So the cruise serves as the anchor for our trip. We decided to visit Amsterdam before it, and Hamburg afterwards. Amsterdam boasts several museums, and the Concertgebouw, so the decision was easy, and the days reasonably easy to fill up (especially if we want to take it slowly). Hamburg, on the other hand, may not offer a lot for the tourist, even though it is the second largest city in Germany after Berlin. (Somewhat like Brisbane, the third largest city in Australia.) The main attraction is this much talked-about Elbphilharmonie, with it acoustic engineering supposedly offering the same sound to every seat. Otherwise we have nothing planned for the city, and we have already decided, outside of a couple of concerts, relaxing in the hotels would be okay.
This will be one of the more expensive trips we have planned - of course after the recent Disney trip things may not feel so bad. Viking River Cruises are in the luxury category, and hotels in Amsterdam and Hamburg average out to more than $300 a night, perhaps $100 more than I would like to pay.
Airfares, however, may work in our favor, thanks to stopovers and award tickets. The EWR-AMS leg is part of the SYD-LAX-EWR-AMS ticket we bought for our July 2023 trip, in Premium Economy. We bought economy HAM-EWR; EWR-NUE open jaw tickets for our August trip to Germany. The long flights are waitlisted for Premium Plus Plus Point upgrades. Flying back from Germany in August would be on award tickets, in economy.
[Note on 5/2. I am trying to complete this blog entry, a few days after we completed the trip. I suspect there would be much that I cannot recall as I try to reconstruct the days with the help of photos Anne and I took, and with Google Timeline. Entry completed and posted on 5/3.]
It's difficult to pick ONE photo as the heading for the trip. I could have easily picked Elbphilharmonie as the background.
Friday 4/12. We took an Uber for our afternoon (5:30 pm) flight to Amsterdam. CLEAR again had a long line, but for a changed it moved rather quickly. Even though I was recognized, I was still chosen to show my ID - so again a useless exercise, although today no time was wasted. The 767-400 flight was quite full. United Airlines cabins are usually quite fresh-looking. Considering 767-400s were all refurbished recently, tonight's plane felt unexpectedly dated. As long as we get to our destination on time, safely, I am okay.
We were served a full dinner and a full breakfast on this flight. (Not complaining.)
The scheduled arrival time was 7:15 am, we would land a full hour early.
4/13 Saturday. Dutch customs was exceptionally quiet. Immigration took about 5 minutes, and we didn't see any customs agents as we went through the "nothing to declare" line.
Of course it was too early to check into the hotel. One place the receptionist suggested we visit was Noordermarkt, and today being Saturday, market would be in town. We went, and I must say all these European markets look the same. The way over, however, took us across several canals, which were quite interesting.
Taken at 6:40 am in the morning. Schipol airport was quiet.
Some houses have the year they were built painted on them. The two in front are form 1649 and 1653. Many have a slanted gable so goods can be hauled up into the upper levels. Bicycles are popular, and my Dutch friends used to tell me there are few new bikes as they get stolen often. That was over 20 years ago, wonder if it's still true.
Over the few days we spent in Amsterdam we got to understand the canal structure a bit better. There are about 2500 houseboats on the canals (no new permits are being granted).
These tour boats are designed to fit under these bridges. On busy days they fill the canals and cause traffic jams. The city is proposing to reduce the numbers, as well as a moratorium on number of hotel rooms allowed. Their city, their rule.
Noordenmarkt is busy on a Saturday morning. Typical stuff being sold are honey, cheese, and vegetables.
A crepe making station.
One can take a ferry to get to the other side of the Noordzeekanaal which runs across the entire peninsula. We didn't get to do that, even though it is free.
The major museums in Amsterdam are all popular places for tourists (and locals, I assume) to visit. I managed to get tickets for both the van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum, but couldn't get them for the Anne Frank House. Today we visited the van Gogh museum. Van Gogh is very much associated with Southern France, and for good reason, but this museum is a great place to get insight into his life. Many of his well-known paintings can be found here. Also on display were works by Matthew Wong, a Chinese Canadian who also tragically died by suicide in his 30s.
One reason van Gogh painted many self-portraits was because he couldn't afford to hire models.
Many of the flowers in this painting are starting to wilt. All in van Gogh's famous yellows.
Garden with courting couples, painted around 1887.
Closeup to show how he achieved the effect.
The Yellow House. Van Gogh rented this place in Arles. Paul Gaugin lived here for a while also. The house was damaged during WWII, and was subsequently demolished.
There are also wilting irises in this painting. Can't paint them yellow, so we have a yellow background.
The Bedroom was a room in the Yellow House. Many versions of it exist. This one was placed in the Matthew Wong section of the exhibit.
This portrait of Felix Auerbach was painted by Edvard Munch. There is a tragic story behind this German physicist of Jewish descent. Why that belongs in the van Gogh museum escapes me.
Including a painting of Gaugin he did while staying in Arles makes a lot more sense. Gaugin likes to paint from "memory" while van Gogh likes real objects in front of him, so I read.
Matthew Wong, a Chinese-Canadian, also had a tragic life story. He died by suicide in his 30s. One could argue his paintings reflected very well his feeling of isolation and loneliness.
It was after 4 pm when we went back to the hotel (Renaissance never called us to tell us the room was ready). Dinner was at the Ramen place across the street. We decided to call it an early night, understandable as we didn't get much sleep on the plane.
It's difficult to imagine Renaissance Amsterdam as being a 4-Star hotel; it definitely didn't feel like one. There is quite a bit of renovation going on, so perhaps it will live up to its rating when the work is completed.
A model of Koepelkerk is on display at the hotel. It started off as a Lutheran church, was painted by van Gogh, and is now used as a conference center.
During my stay at the hotel, I heard someone apologizing to her clients that the hotel didn't deserve its rating of 4 stars. I certainly agree. Functional, yes; but high end? Hardly.
Accommodations. Renaissance Hotel Amsterdam (3 nights).
Sunday 4/14. In my visits to Amsterdam during my days of frequent travel to Holland, the Rijksmuseum was pointed out to me many times. (Rijks means kingdom, empire, etc.) This was my first visit to the museum itself. I can imagine a fan of Dutch masters be impressed by the vast collection in the museum; I was also impressed.
Rijksmuseum.
Great Hall of the museum.
