Rain Forest Canoe in Ketchikan

Posted on August 8, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

canoes at the dock

Prior to our Zaandam Alaska cruise, John booked a fishing excursion in Ketchikan and I booked one called Rain Forest Canoe & Nature Trail. John booked this cruise on a whim because he was missing Alaska after having spent a dozen summers working as a fishing guide for a lodge there. On the ship’s fishing excursion he’d be on the other side as the customer with someone else as a guide. Apparently most cruisers aren’t into fishing though because just like most other cruise ship fishing excursions he’s booked in the past, this one got cancelled for not enough people booking it. Finding fishing charters from other sources doesn’t necessarily work with cruises either since their timing may not coincide with the ship’s time in port, as was the case with this one.

map of Ketchikan

Unlike Juneau where the shore excursion staff didn’t notify anyone of cancelled excursions and we found out our sea kayaking had been cancelled when going out to check in for it, he was sent a notice the day prior for the fishing excursion cancellation so he booked the one I was on instead. In Juneau we ended up doing a whale watching tour from the only last-minute excursion booth still open by the time we found out our kayaking had been cancelled. Every single one of the 17 people on that tour was from an excursion that had gotten cancelled without notification just like ours, though most of theirs had involved flying in either a seaplane or helicopter which were cancelled due to weather. We were told the Juneau kayaking one was cancelled for rough seas but the whale watching boat left from the same port where the kayaks were and it was calm there.

Zaandam in Ketchikan

This was the rainiest Alaskan cruise either of us has ever taken, with rain at every port and most of our time at sea as well. It did clear up near the glacier on the day we went to Endicott Arm, with the sun actually making an appearance at the glacier, but other than that it pretty much rained the whole time we were in Alaska other than a sun break in Carcross, Yukon during an otherwise rainy excursion.

gift shop on the pier

Check-in for this excursion was about an hour after arrival in port. We went out a bit early and had we not had rain gear on just walking to the closest gift shop on the pier would have left us drenched to the skin. This excursion was definitely a good test for my rain gear, and it passed. The raincoat was one that I bought at the gift shop on the ship because they were having a 75% off of everything Alaska related sale. Not that people couldn’t use a good raincoat at other destinations, but they were part of the sale anyway, and much better than the one I brought from home. We still got to the check-in a bit early after checking out the gift shop so we waited under the overhang on the side of the visitor’s center because the covered area by the front door was already full of other people staying out of the rain while waiting for their excursions.

a few people in a giant canoe

The large canoe holds around 30 people and they need at least 6 to run the excursion because any less wouldn’t be enough to paddle it. We had 6 people from the Zaandam, and one came over from the Grand Princess since she was the only one on her ship to sign up for that excursion so we ended up with 7 people – plus the guide for the canoe made 8. The Grand Princess left Vancouver with us and was at all of our port stops. The excursion to the Yukon we took in Skagway had people from the princess ship on it too.

a former whorehouse

Dolly’s House Museum on Creek Street in Ketchikan

We were taken up to a lake in the woods in a van on roads that were paved at the start of the ride up there and gravel closer to the lake, with plenty of potholes either way, though the van driver did his best to avoid as many as possible. The lake was called Harriet Hunt Lake, named after the person who ended prostitution in Ketchikan. Dolly of Ketchikan’s Dolly’s House Museum fame probably didn’t like Harriet Hunt at all. Prostitution was banned in Ketchikan in 1953 and Dolly’s house shut down in 1954. Dolly died in a nursing home in Sitka in 1975.

guide and a giant mushroom

When we first got out of the van the guide showed us a giant mushroom she had found. One of the red poisonous sort that looks like it would make a good smurf house. Amanita Muscaria it’s called. It’s hallucinogenic so some people make a tea out of them or eat dried ones, but an overdose can be deadly because they do contain toxins. There was a large selection of mushrooms as a centerpiece for the snacks table at our canoe destination so our guide wasn’t the only one working that excursion who had a fascination with mushrooms.

the jeep group in their canoe

While we were still in the parking lot waiting for paddles, life jackets, and for those who didn’t have their own, raincoats to be passed out a whole bunch of jeeps came down around the end of the cul-de-sac where the lake was, and then back up the hill a bit parking in front of the van we came in. They were from another excursion involving driving jeeps on mountain trails as well as the canoes. They had twice as many people as we did. While just a couple of our group opted for the excursion raincoats, nearly all of the jeep people wore them so they almost all matched in their canoe full of people while we were a mis-matched lot in a less-than-half-full canoe. I was very glad I had my own rain gear because by the time they got around to handing out the raincoats anyone who hadn’t already been soaked before they got into the van would have been pretty wet by then.

dock at the beginning of the journey

The bottom of the canoe was full of too much water for anyone to totally keep their feet out of and I didn’t have boots so my feet got pretty wet even though I kept them out of the puddle as much as possible. At least I had wool socks. Wool keeps you warm even when it gets wet.

dock we paddled to

The guide aimed us toward a dock a down the lake a bit from where we started. Along the way we saw what looked like people stuck near the shore in an unmoving jumble, but our guide said they were moving a dock that they weren’t using. Paddling a dock across a lake with a couple canoes is pretty slow going so it didn’t look like they were moving, but they were gone by the time we went back so they did eventually get to their destination.

campfire in the shelter

We beat the jeep people to the dock. We did have a bit of a head start, but also a whole lot less people to paddle the canoe. There was room at the dock for both oversized canoes to tie up. A stairway and boardwalk led to a covered platform in the woods with a table and a firepit area with a fire going. The camp cook who was already there and working had some snacks on the table and chowder, hot chocolate, and coffee on the fire.

cold shivering little mouse livened up after getting warm by the fire

A little field mouse huddled near a split bit of log next to the fire. The camp cook said he’d found it in the garbage can. The mouse was not looking to good at first, a shivering little unmoving ball of fur. It looked injured or ill, but was apparently just really cold because after it warmed up it scurried around pretty fast and looking quite fine when the log it was hiding behind got moved. It nibbled on a goldfish cracker someone gave it, then took a few more down through a hole in the wooden platform, presumably to its nest. It came and went a few more times before disappearing for good. That was the only wildlife we saw there. It was a cute little mouse.

snack table at the camp

After snack time the jeep people who were on a tighter schedule than us took a walk on the boardwalk trail into the woods while our guide told stories of local lore and some of her past adventures while waiting in hopes the rain let up a bit before we went for our rainforest walk. The jeep people came back from their walk and left to paddle their way back to the jeeps. Eventually the rain slowed down some so we took our rainforest walk.

bridge on the trail

The trail there is all boardwalk through muskeg which she said a person can sink into like quicksand if stepping in the wrong spot, though she did often leave the trail to talk about various things in places where the ground was solid. In some spots there was just water alongside the trail on both sides. It had some bridges crossing over tiny to small creeks.

the guide and the big tree

The vegetation seemed to mainly consist of skunk cabbage, hemlock, spruce, and ferns, though there were other plants including huckleberry bushes. The excursion blurb mentioned carnivorous sundew plants, but we were not shown any. There were a lot trees with fungus growing on their trunks, some of the trees still living and others not. Many of the trees had roots way above the ground where the nurse tree they had grown in had rotted away leaving a root cave under the tree. The biggest tree was about an 800-year-old spruce which was huge, living, and had a much smaller tree growing on top of a giant root sticking out of its trunk. Clover the guide said the little tree was an offspring of the big one and symbiotic in that they would share nutrients with each other as needed.

skunk cabbage by the trail

The rain stopped shortly after we got back from our walk so we had a dry time paddling back to the dock we had started from. Well dry from above anyway. The puddle in the bottom of the canoe had grown considerably deeper than the already giant puddle it had been at the start so not really any dry place for feet.

tree with fungus on it

Like most things this excursion would have been better on a nice day, but on trips like this one if you don’t do anything in the rain you won’t do anything at all so good rain gear really helps. For that excursion some good leak-proof rain boots also would have been useful. We still had fun anyway, even with all the rain.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Alaska, Holland America, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions, USA, Zaandam | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Passau, Germany

Posted on August 1, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

street in Passau

Passau, Germany

Passau sits on the German side of the border with Austria at the confluence of the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers giving it the nickname Three Rivers City. The city is famous for its gothic and baroque architecture and a historic fortress on the top of a mountain. German is of course the language of the country, but many people also speak English. The population is about 50,000. The University of Passau has over 10,000 students. Passau has a moderate maritime climate. Average temperatures vary from winter lows in the mid 20’s F to summer highs in the upper 70’s F. Currency is the euro. Hitler lived in Passau as a boy and during the second world war there were a lot of Nazis there as well as a couple small concentration camps nearby – a part of their history the town’s residents would just as soon forget. Passau is one of Bavaria’s oldest cities, founded by Celts over 2000 years ago.

