Sweden: Afloat in the Baltic Sea and Stockholm Archipelago

Our route, in red. 
I boarded in Kalmar in the south, and departed from Stockholm in the north

Thursday evening I boarded my ship, the Eye of the Wind. The captain was the same captain I had two years ago, in Scotland. All the rest of the crew was new to me.

I was delighted with my cabin (which I had to myself), an upgrade from the one I've had the previous two years. It had a full-size bottom bunk, and a single-sized top bunk. The bed was boxed in by walls except for a yard-long opening to get in and out. Very cozy and snug and secure! The cabin also came with a built-in seat and little desk, (which my previous cabin didn't have), a closet, and a nice little private bathroom with shower. 

My cabin, showing boxed-in bed
All the mahogany woodwork is gorgeous!

That first evening, we had an orientation to the ship and then a welcome dinner. There were six other passengers: a Swiss father and 20-something son, a middle-aged Swiss man on this own (something of an artist; he made drawing throughout the trip), an old bearded German seadog (proud of being 88 years old!) and an interesting English couple, roughly my age. The crew of 10 were German, Dutch, English, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. The Captain, Chief Mate, cook and engineer were millennials and true professionals, while the two deckhands and four trainees (ie, unpaid crew) were from 18-26. All delightful people, of varying degrees of extraversion. So the working language of the ship was primarily English, but often there were German conversations going on as well.

We set out the following morning for the island of Aland, with fair winds from the south driving us north. It was a warm and sunny day, but still, most of the time I needed a sweater. That evening, we tied up in the harbor of the wonderfully-named Bixelkrok harbor. Our ship is big enough that recreational harbors can't usually take us, we have to go to working harbors. In Bixelkrok, we tied up at the ferry dock, after putzing around just offshore waiting for the actual ferry to depart for the day. This holiday town had many transient boats tied up, and also a huge parking lot filled with camper-vans. The harbor master had promised the tourists something special (us) and as we pulled in, there was a large crowd gathered behind a gate used for the ferry passengers. Once we were tied up securely, the gate was raised and the crowd swarmed in. We all felt like doing the Queen's wave at them! Who knows how many holiday photos I'm in?

The next day we set out for the island of Gotland, quite a ways offshore from the mainland. This island has a rich history, set as it is in the middle of the Baltic sea. Many of the most informative Viking artifacts have been found in Gotland. Again, the good weather was mostly with us, and we sailed most of the way. However, we also ran the motor for a lot of the time - we had a long way to go, and needed to arrive while the harbor master was still at work to greet us. 

The town of Visby was definitely the highlight of the trip! It is a Unesco World Heritage site, and deserves it! We had time to check out the town before dinner, going up into the narrow cobblestone streets and wandering. There were many design and home goods stores, and I was sad they were all closed for the day (it was Saturday night, after 5 pm, after all). I wished for more time there.

 

The harbor of Visby was something else again! There were bars ringing the shore, including a shack with a very loud reggae-playing sound system. There were giant motor yachts, and on a Saturday evening, many inebriated young pretty people stumbling around them, dressed to the 9s. Very different from the modest little sailboats and camper vans from the night before! I was especially struck by the yachts that had Lamborghinis (multiple!) parked by them - did they sent their chauffeurs over on the car ferry while they sailed over? 

Nineteen hours of daylight makes
summer flower displays especially exhuberant

Next to us on the dock in Visby

The mate at the wheel during the
rough crossing. Note the two
crew members sacked out behind him

The next day, the good weather had deserted us. The captain had wanted to head to a nature-reserve island to the north, but winds were above 25 knots, forecast to be significantly higher still the next day. So, we headed west to the mainland. It was a wild and woolly ride! The seas were quite rough, and we had more than 50 miles to go. We set a couple of sails, even though the winds were not at the best angle, because the ship is more stable with them up. But the motor was working very hard the whole way. More than half of the passengers and crew were sick. I was again among the fortunate ones, not sick. I had seconds at lunch. It had cooled off, and I'm not sure if the high for the day reached 60 degrees. It rained some, but I think most of the wetness on the decks was actually from spray blowing off of white capped waves. As there was little needed in terms of tending the sails or other chores, I spent my time with my earbuds in listening to books (too rough to read comfortably). Eventually, after six or seven hours of bouncing, I felt a need to keep my eyes on the horizon and my stomach full of ginger tea. And always one hand firmly gripping something when moving about.

