Day 29 (May 31) Side trip to Hanau

Tiredness must have caught up with us we didn't arise until 8:30.  Our continental breakfast was awaiting us, and we enjoyed it.  We waited and waited for Stefan's assistant to come in so that we could pay our bill and get our insurance.  Another couple from the States arrived and we enjoyed chatting with them especially after we discovered that he was an Iron Butt Rally finisher in 2011, the year it started in Seattle and finished in Ontario, CA.  

Finally after noon the lady showed up, but she had been having medical issues which delayed her.  She took care of the both of us and Dave and Lee-Ann were on the way to Strasbourg, France and we followed shortly thereafter on our exploration trip to Hanau.

After leaving Knopf Tours we refueled the bike for the first time in a year and made our way up to Hanau via the back roads.  The ride through the countryside and small villages was fun, but the traffic in and around Hanau was horrific.  We found the center of town and the historic castle before taking a little rest break to stretch our legs and cool off a bit.  Riding this large bike in city traffic is a challenge with all of the stop and go traffic.  But we managed.

I let the GPS route us back via a different route than we rode up on.  I kept us off the freeway except fowr one short section.  We made a quick McRib stop along the way to rebuild our energy loss, and arrived back at Knopf Tours at 9:25 or just after dark.  We chatted with a couple new riders from Canada who were just finishing their 2016 rides.

We did a little route planning for tomorrow before collapsing into beds.

Day 28 (May 30) Bike and Route Preparations

After a good night's rest, we woke up to a light drizzle.  I needed to find some replacement fuses for one of our power cords, so we took a 20 minute walk downtown to my favorite store in Heidelberg: Bauhaus.  It's very much like a Home Depot or Lowe's.  I easily located the fuses and purchased  them before we walked back to the Golden Arches where we were served the last breakfast meal for the day at 10:30.  We checked out of the Ibis and toted our luggage down the street to the light rail which took us to Kirscheim where our motorcycle was waiting for us.  

At Knopf Tours where the bike is stored, we met Joseph from New Zealand who was servicing his Dr650 for a ride across Asia towards home.  I found our motorcycle and noted that it had a new battery installed and was missing one of the throttle rockers I use to relax my grip.  Otherwise the bike looked ready to go with its brand new tires.  I remounted the panniers and top box as well as the front panniers and tankbag.  We sorted out our gear and then I spent the bulk of the afternoon resolving why my Win 10 tablet wouldn't connect to the WIFI.  In the end I found I had to remove the network device and have the computer rediscover it.  Then I had to resolve why my GPS would not connect to the tablet.  That turned out to be a USB cable that was only capable of charging and would not pass data between the devices.  By the time I figured those two items out, both devices needed to be recharged and could not easily be used, so I did manual route planning using paper maps the old school way.

Tomorrow we're riding to Hannau which is about an hour north away to visit the birthplace of the Brothers Grimm.  It's a city filled with lots to do and we may need to spend more time there.  I've got a twisty route planned that will take us along the Neckar River.  We'll likely see some castles.  Actually I know we will as we've previously taken a river cruise up the river.

Day 27 (May 29)Arrival & Departure - Amsterd

Today was our last day on the Koningsdam and the beginning of the next part of our 2016 European adventure.

We rose and showered and went up to the Lido for our last onboard breakfast and waited for our disembarkation tag Green 1 to be called.  Holland America uses different colored and numbered tags to disembark passengers in an orderly process.  Over the years we've found it to work well, and today was no exception.  During the pre-disembarkation process, we selected an independent departure time and our assigned time was 8:30 - 8:45am. Promptly at 8:30 our color was called, "Guests holding Green 1, please proceed to the gangway on Deck #2.  Thank you for sailing with Holland America and we wish you a pleasant rest of your journey home."  And with that announcement, we returned to our room #5087 for the last time, collected our belongings, got scanned off the ship, and collected our luggage in the terminal which we easily found.

