It was, of course, a holiday weekend in the UK, so we were able to enjoy some fun family time as we were preparing the truck for shipment back to the US. The preparations involved power washing, especially the chassis underneath, cleaning the interior, removal of all food items, and making sure that everything left was stashed away and not visible. The family time included a great dinner at a nephew’s house, a wonderful lunch with my sister and brother in law, and a barbecue with other family members.

Bon Voyage to the 917

So, after the Bank Holiday Monday, we headed north towards Liverpool in the truck.  Traffic was bad in places and we did lose some time but we made it to the hotel we had reserved near the port of Liverpool and managed to find a place to park. 

Dropping off the truck proved to be fairly simple. Though as usual, there were few signs and Fred had to hunt down the office, in an unmarked cabin. Armed with our instructions we found the parking area and met with the agent. He took over our keys and then was nice enough to drive us, and our bags, to the local train station. A most helpful gentleman, he was in the process of building up his own Land Rover in preparation for a European trip, and was delighted to examine our truck.

Hitting the Rails

Once at the station, we bought tickets for Glossop, Derbyshire and sorted out our train route.  It involved several changes, but all went well and we were met at Glossop station by a friend from Botswana with whom we were spending three nights. It was wonderful to see her again. We had stayed before and visited several of the outstanding mansions in the neighbourhood, Chatsworth, Haddon Hall, and Lyme Park, so this time we were happy to relax a bit. We enjoyed a great dinner with her family, even with her son, a fireman, being called out on a run.

Then it was time for the next stage of our train saga to begin; first stop, York.

It had been years since we had been there, so it was fun to rediscover the city. We started with a hop on and hop off bus trip which we caught at the infamous Clifford’s Tower. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_Castle)

On the square below Clifford’s Tower is the Castle Court Museum. (https://www.yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk) This is a lot of fun, partially arranged as a trip to York in Victorian times. You play the part of a traveler, en route to York. As you approach the exhibits, you stop in inn room where various fellow travelers introduce themselves and tell you why they are going to York and what they hope to do. Once in the exhibits, you visit the streets and shops they mentioned.

We wandered the debtor’s prison, the WWI exhibit and the rather perfunctory ’60’s exhibit.

We had rebooked a visit to the Yorvik Viking Center, a museum below the streets of York where a Viking settlement had been discovered. (https://www.jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk/) They have revamped the train and exhibits, but it was just as much fun this time as it had been when we visited and the children were small. The Yorvik center is unusual as the ruins are, of course, exactly where they were found and the modern street follows the Viking street exactly. The ruins were found during a renovation, so the Yorvik center is just another entrance on a modern shopping street. All of the actual exhibits are under the modern buildings, at the old ground level.

A new discovery this trip is the Merchant Adventurer’s Guildhall, an interesting study in both architecture and business practices – the guild is still active and just elected a woman president. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Adventurers’_Hall) 

This is an amazing old building from the 13th century, still available for hire even though the flooring is not at all flat.  It felt quite odd to walk on it and would really not like to dance on it! But the museum was well worth the visit. 

Fred also revisited the railway museum.  Denise declined, as she had visited it previously. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Railway_Museum)

So Fred set out on the trek, and trek it was, first back to the modern railway station, then through a tunnel to the museum entrance – which was closed – under construction. Another half mile hike down beautiful bike trails let him around back to the old entrances. Fortunately, the museum was well worth it! The collection is huge, spanning UK, and some world railroads, all the way from the “Rocket” to modern high speed trains.

Back to the train station for our next train ride, with only one change this time, to Cambridge.  We were stopping here for a visit to Duxford Air Field with its huge number of airplanes, including Spitfires, and various displays of its role in World War II. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duxford_Aerodrome) 

We took a taxi to Duxford, as it is about 10 miles from Cambridge. We had an excellent visit and were able to walk through several interesting airplanes, including the Concorde.

Duxford is an interesting counterpoint to the Smithsonian, as it focusses on British aircraft. Fred especially enjoyed revisiting planes that we had both flown as children, like the Vickers Viscount, as well as others, like the Bristol Britannia, that we had not.

There is a large “American Pavilion” which makes a real effort to tie into the TV series, “Masters of the Air.”.

Of course, after the visit, we had to rewatch the 1969 movie “The Battle of Britain.” We remarked that many of the scenes looked just like Duxford. Turns that it was Duxford.

On our return to Cambridge the sun came out, so we wandered the town and viewed some of the colleges from the outside.