View of Amsterdam from Central Station was painted by van Gogh during his visit to the city in 1885. The Koepelkerk was a Lutheran Church at that time.
The Rijksmuseum audio guide lists 20 or so highlights one should see. We dutifully followed along.
Night Watch is a large painting done by Rembrandt. It is being restored behind a glass panel while still on display.
Holy Kinship by Geertjen tot Sint-Jans. Elizabeth and Mary holding John and Jesus.
Milkmaid by Vermeer.
Jan Mostaert's painting "Landscape with an Episode of Conquest of America" was done in 1535. It wasn't on the "recommended" list, but still worth studying.
Rijksmuseum also houses some Asian art. Here are two Japanese temple guardians. They feel like an afterthought. In any case, doesn't one visit the Rijksmuseum to admire Dutch art?
Concertgebouw is considered one of the best concert halls in the world, and the orchestra (technically the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) also has a great reputation. We attended the afternoon concert after having lunch in a cafe next to the museum.
"I amsterdam" is a slogan (?) found all over the city. This one at the cafe outside of Rijksmuseum.
Rijksmuseum, van Gogh Museum, and Concertgebouw are close to one another.
The harp at the top of the building is the symbol of Concertgebouw.
Performers walk down the stairs (next to the organ).
Back of concert hall. Names of composers and writers are found around the balcony.
I went to the Tours and Tickets office at the train station to get vouchers for our Keukenhof visit the next day. The package included a boat cruise run by Lover Cruises. I was told we could go on one tonight, so we did. The one-hour cruise took us to the three major canals surrounding the city, and the captain pointed out various interesting sites along the way.
It is safe to say the Dutch like flowers. Not gardens in the city? Solved by all these pots and planters on the street.
Our evening cruise on Lovers Cruises passed by many interesting sites. These dancing houses are a collection of buildings that have tilted because of soft foundations.
In theory one can see seven bridges from this vantage point. In practice one sees a lot fewer. We also learned the three major canals that surround the city are: Prinsengracht, Kaisergracht, and Herengracht. This is at the intersection of Herengracht and Reguliersgracht.
Monday 4/15. Keukenhof Gardens is world famous for the tulip displays in the spring. For some reasons we thought it was tulip fields, turns out it was more a showcase for growers to exhibit their tulip-breeding and gardening skills. Also, it's not all tulips as there are healthy "enclaves" of azaleas, hyacinths, daffodils, and narcissuses. The varieties are too many for the casual flower watcher, but still amazing for the casual visitor. Tulips are a $1B (or Euro) business for the Netherlands.
Tulips typically bloom for two weeks. They used a lasagna planting method with three layers of bulbs flowering at different times to extend the season to approximately six weeks.
Keukenhof is a garden dominated by tulips during the spring.
On the left of the photo are azaleas.
Labeled so one won't mistake these for lilies.
Hydrangea hat.
One can ride a boat and visit the canals in the area. Today was a rainy day, so one better came prepared.
If you climb up to the platform you would get a better view of the surroundings ...
... including these tulip fields next to Keukenhof.
Hair was still wet when we had lunch at a restaurant at the train station. Notice the last name on the placement: this Mr. Chang (Zhang, Cheung) owns quite a few restaurants in the area.
In case that wasn't clear, the name is emblazoned on these plates as well. A duck dish, by the way.
Fish & Chips from a shop near the hotel.
There were some scattered showers during our visit, which was okay.
I got one ticket for the evening concert of Mahler's Nineth Symphony performed by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw, conducted by Lorenzo Viotti.
The Netherlands Philharmonic performed Mahler's Nineth Symphony.
Drinks are included with Concertgebouw tickets. If one is strategic about it, one can drink back the cost of tickets.
4/16 Tuesday. I had been quite happy about how the last few days went. We kept reasonably busy, Anne's hip was generally okay (or she's bearing her pain quietly), and we both had been getting reasonable hours of rest every evening. Today was not to be. I am not complaining, there are ups and downs with life (not trying to be philosophical), and today was not an "all up" day.
It started well enough. Laundry is always an issue as hotels charge a lot for laundry (9 Euros for a pair of pants), so it's always a delight when there is a laundromat nearby. Less than a 5-minute walk way is San Wasserij which did our laundry for 12 Euros, ready in two hours.
Prices for having clothes laundered at the hotel.
We enjoyed our Sunday night Canal Cruise very much, but our seats did not give us good vantage points to take pictures. The tour cost 15.50 Euros, we bought tickets for the 10:30 am tour and got to the dock early to make sure we got window seats this time, and we did. The sun also came out for a nice and bright morning. When the boat started in the clockwise direction (instead of the counterclockwise direction of Sunday night), we thought we would do the tour in reverse direction.
What we did not count on was the heavy weekday canal traffic. The first hint was the boat stopping so a very wide and long (for the canal) ship could go under a bridge, and then it had to stop at multiple points along the way. Consequently we didn't pass by many of the sights/sites we wanted to see again, among which were Anne Frank's House, Dancing Houses, and Silly Jack. I suppose they had to modify the itinerary to keep the cruise to an hour. If we hadn't taken the first cruise, we wouldn't have known what we missed. And without those highlights, the trip was not nearly as interesting.
Because of traffic problems the Lovers Cruise stopped by fewer sights. Window seats and sunny skies allowed us to take some good pictures.
The Nemo Science Museum looks like a ship.
This kind of draw bridge was depicted in one of van Gogh's paintings. (That was painted in Arles, though.)
Houses along Herengracht are very expensive, so most of them are for commercial use.
Koepelkerk as seen from the canal.
Precarious parking, especially without a guardrail. Every year 8 to 10 cars fall into the canal.
After collecting our laundry from the laundromat, we packed up and took an Uber to the airport for our 3:00 pm flight to Zurich and then connect to Marseille. Evidently high winds the last few days had thrown air traffic a huge loop, and many flights were canceled or delayed. Our 3 pm departure got delayed a couple of times, and finally took off at 4:10 pm, and landed at 5:24 pm, about 50 minutes behind schedule. Our connecting flight was to leave at 5:50 pm. The problem? We had a bus gate, and we had to board the second bus which had to wait for the last passenger to get on. (Despite several of us pleading with the driver of the first bus that we had tight connections, she wouldn't budge.) And ZRH is a huge airport. We got to the departure gate at 5:56 pm, and was told the plane had already left the gate (or at least that's what we heard), and our luggage didn't load. The agent directed us to the transfer desk, and the line was long, very long. It was around 8:15 pm that I got to an agent, after standing in line for more than 2 hours, and - surprisingly efficiently - we were booked into the flight the next day, given a hotel voucher with meals, and tram tickets good for 24 hours. To add to the insult of it all, it was raining when we walked from the tram station to the hotel. (By the way, FlightRadar showed the flight departed at 5:58 pm, so we were lied to, or at least fed wrong information.)