houses across the river from the bus stop in town

Passau River Cruise Port

Viking Skirnir docked about 2 miles from the center of town tied to another Viking ship that we passed through to reach shore. It is common for the river boats to dock that way, though at previous ports ours was the one at shore that other people walked through. Whichever one is leaving first goes to the outside even if they have to move to let the other one in. There were many other boats docked in that area, though we also saw some docked closer to town. There are numerous different river cruise companies, most of which we never knew existed before seeing their ships while on our Viking river cruise. We only ever tied up to other Viking ships, none from any of the other lines. One ship docked right in the main part of town next to where we got off and on the busses from our port. Our dock was in an industrial looking area.

cobblestone streets and a pink church

Passau Walking Tour

Viking river cruises include a free shore excursion at every port. The included tour for our port stop in Passau was a walking tour. It started and ended with the bus ride from the port about 2 miles to the center of town. The bus let us out next to the river where we met up with the tour guides for each group. People are divided into smaller groups for the tours so there are not so many people for each guide. The town has historical buildings and very narrow cobblestone streets. They look like walking paths, but cars do drive on them.

painted cobblestones

The one we started out on had colorful squares painted on some of the cobblestones at the center of the road, with some leading to doorways of shops. Down near the river all of the lower floors are shops rather than residences because floods will sometimes go quite high on the buildings so nobody lives at the bottom.

each line represents a different flood

There are high water marks painted on the sides of the buildings in some places. The guide said that the colorful squares led to businesses. They did head into some doorways along that street, but not all of them. Other than some branching a short distance up connecting streets to a doorway, this was the only street in town with the colorful squares.

doorways on a cobblestone street

Doorways normally have at least one step above street level, even in places above the flood area. Our guide mentioned that this was because back in medieval times occupants had a tendency to dump their chamber pots into the street and nobody wanted that coming in their door.

town hall

Most of the many towers throughout the town belong to churches or castles, but one of them was on the town hall, which was built by the common people at a time in history when they got tired of the bishops having all of the power and wanted a bit of control over themselves. They didn’t get a lot of power, but some was better than the none they’d had for centuries. The tower on the town hall signified that small gain of power.

inside St. Stephans cathedral

We walked through several narrow streets, all of which are cobblestone though only the one had painted squares. They are all surrounded by tall buildings. You can see church towers high above the rest in pretty much any direction. There are a lot of churches in Passau. It was not alone in that as pretty much all of the towns we went to had lots of churches. Even the smallest towns we passed along the river had at least one church.

pipe organ at St. Stephens

We worked our way uphill to a cathedral with a Christmas market just outside of it where the tour ended. This was somewhat of a pattern with these tours, ending at a cathedral with a Christmas market. The one in Passau is one of many churches for a small town, originally a bishop’s church done in gothic style. It took 350 years to build and much of it burned down about 100 years later so one side of the church is still gothic outside while the rest is baroque style, as is the inside. Gothic style is upward with pointed arches reaching for the heavens while baroque is symmetrical with horizontal lines. Both are very ornate. Regardless of the town many seemed to have a church or cathedral called St. Stephens, as was the biggest one in Passau. This one had most of the intricacies molded into the walls and ceiling as well as painted ceilings and lots of figures built into the walls rather than gilded with gold like some of the others, though there were some golden things there. It has the largest pipe organ in a cathedral in the world with nearly 2000 pipes and 5 organs – soon to be 7 when the current renovations are complete. They are supposed to finish renovating in 2027. The cathedral also has 8 enormous bells.

booth at the Christmas market

The Christmas market outside the cathedral was of pretty good size with a lot of food stalls as well as stalls selling ornaments, trinkets, warm things like gloves, scarves, hats, and socks, gift items, or other things. This market had a few unique things that looked like they could possibly be handmade rather than mass produced. The majority of the stalls were food and drinks. Long hot dogs seem to be a big thing though these were longer and slimmer than the ones we saw at the Christmas markets in Austria and Hungary and looked more like sausages in a bun than actual hot dogs. Chocolates are also a popular thing at these markets, as is hot wine, which they call glühwein.

cafe by the river

After walking around the market a bit we made our way back down to the river, but got there about half an hour before the bus back to the port was due so we found a little café nearby where we could sit somewhere warm and sip hot drinks while we waited. Even though it was a sunny day it’s very cold outside in Passau in late November.

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Posted in Europe, Shore Excursions, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Fly Fishing Patagonia Chile

Posted on July 25, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

fly fishing on the Rio Maullin River

Most of the time people cruising together stick together in port and do the same thing, but it’s certainly not required. If one person wants to do something and the other would rather do something else it’s perfectly fine to each do your own thing. That’s what we did in Puerto Montt, Chile on our cruise to Antarctica on Holland America Oosterdam. Puerto Montt offered a river rafting excursion, which I really wanted to do and John wanted no part of. It also had a fly-fishing excursion. He loves to fish and I don’t. So we each did our own thing at that port. I had a great time river rafting and he enjoyed his chance to go fishing. A lot of times cruise ship fishing excursions get cancelled so he was really happy this one actually happened. The rest of this blog is his story from that excursion.

Chilean flag

Puerto Montt Chile, our first port of the Antarctica cruise, had many things to do. I choose to fly fish the Rio Maullin River in a unique part of Patagonia. Typically, most fly anglers fish the East Coast of Patagonia in a more arid desert-like climate. But here, on the West Coast in Chile, Patagonia has a more forested landscape.

rafts on the beach

After exiting the ship, seven other anglers joined me on a small tour bus that drove an hour through dirt and gravel roads. At the end of the road the slow meandering river emerged from the forest. Four inflatable fly-fishing rafts waited along with guides holding fly rods. Each raft would take two anglers, one on each end and the guide in the middle with oars. Prior to launching the boats each angler cast the fly rod for the guides to evaluate skill levels. Of the eight anglers three choose to use spin rods.

getting ready to go

One at a time, spaced a couple minutes apart, the rafts departed into the slow-moving water. Along the banks native fuchsia plants in full bloom provided a colorful backdrop and reflections nearshore. Some areas also had native bamboo plants that stretched high into the sky. My first cast with the fly landed exactly where the guide pointed. Our guide told us brown trout weighing up to five pounds and smaller rainbow trout would be our target species. Small streamer flies cast and then quickly “stripped” while holding the rod tip just above the water would hopefully attract a bite.

fish on

Some anglers say fly fishing is a sport of a thousand casts, but not today. Within about 20 casts something grabbed my fly, followed by a brief fight before losing the fish. Someone on the boat behind us hooked up too but also lost the fish. As we drifted downstream the guide speaking in broken English would say “change colors please.” With most anglers he would tie on the fly for the angler. In my case he let me tie my own flies onto the light leader. Casting the five-weight fast action IM6 rod was fairly easy for me. This guide company, River Flow Chile, actually had very high-quality rods and gear. The guides were excellent and patient too. These guides knew the river well and pointed out every holding spot where anglers can safely make a cast. Some great looking water had underwater snags and the guide pointed those out and said “no cast.”

little fish

My first fish to the boat only measured about 10-inches but provided a fun fight on the light rod. Mission accomplished, my first Patagonia fly-caught fish. After a quick picture I released the fish. The next fish I landed measured about 16 to 18-inches but we failed to get any pictures of it so you will have to trust my size estimate. All totaled during the roughly four-hour float, I had 11 bites and landed just three brown trout.

fishing flies

The three anglers who decided to use spin gear caught five to 10 fish each. Again, anglers may choose to use fly gear or spin gear. Without question, the spin gear caught way more fish. The angler I shared a boat with did not land a single fish because of his lack of skill. I suggested he try the spin gear but he adamantly said he would rather catch no fish on the fly rod than use spinning gear. If you are a first-time fly angler you should try to cast the fly. However, if you fail at fly casting give the spin gear a try as you will likely catch a brown trout within a few minutes. It just depends on your goals. Most anglers who choose this shore excursion have some experience fly fishing.

wild fuchsia

Even if you don’t have experience fly fishing this ship’s excursion is worth doing regardless of whether or not you ever cast a fly or spinner. Experiencing this amazing part of Patagonia is worth the price. At the end of the float the pickup crew awaits with a lunch spread complete with snacks, sandwiches, water, soft drinks, beer and wine. Overall, I highly recommend this trip. For more information you can call +56 9 9423 2399 or check them out on Instagram at @riverflowchile

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Guest Blogs, Holland America, Oosterdam, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions, South and Central America | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Flamingo Gardens

Posted on July 22, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Flamingo Gardens statue