An Eye on London

And then it was time to take the train to London. No train changes this time, but a taxi ride from the station to our hotel which was about two minutes walk from the London Eye. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Eye)

This proved to be an inspired location as on our first day there, as the Tube was on strike! But we had booked a river cruise and the weather held.

In the afternoon, we realized we could walk to the Imperial War Museum so we did.  It was an excellent visit with some amazing displays, especially the Battle of Britain display and the Holocaust Display. The World War One was also an exceptional display. (https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-london)

Come evening, it was time for our visit to/ride on, the London Eye. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Eye) The Eye is a classic tourist trap hold over, like the Eiffel Tower, but, like the Eiffel Tower, it is an amazing bit of engineering and provides great views. Pro tip, book in the evening and you can walk right aboard without queuing.

The following morning we had booked a visit to the Churchill War Rooms. (https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms) We were actually rather disappointed in this. It was rather chaotic and suffered from too many people trying to see the displays at the start. It would have been better to take a small group around rather than allow 40 or so people entry en mass.  

We then started walking around the edge of St. James’ Park, admiring the lovely water fountain and a swan with her cygnets tucked under her wing. 

We came to the Horse Guards parade area and spotted a lot of tourists.  So we joined them and enjoyed an exchange of mounted horse guards, including a group coming from Buckingham Palace.

Our final visit was to the British Museum. (https://www.britishmuseum.org/) Neither of us had ever visited and we found it most interesting.  We saw the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles and other displays from around the world. Would take weeks to do it justice.

And the next day we took the train back to Chichester to spend a last couple of days with Denise’s brother and sister in law.  We made it in time to go to the Chichester Cathedral for the annual flower festival. 

Various flower shops, churches and other flower designers had created marvelous displays of flowers all through the Cathedral.  A fabulous visit.

On our last day we took a taxi back to Heathrow and we made our flight back to the US. The three year Euro Saga is complete.

Once we received the paperwork we were off to Baltimore to pick up the truck. The last time Fred picked up a vehicle in Baltimore, in 1974 after the trans Sahara trip, it had been stripped clean. This time, fortunately, everything was perfect, indeed, there was no sign that the vehicle had been entered either in the UK or upon arrival in the US. Wonderful!

We continued up the coast but unfortunately a norovirus had been brought aboard our ship. There were multiple announcements about the danger, but, after a life in challenging countries, we were confident that our personal washing/sanitary regime would be adequate. We were careful, but we were wrong – it was not enough.

Fred succumbed first.  And Denise a couple of days later.

Crossing the Arctic Circle there was an announcement that the northern lights were visible. We joined the crowds on deck admiring and trying to get a photo. The best northern lights photos are time lapse images taken with a tripod on solid ground. Hand held on a moving ship is not going to get you much. But “not much” is still quite spectacular.

The Lofoten Islands are where the world’s larges cod catches are made between January and April of each year. Denise made a visit to Henningsvaer in the Lofoten, a fishing village about 12 Km southwest of Svolvaer.

 A brief film in an Art Gallery set the tone and a wander through the village completed it. Quite interesting are the racks upon which the fish is dried before being shipped all over the world.

The village is known for having a flat full sized soccer field – a real challenge in mountainous region. Teams come from all over to play there.

We continued to Stokmarknes, where there is a most interesting Hurtigruten Maritime Museum. The company was founded in 1893 to facilitate postal service to northern Norway. The history of the company was also shown.  The Museum includes a full sized ship, MS Finnmarken, which retired in 1956. (https://www.museumnord.no/en/our-venues/hurtigruten-museum/)

Arriving at Tromso, Denise took a cable car trip up to Storsteinen.

There were amazing views of the town below from the viewing area. 

She then visited the Arctic Cathedral, a quite spectacular modern church.

Our next stop, Honningsvag, should have enabled us to visit the North Cape, however, by now, we were both self isolating due to sickness. Sorry, no photos.

By the time we stopped at Alta, we were able to take a walk in the town and to visit the Northern Lights Cathedral. 

This is another really spectacular modern cathedral with an exhibition showing how Alta became the epicenter for research into the Aurora Borealis between the 19th and 20th centuries.  We also enjoyed the short film about the Northern Lights.  The visit to the town was also interesting. It was very modern and amazingly clean.

We also took the opportunity to walk in the towns of Lodingen and Rorvik, interesting coastal towns.

Lodingen was tiny and we enjoyed a snowy walk.

In Rorvik we visited the small Maritime Museum, which included a fascinating exhibit by a local salmon farm company. We learned all about salmon farming and how Norway has perfected it for maximum sustainability. The fish live in special netted areas known as “acuatraz.”

