Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2025 Alaska Revisited Edition Day 15 (August 4): Sitka Part 2

Where We See Raptors Up Close And Personal

We have a half day in Sitka today before setting sail once again for the afternoon. We visited the Alaska Raptor Center, where injured eagles, owls, and hawks are cared for and, if at all possible, released back into the wild.

Eagles that can be rehabbed and released live in the flight center, where the environment simulates the wild as much as possible as the birds recuperate from injuries and regain their strength.

Eagle in the flight center. The photo is not great, because there’s a mesh screen over the one-way window.

There are 26 permanent residents – birds whose injuries don’t allow them to be released back to the wild.

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 2: Eating Our Way Through Spain – August 8 (Train Transfer To Barcelona)

Where We Did The Dumbest Travel Mistake,

Manage To Salvage The Situation,

And Realize We Really Didn’t Ask The Tour Company Enough Questions

The timing this morning was tight: we had a driver coming to pick us up at 8:30 to take us to the train station for our 9:27 train to Barcelona. We got up extra early, and made our way to the dining room for breakfast, only to discover that breakfast started at 7:30. Oops. I guess we knew that? This was an omen.

Nonetheless, we figured it out, and we were ready at 8:30 when Abel our driver showed up, and off we went.

Part of the challenge with the train was that we each had one large suitcase. Andy had our big backpack, and his computer bag. We also ended up with TWO wheelchairs: we brought my transport chair for the airports (airport assistance is unpredictable at best, and horrible most of the time), but the tour company had also rented a better wheelchair for the duration of the trip. We wanted to use that one for the daily stuff, because we knew it would handle the sidewalks, streets, and cobblestones better.

As we’re driving along, it is dawning on us that we have no idea how we’re going to get our stuff to the train. I’m googling away as to whether there are carts available at the station – NOPE. There is assistance available, but you have to request it in advance. I’m beginning to wonder why our tour company contact didn’t tell us any of this stuff? And also it’s obvious we didn’t ask enough detailed questions about this train business.

As I’m googling away, Andy suddenly gasps and says: “WE LEFT THE PASSPORTS IN THE SAFE IN THE HOTEL”.

HOLY SHIT

Excuse us while we take a moment to freak out.

We ask the driver to take us back to the hotel – it’s all of 10 minutes, but now the chances of making the 9:27 train has dropped dramatically. As we’re heading towards the hotel, Andy calls our emergency number for the tour company, and explains the situation. The tour guy says, don’t worry, we’ll figure this out. He will put us in contact with a local tour contact, who will call us back. The guy assures us that all will be well. Worst case scenario, we take a later train, it’s ok, it’s all good.

For some reason that doesn’t really help. But we did ask him if he could arrange for assistance for when the train arrives in Barcelona. He says he will take care of it. Ok good, at least maybe that will make it easier once we get there.

We get to the hotel, Andy gets the stuff out of the safe, and the front desk person says,”Well, at least you thought of this before you got on the train!”.

We are now racing back to the train station. The driver lucks out catching a couple of green lights, and we get there more quickly than the first time.

The clock is ticking, but we think we have a shot at making that train. It’s a matter of getting our stuff TO the train.

Andy has the backpack on his back, his computer bag on his shoulder, and is toting two big suitcases. I have the small wheelchair precariously balanced on the bigger wheelchair. This is not great, but we’re doing it.

We have to go through security first. I think I may have cut in line. Not sure, didn’t care.

Once past security, I head straight towards platform 2. It is 9:25. I am toddling as fast as I can, with the smaller wheelchair, once precariously perched, now starting to slip out of my hands.

We get to the gate. At first the gate staff tell us we have to use the escalators (WHAT!?!), and then rethinks that. She uses her keys to open the door to the elevator, and – even more importantly – calls down to the staff waiting down by the train to hold the train, because we are coming! Bless that woman’s soul.

The train staff is waving us on – “YOU HAVE TO GET ON NOW!”

Like, no kidding.

They finally decide that watching us flailing around trying to get onto the train is not helping anybody, and they finally pinch in to haul bags, chairs, and me onto the train – noticing that one of the footrests from the small wheelchair is missing. That’s the least of our worries.

And then the train staff tells Andy that Barcelona is the last stop on this line, and we will have 5 minutes to get off the train or be stuck going back towards Madrid. Oh, goodie.

At last we are settled in our seats. Andy is able to get ahold of the local tour rep and confirm that we are on the 9:27 train. And the local tour rep confirms he has set up assistance.

Apparently breakfast was ordered for us! So second breakfast it is.

These are some photos of the scenery and one of our train car.

At some point during the ride, a staff member stops by to confirm that we requested assistance. It occurs to me that we really don’t know what we’re supposed to do – get off the train? Wait for somebody?

But we decide that we’re getting off the train within that 5 minute window, because we’re not taking any more chances. We pack up and position ourselves by the door at 12:55, about 10 minutes before we’re scheduled to arrive. Which was a good thing, because a long line of people has formed behind us.

As the train pulls into the station, an announcement blasts over the speakers: “MIND THE GAP BETWEEN THE TRAIN AND THE PLATFORM”.

