Strasbourg, France

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We got off the ship at 8:45 for our tour of Strasbourg. There were five ships in this port, and some of them were docked side by side, so passengers from other ships had to go through other ships to reach the shore. The bus ride to the town was about 15 minutes, and we walked around the town. Our guide took us to a free and clean restroom near the Cathedral. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside the Cathedral because it was Sunday. The architecture of the Cathedral was very ornate. We also went by St. Thomas church, where Mozart played, and Albert Schweitzer also played the organ. 

After the tour, we had an hour to go shopping before we returned to the bus. There were a lot of decorations with storks because every year the storks stop here as they migrate to South Africa. Some nests could be 1000 lbs!

The guide told us this story that parents tell their children about how babies are made:

The stork is sitting above a hidden lake. When a parent wants a baby, they go to a well and yell down the well, saying they want a baby. This wakes up the old gnome. The old gnome takes his net and tries to catch girl or boy souls in the lake. Girl souls are harder to catch than boy souls. When the old gnome catches one, he gives it to the stork. If the parents put a piece of sugar on their windowsill, the stork will deliver a baby to them.

Around noon, we headed back to the boat and had lunch. Darryl from Abiline, TX joined us (Beth, Barb, Betty, Don, and me). He told us about Grand Circle Travel, which we want to check out. After lunch, we went back to our cabin to pack, and then it was time for Afternoon Tea. After tea, we went back to our cabin to finish packing. 

After dinner, we went back to our cabin. We have to have our suitcases outside our cabin by 6 am.

Original photo by Pat Hensley

Speyer, Germany

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Today, when we got off the ship, it was below freezing, and there was frost and ice everywhere. They even announced a warning about how slick it was outside and to be careful. At 9 am, we took a bus to Speyer and had a walking tour. We went into the cathedral, and it was pretty. Someone said we were doing an ABC, standing for Another Bloody Church! This made me laugh. Then we walked around town. We passed a phone booth for children to call Santa Claus. They talk privately in the booth and teel what they want for Christmas. It is recorded and the next day, it is written in the newspaper so parents can look for their child's name and age and find out what they want for Christmas. 

We had an hour after the tour to go shopping. Barb, Beth, and another lady from Pennsylvania joined us as we explored. Then we all took the bus back to the ship. We heard Elliot talk on the phone that another cruise ship had lost 2 of their guests and was looking for them.

After lunch, we returned to Speyer on a bus at 2 pm. It was a 20-minute ride to the town from Germersheim, where we were docked. As we were walking, we came across another yarn shop and I just had to buy yarn! Then we found a store that sold mittens that reminded me of the thrummed mittens I had knit for Don. They were so nice and warm that I bought them. At 5 pm, we took the shuttle bus back to the ship.

 

At 6 pm, Elliot talked about the disembarkation procedure. All that information was very overwhelming! Our orange tags were waiting for us in our cabin, along with instructions about the day we leave. At 6:30 pm, he gave a port talk about Strasbourg, France, where we will visit tomorrow.

For dinner, we joined Barb and Beth (from Lebanon, PA) and Joyce and Myron (from Canada), and we had a great dinner. We really enjoyed talking with all of them!

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Mainz, Germany

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We met our tour group at 9:15 am and had a walking tour of the old city. 80% of the city was destroyed in WWII. The market, which is held 3 days of week, was occurring and there were a lot of people in town. We went to the Guggenheim Museum, which was held at the Museum of Natural History since the original museum was being renovated. We got a demonstration of how the press worked, and we saw four of the original Bibles that were printed. After the tour, we went to 2 yarn shops and I bought some yarn.

Around noon, we returned to the ship for lunch, and it was very slow, but eventually we finished lunch. Then we walked back into town, and we stopped at the department store where we bought 2 boxes of chocolate-covered cherries: one with vodka and one with wild punch. Don also bought some wild peach rose wine. We walked around town and enjoyed seeing the architecture.

