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28 April 2011

Amsterdam and Rhine River Cruise 2011 - A Cruise in Review

DISCLAIMER: I admit that this is the first Cruising Experience I have ever had and therefore I am not really in a position to compare this Company against any other. But I loved it so much, was so impressed and had such a great time it won’t be the last!

To put my experiences in perspective and help you see where I am coming from: I’ve been on 7 guided coach tours, and as you already know, a bunch of independent vacations - both extended city stays where we settle into a large city and use it as a home base, and also multiple-city stays were we move on to a new place every few days.

We are budget travellers because I rather go cheap and more often instead of only once and ‘big’.  We fly coach, and unless we luck-in to fancy places (which has happened) we stay in 3 star hotels.

We don’t always stay in hotels that are in the centre or town, we don’t mind staying on the outskirts and using public transportation to get into the city… and finally, I hate shopping so we don’t spend much money on “incidentals”.

I’ve been all over Europe – here’s a look at the European part my Trip Advisor Travel Map (I think my next vacation should be Western France, there seems to be a gap of pins in that region!)

Map1

Map2

Ok, so now you know about my travel background… on to the cruise now…

I  LVED  IT!

We sailed on the Viking Helvetia, and it was perfect on every level.

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Now, for experienced cruise-travellers, they may say that this cruise is just as good as any other cruise… and maybe it is! I have no idea, but I can gush about the great time I had and explain WHY I loved it so much.

Viking labels itself as first class travel so am I just dazzled because I was pampered all week?  If I had more experiences with first class travel or with other cruises, would my opinion still be the same? We’ll never know.

The hardest part was finding the boat, because it’s up to the Harbour Master to determine where they can dock, so we were given 3 possibilities. 

I am a little stubborn and I don’t like to spend money on a cab when I can get there on foot or by public transportation.  I have to admit though, that it was not the best walk in Amsterdam that morning (from the train station to the various possible docking locations) because even though our bags are not heavy and roll along on 4 wheels, it was humid, and when dragging bags around, not being too sure where we had to go, we got a little cranky and sweaty!

wheres the boat

But we found it eventually, and even though we arrived during the chaotic hustle and bustle of people disembarking from the previous cruise that just ended, and even though the staff was CLEARLY very very busy, they were still very jovial with us and they were full of cheery “Welcome Aboard!”s. Check-in was a breeze.

I read online about a traveller who complained that he was annoyed that Viking didn’t send a cab to pick them up at the airport after a snafu and it was a real problem from them because they didn’t have any Euros. Sorry buddy, that makes you the moron. Be better prepared next time because snafus are a part of life and whether you are right or wrong about what happened, you still need to have some Euros on you when you get to Europe. That’s just plain old common sense!

One funny thing that confirmed to me that we were with an older group when we arrived on the ship (because cruising seems to attract the older set… and I think that the younger set is TOTALLY MISSING OUT!) was when we were told that the cabin would not be ready before 2:30 – 3PM (completely reasonable) so we were welcome to wait in the Lounge! HA HA HA it was not even 9AM! HA HA HA and we were in Amsterdam! As if we’d sit in a lounge all day!  funny.

Regarding the food and drinks, you can read about that in my previous post. In a nutshell, it was always delicious.

The cabins were always clean, all the time. The bathrooms were very nice and modern. The housekeeping staff would start cleaning rooms during breakfast and this annoyed some people because they thought that was too early. I think that’s a stupid complaint because if it bugs you, hang your Do Not Disturb sign on the door and then they’ll do it when you are off the boat on an excursion. That’s what we did. There was also a turn-down service during dinner; no chocolates on the pillows, but fresh towels and a tidy bathroom every time!

RenéThe Program Director (René from the Netherlands) was outstanding.

He was approachable, available, personable, and SO SO SO SO funny! He has us cracking up every day.

Now, he was the Front Man that we saw everyday but every single crew member that we interacted with, from the Hotel Manager to the Bartenders to the Restaurant staff etc was beyond reproach. Always friendly, always polite, always agreeable, always professional. 

One “visible” person on the staff who I am sure was sadly overlooked was the musician : Michael. He was great! It was such a nice thing to have soft, soothing live piano music in the Lounge.  I gave “music on board” an ‘excellent’ on my survey and I hope more people did too! Live music. What a nice touch! But I think because it blended in so perfectly, people didn’t even notice what he was adding to the atmosphere.  Sadly, we don’t have a picture of him.

