Bill and I were among the last group to disembark from Regent Seven Seas Splendor. We were later in getting off, because we had hotel reservations at the Clarion Airport Hotel, which attaches directly to the airport. We arrived here after a lengthy cab ride– maybe 40 minutes or so– and were greeted by a huge, modern hotel. It’s definitely not like the Clarion hotel we stayed in when we visited Bergen a couple of weeks ago.
Fortunately, the hotel is not fully booked, so we were allowed to check in early with a 500 Danish Crown upcharge (about $70). That was fine with us, because Bill and I are pretty tired and in need of some relaxation. Isn’t it crazy to have to need to relax after a vacation? We have a room on the 11th floor, which offers a view of Copenhagen. This hotel also has a spa and a restaurant, so we’ll be okay today. Maybe tomorrow, if the weather is good and we’re up to it, we’ll venture into the city and see what’s going on there. We might go out today, too, if the mood strikes.
Our Regent cruise was pretty busy, as we had excursions every day that took up several hours. Most of them involved a lot of walking, which was good for me. But when you aren’t used to being around a lot of people on a daily basis, it can get kind of tiring. Also, I’m still doing some hacking and wheezing from my recent cold.
We managed to say goodbye to our friends, Ger and Gail, whom we met on SeaDream in 2011. We also said goodbye to a nice Scottish couple from Dundee we met on our Tallinn tour. Unfortunately, the husband had a health issue that required him to use Regent’s medical facility. He said it cost about $6000! I didn’t ask what the issue was, as it was none of my business. He did look relatively well as he was walking off the ship. I had heard about insane prices for cruise ship medical care, and Regent is an American line. Still, what a shock! He says his insurance will pay when he makes a claim. I sure hope so!
The other couples we met were also from Europe– two from Germany and one from Belgium. We spent no time talking with our countrymen. I will delve more into that when I begin writing my series for this trip.
We almost skipped yesterday’s excursion to Bornholm, which would have been a mistake. I think it might have been my favorite of all the places we went. I could see myself coming back there for a vacation and exploring the island. But I was tired yesterday, and the excursion didn’t start until 4PM. I’m glad I stuck it out and went on the tour, even if the guide wasn’t the best speaker I’ve ever heard.
I may start writing my series today or tomorrow, if the mood strikes. But for now, I think I’m going to take a nap. 😉
The featured photo is our view from the west wing of the Clarion Airport Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark. It’s a nice view, isn’t it?
We will be disembarking from Regent Seven Seas Splendor tomorrow morning, and heading to an airport hotel in Copenhagen. Originally, I had planned to book a stay in town, but decided it would be easier to base us near our airport and take Copenhagen’s handy public transport into town. I think I was having trouble deciding which hotel would be best for us and finally just said “fuck it”.
Overall, we’ve had a really great trip! There have been a few minor annoyances, but in the grand scheme of things, this has been a wonderful Scandinavian holiday. I just wish I hadn’t gotten sick. I’m mostly better now, but I’ve had a cough and congestion all week, and there’s a scab under my nose from all the nose blowing. I’m certainly not the only one who got sick, though. I’ve been hearing people hack and wheeze all week.
Now that I’ve tried Regent, which is regarded as a true “luxury” cruise line, I’m ready to do a comparison of our cruise experiences so far. In some ways, this cruise was very luxe. In other ways, it wasn’t so much. No matter what, we’ve done a lot of eating, enjoying of adult beverages, discovering new places that need further exploration, and crossing off bucket list items. I feel relaxed, and ready to get back to everyday life. I especially look forward to seeing Noyzi.
Today, we’re on an island off of Denmark called Ronne. Our excursion starts at 4PM and runs until about 8. I kind of want to skip it, because I’m a little toured out, but that would probably be a mistake. So we’ll check out Ronne, then come back and finish packing up so we can move on to the next hotel. In retrospect, maybe it would have been better to go home tomorrow, since it’s not so far. But, I hate to pass up the chance to see Copenhagen. I don’t know how enthused we’ll be about it, but maybe I’ll get some pictures.
As someone who usually opts for small cruise ships, I’ve definitely been noticing a lot of pros and cons related to being on a much bigger ship, like Regent Seven Seas Splendor. To be honest, I think I prefer the smaller ships, and will probably stick with those, unless there’s a specific destination I want to visit.
