The Northern Crossing. August 2019. Europe then a northern TA on Serenade of the Seas – Copenhagen to Boston via the Northern route – Shetland Islands, Greenland and Iceland.
Every few years Royal does a northern Trans Atlantic via Iceland.
When they announced one for August 2019 that was going to Iceland, Greenland and the Shetland Islands, I decided I needed to go. So booked.
The prices then went from expensive to unbelievably expensive over the next year or so. (I check this week and could get the last Junior Suite for a cool $43,ooo US!!!)
As the time progressed I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to go as too much was happening in life, but I left the booking sitting there.
I then decided to sell my house and move. Cancellation period was right in the middle of me slaving to move out, so decided I didn’t have enough time to think about it and let the booking stay. I would risk my $200 deposit.
Then the stars lined up – the house sold and school said I could take some leave, I would go. Some quick planning was needed. I would go visit two more of the tiny countries.
I had booked points flight 12 months before the trip and could only get stupid flights – wrong direction etc. But oh well. There via the USA. Home via Japan.
Sat 17th August – Fly to San Francisco, for the night then on to Zurich.
Sun 18th – Flying day.
Mon 19th – Arrive in Zurich, Switzerland at 7 pm
Tues 20th – Day trip to Lichtenstein.
Wed 21st – Train to Luxembourg
Thur 22nd – Tourist in Luxembourg then fly to Copenhagen
Friday 23rd – Day trip over THE bridge to Sweden.
Sat 24th – Copenhagen
Sun 25th – Board Serenade of the Seas to Boston.
26th August – Skagen, Denmark
27th Aug – Kristiansand, Norway
28th Aug – Lerwick, Shetland Islands This is where we might see the Aurora Borealis. Fingers crossed.
30 th Aug – Akureyri, Iceland
1 st and 2nd Sept – Reykjavik, Iceland
3rd Sept – Prins Christian Sound, Greenland
4th Sept – Qaqortoq, Greenland
7th Sept – Sydney, Canada,
8th Sept – Halifax, Canada
10th Sept – Boston, USA
12th Sept – Home
I had psyched my self up for my 15 hr flight in Premium Economy. Lots of movies. But as I got to the gate the machine beeped and they handed me a Business class ticket. So after a few movies – I reclined and slept. For a few hours. Awesome.
An Uber to my hotel and a nights sleep. Well – not really. I got into San Francisco at 6pm and was at the hotel in my room by about 8.
I went to sleep at about 10.30 and slept really well till about 2am. The wide awake all night. Damn.
But at least it was easy to get up at 5.30 to go back to the airport.
Must love the tipping thing in US – not. At San Fran I bought two eggs and a sausage dish. It was $12. I handed the waitress a $20 and she asked if I wanted the change. I did indeed. Certainly didn’t tip her that much.
I then had an uneventful comfortable fights to Philadelphia and onto Zurich. Apart from two huge sessions of waiting on the tarmac. Once for 30 min. And then for 60!
I landed in Zurich at 9.am after a lovely flight. Well apart from many of the American Airline planes not having TV screens. Fancy flat beds but no screen. Business class got an iPad but it took an hour before they were handed out. And a not very good selection of movies. Poor me. Binging on movie is the best part of flying.
In true Swiss efficiency we were off and through immigration by 9.15. Bit different to the one hour queue of the last few stops.
I then braved the train system into the city. A full day ticket was not a lot more than the one way ticket and covered you for trains and trams all day. And I got my moneys worth.
I even managed to walk/drag my gear down to the hotel from the railway station rather than in a taxi.
I dropped my bags and headed off on an adventure. I walked down the most expensive street in Europe (but didn’t go shopping), then jumped on trams and headed down towards the lake and the Old Town. Every street has amazing buildings in it.
A four hour boat trip was first. It’s a commuter ferry that laps the lake – Lake Zurich. It takes the four hours to do a full lap. It like a hop on hop off bus but on water. There were actually many boats doing the rounds. About 30 minutes apart.
Zurich is built end of a large ‘J’ shaped lake. The city stretches down to about half the length of the lake. It has all merged together so I don’t know if it was technically Zurich or small towns that had merged.
The loop was 62 ks long and stopped at 18 beautiful little docks. All surrounded by lovely old houses with boats moored at the front. Small mariners. People fishing. Church spires poking up and beautiful lush green trees.