Unfortunately our visit to Molde was cancelled due to rough seas and we sailed to Bergen using as many inland waterways as possible to reduce the possible damage to passengers!

Waves were projected to be as high as 16 feet. And they were.

We settled into our small, but comfortable cabin. The bath has a heated floor! Yes! The first night featured some decent rock and roll seas.

And so the voyage begins.  Our first stop was Kristiansand on a gloomy, foggy day.

It was not actually raining but our color photos look black and white! Visibility was not good but it was most atmospheric.  We wandered the town, visiting the oldest wooden buildings in Norway and discovering by accident a wonderful cafe/bakery.  We could not take photos inside the church as there was a service, but we peeked in.

Our second stop was in Haugesund.  A former Viking center, it is also an important oil town.  We did not leave the ship.  The stop was very early in the morning (from 7 to 9.30 AM) and it was pouring with rain.  We did make some soggy deck circuits on the walking deck as we left.

Åalesund saw a great improvement in the weather. (Å is pronounced “Al” as in “alley.”) We actually saw the sun!  It was a lovely town, rebuilt in art nouveau style in 1904 after a major fire. 

We enjoyed our walk through town, finishing with a visit to the Art Museum.  Part of this was housed in a lovely building which had formerly been a chemist shop. 

The furniture displays were interesting as was the art. The spare Scandinavian style that we think of today was not the mode at the beginning of the 20th century.

Sailing into Brønnøysund, the ship detoured to view the Torghatten, a granite dome with a hole through it. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torghatten ) As one might imagine, there are lots of legends!

Brønnøysund was an interesting place. The town is named after the small island Brønnøya (Old Norse: Brunnøy) since it is located on the island. The first element is brunnr which means “well” and the second element is øy which means “island”. The final element of the name is sund which means “strait”, referring to the strait of water that flows alongside the island and town. Islands with freshwater wells were important for seafarers. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brønnøysund) (And the ø is pronounced a bit like the British “oy!) or the French “oeil.” We’re learning.)

A much smaller town than Ålesund, we wandered through the shopping mall and were amazed by the variety of shops and what they contained. The kitchen store would be a find in the DC area.  It might help to like fishing but one could live quite comfortably in Brønnøysund. We visited the Trollfjell Geopark, with its displays of the geology of the surrounding area, the Vega Archipelago. (https://trollfjellgeopark.no/index.php/en/ )

When we last saw our heroes, they were planning to drive the length of the Norwegian coast. On further consideration, we decided that we had had enough of one lane roads in Scotland and so cancelled the visit to Norway and rebooked as a cruise with the Hurtigruten company.(https://www.hurtigruten.com/en-us/about-us/voyages/north-cape-line) With luck, we might get to see the northern lights and would not have to worry about trying to stud the tires, etc.

After cancelled flights and rebooking, via telephone calls to India, we set off, in February, from Dulles with British Airways. We had a pleasant flight to Oslo, via a painless connection at Heathrow. With three suitcases of both winter and summer gear, and bits for the camper, we splurged for a very expensive taxi to the hotel. in downtown Oslo. The hotel turned out to be lovely and right in the middle of the shopping district – a good thing as Fred had neglected to pack his light gloves or his knit cap. We dropped into a shopping mall and asked about gloves in a store. A lovely young lady wearing a sunn (o))) t-shirt directed us to a sporting/camping store. Want to feel old? Back in the ’60’s, Fred had, and still has, a sunn amplifier, but now, the same logo is used by a drone/drudge/noise rock band that use sunn amps for ear numbing feedback. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunn_O)))) The gear store was excellent and hands and ears are now warm!

Downtown Oslo is quite compact, with an interesting mixture of modern buildings and a few of a more classic, European style.

We hopped a bus to the open air folk museum. A bit like the Weald and Downland Museum, Colonial Williamsburg, and others, this is a collection of relocated historic buildings. (https://norskfolkemuseum.no/en) The stave church was especially interesting as we had actually visited a stave church in, of all places, South Dakota. (https://diplostrat.net/2019/07/07/going-to-the-devil/)

Fred, of course, was most taken by a museum cat who was out enjoying the sun.

The national museum of cultural history, down town, was a surprise as it was highly themed/concept, and not historically or chronologically, arranged. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Cultural_History,_Oslo) Exhibits ranged from Ice Age geology to a model of Temple Grandin’s slaughter house. (!!) It did include the oldest known Viking helmet and other Viking grave goods. 