The Airbus A220 is a nice plane to fly in. However, they tend to be relegated to bus gates which negates the positive cabin experience. In our case we had to haul our luggage up and down the stair ramp, and missed our flight due to the longer time it takes to transfer.
Landing at 5:24 pm should give us a great chance to catch a flight that left at 5:50 pm, if it's the same airline ...
... and specially since the onward flight was delayed.
It took me over 2 hours to get to the agent.
We decided to not pick up our luggage: we each had a change of underwear in our carry-ons.
We got to the hotel before 9 pm, and was told it would serve dinner (a buffet) from 9 pm to 11 pm. Actually what appeared to be a tour group checked in after we arrived.
One thing I didn't remember was that some plugs used in Switzerland are different from those used in neighboring European countries. Our hotel had only the 3-prong J-type. The front desk did have an adapter I could borrow, so we managed to charge up all our essential electronics.
After dinner I changed our Marseille St. Charles to Avignon train to a later one (paying a small penalty). I had booked a Holiday Inn Express in Marseille, so would be a "no show" and get charged for one day.
Accommodations: Hotel Dorint Zurich Airport (1 night).
Wednesday 4/17. Today wasn't without its worries. One big concern was if our luggage would find its way to our new flight. We don't have enough status, nor the wish to pay a lot of money, to be able to carry all our luggage into the cabin. For AMS-ZRH-MRS both planes were small (Airbus CS200 and Embraer 190-E2) and our larger pieces would have a hard time fitting into the smaller overhead bins. I kept checking with agents I ran into about if the bags would make it on, and most of them would check the "system" for me, the "yes" they gave seemed more reassuring than the status shown on the Lufthansa APP (Swiss is part of the Lufthansa group, and Helvetic Airlines which operates both flights is owned by Swiss). To jump to the end on the luggage issue, we were relieved to see the bags on the conveyor belt at Marseille Airport.
Bonus country we got to visit for a day: Switzerland. If you consider a trip from the airport to the airport hotel a visit, that is. Not our intention, even though Switzerland is a great country to visit.
Airport Lounge at Zurich Airport provides multiple plug types.
The Embraer E195 is a nice plane, but again was assigned a bus gate!
Flight LX580 was delayed again, blamed on both change and late arrival of aircraft. From different APPs I concluded that the original incoming plane was canceled, but the substitute arrived more than an hour before our flight. Our flight took off over an hour late, and landed at 2:26 pm. We were bused to the terminal where the aforementioned reunion with our luggage happened, but still had to hustle to make our train. We Uber'd to the St. Charles Marseille station, and caught a TGV train there to the Avignon TGV station, a trip that took about 35 minutes. Of course the TGV was also late, by about 20 minutes. From the Avignon TGV station we took another Uber ride to get to the boat, Viking Heimdal. A busload of passengers got there before us, but it didn't take long for us to be checked in, at around 5:30 pm.
Two different trains were hitched together. They will separate into two at a certain point. I didn't know, so had trouble finding the car we were assigned to.
Recorded 317 kph along the way.
Modern looking Avignon TGV station.
The tower and city wall are prominent features of the town.
This stateroom on Viking Heimdal is going to be our home for the week.
The mandatory fire drill was at 6:15 pm. I didn't see any life boats, I assume the river is shallow enough that we would be okay as long as we can make it to the sundeck ("roof").
Over dinner we met a couple from Connecticut, and another from Seattle. The latter had luggage problems and was therefore late. By that time some other boat had moved to a "double park" position, and they had to walk past people's rooms to get to the Heimdal.
TRAVEL TIP/HINT. Travel from Marseille Airport MRS to Viking Terminal in Avignon using public transportation. The most efficient way is to take a taxi/Uber to the TGV Station at Aix-en-Provence, and take the TGV to Avignon. From the Avignon TGV Station it's a short ride to the cruise port (not so short when there is a traffic jam, which we ran into). Our original plan was to stay a day in the town of Marseille, so we planned to Uber to St. Charles station, where our hotel (Holiday Inn Express) is, and then take the TGV the next day to Avignon. When looking for alternative trains in real time, I didn't think to check for other alternatives. The suggested way would shorten the travel time by about 30 minutes, in my estimation. The SNCF Connect APP turned out to be very useful.
Accommodations. Viking Heimdal (7 nights on River Rhone).
Thursday 4/18. The boat left Avignon at about 5 am, and arrived at Arles before we went to breakfast a little after 8 am. (Probably way before, as we were headed downstream, and the current seems quite fast.)
Viking offers a city tour (typically) free at each port. We took the Arles Walking Tour. It lasted about 3 hours, and we walked about 3 miles on mostly flat but uneven roads. Our guide was a local resident, she knows her town, but we sometimes had trouble understanding her. Viking provides good headsets so we could always hear her even though we might be some distance back. Our group had about 30 people.
Arles was around during the Roman times, and the town is still dominated by a large amphitheater that used to seat 20,000 people. It was used for typical colosseum activities like animal fights, executions, and gladiator fights. Our guide told us gladiators who lost were typically not killed. Nowadays twice a year the amphitheater is used for bull fights. There are evidently two kinds of bull fights: one where the bulls are killed, another where the bulls are just irritated with people picking ribbons off their horns that were placed there before the event. Napoleon sanctioned several French cities to host bull fights.
The amphitheater is still being used today. Van Gogh had a painting depicting a bull fight, which still happens several times a year.
The arena could seat 20,000 people.
One can tell which parts are Roman, and which are from repairs.
Town Square, Arles.
Van Gogh painted this hospital that he stayed at for a while. Today it is L'espace Van Gogh.
Christian LaCroix from Arles is a world-famous designer. He has done costume designs for several of Metropolitan Opera's productions.
Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night is based on this cafe.
