Tag Archives: Travel adventure

The Cruise of a Lifetime-Part 7

13 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Thursday, November 12.

Reblog

Since we hadn’t reached Bamberg yet – scheduled to arrive about 1:00 p.m. – and it was another sailing morning, we slept in, getting to breakfast at 8:00 a.m.  Before we finished, Richard, Judy, and Lucy arrived.  They got their breakfast, and we visited until 9:30.a.m.  We went through several locks, which was fun to experience. 

Carl West, Program Director for the Gefjon, gave detailed information about the tours in Vienna, Budapest and other cities, which Fred attended, followed by lunch in the lounge.

At 1:30 we left the ship on a bus transfer to the city of Bamberg.

We went on a walking tour of Bamberg, seeing many beautiful and unusual types of architecture and statuary.

We saw beautiful churches and buildings, including St. Michael’s Abbey for the training of the clergy.

We even saw a “Green Goose” pub!

It always seemed funny to us to see English words in a German town.  We even found a Kätie Wohlfahrt Christmas store in town!  We walked through a garden, with a few flowers still in bloom.

According to the info sheet from the ship: “One of the few cities in Germany not destroyed by World War 2 bombing, Bamberg is the largest Old Town to retain its medieval structures…Along with its Gothic, baroque and Romanesque architecture, the city was laid out according to medieval planning rules as a cross with churches at the four cardinal points.”

Ever since we lived in Germany, I have been fascinated with the hotel/store/restaurant signs.  Back in the days when the “common” folk were more or less illiterate, the signs were posted so everyone would know just what the establishment was.  If it was a bakery, there was a pretzel within the sign.

The butcher could have an animal within the sign.  The drug store or apothecary usually had a mortar and pestle within the sign.

You get the picture.  But the signs were usually quite ornate and beautiful.  I looked for them above each store and took as many pictures of them as I could.

While in Bamburg, we stopped in a Karstadt department store (comparable to our Dillards, and one of our favorite places to shop when we lived in Germany) to purchase some socks.  I walked up to a saleslady and said, “Entschuldigen (excuse me).”  She smiled at me, and then I said, “Ich habe nur ein bischen Deutch. (I have only a little German)  Haben sie….?” and pulled up my pant leg to show her my knee socks.  She immediately took me to where the women’s socks were.  I thanked her profusely.  They were lovely, soft socks, and I enjoyed wearing them.

Here is a picture of a plaque with a date.

Our guide asked if we understood the date.  It looks to be 1867 – but we are told that’s not correct.  The “8″ is not complete – and therefore is actually a “4″ or half of the “8.”  So the correct date would be 1467.  Interesting. 

We were all to meet at Neptune’s statue, to get back on the bus for the return trip to the Gefjon. While waiting to get to the bus, I was “baptized” by bird droppings while sitting under a tree.

We had dinner in the ship’s restaurant again, and to bed by 10:00 p.m. 

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Cruise of a Lifetime-Part 6 Continued

6 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Reblog

After we found “the door,”

we walked some more of the town and found a Jewish area that included a garden and some tombstones.  We took pictures of some of them.  We had never found this area before in all the times we had visited there.

When we lived in Germany, we were occasionally stopped by Germans on the street and asked for directions – in German!  Apparently we looked the part!  Made us feel pretty good, not to be ugly Americans.  All that to say that, as we walked out on the “Pinocchio” part of Rothenburg, I heard “Entschuldigen…Entschuldigen!”  (Excuse me…excuse me!).  A German couple wanted directions to a café. They seemed a bit  put-off when I said –  in German – that I only knew it a little German.  After they moved on I turned to Fred and said, “we’ve still got it!”  Yea! 