When the train comes to a stop and the door opens – YIKES – that gap is HUGE. Andy manages to get me off the train, and then all our stuff. We still don’t know what the story is with the assistance, when a guy randomly shows up and asks if I’m Amy Sheldon. Yes, indeed, I am.

“I’ve been looking for you!”

I told him that we didn’t know what to do, so we got off the train to make sure we didn’t end up back in Madrid.

With his help, we make it up to the main lobby, and there is our driver! Woohoo!

Amazingly enough, we made it, with all our stuff, including our passports!

Our hotel is in the heart of old gothic Barcelona, with a similar “I’m going to get lost in these alleyways” feel like Venice. Our hotel staff is simply marvelous, overflowing with helpfulness. Our room is fantastic.

After we’ve dropped off our stuff, it’s time for lunch. We go to a place recommended by Fajad – tapas with a Belgian twist.

Not pictured: mushroom croquettes

According to our schedule, we had tickets to a flamenco show at 6:30, so we had a little time to organize ourselves in the hotel and maybe take a nap.

We asked Fajad for a recommendation for dinner after the show, and he made reservations for us.

We walked over to the venue for the flamenco show. They can’t find us anywhere in their reservation system. Andy called our tour rep, again, but spoke to a different person who didn’t seem particularly helpful to me. She talked to the ticket guys, but everybody seems to be scratching their heads. We’re about to just buy the tickets anyway and get reimbursed, when the ticket guy just hands us the tickets. He said that he didn’t know what happened, but here you are.

We are in the front row

The dancers were marvelous. It was also very loud.My only disappointment is that the woman didn’t dance with her castanets.

It’s a bit difficult to capture their motion in stills, but this interface won’t let me upload videos.

For dinner we went to another place recommended by Fajad. Fabulous, just like the first one.

Tomorrow: We accomplish Goal 1 of this adventure: The Sagrada Familia

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 2: España!

August 7: Where We Take A Side Trip To Toledo, Where It’s Even Hotter Than Madrid

We’re beginning to realize that we didn’t ask enough questions when we set up this adventure. We didn’t pick up on the fact that we would not have one tour guide with us: we had Myte for the first two days in Madrid. She was our guide for two tours. There actually wasn’t any flexibility to stay longer at the Prado. Yesterday’s “half day tour” was 5 hours, and then she was gone and we were on our own – which is perfectly fine, especially in Spain where we can get around on our own and somehow communicate when we need to.

So, we said good-bye to Myte yesterday. This morning a young man named Abel came to pick us up to take us to Toledo. It was about an hour drive.

When we arrived in Toledo, we picked up our local tour guide, Ricardo. Another thing I’ve noticed so far is that none of these tours have any bathroom breaks built in. Ricardo wasn’t expecting to need a break as soon as we arrived (sorry, Ricardo), so he had me walk into a restaurant to use their bathroom. The people behind the counter gave me the stink eye. I kind wish he has talked to them before telling me to go in.

We quickly noticed that Ricardo remembered Andy’s name – and used it repeatedly. “Andy, Andy, look at this…” or “Andy, Andy, do you know the history of…”. What was also obvious was that he couldn’t remember my name for anything. I was, “Lady, lady…”. I told him my name at least 3 times during the tour, but he couldn’t pronounce it (it came out as “ah-mee”, or remember it. After a while I just gave up.

We drove to the classic Toledo panoramic photo spot:

We drove through some of the streets of the old city until we came to one of two old synagogues. Neither synagogue functions as a synagogue anymore; Ricardo said there was only one Jew left in Toledo.

You can see the Islamic influences in the architecture and decorations.

This was the curtain in front of the ark – it was donated in memory of Mordechai Chadidah (or Chadirah)

There were some headstones from the old Jewish cemetery. One of them I was able to pick out a little bit of what it said: “This is the grave of Mr. Shmuel son of Mr Sheltiel…” and then I kind of lose it.

These are the wedding outfits from a young couple a few hundred years ago. I really like her Star of David.

According to Ricardo and Google search, this is a bookcase of some sort, even though it has symbols of the Holy Inquisition on the top.

Can’t seem to find any info as to what this means

After the synagogue, we started walking to the cathedral. The streets were narrow, steep, and cobblestone.

That’s me toddling my way up this super uncomfortable cobblestone street

The offical name of the cathedral is Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo. It took 300 years to complete. It is a classic Gothic style church. The cardinal of the cathedral has been a powerful political figure in Toledo’s past. King Philip II moved it to Madrid partially because Madrid is almost dead center of Spain, but also to move some of the political power away from Toledo.

The inside is just amazing. This is the choir.

This is the altar – each section is a bible story to help explain the bible to ordinary people, most of whom could not read or write.

I always love stained glass – especially rose windows.

The Great Monstrance of Toledo is made of mostly gilded silver and is encrusted with assorted precious stones. It is carried in the annual pageant of Corpus Christi

Perhaps saving the best for last, we went into the Sacristy, which is full of some of the most famous paintings in the world.

