Portland Day 1-It’s All About the Food (tour)

by | Oct 8, 2025 | Uncategorized

Our first full day back together with the rest of the October bunch was all about food. We had booked a walking food tour with Secret Food Tours. Kathleen and I had toured with them quite a few years ago, and we are happy to report that they still do a superb food tour. That’s the whole crowd at Deschutes Brewery (but more about that later) above.

We started the day with a free breakfast at our hotel (Embassy Suites by Hilton-PDX), and it was fine. It gave us enough to get us to the tour. We were to meet up with Ken Lin from Secret Food Tours at 11:00 am beneath the Umbrella Man sculpture in Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland. And, not to be too political here, I can tell you that Portland is NOT AT WAR. It is NOT DANGEROUS. We saw no crime, just a beautiful day and a lot of really nice people out enjoying the sunshine in the heart of Portland.

I took some shots around the Square before we met up with Ken. Just some interesting architecture, people, and the aforementioned Umbrella Man statue. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Once Ken (at right) arrived, it was off on the food tour. Our first stop was a food pod. We had never been to a food pod before, but it turned out to be a really nice, fenced area with numerous food carts lining the edges, seating, and a stage in the middle. BTW: we were told that these were carts and not food trucks because they have no engines, thus they could not go anywhere. They are there permanently. If you can’t find something to eat or drink there, you aren’t trying. We got to try the Cubano sandwiches from Stella’s Sandwiches, which were drop-dead delicious. Never had one with pulled pork before (always just sliced pork) and it was amazing.

After our food pod experience, we took the longest walk of the day from downtown into the Pearl District to visit Deschutes Brewery and sample their wonderful pretzel with cheese sauce and mustard. All I can say is that it was wonderful. Not quite up to our favorite at Valley House Brewing near us in Duvall, WA but still really good.

Next up was Nong’s Khao Man Gai. It’s an interesting place that is renowned for just this one dish. As you can tell from the name, it is an Asian restaurant. When you order the Khao Man Gai, you get chicken, rice, soup, cucumbers and one of the most amazing sauces. Truly delicious.

From there it was on to Grassa, which is predominantly a pasta restaurant. We got to sample their Pork Belly Mac & Cheese. Absolute decadence might be a good way to describe it. Just amazing.

The last spot and the last course were, of course, dessert. We went just down the street to Petunia’s Pies and Pastries, the home of some truly delicious marionberry pie. If you have no clue what a marionberry is, think of a blackberry without all the annoying seeds. The pie, despite being gluten-free and vegan ?, was amazing.

During the entire tour, I took some street photos, mostly of neon signs, which I love, as well as others of interesting buildings. They are a good way to wind this up photographically.

That about did it for Kathleen and me. She was exhausted from all the walking, so we dropped off Steve, Jamie, Mike, and Cathy at the Portland Rose Garden, and I took Kathleen back to the hotel to rest before going back to pick up the other four about an hour later. The traffic sucked, and that’s kind of what we get for staying in an airport hotel. We had reservations for dinner at Andina, a Peruvian restaurant Kathleen and I had visited before. However, everyone was still so full from the food tour, that I called and rescheduled them for Thursday.

Tomorrow is a trip up the Gorge to visit Multnomah Falls, Hood River and see Mount Hood. Should be fun. I will let you know on Thursday.

Portland is quickly becoming one of those lovely, lush Third World countries where kinda-rich people retire with their money. Here, they can live like kings, generating only service-industry jobs and jacking up housing prices.  —Chuck Palahniuk

 

 

“Let Me Sum Up”

by | Jul 27, 2025 | Uncategorized

If you, (like my good buddy Jayesh and I) are Princess Bride fans, you know that my headline is a quote from the amazing Inigo Montoya. But that’s how I usually begin my final post about a trip.

This trip was a good one. Before we went, everyone told us it was “the trip of a lifetime,” or “the best trip we ever took.” To be totally honest, it is one of the best trips, but not THE best. It does make the top five, but it’s not number one. For me, that spot is still held by our voyage to the Galapagos on Celebrity’s Flora. Let me explain. But not before I give you my favorite African Sunset photo to break up all the text.

The things we loved

The lodging was amazing in its own way. We have never stayed in such wonderful accommodations. Starting with the only one we booked ourselves (The Radisson Red on our first night in Cape Town) to the incredible game lodges at Tintswalo. All of them were great. Two of them had rooms larger than my first apartment (The Cape Grace in Cape Town and the Fairlawn Boutique Hotel and Spa in Johannesburg). The Victoria Falls hotel was just too colonial for me. Too much of a reminder of the way the European/Western world has exploited much of Africa and continues to do so monetarily today. And eating cold food because they have no indoor restaurant is just wrong.

The lodges at Tintswalo Safari Lodge may have been bigger than my first house. But I found them dark and way too isolated. Our room onboard the Zambezi Queen was fine. A little small, but just fine. And they need either doors that lock from the outside or larger safes, along with new and higher furniture in the common areas. When you have to struggle to get out of a couch, that couch needs to go ?.