Rothenberg is part of the “Romantic Road” through southern Germany…”linking a number of picturesque towns and castles. In medieval times it was a trade route that connected the center of Germany with the south. Today this region is thought by many international travelers to possess “quintessentially German” scenery and culture, in towns and cities such as Nördlingen, Dinkelsbühl  and in castles such as Burg Harburg and the famous Neuschwanstein.“ (courtesy Wikipedia)

Again from Wikipedia:  In March 1945 in World War II, German soldiers were stationed in Rothenburg to defend it. On March 31, bombs were dropped over Rothenburg by 16 planes, killing 37 people and destroying 306 houses, 6 public buildings, 9 watchtowers, and over 2,000 feet of the wall. The U.S Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy knew about the historic importance and beauty of Rothenburg, so he ordered US Army General Jacob L. Devers not to use artillery in taking Rothenburg.  Battalion commander Frank Burke ordered six soldiers of the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division to march into Rothenburg on a three-hour mission and negotiate the surrender of the town. When stopped by a German soldier, Private Lichey who spoke fluent German and served as the group’s translator, held up a white flag and explained, “We are representatives of our division commander. We bring you his offer to spare the city of Rothenburg from shelling and bombing if you agree not to defend it. We have been given three hours to get this message to you. If we haven’t returned to our lines by 1800 hours, the town will be bombed and shelled to the ground.”  The local military commander gave up the town, ignoring the order of Adolf Hitler for all towns to fight to the end and thereby saving it from total destruction by artillery. American troops occupied the town on April 17, 1945.  After the war, the residents of the city quickly repaired the bombing damage.  Donations for the rebuilding were received from all over the world. 

We walked back to the bus and drove back to Würtzburg.

As it had been a rather long day, I decided to go back with the bus to the ship, while Fred toured the Würtzburg Residence.  Fred said later that, while it was most interesting, there were a lot of stairs, and I would have been uncomfortable. So, again, it’s a good thing I did not go on that excursion.

Dinner with the Richard, Judy and Lucy again.  10 o’clock to bed.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Here are some interesting shots of Rothenburg:

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Cruise of a Lifetime-Part 4

15 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Reblog

After the excursion to the Marksburg Castle, we were scheduled for a cruise up the Middle Rhein River (from Koblenz to Mainz), and to see all the castles along the way.  Unfortunately, the area had been having a drought for some time, and the river was low. 

Let me explain about the ship we were on.  It is a “long” ship (443 feet), only two passenger levels, since it must pass through some “locks” along the way.

A larger, deeper, ocean-sailing ship wouldn’t be able to navigate those locks.  Therefore, because the river was so low, we were unable to traverse the Middle Rhein River on the Gefjon.  All the passengers (185) – and a few of the crew – were transferred to another ship for the Rhein River cruise.  While our luggage and most of the crew stayed with the Gefjon, they were forced to dump of all the fresh water they had on board (over 100,000 gallons).  In spite of all that, there were spots along the way where there was only 12″ of water below the ship!  So I guess it was a good thing we were off!  Didn’t want to get grounded!

So, instead of seeing the castles from our ship, we all were transferred to the Konigsbacher – a tourist/sight-seeing boat – for the remainder of the day.

 We played “cat and mouse” with the Gefjon all the way to Bingen – we would be in front for a while, then the Gefjon would be in front.  Fun to watch, with the crew waving at us as we passed each other. 

 We did see some castles (we counted 31) while we sailed, and Carl West described them to us.  However, as it was beginning to get too dark to see any other castles, Carl announced that it would be another 90 minutes before we could board the Gefjon again!  Many groans!!  I looked at Fred and vehemently said – “where’s my Kindle???!!!”  Unfortunately, it was locked up in the safe in our room.  It was a rather boring 90 minutes, for sure.  Billie (our concierge)  and the boat’s crew brought out cake and tea for us – charged to Viking, which was nice.

There was a flag flying on the Konigsbacher and I wondered what it represented.  When I asked the crew, they said it represents their home town.

We finally stopped at Bingen, and both the Gefjon and the Konigsbacher were lashed together, so there were only a few steps to get across to get to the Gefjon.