The point of this photo is that
a rock lurks just beneath that breaking wave

Within minutes of moving into water protected by the offshore islands ("skerries"), everyone felt magically better. Dinner was delayed by a half hour to allow more recovery time, and everyone showed up at the table cheerfully. We were just anchored, in a relatively protected area, but quite a distance from anywhere to go ashore. 

The view in Akersund

 

 

 

The next day, with the brutal forecast winds showing up offshore, we wandered among the skerries and ended up docked at the little town of Arkosund. Filled with holiday homes, they had a supermarket (with ryecrisp sandwiches!) and an outlook. I wandered happily looking at cute gingerbread houses and vistas across rocky waters.

Is this a rock or a White Whale?

Tuesday, we headed north with calmer winds and seas. The captain was obsessed with tying the ship up to a rock or a cliff in one of the many nature reserves all along the coast. We motor-sailed all day to go the almost 50 miles to the spot he had picked out. By the time we got there, smaller sailboats (many of them) had taken most of the good spots. But he found one he thought we could use, a fairly steep cliff face with a few spindly trees. This mooring was clearly his white whale- he had been talking about tying up to a rock since the first day. We nestled up to the cliff face and a nimble young deckhand jumped ashore and tried various ways to afix some substantial ropes to something solid ashore. It took at least an hour of attempting various things to finally get us secure (but again, there would be a serious anchor watch all night). By the time it was done, dinner was an hour and a half late. The cliff was so steep I had no desire to try going ashore. (The English couple climbed up the rock face, but needed to put on climbing harnesses and suspend from ropes managed by the crew to come back down safely.)

Gingerbread house in Dalaro. 
There were modern houses, too, but not so picturesque.

View from Dalaro, my ship's masts in view.

The next day, we were once again making our way north, this time to the holiday town of Dalaro. We were now fairly close to Stockholm, and the town was full of large homes and looked prosperous. There were a couple of bars in town, but I took myself on a long loop surveying the peninsula, admiring the houses and the vistas and seeing a couple of wild deer along the way. The weather had warmed up again, still sweater weather, but not TWO sweater weather like before.

And we went for a rock to tie up to again the following night, Thursday night! First, we sailed south, just for fun and scenery, before turning the ship north and towards the entry to Stockholm,  This time, we went into a bay with many lobes, and even though it was crowded with boats before us, we found a spot. The exit and shore was a little more friendly this time, and I went for a walk in the deep piney woods. I found a giant slug, as big as my hand! 

The following day was warmer still, as we motored our way through the serpentine channels between islands to get to downtown Stockholm. It was fun to arrive by sea, and to recognize places I'd visited for the first time just ten days ago. We had time to reconnoiter (I figured out how to get to the train station) and then we had a fancy dinner with all the crew, and some drinks. 

Sailing

Still life with color-coded boots, port and starboard

Navigation aid

I spent a lot of time pulling on and then coiling these ropes!

Me. 
I was always looking for a comfy nook with
sunshine and less wind, to read or listen to books
between pulling on ropes
while watching the scenery

Brave people going aloft

More brave people

Cute ship.
One of our crew had sailed on her last year
so we saluted each other

Stockholm bridge

I left early Saturday morning via Uber to the train station, high speed train to the airport, and an entirely uneventful trip home. When I got in, I dropped my bags and lay down on the floor and was completely endoggened. When I finally stood up, I was covered in white and black hair from head to toe. 

Stockholm sunset

Lovely trip and always good to get home! 

 

Sweden: On Land

One of many pedestrian streets 
in downtown Stockholm

My trip over the Atlantic was mostly uneventful, except we took off more than an hour late, so I knew I would miss my short connection. I had booked the earliest flight of the day, and I had researched before I left, so I knew there were more flights from my connecting city (Munich) that would get me to Stockholm that day. But it made me glad I had packed light and had only carry-on. I tried to use the on-board wi-fi to rebook or contact customer service, and it never worked. I got maybe a couple of hours sleep across the Atlantic, but I also read an entire novel. 

