Copenhagen, Denmark. Who knew they had so many canals too?
The wall of the brew house.
Nancy, Deb and Carol in Copenhagen, Denmark
The entrance to Christian's riding barns featured gold embellished buttresses.
Near the old Fish Market.
The front of the old Fish Market.
Along the old Fish Market.
Nancy and Carol at the Old Fishmarket.
Statue of the founder of Copenhagen.
Waiting for our canal tour.
Watch your head!
The old stock exchange of Copenhagen. The spire is made of 4 dragons tails twisted together.
Another view of the spire of the old stock exchange.
Another bridge.
Heading up one of the oldest canals in Copenhagen, the canal of ill repute.
A lighthouse ship.
Entering the red light district of Copenhagen.
Yes, it does look like a street sign.
Copenhagen's Opera House is nearly as striking as Sydney, Australia's.
A neat apartment complex on one of the canals.
It has a drive-in dock.
These are very old boat houses converted into office and living space.
If I'm not mistaken, this is the world's oldest naval academy, here in Copenhagen.
The sailing ship the cadets from the naval academy learn on.
The Norwegian sub on display took part in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Queen's yacht.
Trekroner Fort in the distance.
The Little Mermaid's backside.
I tried to get a picture of the lamppost with the dragon holding the light. They seem to like dragons here.
"David" in Copenhagen.
The flag on the palace means the Queen is in residence.
A canal through Christianshavn, a residencial area of Copenhagen.
Nice digs.
This building is called "The Black Diamond". Water appears to cascade down its face, but it's just a reflection of the canal.
Back past the old brewery. You might recognize the ivy covered wall.
We walked along the left side of this canal to get to where we caught the canal cruise.
There's the gold crowns again.
Passing under one of the bridges across the canal.
This is one of the oldest bridges and canals in Copenhagen.
The old fish market from the canal.
Oh, thank heaven!
The canal in front of the Marriott where we stayed.
The Copenhagen Marriott.
Waiting for the walk to Tivoli Gardens.
The view from the Marriott hotel towards Tivoli Gardens. You can see one of the rides there in the middle of the picture.
Very few jaywalkers here in Copenhagen. Bikes also studiously minded the traffic signals and used the roads like a car would.
We walked to Tivoli Gardens in the evening to see the lights. It was a short couple of blocks from the hotel. Note the streetlights strung over the street rather than fastened to the ground on poles like ours.
The train station bike parking lot.
You didn't want to get caught walking in the street for the cars or the bikes.
More bike parking.
Suddenly, here we were.
I guess they're everywhere.
I didn't realize Indians smoked Meerschaum.
Inside Tivoli Gardens.
Not sure why no one was eating outdoors, except maybe for being a weeknight and cool.
T
One might wonder if NBC Universal sponsors this theater in the park.
You can see where Disney got some of it's lighting ideas from.
Another entrance to Tivoli, there seemed to be one on each side.
The dinner foursome. Nancy, Deb and I enjoyed weinerschnitzel (well, Deb did until she was told there was a little fish in the garnish on it) and Carol had fish.
First meal on the Norwegian Sun in the Garden Cafe.
"Happy, happy, washie, washie!"
Looking around the ship prior to sailing, this is the Great Outdoor Cafe aft.
The open pool deck 11 looking forward.
Taken from the Sports deck 12 looking aft you can see the pools and the basketball courts beyond.
Looking forward on the Sports deck 12 to the bridge mast and Sky deck.
Another look forward from the Sports deck. The stage on the pool deck was only used a couple of times for entertainment during the cruise.
Looking up the starboard side of the ship from the walkway around the stack. The large "golfball" in the middle of the picture is the cell phone - satellite link dish. The golf driving and baseball batting cages are in the foreground below under the nets. In the distance in the water, you can see several of the many wind turbine generators that are used extensively in northern Europe.
Shuffleboard layout and basketball courts on the Sports deck.
Looking aft from the Sky deck along the starboard side. Just below the bottom of the picture is another hot tub.
It was a cool, breezy and overcast embarkation day in Copenhagen. I couldn't find the mast coin.
A not-so-good shot of the Observation lounge where I spent a good many hours quietly reading and "riding the waves". The bright area in the rear of the picture are windows.
