Looking Back: Chilean Glacier Fields

Another travel adventure from my time on the ship.

1/24 - Yesterday we had a change of course and instead of merely stopping at Cape Horn and then continuing around the outside of the southern tip of South America, we turned and headed into the Beagle Channel to view the Chilean glacier fields.  We traveled through what felt like a river with tall mountains on each side, and then we came upon the glaciers - how amazing, how beautiful!  I'd never seen a glacier before.  I think everyone was grateful for this change in the planned route.  The best thing was that while the day began and ended in fog and rain, the middle was clear and almost warm - perfect for being on deck and seeing the sights.

Cape Horn, Chile

Port Williams, Chile

Looking Back: Montevideo, Uruguay

January 20th - Montevideo is very much like Rio in that you see the modern city amidst the tattered remnants of their colonial pasts.  

Fanciful architecture

Some of the old architecture is amazing, however most of the buildings are simply falling apart from neglect and lack of funds.  I liked the feel of Montevideo - it seemed comfortable and laid-back - though we were there on a Saturday and that may explain everything.

Palace Trancato

I escorted a walking tour of Constitution Square, Palace Trancato (a museum), the Metropolitan Cathedral, and Teatro Solis
. 

After I dropped off the tour paddle and changed clothes, I decided to head out on my own and walked back to the square we had toured earlier in the day.  As we were in the Southern hemisphere (their summer), it remained daylight until almost 9:00 pm.  At the Metropolitan Cathedral, which bordered one end of the square, a huge wedding let out and I stopped to watch all the beautifully dressed people.  I then went to a lovely restaurant named La Corte located in a grand, historic building, Club Uruguay.  

Club Uruguay

Carolina, my waitress, spoke English very well and we had a nice chat as I drank tannat wine (a Uruguayan red wine), ate and people-watched out the window.  We were scheduled to leave the port at 1:00 am and so at 11:30 pm I decided it was time to take a cab back to the ship.  The exchange rate is so favorable that I was able to eat (a lot), have a couple of glasses of wine, dessert and coffee, purchase two bottles of the tannat wine, and be driven back to the ship for around $50.00 - not a bad deal for a Saturday night.  It was really nice to actually be able to spend an evening in a port since we usually have to reboard the ship at 4:00 pm for a 5:00 pm departure.

Looking Back: Rio de Janeiro

Another travel adventure from my time on the ship.

January 18th - We have made our first stop on the World Cruise - in Rio de Janeiro.  I was really excited to be in Rio, but I went on a god-awful tour "for guests who prefer little or no walking" which translated to a busload of the oldest, crankiest and most decrepit guests.  Plus, Rio is known for sun and sand, but it was a rainy, overcast day which did not show Rio at its full glory.  

Rio on a rainy day

The tour guide, Thelma, was charming and as we drove around the city and I got to see the famous Ipanema and Copacabana beaches, plus I got to see the Christ The Redeemer statue, but only from a distance.

Christ the Redeemer - from afar

Beach Art

Confeitaria Colombo

After the tour, Lisette (a coworker who was on the same tour but a different bus) and I got the name of a decent restaurant downtown and we practically ran there and immediately ordered glasses of wine so we could rid ourselves of the unpleasantness of the tour. Egads! We ate at Confeitaria Colombo, built in 1894, and it was a grand place with a stained glass skylight and huge mirrors placed in panels around the room. We sat on the balcony overlooking the main dining room and had a very nice meal.

We then walked around window shopping until it was time to reboard the ship.

I then went to sailaway and got some beautiful pictures of Rio in the late afternoon light.

Leaving Rio

Looking Back: Paris

Another travel adventure from my time on the ship: On 6/25 we arrived in Le Havre - the port for Paris. This was my last time as an escort on passenger tours.  But what a way to finish!

Sara, one of the tour office crew, had made me nervous telling me I might not be allowed to miss another boat drill and therefore would not have been able to join the tour, but luckily she was wrong and I was able to go. It rained on our 2-1/2 hour drive to the city, but it was clear in Paris, and then it poured on the way back. My luck with the weather had held!

