DESTINATIONS – Page 38

ART, Attractions, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Birmingham Museum of Art

March 8, 2017March 5, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: THE JEWEL OF BIRMINGHAM

When the possibility of visiting Birmingham first came up, I checked out the city online. The city seemed to be a foodie haven with a great art museum and a nice botanical garden, but comparing their hours to our flight schedule and the hours of the thing I can’t tell you about, I wasn’t going to have time to do anything about any of that. So, I dutifully went about my business. Still, something in my subconscious kept clanging. I couldn’t exactly recall why, but I knew I really wanted to see the museum.

Perhaps, Maybe, Possibly

One day at lunch, before we took off on the Birmingham adventure, I mentioned to Hannah Beth that I regretted we weren’t going to have time to do the touristy thing. She assured me the museum was well worth seeing and mentioned a couple of possibilities we might have for seeing it. I assured her I had checked for evening hours, so that wouldn’t work, but skipping the final session – that would do.

I just happen to be one of those people who believe God is personally involved in my life. I also believe that if I’m willing to put Him first, He does everything he can to fulfill Psalms 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desire of your heart.” In fact, He’s proved it to me too many time to deny it.

So, while we were keeping an ear to the ground to find out how significant the final session would be, God was arranging to keep things ahead of schedule so that we could get out in plenty of time to make it to the museum. You may call that a coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidences.

An Embarrassment of Wedgwood

If you’ve been hanging around this blog for very long, then you know the Decorative Arts Wing of any museum is my prime objective when I make a visit. I love Decorative Arts better than anything else produced from the artistic mind. I can spend an entire day in a Porcelain gallery – a passion I learned from my mother.

What’s more, Wedgwood,especially their Jasperware, (matte porcelain with relief decorations) is among my most favorite porcelains. Don’t believe me? Take a gander at the photo of the fireplace my husband and I designed for our home. You don’t have one of these unless you love Wedgwood. It was inspired by two I’d seen in Mount Vernon.

Along with representative Wedgwood pieces gracing the mantle piece, there are various Wedgwood and Jasperware pieces spread throughout the house. For good measure, my everyday china is Wedgwood. Not Jasperware but Wedgwood. So imagine my delight when I glanced over the map of the Birmingham Museum and saw three galleries designated by the word “Wedgwood”.

The Dwight and Lucille Beeson Wedgwood Collection

If you love Wedgwood the way I love Wedgwood, then go ahead and book the flight. I’ve been in a lot of museums and so far, I’ve never seen one with so much Wedgwood. I haven’t been to The Wedgwood Museum at Stokes-on-Trent yet, but that’s only because it didn’t exist decades ago when I visited the city. I can assure you, this is the most Wedgwood you are going to see anywhere outside of Britain.

The galleries contain mostly Jasperware in a rainbow of hues, but they have samples of other forms of Wedgwood collected by the couple. I swear I could have visited the museum every day for a week and been perfectly happy studying the exhibits in the three galleries. Here are some samples.

That blue and yellow vase on the jade pedestal would be great in my yellow and blue French decor but the dark blue wine cooler with the white flowers must be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I’d leave it in the museum for others to share.

Giving the Rest of the Art Its Due

Even if you don’t like Wedgwood, the Birmingham Museum of Art is still a good thing to see. Porcelains from other places are prevalent throughout the museum, but there are also paintings and statues and other things to enjoy. I did run through the balance of the galleries at a high speed and then rushed back to gander at the Wedgwood a little more. However, I did get these two postcards to prove the museum has variety.

Buying the Book

In this digital age, when you can find almost any piece of art you’d like to see by searching it online, art books might not seem a good investment to some people. Maybe other people spend their time cruising museums online, but I’ll confess, I want to be there and see it in person. Seeing it online is better than not seeing it at all, but it’s not even on the same continent as first hand observation.

By the same token, while I have broken my habit of buying a book in every museum I go to, sometimes I just have to take a catalog home. This was one of those times. In fact, I anticipated facing down the fury of my husband if the only thing available was some $160 hardback number.

