Could it be that this was the most important thing I packed?
TRAVEL THERE: OUT OF THE AIR AND INTO THE WATER
There wasn’t a jetway from the terminal to the plane in Frankfurt. We boarded a bus. While waiting for the bus to board I dug into my snack stash. There was supposed to be a snack on the plane, but who knew what that would be or when we’d get it. A few minutes later as I settled my belongings onto the plane, a lady asked me if we were on Viking’s Danube Waltz Cruise. It was a little unnerving, but I acknowledged we were, in fact, Viking passengers en route.
Not our bus, but proof we were there!
Arriving in Budapest
I’ll admit I have arrival anxiety. Perhaps if you’d traveled in Egypt for 19 days without your luggage you’d feel the same way. We nervously watched the luggage carousels go around and around, hoping our luggage would eventually show up. It did and we breezed through customs.
My next worry? Would the Viking people find us? I had followed their instructions, putting Viking luggage tags on my bags and adhering the big Viking sticker to my jacket. Nothing like donning a few tourist alerts for any pickpockets or con men hanging about the airport.
It would have been impossible for me to miss the Viking staff. As we escaped the secure section of the terminal everyone I saw had on a bright red t-shirt with the Viking logo and each one had a clipboard. I found one who had our name on their clipboard and they corralled us into a corner.
From there, they loaded us and our luggage on a bus. As the bus departed the airport we got our first real look at Budapest. Except for an alphabet which looked more Russian than American (imagine that) the city seemed not so different from any other city with an international airport.
As we entered the older parts of the city I was so excited I could barely breathe. Suddenly, I recognized everything around me – the Parliament building , the bridges, the Danube and the Viking Tor. What’s more, the bus pulled into a parking lot right next to the famous Chain Bridge. My dreams were coming true! The scenes around me fleshed out all the research I had been doing in the months before the cruise.
Making Friends
As we made our way through the logistical hoops, we had a few snippets of conversation with the lady who had asked me if we were Viking passengers back in Frankfurt. Come to find out they were from one of my favorite places on earth, Oregon and they were traveling with another couple from that great state.
As we got to know them over the next eight days I discovered that it had been my snack stash which had ratted me out as a Viking passenger. I’d tucked my snacks into the complimentary zippered bag Viking sent me with my tickets. I loved everything about the cruise, but I confess, getting to know the Radcliffes and the Penkerts made the whole thing a lot more fun.
Come back next week! We’ll take a romantic evening stroll along the Danube.
TRAVEL THERE: GETTING THERE – A PAIN IN THE NECK, LITERALLY
Whoever said that getting there was half the fun must have lived a long time ago. On our latest journey, getting there (and getting home) was just about the only hassle we had to deal with.
The Pain in my Neck
So, I had a wreck in January and have been under the care of a chiropractor. While it has been distracting and frustrating, on most days I can keep the pain to a dull roar. The one thing I can’t do is sit still for any length of time. Talk about frustrating! I spend my days at a computer, but these days my computer time is broken up by neck breaks.
What has been an irritation in my day to day life became a real dilemma on my trip. Before my pond-jumping flight was over, I was having pleasant fantasies about guillotines – and anything else that might stop my neck from hurting.
No Room on the Plane
My biggest problem is that I remember when flying was fun. The airlines were still trying to get our business, so our knees had room, the food was good and you didn’t have to be in first class to be treated well. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you all this has changed.
I do have a message for Lufthansa, that Airbus 330-300 you put us on had no business going across the ocean. I guess I really don’t have too much room for complaint, since my flight was virtually free. Viking included airfare for $100 each and my travel agent tried very hard to warn me that I might want to upgrade to Premium Economy, but I was intent on keeping a low profile in the money department. All the same, I’m going to complain.
As soon as I sat down, one thing was obvious, my seat was not designed for a 5’8″ female. I can only imagine how miserable my six foot husband was. There was no position I could put myself into which would keep my knees from touching the seat in front of me – and this was before that passenger leaned his chair into my lap.