We returned to the ship around 4 pm and signed up for an appointment with the program director, Elliott. We had time to eat 2 of our cupcakes and they were delicious! Elliot connected us to the Viking rep, whom we talked to over the phone in our cabin. We ended up buying 2 certificates for future cruises and booked a cruise for next year, and only had to give a $50 deposit.

Around 6, we had a cocktail party and then a port talk. For dinner, we sat with Jayne and her mom, Betty (Charlotte, NC), and Barb and Beth (Lebanon, PA). We had such a great time talking with them! After dinner, Jayne invited us up to their room to see what a verandah suite looked like. It was 2 rooms, where one room was the bedroom and the other room was a sitting room. The sitting room had a balcony that you could sit out on, and the bedroom had a French balcony (door opened, but no room to sit).

Original photo by Pat Hensley

Koblenz Germany

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We finished breakfast early, and since we didn’t have to meet for our tour until 9 am, we got off the ship and wandered a little. We walked to the big statue of Wilhelm I at the German corner. It was an impressive, huge statue! The corner is where the Moselle River joins the Rhine River. We went through 19 locks to get here.

At 9 am, we met our tour guide, Michael, who retired from the German army, and he was a fabulous guide. We walked around the old city of Koblenz, which had been 99% destroyed in WWII. The cutest thing we saw was the rolling eyes clock, where the eyes of the face move constantly. On the hour, the tongue sticks out! We also liked the thumb statue! Barb took our picture, and then we took a picture of Barb and Beth at the thumb. Later, we exchanged picture,s which is much easier than trading phones. 

After the tour, we had 90 minutes to explore, so we went back to the Omas Kuchen and bought 6 cupcakes. The guide recommended this place, and it looked delicious. Then we went to an arts and crafts store where I found some yarn! The 100g balls of yarn were wool, cashmere, and nylon for 13 euros each! I picked one, and I had Don pick one so I could make us more socks.

We got back on the ship in time for lunch, which seemed to take a long time. Then we bundled up so we could sit on the sun deck as we sailed down the Rhine River. At 2:30, Elliot was going to narrate what we were seeing. Jayne and her mom, Betty (from Charlotte, NC) sat with us. The wind made it so cold up there, but we had beautiful views of the castles on each side of the river. Eventually, I went and got our bath towels to put over our legs. I tried to knit, but my hands got too cold. At about 5 pm, it got too dark to see anything, so we went to the lounge to hang out. I was able to knit the heels into my socks.

At 6 pm, Elliot gave his port talk and talked about future cruises until dinner time. I enjoyed having my rib-eye steak for dinner. At 9 pm, we went to the lounge to hear a duo playing medieval music on the bagpipes and drum. I was so tired that as soon as we got back to ur cabin at 10:30, I went to bed!

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Cochem, Germany

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After breakfast, we got off the ship for our tour in Cochem, Germany. There were three parts: first, we walked into town and took a city tour, then boarded a minibus that took us up to the Imperial Castle. After the tour of the castle, we got on a tour bus and had a winery tour in another town.

It was really cold when I got up in the morning, and my watch said it was snowing. Yet, when we started the tour, it was just cold and rainy. The tour guide, Silvia, said that it only snows about 5 times a year, so I guess this morning was one of them!

The Imperial Castle was very old and was almost demolished by Louis XIV in 1689. Then Louis Ravene bought the castle in 1866 and renovated it. It took 10 years to renovate it, and he only lived in it for 2 years before he died. In each room, his initials, LR, were hidden somewhere in the room. There was a witch’s tower that was one of the only things not demolished by Louis XIV, and legend is that a witch protected it.

After the castle tour, we went to a wine tasting in another town, and it was fun. We had 2 glasses of Riesling wine and a red vinegar peach aperitif. After the wine tasting, we returned to the ship in time for lunch. In my rush to get on the ship to use the bathroom, we forgot to scan our cards, so during lunch, they asked that a couple of guests from specific rooms report to guest services. Imagine my shock when I heard our cabin number called. I left the table and ran to the check-in scanner, where they scanned our cards.