One more thing about the lodging. It is drop-dead the finest in South Africa. If you visit the websites for the Cape Grace, Victoria Falls Hotel, Fairlawn, or Tintswalo, you will find that all charge around $1200 per night for a room similar to the one we had. To be honest, the best bed I slept on the entire trip was at the Radisson Red in Cape Town. Certainly, the service at the other hotels was amazing, but we also loved the service at the Red and would have been just fine staying there at $165 per night. However, if you want the best lodging in Southern Africa, this is the trip for you.

The food was fine with some amazing standouts. The Spiced Eggs I had for breakfast three days in a row at the Cape Grace in Cape Town were easily one of my favorite dishes ever. Our dinner at Marble in Johannesburg was delicious and a great dining experience. We are glad Beverleigh talked us into keeping our reservation. A few of the dishes at Tintswalo were so good I begged for the recipes, and happily, I have all four that I loved.

This trip included some once-in-a-lifetime experiences. My favorite things we did included our helicopter ride over Victoria Falls (I was too busy being amazed to worry about being in a helicopter). Our morning game drives at Tintswalo (all but one of the evening drives were a bust) and the excellent lectures we heard. The one on the boat in the Zambezi River about Dr. Livingston was especially enjoyable. The ongoing discussion of the historical significance of the mining industry in Johannesburg remains thought-provoking. Our day in the wine country with Gen was incredibly informative in many ways, not just about wine but also about South Africa.

But my drop-dead favorite experience of the entire trip was my solo (with only Gibson driving the boat) “birdwatching” trip on the Chobe River at the crack of dawn. As a photographer, that one was special. Here’s my favorite photo from that day.

I got some great photos. A significant part of why I travel is for the photography. It always makes me happy on a trip when I get great photos that I can come back and be proud of, but Southern Africa does have its photographic challenges.

I would guess that if you asked our wonderful fellow travelers who finished the trip with us at Tintswalo what their favorite segment of the trip was, they would say it was our three days at Tintswalo. For me, that was maybe my third favorite place.

It took me a few days at home working on photos to figure out why. As I compiled my 100 favorite photos from the entire trip (for the record, I took more than 8,000 pictures), I noticed something. The area around Kruger Park and Tintswalo that we visited for those three days was monotone. Everything was brown. Everything blended together.

It didn’t help that throughout our entire stay at Tintswalo, I felt rushed. Part of that feeling is due to my expectations. I thought there would be more free time. Knowing what I know now, I would have skipped all the evening game drives except the first one. Perhaps this is related to how jaded I became about the animals by the end of the trip. I am not sure how many elephants and hippos we saw, but it must have been in the thousands, especially if you include Cape buffalo. And don’t even think about counting the impalas ?.

The one major thing we didn’t like

There is a reason we probably would not do this trip again. And this is just me. I am sure that the others were fine with it, but for us, this trip is not something we would do over. Airports and airplanes are our least favorite part of travel. It would not be an exaggeration for me to say that they are the one part of traveling that I despise. And on this trip, to see everything, you have to spend a lot of time in airports and on airplanes. When I was out for my walk with Keeley (our dog) yesterday, I suddenly realized that was the problem (for us) with this trip. So when I got home, I added up our time in airports and on planes to make this trip happen. Not counting the time it took to travel to and from the airports, we spent 75.5 hours either waiting in an airport for a flight, on the flight, getting through passport control and customs after a flight or clearing it before one. That’s hell. If I had added it up before we booked the trip, we might not have gone. You don’t realize that you can easily lose entire days at airports and on flights.

Please don’t misunderstand me, we had a great time, but when I realized how much time we spent centered on flying, it blew me away. Just under one-fourth of the entire trip was spent getting to and flying on airplanes. Sadly, I don’t know how else we could have seen everything we did in that short amount of time, but until they invent the Star Trek transporter, I don’t plan on doing another trip like that ?.

As many of you know, Kathleen and I have cruised extensively. We have always said that one of the best parts of cruising is the fact that you only have to unpack once, and your hotel moves you around for a week. While that may have been true on the Chobe River, we never really unpacked anywhere. Which also tells you that we are not the type of travelers who like living out of a suitcase. And dragging two medium-sized suitcases, one carry-on, my backpack with camera and laptop, as well as Kathleen’s backpack, was not fun. I am always envious of people like our new friends, AJ and Diane, who can pack everything they need for an 18-day vacation into two large carry-ons. One pair of my shoes would fill that backpack. And this vacation was all about layering. We needed clothes for hot weather and clothes for cold weather. And there was no real laundry service or opportunity until we got to Tintswalo. Plus, in a few places (like Johannesburg), we couldn’t send any out because we weren’t there long enough for it to come back before we left.

This vacation was just too much moving from point A to point B. We loved all points A, B, C, D and E, but getting there was no fun.

The absolute best thing about the entire trip

Hands down, it was the proud people of Southern Africa. I don’t think we met a single person who lived there who wasn’t trying to be the best they could be, even though they may have been living through horrible circumstances. The service was hands down the best we have ever received in all our travels, and all were supplied with smiles and cheerful voices.