The Viking Museum, with its complete ship, is currently closed for renovation. Bummer, but we had seen ships last year in Denmark.

The following morning we were given a short bus tour of Oslo, courtesy of Hurtigruten. We had expected that the “tour” would be a simple drive to the pier, but it turned out to be much, much more. We started up at the skiing complex with the Olympic level ski jump, which was totally scary! 

We then went to the Frogner Park, which includes the Vigeland Sculpture Park. https://vigeland.museum.no/en/vigelandpark) This is hundreds of nude granite and bronze statues, all based on the Circle of Life theme.  An additional group of statues surrounded a huge fountain, which was obviously not running. Vigeland himself appears to be a most interesting, misogynistic soul.  A rather dead rose garden surrounded the fountain – it would be a joy in summer. 

We joined our ship the MS Tollfjord and  celebrated our departure from Oslo that evening with a small Sail-away toast. Skoal!

We had expected to wait about a week for our truck to appear, but plans have a habit of going awry and the ship carrying the 917, the Hawaiian Highway, was about 2 weeks late! 

Because of the delay, Denise’s brother ended up hosting us for a total of three weeks, which really was above and beyond the call of duty.  We were, needless to say, very grateful.  And, as always, we had great fun together!

While near Chichester, in Sussex, we were able to explore the area a little. We made several visits to Chichester, a lovely Roman town with fragments of wall still existing and the traditional Roman cardo layout, with four main streets leading to the medieval cross in the center of town.  (“Chester” comes from the Latin, “castra” meaning fortress. See also Doncaster, Leicester, and all the rest.) There are lots of fun shops (for a few important purchases) and wonderful coffee shops for a coffee or light lunch.

On a rather chilly day we went to the Wetlands Reserve at Arundel, a nearby town, to view its amazing selection of different ducks, coots and swans.  They are free to leave if they wish but most obviously do not.  They looked quite at home.

Fred and Denise’s brother, Trevor, snuck out for a quick visit to the little Air Museum at Tangmere. Devotees of the Battle of Britain will have heard of Tangmere, one of the many RAF bases. (https://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk) The little museum is well worth a visit for the extensive memorabilia and, next time, the flight simulators!

In 1937 the Gloucester Gladiator became operational with the RAF; the last biplane. It even served during most of WWII. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_Gladiator) In 1943 the Gloucester Meteor became the first operational jet fighter on the allied side – a span of only six years. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_Meteor) Considering that the first jets were only conceived of in the late 1930, this was an insanely short time. The Meteor was so secret that pilots were no allowed over German lines least one crash and be recovered. The Meteor was used to intercept V1 flying bombs and to tip them over with the wing so that the gyro would fail and the bomb would crash. That would have been a wild maneuver.

Fred was amazed; he knew that the Allies were working on jets, but did not know that any were ever operational.

Chichester also has a Ship Canal and we enjoyed a lovely walk along the towpath one morning.  In the early 1800’s, there was an idea to connect London with the sea near Chichester. The goal was route to carry heavy cargo that was protected from French raiders on the Channel. The canal never reached London or made any money, but it did make it to Chichester. Quite an interesting little artifact. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichester_Canal) Again, we saw a selection of ducks, coots, and moorhens.

We were back in Arundel a week or so later to visit the Castle and to explore the gardens during the Tulip Festival.  The Festival had been delayed for a week as with a chilly spring, the tulips were not flowering!  

The displays were wonderful, though some flowers were still not open. 

The tour of the Castle, which is the home of the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl Marshal of England, was most interesting.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_Norfolk) (You don’t want to meet the current Duke on the road; he is under a six month driving ban!)

The castle is old, parts are Norman, huge, in good condition, and still occupied by the family. Needless to say, it has been expanded and altered many times. Some of the bedrooms you can visit are still used for guests! This leads to the odd anachronism of telephones and modern magazines in odd places. Arundel should definitely be on your short list of castles to visit, if only for the only intact portcullis the first that we have ever seen. (https://www.arundelcastle.org)

The Dukes of Norfolk are hereditary Earls Marshal. While this used to mean tending to the king’s horses, now the primary duty is to organize major state occasions. For example, the funeral of Elizabeth II and, more recently, the coronation of Charles III. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Marshal)

If you read the Bayeux Tapestry in the original latin (doesn’t everybody?), you will learn that Edward went to the church at Bosham before leaving on his ill-fated trip to what is now Normandy. WE went to Bosham to have fish and chips at a great pub with Denise’s cousin, visiting with his wife from Iceland. (Small world. His wife’s nephew is a great guitar tech at a guitar shop in Arlington and performed an amazing setup on Fred’s Strat!)