After lunch, I took a shower while Don went to the sun deck and watched as we sailed down the river. At 3:30, the captain showed a video about how the ship operates. Then we were able to go to the wheelhouse and walk inside. There were 2 groups, and I was in the first group, and Don was in the second group. While he was in the wheelhouse, I stayed on the sun deck and was able to watch us go through the lock. After that, we sat in the lounge until it was time for Elliot to give his port talk.

After the talk, it was time for dinner. They had wedding soup and a charcuterie selection on the table. Then we got dinner from the buffet featuring German food. The chef also walked around giving out big soft pretzels.

We were docked in Winnigen, and people went on a wine tour after dinner, so I thought we would go ashore to visit the town. But after dinner we went up to the sun deck to look at the town, and it was really dark, so we didn’t see anything that we wanted to go ashore.

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Trier and Bernkastel

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Trier is Germany’s oldest city and is full of Roman ruins. Before breakfast, we walked out on the deck, and there was frost everywhere. We had a delightful breakfast and then met for our tour at 8:15. We took a bus to a church and started our tour. It was very cold! A lady with another group had slipped and hit her head, so an ambulance was called. We saw a lot of nice architecture, and luckily, our tour guide was a retired architect. We also saw the childhood home of Karl Marx. The highlight of the tour was the Black Gate, known as Porta Nigra. Then we had 45 minutes of free time, so we walked around the town. We visited a department store that had four floors, but it was quite warm. When we met back to get on the bus, we heard the lady was okay and would return to the ship.

When we got back to the ship, we had lunch. I had curried cauliflower soup, penne pasta, and a chocolate chip sundae. It was delicious. While we were at lunch, our ship went through a lock, and it was fun to watch it out of the dining room window. We were only inches from the wall on each side!

After lunch, we went up to the lounge and hung out for the afternoon. We saw the beautiful countryside full of vineyards as we traveled down the Moselle River. I knitted on my socks while I visited with Jane and her mother, Betty (from Charlotte). Then we sat and visited with 2 ladies from Pennsylvania, whom we had lunch with. At 4:45 pm, Elliot gave a talk about Bernkastell and tomorrow’s visit to Cochem.

At 5:30, we got off the ship in Bernkastell and walked around the town. Most of the stores were closed, but we found the pointed house (Wider on top than on the bottom). We also so the castle way up at the top of the mountain, but we didn’t go to it since it was dark. We got back to the ship around 6:30.

We had dinner at 7:15 and sat with Patty and John (Denver, CO), Judy and Mike, and Dell and Randy (Albany, NY)

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Reims Cathedral, Luxembourg Cemetery, and the Viking Herja

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We had to get our suitcases out in the hall before 6 am. I woke up at 5 am and fell back asleep. Thank goodness, I set my phone alarm and requested a wake-up call at 5:30. We put our suitcases out and went to breakfast at 6:00 a.m. At 7:40, we went to the lobby to identify our suitcases. Once we identified our suitcases on the sidewalk, we were allowed to board the bus.

We had a 2-hour bus ride to Reims, where we got a tour of the cathedral. It was a beautiful cathedral. The weather was very windy and very cold! After the tour, we had time for lunch, but when we tried the bakery, we would have had to sit outside. Instead, we decided to hit McDonald's. The food was served in reusable plastic containers. After that, we stopped by the bus to get our gloves and for Don to get his knit cap. We had 30 minutes to explore, but it started to rain and sleet. At 1 pm, we found Elliot, who told us that we could go to the bus. We had a 2 ½ hour bus ride to the Luxembourg American Cemetery, and we saw where General George Patton was buried. We had a 30-minute stop here and then headed to the ship.