And the openness was amazing. The willingness to discuss their countries, how they felt about what was going on in their country and the world. They had opinions both good and bad, but they expressed them with calmness and thought. They answered my tough questions and made me want to know more about the region and their country. To see the faces of our Namibian crew on the Zambezi Queen singing their national anthem for us brought a tear to my eye. But hearing from a South African that their government still has some ugly remnants of apartheid made me mad as hell. And seeing the poverty of Soweto and the wealth of natural resources, leaving the country to make a profit for those outside of it, left me seething. But as my new friend AJ told me (a very wise man), this is a generational thing that won’t change overnight. But it does need to change.

People that stood out and were amazing included the incredible Delia (this trip could not happen without her), the wine expert Gen, who gave me a five-hour education and contributed to my knowledge of her country, my birdwatching buddy Gibson, who amazed me with his knowledge of the birds, animals and fauna of the Chobe river. And he speaks 11 languages and loves his work—you can tell. Bernard, who runs the Zambezi Queen, is a great leader and so proud of his country, Namibia. Our driver (it pains me that I did not find out his name) at the Fairlawns, who had frank discussions with us on our drives. Beverleigh, who shared her perspective on her country and its foibles during one of the best dinner discussions I have had during our travels. Every single person we met at the Kliptown Youth Program in Soweto, but especially Thando Bezana. Their spirit is indomitable. They are succeeding where others have failed. They truly make a difference. Perhaps they are the beginning of that generational change that AJ discussed.

And speaking of AJ, we met and traveled with some really great folks. We missed our new friends Lorraine, Betty and Dennis at Tintswalo when they took the train as their end-of-trip excursion. Our final 12 at Tintswalo were the heart and soul of our group. AJ and Diane (who we hope to see again in the Bay Area). They did a great job of tempering my enthusiasm with their well-thought-out views. I always gravitate to people like that because they are what I need to slow me down and get me to think. The two Marinas were a total hoot. M-1 was always fun and M-2 just totally cracked us up. Riding in the back of the safari truck with her made the afternoon game drive a bunch more fun. Vicky, David, Sonnet and Fred were great people to be around, and just listening to Nancy‘s tales and Rich’s stories of cooking for her still brings a smile to my face. Look in the dictionary under “picky eater” if you want to see what Nancy looks like ?.

That about does it. We had a great time, we wish we had flown less and been able to spend more time seeing things, but Delia made it possible for us to get through airports without wanting to jump off a cliff. Thanks for coming along. Watch this space in October when the October Bunch does Portland and a Columbia River cruise.

I want to leave you with a photo that kind of sums up the end of things. I saved it for just this spot. It’s the end. Enjoy.

The only man I envy is the man who has not yet been to Africa – for he has so much to look forward to. – Richard Mullin

One great flight and two great (in their own way) hotels

by | Jul 4, 2025 | Air travel, Photography

I am thrilled to be able to tell you that our second flight (15 hours from Newark to Cape Town) was wonderful in comparison to our early morning flight from Seattle to Newark. As my brother Steve pointed out in the comments of my previous post, some airlines are subpar domestically but superb internationally. United seems to be one of those. Here are some iPhone pics of and from the plane. Don’t forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through it using your arrow keys or by swiping. Since I took these photos with my phone, feel free to view them on your phone.

Once we were aboard our 787 Dreamliner and seated in what turned out to be maybe the best business class seat we have flown in, we were welcomed by their purser, who was wonderful, as was her entire crew. They handled everyone beautifully and were very competent. One of the things I really wanted to make sure and snag was a mattress pad for both our seats. We had heard (and it proved true) that there were not enough mattress pads for every business class seat. When I asked our purser (also named Kathleen) if I could get two of them, she said, “They are right up there (in a compartment over the seat across from me), how good a thief are you?” So I got the two I wanted, and they eventually turned our lay-flat seats into two very comfortable beds.

Seeing we had been up since 2:30 am Pacific time, we really considered skipping dinner on the plane, especially with the quality of the food we had encountered on our SEA-EWR flight that morning. However, we knew we wouldn’t get another meal for a while, and by the time they could serve it (turbulence had kept them seated for about 90 minutes after takeoff), we were hungry. We had put in a preorder for the pasta dish. My dinner started with a small salad and smoked duck. Kathleen just had the salad. They were fine, but the pasta dish was so good, it passed the Steve Test. I would go someplace for the sauce on that pasta a whole bunch of times.

Editor’s note: For those unfamiliar with the Steve Test…

I call this the Steve Test because my brother Steve came up with it. I think it’s brilliant. If you eat at a restaurant while traveling and it’s near you once you get home, would you go there again? If it were in your hometown, would you eat there regularly?

Keep this test in mind as we proceed, because I use it to rate almost any restaurant we eat at while traveling. And this is probably the first time I’ve used it on a plane. I might also go back for their dessert specialty. In Polaris Business Class, they offer a special dessert: Tillamook Vanilla Ice Cream sundaes. They bring around a cart with a variety of toppings, letting you create your own however you want. I just told them to give me the works. They did, and it was a wonderful surprise to finish up a surprisingly excellent meal.

