Traveling the world has been a dream of mine ever since I can remember. Fifteen years ago I retired from teaching and began my journey to destinations I never imagined I would see. My husband, Justin, and I decided we wanted to explore smaller ships. That's when we found Viking River & Viking Ocean. We do enjoy our road trips and you'll find those adventures featured here as well. Enjoy the road less traveled and adventure onward!
Viking River Cruises offers a terrific excursion when in Prague. Our evening was spent outside of the city in Číčovice where we dined and were entertained by locals with native dances, songs, and food. Be sure to sign up for this one! It was so much fun!
Prague offers many incredible sites and one is the Old Jewish Quarter. Included in these photos is the Old Jewish Cemetery, The Pinkas Synagogue, The Ceremonial Hall, and The Old-New Synagogue. The cemetery was a very sobering experience to see the masses of graves and lives lost. #MyVikingStory
The Viking Beyla arrived in Meissen and what a charming city it is. Our included tour included a visit to the Meissen Porcelain Factory and showroom which was filled with lovely and expensive china. Pillows, jewelry, dishes...so many choices all with a high price tag, but you can find some bargains. A walk to the castle and through Old Town and market square were part of this tour. Another lovely day. Thanks, Viking! #MyVikingStory @Zamszanytravels.com
Traveling up the Elbe toward Meissen, we saw some interesting sites from the sun deck aboard the Viking Beyla. Great sailing weather although a bit cold. We were all bundled up as we went from side to side to observe and take photos of the landscape. Enjoy a few moments of our travels! More to come!
Viking River Cruise Poland, Prague, and Elegant Elbe finds us on Day 3 as we depart Berlin for Wittenberg where we will board the Viking Beyla. Our included tour today featured The Palaces of Potsdam and Worlitz as well as the grand noble residences of Frederick the Great.
We even had a lovely gondola ride through the park and the rains managed to stave off for our tour. Our gondola rower was hard pressed as we had 24 in a boat which should have had 17! An extra tip was in order for this ride and well-deserved. The park is beautifully laid out with many canals and bridges. It would be a lovely spot to see in the summer when everything is in bloom. Huge rhododendrons were everywhere.
All in all, even though it was an 8 hour excursion day, it was broken up into frequent stops and was enjoyable.
Our final day in Wittenberg was met by mostly sunny skies and a three hour walking tour of Wittenberg with Viking River Cruises. We are on the Elbe and traveling to Poland and Prague.
During our included walking tour, we walked in the footsteps of Martin Luther and saw signs of their recent festivities which marked 500 years since the Protestant Reformation.
Examples of his legacy were everywhere. We saw the All Saints Church, Castle Church, and learned all about his wife Katherine. We also visited the Luther House Museum and saw the “Theses Door” where he nailed the “95 Theses.”
We had a lovely guide named Angela who relayed many interesting stories about the history. It’s interesting to note that there are only 3% Catholics, 13% Protestant, and 80% have no faith in Wittenberg. The Catholics and the Protestants tend to stick together, she said.
And now we’re sailing down the Elegant Elbe toward Torgau. An evening stroll will be available at this port.
Hi all! We’re back after a very long day and over 15,000 steps later! A bit weary but wanted to get out the pictures of the day before my nightcap and snack downstairs. We had a delicious breakfast at the Hyatt. They put on a fabulous breakfast. Our morning was spent at the Topography of Terror and we visited the Watchtower. We saw some Christmas Markets just beginning to set up.
Our afternoon and early evening was spent experiencing “A Taste of Berlin” as an optional excursion. We saw some interesting parts of the city and used local transit bus and trains to get to and from the area. We were in the Jewish quarter this afternoon and saw some old factories into apartments and shops. This area was not available on any other Viking tour.
More later....time to relax and go get a Bailey’s! Enjoy and happy travels!
We’ve arrived in Berlin after a long flight and connection in Frankfurt. Everything went just fine although our landing in Berlin was very rocky due to high winds. It felt like we touched down on one wheel before it righted itself! Viking was there to receive us and took us directly to the hotel where we met with our Cruise Director, a very nice young man from Prague. We weren’t able to get into our rooms so we left to eat lunch at a Bavarian restaurant down the street. After that we can came back to the hotel and Justin and I had to wait about 20 minutes for our room to be ready. We welcomed that news and proceeded to crash for a couple of hours before meeting up with the other pre-Berlin Viking people and our Cruise Director. He took us on a little walk to see the Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburg Gates, and the Parliament building. There is a lovely park in the area which has monuments and gardens which we hope to explore bit. Dinner was delicious at a pub in the Sony Center. More on that tomorrow...time to get some zzzzz’s. More pictures tomorrow!
During our Mediterranean Odyssey voyage with Viking Ocean, we visited Barcelona as our disembarkation point and spent a couple of days on our own in this lovely city. La Sagrada de Familia was a highlight of our day along with other interesting stops along our walking journey. Their markets are very colorful and how I wish we had markets like these in America!
We'll be returning to Barcelona next year and I can't wait to reunite with a few favorite spots and find new ones.
Mediterranean Odyssey was our first Viking Ocean cruise itinerary. We’d done a couple of river cruises with Viking and wanted to try one of their ocean voyages. We’d been on large ocean vessels with Princess and looked forward to a smaller vessel for our journey.
We really enjoyed it and found that the staff on our Viking Star were just as dedicated and attentive as those aboard our Viking River cruises. We were immediately sold on the smaller ship with only 938 passengers and vowed we would not return to the large mega ships.
One of our stops was in Corfu. Needless to say, a return visit to the Mediterranean is on our vacation list. I hope you enjoy a brief look at our day in Corfu.
For more about our Mediterranean Odyssey voyage, be sure to check out other video!
Visiting Venice during a somewhat rainy season didn’t dampen our spirits as we toured the flooded St. Peter’s Square and explored the shops not only along the sea front, but back along the small canals. Beauty was found everywhere and the Vaporettos were so much fun as was our taxi ride from the airport to our hotel, Hilton Molina Stucky. Enjoy a few moments of our trip. For more about our Viking Ocean Cruise Mediterranean Odyssey, check out this video!
Touring France wouldn’t be complete without a stay in the charming medieval town of Dinan in Brittany France. This medieval walled city is filled with half-timbered buildings, cute shops, and delicious dining options.
Two restaurants of note are the Le Cantorbery and La Fleur de Sel. Both offer delicious French cuisine and I highly recommend. You can read my reviews on Trip Advisor.
If you're seeking to add a few local delicacies, be sure to shop at La Craquanterie.
Hotel Arvor was our home base for nearly a week. Ideally located with easy accessibility to the Basilique St-Sauveur and the famous Chateau-Tour du Coetquen. Ask for a room that overlooks the courtyard. It's a beautiful view. My husband says that this is a great town to film a Frankenstein movie!
Beautiful Eglise Saint-Malo de Dinan is a short drive away and plan on spending the day in this beautiful seaside town. Winding streets and hidden treasures around every corner.
Dinan holds a very part of our heart and perhaps one day we will return. But in the meantime....new destinations ahead!
A little bit of paradise....what more could one ask for? Traveling in France certainly was a big adventure for us last year and our brief stop in Cassis was as perfect a day as one could get. Cassis is located in Provence along the Mediterranean.
We'd flown into Marseille and booked a special private tour with a local guide. She took us to Aix En Provence for a walking tour and then to the lovely town of Cassis where we ate lunch along the ocean and took a boat ride through the Calanques. It was a glorious day!
I invite you to take a ride with us as we view this treasured spot.