I guess God was doing me another favor, because there was a reasonably priced soft cover edition of the catalog – only it had a large sticker designating it as the display copy. I chatted up the clerk, who was a volunteer. She looked in the stockroom – nothing. She offered to have someone take a gander in the warehouse in the next day or so and call me if they had anymore. I just stood there clasping the display edition as if my life depended on it. “I’m leaving town this afternoon,” I all but wailed. “Oh we can ship it to you,” she assured me.

I put off replying to her suggestion by telling her about my fireplace. Then I mused as to what in the world I would do if there were no more of the books in the warehouse. She decided to sell me the display copy at a discounted price. BINGO! I’m getting a whole lot better at this negotiating thing than I used to be. I’d have paid full price just to have it, but I’m sure the fireplace story did the trick!

The flight home was not as trouble free as my flight to Birmingham. The flight was delayed for hours and as a result I know more about the food vendors at the Birmingham airport than I should. I’d been on a diet, which had been seriously threatened by the fast food offerings served to us at that thing I can’t tell you about, but what damage had not already been done got done. So much for dieting. And so much for Birmingham. Come back next week and see what I’m up to.

Architecture, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Vulcan Park Tower, Birmingham AL

March 1, 2017February 20, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: A STEEL CITY LANDMARK

So my boss had just arrived back in the States from someplace else that I can’t tell you about to join us at the thing I can’t tell you about. At the end of the second day after a meal provided by the thing I can’t tell you about, there was supposed to be a worship and praise service, but the boss needed a change of scenery. One more large meeting room filled with people and he was a goner, so we escaped.

Hannah Beth Helps Us Play Hooky

Since the meal we’d been provided was lukewarm hot dogs and stale potato chips (no offense intended, but that’s what it was), we wished we’d decided to play hooky about 30 minute previous to our boss’ confession of meeting room fatigue. A nice dinner would have been a treat. Still, we weren’t going to waste an opportunity for some team building activities outside the meeting room. So Hannah Beth took us on a tour.

Now I know young folks to things differently than I do, so this is not meant as criticism, but merely an observation. While Hannah Beth has been to Birmingham several times and has the inside scoop on what to do, she depends on GPS for directions. Her modus operandi is to take off in the direction which she thinks something is and then use voice commands to tell her phone to find the way. This means she has one hand fully on the wheel, while she holds both the wheel and the phone in the other – all the while chatting up everyone in the car.

Yep, I’m a Nervous Nellie, so the entire time we were driving in Birmingham, I’m in the backseat praying we actually get to the place we’re headed. Since I’m here to tell the tale, you know my prayers were answered in the affirmative, but while we were playing hooky from a praise and worship ceremony, I felt a little guilty about praying for protection. Proves God listens all the time, I guess.

Vulcan Tower on Red Mountain

Vulcan Tower via http://birminghamal.org

According to the Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau:

“Vulcan is the largest cast iron statue in the world and Birmingham’s unofficial city symbol. Standing high atop Red Mountain, the 56-foot-high statue has an observation balcony on its pedestal for a panoramic view of the city. Vulcan is patterned after the mythical Roman god of the forge, a nod to the city’s powerful position in the iron and steel industry in the first part of the 20th century. The statue was created as Birmingham’s exhibit in the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis and won the exposition’s grand prize. The museum at Vulcan has interactive exhibits and displays that portray the region’s history and progress. Museum open Monday- Saturday, 10am- 6pm; Sunday, 1pm- 6pm. Observation balcony open Monday- Saturday, 10am- 10pm; Sunday, 1pm- 10pm. Admission.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself, but you can learn more on the actual Vulcan Park website.

Our boss covered the entrance fee which was just a dollar or two and we climbed the stairs to the top of the hill. Someone who will remain nameless desperately needed to visit the rest room. Even though the sign said the museum was open, it wasn’t and that’s where the restroom was. In desperation, the drain in an unlocked utility room sufficed as a toilet. That’s all I’m going to say about it, but as tired as we were, that was just the crowning glory of the day and we got a serious fit of the giggles.