Then it was time for bed, and I actually had a bed that would fit me and was comfortable. Kathleen was already asleep when I put my mattress pad on and turned off my Kindle. I slept for about six hours and then dozed on and off for about two more. The best sleep I’ve ever had on a plane. We also had breakfast before we landed, but it wasn’t as good as dinner; however, it was still quite tasty.

United must have done a great job because Kathleen told me this morning that I could book them again for international flights. That says a lot because there are some airlines on our Never Again list (like Virgin Atlantic).

One more note about the seats. If you ever fly Polaris (Business) Class on UA and you are flying with a partner on a 787, you want the middle seats in any odd-number row. As you can see from my photo of my seat, Kathleen was right next to me. The row in front of us had seats that faced out, so you really couldn’t see the person next to you. That said, I would never want our seats next to someone I didn’t know. If I were alone, I would get a window seat in a minute. Our seats were 7D and 7F. See the chart at right. All seats had direct access to the aisles without stepping over anyone like some Delta planes we have been on.

One of the things we’ve been doing on our last couple of international flights is that I’ve been ordering a wheelchair for Kathleen. She can still walk, just not long distances. In fact, she can still walk long distances, but it kills her hips and knees so badly that she sometimes has to sit the next day to recover. Since all the airlines will provide free wheelchairs from the counter to the plane and back again, I order them in advance. This has been a real benefit for me as well, as we get met at the plane, she gets in, and we are off. I don’t have to figure out where to go. The person pushing her knows exactly where we need to be and by when.

When we landed in Cape Town, the plane had to park remotely, and everyone got off using stairs… except the people who required wheelchair assistance. A truck pulled up next to the plane, and an enclosed platform on the back of the truck rose to the opposite side door from where everyone else was disembarking. We then got onto the platform. They lowered us and drove us to where the buses with everyone else were going, just outside passport control.

Now comes the best part of using the wheelchair service. There was a line that looked like it was going to take about 45 minutes because it snaked about six to eight times across a very large room. But our wheelchair pusher (a wonderful and very friendly young lady) took us right to the front of the line, and we were out of there and into the airport within about five minutes. We were then taken to the luggage carousels and found our luggage.

I want to mention that I believe United has the best airline app I have used. Not only did it provide me with all the necessary information about the trip, both before and during, but it also allowed us to track our luggage in real-time, so we knew it was with us. That’s impressive.

As an exact opposite to the way we started the trip with Welcome Pickups, our driver had already texted me where to meet him in the Arrivals hall. Sure enough, as we were walking through, he was holding a screen with my name on it. He introduced himself, grabbed our luggage and led us out to his car. Our wonderful young lady with the wheelchair got Kathleen all the way to the car before sending us off with a big smile.

Another thing that we have learned in our now 20 hours in Cape Town—everyone we have met has been incredibly happy and incredibly helpful. I want to say that every one of them has been downright joyful. I can’t remember a place we’ve been where we’ve been treated so well and with so much common courtesy and happy smiles since we visited New Zealand about 15 years ago. In fact, they are even happier and friendlier than New Zealanders, and that’s saying a lot.

Our Welcome Pickups driver, Tom, was a great example. He gave us quite the tour on the way in from the airport. He is truly proud of his city, and it shows. He got us right to our hotel and then helped us in, making sure we were all taken care of. Exactly what we have experienced with Welcome Pickups, except for yesterday morning (see previous post).

A tale of two hotels

Some of you may have heard this story before, but others may not, so I will recount it here. We are doing most of this trip with AMAWaterways. They have us booked for the next three nights at a beautiful, luxury hotel—The Cape Grace. It is the Grand Dame of hotels in Cape Town. Since we had decided to fly the night before our AMA adventure started, we would need to book and pay for our own room for one night. Not really wanting to change hotels, I called the Cape Grace and asked if they could book us in for one additional night, and possibly keep the same room during our three-night stay that was part of our AMA tour. The very nice person I contacted said, “Yes, we would be happy to have you here. The cost for the room is $1275 US dollars.” I told her that no, we were only going to pay for the one night, and that the other three nights were part of our AMA tour. She said, “Yes, sir, that is just for one night.” After lifting my jaw off the floor, we decided to find somewhere else to sleep on our first night and then transfer to the Cape Grace.

Initially, we decided to book a room at a hotel near the Cape Town airport, as this would allow us to grab something to eat, rest, and then move to the Cape Grace in the morning. But then we met Dave and Janine (our new friends from Trilogy who live in Cape Town half the year), who told us that the area near the airport was not the nicest and that we really should consider staying somewhere near the waterfront, where the Cape Grace is. So thankfully we listened to them and I got us a reservation at the Radisson Red which is so close to the Cape Grace that I can look out our Cape Grace hotel room window (where I am typing this) I can see the Radisson. And it’s not far away. Since it was pouring rain this morning and we had luggage, we decided to take an Uber from there to here. I took the Uber XL to accommodate all our luggage, and the total amount (with tip) was less than $5 USD.

The Radisson Red is the exact opposite of the Cape Grace in terms of style and vibe. The Radisson checked us in with lots of loud and happy music playing, an offer of a complimentary gin and tonic, and some of the biggest smiles I have ever seen. The room was perfect, even though it was supposed to be a King-Size Bed and had two twin beds. We think that worked out better because we just wanted to crawl under the covers and sleep. Kathleen was out by 8:15, and I arrived at 8:30.