In the atrium at the Internet kiosks.
Looking down in the atrium at the Java Cafe and the glass elevators.
The Promanade deck. We are waiting for the muster call before we sail. Sadly, the Sun kept no deck chairs on this deck, so unless you wanted to walk, jog or stand and look out, there was little reason to be here.
A dose of my own medicine! I love it! Like all experienced, good little cruisers, we anticipated the muster call and migrated to our station ahead of time to avoid the rush. Are we well trained or what?
At our Cruise Critic Sail-Away party, I met up with Dan and Barb, two Canadian friends made through Cruise Critic. Barb's uncle served and died during WWI around the Ypres, Belgium area that we were supposed to tour while in Belgium. Unfortunately, the 2 tours we tried to do were both canceled. Dan and Barb quite thoughtfully brought me a poppy along with a pamphlet containing the poem "On Flanders Fields" along with some other very touching personal momentoes.
Silby, our room steward, was very good at towel creatures. Our first night's companion was a puppy.
The best Cruise Critic leader ever, Steve, in his magical shirt!
Several of the ship's officers always attend the official Cruise Critic Meet and Greets. The man in the blue shirt at the far left is our Cruise Director.
Best Cabin Crawl and Poker Run organizer, David!
Our ship docked in Amsterdam.
Our cabin on the Sun, #4028. It was a bit cramped. We had the beds pulled apart to make singles so we could actually sleep. The porthole was actually quite large.
Our bathroom. The floormat hanging in the trashcan is a nice touch.
The shower tube. Hard to see from the picture that it was in the shape of a tube. It wasn't too bad actually, but getting the gels out of their holders in the nook took 2 hands and I often knocked the tops off doing so. To the left is the hairdryer.
Deb patiently waiting for her luggage on the rock they called a love seat. This rock does double duty as a bed if there are 3 in the room.
The cabin from the beds. To the left of the chair is where the minibar hid in the cabinet. The room safe was in the cabinet to the left of the TV and the small closet is the floor to ceiling cabinet at far left, beyond which is the cabin door. The bathroom is enclosed behind the wall behind the table with the champagne, which was courtesy of VacationsToGo.com, our travel agent for this cruise.
This is Dazzles, used as a meeting area by day for art auctions, bingo, etc., and a nightclub by night.
The nose of the Sun at right and a park across the way.
Walking to our walk in Amsterdam. In the distance in the middle is the large train station.
Tons of bikes here too. The roadway in the foreground is a bike road, which also accomodates odd little conveyances as well. You didn't want to walk in the bike lanes; they would run you over and keep going.
It seemed there wasn't much of a skyline here.
I guess we were at the old port? I have no idea what the black and white sign is about.
Later in the walk we used the green ape as a landmark.
Still walking to our walk. Now you can see the train station.
The short round tower was the starting point of our walk, which led us between the tower and the church along one of the oldest remaining canals in Amsterdam.
A better look at our starting point.
Notice all the bikes?
???
Our starting point. This is one of the oldest remaining canals in Amsterdam, dating from the 1500s.
I took this picture because I was surprised to find an Irish pub along the way.
One of the sluicegates with capstans along the canals.
Old, narrow streets.
An Argentinan Steak House.
Ooh la la!
The group trying to figure out where we are so we can figure out where to go.
The yellow building down the street is a Buhdist temple.
A goodie store along our walk.
A goodie store!
Bet you didn't know there were so many varieties....
More confusion in the ranks.
Amy's kinda town!
More narrow alleys.
Ever wonder what these are for?
The kindergartners.
We got yelled at and behaved for a minute, except for the oldest one.
Pretty!
The "old church". I think it's the oldest in Amsterdam. Part of the "red light" district is just opposite it down the alley just beyond the white van. No kidding.
The Old Church dates from 1571.
Deb got a picture of the "red light" area around the old church.
The red lights are easily seen here. Notice the camera too.
The difference in the stone work and bricks in the old church represent different times that things were added, modified or fixed.
None of our group used it, but this is a public toilet. I imagine it's a men's room, however, there's toilet paper on the street as you can see. What was funny was that Deb didn't even realize what it was but complained about the smell after being told.