Above It All

Though the tower is lovely and the park is very nice, the real draw to visiting the Vulcan Tower is that you can climb up in it. So we did, still giggling like fools. Now yours truly is has a slight case of acrophobia. OK, so maybe a large case, but as we took the elevator up I was distracted by the giggling. We walked across a steel grate which was a bridge to the steel grate which was the balcony around the tower. There was also a fence, but all the ground around us was visible from our vantage point.

At first I just looked out toward the horizon and enjoyed the scenery (see picture from previous post). Then I looked down. MISTAKE. I tried to be cool. I tried standing away from the rail and looking toward the tower. Didn’t work. I started getting lightheaded and broke out in a cold sweat. It was time to go.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a grocery store, to get some necessities. That list might have included individual bottles of screw top wine, but if it did, I’m not telling. As much fun as this adventure was, the best is yet to come, so make you way back here next week.

Accommodations, DESTINATIONS, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL, United States

Steel City Stories

February 22, 2017February 20, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: BIRMINGHAM FOR BUSINESS

My business is ministry and that ministry targets Central Asia and the Middle East, so I can’t always be an open book about where I go and why. However, I can tell you I made a visit to Birmingham, Alabama for business at an unspecified time for an unspecified reason. While I can’t give you those details, I can tell you some of the stories related to the trip.

The Crack of Dawn

My traveling companion for this particular trip was my work buddy and good friend, Hannah Beth. I’m old enough to be her mother and she’s gracious enough to treat me as if I’m her age, and I love it. Our flight to Birmingham was ridiculously early and we had to bring along some signage, so both of us were concerned about getting there, getting checked in and getting on the flight. In our eagerness we got to the airport hours before we needed to. We were there so early I had plenty of time to walk around and take pictures of the mosaics on the floor.

An Over Easy Arrival

We arrived in Birmingham in time for breakfast. While I’m used to being the tour guide pretty much anywhere I go, I was happy to turn the reins over to Hannah Beth on this trip. Her sister goes to school there, so she has the inside track. She proved that when she took us to Over Easy. She had a breakfast-something and I had lunch-something. Both were delicious.

The decor and atmosphere was very California: modernesque furniture and semi-hippie waitstaff. Because it was a late morning on a weekday, most of the clientele were students who didn’t have early classes and a few moms who’d dropped the older kids off at school.

We arrived at the restaurant via her sister’s campus. We Uber-ed there from the airport. I’m not a natural Uber-er, but Hannah Beth treats it like it’s her second car. We may work together like two peas in a pod, but we do come from opposite sides of the generation gap. At the campus, we picked up her sister’s car – another evidence of working in ministry. No rental cars or swanky hotels.

Speaking of the lack of swanky hotels, we stayed in a La Quinta. Don’t get me wrong. There was nothing wrong with the place. It was clean and convenient. The breakfast was good. It was a fine place to stay, but let’s face it two stars is not exactly plush.

So that’s the basics – an early morning flight, a little transportational shuffle, a hearty breakfast and an economy hotel. The rest of the meals were either breakfast at the hotel or something served to us at the thing I can’t tell you about. However, this was me and I had Hannah Beth with me. Adventures are in store. By the way, Birmingham is called the Steel City, because it used to be the home of most of the world’s steel mills. More about that next week, so please come back to visit.

DESTINATIONS, Road Trips, Shopping, TRAVEL, United States

San Marcos Premium Outlets

February 1, 2017January 12, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: MY KIND OF SHOPPING AND MORE

I love shopping. Actually, it would be more correct to say I love buying. I’m perfectly capable of wandering through a bazaar or market in a faraway place, just to get a feel for the place, but for me, it’s a lot more fun if there’s buying involved.

My husband has finally cured me of that – at least when he’s around. I used to come home from trips with a souvenir from every stop. I collected trinket boxes and Christmas ornaments. I loved to find handmade clothing and jewelry. I gathered up souvenir booklets like some people collect baseball cards. In the early years of our marriage, this practice created great discomfort for Bill. He followed me around with his eyes full of pain and flinched at every purchase. I didn’t pay close enough attention, so he started helping me understand his point of view.