And being that it is Switzerland there were hills rising up from every part. So teared levels of houses. Almost everyone has a stunning lake view. Mainly white or cream houses with red and orange roofs. Scattered around where the ground was too steep to build on them were vineyards and market gardens all in perfectly straight rows, adding to the beautiful colours.
Many of the large houses were built over four or five levels climbing up the hills. As were the developments of townhouses, stacked behind each other winding up the hills.
Other part had wetland shores with heavy reeds. Well I guess the whole place was like that once. So lots of great bird life. Swans. Ducks and geese. And all the other water birds.
Some of the houses had fancy boat houses. Some were built over the boat house and were beautiful.
We called into a most beautiful island Ufenau, a nature reserve and the home to Einsiedeln Monastry, built in 965.
Then an amazing old town Rapperswil-Jona. A small medieval town. It is now known for its flowers, particularly its roses. And lots of other recreational things like a 700m summer bib sled track. But the buidings were so pretty.
By 4 pm people were out using the lake. Waterskiing. Yachts. Fountains were on.
What a pleasant way to pass a Few hours. Lovely food and drinks available and seats that were comfortable but so so comfortable to let me fall asleep. 🙂 Didn’t realise quite how expensive it was till I worked out I was paying $8.50 AU for a can of soda water.
I then had a look around Bürkliplatz – the summer hang out area where it all happens. The promenade was built on the site of the original town bulwarks. Now the site of the tourist boat dock, markets, festivals, and a fun hang out place.
And then I got my moneys worth on the trams – as I did an all points tour trying to get back to the main railway station and my hotel. Stupid trams kept heading in the wrong direction once I got on them. I’d get on one, then jump off at the next stop and back on one going in the other direction. And as for forks in the road. The only way of knowing if it was going straight or turning was…..trial and error. But I got home …eventually.
And wanted to sleep. But 7pm was probably a bit early to try.
Tuesday 20th August, Zurich, Switzerland.
Tuesday was a tour to Lichtenstein and Heidiland – the site where the Shirley Temple film was made.
It was not a nice day. There was persistent rain. Heavy persistent rain. Or as some may say. It pissed down all day. Not good for staring out the window at amazing things. But still a wonderful day.
Switzerland is lovely. Not a member of EU and uses its own currency – Swiss Francs. They have four official languages – German, French, Italian and Romansh. They even use different power points. And of course are known for mountains, chocolates, banking, Cuckoo clocks, banking and watches.
Banking is the top industry, flowed by the making of precision machinery (mostly parts).
Then watch making. (Rolex, swatch) and touristic.
Zurich is the financial capital so I saw many Swiss Banks.
Farms are small, usually about 60 beasts. Most sell direct from the farm. There is very low unemployment, currently 2.5%.
The Swiss take many immigrants/refugees, mainly from Africa.
The Zurich Railway Station is the busiest in Switzerland. 2700 trains a day. The first train came here in 1880s.
We then drove along Lake Zurich. It’s 45 k long and 3 k wide. We drove down the west coast – The Silver Coast. The other side being the Golden Coast.
Yesterday I said how it looked a bit steep. Well. It was very steep. Switch back roads up every street.
We then went to an amazing place of worship – the Lindt factory. The holy grail of chocolate.
There was an amazing selection of chocolates that we don’t see. Fig. Blood orange.
And not just one sample as you walked in. But bowls of chocolates for you to try. And the ice creams…. They were a work of art with chocolate dip, squirts and chocolates.
We drove past many of the huge companies of the world. IBM. 3M. A giant grocery chain – Migros. It started here with five products but is now very diverse and is the biggest employer in the country. And has a 30 billion dollar annual turnover. In 1927 the founder decided that 1% of the profit would go to Africa. They now have built a number of hospitals. They bring locals here and train them as doctors and nurses then send them back.
We then went higher up the ‘hills’ followed the lake along the top of the ridges. Super rich farms (soil) up there. Houses and beautiful forests of pines. We went past Roger Federa’s place.
Out first stop was at Rapperswil – the City of Roses. The place I called past on the boat yesterday. Stunning place but the rain was really heavy. Our tour started at 11am. And we got to Rapperswil at 12.30. As it was pouring everyone except me went to lunch. 90 min eating instead of going out and getting soaked.
I did get soaked but it was very lovely. I went for a walk along the foreshore and to see the famous rose garden. It was closed on this day! But the walk was great. There was a whole city at the back of this ancient town. The castle sat up on top of the hill.