My biggest complaint was the well-used condition of the plane. Oh, the upholstery was fine and everything was clean, but from the moment it taxied down the runway, I had the distinct impression this plane might have crossed the water one too many times. My husband drives a Mercedes and I drive an Altima. Neither is reflective of this experience. The flight reminded me of the strange orange car my niece drove when we visited Egypt – there was a hole in the floor and everything rattled. Now the plane didn’t have a hole anywhere (that I know of), but the rattling just about drove me crazy.
Sleeping – Forget About It!
In best case scenarios, it is unlikely that I will get much sleep on a plane. In this case, unlikely was an understatement. I had headphones, a neck pillow, a blanket, a sleep mask and I brought cozy socks for my feet. I had dinner, did a little adult coloring and then settled down for a long flying nap.
I tried all the tricks to convince my body to fall asleep. First was the sit-erectly-and-close-your-eyes method. I told myself this would be best for my neck, but since I usually fall asleep on my side, I had to give it up. I tried to emulate sleeping on my right side, which is my initial falling asleep position at home. It was a little awkward, but it tricked my body into thinking it might want to fall asleep. My next trick was to roll on my left side, which I always do in bed right before I head off to dreamland. As a bonus, Bill was on that side and I was able to lay my head on his shoulder. It was going to happen…I was falling asleep…then we hit the turbulence.
It was a pretty significant bounce, so I came wide awake, but if that had been all there was, I might have been able to overcome it. I could not overcome the next hour of the bone-jarring ride. The rattling sounds pierced through the headphones. I tossed and turned for an hour in the dark with no luck. Out of pure frustration I found a movie to watch. I like Jennifer Lawrence. I like Bradley Cooper. I like Robert DeNiro. However, Joy has to be one of the worst, most depressing movies I have ever attempted to enjoy. After it was over I wished I had just listened to the plane rattle.
Breakfast Time
We didn’t eat here, because we’d just eaten airplane food, but it did make us feel as if we’d landed someplace interesting.
By the time the movie was over the flight attendants turned on the lights and shades were going up. I shook off my misery and looked forward to breakfast – which should be an indication of just how miserable I was.
Ten hours from take-off, we were landing in Frankfurt and I felt like I’d rather be dead. The rattling had merely been a distraction, but from the base of my neck radiating outward was some of the most excruciating pain I had endured since the accident. I was also punch drunk. We must have asked 10 people how to find our gate. We were like Keystone Cops.
When we did find the gate, I went to the restroom to freshen up. We stacked our luggage around Bill’s feet and I slept until it was time to catch the next flight. Thank you to my remarkable husband who acted as my pillow while I slept. I was at least coherent when I woke up. My shoulders felt good enough to make me think I might be able to withstand carrying my head around for the rest of the trip.
On to Budapest! Things do improve and to prove it, here’s video highlights of our trip.
From 6 – 11 AM a Cafe Breakfast was available at a coffee station next to the Lounge. In fact, food and beverages were always available there. The food ranged from croissants and danish in the morning to cookies mid-afternoon, but there was always something. The liquid libations offered even more variety: coffee drinks both hot and cold; hot tea and hot chocolate; both bubbly and still water; even juices in the morning. The Cafe Breakfast service satisfied the needs of both the early risers and late sleepers, while the coffee station itself kept the rest of us from getting peckish throughout the day. There was at least one day we visited it for a second breakfast and on most days we took advantage of it for an afternoon break. At 7 the Aquivit Terrace served a Continental Breakfast.
At 7:30 the Restaurant opened up for a Full Breakfast and I do mean full. There was a lovely buffet where you could get anything from a made-to-order omelette to a bagel with lox. A list of all the things available would take up more word count than I want to spend on it. I was particularly fond of the mushrooms sauteed in butter, not something I usually eat for breakfast, but once I tried them I ate them every morning. Healthy things like fresh fruit and yogurt were available as well as diet-busters like bacon and breads of every sort. I’m not very experimental in the morning, so I had no interest in things like pickled herring and other local “delicacies” they offered up, but you might be.
