Castles on the Rhine

Posted on July 10, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Gutenfels Castle

Rhine River

The Rhine River trickles down from its origins in the Swiss Alps on an 820-mile course through several countries until it empties into the North Sea. The upper Rhine forms the border of Germany with Switzerland and the Alsace region of France. The picturesque middle Rhine is home to forests, vineyards, and castles. The lower Rhine flows into the Netherlands and the Rhine River Delta.

Katz castle above the town of Sankt Goarshausen

Castles on the Middle Rhine

Castles abound on the middle Rhine, interspersed with steep vineyards and picturesque towns. Many of these castles were not the homes of rulers, but rather noblemen who used them to oversee trade and collect tolls from merchant ships passing along the river. The 40-mile stretch of the middle Rhine from Koblenz to Bingen is a UESCO world heritage site. There are more than 28 castles along this stretch of the river.

Lorch

Viking Skirnir spent several hours on a scenic cruise past some of the castles along this stretch of the river ending with a visit to Marksburg Castle, which is now a tourist attraction. There are also many picturesque towns, often dominated by their churches. At the beginning of the scenic cruise the majority of the castles we passed were on the left bank of the river. A short stretch saw castles on both sides, followed by the majority appearing on the right side. This was according to the direction in which our ship was traveling as it headed from Budapest to Amsterdam on a cruise spanning 3 rivers in which the Rhine was the third of the three.

map of castles on the middle Rhine

Maps were provided to any Skirnir passengers who wanted them, which showed the castles we would sail past and at which kilometer marker to look for them. Not all of them were exactly on the marker where the map said to expect them though.

Niederwald Monument

We first passed by Klopp Castle which dates back to the 13th century. The keep to that castle was rebuilt and now houses the administration for the town of Bingen on Rhine. On the other side of the river the Niederwald Monument stands high on the hillside as a memorial to the rebirth of the German Empire following the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian war. It took 12 years to build from 1871-1883 and symbolizes the unification of Germany.

Ehernfels Castle

Next we passed Ehrenfels Castle on the east bank and the Mouse Tower on an island near the west bank. The mouse tower was a former toll tower and then served as a shipping signal station until 1974. Legend has it that mice ate an archbishop imprisoned there. The name dates back to 1516, though the tower was there long before that. Ehrenfels Castle is a ruin that was rebuilt around 1212 for tolling in conjunction with the mouse tower as well as for defense. It was damaged in the 30-years war that started in 1618 and further destroyed in the 1689 Siege of Mainz.

Rhienstein Castle

Both on the left or west bank and near to each other are Rheinstein and Reichenstein. Rheinstein was built in the 1320’s and is believed to have been a fiefdom of the Archbishops of Mainz. After becoming dilapidated it was rebuilt in the 19th century and currently serves as a museum and has apartments where people can stay.

Reichenstein Castle

Reichenstein is one of the larger castles on the Rhine. It dates back to the 1200’s. Once a ruin, it has been reconstructed and houses a museum and gift shop.

Soomeck Castle

First known mention of Sooneck castle was in 1271 and it was besieged in 1283. A new castle was built on the site in 1346, but fell into disrepair after 1553 when the last of the family living there died out. It and all the other castles on the left bank were destroyed in 1689 by troops of King Loius XIV of France. Vinyards were planted on the grounds in 1774 and it was rebuilt as a hunting lodge between 1834 and 1861, but never allowed to be used as such due to disagreements among royals and revolutions in Germany. It now belongs to the state ministry of castles. There are tours available there.

Nollig Castle

Heimburg and Nollig are across the river from each other. Heimburg is privately owned and not open to the public. It was rebuilt in neo-gothic style in the 19th century after being ruined along with others on that bank in 1689, Nollig was a fortification for the city of Lorch rather than an actual castle and is just ruins.

Stahleck Castle

Stahleck is a 12th century fortified castle. It was destroyed along with the rest on that bank, but rebuilt in the 20th century and now houses a youth hostel.

Pfalzgrafenstein Castle with Gutenfels Castle in the background

On the other side of the river Pflazgrafenstein sits on Falkenau island otherwise known as Pfalz Island in front of Gutenfels which is about halfway up a hill. Pflazgrafenstein was a toll castle and is one of the more picturesque because of its closeness to ship traffic and its bright colors. Gutenfels was built in 1220, destroyed by Napolean in 1806 and rebuilt in the Victorian era. It is now open as a hotel.

train tunnels through a rock

The town of Kaub sits near Pflazgrafenstein and Gutenfels. Not far from there we saw train tunnels going through a rocky cliff on the side of the river. The tunnel entrance resembles a castle.

Schonburg Castle

Schönburg Castle was built in the 900’s and used for collecting tolls from river traffic. It was burned by the French in 1689 when they destroyed all of the castles on that side of the river. It sat in ruins for 20o years. The castle was restored in the 19th century and now houses a hotel and restaurant. It looms over the town of Oberwesel.

Loreli rock on the Rhine River

The next notable place on the riverside we passed by was according to the sign in front of it the Loreley. Everything online says Lorelei, which is the only way we heard it pronounced, but the sign had a y at the end instead of an i. It’s not a castle, but rather a rocky prominence looming over the river. Other than the sign in front it just looks like another rocky hillside. The story varies a bit from one source to another, but all involve a maiden who either fell from or threw herself off of the rock either in despair of a faithless lover or because she thought she saw him in the Rhine. Either way she dies and becomes a siren luring those who sail past to their destruction with her hauntingly beautiful song.

Katz Castle

Katz castle was built in the 14th century and destroyed by Napoleon’s army in 1606 like so many other castles, though this one is on the other side of the Rhine. It was rebuilt in the Victorian era and is privately owned.

Maus Castle

Maus castle was given the name by the counts of the larger Katz castle. The occupants of the two castles competed for power through hostile “cat and mouse” games so it’s not by coincidence that Katz castle sits next to Maus. Maus castle was built in the 14th century for collecting tolls and securing land possessions. Maus castle was not destroyed like so many others, but did fall into disrepair due to abandonment. In 1806 it was auctioned off for demolition to be used as a quarry, but was only partially demolished. It was restored in the early 1900’s, sustained damage in World War 2, and restored again after the war. It currently retains most of its original features and design. It is privately owned, but has a Knights Hall that can be rented for weddings or other events.

Marksburg Castle

There are more castles beyond Maus, but Viking Skirner sped up after that one because we were due to tour Marksburg Castle and didn’t have enough time to slowly meander past Liebenstein or Sterrenberg as we had done with the others. We needed to go get ready for the tour so didn’t even try and get quick photos on the way past. There are more castles beyond Marksburg, but while people toured Marksburg Castle the ship moved on and we took a bus to meet it elsewhere so we didn’t sail past them.

