We took a Viking Cruise to Scandinavia

Marje and I went on a Viking Cruise to Scandinavia!

The travel days were a hot mess that included running through airports, missed flights, barely made flights, long and poorly managed immigration lines, and lost luggage. When we thought all the madness was over and we were closing in on the St Louis airport, a midnight storm swept through St. Louis, causing us to detour to Peoria, where we refueled and waited out the unexpected wind gale until we were finally about to return and land. Absolute craziness.

But the cruise itself… So good. We saw Norway (Bergen, Oslo, Stavanger, Eidfjord), Denmark (Aalborg, Copenhagen), Germany (Warnemunde—we opted out of Berlin), Sweden (Karlskrona, Stockholm), Poland (Gdansk), and Estonia (Tallinn).  So much history. So many great stories.

My favorite stops were Normandy and Warnemunde, Germany. My favorite tour guide was this delightful woman from Tallinn who had an unexpectedly sharp sense of humor. Estonia is a small country that has had to fight hard for its current independence from Russia (and Germany during the war). As she told it, their flag is made of three stripes—blue for the sky, black for all the hard times they’ve had, and blue for hope. Here’s my favorite of her humorisms: Estonia has its own language. They do not use a future tense for their verbs. So when they speak of future acts, they have to add a time reference (e.g., instead of saying “I will go to the store,” they say “I’m going to the store tomorrow”). And their pronouns do not distinguish gender (no “he’s” or “she’s”). As she summarized, “Here, in Estonia, we have no future, and we have no sex.” Kind of a writer’s joke, right?

The ship, though. I loved being on the Viking Neptune. The food was plentiful and delicious. The lounges and restaurants were lovely. The crew was so dang friendly. Lots of smiles. Good conversations. And impeccable service. We met several couples (fellow travelers) and reveled in stories of their travels, and we enjoyed hearing about their homes, families, and the tales of their own unique lives.) And, of course, I had lots of time with Marje. We’re planning our next cruises already.

And the boat had an ice cream bar!!!

Back home now. We picked up Thor (Golden Retriever) from Doggy Daycare. We’ve seen the kids and grandkids. And we’re looking forward to our summer family vacation (in Michigan this year). Now back to writing.

Did I mention the boat had an ice cream bar?