Other river cruise boats were moored near us or next to us. In the back one can see the ruins of a bridge that used to span the river.
The Dining Room on the Heimdal. We ate most of our meals in this restaurant, taking different seats for each meal.
We got back to the boat for lunch, and sat with a couple from northern Wales.
I went to a nearby supermarket (Monoprix) to get some fiber cereal and milk for the rest of the cruise. Dinner was at 7 pm, we sat next to two couples from Indiana - brother/sister and their spouses, and got to learn a bit about farm life.
The boat started moving at around 6:15 pm, we are heading back to Avignon. We went through a lock, under several bridges, and docked (next to another boat) at around 9:45 pm.
For the second night in a row our boat is docked starboard side to a moored boat, so we have to keep our drapes closed. The couple from Wales mentioned they booked the less expensive staterooms with their "potholes" for that reason, and there is some truth to that.
Friday 4/19. We took the free Avignon Walking Tour today. The guide Melanie was quite good in explaining the role of the Avignon papacy in the 14th Century, 2 of the nine popes were called (by some) anti-popes, then in Pisa a third was elected, supposedly to replace the two popes, who refused to resign, so for a while there were 3 popes. It was only in Constance in 1417 that a new pope was elected and the Catholic church was again unified.
We decided not to go to the food market with the group, and visited the old bridge Pont St. Benezet instead. We ended up spending over 45 minutes; even then there was still a lot more to be learned. So I suppose a history/archaeology enthusiast could spend a lot of time in this city.
Flooding brought pebbles into the village, and these were used to surface the city streets. Called calade, they help to keep shoes and boots clean and dry from mud and rain. The English term would be cobblestone?
Pebbles would be cut in halves with flat side up to smoothen the road surface.
Many windows are covered to avoid the "window tax." This tax is still on the books. Many such covered windows are painted with scenes from the music festivals held in town.
Clock Square. At the top of City Hall a small clock can be seen (9:35). Behind it is a clock tower that used to be part of a cardinal's residence (since destroyed). It showed a time of 10:50. Time stamp of photo is 9:29.
The coat of arms for Avignon consists of three keys, two falcons, city wall, and bells.
There are 100 theaters in Avignon, per the guide. This is the biggest.
Panoramic view of the Avignon Cathedral and the Papal Palace. The cathedral was built in the 12th Century, the palace in the 14th. The older part of the palace was built by Benedict XII, who was a monk; the palace was like a monastery. The second part was built by Clement VI, from the nobility; the new section reflected his flamboyant and extravagant personality. The total area of the palace is 15,000 square meters. St. Peter's Basilica was built after the papacy returned to Rome.
Over the years there have been many restorations. The workers were not above playing planks: here we have someone holding the Eiffel tower, completed in 1889.
Courtyard of the old building. As an attempt to restore the building to its "original state" as a result of the Papal Palace being declared a UNESCO heritage site, many of the windows were filled in The bell tower was used to announce lunch and dinner. It would, however, ring for 24 hours when an enclave successfully elected the next pope.
The banquet hall can host up to 4000 guests.
The chimney over the fire of the main kitchen, which could have more than 20 cooks.
This gothic-style chapel is 13 meters high. It was used for coronations and funerals of the popes.
Below it is a basement with the columns supporting the chapel ...
... helped by one flying buttress.
During the revolution religious symbols were destroyed. This had it had and arms removed. Notice the figures in the lower right are intact as there are no references to religion.
Pont St. Benezen was the only bridge spanning the river in medieval times. At that time Provence was not part of France. The bridge eventually collapsed and not rebuilt.
View from the bridge.
There is a well-known French folk song about the bridge that is still sung today. (1 1 1, 2 2 2, 3 4 5 1 2 7 1.)
There was talk to destroy the city wall. It was spared when it was pointed out that the wall kept the flood waters out of the flood-prone city.
After lunch in the dining room we rested a bit. I then walked along the river for 30 or so minutes to meet the monthly Apple Watch exercise challenge.
Dinner was advertised as "Taste of France," highlighting Provencal specialties. The cheeses and sausages are different in some ways from what I am used to, but not necessary better. I sampled the hot dishes: fish, duck, chicken, lamb, and ratatouille, good, but not particularly notable, and can be mistaken as Italian by people like me. The food was served buffet-style, which made the small dining room very congested as people lined up for the food.
Dinner was billed as French specialties with a Provence flavor.
On the Rhone between Arles and Lyon there are more than 10 locks to lift/lower the boat approximately 500 ft. Each lock is 195 meters long and 12 meters wide. This lock was stuck for over 5 hours because pieces of wood lodged in the door prevented it from being shut.
The boat took off at around 6:30 pm, and was scheduled to arrive at 1:30 am. We probably would arrive a bit late as we have been stuck in this lock for at least 3 hours already.
[Note added 4/20: The First Officer gave a talk about the boat the next day. He mentioned about the delay. The lock wouldn't close, and they couldn't determine why. The boat was asked to rev up its engines to see if anything would happen - somewhat like kicking the tires - nothing did. They then waited 1 1/2 hours for the divers who found a piece of wood that blocked the door. It took about 5 hours altogether.]
Saturday 4/20. When we found out there is a tour group 2L (L for leisurely, perhaps?) which would be less strenuous than other groups, we decided to pick that as our Viviers Walk excursion. Our tour guide Pierre - in his 60s as he said he was born in 1960 - was cracking jokes during the walk, so it was a bit difficult to tell what was fact, and what was fiction. Viviers used to have a population of 30,000 in medieval times (which would make it a big town), but now has a population of 4,000. If what we saw was any indication, that number may be too high. The old city has been declared a national heritage, so there could be no changes without government approval. Residents are taxed 150 euros each year for renovation, which would mean a budget of 600,000 euros a year. (They don't get government subsidies.) The guide said restoring a glass pane from the 1600s cost 100,000 euros. Either the restoration technique is good enough for a Rembrandt, or someone is pocketing a lot of money.
He also pointed to a bust of a woman in town square, and explained Marianne is a fictional figure used to represent the values of the French Republic: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, all feminine nouns. There is a contest every few years to determine the model for the statue, the first was Bridgette Bardot, and she is the one in the "permanent" statues. Catherine Deneuve was selected in 1985 (per Wikipedia), and there is a campaign to get her selected again this year.
