This cruise was just what we needed. While our previous two cruises to Africa and South America were wonderful and visited much more exotic places than the Voyage of the Vikings Cruise, they also presented many more challenges. There was the unrelenting heat and humidity, unstable governments, dangerous ports and other uncertainties that we faced on those cruises. That’s not to say that we didn’t enjoy those cruises, we loved them and visited many interesting and unforgettable places and wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything, but they were very stressful, and that’s why I said this cruise was just what we needed; a chance to relax a little.
The most stressful thing about this cruise was getting to and from Boston. Once we were on the ship we didn’t have to worry about customs and immigration at the ports, we weren’t warned about dangerous situations in any of the ports and felt very safe everywhere we went. Most of the places we visited were small towns and villages with only Rotterdam and perhaps Belfast being the only large cities. Also, despite the fact that we had a lot of cool and, at times, rainy weather, it was a welcome respite from the heat and humidity of Africa and South America.
This was the first time we have taken a cruise that we have taken before, and we wondered whether we would be disappointed and it wouldn't live up to our memories, but that didn’t happen. We did visit six ports we hadn’t been to before and enjoyed revisiting the ports we had been to previously. We love visiting Iceland and Greenland and wish we could spend more time there. The Shetland Island and the Isle of Lewis were very pleasant surprises, and we really enjoyed our visits there. And even though we have been through Prince Christian Sound four times now, we never tire of it. Its dramatic and pristine beauty makes it the most beautiful place we have ever seen.
As far as future travels, I’m not sure right now as we have only one thing planned. We keep talking about a road trip, but things keep coming up and postpone any planning for that. I have also started looking at river cruises, but nothing definite there either. I don’t know, I guess we’re slowing down a bit in our old age. The one thing we do have planned is a 28-day Alaskan cruise next June that is a roundtrip out of Seattle. It visits most of the usual Alaskan cruise ports, but it also goes all the way up to Nome while crossing the Arctic Circle. We also visit Kodiak Island, Dutch Harbor (in the Aleutian Islands), and several other lesser visited places.
That’s it for now and we’ll see you on down the road.
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