Bosham is an interesting little town as parts of it flood every high tide. And even though it has been doing this since Edward’s time, people still park in the wrong places! And, fish and chips enjoyed, we also visited the church, which is still there, if greatly expanded. (https://boshamchurch.org.uk)

We spent a lovely morning at the Weald and Downland Museum.  Our first visit in about 30 years!  (https://www.wealddown.co.uk) The Weald and Downland museum is a large, open air collection of “vernacular” buildings from the Middle Ages on. Basically, the buildings in which real people, not the nobility, lived and worked. It has parallels in Colonial Williamsburg and Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. If your image of the past begins with castles and stately homes, this museum completes the picture with houses of more ordinary people. It has expanded a bit and there were new exhibits.

Finally, we had word that we could pick up the 917 in Southampton.  We really appreciated the train system around that area.  We had taken the train from Gatwick Airport to Trevor’s local station, Barnham, when we arrived.  Later we took the train from Barnham to Chichester to shop and now we took the train from Barnham to Southampton to pick up the truck.  A great system.  The Brits always complain about the trains, but would that we had similar service around DC. Oh, we did. And we had street cars in DC – until the great Firestone/General Motors campaign of the 1950’s. Breaks your heart.

We spent a day unpacking our clothes as we had shipped some in the camper.  We had also locked most of our possessions in the back garage, so that all needed to be organized and sorted. 

Then we visited the camper storage facility that we had thought to use during our returns to the States only to find that they thought us to to be “inappropriate.” So we are currently looking at alternatives – stand by; trains may be involved again!  We had our first shopping trip and then headed back to prepare for departure.

The M-25 awaits!

After finding our bearings on day one, we had a better idea of what we wanted to see on day two.  We started by taking the Hop On Hop Off bus on its second route.

Everyone recommended the Barcelona Maritime Museum (https://www.mmb.cat/en/) So we “hopped” off the bus at the front door. It is an amazing place with a full size reproduction of the galley “Real”, the flagship of the Holy League Fleet at the Battle of Lepanto.  (1571)

The world is divided into two types of people, normal people who have never heard of the Battle of Lepanto and geeks like Fred who love this stuff. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lepanto) He remembers a young adult book about the battle which turned on the adventures of a young fisherman who was there, met Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish author, and had other adventures. Cervantes was badly injured during the battle.

Fred needless to say, knew all about this and was absolutely fascinated by both the small scale model and the full size reconstruction, which had been built for the 300 year anniversary. (Build a few more and we could make a great movie!)

By the Battle of the Armada in 1588, almost all of the ships used were galleons with no oars, but lots of cannon on the sides. But, it is reported that there were four great Venetian galleasses that were seaworthy enough to cross the Bay of Biscay.

On a nice bright sunny day we took a cable car from the port up a hill to the south of the city.  The views were spectacular and included full city views (See pictures at top of page) plus the loading of a ferry to Morocco.  We even saw a Unimog camper being loaded.  And enjoyed a nice cappucino coffee with our view!

We visited more museums while in Barcelona.  The first was the Picasso Museum. The mature Picasso is a specialized form of art. But we had learned that the Picasso museum featured his early work as well, and that aspect of the museum was absolutely fascinating – to watch him evolve from a superb, but very “classic” painter into an avant garde artist. While Fred is not a fan of the avant garde, it is clear that he would never have become as famous had he continued in the traditional vein.  (No photos)

But our taste runs to music rather than Picasso and after another wonderful tapas dinner, we enjoyed an excellent Flamenco guitar and dance concert at the Palau de la Musica.  The guitarists were stunning and we even bought a CD! (https://www.barcelonaguitartrio.com/en/bcn3-2/) They are a local group and the audience clearly liked and supported them.

The second Museum was the Casa Batilo, remodeled by Gaudi with a free hand and deep pockets.  The result is an absolutely different house design, though based on some very interesting science, with no straight lines anywhere. (https://www.casabatllo.es/en/) Casa Batilo means “bat house” but sometimes it seemed more batspit crazy!

Lastly, we simply enjoyed wandering the tiny streets of the Gothic section near our hotel.  You never know what you will find….we found ice cream shops (with wonderful ice cream inside), apartments and bridges built over the streets.

A seminal event of modern Catalan history was the Siege of Barcelona during the War of Spanish Succession. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Barcelona_%281713%E2%80%931714%29) The results were far reaching in many spheres, and one result was the leveling of the Born district to make a clear fire zone outside the city walls.