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Poulsbo

Posted on July 4, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Poulsbo historical downtown

Poulsbo, Washington is a historic town located at the north end of Liberty Bay on the Kitsap Peninsula. It is referred to as little Norway due to settlement in the late 1800’s by immigrants from Scandinavia and buildings with Norwegian architecture. Though the tourist-oriented historical downtown area is full of little cafes and restaurants we did not see any that were Norwegian themed or that served exclusively Scandinavian cuisine.

map of Poulsbo historic downtown

The first residents of the area were of the Suquamish tribe which inhabited that area. European settlers began arriving in the 1860’s, though first contact was with Captain Vancouver’s exploration ship in 1792. The town of Poulsbo was founded in the 1880’s. The name means Paul’s Place in Norwegian, though the first recorded immigrant was named Ole Stubb. Norwegian Ian Jorgen Eliason was considered the father of Poulsbo as the first permanent settler after staking out his homestead in 1883.

Front Street in Poulsbo

Logging was the first industry with floating logging camps cutting trees along the shoreline by 1860. A sawmill and shingle mill were key features in the town’s early years. Farming was important to the town’s prosperity, bolstered by the maritime endeavors of the Mosquito Fleet steamers hauling their goods to Seattle. Fishing was an important industry in the area’s early days too, followed by employment from the US government in support of nearby Keyport Naval Station. There is still a naval base in Keyport operating undersea support for the Bangor submarine base. The Naval Undersea Museum there is an interesting tourist attraction. Tourism is now a very important source of income to the people of Poulsbo.

Front Street

The Olympic Hotel built in 1892 was the town’s first hotel. It was destroyed in a fire in 1914. The cause of the fire is still unknown. It started in the hotel and burned 9 businesses, destroying 8 and damaging 1. The rebuilt hotel houses the current modernized Hotel Scandi, which is the only hotel located within the historic downtown area.

view from our room in Hotel Scandi

Hotel Scandi is an unmanned hotel with 9 rooms people can book online. It has 4 bathrooms shared among residents of the 9 rooms. When taking a short trip to Poulsbo with my mother we booked a room there due to the convenient location. Everything in the historic downtown is walkable from there. The hotel has reserved parking places in a lot behind it for people booked there. GPS says you have arrived when you are in the middle of the road in front of the building, of which the hotel is the top story and there are other businesses underneath. The entrance to the parking lot behind the hotel is down the block a bit. We had passed it before the GPS announced that we had arrived. Once you find it and go up a little hill to turn into the lot the hotel’s reserved spaces are clearly marked with signs at each of their spaces at the far end of the lot. There are no signs in the parking area marking the entrance to the hotel. If you know where to go you can get in through a gate in a plain brown fence, which opens into a small courtyard with a door to the hotel. The hotel is accessed through a code, which we were sent only a couple hours before check-in time on the day of our arrival. The keypads are just a blank screen and only light up if touched in the lower left corner. None of that information was included anywhere in the booking info or the text with the entry code, which was also the door code for our room. There is another entry door down at the street level on the side of the building next to an Italian restaurant where the workers are probably asked daily how to get into the hotel by people who can’t get the keypad at that door to light up because they weren’t told to touch the one corner.

common area between the rooms at Hotel Scandi

Once we got inside we saw a couple sitting in the shared living room area in the center of the building’s upstairs. They said that their code had only worked on the outer door, but wouldn’t open their room and the phone number on the booking information they had didn’t actually contact anyone who could help. They did finally find a contact number somewhere online and eventually gained access to their room. Once we found an entrance to the hotel and learned the keypad trick our code worked just fine on both the outside doors as well as the one to our room. We had a nice room with separate bedroom and living room areas and a sleeper sofa so we didn’t have to share the bed. It also had a view of the town and a peek-a-boo water view out the main window. 2 of the 4 bathrooms were just outside our room and the other 2 on the other side of the central room that all of the other rooms were accessed from, which wasn’t far because it’s not that big of a space. The first night it was just us and the other couple so the bathrooms next to our room were pretty convenient. The second night a young family checked into the room next to ours. Besides being noisy in the middle of the night they were messy in the bathroom so we started using the ones on the other side, which were totally clean. There wasn’t anyone on that side of the hotel so nobody had used those at all. With not that many people in the hotel the shared bathrooms worked out fine, though if all 9 rooms were full it might not be so easy to get into one. It would probably still be worth staying there for the location though. With not that many people in the hotel the shared bathrooms were pretty convenient in that if both people in the room wanted to shower or even just use the bathroom at the same time there were plenty of options to do so, whereas in a standard hotel room that isn’t an option.

parking lot by the waterfront

There are a couple little museums – a maritime museum and a heritage museum. They sit next to each other at the other end of the historic area, which isn’t very far since it isn’t all that big. There was one building between the hotel and the waterfront, and a large parking area at the waterfront for people who weren’t so fortunate as to have a place to stay right in town. Wine tastings must be popular there. Several businesses offered them. There were a lot of little gift shops and plenty of restaurants, coffee shops, and some pubs. There’s also an aquarium and a historical cabin, but they are only open on the weekend and we were there midweek so we did not see those. None of the museums or aquarium have a fee to go inside, but they do have donation boxes since they need some sort of income to survive.

flagpole and anchor at the waterfront park

There’s a marina full of boats at the waterfront next to a park with grassy space, restrooms, a shelter building, benches, picnic tables, and a paved walkway alongside the water. At low tide there’s a beach, but at high tide it’s under water. The trail extends along the waterfront beyond the little park. It’s part paved trail, part boardwalk, and a bit of gravel trail. In one area it opens up into a grassy space with a playground for small children and a stairway up to the street at the far end of town. We saw lots of people walking dogs along that trail. We also saw a lot of squirrels in the trees along the trail. Mostly gray squirrels, but we did see one of the native Douglas squirrels.

boardwalk along the waterfront

The park was a popular place for events. The first night we were there they had some sort of musical event going on and the next day something involving preschool children. A bakery near the center of the historical area seemed quite popular as it sometimes had a line going down the sidewalk out in front of it.

heron wading in the tideflats

Overall it’s a cute little town. For a short visit it can be a destination in itself, and for a longer visit a base as a place to stay while exploring the larger area around it. Besides the Navel Undersea Museum, Poulsbo is pretty closes to Bainbridge Island where there’s a ferry to Seattle, and not far from Kingston where there’s a ferry to Edmonds. There are also other parks and trails in the area surrounding the town.

mural on the side of a building

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Cabin Crawl on Holland America Oosterdam

Posted on July 3, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

aft extended balcony cabin

People often form groups on social media like Cruise Critic or Facebook for a specific cruise to contact other people who are booked for the same cruise. Sometimes they set up events that others in that group can attend. On our cruise to Antarctica a cabin crawl was set up through one of these groups. People in different types of cabins volunteered their cabin as part of the tour. Some other people just tagged along to see the different sorts of cabins.

standard balcony

The event was scheduled for a sea day. When the day came there were originally 8 cabins on the tour. One dropped out, but along the way two of the tagalongs decided to volunteer theirs so it ended up as 9. Plus one random cabin next door to one on the tour where the people inside just heard people out in the hall and asked what was going on and said come on in. It’s fun to get to see all sorts of different cabins. It’s also a bit different than just having a tour of empty cabins because this way people can see what sort of things other people do that they may not have thought of.

