Alicante, Spain

Thursday morning the 29^th and we awake in Alicante. We board a shuttle bus for the quick drive to the city center, and wander around lost until we turn on the phone’s GPS to get us to Alicante Segway Tours. We get some instruction in how to drive the Segway (and we both have to get used to using our feet for balance and just use our arms to turn the Segway) and together with a young couple from Brighton in the UK we are off on our Segway tour with our guide Nicolas. We Segway (not sure if drive is the right verb?) down along the beachfront promenade and soon get used to Segwaying through the crowds of pedestrians. We then head up through the old town (Alicante has been occupied constantly for over 2000 years!) and up the hill to the castle (fort) overlooking the city. We enjoy the view and then Segway down the hill. After the tour, Nicolas drops us off at the Taberna Iberica where Ramon serves us a glorious meal of local hams, tapas (croquettes of vegetables, and ham and cheese) followed by a chicken paella and a desert of tiramisu. Another great meal and we walk back to the port for the short bus ride to the ship. Kurt relaxes in the room reading while Kathy heads to the pool for some sun. We enjoy dinner at Jacques’, the French restaurant on board and head back to the room.

Barcelona

We still hadn’t recovered from jet lag and our sicknesses so spent another fitful night. Up too early on Tuesday, June 27, we drove to the airport and caught an 8 AM flight (KLM again) from Amsterdam to Barcelona. We had seen a lot of the city our last visit and so just walked the neighborhood where our hotel, the NH Barcelona Centro, was located. We ate a great tapas meal at the Bilbao near our hotel and then had dinner at Tucco, the same Italian restaurant tucked away in an alley we discovered on our last trip. Each of the two meals we had on Tuesday in Barcelona far outclassed what we could find in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, jet lag and sickness continues for us both, Kurt sleeping from 9 PM until 3 AM and Kathy only sleeping from 3 AM until 7:30 AM. We stayed in the room all morning then left the hotel at noon for the harbor.

Waterland

Unfortunately for both Kurt and Kathy, a fitful night’s sleep from jet lag, exacerbated by the ear infection and cold, followed. On Sunday, June 25, we got in the car and drove through the “waterland” northeast of the city. First we visited Edam, a quaint village where we parked the car, shopped for some of its namesake cheese, wandered about enjoying the relatively few tourists amongst its canals and flowers. The local church bells rang and we followed the parishioners to Sunday worship then wandered back to the car. From there we drove to Manker, an even quainter village but with more tourists. From there we went to Volendam, less quaint and overrun with tourists. We ate at a little restaurant overlooking the harbor and drove back to Amsterdam. We wandered about a bit more and had dinner at. Our hotel is in the old city center which is now seemingly overtaken by tourists seeking alcohol, drugs and prostitution.

On Monday, Kurt walked to his conference (why we came to Amsterdam first) while Kathy did a bit of shopping and relaxing. We then wandered a bit more and did a quick canal boat tour. We had dinner at an Argentinian steakhouse. Honestly, we never did find a single meal in Amsterdam that we enjoyed. We will have to look harder for good food there next time.

Amsterdam

Finally the time has come for another cruise. After last year’s Baltic cruise, Kurt has been looking forward to another relaxing holiday exploring the world from the luxury of a floating hotel. This year Kathy found a cruise visiting three places Kurt has not yet visited: Gibraltar, Morocco and Portugal. The days leading up to the trip Kurt suffers from a fungal infection of his left ear, which causes some pain and leaves him with an ear that feels stuffed and deaf. Kathy gets a bad cold as well so neither of us is in the best of health as we head off to Europe.

We started by flying (business class gratefully) on a KLM non-stop from San Francisco to Amsterdam on Friday, June 23, 2017. Arriving on Saturday morning, we rented a car and drove to the Amsterdam Renaissance Hotel. We were able to immediately check-in and rested for a few hours. We walked a bit around the old center of the city and had dinner at the hotel. Kurt enjoys looking at the city through the eyes of his old photographer self. For Father’s Day, etc. Kathy bought Kurt a new (used) mirror-less digital camera and a couple of lenses and he really enjoys getting back into the swing of photography. He tries to find the old “eye” and see both images to record their visit as well as makes the effort to find a few images that can stand on their own, apart from recording the visit. 

July 4: Oslo then home

We awake and enjoy a wonderful breakfast at the hotel. We wander through the city, following Rick's advice and end up at the harbor. We decide on another water tour and this time take a longer one through the Oslo archipelago. It is interesting to see all the modern buildings at the harbor as the Oslo harbor was devoted to shipping with large-scale, industrial buildings now being replaced with modern housing, shopping and offices. Back on land we take the trolley to Frogner Park, a park decorated by the sculptures of Gustav Vigeland. He cut a deal with the city that if they would give him a stipend and a studio, he would decorate the park. We spend a bit too long at the park and need to hurry back on the trolley to the hotel to gather our bags, back on the trolley to the train station and back on the airport express train to the airport. We make it in time for our flight. Once back in Stockholm, there has been an accident on the train track so the tourist information booth puts us on the right bus that drops us near our hotel. We spend the night at the Stockholm Courtyard Marriott and the next morning take a cab to the airport. We board our flight change planes in Amsterdam and make it to Minneapolis. Unfortunately there are thunderstorms in Minneapolis (we missed them throughout our entire cruise but they catch up with us in the USA!). After hours of delay we make it back home to SFO at 1:30 AM July 5. Painfully, and sadly, our great adventure comes to an end.

July 3: Stockholm

As much as Kurt dreaded the thought of a cruise, he is now an avid cruiser. He truly enjoyed the ease of eating a varied, plentiful diet, going to sleep each night and awaking in a new exciting port every morning. With the right ship, the right itinerary and the right companion, there is no better way to travel. We are up, eat our final meal at the buffet and then wait in the casino lounge for disembarking. However, as easy as getting on was, getting off is a nightmare. We wait and wait, then everyone on board tries to get off at the same time. Finally we are off, we skip the line and head into the street to get a cab to the Stockholm Courtyard Hotel (points, naturally). We aren't staying in Stockholm but leave our bags at the hotel and take the metro into town. There is a triathlon going on so streets are closed and people funneled through specific corridors. We see the main sights, including the world's smallest public statute, and eat lunch at a ramen restaurant. We get tickets for the hop-on, hop-off canal boat and see Stockholm from the water. We are impressed by the beautiful old buildings along the harbor and note how much bigger and more important the harbor is here than in Helsinki. Clearly the two cities evolved differently. We walk through the park where there is a market and fair, find the subway and head back to the Marriott. We pick up our light travel bags, back on the subway, figure out the airport express train and head to the airport. We board our flight to Oslo and, after a bit of a delay, an hour later are in Norway. We take the express train to Oslo's main station and walk through the pedestrian shopping street and find our hotel, the Thon Rosencrantz.