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!
European adventures were new to us back in 2013. We decided to have a real adventure and planned over three weeks in France and England.
We arrived in Paris in early September and explored Notre Dame. You'll see a few photos at the beginning of the slideshow of this magnificent cathedral. The Opera House was beautiful and we used the subway a lot while in Paris. Sainte Chapelle was another highlight of our time in Paris.
Our high speed train to Caen was fun and we rented a car to drive to Ducey, France. Lovely area with lots of medieval history. Mont St. Michel was a highlight for our time in this area.
Our final destination was London, England where we spent a week exploring.
These are just a few highlights of our trip that I found when searching for photos of Notre Dame.
Selecting a cruise company for the first time is probably not always an easy decision. There are so many options out there today but one thing we knew for sure was that we wanted to see Alaska.
Being retired from teaching for a year, we began to plan our Alaskan cruise. I read up on the different cruise lines and decided that we should try Princess. We booked their "11 Night Denali Explorer" aboard the Sapphire Princess for August 11, 2012. This was our very first cruise and we were hoping to make it memorable.
We booked a balcony stateroom and were excited about the opportunity to see all the majestic beauty of the Inside Passage and Alaskan towns. What we didn't know was that Princess had generously upgraded us to the Penthouse Suite Juneau! I guess all those added notes to our reservation must have helped. I'd mentioned that it was our wedding anniversary and our very first cruise ever! Princess' marketing department definitely had a hand in our upgrade. We were absolutely thrilled with our new and spacious stateroom.
We set sail from Vancouver and headed first to Ketchikan where we walked through the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary, a private reserve at Herring Cove. We saw many bald eagles, a salmon hatchery, Alaska reindeer, and toured the historic Herring Bay Lumber Company saw mill where a Native totem-pole carver was at work. I think the best part was the crab feast! We had an all you can eat Dungeness crab feast! I highly recommend their "Rainforest Wildlife Sanctuary Walk & Crab Feast."
Our next destination was the Mendenhall Glacier & Whale Quest. Breathtaking natural beauty surrounded us during this excursion. We saw lots of whales including humpback and killer.
Skagway was our next stop and a ride on the White Pass Scenic Railway provided us with some beautiful scenery as well as the magnificent White Pass Summit. There's a lot of Gold Rush history in this region.
During our land portion of the trip, we stopped at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. During my teaching days as a reading teacher, I taught the novel "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen. It's a wonderful novel of Gary's experience with the Iditarod. We were fortunate enough to be able to meet Jeff King, an Iditarod winner several times, during his Husky Homestead Tour. The dogs were wonderful to see and holding a new pup was the perfect ending to our visit.
These are just a few highlights of our trip....the video hopefully captures our cruise and the fun we had on the trip.
Alaska was the perfect beginning to our cruise explorations. We've been going strong ever since.
Escaping the Polar Vortex in Chicago was not an easy task. But the vision of a much warmer climate made us determined to get out of town and hustle down to Turks & Caicos!
Turks had been on my radar for a few years. Justin saw an article in a travel magazine that the beaches were extraordinary and that did it for me. We decided to give the island a year to recover from that horrendous hurricane last year and we were not disappointed.
Our home base was an easy choice. Serene Villa with owners Clay and Pamela Perry made us feel right at home and their island management company, Island Escapes, was simply amazing at follow-up to make sure our stay was perfect. Our two bedroom, two bath Villa was shared with our friends, the Kiraly's.
Serene Villa is across the street from Sapodilla Bay and just overlooking our balcony is Chalk Sound. Two kayaks along with snorkel equipment were provided for our adventure, but we brought our own snorkel equipment.
Our first night's dinner was at Las Brisas which is just a few steps from our Villa. Very good food and they also serve breakfast and lunch. A few other dining options we explored were Mango Reef, Bugaloo's, and the Thursday Fish Fry on Grace Bay.
Atelys was one shopping excursion I had to make. I'd read about her shop on Trip Advisor and enjoyed looking around her shop. I finally settled on a lovely pair of Larimar earrings which Julie had found.
One excursion which was so much fun was our Champagne Sunset Cruise. Sailing on a Catamaran which had just the right amount of guests was a delight. We sampled fried conch fritters, fried fish strips, chicken wings and strips. Mixed drinks, soda, water, and champagne also flowed very freely. That crew was wonderful as we climbed aboard the vessel from Grace Bay Beach. Wading out into ankle deep sea water or deeper, in some instances, was interesting.
Be sure to visit Turk's Head Brewery when you're on the island. We took the brewery tour and had two flights of brew per couple for only $15 per person. Very tasty beer and of course, it's not exported. If it were, Justin would be purchasing "I Ain' Gonna Lie!"