Our Panama Canal cruise on Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam started in Fort Lauderdale. After having nearly missed the last cruise we took from there due to plane delays when going one day early, and recently having a flight to Copenhagen completely canceled so we had to take a different plane the next day, we opted to go two days early this time so there were more options for another flight in case of any issues with the scheduled one. Our booked flight went off without a hitch so we had an extra day in Fort Lauderdale. Looking through the motel’s brochures we found a place called Flamingo Gardens. It was one of the few things to do they had brochures for that was actually near Fort Lauderdale rather than in Miami or even Cape Canaveral. There were also some online options of things to book, but this was a place where we could hang out pretty much all day rather than just for a few hours or less. The address is in Davie, FL, but it was close to Fort Lauderdale.

flamingo pond

Flamingo Gardens is a botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary. It also does wildlife rescue and has a wildlife hospital where the aim is rescue, recovery, and release. Some of the animals are too injured for eventual release so they end up living out their lives in the park’s animal exhibits. They also have some that were at one time someone’s inappropriate or illegal pet that ended up there. Peacocks, ibis (aka bin chickens if you’re Australian) and other birds run wild throughout park.

pelican on a bridge in the aviary

Various different birds live in the aviary which has a big area for some of them with separate facilities for raptors and tropical birds. There were some pelicans and other birds in the aviary. Flamingos have their own flamingo pond area. Flamingo Gardens was established in 1927 and has 60 acres of botanical gardens and wildlife sanctuary.

peacock strutting his stuff

The park has other animals as well. Feral cats run loose, though there are way more peacocks than cats. We met one peacock who seemed to enjoy strutting his stuff and posing for people’s cameras. He initially spread his tail for a peahen, but she ran off uninterested so he started showing off to anyone in the vicinity with a phone or camera and kept on posing until there was nobody left wanting to take pictures of him.

white peacock

The rest of them weren’t afraid of people, but didn’t go out of their way to pose either. We saw one white peacock. He had his tail spread, but wasn’t into strutting and posing for people like the other one. His tail looked like an upside-down wedding dress skirt, and the pattern of his feathers would actually make a lovely wedding dress if done in a more appropriate material rather than actual feathers.

lizard

The brochure mentions free-range iguanas, but we did not see any of those. We did see a lizard on one of the garden sculptures.

cactus garden

There were quite an assortment of different little gardens. Some native plants to the area, others including various flowering plants. There were also orchids, cactus, ferns and some ancient plants, and plants from faraway places.

tram stopped by the cactus garden

A tram ride which had tram cars pulled by a pickup ran every half hour and took about 20 minutes for a narrated ride around various gardens with a brief stop next to the cactus garden by the butterfly conservatory. It stops long enough for people to take a quick walk through the butterfly house. People can also walk those paths out to see the things on the tram tour.

butterfly house

The butterfly conservatory hatches out butterflies and then has a greenhouse type space full of plants where they can fly around, but unlike most butterfly houses they don’t care if these escape since the goal is to increase the butterfly population for pollinating the fruit that grows within the gardens.

bee in the pollinator garden

Just outside of the butterfly house there is a pollinator garden. Bees like it as well as any butterflies that escape to the outside from the butterfly house.

pollinator garden outside of the butterfly house

The land that is now Flamingo Gardens was once a citrus grove, but we did not see any citrus in the area where the gardens are other than some baby hybrid trees of a new variety. The original owners of the citrus grove planted many of the things that make up the gardens on what was then their property in addition to their citrus trees. Butterflies look pretty and harmless, but some had battered wings from fighting with each other.

butterfly in the conservatory

The former owner’s house is a little museum of their time period in around the 1920’s or 30’s. It’s called the Historic Wray Home. A building near there is called the Barbecue Pavilion. The name is deceptive because unless renting it for an event it’s not actually a restaurant. There is a food truck and snack shack near the tram station, which was the only food available in the park. Bin chickens (ibis) hang out at the picnic tables by the food waiting for people to drop stuff. We also saw one peahen and another little black bird hoping for handouts there. We got our lunch at the food truck along with a smoothie from the nearby smoothie bar. I got the food and Linda got the drinks. I expected her to have those in hand and come find me while I waited for our food to cook, but it took just as long waiting for the smoothies to get made as it did for the food so we met in the middle each looking for the other having gotten both things at the same time. There were not any empty picnic tables in the food area so we had to share one with a couple people already sitting there, and then others after they left and new ones came looking for a place to sit.

snake at the wildlife demonstration

The park has a little stadium where they do wildlife demonstrations several times a day. They had a snake, a skunk, and a barn owl when we were there. The barn owl had come there as a tiny badly injured baby owlet and had injuries too severe to ever be released as he doesn’t have full range of motion in his neck. The snake came from another wildlife place that closed down and the skunk had been an illegal pet. She couldn’t survive in the wild without stink glands, which had been removed. That’s a skunk’s only defense. Besides the wildlife talks with several animals they also have some sessions about just one animal – and of course one of those is flamingos.

peacock in a tree

We saw a lot of peacocks up in trees and on top of enclosures that housed other birds. We didn’t see any going up, but coming down it pretty much looked like they jump off and flap their wings to slow down the fall.

tree with air plants

Some of the trees grew quite a variety of air plants, including orchids.

butterfly sculpture

The pathway that the tram takes, which people can also walk on, has a series of different sculptures of glass and metal butterflies, beetles, and other insects like dragonflies. There are also some other decorative sculptures in other areas of the park, but they are made from different materials and not part of the glass and metal series.

dragonfly sculpture

We took the tram tour, but then later walked the trails. From the tram you just see everything in passing other than a quick walk through the butterfly house, but on foot you can see things closer up and stop anywhere that you want to see something more closely or to take photos. The tram has narration so you learn about the things you see as you go by so it’s nice to do both.

footpath

There are some pathways you can go on foot where the tram doesn’t go.

cactus flower

Entry and exit is through a gift shop, which is pretty big and has a variety of things. Flamingo Gardens rehabilitates over 1000 animals a year in their wildlife hospital and runs entirely on money made from visitors, donations, and memberships without any outside assistance.

orchids on a tree

It’s a pleasant place to spend a day and has a lot of different things to see with quite a variety of plants and birds as well as some other animals.

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Posted in Day Trips, Port Cities, USA | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Raiatea Cruise Port

Posted on July 18, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Noordam in Raiatea

Holland America Noordam docked at the cruise ship port in Uturoa, Raiatea, an island in French Polynesia 146 miles northwest of Tahiti and just under 29 miles southeast of Bora Bora. The dock is right in town with no barriers between the port and anything else as is common in most ports. You do of course have to show your ship card to board, but there are no security gates or anything to pass through first.

view of the dock and a bit of the town from the ship

At nearly 65 square miles, Raiatea is the second largest of the Society Islands, significantly smaller than Tahiti which is just over 400 square miles. Raiatea is a green mountainous island with waterfalls and hiking trails. Its reefs are popular for snorkeling and diving. The name means distant sky or sky with soft light. It was considered a sacred island and has petroglyphs and other historical remains.

port at Raiatea

Just off the ship there’s shops in an area made to look like a Polynesian village. Also a meeting place for shore excursions from the ship. There are some more modern buildings at the port too. Most are shops or restaurants, but there’s also a tourist center where people can book last minute excursions.

tourist center

The visitor’s center offered pretty much everything the ship had to offer in that port with various snorkeling or lagoon tour options or tours to pearl or vanilla farms.

statue at the port

The area near the ship also has some ponds with purple flowers, grassy areas, and some statues.

flower in a pond at the port

There were a couple people with signs offering random last-minute tours, but most last-minute activities were found in the tourist center. I had planned on booking a snorkel excursion there, but the weather forecast for the day of our visit was horrible. We managed to walk around town a bit before it started to rain, but shortly after we got back to the ship a major downpour came and it rained pretty hard on and off for the rest of the day so we just stayed onboard out of the rain.

fruit market

The area surrounding the port has a lot of tourist shops, but it also has several grocery stores, a fruit market, a pharmacy, and other shops more geared to the area’s locals. You can get some medications without a prescription there for a lot less money than what they cost in the USA. You have to go to the actual pharmacy though. The grocery stores don’t even carry stuff like Tylenol or Advil.

one of the Polynesian buildings at the port

Excursions from the ship included drift snorkeling the coral garden, a boat ride to a motu for a picnic and visit to a vanilla plantation, a land and sea tour visiting the vanilla farm and pearl farm, a pearl farm tour with snorkeling, a bus tour to highlights of the island, catamaran tour to the pearl and vanilla farms, kayaking, a river ride in a  motorized outrigger canoe, and an island tour on a Le Truck island bus.

map of Raiatea

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Posted in Holland America, Noordam, Pacific Ocean & Islands, Ports of Call | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fun and Games on Enchanted Princess

Posted on July 11, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Enchanted Princess in Saint Kitts

Cruise ships have daily schedules with all sorts of different activities passengers can choose to watch or participate in depending on the activity or game. Trivia is popular and common, but far from the only game available on cruise ships.