Speaking of the beds, they were very comfortable. The shower had an abundance of hot water and excellent water pressure. The breakfast in their restaurant was excellent. I even found two dishes I want to try making myself, and they were around $160 per night rather than $1,275. In fact, now that we have checked into the Cape Grace, I can see that the Red might be more my kind of hotel.

In the morning, after breakfast, I embarked on a quest to find Kathleen a hair-curling brush that she had found online and was supposed to be in stock at a drugstore less than 800 meters away from the hotel. I went there and sure enough, they had it. I got it, came right back, and tried to plug it in, but it didn’t fit any of the plugs in the room. It had an EU plug, and South Africa has its own three-prong plug. So back I went and returned it. They said that their other store nearby should have the one I needed, so I hiked a little further out to a very nice shopping area and found that they had it, but it still had a European plug. The manager said to grab an adapter and give it a try. He said that was what most people here did. We have tried hair dryers with our adapters before, with poor results. Hair dryers/stylers/etc. Draw so much power that they quickly heat up and then burn up adapters. However, the manager suggested that I give them a try, and if I have a problem, I should bring it back to them. I went back, tried it, and it worked.

We checked out of the Radisson at 11:30 and took that very short and cheap Uber ride to the Cape Grace, where we were checked in a very different way. Where the Radisson was all about happy-happy/joy-joy, the Cape Grace was all about being classy and sitting down to check in and whispering. The Radisson was more interested in getting us a drink, and the Cape Grace was more interested in taking care of us in an elegant way. I can take either one, but deep down, I have to say it was more fun checking into the Radisson Red.

Our room at the Cape Grace is GORGEOUS! I have lived in smaller apartments. Here are some pics that will show you what I am talking about.

Lastly–the weather is ghastly

So we are making the best of the beautiful Cape Town weather. Check out a few seconds of video I shot showing you the wonderful afternoon weather.

See what I mean. But as they say, tomorrow is another day. Let’s hope for a meteorological breakthrough.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.  —Saint Augustine

 

And Now the Photography—My Top Ten

by | Dec 28, 2024 | Photography

I admit it. I have more than ten photos. But I just could not make up my mind. First, I sorted about 3,000 photos to find my favorites. Then, I broke them down and consulted my wonderful bride and my grandson. Both gave me some good advice. I got down to 28. Six of those were puffin photos from the Isle of Lunga in Scotland. One was easy because it was one of a kind, but the others were really good. Kathleen liked one to add to the top ten and Mason another, so with that, I give you my puffins.

A special note (and I will only say it once, I promise): Don’t forget that if you click the first shot, you can scroll through it with your arrow keys or by swiping. And please don’t look at my photography on a phone.

 

And now for the honorable mentions that aren’t puffins. I will put the locations I shot them in the captions. Again, please click the first one and view them in full-screen mode.

This brings us to the Top Ten. Let’s count down to #1. I have set them up as a single photo gallery, so you can click them to view them full-screen.

Number 10—Djupevatn Lake above the town of Gearanger in Norway. I did a quick pano to get the full wide angle. I heard from someone who was on the cruise before ours and, therefore, had visited this lake two weeks before us. They told me it was still frozen over with tons of snow. You really need to click this one to see it in full-screen mode.

Number 9—Eileen Donan in Dornie Scotland from above. This is Kathleen’s family castle. You see, her mother’s maiden name was McCray, and this is the ancestral home of the McCrays. You may recognize it because it has been in many films and is commonly known as one of the most photogenic castles in all of Scotland. I took a ton of photos of it from ground level, but I knew there was a way to get a shot of it from above. As we were leaving the grounds, I asked one of the parking attendants how to get to the ridge above the castle. He swore me to secrecy and gave me exceptional directions that enabled me to get this shot.

Number 8—Lisbon below the Hotel Portugal. We were having our last dinner with our good friends we travel with every October (Steve, Jamie, Mike & Cathy) in a restaurant on top of a nearby hotel when I took this shot of an open-air market about a block from our hotel. It isn’t often that I get two almost aerial shots in one year.

Number Seven—A political demonstration in Lisbon. I don’t think I have ever taken a newsworthy photo before. Something that covers the news that is happening wherever we are. I was walking back from Lisbon’s Pink Street when I crossed a bridge and saw this march below me. It was so unusual for me that I had to include it in my Top Ten.

Number Six—The Tulip Stairs in the Queen’s Castle Greenwich, England. This beautiful photo is all about the angle. I took about 20 shots of this staircase, but the best of them was looking up its spiral.

Number 5—A pastoral scene just outside Plockton, Scotland. We were driving down a very remote but beautiful road headed to Plockton, Scotland, where we were looking for highland coos. We had seen a YouTube video that there were coos in Plockton (if you don’t know what a highland coo is, wait until my number one photo shows up). But there were no coos. But there was a cow on the other side of the bridge over a creek that just grabbed me as I glimpsed it while driving by. Seriously, I had to jam on the brakes (thankfully, no cars within a mile or so) and back up until I could line up the shot. This shot has grown on me since so many people who have seen it told me they really liked it.