Were you able to visit all the stations on the buffet and still not find something you were interested in, a menu was available for other selections. My husband chose to order from the menu on several mornings, but that wouldn’t keep him from enjoying the buffet too. The menu included all those taboo treats like French Toast, Pancakes and Waffles.
Of course, coffee, tea and a variety of juices were available, but should you have an interest in it, champagne was also being poured. Many of the passengers enjoyed mimosas, but I can’t start the day drinking. I’m a wimp!
Lunch
Most of the shore excursions were planned to get you back to the boat for lunch at 12:30. Lunch was served in the Restaurant in much the same way as breakfast, but with different selections. Instead of a chef preparing fresh egg dishes, the lunchtime chef offered made-to-order pasta. There were a wide variety of casual foods offered around the buffet, but you could also order off the menu. The Aquavit Terrace was also available.
Most days we’d order off the menu and then graze the buffet for tidbits until our meal arrived. The menu items were served in European proportions. You could get as many as you wanted, but a three course meal could be eaten without feeling as if you’d just ingested half the boat. Well, perhaps the desserts were overly indulgent, but the other two courses were very reasonable.
The items on the menu offered a wide variety. There was usually a regional specialty, something for the meat-and -potatoes sort and something else for the vegetarian. The vegetarian choices were delightful, even if you weren’t vegetarian. I would usually opt for the regional specialty, unless it was pickled something or other.
The wine started flowing at lunch, but that’s when I got my caffeine fix. I’ve already complained mentioned the fact that Diet Dr Pepper was not an option, so I’d have a bottle of Coke Light, Europe’s answer to Diet Coke. Pretty much any other non-alcoholic beverage you were interested was available at lunch.
I did mention desserts didnt I?
Dinner
If you liked the idea of a buffet, then you could go to the Aquivit Terrace for dinner, but in the Restaurant dinner was off the menu.
Passengers generally dressed up a little for dinner, but if you happened to stroll in from enjoying free time at the port and were still wearing your sneakers, you wouldn’t be turned away. For the most part Viking passengers dressed up the scale from your average ocean cruiser, but there was no formality. There was no pool or beaches, so folks weren’t running around in swimwear. The chilly weather discouraged shorts, tank tops and the like. I liked dressing up for dinner and you could tell other women did, too. My husband usually wore nice trousers and a long sleeved shirt. Jackets and ties were not worn.
Each evening before dinner there was a briefing of some sort up in the lounge. The cruise director would ask if we enjoyed our day and then give us the lowdown on what would be happening next. Some evenings this event would be accompanied by a glass of free champagne. We always took advantage of that, but we never ordered drinks. The bar was always open, but unlike the wine with meals, alcoholic beverages in the bar were not free. With so much wine flowing at dinner, we saw no reason to invest in cocktails. That was not true for all the passengers though. We saw the bartender mix a lot of martinis.
Most evenings we’d find our cruise buddies, Deb, Mike, Gwynne and John at the briefing and then take a table with them for dinner. The fun we had around the table made dinner one of the best parts of the day. The food was to die for and as I’ve mentioned the wine never stopped.
At both lunch and dinner the menu was divided into two parts, but different things were offered for each meal. The left side had the chef’s daily menu and the right side was labeled “Always Available.” I usually ordered from the day’s selection, but Deb was all about the Grilled Salmon on the Always Available side of things. The dinner choices on either side were divided into three courses, but you could order it anyway you wanted. Also, like lunch, they provided a variety of things to please the adventurous, the meat-and-potatoes sorts and the picky (for whatever reason).
I’ve chatted for too long about food, but it is an important part of a cruise. Next week I’ll start sharing our exciting stops along the Danube.
