Tag Archives: Cruise

Cruising Southern Norwegian Fjords with Hurtigruten

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My parents wanted to meet up with us during our year of travel and eventually picked a week cruise along the Norwegian coast. We met them in Bergen to begin our journey with Hurtigruten, a company that has been transporting people and cargo along the Norwegian coast for over 100 years. They have thirteen ships with daily departures from all the ports they serve. Now Hurtigruten also provides cruises through the beautiful Norway fjords to paying passengers as well as transporting cargo to the far reaches of the north. Our voyage on MS Nordlys (Norwegian for northern lights) was from Bergen to Kirkenes.

Day 1: Bergen to Floro

Hurtigruten Cruse Itinerary Ports of Call Through Norway FjordsIn Bergen, Hurtigruten has a large facility for embarking passengers and cargo onto their ships. We checked-in which included dropping off our bags for transport to our cabin and setting up our “cruise card” to make onboard purchases easy. We proceeded into a small conference room where a safety briefing was shown in Continue reading →

Wandering the Streets of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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The train from Brussels was quick so before I knew it we were easing into Amsterdam Central Station. I love how the trains are so efficient and with our Eurail Pass we arrive right in the city center.  We had ended up booking a room at the Amstel Botel which was on the other side of the river from the station. Their website mentioned a free ferry transfer from the train station which Sara and I expected was run by the hotel. As we exited the station towards the river, we saw what looked like a public ferry in the final stages of boarding and the signage made it seem like it was going towards our destination. We jumped onboard and hoped that we weren’t supposed to have a ticket. A few minutes later, we neared a dock and cruised past an old decommissioned submarine. In fact, we were surrounded by interesting and antique ships! This was an awesome city so far and we’d only just arrived.

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Our hotel, Amstel Botel at NDSM pier

The Amstel Botel looked like a large houseboat. It was permanently attached to the dock and didn’t look like it would fare well if it tried to set sail. Our room was near the waterline and we could listen to the waves lap against the side of the boat. Several times, we looked out the window and saw several Continue reading →

Cruising the Scottish Isles from Glasgow, Scotland

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Top deck view on the Waverley

After the easy airport transfers in Doha and Dubai, the bus from London Heathrow felt unnecessarily difficult and like it took an eternity. First, the busses didn’t accept payment onboard because they have a prepaid system using Oyster Cards. Then, we learned that the bus station does not sell the Oyster Cards. We had to go down to the tube station to find a kiosk and then guess how much money we needed to put on a card for the one bus ride. With all the confusion, we missed the first bus and waited an hour for the next one. I don’t understand why some cities make public transportation so difficult for visitors. We had a similar fiasco with Sydney’s busses but eventually the bus driver let us pay cash.

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Broke out of the hotel for a pub meal in Croydon

We were headed to the Hampton Inn in South Croydon. Sara had some hotel points which we used for a three night stay. As a bonus, the room included breakfast which was a full buffet with everything needed for a proper breakfast. We locked ourselves in the hotel room until we were more caught up on posts from Africa. This website can be quite a bit of work, especially when Continue reading →

Game Viewing at Chobe National Park, Botswana

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Day 6

FullSizeRender4A long morning drive from Namibia found our safari at Thebe River Safari Lodge early in the afternoon. We quickly set up our tents and prepared for our evening activity; a Chobe National Park sunset cruise on the Chobe River. We boarded the pontoon style boat which had plenty of room for our group and situated the cooler full of drinks right in the center. We cruised up the river towards Chobe National Park in search of more wildlife.

FullSizeRenderAs soon as we left the dock, one of the Aussies notified everyone about a snake in the water. Our driver turned for closer inspection and we all saw a Monitor lizard swimming across the river. There were actually quite a few on the banks along with some crocodiles bathing in the sun. We ventured further into the park and were greeted by grazing elephants. They were in the shallow waters pulling up the grasses and whipping them around to get the soil off before popping them in their mouth. As our boat inched closer and closer, Continue reading →