To my surprise, there was no customer service agent at the gate for our very delayed flight when we landed in Munich, so I was on my own to figure it out. I hadn't been to Munich airport before, and it is way smaller than Frankfurt, but very very confusing. Both coming and going, there was a lack of adequate signage pointing the way between concourses, leading to retracing my steps and circling around a lot. But I found a service counter and got rebooked on a flight three hours later. While my backpack was just within Lufthansa's strict carry-on limits, it became clear I would be one of the last people to board, so I gate checked. I figured there was little chance of the bag going astray when I was carrying it myself to where it got loaded on the airplane.

I'm a big fan of the buzz from
jetlag + beer

I took the high-speed train to downtown Stockholm, and my hotel was just a couple of blocks away. I had decided to stay in the downtown rather than a funkier neighborhood, since I'd be arriving and leaving by train. With the flight delay, I was able to check in right away to the blond wood very stylish hotel. I tried to nap, but I was keyed up and also very hungry. So after some research on restaurants, I set forth into the vibrant downtown celebrating the sunshine and warm weather. I had the first of my iconic Swedish meals, meatballs and a local beer, sitting outside surrounded by groups of actual Swedes, not tourists as far as I could tell. After food, I walked and walked, getting oriented to the neighborhood. 

The Vasa is incredibly ornately decorated
No doubt that added to its instability

In my planning, I had bought one museum ticket already (for a specific day, not a specific time) and I loaded the public transit app and added a payment method. So my plan for the first day, Monday, was transit to the museum in the morning, with a menu of other possibilities for the rest of the day. I rode a tram to the museum - Stockholm doesn't have a lot of tram lines (versus subway or bus), but I always prefer a tram if I can. You get the view, but its route is constrained to the rail lines - it won't go wandering off randomly as I always worry a bus will. 

The Vasa museum is built around a single white elephant of a ship (the Vasa, duh) that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. She was built as the ultimate warship for Sweden's ongoing wars across the Baltic with Denmark, Poland, and Germany. But she was fundamentally flawed in design - too top-heavy for her narrow beam. So after two years of construction, she set out with fancy flags flying for a short test cruise in Stockholm's harbor, only to roll over and flood and sink. There were maybe 300 people on board, and about 10 percent of them were trapped below decks in the quick sinking and died. She stayed on the bottom of the harbor until the mid-20th century, when she was found, raised, preserved, and an entire museum was built around her. No other battleship from this period has been preserved, so she is fascinating to study. I spent a couple of hours there, looking at the ship and the additional displays. There were several poignant items - two bodies recovered from the gun deck were intertwined, and wore clothing of similar manufacture, and one was a woman. It was not uncommon for wives to ship aboard with their husbands, so this is likely a couple who were together at the end.  

After the Vasa Museum, I rode transit to Skansen, Stockholm's outdoor "heritage park". It's scattered with buildings from the 17th through 19th century, with costumed re-actors, and lots of animals. I got an unusual lunch there - sauteed mushrooms and mashed potatoes in a paper cone. I wandered around and at one point was surrounded by a flock of sheep being moved between fields by a costumed shepherdess. Afterwards, exhausted, I rode the tram back towards the hotel. Encouraged by the example of a couple of different friends who recently blogged about their European trips, I allowed myself a short nap. 

That afternoon and evening, I had my second iconic Swedish meal, fish soup from a food hall downtown. I had spotted on the map many design and home stores, and I spent quite a bit of time wandering and admiring the lovely stuff. I am a sucker for small bowls, and I could have filled an entire suitcase with the cute and charming things I saw. But I still had train rides and a voyage to deal with, and of course I actually need no more of them. But I amused myself mightily deciding what I would buy, if I were to buy. 

Gamla Stan has attractive old buildings in cobblestoned streets
Also the Kings Palace (not shown)

The next morning I headed to the old town, Gamla Stan, by underground metro. I had read the metro stations are themselves art, and that is certainly so. To get to my train, I entered the system close to my hotel, but then went down escalators and up stairs and around corridors and down stairs and up escalators to finally get to the line I needed, so I had a chance to view several different decorating styles on different platforms. After a short ride, I surfaced into the old town. It was early, and I was able to wander the narrow streets and passageways without a lot of traffic. There were many boutiques and galleries and also tacky tourist shops, none of the initially open. By the time things were opening up, the streets were thronged with many guided groups, and I was tired.