standard balcony cabin

We all met at a bar on the third floor. The intended first cabin was on deck 1, at the back, but somehow whoever was at the front of the line ended up heading to the front of the ship so everyone came to our cabin first instead since it was just one deck up from where we started and at the front of the ship.

view from a midship Neptune suite angled balcony

There were quite a lot of people so they filed through each room in smaller groups while the rest waited outside in the hall. At one of the listed cabins the people next door were also on the tour so they opened theirs up and half the people went to one and the other half to the other so that one went twice as fast. They said it was the same cabin type, but according to the cabin numbers and the deck plan one was a Neptune suite and the other just a balcony cabin so half the people missed out on seeing the suite.

obstructed view balcony

We had an obstructed balcony cabin, which is a type most people have neither seen nor heard of. The difference between this one and a standard balcony cabin is that the balcony has a metal wall where normal balconies have plexiglass, and the balcony is nearly twice as big as the standard size balconies on this ship. It costs less than a standard balcony because of the obstructed designation so if you don’t mind a metal wall instead of plexiglass you can get a bigger balcony for less money on ships that have these rooms. Check the deck plans before booking anything obstructed though because that could also mean it is behind a bulkhead or a full wall – or with oceanview cabins behind lifeboats.

making use of magnets and structures on the shower walls to hang lines for drying laundry

Besides the balcony one of the things we had to show people that they may not have thought of was laundry lines over the bathtub making use of both structures there and magnets to add a lot of additional hanging space to the one standard line the ship has that you can pull across the tub. I have two additional clotheslines, one of which has built-in clothespins that you can slide along the line to wherever you need them, and the other made from several braided strands that you just tuck things into and don’t need clothespins at all.

magnets are useful on cruise ships

The other additions we made to our room were magnetic hooks for extra hanging space and wall magnets to keep the paperwork organized. We also got a couple plates of cookies from the Lido buffet at lunch that we had out on the little table in the cabin so people could have a snack on the way through. People in one of the other cabins on the tour planned ahead and brought pistachios to offer for snacks.

over the door organizer

The next room was a standard balcony cabin. It had an extra storage cupboard above the couch that very few of the other cabins on the tour had, and their personal extra addition was an organizer hanging over the bathroom door.

one room had extra storage over the couch

We saw a balcony cabin that had only a shower in the bathroom rather than a tub. While some cruiselines just have showers in all of their bathrooms, Holland America usually has bathtubs in everything except inside and accessible cabins so that was an unusual room.

view from the rear-facing balcony

We also saw an extended balcony cabin which has a larger balcony than standard balcony cabins. It was at the back of the ship with a rear facing view.

this suite balcony had chairs and a lounger

Suites have larger balconies than standard cabins and sometimes have extra furniture. Especially the sort that wraps around a corner, which has different furniture on each side.

rear corner Neptune suite

We saw several different suites on the tour. The suites have different bedding and larger bathrooms than the standard cabins as well as larger rooms with bigger balconies.

signature suite 6068

There were signature suites and Neptune suites on the tour, but not the pinnacle suite, which is the biggest suite Holland America has. There are only 2 on this ship and their occupants did not join the tour.

signature suite 6068 balcony

The suites all had nicer balcony furniture than standard balcony cabins.

signature suite 8o6o balcony

The cushions to the chairs in the photo above are inside the cabin. You can see them on through the door.

balcony on the rear corner Neptune suite

One of the suites on the tour as well as the random one were corner suites in the back of the ship. Corner suites have a balcony that wraps around the corner so people can see behind the ship as well as off to one side where most balconies are just on one side.

large inside cabin

When we finally got around to going down to what was supposed to be the first cabin on deck 1 it turned out to be a large inside cabin. It was quite nice. Inside cabins are usually small, but this one had a huge corner couch that went around both sides of the corner and lots of space around the bed. It also had a huge closet, much larger than the ones in most cabins.

ocean view cabin

One of the random cabins volunteered along the way was an ocean view cabin, which was nice since there was not one on the original list. It’s about the same as a standard balcony cabin except with a window instead of a sliding door at the back of the cabin.

ocean view cabin

The arrangement is a bit different in the ocean view cabin with the beds by the window where balcony cabins need space to open the door. In the ocean view cabin the couch was to the door side of the room instead of by the window as it is in the balcony cabins.

Neptune suite balcony

Since we bring a lot of ducks to hide on cruises we brought some along with us on the tour and gave one to the people in each cabin that had hosted one for the tour. They were happy to get them. This was a fun event and a good way to get to see a lot of different types of cabins.

Neptune suite bathroom

Cabins included in this tour: 1116 large inside, 4020 Obstructed Balcony, 4174 rearview balcony, 5066 balcony, 6068 signature suite, 6171 balcony, 6177 neptune suite, 7090 balcony, 7088 neptune suite, 1093 ocean view, 8060 signature suite

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Acajutla, El Salvador Cruise Port

Posted on June 26, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

map of Central America

Acajutla, El Salvador

We were told by an excursion guide in Costa Rica that El Salvador is both the smallest and most populated country in central America. It’s a small country on the Pacific side of Central America, near but not touching Nicaragua. There are only 2 countries in Central America that don’t have shores on both sides of the continent. Belize is fully on the east side and El Salvador fully on the west. El Salvador shares borders with Guatemala and Honduras. Acajutla is the country’s main seaport. El Salvador’s main exports include coffee, sugar, clothing, and plastics. The official language is Spanish, which is what the majority of people there speak. Some can speak English, but not even all of the ones involved in cruise ship shore excursions could. Knowing some Spanish when visiting there is definitely helpful. El Salvador uses the US dollar as its official currency.

Acajutla cruise port

As with all the Pacific coast of Central America, the climate at Acajutla is continuously hot and humid. Daytime high temperatures are usually in the 32 to 34 °C (89.6 to 93.2 °F) range. The city’s population is over 22,000.

view of the dock in El Salvador from the ship

Acajutla Cruise Port

This is a container port with no direct access for passengers from the ship to shore. We docked out near the end of a long dock next to two gigantic cranes. Options at this port for anyone not going on a shore excursion were take a shuttle to Las Veraneras Beach Club or take a shuttle to downtown Acajutla. Shuttle bus tickets were done in the same manner as tender tickets at tender ports where people went to a lounge to get their tickets and then waited until their number was called. The shuttles were complimentary so it was a matter of time and space rather than money for getting the ride. These were not full-sized busses and had to wait for shore excursion busses to clear off the dock before they could come in. There were a lot of shore excursion busses.

giant crane at the cruise port

The giant cranes cross the entire pier, but they are tall enough that the busses drive right under them in between the rows of many tires on each side of the crane.

between 2 giant cranes

The ship was docked in between two giant cranes.

waiting for the excursion bus to back through the crane

The busses backed in in the morning, but when we came back our bus came through forward and maneuvered itself around on a dock not much wider than the bus is long. That wouldn’t have been possible in the morning when the dock was full of people as well as busses coming, going, or parked on the dock either waiting for passengers or loading them.