TRAVEL THERE: THREE SQUARES A DAY & ALL THE WINE YOU CAN DRINK ON THE VIKING TOR
From first meal to last, Viking River Cruises does everything right. Everything I loved about meals on other cruises they incorporated into their food service and what I hated they left out.
Single Seating Service
The overriding difference between river and ocean cruising is size. For me that was good news. Everything I wanted was either on the same floor as my stateroom or one floor down. I could be in my room one minute and in the next I could be sitting in the dining room.
Here’s a peek of the Restaurant on the evening of the regional buffet. Dig those desserts!
Each meal was served in one seating and you sat wherever you wanted. One thing I had really liked about assigned seating on ocean cruises was that your server really got to know you and within a day or two they had all your preferences down. It also narrowed down the thousands of possible table mates to a table-full of people to have dinner with and I’d always been lucky enough to really like the people we sat with. Well, on the riverboat, we got to know all the servers and by the end of the cruise each of them knew us well enough to provide incredibly individualized service. The small number of passengers also made cruise friends a lot easier to find.
Two Dining Venues
We chose to eat all our meals in the Restaurant. The spacious room had tables of various sizes spread comfortably around the room. On both sides were large windows looking out onto the river, sometimes at a city where we were docked and at other times at changing scenery, as the boat made its way to the next destination. In the center of the room was a three-sided buffet for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was usually from the menu, except for a special regional buffet one evening.
The Aquavit Terrace Buffet on the Regional Buffet night.
The other venue was the Aqauvit Terrace. Had the weather been a tad warmer, we would probably have been all over this, especially at lunch. The Terrace was at the bow of the boat, offering a view of the scenery ahead. Half of the seating is actually outside on the deck, but some is inside a glass-encased section at the end of the lounge. That’s where the buffet is and all the meals in the Terrace are served buffet style. Rumor had it that the Terrace menu focused more on sandwiches, salads and small plates, many of which were included on the Restaurant’s menu. Perhaps I should have checked it all out for you, but I was on vacation after all.
All the Wine You Can Drink
This was one of my favorite things about the cruise. The battle of the bottle on the other ships was a confrontation we could not win. On Viking we couldn’t lose, because there was no battle. Each evening they had a small selection of wines, both red and white, which were included in the price of the cruise. Most nights it seems there were only two (one red, one white) but on some of the evenings regional specialties were included which expanded the selection.
My husband, who is a little more picky about wine than me, was always quite pleased with the red choice. I adored the white wines, especially the regional specialties. If you are a wine snob, there is a package you can buy that affords you premium wines, but we didn’t need it and we didn’t meet anyone who did.
It really is all the wine you can drink. Once the wait person finds out which color you prefer for the evening, they’ll keep pouring it for you until you tell them to stop. If mid-meal you want to change colors, that’s fine too. I don’t exactly know how they afford to be so generous, but this single act of generosity endeared me to them forever.
I’ve still got a lot more to say about food, but I’ve run out of words today, so come back next week for a description of the meals.
TRAVEL THERE: WHAT I LIKE AND DISLIKE ABOUT DINING AT SEA
Food is one of the biggies on a cruise and Viking has it down pat. You’d have a hard time feeling hungry at anytime on board, yet it’s not the obscene food orgy of ocean cruising.
Cruise Food I Have Loved
My favorite food I’ve ever had on any boat was a dessert on the Carnival Ecstasy. I ordered it the first night, because it was chocolate. I ordered it the rest of the nights, because it was the best thing I had ever put in my mouth. The name of the chocolate creation, which I cannot for the life of me remember, did it no justice. I have no picture of it, but will never forget it. The rest of the food on the boat was good, sometimes really good, but it wasn’t the best overall I ever had.
The best dining experience on any ship was on Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas. I was traveling with all the people I loved best, so that may have enhanced the enjoyment. This was old fashioned cruising where you really dressed up for dinner and had assigned seating at a specific time in a single venue. Every meal, every night was a unique and wonderful experience. We also had the best waiter I have ever had aboard any ship any where.