The daily on board activities were well organized. There was always something going on, so we were never bored. Options galore. Cocktail Hour everyday in the Lounge where you could try the daily cocktail. In the afternoons, there was always an activity to participate in, like Dutch Shuffleboard in Amsterdam (my husband won!), how to make a  Rüdesheim coffee in Rüdesheim, a cooking demonstration in Strasbourg on how to make a Tarte Flambé, even a galley tour. Then after dinner, there were lectures, live music, we even got a glass blowing demonstration one night!

The included shore excursions were typical of any organized tour. Exactly what I would have expected from a bus tour too. Local guide, walking tour of the city, bussing out to destinations a little farther afield.

Typically, because we were about 200 people, we would be divided in to groups. As we are leaving the boat, we were assigned a bus number and were divided up into about 4 or 5 groups depending on the need. Logical, since you can’t flood a building with 1 large 200-person group, or expect 1 local guide to guide that many people around town.

What did impress me was that there was always an option for those people who had trouble walking or getting around but still wanted to take advantage of the excursion. In Cologne for example, in addition to the regular included city tour, you could also request to be in a group that would take in the museum, or be a part of the group that does less walking, less stair climbing and less walking on cobble stones.  What a great way to make sure everyone is included!

I can’t speak to the optional excursions because none of them really appealed to me, so we didn’t sign up for any. We didn’t feel like we missed out though because the Lounge and the Sun Deck were always so inviting, and besides, we were always docked in walking distance of whatever city we were visiting at the time. So much better then a budget coach tour that puts you up in a hotel along the highway so you have no other option by to fork over 40 - 50€ for a dinner excursion.

I also liked what they called the Daily Port Talk where the Program Director would give a run down of all the following day’s activities. What was on the agenda, what time we would be leaving, ideas and options for lunch, suggestions on what to do if we were not going to the optional excursion etc. Really informative and it fleshed out in much more detail the itinerary information in our booklets.  During the turn down service while we were at dinner, we would get a copy of this schedule too – printed on very nice paper I might add! I kept them all as souvenirs.  It would include a detailed time line of all the next day’s activities, including what time we arrive and leave if you wanted to watch it all happen from the Sun Deck. It also included a weather forecast and a little more historical information about the places we would visit.

Cleverly, members of the staff also had cameras and took over 400 pictures of our trip! How nice to either complement your own pictures of replace the picture taking burden all together if you don’t like taking snaps!

It was a fantastic vacation!!!

Did I leave anything out?

26 April 2011

Amsterdam and Rhine River Cruise 2011 - A Trip in Review

Sigh…  adjusting to real life is always so hard. There is no one around to pick up my towels. Food does not magically appear on the table. There is no one ready to serve me drinks…  This sucks!

So how was the trip? I think out-of-this-world is an apt definition. I am teetering on the brink of labelling it “The Best Vacation Ever” but I think that’s still part of the vacation-buzz talking since I had SUCH a good time and JUST got home. Time will tell, but I can tell you already that this will NOT be the last River Cruise we take! 

It was the hottest April in Germany on record, so we did  not have appropriate clothes – that part was less fun! We needed shorts and tank-tops. It was THAT HOT. The water is so low in the Rhine now, that the next few cruises are iffy! Did we ever luck out!! Thank God. I rather have a too-hot river cruise then an "surprise" coach trip when you wanted to sail!


AMSTERDAM

What’s not to love about Amsterdam? It’s such a unique place to visit!

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This was our second time, and we packed our days with activities. Essentially, we wanted to complete the list of things we didn’t do last time, but because the weather lent itself to being outdoors all day, we didn’t take time to visit any Art Galleries and didn’t do a lot of indoor –things.  I don’t mind, now we have a list of things to do for next time! (if it rains)

I barely remember what we did food-wise last time, but this time I had my mind set on having more local dishes, even if they are touristy: Like Pancakes.

I think the The Pancake Bakery was all tourists; I suspect there is a write-up in all Travel Guides (it was featured in both my guides, that’s how we found it) but who cares! It was packed with HAPPY tourists eating an original local TASTY meal. It was so good, I broke my cardinal rule of no restaurant-repeats on vacation and we went twice!