We had all just walked past the "red light" area, on the right of the alley. They are very strict about not taking pictures of them, so, there are no pictures of them. You can see how close to the old church they are.
No, this isn't the "red light" area.....
Looking back, the "red light" area is just around the corner, where you can see red light.
An odd wall, I'm sure there was some story, but I don't remember it.
And Burger King, and Subway.
Touring here certainly gives one a reason to stop and think.
The store below the house.
The upper floors.
The ticket and entrance line for the Anne Frank House went around the corner. We bought our tickets online and didn't have to wait; would suggest anyone do the same. The house and area where the Franks hid is very small and they have to throttle the number of people inside.
Everything is very old here.
The insides of the pub we ate lunch at.
Lunch!
Having a Heineken in Heineken-land.
There were mailboxes and utility hookups to these boats.
We learned that the higher and more ornate your facade, the better the owner was keeping up with the Joneses.
That green weed wasn't spinach after all!
A bicycle parking garage!
It seems bike parking is more trouble than car parking here in Amsterdam. And, don't walk in the bike path, you'll get run over.
A Viking River Tours ship docked. In the distance is not the Sun, but another cruise ship.
From the Observation Walk above the Sun's bridge.
Underway, leaving Amsterdam.
A fast moving hydro-foil.
These wind turbine generators are quite large.
I thought it was neat that there was a car parked on this barge tug.
There were a lot of tunnels under the river.
The other side of the tunnel.
A coal barge race. The inside barge seemed a bit too close to the Sun for comfort.
This pair of barges tailed us all the way to the locks.
Looking at Beverwijk from the river.
More of Beverwijk.
Here's where all the coal on the river was coming from.
Another hydro-foil.
These things were really moving!
Into the lock we go.
Ships transiting the locks draw lots of observers.
See how the road ends at the side of the ship?
The drop to the sea-level water was imperceptible.
It's a much tighter fit that it looks here.
Now we're all the way in. The road has returned.
The Dutch Army on bivouac.
Bye bye, Holland.
The Sun in port at Zeebrugge, Belgium.
In Bruges, Belgium
One of the more modern streets in Bruges.
More bikes and cobblestones. I don't think there is a single tarmac street in Bruges.
Most of the differences you see in the brick and stone are repairs from various war damage.
Here the various stone and brick types represent different building cycles on the church.
Been around awhile.
As you can see, I loved the architecture of Bruges and could have spent much more time here.
Everywhere you looked there was something to take a picture of.
This was a toll gate for the canal. Behind the iron grate in the right bottom corner is where the toll collector worked.
The seats are where the town's ruler sat during various events in the courtyard. The rings behind the seats where used to chain penitents and enemies to the wall.
These pilars where some of the most ancient structures in the town. They are all that remain of a gate.
This once was the town Mayor's home. The spires on either end of the house represent power and wealth.
I really loved this town.
Nothing like a few golden statues to make a building.
This building was spared by ????? because of its mosque-like qualities. Napoleon maybe? I can't remember now.
More rings for punishing people. Occasionally there were bigger people to punish as evidenced by the taller set of rings.
The Beer Temple!
At the beer tasting.
This is a horses water fountain.
"Scrooooooooooogeee!!"
Our towel-animal collection.
The English Channel was very busy. A view from our porthole.
Lisbon
The Portugese "Golden Gate Bridge" in the distance.
Somewhere in Sintra.
As I sat and watched them, the horses seemed to be sharing secrets with each other.
Back in port in Lisbon.
The bridge and the Christ statue in the background. The statue is the twin of the one in Rio de Janeiro.
The architectural styles here were interesting.
Something more medieval if you like.
I thought the airplane on the horizon just above the square was a neat picture.
In the Azores, cows graze freely around the islands.
An urban pineapple farm we visited.
The ubiquitous shack selling pineapple wine.
The pineapples here were tiny, this one is fully grown.
Not only didn't they allow smoking on the bus, but they didn't want those who smoke either, apparently.
Hydrangeas lined the roads everywhere we went.
The countryside was green and gorgeous here.
The homes here have convenient utility access panels.
Stone walls are common here too.
There's a public pool to the left of the obvious, private, one that accesses the ocean's water.
Our Columbian friend, Sibley.
One of the two birds which made the trans-atlantic crossing with us.