Enchanted Princess offered quite a variety of games in various areas of the ship. The central area called the Piazza hosted things like cornhole, giant Jenga, egg drop and a paper airplane contest.

trivia at Princess Live

Princess Live, a small stage near the center of the ship, often held trivia contests during the day, but in the evening they switched to game shows like one called Yes or No.

Other games were held in various areas of the ship. Sometimes the same game might be in a different venue one day than it was another like carpet bowling which was in the Vista Lounge one time and a lounge called Take 5 another. The Vista Lounge has comedy in the evenings and other activities during the day. Take 5 often hosted private functions since it was fully enclosed unlike many of the ship’s other venues.

cornhole in the piazza

We don’t usually participate much in the onboard games on our cruises, but on Enchanted Princess we tried quite a few. Mainly due to a couple unexpected sea days when scheduled port stops got cancelled due to stormy weather. Or so they said. It was quite stormy the day we were to go to Princess Cays. So much so that ships who had gone to ports in the area that day ended up either damaging themselves and the dock they were tied to or having to leave early before all the passengers were back onboard. Missing that port was a good call. At Dominica on the other hand the water appeared dead calm around the pier that they insisted had too much of a swell for them to dock so people figured they were just spooked by what happened with other ships on that very stormy day a couple days prior to that port stop.

The egg drop was something John wanted to try anyway, not having anything to do with cancelled port stops. He’d done something similar in school and figured he had a good plan. We saw it on the schedule one day, but when we went to the piazza it turned out just to be sign-ups with the actual contest planned for the last sea day.

chicken man signs people up for the egg drop

After signing up people had the time between then and the contest to make something that will keep a raw egg from breaking when dropped 2 stories into the piazza. A man in a chicken suit handled the registration. On the day of the competition he handed out the eggs and took any last-minute participants. They do not provide anything other than the egg. Contestants have to find the parts to make their contraptions as well as having their own idea for it.

the Effy bag wins for design

When the day came the man in the chicken suit ran the game while a girl was the announcer. First everyone lined up and showed off their creations. The design with the loudest applause got a medal, which was an Effy jewelry bag with air-filled gloves hanging out the top. Other contestants had a man-bag full of bread with the egg in the middle, a pretty little pouch with a garbage bag parachute, a couple last-minute entries consisting of a shoe with the egg wrapped in socks for one and a paper cup for the other. John’s was a cardboard box which had the egg suspended in panty hose in the center plus some air-filled bags and gloves under it. It turned out not to be just a matter of the egg surviving the fall. There was also a target.

parachute coming down

The target looked like a giant fried egg. The winner would be the unbroken egg landing closest to the yolk. Chicken man checked each entry after it landed to see how the egg fared. The Effy bag, shoe, and cup had broken eggs. Of the others the parachute was the only one that actually landed on the target, so she won.

John’s egg didn’t break

For the paper airplane contest each person wanting to participate made their own paper airplane or whatever from the paper provided. The first part involved throwing them from a balcony one deck up and trying to make them go through a hoop. More of them went spiraling down or straight down than anything. One only went as far as the ledge of the balcony it was thrown from and got stuck there. Others flew astray. Several barely missed the hoop. Only one made it through and it was some sort of weird circular thing rather than an actual airplane. Mine flew the farthest, but it was off-course and not through the hoop. The second part was trying to land them on a little runway from the same deck it was on. Several planes landed on the runway so the closest one to the end won. Again a lot of them failed to fly at all, just dropping to the ground from where they were thrown. Others (like mine again) flew well, but not in a straight line and not to the runway.

carpet bowling

We saw carpet bowling on the schedule on the day that was scheduled to be a port day at Princess Cay, but turned into a sea day when stormy weather cancelled that port. Having never heard of carpet bowling before we went to see what that was all about. They had some funny little black balls bigger than pool balls, but smaller than croquet balls that had a color dot on one side. They were not totally round and would turn away from the color dot eventually when rolled. The object was to end up with your ball closest to a little white ping-pong sized ball. The first person each of 4 teams of 2 people took a turn to roll. One ball, one chance per person. After one person from each team went the second one had a go. It didn’t matter if one ball hit another or even knocked the little white ball somewhere else. Just which ball ended up closest to the white one at the end. It would take more than one or two throws to figure out exactly how hard to roll the ball to get it anywhere near where you want it to go. Too light of a throw and it curves off long before getting anywhere near, but too hard and it passes it by and slams into the door or wall beyond the target. Probably a lot of dents in that area from that game. Most people were way off, but one lady seemed to have the hang of it. We were nowhere close. They played two games and in the first one I threw too hard and in the second one too light. Didn’t find that happy medium. It was fun though. Each game had 2 rounds in which the winners of the first round moved onto a final round and everyone else was eliminated. Winners of the championship round got a medal. Then they started fresh for the second game.

They had that game again another day. Take 5 had a lot more open space for the balls to roll in without hitting anything so it was a better place for it than the Vista Lounge had been. A lot more people came that day so there were more people on each team as well as more teams.  Afterword they had a silent trivia in the same room where people just wrote in answers on a sheet of questions sitting on a table by a box of pencils. You just handed in the paper. As far as I know there were no prizes or anything for that. One of the questions was what do you call a group of crows. I told the guy running it, which was the same one who did the carpet bowling, that ravens would be better because everybody knows about a murder of crows, but not so many have heard of an unkindness of ravens. He hadn’t known that either, but said he’d use it for a future question.

bowling with a giant beach ball

Carpet bowling wasn’t the only strange sort of bowling Enchanted Princess had. One day there was bowling in the piazza with oversized pins and a giant ball that looked more like a beach ball than a bowling ball. All of which were much lighter weight than regular bowling things. Probably all of the blow-up sort. A lot of people signed up to play. We each knocked down some pins, which was better than many people who didn’t get any. One lady was ahead of the pack with more pins than anyone else. She would have won, but then the guy running the game let people who didn’t sign up have a turn – except they had to throw the ball with their back facing the pins. One guy managed to tie the lady in number of pins so facing backwards he did better than everyone but her. They had a tie-breaker bowl off and he won.

tossing chopsticks in the 60-second frenzy

Later the same afternoon of the first carpet bowling we checked out something called 60-second frenzy in the piazza. The first round of this involved 8 chopsticks set out in a line. You have one minute to pick up the first one, balance it on the back of your hand, toss it up, and then catch it – underhand not allowed. After catching the first one you then add the second one, do both together, and then work your way down the line so on the last toss you have all 8. If you drop any you pick them back up and try that number again until either getting through all of them or running out of time. For a long time nobody was successful. Finally a guy named Gary got them all. Then nobody got past 7. I was the last one on the list and it was still just Gary. Everyone else had put the sticks on the back of their hand, but I put them on my fingers because you can spread those wider for better balance and also don’t have to toss the sticks as far before catching them. I got through most of them fine, but did drop one somewhere along the line and had to pick it up and do that toss over. Finally got to the last 8 and caught them before the countdown to the last second ended. It was just me and Gary at that point so the guy running the game asked if anyone who hadn’t signed up wanted to try. One lady who was the mother of a failed contestant got talked into giving it a go and was successful using my technique.

catching chopsticks in the 60-second frenzy

Then he asked if anyone wanted to try again. Someone named Gladys tried also using my technique, but her sticks were still going all over the place and she ran out of time even though the guy running it kept picking them up for her. John was the only other person to give it a second chance. He got nearly there, but had to get that last 8. Time was running out so the guy in charge kept repeating the same number on the countdown until he got it with about 5 extra seconds that hadn’t been counted.

second chance

Apparently that was because they needed at least 4 people for the second round since it went in teams of 2. Beer-pong style we bounced ping-pong balls into a cup, trading back and forth between each person on the team. I guess they could have just had me and Gary each do that on our own without a partner though. Once a ball went in another cup got stacked on top until the total stack was 7 cups with 7 balls. We were only up to 5 cups with balls in them when the other 2 finished so we got second place. They got wine stoppers for first and we got coasters for second so nobody got a medal. John was bummed about that. He really wanted one since he hadn’t won a cruise ship medal before. I won one on a previous Princess cruise for a perfect landing in the middle of the runway in the paper airplane contest, which went a lot better for me on that ship than on this one.