HAARLEM

I first heard about Haarlem from Rick Steves. He RAVES about it and his opinion was supported by the write-up in my Lonely Planet guide. They both said that Haarlem is so charming that we could easily decide to make it the home-base and Amsterdam would be the place to visit. (They are about 15 minutes apart by train).

I disagree. It was nice but for me: too small to be a home base. I prefer Big Cities to settle in to and like small cities for day trips and lunch-stops.

Plus, there was a market set up in the Main Square so taking a decent shop of the Church, Town Hall or Cafés was impossible. Annoying.

Grote Markt 01

The highlight of Haarlem was the Organ in St Bavo church. It’s reputed to be one of the finest in Europe and it really is breath-taking. Pictures just can’t do it justice.

Inside Grote Kerk (St. Bavochurch) 02


CRUISING - OUR SHIP

It was so fantastic, I don’t know where to begin!!!

When we finally found the ship, the first thing that struck me was how LONG it was! It was insane! Longer then a football field!! (you can see all the pictures in Picasa / click on the VACATION PICTURES link at the top of the page)

If you’ve read my previous entries about this cruise, you might remember that our cabin was on the lower deck, meaning we had only half a window instead of full sliding doors… but for about a THOUSAND dollars less. All the cabins were the same size anyway, and having a view along the waterline is fun too! One day a swan passed by and peeked in our window, but we didn’t get the camera out in time.

I don’t know if I could recommend this to a very light sleeper however, because it’s not a silent night.  Depending on where your cabin is in proximity to the back of the ship, regardless of which deck, the engine noise could keep you up. That, plus the rushing of the water if you are lower down might be challenging if you are not the kind of person that can sleep anywhere. For us it was not a problem because it all became white noise, but some people had trouble.

The only thing what ever woke me up (twice) was the lateral shaking when we entered a lock. Don’t know if we actually hit the sides, or if it was just because of the water rushing in… but those locks were SO NARROW! And FAST! amazing.

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Many people with whom I spoke to who have done Ocean Cruises say that you can’t compare the two. My take on it is that those behemoth 3000 passenger cruise-ships are the destination. On a River Cruise, you don’t just see the sea; you see the “sea”-nery.  I would still like to try an Ocean Cruise someday, but I suspect that I will end up preferring the River Cruise experience much more!


FOOD & EATING ON BOARD

Remember what I read about the food? that it was: European-style food adjusted for North American tastes. Well, I found no evidence of that. The food was good and THANK GOD the portions were reasonable!

No humongous plates dripping over with food – it was quality over quantity!

Breakfast was a hot buffet served in the Dining Room, plus you could order eggs (any style, including Benedict and Omelettes). It started at 7AM, but if you were hungry before that, you could get pastries at the “Coffee Station”.

I am annoyed we didn’t take ANY pictures!!  stupid.

Lunch (in the Dining Room) was a Salad & Sandwich Bar, plus if that was not enough, you had a choice of soup and a la carte warm meals too.  On occasion, they also served a “Café Lunch” in the Lounge – things like pizza. And once we had a GREAT casual German-Food lunch on the Sun Deck while we sailed though the portion of the Rhine dotted with German Castles. It was a FABULOUS afternoon! (I wonder if anyone skipped it in favour of the lunch served in the Dining Room? – if so, they TOTALLY missed out!)

5 Taste of germany (3)

Simone & Frank 1

In the afternoon, at the “Coffee Station” there was fruit, cookies and muffins readily available.

Dinner was 5 courses, but you were not obligated to eat them ALL! HA HA

  • Hot appetizer (sometimes a choice between 2 options which made it difficult because they were both tempting!)
  • Soup (which I often skipped)
  • Main dish, usually a choice between a meat dish and a fish dish – always delicious!
  • Desert, which I skipped every time except for the Baked Alaska on the last day. I’ve never had it before and I hear it’s a cruising tradition. Now I know I don’t care for baked Alaska.
  • Cheese Plate which you can imagine I NEVER SKIPPED!!

As far as drinks went, they offered an all-you-can-drink package for 150€ each which in my opinion was misleading because both people had to sign up. That means we had to figure out if we would spend 300€ in drinks over 7 days, which was about 3-5 drinks per day each. It’s kind of borderline depending on who you travel with. If I was travelling with my girlfriends, we’d be partaking in cocktails enough to make it worth while, but with my husband, who doesn’t drink that much, it would have been a waste. As it was, our bar bill was less then 100€.