One room has paintings of all the cardinals of Toledo, past and present.

The last guy on the bottom is the current cardinal. I forgot to ask what his name is

More amazing masterpieces:

With this the tour was essentially done, but before I got in a car for an hour, there needed to be one more bathroom break. I think I was starting to annoy Ricardo, but such is life. A five hour tour needs some breaks!

Though I guess we were cutting it close for time – we needed to be back at the car by 1:00 p.m. Ricardo took over pushing my transport chair – he began fairly racing through the streets, dodging people like obstacles in a gauntlet, never bothering to say “Excuse me!” or anything, just dashing here and there, literally running over one woman’s foot in his haste. I wondered if he was rated as to how prompt he was.

It was time for lunch when we arrived back at the hotel. We didn’t go far – just a block or two up the Gran Via and then down Montera St, where we had tapas as Tapa Tapa. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of all but one. We had chicken skewers, vegetable rice (which they didn’t want to call a paella), croquettes, and….something else.

We were a bit wiped out from the 5 hour tour, so after lunch was nap time

For our last dinner in Madrid, we went back to Mercado San Anton to have dinner at the restaurant on the top floor. We shared the sea bass and a grilled cookie with ice cream. YUM.

Tomorrow: Barcelona! Where we will accomplish the first of two objectives of this adventure.

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure Part 2: Spain – Where The Tapas Are

August 4, 5, and 6, 2026 – We Arrive, We Eat, We Tour, We Eat, We Go Shopping, And – You Guessed It! We Eat!

August 4 & 5

For once, not much to say about the flight. It was almost on time leaving, got very little sleep, and arrived a few minutes early. We were totally confused as to what was happening with my gate-checked transport chair. Normally the airport staff brings the chair to the airplane, but this time a guy came with an airport chair and wheeled me to a van (with Andy coming up behind). The van drove us to some spot that looked a bit like a construction zone, but it was an entrance to the terminal. The same guy helped us get our bags and find our driver from the tour company, who was waiting for us.

We were not 100% clear how this tour was going to work. This is our first time booking a private tour with a company. We weren’t sure if one person would be with us the whole time or what. Turns out it’s “or what”. Which is fine; it just wasn’t clear.

Our first tour guide, Myte, was waiting for us in the lobby of the hotel. Myte ran through a bunch of stuff. She gave us a packet that was an update to one I had downloaded from the portal. This version had times of departure, which was new info. I have very little memory otherwise of what she said, since my brain was running on about 90 minutes sleep. Not much of anything was registering.

We had a few hours to kill before our room was ready for us. We sat in the lobby and dosed off repeatedly. Eventually it was lunch time. We walked over to the Hyatt a few blocks away that had a restaurant called “Diana” that Myte recommended. I really meant to take photos of the food while we were in Spain, but I didn’t think of it at the time, because my brain wasn’t keen on thinking. Writing this I’m trying to remember what I had, but it’s not coming to me. It was good, whatever it was.

Here are some photos of views from the restaurant.

It wasn’t much longer after lunch that our room was ready. This is a “boutique” hotel – I’m not exactly sure what that means, but it’s interesting. We have this maze-like path to get to our room from the elevator. The hallway lights automatically turn off and on. It’s a bit like walking through a haunted house attraction.

We were able to get a couple hours sleep and shower before meeting Myte at 6:30 for a walk through the old part of Madrid and a tapas crawl.

The first stop in out tapas crawl was a tapas bar than has been in operation for over 100 years. We had a “Croqueta de bacalao” a croquet made of cod and bechamel cream. Sorry, no functioning brain, no food photo.

Myte took this photo of us looking exhausted in front of the tapas bar

It’s very possible this sequence is jumbled a bit.

Our next stop was in the Plaza del Sol (Note: it’s pronounced Platha del Sol; the castellano accent takes a little getting used to). It’s harder to tell how exhausted we were in this photo.

I think the next tapas bar brought us something called a “Russian Salad”. It’s not 100% clear why it’s called that, but it’s fabulous: very light tuna, potatoes, carrots, peas in mayo,.

The next place we had a “Spanish tortilla”, which is actually an omelette. In Andy’s wine is a frozen grape; it’s purpose is to keep the wine cold.

This is a photo of me looking extraordinarily exhausted with the “tortilla” and Andy’s glass of wine.

We passed by Botin, which – according to Guiness Book of World Records – it is the oldest operating restaurant in the world. It has a miniature/dollhouse version of itself in the window.

I believe our last stop was at a place that kept bringing us tapas we couldn’t eat because it had either shellfish or ham. The last one was a winner – a roasted artichoke. You can see the remains of two other attempts – one had ham, olives, and tomato (we ate the tomato), and the other had tuna and peppers (that one was fine).

We were kinda done after this. Myte sent us back to the hotel in a taxi, because this entire walking tour was downhill.

August 6

A full night’s sleep and we were good to go this morning. We met Myta in the lobby at 10:00. We had a driver today, who took us first to the Prado.