Collecting just doesn’t make any sense to him. To Bill, all my gorgeous trinket boxes seemed like clutter. He’s suggested I store most of them and only put out a few at a time. What once held pride of place, on the fireplace mantle of my apartment, is now hidden away upstairs on a shelf in my office – along with all my framed family photos, my large collection of books and … well you get the picture. I don’t have to allow much room for souvenirs in my return luggage, anymore.

From time to time, I’ll have a lapse of judgement. We’ll be traveling and I’ll pick up an item with that look in my eye. Bill goes into panic mode. Trinket boxes and Christmas ornaments are strictly taboo. If I’ve picked up an item for the house, Bill wants to know exactly where I plan to display it and of course, he really loves what’s there and doesn’t want to replace it. Whatever it is, it won’t be coming home with me. Clothing and jewelry? Forget about it. He asks what I’m going to throw away or donate to make space for the new item. My only hope of making a purchase is when I find a gift for someone else. It takes some of the fun out of it.

The Exceptions to the Rule

While he can’t see the value in that cute straw purse on the beach or an embroidered sweater in the Alps, Bill does understand I know my way around an outlet mall. He fully endorses my outlet shopping. Mind you, he rarely goes with me, but he also doesn’t need resuscitation when I come home with armloads of shopping bags. See, he knows that cute straw purse on the beach has a mark-up somewhere in the range of 100%, but if I buy a top at an outlet mall, they’ve almost had to pay me to get me to carry it out.

I’m also allowed to buy shoes at DSW. I never look at anything unless it’s on the clearance rack and even then, I’ll only look at things that are 50% or more off. What I love is the yellow stickers, because that means they are marked down 80% or more.

San Marcos Premium Outlet

For some reason I cannot fathom, I never shopped at the San Marcos Premium Outlet – at least not in the last 20-30 years. It seems as if long ago I might have gone with Mom and Aunt Edie, but I think the stores may have been on the other side of the road – and none of the stores I loved this time were there.

You know I love San Antonio and get there every time I can, but for some reason, we’d just drive right past this outlet mall or stop in Salado. It pains me to think of all the bargains I’ve missed.

Deb and I started at Off 5th, the Saks outlet. I’d been looking at white pique dresses all summer long, but could not tolerate spending $150-200 for one dress. At Saks, I took several reasonably priced options to the dressing room and found one for about$20 that I loved. (I didn’t even know I was headed to Egypt on my next trip. Imagine how cute I will be, going out to dinner in Sharm!) Then off to the shoe department. Score!! Ellen Tracy brown crocodile pumps with a leather stack heel for $16.99! $16.99!!

After that auspicious beginning, my purchasing slowed down, but I did pick up a few items here and there. Then we wandered in to Dream Land. I pride myself on looking designer without paying designer prices, but I confess, there are designers I love and if money were no object, as my spouse if fond of saying, I’d load my closet up with them. My new favorite is Carolina Herrera. To my utter delight, she has an outlet store in San Marcos. The prices are still a little out of my reach, but they are closer than the ones at Northpark. Armani, Brahmin, Coach, Ferragamo – all these and more grace the sidewalks of the San Marcos outlet mall.

But let me tell you my favorite. I love St. John. I can pick out someone wearing it a mile away. There’s a sleek elegance I aspire to that exudes from each St. John creation. Their store is not exactly on the main drag, so we had to wander a bit to find it, but I adored the few moments I spent there. No reason to spend any more, because nothing was in my price range.

At a final stop, we found a handbag for my bestie. She’d been willing to pay $100 for something adequate at the Saks outlet, but we agreed to keep looking. She got a Brahmin for about $120. I was giddy. She hoped I was spending her money wisely and now I think she agrees I did.

Then it was time to head back to join the women who had spend the day in Gruene, because we were headed out to dinner. See you next week!

DESTINATIONS, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL, United States

Palmer’s is Perfect – Almost!

January 25, 2017January 10, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: PARTYING ON PALMER’S PATIO

Armed with a recommendation and an address, Deb and I headed towards San Marcos. We wanted to grab a bite before we headed to the outlet mall. We found a lot more than a bite at Palmer’s!

An Awkward Beginning

From the street Palmer’s doesn’t look like much. In fact, coming from Gruene, the first thing you see is a wall with a large mural. Nothing about the mural let us know we’d made a good decision, but when we found the parking lot we realized we’d found the nirvana which had evaded me during an earlier yoga session.