So I implemented the rest of my transit plan - I bought a hop-on, hop-off ticket good both for the boats that circulate between the islands that make up the city and for the buses as well. I spent a pleasant hour on the water, following along on the map. Afterwards, I got off and explored the Sodermalm neighborhood - described as the Brooklyn of Stockholm. Not as quaint as Gamla Stan, more residential than downtown, it had some interesting shops and gardens and views. I found a square full of outdoor cafes, and completed my trifecta of iconic Swedish food with an openface shrimp salad sandwich on rye. Funny story - not a tourist area, menus not translated. I had been studying menus since I arrived in Stockholm, most of which were translated in the downtown area. So I saw "Raksmorgas pa frobrod" on the chalkboard menu, and tried Google translate on my phone. (Apple translate doesn't do Swedish.) It said "shaved ice"! I went ahead and ordered it, and while waiting for the food tried again, this time using the special characters above the "a" and "o" letters. “Räksmörgås på fröbröd” This time I got shrimp on rye, hooray! And sure enough, that’s what arrived.

My little oasis by the river just across the bridge 
from downtown

I finished the afternoon with a long ride through the town on a double-decker hop-on, hop-off bus, ending near my hotel. I was craving ice cream, and I found on google a gelato place not far from the hotel, but in a different direction and across a bridge to yet another island. The weather had remained fine, so I took my gelato, and my book, to a bench overlooking the river/canal separating this island from the central island. I spent a nice time there, reading and watching a parade of small motorboats, standup paddlers, kayaks, move at a sedate pace in both directions on the water, while a steady stream of bicyclers, runners, and dogwalkers moved along the paved path beside it. I had an early train the next morning, so I had a Caesar salad in the hotel bar for dinner, being glad there didn't seem to be any diarrhea lettuce in Sweden.

Such an informative sign! 
I got "Linkoping-Kalmar" - that's my train!
Onsdag 15 juli kl. 12:00 - that's right now!
Uh, what is happening?

I had booked a train ticket to the small coastal town south of Stockholm, Kalmar, where I was to meet my ship. The first leg was high speed and modern, with announcements in Swedish and English. After a couple of hours through beautiful fields and forests, I was dropped off at the country station, with slightly more than an hour connection time. There didn't appear to be any employees in the train station - there was a convenience store and a couple of snack bars - but what looked like the ticket/info window was tightly closed up and looked abandoned. There were automated signs, but my train wasn't yet listed, too far away in time. However, there was a sign that said something about the line from where we were to where I was going, in Swedish, indicating something was happening from just then through the next couple of days. Once again, Google translate failed me. My knowledge of Norwegian wasn't enough to shed light. So I ate a hot dog while gazing at the town and worrying. Finally, time moved along and my "train" appeared on the schedule, with a big red note replacing the platform number with BUS and a number. I wandered the area (carrying all my bags, mind you) until I found a map showing my bus number at the far edge. With still half an hour to go, there was nobody around so I went back and sat in the slightly air conditioned station for a few minutes, and then followed a small trickle of people back to the bus stop. More and more people showed up, no line, just a small crowd. Finally, three buses showed up. I picked one that said "Kalmar" in handwriting on a note in the window. I stowed my big backpack in the luggage on the side and boarded. As the bus filled, a guy stepped in and made an announcement I couldn't understand, except I thought I heard him say "Kalmar direct". When the driver boarded, I went and asked - he explained in English this bus was going only to Kalmar, the other buses were going to intermediate stops first. So I was fine, hooray!

Three hours on the bus (at least no one next to me), watching the fields and forests. Too bumpy to read, but I put in my ear buds and listened to a book.  Many very prosperous, big, wooden, farm houses, most red, but some yellow. In the villages, the houses were stucco, and mostly yellow but some white. Finally, the small town of Kalmar. I walked the half mile from the train station to my hotel on the water. It was fabulously cute, built into an old fish processing plant. I picked it mostly for the location, but it also included not only breakfast but dinner in the price! So I dropped off the bags, checked out the tiny town (and spotted my ship already docked down the harbor), and went back to the hotel to eat dinner outside on the veranda over the water. 