I am not a fan of multiple restaurants on a cruise. I don’t want to make reservations. I don’t even want to have to make a decision about which restaurant I’m going to choose. I don’t want to pay a premium. I like it the way Viking had it. They just fed me.
On our “Free-styling” Norwegian cruise a few years ago, my husband felt like the only style unavailable was the one we wanted – particularly when it came to breakfast. Breakfast is his favorite meal. He loves to linger over the menu and the meal. The only sit-down breakfast service on that cruise was quite early in the morning and on a cruise, Bill doesn’t do anything early in the morning. On top of that he had to navigate the huge buffet, when all he really wanted was for someone to bring him exactly what he wanted for breakfast and he wanted it piping hot. Was it a lovely breakfast buffet? Yes, but he didn’t want a breakfast buffet. Viking solves all of this.
Another of our pet peeves with Ocean Cruising has been the battle of the bottle. We like wine with dinner. While we love a particularly good wine, we’re perfectly happy with a decent wine. On-board various ships we’ve ordered by the glass, ordered by the bottle and pre-ordered a selection of wines. Either way we’ve done it we’ve felt the ouch of the price, because we know we can get a perfectly good wine at Trader Joe’s for around $10 a bottle and it bothers us to pay more for less. To make things more interesting Bill loves red and thanks to my sinuses I prefer to drink white. Viking made wine with dinner a breeze for the same price of a breeze.
And speaking of bottles, even getting a glass of water on your average cruise ship is a hassle. They’ll sell you a soft drink package, they’ll tempt you with fancy cocktails and they’ll charge you for a bottle of anything – even water, but try whetting your thirst for free. It’s not easy. Viking completely abandoned that business model. There were bottles of free water all over the place and a dispenser for bubbly and still water at the coffee station.
On most cruises I sort of feel like the emPHAsis is on the wrong sylLAble, as my mother used to say. There’s entirely too much attention paid to shoving food down your mouth. It takes a page or two of the daily newspaper to explain all the food choices and then if all else fails, they will deliver food to your stateroom 24 hours a day. I had all I could eat and more on Viking, but I didn’t have to make a career of managing my food choices.
So now that we have discussed cruise food in general, next week I’ll introduce you to the way Viking does food.
Our best cruise buddies with one of our favorite waiters.
TRAVEL THERE: MY SAILING COMPANIONS ON VIKING TOR
Our first cruise was our honeymoon. We sailed around the Hawaiian Islands on a line that no longer exists. It gave us taste for cruising that hasn’t gone away, but our first moments in Hawaii made us very nervous. When we climbed aboard the bus to the boat terminal, it looked as if we’d caught the wrong bus. Surely all those people with canes, wheelchairs and oxygen tanks were on their way to the hospital, not to a cruise! Come to find out, we were on the right bus and once we were aboard the ship, the wheel chairs and oxygen tanks melted into the general population of passengers.
On our last ocean cruise, the geriatric set was also in proportion, but we wondered where the beautiful people had disappeared to. Apparently Norwegian had corralled them behind the walls of The Haven. We’re not the suite sort, but we also felt a little out of place among the 30 million screaming kids and a large contingency from OUfFWG (Overeaters United for Further Weight Gain). We kept reminding ourselves that diversity is good, but we also wanted a few more people from our team to show up. I’m not exactly sure what to call our team. Maybe MBSK (Mature But Still Kicking)? Or Thirty Something Plus?
Viking Had Our Team
From the moment we boarded the Viking Tor Longship, we felt at home. Diversity was immediately evident. Though the primary language was English, you could also hear a polyglot of other languages. Skin colors ranged from Nordic Pale to nearly black. However, throughout the week I noticed the darkest passengers seemed more Indian than African. There were zero kids. The youngest person I met was either late twenty-something or early thirty-something. I didn’t ask. I just guessed. The oldest was in her nineties.
