EUROPE – PART 1

We’ve decided to christen this one the “COVID Cruise”. Last September, we sailed on the Island Princess on what was to be a 21-day voyage through the Baltic, the North Sea, around Iceland, and back to Southampton along the coasts of Scotland and England. Halfway through the cruise, we took a mandatory rapid test and were told we had the dreaded COVID. “You’re confined to your cabin for six days. If you test positive again, you’ll have to stay another four days”, the nurse told us. Whether we had COVID shall remain a mystery since we never experienced any symptoms during our long six-day confinement. Princess gave us a six-day credit to be used before the end of 2023, hence the COVID Cruise.

So, we flew to Heathrow, took the National Express bus to Southampton, and settled into our hotel, minus one of Elva’s bags, her expensive Osprey knapsack stuffed with many essentials. Fortunately, two of our bags made it to Heathrow, so we were OK. With the help of our very competent travel agent, Brett Tabor of Maritime Travel, we were able to arrange to have the bag delivered to the ship in Copenhagen. As I’ve written before in these travel blogs, never book a long trip without the help of a travel agent.

I’m fortunate to have been raised Acadian since we find humour where others don’t. Elva captured such a moment in describing our trek to the ship:

Une rencontre inattendue

Le mercredi 18 octobre notre aventure commençait. Selon Google, l’hôtel Moxy à Southampton était environ 30 minutes de marche du bateau Island Princess. C’était une journée nuageuse et il ne faisait pas froid. Alors on s’est habillé pour marcher. Tout allait bien et Jean-Paul m’a dit qu’il voyait le bateau. Alors il nous a emmené dans cette direction. Je lui ai dit: « Ça pas pris longtemps ». Mais il y avait une barrière! Cependant, ici nous avons rencontré un couple très gentil d’Halifax. Ils avaient eux aussi décidé de se rendre à pied au bateau. Bruce connaissait le numéro de l’entrée et naturellement les hommes ont marché ensemble.

Moi j’étais avec Elaine. Elle tirait une immense valise et portait un sac à dos en plus de sa sacoche. Elle portait un beau chandail en laine, un manteau, et de belles petites bottes. On parlait comme si on se connaissait. Puis elle m’a dit: « I’m going to kill him. I’m so mad. I wanted to take an Uber. I’m so so hot. » Tout à coup je me suis mise à rire. « I’m sorry I shouldn’t be laughing! ». Puis je lui ai expliqué que c’était le sens d’humour des acadiens.

Peu de temps après, les hommes ont réalisé qu’ils marchaient vite et ils ont fini par nous attendre. Alors Jean-Paul a pris sa valise et il lui a donné la sienne (grandeur “carry-on”). Après ce long détour, nos hommes nous attendaient souriants prêt d’où se trouvait l’enregistrement. Ma marche était faite et cette situation m’a rappelé des raisons pour lesquelles je m’entraîne. Comme nous transportons nous-mêmes nos bagages à notre chambre, « See you on the ship » fut notre au revoir. Nous ne sommes qu’au début de la croisière et nous souhaitons les croiser de nouveau.

Comfortably settled into our spacious cabin, we wandered around the Island Princess, expecting that she’d sail out of Southampton at 5:00 pm on Tuesday. The captain announced that, because of high winds, we’d stay overnight in the sheltered harbour before venturing out into the stormy North Sea. The next morning, he came on again to tell us that our first port of call, Hamburg, Germany, had been cancelled and he wasn’t sure where we’d go next, just that we were leaving. Yours truly had had a bad first night, a case of the dreaded Montezuma’s Revenge! Long story short, we missed out on Hamburg and Aarhus, Denmark, and called instead at IJmuiden, The Netherlands, arriving there on Saturday.

There being nothing much to do or see in IJmuiden, we followed the Princess location guide’s advice and rode local transit into Haarlem. A short walk from the bus station found us at the charming, cobblestoned square in the heart of the old city. Getting to our destination early paid off, as merchants in the market were just opening their impressive stalls. Everything on offer was top quality, but the cheeses were by far the most impressive. We walked the streets under cloudy skies, covering up from the occasional shower, and took these photos of the features we saw along the way. Instead of paying a fortune for a ship’s excursion ($300 to drop us off and pick us up), we spent an enjoyable six hours in a beautiful place for less than $50 Canadian, including bus fare, lunch, and our entry fee to St. Bova’s Cathedral, home to a magnificent organ with pipes 30 meters high.