All the drainpipes coming down from the castle has a variety of … things on the ends. I realized later they were to stop erosion of the paths – ‘cause it really rains here. Some had giant shower heads. One has a splitter, then two tiny water wheels that spun around. I guess this softened the water onto the paths. They were not really working and it was very rainy. Must be nuts when it is s heavy enough to make them spin.
This town has one of the important railway stations where the Oriental Express would stop to collect fuel and water on the way from Istanbul to Paris.
We went past a small church and nunnery. All the nuns are over 90 so they asked if any of us wanted to join. Free food and board. Even after retirement.
Then through the town Altreu, with a colony of storks and their nests. All the tall building had gigantic nests on them. Very cool. The church bells have been turned off.
The farm land was stunning. Chocolate box material. Lush green fields with individual barns, stocked with bales of plastic wrapped hay. Must be fun going out in winter to feed in all the different barns!
We then headed off to Heididorf (Heidi land). This was the site where the original Heidi movie starring Shirley Temple (1937), based on the book by Johanna Spyri published in 1881, was filmed. I was really surprised by the demographics of the visitors. I expected people of my age, people who had the story read to them as kid, who watched it on ‘The Wonderful World of Disney’ on a Sunday evening, to come and visit. But there were many families with young kids and from all over the world. Don’t know if it was the main attraction, or just part of a tour they were doing…but it was a well visited place. I guess the book has been published in over 50 languages.
There was the town house, Grandfather’s mountain cottage and a museum containing many of the costumes and props.
And of course goats!
The drive in was through a great forest, followed by a 15 minute walk up the hill. But the views were amazing.
I saw cows with huge cow bells on.
Lichtenstein was next.
One of the smallest countries in the world. It’s 160 square ks and has 37,000 people. It’s a tiny little pocket in the corner where Germany Austria, and Switzerland converge. Spectacular land with using nature being their big drawcard. Skiing, walking etc. It’s a constitutional hereditary monarchy on a democratic basis. Guess they have all bases covered. Prince Hans-Adam II of Lichtenstein is the boss. The country is 300 ys old. Valus, the capital is nestled under a huge rocky outcrop with the castle sitting on top. They have an art gallery that is always full of Rembrandts, Picassos etc.
Vadus is the capital and was established as ‘the country of Vadus’ in 1342. There is no industry. Banking and insurance are big, as is tourism and red wine.
They
have a bishop.
So much art work was around town. One
was a water feature. But it was like a huge door frame with water flowing
through it. Nothing to see apart from the frame. But it sure got my attention. The
sound was great. Well I think that is what it was!
Back in Zurich we saw Google Earth office. The biggest employer in Switzerland. The offices looked just like they make you believe. Huge open offices with floor to ceiling windows and brightly coloured lounges and all.
Wednesday 21st August, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
A travel day. Leaving Switzerland and off to Luxembourg. I pushed my bag up to the station and managed to get onto the correct train. Then had to swap trains at a small town in France.
The Swiss train experience was glorious compared to our Italian train adventures of a few years ago. The Swiss know what platform the train is coming into, they arrive 10 minutes before time and leave on time. Wonderful.
The train from Zurich was very pleasant. Made my connection correctly then away we went. There was track work so we had to bus the last 15 minutes.
I then got a taxi to the hotel out by the airport. 40 euro ouch. I thought it would work out better as I was flying out to Copenhagen. Dropped my gear and caught the town bus back 2 euro or 4 for 24 hours.
It was then onto the HOHO bus for a loop around the town. The commentary was pre recorded in many langauges, and would suddenly blurt out “Luxembourg…so small yet so green!” ….. “Luxembourg…so small yet so green!”….. “Luxembourg…so small yet so green!”
Luxembourg. Or should I say… “The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg”.
Another tiny country. One of the four capitals of the EU, and the seat of the European Court of Justice. So had a massive population of professionals. Three official languages as the country is very entwined with its neighbours. So Luxembourgish, French and German.
It is 2,586 square kilometres, with a population of 613,894. Half of the population are foreigners It’s a representative democracy with a constitutional monarch – Grand Duke Henri who is the world’s only remaining sovereign grand duchy. Luxembourg has an advanced economy and one of the world’s highest GDP per capita. The average wage is $AU98,000. Yet the meals and drinks I bought were not expensive.
The City of Luxembourg with its old quarters and fortifications was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994 due to the exceptional preservation of the vast fortifications and the old city.