When we booked this tour, we didn’t realize that we’d only have 1 hour in the Prado, where we could easily spend the whole day. Myte took us on a “highlights” tour, a lot of which were paintings of Spanish kings (mostly named Charles or Philip) and queens (mostly Isabella with random Maria’s thrown in for good luck).

Most annoyingly, we were not allowed to take photos.

The first painting we stopped to look at was Hieronymus Bosch’ “Garden of Earthly Delights” that you can see at the link. I remember seeing this painting the first time I was ever in Madrid in 1978.

The rest is a bit of a jumble – if we had been able to take photos, the timestamp would have been very helpful.

We spent some time looking at “The Washing Of The Feet” by Tintoretto that changes perspective as to walk by it. Take a look at the video at this link.

There were A LOT of paintings of the Spanish kings and queens. Keeping them straight was impossible. The Hapsburgs married each other like crazy, passing along all sorts of genetic abnormalities, including the famous Hapsburg chin.

We spent time looking at Velazquez’ “Las Meninas”. Myte pointed out all the techniques used to show depth and perspective, and how Velazquez inserted himself into the painting in the background.

For more info, take a look at this link.

And then we came to El Greco, whose paintings are still as vivid as if they were painted yesterday. We looked at The Pentecost and the Adoration Of The Shepards, noting how he elongated the bodies of the people in his paintings.

Last, but not least, were the paintings of the royal family in the 18th century by Goya. By this time, all the royal names were thoroughly jumbled up.

This was an outside sculpture that we could photograph.

No time to stop in the gift shop, we were next on our way to the Royal Palace, where apparently nobody actually lives there anymore. The current king and queen of Spain live somewhere else.

These are the outside grounds. It was very, very warm out there in the sun. Fortunately, we didn’t need to stand out there for very long.

King Philip V built this palace between 1738 and 1755. It reflects how much King Philip V admired Versailles – much of the interior decoration is very familiar if you’ve ever been to Versailles

There were many clocks in the palace. All of them have some kind of movement, but it didn’t seem like any of them were allowed to work. Myte sent us a this video of all the clocks.

Some photos of the clocks:

The room with the Atlas clock has walls that are “wallpapered” with porcelain.

Other interesting rooms and historic items:

At the end of the palace tour, we said good-bye to Myte. Tomorrow we will have a different guide taking us to Toledo. The driver took us to a tapas restaurant Myte recommended. The lunch special was a great deal – for 16.50 Euros, we got 1 cold tapa, 2 hot tapas, and a dessert tapa.

ALL THE FOOD WAS FABULOUS (Not shown: the “catonese burger”, because I forgot).

We went shopping for a bit in the afternoon, took a break, and then went to dinner at the Mercado San Aton, which is sorta like a food court, maybe?

Finally done for the day, and it’s late.

Tomorrow: Toledo, and I hear it’s going to be very hot.

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 2 – ¡Vamos a España!

We Haven’t Left Yet – That’s Tomorrow (August 4)

Where We Will Accomplish Two Goals:

(1) Visit The Basilica de la Sagrada Familia On Or About Anton Gaudi’s The Yartzeit

(2) Add Another Total Eclipse To Our Collection

This adventure is a 100% land trip. It will be the first time we have used a tour company to create a private tour just for us. It starts in Madrid (where it is currently G0d awful hot and possibly smoky/hazy), then Barcelona (where it is somewhat less G0d awful hot), and end in Valencia (still somewhat less G0d awful hot).

In Madrid we will visit the Prado, the Royal Palace, tour the city in search of tapas, and have some time on our own. The last time I was in Madrid, the now retired King Juan Carlos was a very young man.

The highlight of Barcelona will be the Sagrada Familia, finally sorta/almost completely finished after 140 years of construction. The architect, Anton Gaudi, died in 1926, when he was literally run over by a tram. He left behind plans and models, but they were all lost during the Spanish Civil War. Construction resumed after Franco died in 1975, but the design is based on what people thought Gaudi had in mind. When we visited this church for the first time in 2010, we decided that we would make sure to come back in 2026 when it’s complete. There are some odd-n-ends to be done (that we would never notice). Pope Leo visited a few weeks ago to declare it the tallest church in the world.

Our visit to Valencia will include a day trip to Castillon de la Plana on August 12, where we will hopefully be able to see a total eclipse. It doesn’t rain much in Spain this time of year, so theoretically that won’t be a problem. The challenge is that the eclipse will take place very close to sunset.

This is the path of totality on August 12, 2026

Totality happens just a couple of minutes before sunset, and the official end of the eclipse will actually happen after sunset, which is kinda weird.

The eclipse glasses are packed and ready to go! Happy thoughts!

¡Hasta la vista!

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1 – In Search Of Tulips & Windmills: May 5, 2026 – Keukenhof!!

Where We Find More Tulips Than We Ever Imagined!

This will be the last blog for our “Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1 – In Search Of Tulips & Windmills”. We have acheived both objectives. And we go home tomorrow, which means that sadly this adventure is coming to an end.

We’ve already checked into our flight for tomorrow. Packing has already begun. Tonight is our last dinner on board the Viking EINAR.