They did serve complimentary wine with dinner, but I didn’t like it at all… actually I hate it…  but my husband didn’t mind it. I would therefore buy a glass of Chianti with lunch, and another again with dinner and maybe the occasional drink or digestif here and there.

AND I DIDN’T REALLY NEED MY DRESSY PANTS! my dark jeans would have been enough. Dressy Casual meant: no shorts and flip flops. Amazing how people need to be told this!


FELLOW PASSENGERS

I already suspected that I would be outside the demographic of the majority of our fellow travellers and I was right.

Aside from a child travelling with her mom, I suspect I was the youngest person on board and I think basically it’s because cruising appeals mostly to retired people or people with reduced mobility who can’t endure the pace of a bus tour.  It’s really geared to seniors overall.

The nationalities on board were the same as on most bus tours I’ve been on: Mostly American, Aussies and Kiwis, a sprinkling of Canadians and the odd miscellaneous nationality here and there.

I don’t know how it happened, but we made friends right away. Surprising for me because I HAAAAAATE the inane small talk of “where are you from”…  more specifically the crap that follows.

It never just goes like this:

A: So where are you from?

B: City 123, you?

A: City 456.

B: Nice, are you enjoying the cruise?

It more often goes like this:

A: So where are you from?

B: City 123, you?

A: City 456, but I grew up here _______ and I went to school here _____ and my parents worked here ______ but then in 1962 we had to blah blah because yada yada.

At this point in the non-conversation, I glaze over and wonder if I look as uninterested as I feel. 

It’s a TOTALLY legit question to ask someone, but I noticed in my travels that this is what most Americans seem to have in common (Canadians too probably, but I don’t come across them as much). They LOVE spilling their life story when all you have said to them was hello. It’s like asking you where you are from is an excuse for them to tell yet another person all about themselves.

I am way more private then that. I prefer people who mind their own business until we become friends (or at least friendly) and then it’s much more fitting to fill in the details of your life because it’s coming up in the conversation naturally…  Does that make sense to you?

Another risk is if you bump into someone from your home town, then all you do is talk about home. I am on vacation!!! I want to FORGET about home!!! This happened to us when we met a woman who used to live in the municipality we live in now as a child. I tuned her out almost immediately, but my husband is nicer then I am, and he chatted with her for a while.

I can HONESTLY tell you that I do not remember meeting the friends we made on board, but it obviously went well since I was interested enough to talk to them beyond the obligatory “so, where are you from?”

The most logical way we must have met was that we sat together at dinner on the first night.  My husband and I probably sat at a table for 6 and were soon joined by 2 other couples: Mr & Mrs Indiana and Mr & Mrs Hawaii.

We clicked from the start.  I think it must have been 2 days later at the most when Mr & Mrs New York joined us and the 8 of us were together after that.

We had the perfect set-up in my opinion because during the day we were on our own, so there was never a third wheel and no one was intruding on anyone else’s vacation, but we had drinks and dinner and after-dinner cocktails together every night. It was great – like going out for dinner with good friends every day. And not a dinner went by where we didn’t all have a good belly-laugh at some point. We had a fantastic time with them!

The synergy between the 8 of us was so good, that we all agreed it improved our cruise experience.  I thought it worked out so well that I think if I ever go on another River Cruise, not having them around would mean I would not have as much fun. 

We really truly enjoyed each other’s company.


KINDERDIJK

Our first shore excursion was to Kinderdijk to visit windmills. I didn’t think much of it really… It was nice I guess. Meh. Whatever.

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COLOGNE

We got our hopes up too soon. Off the boat we were PSYCHED! It looked like it was going to be the kind of day where you run out of time before seeing it all! But it turns out that Cologne is more of a Museum Town then a “Look At The Awesome Thing or Building Over There!!” kind of town, and we felt the weather was too nice to be indoors so we skipped the museums.

I also switched gears then, and adjusted my expectations for future excursions. I set my mind to expect stops that would be more loungey, and relaxing, and stroll-around, and stop-for-a-drink, and visit-the-church kind of stops instead of check-a-bunch-of-things-off-the-list stops. It made it all better.

A lot of the city was under construction too because they are building a metro, so the main draw was the Kölner Dom (Cathedral). It really was amazing! This is the kind of building where you need a extra wide angled lens to capture it all in one frame.

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KOBLENZ

What a teeeeeeeeeeease! I’ve wanted to visit the Deutches Eck for years, but we just sailed past it. Still, it was very nice!