passengers vs officers cornhole

They had cornhole in the piazza a couple times. Once it was all passengers and the other time it was passengers against officers. The time it was just passengers teams were even and John was on the winning team so he finally got his medal. Against the officers there were a whole lot more passengers than officers in the game so each officer got 3 or 4 turns for each one turn per passenger. The passengers won and we got medals for that too. John was also on the winning team at the second carpet bowling so he ended up with 3 medals.

yes or no game

One night we decided to go to the game shows at Princess Live instead of whatever was in the theater that night. There was a trivia going when we first got there, but then it went to something called Yes or No. People who volunteered to participate went up to the stage one at a time where 2 people would fire off questions for 3 minutes and if they said yes or no in any language they lost. The were not allowed to repeat the same non yes or no answer either. Most people managed the actual yes or no questions, but got tripped up by random comments designed to do just that. Like them mentioning someting along the lines of the town you were from only saying the wrong one so without thinking people would say no it’s … and lose. Only one person made the whole 3 minutes and that one had a bit of a reprive in the middle of the questions when they first thought he’d messed up, but really he hadn’t. The clock kept running while they sorted it out so he really didn’t have to answer questions for the full 3 minutes. They gave him the winning prize anyway since it was nearly the end of the cruise and nobody had won that game yet – for the entire cruise, not just that night. That prize was a bottle of champagne. The losers got things like a broken pencil, an empty packet that the free Effy necklaces come in, a small piece of string, or other useless items.

medals and coasters

They did have quite a lot of fun games on that cruise. Definitely a bigger variety of different games than the average cruise ship.

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Posted in Enchanted Princess, Princess, Shipboard Life | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Endicott Arm Again

Posted on July 4, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

 

Zaandam in Endicott Arm

When we initially booked a cruise on Holland America Zaandam it was scheduled to go to Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay. Later that schedule got altered to Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm. We were supposed to go to Tracy Arm on the way to Juneau and Endicott Arm on the way back according to the most recent itinerary before the cruise started. On the way to Juneau we bypassed Tracy Arm and just continued on to Juneau. Apparently at some point they had planned that. We were not given an updated itinerary that didn’t include it, but the captain neglected to mention Tracy Arm when detailing all the places we would go that cruise in a short appearance onstage before a show on the second night of the cruise. The cruise director also neglected to mention it while talking of things to come the night before the itinerary said we were to go there. That makes three strikes for me on Tracy Arm. Previous cruises on Norwegian Sun and Ruby Princess were supposed to go to Tracy Arm, but went down Endicott instead. Both of those were last minute changes due to ice blockage. Quantum of the Seas was scheduled to go down Endicott Arm, but turned around without any sort of announcement to the passengers long before reaching Dawes Glacier at the end. I had thought with Zaandam being a smaller ship and this being a later season cruise we might finally make it down Tracy Arm, but no such luck.

You can’t see Sumdum Glacier through the fog

Our Zaandam cruise was its last Alaska cruise for the season. The weather definitely said summer is over being rainy at all of our Alaska ports. Turning into Endicott Arm in the morning fog hung over the tops of the mountains and Sumdum Glacier near the entrance to the arm was shrouded in fog. Though the name is entertaining, it doesn’t actually mean someone thought it was a dumb glacier. In the Tlingit language it means big noise – probably due to the loud cracking sound of ice breaking off when a glacier calves, which is often preceded by thunderous rumbles.

waterfall in Endicott Arm

As we went farther and farther down Endicott Arm the weather cleared and the sun even came out. There was still a bit of fog at the tops of the mountains, but down at water level it was clear, sunny, and the warmest weather we had during our entire time in Alaska on that cruise, which is not to say it was actually warm. Just that with long johns, several layers of clothes, a warm winter jacket, hat, and gloves you could stand outside for quite awhile without absolutely freezing. Even if the weather is actually warm when you get near a glacier the temperature feels freezing. Because the glacier is of course a massive amount of ice.

waterfall and bergy bits

There’s only two glaciers to see in Endicott Arm. Sumdum Glacier is a hanging glacier visible on a mountain near the entrance to the arm. The mountain, called Mount Sumdum, spans the land between Endicott and Tracy Arms. On a map it looks like the glacier is not only bigger on the Tracy Arm side, but also closer to the water. Since I’ve never managed to actually cruise Tracy Arm I have no actual knowledge of how it looks from there. Tracy Arm also has twin Sawyer Glaciers, but you have to get to the ends of the channel to see them.

Dawes Glacier

The other glacier in Endicott Arm is Dawes Glacier down at the far end of the arm. On this visit the water was flat calm all the way there and the weather sunny at the glacier end with fog only at the mountain tops. My two previous visits there were at sunrise with the sun behind the glacier making it really hard to get a decent picture. This one was later in the day so other than some distracting reflections in the very clear and still water by the glacier it was much better for photos.

Zaandam at Dawes Glacier

As usual the ship spun a very slow circle as close as it could get to the face of the glacier so people on either side of the ship would have a chance to see. Not that people can’t wander over to the other side of the ship, but all of the public viewing areas get pretty crowded so it’s nice to see it away from the crowds in your own cabin, especially if you have one with a balcony. Holland America opens up the bow for scenic areas like this and many people congregated there. They have a tradition of serving pea soup at glacier viewings, which is quite tasty if you manage to snag a cup of it. They just had the occasional crew person bringing a tray of cups of soup out from the kitchen on this ship rather than a table set up with a pot of it so you had to be in the right place at the right time to get one. We happened to get lucky and come across a crew guy just as he got to the bow with a full tray.

scenery near Dawes Glacier

The bow cam channel on the stateroom TV was a really good way not only to see what is straight ahead if watching from your own room as the ship makes its way down the channel, but also a good way to see how crowded it is out there. Both the upper bow accessed from the front of deck 6 port side, and the main bow accessed through the theater were quite crowded not only at the glacier, but also for the last bit of the way there. The upper bow has stairways to the lower bow, but they were closed while the lower bow was open for glacier viewing. The stairways up from the promenade deck to the bow remained open so the theater was not the only access point, though everyone ended up herded through one small door whether going to or from the bow so the lines had to take turns for going in or out. You would think they would open the door on the other side and have one side for in and one for out, but they just opened one.

The front edge of the glacier is in a narrow channel

Dawes Glacier at the end of Endicott Arm was not the most impressive of glaciers the previous times I went there. Like most glaciers it is receding and has gotten smaller since my last visit. The ships used to get somewhat closer, but the face of the glacier has now retreated into a narrow channel so they can only get close enough to where they have enough space to turn around – probably a couple miles away. Eventually that glacier may retreat beyond a bend in that narrow channel where it won’t even be visible from where the cruise ships stop now, but that is probably still some years down the road. People who have never seen a glacier before may have been impressed, but not likely anyone who has. I did overhear other people saying they thought it was pretty small so it’s not just me.

Dawes Glacier

The captain and cruise director were hyping up Dawes Glacier in their short talks at the shows where they neglected to mention that we weren’t going to Tracy Arm or why. From the way they talked you would think we were going to Hubbard Glacier, which actually is massively huge and quite impressive. After having seen Hubbard I fail to be impressed by smaller glaciers though I do like seeing Sumdum Glacier because of the funny name.  Perhaps the captain and cruise director had not actually seen Dawes Glacier before and expected something bigger as both said it would be their first time going down Endicott Arm. Their previous cruises all summer must have gone to Glacier Bay and maybe even Tracy Arm as was scheduled for this cruise.

If I hadn’t been to Dawes Glacier before and known what to expect I’d have been pretty disappointed after hearing all the hype about what a grand and impressive glacier it is. Then again people who have not ever seen a glacier before might be impressed as they wouldn’t have any others to compare it to – and it is bigger than Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. Anyone booking a cruise to Alaska specifically to see a glacier would be best off finding one that goes to Hubbard Glacier. It’s farther north than most of the round-trip one week cruises go so it’s not on that many cruise schedules, but definitely worth a visit if you find one that goes there.

the glacier looks like it has tire tracks on it

Besides being fairly small as tidewater glaciers go, Dawes is also kind of a dirty looking glacier having a couple moraines running through it. Moraines are where edges in the ice meet. Each edge has a lot of dirt it that pushes along at the end of the ice. These give this glacier the appearance of having dirty tire tracks running up the glacier. A terminal moraine is the ridge formed at the farthest end of a glacier’s advance. The terminal moraine to Dawes Glacier is called Wood Spit. It’s nowhere near the current face of the glacier. It’s located about 30 miles away in Holkham Bay near the entrance to Endicott Arm.

one of these bergy bits resembles a submarine

Other than the glaciers there’s lots of scenery with trees and waterfalls along the sides of the fjord and many bergy bits floating in the water. Even though they’re natural ice chunks calved off a glacier, bergy bits often look like ice sculptures of recognizable things – especially if you have a good imagination. On this trip we saw bergy bits that looked like a jet ski, a swan, a submarine, a whale, and a whole bunch that looked like fish. Bergy bits are miniature icebergs too small to actually be considered an iceberg.

icy wave runner bergy bit

Sometimes there are seals or sea birds on some of the bergy bits, but other than a few birds in flight we did not see any creatures on this visit.

