If you had been scheduled to go on a cruise to Antarctica which was cancelled at the last minute, due to the ship hitting an iceberg, what would you choose as a replacement activity? A. another cruise in similar waters B. anything except another cruise in similar waters. C. calling a personal injury attorney (U.S. responders only) Precisely! As we suspected you … [Read more...]
Only 2 types of people should take Christmas Market river cruises
Christmas Market river cruises Have you seen advertisements for Christmas Market river cruises in Europe? And have you thought "I wonder if I would enjoy one of those"? And, if so, what excuse could I come up with to justify it? Or have you thought, "who wants to go on a cruise about Christmas"? It's hard enough to ignore Christmas at home. But if you did want to go, how … [Read more...]
The National Tile Museum in Lisbon with Viking River Cruises
Why you should visit the National Tile Museum in Lisbon Viking River Cruises knows that one of the first places you should visit when you arrive in Lisbon is the National Tile Museum. We didn't know that so we had been bumbling about for 4 days before meeting up with our cruise. We had been admiring the tiles of Lisbon but didn't know a thing about their origin, history or … [Read more...]
Out of the mouths of (cruise) babes
First timers on a Viking River cruise On our Viking River cruise on Portugal's River of Gold we were lucky enough to have two friends joining us. (Yes, we actually have friends.) Neither friend had ever taken a river cruise before so we wanted to get their impressions of the Viking River experience. After you’ve done several cruises it’s all too easy to get spoiled and only … [Read more...]
A brisk, blustery buzz around Bratislavia
History of Bratislava and Slovakia On our Emerald Waterways river cruise it was hard not to feel sorry for Bratislava. As one of the newer capital cities along the Danube in Europe it might easily have an inferiority complex compared to Vienna or Budapest. But it does have a certain gritty determination to it that we discovered on a very quick, due to river traffic delays, … [Read more...]
What it’s like to go on a river cruise with Emerald Waterways
Who is Emerald Waterways anyway? Emerald Waterways entered the river cruise market in 2014. They were awarded the “Best New River Ships” designation in Cruise Critic’s 2014 Editors’ Pick Awards. (As two would-be mermaids the on-board pool would have gotten them our vote!) Owned by Scenic Tours they are taking competitive aim at Viking River Cruises, the current dominant … [Read more...]
The Bay of Islands, Fiji – #2 in Places Without Postcards
Where is the Bay of Islands? The Bay Islands are part of the remote northern Lau Islands which lie about 200 miles from Fiji's mainland and near the international date line. Interesting factoid: The international date line isn't straight because it was made to sort of wiggle around the Fijian Islands so they would all be on the same side. Otherwise it could have … [Read more...]
Islands of Fiji – Vunisea, Kadavu #1 in Places Without Postcards
When we read the brochure from Captain Cook Cruises about their new itinerary to the very remote Lau Islands of Fiji we noticed them using the phrase "places without postcards". Vunisea on Kadavu (not actually one of the Lau Islands but on the itinerary) is our first choice for a series of posts about these places. Vunisea is so remote they don't have postcards, mail comes … [Read more...]
2014: Where we traveled , what we liked and what we didn’t
Our travel in 2014 2014 was the year that we went from casual travel users to wild-eyed travel addicts. And, following in the footsteps of the late Amy Winehouse we won't go to rehab. We say "no, no, no" (but we do hope for a happier outcome). So, without further reference to dead rock stars here's our 2014 travel year in review: Doha What we liked: The … [Read more...]
German Christmas Markets 101
Blonde recently returned from a Viking River Cruise that visited a variety of German Christmas markets along the Danube. She'd long heard about the German Christmas markets and pictured them as being pretty, twinkly and full of hand-crafted decorations to buy. And, for once, she was right. However, due to overwhelming reader education dedication she decided to create a sort … [Read more...]