Number 4—Incredible Glencoe in Scotland. Besides being the scene of a terrible massacre of Scottish families by British soldiers in 1692, Glencoe is maybe the most beautiful place I have ever seen. As we were driving from Fort William back to Glasgow, we had two routes we could have taken. One was the quickest and easiest, but we had driven up that way a few days earlier. The other way was longer and went through Glencoe. We were tired from our week in the Highlands, but at the last minute, we decided to do Glencoe. On that route, there is a stretch of road with pull-outs for photographers like me to jump out of their cars and shoot the glorious scenery. I think I stopped at all of them. And the weather cooperated with an amazing combination of sun, clouds and blue sky. These mountains are magnificent in every way, and this would have been my number one shot, but like the puffins, I couldn’t decide between the hundreds I took that day. This one is my favorite. One more thing. Please click it to see it full screen—it needs the space to really understand why I love it.

Number 3–Puffins in action on the Isle of Lunga, Scotland. As I mentioned above, when I wrote about my puffin experience, I took a TON of photos that day. I want to say the total was in the high hundreds or low thousands. The hardest part was getting a decent shot of them flying. I lay or sat on the ground, focused on a particular area and shot at least 200 shots. In all of those, the flying puffins were either blurry or so fast that I missed them completely. This was also one of those times when I didn’t know what I had until I got back to our Bed and Breakfast that night and could look through the shots. I had no clue if I had that shot I wanted or not. It turns out I did. Out of those hundreds of attempted action shots, this isn’t the best puffin flying shot I got…it is the ONLY puffin flying shot I got, but it’s a good one, and I worked hard to get it.

Number 2—Isle of Staffa, Scotland. This is one of those photos that makes people gasp when they see it: This guy is so high on this cliff. I love it because it teaches me something as a photographer—you need humans for scale. I have two versions of this same exact shot. One with a human and one without. The one without is boring. The one with a human catches your eye and pulls you right in. Also, please note the naturally occurring basalt columns at the bottom of the cliff. That’s the reason that Staffa is so famous. You should see the cave below the cliff—WOW!

Number 1—My favorite Highland Coo on the Isle of Skye. This guy just called out to me. Actually, he is kind of tired of me. I have an entire series of shots of this guy posing, but this is my favorite. After being disappointed in Plockton when we didn’t find any coos, we were driving by a farm on the Isle of Skye with a small herd right near a fence. We pulled over, and I took quite a few shots. Our forever neighbor Lisa thinks it should be framed and hung in our house or maybe in hers. Either way, I agree. I love it, and I love pretty much all Highland Coos. They are glorious creatures.

Please let me know in the comments what you like or how you would have rearranged the order. I love discussion. 

Which brings us to the end of 2024. This will be my last post of a pretty darn good year with lots of travel, lots of memories and lots of photography. 2025 looks interesting but with a little less travel. We have nothing scheduled until July, when we head to Southern Africa to fulfill my one remaining photo milestone—shooting a safari. BUT…In the meantime, I do have a photographic project coming on January 1, but you will just have to wait until that day to find out about it. Thanks for sticking with me all year long. Travel safely.

That’s all, folks   —Porky Pig

 

 

Once again…Let Me Sum Up

by | Nov 5, 2024 | Uncategorized

Whew! We are home, but to be honest, I am still having a hard time remembering what day it is. Hopefully, I will get over that soon. Jet lag is pretty much over, but real life is intruding into my travel life. It’s so much fun (sarcasm here) getting home to more than 200 emails I had been just throwing into a folder in Mail to be read when we were home. Now, I have to read them and respond to them. I want to go on vacation again.

Our trip home was pretty decent. The airports got the wheelchair stuff for Kathleen correct this time. British Airways surprised us with two decent Indian meals on two flights. We stayed overnight at a Terminal 5 hotel (Sofitel) and found that we liked the Terminal 3 hotel (Hilton Garden Inn) we had stayed in last June a lot better. Our flight was on time, our luggage showed up quickly, we looked at the camera in passport control, and we were out of there in less than 15 minutes from when we got off the plane. Our Welcome Pickups guy grabbed us, and with the light traffic after 7:00, we were home in no time. Kathleen was off to bed. I got the mail, watched the Dodgers win the World Series and then hit the hay. A good end to a great trip.

Madrid

Going back to the very beginning, we liked Madrid a lot. We stayed at the Hotel Preciados in downtown. As you may recall, we toured for three full days: one in Toledo (our best day), one in Segovia (another great day), and one in Madrid itself, which could have been better. Read all about those in previous posts. The summary of Madrid was that we had a great time, and we’ve now been there and done that. It’s now crossed off our list, and we won’t be going back. A nice city, but it was no Edinburgh or Amsterdam for us—but we are glad we visited once.

Lisbon with Viking

The next stop was Lisbon before our Douro River cruise. As soon as we got there, we met Marianne, who was amazing. She was not only the person directing our pre-cruise stay in Lisbon but also the Program Director on our entire river cruise. She proved to be one of the best parts of the whole 10 days we spent with Viking. Her laugh, her sense of humor and the fact that she was always UP and always FUN made her someone we will remember for quite a while. More about Marianne later.