I do want to comment, though, on an experience I had a few years ago. I even blogged about it here. There was a thread on Cruise Critic about luxury lines. I had mentioned that I was surprised Hebridean Island Cruises was not listed as luxury. Some snobby woman argued with me about my classification of Hebridean as a “luxury” line. Her reasons that it wasn’t mainly had to do with things like the ship’s lack of a spa or casino, or lower thread counts on the sheets (although the Princess has wonderful linens). I thought her definition of luxury was pretty limited and said so. She’d never been on Hebridean Princess, and I have. Now I’ve been on Regent, which is her favorite line. And, I gotta say, I think I much prefer Hebridean and, yes, even though it lacks a spa and a casino, I think it’s more luxurious by far.
When I have more time, I will explain my many reasons for feeling this way. To be sure, Splendor is a BEAUTIFUL ship, and most everything has been very good. But in many areas, Hebridean Princess and even SeaDream (although it’s been ten years since my last SeaDream cruise) outshine Regent. But… I also realize that both Hebridean and SeaDream might be different post COVID. I’ll just have to cruise them again to know for sure. 😉
Anyway, for some reason, I’m having trouble linking the post I referenced, so here’s an ugly link if you’re interested in that original discussion. I’ve been thinking about that exchange a lot, though, since we’ve been on Regent. I intend to flesh it out some more when I’m not so pressed for time. Maybe I’ll even get to it today, since we have a shorter excursion planned.
We are into our Baltic cruise now, and Internet access isn’t always a given. It is included with our room, but we’re limited to four devices. I may end up buying a package for the computer, because I have a lot to write about, and plenty of photos to share.
As I mentioned yesterday on the main blog, Regent Seven Seas is a very pleasant way to travel. I wish we had more time in port to see some of the fantastic cities we’re visiting, but seeing these places once or twice helps us decide on future trips. We already knew we liked Tallinn when we were here in 2009. Now we know we like it even more.
Yesterday’s visit to Helsinki was also a success. We managed to find a few gifts for Bill’s grandchildren, as well as a few things for us.
Unfortunately, Bill has picked up my cold. He’s not as sick as I was… or have been, as I’m not 100 percent back to normal yet. Now, I have an annoying cough and a stuffy nose. But I have more energy and feel better. I can see I wasn’t the only unfortunate to pick up a cold on this trip.
Tomorrow, we head to Riga, Latvia, a place Bill have been to twice. It will be my first time there. I’m looking forward to seeing a new place and adding a new mug and magnet to my collection. We set sail in about an hour.
We’re staying in a “design hotel”, so naturally, things are designer here. We decided to skip dinner and just have drinks. You can get some very good cocktails at Nobis Hotel, for a hefty price…
The bartender was a bit negligent at first, but he woke up when he caught a look from Bill. He was an excellent barkeep and made great drinks, but he was doing a lot of bullshitting with the three ladies at the bar. He seems pretty young, though, so I guess he’ll grow up. 😉
I hated these kinds of lanterns when we had them in our Jettingen house…Stockholm cocktail for me– refreshing with grapefruit. A martini for Bill.And probably my favorite… the Strawberry Basil Smash. Bill had a type of Negroni with Japanese plum.The lounge area is pretty cool.
That was basically our dinner, since we had a big lunch. Tomorrow’s lunch will probably be on the Splendor! We leave the hotel promptly at 11:00 AM.
In one week, we’ll be in Norway, starting our long awaited two week vacation. Believe me, we’re ready to go. But, for the time being, we’re still hanging out here in Germany, enjoying the sunny, summery weather. I love the mild temperatures and sunshine, but it does have a tendency to make our house a little “clammy”. I think German houses just have a tendency to hold on to heat, which is great for most of the year. In the summer, maybe not so much…
In any case, we had a wine stand last night, so we decided to attend. And now that Noyzi has been to a few of them, he insists on attending, too. I will admit that last night, I was kind of thinking that maybe I’d rather stay in. But Bill was in the mood to mingle, and apparently Noyzi was, too. He made LOTS of new local friends last night.
As we were about to turn to go down the hill, we ran into a German kindergarten teacher named Susie whom we met a few weeks ago. She has an Italian former truffle hunting dog named Billy. She didn’t have Billy with her last night, but Noyzi still recognized her. After saying hello, she walked slightly past us. Noyzi started dragging me down the hill, barking enthusiastically. He wanted Susie to pet him! LOL… I’m sure she thinks he needs schooling, and we probably shouldn’t encourage this. However, it legitimately was an adorable sight, especially since Noyzi used to be terrified of strangers.
I know Noyzi was extremely happy to see Susie, but I also think he knew the wine stand was going on, and was super excited to go to it. It’s like a whole new social aspect of his personality has come out. I think Noyzi likes going to the wine stands because they are held in a familiar place, and he knows some of the people and dogs who attend. Last night, he was more relaxed than he has EVER been in public. Several times, he sat and even laid down on his own.