After another sea day, we docked in Copenhagen, the city we’d missed in 2022, confined to our cabin, looking out through our porthole…. We took the location guide’s advice and rode the metro into the center of the city. After getting our bearings at City Hall (Radhuspladsen) square, we figured out how to get to the statue of The Little Mermaid, made famous by Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the same name. The sun had just come up over the horizon when we got there. She’s cute but no more impressive really than the fisherman’s statue in North Rustico harbour!

We walked along the seawall, past the sprawling Kastellet Fortress, stopped at the magnificent Gefion Fountain, and wandered through the grounds of the Amalienborg Palace, home to the Danish Royal Family. In front of us loomed the magnificent dome of the Marble Church and, behind us, across the canal, the massive Copenhagen Opera House. We hadn’t expected to see so many attractions in such a compact area and, just as we turned a corner, there was Nyhavn, another of the city’s iconic sites.

Elva mentioned that she’d like to shop at the Magasin du Nord, Copenhagen’s premier department store. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than it appeared, right beside another city landmark, the Hôtel D’Angleterre. After an hour of power shopping, we took the metro to Tivoli Gardens, a twenty-acre amusement park in the heart of the city. Tivoli has been in operation since 1843; it inspired Walt Disney and welcomes 5 million visitors a year. As you can see, the Gardens are lavishly decorated for Halloween.

Not satisfied that we’d seen all there was to see, we had a bite to eat and got back on the metro, headed for Christiania, a commune founded in 1971 on the grounds of a former military base. The commune operates independently from the city administration, setting its own rules, and its Pusher Street is famous for the open trade in cannabis, supposedly illegal in Denmark. As we strolled through the commune, the telltale smell was quite evident, and we watched two city police officers in a friendly exchange with one of the sellers. Christiana has a seedy charm to it and is definitely worth a visit.

On our way back to the metro station, we visited another beautiful church, this one called Our Saviours. Six hours and 20,000 steps later, we were back onboard the Island Princess, satisfied with our day and having seen all of Copenhagen’s major tourist attractions. And Elva’s lost knapsack was sitting on our bed. Oh, the stories it could have told! Best gift ever!!

Our next stop, Gothenburg, Sweden, is quintessentially Scandinavian, an industrial and university city with a rather drab feel to it. We took the shuttle to the central square and spent the morning wandering the streets and parks. We’d been told that the Haga district was an interesting place to visit for quaint cafés and boutiques. It might have been in the summer or on a weekend, but it was as dead as Victoria Row in December the day we were there. And having to pay to use public toilets was a turnoff. Not every place you visit on a cruise leaves you feeling WOW!

Our ship docked next to the Volvo Museum. Gothenburg is the home of Volvo. I’ve never owned one but wanted to when I was younger. The urge passed as I got older and realized that I was not a ‘car guy’ and that the darn things are nothing but depreciable necessities. The museum has a very nice collection of cars, trucks, tractors, service vehicles, and construction equipment. It’s scheduled to move into a brand-new location later this year in the center of the city. The photo below shows Roger Moore’s iconic Volvo 1800, not the one he used in the TV series The Saint but one he owned himself. I loved that show!

Today, I begin my eighth decade on this little green planet, third from the sun, and I sure hope it won’t be my last. I’m having too much fun! I’m not sure how I feel about turning 70. It’s different from 60 for sure. Mentally, I’m as good as ever, maybe even better, but physically, the years are beginning to weigh on me. I do my best to balance a few medical conditions and keep as active as I can. Although my weight hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years, it’s been redistributed thanks to that inescapable and cruelest universal force, gravity. There’s even a name for this: furniture disease. That’s when your chest falls into your drawers! But the motor still works!

Thankfully, Elva hasn’t been tempted to trade me, not so far anyway. “Why would I?”, she asks. “I couldn’t get anything for you!”.