Deutsches Eck 6


MARKSBURG CASTLE

Very nice, but I thought the best part were the views from up there.

Castle interiors…  meh, “seen one seem ‘em all”!

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UPPER MIDDLE RHINE VALLEY

Also known as the Rhine Gorge, it was great. The weather was perfect and as mentioned above we had great German food and complementary German beer while we enjoyed the view. (complete with interesting commentary)

Mr Hawaii and I were psyched because this day was what made us book the tour in the first place!

We were both surprised that the castles were so spread out, we expected them to be a little closer together, but I suppose it makes sense that they are somewhat spread apart when you think about their purpose!

I think it was the nicest day of the entire trip.

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RÜDESHEIM

A nice little town, but it was SO DAMNED HOT we didn’t care anymore! We just whizzed through it and ran back to the boat to shower and have drinks in the temperature controlled Lounge!  Looked like it would have been a very nice place to have dinner. Ah well.

Drosselgasse 6


HEIDELBERG

A truly great lunch-stop city. Lots of nice THINGS to see; not just museums so if you want to have a outside-day, you won’t miss out. A nice (albeit crumbling) Castle, a huge Cathedral, an Old Bridge, a nice and loooong Main Street, beautiful old buildings, and a Main Square perfect for stopping to eat. In fact, I had a SCRUMPTIOUS Wiener Schnitzel there.  It’s definitely a good camera stop and well worth adding to your itinerary!

View of the Castle from the bridge

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SPEYER

My husband passed on this city, it was after we got back to the from Heidelberg and he was too hot and wanted to relax so I was on my own.

Small yet pretty, I would not say it’s a lunch-stop city, perhaps more of a coffee-stop city,  but if you are near by anyway I think it’s worth a small detour to see the few sights.

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STRASBOURG

Now THIS was our kind of city. THIS is the kind of city we can use as a home base and take a few days exploring. It was our favourite stop.

It reminded us a lot of Bruges in places and we really wished we had more time (and cooler temps) to explore it further.

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It’ll be on our list for the next time we are ever in that part of the world!

We also hooked up for lunch with Mr & Mrs Indiana and Mr & Mrs Hawaii who wanted to stick to us since we speak French! HA HA. I didn’t mind at all, but thought it wasn’t really necessary since we were in such a touristy place everyone speaks English! Turns out I was wrong! the waitress didn’t speak English so I did have to translate after all. (Mrs and Mrs New York didn’t join us, they went to mass since it was Good Friday)

Isn’t this a nice picture of us?

Ladies who lunch

It was a nice lunch, the menu looked good from the outside, but the inside was not as “polished”as I hoped it would be so I was a little disappointed. I wanted something a little fancier, but who cares! We enjoyed ourselves with our friends and had a chance to try a local speciality: Tarte Flambée

Looking forward to going back one day!


BLACK FOREST

Not even worth mentioning in my opinion. The scenery is just as nice in Switzerland, if not nicer and it was a excursion to lead us to a fabricated souvenir village anyway. Not that impressed.


So there you have it! Smile 

Would I do it again?  YES!!! in a heart beat! You would not need to ask me twice!

25 April 2011

Amsterdam and Rhine River Cruise 2011 - The Journey Home

Our cruise was full of seniors and a good percentage of them were either rich, or..  how do I put this… : had very “reduced mobility”  so I think we really threw the entire staff for a loop when we told them that when it came to checking out, we would take care of our bags ourselves (we could actually LIFT our own bags) and take public transportation to the airport. We were freaks. EVERYONE had transfers or taxis, independent travellers just don’t fit in!

Like mentioned in a previous post, getting to the airport by public transportation was simple: tram to Central Train Station and from there, bus to the airport.

Easy… but… I screwed up. How? I went against my instincts more then once. Had I just listened to myself, it would have gone MUCH more smoothly!! Why do people dismiss the little voice in the their heads when they KNOW that little voice is always right??

Here’s what happened: The Cruise ended in Basel (Switzerland) so we brought a few Swiss Francs with us. We had lots of change / coins, but I decided it would be too much trouble to bring coins, so I left them behind and brought only bill. That was mistake number 1 and it was because I was lazy.  When we checked out of the ship, we paid our bar bill and I used some of my Euro-coins. Mistake number 2 and it was because I was stupid. Even as I was doing it, I thought to myself: Instead of paying the exact amount I should be giving her more so I can get some change back (more coins).

