ...

Last stop: another gorgeous weather day. We were concerned when we saw the original forecast but after Bergen (the rainiest city), it’s been beautiful! Skagen is a 5 hour drive from Copenhagen and is described as Denmark’s version of The Hamptons. Over 2 million tourists visit this small fishing village every year; the full-time population here is 10,500! Hard to imagine where they put the 50,000 to 60,000 people a day that come here in the high season. Then we saw some of the town:  The Harbormaster‘s house, a row of restaurants at the harbor, and the harbor.  It’s not a requirement, but most of the homes here are traditionally yellow with the orange/red roof. A windmill, Mariner’s church and a statue to a sailor that saved over 200 people from the sea. We visited a museum about the fishing village with examples of how families lived when the town was first settled. The first house below is a poor person‘s house. Ten people lived here: two parents, two grandparents, and ...

Back in a fjord! Very cooperative beautiful weather today! High 60’s and sunny! View from the ship this morning: We visited Vigeland  Park, a free park displaying over 200 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. The city gave this park to him as his canvas, but he was not paid for any of the sculptures (with one exception, later). The theme of the park is “Circle of Life”, showing all sculptures of people. From babies to family to teens/young adults to older people…. Not too phallic, huh?😂 Apparently old Gustav was quite old school. He had 3 long-term relationships, all with young women. As soon as they started speaking up on their own, he moved on to a younger one. He was quoted as saying, “the most beautiful part of a woman is the top of her nose when her head is bowed”. (Sounds like a fun guy!) For the nature lovers. Deb and Dave are also taking pictures of the flowers here. The statues on the bridge are all about family. A favorite is the “angry boy” at the top right. In our experience...