tires on the giant crane

Our visit there in 2025 was the Nieuw Amsterdam’s first visit to this port. Several of the people from El Salvador running various aspects of the tour we took said that El Salvador was just starting to have much in the way of tourism. Not a lot of cruise ships go there, especially not from major cruise lines carrying more than a few hundred people.

fish pond at the cacao plantation

Excursions offered at this port included: Ancestral Cacao Plantation & Chocolate Making Workshop; Ancient Delights – a Culinary Mayan Experience; Cerro Verde Volcano National Park and Casa 1800; Easy El Salvador Sightseeing (bus tour only); Mayan El Salvador-Joya de Ceren & San Andres; Nahuizalco Cultural Indigenous Handicraft; and San Salvador; Santa Ana Volcano Hike.

free souvenirs handed out on the shore excursion bus

We went to the cacao plantation. On the way back to the ship the bus crew handed out El Salvador necklaces made from some sort of seed to everyone on the bus. The pictures varied from one necklace to another. They were not all the same. That is the first and only time we have ever been given free souvenirs on a shore excursion. El Salvador is fairly new to the tourist industry and going all out to make a good impression. They don’t get anywhere near the amount of cruise ships as some other destinations yet, but were working to encourage more. Which is nice since there are some places that get too many and want to have less. They may get to that point sometime in the future since the number of ships going there rises each year.

looking down at the dock from the ship

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Carnival Splendor Thermal Suite

Posted on June 23, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

steam room

On Carnival Splendor the thermal suite doesn’t have just one entrance, but several doors along the same hallway that leads to the fitness center after passing by doorways to the spa treatment rooms. People who have either booked spa cabins or purchased the thermal suite package have access to the thermal suite areas for the entire cruise. Other people sometimes buy a one-day pass.

deck plan to the spa area

To get the access card that opens doors to the various thermal suite areas people check in at the spa desk and trade their room card for the spa card, trading back when they finish. There is also a beauty salon in the spa area, but neither it nor the treatment rooms are part of the thermal suite. We were in cabin 1114, a spa balcony cabin which was very handy to the spa and fitness area as well as having a door right out to the waterslides at the end of the very short hallway of rooms.

thermal suite pool

The pool is the highlight of the thermal suite to many people. Unfortunately on the Splendor the pool was never as warm as a thermal suite pool ought to be and the jets only lasted a few minutes before someone had to push the button again. The entrance also had some issues. It should just take one try with the spa card to unlock the door, but sometimes even multiple tries with many cards wouldn’t work. One day there were other people already trying to get in and their cards wouldn’t work so we all tried ours and none of them worked either. We had to get one of the employees to open it and even he had a hard time and took multiple tries before the door finally unlocked. Luckily it was not that difficult most days, though it normally took more than one try.

heated ceramic chairs

My favorite room in the thermal suite was the dry room with heated ceramic chairs. Normally that’s a tie with the pool, but since this one had problems the chairs were definitely better. There were about 9 chairs spaced around a room with floor to ceiling windows, though not many of them actually faced the view.

aromatherapy steam room

The spa also had two steam rooms, one aromatherapy with scent and one just with steam.

laconium

The closest thing to a dry sauna in the thermal suite was the room labeled laconium. They called it a sauna, but it did have steam. Google’s definition of a laconium is a dry warm room similar to a sauna where heat radiates from floors, walls, and benches with low humidity. It is a milder alternative to more intense hot rooms inspired by ancient Roman bathing culture and offers benefits like improved circulation and relaxation.

relaxation room

Relaxation areas in thermal suites on other ships we’ve sailed on generally have some sort of loungers or a combination of loungers and chairs, but on the Splendor it had a row of canopy beds and some chairs.

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Norfolk Island Hike

Posted on June 19, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of the Noordam from a trail

Bridal Track Coastal Walk

Following a rather bouncy tender ride to shore, a couple small busses waited to take our group on a shore excursion from Holland America Noordam up a steep hill to the entrance of Norfolk Island National Park. We were met there by our guide, Lilly, her dog Bella, and her helper whose name I don’t remember. Bella was by far the most popular member of the group. She looked like a somewhat overweight yellow lab. Norfolk Island belongs to Australia though it is located 877 miles (1,412 km) from mainland Australia and is not geographically part of the same continent.

lineup at the shoe cleaning station

We didn’t get far along the trail before coming to a shoe cleaning station. They don’t want foreign contamination in their forest so you first run your shoe through a set of brushes that clean the bottom and both sides, then step into a shallow pool of disinfectant.

baby Norfolk pine

The needled evergreen trees there are Norfolk Pines, something that is a miniature tree in a pot people have as a houseplant back home, but are giant forest trees in their natural habitat. There were some young ones of houseplant size though. There were also some fern trees reminiscent of ones we have seen previously in Australia’s Blue Mountains, a prehistoric sort of tree leftover from dinosaur days. Norfolk Island has its own endemic species of fern tree said to be the tallest in the world as well as a second less common species of fern tree more closely related to the ones on the Australian mainland.

fern trees

Along the way the guide sometimes stopped to talk about the fauna and flora of the island. There are no native mammals, or any of the marsupials that mainland Australia is famous for either. There are however invasive rats and mice that are hard on the native bird population. Birds are what they have for wildlife, birds and insects. No reptiles either and no poisonous spiders. Some of the birds are native and some are not. There are also feral cats that wreak havoc on some of the bird populations. The worst mess was from feral pigs that once roamed the island in great numbers having been left behind by humans and then multiplying, but those are no longer there. They have not had such luck removing the rats, though there were quite a number of rat bait stations along the pathway.

sea view through Norfolk pines

Their apex predator is a small owl that was once so close to extinction they had just one female left. An imported male has brought the population up, but now they are hybrid rather than pure and the gene pool is small. The native parakeet was also down to just a few breeding pairs, but has come a long way towards recovery now. The owl is more likely to eat small songbirds than to help control the mice, and it’s probably too small to eat the rats. The songbirds are also threatened by rats and cats so the comeback of the owl is not so good for them. Islanders are divided on whether bringing back too many owls is a good thing or a bad thing because of them being one more predator for also threatened small songbird species. The owls are of course a natural predator to those other birds where rats and cats are not.

lower trunk and looking up toward the top of a big Norfolk pine in the forest

The hike took us mainly through the forest, but there were some bits along the coast out in the sun. We had some distant views of our ship from several places at the coast. There were some broadleaf trees and other plants native to the area, and some with long skinny leaves. Some of the Norfolk pines were huge with massive trunks. Though the forest looked as if it had always been there, a lot of the plants were actually relatively recent restoration plantings of native plants because the feral pigs that once overran the island rooted up much of the native vegetation. Some of the plants along the coast are an invasive species from Africa.

trail through the forest

The hike of just over 3 kilometers took over an hour. Partly because of several stops with short talks about the area’s flora and fauna, and partly because of waiting for slow people to catch up. Some just walked slow and others were slowed down by their poor choice in footwear. You would think people who booked a hike through a forest would have sense enough not to wear sandals or flip-flops, but there were people with no common sense wearing each.