When it was restored, a large, modern steel market was built. 

And when it reached the end of its commercial life, it was to be razed. When this started it was discovered that the market sat on an extensive range of ruins and, even better, because of municipal records, the exact details of almost every building were known. (https://elbornculturaimemoria.barcelona.cat/)

And, with that, it was time to pack for the flight to Gatwick.

In 1955 the S.S Exeter sailed into Barcelona harbor.

On deck was a five year old Fred who remembers to this day – Spanish railway cars have four big wheels and not eight small wheels like US trains, and that the clamshells on dock cranes don’t have teeth so they don’t puncture the hulls of ships as they load and unload things like coal. His father took two pencils and some string to explain how cargo booms can more items between the pier and a ship. Useful things for a five year old to understand!

Our arrival in Barcelona began with a pretty sunrise.

Barcelona harbor is still busy and now has a huge section devoted to cruise ships and ferries. We disembarked and grabbed a taxi to our hotel, conveniently located down near the water and deep in the gothic district, aka, tourist central.

We like the hop on/off busses available in many cities as they allow you an overview and can help you to get an impression of a city and to start to get your bearings. We bought a two day ticket and set off. We had thought to get off and admire the new Familia Sagrada (Sacred Family) cathedral, but the crowds were huge and it was not clear that we would be able to get on the next bus.

So we got off at the top of La Rambla, the main tourist strip and inspiration for the title of this post, and went looking for lunch. This turned out to be a nice little restaurant in an ancient cellar. A tourist trap to be sure, but a very nice trap. (https://julivertmeu.com/)

After lunch, we continued back to the hotel, admiring (?) the crowds.

Dinner was a wander through the neighborhood in search of tapas. We especially enjoyed the Chorizo Napalm.

Tourism would begin in earnest on the morrow!

As 2020 opened, we began to get serious about our plans to spend a year or three traveling in Europe and North Africa in the 917.

The idea was fairly simple – ship the truck to Europe and start traveling in a part of the world that had mostly been fly over countries for most of our lives. Then came COVID. 

Now, in 2023, it was time for another look. Several things had changed – the increasing enforcement of the Schengen Agreement which limits time in the European Union to 90 days in, followed by 90 days out, was a major complication. Although there are reports that enforcement is variable, the penalty for overstay is a ban from entering the EU for three years, so this is not something that we want to risk. So this means that we will be traveling in and out of the UK, where we can get 180 days at a time, and then dropping into the EU.

So we launched into a siege of repairs and upgrades, picked a shipping company, and made a reservation. Denise found a repositioning cruise on Viking with very low rates, so we chose that as an alternative to flying. In the end, as the ship carrying the truck is running about two weeks late, this was probably not a good idea for the initial trip – would have been better for subsequent returns to the UK, but it was a lot of fun. And an interesting opportunity to compare/contrast with our almost identical trip on Seabourn.

We drove up to Baltimore to drop off the truck, to almost exactly the same place where Fred recovered his Blazer in 1975, after the trans Sahara trip. (https://pbase.com/diplostrat/sahara) When Fred received the truck in ’74 it had been completely looted – here’s hoping that we do better this time!

We flew to Fort Lauderdale to join the Viking Star. Boarding was easy and we set out to explore the ship which, while larger, was almost the twin in layout to the Seabourn Sojourn. It was fascinating to note what was the same and what differed from the other ship. In the end, they were more alike than different. 

After an easy departure, the Pilot went ashore and, later, we waved goodbye to Miami. We were finally en route.

We settled into the routine at sea. And we enjoyed the wonderful weather.

We skipped going ashore in Phillipsburg, but were looking forward to Madeira, a kind of magical place. It is easy to see why it it is so high on the European list of vacation spots. With only a four hour visit, we skipped the the packaged tours and set off into town to in search of coffee and a visit to the cathedral.

Funchal is really pretty.

Our first stop was the park where we admired a statue of Bolivar and had a chat with a lovely lady who had just moved back to Madeira after living in Venezuela for years.

Fortified with and espresso and a gelato, we visited the cathedral, a rather plain, gothic building, dating from the late 16th century. One of the few intact buildings from the early colonial period.

Sailing away from Funchal we passed Kong’s island. 😉

Sadly, we passed through the Straits of Gibralter at night.

The next day we sailed up the Mediterranean coast of Spain towards Barcelona.

As the sun set, we passed Ibiza. Barcelona tomorrow morning.