 
We arrived the the Viking Herja in Trier at 5:30. We got on the ship and a crew member escorted us to our room (104). Our suitcases hadn’t arrived yet, so we went up to the Viking Lounge for a drink, and at 6:30, we had the Welcome Aboard speech. There are 54 crew members for the 176 passengers. We met the senior officers and told them what to expect for dinner and the safety talk. Then we had the port talk before we headed for dinner.

At dinner, we sat with Dell (attorney) and Randy (nurse practitioner) from Albany, NY, and Jack (geophysicist) and Wendy (opera singer) from California. I had a rib-eye steak, and Don had mahi mahi. For dessert, we had creme brulee.

When we got back to our room at 9 pm, we found our suitcases and we unpacked. It was a really long day!

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Paris Day 2

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We went to breakfast at 7 am, which was held on the 1st floor for all Viking guests. There were those getting off a cruise and those starting their journey. The food was excellent, and I had an omelet made to order.

At 8:15, we met in the lobby for our Panoramic Paris tour. Millie was our tour guide. One couple told me that their dad got a headset to use over his hearing aids, so I got one for Don, but he never used them. Instead, he took out one hearing aid and used the QuietVox earbud in that ear. He said it worked well. Millie was an excellent tour guide. 35 of us gon on the tour bus and we saw the highlights of Paris. We saw the Arc de Triomphe (but the Champs Élysées was closed due to a 10K running race), the Louvre, the Grand Palais, the Petite Palais, the Pont Neuf, and Place de Concorde. Then we stopped at Notre Dame and went into the cathedral. It was absolutely beautiful! We had gone to it about 20 years ago, and it is much cleaner and brighter now since they cleaned and renovated it after the fire. We also had a photo stop at the Eiffel Tower. We returned to our hotel at 12:30.

Then Don and I put on some warmer coats and went to a bakery for lunch, where we ate some quiche. Next, we went to the train station and bought a 1-day pass for the public transportation (12 euros for the pass + 2 euros for the card each)

We took the RER C train to Notre Dame. Then we walked to the Louvre and saw where the robbery actually took place. Then we walked all the way down the Gardens of the Tuileries to the Place de Concorde. We walked through the Christmas market, which was very crowded. Then we took Metro 1 back to the hotel since it was getting dark. We stopped and ate a sandwich charcuterie at the bakery where we had lunch. We walked about 7 miles.

At 8 pm, we watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle and it was beautifu1!

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Traveling to Paris

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11/14/25

I woke up at 3:30, and my husband woke up at 5. It could be because we both were excited about going on our trip. Our wonderful neighbor, Donna, took us to the Palm Beach International Airport at 8:30. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 12:19 pm, but they say if you are going on an international flight, you need to be there 3 hours early, so we were. No lines or hassles while we were getting through security.

I met a nice lady whose son is a teacher in Philly and works at the school where my online friend is the principal. It was really neat to find the connection!

We had a 4-hour layover in Philly, but by the time we got off the first plane, went to the restroom, ate a bagel, and got to our boarding gate (which was almost a mile (20 min.) from where we got off the first plane), we only had a 90-minute wait.

It was almost an 8 ½ hour flight to Paris, and we arrived at 8 am on 11/15. We went through customs and got our luggage. As soon as we walked out of the airport, we found the Viking representatives. 4 of us were brought to our hotel (Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile). 

We went to the Viking table and met our cruise director, Elliot, who was very welcoming. He gave us information and told us what to do next. We learned how to pronounce our ship's name, which is Herja, but pronounced Herrier.

Even though check-in wasn’t until 3 pm, they had a room available for us. We dropped off our stuff and then headed out to explore. We walked to the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. We stopped at McDonald's for a snack. We had to stop by our room so I could call our credit card company. I forgot to tell them that we would be out of the country, and our credit card was declined at McDonald's. Once we got that straightened out, we went exploring again. We also stopped at Epic (the supermarket) for some things to take back to the room. Thankfully, my credit card worked fine. By 5:30, we were exhausted since we had been up for 32 hours. We went to bed early!

Look forward to our Viking excursion tomorrow.