sea view from the trail

The hike took us up and down several hills, often steep with a loose gravel path. Good hiking shoes were mentioned in the instructions for that tour as well as bringing water to drink since none was provided. Parts of the hills had railings or ropes to hang onto, but very few people did and some of them slipped on the gravel with one taking a fall, though luckily he did not get hurt. After seeing the same guy slip several more times I did suggest to him that if he turned his feet out and walked like a duck it would give him more stability and he didn’t slip so much after that.

trail to a lookout platform by the sea

Speaking of falls, on the tender returning to the ship one lady who was at the back of her section of the tender got up to try and zip off before everyone else when the crew had their backs turned to her while directing a different area to disembark first. Even if they had been at her section she should have been last since the people at the front would have been directed off before her. The boat rocked and pitched her off her feet, up into the air, and right over since she hadn’t held onto anything. Then of course the crew had to stop unloading anyone else and help her up and off of the tender, stuffing up the whole unloading process for everyone else. This was not someone from the hike, just a random self-centered passenger that happened to be on the same tender back to the ship. Typical behavior of many passengers on this cruise.

Captain Cook monument

Back to the hike, we eventually came out to a lookout area by the sea at the site where Captain Cook came ashore. Pretty much everywhere we went on this cruise had some sort of Captain Cook monument. He really got around. Up on the hillside there was (of course) a monument, and a picnic area with a restroom and parking lot. The busses picked us up there. While we were waiting for the busses to arrive the guides gave a talk about the island’s history, which is also the history of their ancestors. Much of the island’s population are descendants of the mutineers from the Bounty and Tahitian women who all came to Norfolk Island after leaving Pitcairn Island where the mutineers first lived. The guides said that the movie Mutiny on the Bounty is a romanticized version of events that does not give the Tahitians credit where credit is due as they are the ones who would have known where to find Norfolk Island, and that the Tahitian women were the ones who did all the work once they got there. And that those women likely did not actually join the mutineers of their own free will, but were rather probably either tricked into it or kidnapped. Our guides seemed quite proud of their Tahitian ancestors, but the far more famous mutineers not so much.

view near the picnic area at the trailhead were our hike ended

The bus went through the town of Kingston on the way back, stopping at the shuttle stop where the shuttles to town from the port go so anyone wanting to walk around town could get off. All but 4 people did. Our bus was at the back of a line of other busses picking up and dropping off people at the shuttle stop.

picnic area at the end of the hike

Although we were early from the time given as to how long our excursion would take one lady who was still on the bus started loudly complaining to the driver that she needed to get back to the dock and meet her husband who had been on another excursion and was probably already there. The driver explained that he would go back as soon as our bus reached the front of the que and loaded on some of the people waiting there for a ride back to the dock. Then she asked about getting on a different bus, to which he said she was welcome to do so, but would have to go to the back of the line of people out in the shuttle stop waiting. Not willing to do that she whinged so much he ended up going around the other 3 busses that were still in front of us in the que and taking just the 4 of us back to the dock without loading on any of the other people there that were waiting to go back. Poor driver was probably afraid to tell her to either shut up or get off the bus, but giving in meant her selfish rudeness was rewarded at the expense of a bunch of other people waiting for a ride back to the dock. This ship seemed to have had more than its share of people who think the world revolves around them. Quite unlike the Norfolk islanders who were all friendly and helpful.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026
Posted in Australia, Holland America, Noordam, Pacific Ocean & Islands, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Roatan Sloth and Monkey Sanctuary

Posted on June 16, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

sloth

For our port stop in Roatan, Honduras on the Majestic Princess we booked an excursion through Vacations to Go that included a visit to a sloth sanctuary, a horseback ride, and snorkeling. Instructions were provided on when and where to meet for the tour. Since it was not purchased through the ship we had to meet outside of the port area one hour after the ship arrived at the port in Mahogany Bay. We expected a long line to get off the ship so we went down before any announcements and before seeing any other passengers walking down the dock. We had to wait for a short while, but were the first ones off the ship. We were not the first waiting to get off, just the closest to the stairs when the barrier was removed.

bananas near the port

Instructions included walking through the port shopping area and out to the road into the port, passing through the green gate which has the security check for port entrance, and meeting a representative from the tour beyond the gates. There wasn’t anyone directly beyond the gates, but after walking a bit farther we came across a small open area next to the road full of locals with signs for various tours people had booked through outside sources. The representative for our tour was near the back of the group by a banana plant. We were the first to arrive for the tour. There was also a zipline tour meeting with the same representative. Some of the next people to arrive said there had not yet been any announcements, but they had seen other people leaving the ship. We had to wait there awhile and the banana plant came in handy for shelter when it rained a bit.

sign at the monkey and sloth place

Eventually the zipline group left and a few more people showed up for our bus. They walked us up a hill lined with cars, vans, and busses to pretty much the end of the line at the top of the hill. After waiting in the bus for awhile another group gathered from the waiting place boarded the bus. By then it was well past the hour in which people were supposed to arrive and not everyone had shown up. As is usual with these excursions they eventually gave up waiting for people who can’t be bothered to get there on time and left. Most of the people were just doing the sloth sanctuary and snorkeling, but there were a couple zipliners who had missed the bus for that excursion. Pretty much every excursion we have ever booked through outside sources has waited well beyond the time people are supposed to meet. The people who booked it and didn’t arrive on time never show up so I don’t know why they always wait so long since the ones who are actually coming manage to get there on time. Not sure why so many people book excursions they neither cancel nor attend either. They don’t get their money back for no-shows.

sloth in a tree

First we went to the sloth sanctuary, which was for monkeys as well as sloths and also had some birds and a couple of kinkajous. Before going into a monkey cage people had to empty their pockets and take off hats, glasses, dangly earrings, and anything else a monkey might try to steal. There were shelves people could put their belongings on. We were allowed to take cell phones in to take photos.

the monkey really wanted to eat this guy’s phone

The monkeys spent a lot of time hopping from person to person so everyone ended up with a monkey on them at some point. One monkey took quite a liking to one man’s cell phone. It kept trying to eat it and trying to take it. When the phone’s owner kept a good hold on it and wouldn’t let the monkey run off with it the monkey punched him in the face. These were little capuchin monkeys so it probably didn’t hurt.

Hannah and a monkey

They hardly weighed anything and their fur was very soft. They are little thieves though. One managed to get a kleenx left in someone’s pocket and ran right up to the top of the enclosure with its prize. When they say to empty your pockets they mean everything whether it has any value or not. The monkeys were allowed to move about freely within their enclosure. Whether or not they chose to hop on anyone was totally up to the monkey, but the guide did sometimes put a bit of food on people to encourage a monkey to hop on that person.

