Strange things you've seen

[SJD117]

1 hour ago, longterm said:

We will be doing carryons for our next cruise, because we're prefacing our BIE cruise with a 13-day Rick Steves tour in Scotland. When you do a Rick Steves, you have to shlep your own bags, so carryon-size bags are a must.

Rick Steves says he travels for months at a time in Europe with just a carry-on bag/backpack. That philosophy wouldn’t set too well with much of the Viking crowd.

[duquephart]

40 minutes ago, SJD117 said:

Rick Steves says he travels for months at a time in Europe with just a carry-on bag/backpack. That philosophy wouldn’t set too well with much of the Viking crowd.

 

Not everyone goes traveling/cruising with displaying the totality of their wardrobe to others as a factor.

[Jim Avery]

Rick Steves also has a full camera crew, etc. etc...  Bet they carry a lot of stuff too.  But then we do travel in carry ons for cruises except world cruises.  Once went to England for a country wedding then a three day side trip to Venice.  Two weeks, carry ons only.🥃

[Twitchly]

7 hours ago, Ray4Fun said:

Had a lady on last cruse who wore what appeared to be the same outfit 9 days in a row. Blue shorts with a yellow top.  Up in Norway no less. 

I’m betting on lost luggage.

 

[Twitchly]

1 hour ago, SJD117 said:

Rick Steves says he travels for months at a time in Europe with just a carry-on bag/backpack. That philosophy wouldn’t set too well with much of the Viking crowd.

We’ve discovered the joys of carryon travel, thanks to all the baggage problems airlines had last year. It’s especially easy on Viking Ocean with the laundry facilities. But we recently took small international carryons for a 12-day land-based trip to Israel and Jordan and found it surprisingly doable. Not sure I’d do it again, though. And in cold weather, nope. If I could carry a larger backpack like Rick Steves, maybe. But that’s a non-starter these days.

 

I’ll bet Rick’s crew has to cart hefty suitcases with all their gear. 

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

3 hours ago, longterm said:

We will be doing carryons for our next cruise, because we're prefacing our BIE cruise with a 13-day Rick Steves tour in Scotland. When you do a Rick Steves, you have to shlep your own bags, so carryon-size bags are a must.

 

We've bought "dri-fit" shirts and pants and are going to give them a try on our upcoming river cruise; when we've tested them, we've found that they dry completely in about 5-6 hours. So, using these, I can pack about 5-6 shirts, 2 pairs of pants (that are convertible to shorts), the rest of the usual necessaries, and then wear the single pair of walking shoes that I'll bring. Since the shirts are polo shirts, they'll work just fine for excursions as well as dinners on the ship.

 

On the river cruise, we'll hand-wash; on the BIE cruise, we'll use the laundry for most things.

 

We also have a neat clothesline that I bought on Amazon, that doesn't require hooks or clips; we'll use that in lieu of the one supplied in the showers.

 

So long as we don't go for crazy colors, I doubt anyone will notice that I cycle through my shirts twice or three times, especially since the shirt colors are solids and innocuous. 

 

Finally, we'll both pack puffy jackets from REI that fold up to a tiny size, plus gloves and caps. It takes some forethought and careful packing, but totally doable.

I understand only taking one pair of shoes, it would save a lot of space. The issue we had on the BIE we just returned from, was that your shoes can get wet. If it rains, you'll have wet shoes, and they take a while to dry. Also depending on what excursions you take, some you walk through wet grass (and mud) and on Shetland the excursion my husband went on (and loved...was his favorite from the trip) included some hiking where he returned with manure on his shoes. Due to lost luggage he only had the one pair of shoes, so we had to so some creative cleaning to have them ready to immediately wear again. 

[longterm]

2 hours ago, SJD117 said:

Rick Steves says he travels for months at a time in Europe with just a carry-on bag/backpack. That philosophy wouldn’t set too well with much of the Viking crowd.

No, I'd think not. 🙂

We've done a couple of RSE tours, and it was no problem handling our bags; there were elevators in all but one hotel in both tours, so that made it fairly easy. However, a RSE tour isn't for folks who have mobility issues, because walking 5 miles per day is the norm rather than the exception.