We talked to several of our neighbors, and met a few new people, including one guy who was wearing a t-shirt advertising a specific brand of African beer that Bill likes. The combination of the beer t-shirt and the guy’s attraction to Noyzi ended up being great icebreakers. It turned out the guy was German, but had lived in Kenya for years. He and his wife live in Breckenheim now, which is a bit safer than Kenya is. Apparently, his mom is a Kenyan citizen now, and she and her husband own a coffee farm. There was a lot more to the conversation, which eventually devolved into a discussion of global issues and the troubling American mindset that we agreed probably comes from people never traveling outside of the USA. I genuinely enjoyed talking to the guy. Maybe we’ll see him again.
In the midst of our chat, we also watched the children of Breckenheim happily playing. A local guy had them gathered around at the church, where he told stories. Later, a cat visited, and was completely unfazed by Noyzi. I watched a little boy climb up a sign pole and was amazed by his upper body strength. We could hear Billy barking for Noyzi, since Billy’s owners live in a house right by our Dorfplatz. And we also saw our next door neighbor’s 85 year old mom, who was finally walking without her cane after having broken her leg earlier in the spring. She was looking good.
Noyzi charmed the owner of the local pizzeria, an Italian man named Fabi who used to work with dogs in Romania. He very kindly brought out some water for Noyzi, as well as some meat. When Noyzi finished drinking the bowl, Fabi brought out some more water and treats. Noyzi was delighted, and I could see that he was enjoying making friends with so many people. He really is a very lovely dog who enjoys interacting with all people and animals. All of our dogs have been special to us, but Noyzi truly is a unique soul. He’s a true canine ambassador!
I took lots of pictures…
Noyzi is totally relaxed now.Pizzeria owner welcomes Noyzi!This cat was on the hunt.An athlete in the making.I love the cat’s expression.Noyzi is better with cats than Arran was. Arran would try to eat that cat.My husband, the goofball.No, he wasn’t drunk. The sun was blinding us.Our neighbor’s beautiful roses.After the wine stand, Noyzi had a romp in the backyard.
We really do enjoy the social events in our village. Unfortunately, we’ll miss the next wine stand, which I believe will actually be the wine festival that they had in September last year. But the good news is, we’re missing that event because, by the 23rd of June, we’ll be in Sweden, boarding the Regent Seven Seas Splendor, and taking a weeklong cruise in the Baltic Sea. So, stay tuned to see the travel blog become an actual travel blog again… at least for a few weeks! 😉
Yesterday, we had a rare busy Saturday, as we went out for business and pleasure in TWO different nearby cities. There was a time when we were younger when accomplishing this would not have been so notable for us, but COVID kind of took the wind out of our sails and made us enjoy being homebodies more. Bill often needs to rest on the weekends. But sometimes, we do manage to get out of the house. Yesterday, we went to both Wiesbaden and Hofheim.
If you’ve been reading my recent posts, you might know that in a couple of weeks, we are planning an epic vacation. We will start with six nights in Norway– two nights in Oslo and four in Bergen. After we do the Norwegian land based part of our trip, we will fly from Bergen to Stockholm, where we will spend one night prior to boarding Regent Seven Seas Splendor. Our week on the ship will include stops in Helsinki, Finland, Tallin, Estonia, Riga, Latvia, Visby, Sweden, Liepaja, Latvia, Ronne, Denmark, and finally, Copenhagen, Denmark, where we will disembark. We’ll spend two nights in Copenhagen, then fly home.
We plan to be away for about two weeks. Although one of those weeks will involve a cruise, it’s still a lot of luggage hauling as we make our way around to the different places we’re planning to visit.
Since about 2011 or so, Bill and I have been using Red Oxx bags almost exclusively. I like them for their handy compartments, tough construction, and beautiful colors. Bill also likes the fact that the company is in based in Billings, Montana and was started by veterans. We have a whole bunch of Red Oxx bags, and we’ve used them for a whole lot of traveling…
BUT…
On this trip, I’m going to be celebrating my 51st birthday. I’m not getting any younger, and my back is not what it used to be. Red Oxx bags do not come with wheels, meaning that I have to carry them. I typically use a Sky Train convertible backpack, which I’ll use on this trip, too. And when I go on big trips, I also use the Beanos Duffel bag, which can hold a lot of stuff, but isn’t the easiest thing to carry. It can be very awkward. I decided that for our upcoming trip up north, I wanted a bag with wheels.