After awhile the refuge guide said the longer we stayed in there the more likely one of the monkeys would pee or poop on somebody, which is probably their way of getting people to move along, though he did warn us before going in that there was no guarantee that wouldn’t happen. Luckily it did not.

sloth near the roof of the sloth pavillion

We went up a little hill into a large pavilion at the top. 12 sloths live there. The sloths did not have a cage. Some were in the roofed pavilion, which had some leafless trees inside, probably fake or not living. Some of the sloths were in trees just outside of the pavilion, which the guide said grow their favorite fruit. He said one especially speedy for her species sloth disappeared for a couple days once and she now wears a tracker. Sloths may not be so speedy as the monkeys, but they moved along a lot quicker than what their reputation causes people to think.

it didn’t take this sloth long to get from this low branch to one up higher

The sloths did not make physical contact with anyone. They just moved about the trees and structure of the pavilion as they pleased. Occasionally one of the workers brought a sloth into the pavilion from the surrounding area and let it climb into the trees there, but nobody else touched them. He put them down low in an easily viewed spot, but it didn’t take them all that long to climb up higher and farther away from all of the people taking photos of them.

scarlet macaw

After spending some time with the sloths we moved into a cage with some scarlet macaws and one green one. The guide said in the wild they stick with their own color for mates, but not always in captivity. They had some rainbow macaws in another cage that were offspring of the green one and one of the scarlets. Most of the birds could fly, but there was one who had previously been the pet of an owner who had clipped the wrong feathers so it could not. The green one could fly, but was too lazy to fly much, preferring to climb the screen at the outer edge of the enclosure or hop along the ground.

green macaw

One of the red ones came down to sit on people’s heads. When it was done the green one sat on people’s arms. Apparently the red one was jealous of the crackers the green one got because it swooped down from its perch and landed on my head while I had the green one sitting on my arm. It hopped over to the next lady’s head when she had the green one too, but nobody else had two birds at the same time.

two birds at the same time

On the way out we stopped to see a couple of little kinkajous in a cage. They are very cute. The pathway between the kinkajous and the parking area passed several booths selling souvenirs and refreshments as well as a bathroom.

kinkajou

Before we went to our next destination the bus made a brief stop to let the two stray zipliners out at the zipline course. The bus must have gone back to get them at some point after dropping the rest of us off at a little beach resort that had everything else included in that tour because they were back on our bus when it was time to leave rather than returning to the ship with the rest of the zipliners.

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Posted in Caribbean, Majestic Princess, Ports of Call, Princess, Shore Excursions | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Food on Enchanted Princess

Posted on June 12, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

table at the Trattoria on Enchanted Princess

Food is always a major part of cruising and for the most part Enchanted Princess delivered. As is usual on cruise ships there was plenty of food available without a surcharge, but for those who wanted something different or more upscale they also had quite a few pay-extra options.

turkey dinner in the dining room

The main food sources are the usual dining room and buffet. On Enchanted Princess there are 3 dining rooms. People can opt for a set time and table in the same dining room every night, or they can eat in different ones on different days. Reservations can be made in advance which gets people a table without a wait, though the time they want and what is available to reserve may not be the same. When not having the same table and time on Princess cruises we’ve had much better luck having dinner at the time we wanted just doing walk-in rather than trying to reserve a table. If you’re open to a sharing table you get in a lot faster as a walk-in than if you want a private table.

Coq Au Vin

Other than the traditional dining seatings where everyone comes into the same dining room at the same time, reservations are actually counterproductive to the cruiseline getting everyone through in a reasonable time. If the dining room opens at 5pm and someone has a reservation for 5:30 or even 6:00, that table is going to sit empty from 5pm until those people arrive and they will hold it an extra 20 minutes past the reserved time before seating anyone else there whereas if there were no reservations all of the tables would be open to seat people as they arrived and again when they left – and if the service was faster they could turn the tables over a lot more quickly.

Pistachio Dome dessert

The food was usually both tasty and well prepared. If you request speed service or let them know there is an event you want to attend at a specific time they will speed up the otherwise generally slow service for that night. On a back-to-back cruise with other people we tried one dining room on the first cruise and a different one the second time around with a set time and table for each.

dining room lunch

We thought we didn’t have the best waiter the first time since other sections around us always got served sooner, but then when we moved to the other dining room we’d have been happy to get the first waiter back as the new one was not only even slower, but also had a tendency to mix up people’s appetizers or just get the wrong thing entirely. Or serve everyone what one person had ordered even if the others wanted something different. At breakfast and lunch only one dining room was open to the masses. One was not open at all and the third only to suite guests or people who paid extra for reserve collection mini-suites that have some of the perks of actual suites.

lobster and duck

People can make their own changes rather than just going with the standard menu. They do make accommodations for special diets, but even with the regular food you can ask for changes. When they had surf and turf as one option and duck as another we were able to order the surf and turf with duck substituted for the steak.

Princess Love Boat Dream dessert

Menu options change daily in the dining room, but there are a few things on the dinner menu that are available every night, like the Princess Love Boat Dream heart shaped dessert. On more recent cruises they switched that to a pistachio heart that my husband thought was the best thing ever, but I found to be overly sweet and prefer the original one.

one of many food stations at the buffet

The buffet was quite extensive with different sections and different rooms serving different sorts of things. It had a whole room just for desserts, other than at breakfast when that room was full of all sorts pastries. They were rather lacking for gluten free pastries though, offering only bread or muffins that had the appearance and consistency of little hockey pucks. The muffins did improve slightly on the second cruise after I wrote that about their muffins in the survey on the first one, but they definitely could have done much better. Gluten free muffins are actually easier to make than regular ones because you don’t have to worry about over stirring the batter since there’s no gluten so I’m not sure why they couldn’t make decent ones. They must have had a really crappy recipe. I make gluten free muffins at home with a variety of different flours and all sorts of alternations for different flavors of muffins and they all turn out well so it was quite puzzling why the ship’s gluten free muffins were so bad. At breakfast they did have really good gluten free waffles and pancakes. Their gluten free waffles were homemade and just as good as regular ones. Not the pre-made toaster sort many other cruise lines serve.

sometimes at lunch in the buffet one station had a Mongolian grill type option

The buffet had some of the same things each day, but other things that changed from day to day. It did need more drink stations though. The buffet covered a pretty expansive area both in food stations and seating and had just one drink station on each side of the ship. They did have crew people to serve drinks. When it wasn’t crowded you might have an army of them descending on you asking if you wanted anything to drink whereas when it was crowded you might finish your entire meal without anyone coming by to offer anything – and if what you wanted wasn’t what they had standard on their tray you might not get it for awhile even when it wasn’t busy. Either way it would just be easier to get your own so you have what you want when you want it – which could be done, but it was a long enough walk from most of the seating area to the closest drink station that by the time you got back the food would be cold. It worked out better for me just to get what I wanted before finding a seat or to look for a table near the drink station.

tray of goodies at afternoon tea

Besides meals the dining room also serves afternoon tea. The buffet serves late night snacks. The food for afternoon tea comes around with waiters serving it from trays rather than having fancy little 3-tiered tea stands of goodies on the tables.

pizza stand by the pool

In addition to the dining room and buffet, there was also free food in the pool area. On one end there was a pizza stand called Alfredo’s Slice and the Salty Dog Grill, which had hot dogs and hamburgers. The pizza place had a limited menu with what variety of pizza they served changing from day to day. They had pizza by the slice ready to go. If you wanted gluten free or a whole pizza you could order it and then pick it up a bit later. On the other end of the pool area there was a swirls ice cream stand with soft serve ice cream in either a cone or dish. Sauce and sprinkles were optional for the dish. I asked one day if it was real ice cream or the fake stuff and the person working there said they didn’t know.