I’d say about 70% of the passengers were hetrosexual couples. Most of the other people I met were various groups of women traveling together – either friends on a girls trip or multi-generational family groups. I didn’t meet everyone and certainly didn’t quiz anyone about their sexual preferences.
There were blind people, wheelchair-bound people, people with walkers or canes and one lady whose hair was growing back in after some sort of brain surgery. The woman growing her hair didn’t like to walk and was just taking the cruise for the benefit of her husband. The cruise staff made every effort to accommodate handicaps of any sort. In each city there was an “easy” walking tour to facilitate anyone who wanted to enjoy the tour but was worried about hampering the progress of other passengers.
Our Best Cruise Buddies
Usually in the mornings Bill and I made a point of finding someone new to sit with for breakfast. Most of those encounters were very pleasant and we enjoyed the acquaintance of several groups through our endeavors. One morning we bombed out completely. I think we inadvertently interrupted a couple having a disagreement, but didn’t realize it. When we asked to join them they welcomed us to the table. There just wasn’t very much said after that.
We’d also crowd hop in the evenings when the passengers met in the lounge. On the first evening, we ran into someone we’d seen in the airport in Frankfurt. They ended up being our best cruise buddies. I was excited when we met them in the airport, because they were from one of our favorite places, Oregon. They were there with some of their best friends and the six of us really bonded.
The couples, Deb & Mike and Gwen & John were traveling together to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversaries, which were only a few days apart. The girls had know each other for an even longer period of time. We were roughly in the same age group and shared many of the same interests. As the days passed, the friendship grew and I hope we’ll be friends for ever.
I’ve used up all my words today. Come back next week and we’ll talk about the food and beverage service.
TRAVEL THERE: OUR VIKING RIVER CRUISE, WONDERFUL IN EVERY WAY
On Monday I had a little fun with you about the joys of coming home from a vacation, but the truth of the matter is that I thoroughly enjoyed our Viking River Cruise. I can’t think of a single reason why you wouldn’t want to call your travel agent this minute and book one of their marvelous experiences. My frustration with the size of the room could have been resolved by one of the Viking suites if money were no object, but money is always an object.
River Cruising vs. Ocean Cruising
This was our sixth cruise and our second on a river. We definitely prefer river cruising, but you might not. If you like the casino, shopping arcade, pools, kid’s activities, theaters, gyms and spas, then you should stick to ocean liners. If you think you’d like remarkable access to amazing destinations, individualized service and a relaxing atmosphere, then I might have just the thing for you.
We loved being two of the only 190 guests on the Viking Tor. Everything (and I do mean everything we wanted) was included in the price of the cruise. The boat was full of cozy little places to relax and enjoy our time on board, instead of the craft being stuffed cheek to jowl with attractions designed to separate us from a little more of our money. We returned to the same dining room for every meal where our waiters quickly learned our preferences and we made friends around the table, instead of being shuffled from dining room to dining room with a new waiter every night, never seeing the same passengers twice. We sat on the Sun Deck with plenty of elbow room and a pair of riverbanks to watch, instead of suffering the frenetic pool scene of an ocean liner. Best of all, there were no roving photographers trying to get us to pose for yet another picture every time we turned around.
More River vs. Ocean Trade-offs
I’ll admit we’ve enjoyed some great entertainment on ocean liners. There are no Broadway spectacles aboard a Viking Longship, but they still managed to provide satisfying entertainment. I wouldn’t have minded a gym, for morning workouts, but with walking tours at almost every stop, I usually managed to meet my step goal for the day.
And speaking of walking tours, I adored the shore excursions on Viking. I’m not a big fan of getting drunk on a pirate boat or a private island. I don’t snorkel, scuba dive or participate in other water sports. While I enjoy shopping excursions, my husband is not really happy with the dings on his credit card bill. There’s usually one day on an ocean cruise where I really enjoy an excursion, like the Road to Hana in Maui or Dzibilchaltun on the Yucatan peninsula, but on the other days, I would gladly trade my experience in on a good museum.