A large shaded patio with a splashing fountain promised we were about to have a good time, but we had to work for it. As we passed the patio entering the restaurant there were scads of empty tables, but when we asked to sit out there, the hostess hesitated. She had to go check something and she asked us to sit down. When she came back she said we’d need to wait a little and that sounded OK, until a little turned into a lot.

There was a time in my life when I would have meekly sat there until called, but that time has passed. The hostess busied herself sorting through menus and made a career of ignoring us. Since the patio was virtually empty, we wondered what was up. Finally, I asked exactly what we were waiting on since there were so many tables available. She stammered around about the wait staff having just taken orders and not being quite ready to serve us. I didn’t stammer when I said we’d rather do our waiting outside.

She reluctantly seated us on the patio and soon we’d made our drink orders. It was never quite clear why the hostess expected us to wait docilely in the slightly dank and very dark vestibule, but with the breeze blowing, a jazz trio playing and the water playing in the fountain, we didn’t care for very long.

A Little Bit of Heaven

So, the service was lacking before we ever got a chance to sit down, but I didn’t really care. The food took forever to get there and when I got it, I didn’t like it very much. (Nothing on the menu suggested the fritatta came heavily drizzled with sour cream. There are only three things in the whole world that I won’t eat and sour cream is one of them.) But that’s alright. I was happy and didn’t want to get unhappy!

Sitting on the patio at Palmer’s is the closest thing I’ve found to sitting on the patio at Joe T’s; and sitting on the patio at Joe T’s is the closest thing I’ve found to heaven – only the food at Joe T’s is good, really good.

The food might have been mediocre, but they had something called a Poinsettia to drink. For the uninitiated, a Poinsettia is the same thing as a Mimosa, except that you use cranberry juice instead of orange juice. Orange juice is not one of the three things I refuse to partake of, but I do avoid it if I can. Now that I know about Poinsettias, I will never have to regret that I don’t particularly like Mimosas, ever again in my life.

Here’s what’s funny. A Poinsettia was $5, but according to the waitress, “for $8 you can get twice as much.” I planned to be there for a while so I went for the large. Forget twice as much! I could have gotten everyone on the patio severely drunk with the huge bottle of Poinsettias I was served. Deb had started with a make-your-own Bloody Mary Bar, with which she had been underwhelmed, but if we would have known, we would have just ordered the large Poinsettia and two glasses. We both drank as much as we dared over several hours and still couldn’t make a dent. See why the fritatta didn’t matter!!

I could go on, but the bottom line is this, the shady patio, the jazz band and the Poinsettias were so good, nothing else mattered – not the lousy service, not the mediocre food, nothing. I will return to Palmer’s but it was time to head to the outlet mall. Look out credit cards!!

Accommodations, Architecture, ART, Attractions, Cruising, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, International, Museums, TRAVEL

Cruise Afterglow

December 28, 2016December 28, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: VIKING’S DANUBE WALTZ – WHAT A TRIP!

As I sit in my office on an October Saturday afternoon in Heath TX, listening to the fountain that dances in my pond and writing a post you will read in December, I have nothing but kudos for my April cruise on Viking Cruise Lines. My travel agent, Sandra Rubio at CTC set up everything perfectly for us and Viking Cruise Lines is amazing – simply amazing!

What I Liked Best

Wonderful new friends! Deb & Mike Radcliffe and Gwenne & John Penkert were the best cruise buddies you can imagine – and they live in Oregon, which gives me an excuse to return to one of my favorite places.
The inadequately named “Silver Collection,” a part of the Imperial Apartment Museum in the Hofburg in Vienna. Decorative Arts overload! I will never forget it.
Pretty much everything I ate and drank on the Viking Tor, but especially the bottomless wine glass at dinner.
Budapest – yep, the whole thing. Can’t wait to go back someday. And Rick Steve’s is right about the Baths.
Lunch in Cesky Krumlov
A sunny afternoon stroll in Passau

What I Liked Least

The Faux Castle

The non-stop Lufthansa flight from DFW to Frankfurt. Worst flight EVER!!
Not having more time in Budapest.
Bratislava, Slovakia – didn’t feel good, didn’t get the shore excursion I wanted, the guide was iffy. Other than that it was a great stop (tee hee.)
Being in Vienna in the rain on a Monday, which is when the Lipizzaners don’t perform and some of the museums are closed. Loved Vienna, but after three visits there, I have yet to see the Lippizzaners and I could have done without the rain.
Anything to do with Empress Elizabeth, otherwise known as Sissie.
The guide in Passau.