Knitting, Cats, and Veterans Day

Finished two knitting projects: socks for my husband and my November gnome. Little Bear, the cat, seems to be getting better.

Monday: We had errands to run, but it was a lazy day and nothing got done. I had a knitting guild meeting in the evening.

Tuesday. - It was pretty cold here, so I actually had to put long pants on! We had to go to the bank and post office, but then I realized that since it was Veterans Day, both were closed. We were able to go to our favorite restaurant (Flanigan's), where they offer veterans a free meal. So, hubby got a full rack of ribs and loved it. I got my usual hamburger and fries. He took half of his ribs home for dinner. In the evening, I knit on my Rock It Tee, and I’m making great progress today.

Wednesday: Today, we ran a couple of errands. Then we did some more packing. I keep reviewing my list to make sure I don’t forget anything. In the evening, we watched an old movie (Yours, Mine, and Ours with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball)

Thursday: It was a lazy day. I checked us in at the airport and printed our boarding passes. Then we finished packing, except for the last-minute stuff

Friday - my neighbor drove us to the airport at 8:30. We were told to get to the airport 3 hours early for an international flight. Now for our big adventure!

Original photos by Pat Hensley

Euros, Utility Pole, Yard work, and a sick cat

Sunday was a nice, quiet day. Lots of relaxation and movie watching while knitting.

On Monday, we went to the bank and ordered Euros for our trip. I was afraid the power company was going to show up to replace the rotten utility pole, but they never did appear.

Tuesday morning at 8am, the power company arrived in 3 huge trucks. They had a remote-controlled machine with tank treads on it. This machine picked up the utility pole and took it to the backyard. While it was in the yard, they attached the hardware to it before they raised it. The machine picked up the pole and moved it over the fence to put it in the hole on the other side. This machine also held the bucket so the guy could get up the pole and attach the wires. It took about 7 hours, but we were only without power for about 2 hours. All day, we sat in the yard and watched them work on the pole, which was very interesting.

On Wednesday, we went grocery shopping, which we had put off for the past 2 days. I’m so glad we only went to Aldi's, Walmart, and Gala Fresh (the meat market). In the afternoon, we worked in the yard. We cleared out the back of the back yard patio and moved the bushes in front of the screen room to the back. Then we spread out the “Moses in the bulrushes” and the amaryllis bulbs in the front flower bed.

I went shopping with Donna on Thursday, and she stopped at the bank so I could pick up the euros that we ordered. While Don took an afternoon nap, Donna gave me more “Moses in the bulrushes” to spread in the front flower bed. Little Bear was not her usual self, and we were worried about this little cat.

On Friday morning, Don noticed the front flower bed and thought all the plants had doubled in size on their own. At first, I let him believe it, but I was laughing so hard that he knew something was up. He was relieved to know that we added more plants. Then we trimmed palm trees, and Donna helped us drag yard waste to the street. Little Bear, the cat, is not doing well. She isn’t eating or drinking water, and Donna thinks she may have eaten a lizard. I hope she doesn’t die.

On Saturday, I attended a knitting class on Zoom at 10:00 a.m. However, we then had to attend the Postcard Club, so I took the class on my phone while we drove to the meeting. I was able to finish my class out in the parking lot before joining the rest of the postcard enthusiasts.

As soon as it got light out, I went looking for Little Bear, and I found her curled up behind my potted plants. I wasn’t sure she was alive, and I shone my flashlight on her. Thankfully, she moved her head. A little while later, she came to the screen door and wanted inside. I was able to get her to eat a little dry food. Then Donna came by with some canned cat food for her, and she ate a lot of the food. When we got back in the afternoon, she was asleep under our swing, and I brought her some water, but she wouldn’t drink anything. Before long, she came to the screen door and wanted inside. I was able to get her to eat a little dry food, but then Donna brought her more of the canned food, and she ate a lot. She even started to clean herself, which she hadn’t had the energy to do in days. I’m glad to see she is feeling better.

Original photos by Pat Hensley