Castle ahead

I spent the next morning hanging in the hotel, re-packing and catching up on notes and using the hotel wifi. I bought a later checkout time, so I was overdue for lunch by the time I dropped my bags in the hotel's closet and went out. After a fine Chinese-food lunch, I walked to the castle. Built in the middle ages, but extensively revised and expanded in the "late Renaissance" (16th and 17th centuries) it was very well preserved and absolutely gorgeous. It definitely wasn't medieval, and it reminded me of Tudor age sights I've seen in England. I was curious about the history that would have built such a fortress in the middle of the Swedish coast. Well, it turns out this had been the southern Swedish border, with the provinces to the south being claimed by Denmark until the end of the 17th century. Apparently Denmark and Sweden have fought more wars against each other than almost any other pair of countries. Denmark was the big dog, also ruling Norway for several centuries until she backed Napoleon in the early 19th century, and Sweden was on the winning English side. (And Sweden got custody of Norway as a reward.)

After a self-guided tour of the well maintained castle, I found a quiet shaded bench in the public garden and read until it was time to pick up my bags and head to the ship.  

A sample of the ceiling in a public hall in the castle

Next: Afloat! 

Baltimore Interlude

I spent the weekend in Baltimore, looking at boats and airplanes. It was a fun little getaway, and it makes me want to do more of these solo-ish trips. I also considered it a useful rehearsal for my trip to Sweden. I used a new bag I bought for the trip, and brought the clothes, toiletries and gadgets I plan to bring to Sweden. 

When I read about the Sail250 extravaganza at the end of last year, I went ahead and booked a hotel room in Baltimore on the dates. Later, several people from my sailing club booked spots at a marina in the port for the same reason. Friday, I drove up to downtown Baltimore. The traffic was huge, but while I was slugging it out on I95 towards the city, they were practising for the airshow Saturday and Sunday, so I saw regular flights of fancy planes swooping across the sky.

After dropping my bag, I set out to look at the ships and to rendezvous with the club and their boats. The club tradition is potluck happy hour with heavy hors d'oeuvres, so I wore a backpack with my contribution. The marina was almost three miles away by a direct route, but I followed the shoreline and made it much longer, stopping to admire many beautiful tall ships along the way. However, I was ready to be done somewhat before I got to the marina!

I was greeted with enthusiasm by club members, and a very boozy Painkiller was quickly in my hand. As I hadn't had much lunch, the first few sips went to my head and that was enough drinking for me. Joining us on the boat was the brother of a club member, who was in town because he had a technical role for airshow logistics - very interesting to hear his stories. Not long before sunset, we all piled on to a the wide deck of a trimaran and took a slow tour by water of the harbor and the boats. 

The next day, I set off by water taxi over to Fort McHenry (site of "by dawn's early light", war of 1812, not it's 250th yet!). There I set up on a sloped hill centered on the airshow "box", and picnicked on a pastrami sandwich from a local deli. It had been forecast to rain, and while there were a couple mild sprinkles, it didn't thunder so the air show went on. The park had many people but was far from crowded. Sadly, I realized I hadn't applied sunscreen (because of the cloudy skies, I reckon), so after a while I put on my black rain jacket and sweltered but didn't burn. (Except for my very red nose!)  The fast and noisy jets were a lot of fun to watch - the British, the French, and the American teams. Many people had brought hearing protection, and I had in my earbuds. Surprisingly to me, my Airpods 4, which are advertised as not blocking the ear canal completely, still have remarkable effective active noise cancellation. I have a decibel meter app on my phone, and the noise peaked at 113 db! Definitely feel-it-in-your-bones and maybe-damage-ears territory. But thrilling!

For dinner, I visited a unique "Halal Fusion Tacos" place in downtown. Very cool and very delicious! Later, in my room, I watched the Congo-Uzbekistan World Cup match, where Congo came from behind in a thrilling and important victory. 

I think Baltimore has a whole lot to offer and recommend it as a place to spend a couple of days. I managed to get over 12,000 steps each day I was there! But I was never far from a place to sit and have a drink or an ice cream. Very fun.

Quick Trip to Oregon

 (Or, Sleep is Over-rated!)

I made a quick trip out to the West Coast to see my girl. And, not coincidentally, to see the legendary Oregon Coast. The physical geography definitely lives up to the hype.

The problem is, there is no efficient way to get to where my girl is, a small inland town. I flew to and from Eugene, which required a mid-continent connecting point. The way the schedules worked out, I got into Eugene at 10 pm their time, 1 am my time. Then I picked up a car rental, and drove on down to Roseberg, another 90 minutes.