1 hour ago, Twitchly said:

We’ve discovered the joys of carryon travel, thanks to all the baggage problems airlines had last year. It’s especially easy on Viking Ocean with the laundry facilities. But we recently took small international carryons for a 12-day land-based trip to Israel and Jordan and found it surprisingly doable. Not sure I’d do it again, though. And in cold weather, nope. If I could carry a larger backpack like Rick Steves, maybe. But that’s a non-starter these days.

 

I’ll bet Rick’s crew has to cart hefty suitcases with all their gear. 

His film crews certainly have road cases for their cameras, and I would guess they carry small lighting gear as well. I've seen his backpack in some of the Monday Night Travels shows that he's done, and it's not that huge. 

We found some small canvas carryons that we're going to try on the next trip, to replace our Away carryons (which we love). The canvas bags will be a little lighter, although the Away 22" carryon is fairly lightweight, and has incredible wheels--we've bounced all over Italy and France with them, torturing them on cobblestones, and they've held up perfectly. 

 

The newer ones we bought are from Biaggi and are very light; the river cruise will be our first test with them, although we won't have to shlep them much at all, except from ship to hotel in Amsterdam for a private extension.

 

There was a couple with us in Tuscany in May, who had done 3 RSE tours back-to-back, and the wife told us she used dri-fit clothes and washed clothes every 3 days in the hotel. They were very well-dressed, and you wouldn't have guessed it. 

[longterm]

Just now, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

I understand only taking one pair of shoes, it would save a lot of space. The issue we had on the BIE we just returned from, was that your shoes can get wet. If it rains, you'll have wet shoes, and they take a while to dry. Also depending on what excursions you take, some you walk through wet grass (and mud) and on Shetland the excursion my husband went on (and loved...was his favorite from the trip) included some hiking where he returned with manure on his shoes. Due to lost luggage he only had the one pair of shoes, so we had to so some creative cleaning to have them ready to immediately wear again. 

Bringing just a single pair of shoes is definitely a risk, but if I have to, I'll pick up a 2nd pair somewhere in Scotland. The Shetland Islands stop is our most-anticipated, although we can't wait to see all of the ports of call. We'll have just done 12 days in Scotland with a Rick Steves tour, so by the time we reach Bergen, we hope to have gotten a good immersion in the British Isles. 

 

I learned a long time ago that even when you're far from home, there are stores where one can find almost anything; when we adopted my son in Vietnam in 1997, we brought 24 packages of diapers with us, only to find a store in Hanoi down the street that had them for sale. 🙂

 

And a Baskin-Robbins around the corner!

[Ray4Fun]

20 minutes ago, longterm said:

Bringing just a single pair of shoes is definitely a risk, but if I have to, I'll pick up a 2nd pair somewhere in Scotland. The Shetland Islands stop is our most-anticipated, although we can't wait to see all of the ports of call. We'll have just done 12 days in Scotland with a Rick Steves tour, so by the time we reach Bergen, we hope to have gotten a good immersion in the British Isles. 

 

I learned a long time ago that even when you're far from home, there are stores where one can find almost anything; when we adopted my son in Vietnam in 1997, we brought 24 packages of diapers with us, only to find a store in Hanoi down the street that had them for sale. 🙂

 

And a Baskin-Robbins around the corner!

 

Edinburgh? The "Mile"?  Hmmm

[Ray4Fun]

2 hours ago, Twitchly said:

I’m betting on lost luggage.

 

We LOVE your attitude!

[duquephart]

1 hour ago, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

I understand only taking one pair of shoes, it would save a lot of space. The issue we had on the BIE we just returned from, was that your shoes can get wet. If it rains, you'll have wet shoes, and they take a while to dry. Also depending on what excursions you take, some you walk through wet grass (and mud) and on Shetland the excursion my husband went on (and loved...was his favorite from the trip) included some hiking where he returned with manure on his shoes. Due to lost luggage he only had the one pair of shoes, so we had to so some creative cleaning to have them ready to immediately wear again. 

 

Maybe persuade him to sidestep the manure?

[katlew]

Christmas morning on our NZ/Aus cruise there was a man at breakfast in a full on furry Grinch suit! Talk about packing extra!

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

4 hours ago, duquephart said:

 

Maybe persuade him to sidestep the manure?

Evidently you've not run through a wet sheep pasture with knee high grass. Landmines are unavoidable. I'm thrilled he had a wonderful time. 

