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Fair Memories
We didn’t do a volksmarch today – instead, we took a Bowery Boys Walk through the site of the New York World’s Fairs – Flushing Meadows Park. We entered the park from the 7 train at Gotham Plaza, just...
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Gotta Catch ‘Em All!
Today, we explored Lower Manhattan and a tiny bit of Brooklyn on the last of the four year-round New York City Volksmarches offered by the Princeton Area Walkers. We got off to an inauspicious start,...
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Travel Day
Before we left the St. Regis this morning, we took a stroll through their “Historical Avenue” on the lower level. They had displays of memorabilia from the hotel from its opening until about 1960 (I...
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Baltimore Morning
When we went down for breakfast this morning, we could see our ship getting ready for the onslaught of passengers. After breakfast, we walked along the Inner Waterfront to the Baltimore Visitor Center...
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Norfolk and Portsmouth
It’s been a very busy day; I’m only going to cover some of the highlights. Our morning excursion was a guided walk through Portsmouth, led by Andrew and Mary, who were dressed as 17th and 18th Century...
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Kitty Hawk
Diane and I took separate excursions again today – she went to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens and Virginia Beach while I took the long bus ride to Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers National Memorial....
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Jamestown and Yorktown
I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, so I learned about Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg in school. We even took a field trip to Williamsburg in fourth grade, and I’ve been there many times since –...
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Colonial Williamsburg
We had to start early again today, but the view outside our stateroom was almost worth getting up for all by itself. We arrived in Colonial Williamsburg about 9am, just as things were opening up for...
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Arlington and Alexandria
While we slept, the ship sailed to DC and docked at the District Wharf, a new shopping and dining destination on the Potomac River a short walk from the Tidal Basin and National Mall. We didn’t go to...
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Mount Vernon
Today was our last day in Washington, and we actually spent most of it in Virginia at Mount Vernon. We’d been there before, many years ago; it is a much more sophisticated enterprise these days! We...
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Cambridge, Maryland
We sailed from Washington to Cambridge, Maryland overnight; Cambridge is an Eastern Shore town with a long history. We docked at the Long Wharf on the Choptank River; the town welcomed us by sending...
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Annapolis
Our first excursion today was a guided walk through Annapolis. Annapolis has many striking buildings and homes; the Hammond-Harmon and Chase-Lloyd Houses are wonderful Georgian homes which face each...
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St. Michaels, Maryland
The original itinerary for our cruise had us docking here in St. Michaels last night, but things changed. Another American Cruise Line ship got priority for the dock, so we had to moor and tender into...
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Nearly home!
We awoke this morning to the sight of the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse outside our room. We had breakfast, finished packing, and braved the rain to get to the bus to the airport that ACL had arranged....
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Pandemic Journal, Day 782
I posted Thursday’s blog entry very early because I expected limited connectivity and time after we sailed away from St. Michaels. So I didn’t write about the dinnertime announcement from the Captain:...
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We reach Porto
British Airways has weird seat arrangements in business class on their transatlantic flights. I’d made the best guess I could from the seat map, but Diane and I were separated by a divider – however,...
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A Private Tour of Porto
We’ve had good luck with Tours by Locals and today was no exception. We took the Discover Porto Highlights Private Tour with our guide, Ricardo M., and we got a wonderful introduction to the city and...
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Porto on our own
We had no firm plans for today other than to walk around Porto and see what we could see. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and set out just before 10am. Our first stop was the Igreja dos...
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To the ship!
It turns out I don’t know Porto as well as I thought I did. This morning we decided to go to the Romantic Museum at the Crystal Palace; I followed the directions given by Google. About three minutes...
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Locks and Quinta
We pushed off from the dock (well, actually we pushed away from the ships between us and the dock) a little after 7 this morning and soon found ourselves on a quiet stretch of the Douro. We weren’t...
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To Spain!
We sailed away from Régua promptly at 7am, en route to Vega Terron, Spain. We traversed the first of today’s three locks (at the Bagaúste Dam) before breakfast; I was amused by the road sign for the...
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Morning on the Rivers
We’re preparing for our day in Salamanca, which meant we were up to enjoy the peaceful morning views from the ship. We’re still moored in Spain at Vega Terron, on the Águeda River (Portugal is on the...
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Salamanca, the Golden City
We left for Salamanca at 8:30 this morning. It was nearly a two-hour drive, mostly through agricultural areas with a few villages on the way including La Fregeneda, Lumbrales, and Vitigudino with a...
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The Return Trip Begins
We pushed off from Pocinho a few minutes after 7. I sat outside on our balcony after breakfast and enjoyed the river view. We wanted to be on the sundeck to watch the ship go through the lock at...
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Quinta da Roêda
After lunch, we left for our first official Port tasting of the trip, at Quinta da Roêda, which is owned by Croft, which is now under the same ownership as Taylor. Again, I was glad I wasn’t driving...
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I was right!
It’s 10:15 p.m. and we haven’t gotten back to the ship yet after our visit to Mateus Palace and tasting and dinner at Quinto de Avessada. See you tomorrow! The post I was right! appeared first on Read...
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Sailing back to Porto
Technically, we’re sailing to Vila Nova de Gaia because that’s were Ama docks, but it’s just across the river from Porto proper. Vila Nova de Gaia is also a much bigger city than Porto, but Porto has...
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Docked
We arrived in Vila Nova de Gaia and docked during the gala farewell dinner; Porto and the river were still beautiful. Our after-dinner entertainment tonight was a musical group, the Tuna de...
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A hot time in Porto
Today, we had a choice of two Porto tours; we took the “Hiking Tour” which spanned about 3.5 miles. We started by walking from our ship to the lower level of the Luis I Bridge; it was a national...
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Toto, I don’t think we’re in Porto any more
It takes about half-an-hour to get from the Porto dock to the airport and our flight from Porto to Madrid was scheduled to leave at 12:20pm, so I was surprised when the ship told us that they’d...
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Segovia and a little bit of Madrid
When we checked into the Westin Palace, the desk clerk offered me the choice of 1,000 Marriott points or daily breakfast for two in the hotel restaurant, La Rotonda. It wasn’t a hard choice; I chose...
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Over-heated, over-arted, and over-tired
We asked our guide, Jackie M., if we could start our four-hour walking tour of Madrid at 9:30am instead of the normal 10am in hopes of beating the heat. She was happy to make the change and it was a...
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Holy Toledo!
Today we went to Toledo for a tour, booked, as usual, with Tours By Locals. Beatriz G. was our guide, and she’ll be guiding us again tomorrow in Madrid – so it’s a good thing we really liked her and...
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Last Day in Madrid
We had our second tour with Beatriz today, a Full Day Madrid Tour featuring the Royal Palace and the Prado. We started at the Westin Palace Hotel and slowly worked our way to the Royal Palace. I showed...
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Mistakes were made
I was amazed how warm it was when we left the hotel at 5:15am. There was no traffic, so it only took 15 minutes to get to Madrid Airport, and it didn’t take very long to check in and clear security,...
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