Sadly, as you have read, when we were touring Lisbon with Viking, Fatima, the worst guide I have ever experienced, ruined the entire experience for me. Not only would she not shut up, but she insulted me, too.

Our Douro River Cruise

OK, this is what you have been waiting for—how was the cruise? In a quick word, it was awesome. We love river cruising. We really didn’t discover how much we liked it with our Christmas Market cruise on the Danube last winter because it was so darned cold. So, if you have done a Christmas Market cruise, go back and do a warm weather cruise like the Douro and see what you missed.

One of my absolute favorite things about this cruise was seeing the cruise. By that, I mean that on our Danube cruise, most of the movement on the river was accomplished either at night when we were asleep or during the day when we were on an excursion. My absolute favorite part of our Douro River cruise was sailing on the river. I think I mentioned in a previous post that I could do this cruise again and never get off the ship. Seriously, my favorite days were the ones where we spent the majority of the time sailing on the river and watching Portugal go by.

Shore Excursions

Don’t get me wrong, the shore excursions were just fine. If I had to rate them, I would put Salamanca, Spain as #1 because it was like going back to what Europe used to be in the early 2,000s before over-tourism started. I also enjoyed the short visit to Castelo Rodrigo. I mean, the castle was nice, but the best part was that it was brief. We sailed most of the day and then did about a three-hour excursion to a somewhat interesting place. Probably my third favorite was the second half of our first day when we visited the Mateus Palace. What snoozer. But the second half of the day was to visit the Sandeman winery, where they make their wonderful port wine, and be shown around by a guide who really knew what she was talking about and made the tour fun. That was it. The rest of the days, the excursion was either blah (Favios), or we didn’t go (Lamego).

The ship/boat

I really have yet to spend any time discussing the ship itself. Unlike the Viking Longship, we sailed on the Danube, the Douro River boats (you can put a boat on a ship, but you can’t put a ship on a boat, and I think you could put a Douro River boat on a big ocean-going vessel) are smaller due to the smaller locks they must get through. So, instead of carrying up to 190 passengers like the Danube boats do, the Douro River boats carry a maximum of 106, and ours only had 99. That makes so much difference. It’s much more intimate. You get to know most of the crew because there are only 36 of them. And they all do all sorts of jobs. One of our favorite people onboard was Mitra. His official title (on his name tag) said, “Bar Chef.” He was the best bartender on board, and he really kept things going in the lounge. But he was also the sommelier in the dining room and helped out waiting on tables or restocking the buffet as well. Our favorite server in the dining room, Ovi, not only served us dinner but also was the crew member who walked us to our stateroom on embarkation to show us how everything worked. She often worked in the lounge serving drinks. The lady got around.

Embarkation/Disembarkation

Speaking of embarkation…those of you who have suffered through a three-hour embarkation as we did in May 2023 to get on Koningsdam in Vancouver or anything like it will LOVE embarkation on a river cruise. Especially this one. Since we had spent two days with Viking in Lisbon before we boarded the boat, they had everyone on one of four “luxury motor coaches,” and they staggered their morning departures, which meant that each of the “luxury motor coaches” made it to the ship about 15 to 20 minutes apart. So when we arrived, we went up the gangway, and they asked us our names. We were escorted (us by Ovi) to our stateroom, and our luggage arrived minutes later.

Disembarkation was just as efficient. We were given a list of when every stateroom would be getting off (we had been asked in advance how we would be leaving the ship) and told to put our big luggage out in the hallway outside our rooms 15 minutes before we would get off. Then, at our appointed time, we got up and got off. Simple as that. It really pays to be on a smaller boat.

Our stateroom

Our stateroom was a suite. There, I said it. We splurged and booked a suite. It wasn’t that much more, but it got us some things we really wanted. The first was an actual extra room. We had both a living room and a bedroom. Not to mention a walk-in closet and a smallish bath (smaller than on our Danube cruise). So when I would wake up really early, I could sit in the living room and work on photos or on a new post without waking up Kathleen or needing to get completely dressed and go to the lounge.

The other reason we LOVED this suite was…free laundry. Yes, folks, we could send out as much laundry as we wanted, and it was included. On our Danube cruise, we had sent out a few things because we had already been in Lisbon for a few days, and then we did Prague and Nuremberg as a pre-cruise extension, so when we got on, we needed to have some things washed. But the prices were OFF THE CHARTS! As I recall, I got one pair of jeans, two pairs of socks, and two shirts, and it cost me $20. On Viking Torgil, we got to the ship with lots of dirty laundry from four days in Madrid, two nights in Lisbon and a single suitcase each. We immediately sent out all our dirty laundry (they gave us two really nice-sized bags to send it out in) and had it back early the next day. From that point on, I pretty much sent out laundry every day. Whatever I wore the day before, send it out! And it got to the point where it would come back on the same day.

