All Aboard!

 

Yes, we jumped headfirst into long-delayed travel, as I hinted (not too subtly) last time. 

And what better way to shake off the covid doldrums than with a Viking cruise! As long-time readers know, we took one of these wonderful boat rides in 2017, on the Danube. This time we floated (or, rather, churned, since we went upstream) on Europe's other big boy, the Rhine/Rhein/Rijn/Rhin/Rain. (I'll explain the reason for all these translations as I tell you about our journey.)

Our luxurious craft was the Alruna, named for the Norse Valkyrie represented in the painting above, which was prominently displayed on the boat.

Alruna docked at Mannheim, Germany

As you know from the commercials airing all over PBS, as well as from my 2017 reports, life is pretty sweet on board a Viking longship. From the sundeck, where we spent a lot of time enjoying the scenery and playing games (no low bridges this time, so it was open all the time)...

...to the scrumptious food, especially desserts, that was always available in abundance...

...to the impeccably-served dining areas...

...I am totally convinced that the experience is worth the big bucks that it costs.

This time our specific stateroom accommodations weren't quite as splendid as last time, when we paid a little more for a big floor-to-ceiling window. 

the window in our stateroom #110 on this trip

But, of course, you don't spend too much time in your room. And although the windows were a lot smaller, the room itself was the same size as those on the upper decks. We were happy with our choice.

And we were pleased that we were able to eat outside as much as possible: pretty much every lunch, even when it was a little chilly. The rain that we had seen forecast just didn't materialize for most of the trip, allowing us to eat in safer, and pretty fabulous, conditions every noon:

In fact, the bright sunlight was more of an issue most days!

Barge traffic on the Rhine was pretty heavy, providing an endless slideshow of the supply chain in action, as well as some excitement when the traffic got heavier. Such as when we threaded the needle between these two barges:

good steering, Captain!

Of course, there was almost always even better scenery as we sailed along, and we made stops in some amazing cities, too. I'll be telling you all about those excursions over the coming weeks. For now, enjoy another glimpse of our noble ship, this time from [almost] atop the famous cathedral in Köln, Germany:

Alruna sits ready to take us to our next destination

Wordless Wednesday: Mighty [lot of] Ducks

 

Trip Teaser 2022

 

I know I have be quite remiss in blogging lately, but except for the short river cruise I told you about last time, I really haven't been doing anything blog-worthy. 

Well, that turned around, in spades, a few weeks ago. We shed our fears of covid, World War III, and everything else and took a big dive out of our pandemic comfort zones. I'll be telling you all about the trip over [probably] the next several weeks (I took almost 950 pictures!!). But here's a few images to whet your appetites...

a city where the rail station looks like a palace

gentlemen from a bygone era enjoying themselves

we saw a few churches...

...and a few bridges...

...and a few sculptures...

...and ended up in the most beautiful mountains this side of Colorado

Stay tuned!

First of two rivers

Having out-of-town guests is fun for lots of reasons. But one that might not come to mind right away is the impetus to do touristy things in your own hometown. Thus the San Antonio riverboat tour I took with visitors from Maine last month.

We had perfect weather, as you can see...

Casa Rio's iconic umbrellas

...and we enjoyed the many lovely sights San Antonio's downtown has to offer. Below you can see some of them. (Although there was none of the drama that accompanied my last float down this section of the river—yikes!—nine years ago. And we weren't paddling our own boat, as we often do further downstream.) 

handsome sculpture outside the Briscoe Western Art Museum

"Stargazer," an impressive new piece of public art

The Tower of the Americas, a vestige of the city's 1968 Hemisfair, can be seen from all over town, but is especially impressive when seen from the river. 

When our kids were little and we'd be driving west from visiting Granny in Houston, there was always a fierce competition for who could glimpse the tower first as we neared home.

An even longer-standing claim-to-fame for us is our suite of missions. You can't see any of them from this section of the river, but when you pass the Arneson River Theatre, you see this lovely collection of bells that represent the five sites:

More cool public art:

"Torch of Friendship"

...and architecture...

the former Joske's storefront peeping over the wall

funny faces on the Tower Life building

This is the former Nix hospital and medical office building where I used to go to the dentist. Yes, it is a building and not just a wall, although from this vantage point the latter's what it looks like. It just comes to a perfect triangular point. 

It's also full of the prettiest tile- and stone-work inside. I'm pleased that it's on the way to becoming a hotel...it's in a perfect location and is just too lovely to be an office building. 

And to finish up, we have some more public art, with our own Nix in the frame for scale. This mural is across from the convention center, which has its own branch of the river, and where we walked after our cruise:

For those of my readers who've made it through to the end of this post, I have a slight teaser. Next up I'll be showing-and-telling about a *slightly* bigger and more famous river that I floated on soon after this trip. Stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday: Is it Christmas already?!?

 

Orchid Week!

Nero Wolfe had nothing on the San Antonio Botanical Garden when it comes to orchids. I know almost all of my recent posts have been from this wonderful place, but what can I say? I'm emphasizing the "hometown" in my title and not doing much traveling lately, but I'm hoping that will change later in the spring.

The great thing about having the SABOT membership, though, is that visiting there is almost always like going someplace new. The roses are all sleeping now, but the place makes up for that with incredible orchid displays. (Can you believe that arrangement at the top of the post?! I should have had someone stand in the frame for scale, but, trust me, it was 5 feet wide!) And they're working on new exhibits all the time.

I took advantage of my membership to go on a special orchid tour the other day, and it was such fun, as well as educational. I'm sure everyone on the tour knew more about orchids than I did, but that just meant I got to learn more new stuff from our expert guide than they did. For example, did you know that the vanilla called for in all your sweet baking comes from an orchid family plant? That was news to me.

Here's a couple more shots of the lovelies we got to see. (I can't believe I didn't think to take my camera, so all I had was my phone. That's why there's just these few pictures instead of 20 or 30!)

A special treat was getting to go behind the scenes at SABOT and spend some time in the orchid greenhouse with one of the horticulturists. I couldn't help but think of the detective's rooms and half-expected to see his ample frame puttering around the pots...

Wordless Wednesday: netted moon