Friends we had met on several earlier cruises were getting ready to board the Koningsdam for a two week Norwegian cruise.  They had stayed at the Mövenpick hotel for the night (located right next door to the ship), so we popped in on them (pre-arranged) and enjoyed a great couple hours chatting with William & Carolyn and their adult son Adam.  They were excited to be boarding and we were excited to share what we had just experienced over the past 3 weeks on the ship. One just can't buy these kind of friendships. Even though we hadn't cruised together for a couple years, it was just like yesterday.  We even discussed the possibility of cruising together in the fall to Australia.  We'll see if that works out.  We also sold them the remainder of our Norwegian krone money

While it was tough to say goodbye, we knew they'd have a good time as will we on the next part of our adventure.  Off we headed for the train station (Centraal Station about 1/2 mile away) walking and pulling our single small rolling suitcase while we encountered dozens of passengers coming from the train station and headed for the ship with their large or even double rolling suitcases.  Their identifying mark was the distinctive Koningsdam luggage tag.  One Australian man stopped and said, "You're going the wrong way!" to which I replied, "we just spent 3 weeks on it and it was good."  Nearer the train station another couple, this time from Holland, engaged us with conversation, and we shared information with them.

Centraal Station is HUGE but well laid out with lots of shopping on the level below the trains and buses.  We found our departure platform 10b, took a bio break, and Angela purchased some bread to go with our remaining Gouda  cheese and stuffed olives from Cádiz and sodas for a picnic meal on the train.

Right on time our train arrived and it was a major hurdle to get on.  Fortunately we had reserved seats so once we muscled our way through the masses, and Angela used her Spanish to evict a seat squatter, we settled in for our picnic.  All of the preceding took around 15 minutes of maneuvering while the train was moving!

Interestingly, the train moved relatively slow and steady across Holland.  At the border, a German engine and crew took over the train, and our tickets were checked.  From now on we would just be seeing the German countryside.  After that change, the train really sped up!  At Osnabrück, we changed trains for the final 5 hour segment to Heidelberg.   

TIP:  Even if you are travelling by train in second class, get reserved seats.  The current train was oversold and many passengers without seats had to get off!

Much of this segment was along the Rhine River with little villages, nice camping sites, big castles and lots of commercial boat traffic.  We arrived in Heidelberg about 30 minutes late and in the dark despite skipping several smaller stops along the way.  Our lodging for the night at IBIS was right next to the train station and had set of Golden Arches next to it.  

We had a little bite to eat and a soda, but walked back to the IBIS in a downpour!  

After a quick shower to remove the travelling sweat (did I mention that our train car was roasting hot in cool weather?), bed beaconed but we still fantasized about what was happening on board the Koningsdam as it plied its way north through the North Sea without us. . . But we had our own different adventure ahead of us.

Day 25 (May 27) Oslo, Norway

The last port stop on any of our cruises begins the deflation of the energy associated with the entire cruise.  Oslo was no different.  We were in port slightly ahead of schedule around 9:30am and Ian Page provided scenic cruising commentary for the 2 1/2 hours time cruising up the Oslo fjord. We didn't attend the first half as our rest time was too short as it was.

The ship berths right downtown with the bow facing the City Hall and right across the street from the ancient fort.  We disembarked the ship and found our walking tour group which was organized by a CC member.  This was to be a 5  hour tour and we were underway by 10am.  Agnes, our tour leader, led us up the fort pathways and down the back side towards the Opera house and beside a replica of Noah's ark.  

The Opera house has a very unique design which makes it look like an iceberg plus it's possible to walk on the roof leading to some spectacular views.  From there we walked towards the downtown area by the National theatre to the City Hall (Rathaus) where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented.  On the second floor are some nice paintings of Norwegian royalty.

We then purchased tickets for the #12 tram which took us out by the American Embassy to the 80+ acre Vigeland Park which is home to the numerous nude sculptures designed by Gustav Vigeland.  While he didn't actually carve the sculptures, he designed them and created the models.  They are really quite well done.  We then took the #12 tram back to the waterfront area where our tour ended at 3pm.  We found an ATM to get some more Norwegian currency and ate a quick snack of pizza and Coke Zero at a 7/11 store before doing some wandering around the port area and the City Hall in search of magnet souvenirs.  We then wandered back to the ship did our 5:30 all aboard time.  I turned in the receipt to the taxing authority on board he ship for my jacket purchase and got the $12US tax back.  