International Cafe

Sort of in-between free and pay-extra, the International Cafe in the Piazza had free food, but the drinks cost extra. That was the ship’s main coffee bar for specialty coffee, tea, or hot chocolate if you wanted something better than the free stuff in the buffet or dining room. It tended to get a line at times, but the bar next to Princess Live a couple decks up also served specialty hot drinks and rarely had a line, especially near the beginning of the cruise when most people didn’t know about it. There was also a specialty coffee bar in the pastry room at the buffet during breakfast.

Gigi’s Pizza

Enchanted Princess had quite a lot of pay-extra eateries. We were happy with the free food and didn’t try any of them. Even though they had free pizza on the Lido deck, they also had a place called Gigi’s Pizzeria overlooking the piazza where the pizza cost extra and people actually ate there rather than going up a few decks and getting it for free.

decor at the Trattoria

That wasn’t it for pay-extra Italian food though with Sabatini’s Trattoria across the way from the pizza place. That one had fake plants winding all around pillers that were a favorite place for people to hide ducks. I found one there that was exactly the same as one I’d brought so I put mine in the same place the other had been. That was of course when the restaurant wasn’t open.

gelato shop

Other pay extra places include The Catch by Rudi – a seafood place, Crown Grill Steakhouse, and the ultra-special chef’s table or their really high-priced ultimate immersive 7-course dinner called 360: An Extraordinary Experience. There was also a gelateria with an assortment of gelato, sorbet, and sundaes.

O’Malley’s Pub

O’Malley’s Irish Pub was not just one of many bars on the ship, it also served food.

coconut mousse dessert in the dining room

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Royal Princess Deluxe Balcony Cabin

Posted on June 9, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

cabin D148

Royal Princess Deluxe Balcony Cabin D148

The main difference between standard balcony cabins and deluxe balcony cabins on Royal Princess is that the deluxe balcony cabin has a small couch that is the size of a loveseat and the standard balcony cabin does not. Deluxe balcony cabins are slightly larger at 233 square feet including the balcony vs 214-222 square feet including balcony on standard balcony cabins. The balconies on both are about 41 square feet and have two chairs and a small table.

connecting door

As is usual for cruise ship cabins, the room contains two beds that can be separated into twins or set together as a queen. In the deluxe balcony cabins the sofa can convert to a third bed. Some cabins also have a drop-down bunk to accommodate a fourth person. Cabin D148 that we were in happened to be one of the few with a connecting door to the next cabin. Unless you are with the people in the next room cabins with connecting doors are best avoided when possible because you can often hear the people next door (and them you) a lot more easily than through a solid wall, though we didn’t hear the neighbors on this ship unless standing right next to the connecting door.

cabin layouts of deluxe and standard balcony cabins

The deluxe balcony cabin costs more than a standard cabin so you pay more for that small loveseat size couch and tiny bit of extra square footage. Across from the couch there was a small desk with a cabinet enclosing the refrigerator and a drawer above the cabinet with the hair dryer. The two 110 outlets above the desk were set far apart preventing any interference with large sized plugs from one to the other. The room had no USB ports, but I brought a clock that has 2. There was also one big round outlet above the desk, probably 22o volt. We extended our outlet capacity with a couple 3-outlet plugs, which are really only 2 each since they are set closer together than the width of most plugs, but they still double the capacity plus the 2 USB ports in the clock added more charging ability. The desk had one chair and there was a small table between the couch and desk.

couch and painting

There is just one picture in this room which is just colors rather than an actual picture of anything. With some imagination it could be water, a landscape perhaps of farm crops or a golf course in a sand dune by a beach, and sky. A wall TV is mounted across from the beds. Each bed has a nightstand with a built-in lamp, 2 small drawers, and a small shelf. There’s also a motion light at the bottom of it which is very annoying at night unless you cover it up with the spare pillow. There were 4 pillows for 2 beds so that was an option.

desk and mirror

The room has three mirrors with one mirror above the desk as well as a full-length wall mirror, and a mirror in the bathroom. The walls and doors are magnetic which is useful for hanging magnetic hooks and any other magnetic things people wish to hang.

closet

There is a large open closet area with as much hanging space as a double closet in a standard house and a small closet with a door containing the safe and shelves. The closet area adds some nice storage space, but makes the room feel smaller than cruise ship cabins of the same square footage on other ships that have smaller closets against a wall and more open room space.

bathroom

The bathroom is pretty standard for a cruise ship with a shower, toilet, and sink with small built-in counter. There is a shelf running the full length of the bathroom underneath the sink. Also 3 small shelves on one side of the mirror. It has conditioning shampoo and body wash in the shower and body wash and hand lotion at the sink. There is no separate conditioner for the shower so you have to bring your own if you want any.

no separate conditioner

Motion lights in cruise ship cabins seem to be following the trend of headlights (and taillights) on cars. Old cars had lights that were low down and bright enough to see, but not so bright as to blind other drivers. Over the years the lights have moved up higher on the vehicles and gotten brighter so whether you are behind another car or facing an oncoming one either the headlights or taillights are blinding.

cabin D148

Similarly, cruise ship cabins once had no motion lights. Then some started to have some low down near the floor, generally near the bathroom to light the way in case people got up in the night. Occasionally we found a dim one in the bathroom which was the only sort that we actually appreciate because that prevents the need to turn on the bright light – unless of course it only stays on a short while and then goes dark while in there. Next came lights on the bottoms of the nightstands lighting up the pathway right from leaving the bed, and now the last two ships we sailed on had really bright motion lights on the ceiling outside of the bathroom so anyone who gets up in the night or whoever wakes up first in the morning wakes up anyone else in the room with that super bright motion light.

cabin D148

As previously mentioned the ones that are low down on the nightstands can easily be covered up with spare pillows, but the ceiling ones aren’t quite as easy. There is no off switch giving people any option as to whether they want that or not. Kind of like when you buy a new car. There’s no option for one with lights that don’t blind all the other drivers, yet people are annoyed with the drivers of other cars rather than the people who design and build them. Unlike the car which has no options, you can stop the ceiling motion light if you cover it up with a towel and magnet the towel to the ceiling. Generally in cruise ship cabins the bathroom is right next to the door and you can usually see light from the hallway around the door so that provides enough light to find the bathroom in the dark without all the excessive motion lights. I’m sure they are considered a safety feature, but a switch for the option to turn them off if not wanted would be much appreciated.

balcony

This room had a standard size balcony, which in spite of how spacious it looks in the drawing from Princess that shows the room layout is really just big enough for the two chairs and table provided. There’s space enough for two people to sit out there comfortably, but if you had a third or fourth person in the room not everyone could sit there at once. The chair from the desk could squeeze in for a third person, but it would be quite crowded.