As we slowly worked our way down the fjord toward the glacier the weather got nicer and nicer, but apparently it was where we were going rather than the weather itself. When we came back up the fjord the fog got thicker and the air colder the farther we went and by the time we got back to the opening to the inlet the sun hid behind the clouds again. Sumdum glacier was shrouded by even more fog on the way out than it had been on the way in. As glaciers go Sumdum is not impressive at all, at least not on the Endicott Arm side. Even on a sunny day it’s just a small patch of ice on a distant hill. It’s all about the name on that one. It’s fun to say “I went to Alaska and saw Sumdum Glacier.” Then people wonder why bother to go see them at all if you think it’s just some dumb glacier.

entrance to Ford’s Terror

There’s a small inlet branching off of Endicott Arm called Ford’s Terror. Cruise ships don’t go into it, but you can see the opening to it as the ship sails by. It’s called Ford’s Terror because of a naval crew member named Ford who rowed up the inlet in a small rowboat in 1889. He went in at slack tide, but became trapped in there for the next 6 terrifying hours unable to row back out in the turbulent waters of the incoming tide. Had he known he would be able to get out once the tide changed he might not have been so frightened.

sailing past Ford’s Terror

Endicott and Tracy arms both branch off in opposite directions from the same entrance off the main channel, called Stephens Passage. There was nothing blocking the entrance to Tracy Arm so I’m not sure why we didn’t go there. Somebody said it was closed. The same person also said Glacier Bay was closed, but the Grand Princess went there. It left Vancouver with our ship and went to all of the same ports we did, but was in Glacier Bay while we were in Endicott Arm so obviously they were wrong about Glacier Bay. It’s possible our ship didn’t secure a permit to go to Glacier Bay that day, but even that seems a bit odd since the cruise was scheduled to go there well in advance and had been going there all season. The scenery in Endicott Arm is pretty, and it was nice to have that little sun break.

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Posted in Alaska, Holland America, USA, Zaandam | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Budapest

Posted on July 3, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Budapest

Budapest, Hungary

The region where Budapest is located was first occupied by Celtic tribes and over the centuries conquered by Romans, Mongols, the Ottoman Empire, the Austrian Empire, and the Soviet Union. Buda and Pest were originally separate cities along with an earlier lesser know one called Obuda. Eventually all three combined in 1873 to make one city called Budapest. The original town of Buda was on one side of the Danube River while Pest was on the other. Hungary gained independence in 1989 with the collapse of the Soviet Union and became a member of the European Union in 2004. Budapest is the capitol of Hungary as well as its most populated city.

Chain Bridge

The parts of the city that were once Buda and Pest were first connected by the Chain Bridge across the Danube River built in 1849. There are now 7 bridges connecting the two. Currency is the Hungarian Forint. One US dollar equaled 368.41 forints when we were there a few months ago. Now one US dollar equals 339.11 forints as the dollar continues to decline compared to other currencies worldwide. Shops in Hungary often accept euros and US dollars, but at a steep exchange rate so it is better to have the local currency or use a card. The climate is temperate and humid with warm summers and cold winters. Average yearly rainfall is about 19-31 inches.

Elizabeth Bridge

World War 2 was hard on Budapest. All 7 of its bridges were destroyed or damaged in the war and had to be restored or rebuilt. It lost 80% of its buildings as well. Many have been restored or rebuilt, but there is still much scaffolding around the city where things are under repair. Buda Castle above the city has a wall on one end where guard’s barracks used to be that is currently mostly just the one wall – with scaffolding. It also had construction going on below the castle walls.

construction zone at the bottom of the castle wall

I’m not sure what the deal is with European hotels, but they don’t seem to like privacy in the bathrooms. The one where we stayed in Copenhagen just had frosted glass around the entire bathroom. Prior to boarding Viking Skirnir in Budapest we stayed at the H-2 Hotel for a few days. It had a nice spacious room, but only the toilet was enclosed with walls and a door. The shower and sink were just open to the room. The shower had frosted glass on one end, and just plain glass on the side by the sink. There was a mirror on the wall opposite it so not only is the glass see-through, but you are also reflected well beyond it.

scooter tour in Budapest

Tourist attractions in Budapest include thermal baths, castles, caves, museums, historical buildings, river cruises, churches, and walking tours. The thermal baths are famous for being heated by natural hot springs. Some of them are, but for anyone to which having the natural hot spring is important research carefully before going because some of them are just ordinary water while others actually are heated with natural hot springs. Some are large with many pools and the older ones have architecture relevant to the time they were built. Another tourist attraction is a large Ferris wheel called the Budapest Eye.

funicular

Other activities include segway or scooter tours, a hop on hop off bus, and a funicular up to Buda Castle. The funicular goes up castle hill from near the bottom of the chain bridge up to the castle grounds. A funicular is cable railway system on a steep slope with a set of two cars running on parallel tracks that balance each other out as one runs up while the other goes down. These are used in many places around the world to transport people up and down steep hills. The one in Budapest has 3 compartments in each car offset from each other with the ones above rising higher than the ones below. Fantastic views can be had from outside of the funicular at the top of the hill and from bridges crossing over the funicular track. There are many excellent viewpoints on the castle grounds as well.

one car of the funicular

The first day we went there the funicular had a long line with a wait of about an hour to go up so we waited until the next day and went back first thing in the morning when we could go right up with no line. We were the second group of the day to go up so there were no crowds when we first got to the castle.

view from the funicular

The funicular offers a wonderful view of the city from the lowest of the three compartments on the way up or down. The windows in the middle and top compartments are much smaller and the compartment in front blocks most of their view. You can see the track from the larger window at the back of the upper compartment, but as there are walls on both sides of the track that window doesn’t show much else.

castle gate

The funicular is the fast way to the top of castle hill, assuming you are there when you can actually get on it without waiting in a long line. The little castle express busses available at the bottom by the hop on hop off bus stop would be faster at times when the line is long. Those busses make 4 stops on top the hill whereas the funicular has just one station at the top and one at the bottom. There’s also stairs so people can just walk up the hill if they want to.

tower at Buda Castle

The top station of the funicular lets out at Buda Castle, which could be a destination on its own. It has sprawling grounds with views of the city all along the wall on the side above the Danube River. Besides the main palace buildings it had an older looking one with a tower that had stained glass windows.

tower in a hollow surrounded by high walls

There were signs on the castle about a museum and gallery inside, but nothing was open while we were there. There’s a lot to see just walking around the grounds on the outside of the castle. It has many statues and viewpoints as well as the architecture of the castle itself. Some of it has been restored after being damaged in World War 2, but there was still much under construction. There was an ancient stone tower down in a hollow where the only thing anyone would see out the window is a wall. It looked even older than the other old tower.

restaurant at Buda Castle

A coffee shop/information booth sat in the courtyard in front of the castle and there was a restaurant in another courtyard accessed through a walkway to the backside. There was also a little mirrored building on the backside with a sign saying it was both tourist information and a gift shop. None of those were open during our early morning visit.

parliament building

The parliament buildings near the Danube River are a major tourist attraction. Along the side of the river not far from there a bunch of old shoes make a memorial for people executed in that spot by Nazis near the end of World War 2 in one of the many atrocities committed by the Nazis during that war. At that time they were low on bullets so the Nazis tied the entire group of victims together and shot one of them. That person fell into the river, dragging the rest in with them to drown. The shoes in the riverside memorial are the actual ones the victims wore when they died. Some are tiny children’s shoes. It’s terrible what can happen when one evil leader conditions their minions to think of certain other people as less than human.

shoe memorial from World War 2

Some visitors to the shoe memorial leave things in the shoes, sort of like putting flowers on a grave. Some of the tiny shoes were full of toys and candy.

St Stephens cathedral towers over all the buildings around it

The parliament buildings are the tallest in Budapest with one exception. Saint Stephens Cathedral is exactly the same height. That is intentional rather than coincidental, done to indicate that man is not above god. The castle and other buildings on the other side of the river sit higher since they are up on a hill, but apparently it was the height of the building itself rather than how high the top reaches that mattered.

