gnome12

Remember that Scenic is Australian, and Australians generally dress quite casually.

I got up at 5 to watch the spectacular sail-in to Geiranger. The weather was pretty good, some sun, some cloud, no rain. The mountains on either side with some mist and some snow on the highest peaks. All those pictures are on my second camera; I’ll try to remember to take a picture or two on my phone when we get to Mt Dalsnibba so I can post it here.

In Kristiansand I did the Lillesand Old Charm excursion. The drive there was through some very twisty roads which made me realize that I should have taken some Gravol. Lillesand itself was quite cute, but it was Sunday and virtually everything was closed. I skipped the refreshment stop to stay out in the fresh air. The buildings are almost all painted white and it looked quite pretty especially in the 2 minutes the sun came out. But the bus ride was more than I would have liked. Tomorrow I’m doing Panoramic Mt Dalsnibba and Eagle Road; I’ll let you know how it goes.

There would probably be no point in going back to Basel. Any flight back to North America from there would require a change somewhere in Europe (with passport control at that point) whereas a flight from Zurich would get you to a US gateway).

As I said, I know nothing.

For those that were involved in the discussion of a keycard lanyard that morphed into a phone and keycard one, the one I posted about works great. Especially since I managed to leave my ereader on the plane on the flight between Copenhagen and Oslo, so all my reading will be done on my phone.

I don’t. This is only my second ocean cruise, the other with a now defunct Voyages to Antiquity. I have also done 4 river cruises, 2 on Uniworld and one each on AMA and Avalon.

As to excursions, they had no issue honouring the no charge for an excursion that was included when I booked, but showed up as a hybrid with zero unit cost but a total of $159. That has been wiped out. I had no luck however with the Næroyfjord Cruise which had been included, but the boat has changed to a non-polluting one and they made it select. I’m not thrilled, but I can accept this one.

I’d like to point out that the champagne in my Vista suite is Duval-Leroy. It means nothing to me, but I think it was being discussed as a premium champagne. I note I have zero status; this is my first SilverSea cruise, and I have never sailed with RCG either.

Well, I’m on board. Just after registration on board, I got into the elevator to head to the grill for lunch when the woman next to me said “Do I know you?” It was @late2cruisin who recognized me from my picture here. That was a bit of a surprise. Anyway, I have spent the last 2 hours or so getting acquainted with the ship and where things are. Other than the fact that I haven’t entirely got fore and aft totally figured out, I think I have a reasonable idea of what is where. Don’t expect a lot of commentary; that isn’t my style, but I will post occasionally.

I have always enjoyed pictures of reflections in water. These were wonderful.

Pre-booking became a necessity in the immediate aftermath of COVID when things began to open up but numbers were limited. I think most venues liked the idea of spreading out arrivals and kept it on, although with larger numbers. In places where demand is high, it helps avoid long lines to enter.

In Canada it used to be illegal to add a surcharge if paying by credit card, but that was changed not very long ago. That said, I have not personally had any merchant do this to me.

Whatever ratio they use, there are NEVER enough women’s toilets. The men (and generally they are men), who design these facilities don’t seem to understand that women take longer, because they have to remove more.

Well I went to see the Dawn which is already in Oslo before I board tomorrow. I checked out the bus route and I now know where I need to get off to board. Looking forward to it! It’s a lovely day in Oslo today. The sun is out and the temperature feels a bit warmer than it is.

One that always gets to me is Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, particularly the version sung by k d lang at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Because this is Venice and there aren’t many roads for cars, if any.

You may be too far out. Try working backwards and see if you get better answers. I also think that you have mode of transport set to local transport only. When I checked Sept 5 there were direct ICE trains listed.

If the Mecklenburg-Verpommern ticket works it is much cheaper than the Deutschland ticket, unless you need more travel within the same month. I used a regional ticket in 2022 to get to Cochem on the Moselle. That was the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket. However, when I looked I only saw ICE direct trains and regional trains had 2 changes. I would go for the ICE even though it is twice the price.

Could this be an issue with local time vs the time zone of the person looking it up?

And I’m currently in Oslo where it is summer and expecting a high of 17C today.

I’ve only done one ocean cruise before, with Voyages to Antiquity (now defunct). I have river cruised with Uniworld, AMA, and Avalon.

I’d just like to point out that one of the reason’s Americans have had so much difficulty with credit cards is that they have been very slow to adapt to newer, safer technologies.

The good news for me who has no privileges is that the laundry rooms on the Dawn will be suddenly less busy, with all the people who now have laundry included. Especially since I’m on deck 4 which doesn’t have its own machines. I board in 3 days!

I was on the Moselle in early October 2022. The weather was mostly cold and wet. I was on a cycling trip, and found I was wearing all of my layers every day. (A cycling top, a fleece, a light rain jacket, and I bought a thin hat to go under my helmet in Cochem.) It was cold early in the morning and warmed up a bit during the day. November would probably be colder, and the days would be even shorter. Personally, I would never do a river cruise in early November. You are too early for Christmas markets, and standing around while a tour guide does their thing would be quite cold. That said, others do it and enjoy it.