This morning we arrived in Speyer, Germany. We took a bus to Heidelberg, Germany. The first stop we made after the journey was to the castle in the middle of the hill. It was an impressive building. There was a wine barrel that held 58,000 gallons of wine in the wine cellar. After…
Today we docked in Strasbourg, France. We got on the bus at 9 AM for the tour. They took us by bus for a panoramic tour and dropped us in the city for a walking tour. The walking tour took us to the most scenic areas of the city. We entered the Cathedral and watched…
This morning we arrived at the dock in Breisach, Germany much earlier than expected. The ships did have to rearrange themselves in the morning before we disembarked. Our morning walking tour of Breisach, Germany started at 9:30 AM. We walked up a hill to a nice cathedral and the town hall. The cathedral…
This morning we explored Basel. We went to the city gate first via tram. We then walked around the area and found the Rathaus (City Hall). The building stood out from all the others because of it’s color and decoration. We then walked to the Basel Gothic church. We used our Swiss…
In one week I will be embarking on my first (European) river cruise. I will be traveling on the Rhine river from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands. I’ve been to Amsterdam before, but not Switzerland. Before the cruise I will take a few scenic trains through Switzerland, including the Glacier Express. Hopefully the skies…
I booked myself on another cruise today: Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand. See this cruise and others It was only $690 per person plus taxes and by being a shareholdder I will get $200 onboard credit. I’m looking forward to…
This morning we stopped at the town named Shibaozhai which has a red pagoda. The entire town was demolished and a new town was built at a higher elevation due to the higher river levels because of the dam. A wall was built around the pagoda to prevent it from being destroyed by the river. It…
This morning the scenery was wonderful. I captured a timelapse video from my balcony with my GoPro. I’ll probably have to wait until I leave China to upload the video to YouTube. Below picture is on the Yangtze River before arriving at Godess Stream. At 09:00 we took a small boat to a scenic…
The stop in the morning was at a scenic spot called the water village. We took a nice walk along the river and into a gorge to a beautiful waterfall. We also saw a few macau monkeys with babies. During lunch the ship moved to a location near the 3 Gorges Dam….
Today was proof as to why it wasn’t worth spending a couple of more days in Buenos Aires. I woke up, took the subway 7.5 pesos each way (50¢) to plaza Italia and visited the botanical gardens (free) when it opens at 0930. After that I walked a short distance to the Japanese Garden, which…
11th day – well actually the cruise is over and it is the day to disembark. After breakfast we walked off the ship, found our luggage and walked a block away from the taxi stand to order an Uber. Taxi drivers don’t like Uber, so when we walked through the taxi drivers I told them…
The ship arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina today. Although our passports were already stamped December 22nd and returned to us before arriving in Uruguay. I’ve never seen that before. I have seen passports returned before the end of a cruise, but after returning to a Schengen country, and once in a Schengen country no further stamps…
Today’s stop was in Montevideo, Uruguay. It was a pleasant city with free museums within walking distance (and they hand out a walking tour map at the port). I went to a free walking tour at 11 AM, the guide was very good. The tour guide was very humorous. Information on the free walking…
I know what you are probably thinking…. Uruguay??? It’s not exactly on most American’s radar. However this was quite a nice country to visit. I ganged up with four others that I met during the Cruise Critic meet and greet on the first day of the cruise. Once we got off the ship they gave…
Yet another relaxing day at sea. Tonight I had dinner with the hotel director. He was a very interesting fellow and had been with the company for many years. I believe he had a degree in hospitality. He said when he first applied, he applied as a waiter. They asked him how many years he…
Finally vacation starts… Today is one of only two sea days on the trip, so it was a chance to recover. I received a letter today confirming dinner with the hotel director the next night. If you cruise on NCL pay attention to the information the first day of the cruise, typically they mention dinner…
Last day visiting Brazil. The port is Santos, Brazil – famous for Pele. I took an excursion through the ship to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The drive through the forest to Sao Paulo was very scenic and included many tunnels and bridges between the mountains. We drove by the Municipal Theater, Catedral sa Se, stopped…
In the morning the weather looked like it would rain all day today, but as soon as I got to shore the weather cleared up and it was a wonderful day. The tour was a bit of a bust, but I continued hiking to a waterfall. I managed to get a few good pictures without…
Arrived in Buzios on time, this is a tendered port, but with the ship not being overly large and not being very full the tendering process was very smooth. I took a tour that drove to a couple of viewpoints and one beach. The one beach was nice, with red/pink sand, some rocks with algae…
The museums in Rio don’t open until noon, and I’ve seen a lot of Rio already. I walked to the bonde station (???? trolley) near the Petrobras HQ to visit Santa Teresa neighborhood in the morning. I took the trolley back, visited Paço Imperial (Imperial Palace) and the Naval museum. No sailaway video today…….