Another interesting building is La Maison des Chevaliers, which was never a Knights' House. The owner Noel Albert had an interesting story. He was a salt merchant who eventually became rich by skimming off taxes he collected, decided to join the Huguenots as he wanted to displace the bishop, but was captured and eventually beheaded. The house can provide a lesson in architecture.
The 2L group wasn't going to visit the town Cathedral, St. Vicent's, so we broke off and walked up the street to pay a visit (thus defeating the purpose of joining the group in the first place, I know). Other Viking tour groups were there, so we could listen in on what the guides had to say. It was first built in the 12th Century, but addition over the years make the Cathedral a blend of Romanesque, Gothic, and 18th-Century styles. The Cathedral is the smallest active cathedral in France (1/6 the size of Notre Dame), and is used mostly for weddings and funerals nowadays.
Coat of Arms for Viviers. When first described by the tour guide Pierre, it sounded very interesting. Now (5/3)? Not so much.
Sycamore trees line the main road into town. The area can get very warm during the summer, and the shade the trees provide is much appreciated.
La Maison des Chevaliers in Viviers.
Marianne is a fictional character who represents the values of the French Republic: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Bridget Bardot was the representative in 1969.
We peeled off the tour group 2L to walk up the hill to visit the Viviers Cathedral (technically St. Vincent's).
This is supposed to be the smallest cathedral in France, 1/6 the size of Notre Dame.
This photo seems to show an ordinary background.
But it's in fact the top of the rock seen in this photo.
Entering another lock on the Rhone.
The boat left Viviers at around 1 pm, and we went through two locks to moor at La Voulte-sur-Rhone to pick up passengers who went on the "Lavender Tour." We did listen to a talk given by the First Officer (see above) to hear something about the boat. It has five generators, takes on 40,000 gallons of fresh water, and all the propellers rotate 360 degrees. It can also take on enough ballasts to lower the boat by (if memory serves) about one foot. We have been at port 4 times already, and I have yet to see any hookups for water or sewage.
Nuclear Power Plant near Viviers. There are four on the Rhone, we also passed by Cruas and St Albans (we didn't notice it). The fourth one is upstream of Lyon.
The boat docked at Tournon tonight, and is right next to the sister ship Viking Delling which sailed from Lyon last Wednesday. I suppose this is all planned out in advance. I wonder if the entertainment for tonight (dance demonstration by our Viviers guide Pierre and his wife) would be for both boats, and passengers from both ships would go on the same train as the included excursion.
Sunday 4/21. The Tournon Steam Train (Train De L'Ardeche) excursion was exactly what one would expect. The steam train pulled about 6 cars, carrying a total of 300 or so passengers (from the two Viking boats), and went along the valley (River Doux) for 30 minutes, the locomotive then went on a turntable to be turned around, and then returned back to the station. We were asked to switch seats so everyone got to see both sides of the train. The problem was all the seats were filled, so those not by the window would be out of luck in both directions.
Train De L'Ardeche makes a one way 1 1/2 hour journey. Our group would ride on it for only 30 minutes - which was quite sufficient. There were quite a few bikers on another train.
River Doux. The arches may support an aqueduct bringing water to a power plant below (not sure, could just be a bridge).
River Doux is a popular fishing location. The structure in the back (in the shade) may again be part of the aqueduct.
The locomotive is spun around on this manual turntable before the train returns to Turnon.
Our guide would make commentaries along the way, which was helpful. She also mentioned the discovery of cave paintings (Chauvet Cave) from as far back as 37,000 years ago which showed lions inhabited the area: this was before the recent ice age. (By comparison, paintings in Lascaux were done 17,000 years ago). Other interesting facts: Robert Louis Stevenson is from this area (doesn't sound right), there are 56 nuclear reactors (distributed over 18 power plants) in France producing over 60% of the country's electricity needs, and Ardeche used to produce a lot of silk.
The bus dropped us off at Andance where we rejoined the boat for the next destination of Vienne, where we did an afternoon walking tour of the city. It was raining when the tour started, and only five of us remained. Our less strenuous version of the tour skipped the steep hike to the Cathedral, but we got a good idea of how Roman, medieval, and "modern" buildings and architecture blend together. By this time, frankly, all the cities blend into one another. The take-away for me is there was a lot of Roman influence in this region, and quite a bit of that is still visible today.
The boat docked at Andance to pick us up, so we didn't visit the town. On the mountain top one can see these three crosses.
Newly planted trees along the Rhone.
Taken in Vienne. These sycamore trees are also providing shade for people. Somehow the leaves in the area don't come in at the same time (e.g., ones in Viviers are still barren).
Our guide explained to us how Romans planned their cities. In the center was the forum. This is believed to be part of the Roman forum, the center of the city.
One of the two surviving Roman temples in Vienne (or is it France). This one is dedicated to Augustus and his wife Livia.
This house is from Roman (blocks in lower middle), Middle Ages (round) and "modern" (18th Century?) periods.
Vienne Cathedral. The sun was in our eyes. One notices the right side is cleanest as it was recently restored, the left side a bit darker, and the middle is still yet to be done.
The lamb dish came highly recommended at dinner. Those who ordered the dish all agreed a sharper knife would have been very helpful.
Monday 4/22. Our shipped docked at the Lyon Port last night, and our cruise will end in a couple of days. Not before two more included excursions.
Next to the boat were many buses that took us to the first sightseeing point of the day, a basilica built in the late 19th Century, dedicated to Mary after the town was spared by the Prussian invaders. It was done with private funding, and took 25 years to build, and another 15 years to finish and furnish the inside. It reminds me of the Passion Play put out by Oberammergau every ten years. The Wikipedia entry for this place says it was first built because of the town being spared the bubonic plaque, but the Prussian thing (among others) is also attributed to the basilica.
The basilica is an impressive building, and very ornate inside. The guide pointed out different aspects of the building. However, Wikipedia calls the building a "Minor Basilica," and the Cathedral of the town is located in the Old Town area, I suspect there is a story to it.
There was not enough time to explore the place. For instance in the crypt there are 11 different versions of Mary presented by Catholics from different countries. Anne went down and saw a display about the Shroud of Turin.
St. Mary's Basilica. Or Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere. It was built as a thanksgiving by rich merchants after the town was spared by invading Prussians. (See text.)
There must be a story behind this mosaic.
The three domes represent the Trinity, so the guide said.