It's always a challenge to set up in a rental car, figuring it out. And my problem-solving abilities were not at peak performance in the middle of the night. This time, at least, I didn't need to search the car interior for the key fob, it was handed to me and I was given a parking space number. First, I had to try to adjust the seat so I could reach the pedals (is it electric? do I have to start the car first?) and then adjust the mirrors. I'm used to a proximity fob in place of a key, but after searching for a button to push I found instead a place to insert a key. I studied the small, square fob and finally found a button that caused a key to pop out. It started right up, but because it was a hybrid, it didn't sound like it had started. But things on the dash lighted up. Next task was connecting the screen to my phone where I had input my Roseberg motel address. I had cleverly brought both USB-A and USB-C cords with me, because I once had to switch cars due to having only the wrong cord. So imagine my surprise to find the cord was only charging, not connecting to the systems. Finally, in the menu, I found something saying "cord for Android only, activate Apple Car Play via bluetooth". So finally I pulled out of the parking lot and set out.

It was very very dark. It wasn't far to the single expressway that went all the way to Roseberg. But the expressway was dark and winding, requiring attention and both hands on the wheel. I knew I needed noise in the car to stay awake and alert. I had set up my book to play, and started it when on the expressway. It ran five minutes to the end of the chapter and stopped. In no position to take my eyes off the road or a hand more than momentarily off the wheel, I punched Apple music and the "Just for you" box that popped up. 

AAARRRGGGGHHHH! When did Apple decide I had absolutely APPALLING taste in music? There was a series of 70s and 80s disco country pop schlock playing, most of which I had never heard before, but all of which was horrible. I kept hitting "skip" and something else awful came on. Finally, I punched enough buttons to find my own actual playlists, and started up an R&B series that Apple took and ran off with, much better (though still maybe not my first choice). Upon sober reflection the next day, I'm guessing the horrible mix came about because of the singing group I'm in. Every new session, I make up a playlist of the original recordings of the songs we are going to do, and every session there are some real stinkers in the mix, along with many fun ones. Karen Carpenter, anyone?  

So finally I got to my motel, just a block from the expressway, and fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow. 

At the seal habitat

The next morning, Friday, I went and picked up my girl. She is living in a nice house with co-workers. Everyone else was off at work, so we just packed up and headed to the coast, two or more hours away.

More difficult driving - windy 2-lane roads through the (gorgeous) mountains, often with a steep drop-off and no guard rail. But the coast was worth it! And so, frankly, was the drive. Remember those middle and high school days when a drive was how to capture your kid and maybe have an actual conversation? I learned a lot about my girl's life out there. She is doing difficult work, difficult physically, mentally, and emotionally, taking all of the actual job, the company she works for, and the environment she lives in, into account. So brave! So capable! 

We went up to look at a seal habitat off a state park, catching our breath in the brisk cold constant wind. After contemplating the seal family dynamics for a while, we hit up a vegan restaurant in Coos Bay. Then off to a little local sea aquarium, that had tanks filled with water circulating from the bay right there, and many interested sea creatures. My girl knew them all! 

By then, we could check into our fabulous motel for the next two nights. Built on a hillside looking over the ocean in Bandon, Oregon, every room had a water view and a balcony. We both crashed for a while, took a little walk, brought some Chinese food back to the room, and crashed again. 

Puffin sculpture made of
beach-combed garbage

Saturday was our chill day. We drove 10 minutes to a beach access, and walked along the cliff and down by the water. The wind! The wind was whipping around at nearly 20 knots, as it apparently does all the time. It was high tide, and there was some shelter from the wind down on the beach.

Back to the room for another rest, then a foray on foot down through the little town of Bandon. We found an art gallery / local foodstuffs place built in an old warehouse, and picked up a couple of goodies. We picked a horrible place for lunch - waited 45 minutes for avocado toast and bowl of chowder - and the chowder was served with oyster crackers that were rancid and smelled awful. Oh well. We walked down to a dairy for some really good ice cream, and we had leftover Chinese food in the room in case of emergency.

More chill out in the room, watching the view and dozing. We had a low-tide rendezvous planned at other beach access point. My girl was excited to get to tide pools at low tide and see who and what was living there. It was absolutely the most fun ever! Rocks that had been surrounded by water before were high and dry, and many had tunnels and passageways through them. We saw some critters, and I got a commentary on the life styles of tidal animals.

