Cruising in Northern Europe

Gary surprised me with First class seats! We were spoiled for sure!

After visiting the sites of Nuremberg Germany, along with a sad history lesson, we enjoyed some German soda before getting back on the ship.

Amsterdam was beautiful with all  the cobble stone streets and history. It was rainy, but we had fun getting around and enjoying a crepe at the end of our day.

 

A boat tour along the canals of Amsterdam

Lots of bakeries, cheeses and chocolates!

Our ship was the NCL Getaway...not our favorite of cruises, but we had a great time.

Bruges Belgium was another old beautiful city with lots of canals, old building and cobblestone streets. (Also very crowded!)

We took a tour to Monet's Gardens and home in Giverny, France.  Very beautiful and crowded, our bus tour experienced a lot of traffic that day!

We enjoyed a lovely lunch with our tour outside of Giverny before heading to Rouen.

You really have to see these spectacular buildings of Rouen to appreciate how beautiful and majestic they really are.

A day in St. Andrews along the coast of Scotland. St. Andrews is known for its historic golf course. We enjoyed walking around enjoying some of the local food.

A fun stop in Lerwick, along the Shetland Islands of Scotland. This was an old fishing village.

We docked in Iceland for two days and took the circle Island tour. We hoped to see the Northern lights that evening, but the conditions were not right. So beautiful. This is Thingvellir National Park. We also some some majestic falls.

This is the popular Blue Lagoon in Iceland, fun day swimming around in the natural springs and warm waters, drinking soda and applying mud masks.

Spent our last few days walking around London.

We'd never been to Greenwich, so we took a tour of the Royal Observatory. Now I know what Greenwich mean time is (I had been seeing it on the ship all week!) Very good tour!

 

Gary and I had a wonderful two week vacation planned in celebration of his retirement! I was very nervous about taking the trip and also sick about maybe cancelling with my mom's fall and being home on hospice. The kids insisted that they could handle mom while we were gone, so we planned on going. It was a tender mercy that she passed almost two weeks before we left, because she was not doing very well and it would have been hard to leave her. I was grateful to know that she was happy in a better place. We didn't enjoy the ship as much as some of the other cruises we've been on. Combination of people you travel with, activities, shows, meals. We will do a little more research next time. But, we had a great time, loved all the stops and saw lots of sites we had never been to before. They did have a lot of live music venues in the evening, which is always my favorite. And a few really impressive shows. We love traveling alone together and never tire of each other, so that is a blessing. We feel very fortunate and blessed to have been able to take the time and travel to so many wonderful sites. Sadly, the weather towards the end of the trip was not very good and the ship was not able to stop at the last two planned ports. We spent the last three days at sea, which is a lot of sea time!! We were ready to get off and glad to have a few days on foot in London before returning home. 

Here is our itinerary:

Cruise:
 
Sep 13^th – Fly to London
Sep  14th         Stay overnight – Renasissance London Heathrow
Sep 15^th – Meet shuttle from Airport to Port 10:00
Sept  16^th At Sea /Dinner Le Bistro  5:30/  Show 9:30 Burn the  Floor
Sept 17 Hamburg Germany 6am-3pm           
            Excursion  booked: Hamburg & Concentration Camp 10:30 (4 hours)
Sept 18^th – Amsterdam, Netherelands 12pm-8pm
           Walked from port and did Amersterdam on our own. Took a canal boat tour, went in cheese shop and ate a Dutch pancake before heading  back to  port.
Sept 19^th – Zeebrugee Brussels 9am-5pm
            Walked to train that took us into center of city
            On our  own/ canal and walking tour 
Sept  20^th – La Havre Paris 7 am – 9  pm
            Monet’s Giverny & Rouen 8:30
Sept 21^st At Sea /Dinner 5:30  Ocean  Blue
Sept 22^nd New Haven Edinburgh Scotland  7 am-5pm
            9:00  Tour  St  Andrews/Golf (6  hrs) 
Sept 23^rd   Lerwick Shetland Islands 9 am- 5 pm
            On our own
            Fort Charlotte,  Shetland library,  Clickimin Broch, The Knab, Lodberries
Sept 24^th – at sea Dinner 5:30  Cagney’s Steakhouse
Sept 25^th -Reykjavik Iceland 8 am overnight to Sept 26^th 3pm
            Circle Island Tour
Sept 26^th – Reykavik on our own
            Blue Lagoon Tour 
Sept 27^th – Killybegs, Ireland -  ship cancelled due to rough seas
Sept 28^th – Dublin Ireland - ship cancelled due to rough seas        
Sept 29^th –  Portland England – walked the streets, ate fish and chips           
Oct 1 – Dock in Southhampton – Shuttle to Heathrow/Heathrow Express  Paddington Station
Oct 1-3– London – Hilton at  Paddington Station
Canal Cruise to  Greenwich/Royal Observatory
Oct. 3 Heathrow Express to Airport