IMO, this has been one of our best Viking cruises. The itinerary is great: we were able to cover a good portion of the Netherlands, most which we have never seen before, with the added bonus of Brussels and Bruges.

We spent the morning at Keukenhoff Gardens, the Number 1 destination for tulip lovers, and for flower lovers in general.

I think between the two of us we took over 100 photos. I won’t be able to dump them all here. I will try to pick the best of the best.

That’s me posing with the flowers. These were all over the park.

And so The Search For Tulips and Windmills comes to a successful end.

Coming soon (August 2026): Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 2: Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia with a solar eclipse thrown in.

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1 – In Search Of Tulips & Windmills: Zeeland (May 4, 2026)

Where We Spend The Day Learning About The Flood Of 1953

And The Netherlands Water Management System

What I really like about this itinerary is how well it’s covered the whole of the Netherlands. Previously, I’ve only been to Amsterdam and Kinderdijk. Today we were in the southern part of the Netherlands.

A good chunk of the Netherlands is below sea level. Over the centuries they’ve figured out an extensive water management system that is mostly made up of dikes. Dikes are constructed using dirt facing the dry side and layers of sand and rocks facing the water side. BTW, the difference between a dam and a dike is: a dam has water on both sides, and a dike has water on side and dry land on the other.

In 1953, there was a literal perfect storm on January 31 into February 1 in the Zeeland, the southern part of the Netherlands. All the water management systems failed, causing a huge flood that destroyed everything in its path, including over 1800 people. This is known as the North Sea Flood. The devastation was so great, to this day people refer to “before flood” and “after flood” times.

Our excursion ticket just mentioned visiting the Flood Museum (the Dutch are not creative when naming things). Turned out we had two more stops.- which made sense, because we couldn’t figure out what would take us 5 hours at a flood museum.

The museum’s building itself is made up of the 5 original caissons used to stop the flooding at this particular spot. For all the other dike breaches, repairing the dike fixed the problem, but the damage was so great in this location that fixing the dikes wasn’t even an option. Caissons – huge, hollow, concrete boxes – were shipped from the UK to the Netherlands and lowered into the dike breaches to stop the flooding. Years later, after new water management engineering was installed, it was decided to turn the caissons into a museum of the 1953 flood. The museum’s interior is a path through all 5 caissons.

This is the entrance to the museum via the first caisson

The destruction was so complete, the outside world wasn’t aware of the situation for 2 days. Someone rigged together a radio out of odds-and-ends to send an SOS.

Most of the museum contained artifacts from people impacted by the flood – both survivors and non-survivors.

The dress below was the wedding dress of a woman who died in the flood with her 2 year-old child. Her husband survived and kept it stored away in an attic. Her husband remarried and had another family. Years after her husband passed away, his children found his first wife’s dress and donated it to the museum.

Woman made this dress herself for her wedding day but died in the flood with her 2 year old daughter. Her husband kept the dress and years later his children from 2nd wife donated it to the museum

There were several memorials throughout the museum. This memorial listed all the names of the victims moving in a continuous loop – the names appear to flow on the waves of the water.

There was a multi-screen film with clips of the flood itself – most of it was hand-held/shaky camera footage, which tends to trigger my motion sickness, so we didn’t watch it.

This monument was just outside the exit of the museum:

Once back on the bus, we headed to the town of Zierikzee. I’ve already forgotten how to pronounce it. This was a little bit of a surprise, because our ticket nor the excursion description mentioned anything about a walking tour.

It’s a very old and cute little town, with a city gate as a remnant of the city wall. The town dates back to the 1400s. It is far enough inland that it did not flood in 1953. There was a cute gift shop, and the weather was beautiful.

Our next “surprise” stop was a photo op by the water. We drove across the Zeeland Bridge, which is 5km long (3.1 miles).

From this vantage point, we had a good view of the Storm Surge Bridge. Each segment of this bridge has a door that can be lowered in 70 minutes to stop the flow of water from the sea to the interior. The Storm Surge Bridge is 8 km long. I remember the tour guide saying that the last time it was used was 1986.

This is a close up of one of the segments. You can see how close the bridge is to the water and how the door would lower if needed.

The doors come down in 75 minutes during a storm surge 1986 built

We were standing directly underneath some wind turbines. It was cool to see them spin up close.

On the way back to the ship, we drove across the Storm Surge Bridge.

We were back at the ship by 1:30, just in time for lunch. The ship set sail a little after 2:00 p.m. to head back to Amsterdam. The adventure is almost over!

Tomorrow: The pièce de résistance: Keukenhof Gardens and the end of the tulip season!

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1: Middelburgh & Bruges – May 3, 2026

Where We Spend The Day In Medieval Bruges And Manage To Not Buy Any Souvenirs

Yesterday’s optional (i.e. paid for) tours of Brussels and Antwerp were rated as “Moderate”, and they were – lots of walking and lots of cobblestones. Typically the included excursions (i.e. “free”) have a “leisure” group for the moderate tours. The “leisure” group walks more slowly and avoids steps, which sometimes means that some parts of the excursion aren’t visited. But that’s ok – the goal is to maximize my experience within my physical limitations.