High tide- later, we walked to those rocks

We did dinner again on foot in town at the brew pub - something every little town has. We were actually surprised at how not-crowded the town and restaurants were, considering it is a tourist town and the weather was fabulous. Back in the room, we figured out how to get Netflix loaded onto the TV, and watched the movie "Remarkably Bright Creatures".  This fun and enjoyable movie is told partially from the POV of an old smart octopus that lives in a cute little local aquarium a lot like the one we had visited the day before, so it was highly appropriate.

Sunday morning, up and out of the room by 6:30 am. Drop my girl in Roseberg, and off to Eugene airport. Arrived in Chicago to find the flight on to DC was delayed by several hours due to thunderstorms on the East Coast. So we finally landed at DCA at 12:30 am, and then sat on the tarmac in sight of the terminal for another 90 minutes before we got to a gate. (Is there anything more frustrating than staring at your destination a short walk away for more than an hour?) Not too many Ubers at that time of night, and they charge a premium. But the DC metro shuts down in the wee hours and it was way too far to walk. Finally, walked in my door at nearly 3 am.  VERY long day.

 

But worth it! 

 

Stylish dog on my plane

 

Normandy

Woke up to this!

The joys of a riverboat became clear when we sailed away from Paris in the night. When I woke up Saturday morning, we were moored on the bank of the Seine in the little town of Conflans. When I opened my drapes, I saw a swan swimming past in the early sunlight. After breakfast, we climbed on some buses and drove about a half hour to the town of Auvers-sur-Oise, where Vincent van Gogh spent some time at the end of his life, and where he died and is buried. 

All the towns we visited were built of ancient stone in their central areas. Even where there were relatively new buildings, they re-used a lot of the old stones. Auvers was particularly scenic, hence van Gogh's time there, and many of the impressionists as well. The narrow streets and painted doors and vining flowers reminded me of my cousin Jane's art. She would go to Europe for the summer, and take a gazillion photographs. Then returning home, she worked in an art gallery and painted intimate scenes of streets like I saw in the town.

Very Vincent, no?

Auvers is making money on Vincent these day, but to the benefit of tourists like me. They have chosen to preserve many of the landscapes and scenes he painted, so that they look much as they did when he was there. I enjoyed moving through the fields and streets and seeing in my mind's eye the paintings. 

While in Auvers, I visited a little bakery our guide had pointed out. I happened to go in before any other folks from the ship, was the only customer there, and managed to discuss (entirely in French) which pastry was the next best since they were sold out of plain croissants. I got an almond croissant (heavenly!) tapped my watch to pay. Very pleased with myself!

From the cliff; not far from Paris!

Wandering back through town

After lunch back on the boat I set off on a walk along the river bank. Many large barges were moored along the banks, usually three deep (as in, one tied to the river bank, another tied to it further out, and a third still further out- they would walk across each other's boats to get aboard or ashore). They were permanent homes, with mailboxes, electrical cables, and laundry hanging on lines on deck. After a mile or so, I turned inland. The shape of the land was typical of what we would see: one or two roads along the river bank, and then a steep chalk and limestone cliff, with much of the town built up on the cliff to avoid flood (and invaders, I suppose). I walked back along the cliff edge, and wandered into a section with just foot traffic and stairs, too steep for cars and with the old houses crowded close together. It was charming!

Richard the Lion-Heart's castle above the town

The castle ruins

I love looking at these towns!

There are two ships in the picture, side by side.
Ours is the one closest to shore.

We sailed during the night again (and there were locks we went down as we headed towards the sea, but almost all of them were at night and I missed them. We woke up to see another lovely little town, this one with a ruined castle looming over it. After breakfast, we learned about how the castle was built by Richard the Lion-Hearted (that mass murderer personally designed and supervised it) as a state of the art fortress, and lost to the French after his death, in a particularly gruesome, long, and brutal siege where the biggest losers were of course the peasants and townfolk caught up in a conflict that had nothing to do with them. We walked up the steep hill to see the ruins and the view, and we enjoyed some of the best weather of the entire trip.