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Posted in Europe, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Melk Abbey

Posted on June 27, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

arched entry to the inner courtyard at Melk Abbey

Melk, Austria

Melk is a city in Austria at the confluence of the Danube and Melk Rivers with a population of over 5000 people. It is best known for Melk Abbey, home to Benedictine monks since 1089. Melk has a temperate humid climate with temperatures ranging from winter lows in the low 30’s F to summer highs in the upper 70’s F. It generally snows about 60 days each winter. Currency is the euro. Tourist attractions besides the monastery include castles, churches, a museum, and the Danube Valley. Melk is in a wine-growing region where vineyards dot the hillsides between villages.

Viking Skirnir in Melk, Austria

Melk River Cruise Port

Melk has several docks for river boats of which the dock itself is shaped like a boat. We parked at one of them. Another ship parked behind us just after we got there. The gangway from the ship goes to the boat-shaped dock, then it has a gangway up to the shore. From there it was a short walk to a parking lot where busses waited to take people up to the abbey on top of a hill.

entry gate

Melk Abbey

Melk Abbey first opened in 1089, and has had a monastic school since 1160. It was rebuilt between 1702 and 1736 in the current baroque style. The site was once a Roman garrison. It was handed over to the Babenbergs as a castle residence in 976. They were Austria’s first ruling family before the Hapsburgs who took over in 1101 then ruled for 600 years before the Ottoman Empire. When the Babenbergs left Melk to move elsewhere they put Benedictine monks in charge of the buildings to safeguard their ancestors who were buried there. There have been as few as 8 to as many as 100 monks in residence over the centuries with the count at 22 when we were there. One of those monks teaches at the school that now inhabits a good portion of the building. Because it is still a functioning Abbey as well as a school no photos were allowed inside the building.

view of the abbey from the top of the parking lot stairs

Busses park in a lot above the abbey with a stairway down and some excellent views along the way. The abbey itself perches high above the river with excellent views of its own.

waiting to go in

At the abbey we waited out in the cold while the guide got tickets for everyone when we first arrived in the courtyard. Then 3 guides who worked there came out with one assigned to each of groups A, B, and C. Passengers from Viking Skirnir assigned to groups D and E would come half an hour later. The guided tour took 1 hour. We were allowed to take photos at the start of the tour while we were still outside, but once we passed through the door where they took the tickets no more photos were allowed except from a terrace while outside on a bit when we went out one door and across the terrace to another door leading into the library.

inner courtyard

The first thing past the entry door were giant portraits of Marie Antoinette’s mother and her husband who were the first royals to visit the abbey. Back in the day there were no hotels so monks put up travelers in the monasteries. Travelers of that era generally were royals as most common people didn’t have the time or the money to venture very far. The very long hallway was called the royal hallway. It had many rooms where visiting royals stayed.

stairway to the ticket door

Going into some of the rooms it was a bit disappointing that none of them remain furnished as they would have been way back when those royals visited there. The only things remaining were the original giant ceramic heaters in a corner of each room and what little bits of the beautifully patterned wooden floors were visible rather than covered by carpet – which is there to protect the floor as the only visible areas are not where people are allowed to walk. Other things in the room were set up like a museum with articles in glass cases, none of which and anything to do with the royals.

building view from the terrace

In another area there were some ornate gold-plated chalices that were gifts to the monks from visitors, but artifacts in the rooms were mainly from the monks. The item the guide talked about most was a monstrance, a word that resembled monstrous which is what it sounded like she said. Monstrous fit that artifact since it is a fancy golden thing holding the jawbone and one tooth of the person that they consider their patron saint, though he neither died there nor was he from there. Our monastery guide said that the body was brought in because they wanted a holy person. He’d been an Irish explorer hanged in Vienna for being different while he was on a pilgrimage to the holy land. The tree he was hanged from bloomed in winter so they decided he was a holy person. Now he’s Saint Coloman, patron saint of the Abbey and of Melk. I personally find collecting and or displaying human bones quite creepy. The tree blooming in winter isn’t creepy, but Google’s story about him is. There it said that he was a missionary hanged after falsely being accused of being a spy and he was made a saint because his body showed no sign of decay and his blood healed the sick. Who uses the blood of a dead body for healing? In most cases that would make people sicker.  The guide did not mention that bit, just the tree thing.

view of Melk from the terrace

At the end of the long hallway there was a room called the marble room which was where visiting royals dined. Most of the marble walls were fake marble rather than real, which the guide said in the modern world would actually cost more because of the time it takes to make it, but back then it was a cheap imitation that looks pretty much like the real thing. That room also had a ceiling which was painted to appear curved, but was actually flat. Painted columns running from the top of the wall over the edges of the ceiling look like they are standing straight up from the center of the room, but if you look up from the end of the room you can see the curve.  Another room we saw later had an actual curved ceiling and it really was hard to tell the difference between that and the illusory one.

library from the outside

After walking across the outside terrace we went into the library. It is currently in what the guide called the baroque style which is original to that room. She said this is the last year to see it in its original form as it is scheduled for renovation and will soon be redone in a different style. The first room of the library has leatherbound books, some of which are over 1000 years old. They are all science type books in a variety of ancient languages arranged by subject whether that is medical, philosophy, or something else.

picture of a picture of inside the library

The second much smaller room in the library has books that are only several hundred years old and written in modern languages still spoken in various countries. The spiral stairway in that room leads to other rooms of the library where only librarians working there are allowed access. The library has 12 rooms, but just two are included on the tour.

We took a different spiral stairway down to the church portion of the abbey. Cleverly placed mirrors gave that stairway the appearance of going infinitely up or down unless you notice the reflection of your face in the mirror in what appears to be many stories down an endless spiral.

picture of a picture of inside the church

Inside the church was even more ornate than the ones we saw previously this trip, and they were all quite ornate. It had a large and very fancy pipe organ at the top balcony area at the back, which is typical of old European cathedrals. The front alter area pictured gilded figurines of Saint Peter and Saint Paul going to heaven rather than a crucifix like adorns most catholic churches. There is a very modern alter forward of that where current services are performed as they want to face the parishioners now rather than having their backs to them as was done in the original alter area.

On each side of the church there is an ornate coffin up on the wall, one an actual occupied coffin and the other an empty one honoring someone buried elsewhere. Heading from there toward the back of the church there is on each side a clear case on the wall with an actual skeleton of unknown people from the catacombs of Rome. A gift from someone in the past. I thought 3 dead bodies in the sanctuary of a church of which 2 are visible skeletons was even creepier than the monstrous thing. The guide did mention that the monstrance is considered the monastery’s most precious artifact. I guess they don’t find bits of dead people disturbing and nightmarish.

outside corridor

The church is the last thing on the tour. Even though it is still an actual operating church that still holds services like any other functional church, the tour exits through a gift shop like pretty much all tourist attractions everywhere. There’s also a couple more gift shops where entry is optional before you get to the exit. One of those was open and the other closed. It has a little café too. Since we had about an hour between when the tour ended and when the busses would arrive the gift shops and café were popular places for people to hang out since they were warm and the outside cold.

cat on the stairway to town

There was a long steep stairway leading into town. We found the first and only cat we saw outside in Europe on that stairway. It could have been a pet from somewhere in the town, a stray, or belonged to the abbey since a place that old probably needs some rodent patrol. The only other cats we saw the entire time were through the window of a cafe in Amsterdam that was not open at the time.

clock

We wandered through the gift shop a bit and still had some time to kill before meeting the bus. Since it was very cold outside we went to the little cafe and shared a dessert for a warm place to wait. A lot of other people from our ship were in there too.

dome on top of the Abbey

The tour of the abbey was the included (and only) excursion for the port stop in Melk. Unlike our previous stops, the boat did not stay at the dock the whole time. Instead it went through the next lock while anyone who went on the tour was away. Then it waited at a port on the other side of the lock for the passengers to return by bus. The bus ride was half an hour, but they said it took the boat more than 2 hours to get there. There was no port stop in Ybbs where we got back on the boat. Just walking from the bus to the boat which then left as soon as everyone was onboard. Shortly after it entered another lock. There were 63 locks on the journey so we passed through a lot of them.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
Posted in Europe, Shore Excursions, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Petrohué River Rafting Adventure

Posted on June 20, 2025 by LBcruiseshipblogger

white water rafting

One of the excursions offered on Holland America Oosterdam in Puerto Montt, Chile was called Petrohué River Rafting Adventure. It promised a class 3-4 rafting trip with spectacular scenery of old-growth forests and breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains and volcanos. The tour also included a picnic lunch and wetsuits provided for the rafting.