On Our Way Home

Viking got us home as smoothly as they did everything else. While we were at breakfast, our bags were whisked away. We boarded a bus and after a pleasant drive were at the Munich airport.

While not awful enough to include in my “least liked” list, German airports didn’t rate very highly with me. They get high marks for cleanliness, but they were confusing. We roamed in befuddled circles in Frankfurt and repeated the exercise in Munich.

Security was on high alert, because we got there just as some international dignitaries were strutting through the airport. I think there had been some sort conference, but the airport was full of people who looked as if they were used to getting preferential treatment and security was tight.

Thankfully, the Delta flight to Chicago was much more pleasant than the Lufthansa non-stop torture chamber. However, because customs dumped us outside the secured area, we had to go back through the TSA screening and that was a nightmare. They were so backed-up, we had pity on some people who were about to miss their flight and gave them our spot. What else were we going to do with our time? Go shopping?

Finally, Dallas! As much as I love traveling, I do love getting home. As if to welcome us home, a full moon hung low in the sky over our pond. It was the first trip I’d returned from without having my beloved Shih Tzu, Precious, to greet me. I miss that white ball of fur.

I’ll give you one more look at our overview video and then I hope you’ll come back next week to see what else I’ve been up to.

Architecture, ART, Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, Shopping, TRAVEL

A Lovely Afternoon in Passau

December 21, 2016December 21, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: GLADLY GUIDELESS IN GERMANY

After lunch Bill and I ventured into Passau on our own. While we’d been frustrated by our guide’s demeanor during the morning, he had led us through a shopping area and shown us a nice riverside walkway. Passau is no Vienna and we’d had lunch, so Bill was amenable to hoofing it around on our own.

A Marvelous Afternoon

While our morning tour had left a bad taste in our mouth, it had not besmirched the charming little town. The first item on my agenda was to find some tokens for my friends. A thorough search of the room did not turn up any of the darling gingerbread ornaments I bought in Cesky Krumlov, so I needed to get busy. I wanted to get something for my Bible Study girls and then I had a couple of other friends for whom I wanted to buy something more substantial.

Passau has a significant pedestrian area with shops called Ludwigstrasse and nearby are a couple multistory of enclosed malls. My patient husband wandered through all of these with me, hunting down the appropriate souvenirs – only I wasn’t finding much that I thought was appropriate. Finally, we wandered into a knick-knack store and while most of the items were tacky bibelots with the words “Passau, Germany” emblazoned on them, I found a shelf populated with charming ceramic cherubs molded into a variety of poses. I’d found the trinkets I wanted for my Bible Study girls.

Strolling Along the River

I was still baffled about what to get for my best friend and my next door neighbor, who is truly the best next door neighbor in the world, but Mr. Bill was ready to roll. We headed toward the river and were hugely rewarded.

The morning had been chilly in more ways than one. Yes, our guide had been Mr. Rude, but the weather was overly crisp, also. I’d layered up with a denim jacket and a wool cape, but had still been uncomfortable. The afternoon weather was so glorious that we might have been in Dallas on one of its best days.

We discovered it was the first really warm day for Passau that spring and the whole town had turned out to enjoy the river. Children tossed balls into the air. Lovers ogled one another on shared blankets. Giggly girls shared secrets strolling along the river. Another girl sat on a stairway leading down to the river captivated by a book. Beer drinking students toasted everyone that walked by. It was like a movie set!

Once More to the Ludwigstrasse

Armed with a map the rude guide had provided, Bill and I maneuvered around the finger of land pointing to the confluence of the Inn, the Ilz and the Danube. When we got back to the boat, Bill agreed to hit the Ludwigstrasse with me one more time. I was in a tizzy. I had to finish packing and dress for dinner soon, but I just didn’t want to head home without something for my friends.