Right on schedule, Captain Emil pulled out of the berth, did a 180° counterclockwise turn and we sailed out through the Oslo Fjord listening to Ian's scenic cruising commentary for about 45 minutes before eating dinner in the Lido and watching the fjord pass by.  There was some sort of sailboat race and if was neat to see the boats healed way over as they sailed back towards Oslo.  There was also a scenic cannon emplacement to view that Ian gad alerted us to during the scenic cruising.  We caught the 8:30 performance of the cast show of Billboard Hits (a replay for us from the first two week cruise).  We tried to watch the poolside movie, Interstellar), but couldn't get into it so we returned to the room to read before lights out at midnight.

Day 26 (May 28) At sea to Amsterdam

After doing sea days on long ocean crossings, I find these single day sea days to be significantly under-fulfilling.  The only significant items of the day were the Mariners award ceremony and brunch, a travel trivia game with Ian Page that was rather fun and lively and a reshowing of Ice Planet Live on the World Stage.  We spiced it up a bit by returning to the Tamarind for our third dinner there where there were also several other Cruise Critic couples eating dinner.  I had the super tender tenderloin while Angela had the duck.  This is clearly our favorite  restaurant on the ship!

After dinner Sid (one of the CC couples and a doctor) offered me some decongestant for the cold I had acquired. We followed him back to their room which was an aft balcony to pick up the tablets.  Their room is not much bigger than our inside stateroom, but the balcony is nice.  I also finished my Shadow Divers book (I highly recommend it).  We packed and put out rollabout cases to be offloaded so we don't have to carry them off the ship and then went to bed a bit earlier as we needed to be up earlier.

Day 24 (May 26) Kristiansand, Norway

After what seemed like a short night's rest, we heard the 8am ok to go ashore.  Since our walking tour didn't start until 10am, we got dressed and headed up to the Lido for breakfast.  I didn't spot Angela in our normal eating spot but found a place with Rose and John from Cruise Critic and saved her a place. About halfway through our meal, our hostess mentioned that Angela was sitting at the other end of the area.  Rose went and told her where we were sitting but Angela stayed put as she was enjoying conversation with a German lady and her son.  

Just before 10am we met shoreside with our guide and Lori F and her husband John who organized the tour.  Our guide, John, was a lifelong resident of Kristiansand and retired 3 years ago from work in the silica plant where he worked for 40 years.  He led us on a delightful 3 hour tour through Kristiansand pointing out out items would probably not discovered on our own.  Kristiansand is the 4th largest city in Norway after Oslo, Bergen, and Stavanger.  It relies now on fishing and tourism as principal industries.  The city was named after King Kristian IV who founded it on ground of sand hence the name.  

The city is laid out in a square pattern with evenly spaced crosshatch spaced streets.  There's a main shopping street named Markensgate (with heating coils in the street so prevent freezing during the winter months) and there is one of the most striking McDonald's in the world there:  it has the facade of a Roman columned former bank building.  The Cathedral is fairly plain but has a couple of stained glass windows on the altar end of the structure. It was destroyed at the beginning of WWII and later rebuilt).  An organ recital was being  played when we were there and it was refreshing to listen to. The city also has one of Europe's largest collections of old, low-rise timber houses.  John pointed out the one he was raised in after WWII.

At the conclusion of the tour we walked back downtown and enjoyed a simple McDonald's meal and used their WIFI before wandering our way back to the ship via the fish market where we sampled a yummy fish cake.

We finally used the first gigabyte of data over an almost 3 week time period on our Glocalme Simcard device.  It's worked out well for the two of us to have easy Internet access when or near port.  I would judge that to be a success.

We were back on the ship early at 3pm for a 4:30 All Aboard time.  Shortly after 5pm the anchor lines were relaxed and re-stowed, and with a long toot of the horn we pulled away from the dock and did a 180 degree counterclockwise rotation before sailing out of the harbor leaving the Ocean Glory at her berth.  We did a quick change into our gala clothes (for me it was in my freshly cleaned suit - one has to love the free laundry for 4 star Mariners) for our dinner reservation at 5:30pm in the Tamarind (our favorite specialty restaurant).  This was to be the first cruise where we have never eaten a gala night dinner in the main dining room.  We were assigned our favorite table aft overlooking the rear pool area where we watched the sailing out of the harbor with a beautiful sunset.  We ordered the lobster without breading along with a shared tenderloin steak so we would have our own 'surf and turf' which was the key entree in the main dining room.  It was delicious and the tenderloin was probably the most tender of any steak on any HAL ship I've had.  Our open bottle of Moscato was retrieved from the main dining room and it complemented the meal wonderfully.  Additionally, the Matre Dei remembered us from  our cruise last fall on the Eurodam.