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Wertheim, Germany Walking Tour

Posted on June 5, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

bridge over the Tauber River

Wertheim, Germany

Wertheim is a town in southwestern Germany located at the confluence of the Main and Tauber Rivers with a population of around 24,000 residents. A castle overlooks the town from a hill. The town has medieval historical buildings and is known for glass making and Franconian wine. Some of the town’s buildings have markers showing the extreme height of floodwaters from numerous previous floods. Small floods can be stopped by the town’s floodgates, but not the big ones. Raising the streets nearly 5 feet turned prior ground floors into basements, but still doesn’t keep the worst floods from inundating the town. Wertheim has a mild climate with average winter lows in the high 20’s F to average summer highs in the mid 70’s F, though it does get colder and hotter at times. The warm season runs from June to September, with the cold season from November to March. July is typically the hottest month and January the coldest. The driest part of the year is generally between January and May. Snow is most likely between December and February. Annual precipitation averages a bit over 20 inches each year. Things to do in Wertheim include exploring the old town area, visiting the glass museum or shopping in the town’s boutiques. Glassware and beaded jewelry has been made there since medieval times. Wertheim was known as a successful merchant’s town in the middle ages.

Viking Skirnir in Wertheim

Wertheim River Cruise Port

The port in Wertheim was within walking distance of the town, but a train tram was provided to take people for the scheduled tour. There were also several pick-up times running half an hour apart afterword so people could either go back shortly after the tour or spend a bit more time wandering around in the town and still get a ride back to the ship. Not much though since the ship did not stay there very long.

map at the dock in Wertheim

Wertheim Walking Tour

Viking Skirnir came to Wertheim for a brief port stop of about 4 hours on a cold foggy early December morning. The temperature started out below freezing, but warmed up to about mid 30’s F by noon. Which still feels mighty cold since it is not that far above freezing and the air is damp and chilly in the fog. It also gives the photos a misty distant look since they are taken through the fog. Especially the ones from the start of the tour. It did clear up a little before the end. After we got back to the ship the sun even made a brief appearance between bouts of fog.

train tram

This tour had a unique start different from any of the other tours provided on this cruise. Taking the little train tram instead of walking straight off from the ship or taking a bus was unique to this port. Rather than starting everyone off at once groups were staggered a bit because there isn’t enough room on the train for everyone. We were assigned to the middle one of 3 groups. The stop where the train let us off was next to the Main River within walking distance of the ship. They said it would be about a 15-minute walk to get back, but we didn’t test that out since we got to the return stop when there was a train tram waiting there with seats available. Since the return trains ran half an hour apart if we had missed it we would have walked. There was a path alongside the river so just go until you get to the ship and it wouldn’t be hard to find from the tram stop – as long as you went in the right direction.

all of the Christmas market booths are closed

Wertheim is a pretty small town. The map that the ship provides showed a much smaller area for walking around in than any of the previous places we visited. It was apparently too small of a town to have enough business for the Christmas Market to stay open except on weekends so all of the little booths in the main market square were closed.

Everything was closed at the start of the tour. The yellow building is the bakery.

There was a bakery there that the guide said was the one place in town that provided free restrooms for the public without having to pay to use them or buy anything. I’m sure that free service gets them a lot of business from people coming in to use the bathroom. It was closed when we walked by it near the start of the tour, but open later after the tour was finished. Pretty much the whole town was closed when we first walked through it.

street in Wertheim

The tour guide was a retired Colonel from the German army. He was old, born shortly after the end of World War 2 in a small house in that very town.

Spitzer Turm

Pisa is not the only place with a leaning tower, just the most famous one. We saw one previously on Burano Island in Venice, and Wertheim has one too. Not to mention just about all of the older buildings alongside the canals in Amsterdam are wonky. The leaning tower in Wertheim is a round tower that was once a prison with a door way up high where prisoners and guards climbed a ladder to get up, then prisoners were lowered by rope 30 feet down into the dark with all the other prisoners and no facilities. They stayed there in complete darkness for up to 6 weeks for the horrible crimes of public drunkenness, not paying bills, or being a nagging wife or quarreling women. Apparently it was fine for men to nag or argue as long as they weren’t drunk. The tower is called the Spitzer Turm, which means pointed tower. The lean is caused by 800 years of flooding.

new stairway near the bottom of the tower

The bottom of the tower was the original part made of brick and the top was added later to turn it into a watchtower, with a door and stairway added on lower down than the original one for the prison. This tower is not as tall as the one in Pisa and the diameter is smaller as well.

random doorway in Wertheim

Though there was a German military airport near the town during World War 2, Wertheim got spared from allied bombing, but not intentionally. Only because when the allies flew over to bomb it the day was extremely foggy. It had fog so thick they couldn’t see the ground. Since they couldn’t find the town they didn’t know where to drop the bombs so they left without bombing anything.

stairway to the river

The Tauber River which runs through town is a smaller river than the Main that we sailed in on. Homes line that river. Every so often there’s a seemingly random stairway going down the riverbank into the water. These are leftover from a time when the townspeople used them to get down to the river to wash their clothes.

inside of a half-timbered wall

Much of the original construction of the town is in the medieval half-timbered style and many original buildings remain, with a few newer ones sprinkled in between. There was one house where the one next door had been torn down and nothing new built yet so you could see what it looked like inside the wall of a half-timbered house.

skinniest building in town

The narrowest building in town is very thin, sandwiched in between other buildings on the main market square. The bottom floor is very tiny. It gets a bit bigger as it goes up. The wider parts overhang a walkway that goes between it and the next building. The guide said the lowest story was originally made so small to avoid taxes because at the time it was built buildings were taxed only on the size of the space occupied at ground level regardless of how much space or how many stories they had above.

high water mark

Several of the buildings had high water indicators of previous floods. The river floods often enough that nobody lives on the bottom story in any of the buildings near the river. It’s the same in a lot of the riverside towns we visited. Seems like they would either build up on pilings above the high-water mark or build on high ground farther from the river, but apparently they all just take flooding in stride as part of normal life. There are often shops on the bottom floor so they would have to move all their merchandise whenever a flood is expected.

castle in the fog

Ruins of a castle perch high on a hill overlooking the town. It once belonged to the dukes (or counts) of Wertheim who built it in the 12th century. They aren’t recent ruins. That castle has been a ruin since the 30 years war of the 1600’s. The guide said he played in that castle as a child, though even back then it wasn’t allowed. He said since then some walls have fallen and the interior is not safe. Though the castle was not far away it was barely visible through the thick fog. Our local guide insisted that people are not allowed in the unsafe castle, but information online and from Viking said that partial restoration was done in the 1980’s and people are allowed to go there now. Even a sign at the dock listed castle tours.

the tour ended by a synagogue on a hill

The tour wound through town in a somewhat mazelike fashion and ended not within sight of where it started. Though nothing is all that far there the guide’s directions on how to get back to the market square and train stop were not at all clear. Luckily a friend we were traveling with paid attention to where we started and how to get back there so we didn’t have to wander around aimlessly until we found it.

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