If you would like to see photos of the suite, you may have to wait. I suddenly realized when we got home that I had never really taken any pictures of the suite. I had a couple (the bedroom and bathroom) but missed the living room. But never fear; you will be able to see a whole bunch soon because Mike and Cathy had the same type of suite we did, and Mike always does an awesome job of taking ship/boat/stateroom photos. His review of the cruise with all those photos should be out soon (HEY MIKE—is the review done yet? ?). When it is done, I will post about it, and you can find it right here at www.thepreismans.com. In the meantime, here are a few photos I took of our room.

The Food

Everyone wants to know about the food on a cruise. We have found that Viking does a “fine” job of food on its ocean and river cruises. By that, we mean we like the food. It’s not gourmet, and it doesn’t hold a candle to Oceania. But our most memorable meals on this trip came when we were off the boat (lunch in Toledo and lunch in Cascais come to mind).

On board Viking Torgil, we had a wonderful British chef named Michael Bee Venet. I say he is wonderful less for his culinary skills than for his wonderful personality. Every night, he would preview the meal at our pre-dinner destination talk. He was hilarious. He also regularly stopped by everyone’s table. At breakfast, he would often come around with a special baked good and serve it to us himself.

But we thought his food was oversalted. Sometimes, it was just finishing salt. Some soups were fine when you got down below the surface, but those first three spoonfuls were very salty. We also thought the food was better at the beginning of the week than at the end. It wasn’t bad, just not as good. On a scale of one to ten, it was an eight when we started and a six when we finished.

By the way, when you take a Douro river cruise, you eat all your meals in the dining room. It is totally casual. I think we only saw anyone in anything dressy twice. OMG— people wore shorts in the dining room. We wore jeans and tennis shoes. On our Danube cruise, there was a small buffet area at the front of the boat, but not on the smaller Douro boat. It was the dining room or hunger.

All in all, the food was good and plentiful, and we had nothing to complain about…or wait! I want to complain about the bread. It was too good. Seriously, it may be the best bread I have had on any cruise. Delicious—and I ate way too much of it. Oh, and there were fewer veggies than we would have liked as well. Kind of like our ocean cruise on Viking Venus in June; there was a lot of red meat, which we try to avoid at home. Here’s a gallery of some dishes we ate on this trip. I will try to tell you where we ate them, but if you like great food, check them out. All were shot with my phone, so feel free to look at them on yours. Remember, you can click them to enlarge them and scroll through. I’ll start with some photos of where we all ate.

I almost forgot the “Steve Test.” For those of you unfamiliar with the Steve Test. I call this the Steve Test because my brother Steve came up with it. I think it’s brilliant. This is the entire test: If you eat in a restaurant while traveling, and if that restaurant is near you once you get home, would you go there again? If it were in your hometown, would we eat there regularly? For this trip, the places that passed the Steve test were Clandestina in Toledo, the Lebanese restaurant behind the TimeOut Market and a few of the meals on Torgil, but the ultimate A+ on the Steve Test went to the Chicken restaurant in Cascais on the day we toured Sintra. I know my brother believes it’s the best chicken he has ever had.

Entertainment

If you have been reading my stuff for a while, you know we have kind of given up on shows. Besides, they really don’t have shows on river cruises. However, they did have some great entertainers come on board while we were in ports, and Mike will have photos of those, I am sure. He can stay up later than we can. But I did want to mention two of the best entertainers I have ever seen on a ship—river or ocean.

The first is not really an entertainer but a server in the restaurant. He was kind of in charge of singing Happy Birthday to anyone celebrating one. He also was a total clown. He has a great voice, but what really makes him GREAT is his face. He can turn it into the absolute funniest looks you have ever seen. Here are a few shots of our buddy Agus doing his thing.

He was so special that I am going to try to add a video I took of him. If it works, it’s right here. IT WORKED!

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The other amazing performer on the ship was our wonderful, incredible, marvelous, fantastic Program Director, Marianne. We had heard that she was going to sing one night after dinner in the lounge. We were both pretty tired, but I persuaded Kathleen to go, and were we ever glad we did. She was all those adjectives I put up above and more. It might be the best show I have ever seen on any ship or boat. For sure, it was the most fun. And now that I got the Agus video to load, here’s a little bit of Marianne’s show.

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Besides being the best Program/Cruise Director we have ever sailed with (35+ cruises), she is one of the nicest and most caring people you will ever meet. We would take a cruise she was on just to sail with her.

To Sum Up

How much did we enjoy this river cruise? For the first time in more than twenty years (since we took our first Panama Canal cruise on Celebrity’s Infinity in 2004), we don’t have an ocean cruise booked, and we don’t think we will take one in the foreseeable future. We have booked a Chobe River cruise in Africa, a Columbia River Cruise, and a Great Lakes cruise, but that’s it. We can’t think of anywhere that big-ship ocean cruises go that we still really want to see. We aren’t saying we wouldn’t go if friends wanted to go together, but we have been there and done that just about everywhere ocean cruises go. I guess we are now river cruise people.

WAIT! I almost forgot the best part of the entire trip—getting to travel once again with Steve, Jamie, Mike and Cathy—our October gang. We will all do it again next October when we cruise the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon.

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.    —Heraclitus