Pope John Paul II visited. The place still remains a "minor basilica," to the chagrin of many Lyonnaise, no doubt.
See from afar, quite an impressive structure. The Cathedral (we didn't visit) sits by the river, among other tall buildings.
City of Lyon as seen from the basilica. The middle red building is called the pencil (it's the Radisson Blu Hotel), and the one to its left (with a slanted roof) is called the eraser.
Anne made a quick visit down to the crypt.
Narrow passages in Lyon provide short cuts between streets.
Random (?) street art.
Fountain in front of the Auditorium - Orchestre National de Lyon.
Next we visited the Old Town where we were shown these building courtyard entryways that form a labyrinth of paths to various parts of the city. These were supposedly used by the Resistance during the Vichy France period. The next stop was going to be shopping. Anne and I stopped at a cafe to have coffee and share an order of pancakes. We caught the bus to return to the boat.
In the afternoon I walked to the Auditorium-Orchestre National de Lyon to buy a couple of tickets for tomorrow (performed by Avignon Orchestra). I took the tram back to the boat, which was rather easy.
Tuesday 4/23. The excursion today was to explore the countryside and then stop by a Beaujolais winery. Beaujeu is a small village with an old church, and that's about it. (Of course it also provided an opportunity for a restroom break.) Beaujolais is located just south of Burgundy. For a non-wine drinker like me it's best known for young wines. Indeed that's true of the Beaujolais Nouveau wines. They also produce wines that age for longer period of times, but should still be consumed within a few years because of lack of tannin and low ethanol content (there is a third factor which I forget).
Lyon is at the confluence of the Saone and Rhone Rivers. Here the bus about to cross the Saone.
There are a couple of ways to prune and train the vines. The traditional way is to have the plants "free standing" in what is known as the "goblet."
The authorities recently allowed posts and cables to be used, which makes the management of the vines a lot easier. Vineyards violating the regulations are not allowed to put on the approved labels.
We stopped at a small French village. Beaujeu has a population of a few thousand.
St. Nicholas Church is quite large.
The Chateau (de Varennes) we visited produces about 100,000 bottles a year, about 1/4 of which are sold under the Chateau's labels, and the remainder sold by wine merchants. Also, there are two ways to train the vines: a goblet method which keeps the vines low, and a more "modern" method using cables that allows for more mechanical help. The person showing us around said his grandparents were born on the estate, he himself grew up in the "share croppers" quarters; now retired, he still lives on the premises. I imagine for many generations many didn't leave the immediate area.
Chateau de Varennes produces 100,000 bottles of wine a year, 1/4 of which are sold under their own label.
Our guide told us his grandparents were born in the tower in the back. The guide himself grew up in the house next to the tower.
Wine-making equipment.
Wine-tasting. The wines from the chateau carry the Beaujolais Villages label. The gentleman standing on the left retired from the farm, he still lives on Chateau grounds.
In the evening we attended this concert at the Auditorium - Orchestre National de Lyon: the Avignon Orchestra performing Brahms's serenade. We stopped by the Westfield Mall next to the auditorium and ate at this Korean fusion restaurant. We still managed a quick bite at the boat restaurant after we returned at around 8:30 pm.
Menu shows a couple of Ramen dishes that I couldn't find on the order screen. So I went with a rice bowl instead.
In front of the Auditorium-Orchestre National de Lyon.
Wednesday 4/24. The cruise came to an end today. We had breakfast at the boat's restaurant, did some final packing, and called an Uber to get to the airport.
The train station as seen from the Hamburg Airport.
The check-in agent said we could bring on our luggage, so we did. It turned out to be the "right" decision as we didn't have to wait for our bags at the Hamburg Airport. However, the LYS-MUC leg, on Air Baltic, used bus gates at both airports. Earlier boarding didn't provide much of an advantage: although we got on the bus early, we were the last to get off. Since ours was the first bus (so early boarding did provide some advantage), there was still quite a bit of overhead space when we got on. And the openings on the bins on this Airbus 220 seem to be large than those on Swiss Air. But that created some anxiety, especially since our plane was late boarding due to problems with tardy passengers in the neighboring gate. The plane landed 40 minutes late, and it took a while for us to get on the bus. Indeed when we saw the first bus fill up and leave, a sense of deja vu came over us. Turned out we had about 30 minutes to spare (and could have stopped by a lounge).
The Airbus 220 seems a nice plane to fly in for these short hops. However, most of the time it was relegated to bus gates, so any carryon will have to hauled up and down the boarding steps. Lesson here? When possible choose a bigger plane.
At the Hamburg airport, neither the HVV Switch APP nor the ticket machines would take my credit card, so I ended up using cash to buy these 7-day tickets (at 29 euros each). There were people offering to "help," which we declined.
(Anne was sure some young woman was trying to pick her pocket in Lyon, and today we have these helpers at the ticket machine, it does appear a lot of these petty crimes have moved to lower tier cities.)
In any case, we took S and U trains to the hotel. It was around 7 pm when we checked in. The receptionist mentioned that they realized I had requested an upgrade, but their computer system was down so I was denied such an upgrade. He gave us an upgrade to a Junior Suite, without my using the upgrade nights. No complaints from me!
We got upgraded to a Junior Suite at the Hamburg Marriott. This is the living room.
For dinner we just went to the Executive Lounge to have some snacks.
CRUISE REVIEW (written 5/3). Just a few words on my impression of the cruise. Our initial expectations were very high. We know quite a few people who have gone on the cruise, and many came back with excellent reports, about the service and the food, specifically. While we have no complaints about the service, we certainly didn't feel it was that much better than what we have experience on other cruises (admittedly the last couple were both Disney, also known for good service). There are some areas that could use some improvement. For example, one dining room person got the food wrong for about 1/2 the table. Which brings us to the food. Because of the small number of guests (190 or so), it is understandable that there are not that many choices. But the fact is there were fewer choices than we experienced on a bigger boat. The food was okay, but far from exceptional. What's most annoying? The wait staff asking if the food was good. Unless it's atrocious, what did they expect the answer to be? The other Viking selling point is the cultural aspects of the journey. To be frank, after visiting a couple of these cities they tend to blend together. Indeed, what are the major distinctions between Viviers and Vienne? I forget, and don't mind that I forget. In any case, Anne was hoping for the sessions describing the town we visited to be longer than the 15 minutes. As to the cost, it may be reasonable compared to other cruises with a similar itinerary; I have not figured out if I plan the journey myself how much that would cost. One may end up visiting fewer cities, but that may not be a great loss, an advantage even. Overall I give it a 7 out of 10 (a bit generous). Interestingly Anne, usually more forgiving than I am, won't disagree.