We caught most of the 7pm World Stage show which featured Iris Kroes, the 23 year old who won Holland's The Voice TV show competition who also sang for the Queen during the dedication ceremony a week ago .  We stayed in the showroom to see her 8:30pm performance.  We've spoken with her offstage and she's quite approachable.

We returned to the room and watched the movie 'Big Game' set in Finland and involving a terrorist attack on Air Force One.  It was a cute flick.

Day 23 (May 25) Stavanger, Norway

For the second time on these two cruises we enjoyed a most excellent day.  Following our customary Lido breakfast, we disembarked the ship in Stavanger around 9am and found our way to one of the local souvenir shops where we located our customary city magnet and confirmed the location of our bus pickup for our 450 krone Viking tour. The dock is right in the center of town which makes walking to a number of attractions quite easy.

Just before 10am we boarded the very colorfully decorated Viking Tour bus with 20 other guests.  Camille, our tour guide, who was actually from Colombia but met a Norwegian fellow and moved here, introduced us to the tour concept.  She was dressed in replica Viking clothing.  It turned out that this was a brand new tour and we were the very first group to take it.  Our guide then fave us a history of the Vikings and my big takeaway was that Viking is actually a verb meaning to go long distances.  Also Vikings never wore helmets with horns on them.  In fact only one Viking helmet has ever been found.  For the rest of Viking history, I'll let the reader research that independently and not bore you here.

We also learned that Bluetooth is a Viking term and again I'll let you research the background on that.

Our first stop was at a memorial to the Vikings which was a replica to the 3 swords stuck in a rock and located elsewhere in Norway.  Here we had the opportunity to don replica Viking helmets.  We learned a bit more history before heading on to a very old church and a Stone Henge type monument.  Our last stop was at a reconstructed Iron Age farm (pre-Vikings) where we got to go in a long house with stone walls and a sod roof.  A lady dressed in period costume explained the history of the farm.  Our Viking bus then dropped us back at the pier just in time for our 2pm catamaran ride with 200 of our closest friends out to Pulpit Rock.  

The ride was fast and extremely scenic.  Near Pulpit Rock we docked for a 'snack' of waffles, sour cream and jelly and tea.  It was yummy especially since we hadn't eaten lunch.  Our turnaround point was at a spectacular waterfall named Hengjanefossen.  The captain pulled up the boat right in front the waterfall so close the passengers in front got splashed. Seeing the rock from the underside was spectacular and we could even see people dangling their legs over the edge.  Scary stuff.  There were also some goats along the way in their summer pasture and a very lonely mailbox that one would have to rappel down a cliff to retrieve any mail!  We returned to the ship with 10 minutes to spare but there was at least one group still behind us.  

As soon as that group was on board, we departed with the customary toots of the horn.  Thus area is the heart of Norway's sea oil drilling industry and we saw lots of boats devoted to that support as oil prices are low so drilling activity is reduced.

We ate a quick Lido Marketplace dinner before listening to Rogerio Tutti, a Brazilian classical pianist who was good.  We then participated in and won the game show 'Majority Rules' along with Anneken & Harlan and Dennis & Judy.  After that show, we chatted with them for an hour until the BBC game show was on with our friend Keith as a participant.  His team won a dinner in the Culinary Arts restaurant.  We capped the evening off watching the wonderful Robert Deniro/Anne Hathaway movie, The Intern.

I learned today from our show host, Saul, that the ship is fully booked at 2,600 on this cruise and that there are over 1,000 Dutch passengers on board.  The atmosphere on board really changed when we left Amsterdam!  Some good and some not so good.

Yes it was wonderful day, but my wife reminded me we have only 4 more sleeps until the end of the cruise.