The European School is for the children of all the UN workers. 5.000 kids. Cannot comprehend a school of that size. The school is run in three languages. Luxembourgish, French, German and also English.
The architecture was amazing. The modern buildings were so nice. Mirrors, gold panels and great shapes. The communications company was in different coloured glass to give a pixelated effect.
Stunning old buildings then the super modern architecture.
Luxembourg’s oldest records go back to Roman times, and the Celts during the Iron Age. It’s modern history goes back to being a feudal stronghold in the year 963. The House of Hapsburgs took control in 1477. It was occupied by the Germans in both World Wars. Since the end of the second world war, Luxembourg has become one of the world’s richest countries, mainly due to the financial sector.
Being a fortified city it was fairly impregnable and became the Gibraltar of the North.
The capital city is Luxembourg. So Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Must remember that for trivia. Luxembourg, Luxembourg. New York, New York. And Singapore, Singapore!
It took me so long to find decent food for dinner. The area around the railway station, where I knew my bus went from, was fairly seedy…and almost everything was Italian. Pizza, Pasta or Risotto. But I did find a nice place at the railway station – go figure!
I could read enough to see I was ordering a half a roast chicken.
And when it came…. It was indeed a half a roast CHICKEN. Not a CHOOK, but a tiny little chicken. So cute and so good. Then back to the hotel for sleep.
BUT while I was looking at facebook during dinner – friends Carrie and Kevin from Canberra, posted some photos… of them in Luxembourg! Can you believe it!
So plans were made for the next day.
Thursday 22nd August. Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Up early, pack up and onto the bus back into the city. We went for a walk to see Old Town.
No wonder it was impregnable. Rather than being perched up onto of a rock it was built into a hollow with sheer rock walls all around. If they were under attack they could just sit there and put arrows through the invaders as they rappelled down.
Some beautiful buildings. With a giant moat.
The Notre Dame Cathedral – which had not burnt down. A Roman Catholic Cathedral. It was originally a Jesuit church, and its cornerstone was laid in 1613. It is the only cathedral in Luxembourg.
Casemate du Bock – The remains of the 963, fortified castle of Count Siegfried, built on a promontory. This was the beginnings of the fortifications.
The Viaduct – The Old built between 1859 and 1861 to cross the Pétrusse valley. 45 metres high, with 24 arches. 290 metres long.
We then walked across The Adolphe Bridge – twice. Once on the bottom (a suspended bridge underneath with sensational views) and once on the top.
In the valley below was an incredible forest. I do love gum trees, but wow, the variety of coniferous trees was glorious. Stunning.
Then a walk through the amazing Parc Municipal. A huge park in the middle of town. And so lush with old growth trees. It was beautiful. “Luxembourg…so small yet so green!”
The park had so many great things. Places for sitting and relaxing, playing sport, eating.
There was a kids play ground. Amazing. A place where kids could play, get dirty in the stream, climb and yes even fall and learn to get up again. And some of the climbing frames were very high. Not just kids with parents, but school excursions of maybe kindergarten ages kids in fluro vests, climbing, playing and being kids! And I didn’t see any of them die.
Walking paths, running paths, cycling paths (everywhere). Art works, sculptures and more amazing trees. Beautiful.
It was then time to jump onto my old friend the #16 bus to the airport. My hotel was a pleasant 15 minute walk from the front of the terminal. I sure got my 4 Euro worth with that 24 hr ticket.
I got lazy and jumped onto the shuttle bus back to the airport so I didn’t have to wrangle my luggage. Great lunch at the airport.
I travelled with Luxair. And I must say it was pretty Lux indeed.
My main suitcase was a bit over weight….but that was OK. I could take stuff out and carry it as hand luggage. Which was then valeted at the aircraft as it was a tiny baby plane. A bombardier 400. Little prop guy with only 4 seats across.
And as for service on the plane. Sandwiches, drinks including wines. Wonderful Hosties. It was great.
And was one of the prettiest flights. Our line took us directly over rural Germany.
Perfectly organised farm land. With so many little villages. All only kilometres apart. And the ploughing in all different directions making it so lovely.
Wind farms were everywhere, and many in patches of just 4-6 mills. They must have been private ones as many places only had one. Just sitting in the middle of a ploughed paddock.
And the beautiful Rhône river twisting around. There was even heaps of river cruise ship winding their way down. Such long, thin ships.
And now Copenhagen.
http://www.rainatravels.com/copenhagen-2/