Aboard the Viking Tor, we woke almost every morning to discover we were docked at yet another wonderful destination. After breakfast we joined a knowledgeable guide, usually for a walking tour, but in the bigger cities, a bus tour. Even with the bus tours we’d get out of the bus and wander around various sites. The guides were knowledgeable, personable and delightful. The focus of the tours was to teach us something about the destinations and familiarize us with the lives of its inhabitants, now and in the past. Drinks were not served and we weren’t abandoned at shopping opportunities with no hope of exit without a purchase. Instead we drank in the beauty and chewed on the history. If we were interested in shopping, there was plenty of free time.
And There’s More!
I’ve only begun to rave. Come back next week and I’ll cover some more of the generalities of the cruise, like who our fellow passengers were and what the food was like, so you can get an even better idea of whether you are a river cruiser or an ocean cruiser.
TRAVEL HERE/TRAVEL THERE: SHOPPING IN DALLAS IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS
I hate to say it, but today’s mall rats don’t know from shopping. Drop me in any mall from sea to shining sea and what do you have? The same hundred-odd stores and fast food outlets they have in every other mall in America. (YAWN!)
My Memories of Shopping in Dallas
I live in Dallas where shopping centers were invented. (Well, not really, but kinda.) Forget Mall of the Americas, I shop at NorthPark! In days of yore, NorthPark only had three anchor stores: Neiman’s, Titches and J.C.Penney’s. and the other stores? Margo’s La Mode, Chandler’s Shoes, Continental Coiffures, The Carriage Shop…those were the days. We didn’t have a food court. We had El Fenix. Things have changed since then, but I’m still loving me some Northpark.
Back in the good old days, department stores had departments. I don’t mean you went to the men’s floor and then wandered from designer department to designer department to find a pair of navy slacks for your dad’s birthday. I mean you went to the men’s pants department and wandered through islands, seas and oceans of men’s pants. In fact, the pants department would be divided up into types of pants, so by looking on only two or three fixtures, you’d be able to tell whether they had any dressy navy blue pants in your dad’s size or not.
Shopping in Paris
I foresaw the disappearance of departments, as I knew them, before it actually happened. In the eighties I visited Paris. My trip was in December and the city was aglow with twinkling lights and snow. Galeries Lafayette, all decked out for the Christmas season, was astounding. I wandered around the store to my hearts content. As I made my way around the upper floors for my second or third time, I began to realize what was bugging me. I couldn’t find the blouse department.
See, as a twenty something career girl I didn’t have a lot of money, but I envisioned shrugging off my blazer at work one day and hearing someone say, “What a gorgeous blouse!” At that point I could have answered, “Oh, I picked it up in Paris.”
But Galleries Lafayette didn’t have a blouse department. They had blouses from many, many designers, but they were all spread out. I couldn’t just go to the blouse department, check out the markdowns in my size and see if I could afford any. To find out if there was a blouse in the store I could afford, I would have had to wander around all the different designer’s boutiques and handle the merchandise. The perfectly coiffed French-speaking clerks were entirely too intimidating. I went downstairs and bought a Christmas ornament instead.
Designer Departments Take Over
Back in Dallas I was only able to enjoy the blouse department for a little while longer – the designer departments were on their way. Now, if I want to go to the men’s department and see all the navy dress pants in one fail swoop, then I’m headed to either Walmart or Target. (BTW, I love Target, but that’s beside the point.)
I miss the old style department store. To begin with they had a sort of local flavor and were targeted more specifically to local needs. I also think that you were more likely to come up with an individualized look in a store where things were not pre-coordinated for you. I mean you don’t have to go all matchy-matchy to look pulled together.
Nowadays, things are entirely too homogenized. Sure Nordstrom’s has great service and a great selection of merchandise. I love Bistro N. But I still miss Titche-Goettinger. And I miss the blouse department, too. How about you?
jane sadek 