As I bounced from storefront to storefront appalled at the pricing, Bill came to the rescue. One of the clothing stores was having a bit of a sidewalk sale and Bill pointed it out. I doubted anything would be affordable, even marked down, because all the prices I had seen were pretty steep. Bill helped me figure out the exchange rate and the discount. Suddenly, I was all smiles. Not only had we found exactly what I’d love to get for Deb and Sherry, but I wasn’t going to break the bank!

It was a quiet night on board. The evening happy hour was devoted to disembarking instructions. Dinner was delicious, but sad. We’d made wonderful friends and we didn’t know when we’d see them again. Then there we had to be out early in the morning. For all practical purposes, the cruise was over.

Come back next week and I’ll get you back to Dallas. In the meantime, enjoy this video of our final stop.

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Cruising, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Pretty Little Passau

December 7, 2016October 15, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: THE FINAL SHORE EXCURSION

Waking up in Passau was bittersweet. During the night we’d passed from Austria into Germany and docked at Passau, but my research had not mined up any nuggets for my “must-see” list, in this town at the confluence of three rivers. The overwhelming emotion was regret. I was going to have to leave this cozy boat where they took me from destination to destination, fulfilling my every need and desire along the way.

The Morning Rush Hour

In Viking River Cruise land, mornings were busy. We had to get up and get breakfast before the tour started. There were no lazy days at sea. It might have been nice to intersperse all these activities with some down time, but Mr. Bill is not a two week vacation kind of guy and on an 8 day river cruise you are engaged every single day, all day long.

Passau was no different. The walking tour began at nine. After a delicious breakfast we disembarked and found our guide. We did not get the pick of the litter.

The Walking Torture

He was a Frenchman, resettled into Germany and I’ll just say it, he was rude. He was quite knowledgeable, but so unpleasant. He was obviously unaware that we were on a walking tour, not taking an oral exam for a PhD. He’d pepper us with questions and then ridicule our answers. If we dared ask him a question, he’d belittle us. I’m not exactly ignorant of history, but the one question I asked him about a date painted on a castle, resulted in my most uncomfortable moment of the cruise.

We put up with him for a while, but it was finally so unpleasant that we wandered off and found our own way back to the boat. However, Passau is a lovely little town, in spite of the rude guide, so I’ll show you some of it.

Pretty Little Passau

If you’ve been following me along on this cruise, then you know the operative word for the predominant architectural style along the Danube is Baroque. We got a taste of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Cesky Krumlov, but pretty much everything else has been Baroque-on-steroids. Passau was no different. The architectural highlights are the Prelate’s Palace and St. Stephen’s Cathedral, but the whole town is lovely. For some reason, the Rathaus has murals painted all over it which are reminiscent of the Middle Ages, but they are merely modern interpretations of that era. Architecture aside, the three rivers are the real stars of the show.

Enjoy this gallery of shots from our walking torture. I can’t tell you much more about them, because the only way I was able to avoid killing my guide was to ignore him. We finally abandoned him and made our own way back to the boat. Come back next week and I’ll tell you about the rest of the day, which was a lot more fun.

ART, Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, Music, Performing Arts, TRAVEL

A Great Night of On-board Entertainment

November 30, 2016October 13, 2016 Jane Sadek

Cruise buddy Deb hams it up with the talent — Cruise buddy, Deb, hams it up with the talent

TRAVEL THERE: RODGERS, HAMMERSTEIN AND MOZART

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, it did!

Back to Elegant Dining

I’d been disappointed by the over-hyped Taste of Austria dinner. Visually, it had been lovely, but the culinary experience couldn’t beat what we’d already been enjoying. Quality not quantity is my interest.

After my trot around Linz, we scurried back to the boat and I jumped into my evening attire. This was the penultimate evening of the cruise and the captain was throwing a cocktail party. That included a toast, which meant champagne would be served. So I was janie-on-the spot in the lounge. I didn’t want to miss any champagne. The captain didn’t try to labor through another bout of English, thankfully. Instead our cruise director translated for him.