We were finally able to get to supper at 7:30 p.m.  Our table mates were Nancy and Jim from Arizona (they formerly lived in Metro West in Orlando), and Rachael and her mother, Carol, from Sacramento, California.  Rachael earned her law degree from UNM (the University of New Mexico).

Bed by 10:00 p.m. and we were very tired!

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Cruise of a Lifetime Part 3

1 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Reblog

Our second morning began again with breakfast.   We shared our table with Tina and Bob.

We had sailed overnight to Cologne, Germany, and arrived about 10:30 a.m. Shortly thereafter, we began the walking tour of the historical center of the city.  Our guide told us that Cologne is the oldest city in Germany.  It dates back to around AD 50, when the Romans established a major settlement.   We had a really interesting guide.  He told us how the Romans conquered one side of the river – the side we were on – but couldn’t get across to the other side.  They called the people on the other side “barbarians.”  Now, the politically correct people call them the “cross-eyed” people instead.

In 1709, Italian expat and Cologne resident Giovani Farina created a citrus-scented toiletry he dubbed “Eau de Cologne” in honor of his adopted city.  Other perfumeries followed, especially Wilhelm Meulhens, who founded the famous “4711″ brand (named after the address of his manufacturing building).  There are several museums in the area, as well as a Chocolate Museum – which we didn’t get to!

Because it was Sunday we could not get into the cathedral until after services, so we walked around the outside of it and the square.  Our guide told us about the cathedral, how long it took to build which part, which was the oldest, etc.  He gave us other information about Cologne.  He was a very interesting man.

Many years ago, while we were living in Germany and took our own tours of the country, we visited Cologne, and found a fountain that depicted an interesting and funny story about German workers. 

Judy in front of the fountain – 1969 
The fountain in 1983 

 While on our tour, we walked right up to the fountain – called the Elves of Cologne.  We were so excited!  We thought we would have to find it on our own, and there it was!  

Wikipedia says:  The Heinzelmännchen are a race of creatures appearing in a tale connected with the city of Cologne in Germany.  The little house gnomes are said to have done all the work of the citizens of Cologne during the night, so that the inhabitants of Cologne could be very lazy during the day.  According to the legend, this went on until a tailor’s wife got so curious to see the gnomes that she scattered peas onto the floor of the workshop to make the gnomes slip and fall.  The gnomes, being infuriated, disappeared and never returned. From that time on, the citizens of Cologne had to do all their work by themselves.

After lunch and naps on the ship, Fred and I went back out into Cologne to find a book on the Elves of Cologne, which we found in the “information” building.  The story is essentially what I remember about it.

Our dinner companions that night were an Australian couple, Velma and Jeff.

We also had Jill and Roy from Albuquerque, New Mexico (actually Belen).  He is a retired veterinarian, and she is a retired nurse.  We had a most interesting talk about Albuquerque    We also had dinner with Rich and Mary from Pennsylvania who we ate with the first night on board.  

Back to the room and relatively early to bed.  These are long days, and we still aren’t over our jetlag.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Cruise of a Lifetime

27 Apr

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

PART 1 – GETTING THERE– Reblogged.

We had been investigating a Viking River Cruise in Europe for a while, but decided they were just too expensive.  However, Fred was able to find a really….REALLY….good deal, and we snatched it up.  We were scheduled for November 5 – November 20, 2015.

Our flight was scheduled for departure on Thursday, November 5, at 4:20 p.m., but it was delayed until 5:06 p.m. with mechanical problems.  We finally boarded the plane hoping to leave soon.  The plane started to back out but the pilot said the engines were doing the same thing they were doing before, so he took it back to the terminal.  Fred checked with the Delta people, and they said our connection in Detroit would wait for us.  