Often I’d shop for such an item online, but I decided that I wanted to actually touch and pick up what I was buying before I made a final decision. Luggage is one of those items people tend to keep forever, and I didn’t want to be stuck with a “lemon”. I told Bill I wanted to go to the Karstadt Galeria in Wiesbaden to see what kinds of luggage they were selling. The Galeria recently announced that they were closing quite a few branches of their department store. Wiesbaden has had two branches, but soon will just be left with the one we visited yesterday at the Mauritiusplatz.
Bill was a little hesitant. He’d made a 7 PM reservation at Ariston Greek Restaurant in Hofheim. I looked at my watch. It was about 1:30 PM. 😀 I love my husband very much, but he has a tendency to be a bit neurotic sometimes. I guess he was afraid I’d dawdle in the store, and we’d miss our reservation or– horrors– arrive there late!
I said, “It’s just a fucking dinner reservation! Are you really telling me we don’t have time to go into Wiesbaden hours before dinner?”
Bill admitted I was right, so off we went to our fair host city. While we were at a light, Bill was getting annoyed at a guy who was in the wrong lane and had turned on his blinker.
“You’re gonna make me miss my light, buddy.” Bill muttered.
“We’re NOT going to be late for our reservation, Bill. Going out to dinner is supposed to be FUN!” I reasoned.
“You’re right.” Bill said.
I remembered we were going to be passing the Globus Hypermarket, which is kind of like WalMart on steroids. It’s a bit closer to where we live. I said, “Maybe we should just go to the Globus. I bet they have luggage.”
Bill disagreed with my ideas about the Globus, but finally relaxed about the time. We got to Wiesbaden and parked the car in the Market Garage, which is not where we usually park. It’s closer to the Galeria than our usual place is, although the store also has its own parking garage.
Wiesbaden was ALIVE yesterday. I wanted to stay longer.
As soon as we walked in, Bill spotted the luggage section, which was actually pretty large. I was immediately drawn to the Samsonites, which of course, were priced “top of the line”. But, just to do my due diligence, I looked at the other suitcases available. It had been a long time since I last shopped for luggage with wheels! I was surprised by how lightweight the bags were.
Fancy!
I ended up choosing a pretty marine blue Samsonite. I wanted to look for new towels, too, but Bill seemed too nervous, so I told him I’d get them another time. 😉 He would have obliged, of course, but he was making our shopping trip more complicated than it needed to be. What I really needed for now was the suitcase, and we accomplished that mission. I got some pretty cool photos outside of the store, too…
We went back to the car and Bill paid for the parking. When he got back, I said, “See? We have plenty of time. We could have had lunch!”
Bill said, “You’re right. Do you want to go have lunch?” Then he said, “Shit, I’ve already paid.”
“No, let’s go home to Noyzi.” So we went home, and started watching Amazon’s docuseries, Shiny Happy People. I’d already seen it, but Bill wanted to watch it, too. That kept us occupied until it was time to go to Hofheim for our dinner date.
The last time we tried to visit Ariston Restaurant, it was early March and everybody was out and about. They had no tables. Remembering that experience, Bill made a reservation. It was not necessary last night. Ariston was having a pretty slow night! Still, we decided to eat out on their tiny patio, and enjoy the pleasant June weather. It was about 70 degrees out and sunny. I had a Gyros Teller, which was gyros, souvlaki, tomato rice, t’zaziki, and salad. Bill had the Bifteki Teller, which had gyros, bifteki, pommes, t’zaziki, and salad. We also had a small carafe of house wine, our usual sparkling water, and for dessert, a round of Pils beer.
The very kind lady who looked after us was so nice. Bill gave her a generous tip on the bill, which was around 60 euros, and she touched her heart as she thanked us. It’s been too long since our last Greek food fix. When we lived in Stuttgart, we used to go to Greek places all the time. We don’t have as many Greek restaurants up here, though… We seem to eat more Italian food now. Not that that’s a hardship!
My Gyros Teller was excellent!I enjoyed this Pils.The inside of Ariston is very nice. We will have to go back.Pigeon in flight. I think they were mating. They had a nest near the restaurant and were making quite a racket.
After dinner, we headed back to the car, and I took a few more photos. Hofheim has sort of replaced Nagold as our “go to” town for casual recreation. It’s not quite as pretty as Nagold is, but it does the job. Likewise, I think we think of Mainz as our replacement for Tübingen, even though they aren’t that much alike, other than both being university towns.
We didn’t know it, but Ariston has parking available. We probably should have parked there, but then we would have missed out on the pretty walk through Hofheim. It’s a very nice place in the evening. We need to go there more often.
Someone drew a garden gnome near the museum.
I’m not sure what we have in store for today. The weather is beautiful again, though… Maybe we’ll venture out. Maybe we won’t.
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