After the toast, the lederhosen, dirndls and oom-pah-pah were gone from the dining room- much to our relief. We waxed nostalgic about our service throughout the evening as if we’d been living on the boat for years, instead of a matter of days. The Viking Daily had promised Mozart and the Sound of Music as our evenings entertainment and we wondered how that mixture would pan out.

A Salzburgian Romp

A troupe of singers appeared and offered a few tunes. Their voices were wonderful and they wore authentic period costumes. The evening started out very high-brow and then they began the audience participation part of the performance. I was not surprised in the least that they chose Bill. They always choose Bill. I’m beginning to think he must be offering bribes. Anyway, here’s a few photos from his appearance.

That was fun, but the next part was even more wonderful. They switched from classical to a classic, The Sound of Music. I can’t say I was actually yearning for tunes from the Julie Andrews movie, but as soon as the first few bars of intro wafted through the lounge, I had tears in my eyes. The singers merely zipped through the soundtrack, hitting the high points, which was lovely, but I secretly wanted more. I wanted to be reminded of every frame of the movie and especially Edelweiss, which is on my personal top 10 (along with Leon Russell’s Stranger in a Strange Land, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and Gordon Lightfoot’s Rainy Day People.) I’ve never streamed a movie to my phone, but it did cross my mind that evening.

The performers were real characters. They were hamming it up with all the guests, so Bill wasn’t the only one to garner their attention. He’s just the only one who entered the spotlight. After the performers left, the tempo got much faster and the girls hit the dance floor. I have a few more photos to share below.

The boat didn’t head towards our next destination until 10:30 and I’d entertained thoughts of taking another stroll onshore, but it didn’t happen. If you let them, Viking will fill every moment of your day and that’s what happened on this particular day, except for the visit to the Mariendom.

Next up is Passau, Germany. Come back next week and visit this lovely little town at the confluence of rivers.

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, TRAVEL

A Little of Linz

November 23, 2016October 8, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: HANGING ON THE HAUPTPLATZ

Once the bus returned us to the boat from our excursion to the Czech Republic, we only had about forty-five minutes before it was time to get ready for dinner. Having had the chance to rest up on the bus ride, we were raring to visit Linz, so we dropped off our junk in our cabin and hit the gangplank again.

Lovely Afternoon in Linz

In Cesky Krumlov it had been a tad bit chilly, so I’d been all layered up to keep warm. Linz was a whole different story. There we regretted our long sleeves.

As with most of our stops, our boat was docked adjacent to exactly what we wanted to see. We stepped off the boat and into the Hauptplatz, one of the largest main squares in Austria. You can see the plague column behind us in the photo above and the Old Rathaus is nearby. In fact, I had a map showing this square is the center of sightseeing, but it was late and most things had closed – not to mention that we barely had time to walk down the street a bit and then get back to the boat. So we kept to the main thoroughfare.

The architecture along the venerable main street is gorgeous. Churches butt up against chic boutiques and everything looks as if a modern day Hapsburg is coming for inspection. The one thing I really wanted to see was the Mariendom. The “new” cathedral can accommodate 20,000 people. I figured that would be worth seeing.

We didn’t get very far down the street until we ran into our cruise buddies. They’d hit the streets directly from the bus and were already headed back to the boat. We wanted to explore a little more.

Finding a cathedral to accommodate 20,000 isn’t all that hard if you’re anywhere near it, so soon we found a side street that took us right up to the big church. We were only there for a few minutes, but I have to confess that I thoroughly enjoyed the respite from tourism.

All the other churches we’d been to were definite tourist destinations. We’d gotten to Mariendom late enough for the tour buses and their occupants to be gone. A few parishioners were spread among the sea of pews and were obviously praying. This was a church that was really a church. It felt like God was there, so I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for the wonderful trip we were enjoying. Then I couldn’t resist getting the panoramic picture above!

Though we hadn’t really taken much time at all, we had to hurry back to the boat. Bill still managed to grab a few shots along the way. I’ll share those with you and then I hope you’ll be back next week, because it was a favorite night of entertainment. Enjoy Linz!