After yesterday’s rainy afternoon in Copenhagen, the forecast for today was windy in the morning with temperatures rising during the day and a bright sunny afternoon in Gothenburg, Sweden as we headed northeast. Unfortunately, the weatherman could not have been more wrong. As we left a slightly breezy Copenhagen in the morning, the rain began and the temperature began to drop. By the time we got to Gothenburg, it was cold, rainy, and we were in shorts and t-shirts. But the bus ride was nice, and the scenery began to change as we crossed into Sweden and headed northeast. Maja went over some of the differences between Denmark and Sweden that we may not have noticed. There are not nearly as many bicycles in Sweden as Denmark, as all of Denmark is almost completely flat while ... read more

It’s hard to believe that another year has passed. I reached the milestone of 70 years old, and somehow Jody just keeps looking younger every year. After last year’s post-Covid hectic pace of 2 Caribbean cruises, a week in Sanibel Island, a trip to Spain and Portugal, and a River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, we decided to slow things down a little. Though we did take a Caribbean cruise in March, and plan to take another in September, our only major trip this year is this current trip, using Insight Vacations for the third time, to Spectacular Scandinavia and Its Fjords. The trip begins in Copenhagen, Denmark, passes through Stockholm, Sweden and ends up in the Fjords of Norway ending 15 days later in Oslo, Norway. The weather here is cooler than last year’s trip ... read more

This is our second day in Vienna, and perhaps we should have planned our time better, but this morning instead of venturing into the city center, we are embarking on an ebike ride along the Danube into the countryside. Neither of us had ever ridden an ebike, but earlier this summer we did a 26-mile ride on our regular bikes, so we figured we could handle it. Our group consisted of 14 passengers including us, and 3 tour guides with Wolfgang taking the lead and the others following in the rear to make sure no one got lost. Having never seen an ebike, I assumed it was some sort of electric motorcycle, but it was not. It’s basically just regular bicycle, in our case it was an 8 speed with a selection knob on the right ... read more

Today we officially left Germany for the last time and crossed into Austria. We began our day with a walking tour of the Melk Abbey. The Melk Abbey was originally founded by the Benedictine monks in the 11th century and has been in continuous operation up to the present day. There are currently 24 Benedictine monks living on the premises and it still operates a Catholic School in most of the building for several hundred students. It is considered a private school since the education is Catholic and it charges a tuition of 104 Euros per month. The building was expanded to its current size and baroque architecture in the 17th and 18thcenturies. There was a fire in 1974 that damaged portions of the building that resulted in a major restoration in the 1990’s. Unfortunately, photography ... read more

Today was migratory day on the Viking Vidal. Last night we met the ship in Passau, Germany but we weren’t supposed to be there until tomorrow because of the swap. For that reason, they moved the ship from Passau to Engelhartszell, Austria for the night. So, this morning we boarded the coach for the 2-hour bus ride back to Germany to visit the medieval town of Regensburg. Of course, after the tour it was a 2-hour ride back to Engelhartszell, Austria for the night. Tomorrow we will sail the ship back up the Danube to Passau, Germany where we will have a parking space available for the day and finish up our visit to Germany before continuing back down the Danube into Austria the next day. Very confusing, but we just go wherever they tell us, ... read more