Accommodations: Hamburg Marriott (2 nights).
Thursday 4/25. Outside of a few concerts, we have nothing scheduled for our 4-day stay in the city. We figured some rest and relaxation for the R&R we have had up to this point may make sense. We ended up being quite busy.
To get an idea of the lay of the land (or the city, as in this case), we bought tickets for a hop on and hop off tour, and stayed on the bus for the entire loop lasting about 1 1/2 hours. Indeed the bus drove past many of the sites we would visit later. In the afternoon we took a boat ride that gave us a different perspective on the city. That was somewhat of a disappointment, in part due to lack of English audio.
We went to the train station and got on a hop on/hop off bus.
This mosque is one of the oldest in Germany. Wikipedia's description differs a lot from the guide's describing it as a center for reconciliation.
Town Hall. We would come back for a visit.
We hear from multiple sources the skyline of the city is dominated by 5 spires. I wonder if these are the five.
One of our first encounters with Elbphilarmonie.
For the evening we attended a concert at Laeiszhalle, where we heard a Ravel piano concerto performed by Martha Argerich.
Dinner at a Japanese Restaurant before our concert.
Brahms was born in Hamburg.
Entrance to Grosser Saal, Laeiszhalle.
View from our seat.
Friday 4/26. We took the U-train to Jungfernstieg, a place where unmarried young ladies used to stroll (hence its name), and got on a 1-hour cruise on the Alster Lake. The surroundings in this case are very different from the harbor cruise we did. Homes around the lake are much sought after, and thus quite expensive. That said, if the quote of 10,000 to 15,000 Euros per square meter is correct (let's say for an apartment), that is not bad for a major city like that. Waterfront Hoboken apartments sell for roughly that much. Not that we are thinking of moving here.
Alster Lake has this fountain in the middle that reminds us of Lake Geneva.
South Shore of Alster Lake. Many shops in this area. A couple of tour guides have said the skyline of Hamburg is dominated by five church spires. We counted more than that. In any case, the one on the right is (probably) St. Jacobi Church.
Use of powered vessels is strictly regulated on the lake, making sailing very popular. This sailor is hiking all the way out - today is a windy day.
The mosque we saw yesterday.
Marriott is close to the Gansemarkt station, and the opera house is close by. The opera house was closed today, so I bought a ticket on line. The opera house seems to be on the small side.
Mahler was the music director of the opera for a few years. (I am not sure it was known by that name yet.)
We went to the Central Railway Station (Hbf) to have lunch at an Indian place. The staff is mostly Southeast Asian, and their accent seems to be Vietnamese. Again, "regular" food seems quite affordable for the tourist.
When I asked the front desk last night for a late checkout, they said 4 pm is fine. We ended up leaving at around 3 pm, and used Uber to call a taxi to Westin Hamburg, located at the Elbphilharmonie. It was a short ride (made longer because of the bridges involved) costing about 14 Euros. (HINT: most options offered by Uber are taxis.)
Location of Elbphilharmonie. The island used to be a warehouse district, with many canals for boats to access the buildings.
There is no escaping of the Elbphilharmonie building, which one can see from many vantage points. As a distinctive landmark it was pointed out by all three tours we went on. Interesting? Certainly. Aesthetically pleasing? Not so sure, perhaps it will grow on me by the time I leave the city. To me the wonder is more how they can juxtapose so many different elements together and have functional space. Many glass panes have these bulges in them that also serve as windows. The bulges don't seem to follow a rigid pattern. The panes were supplied by many local manufacturers (I think I read it somewhere). Anne remarked after so many years there don't seem to be huge water leakage problems, which speaks to the quality of the construction.
The cost ballooned from an early estimate of between 80 to 240 million euros, to 800 to 900, depending on what article you read. And I am not sure if it's the entire project, or just the music hall component. The project includes Westin, some apartments, and a plaza.
This from a brochure explains how the building is organized. The last apartment was sold in 12/2018 for 11M Euros. At 287 sq meters it is quite sizeable.
View from the water. Our room faces the three cranes in front of the building.
Approach from the "mainland."
This open window is for a small balcony accessible from the concert hall.
You need a (free) ticket to ride the world's longest curved escalator. 2:30 minutes to the top. To a non-escalator fan, not sure the title is worth claiming.
Taken from the Plaza (Level 8 in the building). This spot is directly below our room.
I was again notified that my upgrade request wouldn't be granted, but again was told by the front desk they had upgraded me to a junior suite. "Suite" in this case is a huge room with a desk, a dressing area, and a huge entry foyer. And excellent harbor and city views. Breakfast and lounge access are again offered.
We got upgraded to a Junior Suite with a great view of the harbor. All these huge columns are for support of the floors above, I assume. The one in front is a "head bumping" hazard. Glad we managed to avoid it during our 2-night stay.
I said a great view. The drapes are electric. We are on the 10th floor.
The bathroom is long and narrow. From front: bathtub, sink, shower, and toilet (not seen in this photo).
Not without design issues. Neither Anne nor I could avoid getting the floor outside the shower wet, with such a big gap between the two shower doors. Using the overhead shower reduced the problem.
Executive Lounge at the Westin. Their afternoon food offering is not as good as it used to be: in the past we could eat enough for dinner.
This is a view we can get from our room (this was taken from the Plaza, at 5:41 pm).
Sunset (taken at 9:04 pm).
Dinner was at Heimathafen a few minutes walk from the hotel. This meal cost 43 Euros (before tip).
We walked across a couple of peninsulas (for lack of a better term) to have dinner, afterwards walked a bit more to the Landungsbrucken area before catching Bus #2, with a stop a short walk to the hotel.
Accommodations: Westin Hamburg (2 nights).
Saturday 4/27. As a luxury hotel, Westin certainly falls a bit short - my being upgraded to a suite notwithstanding. When we went down for breakfast at around 9 am, there was a considerable line of guests waiting to be seated. The buffet area is very small, and some items were placed right in front of the egg station - meaning one either had to wait or to crowd in to get food.