 

5 hours ago, longterm said:

Bringing just a single pair of shoes is definitely a risk, but if I have to, I'll pick up a 2nd pair somewhere in Scotland. The Shetland Islands stop is our most-anticipated, although we can't wait to see all of the ports of call. We'll have just done 12 days in Scotland with a Rick Steves tour, so by the time we reach Bergen, we hope to have gotten a good immersion in the British Isles. 

 

I learned a long time ago that even when you're far from home, there are stores where one can find almost anything; when we adopted my son in Vietnam in 1997, we brought 24 packages of diapers with us, only to find a store in Hanoi down the street that had them for sale. 🙂

 

And a Baskin-Robbins around the corner!

You will not be disappointed with the Shetland Islands! It was our favorite port.

BTW In 1987 we welcomed a beautiful Hmong daughter into our home. 

[wine-wine-wine]

14 hours ago, longterm said:

There was a couple with us in Tuscany in May, who had done 3 RSE tours back-to-back, and the wife told us she used dri-fit clothes and washed clothes every 3 days in the hotel. They were very well-dressed, and you wouldn't have guessed it. 

Thanks to merino wool from Wool and Prince and Bluffworks my travel and home wardrobes have reduced greatly. 
 

I have two merino wool tshirts, two long sleeve merino wool button down shirts, and two pairs of bluffworks chinos. Throw in bluffworks shorts and their wash and wear sports coat and I’m covered for just about any travel or home situation. 
 

And yes, I only wash my merino wool about once every three months. Even then I’m not convinced it is totally necessary. 
 

Oh yes and xofficio anti microbial underwear means I’m generally only packing three pair of those. Easy to hand wash in a sink. 

[longterm]

12 hours ago, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

You will not be disappointed with the Shetland Islands! It was our favorite port.

BTW In 1987 we welcomed a beautiful Hmong daughter into our home. 

That's so wonderful; I always feel an instant kinship with other adoptive parents.

 

My son is almost 27 now, and we talk every day. He was born in Hanoi, which we traveled to in March 1997 to get him. Best thing I've ever done in my life; my only wish is that I'd brought home two babies instead of one. 

 

[FlyerTalker]

3 hours ago, wine-wine-wine said:

And yes, I only wash my merino wool about once every three months. Even then I’m not convinced it is totally necessary.

 

Yes, it is.  Perhaps not in your specific case, but in most.

 

 

[wine-wine-wine]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

Yes, it is.  Perhaps not in your specific case, but in most.

Even sometimes in my case. I was in a tiny boat in the Aegean last August that lacked A/C. My merino wool was washed a *lot*. 🤣

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

12 hours ago, longterm said:

That's so wonderful; I always feel an instant kinship with other adoptive parents.

 

My son is almost 27 now, and we talk every day. He was born in Hanoi, which we traveled to in March 1997 to get him. Best thing I've ever done in my life; my only wish is that I'd brought home two babies instead of one. 

 

Absolutely, the best! My daughter was born in the US just after her parents arrived here. They did not seek help and she was significantly disabled from unsuccessfully delivering her by themselves. She was our joy for 21 years. She was one of our 8 children....we looked like the United Nations.

[philw1776]

TMI Follows...
I sweat like a lawn sprinkler so I need to carry several outfits and don't wish to spend expensive cruise time doing laundry. I do sometimes wash T shirts in the shower with me.

[Twitchly]

The frequent laundry in the hotel sink was by far my least favorite part about carryon travel. 

[island lady]

1 hour ago, Twitchly said:

The frequent laundry in the hotel sink was by far my least favorite part about carryon travel. 

 

Survival.  😉 

[uktog]

I could not get a photo because I was driving but tourists in Edinburgh will be seeing some unusual things. Today at the bus stop on George IV bridge there was a clown and a fairy waiting to board. Ok we are used to that just now. There was also a pink elephant further up the queue. What was bizarre was the clown and the fairy both had goats on leads with them. 
I bet that bus was fun!

[TayanaLorna]

Hmmm...getting way off the Strange things you've seen topic here.  🙂

[Mitina]

8 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

Hmmm...getting way off the Strange things you've seen topic here.  🙂

Agree.  Thanks

[Mitina]

Seen and sampled.  Snake wine during a Viking Magnificent Mekong excursion.