We were delayed again when we entered the plane and then deplaned a third time.   Fred then checked with the international Delta people and they got us on a Lufthansa leaving for Frankfurt, Germany at about 8:20 p.m. – about 20 minutes from then!  That was four hours after we were originally scheduled to leave.  They said our flight from Detroit would NOT have waited that long for us.  We had been given some really bad information.  We were also quite glad we had carried all our luggage with us!

After arriving in Frankfurt on Friday morning, we boarded another Lufthansa to Amsterdam.  We finally arrived in Amsterdam about 2:30 p.m.  Fortunately, the Viking people were there picking up other late-arriving guests.  They thought we had decided to cancel, and just not come.  We took a Viking bus to the ship, the Viking Gefjon (pronounced gef’- ee-on)

and found our state room, number 325.

These ships are called “long ships” for a good reason!

After a late lunch buffet in the Aquavit Lounge Terrace, 

we rested some, then tried to email but had no success with that.  They had a computer station, but the laptops were “International” versions, with some of the keys rearranged, and with international symbols that we weren’t accustomed to.  It was a bit nerve-wracking to try to type any kind of message!

We had no time to take in anything in Amsterdam, much to our regret.  However, we have been to Amsterdam many times during our times living in Germany, so we didn’t feel too cheated.

The Chef’s Dinner was in the restaurant.  There is only one restaurant on board, and all meals are eaten there, and together.  Most tables are set for six people, with a few large enough for eight or 10.  Our table mates that evening were from Tucson, Arizona, and from Pennsylvania.  There was no assigned seating, and we were able to meet quite a few of our fellow shipmates during the cruise.  After we had ordered our meal, Fred left the ship and quickly went to a corner store to get some items we couldn’t carry on the airplane. 

We went to bed early, as it had been a long day.

Oh and by the way, as I was getting off the last flight in Amsterdam, overloaded with bags, overbalanced and fell getting off the airplane and into the jetway.  So far, no lingering effects from that.  

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Our Trip to Spain-Part 1

16 Mar

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

That terrible 9/11/2001 attack had shaken our nation, and we started trying to look at how this event was going to affect our lives.  One of our immediate concerns was that six months earlier, DiVoran and I had signed up for (and paid for) a two-week all-inclusive trip to southern Spain; to begin on 9/19/2001.  We had been looking forward to and planning for that trip with anticipation for the past six months.  Now what were we going to do?  All the airlines were shut down, and who knew for how long!  Would our trip be cancelled?  Would we be able to go?  Should we go?  Question after question ran through our minds.  So, after much prayer and consideration, we received our assurance in the scriptures; ‘…He will order His angels to protect and guard you.’  Luke 4:10b (New Living Translation).

We decided right then and there, that IF our tour was still a go, and IF the airlines started flying again, and IF we could get seats, we wouldn’t let this terrible event ruin our plans.  WE WOULD GO!

Photo Credit: https://www.flightglobal.com/airlines/cancellations/

Day 1

By some miracle, it wasn’t long before things began to calm down.  We contacted our tour company and were assured that our tour to Spain was still on, and that they were looking forward to seeing us there as scheduled.  The airlines started flying again, and since many people were “Never going to fly again!” we had no problem confirming our itinerary on the designated airlines, and even on the scheduled date.  Of course, the atmosphere at the airports in Orlando, Atlanta, Paris, and Malaga, as well as on all the airplanes was very tense, but everyone tried to force a smile and were very courteous to us.

Photo Credit: https://flyawaysimulation.com/delta-airlines-l1011-tristar/

Other than short layovers in Atlanta and Paris, we made all of our Delta and Air France connections, as scheduled, without any problems.  Looking back on those flights, I must admit the service was excellent.  The food on each of the flights was wonderful (no peanuts or pretzels), the flight attendants couldn’t do enough for us, and we had plenty of room to stretch out and sleep if we wanted to, as the flights were only about half-full (No they didn’t go so far as upgrading us to first class).

Photo Credit: https://www.inflightfeed.com/delta-airlines/

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 64 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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