Danube Cruise

Waltzing Along the Danube

June 2019

          Another Viking River Cruise? We’ve already done 4 together, plus Marjorie did a “Christmas Markets” Rhine cruise with her sister Mary and I did a “Midnight Sun” ocean cruise to Scotland and Norway (above the Arctic Circle!) with my brother Doug & family. But it seems only fitting to add the Danube to our list of European rivers that includes the Rhine, Seine, Saone, and Rhone; at 1775 miles, the Danube is the longest European River after the Volga, flowing thru 10 countries. And it’s always so nice to tour in a floating hotel with gourmet restaurant! Mary & hubbie Jeff have done the Danube, advising that too little water in late summer or fall might turn cruising into a bus tour. With additional advice and assistance from friendly Viking staffer Sonya, we booked the “Danube Waltz” trip for early summer. As usual, a variety of choices for included and optional tours; we’ll do some things together and others separately. 

As I put together this journal from my voice-recorder mutterings and scribblings, I think back to an exhibit in March at Emma Willard School: “Transient’s Voice” by Shima Iuchi, diary pages combining her elegant script with lovely drawings from her travels. I am humbled, but carry on nonetheless.

Schoharie in Spring

A Spring Outing to Schoharie

April 2019

          Spring has started to emerge. The grass is greening. Been on the golf course a couple of times. In the midst of Easter singing. 

Last night (Friday, 4/12) was an ecumenical  evening of Lenten prayer and song at St. Clement’s in Saratoga, arranged by Mendelssohn Club Director Jeff Vredenberg and wife Brenda. The church is beautiful. It’s “A Redemtorist Community,” referring to a Catholic order that serves the poor. The latter seems ironic, considering it’s Saratoga, and word is the order will be moving out of the area. Don’t know what will happen to the church. Tonight’s choir is drawn from several sources. An hour of rehearsal, tho the music isn’t too complicated and mostly familiar: “Amazing Grace,” “Adoramus Te Christe,” “Lift High the Cross,” etc.  The music is lovely, and Marjorie says the basses sound especially good. Brenda is very excited that a few of us basses can hit a low D, her “favorite note.” I notice Jeff’s very active directing, much like an orchestra conductor. A nice service, but not a big audience. Refreshments after, highlighted by Brenda’s sinful chocolate-chip cookies. This was a nice lead-in to the Holy Week choir marathon next week.

Images of New York City

Images of New York City

1974-2019 

          Marjorie and I have lived in Albany since 1974, so we’ve had many opportunities to visit our neighbor (“The City” as we call it) to the south. Those visits became more frequent once our son Matt started his studies at Manhattan School of Music, and then moved to Queens to start his own family  ̶  grandchildren are such an attraction, after all. Many of the scenes and venues presented here are represented in other posts on my blog, but I decided it’s time to put together a centralized collection of photos from our visits, mostly for us but also to share with others who may be interested.  My apologies for any that are mislabeled  ̶  this covers a long period of time for my memory to cover! 

Decompressing in Vermont

Holiday Decompression in Vermont

January 2019 

          For Christmas I gave Marjorie (aka Santa’s Helper) a “Holiday Decompression Kit”: movie date (to an actual big screen theater!), jigsaw puzzle of Rockefeller Plaza at Christmas, and a 2-night Living Social voucher for Castle Hill Resort and Spa in Ludlow VT. We’ve used such vouchers happily in the past, most recently a similar getaway last year to Arlington VT. But haven’t found Bob Newhart’s inn (you know, the one with “Larry, my brother Darryl, and my other brother Darryl”). Castle Hill, listed in Historic Hotels of America, is centrally located in the Green Mountains; plenty of things to do nearby  . . . or just relax  ̶  looks to be lovely accommodations & setting. The English Cotswold style inn, constructed with gneiss stone quarried on property and hand-carved California redwood, opened in 1905. Built by Allen Miller Fletcher (Vermont’s Governor 1912-1915) near his summer home, it was the first home in Vermont to be fully wired for electricity and equipped with an elevator. European craftsmen worked for five years to create “old world elegance and charm.” A companion carriage house, containing the spa, has traditional New England style shingle construction. Both buildings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The “Aveda Spa” offers pricey options ranging from your basic hair & nails to “Ultimate Stress Fix” and “Pure Indulgence.” Ludlow is described as “a classic Vermont town with quaint shops, restaurants, attractions” that “just beg for visitors to experience them.”