So I’d been a little concerned about the “Medieval Bruges” excursion ever since we booked it months ago. There would be no getting around hours of cobblestones and trying to keep up.

To our surprise, there was a “leisure” group for “Medieval Bruges”! What a relief.

One thing about the leisure groups is discovering there are people on the ship who have worse mobility problems than I do. Suddenly I’m the speedster!

It was a 90 minute drive from Middelburg to Bruges, raining most of the way. At least I remembered to bring a rain jacket. The tour guide who was with us on the bus would not be the guide for the leisure group – he would meet us at Bruges. I asked the bus tour guide if there would be a bathroom break when we arrived in Bruges, considering it’s a 90 minute drive. I felt like he looked at me like I had 2 heads and 4 arms. He said I should ask our Bruges tour guide. Ok? Why was this a big deal?

When we arrived at the bus parking in Bruges, there was a public bathroom right there at the information center, something the bus tour guide surely knew. So he could have said, “Sure, it’s not a problem – there’s a public bathroom at the bus parking.” As we were exiting the bus, he kept mentioning that everybody should let their tour guid know if they need to use the bathroom before the tour started. I felt like I was in kindergarten.

Amazingly enough, there was a long line at the bathroom, because the majority of the people on the three buses were standing in it.

Our little leisure group had a couple of us with mobility aids (me with my chair and a guy with a rollator). Plus we had a few people who just needed to walk slowly. Many hearing aids, including our tour guide, which meant quite a bit of repetition of questions, answers, and instructions – the tour guide to us and from us to the tour guide, because he definitely didn’t hear well, even with the hearing aids. Or maybe he was just ignoring some of the questions, who knows.

The first story he told was the legend of Minna and Stromberg: young lovers who weren’t allowed to marry, because Minna’s father wanted her to marry someone else. When Stromberg went off to war, Minna’s father forced to marry the other guy. So she ran away from home. Her lover Stromberg found her in the woods, dying. He buried her in the woods, and created a dam on the river creating the Minnewater or Lovers Lake.

After we crossed the bridge into medieval Bruges, the tour guide talked about a community of lay women living a religious life called beguins. The beguinage in Brussels was started in 1276 and lasted until 1976. The women were all unmarried and had to work to earn their keep, but were free to go at any time – most of the time they left when they were married.

The conversation about the Beguins was almost circular. The guide explained that the women were lay women who wanted to live a holy life, but didn’t want to be nuns forever, they worked for a living and left if/when they got married. Possibly because there were photos of the women dressed in their Sunday clothes that looked like a nun’s habit, there were people in our group (most of them) who kept referring to beguins as “nuns” and couldn’t figure out how nuns could get married or why they had jobs. The tour guide became a little frustrated after a while, and we just had to move on to the next thing.

Which wasn’t easy because we kept passing by beguinage buildings that, of course, triggered another round of explanations as to what a beguin was. Then someone asked why there weren’t anymore beguins (the community closed with the death of the last beguin in 1976), and the circular conversation started again, only this time it included the apparently confusing fact that women no longer have an interest in being sequestered in a lay holy community.

Pasterie van de Begijnhofparochie – entrance to the beguinage

The next story involves why there are swans in Bruges.

Though most likely swans have always been in the area, these are the key points of the story (per Google):

Maximilian of Austria was imprisoned in Bruges by local townspeople. He witnessed the torture and execution of his advisor, Pieter Lanchals, who was despised by the locals.
In retaliation, Maximilian forced the city to maintain the “long necks” (swans) on the canals for eternity (note: the Lanchals’ family crest was a white swan)
According to the legend, if the swans die or leave the city, it will face ruin; therefore, the city takes good care of the swans.

As we were walking by, a swan keeper drove up in a small truck, came out and picked up a swan and put it in the truck. The consensus was that the swan was sick and the keeper was bringing it in for a physical exam.

As we continued to sloowwwwly walk our way towards the town square, our tour guide talked a lot about chocolate: there are 65 chocolate shops in Bruges, and 5 of them are professional chocolate makers (i.e. they make their chocolate on the premises of the store).

We stopped by a lace store with a lace bobbin display in the window

I would have liked to have gone back to this store, but we didn’t have enough time. And I’m not sure I’d be able to find it again, anyway.

As we continued to stroll, the conversation shifted as to whether or not a canal ride was included (it was not), and how one would go about doing the canal ride (there’s 5 different canal ride companies within a couple of minutes of each other), but why wasn’t it included in the program (because it’s not, but you can do it on your own, keeping in mind there’s a wait for some of them and you have to take that into account to make sure you arrive at the meeting point on time), followed by questions regarding the meeting point (we haven’t gotten there yet), and most confusing of all: because we’re the “leisure” group, Viking will arrange for taxis to take us back to the bus, but we have to pay for the taxis.

Resulting in a new circular conversation about the taxis – who will call the taxi? (the tour guide) Where will we meet it? (he will show us). Who pays for it (we do). Why doesn’t Viking pay for it? (because it’s not included). What if I don’t have any euros? (we’ll figure it out).