First, we went to see the highlights of the Louvre.  I had never been interested in this type of tour as it is seen as an “Ugly American” venture where nothing is looked at in depth just a quick surface glance to say you were there and saw this and saw that and bought the postcards.  However, never having been to the Louvre, I decided that it was better to see a little than nothing at all.  As we raced from highlight to highlight I kept glimpsing paintings I had studied in art history - and we were simply dashing past!  The Louvre was so CROWDED with school groups, other tours, and just tons of people in general - YIKES!  My advice:  Don't visit the Louvre in June! 

Later we had lunch at Altitude 95 on the first level (not the ground level) of the Eiffel Tower.  It offered pretty good food for a touristy restaurant, with lots of free wine, and the view from up there was very nice.  Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to go to the top of the tower - just too crowded. 

We then met the bus down the street where we had a great photo opportunity of the tower.  There were green trees on each side of a large park that ended at the feet of the Eiffel Tower.  Behind the tower was a sky of deep blue filled with puffy clouds - a perfect picture.

Looking Back: Stavanger, Norway

This is another travel adventure from my time on the ship.  On 6/23 we stopped in Stavanger - our last port in Norway. 

My tour was to the Utstein Abbey (in Norwegian:  Utstein Kloster), a well-preserved Medieval monastery.  The abbey was founded in its current location in the later 1200s, and was dissolved as a monastery during the Reformation.  One of its current uses is as a medical conference center.

A wedding was about to take place in the chapel and some of the guests arrived in traditional Norwegian costume. 

We were supposed to have had an organ concert in the church, but the organist, being a local farmer, simply could not get away so we had an a cappella concert sung by our monastery guide and two other women - it was beautiful and the acoustics grand. 

We then had the option of a short walking tour of old town Stavanger, which I took. 

I then ran to a restaurant on the waterfront and gulped down a bowl of the very delicious cream-based fish soup (seems to be a national dish).  I would have liked to have sat and enjoyed my time more, but if you are late to reboard the ship security may take away your crew card (which is your ID card and your ATM card, so it is not something you want to lose).

Back on the ship I looked in my wallet and realized I was carrying U.S. Dollars, British Pounds, Euros and Norwegian Kroner - how international am I?

Looking Back: Hellesylt and Geiranger, Norway

Another travel adventure from my time on the ship.  On 6/21, we left the ship via the tenders in Hellesylt and reboarded later that day in Geiranger.  

That day's tour involved a three-hour hike over a mountain pass that had been in use since Medieval times. The path slowly rose toward the snow-covered peaks until we were above the tree line.

The hiking path

Along the way we walked along the side of a cliff face that overlooked a lake far below. The interesting thing about this country is that they don't baby you. They didn't have all sorts of guardrails and signs warning you of impending danger - they just assume you could look and see that the side of the path drops off and act accordingly! 

View from the hiking path

Waterfalls

We arrived at the bathroom stop which consisted of a cluster of small summer cottages and one public toilet.  This cluster was set on the top of a hill with the mountains in the background - very beautiful.  A number of us wondered if Julie Andrews would suddenly pop out from behind a bush and start singing from "The Sound of Music." 

Because of the snowcaps, there were waterfalls everywhere - I've never seen so many.  I was the last person in the hiking line as I had been designated the "gate closer."  At the lower altitudes we were passing through sheep and cow pastures (and yes, we did have to tread carefully) and the animals needed to be kept in their assigned pastures.  In Norway no one is allowed to lock gates as the land is considered state owned, so you can travel anywhere, but it is always nice to show a little courtesy and not let the cows out.

 

At one point on the hike I could see a beautiful turquoise lake far below - wouldn't you know it - that was our destination.  The decline was on a very steep, gravely and sandy path, so I was taking tiny little steps like a boundfoot woman so that I would not slip and slide all the way down. 

We had lunch at a mountaintop hotel, the Videseter, looking down a valley and out at snow capped peaks. 

Our last stop was at Mt. Dalsnibba - the ride to the peak involves a twisting road with 18 hairpin turns - try that in a tour bus sometime!  The peak is at a very high altitude, so it is a very desolate snow and rock covered landscape - very moonscape-like.

I received an email from Stephony with whom I used to work in Las Vegas.  She wrote that my time on the ship "sounds like a mix between hell and the best amusement park in the world" - that made me laugh!