New Zealand cruise

 On January 27, 2024, we boarded the Noordam Holland America ship for a two-week cruise.  We cruised with longtime friends, Richard and Sue.  Our port stops included:

Tauranga, (Roturua), Napier, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hobart (Tasmania), and Melbourne, Australia

We were supposed to do some scenic cruising of Fiordland National Park, but the weather was so bad we cruised straight to Hobart through some rough seas. Even though it was summer we did have some rainy weather.  Fortunately, one of our best weather days was to view Mt. Cook.

          An example of Art Deco home in Napier. 

                   We visited the oldest winery in New Zealand - Mission Winery

We toured the Whakarewarewa Living Maori Village in Rotura.  And boy did it rain that day.  Fortunately, the performance was undercover.  Walking around the village was very wet.  it was quite interesting how they use the thermal to do their cooking.  Almost like having a slow cooker underground.

Lake Tekapu

View of Mt. Cook from Lake Pukaki

Hostel near Lake Tekapo

I loved how the scene was reflected in the glass

Holland America has orange night

Tawny Frogmouth at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary

Kangaroos waiting for dinner

Fairy tree at Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne

Hand carved from 1931-1933 in a Gum tree stump.

                                Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne

Melbourne had some very interesting buildings.

View of our ship from the Christchurch gondola

Bob and Richard goofing around on bus

Historic town Richmond, Tasmania

Bridge built by convicts

Yarra River cruise in Melbourne

Bob in front of train Dunedin. Still rocking the orange

British Isles Cruise

 August 28, 2023, we flew with friends, Paul and Carol Samuels, to London for a two-week cruise on the Viking Mars.  We started in Greenwich, London. Other stops were Dover, Dublin, Holyhead, Douglas Isle of Man, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Lerwick (Shetland Islands), and we ended in Bergen, Norway.  We had the most perfect weather - only place in rained was Bergen (which is pretty normal).  

                                                            Liverpool, with the Beatles

Bagpipes in Edinburgh, Scotland

Bob in phone booth in Scotland

Edinburgh Castle.  

We visited on the one-year anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's death,

so, lots of pomp and circumstance happening.

Douglas, Isle of Man, castle - a favorite port stop

                                                   Dog Cemetary at Edinburgh Castle

Central Library in Liverpool

White Cliffs of Dover

Check out the name of the train station - 58 letters!

Panama Canal Cruise - Dec 28 to January 15

 We did an Oceania cruise on Insignia ship through the Panama Canal.  Our stops included Grand Cayman, Cartagena, Columbia, El Salvador, Puerto Chiapas, Mexico, Manzanillo, Mexico, Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, Mazatlan, Mexico, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and San Diego.  We finished in San Francisco.

Cruise ship beautifully decorated

Cartegena, Columbia

Panama Canal daylight transit

Historic theatre in Santa Ana, El Salvador

El Impossible Volcano park, El Salvador

Izapa Ruins,Chiapas, Mexico

Mariachi performers onboard

    

                                                 A beautiful sunrise onboard

We went whale watching in Cabo

Cabo San Lucas

Snake while snorkeling in Manzanillo

Hawaii - Big Island -2022

 July 23, 2022, we flew to Kona, Hawaii for a 10-day trip to the big island of Hawaii.  Friends, Paul and Carol, asked us to vacation with them for a week in Kona.  We rented a condo for one week with them.  Prior to us joining them we rented a car and drove to Kilauea Military camp which is inside of Volcanoes National Park.  We rented a one-bedroom cabin there.  It was a really great deal - about $100 a night.  Can't beat those prices.  

While at Volcano's park we enjoyed Volcano restaurant that had a great view of the volcano after dark.

We also enjoyed a visit to a waterfall near Hilo.

On the Kona side we met up with Paul and Carol.  We did a bunch of snorkeling.  Here are some of my favorite 'fish' pictures.

Viking Grand European River Cruise

On May 18,2022 we flew from Seattle to London and onto Budapest, Hungary where we did a two-day pre-extension at the Hilton in Budapest. Below is the parliament building at sunset. On May 21 we boarded the long boat, SKADI.  Our friends, Sue and Rich, joined us the cruise.

 Our itinerary was:

Vienna and Melk, Austria,

Passau, Nuremburg, Bamberg, Wurzburg, Wertheim, Koblenz, and Cologne all in Germany,

Kinderdijk, The Netherlands, Disembark in Amsterdam

After leaving Budapest we travelled to Viena, Austria.  We did a walking tour where we caught a glimpse of the Lipizzaner stallions and saw St. Stephens Church.

Passau was a small walkable beautiful town.  In the afternoon we hiked up to Veste Oberhaus and had some amazing views.  The church has a pipe organ and we were able to hear it for a few minutes after mass let out.

We did a day trip to Rothenburg.  We had seen this lovely walled city when we did the best of Europe tour in 2007, but it was fun to see it again.  We toured the town, had lunch, and then some free time to explore.

In Wertheim Connie did the castle hike while Bob did the town walking tour.  The hike was lots of fun.  In the spring they bring goats to keep the grass mowed and have a huge festival.

On the Rhine we had a day where we saw oodles of castles.  Here are a few pictures.

In Cologne we did a walking tour and enjoyed the sight of the Cathedral at night.

The last day on the river was a visit to the windmills at Kinderdijk, The Netherlands. We visited a windmill and were able to climb up inside. The story of the cradle is that a cat was found rocking the cradle from side to side to keep it from tipping over during a flood.

And we saw lots of swans.  We so much enjoyed them.