It didn’t help that the tour guide kept waffling between one big taxi for all of us (which Andy and I didn’t see how that would work with two mobility devices), or two taxis for two sets of 4 people.

Which somehow lead us back to the canal boat ride conversation. It’s amazing we made it to the town square at all.

Things we saw along the way.

We finally made it to the meeting spot 3 hours after we left the bus parking lot. The regular tour did it in two hours. We now had 2 hours of free time.

For Andy and myself, that was sufficient time to eat lunch and take a canal boat ride. The company right around the corner from the meeting spot had no wait. We walked right on.

Photos from the canal ride, though I don’t remember what these are in particular. It was hard to understand the boat tour guide/captain over the boat’s motor.

As we walked back around the corner to the meeting spot, the sky opened and it started to pour. The tour guide flagged us down and said we could wait under the overhang instead of at the actual meeting point that was out in the open. He flagged down another couple and had them wait for us while he hunted for the other two couples.

Once all 8 of us were together, the tour guide said he would call the taxi. Once again there was confusion as to who was paying (22 euros for all of us in one cab to be split among us). One person was confused as to why she needed a cab – she said she could walk back! I pointed out it’s 1.5 miles back to the bus in the pouring rain, and we have to be back on the bus by 3:30 p.m. and it’s now 3:10.

But the guy with the rollator didn’t want to get in the minivan cab – I think because of his particular physical issue, it would have been difficult – so we ended up with 4 of us in the minivan and the other 4 in a different cab.

When our cab arrived back at the bus parking lot, our bus was nowhere to be seen. Besides the fact that none of us remembered what the bus looked like.

Never mind – by the time I toddled off to the bathroom and back, the bus had appeared. It was an easy drive back to the ship, which had sailed a few miles on the river from Middelburgh and was now docked in Veere.

A great day, though a bit long, and just a little bit silly. We managed to spend a day in Bruges and not buy any souvenirs.

Tomorrow: Zeeland

Amy & Andy’s Adventure 2026 Part 1: In Search Of Tulips & Windmills: May 2 (Antwerp and Brussels)

Where We Have A Very Long Day, Experience the Joy Of Cobblestones (or not), And Successfully Buy A Haul Of Our Favorite Chocolate.

We needed to on the bus by 8:00 a.m., so it was a super early morning. Plus, the river Scheldt is a tidal river at it was low tide. We had to climb up to the sundeck (deck 4) by stairs, because the elevator is only between decks 2 and 3. Andy had to schlep my transport chair up that flight of stairs and down the ramp.

The drive from Antwerp to Brussels is about 45 minutes, and we had a lot to see. Fortunately, because it was Saturday the traffic was minimal.

The first part of the day was a panoramic driving tour of the city.

First we saw the surroundings of the Royal Family. Belgium declared its independence in 1830, followed by the establishment of its constitutional/parliamentary monarchy, when Leopold I became the first King of the Belgians.

Here are some photos of the area around the Royal residence.

This is the Cathedral to St Michael and St. Gudula, which is a mere 800 years old.

Cathedral to St Michael and St Gudula. We didn’t have the opportunity to go in

One thing I noted when we started our walking tour – frequently there will be a “leisure” option for people who need ot or like to take things more slowly. However, that doesn’t usually happen on the optional (paid for) excursions. This Brussels excursion was no exception. When we got off the bus, and the tour guide saw my transport chair, she immediately asked if we would be able to keep up. Yes, yes, we will.

We started walking towards the city center and the central square. There were modern sidewalks before we entered Gallery; the cobblestones started soon after on the other side.

We arrived at the Grand Place – Brussels’ central square. The buildings around the town square included the Town Hall and Guild houses.

Central Square – that’s our tour guide, Kristin, with the red lollipop

Before we had our free time, we went to see the most famous tourist site in all of Brussels: Manneken Pis. I’ve heard about this statue for many years. My expectations were very low. And yet, apparently, they were not low enough. This photo makes the little boy look way, way, way too big. He’s maybe 18″ tall. Apparently he’s sometimes dressed up in costumes, but not this day.

But we had a more important task to do: buy chocolate. We’ve known for many years that the best chocolate brand is Leonidas (pronounced lee-OOH-nee-dahs). We found the nearest Leonidas store and bought a LOT of chocolate.

Then, of course, right after that, a bathroom break was next up on the priority list. We were able to back track to the public bathroom we had stopped at on our way to the Grand Place. By now, it was getting close to the time to meet our tour guide. We figured that the group would have to pass by this particular spot on the way back to the bus. We tried texting the tour guide to let her know, but she didn’t respond. A couple of people from our group were there sharing a Belgian waffle, and they said they would let the tour guide know where we were. And then of course we had to have a Belgian waffle, too. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of it before we pretty much inhaled it.

We saw a few more interesting buildings as we continued our panoramic drive around Brussels before we headed back to the ship.

This trash bin has the image of St Michael fighting a dragon

We drove by NATO; the last time Andy was there was over 35 years ago. Since then, a new building was built.