Sun, Moon, and Clouds

Sun, Moon, and Clouds

      Some favorite photo ops on travels involve simply looking up to see the sun rise or set, the moon, or just beautiful cloud formations. So I thought I would collect some of them together here. The one above is a particular favorite: sunset over Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks, in 1975.

Fall in Queens & Rhinebeck

A Surprising Fall Getaway to Queens and Rhinebeck

October 2018 

          One of my regular Red Cross runs delivering blood to regional hospitals takes me to Northern Duchess Hospital in Rhinebeck, then thru town toward hospitals in Poughkeepsie. That takes me past an old inn, the Beekman Arms, in the center of the pretty town, often thinking what a nice getaway that would make. I saw an opportunity this year when Marjorie was spending her mid-September birthday in Kansas City with her sister Mary. We couldn’t do anything for her birthday then, so I thought to combine birthday & our mid-November anniversary (#47, for those keeping score), making it a surprise  ̶  telling her only to keep the dates open. Our friend Marlene, who lives in Poughkeepsie, was a co-conspirator, advising on places to eat. Adding to the outing, we decided to visit the Queens family  ̶  son Matt, daughter-in-law Anthea, and grandsons William & Miles  ̶  to start things off.

Friday, October 19: “Special Deliveries to NYC”

We’re pretty much back to normal following a wonderful trip to the Balkans (Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, and even a bit of Bosnia!) October 4-14, so I guess we can handle this more limited outing. The car’s pretty full of things to take down for the family: t-shirts for William & Miles from our trip, framed photos Matt wanted for Manhattan School of Music, treats baked by Marjorie, and more. A bit of our first frost in early AM. A nice PM drive down, some Fall color tho not too spectacular yet. A lunch stop at our favorite Plaza Diner outside New Paltz. Festive Halloween decorations, and another surprise for Marjorie: my credit card has fallen apart, so we’ll have to use her card to pay for things on “her weekend;” she manages to keep grumbling to a minimum.

Touring Along the Adriatric Sea

Jewels of the Adriatic

October 2018

Croatia has been on our travel to-do list since an earlier European trip (Bavaria in 2006) when in the airport on the way home we chatted with other travelers who raved about Croatia. Marjorie’s cousin Jim and wife Susan also raved about their trip to Croatia last Fall, adding further impetus. Gate1, with whom we’ve happily traveled a number of times, has an “11 Day Affordable Croatia & Slovenia” tour that looks just right. One unhappy note: friend Kay, a companion on the Bavaria and some other trips, is unable to join us. But Una (who had traveled with us in Andalucia) and her friend Nancy will be joining us. Well, “joining us” turned out to be a bit uncertain when they booked a night in Venice at the end. Una tried to arrange “Bus Unity” for the 4 of us to be on the same tour bus, but discovered their Venice add-on put them into a different group (and bus). We’ll share some but not all of the hotels; don’t know how much we’ll be touring together. I’d vouched for Gate 1, so I hope things go well and that we’ll have plenty of time together. Una seems to have forgiven me for being picked to join the Doug Ward family on a Viking Ocean cruise “Into the Midnight Sun” this summer; she was the next choice, but “blood” won out. We learned another friend, Beth, will be on a tour to Croatia with a friend that begins the same day as ours, but with a different company. Will we cross paths?

This region has become a popular tourist destination, with spectacular scenery from seacoasts to mountains. It also has a complex and violent history. I’ll attempt a brief (and probably oversimplified) recent summary: After WWII Yugoslavia was an uneasy federation of 6 republics, including 4 we’ll visit (Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia). Tensions among the various ethnic groups were suppressed by Tito until his death in 1980, when calls for autonomy escalated. Croatia & Slovenia declared independence in 1991 and were attacked by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army. The Balkan Wars of the 1990s entailed allegations of “ethnic cleansing” and war crimes. NATO bombings (“Operation Deliberate Force”) were followed by a US-brokered peace agreement. Montenegro declared independence in 2006. Croatia and Slovenia are members of NATO and the European Union; Montenegro joined NATO most recently (2017) and is a candidate to join the EU. Bosnia (and Herzegovina) declared independence in 1992, and is also a candidate to join the EU. But the varying status of these countries creates different situations for crossing borders. It also means some juggling among different currencies: Croatian  kuna ($.16), euros ($1.16), Bosnian convertible marks ($.59).