ready to go at the starting point

Other notes in the booking information said that guests must be fit and have stamina enough to paddle in rough open waters perhaps for long periods of time. The ability to swim and walk over uneven terrain was also required. Allowed age range was from 12 to 80. It also mentioned wearing comfortable walking shoes and to wear light-colored clothing to avoid attracting horse flies, of which it said only a few lived near that river. Additional instructions included to wear a swimsuit under your clothes and to bring a towel and a set of dry clothes.

lots of rafts

The bus ride from the port to the river was a bit over an hour long. Every now and then a guide would give a little bit of history about a town we passed through along the way. Mostly about when the towns were founded a bunch of Germans settled there as well as local people from Chile so they had some German architecture and German influence in the food.

big drop

The guide said that the Petrohué River is in Patagonia, and that it is so clean you could drink out of it. On a clear day you can see 5 volcanoes from the river, but we did not see any through the clouds. They also said you could see to the bottom of the river on sunny days. Through most of our journey we could not see below the surface, though there was a bit near the end where we could see some of the rocks on the bottom.

a moment of relaxation

After saying a sunny day would provide excellent views of the 5 different volcanoes, she added that the advantage of that day being a cloudy, humid day with some rain was that we would not be surrounded in horseflies as they didn’t come out in that weather. Apparently there are a lot more of them on the river than the cruise ship blurb said there would be. Even with the clouds and bit of light rain we saw one here and there.

paddles up to celebrate successfully navigating a rapid

The first stop was at a supply shed where they handed out wet suits, along with jackets, booties, helmets, and life jackets. It rained while we were there, but then stopped and didn’t rain again. This stop had restrooms and a changing area. It turned out not to matter what color clothing people had on or what shoes they wore as the rafting was done in the provided gear. It’s best to wear a streamlined sort of swimming suit that will fit under a body-hugging wetsuit. Anything you have on under the wetsuit will be soaking wet by the time the rafting trip is over so the towel and dry clothes were definitely right on the mark. However anything you don’t wear under the wetsuit will still be dry so a second one of whatever you take off isn’t actually required.

paddling down the river

If you want to keep your socks on so as not to put your bare feet into probably wet booties that who knows how many other people have worn then a pair of dry socks is needed, as is of course underwear since you’re wearing a swimsuit instead. Leggings will fit under the wetsuit so bring dry pants if that’s what you plan to wear under it. Some people were given jackets made from wetsuit material, but others just a light pullover raincoat sort of jacket. The wetsuit is overall style so if it’s not a warm day the people with the thinner jackets may want to keep their shirts on, in which case having a spare dry shirt would be necessary as well.

you get wet

The guide mentioned that anyone with glasses needed a strap for them or they could fly off your face and get lost in the river. They did not have any straps to provide with the gear so if you need one you have to bring it yourself. Considering that water will rush over you multiple times during the journey if it is possible to go without glasses that’s the best option since glasses don’t come with windshield wipers.

rafts going down the river

Once everyone changed into their gear we all got back on the busses and headed to the river. Everyone’s bag of dry stuff stays on the bus while the people go out to the rafts. The buses will be at the pull-out when the rafts get there so people have dry clothes to change into when they arrive.

splashdown

At the launching site the first thing as people got off the busses was dividing people into groups of no more than 6 guests plus one guide. The raft I was on had just 5. One couple plus the 3 stray lone people which was one other lady and a man besides me. My husband and his wife did not want to river raft. The other lone lady was not traveling with anyone else. My husband went fishing and the guy said his wife was just doing whatever she wanted to.

that face

Meanwhile while people were piling off the busses and getting divided into groups the guides unloaded rafts from the two trailers that brought them there. Each group was assigned a guide and a raft. My group’s guide was named Franko. These guides all spoke English, which not a lot of the people we had come across in Chile so far did. It’s a good idea to learn some Spanish before going there.

carrying rafts down to the river

The part of the notes of what to expect about walking on uneven ground applied to carrying the raft down to the river at launching and then back up to the trailers afterword. It’s loose dirt filled with rocks of all sizes and some sticks so it’s definitely a good idea to look at where you are putting your feet while carrying the raft to and from the river. That’s right, the participants on this excursion carry the rafts they ride in to and from the river. They are way too big and heavy for the guide to carry alone and it would take a long time for the guides to make all the trips necessary to get each raft in and out of the water if other people didn’t help.

in the raft

The strongest paddlers were supposed to sit in front, so the two men in our raft took that position. One of the other ladies and I had the middle while the other lady had the next spot back and then the guide went to the very back. There are big cushions across the middle of the raft that divide the spots and look like where people would sit, but actually people sit on the outer edge of the raft. The front people had a little bootie pocket to tuck a foot into. Everyone else put a foot under the dividing cushion.

through the waves

It’s a fast-moving river and the rafts can only go one way so if you bring anything with you make sure it is both waterproof and secure. I brought a small waterproof camera, which was in a case that had a strap hanging around my neck. I also buckled one side of the strap into my life jacket. Had I not buckled it into the life jacket I probably would have lost the camera to one particularly rough wave that flipped it up as high as the buckle and turned it around, but couldn’t take it from me since it was fastened down. I normally would have also had a neck strap on the camera itself for excursions like this, but forgot to bring it. Anything that falls in the river is lost forever. The rafts keep moving with the flow of the water and there’s no way to turn around to go back and look for anything.

calm spot

There are not a lot of opportunities to take photos because of the need to paddle, but there were some calm spots where we weren’t paddling where I could pull the camera out for a quick photo or two. They did have a photographer who paddled ahead in a kayak and then parked himself on a rock in a couple of the rapids to get photos  which people could buy if they had cash. He sent all of the photos he took whether it was your raft or not, which was a lot of pictures. He tended to park his kayak on a rock in the middle of a rapid so he got some good action shots in places where I was busy paddling and couldn’t take any photos.

paddling instructions

At the start of the journey once everyone got their boats in the water and got settled into their spots the guides worked on things like how to hold the paddle, how to paddle it, and working in unison with the other people on the raft. It’s up to the front two people to paddle at the same time, and the people behind them to move their paddle in time with the person in front of them. If the guide says forward everyone paddles to move the boat forward. If he says back then everyone is to paddle to move the boat back. He mentioned right and left, but never asked only one side to paddle. Stop meant get your paddle out of the water right now, and rope meant grab the rope that runs around the outside of the boat and lean toward the middle because the next wave is going to be a doozy.

happy paddlers

On the way there we were also given instructions on what to do if you fall out which was grab the rope if you are close to the boat so you don’t get separated from it, and swim to the boat if you are too far to reach the rope. Last resort was the guide throwing a rope to a swimmer and having to pull them in. If the raft flipped then we were to swim to one of the other boats and hold on until the guide got ours flipped back.

rafts parked at the edge of the river at the end of the journey

We had a couple people come close to falling out of our boat, but nobody actually did. One of the guys said he nearly fell in, but nobody noticed when that happened. The lone lady tipped back so far the back of her head touched the water so everyone though she was on the way out. She managed to pull herself back into a sitting position and since she was closest to the guide he also grabbed hold to help pull her back in. None of the rafts flipped over. Never stand up in the river if you fall out was also an important instruction because you could get your foot caught under a rock and then the river would suck you down under the surface.

ready to take the raft out of the water

Most of the paddling was in short spurts of just a few strokes followed by stop, but after stop was called the next forward might come nearly immediately or it might be awhile so it was very hard to know when there might be time to pull out the camera for a quick photo or two. Only when there was a long enough calm patch of water. There were some sort of calm spots, some pretty calm spots, and some up to class 3 rapids. Even the calm spots could have giant rocks jutting out or just below the surface so sometimes paddling was necessary there too.

picnic site

When we reached the take-out spot the boats paddled to shore and then got carried back up to the waiting trailers. It was very uneven ground with rocks so definitely need to watch where you put your feet. After dropping the boats on the trailers we walked up the road to the picnic area. The road was much flatter ground than the hill that we carried the boats up.

cable crossing

Just before getting to the rustic wooden buildings there was some sort of cable crossing that people must use sometimes to cross the river.

serving lunch

The busses were parked near the buildings so we all got the floor of the bus dirty walking in there to get our bags in the wet muddy booties. There were changing rooms and restrooms there and a deck area where empanadas and coffee, tea, cocoa, or cold water were available for lunch.

volcano in Chile

On the way back the sun had started to come out and the tip tops of a couple of the volcanoes peeked out of the clouds. The bus stopped at a viewpoint so people could get out and take photos. With just that little bit of sun there were multitudes of giant horseflies buzzing around everywhere at the viewpoint so we got a bit of a taste of what a sunny day was like and were definitely better off without the view of volcanoes from the river no matter how fantastic it would have been.

This was a very fun excursion and a lot more exciting than typical cruise ship excursions usually are.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2025
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