The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

August 8-September 10, 2011

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise (from Holland America)

The Holland America Eurodam (from Holland America)

This is the table of contents for the online version of our trip journal. Here are the chapters:

Part One - To London

Part Two - Dover, Copenhagen, Warnemunde

Part Three - Tallinn

Part Four - St. Petersburg

Part Five - St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Nynäshamn

Part Six - Dover, Amsterdam, Bruges

Part Seven - Dublin, Tórshavn

Part Eight - Greenland

Part Nine - St. John's, Halifax

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Two

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

August 12 (Friday, Day 5, Boarding ms Eurodam in Dover, England) -

Suite, sweet suite

We woke up, packed what little we had in the roll-aboard and enjoyed our last full English breakfast. We took the tube to the coach station in order to take the coach (i.e. a Greyhound bus) to Dover for $14 per person. (Holland America’s charter bus was $70 per person.) During the 2.5-hour ride we went through various parts of London that had shops with boarded up windows from the riots. We also stopped in three towns, including Canterbury. Most of the people on the coach got off at Canterbury. The people left were going to the cruise ship. The coach was supposed to drop us off in “downtown” Dover, but the driver realized that all of the passengers were cruise ship passengers so he took us directly to the ship. That saved a cab ride and got us there faster.

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise (from Holland America)

The Holland America Eurodam (from Holland America)

The 29-Day Ultimate Northern Discovery Cruise, Holland America Eurodam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part One

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

August 8 (Monday, Day 1, Flying to London, England) -

We arrived at KCI just fine and found out that the flight to Chicago was delayed. We went to the American Airlines lounge and enjoyed the free sodas and chips. The receptionist made an announcement that the flight was boarding so the lounge emptied out but the gate agent then said that O’Hare was in a ground stop so we wouldn’t board for another 30 minutes. Back to the lounge we went. We weren't worried since we had a 2-hour layover in Chicago. We finally boarded the flight and landed in Chicago and enjoyed 20 minutes at the O’Hare Admirals Lounge – just long enough to use nice bathrooms and get a quick snack.

The Legendary Danube, May 26-June 8, 2011, AMA Waterways Amadolce

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Four

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

June 5 (Sunday, Day 11, Budapest, Hungary, 182 forint to the dollar) -

Hungarian Parliament Building. Very spikey.

We cruised into Budapest in the morning and everyone went to the skydeck to see Budapest’s beautiful architecture. Budapest, population 2 million, used to be two cities, Buda (the hilly side) and Pest (the flat side), separated by the Danube. So, it really is ON the Danube and seeing it from a ship is quite a neat experience. We docked literally across the Danube from the Budapest Intercontinental which would be our hotel for our final two nights in Budapest.

More after the jump . . .

The Legendary Danube, May 26-June 8, 2011, AMA Waterways Amadolce

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Three

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

June 4 (Saturday, Day 10, Vienna, Austria) -

Krems, in passing

Before we jump into Vienna, one picture of a town along the way from Melk to Vienna--Krems.

More after the jump . . .

The Legendary Danube, May 26-June 8, 2011, AMA Waterways Amadolce

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Two

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

June 1 (Wednesday, Day 7, Regensburg, Germany) -

We woke up to rain and drizzle and mid-50 temps. We went on the 90-minute walking tour (tours are included in the cruise price). Pope Benedict XVI is from Regensburg and we saw the house that Oscar Schindler lived in for four years after World War II. We saw a bunch of other old stuff, too, including lots of towers since this town wasn’t hurt by World War II and a lot of it dates back to the 1100s.

More after the jump . . .

The Legendary Danube, May 26-June 8, 2011, AMA Waterways Amadolce

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part One

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

May 26 (Thursday, Day 1, Flying to Nuremberg, Germany) -

Over the top of the world

Our 1:30 PM flight to Chicago was on time and gave us just enough time to get to the Lufthansa gate while the flight was boarding. It was a completely full flight so we didn’t have an empty seat between us in economy class. Oh well. Lufthansa was generous with its beverages and Filbert enjoyed red wine throughout the flight. Our dinner choices were either Indian vegetarian or chicken. We each chose the chicken. It wasn’t too bad for airplane food and consisted of chicken and rice, a cold vegetable salad, a roll and a small brownie. The movies were the “Green Hornet” and “The Tourist” and since Snookums had no interest in either of them she tried to sleep.

More after the jump . . .

This is the front page for our journal of our Europe trip and trans-Atlantic cruise on Holland America's ms Prinsendam from October 26 through December 1, 2010.

Here are the individual posts, collected all in one handy location for your reading pleasure. As we travel, we'll be adding posts so you can follow our journeys.

(Click the Read More to see all the post links . . .)

The 21-Day Mediterranean & Atlantic Explorer Cruise (And more!), October 26-December 1, 2010, Holland America Prinsendam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Nine

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 22 (Monday, Day 28, At sea) -

Rainbow!

Snookums woke up and read in bed while Filbert showered and went to breakfast. Snookums fell back asleep and finally got up for good around 11:30 AM. Snookums loves sea days! While Snookums was being lazy, Filbert went to the “Christopher Columbus: A Man and His Dreams” lecture by historian Dave Levesque. He thought it was pretty good.

The ocean was pretty choppy and there were a lot of white caps and it was cloudy and in the high 60s.

At 5:30 Snookums went to the gym to teach Fran, one of her dinner tablemates, the machines. Snookums and Fran started with 20 minutes on the bike and then hit the weight machines and finished with floor work. Fran is a retired Ph.D. nurse and was a professor prior to retiring. Fran enjoyed it and said it was the first time she had ever sweated. She said that teaching and writing don’t work up a sweat. She wants to work out with Snookums every afternoon.

More after the jump . . .

The 21-Day Mediterranean & Atlantic Explorer Cruise (And more!), October 26-December 1, 2010, Holland America Prinsendam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Eight

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 20 (Saturday, Day 26, At sea) -

Filbert ate breakfast while Snookums read in bed. She ultimately decided to get up and went to the gym. After lunch outside on the back of the ship, Filbert read on the balcony, with his back to the sun, while Snookums read at various locations around the ship. At 5 PM Snookums attended the Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz movie, “Knight and Day”. She was glad she didn’t pay to see it. (But the ship’s popcorn was very good!)

We turned our clocks back an hour before going to sleep which left us with five more hours to gain before docking in Ft. Lauderdale. No jetlag for us!


November 21 (Sunday, Day 27, Funchal (Madeira), Portugal) -

We woke up and got ready for our shore excursion that Gary and Charlotte did the last time they were here and insisted that it was great and that they were going to do it again. Of course we had to do it, too! We took a bus for a short tour of Funchal, population 120,000, and got off at the cable car place. We boarded the cable car for the 10-minute, 2-mile scenic trip up to the town of Monte and had about 30 minutes to explore Monte.

Cable car

More after the jump . . .