So, off we go, bags in tow, off the boat and on towards the tram stop. It was not a very nice walk (less then 10 minutes) because essentially it was a walk though a ship yard.

Walk

We made it to the tram station and when we got to the Kiosk guess what: IT ONLY TAKES COINS! Argh! I was so pissed because I KNEW I KNEW I KNEW that in Europe many ticket kiosks don't accept bills. I KNEW IT! AAAARGH! so stupid. I KNEW the machine would take either Swiss Franc Coins or Euro Coins and I stupidly did not have enough of EITHER!

Well thankfully, I do speak a bit of Swiss-German, so I left Frank at the tram station with the luggage and went off with my smallest bill to find people on the streets nearby to ask them if they had change for my bill. no luck. I then went  looking for a store or a restaurant or SOME WAY to get some change, but on Easter Sunday morning at 8AM how successful do you think I was?

Back at the tram station, I finally went to speak to the tram conductor. After explaining our predicament, he gave us a free ride to the train station! How nice! See how speaking the local language can help out in a pinch? All in all, it cost us FOUR SWISS FRANCS EACH to get to the airport as opposed to 40 – 50 Euros by cab!

We made it to the airport in Basel by about 9AM, and I decided to chance-it and try to transfer to the earlier flight to Paris that I had told my travel agent I didn’t want originally because I thought it would be too early. Luck was on our side, there was room on the early flight, so we flew out of Basel at 10:30AM instead of 1:30PM on such a teeny plane!!! 50 seats, only 3 seats per row…  I admit I was a little nervous! but for a 45-minute flight, they are not going to break out the jumbo- jets!

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When they changed the flight, they also changed our seat selection on the second leg from Paris to Montreal. Instead of 2 aisles next to each other, we ended up with 2 aisles 11 rows apart.  I went to the customer service counter in Paris to see if they could seat us a little closer together, and they did - no problem.  The reason for the glitch was because they changed planes and we were now flying on (insert drum roll here: _________) The A380!!!!  

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I knew that Air France was planning to add the A380 to the Montreal – Paris route later this year, but now with all the trouble in Japan, the planes no longer fly there and the Montreal launch date was pushed up. This was day 3…  and yes, baggage claim was a nightmare!!

Because of the seating snafu, we got upgraded to an emergency exit row, so we had room galore, that plane is really a behemoth!  No risk of hitting your head on the overhead compartments anymore when standing up, in fact, the trouble now is digging your carry-ons out of the cavernous compartments! 

We were on the lower deck but I did sneak up to the upper deck to have a look…  it was the same as the lower deck… not sure what I was expecting to find.

One neat feature was the tail-cam, a camera in the tail that shows you the view from up there. Interesting during take-off and landing, but not while crossing the Atlantic.

Then, to top it all off, when we went through customs in Montreal, we got tagged for a full luggage search. I think it’s because of what I said before: I don’t declare enough. By that I mean, I come home with 20 to 50$ in souvenirs /purchases and who goes to Europe for a week and come home with so little???  Well me.

The boarder guard harped and harped on the food and alcohol question. I said all I bought was chocolates at the duty-free in Paris (a thank you gift for our neighbours who took in our mail) and I noticed on the form she circled the NO I ticked where I declared I had no food and alcohol. I admit that could be a conflict…

The agent who search our bags started off as a hard-ass, but when it became clear we had nothing, he relaxed his attitude and it became just a formality. I wanted to ask him how many times they search bags and find nothing, but I thought that would be a stupid question to ask! I didn’t want to antagonize him or make him suspicious. He even looked up “Viking Cruises” on the Internet! Wow! I am so naïve (or too honest?), it never dawned on me that someone would fake and itinerary to make it look like they went somewhere they didn't!

However, it did make unpacking when we got home easier! It was already half done by then! LOL!

8 April 2011

Istanbul 2011 - A Trip in Review

Thanks for waiting!

Part of what took so long is that I wanted to be more creative and give you a little more then just a play by play of what we did, plus I was trying not to be repetitive because this all sounds a lot like what I already posted.  But I have to “lay this egg”. It’s not going to get any better than this because I just don’t have the time to devote to it anymore!!

So here, finally, is the answer to the question: so how was your trip?