As it was Sunday, only a couple of tourist shops were open, but again just wandering was fun. That afternoon and night, we pushed on to our northern-most stop. (We were never more than a couple of hours from Paris - the Seine River is extremely twisty and curvy.)  I saw nothing of that town, because Monday was a full day bus tour to the Normandy D-Day beaches and sites. 

Omaha beach today

Normandy was surprisingly moving to me. To be clear, I have no personal, close, family connection to it - my father served during the war, but he was young enough that he was just finishing training when the war was over, so he never went overseas. Other male relatives, and those of childhood friends (when the war was sometimes a topic of conversation), were all in the Pacific. But ever the diligent student, I studied up by downloading and watching the movie The Longest Day. It tells the story of D-Day from multiple points of view, American (John Wayne), British, German, French. I had downloaded the movie to bring along, and I stopped it a few times to look up things on Wikipedia.

The sheer scale of D-Day was astounding. I don't believe anything like it has happened in my lifetime anywhere in the world. In 24 hours, more than 150,000 men were landed in a 50 mile stretch of Normandy. The vast bulk were sent ashore on the beaches, but there were also parachutists and glider landings. On Omaha Beach, the first wave of landings suffered ninety-percent casualties! (Think Saving Private Ryan.) It was uncertain whether the landing would succeed - the German general Rommel knew that his best hope was to never let them get off of the exposed beach and establish points where more troops could come ashore safely. But there are a couple of scenes in the movie where the Germans are trying to get Hitler's permission (required) to move up troops and tanks. First, he's taking a nap and no-one will wake him. Then, he had an unrelated temper tantrum and no-one was willing the broach the topic. (This made me put my hand over my face and weep for us, too familiar to be funny.)

The first village inland to be liberated
Paratroopers came in the night before the beach landings 
and landed in the village itself by mistake
On the church steeple, we see a parachute and a dummy - 
someone was caught there all day and played dead until it was safe

My words are inadequate for the cemetery

 

It was a long day with a lot of different stops and much walking. I was drained when we got back to the ship.

The next day dawned foggy and mysterious. While the boat headed back upstream towards Paris, we took a bus to the well-preserved beautiful little town of Honfleur, almost at the mouth of the Seine. It was filled with galleries and restaurants and gift shops, very geared to holidays and tourists, but still completely charming. And you know I was so pleased to see actual working boats!

Lots of well preserved half-timbered buildings.

A sheltered boat basin - there was a larger but more exposed harbor

Our guide for the morning.
I admired how committed she was to red,
head to toes to fingertips, most in velvet!

 

After the morning in lovely Honfleur, I was almost too tired for the afternoon highlight, the much larger city of Rouen. But I'm glad I roused myself to walk around - it is also charming with a lot to see. The cathedral itself was worth a lot of time - even just the outside. I was struck how they were able to make the stone carvings look so delicate! And, plenty of half timbered buildings, and stone buildings, and sites made famous by burning Joan of Arc there. Rouen would be worth a stay of at least a couple of days. I hear there are trains from Paris.

Facade of the cathedral in Rouen

Delicate stonework filigree

I never learned the story, but big teddy bears 
were a frequent motif throughout Normandy

Yet another quaint street!

 The next day, Wednesday, was to be a highlight - Monet's garden and house at Giverny! I had not actually been so thrilled, yeah yeah, I've seen gardens. But I was awestruck! I took literally 100 photos! You get just a handful here. The colors! The patterns! The repetitions with variations! The rhythms! I could have spent the day sitting on a bench and gazing.

 

And then, we were back in Paris. I stopped at a couple of well known highlights, and I went shopping. In the left bank neighborhood of the ship, I had spotted Galleries Lafayette - not THE Galleries, but a new one, attached to a modern mall. With my friend, we went looking for accessories. I got a couple of scarves, lovely! But not from the designer level (but no less lovely for that). Then we went to a supermarket, and I got some spices and blends. Everyone complained at Christmas that our Norwegian bread didn't have enough cardamom flavor, even though the baker tripled the amount from the recipe. I was very excited to buy some whole cardamom seeds, and I look forward to grinding them for our Julekage at Christmas. I picked up a couple of things for gifts, if I can bear to give them away.

I packed up, rode a Tesla taxi to the airport (my first time in a Tesla!) and had a completely uneventful flight home. When I walked in the door, I was completely endoggened, and knew I was home.