Before we returned to the ship, we did a short drive through Antwerp. This is the Antwerp Law Courts building. The structures on the roof represent the paper cones that French fries are served in – even though French fries were really invented in Belgium.

When we returned to the ship, the tide has started to rise, so we were able to board the ship on deck 3 and avoid the extra flight of stairs.

Because our tour of Brussels overlapped the included walking tour of Antwerp, a separate walking tour of Antwerp was set up just for us starting at 3:00 p.m. But – the cathedral would be closing for the day at 3:00 p.m. for mass. Emily said that people who wanted to see the inside of the cathedral could walk with her at 2:00 p.m. We arrived back at the ship at 1:30 p.m.

This extra walk would be too much for me, but Andy went. He spent about 15 minutes (tops) in the cathedral, taking as many photos as he could before he had to leave to come back to the ship to get me to start the walking tour. Apparently there are several paintings by Paul Rubens in the cathedral, but it doesn’t look like he took photos of any of them.

The original floor of the cathedral down in the basement

When Andy came back from the cathedral, we joined the tour guide to begin the walking tour of Antwerp. This was not a “leisurely” version – keeping up was quite a challenge.

It had been arranged to meet some people who went to see the cathedral at a building called The Stone. It’s a medeival fortress and the oldest building in Antwerp. It’s now a visitor center.

This guy is the Lange Wapper Statue, depicting a legendary giant and trickster from Flemish folklore.

As the tour continued, we were climbing up and down stairs and encountering cobblestones before we hardly went anywhere at all.

This is the Butcher’s Hall building. The Butcher’s guild was a very powerful one.

We continued along more cobblestone streets on the way to the city center’s main square. Our tour guide told us the story of how Antwerp got its name:

The myth says Silvius Brabo killed the nasty giant, cut off his hand and threw it into the Schedlt River. The name “Antwerp” is derived from the Dutch phrase “Hand werpen,” which means to throw a hand. So now you know. The statue in the photo below doesn’t look like it’s in very good shape.

There was another statue of Silvius Brabo throwing the giant’s hand into the river. This one made Brabo look like Lord Farquarh from Shrek.

The myth about the giant said that the only way to escape the giant was to run to stand under a statue of the Virgin Mary, of which there were many scattered on the sides of buildings all over Antwerp.

Antwerp doesn’t lack for churches. This is the Jesuit church.

I think our last stop was in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady, which we don’t seem to have a photo. Maybe this was one too many churches.

However, in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady was this statue in honor of a famous Belgian story, Nello & Patrasche. It’s a very sad story about a boy and his dog, and the boy dies. I’m not clear why this makes for a great story, but here’s the statue.

Fortunately, the walk back to the ship was quick and without cobblestones, except for the very last yards back to the ship. It was amazing, but we had been able to stick with the tour the whole way.

We were exhausted.

Tomorrow: Middelburgh and Bruges

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1 – In Search Of Tulips & Windmills: May 1, 2026

Where We Succeed At Our Second Goal Of Visiting A Working Windmill in Kinderdijk

Today was a weird and confusing day. We had some scenic sailing down a waterway that Google Maps labeled “Waal” on our way to Kinderdijk, where we arrived at 1:00 p.m. We had booked an optional excursion to take a barge down a canal to visit a working windmill. We had done this exact excursion before on the Rhine river cruise a couple of years ago, so we knew what to expect.

This was the view from our veranda for the short time we were in Kinderdijk

The green mound across the water from the ship is the dike.

We had a short walk from the ship to the Viking-owned barge that would take us to the windmill.

I don’t remember the story behind this weird thing. That’s a cat standing on the front edge (not a real one)

The windmills pump water from the canal with a higher level of water into the canal with a lower water level.

A draw bridge opened for our barge on our way down the canal.

This is the windmill we visited. The blades have steel edges to allow them to spin faster and more efficiently. The miller said the blades can spin as fast as 140 revolutions/hour, but the most efficient speed is about 100 revolutions/hour. Faster than that and the water starts coming back into the waterwheel.

The miller demonstrated stopping the blades, turning the top of the windmill in case the wind changes direction, and changing the covering on the blades – the more the blades are covered, the faster they will spin.

In this photo, the blade is covered.

Andy took these photos inside the windmill:

This visit was just as amazing as the last time a few years ago. Windmills are fascinating.

We had issues with my transport chair on the way back – one of the back wheels keeps falling off. It’s been an issue for a few days now. But I was able to walk all the way back to the ship and Andy carried the transport chair. Emily, our Program Director, met me with a ship’s wheelchair when she saw me heading in the wrong direction! And once back on board and we had set sail for Rotterdam, one of the ship’s engineers fixed the wheel!

We arrived in Rotterdam at 4:30. There was only one excursion available and we hadn’t signed up for it. Andy went for a run, but took no photos – he said Rotterdam is a big city with tall buildings. If there’s an old city center, he didn’t get that far.

We’ll be leaving Rotterdam in about 30 minutes to head to our next port.

Tomorrow: Antwerp (and Brussels, and hopefully CHOCOLATE).