Plane ride: We were excited to be traveling with Air France again, ever since we had that delicious meal last September! The food on the way there was crappy airplane food, but on the way back – cha ching! There is was! Chicken curry, fois gras paté, wine, cheese, little baguettes, chocolate, raspberry tart, port… AHHHH. 

Leaving Montreal

It was a 6 1/2 hour flight from Montreal to Paris, about a 2 hour layover and then another 3 1/2 hour flight to Istanbul. We slept almost the entire way.

Waiting in Paris - Simone


Arriving: Normally we like to arrive in our destination city early so we can consider that day a full day. But the simple fact that Istanbul is so far away, at the very Eastern edge of Europe, means we arrived later then usual and therefore by the time we got to our hotel and were ready to hit the streets, it was already 3:30 PM.  Not much of a full day!


Public Transportation to the Hotel: Getting to the hotel from the airport was very easy, but it’s because I was prepared and knew where to go and what to do. I had a printed map of the system, with transfer stations and destinations marked. From the airport take the Light Rail for 6 stops, then transfer to the tram and take that for 18 stops. Done. I wonder if most people just take cabs??  Would you? That would have cost about 30 Lira whereas this was only 7. We use public transportation whenever possible AND because I think all cabbies are out to scam me. It was crowded so we didn’t get a seat, but so what! after sitting for 10 hours plus, it did us some good! 


Public Transportation: Istanbul’s Tram system is modern, efficient, clean and easy to use. We didn’t take the metro anywhere, since the tram brought us everywhere we wanted to go (and we prefer walking everywhere anyway), but I assume it would have been just as good. Interesting is that you can’t transfer from one to the other; you have to pay each time. They use a token system: you buy tokens in advance at the “Jetonmatik” machine, and if you want to get to the metro from the tram for example, it costs you another token.  I didn’t realise this at first, and wondered why I had to buy at least two tokens at the airport, when I actually only used one to get on the Light Rail… until we went to transfer to the Tram, and realised it would cost a second token.

       Jetonmatik       Token


Our Hotel: Our hotel (Hotel Seres) was excellently located. Really perfect! Close to the old section of town and right between two tram stops. I would recommend it to anyone who understands that it’s a basic budget hotel. If you expect too much from a budget level hotel you will always be disappointed.  In an old town, if you want to be close to the sights and not pay an arm and a leg, then you have to understand that you are not going to get anything luxurious. But who cares!  It was clean, the breakfast was included, the service was attentive and then internet was free!

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Weather: It was great! it rained only on the first day after supper and the last day as we were leaving. We don’t like hot weather, and temps were around 13 - 18°C. Perfect for being outside all day. When the sun came out, it got a little too hot for me and even with my 60 SPF, I still managed to get a tan.


Sight Seeing / Shopping: We hit all the major sites but I don’t wanna talk about those. Just have a look at my pictures and that will tell you all you need to know.

I did my best to space the main sights out over the week; I tried to start with a “big thing” in the morning, followed by lunch and then a project in the afternoon.  By project, I mean: a trek to a site that is further away then the main / central tourist area – or a cruise, or a city tour on the hop on hop off bus… or even just a lazy afternoon wandering around town with no particular destination.

Istanbul is a shopper’s paradise, and I am not a shopper. It’s all commerce and markets ALL. AAAAAAALLLLLLL. Just amazing – and I don’t just mean the Bazaars, I mean the shops lining the streets. My description (as you might have already read) is: it’s 17 belt buckle shops in a row, then 6 metal chain shops, then 10 kitchen tap shops, then a toy truck shop, then 75 textile shops, then a pots and pan shop, then 3 rubber mats shops. etc etc  ………………. and it hit me one day that this is what life is like without Wal-Mart!!   HUNDREDS of merchants… THOUSANDS as far as you can walk it seems… all it would take is 1 Wal-Mart to shut it all down. Sobering.

Shops 1

Shops 2

Shops 4

Shops 6


Aside from the obvious, sights that impressed me:

1- The jellyfish in the Bosphorus. Simply amazing! I have never seen anything like it! More then you could ever count, and like stars in the Night Sky: the more you look, the more you see.

Jellyfish 4

Jellyfish 4

Jellyfish 4

2- The commercial ships lined up in the Sea of Marmara waiting to go through the Bosphorus Straight to the Black Sea.  They stretched back as far as the eye could see, seems they were as plentiful as the jellyfish!  I wonder how long it takes??  how long do they have to wait there?