Another remark is about the check-in process. Several times we passed by the front desk we saw a long line of people waiting to check in. Perhaps the line moves very quickly, but still not a great first impression for first time guests. And don't get me started on the bathroom dispensers - a pet peeve of mine as we read the rate of vandalism is quite high.
For the rest of the morning and early afternoon we walked around the city: a visit to the town hall, and to Kontorhausviertel (office building area) with Chilehaus showcasing its interesting architecture.
Rathaus. The statues (probably can't see in this photo) can all be identified. Some are virtues (e.g., courage), some are kings. A phoenix is featured prominently as a reminder of a fire that destroyed the city in 1842). There are also statues of the patron saints of the Hamburg parishes.
The inside. Chicago is a sister city of Hamburg.
Chilehaus, with a pointed corner, is a landmark building in the Kontorhausviertel. Considered a prime example of "Brick Expressionism," it was named because of the owner's trading with Chile (the country, not the pepper).
If one visits the Miniatur Wunderland website one would see "no wait" availability for only early mornings and evenings. The rest of times quickly sold out, with a standby time of up to 150 minutes. Yesterday I grabbed a couple of slots for the 4:30 pm entrance. When we showed up, there were only a few people in the standby line. I suspect that's a strategy for people to book and pay for their tickets.
The display area was busy enough. Most of the displays are model railroads patterned after different areas (such as Switzerland, and of course Hamburg itself). They were quite impressive. There is also an active airport where planes taxied, took off, and landed, with a television monitor announcing their arrival and departure times.
Miniatur Wunderworld. A typical installation, and there are many of them representing different countries and regions such as Switzerland and Monaco. And there are quite a few of them.
Building is on fire, and fire trucks and ambulances are moved to the rescue.
The Knuffingen Airport is busy with planes taxiing, taking off, and landing. Per their website, it took 6 years and 4M Euros to construct. (Too bad) It is a fictional airport in a fictional town.
Interesting concept to transform a 2-dimensional painting into a 3D display. Of course it becomes 2D again when it's photographed.
After a short rest in the hotel, it was time for the 8 pm concert at the Main Hall of Elbphilharmonie. I will write separately about the concert, but want to note here that it was worth a visit. A few visits are warranted, in fact, but not to be for my lack of planning. While I won't call the sound amazing, it certainly felt very genuine. (I can't explain why concert halls sound different.)
A panoramic view of the concert hall.
All the walls are covered with these gypsum fiber panels, individually designed by an algorithm. I read somewhere there are 10,000 of these. I would have guessed many more.
These elaborate staircases connect different levels of the concert hall. We were told there are 60 steps from the Plaza to the first seating level. We took the elevator instead.
Sunday 4/28. It's been over two weeks since we left NJ (4/12 evening, in case it's too much trouble to scroll to the beginning), and today was the last full day of our trip. And it was a busy one, by our standards anyway.
Remember what was said at the beginning of this blog entry? That we had nothing planned for Hamburg except for the concerts. We ended up being quite busy for the few days we are here.
Things were complicated slightly due to the Marathon. To make matters "worse" (we actually didn't mind that much), we hit the beginning and the end of the race at the right/wrong times.
Taken at 10:15 am near the Baumwell U-station. This is between miles 8 and 9 of the race course. Everyone looked energetic at this stage.
Taken at 12:35 pm. Close to the finish line (next to Laeiszhalle). Some were dragging themselves at this point - but congratulations for making it this far.
The course with the mile markers.
The easiest way for us to get to Laeiszhalle is to take Bus #2, a short walk from Westin, and connect via U-bahn to the Gansemarkt station. The bus didn't run this morning, so we had to walk to the U station. Laieszhalle is close to the finish line of the race, so again buses were not running (turned out they were running, just sporadically), so we ended up waiting for a while before we called an Uber taxi.
The chamber concert at Laeiszhalle was a delight. After we got back to the hotel, it was time to check out and head to the airport Courtyard. Since there were taxis right outside the hotel, we decided to jump into one for the 30-minute ride. Turned out not to be so. The main cause was the residual delays and road closures from the marathon, but our taxi driver's trying to outsmart GPS guidance was also a factor.
I had bought a ticket (back in town) for an opera, Anne decided not to come. The U-station is a 6-minute walk from the hotel, so it was striaghtforward enough, and I had time to gulp down a hamburger. When I got back to the hotel U-station, I bought a muffin and a danish as late night snacks. Anne had a sandwich in the hotel restaurant.
The Recital Hall (Kleiner Saal) uses a different entrance.
Gourmet dinner before the opera.
The auditorium of the Hamburg State Opera seats 1690. Medium size by European standards.
Accommodation: Courtyard at Hamburg Airport (1 night).
Monday 4/29. To make our 7:30 am Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, we woke up at around 4:30 am to catch the 5:30 am hotel shuttle to the airport. There were more passengers than seats in the van, and the drivers told us he'd be back in 6 minutes. Well, he was back in 8 or so. The security process was quite straightforward, and we had time to stop by the Airport Lounge (via Priority Pass).
I remember stopping over at the same airport in 2018, marveling at how large and modern the place looked. Still large, but it seemed to have lost much of its luster. Perfectly functional, nonetheless.
It was a short flight (48 minutes per FlightRadar), and we had time in Frankfurt to stop by a Lufthansa lounge (courtesy Star Alliance Gold). FRA is utilitarian, passengers on United have to go through a secondary screening, but don't get put into a secure area, so one could get cleared first and then go to a lounge (I didn't know, so HINT).
Enroute HAM to FRA. Anne had a window seat and shot this photo of German countryside.
Wursts don't seem as popular here compared to other German cities we visited. Anne had to have this hot dog at the FRA airport. (Not very good, she says.)
I am okay with middle seat passengers having both armrests. But this is clear infringement of my space. The overall flight experience was okay. Airtime was 7:42 hours per FlightRadar.
It's good to be home.
UA961 was packed - every seat was occupied, and we didn't get upgraded. The originally scheduled plane was delayed, so we were first told there would be a 2 hour delay. The delay then decreased to 30 minutes when they decided to substitute a different aircraft. It ended up landing at 2:27 pm versus the original schedule of 1:35 pm. Chung Shu picked us up. It is good to be home: we had been away for a total of 17 nights.