It was a lovely respite from the cold winter winds and of course we returned to chilling weather and ice storms. Warmer weather is coming....I just have to be patient.
Traveling the seas with Viking is always an adventure. Our most recent trip was aboard the Viking Sea where we enjoyed a very good musical tribute to the Beatles and Abba with their onboard entertainment musicians. I hope that we will see them again on a future Viking voyage. They were all very personable and entertaining.
Enjoy a few minutes of their last production number...A Tribute to the Beatles and Abba!
If you’re looking for a fun time, be sure to watch the Great Viking Cook-Off when aboard a Viking Ocean Cruise. Hilarious antics prevail as two teams, the red and green peppers, have a spirited cook-off to see which can come up with the best three dishes. All of this happens with our Executive Chef, Eric, overseeing the event in the Star Theater. Enjoy a truly witty and fun event!
Sailing in the Saguenay Fjord was quite beautiful to see pine and birch trees lining the shoreline along with jagged rocks. The highlight of our sail in the fjord was seeing the whales! We saw some Beluga and we think, Minke whales.
Saguenay is a region in Quebec, Canada. The little town we visited today was founded in 2002 when they combined two or three towns into one. The population in this area is about 20,000 according to our taxi driver.
We are here tonight until 8:30 p.m. and then set sail for Quebec City. Our cruise is nearly over and it’s been most enjoyable. Sailing with Viking is alway first class and their stellar crew makes sure that we are taken well care of.
Weather has been a bit of an issue for us on this trip. The North Atlantic hasn’t been a very agreeable partner. The Viking Sea, once again, had to change ports because of weather and tendering obstacles. Instead of landing in L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, we have dropped anchor in St. Anthony, Newfoundland. It’s proven to be a much smoother transition to our “The North Coast” excursion.
We opted for an optional tour and decided to go with the Alcock family’s Cape Islander fishing boat tour. There were 47 passengers on our boat and we quickly headed out to sea passing huge granite rock formations and birds perched high in their nests.
Dolphins were the creature of the day. Several pods with upward of 30 white nose dolphins greeted us and played happily around our boat. No whales were spotted as most have migrated and others were much further out to sea where it was much too rough for our little boat to venture. It was a very enjoyable yet chilly two hour tour.
Cooking schools are an interesting and fun way to pass on a sea day. The Viking Sea offers several diffferent cuisines during our “In the Wake of the Vikings” cruise. We explored the French cuisine and were treated to a very fine luncheon
I have to say there was very little hands-on experience compared with our last Cooking school on the Viking Sky. There were twelve members in our group and each of us was able to do a bit of prep work with the vegetables for our meals.
Our meal consisted of a Marmite Dieppoise, which is a creamy fish stew, Beef Filet Mignon with leek-goat cheese fondue; chorizo salsa, and Baileys Chocolate Mousse for dessert.
It was a lot of fun and worth to try at least once.
Tendering into Qaqortoq, Greenland from our Viking Sea vessel was a smooth ride today. The sun is shining and the waters are calm. Our guide, Joanne, spoke three languages. English, Inuit, and Danish. We enjoyed local hospitality with Christine and her husband in their home. We were treated to cakes and coffee and tea...traditional foods. This is a wonderful excursion and gave us a much better insight into the people of Greenland and their way of life. I highly recommend.
Bethan is a very talented singer and performer aboard the Viking Sea’s “In the Wake of the Viking” itinerary. She’s one of four singers that are performing on our cruise. Bethan gave us quite a performance in our Atrium and I hope you’ll enjoy a few moments of her vocal talent. She focused on songs from the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. Bethan is from Great Britain. We’re looking forward to the entire casts performances.
Sail always are always somewhat nostalgic. Leaving the beautiful city of Lerwick, Scotland and the beautiful countryside for our second time brought back many memories. Standing on the upper deck of the Viking Sea provided us with great views of the shoreline. Enjoy a few moments of our sail away from Lerwick and perhaps it may inspire you to visit here soon.
This morning we awakened early to see beautifully stark mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls in the distance. With the sun rising we beheld lovely pink and blue hues shimmering over the distant snowy mountains of Greenland.
We were hoping to tender into Nanortalik, Greenland, but the weather proved to be too inclement. Our next port will be Qaqortoq, Greenland where there is a sheltered port. We’re hoping to be able to step foot on shore and meet a local family along with an interpreter. Our excursion is “An Intimate Glimpse of Life in Greenland.”
While skirting the island of Greenland during our Viking Ocean Cruise, we spotted signs of life. Colorful houses but no sign of any people in the area. There was a large garbage dump at the base of the village near the ocean which you can spot in the video. Also, a generator and cell tower. I couldn’t see any roads and have no idea other than fishing boats what mode of transportation these people may have. We’re traveling “In the Wake of the Vikings” aboard the Viking Sea.