Commercial Ships

I was curious to know if you could see it in Google Earth – YOU CAN! although they look more like smudgy dashes in the water rather then ships.

Ships


Food: I liked it more then my husband.  There are few reasons to explain this:

1- He eats more lamb then me in general and know what’s good and what’s crap. I eat so little of it, that it just all tastes good. I am not a connoisseur.

2- He got sick of the repetitive menus and I have to admit that it was the same food everywhere. When I asked him how this differs from Italian restaurants, where you get the same food everywhere too – his answer was: That’s different! It’s Italian!

3- He is not much of an adventurous eater and was impacted by the lack of familiar things. I would gorge on various interesting meze platters, while he took the “safe salad route”.

Admittedly, we did fall into the restaurant tourist trap.  By that I mean, restaurants focused on the tourist traffic, so they don’t really need to be good / they just LOOK good … but when you don’t speak the language, badly translated menus with pictures are easy – and if you are not in the mood for “just anything” then what do you do??  Well, in my opinion, we never had a bad meal.

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We did miss out on an Istanbul Institution: The Fish Sandwich served right from bobbing boats moored near the Galata Bridge. It’s a grilled fish fillet inserted in a half-loaf of bread along with a scoop of salata (lettuce, tomatoes and onions).  We just never got around to it!!  Ah well. Always need a reason to go back!

Fishwich Boats 1

You don’t actually get on the boat. The guy grilling the fish and assembling the sandwiches passes them onto a person on firm ground, and you get the sandwich from that guy at the stand.

Fishwich Boats 1


Rooftop Cafés: They are eeeeeeeeeeeeverywhere!! Such a great idea! Even our hotel’s restaurant was on the roof.  Get a load of the view we had greeting us every morning for breakfast!

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Seems not a day went by where we were not at least 7 stories up somewhere.  It’s common place! Just wonderful. Istanbul’s skyline is beautiful and we took full advantage!

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Wine: The wine was quite expensive! I read in my guidebook that this is because of the high taxes on alcohol.  Subsequently we didn’t order bottles much, but when we did, we always tried the Turkish Stuff!  Wasn’t bad!

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Cats: If you are friends with me on Facebook, then you know I have an album called: Cats on Vacation where I gather together the various pictures of stray kitties we come across on vacation. (I intend to move it from Facebook to Picasa one day so everyone will eventually be able to see the pictures).

Istanbul was FULL of cats! Greece, Croatia, Morocco…  I thought they were packed HA! Istanbul wins the contest. No question. I am a cat-lover so it was my kind of thing – it was a trip highlight.

Come on, is this not CRAZY cute? 

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Smoking:
I was expecting the smoking to be really bad – like Croatia was. I read somewhere that Turks are heavy smokers, but to my immense relief, restaurants and cafés were all non-smoking inside! Thank God. So the only cigarette assaults I was subjected to was a face full of smoke on the sidewalk because someone was smoking ahead of me.


Touts:  Just over the top! I already said that you can’t stop for a millisecond to admire a building or take a picture (or worst of all: check your map) because it leaves you ripe for an ambush – but that’s an understatement.  Being anywhere near a restaurant is like running a gauntlet. Forget stopping to read a menu peacefully if you are undecided about dinner.

It was so extreme, it became intrusive and unpleasant. Just too much! Unlike anything we have ever experienced anywhere. I don’t think there is a “good way” to handle it, basically I would say don’t make eye contact and keep moving.

Its an in-your-face (and down your throat) hard sell, and not just the restaurants – the cabbies too.

On our last day, we went to take the tram to the airport. I already researched it and I knew they started at 6AM, but that did not stop the cab drivers! One guy PARKED his car on the tram tracks and told us the tram was not running! He kept insisting we HAD to go with him… Imagine the audacity!

Shockingly, the Grand Bazaar was pretty tame. Nothing intrusive nor over the top. We could actually walk sloooowly through it and enjoy our surroundings without the annoying distraction. Sure there are merchants trying to lure you into their establishments, but not the relentless, in-your-face, aggressive kind.


Would I go back? : No. Not because I didn’t enjoy it or anything like that – but it’s like Istanbul is checked off the list and it’s time to move on to other destinations.  It’s not (to me) like Paris or London or Rome where you can go back a million times. It’s more along the lines of: Been there, Done that.


Ok, now you tell me – what did I leave out?