Alsace and a Norwegian Cruise

Well, I am off again - and it is never lost on me how lucky/blessed I am to be able to do this travelling.  This journey will be about 4 weeks long and take me to Alsace, a much-loved and many times visited region in France near the German border.  After that, I will head to Amsterdam where, after a couple of days, I will board an Azamara ship (Quest) for a cruise titled "Norway Intensive".  It is 17 days long and, in addition, to visiting 11 ports in Norway and going north to the Arctic Circle, it has two stops in Scotland (Kirkwall, Orkney Islands and Oban) before finishing in Dublin.  I will stay there a couple of days before returning home.

I recently found an app called Travel Animator where you can create an animation of your trip.  I am not adept at using it yet so the result looks somewhat amateurish; however, it does show my flights, my car journey from Frankfurt to Rhinau in Alsace and back plus the train to Amsterdam.  So far, I haven't been able to animate the cruise as the ship just seems to float all over the countryside.  I gave up animating that part!  Also, the blog limits the size of the file you can upload so I had to make it run quite quickly.  However, it will give you some idea.  


I am excited about this adventure.  Not only about the cruise but also because I will be able to spend time with my close friends in Alsace (the last time I was there was 3 years ago).  I will also be visiting one of the few European countries I have never been to:  Norway.  While I am not particularly a fan of Amsterdam (too many close calls with crazy cyclists on previous visits), that it is where the cruise embarks.  I have booked an interesting day excursion to some villages outside of the city which I am keen to see.  And, the trip finishes in Dublin, a city I have always enjoyed.  So, please follow along if you want to track what I am getting up to.  It all starts Monday, June 15th - and now I need to pack!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Une Canicule, Rehab, and Swiss Friends

Image
The thing about writing a blog is that you are supposed to have something interesting for people to read.  On this vacation so far that has simply not been the case. I arrived in Frankfurt Tuesday morning at 6 am and all the horror stories I'd read about registering for the new EES system the EU has put in place didn't materialize, likely because there aren't a lot of flights that arrive at that time in the morning.  It took less than15 minutes to scan my passport, do the fingerprint scan and talk to the customs officer.  Incredulously, my luggage was there waiting for me when I got to the baggage claim area.  The one small glitch was that the car rental office (Alamo) wasn't open yet and even when it was 1/2 hour later the car I'd rented wasn't in their system so I had to wait an hour.  However, after that, it went find and I was on the #5 autobahn heading south by just after 8 am.  The drive went pretty smoothly although driving through a heavy rainstorm ...
Read more

All Aboard and Bon Voyage

Image
Saturday, I checked out of the Rho Hotel, left Amsterdam and headed to the Felison Cruise Terminal in Ijmuiden for a 17 day cruise on the Azamara Quest called "Norway Intensive".   I managed to get a few photos from the Uber as we left the city.  I had intended to go for a walk in the morning and take some proper ones but it was just too damn hot! The cruise is port intensive as can be seen from the map below.  I have never been to Norway so am looking forward to seeing its dramatic scenery.  Because of the time of the year, it will be light almost 24 x 7 while we are there. Boarding was so easy and in less than 1/2 hour of arriving at the terminal, I was checked in and having some lunch on the ship; such is the beauty of being on a small ship - 676 passengers this time.  The majority are Americans (284) but Canada (100),  Australia (78) and the UK (76) are well represented.  There are also Dutch, Belgian, Brazilian, New Zealand, Irish, Spanish, F...
Read more